by Thomas Dixon
CHAPTER IV
THE ARREST
The time had come in Norton's fight when he was about to be put to asupreme test.
The Governor was preparing the most daring and sensational movement of hisnever-to-be-forgotten administration. The audacity and thoroughness withwhich the Klan had disarmed and made ridiculous his army of fifty thousandnegroes was at first a stunning blow. In vain Schlitz stormed and pleadedfor National aid.
"You must ask for Federal troops without a moment's delay," he urgeddesperately.
The Scalawag shook his head with quiet determination.
"Congress, under the iron rule of Stevens, will send them, I grant you----"
"Then why hesitate?"
"Because their coming would mean that I have been defeated on my own soil,that my administration of the state is a failure."
"Well, isn't it?"
"No; I'll make good my promises to the men in Washington who have backedme. They are preparing to impeach the President, remove him from office andappoint a dictator in his stead. I'll show them that I can play my part inthe big drama, too. I am going to deliver this state bound hand and footinto their hands, with a triumphant negro electorate in the saddle, orI'll go down in ignominious defeat."
"You'll go down, all right--without those troops--mark my word," cried theCarpetbagger.
"All right, I'll go down flying my own flag."
"You're a fool!" Schlitz roared. "Union troops are our only hope!"
His Excellency kept his temper. The little ferret eyes beneath their bushybrows were drawn to narrow lines as he slowly said:
"On the other hand, my dear Schlitz, I don't think I could depend onFederal troops if they were here."
"No?" was the indignant sneer.
"Frankly I do not," was the even answer. "Federal officers have not shownthemselves very keen about executing the orders of ReconstructionGovernors. They have often pretended to execute them and in reality treatedus with contempt. They hold, in brief, that they fought to preserve theUnion, not to make negroes rule over white men! The task before us is notto their liking. I don't trust them for a moment. I have a better plan----"
"What?"
"I propose to raise immediately an army of fifty thousand loyal white men,arm and drill them without delay----"
"Where'll you get them?" Schlitz cried incredulously.
"I'll find them if I have to drag the gutters for every poor white scamp inthe state. They'll be a tough lot, maybe, but they'll make good soldiers. Asoldier is a man who obeys orders, draws his pay, and asks noquestions----"
"And then what?"
"And then, sir!----"
The Governor's leathery little face flushed as he sprang to his feet andpaced the floor of his office in intense excitement.
"I'll tell you what then!" Schlitz cried with scorn.
The pacing figure paused and eyed his tormentor, lifting his shaggy brows:
"Yes?"
"And then," the Carpetbagger answered, "the Ku Klux Klan will rise in anight, jump on your mob of ragamuffins, take their guns and kick them backinto the gutter."
"Perhaps," the Governor said, musingly, "if I give them a chance! But Iwon't!"
"You won't? How can you prevent it?"
"Very simply. I'll issue a proclamation suspending the _writ_ of _habeascorpus_----"
"But you have no right," Schlitz gasped. The ex-scullion had been studyinglaw the past two years and aspired to the Supreme Court bench.
"My right is doubtful, but it will go in times of revolution. I'll suspendthe _writ_, arrest the leaders of the Klan without warrant, put them injail and hold them there without trial until the day after the election."
Schlitz's eyes danced as he sprang forward and extended his fat hand to theScalawag:
"Governor, you're a great man! Only a great mind would dare such a plan.But do you think your life will be safe?"
The little figure was drawn erect and the ferret eyes flashed:
"The Governor of a mighty commonwealth--they wouldn't dare lift theirlittle finger against me."
Schlitz shook his head dubiously.
"A pretty big job in times of peace--to suspend the civil law, orderwholesale arrests without warrants by a ragged militia and hold your menwithout trial----"
"I like the job!" was the quick answer. "I'm going to show the smart youngman who edits the paper in this town that he isn't running the universe."
Again the adventurer seized the hand of his chief:
"Governor, you're a great man! I take my hat off to you, sir."
His Excellency smiled, lifted his sloping shoulders, moistened his thinlips and whispered:
"Not a word now to a living soul until I strike----"
"I understand, sir, not a word," the Carpetbagger replied in low tones ashe nervously fumbled his hat and edged his way out of the room.
The editor received the Governor's first move in the game with contempt. Itwas exactly what he had expected--this organization of white renegades,thieves, loafers, cut-throats, and deserters. It was the last resort ofdesperation. Every day, while these dirty ignorant recruits were beingorganized and drilled, he taunted the Governor over the personnel of his"Loyal" army. He began the publication of the history of its officers andmen. These biographical stories were written with a droll humor that keptthe whole state in a good-humored ripple of laughter and inspired theconvention that nominated a complete white man's ticket to renewedenthusiasm.
And then the bolt from the blue--the Governor's act of supreme madness!
As the editor sat at his desk writing an editorial congratulating the stateon the brilliant ticket that the white race had nominated and predictingits triumphant election, in spite of negroes, thieves, cut-throats,Scalawags and Carpetbaggers, a sudden commotion on the sidewalk in front ofhis office stopped his pencil in the midst of an unfinished word.
He walked to the window and looked out. By the flickering light of thestreet lamp he saw an excited crowd gathering in the street.
A company of the Governor's new guard had halted in front. An officerripped off the palings from the picket fence beside the building and sent asquad of his men to the rear.
The tramp of heavy feet on the stairs was heard and the dirty trooperscrowded into the editor's room, muskets in hand, cocked, and their fingerson the triggers.
Norton quietly drew the pencil from his ear, smiled at the mottled group ofexcited men, and spoke in his slow drawl:
"And why this excitement, gentlemen?"
The captain stepped forward:
"Are you Major Daniel Norton?"
"I am, sir."
"You're my prisoner."
"Show your warrant!" was the quick challenge.
"I don't need one, sir."
"Indeed! And since when is this state under martial law?"
"Will you go peaceable?" the captain asked roughly.
"When I know by whose authority you make this arrest."
The editor walked close to the officer, drew himself erect, his handsclenched behind his back and held the man's eye for a moment with a coldstare.
The captain hesitated and drew a document from his pocket.
The editor scanned it hastily and suddenly turned pale:
"A proclamation suspending the _writ_ of _habeas corpus_--impossible!"
The captain lifted his dirty palms:
"I reckon you can read!"
"Oh, yes, I can read it, captain--still it's impossible. You can't suspendthe law of gravitation by saying so on a scrap of paper----"
"You are ready to go?"
The editor laughed:
"Certainly, certainly--with pleasure, I assure you."
The captain lifted his hand and his men lowered their guns. The editorseized a number of blank writing pads, a box of pencils, put on his hat andcalled to his assistants:
"I'm moving my office temporarily to the county jail, boys. It's quieterover there. I can do better work. Send word to my home that I'm all rightand t
ell my wife not to worry for a minute. Every man to his post now andthe liveliest paper ever issued! And on time to the minute."
The printers had crowded into the room and a ringing cheer suddenlystartled the troopers.
The foreman held an ugly piece of steel in his hand and every man seemed tohave hold of something.
"Give the word, chief!" the foreman cried.
The editor smiled:
"Thanks, boys, I understand. Go back to your work. You can help best thatway."
The men dropped their weapons and crowded to the door, jeering and howlingin derision at the awkward squad as they stumbled down the stairs aftertheir commander, who left the building holding tightly to the editor's arm,as if at any moment he expected an escape or a rescue.
The procession wended its way to the jail behind the Court House through acrowd of silent men who merely looked at the prisoner, smiled and nodded tohim over the heads of his guard.
An ominous quiet followed the day's work. The Governor was amazed at theway his sensational coup was received. He had arrested and thrown into jailwithout warrant the leaders of the white party in every county in thestate. He was absolutely sure that these men were the leaders of the KuKlux Klan, the one invisible but terrible foe he really feared.
He had expected bluster, protests, mass meetings and fiery resolutions.Instead his act was received with a silence that was uncanny. In vain hisCarpetbagger lieutenant congratulated him on the success of his Napoleonicmove.
His little ferret eyes snapped with suppressed excitement.
"But what the devil is the meaning of this silence, Schlitz?" he asked witha tremor.
"They're stunned, I tell you. It was a master stroke. They're a lot ofcowards and sneaks, these night raiders, anyhow. It only took a bold act ofauthority to throw them into a panic."
The Scalawag shook his head thoughtfully:
"Doesn't look like a panic to me--I'm uneasy----"
"The only possible mistake you've made was the arrest of Norton."
"Yes, I know public sentiment in the North don't like an attempt tosuppress free speech, but I simply had to do it. Damn him, I've stood hisabuse as long as I'm going to. Besides his dirty sheet is at the bottom ofall our trouble."
When the Governor scanned his copy of the next morning's _Eagle andPhoenix_ his feeling of uneasiness increased.
Instead of the personal abuse he had expected from the young firebrand, heread a long, carefully written editorial reviewing the history of the great_writ_ of _habeas corpus_ in the evolution of human freedom. The essayclosed with the significant statement that no Governor in the records ofthe state or the colony had ever dared to repeal or suspend this guaranteeof Anglo-Saxon liberty--not even for a moment during the chaos of the CivilWar.
But the most disquieting feature of this editorial was the suggestive factthat it was set between heavy mourning lines and at the bottom of it stooda brief paragraph enclosed in even heavier black bands:
"We regret to announce that the state is at present without a chief executive. Our late unlamented Governor passed away in a fit of insanity at three o'clock yesterday."
When the little Scalawag read the sarcastic obituary he paled for a momentand the hand which held the paper trembled so violently he was compelled tolay it on the table to prevent his secretary from noting his excitement.
For the first time in the history of the state an armed guard was stationedat the door of the Governor's mansion that night.
The strange calm continued. No move was made by the negroid government tobring the imprisoned men to trial and apparently no effort was being madeby the men inside the jails to regain their liberty.
Save that his editorials were dated from the county jail, no change hadoccurred in the daily routine of the editor's life. He continued his seriesof articles on the history of the state each day, setting them in heavyblack mourning lines. Each of these editorials ended with an appeal to thepatriotism of the reader. And the way in which he told the simple story ofeach step achieved in the blood-marked struggle for liberty had a punch init that boded ill for the little man who had set himself the task ofdictatorship for a free people.
No reference was made in the _Eagle and Phoenix_ to the Governor. He wasdead. The paper ignored his existence. Each day of this ominous peace amonghis enemies increased the terror which had gripped the little Scalawag fromthe morning he had read his first obituary. The big black rules down thesides of those editorials seemed a foot wide now when he read them.
Twice he seated himself at his desk to order the editor's release and eachtime cringed and paused at the thought of the sneers with which his actwould be greeted. He was now between the devil and the deep sea. He wasafraid to retreat and dared not take the next step forward. If he couldhold his ground for two weeks longer, and carry the election by theoverwhelming majority he had planned, all would be well. Such a victory,placing him in power for four years and giving him an obedient negroLegislature once more to do his bidding, would strike terror to his foesand silence their assaults. The negro voters far outnumbered the whites,and victory was a certainty. And so he held his ground--until somethinghappened!
It began in a semi-tropical rain storm that swept the state. All day itpoured in blinding torrents, the wind steadily rising in velocity until atnoon it was scarcely possible to walk the streets.
At eight o'clock the rain ceased to fall and by nine glimpses of the mooncould be seen as the fast flying clouds parted for a moment. But for theseoccasional flashes of moonlight the night was pitch dark. The Governor'scompany of nondescript soldiers in camp at the Capitol, drenched with rain,had abandoned their water-soaked tents for the more congenial atmosphere ofthe low dives and saloons of the negro quarters.
The minute the rain ceased to fall, Norton's wife sent his supper--butto-night by a new messenger. Cleo smiled at him across the little table asshe skillfully laid the cloth, placed the dishes and set a tiny vase ofroses in the center.
"You see," she began, smiling, "your wife needed me and I'm working at yourhouse now, major."
"Indeed!"
"Yes. Mammy isn't well and I help with the baby. He's a darling. He lovedme the minute I took him in my arms and hugged him."
"No doubt."
"His little mother likes me, too. I can pick her up in my arms and carryher across the room. You wouldn't think I'm so strong, would you?"
"Yes--I would," he answered slowly, studying her with a look of increasingwonder at her audacity.
"You're not mad at me for being there, are you? You can't be--mammy wantsme so"--she paused--"Lordy, I forgot the letter!"
She drew from her bosom a note from his wife. He looked curiously at asmudge where it was sealed and, glancing at the girl who was busy with thetray, opened and read:
"I have just received a message from MacArthur's daughter that your life is to be imperilled to-night by a dangerous raid. Remember your helpless wife and baby. Surely there are trusted men who can do such work. You have often told me that no wise general ever risks his precious life on the firing line. You are a soldier, and know this. Please, dearest, do not go. Baby and little mother both beg of you!"
Norton looked at Cleo again curiously. He was sure that the seal of thisnote had been broken and its message read by her.
"Do you know what's in this note, Cleo?" he asked sharply.
"No, sir!" was the quick answer.
He studied her again closely. She was on guard now. Every nerve alert,every faculty under perfect control. He was morally sure she was lying andyet it could only be idle curiosity or jealous interest in his affairs thatprompted the act. That she should be an emissary of the Governor wasabsurd.
"It's not bad news, I hope?" she asked with an eagerness that was just alittle too eager. The man caught the false note and frowned.
"No," he answered carelessly. "It's of no importance." He picked up a padand wrote a hurried answer:
"Don't worry a moment
, dear. I am not in the slightest danger. I know a soldier's duty and I'll not forget it. Sleep soundly, little mother and baby mine!"
He folded the sheet of paper and handed it to her without sealing it. Shewas watching him keenly. His deep, serious eyes no longer saw her. His bodywas there, but the soul was gone. The girl had never seen him in this mood.She was frightened. His life _was_ in danger. She knew it now by anunerring instinct. She would watch the jail and see what happened. Shemight do something to win his friendship, and then--the rest would be easy.Her hand trembled as she took the note.
"Give this to Mrs. Norton at once," he said, "and tell her you found mewell and happy in my work."
"Yes, sir," the soft voice answered mechanically as she picked up the trayand left the room watching him furtively.