by Leroy Scott
CHAPTER XXVI
AN IDOL'S FALL
She turned. Blake had risen from his chair.
"What is it?" she asked.
He came up to her, the proofs still in his hands. He was unsteady uponhis feet, like a man dizzy from a heavy blow. The face which she hadbeen accustomed to see only as full of poise and strength and dignitywas now supremely haggard. When he spoke he spoke in uttermostdespair--huskily, chokingly, yet with an effort at control.
"Do you know what this is going to do to me?" he asked, holding outthe proof-sheets.
"Yes," she said.
"It is going to ruin me--reputation, fortune, future! Everything!"
She did not answer him.
"Yes, that is going to be the result," he continued in his slow, huskyvoice. "Only one thing can save me."
"And that?"
He stared at her for a moment with wildly burning eyes. Then he wethis dry lips.
"That is for you to countermand this extra."
"You ask me to do that?"
"It is my only chance. I do."
"I believe you are out of your mind!" she cried.
"I believe I am!" he said hoarsely.
"Think just a moment, and you will see that what you ask is quiteimpossible. Just think a moment."
He was silent for a time. A tremor ran through him, his bodystiffened.
"No, I do not ask it," he said. "I am not trying to excuse myself now,but when a thing falls so unexpectedly, so suddenly----" A choking atthe throat stopped him. "If I have seemed to whimper, I take it back.You have beaten me, Katherine. But I hope I can take defeat like aman."
She did not answer.
They continued gazing at one another. In the silence of the greathouse they could hear each other's agitated breathing. Into his darkface, now turned so gray, there crept a strange, drawn look--a lookthat sent a tingling through all her body.
"What is it?" she asked.
"To think," he exclaimed in a low, far-away voice, almost to himself,"that I have lost everything through you! Through you, through whom Imight have gained everything!"
"Gained everything? Through me?" she repeated. "How?"
"I am sure I would have kept out of such things--as this--if, fiveyears ago, you had said 'yes' instead of 'no'."
"Said yes?" she breathed.
"I think you would have kept me in the straight road. For I would nothave dared to fall below your standards. For I"--he drew a deep,convulsive breath--"for I loved you, Katherine, better than anythingin all the world!"
She trembled at the intensity of his voice.
"You loved me--like that?"
"Yes. And since I have lost you, and lost everything, there is perhapsno harm in my telling you something else. Only on that one night did Iopen my lips about love to you--but I have loved you through all theyears since then. And ... and I still love you."
"You still love me?" she whispered.
"I still love you."
She stared at him.
"And yet all these months you have fought against me!"
"I have not fought against _you_," he said. "Somehow, I got startedin this way, and I have fought to win--have fought against exposure,against defeat."
"And you still love me?" she murmured, still amazed.
As she gazed at him there shot into her a poignant pang of pity forthis splendid figure, tottering on the edge of the abyss. For aninstant she thought only of him.
"You asked me a moment ago to suppress the paper," she criedimpulsively. "Shall I do it?"
"I now ask nothing," said he.
"No--no--I can't suppress the paper!" she said in anguish. "That wouldbe to leave father disgraced, and Mr. Bruce disgraced, and thecity----But what are you going to do?"
"I do not know. This has come so suddenly. I have had no time tothink."
"You must at least have time to think! If you had an hour--two hours?"
There was a momentary flash of hope in his eyes.
"If I had an hour----"
"Then we'll delay the paper!" she cried.
She sprang excitedly to the telephone upon Blake's desk. The nextinstant she had Billy Harper on the wire, Blake watching her,motionless in his tracks.
"Mr. Harper," she said, "it is now half-past ten. I want you to holdthe paper back till eleven-thirty.... What's that?"
She listened for a moment, then slowly hung up the receiver. She didnot at once turn round, but when she did her face was very white.
"Well?" Blake asked.
"I'm sorry," she said, barely above a whisper. "The paper has beenupon the street for ten minutes."
They gazed at one another for several moments, both motionless, bothwithout a word. Then thin, sharp cries penetrated the room. Blake'slips parted.
"What is that?" he asked mechanically.
Katherine crossed and raised a window. Through it came shrill, boyishvoices:
"Extry! Extry! All about the great Blake conspiracy!"
These avant couriers of Blake's disgrace sped onward down the avenue.Katherine turned slowly back to Blake. He still stood in the sameposture, leaning heavily upon an arm that rested on his mahogany desk.He did not speak. Nor was there anything that Katherine could say.
It was for but a moment or two that they stood in this strainedsilence. Then a dim outcry sounded from the centre of the town. Inbut a second, it seemed, this outcry had mounted to a roar.
"It is the crowd--at the Square," said Blake, in a dry whisper.
"Yes."
"The extra--they have seen it."
The roar rose louder--louder. It was like the thunder of an on-rushingflood that has burst its dam. It began to separate into distinctcries, and the shuffle of running feet.
"They are coming this way," said Blake in his same dry, mechanicaltone.
There was no need for Katherine to reply. The fact was too apparent.She moved to the open window, and stood there waiting. The roar grewnearer--nearer. In but a moment, it seemed to her, the front of thishuman flood appeared just beyond her own house. The next moment thecrowd began to pour into Blake's wide lawn--by the hundreds--by thethousands. Many of them still carried in clenched hands crumpledcopies of the _Express_. Here and there, luridly illuminating the wildscene, blazed a smoking torch of a member of the Blake Marching Club.And out of the mouths of this great mob, which less than a short hourbefore had lauded him to the stars--out of the mouths of these hiserewhile idolaters, came the most fearful imprecations, the mostfearful cries for vengeance.
Katherine became aware that Blake was standing behind her gazing downupon this human storm. She turned, and in his pallid face she plainlyread the passionate regret that was surging through his being. His hadbeen the chance to serve these people, and serve them with honour tohimself--honour that hardly had a limit. And now he had lost them,lost them utterly and forever, and with them had lost everything!
Some one below saw his face at the window and swore shriekingly tohave his life. Blake drew quickly back and stood again beside hisdesk. He was white--living flesh could not be more white--but he stillmaintained that calm control which had succeeded his first desperateconsternation.
"What are you going to do?" Katherine asked.
He very quietly drew out a drawer of his desk and picked up a pistol.
"What!" she cried. "You are not going to fight them off!"
"No. I have injured enough of them already," he replied in hismeasured tone. "Keep all this from my mother as long as you can--atleast till she is stronger."
As she saw his intention Katherine sprang forward and caught theweapon he was turning upon himself.
"No! No! You must not do that!"
"But I must," he returned quietly. "Listen!"
The cries without had grown more violent. The heavy front door wasresounding with blows.
"Don't you see that this is the only thing that's left?" he asked.
"And don't you see," she said rapidly, "its effect upon your mother?In her weakened condition, y
our death will be her death. You just saidyou had injured enough already. Do you want to kill one more? Andbesides, and in spite of all," she added with a sudden fire, "there'sa big man in you! Face it like that man!"
He hesitated. Then he relaxed his hold upon the pistol, still withoutspeaking. Katherine returned it to its place and closed the drawer.
At this instant Old Hosie, who had been awaiting Katherine below,rushed excitedly into the library.
"Don't you know hell's broke loose?" he cried to Katherine. "They'llhave that front door down in a minute! Come on!"
But Katherine could not take her gaze from Blake's pale, set face.
"What are you going to do?" she asked again.
"What is he going to do?" exclaimed Old Hosie. "Better ask what thatmob is going to do. Listen to them!"
A raging cry for Blake's life ascended, almost deafening their ears.
"No, no--they must not do that!" exclaimed Katherine, and breathlesslyshe darted from the room.
Old Hosie looked grimly at Blake.
"You deserve it, Blake. But I'm against mob law. Quick, slip out theback way. You can just catch the eleven o'clock express and get out ofthe State."
Without waiting to see the effect of his advice Old Hosie hurriedafter Katherine. She had reached the bottom of the stairway just ascooperated shoulders crashed against the door and made it shiver onits hinges. Her intention was to go out and speak to the crowd, but toopen the front door was to admit and be overwhelmed by the maddenedmob. She knew the house almost as well as she knew her own, and sherecalled that the dining-room had a French window which opened uponthe piazza on the side away from the crowd. She ran back through thedarkened rooms, swung open this window and ran about the piazza to thefront door. As she reached it, the human battering-ram drew back foranother infuriated lunge.
She sprang between the men and the door.
"Stop! Stop!" she cried.
"What the hell's this!" ejaculated the leader of the assault.
"Say, if it ain't a woman!" cried a member of the battering-ram.
"Out of the way with you!" roared the leader in a fury.
But she placed her back against the door.
"Stop--men! Give me just one word!"
"Better stop this, boys!" gasped a man at the foot of the steps,struggling in half a dozen pairs of arms. "I warn you! It's againstthe law!"
"Shut up, Jim Nichols; this is our business!" cried the leader to thehelpless sheriff. "And now, you"--turning again to Katherine--"out ofthe way!"
The seething, torch-lit mob on the lawn below repeated his cry. Theleader, his wrath increasing, seized Katherine roughly by the arm andjerked her aside:
"Now, all together, boys!" he shouted.
But at that instant upon the front of the mob there fell a tall, leanfury with a raging voice and a furiously swinging cane. It was OldHosie. Before this fierce chastisement, falling so suddenly upon theirheads, the battering-ram for a moment pressed backward.
"You fools! You idiots!" the old man cried, and his high, sharp voicecut through all the noises of the mob. "Is that the way you treat thewoman that saved you!"
"Saved us?" some one shouted incredulously. "Her save us?"
"Yes, saved you!" Old Hosie cried in a rising voice down upon theheads of the crowd. His cane had ceased its flailing; the crowd hadpartially ceased its uproar. "Do you know who that woman is? She'sKatherine West!"
"Oh, the lady lawyer!" rose several jeering voices.
For the moment Old Hosie's tall figure, with his cane outstretched,had the wrathful majesty of a prophet of old, denouncing his foolishand reprobate people.
"Go on, all of you, laugh at her to-night!" he shouted. "But afterto-night you'll all slink around Westville, ashamed to look anythingin the face higher than a dog! For half a year you've been sneering atKatherine West. And see how she's paid you back! It was she that foundout your enemy. It was she that dug up all the facts and evidenceyou've read in those papers there. It was she that's saved you frombeing robbed. And now----"
"She done all that?" exclaimed a voice from the now stilled mob.
"Yes, she done all that!" shouted Old Hosie. "And what's more, she gotout that paper in your hands. While you've been sneering at her, she'sbeen working for you. And now, after all this, you're not even willingto listen to a word from her!" His voice rose in its contemptuouswrath still one note higher. "And now listen to me! I'm going to tellyou exactly what you are! You are all----"
But Westville never learned exactly what it was. Just then Old Hosiewas firmly pulled back by the tails of his Prince Albert coat andfound himself in the possession of the panting, dishevelled sheriff ofGalloway County.
"You've made your point, Hosie," said Jim Nichols. "They'll listen toher now."
Katherine stepped forward into the space Old Hosie had involuntarilyvacated. With the torchlights flaring up into her face she stood therebreathing deeply, awed into momentary silence by the great crowd andby the responsibility that weighed upon her.
"If, as Mr. Hollingsworth has said," she began in a tremulous butclear voice that carried to the farthest confines of the lawn, "youowe me anything, all I ask in return is that you refrain from mobviolence;" and she went on to urge upon them the lawful course. Thecrowd, taken aback by the accusations and revelations Old Hosie hadflung so hotly into their faces, strangely held by her impassionedwoman's figure pedestalled above them on the porch, listened to herwith an attention and respect which they as yet were far fromunderstanding.
She felt that she had won her audience, that she had turned themback to lawful measures, when suddenly there was a roar of "Blake!Blake!"--the stilled crowd became again a mob--and she saw that thefocus of their gaze had shifted from her to a point behind her.Looking about, she saw that the door had opened, and that Blake,pale and erect, was standing in the doorway. The crowd tried tosurge forward, but the front ranks, out of their new and buthalf-comprehended respect for Katherine, stood like a wall against thecharge that would have overwhelmed her.
Blake moved forward to her side.
"I should like to speak to them, if I can," he said quietly.
Katherine held up her hand for silence. The mob hissed and cursed him,and tried to break through the human fortification of the front ranks.Through it all Blake stood silent, pale, without motion. Katherine,her hand still upraised, continued to cry out for silence; and after atime the uproar began in a measure to diminish.
Katherine took quick advantage of the lull.
"Gentlemen," she called out, "won't you please give Mr. Blake just aword!"
Cries that they should give him a chance to speak ran throughthe crowd, and thus abjured by its own members the mob quietedyet further. While they were subsiding into order Blake lookedsteadily out upon this sea of hostile faces. Katherine watched himbreathlessly, wondering what he was about to say. It swept in uponher, with a sudden catching of the throat, that he made a fine figurestanding there so straight, so white, with so little sign of fear; anddespite what the man had done, again some of her old admiration forhim thrilled through her, and with it an infinite pang of regret forwhat he might have been.
At length there was moderate order, and Blake began to speak."Gentlemen, I do not wish to plead for myself," he said quietly, yetin his far-carrying voice. "What I have done is beyond yourforgiveness. I merely desire to say that I am guilty; to say that I amhere to give myself into your hands. Do with me as you think best. Ifyou prefer immediate action, I shall go with you without resistance.If you wish to let the law take its course, then"--here he made aslight gesture toward Jim Nichols, who stood beside him--"then I shallgive myself into the hands of the sheriff. I await your choice."
With that he paused. A perfect hush had fallen on the crowd. This manwho had dominated them in the days of his glory, dominated them for atleast a flickering moment in this the hour of his fall. For that briefmoment all were under the spell of their habit to honour him, thespell of his natural dignity, the spell of his direct w
ords.
Then the spell was over. The storm broke loose again. There were criesfor immediate action, and counter cries in favour of the law. The twocries battled with each other. For a space there was doubt as to whichwas the stronger. Then that for the law rose louder and louder anddrowned the other out.
Sheriff Nichols slipped his arm through Blake's.
"I guess you're going to come with me," he said.
"I am ready," was Blake's response.
He turned about to Katherine.
"You deserved to win," he said quietly. "Thank you. Good-by."
"Good-by," said she.
The sheriff drew him away. Katherine, panting, leaning heavily againsta pillar of the porch, watched the pair go down the steps--watched thegreat crowd part before them--watched them march through this humanalley-way, lighted by smoking campaign torches--watched them till theyhad passed into the darkness in the direction of the jail. Then shedizzily reached out and caught Old Hosie's arm.
"Help me home," she said weakly. "I--I feel sick."