Andrew the Glad Read online

  CHAPTER VII

  STRANGE WILD THINGS

  "Phoebe," said David Kildare as he seated himself on the corner of thetable just across from where Phoebe sat in Major Buchanan's chair writingup her one o'clock notes, "what is there about me that makes people thinkthey must make me judge of the criminal court of this county? Do I lookjob-hungry so as to notice it?"

  "No," answered Phoebe as she folded her last sheet and laid down herpencil, "that is one thing no one can accuse you of, David. But your workdown there has brought its results. They need you and are calling to yourather decisively I think. Any more delegations to-day?"

  "Several. Susie Carrie Snow came with more Civic Improvements, rathershort as to skirts and skimpy as to hats. They have fully decided that Iam going to feed Mayor Potts out of my hand as Taylor does, and they wantmy influence to put up two more drinking fountains and three brass platesto mark the homes of the founders of the city, in return for theirprecious support. I promised; and they fell on my neck. That is, if _you_don't mind?" David edged a tentative inch or two nearer Phoebe who hadrested her elbows on the table and her head on her hands as she looked upat him.

  "I don't," she answered with a cruel smile. Then she asked, with anunconcerned glance over the top of his head, "Did you hear from theUnited Charities?"

  "Well, yes, some," returned David with an open countenance, no suspicionof a trap in even the flicker of an eyelash. "They sent Mrs. Cherry.Blooming more every day isn't she, don't you think? She didn't fall on myneck worth a cent though I had braced myself for the shock. She managedto convey the fact that the whole organization is for me just the same.It's some pumpkins to be a candidate. I'm for all there is in it--if atall."

  "You aren't hesitating, David?" asked Phoebe as she rose and stoodstraight and tall beside him, her eyes on a level with his as he sat onthe table. "Ah, David, you can if you will--will you? I know whatit means to you," and Phoebe laid one hand on his shoulder as she lookedhim straight in the eyes, "for it will be work, _work_ and fight like madto put out the fire. You will have to fight honest--and they won't.But, David"--a little catch in her voice betrayed her as she entreated.

  "Yes, dear," answered David as he laid his hand over the one on hisshoulder and pressed it closer, "I sent in the announcement of mycandidacy to the afternoon papers just as I came around here to seethe major--and you. The fight is on and it is going to be harder than yourealize, for there is so little time. Are you for me, girl?"

  "If _I_ fall on your neck it will make seven this morning. Aren't yousatisfied?" And Phoebe drew her hand away from his, allowing, however, aregretful squeeze as he let it go.

  "No, six if you would do it," answered David disconsolately, "I told youthat Mrs. Cherry failed me."

  "Yes," answered Phoebe as she lowered her eyes, "I know you told me."David Kildare was keen of wit but it takes a most extraordinary wisdom tofathom such a woman as Phoebe chose to be--out of business hours.

  "Isn't it time for you to go to dress for the parade?" she asked quicklywith apparent anxiety.

  "No," answered David as he filled his tooled leather case from themajor's jar of choice Seven Oaks heart-leaf--he had seen Phoebe's whitefingers roll it to the proper fineness just the night before, "I'mall ready! Did you think I was going to wear a lace collar and a sash?Everything is in order and I only have to be there at two to start themoff. Everybody is placed on the platform and everybody is satisfied. Theunveiling will be at three-thirty. You are going out with Mrs. Matildaearly, aren't you? I want you to see me come prancing up at thehead of the mounted police. Won't you be proud of me?"

  "Sometimes, really, I think you are the missing twin to little BillyBob," answered Phoebe with a laugh, but in an instant her face becamegrave again. "I'm worried about Caroline Darrah," she said softly. "Ifound her crying last night after I had finished work. I was staying herewith Mrs. Matilda for the night and I went into her room for a moment onthe chance that she would be awake. She said she had wakened from an uglydream--but I know she dreads this presentation, and I don't blame her. Itwas lovely of her to want to give the statue and plucky of her to comeand do it--but it's in every way trying for her."

  "And isn't she the darling child?" answered David Kildare, a tender smilecoming into his eyes. "Plucky! Well I should say so! To come dragging oldPeters Brown's money-bags down here just as soon as he croaked, with theexpress intention of opening up and passing us all our wads back. Couldanything as--as pathetic ever have happened before?"

  "No," answered Phoebe. Then she said slowly, tentatively, as she lookedinto David's eyes that were warm with friendliness for the inheritedfriend who had preempted a place in both their hearts: "And the one awfulthing for which she can offer no reparation she knows nothing of. I prayshe never knows!"

  "Yes, but it is about to do him to the death. I sometimes wake and findhim sitting over his papers at daybreak with burned-out eyes and as paleas a white horse in a fog."

  "But why does it _have_ to be that way? Andrew isn't bitter and it isn'ther fault--she wasn't even born then. She doesn't even know."

  "I think it's mostly the money," said David slowly. "If she were poor itwould be all right to forgive her and take her, but a man couldn't verywell marry his father's blood money. And he's suffering God knows. HereI've been counting for years on his getting love-tied at home, and tothink it should be like this! Sometimes I wish she _did_ know--she offersherself to him like a little child; and thinks she is only doingreverence to the poet. It's driving him mad, but he won't cut and run."

  "And yet," said Phoebe, "it would kill her to know. She is so sensitiveand she has just begun to be herself with us. She has had so few friendsand she isn't like we are. Why, Polly Farrell could manage such asituation better than Caroline Darrah. She is so elemental that she ispositively--primitive. I am frightened about it sometimes--I can onlytrust Andrew." As Phoebe spoke her eyes grew sad and her lips quivered.

  "Dear heart," said David as he took both her hands in his, "it's just oneof those fatal things that no man can see through; he can just bethankful that there's a God to handle 'em." There were times when DavidKildare's voice held more of tenderness than Phoebe was calculated towithstand without heroic effort. It behooved her to exert the utmost atthis moment in order that she might hold her own.

  "It's making me thin," she ventured as she shook a little shower of tearsoff her black lashes and again smilingly regained control of her ownhands, but displaying a slender blue-veined wrist for his sympatheticinspection.

  "Help!" exclaimed David, taking possession of the wrist and circling itwith his thumb and forefinger. "Let me send for a crate of eggs and acase of the malt-milk! You poor starved peach-bud you, _why won't_ youmarry me and let me feed you? I'm going--"

  "But you and the major both recommended 'lovers' troubles' to me, David,"Phoebe hazarded.

  "I only recommended _my_ own special brand, remember," retorted David. "Iwon't have you ill! I'm going to see that you do as I say about your--"

  "David Kildare," remarked the major from the door into the hall, "if youuse that tone to the grand jury they will shut up every saloon in Hell'sHalf Acre. Hail the judge! My boy, my boy, I knew you'd line up when thetime came--and the line!"

  "Can I count on the full artillery of the _Gray Picket_ brigade, Major?"demanded David with delight in his eyes as he returned the major'svigorous hand-shake.

  "Hot shot, grape, canister and shrapnel, sir! Horses in lather, guns onthe wheel and bayonets set. We'll bivouac in the camp of the enemy on thenight of the election! We'll--"

  "I don't believe you will want to lie down in the lair of the blind tigeras soon as that, Major," laugher Phoebe.

  "Phoebe," answered the major, "politics makes strange bed-fellows. MikeO'Rourke, the boss of the democratic Irish, was around this morninghunting for David Kildare with the entire green grocer's vote in hispocket. He spoke of the boy as his own son."

  "Good for old Mike!" laughed David. "It's not every boy who can boast anintim
ate friendship with his corner grocer from childhood up. It means acertain kind of---self-denial in the matter of apples and othertemptations. I used to go to the point of an occasional errand for him.Those were the days, Phoebe, when you sat on the front steps and playedhollyhock dolls. Wish I'd kidnapped you then--when I could!"

  "It would have saved us both lots of time--and trouble," answered Phoebedaringly from the protection of the major's presence.

  "David, sir," said the major who had been busy settling himself in hischair and lighting his pipe during this exchange of pleasantries betweenDavid and Phoebe, to the like of which he was thoroughly accustomed,"this is going to be a fight to the ditches. I believe the whiskyring that controls this city to be the worst machine south of Mason andDixon's. State-wide prohibition voted six months ago and every saloon inthe town going full tilt night and day! They own the city council, theboard of public works and the mayor, but none of that compares inseriousness to the debauching of our criminal courts. The grand jury ishelpless if the judge dismisses every true bill they return--and Taylordoes it every time if it is a whisky law indictment or pertainingthereto, and most of the bills are at least distantly pertaining. Sothere you have us bound and helpless--a disgrace to the nation, sir, anda reproach to good government!"

  "Yes, Major, they've got us tied up some--but they forgot to gag us,"answered David with a smile. "Your editorial in the _Gray Picket_,calling on me to run for criminal court judge, has been copied in everypaper in the state and some of the large northern sheets. I am willing tomake the try, Major. I've practised down there more than you'd think andit's rotten from the cellar steps to the lightning-rod. Big black buck issent up for rioting down at Hein's Bucket of Blood dive--stand aside andforget about it--while some poor old kink is sent out to the pen forrunning into a flock of sleepy hens in the dark, 'unbenkownst' entirely.I defended six poor pick-ups last week myself, and I guess Taylor sawmy blood was on the boil at the way he's running things. I'm ready totake a hand with him, but it will take some pretty busy doing around tobeat the booze gang. Am I the man--do you feel sure?"

  As David questioned the major his jaw squared itself determinedly. Therewas a rather forceful sort of man appearing under the nonchalant Davidwhom his friends had known for years. A wild pride stirred in Phoebe tosuch an extent that she caught her breath while she waited for themajor's reply.

  "Yes, David," answered the major as he looked up at him with his keen oldeagle eyes, "I think you are. You've had everything this nation can giveyou in the way of fighting blood from Cowpens to Bull Run, and when youspeak in a body legislative your voice can be but an echo of the men whosired you, statesmen, most of them; so it is to you and your class wemust look for clean government. It is your arraignment of the mayor andthe judge on the hay-market question that has made every decentorganization in the city look to you to begin the fight for a clean-upreorganization. They have all rallied to your support. Show your colors,boy, and, God willing, we will smash this machine to the last cog and geton a basis of honest government."

  "Then here goes the hottest fight Davie knows how to put to them! Andit's going to be an honest one. I'll go before the people of this cityand promise them to enforce law and order, but I'll not _buy_ a vote of aman of them. That I mean, and I hereby hand it out to you tworepresentatives of the press. From now on 'not a dollar spent' is theword and I'm back of it to make it go." As he spoke, Kildare turned toPhoebe and looked at her as man to man with nothing in his voice but thecool note of determination. It was a cold dash for Phoebe but thereaction brought hot pride to her eyes.

  "Yes, David," she answered, "you can and you will."

  The determination in her voice matched that in his, and her eyes met hiswith a glance in which lay a new expression--not the old tolerantaffection nor the guarded defense, but one with a quality of comradeshipthat steadied every nerve in his body. Some men get the like from somewomen--but not often.

  "They will empty their pockets to fight you," the major continuedthoughtfully. "But there is a deal of latent honesty in human nature,after all, that will answer the right appeal by the right man. A mancalls a man; and ask a crook to come in on the straight proposition, twoto one he'll step over the line before he stops himself. This is anindependent candidacy--let's ask them all in, without reference to age,color or 'previous condition of servitude'--in the broadest sense."

  "Yes, and with the other construction, too, perhaps. We'll ask in thedarks--but they won't come. They'll vote with the jug crowd every time.No nig votes for Dave without the dollar and the small bottle. How manydo they poll, anyway, do you suppose?"

  "Less than a thousand I think. Not overwhelming! But in an independentrace it might hold the balance of power. We'll devise means to appeal tothem; we must keep up all the fences, you see. A man who doesn't see tohis fences is a mighty poor proposition as a farmer and--"

  "Hicks was here this morning, Major dear, to talk about that very thing,"said Mrs. Matilda as she came in just in time to catch the last of themajor's remark. "He says that ten hogs got through into the north pastureand rooted up acres of grass and if you don't get the new posts to repairthe fence he can't answer for the damage done. He told you about it morethan a month ago and--"

  "David Kildare," said the major with an enigmatical smile, "what you needto see you through life is a wife. When a man mounts a high-horseaeroplane and goes sailing off, dimity is the best possible ballast.Consider the matter I beg of you--don't be obdurate."

  "Why, of course David is going to marry some day," answered Mrs. Matildaas she beamed upon them. "A woman gets along nicely unmarried but it iscruel to a man. Major, Jeff is waiting to help you into your uniform. Dobe careful, for it is mended to the last stitch now and I don't see howit is going to hold together many more times."

  "Gray uniforms have held together a long time, Matilda," answered themajor softly as he took his departure.

  "And we must all hurry and have lunch," said Mrs. Buchanan. "Phoebeand I want to be there in plenty of time to see the parade arrive. Italways gives me a thrill to see the major ride up at the head of hiscompany. I've never got over it all these years."

  "How 'bout that, Phoebe?" asked David, once more his daring insistentself. "Seems it wasn't so young in me after all to think you might thrilla few glads to see me come prancing up. Now, will you be good?"

  And it was only a little over two hours later that the parade moved onits way from the public square to the park. A goodly show they made andan interesting one, the grizzled old war-dogs in their faded uniformswith faces aglow under their tattered caps. They trudged along undertheir ragged banners in hearty good will, with now a limp and now a haltand all of them entirely out of step with the enthusiastic young band inits natty uniform. They called to one another, chaffed the mountedofficers, sang when the spirit moved them and acted in every way likeboys who were off on the great lark of their lives.

  All along the line of march there were crowds to see them and cheer them,with here and there a white-haired woman who waved her handkerchief andsmiled at them through a rain of tears.

  The major rode at the head of a small and straggling division of cavalrywhose men ambled along and guyed one another about the management oftheir green livery horses who were inclined to bunch and go wild with themusic.

  A few pieces of heavy artillery lumbered by next, and just behind themcame three huge motor-cars packed and jammed with the old fellows whowere too feeble to keep up with the procession. They were most of themfrom the Soldiers' Home and in spite of empty coat sleeves and crutchesthey bobbed up and down and waved their caps with enthusiasm as cheerafter cheer rose whenever they came into sight.

  Andrew Sevier stood at his study window and watched them go past,marching to the conflicting tunes of _The Bonnie Blue Flag_, played bythe head band, and _Dixie_ by the following one. It was great to see themagain after five years; and in such spirits! He felt a cheer rise to hislips and he wanted to open the window and give lusty vent to it--but akeen pai
n caught it in his throat.

  Always before he had ridden with David at the head of the division of theConfederacy's Sons, but to-day he stood behind the window and watchedthem go past him! There were men in those ranks who had slept in theditches with his father, and to whom he had felt that his presence wouldbe a reminder of an exceeding bitterness. The had quietly fought theacceptance of the statue offered by the daughter of Peters Brown from thebeginning, but the granddaughter of General Darrah, who had led them atChickamauga, must needs command their acceptance of a memorial to him andher mother.

  And they would all do her honor after the unveiling. Andrew could almostsee old General Clopton stand with bared head and feel the thrill withwhich the audience would listen to what would be a tender tribute to thewar women. A wave of passionate joy swelled up in his heart--he _wanted_them to cheer her and love her and adopt her! It was her baptism into herheritage! And he gloried in it.

  Then across his joy came a curious stifling depression--he found himselflistening as if some one had called him, called for help. The music wasdying away in the distance and the cheers became fainter and fainteruntil their echo seemed almost a sob. Before he had time to realize whathe did he descended the stair, crossed the street and let himself intothe Buchanan house.

  He stood just within the library door and listened again. A profoundstillness seemed to beat through the deserted rooms--then he saw her! Shesat with her arms outspread across the table and her head bent upon apile of papers. She was tensely still as if waiting for something tosound around her.

  "Caroline!" It was the first time he had called her by her name andthough the others had done it from the first, she had never seemed tonotice his more formal address. It was beyond him to keep the tendernessthat swept through every nerve out of his voice entirely.

  "Yes," she answered as she raised her head and looked at him, her eyesshining dark in her white face, "I know I'm a coward--did you come backto make me go? I thought they might not miss me until it was too late tocome for me. I didn't think--I--could stand it--please--please!"

  "You needn't go at all, dear," he said as he took the cold hands in hisand unclasped the wrung fingers. "Why didn't you tell them? They wouldn'thave insisted on your going."

  "I--I couldn't! I just could not say what I felt to--to--_them_. I wantedto come--the statue suggested itself--for her. I ought to have given itand gone back--back to my own life. I don't belong--there is somethingbetween them all and me. They love me and try to make me forget it and--"

  "But, don't you see, child, that's just it? They love you so they holdyou against all the other life you have had before. We're a strong lovepeople down here--we claim our own!" A note in his voice brought Andrewto his senses. He let her hands slip from his and went around thetable and sat down opposite to her. "And so you ran away and hid?" Hesmiled at her reassuringly.

  "Yes. I knew I ought not to--then I heard the music and I couldn't lookor listen. I--why, where did you come from? I thought you were in theparade with David. I felt--if you knew you would understand. I wishedthat I had asked you--had told you that I couldn't go. Did you come backfor me?"

  "No," answered Andrew with a prayer in his heart for words to cover factsfrom the clear eyes fixed on his--clear, comforted young eyes that lookedright down to the rock bed of his soul. "You see the old boys ratherupset me, too. I have been away so long--and so many of them are missing.I'm just a coward, too--'birds of a feather'--take me under your wing,will you?"

  "I believe one of those 'strange wild things' has been flying around inthe atmosphere and has taken possession of us again," said CarolineDarrah slowly, never taking her eyes from his. "I don't know why I know,but I do, that you came to comfort me. I was thinking about you andwishing I could tell you. Now in just this minute you've made me see thatI have a right to all of you. I'm never going to be unhappy about it anymore. After this I'm going to belong as hard as ever I can."

  Something crashed in every vein in Andrew Sevier's body, lilted in hisheart, beat in his throat and sparkled in his eyes. He sprang to his feetand held out his hand to her.

  "Then come on and be adopted," he said. "I shall order the electric, andyou get into your hat and coat. We can skirt the park and come in at theside of the Temple back of the platform so that you can slip into placebefore one-half of the sky-rockets of oratory have been exploded. Willyou come?"

  "Will you stay with me--right by me?" she asked, timidity and courage atwar in her voice.

  "Yes," he answered slowly, "I'll stay by you as long as you want me--if Ican."

  "And that," said Caroline Darrah Brown as she turned at the door andlooked straight at him with a heavenly blush mounting in her cheeks, thetenderness of the ages curling her lips and the innocence of all of sixyears in her eyes, "will be always!" With which she disappearedinstantly beyond the rose damask hangings.

  And so when the ceremonies in the park were over and Caroline stood toclasp hands with each of the clamorous gray squad, Andrew Sevier waitedjust behind her and he met one after another of the sharp glances shot athim from under grizzled brows with a dignity that quieted even thegrimmest old fire-eater.

  And there are strange wild things that take hold on the lives ofmen--vital forces against which one can but beat helpless wings of mortalspirit.