The Vision Splendid

by William MacLeod Raine

  CHAPTER 18

  THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY ARE GIVEN AN ILLUSTRATION OF A ROORBACK

  Part 1

  Rawson sat in the rotunda of the Pacific Hotel in desultory conversationwith Captain Chunn, Hardy and Rogers. He brought his clenched hand downon the padded leather arm of the big chair.

  "They'll jam it through to-morrow. That's what they'll do. James K.Farnum's been playing mighty pretty politics and he has got the votes todeliver the goods."

  Hardy nodded as he knocked the ash from his cigar. "Now that it's allover we can see James K.'s trail easily enough. He meant to defeatthe initiative and referendum amendment, and he meant to do it withoutlosing his popularity. He's done it too. Jeff's disappearance made itcertain our bill wouldn't go through. James jumps in with a hurrah andpasses one that isn't worth the powder to blow it up. But he's going toclaim it as a great victory for the people--and if I know that young manhe'll get away with his bluff. Yet it's certain as taxes that he's beenworking for Joe Powers all the time."

  "I wouldn't put it past him to have engineered some deal to get rid ofhis cousin," Chunn suggested.

  Rawson shook his head. "No. Not respectable enough for James. And he'snot fool enough to run his head into a trap. But I'd bet my head Big Timgave him a tip it was to be pulled off. J. K. had to know. Otherwisehe wouldn't have been in a position to play the game for them. But hedidn't know any details--just a suggestion. Enough to wise him withoutmaking him responsible."

  "And the play he's been making in the papers. Offering a rewardfor information about Jeff, insisting publicly that he has absoluteconfidence in his cousin's integrity while he shakes his head inprivate. If you want my opinion, that young man is a whited sepulchre. Inever did believe in him."

  Rogers turned to Captain Chunn with an incredulous smile. "But you stillbelieve in Jeff. Frankly, it looks to me like a double sell out."

  The old Confederate's eyes gleamed. "Sir, I've known that boy since hewas a little tad. He's never told me a lie. He's square as they makethem."

  "I used to believe in his cousin James, too," Rogers commented.

  "Oh, James! He's another proposition." Rawson's voice was sour withdisgust. "He just naturally looked to see where his bread was buttered.He's as selfish as the devil for all that suave, cordial way of his.Right from the first his idea has been to make a big personal hit. Andhe figured out he could do it easier with Joe Powers back of him thanagainst him. James K. is the smoothest fraud on the Pacific Coast.But Jeff--why, every hair of his head is straight. He's one out of amillion, believe me."

  "You've said it," Chunn agreed.

  Rogers smiled across at them. "He's left a lot of good friends behindhim anyhow. But it's strange he could drop off the earth without a soulknowing about it."

  "The men who murdered him know about it," Rawson answered significantly.

  Captain Chunn shook his head. "No, that boy will turn up yet."

  "But not in time to save us. We're licked. There's not one chance in amillion for us. That's the discouraging feature of it, to be sold outafter we had won our fight."

  Rawson agreed with Hardy. "Yes, we're licked. Even if Jeff were to showup, with all these stories against him, we wouldn't be able to stem thetide now."

  "Mister Raw-w-son--Mister Raw-w-son." The singsong voice of a bellhopechoed through the rotunda.

  Captain Chunn's walking stick flagged the lad and brought him slidingacross the polished floor.

  "Telegram for Mr. Rawson."

  The big politician ripped it open and ran his eyes rapidly over theyellow slip. From his lips burst a sudden oath of surprise.

  "By Jupiter, the miracle's happened. Jeff is alive and on his way here.He's sent me a wireless from out at sea somewhere."

  "What!" Captain Chunn let out a whoop of joy.

  "Listen here." Rawson read aloud his message. "'Shanghaied on schooner_Nancy Hanks_. Escaped at Honolulu. Back in Verden to-night. Keep up thefight.'"

  "Didn't I say Jeff was alive? Didn't I say he would come back and beatthose robbers yet?" the owner of the _World_ demanded.

  "Don't get excited. It may be a fake." This from Hardy, who was almostas much moved himself.

  "Fake nothing! We'll go down to the telegraph office and make sure it's0. K. Won't this make a bully story for the _World_ 'Shanghaied' in bigletters across the top, and underneath a red hot roast of the old cityhall gang's methods of trying to defeat the will of the people." Rawsonlaughed aloud as his imagination pictured the story.

  The old soldier's eyes gleamed. "I'll run twice as many copies as usual.We'll plaster the state with them, calling for mass meetings everywhereto insist on the legislature passing our bill."

  "Go easy, gentlemen," advised Rogers. "If it's true we hold a trumpcard, but we want to play it mighty carefully so as to make it carry asmuch dynamite as possible."

  The company could give no information more definite than that themessage had come from the _Bellingham,_ which was still a couple ofhundred miles out at sea.

  In view of the value of the news from a strategic slant his friendssucceeded in keeping the lid on Captain Chunn's enthusiasm until theparty was safe aboard a fast yacht steaming out of the harbor to meetthe _Bellingham._ The old Confederate's first impulse had been to run anextra immediately, but he was argued out of it.

  "We don't want to go off half cocked. We've got a beautiful comeback ifwe play it right. That is, if Jeff's got any proof. But we better waitand let Jeff run the newspaper end of it, Captain."

  This was Hardy's view, and it was indorsed by the others.

  "Another thing. This story has got to come just like an explosion onJames K. Farnum's supporters. We've got to sweep them right back to ourbill. Now if we break the force of it by giving them warning that swarmof lobbyists will get busy and stay busy all night," Rawson added.

  Jim Dunn, the star reporter of the _World,_ was hurriedly summoned bytelephone. Chunn explained to the city editor that Dunn and the staffphotographer were needed to cover a big story, but of what the story wasno mention was made to the office. As soon as Dunn and Quillen reachedthe wharf the _Fly by Night_ shot out of the dock.

  Part 2

  In the wintry afternoon sunlight Beauchamp and Alice were playinga match of shuffleboard against Jeff and the daughter of a Honolulumissionary. The game had reached an exciting and critical stage whenthey noticed that the ship was no longer quivering from the throb of theengines.

  "A steam yacht, probably from Verden," the ship purser remarked to thefirst mate as they passed.

  The players gave up their game to watch the boat that was being loweredfrom the deck of a yacht close at hand. Into it stepped five men inaddition to the crew. Presently Jeff, leaning against the rail, borrowedthe glasses of a man near. After Alice had looked she handed them toFarnum.

  He gave a little exclamation of surprise.

  "I beg your pardon?" the girl beside him murmured.

  "They are my friends, Miss Frome. Come to meet me, I expect. The littleman in gray with one arm is Captain Chunn."

  She was all excitement at once. "Then they must have received yourmessage?"

  "Probably."

  Jeff was the first man to meet Captain Chunn as he walked up the steps.The gray little man gave a whoop of joy.

  "David!"

  Their hands gripped.

  Rawson fell on Farnum from behind and pounded him jubilantly. Instantlythe editor was the center of a group of eager, urgent wellwishers.

  Alice explained to Captain Barclay what it was all about and stood backsmiling while questions and answers flew back and forth.

  "What about our bill?" Jeff inquired as soon as the first hubbub hadquieted.

  "Dead as a door nail. Your cousin has substituted H. B. I7. They willpass it to-morrow or the next day."

  A swift sickness ran through Farnum. "James gone back on us?"

  "That's what. He's double-crossed us." Rawson snapped the words outbitterly.

  "Why--why--surely not James." Jeff
's mind groped for some possible

  explanation.

  "Says our bill was lost anyhow and it was a question of getting throughGarman's bill or none."

  "But Garman's bill was framed by Ned Merrill. It doesn't give usanything."

  Rawson nodded grimly. "That's the idea. We're to get nothing, but it'sto be wrapped up like a Christmas present so as to fool us."

  "And isn't there any chance at all for our bill?"

  "Just this one chance." Rawson leaned forward and spoke in a low voice,driving his hand down on the deck railing. "That you've got a charge ofdynamite up your sleeve to throw into their camp. If you can't stampedethem we're down and out."

  Jeff and his allies presently moved away together to hold a conferenceof ways and means. The boat crew pulled back to the yacht. The enginesbegan to throb once more. The _Bellingham_ gathered momentum and wassoon plunging forward at full speed.

  Part 3

  With a queer little surge of pride in him Alice watched Jeff and hisfriends move away. They depended on him. Unless he could save it theirfight was lost. To her he was a prophet of the better civilization thatwould some day rise on the ruins of an Individualism grown topheavy.But he was neither a dreamer nor a weakling. His idealism was sane andpractical, and he would fight to the last ditch when he must.

  And this was another strange thing about him, that though his democracywas a faith, vital and ardent, it was tempered with the liberal spirit.He could make allowances; held no grudges, would laugh away insults atwhich another man would have raged. Out of her very limited experienceAlice decided that he was a great man. That he was so warm and humanwith it all was one of his seizing charms. No boy could have been moreinterested in winning the shuffleboard game than he.

  The fat pork packer from Chicago came wheezing toward her. He took thesteamer chair beside Alice and jerked his head toward the spot whereJeff had disappeared.

  "Now if you want my notion, Miss Frome, that's the kind of a man thatbreeds anarchy. I've seen his paper. He fills it full of stuff thatmakes the workingman discontented with his lot. A trouble maker, that'swhat he is. Stops the wheels of industry. Gets in the road of theboosters to croak hard times."

  Alice observed the thick rolls of purple fat that bulged over hiscollar.

  "Progress now," he went on. "I'm for progress. Develop the country. Thatgives work to the laborers and keeps them contented. But men like Farnumare always hampering development by annoying capital. Now that's foolishbecause capital employs labor."

  The young woman suggested another possibility. "Or else labor employscapital."

  "What!" The fat little man sat bolt upright in surprise. "I guess younever heard your Uncle Joe Powers talk any such foolishness." He snortedindignantly. "Hmp! The best friend labor has got is capital. If I hadthe say so I'd crush every labor union--for the good of the workingpeople themselves."

  Alice decided that the mental indigestion of the rich sat heavily uponhim. She felt her temper rising and took advantage of the approach ofBeauchamp to leave quickly.

  "Oh, Lieutenant! Have you seen Valencia?"

  The Englishman showed surprise. It happened that Alice had at thatmoment a view of Mrs. Van Tyle stretched on a deck chair some thirtyfeet away.

  Miss Frome hurried him along. Presently, with a low laugh, sheexplained. "I wanted to get away from him. Carelessly, I dropped a newidea there. It's likely to go off. You know how dangerous they are."

  "To people who haven't many. Had it anything to do with making money?"

  "Not directly."

  "Then you needn't be alarmed on our stout friend's account. He's immuneto all ideas not connected with that subject."

  The double blast of a trumpet invited them to dinner down stairs.

  Part 4

  Dunn was sitting in the smoking room writing his story of the kidnappingwhen a ruddy young Englishman stopped opposite him.

  "You're Mr. Dunn, are you not? Reporter for the _World?_"

  "Yes." The newspaper man looked him over with a swift, trainedattention.

  "A young lady would like to see you for a few minutes. She is interestedin this shanghaing of Mr. Farnum."

  Dunn's black gimlet eyes searched Beauchamp's face.

  "All right. Glad to see her." Dunn's story was being transferred to hispocket as he rose.

  He followed his guide to the ladies' writing room. A slender youngwoman was standing in front of the bookcase. She turned as they entered.Beauchamp introduced the reporter to her, but Dunn failed to catch thename of this rather remarkable looking young lady.

  "You are to write the story of Mr. Farnum's adventure?" she asked.

  The reporter's eyes narrowed very slightly. "What story?"

  "The account of the shanghaing. Oh, I know all about it. Have you allthe facts?"

  "I'll be glad to hear what you know, Miss--"

  She answered his hesitation by mentioning her name.

  Dunn grew more wary. "Miss Alice Frome, daughter of Senator Frome?"

  "Yes."

  "Anything you have to say I'll be pleased to hear, Miss Frome."

  To his surprise she broke through the hedge of reserve he had withdrawnbehind.

  "You distrust me. You think because I'm Senator Frome's daughter that Imust be against Mr. Farnum. Is that it?"

  "I didn't say that," he sparred.

  "I'm not against him. It's because I'm anxious to see him win that Iwant to be sure he has given you the whole story."

  "Why shouldn't he give me the whole story?"

  "Because he isn't the kind to boast. Did he tell you about the sharks?"

  "Or how Miss Frome helped pull him aboard just in time to save him fromthe crimps?"

  The reporter's eyes gleamed. "What's that?" he snapped quickly.

  "And all about the race from the schooner to the _Bellingham,_ It wasthe most exciting thing I ever saw."

  "Great guns! What's the matter with Jeff Farnum? He didn't say a wordabout that--missed the cream of the story."

  Alice smiled. "I thought perhaps he might have."

  "He said he saw a chance to swim across to the _Bellingham._ That madea pretty good story. But sharks--and the shanghaiers chasing him--anda young lady helping to haul him aboard to safety--and that young ladyMiss Alice Frome! Say, this is the biggest story that ever broke inVerden. If I fall down on it I'm a dead one sure enough."

  "You think it will help Mr. Farnum's fight for his bill?"

  "Help it. Say, I'd give fifty dollars to see James K. Farnum's face whenhe reads the _World_ tomorrow morning. The town will go right up inthe air. Hundreds of telegrams are going to pour in to members of theassembly from their constituents. We'll make a Yale finish of this yet."

  "It's lucky Miss Frome recognized Mr. Farnum. Otherwise I suppose hewould have been sent back to the _Nancy Hanks_."

  "Oh, Miss Frome recognized him? Jeff said one of the passengers did. Hecouldn't remember who."

  "I don't suppose my name is necessary to the story. Just say a youngwoman on board," Alice suggested.

  Dunn's black eyes questioned her. "Are you for us, Miss Frome?"

  She smiled. "I'm for you."

  "Against Senator Frome and Mr. Powers?"

  "I think the bill ought to be passed. I'm not against anybody."

  "Well, I'll tell you this. It will help the story a lot to have you init. Some people might say we framed the whole thing up. But with SenatorFrome's daughter starring in it."

  "Oh, no, Mr. Farnum's the star."

  "Well, you're the leading lady. Don't you see how it helps? Clinches thewhole thing as genuine. It's as good as putting the Senator himself onthe stand as a witness for us. We've just got to have you."

  "It will really help, you think?"

  "No question."

  "Very well."

  "And photographs. You'll stand for one, of course."

  "Now really I don't see."

  "They can't get back of a photograph. It carries conviction. Of coursewe've got pictures of yo
u at the office, Miss Frome. But I want to playfair with you. Besides, I want them to show the ship setting."

  She laughed. "Don't worry. Your enterprising photographer caught metwice before I knew it. And he got one of my cousin, Mrs. Van Tyle. Shedoesn't know it, though."

  "Good boy, Quillen. Now, if you'll begin at the beginning, Miss Frome,I'll listen to your story."

  When she had finished his eyes were gleaming. "It's the biggest scoop Iever got in on. Sounds too good to be true."

  Part 5

  At Gillam's Point Jeff and his friends, with Dunn and Quillen, left the_Bellingham_ on the launch which brought the pilot. They caught the fastexpress a half hour later and reached Verden shortly after midnight.His hat drawn down over his eyes and muffled to the ears in an ulster sothat he might not be recognized, Farnum took a cab with Captain Chunn,Dunn and Quillen for the office of the World. He slipped into thebuilding and his private room unnoticed by any member of the staff.

  Dunn presently brought to him Jenkins, the make-up man.

  "Rip your front page to pieces. We've got the story of a life time,"Captain Chunn exploded.

  Jenkins opened his eyes and grinned at Jeff. "That's what Jim tells me.Have you got the proof to hang the thing on Big Tim?"

  "I've got a letter he wrote to Captain Green of the _Nancy Hanks_. It'son city hall stationery of the last administration."

  "Funny he used that paper."

  "Someone usually makes a slip in putting a deal of this kind through."

  "And the letter?"

  "Just a line, signed with O'Brien's initials. 'The terms agreed on aresatisfactory.' I found the letter in Green's cabin. As I thought I mightmake use of it I helped myself."

  "Bully! We'll run a fac-simile of it on the front page."

  "Dunn's story covers the whole affair. I don't like some features of it,but our friends say it ought to be run as it stands. I've written threecolumns of editorial stuff dealing with the situation. And here's astory calling for a mass meeting in front of the State House to-morrowmorning."

  "You'll speak to the people?"

  "I'll say a few words. Hardy and Rawson will be the speakers."

  "Pity we've lost your cousin. He'd stir them up."

  The muscles stood out on Jeff's lean jaw. James was a subject he couldnot yet discuss. "We're nailing the No Compromise flag to our masthead,Jenkins. We've got to prevent them from forcing through Garman'sbill to-morrow. After that every day will be in our favor. Unless I'mmistaken the state will waken up as it never has before. The people willsee how nearly they've been euchred out of what they want."

  Jenkins came bluntly to another point. "This story would carry a lotmore weight if those charges made against your character by the otherpapers had been answered."

  "Then we'll answer them."

  The night editor looked at him dubiously. "They've got four affidavitsto back their story."

  "Only four?" A gay smile was dancing in Jeff's eyes.

  "Both the _Herald_ and the _Advocate_ have been playing it strong. Everyday they rehash the story and challenge a denial."

  "It will all be free advertising for us if we can make them eat crow."

  "If we can!" Jenkins did not see how any effective answer was possibleand he knew that in the present state of public opinion an unsupportedbluff would be fatal.

  "How would this do for a starter?"

  Jeff handed him two typewritten sheets. The night editor read themthrough. He looked straight at Jeff.

  "Can you back this up?"

  "I can."

  "But--what about those affidavits?"

  Farnum grinned. "We'll take care of them when we come to them."

  "It's your funeral," Jenkins admitted.

  The whole front page of the _World_ next morning was filled with theFarnum story. As part of it there were interviews with Alice Frome, withCaptain Barclay, and with other passengers. The deadly note from O'Briento Green of the _Nancy Hanks_ occupied the place usually held by thecartoon. Beneath it, exactly in the center of the page, was a leaded boxwith the caption "A Challenge." It ran as follows:

  The editor of the _World_ does not think his reputation important enoughto protect it at the expense of a woman. Yet he denies absolutely theimport of the charges made by the _Herald_ and the _Advocate._ Thatthe matter may be forever set at rest the _World_ challenges the papersnamed to a searching investigation. It proposes:

  (1) That the names of five representative citizens of Verden besubmitted to Governor Hawley by each of the three papers, and thatfrom this number be select a committee of five to sift thoroughly theallegations;

  (2) That the meetings of the committee be held in secret, no members ofthe press being admitted, and that those composing it pledge themselvesnever to divulge the names of any witnesses who may appear to giveevidence;

  (3) That the _Herald,_ the _Advocate,_ and the _World_ severally agreeto print on the front page for a week the findings of the committee assoon as received and exactly as received, without any editorial or othercomment whatsoever.

  By the decision of this committee Jefferson Farnum pledges himself toabide. If found guilty, he will at once resign from the editorial chargeof the _World_ and will leave Verden forever.