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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 1074.B18SS 
 
 Shacklett the evolution of a statesman b 
 
 3 1924 022 044 675 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022044675 
 
SHACKLETT 
 
SHACKLETT 
 
 The Evolution of a Statesman 
 
 By 
 WALTER BARR 
 
 New York 
 
 D. Appleton and Company 
 
 1 901 
 
Copyright, igox, 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 3 II '/f 2 6 
 
 v 
 
" Nature ne'er meant her secrets to be found, 
 And man's a riddle which man can't expound." 
 
 Paine. 
 
 " Without, or with, offence to friends or foes, 
 I sketch the world exactly as it goes." 
 
 Byron. 
 
 " The brave do never shun the light ; 
 Just are their thoughts and open are their tempers; 
 Truly without disguise, they love or hate ; 
 Still are they found on the fair face of day, 
 And Heaven and men are judges of their actions.'' 
 
 Rowe. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 Prologue : Pivotal heredity 
 I. — Down in Egypt . 
 II. — In the bottoms . 
 III. — Following his father 
 IV. — When Justice is blind 
 V. — Manifest destiny 
 VI. — Under the dome 
 VII. — A little journey in the 
 VIII. — Making a crossing . 
 IX. — Against the current 
 X. — Pilots and preachers 
 XI. — The missionary spirit 
 XII. — A campaign for a soul 
 XIII. — Early rising and ravens 
 XIV. — Practice and progress 
 XV. — Serpents and doves . 
 XVI. — A trust and competition 
 XVII. — Attorney for the defendant 
 XVIII. — Just a common steal 
 XIX. — The devil at three to one 
 XX. — The dominant and a discord 
 XXI. — The hand of the master 
 XXII. — The moth by the grate . 
 vii 
 
 PACE 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 ii 
 
 22 
 
 36 
 
 62 
 
 69 
 
 78 
 
 87 
 
 96 
 
 108 
 
 120 
 
 I29 
 
 141 
 
 150 
 
 158 
 
 168 
 
 184 
 
 I92 
 
 20I 
 
 214 
 
 227 
 
 244 
 
Shacklett 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIII.— The door of Hades 255 
 
 XXIV. — The breaking dp of the ice 269 
 XXV. — The swinging of the pendulum . . .291 
 
 XXVI. — The gods and kismet 307 
 
 XXVII. — The intangible force 319 
 
 XXVIII. — A FAILURE OF FINESSE 331 
 
 XXIX. — Viewing both sides 341 
 
 XXX. — In the crater 351 
 
 XXXI. — The return to the type .... 365 
 
 XXXII. — A fin de siecle knight .... 380 
 
 Vlll 
 
SHACKLETT 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 PIVOTAL HEREDITY 
 
 " He's a perfect devil — ain't he, Samuel?" 
 said a man wearing an old, light-blue overcoat 
 and a black, soft hat which seemed almost as 
 old as the coat. 
 
 " Yep," answered Sheriff Shacklett, " and 
 the devil is ginerally thataway; he's purty hard 
 to put away from you and git rid of. If I hadn't 
 mastered that devil he'd 'a' done me up. Come 
 purty nigh doin' it, too. The devil comes nigh 
 gitting me lots o' times, Joe, and I'm a won- 
 derin' whether he won't git me yit; it's a close 
 shave plenty o' times." And both men laughed. 
 
 Sheriff Shacklett started home to supper, 
 after a desperate fight caused by his attempt to 
 put one of the Richards boys in jail against the 
 will of the person whom the warrant called " the 
 said T. R. Richards." The sheriff came off victor 
 and the devil was caged, but the sheriff was 
 perfectly sure that there would be other devils 
 to put away securely coming into his life fre- 
 
 i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 quently as long as his term should last. As he 
 walked along he mused to himself: 
 
 " That's a fact; it's my business to keep the 
 devil on the other side of the bars from me, but 
 I wouldn't do it very often if I didn't call on 
 mother fer help. It's kinder queer, but I kin 
 handle 'most any man and lock him up without 
 help, but I'm damned if I kin keep the devil from 
 gitting me by myself — an' I'm damned if he gits 
 me." And the man laughed to himself at his 
 witticism. " There's not the least chance but 
 I'd be behind the bars myself fer sompun er other 
 if it warn't fer Martha. It's in me, and how I've 
 kept it from comin' out I 'low I don't see — 
 reckon I haven't, for that matter; it's Martha 
 that's laid out the devil with a billy when he's 
 about to git me. If us two are one, I 'low her 
 part keeps my part from doin' devilment purty 
 often. We make a queer mix-up, don't we? 
 I'm bad as all hell, and she's good as a preacher — 
 better'n some preachers. Now if both o' us was 
 actually in one body an' mind, it 'ud make a 
 queer customer that I'd ruther like to see." 
 
 It was some years later that these warring 
 elements for good and bad brought on a conflict 
 that had something to do with the policy of the 
 United States in important matters; by that 
 time Sheriff Shacklett and his wife both had 
 entered upon the mysteries of the lethal life 
 beyond the unkempt graves with their white, 
 
Pivotal Heredity 
 
 rectangular headstones. Some people consider 
 the character they left behind on earth in 
 their son Noel about as great a mystery as 
 the unknown future could possibly contain. 
 When this son was a middle-aged man, a 
 notorious politician said Noel Shacklett was 
 the reincarnation of the devil, and a min- 
 ister of the orthodox faith said the son of 
 Samuel and Martha Shacklett had proven his 
 right to eternal salvation. The solution of such 
 a conflict of opinion must come to every man 
 for himself; and, leaving the answer to ethical 
 questions to those who read the story to the 
 end, the only thing to be predicated here is that 
 Noel Shacklett came honestly by his character, 
 whether he did or did not ever come honestly by 
 anything else. He was the son of his father and 
 his mother, and his father always said that his 
 mother prevented many a fatal last step into a 
 deep hole reputed to be without a bottom. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 DOWN IN EGYPT 
 
 The place through which the sheriff and the 
 townspeople walked was a town, because in Illi- 
 nois, by virtue of the statute made and provided, 
 a village is larger than a town, and there is no 
 municipality that is smaller. It was the county 
 seat, and had two streets, in fact, and a number 
 that nobody ever counted, in law. The two 
 streets which were thoroughfares, fenced on 
 each side, lined with houses, cut into deep ruts 
 in the spring, impassably rough in the winter, 
 and apoplectically dusty in the summer, were 
 the State road and the road to the depot. 
 
 The houses were one story high, and each 
 had a door in the middle of the front with a 
 window on either side — except the house of the 
 doctor, which palatial residence had two win- 
 dows on each side the door and three rooms in 
 the front of the house. Each house stood only 
 five feet back of the front fence, made of hori- 
 zontal boards or else pickets split out of butts 
 of trees. Just outside the front fence was the 
 
 4 
 
Down in Egypt 
 
 board sidewalk, narrow and often completely 
 covered with the debris of municipal life. Be- 
 tween the sidewalk and the wagon tracks in the 
 street each house had a pile of chips in various 
 stages of decomposition, in layers representing 
 annual accretions due to the absence of wood- 
 saws and the universal custom of cutting the 
 pole-wood into stove lengths with axes. The 
 wood was brought from the bottoms in lengths 
 of twenty feet and piled almost as high as the 
 house in the autumn, until the passer-by seemed 
 to be traveling between breastworks on either 
 side with openings for artillery corresponding 
 to the division fences between lots. Some years 
 after Noel Shacklett was born, a fastidious man, 
 who moved to town and had ideas about village 
 improvement, suggested that an ordinance be 
 passed compelling people to remove their wood- 
 piles from the streets; but this idea resulted 
 only in the business of the fastidious man drop- 
 ping off until he found it expedient to move to 
 another town. 
 
 There was the public square, which was the 
 periphery of the figure enclosing the court-house 
 yard. This latter contained the seat of the 
 county government and the jail, around which 
 the most interest in civil government revolved. 
 The public square was in four divisions, two 
 made up of the facades of stores, and two com- 
 posed of residences which differed from all the 
 
 5 
 
Shacklett 
 
 others in that there were no wood-piles in front 
 of the gates. The stores were in one-story 
 buildings, except the two principal ones, which 
 had the magnificence of up-stairs rooms let to 
 lawyers — and there were almost as many lawyers 
 as storekeepers in the town. The streets around 
 the public square were as muddy in the spring and 
 as dusty in the summer as was the main street, 
 which carried the most of the residences like 
 panniers. The mud was that clay which is just 
 enough like mortar to make good daubing for 
 the chinks in log houses, and to make the pas- 
 sage of vehicles impossible when the frost went 
 out of the ground. The beginning of spring 
 was always counted there from the frost going 
 out of the ground, for the isotherms make a 
 long curve to the north from East Tennessee 
 up through southern Illinois and then back 
 again to their own proper latitude in Arkansas. 
 So the climate was of the Southland, and the 
 people were coordinate with the climate. 
 
 Many of them had come from the South; 
 the rest had immigrated from Perry County, 
 Ohio; and then there was the small excrescence 
 of Ohio folks — for the people from Perry Coun- 
 ty made a distinct aristocracy above those from 
 Ohio, in the native colloquialism; the people 
 from Ohio were a few families who had followed 
 a blind fate from the Miami Valley and were 
 iconoclasts in their new home to the extreme of 
 
 6 
 
Down in Egypt 
 
 using fertilizers on the wheat land, and eating 
 bread. Old women, and young men old enough 
 to vote, considered it a remarkable experience to 
 eat with the Ohio folks and taste bread for the 
 first time after a life spent in making and eating 
 hot biscuits three times a day. But such inno- 
 vations did not add to the popularity of the 
 Ohio folks in the minds of the people from 
 Perry County and Kentucky. 
 
 Thirty years after, there was a war in another 
 continent, because a satisfied people objected to 
 the innovations of a people who thought them- 
 selves more advanced. The same war was 
 waged in another way for twenty years in Davis 
 County, 111.; and when the radicals won, a dec- 
 ade ago, the country sprang up like the black- 
 berry-bushes which hid all its fences, and bore 
 luscious fruit of schools, turnpikes, electric 
 lights, and a new court-house, almost in a day. 
 
 But it was long before that when old Sammy 
 Shacklett, who had been sheriff for five terms, 
 died. Then the people were simple in their 
 ideas and satisfied with their lives. The old 
 women smoked on one side of the fireplaces, the 
 old men on the other side, through the winter 
 evenings; there was not a buggy in the county 
 except one owned by the rich miller; on gala 
 occasions, the Fourth of July, and the week of 
 the county fair, families went to town in farm 
 wagons with spring seats and green wagon-beds 
 
 7 
 
Shacklett 
 
 that made a Pullman pale in the intricacies of 
 decoration. The women and children picked 
 blackberries, and dried peaches in the sun in 
 summer; the men went to town, court week in 
 February and August, and then the court-house 
 yard was the clearing-house for the whole coun- 
 ty, and for all sorts of transactions from trad- 
 ing farms to gossip. 
 
 The young people quit school as soon 
 as they grew large enough to do much work 
 at home; and apple cuttings in the summer and 
 parties in the winter furnished amusement and 
 opportunities for courtship. The parties were 
 monotonously alike and always new, for each 
 was a continual succession of games in which 
 kisses were as plentiful as revolutions in the 
 waltzes are plentiful at a society ball else- 
 where and in another age. Weevilly Wheat 
 was the favorite game, for it afforded the great- 
 est opportunity for kisses — and it must be said 
 in justice that some noted modern exponents of 
 the art of kissing on the stage and in the kineto- 
 scopes could learn something from those young 
 people into whose circle of life Noel Shacklett 
 was born — a circle with a short radius, yet 
 enclosing much to be had nowhere else. 
 
 Of course kisses make trouble, and there was 
 trouble there often enough. It began with the 
 weakening of diplomatic relations between 
 two young men; advanced to the stage of un- 
 
Down in Egypt 
 
 friendly remarks; went on to the casus belli; 
 reached the point of the ultimatum; and finally 
 attained to actual hostilities. The fighting 
 was not always short, and sometimes not furious. 
 Generally, it began with a blow from a muscular 
 arm against a head that was immovable on a 
 strong neck and shoulders; then there was the 
 cyclonic mix-up; many times the moonlight 
 glinted from the polished brass knuckles or the, 
 flashing, long-bladed pocket-knife; less often 
 there was the awkward and slow drawing of a 
 revolver out of repair, which sometimes went off 
 when the barrel was in line with the adversary, 
 but in most instances was taken away from 
 its owner by one of his friends before the car- 
 tridge was exploded. In any event the victor 
 got the spoils — the right to sit up until mid- 
 night or an hour later on Sunday night with 
 the girl who caused it all; and the vanquished 
 knew when he was suppressed, and sought the 
 smiles of another girl who was " going with " a 
 fellow he himself could whip. 
 
 The conversation among the women was 
 gossip; the talk of the men was about farm work, 
 local politics, and the intricate relationships 
 which resulted from intermarriages and fixed 
 boundaries of intercourse. Business was done 
 upon the basis of caveat emptor, and the minis- 
 ter did not hesitate to say at the dinner-table 
 that he did not think it a sin to lie in a horse 
 
Shacklett 
 
 trade, for the man on the other side the horse 
 was not deceived and the owner of the horse 
 knew he would not be fooled. All their phi- 
 losophy and ethics was as simple as this. Caveat 
 emptor, and " Thus far shalt thou go," set the pace 
 and the limits of their morals — and the " Thus 
 far " line was drawn where fraud shades into 
 larceny and where assault with intent to kill is 
 divided from homicide. On the inside of this 
 line of demarcation success was chivalrously ap- 
 plauded; on its farther side it was only a contest 
 between the prosecuting attorney and the law- 
 yer for the defense, in which the people took the, 
 same interest that below the Rio Grande was 
 given to bull-fights. 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 IN THE BOTTOMS 
 
 In this civic atmosphere Samuel Shacklett 
 was very successful; and into this environment 
 his son, Noel Shacklett, was born just in time to 
 report his arrival before the departure of the 
 father for the cemetery, situated where the river 
 bank was highest. Noel was too young when 
 his father died to inherit at once the regard 
 given his father by all the people of the county, 
 or he should have become the candidate for his 
 late parent's office of sheriff. As it was, those 
 who regarded old Sammy Shacklett highest had 
 formed other attachments before Noel was old 
 enough to become a factor in politics. The civil 
 war had intervened, and while the population 
 and characteristics were the same, the people 
 were of a new generation by that time. 
 
 When he started to school, he wrote his 
 name in all his books, Noel Clarkson Shacklett, 
 because Clarkson was his mother's birth-name, 
 and he felt that she belonged to him more than 
 did the father whom he could remember only 
 with an effort. 
 
 ii 
 
Shacklett 
 
 One morning he and Bob Pollard reached 
 the schoolhouse early. They coaxed the coals 
 in the big box stove into a little flame, and nour- 
 ished the flame with splinters into a stalwartness 
 that made it attack the big sticks of wood. 
 Then they looked around for something to oc- 
 cupy their youthful energies until the roaring 
 stove should keep enough of its heat from escap- 
 ing up the chimney to throw some warmth out 
 into the room. Noel took his knife with which 
 he had been cutting splinters, and at the same 
 moment his eye caught a particularly long stick 
 of wood cut with a square end. He set the 
 wood on end by a window and mounted it by a 
 desk. He could just reach the top of the win- 
 dow-casing, and could hold himself there by 
 grasping the cross-hatch of the sash with the 
 fingers of his right hand. Laboriously he 
 reached up with his left hand and cut in the 
 hard, oaken board at the top of the window- 
 casing: 
 
 NOE1 cLARkSoN SHAckLETT. 
 
 Bob Pollard, not to be outdone in evil work, 
 took his own knife and looked around. The 
 teacher's table was a new one of poplar wood, 
 soft and clean, and into the top he quickly 
 cut the name of the schoolhouse: 
 
 CoRNBREAD SCHooL. 
 
 12 
 
In the Bottoms 
 
 The teacher was a husky farmer who taught 
 school for the same reason that his pupils at- 
 tended it — because there was no work to do on 
 the farm in winter. As he glanced up in anger 
 after seeing the carving on his table, he saw 
 the name cut into the window-casing. It stood 
 out in bright, yellowish brown on the painted 
 background of drab. In another instant he had 
 Noel by the neck-band of the coat and had 
 jerked the boy up on the platform. 
 
 " I'm going to lick you for cutting my desk 
 and that window," he said with illy suppressed 
 anger. " Bob Pollard, bring me the biggest 
 stick from the corner. It was a mean trick, and 
 it wasn't even smart, for you put your name 
 where I couldn't help seeing it. And after you 
 cut your name on the window, you cut my desk 
 to call my special attention to it, did you? " 
 
 Bob Pollard walked over to the corner of 
 the room where the collection of lithe, hazel 
 whips were leaning. He cast one quick glance 
 at Noel Shacklett, wondering whether that 
 partner in crime would tell the truth and impli- 
 cate him. In walking to the whips, he selected 
 one that was large in diameter, but had in its 
 middle an almost invisible split; it would break 
 off short at the split, probably, as soon as put 
 into energetic action, and that caused its selec- 
 tion — for Bob Pollard felt that he was selecting 
 a rod for his own punishment as soon as Noel 
 
 13 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett came to his senses and told the whole 
 story. 
 
 Noel stood looking at his heavy boots with- 
 out a word. The teacher turned him around 
 into convenient position and laid on the blows 
 heavily and dustily. The stick did not break, 
 and Bob Pollard felt sorry for Noel — and won- 
 dered how soon he would cry out that he did 
 not cut the desk. But Noel went back to his 
 seat after the whipping without a sound. 
 
 " I thought you'd tell," said Bob Pollard in 
 the privacy of a fence corner up the road at the 
 noon hour. 
 
 "What's the use?" replied Noel; "I 
 wouldn't 'a' got licked any less, an' you'd 'a' 
 got licked harder. What-chu done wasn't much 
 nohow. I've got my name up higher 'an any- 
 body else, an' I cut it with my left hand, too. 
 I reckon it'll stay there, an' when I'm a man, an' 
 mebby a director, I'll look at it an' there won't 
 be no name cut no higher, an' I'll know I cut 
 it with my left hand instid o' my right, like 
 other boys." 
 
 " You're allers doin' things different," com- 
 mented Bob Pollard, " an' most o' us 'ud 'a' 
 told the teacher." 
 
 " I'm a-goin' to tell mother all about it," said 
 
 Noel, as he walked out of the corner of the 
 
 fence toward the schoolhouse, " but I'd hate 
 
 to tell her I got another boy licked jest 'cause 
 
 14 
 
In the Bottoms 
 
 I could. She'll be sorry I cut at all, but she'll 
 be glad I didn't tattle on you. Some folks says 
 I'm like pap, an' some says I'm like mother. I 
 reckon pap useter do things, but mother's good 
 as they make 'em." 
 
 He had the respect of his own generation 
 because of his strength and perseverance in 
 friendship, two qualities reckoned the highest 
 in the account-books of character kept in that 
 community. He worked hard on the farm his 
 mother obtained in exchange for the town prop- 
 erty left by her husband; and he was not to be 
 outdone in the rugged sports .of the winter 
 nights. He was seventeen years old when he 
 gained still higher reputation by recovering 
 from injuries sustained in a coon hunt that the 
 old botanic doctor said ought to have killed 
 him. Victory in any kind of a contest was appre- 
 ciated by these people, and a victory over death 
 was the winning of a sweepstakes prize of 
 laurel. 
 
 The plans for the coon hunt were made at 
 noon at school while the pupils ate their dinners 
 from baskets which were set upon the desk-tops. 
 As soon as the stock-feeding was done that 
 evening the boys started for the bottoms and 
 met soon after at the creek. 
 
 " Who-e-O-e-O-e-O-o!" rang out the ca- 
 dence over forty acres of corn and ten of mead- 
 ow to pierce the forest of oak and elm. Again 
 
 IS 
 
Shacklett 
 
 it came from another direction and more faintly. 
 From all directions but the one shut off by the 
 bottom woods it came at intervals, as each boy 
 announced his coming and distance at the mo- 
 ment from the rendezvous. When all reached 
 the creek, there were seven boys and three dogs; 
 the dogs would be rated as curs in a bench show, 
 but each had a reputation to sustain as a coon 
 dog — and that meant having the same hardy 
 and appreciated qualities as had its owner. 
 
 The bottoms were five miles wide and as 
 long as the river, which meant almost as long 
 as the State, for Illinois rivers, though few, are 
 almost interminably long in ratio to their sizes 
 at the mouths. Deep into the forest went the 
 boys, the dogs scouting ahead, behind, and on 
 the flanks of the advance. After a tramp 
 through brush and over logs for half an hour, 
 one of the dogs was heard barking off to the 
 right. The boys started to follow the dog. 
 
 Noel Shacklett was in the lead and thrashed 
 through the underbrush at a great rate, dodging 
 around this young tree and pressing that sap- 
 ling to one side, bearing down and straddling 
 bushes with trunks as large as a broomstick; 
 taking one fallen tree at a bound, and touching 
 another log with one foot as he sprang over it. 
 At his right was one of the Fletcher boys, and 
 behind him came the others trailing in a zigzag 
 line, with awkward Joe Bergman in the rear. 
 16 
 
In the Bottoms 
 
 Nothing was said, for there was nothing to do 
 but follow the dog, which was chasing a coon 
 and at intervals barking loud enough to make 
 the very tree-tops quiver. Suddenly Bergman 
 gave a whoop and excitedly called: 
 
 "Here's another 'un! here's another 'un! 
 Bring the ax! " 
 
 Just then the dog tacked to the right, and 
 Noel Shacklett yelled: " Keep a-goin', Fletcher; 
 I'll stay with this 'un! " The rest of the hunters 
 turned and followed Fletcher, while Shacklett 
 ran back to where Bergman was guarding a tree 
 not much larger than his own thigh. 
 
 " Go on and bring back a dog," said Shack- 
 lett, " and I'll watch him till you git back. 
 Don't want no ax; we kin shake him out." 
 
 Soon after Bergman left, Shacklett's own 
 dog came prowling through the underbrush on 
 the track of the coon that Shacklett already had 
 treed, and the young fellow saw no use to wait 
 longer for companions or dogs, especially as 
 both had gone out of hearing — which meant at 
 least a mile. 
 
 Young Shacklett climbed the tree to shake 
 down the coon. This operation, which always 
 was stoutly resisted by the coon, was in theory 
 as simple as creeping out on a limb and shaking 
 it so hard that the coon's hold was loosened. 
 This time, in practice, it meant being on the 
 same limb and solving the problem of which 
 
 17 
 
Shacklett 
 
 would be compelled to let go first. Noel found 
 there was no higher limb for his hands, and hung 
 on to the one occupied by the coon much after 
 the fashion of that animal. With his heavier 
 weight the boy shook the limb until his arms, 
 back, and legs ached. Below, he saw the dog, 
 with head elevated, waiting impatiently for the 
 coon to come tumbling down through the air, 
 which would put him into immediate action. 
 At last the coon fell; the instant it hit 
 the ground there was a whirlwind of an irregular 
 black mass in the semidarkness, that moved 
 across the open, ricochetted from a bush, re- 
 bounded from a log, rose in the air in a swirl of 
 sound — swist — owk-sssssstch-ou-ou-ou-oul- 
 ssssst-sst-ouk — and seemed to burrow into the 
 frozen earth as it went under a pile of leaves 
 that rose like a summer whirlwind in the woods. 
 Noel was hurrying down to help the dog, 
 and crept out on the bottom limb of the tree. 
 He swung off, with his arms over it, intending 
 to drop the ten feet as a quicker way of getting 
 down than to slide down the trunk, and waited 
 an instant for his pendulum body to stop vibra- 
 ting and settle below. Just then the limb broke 
 at its end next the tree, weakened by decay; and 
 when he got his breath back, Noel found that 
 it pinned him to the ground by the legs, and 
 that the only arm which could reach it was 
 queerly useless and very painful. 
 18 
 
In the Bottoms 
 
 It was bitterly cold, for the thermometer 
 was only about twenty degrees above zero, and 
 that was the cold that froze people to death 
 down there faster than that many degrees below 
 zero did up by the Wisconsin line. It was a 
 weary wait for Bergman to bring back the other 
 boys, for they missed the place by a mile and 
 a half in their search after their own coon had 
 escaped. Noel soon began to shiver, and then 
 his legs became warm. The useless arm hurt 
 so much that he ground his teeth into the bark 
 of a bush at his head, and then the pain grad- 
 ually left. He felt quite comfortable after 
 awhile and went to sleep, but the dog waked 
 him out of a doze by scrambling over his body 
 to the dead coon, which, by a change of light 
 from the rising moon, seemed to move. Noel 
 wondered how long it would take to find him 
 next day, and his calculations made it require 
 too long. He called the dog to him and patted 
 its head with his uninjured arm, and discovered 
 that the fingers were stiff. He caught the end 
 of the yarn mitten in the dog's teeth, and when 
 he pulled out his hand some of the skin re- 
 mained in the mitten. The dog licked the mit- 
 ten, and Noel took a slight interest in watching 
 the warmth of the dog's tongue bring out some 
 blood which soaked through to the outside. 
 
 "Go home!" he said, and went to sleep 
 again. 
 
 19 
 
Shacklett 
 
 On the way home the dog reached the Berg- 
 man place just as young Bergman was climbing 
 over the worm fence at the broken rail which 
 served instead of a gate. The bloody mitten 
 aroused the family, and the dog guided them 
 back to Noel, pinned down with both legs 
 bruised, one arm broken and the other frozen, 
 and barely able to be aroused by the torture in- 
 volved in the methods of carrying him to the 
 house. 
 
 Young Bergman's father went to town for 
 the doctor. By the time he arrived there over 
 the swollen creek with an inch of ice on it, and 
 the doctor reached the patient, Noel was doing 
 very well. The doctor set the broken arm, but 
 long before that the Bergmans had thawed out 
 the frozen limbs with snow so carefully that upon 
 Noel's recovery the doctor got much credit 
 which belonged to them. The accident made 
 Noel the subject of all the conversation for a 
 week; the manner in which he bore his suffering 
 fixed his reputation for grit; and the fact that 
 he got well after it all made him the most popu- 
 lar young fellow in the township for a year or 
 two. Even the dog gained, for while its repu- 
 tation as a coon dog was high before, it now had 
 new honors. 
 
 " That dog's got as much sense as a man," 
 was remarked a hundred times that winter in 
 a hundred places. It was a shaggy dog, with 
 20 
 
In the Bottoms 
 
 a spot in the side that made it exceptionally 
 cur-looking, but it had saved Noel Shacklett's 
 life, and — well, if Shacklett had not had as much 
 sense as the dog, he later would have had a dog 
 couchant with a mitten in its mouth for a coat 
 of arms ; but the reason for that nobody but him- 
 self ever knew. 
 
 21 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 FOLLOWING HIS FATHER 
 
 The week after Noel became of legal age 
 he attended the township convention of his 
 party which selected delegates to the county 
 convention. The Sugar Creek township con- 
 vention was held in the schoolhouse, and the 
 attendance was large, because the township had 
 a candidate for county treasurer — that is to say, 
 there were almost a score of men in the room. 
 The formality was of that adamantine kind that 
 is found only when a number of near neighbors 
 of Southern ancestry meet for a business pur- 
 pose. The township member of the county 
 committee called the meeting to order, and as 
 soon as he had stated the object of the meeting, 
 his nearest neighbor arose and in an orotund 
 tone said: 
 
 " I make a motion that Mart Saunders be 
 chairman." 
 
 Mart Saunders was always chairman of these 
 meetings, and almost always was nominated by 
 the same neighbor. As soon as he had taken 
 22 
 
Following his Father 
 
 the seat by the teacher's desk, the man whose 
 perpetual part it was to do so arose to his 
 feet and slowly and with much impressiveness 
 said: 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, I move you, sir, that the 
 chair appoint a committee of three to select 
 delegates." 
 
 The man who offered this simple motion 
 did so because he was the township boss — or 
 the equivalent of a boss in that primitive state 
 of politics — and he was this boss because he 
 always made this motion. It put him on 
 the committee to select delegates, and that 
 gave him control of that delegation, which in 
 its after results made him the important person- 
 age who was expected to make so important 
 a motion the next time. It was delightful in its 
 circular simplicity; but in the aggregate of the 
 townships it had some important results in the 
 county, including several embezzlements and 
 the determination of the strata of a later aris- 
 tocracy. 
 
 The chairman appointed Noel Shacklett as 
 another member of the committee, because the 
 speaking of the name of Sugar Creek township 
 made him think of Noel's accident. The com- 
 mittee soon brought in its report, for out of the 
 fifteen delegates to which the township was en- 
 titled, twelve had already been selected and 
 handed to the boss by Dickinson, the candidate 
 
 23 
 
Shacklett 
 
 for treasurer, and the other three were the com- 
 mittee which the uninitiated supposed selected 
 the entire list. The end of it was that Noel 
 Shacklett attended the county convention ten 
 days later, and in the interim was visited by 
 every candidate for nomination for county office 
 from one end of the ticket to the other. In 
 fact, as he rode to town to the symposium of 
 his party in Davis County, he felt a little impor- 
 tant; and with this feeling came a sense of power 
 and ability to accomplish things which was un- 
 usual as a concrete feeling — although it was an 
 important characteristic of his father, the old- 
 time sheriff. 
 
 All interest centered in the convention at the 
 court-house that day. The county seat had that 
 air of being a prosperous town which came to it 
 but four times in the year — when circuit court 
 met in February and in August, and when the 
 county conventions assembled in June. 
 
 Nobody knew or cared about the delegations 
 to the State and congressional conventions. 
 Those names had been chosen on the night be- 
 fore in the office of Doc Watson, and just before 
 the convention adjourned would be brought in 
 on a slip of paper by a committee appointed by 
 the chairman, on motion of the man from Pleas- 
 ant Ridge township, who got his turn in the 
 center of the stage a brief moment for this pur- 
 pose. 
 
 24 
 
Following his Father 
 
 But the nomination of a county treasurer, 
 sheriff, and superintendent of schools was a mat- 
 ter that had been the talk of all the people for 
 weeks. Each candidate for a place on the ticket 
 had driven over all the townships to the farm- 
 houses by day, and had slipped out on secret 
 expeditions at night to unholy councils with the 
 men who set up the delegations from the out- 
 lying precincts. One was a good fellow whose 
 barn had burned just after he had to pay three 
 hundred dollars as security on a note, and he 
 needed the place; another had been school di- 
 rector, road supervisor, and county commissioner 
 in turn, and had demonstrated his extraordinary 
 power to attract the votes of the opposition 
 party ; one of the rest had held the office for four 
 terms, and it was impertinent for a little whip- 
 per-snapper school-teacher to try to dislodge 
 him from his place after he had given the best 
 years of his life to the service of his fellow-cit- 
 izens. 
 
 In the court-room, on the second floor, the 
 wooden benches were partly filled with dele- 
 gates, who felt somewhat overcome by the im- 
 portance of their first official attendance at a 
 county convention; and around the walls and 
 sauntering through the aisles were the delegates 
 who had been there before and composed the 
 sophomore class in that school of politics. Up 
 in front, around the bench and desks of the clerk 
 3 25 
 
Shacklett 
 
 and sheriff, were the men who managed the 
 whole affair surely but unobtrusively. 
 
 The tramp of feet was heard on the stairs 
 outside, and fifty men pushed their way into 
 the room and filled it to the walls. There was 
 a noisy changing of seats as each delegation 
 grouped itself together, each township in the 
 portion of the room which had been allotted to 
 it by precedent for thirty years. The chairman 
 of the county central committee was well up 
 behind the judge's desk, and stood patiently 
 waiting for the comparative silence that came 
 after two or three minutes. He used his most 
 orotund voice as he said: 
 
 " Gentlemen, the convention will please 
 come to order. What is your pleasure? " 
 
 The county committee chairman always used 
 these identical words on such occasions, just as 
 he always said, " No, I don't wish for any," in 
 declining the butter at the hotel dinner-table. 
 
 About two thirds of the way back, on the 
 right-hand side, sat the delegation of fifteen 
 from Sugar Creek township. They were there 
 to nominate Dickinson for treasurer, and how 
 they would vote for the candidates for other 
 offices depended entirely upon the exigencies of 
 the situation at the moment. Next the aisle 
 was their chairman, Noel Shacklett, who had 
 been doing some confidential work for Dick- 
 inson, but had not been trusted with anything 
 26 
 
Following his Father 
 
 of supreme importance. Something in his eye 
 attracted the attention of Fletcher, the prom- 
 inent lawyer from the next county, who sat 
 inside the railing in front; and the attorney, 
 whose success depended much on juries and the 
 characters of the men who might compose them, 
 asked his neighbor who was the man at the end 
 of the Sugar Creek delegation. 
 
 "That's Noel Shacklett. He's the son of 
 old Sammy Shacklett that used to live on Bo- 
 gard prairie. He's a good fellow, and every- 
 body likes him. He'll be up for sumpun some 
 o' these days, but I dunno if he'll be very strong 
 or not. We're talkin' some o' havin' him run 
 for town clerk next spring to see how he'll pull 
 votes. He's been livin' here ever since he was 
 born. He's not very smart, but he's sharp, an' 
 he's like the ole man in never goin' back on a 
 friend. There's nuthin' stuck-up about him, and 
 I reckon he'll run all right. He's runnin' the 
 farm for his mother now, an' he gets some new- 
 fangled idears in his head once and a while. Jest 
 now he's foolin' with some racket about havin' 
 one crop toiler anuther in ro-ta-tion." 
 
 There were three men who wanted the nom- 
 ination for sheriff, and neither was able to get 
 a majority of the convention in the beginning. 
 The secretary at the desk of the clerk of the 
 court sonorously called each township in turn, 
 and the chairmen of the delegations replied as 
 2; 
 
Shacklett 
 
 loudly as the importance of their action de- 
 served. 
 
 " Flatrock," called the secretary. 
 
 " Flatrock: eight for Lawson, nine for Berg- 
 man, two for Gillespie," came from the little 
 man with a squeaky voice back in the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 And so on down the list alphabetically to the 
 last: 
 
 " Sugar Creek." 
 
 " Sugar Creek : five for Lawson, five for 
 Bergman, five for Gillespie," in a voice with a 
 slight rasp, but clear and distinct enough to be 
 heard over any commotion. 
 
 Then an interval of ten minutes while the 
 secretary, assisted by the teacher in the Frogeye 
 district, laboriously added the figures twice and 
 announced the result with no nomination. It 
 was evident that Gillespie had the balance of 
 power without the ability to realize upon it, and 
 that Sugar Creek was determined to treat the 
 candidates impartially until a treasurer was nom- 
 inated, at least. 
 
 Between the fourth and fifth ballots a 
 shaggy dog gave a yelp, and all eyes followed 
 his rapid retreat into safety outside. That dog 
 nominated Bergman, though nobody ever knew 
 it except Shacklett himself. 
 
 The dog had a black spot on its side, and that 
 recalled to young Shacklett an incident of his 
 28 
 
Following his Father 
 
 earlier days. He had then a coon-dog with a 
 spot on its side, and it was with him the night 
 the big limb caught him in the river bottoms. 
 With Shacklett's bloody mitten in its mouth the 
 dog had gone to Bergman's house, and what 
 Shacklett remembered now was that Bergman 
 had drowned his horse on the way home from 
 town with a doctor. 
 
 There was a gleam in the young fellow's 
 eye that nobody but his mother had ever seen 
 there before. 
 
 Down the roll the secretary was traveling 
 again like a lumbering stage-coach, with many 
 breakdowns, and nobody was paying much at- 
 tention to the vote. There was a little straight- 
 ening in seats when Goodhope township 
 changed four votes from Lawson to Bergman, 
 but everybody knew that the latter needed three 
 more in addition to succeed, and that Goodhope 
 was only relieving the monotony in a spirit of 
 benevolent good nature. But the young fellow 
 at the head of the Sugar Creek delegation 
 slipped behind the benches on which it sat, first 
 the front row and then the next bench back, and 
 whispered quickly and casually to each. Some 
 from all parts of the room looked at him curi- 
 ously, but the careless expression on his face re- 
 assured them, and the talk went on as it was seen 
 that there was no indication of change in the 
 poll of the township delegation. 
 29 
 
Shacklett 
 
 In the general conversation nobody heard 
 the secretary call Sugar Creek, and they could 
 not believe their ears when the keen, rasping 
 voice replied, somewhat more languidly than be- 
 fore: 
 
 "Sugar Creek: four for Lawson, eight for 
 Bergman, three for Gillespie." 
 
 Bergman's friends started a cheer that lasted 
 for several minutes. 
 
 Dickinson, with a red face, forcibly pushed 
 his way toward his home delegation, but he met 
 young Shacklett well down the aisle. The 
 young farmer spoke first: 
 
 " I know it was a dirty trick, but what could 
 I do? The men that changed have it in for you 
 hard for some reason or other, and swore that 
 if I tried any monkey business they'd butcher 
 me. They said, too, that if I ever told who 
 they are they'd lay for me. I'll tell you that, 
 though, later on the quiet. But I can't do it 
 now. Don't go back there or they'll hit you 
 worse yet. Tell Lawson and Gillespie you've 
 been sold out, and act as mad as you please be- 
 fore them. But let our crowd alone if you want 
 to stand any show at all." 
 
 Dickinson took the advice, and was so genu- 
 inely furious that Lawson and Gillespie forgave 
 him, and he got his own nomination on the 
 second ballot when treasurer was reached. 
 Two days later Shacklett gave him the names 
 30 
 
Following his Father 
 
 of the alleged recreant delegates, in the strictest 
 confidence and only after he had solemnly prom- 
 ised to let the whole thing drop. 
 
 Up within the bar, Lawyer Fletcher, who 
 had asked about Shacklett, at first looked 
 amazed and then smiled to himself. Then he 
 kept his eyes on young Shacklett for full fifteen 
 minutes; he turned to his neighbor again, and 
 remarked in the penetrating low tone which he 
 was accustomed to use in court-room consul- 
 tations: 
 
 " That Noel Shacklett seems kinder bash- 
 ful, but when he does run he'll get there all 
 right." 
 
 After the convention had adjourned and 
 the crowd had come down to the square, 
 Fletcher detained Shacklett a moment and 
 asked him when he was going home. The 
 young politician from Sugar Creek had to wait 
 until his grist was done, he said, and Fletcher 
 took him familiarly by the arm and walked up 
 the sidewalk with him where there were no pe- 
 destrians, but in full view of the many people 
 on the other side of the street. 
 
 " You're one of the coming men of this 
 county," he said, " and I want to be one of the 
 first to take you up, for, I'm honest enough to 
 say, you'll be useful to your friends later on, and 
 before long. You ought to run for county 
 clerk next time. You can make it all right. 
 
 3i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 I'll promise to have my friends for you, and I'll 
 see that the church is for you all right. You'll 
 have to pay a little attention to some of the 
 men that run things, but you can do that easy 
 enough. Now, there's old Uncle Tommy Ruth- 
 erford; he can throw two or three townships to 
 you, and I'm going to speak to him about you. 
 Don't lose an opportunity to do him a favor, 
 and when I come down to court come in and 
 see me. I don't often take up with young fel- 
 lows as I've done with you, but the delightful 
 way you turned that trick for Bergman was after 
 my own heart. 
 
 " Oh, that's right; stick it out to the bitter 
 end and swear on the gallus that they did it; 
 that's the only way, and you can do it all right. 
 When the racket comes, stick right to it that 
 the three other men are liars, and pick out three 
 that ain't very solid anyhow when it comes to 
 truth and veracity; but don't think for a minute 
 that I don't know all about it. That's what 
 makes me like you." And the lawyer laughed 
 deeply, but not loudly. " That's what makes 
 me know that you're coming up in politics. 
 They're not used to that kind of thing here, 
 and you're ahead of the times. You see, I 
 know all them men on your delegation and 
 know eggsactly what they'll do on a jury. I 
 know they never changed to Bergman, but how 
 they're goin' to find it out in time I don't see. 
 32 
 
Following his Father 
 
 The way you asked each one of them was the 
 best thing I ever saw, and of course everybody 
 thought eight of them said Bergman to you, 
 but I know better. They said Lawson — five of 
 them — and Gillespie — five of them — and it was 
 you that said ' Bergman eight,' and nobody else. 
 Don't say a word — I don't want to talk to you 
 about it — but you get a little stand-in with 
 Uncle Tommy Rutherford and you'll be the 
 next county clerk." And Fletcher left Shack- 
 lett at a corner. 
 
 Shacklett told his mother that night what 
 Fletcher had said about his going after the 
 clerkship, and she was pleased with the castles 
 she built on that foundation. He did not tell 
 her why Fletcher had made him a protege, ex- 
 cept that it was because of the way the chair- 
 man of the Sugar Creek delegation attracted 
 him. 
 
 " I believe I'll try to get to be county clerk," 
 he told her, " and then we won't have to work 
 so hard, and can move to town, and you can 
 have an easy time. With Fletcher and Uncle 
 Tommy Rutherford to start with, I ought to 
 have a good show for the place, it seems to me. 
 You're getting too old to work the way you 
 do, and I want to have you live more comfort- 
 able. I'll jest take good care to keep on good 
 terms with the people that runs things, and 
 who 'knows what may happen? It's a pretty 
 
 33 
 
Shacklett 
 
 big job for me to tackle, but I believe I can 
 make it." 
 
 " I believe you can, Noel," his mother said, 
 with some of the pride left to her as a residuum 
 by a line of Kentucky ancestors. " I know 
 you're as smart as any of them, and I don't see 
 why you shouldn't have it as well as any of 
 them. Start after it right now, but be careful, 
 Noel, how you work for it. Your father was a 
 man of good judgment, and he said it never paid 
 to do things that you had to keep secret, for 
 chickens are sure to come home to roost. So, 
 my boy, I want you to be honorable, whatever 
 you do, and I'd rather work here on the farm 
 the rest of my life than to feel ashamed to hear 
 people talk about you. It'll be awful nice to 
 live in town and not have much work to do, 
 and to think that my boy's a county officer, but 
 I feel that it's my duty to keep you straight 
 first. 
 
 " Your father used to tell me often about 
 fighting the devil when he saw a chance to 
 take a short cut, as he called it. He used to 
 tell me everything, so I could hold him back 
 when he got started wrong. I wish you'd do 
 the same thing, Noel, for you're growing more 
 and more like your father was." 
 
 Noel thought of how Bergman was nomi- 
 nated, but his eyes smiled into hers as he an- 
 swered: 
 
 34 
 
Following his Father 
 
 " If I stay as good a man as father was, or 
 one tenth as good as you are, that'll do, won't 
 it? You mustn't be squeamish in politics, you 
 know; but, mother, I'll promise you that I'll 
 never get myself in the pen when I'm trying to 
 get into office." 
 
 35 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHEN JUSTICE IS BLIND 
 
 August court had been in session three 
 days. In the decade following the civil war the 
 only thing comparable to August court in the 
 county seat was February court. The judge 
 came from the next county on the first Monday 
 in the month, and the trials began the next day. 
 This one was a particularly interesting term on 
 account of the Rutherford murder trial, and the 
 attendance was greater than for years. 
 
 The quarrel had culminated at Raccoon 
 church, and its termination had begun exactly 
 as a hundred fights had started, but it had ended 
 differently from the other ninety-nine. 
 
 There was a protracted meeting which had 
 begun at Watch Night and continued through 
 the month of January, with its end indefinite. 
 The congregations were made up of the elderly 
 and middle-aged church members, and, across a 
 sharp dividing line, the young folks for whom 
 the protracted meeting replaced the theater of 
 their city cousins as a place of amusement. 
 36 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 The girls went in a few groups, and the boys 
 arrived singly and by twos and three on horse- 
 back. The girls by turns giggled and looked 
 down demurely at hymn-books; and the boys 
 did their best to furnish something for the girls 
 to giggle about, unless some genius invented a 
 plan the carrying out of which made a sensation 
 and practically demoralized the meeting. 
 
 After the benediction the boys arranged 
 themselves in two rows leading from the door 
 far out toward the road, and through this lane 
 the girls, and everybody else, walked. The girls 
 always looked straight at the ground thirty 
 paces to the front, as a well-drilled soldier tries 
 to do, and walked rapidly as if running a gant- 
 let ; but that was only the characteristic coquetry 
 of womankind, for each knew very well that she 
 would be captured by a gallant long before she 
 reached the end of the line next the road where 
 the younger boys stood. The girls left the door 
 in groups, each of which formed a phalanx with 
 arms interlocked, and now one never sees a 
 mass play on the gridiron without thinking of 
 those girls. 
 
 Tom Rutherford had not stopped to talk 
 long with the young fellows loafing outside, 
 and had gone into the church soon after the 
 preacher began his sermon. He sat down not 
 far from the door by the middle aisle and kept 
 quiet. His intention was not to disturb the 
 
 37 
 
Shacklett 
 
 meeting, for he had a more important play to 
 make; things had come to the pass that it was a 
 necessity for him to take the particular girl in 
 the case home that night in spite of Sam Bron- 
 son. And that took all of his attention. 
 
 The night before he had lost the inning and 
 he was furious. As the girls had come out of 
 the church, one boy after another had stepped 
 from the opened ranks, and, walking close by the 
 side of his particular girl, had said in her ear, 
 " May I see you home? " The formula never 
 varied for twenty years and two thousand occa- 
 sions. The particular girl had acquiesced by 
 dropping out of the feminine football phalanx 
 and slipping her arm through that of the young 
 fellow whose attentions she was encouraging. 
 
 Young Rutherford was close to the door, hav- 
 ing maneuvered to get a position several places to 
 the good of Sam Bronson, who was scowling in 
 the middle of the line on the other side. When 
 the girl for whom they were rivals came out of 
 the door, she was in the middle of an interlocked 
 group of three, and walked more rapidly than 
 usual, with her eyes straight ahead. Tom Ruth- 
 erford hurried after her and said over her right 
 shoulder, " May I see you home? " The girl 
 hardly seemed to hear, except for a little con- 
 temptuously coquettish toss of the head, and 
 kept on under guard of her two friends. Almost 
 instantly she was opposite Sam Bronson, who 
 38 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 stepped in front of her, compelled her to stop 
 for an instant, said the same words in a low but 
 clear tone, and the next moment was walking 
 with her toward the road, while her two guards 
 closed in to the center, locked arms again, and 
 within the next ten feet were themselves borne 
 apart by the whirlpool of society represented by 
 two rather young boys. 
 
 Tom Rutherford grew crimson, stepped back 
 of the line on his side, muttered a few words, 
 and then went to his horse, which was tied to 
 the hitching-rack a little down the road. Once 
 mounted, he gave a series of whoops, that were 
 followed by whoops from the others who were 
 not walking in the road with their girls — one's 
 girl might be his sweetheart, his friend, or only 
 the feminine creature he saw most of. Tom 
 pulled his horse around and started the party 
 of mounted young fellows in the direction taken 
 by Sam Bronson and the girl who was at the 
 bottom of all the trouble. The pair were over- 
 taken within two hundred yards, and the boys 
 on horses tore past at a lumbering run, yelling 
 like savages and forcing the couple to walk 
 close to the side of the road. Tom kept up the 
 shouting for half a mile — this was the recog- 
 nized code expression of defiance, carelessness, 
 injured pride, and readiness for the next round 
 in the social combat. He turned off toward 
 home at the first cross-road, and by the time 
 
 39 
 
Shacklett 
 
 his horse was stabled he had planned the cam- 
 paign for the next night, which was now at 
 hand, as Tom sat so quietly in church that the 
 members of the quarterly conference felt real 
 hopes that he might be reached. 
 
 The sermon was on resistance to evil, and 
 the preacher was using his artillery against the 
 forces of sin in the audience. He was a man of 
 medium size, with long whiskers, and a strong 
 voice rising and falling in unison with his gyra- 
 ting arms. Tom Rutherford was listening a 
 little for want of something else to do, when 
 a young man with a peculiar chin came in and 
 slid into the seat just behind him. As soon as 
 the preacher had faced the other side of the 
 church this newcomer leaned forward and said 
 in Rutherford's ear: 
 
 " Sam Bronson's outside, and says he'll lick 
 ye if ye take Mollie home. Says he'll take her 
 away from ye, if ye git her fust." 
 
 Tom did not reply, and the other fellow soon 
 walked out again. Three people took special 
 notice of the incident: the preacher, who 
 thought Tom was really too earnestly consider- 
 ing his eternal salvation to make the usual dis- 
 turbance talking to a chum; Mollie, the girl, 
 whose intuition was not far wrong; and one of 
 Bronson's friends outside, who had watched 
 through the window and at once warned Bron- 
 son that Tom intended to fight. 
 40 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 The preacher now aimed all his batteries at 
 Tom, who had decided to stick to his original 
 plan of capturing the girl inside the church in- 
 stead of waiting until she came out — a plan re- 
 markable then and there for its daring origi- 
 nality. The preacher was saying: 
 
 " Fight the good fight and finish the faith! 
 Do not let sin carry you into eternal damnation 
 without resistance; and resist with all your 
 might. Fight sin! Fight it hard, and fight it 
 first; it has you down now, because you have 
 been weak and let it get away with you; rouse 
 yourself and strike it from you; knock off the 
 chains that bind you; force your way out of its 
 clutches that will drag you down into ever- 
 lasting shame and confusion and hell! " 
 
 Tom heard the words without much atten- 
 tion to the idea, for they fit another idea that 
 was slowly forming in his sluggish mind. He 
 would have to fight, and he wanted to fight, 
 Sam Bronson. " Fight him hard, and fight him 
 first," is what the words of the preacher were 
 by the time they penetrated to Tom's cerebral 
 cells. That might not be a bad idea. " He has 
 me down now, because I let him get away with 
 me; get up, and strike him so hard he'll stay 
 away from me; force off his grip on Mollie, and 
 send him into everlasting shame and confu- 
 sion — and hell!" That was the translation of 
 the preacher's words back into an idea that Tom 
 .4 4 1 
 
Shacklett 
 
 accomplished. The preacher kept on, still loud- 
 er and with cyclonic force, as he saw Tom fidget 
 in his seat : 
 
 " Let the Spirit work its way into your heart 
 and cast out the devil. There is room for but 
 one; see that the one is the right one; there is 
 room for only one — for only one — for only one — 
 and the other must go. It is hard to dislodge the 
 devil, but it is easy when once you make up 
 your mind to do it. Do it to-night] do it at once; 
 delays are dangerous, and, oh! how dangerous 
 is the delay that loses what is worth more than 
 money, or crops, or land, or the things of the 
 flesh! Do it NOW!" 
 
 The preacher had been talking with more 
 and more impassioned loudness, and the last word 
 fairly made a tremor in the walls of the building, 
 as it did in the hearts of the leading members 
 of the church, who had punctuated the exhorta- 
 tion liberally with their own ejaculations. The 
 words were boring into Tom's mind, and by the 
 time they got there they were twisted into: 
 
 " Turn myself loose at him and cut out the 
 damned devil. There's room for only one of us 
 around Mollie, and I'm going to see that it's 
 the right one; only one — only one — only one of 
 us can get her, and he's got to go. It's hard to 
 cut him out, but it's easy enough if I just go at it 
 right. I'll do it to-night; I'll do it at once; delays 
 are dangerous, and it's mighty dangerous when 
 42 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 it's about what's worth more to me than the 
 whole farm. I'll do it right NOW! " 
 
 The last word came with such force that its 
 representative idea in Tom's mind lifted him to 
 his feet and carried him out the door before its 
 initial velocity was lost. He had no conscious- 
 ness of the preacher, the sermon, the church, 
 even of Mollie's position in the congregation — 
 no perception whatever, and only the conception 
 of the strategic fact that it were better to whip 
 Sam Bronson before church was out and then 
 take Mollie home, than to whip him after church 
 was out and have Mollie go home by herself 
 while they were fighting. 
 
 Tom Rutherford walked over to where the 
 young fellows were standing looking into the 
 church through the windows; and as he ap- 
 proached, the group slightly and casually re- 
 arranged itself. The young man with the pecul- 
 iar chin quickly slipped around the party so as 
 to be close to Tom, and at the same time an- 
 other fellow with a scar on his upper lip moved 
 over by Bronson and faced Rutherford's 
 " pardner." The others separated slightly, and 
 all faced toward the center, where Bronson 
 stood blowing into his hands to warm them. 
 Rutherford walked into the group, slowly and 
 deliberately and with the force of a locomotive 
 which seems to be too graceful to have much 
 power. 
 
 43 
 
Shacklett 
 
 He walked past Bronson so that their left 
 arms rubbed hard together, swerving not a hair's- 
 breadth, and apparently being destined for the 
 county seat ten miles away. At the contact, 
 Bronson thrust out his crooked elbow into 
 Rutherford's side with considerable force. Tom 
 bore against the pressure, and with a slight turn 
 of his whole body brought his right fist over 
 and down into Bronson's face. Not a word had 
 been spoken by anybody, and not a sound was 
 made until the fight was over. But in Tom's 
 head was ringing, " Only one — only one — 
 only one — see that it's the right one — only 
 one — only one." 
 
 And with the cadence of this refrain the 
 blows were going hard and straight. Neither 
 knew any fistic science, but both knew how to 
 hit hard straight from the shoulder and take 
 what the other gave. Rutherford's partner 
 with the peculiar chin and Bronson's partner with 
 the scarred lip preserved the balance of power 
 against each other, and the rest stood as close 
 as possible to see which was whipping. In ten 
 seconds both Rutherford and Bronson had 
 abandoned boxing and were clutched together, 
 wrestling like savages. Each jabbed the other 
 when opportunity offered, but the tactics were 
 for a fall and then for the upper man to pound 
 the head of the under man at his leisure and to 
 his own satisfaction. Once Bronson had Tom 
 
 44 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 nearly down, but by a tremendous effort Ruth- 
 erford lifted his adversary clear of the ground 
 and would have hurled him to the frozen earth 
 had he not clutched a fence-post. There was 
 little for the others to see, and little advantage 
 on either side apparently. Out into the moon- 
 light they struggled, and back again into the 
 shadow of the church. Bronson tore himself 
 away with such an effort that he nearly fell 
 backward, and in recovering his balance thrust 
 his hand through a window at the height of his 
 head. Rutherford had let go with one hand, 
 and that hand now swung through the air in 
 the trail of a dim, bluish flash of light as it 
 passed above the window-sill. Bronson's knees 
 bent, his arms fell down, his head went forward, 
 and he was a mass of darker shadow on the 
 ground by the time some of the more muscular 
 members of the church militant reached the 
 spot. Tom Rutherford was keeping his hand 
 in his side coat-pocket, and five seconds later 
 was riding at top speed down the road toward 
 home. The next morning he met the sheriff 
 at the edge of the county seat ; and as they rode 
 together between the rows of wood-piles toward 
 the jail, he told the officer that he and Sam 
 were just having a fight, and he didn't know 
 how Sam came to get killed. That was the 
 most he ever said about the occurrence; and 
 when the sheriff found that Tom talked in his 
 45 
 
Shacklett 
 
 sleep, the only words a week's careful listening 
 disclosed were: " Only one — force your way out 
 of its clutches that will drag you down into ever- 
 lasting shame and confusion and hell." 
 
 " Sounds like the preacher when he's ex- 
 hortin'," smiled the sheriff to himself. " Reckon 
 he thinks he's mockin' him at Raccoon church." 
 
 When the court convened and the time of 
 his trial approached, nobody expected young 
 Tom Rutherford to be convicted, but everybody 
 had a lively interest in seeing how he would be 
 acquitted. The family had withstood the in- 
 quisitorial schemes of the community for seven 
 months, and the attorneys looked so excess- 
 ively important and secretive that it was evi- 
 dent that something new was being hatched. 
 The ordinary way was for Lawyer Fletcher to 
 go on the bond of the prisoner, take a deed for 
 several farms, find some way of escaping judg- 
 ment on the bond when the prisoner disap- 
 peared, and credit the value of the farms to his 
 legal earnings. But this time the prisoner had 
 not run away, and preparations for the trial had 
 proceeded as if it were nothing but a case of 
 carrying concealed weapons or assault with in- 
 tent to kill. All the county had been talking 
 for weeks of nothing else than various suggested 
 cards which Fletcher had up his sleeve this 
 time. 
 
 " Mr. Fletcher, Tom's my namesake and my 
 46 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 favorite nephew; he's going to get all I have 
 when I die," had been Uncle Tommy Ruther- 
 ford's words that day in the dingy law office. 
 " I don't want him to skip out, for I want him 
 to live on the old place after a while when he 
 settles down. I want you to clear him at a 
 trial. I've got plenty to pay you, I guess, and 
 leave plenty for Tom, and I stand good for what 
 you charge. There'll be no kickin', if you get 
 him off, but you're to get him off without fail. 
 Anything you say I'll do, and everybody knows 
 my word's as good as the bank, I guess." 
 
 The astute lawyer of many parts had smiled 
 confidently, but said that it would be about the 
 hardest job he had ever tackled. It could be 
 done, he thought, but it would take not only 
 money but influence, and it might be necessary 
 to promise all sorts of things for Uncle Tommy 
 to do. 
 
 " Anything — anything at all," Uncle 
 Tommy had replied; "anything you say I'll 
 stand to and back up. I think a thousand 
 ought to be plenty, but if you must have fif- 
 teen hundred, I'll give it if you get Tom clear. 
 If you don't, I'll feel sore at payin' you so 
 much." 
 
 As a matter of fact, it was a pretty hard task 
 that came to Lawyer Fletcher. Tom had al- 
 ways been much in evidence in the neighbor- 
 hood and the surrounding towns. He had been 
 
 47 
 
Shacklett 
 
 fined innumerable times in the courts of Squire 
 Watson and Squire Ross, besides having been 
 indicted twice for disturbing the congregation 
 at Raccoon church. When he killed Sam Bron- 
 son he got a strong influence down on him. 
 The Bronsons were intermarried with the Rob- 
 ertses, and Bill Roberts had been county treas- 
 urer so long that he knew some tricks himself 
 when it came to court business. He was deter- 
 mined that Tom Rutherford should be con- 
 victed, and besides crossing the palm of the 
 State's attorney to put more energy into the 
 work of that officer and incidentally to prevent 
 the defense from buying him off, the shrewd 
 and practical man had retained to assist in the 
 prosecution a bright young lawyer whose for- 
 tune was made if he once beat Fletcher in the 
 circuit court. 
 
 Then the girl's family was against Ruther- 
 ford, too. The girl whose smiles and frowns 
 had caused the ill feeling between Rutherford 
 and Bronson, resulting in the fight which ter- 
 minated fatally, suddenly found herself in a differ- 
 ent kind of prominence from that which she de- 
 sired. Her folks felt that the fight over the 
 girl was to be considered as something of an 
 impertinence, and the killing of Bronson was 
 little less than impudence to themselves. Law- 
 yer Fletcher had been worried about the case, 
 but when he beheld Bergman nominated at 
 48 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 the county convention that day, he saw his 
 way out. 
 
 As the county had been talking of the case 
 ever since the murder, the regular venire was 
 soon exhausted, and the sheriff was duly di- 
 rected to summon special talesmen. That offi- 
 cial went out with a piece of paper and a handful 
 of blanks, and in half an hour returned with a 
 list of names gathered as he saw the men in 
 town, in the court-house square, and on the side- 
 walks. Not that he took people indiscrimi- 
 nately as he met them. The man who had 
 scratched the sheriff's name off his ticket at the 
 last election lost an opportunity of hearing the 
 trial from a box seat and receiving a dollar and 
 ten cents a day during its continuance. The 
 man in the other party who had held a confer- 
 ence with the sheriff at eleven o'clock one night 
 during the last campaign, had his name placed 
 near the top of the list and was duly grateful. 
 Two places at the very top, however, were left 
 blank for some time, and one of them was finally 
 filled with the name of George Peyton. When 
 the list was complete except for the other blank, 
 the officer wandered around into stores and 
 blacksmiths' shops-, and up to the vacant lot 
 where teams were hitched, apparently so pre- 
 occupied that he saw nobody. Noel Shacklett 
 was genuinely surprised when he was tapped on 
 the arm and had read to him a summons to ap- 
 
 49 
 
Shacklett 
 
 pear forthwith to serve as a juror in the case 
 wherein the State of Illinois was plaintiff and 
 Thomas W. Rutherford was defendant. 
 
 Shacklett went at once to the court-room, 
 but before he reached the top of the stairs he 
 heard his name loudly called three times from 
 an upper window. He hurried in and advanced 
 inside the bar, looking around expectantly. 
 
 Fletcher was absorbed in some writing at 
 one of the tables and did not glance up. Uncle 
 Tommy Rutherford looked at Noel keenly as he 
 came down the aisle, and wondered how he felt 
 toward Tom. The State's attorney impress- 
 ively and suavely motioned him to the kitchen 
 chair which served as a witness-box, and the 
 little clerk with a white shirt and no collar raised 
 his own right hand as a signal that an oath was 
 to be administered. Shacklett swore to answer 
 truthfully any questions asked him, and sat 
 down. 
 
 In reply to the interrogatories of the State's 
 attorney, he said that he had heard of the kill- 
 ing, but had not talked about it much, for he 
 did not like to meddle in the business of others; 
 besides, he felt that the truth would not come 
 out until the trial. He had formed no opinion 
 as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, 
 and was not opposed to capital punishment. 
 Lawyer Fletcher put him through a long and 
 detailed examination, and nobody noticed that 
 SO 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 while Shacklett was asked about his whole past 
 life, relationships, and religion, nothing was said 
 about his acquaintance with the Rutherford 
 family, nor his opinion of them. Both sides ac- 
 cepted him, and in the middle of the forenoon 
 the jury was completed, Shacklett sitting be- 
 tween George Peyton and a man from the far- 
 thermost corner of the county, in the front row. 
 The opening statement of Fletcher devel- 
 oped self-defense as the main reliance of his 
 side, and the testimony began. The cross- 
 examinations were the really interesting points. 
 Seven young men were the principal witnesses, 
 and they detailed the quarrel at Raccoon church, 
 ending in Tom Rutherford's stabbing Sam Bron- 
 son with a big pocket-knife. Two of them at 
 first said Rutherford pulled the knife from his 
 pocket, but on cross-examination testified that 
 he might have got it from the outside of his 
 trousers over the pocket. Six of them could 
 not remember whether it was moonlight, and the 
 one who did remember that the moon shone 
 brightly had his forehead beaded with perspira- 
 tion before he admitted that he was not sure in 
 what part of the heavens the moon was at the 
 instant the blow was struck with the knife. On 
 such occasions Fletcher looked triumphantly at 
 the jury, and Uncle Tommy nodded his head 
 with satisfaction after glaring at the witness vin- 
 dictively. 
 
 Si 
 
Shacklett 
 
 But the fight was over what Sam Bronson 
 was doing at the time. A young doctor, with 
 flatly brushed hair, and a silk hat in discord with 
 his heavy boots and sack coat, testified that the 
 wound was through the posterior part of the 
 chest, in the sixth intercostal space, and had 
 penetrated the pericardium. He was disap- 
 pointed that he was not cross-examined. An 
 old doctor with frowzy whiskers, long hair, and a 
 paper collar, bore witness that the wound was 
 in the back of the chest, between the sixth and 
 seventh ribs, and went into the heart-sac. All 
 seven of those who saw the fight said that Bron- 
 son was starting to run away from Rutherford 
 when the latter drew the knife. All these 
 things, however, did not keep Fletcher from 
 asking each whether it was not possible that 
 Bronson was whirling around with a club when 
 the knife-thrust was given. The old doctor was 
 treated with great consideration of manner, as 
 being the family physician of three of the jury, 
 but Fletcher put him through a long cross- 
 examination : 
 
 " You say, doctor, that the heart-sac was 
 cut: is it not possible to cut the heart-sac from 
 the front?" 
 
 "Yes; but this one " 
 
 " One moment, doctor; please answer my 
 question by ' yes ' or ' no ' and stop there. If a 
 knife were to be stuck into the chest at the 
 52 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 proper point from in front, would it not punc- 
 ture the heart-sac, too? " 
 
 " Yes; but it wouldn't " 
 
 " I thought so. Now, doctor, in all your 
 wide experience did you ever know the heart-sac 
 to be cut with a knife from behind? " 
 
 " I never " 
 
 " Doctor, it's a scientific fact, isn't it, that 
 most stabs that reach the heart are given from 
 the front?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " That will do, doctor. I thank you for the 
 light you have thrown on this case," and 
 Fletcher turned to Uncle Tommy with a smile 
 of intense satisfaction, and to the jury with a 
 look which was the very quintessence of 
 triumph. 
 
 But everybody in the crowded court-room 
 knew that the stabbing of Sam Bronson was a 
 cowardly, premeditated murder long before the 
 defense reached its last hours with a long pro- 
 cession of witnesses. 
 
 When the arguments began, the room was 
 jammed full to the doors and windows. The 
 young lawyer made the first speech, and people 
 were interested in discovering what quality of 
 speaker he was. He confined his attention to 
 the law points chiefly, for in Illinois confidence 
 in general education is so high that the jury 
 is the judge of the law as well as of the evidence. 
 
 S3 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Then Fletcher's turn came. He was sur- 
 rounded with law books, and had a glass 
 pitcher full of water near at hand. The heat 
 of the room was sweltering, and he had taken 
 off his coat some time before; now he pushed 
 his shirt sleeves tightly up nearly to his el- 
 bows. His handkerchief was laid, bunched, on 
 the corner of the table. His voice was large 
 enough to be heard in the square outside before 
 he had completed the first sentence. 
 
 He spoke of inconsistencies in the testimony, 
 and the trifling character of the evidence given 
 by the men who could not remember whether 
 the moon was shining or not when this was 
 going to be a most important point in court 
 later. He talked for an hour on the text that 
 the defendant must be proved guilty beyond a 
 reasonable doubt before he could be convicted. 
 Fletcher knew the full value of this doubt 
 maxim in the jury-room in the hands of a con- 
 scientious man. 
 
 " Gentlemen, can you say that there is not 
 the least chance of Tom Rutherford's being in- 
 nocent in the eyes of the law? Can you listen 
 to the evidence given by Dr. Harris, an old phy- 
 sician of experience and that education which 
 comes from the school of experience, a man of 
 high attainments in the medical profession, re- 
 spected all over this county" — and Fletcher 
 turned to the three men who employed the doc- 
 
 54 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 tor regularly — " a man who is so honest as well 
 as intelligent, that, although he was subpoenaed 
 here by the State, he gave the strongest testi- 
 mony for our side — because it is the truth" — and 
 Fletcher's voice rose to the proportions of the 
 thunders of Jove; " can you recall his evidence 
 that the wound might have been made from in 
 front while Bronson was in the act of swinging 
 a murderous club to strike the defendant in this 
 case — can you do this and say that the defend- 
 ant is guilty beyond A doubt? " Fletcher's 
 voice was as loud as a country lawyer with a big 
 chest can accomplish. 
 
 The State's attorney became confidential and 
 fraternal with the jury in the beginning of his 
 speech, and waved his arms frantically as he 
 swam through a sea of blood in philippics 
 against the ruthless destroyer of a happy 
 home, but Shacklett did not hear much of his 
 address to the jury. The first thing the State's 
 attorney said to his young confrere after he 
 closed was: 
 
 "We've lost it; that damned Shacklett will 
 hang the jury till next Christmas if they don't 
 come his way or agree to disagree." 
 
 "Yes," the young attorney replied; "he 
 paid no more attention to what you were saying 
 than you did to the birds outside. Fletcher's 
 got him solid." 
 
 The bustle in the court-room and the sher- 
 
 55 
 
Shacklett 
 
 iff's calling out, " O-o-r-rder in the court!" 
 brought Shacklett back to his surroundings 
 when the State's attorney sat down. He tried 
 to remember what the lawyer had said, and 
 could not recall a word, nor a thing that had hap- 
 pened since he had caught sight of his mother 
 over by a window. 
 
 He had thought that an easy way to earn 
 the county clerk's office was to keep a man from 
 serving the rest of his life in the penitentiary. 
 He had wished that Fletcher had not dwelt so 
 much on the reasonable doubt proposition, and 
 had spent more time in picturing the horrors of 
 the State prison to a young man sent there for 
 the rest of his days. There was no reasonable 
 doubt of the cowardly and complete guilt of 
 Tom Rutherford, but there were objections in 
 the breast of a warm-hearted young man to 
 sending another to prison for unnumbered years. 
 This thing of inexorable law was something of 
 an abstraction anyhow, and what good would it 
 do the Bronsons to have Tom Rutherford pun- 
 ished so severely? He had been scared into be- 
 ing a better man anyhow, and would never kill 
 anybody else. All Shacklett's good-hearted feel- 
 ing of the brotherhood of man urged him toward 
 voting acquittal and sticking to it; and the fact 
 that it would make him county clerk was an 
 example of being paid well for a pleasant serv- 
 ice. He would stand out for acquittal if he 
 56 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 hung the jury, and that would be just as well, 
 for nobody ever had a second trial in that 
 county; public sentiment considered that one 
 failure to convict made it useless to put the 
 county to the expense of another trial. 
 
 But when he saw his mother the thing took 
 on a different tone. He knew what she would 
 say if she knew what Lawyer Fletcher had 
 spoken to him the day of the county conven- 
 tion; for now Shacklett understood that conver- 
 sation thoroughly. That she was in the court- 
 room showed that she was interested in the case, 
 at least to the extent of desiring a righteous 
 verdict. He would have given a horse, he 
 thought, to know which side she was on. But 
 a second thought decided that question. There 
 was but one side under the law and the evidence 
 in the case. 
 
 All the time the State's attorney was going 
 through the latter two thirds of his speech, 
 Shacklett was trying to decide what to do. He 
 wondered what his father would have done. 
 He suspected that he would be arguing the 
 same question with himself, for his father had 
 been morally strong only with second-hand 
 strength received from his wife. Shacklett al- 
 most wished that his mother was not such a 
 thoroughly and sincerely good woman. 
 
 In the jury-room the first ballot showed ten 
 for conviction and two for acquittal. It was 
 
 5 57 
 
Shacklett 
 
 after five similar ballots that it developed that 
 the two for acquittal were Shacklett and George 
 Peyton. Then an hour was taken up with ar- 
 guments by the ten against the two, without 
 result, for the seventh ballot still had ten slips 
 of paper marked " Guilty " and two marked 
 " Not guilty." The others noticed that while 
 Peyton was good-humored and inclined to be 
 jolly in his fixedness of purpose, Shacklett was 
 grim and had little to say. 
 
 After the entire night had been spent in 
 fruitless argument and balloting, and the jury 
 was still out, people who came down-town early 
 began to agree that the jury would disagree. 
 Fletcher walked along the street to the court- 
 house square with his head a little higher than 
 usual, and with a slight exaggeration of his usual 
 dignity. The State's attorney remained in his 
 own office, and his young temporary assistant 
 walked quickly from his boarding-house to the 
 court-room by the back streets. Several came 
 in to ask the State's attorney who he thought 
 was doing it, and that representative of the law 
 said he had no idea. Fletcher, when appealed 
 to for information about what caused the delay 
 in the verdict, said he supposed there was a 
 rascal on the jury that had it in for the Ruther- 
 fords. 
 
 When the sheriff could be heard calling 
 names from the window again, showing that an- 
 53 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 other day's session of the court was under way, 
 the foreman of the jury proposed that two more 
 ballots be taken, and then if no verdict was 
 reached that they go in and report a disagree- 
 ment. The first of these ballots came out ten 
 to two, like the preceding ones. Then Shack- 
 lett took Peyton over in a corner and spoke in 
 his ear for less than a minute, after which he 
 placed the hat on the table again ready for the 
 ballot, and tore a corner off a sheet of paper, 
 while the rest looked for the only other pencil 
 in the room. 
 
 As the jury opened the door of their room, 
 the word flew through the square and into the 
 streets that they were coming in. Before they 
 had traversed the forty feet to the door of the 
 court-room a crowd was on the stairs. As they 
 marched into court one of the lawyers stopped 
 in the middle of a sentence, and the sheriff ran 
 from behind his desk crying out for order. By 
 the time the jury had taken their seats in the 
 chairs to the left of the judge the room was 
 packed to suffocation, and when the foreman 
 arose the people were so still that the chat- 
 tering of a tame squirrel could be heard in a tree 
 outside. The judge put on his most geomet- 
 rically judicial manner: 
 
 " Gentlemen, have you agreed upon a ver- 
 dict?" 
 
 " We have," replied the foreman. 
 
 59 
 
Shacklett 
 
 "The clerk will read it." 
 
 And the little clerk had the chance of his 
 life as he bustled over and received the folded 
 piece of paper, which he opened and perused 
 through twice, with a face from which nothing 
 could be made, before he cleared his throat and 
 read in his best elocutionary style: 
 
 " We, the jury, find the defendant guilty as 
 charged in the indictment." 
 
 The face of Tom Rutherford grew first red 
 and then ashen. Uncle Tommy's head fell to 
 the table, and he did not move for ten minutes. 
 When Fletcher touched his arm and spoke in 
 his ear, he raised a face that had grown aged 
 in the time in which he appreciated what the 
 verdict meant. Fletcher had risen and saun- 
 tered over to the judge's bench in easy confi- 
 dence in his having the jury leavened with two 
 friends, and now he stood transfixed first, and 
 then glowering at Peyton and Shacklett in the 
 front row of the jury. 
 
 The people began to crowd out of the room, 
 despite the perfunctory efforts of the sheriff to 
 keep order while the jury was being discharged. 
 Sam Bronson's father pushed through the dense 
 mass of men surging toward the door and 
 uttering disconnected words of thanks, clasped 
 the hand of each juryman as the twelve came 
 without the railing. Shacklett avoided him by 
 going up a side aisle, and noticed that Peyton 
 60 
 
When Justice is Blind 
 
 went a little out of his way to greet Bronson 
 and say something about doing only" ; his duty. 
 At the gate of the court-house square Shacklett 
 found his mother waiting for him. 
 
 " I came in this morning thinking you would 
 get out last night and would want an early start 
 home. What kept you so long in the jury-room 
 after you went out? " she said, as soon as she 
 saw him. 
 
 " Two men wanted to free Rutherford," he 
 said, " and it took some time to talk them 
 over." 
 
 61 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MANIFEST DESTINY 
 
 Fletcher found Peyton first. To his re- 
 criminations Peyton replied: 
 
 " You thought you had played a nice game, 
 but it didn't work. You told me that you and 
 Uncle Tommy would elect me sheriff next time, 
 didn't you? Well, I swallered the hook and 
 line, but before I got the pole down Noel 
 Shacklett pulled them out again. He told me 
 all about it in the jury-room; he said he heard 
 you promise the sheriff's office to Lawson just 
 two days before court opened. You came near 
 making a damn fool of me, but you didn't. 
 That Noel Shacklett is the whitest man in the 
 county, and I'd advise you to rub up against him 
 some. He's white clear through." 
 
 " The devil you say! " rejoined Fletcher. 
 
 But when Fletcher came to talk it over to 
 himself, he came to the conclusion that Noel 
 Shacklett was " about as white a man as could 
 be found" in practical politics; that is, that he 
 could not be bought away from his allegiance 
 62 
 
Manifest Destiny 
 
 by a higher bid, which he believed to be about 
 all that can be reasonably asked in that arena. 
 Fletcher had ambitions of his own, and he was 
 furthering them by several years of disinterested 
 philanthropy toward the men who were trying 
 to break into the court-house offices. Each of 
 the men elected to a county office for the last 
 six years believed he owed his nomination 
 largely to Fletcher, and under such circum- 
 stances it matters not an iota whether Fletcher 
 helped them much, since belief is the sinking 
 fund of politics. 
 
 When Fletcher uncovered his own plan for 
 his election f o the State senate, he did it by 
 seeing most of the recent office-holders of the 
 county in one day and telling each the news in 
 confidence, with the expressed hope that he 
 could count upon the aid of the office-holder 
 addressed, in view of the past. The next morn- 
 ing the community knew that Fletcher was to 
 go to Springfield as senator that fall, and the 
 other man who had designs upon the same seat 
 found it impossible to have himself taken seri- 
 ously as a candidate for the place. Fletcher 
 drove out to the Shacklett place one summer 
 night about ten o'clock. He knew that Noel 
 and his mother were asleep long before, but that 
 was exactly what he planned; it was a working 
 principle of his, that there is nothing makes a 
 man work for you like flattering him by calling 
 63 
 
Shacklett 
 
 him out of bed in the middle of the night on 
 account of the importance of your message and 
 the extent of his influence. 
 
 " I tell you, Noel," he said over the front 
 wheel of his livery-stable buggy, " I've been told 
 you're agin me, but I think I know better. I 
 said some pretty sharp things about you after 
 that Rutherford trial, but I reckon you don't 
 hold 'em up agin me. I was hot, and I thought 
 you oughter ! ve stood by Uncle Tommy in that ; 
 but the fact is, I've thought a good deal more 
 of you since. I come out to-night to see jest 
 how you stand, and to git you to do a piece o' 
 work for me, if you will." 
 
 Fletcher made just enough of a pause to 
 give Noel a chance to break in if he chose, and 
 to allow himself to keep on if necessary. 
 
 " I'll be glad to do anything I kin for you, 
 Mr. Fletcher," replied Noel. " That Rutherford 
 business got too hot for me, and I ducked; but 
 I've felt ever since that I ought to even up with 
 you an' Uncle Tommy whenever I got the 
 chance, and I'm glad it's come so soon." 
 
 Which was exactly what the astute Fletcher 
 knew before he hired a horse and buggy to drive 
 out there. 
 
 " I'm glad you feel that way," he said, " and 
 I want you to go to Hansoriville to the conven- 
 tion on the Davis County delegation. When we 
 get there I want you to do some work for me, 
 64 
 
Manifest Destiny 
 
 depending on what turns up. I've got this 
 county and my own, but I'm not sure about get- 
 ting enough delegates in the other one to nom- 
 inate me. I'll have to get some after we meet 
 at Hansonville, before the convention ballots. 
 There's where I want you to do some fine 
 work — in fact, kinder take charge o' things for 
 me. You'll go, won't you, and not fail to be 
 at the depot by train time? " 
 
 Much older dogs than Noel Shacklett have 
 been induced to keep the treadmill going, and 
 the machinery running smoothly to grind an- 
 other man's corn, by this same stimulating 
 idea. The chairman of Fletcher's Davis County 
 delegation to the senatorial district convention 
 was Noel Shacklett, and Fletcher rose in his 
 own estimation when he saw his new lieutenant 
 work from the time they arrived at the conven- 
 tion town until the final ballot was taken. 
 
 The nomination was equivalent to election, 
 and Fletcher went to Springfield that winter 
 so early that he caught the chairmanship of the 
 judiciary committee, and by that lucky stroke 
 became at once prominent in the senate — not 
 because of the importance of his position, but 
 because it was the first time in forty years that 
 a new member had received that plum. The 
 place carried with it responsibilities that 
 Fletcher almost feared; much important legis- 
 lation was controlled by the contents of his in- 
 
 65 
 
Shacklett 
 
 side coat-pocket, and it really required a more 
 experienced man than he to get the last dollar 
 possible out of the Chicago crowd in every 
 case. 
 
 " I'm all right so far as making the quid 
 equal the quo," he mused to himself, " for I'll 
 work that on the same principle as fixing a law- 
 yer's fee in proportion to the tightriess of the 
 place the client's in and the extent of his pile; 
 but this thing's different from recording mort- 
 gages in the county clerk's office. If I go at it 
 awkward-like, these Chicago fellows '11 think 
 I'm easy, and if there's any exposures — um-um- 
 um-um-um." 
 
 The slow humming at the end was the be- 
 ginning of cogitation which lasted a week. 
 Then Fletcher wrote for Noel Shacklett to come 
 to Springfield, enclosing a railroad pass in the 
 letter. Shacklett went on the next train, full 
 of wonder, and unable to make out what 
 Fletcher wanted with him now. On the way to 
 Springfield he came to the conclusion that 
 Fletcher was a pretty good man to tie to; he 
 seemed to stick to his friends, was rather gen- 
 erous as politics goes, and most of all had the 
 faculty of getting results — and results in politics 
 always affect more than the central politician. 
 
 When Shacklett got out of the omnibus at 
 The Palace, Fletcher happened to be talking in 
 the office with the Speaker of the House, to 
 66 
 
Manifest Destiny 
 
 whom he introduced Noel as "Mr. Shacklett, of 
 Davis, you know." Fletcher really lived at a 
 boarding-house, but he was on the register of 
 the hotel that afternoon with the figures oppo- 
 site his name that denoted his occupancy of a 
 room there. To this room he took Shacklett 
 soon after the arrival of the latter. 
 
 " I don't know what's going to happen in 
 the world in the next hundred years," he began, 
 " nor what's going to happen in politics in the 
 next hundred minutes, but I'm guessing a little, 
 and I'm going to let you in on the guess. If 
 this thing got out down home, I'd be worried 
 to death, for the fact is that I've got lots o' 
 friends down there; the only way I could see 
 was to make up my mind before they caught 
 on, and then act before they had a chance to 
 find out about it. I believe you'll stick to me 
 through thick and thin, and that's the kind o' 
 man I want for a place here that's worth more 
 this winter than you'll make at home in two 
 years. I've picked you out for the place be- 
 cause I believe you appreciate what a man does 
 for you, and partly because I believe you'll make 
 your mark in it. It's clerk to the judiciary 
 committee, and it's been filled up to this time 
 by the smartest young fellow that ever came 
 down from a Chicago law office. But he don't 
 suit me, and I've decided to take you up and 
 make you the biggest thing in Davis County." 
 6 7 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett listened in complete amazement. 
 He finally found his voice to interpose: 
 
 " But, I — that is — I don't know any law, and 
 I don't know anything about legislatures, nor 
 nuthin' o' that kind. How'm I goin' to fill it? " 
 
 " Well," said Fletcher, with a little drawl, 
 " I'll have to fill it for you till you get into it 
 right. You will have to brush up a little on 
 your landgwidge as well as your clothes; but 
 we'll get the clothes first thing from the salary 
 that's already comin', and you'll soon learn to 
 act like the rest o' the boys in the committee 
 rooms. Jest keep your eyes wide open, keep the 
 rest talkin' all you can, and take it all in like a 
 sponge. You'll make it all right, or I wouldn't 
 'a' sent for you." 
 
 " But I don't know law terms," faltered 
 Shacklett, " and I don't know even what judi- 
 ciary means for sure." 
 
 " Oh, you'll find that out quick enough, if 
 you'll remember to let the other fellows do most 
 of the talking while you look wise and bored 
 and jest grunt! " smiled Fletcher with a smile 
 that had a good deal of real amusement in it. 
 
 68 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 UNDER THE DOME 
 
 Shacklett in a half stupor accepted after 
 a fashion, and wrote his mother about it and that 
 he would not be home for two weeks, because 
 he wanted to spend the Sunday recess at Spring- 
 field to learn. 
 
 The stenographer to the committee did all 
 the desk work, and Shacklett learned so rapidly, 
 from the simple formula of Fletcher, that before 
 the session was half over he was well known to 
 all the lobbyists and half the corporation law- 
 yers in the State. It was as simple an evolution 
 as that of a doctor, a minister, or an educator. 
 He took in the situation in two conversations in 
 which the appropriations committee clerk did 
 ninety-nine per cent of the talking; the appli- 
 cation of common sense to the conditions as he 
 found them was the rest of it from his own view- 
 point ; it seemed to take the same kind of ability 
 as swapping horses and selling hogs to stock 
 buyers, and it was a much more pleasant life 
 than farming. Some inexperienced people seem 
 69 
 
Shacklett 
 
 wedded to the idea that lobbyists and the other 
 end of their business transactions are thrown 
 into the gulf of wickedness — much like society- 
 throws into perdition the girl who has her bill 
 for the establishment of a home smothered with 
 kisses in committee. Somebody once wrote a 
 pretty picture of a fine, wholesome, pious, gen- 
 uinely good boy who never swore or fought at 
 school, who went to the State capital and fell 
 among thieves by the road, and dealt with the 
 money-changers in the temple of republican in- 
 stitutions, and was entirely metamorphosed into 
 a member of the third house in the same way 
 that a turtle dove might be changed into a tiger 
 of the jungle; but Somebody was better ac- 
 quainted with good boys in Sunday-school than 
 with the smart men who make the laws the 
 people think the legislature enacts — these latter 
 pilots of the ship of state have been born to the 
 wild sea of practical statesmanship, and really 
 there is nothing interesting to tell about how 
 they begin their work at the wheel or on the 
 bridge. When there were but three weeks of 
 the session left, Senator Fletcher said that Noel 
 Shacklett was smarter than his father ever was; 
 and Shacklett himself began to dread going back 
 to the farm and preparations for another corn 
 crop. 
 
 He was saying this to his most intimate ac- 
 quaintance in his committee room one day, and 
 70 
 
Under the Dome 
 
 supplemented it with some remarks about his 
 deficiency of schooling, which he called lack of 
 education. 
 
 " If only a fellow knew just what to take 
 in while he's getting an education," growled the 
 visitor, with his feet on the table and his hat on 
 the back of his head, " he'd be a lot better off. 
 Now, I dug out Greek roots when I ought to 
 have been grubbing stumps, and practised Ger- 
 man diphthongs when I ought to have been 
 studying wheat in the bin. Here I am, with 
 muscles good enough to have the intercollegiate 
 cup in track athletics, and brains enough to have 
 the profs, at Knox still talking about my math- 
 ematical honors for the benefit of the freshmen, 
 and I lose fifteen hundred a year because I don't 
 know the difference between No. 2 and No. 3 
 wheat. There's something the matter with our 
 educational system, when a' man who needs it as 
 badly as I do has to pass up a thing like that. 
 
 " I could finish my law and be right in the 
 way of the legal lights hunting for junior part- 
 ners, and could get right next to the only rich 
 aunt I have, but I can't because I don't know 
 a weevil from a weaver. It's hard lines, espe- 
 cially when there's no one to blame, unless it's 
 the old man, and it doesn't seem just right to 
 blame him because he didn't make me plow corn 
 instead of sending me to school." 
 
 " You're more emphatic than lucid, and 
 
 7i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 more melancholy than your present situation 
 seems to warrant," said Shacklett, the host. 
 " Here's the box — they're not Fletcher's cigars, 
 never fear — and I don't see how I'm to make the 
 minutes of this meeting read with any connec- 
 tion if you don't finish the report of your sub- 
 committee, whatever it is." 
 
 McKee laughed as he reached for the box 
 and took a long time to let the match burn to 
 exactly the proper blaze before lighting the cigar. 
 He was the clerk of the committee on appropria- 
 tions, and had sauntered into the room of the 
 judiciary committee half an hour before to find 
 Shacklett working over some papers which Mc- 
 Kee had thrown to one side before he sat down. 
 
 " The bill of particulars is this," continued 
 McKee, with his face lengthened again; "there 
 is a sinecure with the railroad and warehouse 
 commission worth fifteen hundred and trim- 
 mings, that's going to be open about the time 
 the session closes. I want it. I can't take it, 
 because a man has to know the difference be- 
 tween wheat and barley when he sees them. I 
 don't. Some other fellow will get the place 
 because he does. Ergo, I'm not in it. and the 
 legislature about to die on my hands. Say, do 
 you think you can teach me how to tell No. 3 
 spring from No. 1 winter in three weeks, if I 
 boned for it and made it worth while? " 
 
 Shacklett smiled and shook his head. " Not 
 72 
 
Under the Dome 
 
 any more than you could teach me how to en- 
 gineer a railroad in the same time," he said. 
 " I'm sorry, McKee, but you can't do it. After 
 all, I think I'm the man that has the kick, for I 
 could do that work in my sleep, and the place 
 isn't gaping open in my path. What's the use 
 of a fine education, anyhow, when I don't get 
 to use it? Now, if I had a college course, and 
 could get a pull with the men you can, I'd draw 
 the fifteen hundred and live in Chicago; while, 
 as it is, I'll have to go home and plow for corn." 
 
 " I'm sorry I can't trade the place or I'd 
 throw it to you, Shacklett," said McKee, " but 
 the man that's got it in his pocket is going to 
 use it for his own advantage, and he's not from 
 our section. Come around to-night, and we'll 
 go out a little while." 
 
 When McKee reached the circular corridor, 
 under the dome, he turned to the right and 
 walked up to two men standing there. McKee 
 spoke these words as he checked his walk for an 
 instant, and ten minutes later one of the men en- 
 tered the room of the judiciary committee. He 
 was a member of the House from the northern 
 part of the State. 
 
 " Shacklett, you've come up faster than any- 
 body I ever saw around here," he said at once 
 after taking his seat, " and now you've . been 
 highly honored by being given a forlorn hope to 
 lead. It's up to you, and the remuneration is 
 
 6 73 
 
Shacklett 
 
 proportionate. If I don't get the asylum for 
 my town, I'm relegated, that's all. If I do 
 get it, I'm fixed. I'm paying high prices for 
 winning cards because I have to. To-day I 
 traded my own promised place on the fattest in- 
 vestigating committee that's been in sight for 
 ten years for a clerkship in the railroad and 
 warehouse, and I came here to tell you why. 
 
 " All the votes that can be got by them 
 smooth people in the lobby has been fixed, and 
 all the votes that can be traded for have been 
 got, until I have to carry a pass-book to keep 
 track of the bills I've promised to vote for. All 
 my personal friends and their personal friends 
 have come to the rescue, and after the whole lot 
 is added together my town lacks nine votes of 
 having enough to get that asylum. It'll be in 
 my town, anyhow, for if my present residence 
 don't get it, I'll be taken to it in short order. 
 Now, I've a plan to get the nine votes, and 
 that's what I want to talk about. 
 
 " I'll see that you get in the railroad and 
 warehouse, if you'll get for my town nine votes 
 in the House on the Asylum bill. You can do 
 it in this way: There's some men in the Legis- 
 lature — and you know best who they are — who 
 don't care where the thing goes, except that 
 they want to locate it right. Now, there's not 
 much difference between my town and the 
 other, anyhow, and some of the members 
 
 74 
 
Under the Dome 
 
 wouldn't keep you out of a good thing if they 
 could give it to you by voting my way. If you 
 tell 'em that there's fifteen hundred a year in it 
 for you, they'll vote right, see? I've spent a 
 good deal of time on this thing, working it all 
 out, and have picked on you as the one that can 
 carry it through. You can, if you will; and you 
 will, if you ain't a damphool — which you ain't. 
 Shall we call it a go? " 
 
 Shacklett's eyes shone for a brief instant as 
 he turned to some papers to hide his elation 
 under a mask of lack of interest. 
 
 " I don't know whether I can do that or 
 not," he said, " for you put entirely too high an 
 estimate on my ability to vote my friends. But 
 I'll try it, and if I fail, you can trade the clerk- 
 ship back for the place on the investigating 
 committee, or dispose of it easily enough, of 
 course. When's the bill coming up? " 
 
 Shacklett went over to the House as soon as 
 his visitor had left and got a roll, which he stud- 
 ied for some time. He selected nine members 
 who, he thought, might help him out in the 
 present situation of affairs. There were two or 
 three more that seemed to be possibilities, and 
 Shacklett once thought of increasing his list to 
 provide for contingencies; but he dismissed that 
 idea with the determination to get the nine by 
 some hook or crook and to make it a matter of 
 necessity, so that he could not afford to fail 
 
 75 
 
Shacklett 
 
 and hence must succeed. He went over to the 
 Leland and saw two of his quarry there; and 
 one of them promised his vote with a heartiness 
 that was very reassuring, but the other asked so 
 many questions that it took the edge off Shack- 
 lett's bright anticipations by the time he got a 
 definite promise. Then Shacklett went to the 
 Palace and saw Arnold of Piatt, whom he had 
 once helped postpone a meeting of the judiciary 
 committee, and found that member glad of an 
 opportunity to reciprocate without any cost to 
 himself. By the time Shacklett had seen Dun- 
 bar at the St. Nicholas, and had talked from the 
 latter's bill now in the hands of the senate judi- 
 ciary committee to the clerkship in the railroad 
 and warehouse office, there was barely time to 
 get supper before going to McKee's room to 
 keep his engagement there. 
 
 He found McKee talking to a member of the 
 lobby from Chicago, and the three walked over 
 to a quiet place much frequented by the State- 
 house crowd. Ever since Shacklett had learned 
 the difference between threes and a full hand, 
 which took him some time in the dense igno- 
 rance of cards which he brought from his home, 
 some of the men appointed from Chicago dis- 
 tricts had been anxious to teach him the second 
 lesson of the great Legislature game, and had 
 lost considerable money in previous attempts. 
 Shacklett took to poker like some youths be- 
 7 6 
 
Under the Dome 
 
 fore him in the world took to academy board 
 and India ink, and some others to dominants and 
 diminished sevenths. His nerve was phenome- 
 nal, even in the State capital, and his savoir 
 faire was charming enough to bring back the 
 old-timers again and again in their efforts to 
 make him their victim. This evening, being the 
 winner, he was compelled to sit the game out, 
 and it was late when he finally took his hat. 
 
 " You've got enough to take a trip," said 
 McKee, " and I propose that you go over home 
 with me Friday evening and stay till Monday. 
 It's pretty quiet, but there's some of the nicest 
 people in Illinois at Warsaw, and you'll get to 
 see the river you've been saying you'd like to see 
 for yourself. Come, now, get your transporta- 
 tion for my road on the outside of your book and 
 go over with me, won't you? " 
 
 Shacklett accepted the invitation, and on his 
 way to his room planned how to see three more 
 members on his list before they got away for 
 home the next evening. But he had failed to 
 get a chance to talk to any of them when he 
 met McKee at the station. 
 
 77 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
 
 At breakfast next morning, at Warsaw, 
 Shacklett was entertained chiefly by the elder 
 sister of his host, who seemed to the young com- 
 mittee clerk to be a jolly girl. 
 
 " I'm so glad you came just now," she said, 
 " for the first excursion is this evening, and I'm 
 going to make you both go so I can show you 
 off to the other girls. It's just warm enough 
 for comfort, and the nicest people will be there. 
 Do you dance? That's one thing about a boat 
 excursion; if you don't want to dance, there's 
 so many more other things to do than there is 
 at a party. If you're sentimental, there's the 
 tete-a-tete in the moonlight; if you're jolly, 
 there's the party in the pilot-house; if you're 
 quiet, you can get outside the cabin and smoke; 
 if you're " 
 
 " What if you're only dull? " interrupted 
 Shacklett. 
 
 " Then we'll be two souls with but a single 
 thought. You'll go, won't you? " 
 
 78 
 
A Little Journey in the World 
 
 The excursion had started from Keokuk, six- 
 miles above, and returned there at midnight 
 after going to the end of the rainbow and be- 
 coming lost in the mists of Nowhere. The 
 startling blasts of the whistle had called the peo- 
 ple of the smart set to spend an evening danc- 
 ing, talking, losing hours in reverie, discussing 
 politics, literature, woman's clubs, scenery, 
 and in decorously making love in the dolce far 
 niente of a moonlight evening on a Mississippi 
 River steamboat. The boat was not a large one, 
 but her barge was as large as herself, and was 
 her better-half joined so that the two were one. 
 The boat and barge were lashed together side by 
 side, with a passageway between, made by tak- 
 ing down a section of gunwale from each at the 
 same point; and the barge was like the steam- 
 boat, except that it lacked the engines, wheel, 
 and pilot-house. Both were brilliantly lighted 
 with electric globes, and a famous band of the 
 National Guard was playing forward on the cabin 
 deck as the boat approached the Warsaw land- 
 ing. Those who embarked when the gangplank 
 was thrown out were chiefly young people, 
 Shacklett noticed, and that the costumes of the 
 girls were a queer cross between evening dress 
 and picnic plainness. He took comfort from the 
 element of unconventionality he found in the 
 suggestion of a picnic, especially after he was 
 aboard and found that the men wore nothing 
 
 79 
 
Shacklett 
 
 more formal than the Prince Albert coat, and 
 that many of them were in business suits. But 
 there was an air of real breeding about the peo- 
 ple that he liked, though hardly knowing what 
 it was. There were dignified doctors, less dig- 
 nified ministers, taciturn business men, and 
 bright lawyers among the elder men who sat 
 around the rail of the boat on the upper deck, 
 talking to staid matrons with a few silver lines 
 in their hair. He looked up to the hurricane 
 deck of the barge to his left and saw little groups 
 and single poets of young people watching the 
 long, bright streak of gold crossing the water 
 from the low-hanging moon. Shacklett could 
 not keep his own eyes off that strip of golden 
 water, that suggested to him after a while a 
 carpet laid over the sidewalk when they were 
 having a party in heaven. He laughed to him- 
 self at this conceit, and kept on in the wake of 
 Miss McKee, who was guiding him to the stairs 
 leading to the cabin deck. This they found 
 crowded with the band forward and people 
 along the rails, and went on up to the hurricane 
 deck. All around the low rail up there were 
 couples separated from one another by the few 
 feet across which the properly trained and well- 
 modulated voice does not carry, however dis- 
 tinct it is to the ear but a few inches away. The 
 pilot-house rose from the middle of the deck in 
 a way that reminded Shacklett of standing on 
 80 
 
A Little Journey in the World 
 
 the flat roof of a building with a big belfry rising 
 still higher. In its lee were more couples 
 tete-a-tete on camp chairs, and the pilot was en- 
 tertaining company of his own. The pilot 
 always has company, for the rule forbidding pas- 
 sengers entering the pilot-house and talking to 
 the czar of the boat was lost overboard long 
 ago. Every pilot worthy of his license can take 
 a boat through a tortuous channel sixty feet 
 wide and talk to a bevy of pretty girls at the 
 same time; and the more a girl admires genuine 
 manhood, the more she likes to talk to a Missis- 
 sippi pilot — he is the last remnant remaining in 
 an evolutionary form of the best of the knights 
 of old. In ten years more almost any pilot on 
 the river would have exchanged places with 
 Shacklett, but he never got over the idea which 
 came later, that he would rather be a Mississippi 
 River pilot than anything else. 
 
 He looked out at the river, for it was really 
 his first view of the Mississippi at a practicable, 
 close range. Paintings, sculptures, and land- 
 scape gardening never appealed to him, but he 
 felt a glow as he realized that he was on the Mis- 
 sissippi River; for it was to him a practical thing 
 of power veiled under a smooth surface, and 
 seeming almost dreamily dormant in the moon- 
 light which blended its great width into either 
 shore. It was a peculiar combination of power 
 and beauty that he could appreciate better, per- 
 81 
 
Shacklett 
 
 haps, than anyone else on the boat that night; 
 and as Miss McKee called his attention to the 
 fact that by looking up the river now he could 
 see lights in three States at once as they left be- 
 hind Warsaw and Alexandria below Keokuk, her 
 words seemed to broaden his mind as he drank 
 in the breadth and depth of it all. 
 
 Shacklett afterward was glad that he went, 
 but when he first boarded the boat he wished 
 he knew more about what was expected of him. 
 When Miss McKee was borne off to the barge 
 for the first waltz by a dental student home on 
 vacation, she left him with an introduction to 
 a girl who seemed to Shacklett to be almost as 
 much out of her sphere as he was himself. In 
 the moment of introduction Miss McKee told 
 him that his new acquaintance did not dance, and 
 would be a delightful entertainer who would not 
 be looking wistfully over to the barge and the 
 orchestra all the time; and, with this hint, he 
 began to try to discover what sort of a girl 
 Miss Stoddard was. 
 
 " I feel very much as I imagine a Wyoming 
 woman does when she takes a seat on a jury," 
 he said, " for I never was on a steamboat before, 
 and I don't know how to act. Does good form 
 require that you sit with your face to any partic- 
 ular part of the boat, and are there certain places 
 where it is intrusion to go? I'd like to get out 
 there as close to the front end of the roof as 
 82 
 
A Little Journey in the World 
 
 possible, but I don't know whether I may take 
 one of those empty chairs or not. Won't you 
 coach me? " 
 
 Miss Stoddard looked at him with an amused 
 smile for an instant, but long before he had fin- 
 ished she was looking past him with great un- 
 concern in what he was saying. After a per- 
 ceptible pause, she said: 
 
 " There are some people who never learn 
 how not to make a nuisance of themselves on a 
 boat, and it's useless to try to teach them; there 
 are others who, if they were dropped down into 
 a big fight in the House on their first visit to 
 Springfield, would know exactly what to do. It 
 comes by intuition to these last. If you want 
 to sit out at the bow, you'll have to bring my 
 cloak from the cabin." 
 
 " I wonder if you here appreciate this," he 
 said after they were settled on two camp chairs 
 by the forward rail. " I'm thoroughly practical, 
 and have no more poetry in my soul than I have 
 knowledge of marine engines, but I don't won- 
 der that the other savages that are gone now 
 enjoyed this. I believe that if I lived here I'd 
 be out on the river every evening. I've been 
 watching the way they run a steamboat, and it's 
 interesting. Now, when a railroad train wants 
 to go from one place to another, it goes as 
 nearly in a straight line as possible, but a steam- 
 boat reminds me of a rabbit — his tracks in the 
 
 83 
 
Shacklett 
 
 snow show that he went first to the right about 
 a rod, and then to the left about ten feet, and 
 then went forward a piece, and finally he gets 
 to his destination after crossing from one side 
 of the lane to the other innumerable times. 
 That's the way a steamboat seems to do it. It 
 crosses over toward one shore and then puts 
 back as if it had seen a dog; then hurries across 
 the other way again, and only once in a while 
 goes straight up or down stream in the direction 
 of its port of landing." 
 
 " Is that all you noticed? " the girl said with 
 such genuine interest in her voice that Shacklett, 
 who never missed such things, was at sea worse 
 than ever. 
 
 " No," he said; " I've an idea that the steam- 
 boat acts like a rabbit for very good reasons. 
 I've seen men do the same thing since I came 
 to Springfield. Come to think of it, your 
 steamboat ought to be admitted on the floor 
 of the Third House, for it acts just like a lob- 
 byist, too, in the way it gets at the object of all 
 its puffing, and wheezing, and meandering. I 
 think I'll " 
 
 The girl interrupted him very quietly, but 
 in a tone that showed Shacklett that she had 
 some object in view more interesting than his 
 entertainment. " Tell me," she said, " is all we 
 hear about the corruption in the Legislature 
 true? Is the only way to get a bill through to 
 84 
 
A Little Journey in the World 
 
 hold it out in one hand and your purse in the 
 other? " 
 
 " No," he replied. " Only the other day I 
 got four votes for a bill and never thought of 
 offering a cent. Indeed, it would have been 
 dangerous to do so." 
 
 While they were talking the boat had been 
 making a crossing toward a river commission 
 light that looked like a switch-lamp far down 
 a railroad track. The deeper strip of darkness 
 eastward had become darker yet, then its upper 
 border had become more and more denned, and 
 at last became distinct from the sky. Later, it 
 took on a ragged contour, and finally showed 
 as a solid mass of bluff and forest reaching up a 
 hundred feet and more from the edge of the 
 water. At first it had been intangible as the 
 semidarkness on the river; but as the boat ap- 
 proached it became gradually more and more 
 solidified, until it stood out a part of the 
 primeval rock which remained the shore, be- 
 cause the Mississippi, after ages of effort, had 
 failed to cut it away. The boat was going di- 
 rectly toward a point that stood up higher than 
 any other part of the bluff, and Shacklett at- 
 tempted to change the topic by saying that it 
 seemed to be the proudest part of all Illinois. 
 
 " It is the best part," replied the girl, " for 
 it is where I live. And down there on that other 
 place, where there are not so many trees, is 
 85 
 
Shacklett 
 
 where Warsaw wants the new asylum to be 
 placed. I haven't heard much else talked of 
 lately, for father has his heart set on selling that 
 land to the State. He's been in Springfield for 
 weeks during the past winter, and is going to 
 take me with him the next time. I've already 
 seen enough of politics to be glad my father or 
 brothers are not immersed in it. They say he 
 could win easily if he would spend a little 
 money, but of course he won't do that, and I 
 suppose he'll fail — or rather, I did suppose so. 
 If it is so easy to get votes as you found it, I 
 don't see why we can't get the half dozen more 
 that we need. But perhaps it's because we've 
 not such skilful men for us as you are." 
 
 " I don't know much about women," Shack- 
 lett said, " but I've been told their long suit is 
 flattery. I've also been told that their next 
 characteristic is to disbelieve in the sincerity of 
 men. So I'll not tell you how sorry I am, but 
 simply tell you that the four votes I got were 
 for another town for that same asylum, and 
 that I'm enlisted on the other side, and am 
 going to get the other five it needs." 
 
 " Most men would have been careful to 
 keep me from finding that out," she said, and 
 just then Miss McKee came up and began to 
 talk about the coming concert. 
 
 86 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MAKING A CROSSING 
 
 Shacklett went back to Springfield on 
 Monday morning, deciding not to wait for Mc- 
 Kee until Tuesday and thus miss some good 
 chances to catch the other five men on his list 
 as fast as they came from home. He found 
 Campbell, of Macoupin, that evening, and 
 checked the name of that easy-going member on 
 his list. By Tuesday night he had the nine all 
 safely landed, and began to plan about his man- 
 ner of living in Chicago, and to slyly ask some 
 of the clerks from the city about how much they 
 spent each month. 
 
 McKee came into the judiciary committee 
 room early Wednesday morning to tell of his 
 visit after Shacklett left. Shacklett kept on 
 making out a requisition for supplies while Mc- 
 Kee was talking, and heard what the latter was 
 saying about half the time. McKee smiled to 
 himself when Shacklett laid down his pen. On 
 one line of the requisition was a number with 
 only half the figures down, and Shacklett had 
 87 
 
Shacklett 
 
 soiled the page with his sleeve, because he for- 
 got to use a blotter. 
 
 McKee was saying: 
 
 " Monday afternoon we drove out to the 
 Stoddard place and staid to tea. Mary Stod- 
 dard said you were most interesting as a conver- 
 sationalist that night of the excursion. But 
 don't take that for a compliment, for she said 
 you are so different from other men, and I gath- 
 ered she took you for a freak. When I said that 
 you were not different from lots of the boys 
 the first year they are here, she smiled in that 
 superior way of hers that makes me hot. As a 
 result, we spent an hour talking about you that 
 might have been devoted to a better subject. 
 But seriously, Shacklett, she does take you to 
 be a rare bird of some kind, though what kind 
 I don't know." 
 
 " A chicken-hawk, I suppose," said Shack- 
 lett, " for I told her that I'm going to beat 
 Warsaw out of that asylum, and it turned out 
 that it's her father that gets the big graft there. 
 By the way, McKee, you're doing right smart 
 loud talking and precious little real work for 
 your town in that matter. Where's your local 
 patriotism? " 
 
 " If Warsaw gets to fill the blank in the bill, 
 Stoddard will be the richest man in the county, 
 and his women folks will be — well, if your chair- 
 man is elected Governor, while mine stays sim- 
 
Making a Crossing 
 
 ply the member from the 'steenth, it won't be by 
 my help. Don't be afraid of hurting my feelings 
 if you are going to help the other town; but I 
 didn't know you had any interest in that asylum 
 deal. Wish I could get into it better; there's a 
 juicy jackpot there for the opener on winners." 
 
 Shacklett began to work on his blanks so 
 assiduously that he soon had a chance to throw 
 the papers aside and walk the room with his 
 hand industriously pushing back a few hairs from 
 his forehead, which as often as not had not fallen 
 down. He finally decided to wait for what came 
 in Chicago and to take only a comfortable 
 room and board at the same place, instead of 
 his previous plan of eating dinner at a swell res- 
 taurant every day to make valuable acquaint- 
 ances. He saw now that to go to the res- 
 taurant once a week would answer just as well. 
 
 The Asylum bill came up in the House on 
 Friday. He met the member from the northern 
 part of the State coming out of the executive 
 office that morning, and was told that the ap- 
 pointment would be made the next week, to 
 take effect as soon as the Legislature adjourned, 
 if he landed his nine men. He went to see 
 them all for a final inspection of their safety, 
 and found that all had remembered him. Then 
 he went into the House and sat on a sofa under 
 the right-hand gallery. 
 
 After Carter had his amendment placed in 
 7 89 
 
Shacklett 
 
 the appropriation bill, and Fry had his bill for 
 the licensing of barbers, after examination by a 
 State board, advanced to second reading, be- 
 cause everybody was busy, the gavel fell, and 
 the announcement that the special order was 
 Senate Bill No. 347 sent pages scurrying out 
 and brought members in, while the galleries 
 filled with the people who had been out during 
 the entr'acte. 
 
 Twenty members were on their feet with arms 
 upraised, palms forward, and the din for recog- 
 nition began. Potter, of Hancock, needed all 
 the votes he could get in that county next time, 
 and the only thing he had succeeded in accom- 
 plishing that session was the arrangement with 
 the Speaker by which he was recognized at this 
 important moment. He moved to substitute 
 the word Warsaw in line ninety-eight, and the 
 speech-making to the galleries and the newspaper 
 men began. 
 
 Shacklett had been talking to the assistant 
 adjutant-general, and when he first saw her, Miss 
 Stoddard was leaning forward in the first row of 
 seats in the gallery over the door. Shacklett 
 smiled slightly at her pose of intense interest, 
 and wondered if a woman ever would take de- 
 feat philosophically. Then he turned to the pro- 
 ceedings as the last speech was being concluded. 
 
 Every seat had an occupant, for there were 
 plenty of men only too glad to sit at the desks 
 90 
 
Making a Crossing 
 
 of the few members absent and the many out 
 of their places. Potter, of Hancock, was flying 
 around making his last appeals and his last of- 
 fers. A dozen conversations with mouth close 
 to ear were going on over the chamber. Dris- 
 coll, whom all the papers charged with having 
 been bought outright, was at a desk well in 
 front on the left-hand side, where he could face 
 the House and galleries and boldly scorn the 
 hisses which came later when he voted. The 
 Governor's private secretary came through the 
 door and stood with an air of great unconcern 
 against the wall, his eyes sweeping the whole 
 room keenly and constantly, for the Governor 
 himself had been charged with being too med- 
 dlesome in this ticklish matter. Every clerk 
 in the State-house was in the lobby under the 
 galleries, and Shacklett had to stand and push 
 forward to see what was going on. The first 
 name on the roll happened to be that of a man 
 from Jo Daviess County, who desired to explain 
 his vote, and it developed that he required 
 twenty minutes to make a satisfactory expla- 
 nation. At the end of five minutes somebody 
 made a point of order, which was overruled, and 
 a minute later the point that the speaker was not 
 explaining, but orating, was sustained. Then 
 the representative of Jo Daviess County had to 
 go back a few minutes to begin where he had 
 digressed, and patience ceased to be a virtue. 
 
 9i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Four men at once began to yell, " Mr. 
 Speaker," and when the first had his point of 
 order not sustained, five more began to address 
 the chair in voices trained by long distances on 
 the farm, and two others pounded their desks 
 with books. The member from Jo Daviess, 
 who had been going on with his speech as if he 
 were addressing a congregation of silent wor- 
 shippers at church, finally stopped and waited 
 for order to resume. As he leaned forward 
 Potter reached his ear and said something, ex- 
 actly what he never would tell, which brought 
 the explanation to a sudden close half a minute 
 later. It reminded Shacklett of the sudden 
 stopping of a sawmill, when the House suddenly 
 became so still that the voice of the Clerk 
 seemed unnecessarily loud as he again advanced 
 to his desk and called the second name on the 
 roll. Shacklett shifted his position and then 
 started. 
 
 Leaning almost over the balustrade now, her 
 eyes shining and her face pale, Miss Stoddard sat 
 as immobile as the decorative figures on the ceil- 
 ing. Only her eyes were moving, and as Shack- 
 lett followed their direction he saw her father 
 earnestly talking to a member in one of the 
 rear seats. Then she shifted her eyes to dif- 
 ferent parts of the house, scanning faces and 
 noting every movement on the floor. Shacklett 
 stepped back where she could not see him, and 
 92 
 
Making a Crossing 
 
 instantly wondered why he had done so. It was 
 a fair field, and he had told her frankly his posi- 
 tion. He sat down and looked out of a window, 
 with his eyes on vacancy and his hand pushing 
 back that lock of hair again. He was thinking 
 principally about whom to get to attend to the 
 farm that summer while he was in Chicago. 
 
 He heard the roll-call proceeding. Ander- 
 son had voted " No " on the pending amend- 
 ment to insert Warsaw, and Shacklett noted 
 with satisfaction that Arnold, of Piatt, imme- 
 diately following Anderson, was bunching his 
 votes, especially when Bates, another one, came 
 just after. Campbell and Carter voted " No," 
 and Shacklett smiled at the unintended wisdom 
 in his beginning at the top of the roll to select 
 his men that day. Carter was soon followed by 
 Dunbar, and Shacklett felt that he was traveling 
 to Chicago by express train. His next man was 
 Fry, and then there was a gap until Russell was 
 reached on his list. Shacklett looked over to 
 Russell's seat and raised his head with a smile 
 that was too cold to be pleasant as he saw Stod- 
 dard's gray beard bending over that member's 
 desk in earnest conversation, which was very 
 one-sided. They never could get Russell away 
 from him. He did not look at the rear gallery, 
 and at once returned to the sofa he had left for a 
 moment. 
 
 The roll-call was down to the N's when 
 
 93 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett snapped his fingers at a page who 
 was watching the House from on top a chair 
 near him. He wrote a few words on a tel- 
 egraph blank lying in the window, and watched 
 the page pushing his way through the crowd 
 around the desk. When the O's were fin- 
 ished the page was in the middle of the 
 narrow but dense mass of men between the 
 rear seats and the wall, and as Ratcliff's name 
 was called he reached a side aisle. The page 
 went down in front of the Speaker and crossed 
 over, reaching Russell at the same instant that 
 the Clerk called the name of that member, 
 who took the yellow telegraph paper as he half 
 rose to vote. Shacklett stood with that cold 
 smile on his face, which McKee said reminded 
 him of old-time studies in analytical geometry, 
 his eyes shining and fixed on the paper, which 
 appeared to be a telegram. 
 
 Russell rose entirely to his feet as he felt the 
 paper in his hand, and, as he did so, opened it 
 with a twist of his fingers and glanced at the 
 message. Then he said " Aye " in a voice which 
 exactly filled the room and slowly resumed his 
 seat, tearing the yellow paper to bits which he 
 retained in his hand. The message read : 
 
 " Quick change is on. Vote for Warsaw. 
 See you later. Shacklett." 
 
 Shacklett was standing by the elevator three 
 minutes later, and pushed the button just as the 
 
 94 
 
Making a Crossing 
 
 Governor's private secretary came hurrying over 
 and nodded to him, as he said: 
 
 " Pretty close vote. Warsaw won by only 
 one." 
 
 Down on the first floor Shacklett walked 
 across the rotunda and up the stairway to the 
 legislative floor again. As he approached the 
 picture of George Rogers Clark treating with 
 the Indians, he thought that nothing more ap- 
 propriate than a group of Clark's men facing a 
 council of savages could have been given the 
 principal place on the stairway leading to the 
 House and Senate chambers. He found in the 
 lobby the man who had lost his seat when his 
 town lost the asylum. The defeated member 
 met him by the cloak-room door and began the 
 conversation himself with the words: 
 
 " You thought you had nine, and you had 
 eight, which was just as valuable as a bobtailed 
 flush ever is. How the devil " 
 
 " I had Russell, too," interposed Shacklett, 
 " but old man Stoddard seems to have talked 
 him over, and he kept his eye on the signal light 
 under the bluff at Warsaw like a steamboat 
 pilot making a crossing on a dark night. I 
 don't expect that railroad and warehouse job, 
 but I appreciate your thinking of me, and when 
 the judiciary committee reports the bill to re- 
 vise the statutes, your name will be in it on the 
 commission." 
 
 95 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 AGAINST THE CURRENT 
 
 A week later, the session being over, Shack- 
 lett went down home with no very definite idea 
 in his head. He went over to Warsaw before 
 starting home, and McKee exchanged some re- 
 marks with Miss McKee on the subject. 
 
 " It's the real thing," he said to her, " and 
 I give up right now that I don't know beans 
 about this thing of falling in love. If there's 
 two people on earth as little alike as Noel 
 Shacklett and Mary Stoddard, I'd like to see 
 'em." 
 
 Miss McKee looked interested. She had 
 some curiosity about this man without much 
 style, who seemed to be beginning a courtship 
 as he would begin a campaign, by assaulting 
 the intrenchments with artillery. Her brother 
 went on: 
 
 " The short of it is, that we all expect Mary 
 
 Stoddard to marry a preacher and be a model 
 
 minister's wife, for which she's exactly cut out 
 
 by nature and education; and up at Springfield, 
 
 96 
 
Against the Current 
 
 the little we've thought about it at all was in the 
 direction that Shacklett would pick out a rich 
 widow, carefully and scientifically court her, 
 marry her, and have the bank account trans- 
 ferred to his name before the honeymoon is 
 over. 
 
 " Shacklett is about as far from being a 
 preacher as Mary Stoddard is from being a rich 
 widow with an ambition to be the wife of a con- 
 gressman or governor; and yet it looks like 
 Shacklett is going to marry her and take her 
 down in Egypt on a farm. It's ahead of me." 
 
 McKee bridled a little as his sister smiled 
 indulgently. She replied with a continuance of 
 the smile: 
 
 " I don't see how Mr. Shacklett, or any 
 other man, can help falling in love with Mary 
 Stoddard; but it doesn't follow that she'll fall 
 in love with the fine worker from Springfield 
 because he helped her father sell his land to the 
 State. Politics isn't the only thing that's uncer- 
 tain and " 
 
 " Oh, that's all right," her brother inter- 
 rupted, " but, you see, if Shacklett falls in love 
 with her he'll want to marry her; and if he wants 
 to marry her he'll marry her. If he wants her 
 to fall in love with him, she will. That sounds 
 kind o' silly, but it's a fact. You don't know 
 Shacklett when he's in earnest. On the other 
 hand, he's so changeable that you never know 
 
 97 
 
Shacklett 
 
 till the vote's taken where he's at; he's as likely 
 as not to change his mind at the last minute, 
 like he did in that asylum deal, and if he carries 
 the same methods into this deal, we'll get cards 
 to his wedding, and the day before the date for 
 the blowout he'll run up to Chicago and marry 
 somebody else." 
 
 Miss McKee's eyes began to blaze a little. 
 She said promptly: 
 
 " There's one thing settled here and now, 
 and settled once for all. Not once more are 
 you to ask him down here. Not a single other 
 time. I'm determined on that, and I mean it. 
 You keep him away from here." 
 
 Her brother whistled a soft little double 
 note, threw up his arms in a mock gesture of un- 
 intelligibility, and left the room. 
 
 Shacklett did not notice that he was not 
 asked to come over again, for he considered his 
 welcome too sure to need the invitation. When 
 he wrote McKee, six weeks later, saying that he 
 was coming up by way of St. Louis and a boat, 
 he was a little disappointed to get a reply that 
 McKee was in the act of beginning work for 
 the river improvement people, and would be liv- 
 ing in a quarter-boat the rest of the summer, for 
 which he was sorry, old fellow, and the rest. 
 But he was rather glad that McKee had spoiled 
 his other plan when he received a letter from 
 Mary Stoddard, stating rather casually that she 
 
 98 
 
Against the Current 
 
 would not be at home either, since she was one 
 of a party going to St. Paul and return that 
 week. Shacklett looked very cheerful after he 
 had knit his forehead into wrinkles for five min- 
 utes at the post-office, where he got both letters 
 at once; but he could not exactly understand 
 why McKee was throwing off on him, he said 
 to himself, and he wondered just what the rela- 
 tions were between the Stoddards and McKees 
 up there. 
 
 He walked over to his room and wrote a 
 letter on a judiciary committee letter-head. He 
 hurried back to the post-office to mail it in time 
 for the west-bound mail, which would allow its 
 delivery in St. Louis early next morning, giving 
 plenty of time for the answer to reach him before 
 Wednesday. When the answer came, it stated 
 that the Diamond Jo line was happy to enclose 
 transportation, St. Louis and St. Paul, and 
 hoped Mr. Shacklett would enjoy his vacation 
 trip and notice certain things at certain landings 
 in Illinois which would interest the next Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Noel told his mother that he had worked hard 
 enough during harvest to deserve a little rest, 
 and since some of his friends were going on 
 the river trip, and he could go with them with- 
 out much expense, he believed he would take 
 the vacation. 
 
 The City of Quincy had the usual crowd of 
 
 99 
 
Shacklett 
 
 tourists that trip, most of them from St. Louis. 
 Shacklett made a few acquaintances among the 
 men before the staterooms rilled and the saloon 
 cabin emptied, and sat by the rail until two 
 o'clock in the morning. It was the perfection 
 of luxurious traveling the next day, somebody 
 said; but Shacklett was lost in wonder that any- 
 body rode on a steamboat when they could go 
 by rail and get there in one third the time. The 
 boat reached Warsaw just as the twilight was 
 shading into darkness. 
 
 Shacklett stood on the forward deck close 
 by the landward stack as the boat made the 
 landing; and when the gangplank was shoved 
 out and the people began to come aboard with 
 that funny little haste which reminded Shack- 
 lett of young turkeys trotting to the coop, he 
 stepped over by the forward rail, sure that nobody 
 below would look up. As the party of eight 
 young people came up the stairs, Shacklett 
 stepped aft along the rail, and, looking back, 
 watched Mary Stoddard and her friends waving 
 handkerchiefs at two or three others ashore by 
 the packet depot. 
 
 It took ten days to make the trip to St. Paul 
 and back to Warsaw that time. For the others 
 it was ten days of vacation from routine work; 
 for Shacklett it was a week and a half of the 
 hardest work he ever did. To make love to a 
 girl who starts with only the most languid sort 
 ioo 
 
Against the Current 
 
 of interest in one, and that rather a feeling of 
 one's reprehensibility, while both are cooped 
 up on a slow-moving steamboat, is a hard task in 
 real life. In later years, when friends asked 
 Shacklett what was his most carefully-planned 
 and executed campaign, he would look at his 
 wife, smile, and say it was a naval engagement 
 with a preacher. 
 
 He did not go toward Mary Stoddard that 
 first evening. It was ten o'clock, and the boat 
 was passing slowly through the canal above 
 Keokuk when she and half of her party went 
 to the hurricane deck and to some chairs for- 
 ward to watch the bluffs, in the shadow of which 
 the boat was gliding as if trying to slip by un- 
 noticed. There was a solitary man in a steamer- 
 chair, leaning back with his feet on the low rail 
 and his face turned toward the shadowy hills 
 of the Iowa shore. It happened that all the 
 other chairs were entangled around his own in 
 such a way that it became necessary to go close 
 to him to get the four required by the members 
 of the Warsaw party. Mary Stoddard was in 
 the front of her friends, and as she quietly laid 
 her hand upon the chair nearest her and farthest 
 from the man, there was a rattling tremolo of 
 the whole bunch, which extended to the one in 
 which the man was sitting, apparently lost in 
 the view. He at once sprang to his feet and 
 turned toward the girls, with his hand on its 
 101 
 
Shacklett 
 
 way to his hat, and then he started a little, 
 and there was a great deal of surprise in his 
 tone. 
 
 " Why, Miss Stoddard! McKee wrote me 
 you were going on the Pittsburg, and I did not 
 expect to see you on this boat. May I arrange 
 your chairs for you? I believe the view of the 
 river is better than that of the bluffs, and I will 
 put them over on this other side, if you don't 
 mind." 
 
 He did not say, conventionally, that it was 
 an unexpected pleasure, and he gave no oppor- 
 tunity for introduction to the other girls — two 
 things which Mary Stoddard noticed with quick 
 perception. When he had arranged four chairs 
 for them in a group along the other rail, she 
 introduced him to the others, one of whom kept 
 him in conversation until it became necessary for 
 him to bring another chair and sit with their par- 
 ty. That night, in her stateroom, Mary Stoddard 
 recognized the inborn gentlemanly characteris- 
 tics of Shacklett. She noticed his lack of so- 
 ciety polish, as she remembered his quick ex- 
 planation that he had not forced himself upon 
 her, combined with his lack of conventional ex- 
 pressions of pleasure at meeting her. She re- 
 membered, too, how differently modulated his 
 tone was when talking to her friends and when 
 addessing her; and she determined to be very 
 fair and frank with the young man, who seemed 
 102 
 
Against the Current 
 
 to be all character, and only recently trained a 
 little in the conventions. 
 
 The next day Shacklett searched for her to 
 point out a particularly fine view alongshore 
 and found her in the pilot-house. He noted 
 her look of respect, for the man who knew 
 so much and did so much with such certainty 
 in guiding the boat, and he led the conver- 
 sation into the channel of the pilot's duties 
 and life. 
 
 " I suppose they grow up to it," he said, 
 " and by doing a little more every day they be- 
 come able to do miracles. I remember that 
 once, when I was a little boy, I lifted a pig father 
 gave me, every day, with the idea that after a 
 while I would be lifting a large hog. There 
 came a time when I could no longer lift the 
 animal, and father laughed at me, and told a 
 story of an invention to teach horses to live on 
 sawdust by beginning with a little sawdust and 
 much bran, and gradually lessening the quantity 
 of bran and increasing that of sawdust until the 
 feed was all sawdust. Father said the invention 
 worked all right, but the horse died. It's an old 
 story, of course, but I've never got it out of my 
 head that the invention ought to be made to 
 work somehow. At least I got some good out 
 of my lifting plan, even if the desired end was 
 not reached." 
 
 Mary Stoddard reflected that it would be 
 103 
 
Shacklett 
 
 better not to mention Hercules and the calf to 
 this young man, and replied: 
 
 " I think, sometimes, that too many people, 
 especially women, do not try to accomplish any- 
 thing because they can not accomplish every- 
 thing. I suppose at Springfield you see so many 
 cases of hope deferred and failure to attain ends, 
 that you get used to them? " 
 
 " No; at least I never will get used to that," 
 he said, " for I think if I ever got used to failure 
 I should stagnate somewhere, wherever I hap- 
 pened to be stranded. I have been remarkably 
 lucky so far, and have nothing to complain of in 
 the way Providence is treating me; but I was 
 raised in a country where everybody fought his 
 way through school and through the following 
 few years until he married, and the only thing that 
 seems to come entirely natural to me when 
 things go wrong is to fight out." 
 
 " I suppose that is one of the chief elements 
 in success," she said — " that is, to fight out 
 always." 
 
 It was said in a tone that a listener would 
 have taken for one of considerable ennui and 
 some inattention to what he was saying, but 
 Shacklett was not able to detect that in his in- 
 experience. It gave him the text he desired, 
 and he went on: 
 
 " The fact is, I never figure much on what 
 will bring success in general. I notice that the 
 104 
 
Against the Current 
 
 fellows who do the most of that are the least 
 successful, and I simply take things as they 
 come and make the best I can out of them one 
 at a time. I don't know " 
 
 The pilot pressed a lever with his foot, and 
 the great whistle of the boat sent out its hoarse 
 voice, that drowned all conversation. They 
 were coming to a landing, and went down to 
 watch the deck-hands carry on the cargo in an 
 interminable trot over the long gangplank from 
 the shore. 
 
 Shacklett was an entirely new type to Mary 
 Stoddard. He was not used to many things 
 which had come to her, like the air and the door- 
 bell and other parts of her environment, but he 
 seemed somehow to have chosen the best ob- 
 tainable of the things he had passed thus far. 
 He had abundant confidence in himself, but this 
 confidence seemed to be justified by results so 
 far as he had progressed. He was certainly sin- 
 cere, and lacked any tendency to cant. He was 
 seeking for the uplift to a degree that was al- 
 most pathetic, and with a vigor that certainly 
 would elevate him constantly. These things 
 ran through the mind of Miss Stoddard as she 
 sat looking at the passing shores, and she was 
 rather glad that he had accidentally taken the 
 same boat for the river trip that she had chosen; 
 he certainly added something of human interest 
 to the trip. 
 
 8 105 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " It's queer how interesting common things 
 become when you never happen to have seen 
 them before," he said to her one day. " Now, 
 it was taken for granted by me that when a 
 steamboat wanted to stop at a town she simply 
 ran her front end to the shore and was tied 
 to a pile. But I discovered that a boat coming 
 down-stream has to turn completely around and 
 head up-stream before she can make a landing. 
 It's all very simple after you know how, but 
 still it's interesting the first time you learn it. 
 I've made friends with everybody connected with 
 the boat, from the captain to the cook, and I'm 
 learning all about steamboats — except pilot- 
 ing" — and he laughed. 
 
 She found that this meant more than it 
 usually did, for all the officers of the boat were 
 much taken with Shacklett, and the deck-hands 
 even saluted him with a new kind of respect. 
 She thought this over, and the same afternoon 
 asked him: 
 
 " How do you manage to make such good 
 friends of the men with the boat? It's a val- 
 uable secret for a traveler to know, and I'm 
 anxious to learn it." 
 
 " Oh, I don't take any particular pains about 
 that," he replied, " except that I like to talk 
 to them about their work, and I reckon that 
 talking about a man's work is about the best 
 way to get friendly with a man." 
 106 
 
Against the Current 
 
 The second day after this she was asking him 
 about his duties as committee clerk at Spring- 
 field, and he was telling her about keeping min- 
 utes of amendments agreed upon to bills, and 
 writing reports on bills brought out of commit- 
 tee so little like the form in which they went 
 in that their authors could recognize them only 
 by number. She had utterly forgotten what he 
 had said about his method of becoming friendly 
 with the boat employees, but it seemed a good 
 way to draw him out, and she was now much 
 interested in discovering what kind of rare 
 young man this physical and mental athlete 
 was. He was never obtrusive, and seldom 
 sought her out with special purpose, it seemed, 
 yet they naturally were together a great deal, 
 and she found a mental tonic in his stalwart 
 conversation so different from that of most men 
 to women. 
 
 107 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PILOTS AND PREACHERS 
 
 Shacklett found that one of Miss Stoddard's 
 party was a minister, whose name, he discovered 
 when he was introduced, was the Reverend Mr. 
 Bradbury. He was that sort of man whose 
 character and habits made it natural for people 
 to prefix his title, even in formal introductions, 
 and where other ministers are called Doctor 
 Brown and Mr. Jones, he was always the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Bradbury. 
 
 He was one of those men whom one can not 
 call a young man, nor yet truthfully say that 
 he was a middle-aged man. The records in the 
 various places where dates of birth are kept 
 showed him to be still young, but his manner, 
 the tone of his talk, and his constant pastoral air 
 when among his flock, all testified loudly to his 
 advance into years of discretion. In the first 
 five minutes of observation Shacklett decided 
 that it might be necessary to throw the preacher 
 overboard before the voyage was over. At the 
 end of the first day Shacklett had fully decided 
 1 08 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 that the Reverend Mr. Bradbury was the right 
 kind of preacher to tie to, and that it was really 
 a pity that it would be necessary to knock him 
 out of the appointment to which it was very 
 evident he aspired — appointment to the place 
 of perpetual pastor over the heart of Mary Stod- 
 dard. 
 
 Most people would have referred to the di- 
 rect contrast between the two men; but their 
 similarities are more interesting. The minister 
 not only believed in the right, but kept his feet 
 in the narrow path with all the particularity of 
 a man who has not drunk so very much walking 
 a crack in the floor and taking pride in the suc- 
 cess of that achievement. Shacklett was accus- 
 tomed to walk across to the objective point on 
 the other side of the room regardless of how 
 many cracks in the floor he crossed at all sorts 
 of angles, and took pride only in getting to the 
 object desired. But both had the dominant 
 characteristics of strength, success in the end, 
 self-will, perfect openness of heart and careful- 
 ness of head, honesty of purpose even though 
 the purposes were diametrically opposed gen- 
 erally, knowledge of human nature, and high 
 ambitions to accomplish something worth while 
 in the world. The chief difference between them 
 was that one went directly after the game he was 
 hunting, and would have taken the tablets of 
 Moses out of the ark of the covenant and stood 
 109 
 
Shacklett 
 
 on them to reach over a wall to shoot an Amor- 
 ite; while the other saw all the angels of the 
 Lord that came in his path and never tried to 
 get past any of them — for which men not so 
 acute as Shacklett were wont to call him an ass 
 sometimes, though Shacklett honored him for 
 it, and said to himself that men like the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Bradbury were what kept the lobby 
 from entirely managing the churches. On the 
 other hand, the Reverend Mr. Bradbury had sev- 
 eral bad half hours on the steamboat trip and 
 after, trying to be sure that it was really an 
 angel of the Lord who told him that Shacklett 
 was a fine type of wickedness. He feared that 
 might be only a mirage of his own brain, es- 
 pecially when the young man with such famil- 
 iarity with practical affairs of government 
 showed underlying traits of honesty that seemed 
 out of harmony with some of the stories he told 
 about himself when the two men were alone by 
 the side rail late at night. 
 
 They had many such talks. Shacklett al- 
 ways liked to study the enemy and reconnoiter 
 for himself. His opponent in this particular 
 contest was anxious to resolve the doubts he 
 had about Shacklett and find the key to the 
 paradox Shacklett seemed to be. Then, too, it 
 was a certainty that Shacklett really had interest 
 in what the minister had to say, and was sin- 
 cerely glad to hear him talk of ethics, nature, 
 no 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 religion, and philosophy. And so it became the 
 usual thing for them to sit up to talk for hours 
 after the women had gone to their staterooms. 
 The moonlight made the river a dream which 
 harmonized perfectly with the talk of the min- 
 ister, and the Reverend Mr. Bradbury not only 
 showed the hard sense that Shacklett liked in 
 his conversation, but also really liked to have 
 another man smoking near him. 
 
 " I'm not very well acquainted with God," 
 Shacklett said in one of the first of these con- 
 versations, " and I wouldn't pretend to criticise 
 anybody who is; but I never could see why 
 preachers stuck so close to the Bible. The 
 work done in the Legislature is finally all put in 
 the blue-covered session laws, but that isn't any- 
 ways near all there is to State government. It 
 looks to me that there ought to be a lot more 
 of God than there is told of in the Bible." The 
 real fact was that Shacklett knew more about 
 the Bible than he did about preachers, and he 
 was fishing for information about the view-point 
 of this particular minister on things in general. 
 
 " You are perfectly right," replied the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Bradbury, "and one reason why 
 some preachers are not more successful in their 
 work is because they do not recognize what you 
 seem to instinctively feel. God gave to man 
 two books for his instruction. One of them is 
 a royal octavo, or sometimes a quarto, printed 
 in 
 
Shacklett 
 
 with an abundance of italics and a column of 
 reference marks down the side; the other is 
 specked with gold, ornamented with colors that 
 have never been reproduced, and bound in a 
 cover that the world has got only partly open 
 after thousands of years. That binding is strong 
 and heavy, but it is up far enough now for us 
 to see some things inside the volume. The 
 teachers of God's word should not confine them- 
 selves too closely to the little octavo bound in 
 leather, and teach so little from the great book of 
 nature. One of the chief of them recognized that 
 there are sermons in stones and running brooks. 
 There are greater sermons in the hills, the rivers, 
 the blade of grass, the plumage of birds, the 
 color of insects, the instincts of animals, the 
 cell structure of man. Because it is so seldom 
 that these things are treated in the pulpit, half 
 of God's word to man is allowed to grow musty, 
 and to become worm-eaten by the pseudo-scien- 
 tists in the larva stage of thought." 
 
 " Maybe one reason is that most of the 
 preachers know so little about nature," Shack- 
 lett replied. " I confess that the preachers I've 
 known personally have been rather poor sticks 
 compared with city preachers, but at least they ' 
 don't know enough of what's around them to 
 wad a shotgun. Most of them are good judges 
 of horses and corn, but you could lose 'em in 
 the bottoms on a sunny day, and they'd have 
 
 112 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 to wait till morning to see where the sun rose 
 to find a direction — and then they'd think the 
 sun rose exactly in the east." 
 
 " The trouble is," rejoined his companion 
 without a smile, " that when the best of us are in 
 school it keeps us so busy studying exegesis, 
 and criticism, and Hebrew, and Greek, that 
 we've no time for anything else. In the train- 
 ing schools the preachers have been studying 
 these special things, and if they're going out 
 into the material handiwork of God for their ser- 
 mons, they must also study biology and geology 
 with some of the specializations of each. Back 
 of it all is the thoroughness required in this 
 last. One can have a smattering of Greek and 
 Hebrew and get some good from it; but a smat- 
 tering of science is the most dangerous thing in 
 the world." 
 
 " I guess I'm perfectly safe, then," Shacklett 
 laughed, " for I've not even a smattering of 
 science. I didn't mean that, but I guess that's 
 where it all goes to. What I meant was, that 
 a good many people like me spend their Sundays 
 on wheels as far from a church as they can get, 
 and I don't see why they couldn't have some 
 religion pumped into them out in the woods 
 and along the road, just as they inflate their 
 rubber tires with air. I've an idea that there's 
 as much religion as air out there; but, like the 
 air, the most of it's going to waste because no- 
 113 
 
Shacklett 
 
 body uses it, and nobody has it pumped into 
 him by somebody with a pulpit pump, or a pump 
 pulpit, who would be a new kind of preacher, 
 but maybe a good kind." 
 
 The net result of all these conversations was, 
 that the Reverend Mr. Bradbury was more at 
 sea than ever about Shacklett's proper place in 
 a world based on good morals; and Shacklett 
 concluded that the Reverend Mr. Bradbury was 
 a man who put up about as tough a proposition 
 as one would want to go against. Shacklett 
 had hoped that the minister would be senti- 
 mentally impractical, like a mugwump or a 
 white-ribbon woman in the lobby, but he saw 
 that the preacher was of different mold. 
 
 The next day he managed to bring the con- 
 versation with Mary Stoddard around again to 
 the subject of steering a boat, and then inci- 
 dentally and very casually asked her whether she 
 thought it would be hard for a pilot to be good. 
 
 " I don't see how he can be anything else," 
 she replied. " He is always in the very center 
 of God's finest works, and he ought to fairly ab- 
 sorb religion from his surroundings." 
 
 " But he don't get much chance to go to 
 church and hear the Bible expounded from the 
 pulpit," he suggested, " and he works all day 
 Sunday instead of going to Sunday-school." 
 
 " Of course it depends on the man," she re- 
 torted, " and for some men that would mean 
 114 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 heathenism; but for other men who have what 
 I think is a more normal feeling — and at any 
 rate for all women — there's a peculiar influence 
 in the day Sunday itself. Whether one be a 
 Christian who never misses to go to church 
 twice, or a pagan who goes fishing down the 
 river, one is sure to feel the expansion of life 
 on Sunday that is the evidence on God's day of 
 the limitless expansion of God as compared with 
 the poor, restricted affairs of mankind. The en- 
 vironment on Sunday moves back its horizon 
 for all men, but it is oppressive to feel how 
 narrow is the view of the most active mind on a 
 Sunday in June. It makes me feel, when I 
 think of it, like an artist with a crude sketch 
 of a beehive in my hand standing before a 
 Murillo. And the pilot who passes his Sundays 
 in summer in the very heart-throbs of this limit- 
 less expansion must absorb a good deal of it." 
 
 " I'm afraid the theologians would not ap- 
 prove of you if they heard that kind of preach- 
 ing — for it was a sermon to me," he ventured 
 with a quick running of his hand through a lock 
 of hair on his forehead in a gesture that always 
 denoted in him what holding one's breath is 
 said to denote in stories of fiction — the doing 
 of a very bold thing with expectancy that it 
 would come out all right, but no surety but that 
 it would spoil everything. She answered him 
 with a light laugh: 
 
 "5 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " I have quit talking about the theologians. 
 I don't believe there are such people any more; 
 they are like the fairies and Santa Claus; they 
 did exist once, but they've been driven out by 
 changing conditions. Now, instead of the theo- 
 logians we have a large number of fine men, 
 well educated, practically independent of any 
 bonds, and we must treat one of them as a single 
 specimen and judge only him — not judge a 
 whole class by the character of one individual. 
 I never saw two men so different in my life as 
 the Reverend Mr. Bradbury over there and the 
 other minister in our town." 
 
 Shacklett's hand went up through that lock 
 of hair again, and he said, with a smile so broad 
 that the girl at his side could see one part of it 
 spreading laterally over his face, although she 
 could not see the peculiar glittery brightness 
 in his eyes like sunshine on ice : 
 
 " That's just what I've been thinking lately, 
 but I could not be sure of it. This Mr. Brad- 
 bury seems so different from what I always ex- 
 pected a preacher to be. If I lived in his town 
 I believe I'd go to church. That's funny, you 
 know, for I never went to church much. I 
 believe now I'll learn to be a pilot, and then I 
 won't feel that I'm neglecting a duty every Sun- 
 day. If you hadn't mentioned the other War- 
 saw preacher, I'd say that you never saw two 
 men as different as Mr. Bradbury and me; but if 
 116 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 I say that now, it makes me resemble the other 
 preacher, and I assume that he's not even as 
 good a preacher as this one; so you've spoiled 
 what I intended to say." 
 
 " I never saw anybody quite so much like 
 the Reverend Mr. Bradbury as you are, Mr. 
 Shacklett, if you'll permit me to say so." Her 
 quick retort, which came boldly enough to show 
 conviction, and shyly enough to carry its own 
 apology, staggered Shacklett. He got away 
 soon so that he could think it over. 
 
 " It's about time to count votes," he said to 
 himself into rising clouds of cigar smoke. " He's 
 got education for keeps against me. He's got 
 sense, but there's two o' them, and I've got the 
 other. I've got campaigning as sure as he's got 
 education. He's got about ten years with one 
 vote each ahead o' me, but it begins to look like 
 I'll steal them from him. Umph! if I'm like 
 him, why can't all he's done in the last ten 
 years at Warsaw be transferred to me in a block 
 and swung my way in the caucus? If all I need 
 to fill is a ten spot, and she thinks my two 
 fives make a ten, maybe I'll win on a heart flush 
 after all." 
 
 The real advantage that Shacklett had over 
 the Reverend Mr. Bradbury was a quite different 
 thing. It lay in the fact that Shacklett had 
 recognized a rival as quickly as he had learned 
 to know the palmistry of legislative influence 
 117 
 
Shacklett 
 
 when money bags are opened, while the minister 
 had failed to make any connection in his 
 thought of Mary Stoddard with the young man 
 from southern Illinois who happened to be on 
 the boat when the Warsaw party embarked. 
 The only interest the Reverend Mr. Bradbury 
 had in Shacklett was purely impersonal to him- 
 self, and was only a missionary interest with 
 some additions of a psychological nature. 
 
 The attitude of Mary Stoddard was exactly 
 that of a naturalist studying an interesting speci- 
 men — a naturalist who knows the reason why 
 the specimen is under the glass and intends to 
 send it away unharmed after carefully examining 
 it. Of course that involves interest, and more 
 interest than one can have in an old specimen 
 studied thoroughly long ago. And the interest 
 increased during the summer journey to the 
 falls where Hiawatha wooed, and back to the 
 town of real men where Jim Bludsoe lived and 
 the biographer of Little Breeches and Abraham 
 Lincoln spent his youth. 
 
 The journey was not the panorama that it 
 is often called by people with more round- 
 ness than accuracy in their descriptions. It 
 was a succession of pictures, from one to another 
 of which they passed like a little group inspect- 
 ing an art gallery. Shacklett enjoyed it all 
 more than he would have believed in advance. 
 The expansion that the girl spoke of as part of 
 118 
 
Pilots and Preachers 
 
 a Sunday he found in every day in the new sur- 
 roundings. The scenery, the cities, the talks 
 late at night with the minister, the shimmering 
 ripples of the day and the yellow path of moon- 
 light at night, all these made the points of con- 
 tact by which the presence of the girl lifted him 
 up into a higher atmosphere. He drank it all 
 into his soul, and for the first time felt sub- 
 jectively that he had a soul. 
 
 While the boat was running the last miles 
 from Keokuk to Warsaw on the homeward trip 
 he had deprecatingly asked whether he might 
 write to her some of the incidents occurring 
 down at his home, which he said he felt sure 
 would be as strange to her as the steamboat 
 trip on the Mississippi had been to him, and she 
 had said she should be delighted to read his de- 
 scriptions of them. By this time it had seemed 
 possible to her that she might have found a man 
 of cast-iron skeleton, steel muscles, and vibrating 
 nerves in this specimen, who improved greatly 
 upon acquaintance. It would be at least no 
 harm to observe him further, if he should keep 
 within her range of vision. 
 
 119 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT 
 
 Long before Shacklett reached home he felt 
 that he must accomplish something — what, did 
 not much matter, for the thing was to demon- 
 strate that he was capable of accomplishing things 
 for himself. He had discovered that he could 
 get the things done that others wanted done, 
 but he saw many men who could work for 
 others with excellent results and do nothing for 
 themselves. He did not analyze it all to the last 
 specializations, but he felt that he must do 
 something for himself. 
 
 ' He found it ready at hand when he got back 
 to the farm. That county clerkship seemed to 
 have been held for him, as if he had a mortgage 
 upon it. Other men with aspirations in that di- 
 rection had been told that they were too late, 
 for Shacklett had it all fixed, and it had been 
 fixed for him beyond question. Even Uncle 
 Tommy Rutherford delivered his township at 
 the convention, and Shacklett saw the foot- 
 120 
 
The Missionary Spirit 
 
 prints of Fletcher all over the county long before 
 the convention met. He was nominated by ac- 
 clamation, and then the campaign against the 
 nominee of the other party began. The county 
 was so close that it was rare that anybody re- 
 ceived a majority in three figures; and which can- 
 didate won depended entirely upon his own vote- 
 getting powers as compared with those of his 
 opponent. Neither nomination carried with it 
 any foregone conclusion of election, as in the 
 case of party majorities too large to break down 
 except under extraordinary circumstances. 
 
 Shacklett by this time had hired a hand to 
 do all the work on the farm, and his farm work 
 was only to look over the place on the mornings 
 when he had time before starting out to see the 
 voters. He was working hard in his campaign, 
 and things seemed to be going smoothly his 
 way, he told his mother. She was used to the 
 incidents of county campaigns, having been the 
 confidante of her husband, and it was pleasant 
 to her to have Noel sit down in the long even- 
 ings and tell her the situation in the townships, 
 as his father used to do. It was after one of 
 these long talks, when both were sound asleep 
 after sitting up late, that there came the alarm 
 in the night which has its relative in almost 
 every political campaign. Just when victory is 
 about to be plucked like a bird in a bush, a 
 hawk descends with a flash and carries it away 
 
 9 121 
 
Shacklett 
 
 before one can get his breath — unless a quick 
 eye and splendid nerve brings down the hawk 
 in time. 
 
 "Hello!" 
 
 The hail used in southern Illinois thirty- 
 years ago was as effective as it was penetrating. 
 The first syllable was not loud, but forceful, like 
 a dynamite discharge, and the last syllable came 
 out with a short, sharp, air-splitting explosion 
 that would wake the dead. It was shortened in 
 time without shortening the vowel sound, and 
 reverberated through the trees, across the fields 
 and the front yard, and through the house to 
 the buildings in the rear. As a means of giving 
 notice that there was a visitor at the gate it was 
 in universal use. 
 
 This time the hail was repeated twice, for 
 Shacklett was sleeping as soundly as most peo- 
 ple were at ten o'clock in that country — at the 
 bottom of the first plunge off the cliff of con- 
 sciousness. His mother heard it first, and called 
 Noel with energy while she spoke with the 
 lassitude of a difficult awakening: 
 
 " I wonder who that is this time o' night? " 
 
 " Don't know, but I reckon it's someone 
 that wants to see me about something," Shack- 
 lett replied as he slowly made his way to 
 the window. Before he found the stick that 
 held up the sash the hail came again, and this 
 time it echoed from the backwoods pasture. 
 
 122 
 
The Missionary Spirit 
 
 Shacklett raised the window and put out his 
 head. 
 
 " Hello yourself! " he replied in the conven- 
 tional form, and his voice by unconscious imita- 
 tion was almost as loud as that of the visitor 
 who had been trying to waken him. 
 
 "Shacklett, come down; I want to see you 
 a minute," the voice at the gate said in tones 
 that just reached as far as the window and 
 did not penetrate to the other room, where his 
 mother was lying with her head supported by 
 her elbow and her best ear toward the cross- 
 hatched, lighted opening. 
 
 "Who is it, and what does he want?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " It's Stevenson, and he wants to see me. I 
 can't guess what for, but I reckon it's something 
 about the campaign. What in the world brings 
 him here I don't know." 
 
 Shacklett slipped into a part of his clothes 
 and went out to the front fence. It was a part 
 of the whole-souled hospitality of that region 
 and time that the visitor was met at the gate 
 by the host, however little the latter had to do 
 with the visit. It was not good form, on the 
 other hand, for the self-invited guest, especially 
 if his visit was a business one, to enter the 
 premises until invited. 
 
 Stevenson was in a buggy, with the horse 
 turned out toward the road, leaving an open- 
 123 
 
Shacklett 
 
 ing between the wheels on the side next the 
 gate. 
 
 " Come out here, Shacklett; I want to talk 
 to you," he said as soon as Noel appeared in the 
 yard. 
 
 Shacklett went out and stood by the buggy, 
 and Stevenson leaned far out and spoke in con- 
 fidential tones: 
 
 " You're having a hot campaign against 
 Scott, of course," he began, " and the other side 
 have got up a scheme to elect him. I've been 
 working at it air day, and we kin beat 'em yet, 
 for I've finally got our people over; but you've 
 got to move pretty lively and carefully or 
 we'll slip up yet. I knew you'd hear about 
 it to-morrow, and I come out to tell you it's 
 all right. If you'll join us we'd ruther have 
 you than Scott"; and Stevenson laughed a 
 little. 
 
 Stevenson had an influence in politics which 
 was the outgrowth of his high standing in his 
 own church. It was not considered anything 
 against the church that its members were closely 
 amalgamated into one body for various pur- 
 poses. Indeed, plenty of scriptural authority 
 was found for the brotherhood of the entire 
 membership, and if brotherhood means any- 
 thing, it meant to this particular church helping 
 one another like brothers are supposed to do. 
 And if the church could be advanced by any 
 124 
 
The Missionary Spirit 
 
 particular thing, it seemed the duty of all its 
 members to accomplish that thing. Just as 
 churches everywhere have on occasion gone 
 solidly for reform candidates, this church some- 
 times went solidly for a candidate when it was 
 worth while. And what obtained in this church 
 obtained in others. It was a part of the living 
 atmosphere of the time and place, down there in 
 southern Illinois. Shacklett had a flash of in- 
 telligence while Stevenson was speaking. 
 
 " Exactly what do you mean by joining 
 you? " he inquired as he came a little closer be- 
 tween the wheels and put his foot on the buggy 
 step. 
 
 " Why, join the church," Stevenson replied. 
 " I guess you know I kin deliver the goods, and 
 it 'ud tickle 'em so, every mother's son in the 
 church 'ud vote fer you. If you ain't elected, 
 I'll eat the straps off that harness." 
 
 Shacklett spoke up quickly and much louder 
 than Stevenson had done: 
 
 " Jim, you know I don't give a damn for 
 any church under the canopy of heaven, and I 
 ain't no hypocrite. I don't take much stock in 
 your churches and your preachers; I ain't going 
 to pretend I do when I don't, either. I'd 
 rather lose all the offices in the State than be 
 a damned hypocrite; and if that's the only way 
 to be elected, I'm beat right now, that's all. 
 Of course it's clever of you to give me the 
 125 
 
Shacklett 
 
 chance, but, Jim, I ain't a hypocrite, whatever 
 else I am." 
 
 " Oh, that's all right, Noel," Stevenson 
 gently replied; " but you think it over sensibly, 
 and I'll see you again in a day or two. I want 
 to see you succeed, and I hope you'll not be fool 
 enough to let a good chance pass by. I ain't 
 asking you to do nothin' wrong. I'm asking 
 you to do what you oughter do anyhow, and 
 I'd like so much to see you join the church. 
 Think it over, an' I'll see you again." 
 
 Shacklett did not feel like telling his mother 
 what Stevenson came to see him about. Some- 
 how he thought of Mary Stoddard, and wished 
 he could talk to her about it. He saw the 
 danger in his refusal to accept the proposition 
 made him by Stevenson, and he was a little sur- 
 prised that he had rejected it so promptly and 
 so emphatically. It would have been more like 
 himself to have accepted the offer in the spirit in 
 which it was given, he mused to himself. But 
 somehow he was a different man since that trip 
 to St. Paul and back, and he smiled as he won- 
 dered whether that city had the missionary 
 ability of the apostle of the same name. But 
 he did not recognize that any inherent good- 
 ness kept him from accepting the rites of the 
 church and the salary of the county clerk's 
 office at the same time. " It's because I don't 
 believe a little bit in this immersing business," 
 126 
 
The Missionary Spirit 
 
 he said to himself, " and I don't want to make a 
 show of myself, when it isn't necessary to get to 
 heaven." 
 
 Having made a prompt decision, he expected 
 the matter to leave his mind, as settled matters 
 always did, but he found that this one would 
 not keep out of his thoughts. As he rode along 
 the country roads the next day it kept in his 
 head, revolving in all sorts of fantastic shapes, 
 and forming cycloid paths which seemed to 
 make it the more like a tangled skein. The 
 leaven kept working in his active brain until 
 it had shaped his plans to suit itself. He had 
 not given much thought to religious matters 
 until this summer, and on Friday he said to him- 
 self that he would go to church Sunday, any- 
 how, and see what turned up in the new com- 
 plication from which his campaign for the clerk's 
 office was suffering. His mother was a good 
 Methodist, and she called the other denomina- 
 tion Campbellites, because she knew they did 
 not like that appellation and called themselves 
 the Christian Church. The name she gave them 
 satisfied her feelings of resentment against them, 
 and at the same time expressed some of her con- 
 tempt for their peculiar beliefs. On the other 
 hand, the Christian denomination there took 
 considerable satisfaction in the knowledge that 
 -they were a thorn in the side of the Methodists, 
 and, moreover, much stronger in membership, 
 127 
 
Shacklett 
 
 wealth, and finesse. But Noel's mother knew 
 that he did not ask her to go to the other church 
 with him from any idle motive, and she really- 
 liked the invitation because of the recollection 
 it brought of going there with his father years 
 before when a campaign was on. 
 
 128 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A CAMPAIGN FOR A SOUL 
 
 As he rode to town that Sunday, in the 
 warm sunlight and the rest which is a reallity in 
 the country districts upon a Sabbath morning, 
 he noted with quick apprehension a dozen jay 
 birds pestering a hawk in Slattery's pasture, 
 and in it he saw an epitome of universal justice 
 and retribution for wrong. It was in this 
 state of mind that he entered the church after a 
 ride which his mother thought rather monot- 
 onous. 
 
 They went down the aisle just as the first 
 prayer was ended; and while the congregation, 
 led by a cabinet organ, was singing the next 
 number from a collection intended for Sunday- 
 schools, the preacher sat changing the location 
 of some book-marks in the Bible and penciling 
 new notes on the slips of paper. He asked that 
 the last verse of the song be repeated, since it 
 was so beautiful, but the deacons down in the 
 front benches were secretly delighted to see 
 129 
 
Shacklett 
 
 that what the preacher really was doing was to 
 change his sermon for the day on account of 
 Shacklett's arrival. To take quick advantage of 
 opportunities is a token of success in church 
 work as well as in political campaigns, and this 
 preacher had a modicum of the art of war in 
 his agile brain. 
 
 The text was, " Let your light so shine be- 
 fore men, that they may see your good works." 
 The preceding verses in Matthew were ex- 
 plained, especially the fact that the word trans- 
 lated " bushel " really in the Greek means a meas- 
 ure of about fifteen pints, and then the subject was 
 taken up with energy. The duty of every man 
 to show his colors and to put on the uniform 
 of faith by complying with the regulations laid 
 down in the book of directions for life, as the 
 soldier dons the blue when he enters the army, 
 was gone over with fervor and force. The ne- 
 cessity of complying with the directions given 
 us by God was emphasized, and then came the 
 specialization that since he has commanded that 
 the entrance to his Church shall be by baptism in 
 the water, there is no other way to legitimately 
 enter the Church on earth or the multitudes 
 praising him above. The exhortation was, to 
 take the light out from under the bushel and 
 make a courageous, public confession of the in- 
 tention to be one of God's people by complying 
 with the regulations he has laid down, and being 
 130 
 
A Campaign for a Soul 
 
 baptized in the water as Christ commanded 
 of old. 
 
 At the end of the sermon the six or seven 
 brethren and sisters on the front seat opened the 
 song-books, which they had been looking over 
 more or less furtively during the time the 
 preacher was talking, and at a signal from the 
 man next the aisle, who used a short lead- 
 pencil for a baton, began to sing forte and with 
 splendid attack, whatever the shading, a song 
 the refrain of which was " Calling to-day." The 
 two sopranos and the two altos dwelt lovingly on 
 " Call-ing," while the single bellowing basso and 
 two phenomenal tenors came in with gusto at 
 the same time with "Calling, calling"; and 
 whatever else could be said of the music, it was 
 in perfect and very much accentuated time, and 
 some success as an elocutionary expression of 
 the pathos in the words. Then a sincere Chris- 
 tian, who had recently given up all his property 
 to pay his debts, offered a prayer, which was no 
 sooner ended than the constructive choir began, 
 with a quickness which indicated that they had 
 been making a selection while they were all 
 standing in prayer, another song in which half 
 the people joined. The first words were: 
 
 " Why do you wait, dear brother ? " 
 and the chorus was, 
 
 " Why not ? why not ? why not come to Him now ? " 
 131 
 
Shacklett 
 
 There was a rest at each interrogation point, 
 which the singers made the more marked by the 
 hammerlike force the basso put into the preced- 
 ing two words, while the sopranos and altos put 
 all the feeling possible into their tones. There 
 was a little extraordinary force put into the 
 
 clause, 
 
 " There's no other way but His way, 
 
 by the deacons who were singing, altogether un- 
 consciously, but the result of the fact that their 
 minds were fixed upon Shacklett, and their 
 knowledge that he thought there are several 
 ways of being a Christian. All the members of 
 the church who were working hard for it had at 
 once recognized the specialization of the entire 
 service as soon as Shacklett came in. There 
 was another man there, too, in whom they had 
 a special interest, but he could be plucked as a 
 brand from the burning almost any time; Shack- 
 lett had to be plucked at some of the infre- 
 quent chances they had. The other man was 
 Scott, Shacklett's opponent on the other ticket. 
 It was not necessary to offer to make any deal 
 with him. Shacklett came higher, but the church 
 saw no more harm in saving a soul by giving 
 a man an office than in making a convert by 
 various other devices in common use. At the 
 end of the second stanza of the song Scott 
 walked forward with dignity and gave his hand 
 to the preacher, who wrung it for a full minute 
 132 
 
A Campaign for a Soul 
 
 as his eye alternately looked Scott in the face 
 and shot past the latter's ear to Shacklett sit- 
 ting next the aisle about half-way to the door. 
 Shacklett made no sign whatever, and did not 
 stay long after the benediction. 
 
 The campaign for Shacklett's soul kept on 
 without interruption, and indeed with increased 
 energy, after the assault upon his works made 
 at church that morning. The next Sunday 
 there was a baptizing at the river, and every- 
 body went to witness the ceremony. Shacklett 
 would have gone, because he, like the others, 
 always went to these public attractions, and they 
 were the great occasions for the country people 
 meeting together. He was not likely to miss 
 a meeting of his fellow-citizens of any kind dur- 
 ing the campaign, but Stevenson stopped during 
 the week to make sure that he would be there. 
 
 The baptizing was in the afternoon at the 
 upper ford, where the bottom was smooth for a 
 little space. The river was sluggish and muddy, 
 and to one accustomed to mountain streams, or 
 rivers in limestone countries, was about as re- 
 pellent a sheet of water as could be imagined. 
 It was full of holes, and at one place might be 
 two feet deep and a rod away be without bot- 
 tom, so far as sounding tackle made from plow- 
 lines and fence-rails could determine. The banks 
 were straight up from the water, and composed 
 of black, wet soil superimposed on red or yellow 
 
 133 
 
Shacklett 
 
 clay. The ground near the bank was soggy, 
 except in times of extreme drought, and 
 stretched back through the woods with dense 
 underbrush and a thick carpet of wet, dead 
 leaves for a few miles to the first hill which ran 
 parallel with the stream on either side, leaving 
 the river as a ditch in the middle of a trough 
 of alluvial formation. Every spring the high 
 water covered the country in this trough from 
 hill to hill, and it was far in the summer before 
 its bottom became dry. Here and there the 
 bank shelved down gradually to the water, due 
 generally to some immense sycamore tree hav- 
 ing fallen into the stream and left a hole where 
 its roots turned upward in the crash; and at one 
 of these places the baptisms of the church were 
 held. The sloping bank allowed access to the 
 river itself, and the high bank to the right 
 and left made points of vantage for the spec- 
 tators. 
 
 The wagon track winding through the 
 woods, made by some landowner or wood- 
 poacher in getting out his winter supply of fuel 
 sometime within a year or two, was filled with a 
 procession of vehicles when Shacklett turned 
 into it from the highway. There were farm 
 wagons, with spring seats perched upon the low 
 beds painted green with much ornamentation in 
 red, a variety of old vehicles of antique model, 
 and here and there a new buggy, shiny black 
 
 '34 
 
A Campaign for a Soul 
 
 with great splotches of mud on bed and top. 
 The heavy wagons could not go faster than a 
 walk over the rough track full of stumps and 
 chuck-holes, and the effective speed of the pro- 
 cession was that of its slowest vehicle, for there 
 was no room to turn out and pass. So the 
 people drove slowly on, with watchful care in 
 avoiding the stumps and quick decision of which 
 side of the mud-hole was the least apt to result 
 in upsetting. The line wound its way through 
 the wooded bottoms, and was continued appar- 
 ently indefinitely by the vehicles in the main 
 road coming from both directions and drawn 
 into the little lane which was the beginning of 
 the wagon track, like objects into a vortex or 
 ears of corn into a sheller. 
 
 The warm sun was half-way down the western 
 sky when all had arrived at the upper ford, and 
 the woods were full of teams tied to trees and 
 to the rear of green farm wagons from which 
 they had been unhitched. The tops of the 
 smart new buggies were thrown back, and it 
 could be seen now that these were occupied by 
 young people from town, or sons and daughters 
 of the more ambitious and prosperous farmers, 
 who had come for the spectacle, and apparently 
 had no reverence whatever for the religious rite. 
 Some of the tough gang from the Big Bend 
 were there on horseback, ready to take advan- 
 tage of any opportunity either to make trouble 
 135 
 
Shacklett 
 
 or to scoff loudly at the services. These were 
 well to the front at both flanks of the mass of 
 people which crowded the high bank; and in the 
 middle, where the bank sloped down, stood the 
 preacher in a suit of rubber that made him look 
 like a marine diver of- special refinement in dress 
 who had not yet put on his head-piece. 
 
 The choir started a song, and after the first 
 verse the people added their voices, especially 
 in the chorus, with the words of which they 
 were most familiar. Those who sang gradually 
 worked their way down to the front, next the 
 water, because they were the leading members 
 of the church, and took a personal interest in 
 the solemnities and artistic qualities of the rite. 
 The sound of song shaded back rapidly, and a 
 dozen feet from the edge of the water no 
 one was singing, except here and there a soprano 
 or an alto by the side of a tenor or a baritone — 
 youth taking advantage of every opportunity to 
 form a soul connection by a more or less close 
 harmony of tones. After the song the minister 
 prayed. There in the woods, by the big cotton- 
 wood tree with a trunk suggesting centuries and 
 branches spreading far out over the river sug- 
 gesting the extent of God's mercy, with a crowd 
 of people full of the very essence of Nature, 
 the one thing which would weld man into the 
 grand harmony of the universe was a prayer to 
 everlasting Omnipotence. But the preacher 
 136 
 
A Campaign for a Soul 
 
 neglected all this. He prayed to a Father of 
 a great family who had sacrificed His Son and 
 through Him had told man how to act in order 
 to obtain eternal happiness. He recalled to the 
 recollection of God that Jesus had been baptized 
 in a river, and that the eunuch had been taken 
 down into the water and had come up out of the 
 water. He called attention to the fact that the 
 object of himself and his flock was to keep close 
 to the conditions and observances in Palestine 
 over eighteen centuries ago, and that they 
 spared no pains to observe every detail of those 
 things. There was silence, even at the edges 
 of the crowd, while he prayed, and all due rev- 
 erence was shown except by a school-teacher in 
 almost the only frock coat there, who said to 
 the simpering girl by his side that he wondered 
 where they got rubber suits in New Testament 
 days. The girl giggled, and then both looked 
 preternaturally solemn until the end, several 
 eyes being turned in their direction. 
 
 Then the minister took up a stick longer 
 than his height and as large as his wrist — a 
 straight branch of a tree which had come from 
 the wood-pile of one of the deacons and was 
 taken out of one of the green farm wagons — and 
 using it like the staff of a biblical traveler, he 
 walked out into the river. The bottom shelved 
 rapidly, and before he had gone a dozen feet the 
 water was above his waist. He felt all around 
 io 137 
 
Shacklett 
 
 with his sounding-staff and found the step-off, 
 which is always in these rivers a yard or two 
 farther out and down the stream; then he turned 
 his face to the shore and threw the stick toward 
 the bank, landing it skilfully at the feet of the 
 singers without splashing a drop of water or 
 mud on their shoes. By this time the sun was 
 low and had moved to the north enough to 
 throw its rays down the river through the tops 
 of the trees on the knoll at the bend a quarter 
 of a mile above. The light was shining upon 
 the water back of the minister, and where he 
 stood was shimmering as the waves broke up 
 the network of light and shadow thrown by the 
 tree-tops up-stream. Everybody was silent, 
 waiting for the next thing, which was the dra- 
 matic climax for them, the toughs on the high 
 bank reserving their fire for the acme of their 
 opportunity, which was just at hand. Suddenly 
 the choir began a song with that same energy 
 of attack which carried with it a triumphant im- 
 pression, and the deacon who had been standing 
 somewhat listlessly at the edge of the water 
 became animated and reached out his hand to a 
 stalwart young man at his right. He conducted 
 the muscular youth into the water a pace, and 
 there was met by the minister, who led the con- 
 vert out a few yards farther. The music died 
 down to the most slender pianissimo, and the 
 sublime words spoken in the name of the Incom- 
 138 
 
A Campaign for a Soul 
 
 prehensible Trinity echoed through the forest 
 and over the river. With a dexterity born of 
 much skill and practice the minister caused the 
 big young man to sink backward under the 
 muddy water, and as he appeared again with his 
 eyes blinking and his face and hair streaming, 
 the septet made a swift crescendo to the strong- 
 est fortissimo of which their voices were capa- 
 ble. Nobody else sang, for all were too much 
 interested in the couple in the water. Quickly 
 came the loud hail from the bank down-stream 
 in a voice trained by calling animals from the 
 lower pasture: 
 
 " Dip 'im agin; ye can't save 'im with one 
 washin' ! " 
 
 This was answered from the other flank, up- 
 stream, still more loudly: 
 
 " There ain't water enough in the river to 
 wash his sins away." 
 
 A startled snapping turtle dived off a log and 
 started down the stream. 
 
 " Oh, yes, there is," the first voice shouted; 
 " there they go now! " 
 
 On both flanks of the crowd there were guf- 
 faws, and a boy perched in a tree overhanging 
 the river gave a shrill cackle, which- he vainly 
 tried to stifle when he comprehended his con- 
 spicuous position. None of the church people 
 paid any attention to the interruption, and the 
 minister led the new member of the congrega- 
 
 139 
 
Shacklett 
 
 tion toward the shore, where he was assisted to 
 land by the deacon. Then the music died down 
 to really sweet softness, and a pretty girl, with 
 her hair braided and carefully coiled at the top 
 of her head, was led into the water, shrinking 
 but brave. The last one to be immersed, a half 
 hour later, was Scott, and as he stepped with 
 quiet dignity down to the deacon and minister 
 many of the church members added their ex- 
 ultant tones to that of the choir. 
 
 The irrepressibles on the bank at the upper 
 end of the crowd broke out into jeers and an- 
 cient witticisms, one voice following another 
 with reference to the difficulty of washing very 
 old clothing and disbelief in the purification of 
 any politician. Shacklett sauntered up that 
 way, and going into the middle of the group, 
 who recognized him as the natural leader of the 
 anti-Scott forces, said in the hushed tone of 
 voice generally used at funerals in that country: 
 
 " Boys, that only makes Scott friends and 
 helps him. Please let him alone; the day of the 
 week to hit him is Tuesday." 
 
 140 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 EARLY RISING AND RAVENS 
 
 In ten days after the baptizing the central 
 committee met at the county seat in a lawyer's 
 office, and Shacklett was there with some of the 
 other candidates on his ticket. The reports 
 made by each committeeman were very satisfac- 
 tory from a partizan standpoint until Blue 
 Ridge township was reached. The committee- 
 man from there was a shrewd farmer with 
 touches of gray in his bushy beard and a strong 
 face with soft eyes that sparkled occasionally 
 to indicate the reserve shrewdness hid behind 
 the rough exterior and soft voice. His tones 
 were more forcible than usual as he began to 
 speak, and his face was grave but determined. 
 He rose from his seat, while the others had 
 talked informally from their chairs, and every 
 eye was fixed upon him in expectancy as he be- 
 gan by saying: 
 
 " I'm sorry that all the candidates ain't here, 
 for I'd like to talk before all of 'em. If we're 
 goin' to redeem this county an' hold on to it, 
 141 
 
Shacklett 
 
 we've got to all pull together, win together, or 
 die together. Up in my township things is 
 mixed in a way I don't like, an' I'll give you the 
 siteration first an' won't draw no conclusions. 
 All's fine enough on the surface, but there's not 
 enough talk about Shacklett for clerk and en- 
 tirely too much about Thompson for judge. 
 It's awful quiet, and that's eggsactly what I 
 didn't like, so I went to work at it. I tell you, 
 my township's goin' heavy for Thompson for 
 judge and agin our friend Shacklett for clerk, 
 and by about the same number o' votes. I'm 
 sure Thompson'll git enough to let him win 
 out in the county easy, and we're sure to elect 
 him from what the rest o' you say about your 
 own townships; but Shacklett's beat as sure as 
 God made little apples, and it's goin' to be 
 done right in my township, an' I can't help it. 
 It don't look right for me, but I'm tellin' you 
 right now, an' if you kin find anybody that kin 
 stop the thing I'll only be too glad to step aside 
 an' let 'im take my place. Gentlemen, I'm wor- 
 ried about this thing on my own account an' 
 for the sake o' the party. Tradin' off candidates 
 to win out yourself on the part o' anybody on 
 the ticket'll break up the party mighty soon. I 
 don't make no charges, but ye see the siteration, 
 an' it looks like tradin' to me. It's entirely 
 among the church up there, too. That's why I 
 can't do nuthin', fer I don't worship there, ye 
 142 
 
Early Rising and Ravens 
 
 know. The word seems to 'a' been passed 
 'round fer 'em all to vote fer their own mem- 
 bers, and that's Thompson an' Scott. I hoped 
 Thompson 'ud be here so's I could ask 'im jest 
 how much he had to do with it." 
 
 The members of the committee did not look 
 at Shacklett, but each inspected the floor, the 
 table, or the wall, and when the committeeman 
 from Blue Ridge finally sat down there was a 
 pause for half a minute, which Shacklett broke, 
 but he was interrupted after the first few words 
 by the chairman, who broke out vehemently: 
 
 " I look at it this way : If Thompson is 
 trading off Shacklett, the party is disrupted for 
 the next ten years. If the whole ticket is beat 
 we are in good shape still for the next time. 
 I'd rather have the whole ticket beat than to 
 have one candidate traded off and the rest all 
 elected. If we pull Thompson off the ticket 
 now it'll beat the whole lot, and even that's the 
 best for the party. But there's the others on 
 the ticket, and it don't look jest right to punish 
 them for the sins of Thompson, either. We 
 want to decide right here what to do, and then 
 do it good and hard." 
 
 Shacklett now arose in his place in a way 
 that gave him the floor without further inter- 
 ruption. He began in a tone of unconcern, 
 which stopped any idea of talk from anyone else, 
 and all eyes went to him as he said: 
 143 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " Since I'm the most interested in this thing, 
 let me say a word. I think I can throw con- 
 siderable light on the subject and make it easier 
 for you to decide what to do. In the first place, 
 I want to say that Thompson ain't trying to be 
 elected judge by trading me off. He's going 
 to get the church vote up in Blue Ridge, and, 
 for that matter, here in Jackson, and I'm glad of 
 it. I ain't going to get it anywhere, and Scott 
 is, and I'm sorry for that. I can't help it, and 
 Thompson can't help it if he wanted to, which 
 he shouldn't. I had the first chance to get it, 
 and declined. Scott took it. I can get it 
 away from him yet; but, gentlemen, I may be 
 an idiot, but I ain't a hypocrite. Jim Steven- 
 son told me how I could get the vote that Scott 
 and Thompson's going to get, and I won't do it. 
 You can put someone else on in my place that'll 
 beat Scott at his own game, if you want to, but 
 I ain't going to swim into the clerk's office 
 through muddy water. I'll take my medicine 
 and keep my manhood — and go to the devil, I 
 suppose." 
 
 All chorused a " No " to his offer of pulling 
 off the ticket, but from that minute all idea of 
 electing the clerk was given up, and within a 
 week it was told all over the county that Shack- 
 lett was defeated already and Scott would be 
 elected as sure as election day should come. 
 
 When the meeting adjourned Shacklett 
 144 
 
Early Rising and Ravens 
 
 walked out with the committeeman from Perry 
 township, which was on the other side of the 
 county from Blue Ridge, where Shacklett had 
 been led to the political stake and the virtue of 
 Scott had been properly rewarded in accordance 
 with one reading of the epistle of St. John. 
 They talked for a few minutes at the door of the 
 livery stable and then each went home thinking. 
 
 On the road Shacklett met the Methodist 
 minister, who preached on a circuit comprising 
 four charges, the two extreme ones being fif- 
 teen miles apart; both men stopped in ac- 
 cordance with the fine courtesy of the country, 
 a remnant of the Southern characteristics of 
 southern Illinois which remains to this day. 
 Their talk drifted from crops to signs and omens, 
 from that to fatalism, and finally, directed now 
 by the minister, to special providence. 
 
 " Do you believe a man that resists tempta- 
 tion and does right always comes out right on 
 that proposition? " asked Shacklett. " For in- 
 stance, if I need a thousand dollars to pay off 
 the mortgage on my farm, and I return to the 
 owner of them a roll of bills I find in the road, 
 will my mortgage be paid off some way, or will 
 the Lord let it be foreclosed? " 
 
 " Well, I'll say this without fear of contradic- 
 tion," smiled the minister, " that if a man has 
 force of character enough to hunt up the owner 
 of those bills under such circumstances, he's apt 
 
 145 
 
Shacklett 
 
 to have force of character enough to save his 
 farm by his own exertions. God generally works 
 through character, and I don't see that it's any 
 less in accord with the Bible for him to make a 
 man get up early and work late than it was for 
 him to send bread by ravens." 
 
 As soon as he got home Shacklett told his 
 mother that the committee was unanimous that 
 he would be defeated by Scott, because the 
 Campbellites in Blue Ridge township were all 
 going to vote for Scott and Thompson, regard- 
 less of the two parties. She did not get further 
 than opening her mouth in reply before some- 
 thing in his eye made her pause and go into the 
 kitchen without saying a word. To do her jus- 
 tice, she was wofully disappointed, for it must 
 be remembered that the success or failure of a 
 man sometimes means more to his mother, or 
 his wife, than to himself. 
 
 When election day came Shacklett went over 
 into one of the distant townships, and from there 
 directly to the county seat, where he arrived 
 about midnight. It was nearly two o'clock in 
 the morning when the returns began to come in, 
 the central committeeman generally bringing in 
 the unofficial figures himself. Before three 
 o'clock all were in but two, and since these were 
 not the largest townships their delay indicated 
 much scratching there, making it a longer task 
 to count the ballots. Blue Ridge was the first 
 146 
 
Early Rising and Ravens 
 
 of the two to arrive, and showed that Scott and 
 Thompson had each run ahead of their respect- 
 ive tickets a hundred twenty votes, giving 
 Thompson a majority over his opponent of nearly 
 two hundred in the county and putting Scott to 
 the good by forty less. Perry was normally on 
 their side, and could in the nature of things only 
 increase Thompson's lead, while it would not in 
 the course of human events give enough of a 
 majority for Shacklett to overcome the heavy 
 vote with which Scott had come down to its 
 boundary line. Shacklett was quietly standing 
 over by the bookcase in the law office in which 
 the party leaders were gathered. Thompson 
 was back in the shadow, from which it was im- 
 possible to lure him, and by this time a dozen 
 people had saluted him as Judge Thompson. To 
 the first of these he had shaken his head, and to 
 the latter ones he said: 
 
 " Don't get too fast. I'm not elected yet, 
 and I ain't sure I will be. If I get in, it'll be by 
 a scratch." 
 
 At this the committeeman from Blue Ridge 
 beckoned the chairman of the county central 
 committee out into the hall, and said: 
 
 " That settles it in my mind about Thomp- 
 son. He's lettin' on as though he ain't confi- 
 i dent, jest to run a bluff agin his tradin' Shacklett 
 off in my township. If he had a clear conscience 
 he'd be smilin', an' sendin' out fer the seegars on 
 147 
 
Shacklett 
 
 the quiet by this time. Shacklett ain't sayin' 
 enough to make any prospect of peace fer ten 
 year. His friends'll knife Thompson's friends an' 
 our township till the cows come home, an' 
 what'll you say agin it? You want to look out 
 fer these quiet people that have the right to be 
 mad." 
 
 A quick step came up the stairs, and both 
 men entered the room with the committeeman 
 from Perry township. Nobody could speak, but 
 the looks of inquiry bored into the brain of 
 the last committeeman to report. He looked 
 queerly at the rest as he said clearly: 
 
 " About ninety for the ticket, Shacklett a 
 hundred and seventy-three, and " — in a lower 
 tone — " Thompson snowed under by two hun- 
 dred and twelve." 
 
 Everybody was paralyzed except the men 
 most concerned — Shacklett and Thompson. 
 Shacklett quickly walked over in front of 
 Thompson and said earnestly: 
 
 " That looks bad for me, Thompson, but I 
 give you my word of honor I never traded you 
 off for a single vote in the county, and I don't 
 care how the figures in Perry look; I swear I 
 worked as hard for you there as I did for my- 
 self." And he searched Thompson's face for a 
 sign that he was believed. Thompson threw 
 away a cigar stub, and taking a pace toward the 
 middle of the room which brought him out into 
 148 
 
Early Rising and Ravens 
 
 the circle of the lamplight for the first time, 
 held out his hand to Shacklett and replied: 
 
 " I knew all about it last week. You 
 couldn't help it. It's them damned Methodists 
 down in Perry that done it." 
 
 Nobody smiled. It was with unusual dig- 
 nity and heartiness that all the men in the room 
 congratulated Shacklett. They had the feeling 
 that comes over college students when a substi- 
 tute on the 'varsity eleven makes a long end run, 
 executes a new trip on the man that gets in his 
 way, and spurts to a touch-down that wins the 
 game, and does it after the timekeepers have 
 called " two minutes to play." There was not 
 the exuberance of the students, because every one 
 of the old county politicians there felt that Noel 
 Shacklett was in the senior class, and they but 
 sophomores in the college of practical politics. 
 
 Noel hurried home to tell his mother. The 
 next day he wrote to Mary Stoddard a humorous 
 account of his campaign, and of how badly 
 frightened he was by a trick of the opposition, 
 which she would hardly understand, but which 
 failed by pure good luck. 
 
 149 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PRACTICE AND PROGRESS 
 
 After the feeling of something accom- 
 plished which added warmth to his soul, Shack- 
 lett found most happiness in the clerk's office 
 from being able to move his mother to town. 
 He traded the farm for a house and lot near 
 the court-house, and his mother felt that her life 
 was going out joyfully and in comfort with her 
 son a county officer and her cares ended. She 
 spoke of his reelection once, and he made an 
 evasive answer. His own plan was to save 
 enough money from his salary to enable him to 
 get a start somewhere else — just where or how 
 he could not exactly make out ; but by this time 
 he had the self-confidence that fed on success 
 and made most of his later successes. He found 
 chances to add to his salary, and usually found 
 them where nobody else thought of looking. 
 
 The county seat had grown steadily, and by 
 
 this time its schools had become more of a 
 
 recognized part of the town pride. There were 
 
 enough pupils to employ several teachers and to 
 
 150 
 
Practice and Progress 
 
 give the principal the title of professor, and inci- 
 dentally enough to make the sale of school books 
 an item worth the attention of the ever-active 
 publishers. The books were the same ones that 
 Shacklett had marked up in the country school- 
 house when he was sitting in a front seat with his 
 legs dangling toward the floor. Progress had 
 come to the county seat, however, and Progress 
 demanded, among other things, the installation 
 of a new set of text-booksinto the schools. Prog- 
 ress in this case had as an agent a new principal 
 fresh from normal school, and Progress was prac- 
 tical enough to pay her agent well for work done, 
 the checks to be signed by a New York firm of 
 publishers, none of whose books were in use. 
 Conservatism, opposing Progress, at once sent 
 to the county seat an agent whose salary Con- 
 servatism paid in checks signed by the Cincin- 
 nati firm of publishers whose books were already 
 in the schools, and were to be kept there by hook 
 or crook — and the way was generally more or 
 less crooked. 
 
 The agent of the Cincinnati firm was resting 
 in Shacklett's office after a long and arduous in- 
 terview with two members of the board of school 
 directors. Shacklett was thinking of the much 
 larger salary the school-book publishers' agent 
 was drawing each month, and had a hazy idea, 
 gradually coming into form, of looking into that 
 business for himself. He was drawing the agent 
 
 I5i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 out on the subject of his work, and the agent was 
 talking forcibly and freely of its difficulties. He 
 had one of the three directors, but the enemy 
 had the other two and the majority, so that it 
 seemed impossible to save the day and the Cin- 
 cinnati books, he said. 
 
 " Why don't you concentrate on one of the 
 others? " Shacklett asked. 
 
 " Can't touch either of them; both are im- 
 movable; can't persuade them that my books are 
 the best with that principal on the other side, 
 and you know I'd run the risk of being shot if I 
 hinted at buying them." 
 
 " Why don't you buy somebody who can in- 
 fluence them? " persisted Shacklett. 
 
 " Can't find a soul who can influence them 
 except a preacher, who might work one of 
 them," the agent replied quizzically. " Might 
 buy the preacher, eh? " he laughed. 
 
 "That's it!" exclaimed Shacklett. "As 
 safe as robbing that safe when everybody knows 
 there's nothing in it. I could blow that safe 
 open some night, and if you swore you saw me 
 do it nobody'd believe you." 
 
 The agent looked up with an expression that 
 said the subject was too serious for joking, and 
 Shacklett kept on very quietly: 
 
 " Now, how much is there in it for another 
 director for your side, collect on delivery in cur- 
 rent funds and no checks? " 
 152 
 
Practice and Progress 
 
 The agent took his leg off the side-arm of the 
 chair and turned straight to face Shacklett. 
 After a glance he replied: 
 
 " I'm the second man sent here; I'm a for- 
 lorn hope, you see. I don't know but the 
 house'll kick, but it's worth something to me 
 to beat the other fellow, especially when the 
 house pays it. I'd give a hundred for another 
 director." 
 
 " I'll get you one for seven hundred, payable 
 after the vote, and you to let me alone," Shack- 
 lett almost drawled in his desire to seem only 
 slightly interested in the puny efforts of an 
 unskilled hand at a fine art, and to have the 
 agent appreciate that this was what he thought 
 him. 
 
 " I'll do it," casually replied the agent, " and 
 I'm perfectly willing for you to practise on the 
 director, for the goose is cooked brown already, 
 and you can't make it worse." 
 
 Shacklett went out that evening to find the 
 preacher at the post-office. It was the Method- 
 ist preacher, he knew, who could persuade one 
 of the directors if anybody could. Having 
 caught the minister, it would be easy to catch 
 the director. Shacklett knew the minister well. 
 It was the same one who had talked to him 
 about feeding the starving by ravens and by 
 getting them up early in the morning to lift 
 mortgages, that day in the road during the cam- 
 " 153 
 
Shacklett 
 
 paign. This minister was one preacher in 
 the county seat that Shacklett knew to be sin- 
 cerely and devotedly a follower in his actions 
 and thought of his religion and his creed. He 
 lacked worldly wisdom because he was so thor- 
 oughly and completely pious himself that he had 
 no conception of many sins that bother other 
 people. He had never thought concretely of 
 bribery, because that to him was like some of 
 the crimes mentioned in the Bible and the 
 revised statutes, but practically never practised. 
 Shacklett walked home with him, carrying a 
 bundle under his arm. 
 
 " I've got something here I'm taking home," 
 he said, " and I'll go in and show it to you. 
 Here on the porch will do. It's a complete set 
 of books you and I used to handle at school; I 
 suppose you studied them. I got a chance to 
 pick them up from a friend for nothing, and 
 they're to me like a drink from the old school- 
 house well. And I tell you, these new-fangled 
 books aren't in it with them yet. Now, look 
 here at this old question: ' When I first met Mr. 
 A I was one third as old as he, and twelve years 
 after I was one half as old as he; how old was I 
 when I first met Mr. A? ' These new books 
 are easy compared with arithmetics like that. 
 And here's Pinneo's old grammar with its " 
 
 It was half an hour later that Shacklett was 
 saying: 
 
 154 
 
Practice and Progress 
 
 " I'm glad you think about it as I do; I 
 think we ought to do something to keep these 
 books in the school. Those New York fellows 
 are trying to put theirs in, of course, and the 
 directors want to do what's right, but they're 
 not posted, of course. If you're real sure that 
 you think as I do that these books ought to be 
 let alone in the school where they are, I believe 
 we can accomplish it. I didn't want to mention 
 anything about that, of course, for I've a deep 
 feeling on it, and thought maybe I'm preju- 
 diced; but I was thinking to-day that I wished 
 you could conscientiously accept an offer that 
 was made to me. I declined it because I knew 
 I couldn't do any good. 
 
 " It's this way. The publishers of these 
 books want to hire some subagent here to 
 keep them in. They offered me three dollars 
 a day and expenses for one. Now, if you're sure 
 you think the old books are really the best, 
 I can get them to make you an agent — some- 
 thing like being agent for the Central Christian 
 Advocate, you know — at three dollars a day and 
 expenses. They'll want you to talk to one of 
 the directors a little every day about these 
 books, and try to get him to favor keeping them 
 in the school. They won't take chances, and 
 want each agent to work until the very night of 
 the meeting, and that's about ten days off. 
 Now, why can't you take the agency and do 
 
 155 
 
Shacklett 
 
 what you can for our old Ray's Intellectual and 
 Pinneo, and the rest of them, and make what 
 they're willing to pay all their agents? " 
 
 Fifteen minutes later Shacklett was still do- 
 ing most of the talking, and was saying to the 
 minister: 
 
 " I'll tell him, then, you'll do it, and con- 
 gratulate him on getting you. If he's offering 
 or paying any more salary by that time I'll get 
 it for you. I don't think he will, though, for 
 three dollars a day is pretty steep, even for Cin- 
 cinnati people, and then the expenses count up. 
 You see, they allow a dollar a day for hotel bill 
 and two dollars a day for livery hire, because 
 most of the work is in the country. The house 
 won't bother their bookkeepers, they say, by 
 leaving that off whenever the work is in town, 
 and so they allow it and let a man eat at his 
 own home hotel and hire his own horse and 
 buggy. But I'll attend to all that for you. 
 You turn in your time to me, and I'll collect 
 the wages for you." 
 
 The day after the old books were retained 
 in the schools, the Cincinnati agent had not 
 finished telling Shacklett his opinion of the work 
 the latter had done, and his curiosity as to 
 how Shacklett had accomplished bagging the 
 preacher, when the minister's little son brought 
 Shacklett a note. It contained a bill for serv- 
 ices, reading: 
 
 156 
 
Practice and Progress 
 
 " Alvis, Thompson & Co. 
 
 To J. S. Notwood, Dr., 
 
 To Nine Days, at $6 per day .... $54.00 
 Was sick one day and did not get out." 
 
 Shacklett picked up a pen and a block of 
 letter-heads, and wrote: 
 
 " Mr. Notwood: 
 
 " This bill is not correct. The house is very 
 particular. Make it out according to agree- 
 ment, at $3 per day for yourself, $1 per day for 
 hotel, and $2 per day for livery, and say after 
 each of the last two that you furnished your- 
 self. Yours truly, 
 
 " N. C. Shacklett." 
 
 Shacklett gave his answer to the boy and 
 turned to the agent. 
 
 " There's not quite so honest a man in the 
 county to-day as that preacher. It seems to me 
 that you fellows get crude in your work." 
 
 157 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SERPENTS AND DOVES 
 
 Shacklett felt that he could afford to make 
 another visit to Warsaw now. Mary Stoddard 
 wrote him that she would be visiting in Hamil- 
 ton, five miles from home, but that she thought 
 he would enjoy a visit there more than at War- 
 saw. He went the next week, and found that 
 the trip across the State to St. Louis and then 
 up through the edge of Missouri to the western 
 end of the bridge across the Mississippi, which 
 gives Hamilton its chief entrance, was much 
 shorter than he had expected. He thought of 
 the rapidity with which a catastrophe always 
 seems to approach. 
 
 He felt like a diver at the bottom of the sea 
 surrounded by tons on tons of pressure. There 
 was a buoyancy of feeling in knowing that the 
 pressure was being kept away from the heart, 
 but he knew that it was to end. He had deter- 
 mined to cut his life-line and let the sea press 
 in on his heart till it was crushed. He knew it 
 would not stop beating, and that was the worst 
 158 
 
Serpents and Doves 
 
 of it. But he was determined that on this visit 
 he would give the girl he loved to understand 
 that he could not marry her. It was not 
 egotism, but penetration, that told him that 
 this was the honorable thing to do at once. He 
 hoped it would turn out that he could still visit 
 her for the pleasure and good that did him, but 
 if not, he would stay away. At any rate, he 
 would delicately make it clear that his intentions 
 were not serious, as it was phrased in the only 
 novel he ever read in his life. 
 
 When the girl — he had grown to call her 
 that to himself — greeted him he did not have just 
 the expression in reply that he intended. He 
 proposed a ride to historic Nauvoo for the next 
 day with the idea of its giving him an excellent 
 opportunity to show his intentions — or lack of 
 intentions — by what he would not say. But his 
 basic idea of warning the girl so permeated his 
 mind that he did nothing else well. He had not 
 meant to tell her that he loved her, but that 
 evening, when they were coming home from 
 Nauvoo along the river road, he half told her, 
 and the girl insisted on his telling the other half. 
 The moon was only a little more than a slim 
 crescent hanging over the Iowa bluffs, but every 
 ray of its spectral brightness was reflected from 
 each wave in the river. The lights of Keokuk 
 shone like a string of gems along the top of the 
 high bluff, and the red and green lights below 
 
 159 
 
Shacklett 
 
 along the western shore and over the locks of 
 the canal added to the supernatural tone of the 
 scene. So close that they felt it to be at their 
 very feet, the Mississippi glided as smoothly as 
 a giant serpent and as powerful as a monster 
 anaconda. No one can ride along that river road 
 upon the very bank without feeling the influence 
 of a power greater than himself in the clutches 
 of which he is borne along. One may catch his 
 breath at its powerful beauty, but he can not for- 
 get the immensity of it all. 
 
 The hoarse tone of an excursion boat growl- 
 ing out notice of its approach had turned the 
 conversation between Shacklett and the girl 
 along the channel of the friends waiting eagerly 
 in the town for the signal that the passengers 
 had safely returned. The next minute Shacklett 
 Was talking about the wrong of making one's 
 friends wait for him. The echoes of the last long 
 blast from the boat's whistle had not died away 
 before he had let slip the thought that was with 
 him most of the time: a man ought not to ask 
 a girl to wait until he had gained a competency 
 upon which to support a wife. 
 
 He had meant to stop with that. He had 
 told her a hundred times with his eyes that he 
 loved her, and it was in keeping with his diplo- 
 matic character to embrace the opportunity of 
 saying to her in this way that he would never 
 tell her so with his lips. 
 1 60 
 
Serpents and Doves 
 
 " Do you think that fair to the girl? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " It is the only thing that is just to her," he 
 replied in a tone that his friends knew always 
 closed an argument. 
 
 " But suppose the girl would rather wait 
 than accept the other life? " 
 
 " She will not be that big a fool; she will be 
 just as happy with some other fellow as with 
 me" — that last word was a slip that he always 
 charged to the witchery of the omnipotent river. 
 The girl that Shacklett could love with his 
 whole soul was of necessity a girl that could talk 
 as frankly, and yet as carefully, as the shrewdest 
 lobbyist spoke to the member who was chiefly 
 concerned about fooling himself as well as his 
 constituents. 
 
 " Not if she really loves you," she said 
 clearly; " and you are doing her the greatest in- 
 jury of her life in allowing her to suffer because 
 of false philanthropy on your part. She has as 
 good a right to cast her own future as you have 
 to cast yours, and a much better right than you 
 have to cast hers for her." 
 
 Shacklett hated sham unless there was good 
 reason for it; he only helped a legislator to fool 
 himself when it was absolutely necessary in order 
 to obtain results. He ceased to be impersonal. 
 
 " No; I can't argue against that — I've tried 
 to do it to myself; but, nevertheless, I shall not 
 161 
 
Shacklett 
 
 tie you up like that house-boat until I am able 
 to pilot you through the rapids." And the girl 
 knew that the matter was settled. 
 
 " And, nevertheless, I shall control my own 
 future," she said. 
 
 Shacklett talked of other things, and left 
 early the next morning for home. All the way 
 he pondered over that last statement. He 
 might do as he pleased, it seemed to mean, but 
 she would have her own woman's way in the 
 end. How different she is from other girls! he 
 exclaimed to himself. Then he laughed: 
 
 " I seem to be in about the same fix that I 
 put that honest preacher in with the school- 
 books. When my mother's part of me does in- 
 duce my father's part of me to pass a good bill 
 once in a while, the third house walks in from 
 the lobby and puts it to sleep in committee on 
 that very account. The old books staid in, 
 and it looks like I'm going to stay in, too, in 
 this new school I'm in." 
 
 For fifty miles he did not hear the drum- 
 ming of the rails nor the bustle at the stations. 
 A woman who thought of asking for half his 
 seat as the car became crowded looked at his 
 face and passed on through the aisle. The hills 
 had been passed east of St. Louis, and outside 
 the windows was a monotonous landscape, the 
 lower fringe of the grand prairie covering half 
 the State. He was nearing home. 
 162 
 
Serpents and Doves 
 
 " It's up to this," he said to himself with a 
 decision that roused him to semiconsciousness: 
 "Tm strong enough to win out yet. If I get 
 to congress or a private room for clipping 
 coupons, I'll marry her; if I don't get to one of 
 these, I'll stand pat. I'm going to do right in 
 this one thing in my life, and I hope she'll have 
 her own way, too." 
 
 He straightened up in his seat, as the train 
 boy approached, and bought a cigar. 
 
 He reached home at noon, and when he en- 
 tered his office his deputy thought he looked 
 worried and cut the greetings short by going 
 back to his work. Shacklett came over in a few 
 minutes and sat down by the deputy, who was 
 a young man with a pinched expression and 
 nervous movements. Shacklett threw one leg 
 upon the table in a way that interfered with the 
 deputy's work, and said: 
 
 " George, I don't like to talk to any man 
 about his personal affairs, and you've kept very 
 quiet about yours to me. But I want to talk 
 to you now a little." 
 
 The deputy's pen trembled in his hand, for 
 there were debts, and threats of using a pull on 
 Shacklett against him if they were not paid. 
 Shacklett went on evenly without a break in the 
 sequence of his words or the low monotony of 
 his tone: 
 
 " I've noticed your mother lately " — the 
 163 
 
Shacklett 
 
 deputy swallowed something — " and she's hav- 
 ing too hard a life out there on the farm, with 
 it and the hand to manage, especially as it's not 
 paying a cent. Get her a buggy and let her 
 bring you in every morning and take you out 
 every evening; it'll do her good. If Doc gets 
 sassy about that balance on the hundred-dollar 
 note you've not been able to pay, call me into the 
 conversation. He doesn't know it's loaded, but it 
 is. You've kept up the work first-rate while 
 I've been gone. As soon as the tax books are 
 finished make it a point to go to all the sales 
 and picnics — I can get along here — and take 
 your mother along. Do a lot of talking for me 
 all over the county for next term and my re- 
 election. I want about twenty more delegates 
 than I need next time, and I want 'em solid. 
 You aren't as cute as some of the fellows around 
 here, and you don't know that I've kept close 
 tab on you for the last year and more that you've 
 been here, but I have, and I know all you've 
 said and pretty near all you've thought. You 
 have been straight as a ruler with me, George, 
 and I know it, because I don't trust any man so 
 much that I don't watch him when he's in a con- 
 fidential position with me. This deputyship 
 isn't enough motive for being so straight as you 
 are, but it was enough for you, it seems. Now, 
 you help me get a big lot of delegates to the next 
 convention. I'll name them myself, for I want 
 164 
 
Serpents and Doves 
 
 men I can bank on sure. I want to swing them 
 when the time comes. I'm going to make the 
 biggest stir you ever saw for the nomination, 
 and in the morning before the convention meets 
 I'm going to throw a good majority of the whole 
 thing to you. You'll be the next clerk, and 
 then you can pay off Doc, move your mother to 
 town, and eat three meals a day when you ought 
 to have them. Now I'm going up to Doc's 
 office for a little ten-cent limit with the judge 
 and sheriff before everybody knows I'm back." 
 He took down his leg from the table and brushed 
 off a bit of dust from his trousers. " And you'd 
 better stop work on that book and just loaf 
 around so's to attend to whoever comes in." 
 
 When Shacklett sauntered into the office of 
 his friend, the doctor, a woman waiting there 
 arose at once with great interest in her face as 
 she asked : 
 
 " How's your mother? The doctor told me 
 I'd have to wait till he got back from your house, 
 for he had to go there right away, she's so bad." 
 
 " Why — I just got back from St. Louis — I 
 didn't know she was sick — she was well when I 
 left " 
 
 He was well down the stairs again by the 
 time he had finished this reply to the woman, 
 with his eyes wide open with amazement and his 
 face drawn with a new anxiety. It had never oc- 
 curred to him that his mother would sometime 
 165 
 
Shacklett 
 
 become dangerously ill. He hurried home, and 
 after talking with the doctor, whom he met at 
 the gate, went into the house with almost a 
 stagger. 
 
 There was a week of energetic righting 
 against heavy odds, and then a week of that ab- 
 solutely paralyzing but stinging despair known 
 only to strong men who for the first time meet 
 an onslaught of fate that can not be stemmed, 
 flanked, or turned aside. When his mother died 
 Shacklett held her hand and counted the stitches 
 in the faded, blue-and-white quilt she had labo- 
 riously ornamented with intricate needlework 
 designs about the time he was born. He sat 
 motionless until his deputy came in, and with an 
 arm over his shoulder silently led him away. He 
 met the minister in the street the day after the 
 funeral and stopped him with a gesture that he 
 repeated twice before he controlled his voice to 
 say: 
 
 " They say your sermon over mother was the 
 best that's been heard here, ever. I didn't hear 
 a word of it. Nobody knew her like I did, and 
 nobody else can tell me anything about her. She 
 held father level as long as he lived, and she fur- 
 nished all the good there is in me. I'm glad 
 she's in heaven, and while I don't believe she can 
 see what I'm doing, I know she furnished part of 
 me, and that part will keep me from being as bad 
 as I would be if I had a different kind of a mother. 
 1 66 
 
Serpents and Doves 
 
 There's something about serpents and doves, and 
 she was a dove that kept the serpent down as 
 much as possible." 
 
 The minister looked a little mystified as he 
 went on, and the nearest he could get to the 
 exegesis of Shacklett's sermon was the wisdom 
 of righteousness. 
 
 167 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A TRUST AND COMPETITION 
 
 Somehow time flew faster than ever after 
 Shacklett moved into bachelor quarters, where 
 a law office had been before. It did not seem 
 long until the county convention was over again 
 and his deputy the nominee for the clerkship. 
 Shacklett's sudden withdrawal started all kinds 
 of speculations, but by this time he was consid- 
 ered by his friends to be capable of anything 
 unusual and successful, and opinion was divided 
 as to whether he was going to run for congress 
 in that district where his party was in the 
 minority by three thousand votes, or had been 
 studying law and was going to practise. Shack- 
 lett himself said he was going to take a rest, 
 and corroborated this by being away from home 
 much of the time. Nobody knew where he 
 went, except some of his friends who met him 
 on the train coming from St. Louis. When 
 closely questioned, he said he had a chance to 
 go into business. Somebody saw him on a Chi- 
 cago train out of St. Louis one day, later on, 
 1 68 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 and, in fact, he was spending half his time away 
 from home in Chicago, and the other half at 
 Warsaw at The Heights, which the natives 
 called the Old Stoddard Place. 
 
 He had gone to Chicago at first with some 
 idea of obtaining a situation as traveling sales- 
 man for a house manufacturing blank books and 
 supplies for county officers. When an ex- 
 county officer of Illinois goes into business nine 
 times out of ten it is to travel for one of these 
 manufacturing houses whose business reaches 
 large proportions and affords enough profit to 
 pay liberal commissions. The former county 
 officer can sell goods to the present county offi- 
 cer, as a rule, and the business is one that seems 
 to be the natural postscript to life in a court- 
 house. But when Shacklett had looked into 
 this matter a little he decided that it did not 
 suit him. By that time the manufacturing firm 
 had decided that Shacklett was likely to suit them 
 much better than any other agent they had ever 
 had, and enticing inducements were held out to 
 him to go upon the list of employees of the 
 house. But he finally and decisively declined. 
 
 He had met a number of his Springfield 
 acquaintances from Cook County, and while they 
 seemed to an unbiased and unsophisticated ob- 
 server to be merely a drain upon his pocket- 
 book, Shacklett thought he saw good financial 
 returns in their company. Through them he 
 12 169 
 
Shacklett 
 
 became acquainted with some street railway 
 men, some other corporation men, two or three 
 members of the city council, and several people 
 in the county building. He cultivated these 
 new acquaintances quietly and skilfully, but as- 
 siduously, and from some he got valuable in- 
 formation, which he stored for future use; while 
 with the corporation men he did much of the 
 talking himself, and made an impression upon 
 them similar to that euthanasia which comes 
 over an editor when he finds a really new lode 
 in literature. All this time spent in Chicago 
 was to bear fruit later in Springfield, and Shack- 
 lett was very content to allow the crop he was 
 sowing to grow through the warm summer, while 
 he made frequent journeys to Warsaw on the 
 Mississippi and cultivated there a tendril about 
 which he was much more concerned than he was 
 about the rotten logs whirling in the maelstrom 
 in Chicago. 
 
 He felt that his hold upon the heart of Mary 
 Stoddard was one upon which too much de- 
 pendence should not be placed. He was so dif- 
 ferent from the ideal man who had been held up 
 to her as a model since childhood, that he was 
 sure her regard for him was some kind of queer 
 reversal of human nature; he had been accus- 
 tomed to build his solid house upon the perma- 
 nent characteristics of human nature in general, 
 so that he could not feel much confidence in the 
 170 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 stability of his house built upon the sands of 
 what seemed to be a woman's whim contrary to 
 woman nature. 
 
 He had three points in clear view: to thor- 
 oughly understand Mary Stoddard; to have her 
 understand him, and at the same time to keep 
 her from dodging back in alarm and disgust at 
 some of his facets of character; and especially to 
 settle before the summer was over whether they 
 two were mated and matched by heaven, or were 
 to float close together down-stream for a while 
 and then drift apart from a growing natural re- 
 pulsion between Presbyterianism and politics. 
 
 These two, when together, spent most of the 
 time in talking. Sitting in silent communion 
 of souls did not harmonize with these lovers 
 of the practical fin de siecle sort. Each was con- 
 tinually searching the other for new points of 
 light, as the astronomer searches the sky for 
 new stars. The astronomer sometimes allows 
 his eagerness to cause him to mistake an old 
 nebula for a new asteroid, and it must be con- 
 fessed that both Shacklett and Mary Stoddard 
 sometimes distorted little points of reflected 
 light into star-brightness that was undeserved. 
 The strongest sentiment in the world is not 
 in the schoolgirl fairly oozing sentimentality 
 but is in the cool, calculating, intellectual, ex- 
 perienced student of human nature, who at last 
 finds warm blood flowing through a man or 
 171 
 
Shacklett 
 
 woman of the kind admired. The deepest senti- 
 ment to be found, in fact, is the love of a thor- 
 oughly practical man like Shacklett and a calmly, 
 intellectual girl like Mary Stoddard, when the 
 practical man admires that kind of girl and the 
 intellectual girl has that kind of strong man for 
 an ideal. So there was plenty of sentiment in 
 their relations; but it was deep sentiment and 
 not strong sentimentality; it was manifested in 
 conversation far removed from the courtship 
 dialogues handed down to us by novelists 
 of an early school; and it had little of the silent 
 sympathy of souls sending out voiceless mes- 
 sages in the moonlight to each other through 
 an ether vibrating with love. The two grew to- 
 gether at a great rate in the confidences of that 
 summer, and both could feel that it was good 
 for them to be together and learn to make com- 
 promises while both were in compromising 
 mood. They sat on the river bluff at The 
 Heights, drove through the picturesque scenery 
 along the river, made excursions into the Mis- 
 souri country back of Alexandria and across the 
 ferry from Warsaw, drove to Mount Moriah up 
 the river road, and visited friends in both Keo- 
 kuk and Hamilton. 
 
 It made the girl laugh when Shacklett re- 
 ferred to his fear that he would have no chance 
 whatever in competition with the Reverend Mr. 
 Bradbury after he found the latter gentleman 
 172 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 on the steamboat in the beginning of the trip 
 to St. Paul. 
 
 " There's more in his attitude than in his 
 strength," she said, " and, while his attitude is 
 an excellent one, one wants more than that. A 
 woman ought to be able to teach attitude to a 
 man who loves her, but that is all she can do. 
 She can't give him more strength, or change his 
 mental and moral physique, but she can put 
 strong muscles into the best positions for most 
 effective use for good." 
 
 " But what if the man has been slouched into 
 attitudes for most effective use of his muscles 
 for bad? " asked Shacklett. " And what is the 
 attitude for good anyhow? You Presbyterians 
 stand up to pray, and my Methodist mother 
 always kneeled. She said she could no more 
 pray standing up than she could knead bread 
 sitting down. I guess a lover really did used to 
 kneel down to propose to a girl not so very 
 many years ago, but what would a girl do to 
 that kind of a lover now? What's the use of 
 bothering about attitudes anyhow? " Shack- 
 lett had found that such questions drew out the 
 girl, and he liked to hear her talk seriously and 
 deeply — or what to him was deep philosophy — 
 because it gave him a standard to work to him- 
 self. 
 
 " There is something genuine in attitude, 
 after all," she replied. " It bubbles up spon- 
 
 173 
 
Shacklett 
 
 taneously, and is a part of human nature, put 
 there when the race was planned, together with 
 the upward trend of mankind. It can be seen 
 every day and has a meaning of its own. It is 
 really the cause of denominational divisions in 
 religion, and it is as natural as water running 
 down-hill or smoke rising from a chimney. It 
 determines just how much we see of the world, 
 for one lying gracefully in the grass, as you are, 
 can't see nearly as much as I can standing here, 
 even if I am leaning against a tree in a rather 
 awkward position. Now the mental attitude of 
 Mr. Bradbury is one of benediction and watch- 
 fulness at the same time, but nobody would ex- 
 pect a man in that position of hands out- 
 stretched, palms down, to move much of the 
 furniture of the world around into new places. 
 Yet you can't say anything but pleasant things 
 when addressing him, for it seems an unpardon- 
 able sin to ruffle his composure — and he has the 
 composure of a pane of glass, so that even an 
 inexperienced young man from Egypt could 
 easily look through it into his good heart." 
 
 " Yes," broke in Shacklett, " but you can't 
 always tell what there is up a man's sleeve from 
 the way he holds up his hands. Now, there's the 
 man who always has his fists up in an attitude that 
 at least keeps everybody else in trouble with his 
 belligerency. You can't be with him for twenty 
 minutes without arguing with him, and in five 
 
 174 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 minutes more your argument has degenerated 
 into sarcasm. And then there's the peace-be- 
 with-you man that you could no more strike in 
 a sensitive spot than you could hit an old, 
 stooping, smiling gentleman in the face. And, 
 after all, the man in the prize-ring attitude often 
 has not even a toothpick to fight with, and the 
 man with the kind, smiling face and ex- 
 tended palms is armed like a ward heeler on 
 election day. If you size up a man according to 
 his attitude you'll get fooled generally — at least 
 that's the case around State capitals." 
 
 " And yet, when you know your man thor- 
 oughly," she smiled rather inscrutably in turn, 
 " you will find that if you keep him in a certain 
 attitude for a while it will change the man him- 
 self. Of course, one's own mental attitude and 
 way of looking at things one gets from one's 
 ancestry, and that can not be eradicated en- 
 tirely; but when you want to make a man see 
 a certain star, you have to take him by the 
 shoulders and lift his chin to a certain angle and 
 turn the orbits in his hard skull toward the star. 
 When you do the same thing with a man's 
 mental and moral vision once or twice he will 
 generally look at the same star for himself fre- 
 quently after that; and looking at the stars is 
 the incentive to climbing up to grasp them." 
 
 Shacklett was very willing for her to rear- 
 range his slouching attitude toward the world 
 
 175 
 
Shacklett 
 
 if that did not involve tying his hands, and she 
 was very willing to leave his arms and hands 
 free in lifting his face toward higher things. 
 He was very susceptible to the influences of the 
 broadened vision of material things, which was 
 entirely new to him and one of the chief charms 
 of her home there on the bluff, with its wide 
 range of view over parts of three States. 
 
 " People don't climb up on the bluffs and 
 look down on the world as much as they 
 should," he said to her after a long look over the 
 landscape. " You people here have that ad- 
 vantage; but what's a man to do in a city with 
 brick walls overhanging him all the time, and 
 the highest place he ever gets to a lawyer's office 
 on the fourth floor next to the inside court of 
 the building? " 
 
 " You're just the man I should not expect 
 to say that," she replied. " I'd expect you to find 
 an outlet away from the brick streets, if you had 
 to climb a steeple to do it. Taking everything 
 in the large as you do, I'd expect you to take 
 the largest room in the house very often, and 
 that's the housetop. If the house has been built 
 without a scuttle, there is always some tall build- 
 ing with a way to the roof from which one can 
 look down on the populous city to read a ser- 
 mon written by the hand of God, who pulls a 
 tree out of the ground so skilfully that it takes 
 fifty years to get it all out without a sign of 
 176 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 motion there. Look down on a plain of deep, 
 bright green spread almost level, but with the 
 variations of surface that the prairie had whrn 
 one's grandfather broke the virgin sod. It is 
 one huge mass of the greenest green. It looks 
 like the coverlet of a giant — and it is. Piercing 
 it from below are sharp, angular, broad knives 
 that have cut their way through to the ocean of 
 atmosphere above. The shingles on the sharp 
 roofs show the power of humanity, and all 
 around them are the poniards that prick the 
 bubble of man's egotism. These are the church 
 spires that come through the green plain and 
 keep rising and go up higher still, and shoot 
 their cross-topped points into the cerulean of 
 heaven. All the swords of man have sharp 
 points. God tipped his weapon with a cross and 
 thrust it through the heart of mankind as easily 
 as the diamond-pointed trocar of a surgeon who 
 wounds to heal. And the cross on the church 
 spire has come through the green blanket that 
 covers man's handiwork with such force as to 
 make it stand far above the house roofs which 
 scarcely manage to come up into view above the 
 green. Standing there on the elevation and look- 
 ing down on the city, one sees nothing but a 
 beautiful, deep green bed of leaves with the roofs 
 and the spires. Below that screen is filth and 
 malice, and narrow crossings and temptations, 
 and jolty streets and changeable men; but all 
 177 
 
Shacklett 
 
 are hid from view by the green leaves that shut 
 out the things below and show only a wide scarf 
 of life over the bosom of the city. In the summer 
 the foliage on the trees covers things, like char- 
 ity, and only a few ambitious roofs and the cross- 
 bearing spires get through its blanketing 
 beauty." 
 
 Shacklett listened to her with his eyes closed, 
 and when she had finished, with a deeper pink 
 in her cheeks, he sighed softly to himself. Such 
 insights into her deeper character seemed to put 
 him outside her view. He did feel that the large 
 vista from the river bluff at her home influenced 
 him as the wind from off the water cooled his 
 brow. He felt the influence of his surroundings 
 at Warsaw without knowing why or being at all 
 able to analyze either what he saw or what he felt. 
 He could partly understand how the surround- 
 ings in which Mary Stoddard and her parents 
 and grandparents lived for years had affected her 
 character; and he compared her surroundings 
 with those which made up the environment of 
 his own father and mother down across the State, 
 and that of his own early life in the Embarras 
 bottoms full of trees and brush. He said some- 
 thing of this to her one day as they were driving 
 to Keokuk along the road by the bank of the 
 river. 
 
 " I've often wondered how much of this en- 
 vironment of ours is found in my religion," she 
 178 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 replied. " The irresistibility of the river might 
 account for the Calvinism with which our whole 
 family is saturated. Its sublimity and beauty 
 might account for the tenacity with which we 
 hold our belief based upon a feeling of certainty 
 of having the truth. With all this I find I have 
 a liberality of view which seems queer in con- 
 nection with the strength of my ideas on theo- 
 logical matters, and which comes, perhaps, from 
 the broad purview of things I get from The 
 Heights." 
 
 " Even that does not account for the great 
 breadth of view you showed when you turned 
 down a preacher for me," he ventured. 
 
 " I never thought it was necessary to be 
 vapid in order to be conscientious," she replied, 
 " and I do not claim great breadth of view be- 
 cause I do not think it necessary to marry a min- 
 ister in order to do good in the world. I'd 
 rather go out with a man of force, a knight with 
 a strong right arm and skill in using the broad- 
 sword and rapier, than with a priest, when it be- 
 came necessary to fight for the right." 
 
 This pleased Shacklett immensely, although 
 the words suggested to him a train of thought 
 quite different from what Miss Stoddard meant 
 as the underlying principle. But he did not 
 give it a great deal of thought that day. Some 
 months afterward Mary Stoddard went into the 
 matter to the bottom, but it was over a decade 
 179 
 
Shacklett 
 
 later before she saw it illumined thoroughly. 
 They talked about other things, but this mys- 
 tery of what she saw in him kept uppermost in 
 Shacklett's mind all the afternoon. He could 
 not entirely accept, in his cool, calculating mo- 
 ments, that such a girl could really love a man 
 like him as well as she could a minister, for in- 
 stance, and he had a constant, subconscious fear 
 that she should cease to find him attractive. 
 
 He returned to this idea after they reached 
 the home of her friend in Keokuk. It kept in 
 touch with whatever happened. When their 
 hostess left the parlor, he thought of Mary Stod- 
 dard walking away from him and his life. When 
 she returned, he thought of the close connections 
 she had left in the living rooms of the house, 
 and of Mary Stoddard leaving him in the same 
 way. When the two girls left him alone in the 
 large, cool, darkened parlor, he sat looking 
 through the narrow slits in the window shutter. 
 It was two o'clock on an August afternoon. 
 The picture seen through the window looked as 
 if it were made from a poorly developed negative. 
 
 The high lights were white splotches, and 
 the shadows had dim details. The house across 
 the street was closed so thoroughly that it 
 seemed deserted, and its walls shone, burnished 
 by the sun, except where the shadow of a 
 tree struck them, and there the art work in 
 boards could hardly be distinguished. Half-way 
 1 80 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 over there was a brilliant spot that dazzled the 
 eyes and looked like a sun that had fallen in the 
 street, but it was only an old newspaper. The 
 lawns had not the familiar green note in the 
 color scale of other hours, but simply showed 
 their place in the scale of light and shade. The 
 light did not come from far above, but it seemed 
 to permeate everything except under the trees, 
 and there it was dim because it was concentrated 
 to surcharge the open. 
 
 A man on a wheel rode into the picture and 
 did not seem material and forceful; he was only 
 another point of reflection, and the handle-bars 
 and spokes made one draw a deeper breath for 
 more air. He disappeared in an instant as if he 
 had been volatile. A delivery wagon from a 
 store slid in like the magic-lantern picture of 
 the country schoolhouse, and the big umbrella 
 over the seat was the only part of it noticed. 
 Like a panting elephant a big ice-wagon slowly 
 lumbered along, with a drab body under a white 
 reflecting top, and the man on the rear step 
 suggested the elephant's tail. Fantastic fancies 
 came, for the whole picture was a fantasy of the 
 paresis from light and heat. 
 
 He went to look down the street, and the 
 same sharp contrast of brilliancy was there. A 
 man in a black coat was walking with a man in 
 a light blue negligee shirt and lifting his hat as 
 he came to a shaded sidewalk. When they 
 181 
 
Shacklett 
 
 turned the corner the street was deserted; not a 
 dog was in sight. One could seldom look down 
 that street without seeing dogs; but now they 
 were somewhere with elongated tongues and 
 rapid rhythm in their heaving sides. Two 
 pretty girls came along the sidewalk and passed. 
 They only were vivacious, and their diaphanous 
 white waists were perfectly transparent over 
 round arms, perfect shoulders, plump necks, and 
 pink backs in a way that made everything else 
 in the street disappear. The girls are what 
 keeps a hot afternoon from fading into vapor, 
 and Shacklett had this thought as a forerunner 
 to the other one, that it was quite possible that 
 the one girl in the world for him should fade out 
 of his life and into the life of some worthier man 
 in the same quiet, natural way that objects 
 floated into and out of the scene before him. 
 
 Of course this was what almost every worthy 
 man has experienced when he thought of him- 
 self in connection with the girl he loved; but 
 Shacklett had these forebodings because they 
 were deserved, and he was practical enough to 
 know it. Mary Stoddard was of a long line of 
 ancestors who hewed to the line and expected 
 everybody else to form their own timbers on the 
 same accurate measurements. She had been 
 noted among her associates for her unyielding 
 opposition to many things with which they were 
 willing to compromise, and now it seemed to 
 182 
 
A Trust and Competition 
 
 them that she was trampling down all her former 
 ideals at the behest of a man who, to say the 
 least, was far removed from the minister, whom 
 everybody knew she might marry by saying the 
 word. 
 
 But she had no such idea. Her feeling was 
 that she had more right to love a strong man 
 of capability and good tendencies than an or- 
 dinary man of moderate capacity to produce re- 
 sults and tendencies already fulfilled, however 
 righteous these latter might be. What she had 
 said about shaping the attitudes of a man was 
 the real key to her ideas regarding Shacklett, 
 and while she knew that he was not one of the 
 elect according to present indications, she saw 
 greater possibilities of good in him than in even 
 the Reverend Mr. Bradbury. To her the pos- 
 sibilities for good were the thing. She intended 
 to guide the strong man by inducing him to 
 keep looking upward. 
 
 The working out of this plan of hers is really 
 what made the story of Shacklett worth telling, 
 and it went on over flower-clad prairies, gulch- 
 riven mountains, gale-swept seas, and into the 
 very crater of a volcano before it was ended. 
 There was once when she shuddered and drew 
 back from following it farther, and there was 
 once when she saw it going down in a great, 
 engulfing, sea-sucking wreck. 
 
 183 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENDANT 
 
 Just now Shacklett was under the influence 
 of this plan drawn for him by the religious girl, 
 as her creed taught her Omnipotence had fixed 
 the life and end of all men, or, as the old pagans 
 thought, the Fates wove one's influences into a 
 web that human power could not unravel. He 
 was influenced by it without knowing it, and he 
 did feel something of its power over him. But 
 he was always frank with her, and while he 
 wished he could measure up to her standard, 
 he never tried to stretch up on his toes to reach 
 the mark she set for his head. 
 
 " I think I shall be busy next winter," he 
 told her on one of his visits, " for it looks like 
 I shall have a number of clients whose interests 
 will need attention in the Legislature. The 
 street railways are to be sandbagged in great 
 shape, and somebody will have to look sharp 
 or their franchise privileges will be clipped so 
 much that it won't pay to clip coupons from 
 their bonds. 
 
 184 
 
Attorney for the Defendant 
 
 " It doesn't always seem right to go into the 
 laundry to work when other men are handling 
 the clean, new linen in the stores, but it seems 
 rather hard to get a position as lady-killing clerk 
 just now, and the wages paid by the people who 
 make a business of washing dirty linen are very 
 satisfactory. After all, it's much like being a 
 lawyer before a jury: the other side's trying to 
 slug your client without being made to suffer 
 for it, and you're hired to make him suffer for 
 his rashness. You rub up against all kinds of 
 people and all kinds of wickedness, and you're 
 bound to lose the bloom off the peach in the 
 scramble. But it seems the proper thing for me 
 just now, because the only thing that I can get 
 to do that has any future to it. It's utterly 
 out of harmony with being engaged to a girl 
 like you." 
 
 " Which argues that I'm a very weak girl," 
 she interjected quickly; " and no girl considers 
 that a compliment. If you allow the work to 
 pull you down to a level with the worst men you 
 meet, you are not the man I think. You're en- 
 gaged to me because I think you have force of 
 character enough to walk through a marsh with- 
 out tramping knee-deep in the mud and slime 
 there." 
 
 " I have force of character enough," he 
 mused aloud, " but the trouble is that my char- 
 acter has as much force on my father's side as 
 13 185 
 
Shacklett 
 
 on the side of my mother. I've got the nerve 
 to hold up the State of Illinois in a dark official 
 alley, and I'm just as apt to do that as to fight 
 off the sandbagger who attacks my friend or my 
 client." 
 
 " We used to have the funniest discussions 
 at school about whether heredity or environ- 
 ment is the greater force," she smiled, " and now 
 we'll see what effect this environment — to wit, 
 myself — will have upon you in conjunction with 
 the heredity for good you get from your sainted 
 mother. You can bring up more interesting 
 problems for solution than all the other men I 
 ever knew combined." 
 
 And like this they talked, beginning with 
 persiflage, perhaps, and nearly always ending in 
 jest, but with some interlarding of ethics and 
 philosophy, on each of his visits to her. When 
 he was in Chicago Shacklett sat for hours think- 
 ing over these things. If he had been a savage 
 recently introduced to a missionary he would 
 have pondered on them and finally taken them 
 to heart to the betterment of his moral nature 
 and the salvation of his soul; but being only a 
 young man of affairs getting ready to qualify 
 as a member of the Third House at one of the 
 most dangerous State capitals in the country, 
 he had a different view-point. 
 
 His reveries nearly always ended in the con- 
 clusion that he could not consider any proposi- 
 1 86 
 
Attorney for the Defendant 
 
 tion involving giving up that girl, because he 
 absolutely needed her in his life. There was no 
 present prospect of being able to marry her, but 
 there must be increased watchfulness for an op- 
 portunity to reach that position. It would be 
 worth while to blow up the vaults of the State 
 treasury to get money enough to marry such 
 a girl, if only they would leave the vaults so 
 that it could be done without detection. How 
 she was going to make a pious man out of him 
 he could not see, but he felt the sooner she had 
 the opportunity as his wife the better it would 
 be for him. In the meantime he found he had 
 more nerve since he had more of an object to 
 work for; and he learned the greatest lesson, re- 
 served for the select members of the thirty-third 
 degree in the Ancient and Honorable Order of 
 Lobbyists, that the highest success lies in resolv- 
 ing the paradox of being perfectly honest, trust- 
 worthy, and true to one's friends while engaged 
 in the business of influencing legislation with 
 other people's money. 
 
 The county seat of Davis County was further 
 mystified when the Legislature met and Shacklett 
 was found in Springfield without any visible 
 means of support. The member of the House 
 from the county seat professed dense ignorance 
 of what Shacklett was doing, and showed inti- 
 mate knowledge of his daily whereabouts. He 
 constantly praised Shacklett, and bought a large 
 187 
 
Shacklett 
 
 lot of bottom land on speculation, which was 
 surprising to his neighbors, who had been loan- 
 ing him money before and now were able to bor- 
 row from him when necessary. Shacklett was 
 not seen at his legal home except at Christmas 
 for a day, and when the member of the House 
 came home at the end of the session he brought 
 the news that Shacklett was appointed to a 
 clerkship in the office of the Secretary of State. 
 About this time a Chicago street-railway mag- 
 nate dictated a letter as follows: 
 
 " Hon. N. C. Shacklett, Springfield, 111. : 
 
 " My dear Sir: Allow me to express to 
 you my gratification at the manner in which you 
 attended to our legal business entrusted to you 
 during the past winter, and to assure you that 
 should we have need for similar services in the 
 future we hope to secure your efforts in our 
 behalf. Yours very truly, 
 
 " , President." 
 
 Three years later, when Shacklett burned 
 this letter, he smiled at the recollection of the 
 gratification it gave him when it was received. 
 The irony went out of his smile and was replaced 
 by something of tenderness when that letter 
 made him think of his early life down in Egypt 
 and its crudities. Crudity was the thing far- 
 thest removed from Shacklett by this time. He 
 188 
 
Attorney for the Defendant 
 
 attended all the conventions in his district as 
 the representative of the " organization," which 
 meant the triumvirate controlling the party in 
 the State. He was somewhat choice about the 
 sinecure to which he was appointed. He was 
 considered the warmest-hearted man in Spring- 
 field, and certainly the nerviest poker-player in 
 the Legislature games. Everybody knew him 
 well, and nobody except the people from his part 
 of the State knew much about him. When he 
 was in the early weeks as clerk of Fletcher's 
 judiciary committee, one of the permanents re- 
 marked that Shacklett was the most typical 
 farmer that had ever got inside the State-house. 
 It was this same man, still permanent there, who 
 said now, as Shacklett went through the cor- 
 ridor of the Leland: 
 
 " While you're seeing the sights here you 
 want to take a look at Shacklett over there; he's 
 the smoothest man that ever came to Springfield, 
 and while everybody concerned knows that, 
 everybody who knows him trusts him. The 
 straightest member of either house will walk 
 down street or play poker with him, and yet they 
 call him the king of the lobby since Murphy, of 
 the Tribune, tacked that name onto him." 
 
 But all the records showed was that Shack- 
 lett was a clerk in the State-house, wasting his 
 life in that mediocre mill and studying law a 
 little. 
 
 189 
 
Shacklett 
 
 The other State-house people were as far 
 wrong as was the record in getting at the facts. 
 With all the political battles he won down the 
 State, and the legislative battles he won for his 
 clients up the State, the battle he was fighting 
 for himself was still undecided and the forces 
 were still standing firm. Mary Stoddard was 
 waiting and Shacklett was steadily advancing, 
 however slowly, toward admission to the bar, 
 emigration West, and official life at Washing- 
 ton. He was always alert for a sortie that 
 would capture the prize without such a long 
 siege, but no chance for that came. McKee 
 was the only man who knew the truth, and how 
 a man like Shacklett could be so quixotic was 
 to him the seven wonders of the world com- 
 bined. 
 
 It was the time for one of Shacklett's reg- 
 ular visits to Warsaw, and he was picking up 
 his valise to start to the train, when a boy 
 brought him a note that caused him to send a 
 telegram to the girl at The Heights and hurry 
 over to the Leland. The boy who brought him 
 the note had been summoned in the midst of an 
 earnest conversation in a room on the parlor 
 floor between a man with a smooth face and a 
 man with a black mustache. 
 
 " That makes only seventy-three," said the 
 smooth-faced man; "we've got to get two 
 more." 
 
 190 
 
Attorney for the Defendant 
 
 " We've got to quit loser," said the man with 
 a black mustache, " and we might as well face 
 the music. There's no possibility of getting a 
 single one more. Not a man in the other list 
 can be touched, and you know it as well as I do, 
 Cantwell." 
 
 " I know that I'm never whipped until the 
 last name on the roll is called. Send for Shack- 
 lett as soon as you can, Baird, and let's go over 
 it again." 
 
 Baird stepped over to the button and called 
 the bell-boy. While that youth with carefully 
 combed hair, blacked shoes, and worn jacket was 
 sauntering up the stairs, Baird wrote the note. 
 He did not look pleased. He stopped in the 
 middle to say that he knew when he was whipped. 
 Cantwell finished his scrutiny of the list of names 
 before him and then remarked again that they 
 had " got to win out." 
 
 191 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 JUST A COMMON STEAL 
 
 The minute hand of the clock held aloft by 
 Mercury on the mantel had not passed over 
 much more than a quarter of a circle before 
 Shacklett came in, with a knock that apparently 
 was merely to announce his arrival rather than 
 to ask admission. He felt at home in that room 
 in the Leland. Six months before he had waited 
 for the answer to his knock before walking in, 
 but for the last three weeks he had entered that 
 door at all times of the day and night. He 
 knew where the cigars were kept when the box 
 on the table became empty. He knew which of 
 the two chairs on the side opposite the grate and 
 away from the window was the more comfort- 
 able. When he came up the elevator he never 
 gave the number of the room to the boy, but 
 merely said, " Parlor floor." Once when he left 
 the elevator Senator Cunningham was in the act 
 of leaving this room, and Shacklett walked down 
 the corridor in the opposite direction with an ex- 
 192 
 
Just a Common Steal 
 
 pression of interested amusement on his face and 
 a mental note for future use. 
 
 " Good morning," he said impersonally, as 
 he laid his hat and cane on the bed. " How's 
 the game going now? Got 'em all in hand, or 
 have you dropped the cards? It looks up at the 
 Country Club like old Laney's going to give you 
 a fight for your money. Just passed him on the 
 street, and he talked about you without swear- 
 ing. Sure you've got 'em stacked to beat him? " 
 And Shacklett smiled that smile which his friends 
 seldom saw, and his enemies knew only too well 
 meant either a royal flush or else a game of bluff 
 on nothing. It was a pleasant smile unless one 
 noticed the eyes; they glittered in a way which 
 meant that the prey was in sight. 
 
 " We need two more; can you get 'em? " 
 came from Cantwell like an order from the quar- 
 ter-deck, and yet with a faint tinge of appeal in 
 the tone. 
 
 " Don't know. How bad do you want 'em? " 
 And Shacklett stepped up to the mirror to give 
 his hair that characteristic stroke with his fingers. 
 
 " Can you get them for three thousand 
 apiece? " said Cantwell. 
 
 Shacklett turned around, took a cigar, turned 
 that same smile upon both men like a sweeping 
 search-light, lighted the cigar, and reached for 
 his hat and cane. 
 
 " I thought you wanted to see me," he re- 
 
 193 
 
Shacklett 
 
 marked in the most oily of tones; " I'll go over 
 to the Senate and see the vote." 
 
 " What do you want? " Baird exclaimed; but 
 Cantwell merely reached for the ash-receiver and 
 said, " Can you get two more, is what I want to 
 know." 
 
 " I can't promise; you know I've got some 
 pretty leary ones now and made them right. It's 
 a long shot, and I can't tell what I can do. If 
 you must have them, I'll try; and I can get them 
 if anybody can, I guess you know. How hard 
 shall I try? " 
 
 Cantwell's voice had a vibrant ring as he 
 played his very last card in the words: " I'll give 
 you forty thousand dollars for two more votes; 
 two or none, you understand." 
 
 " I can't promise you anything, gentlemen," 
 said Shacklett; " I don't know whether I can get 
 them or not. Give me the money in centuries, 
 and I'll either deliver the votes at roll-call or re- 
 turn it to you this evening. You know it's a 
 big contract, and it's uncertain. You've stirred 
 up such a hullabaloo that it's worth a man's life 
 to even dream about your bill. You ought to 
 have got down here with your money a month 
 sooner. And you ought to have let Lee, of 
 Lawrence, alone; he's making more noise than 
 all your Chicago papers even. The members 
 from Egypt wouldn't dare to vote for a bill to 
 allow Chicago to move to Edwards County now. 
 194 
 
Just a Common Steal 
 
 If one of them was in the chair and recog- 
 nized a Chicago man on a point of order he 
 couldn't be elected school director at home if he 
 was the only man in the district that could read 
 and write. Every farmer knows this bill is a 
 plain old Chicago steal, and you've got to simply 
 ask a man to ruin himself for so much a ruin. 
 But I'll see if I can find one willing to be ruined 
 between now and two o'clock; " and Shacklett 
 broadened his smile into a little laugh as he went 
 out. 
 
 He walked rapidly to the elevator, dropped 
 to the first floor, and only nodded to several 
 senators in the lobby on his way to the street. 
 He was not planning. He had done that while in 
 Cantwell's and Baird's room. He wanted to get 
 to the State-house in the shortest time, and he 
 looked a little vexed when he found no carriage 
 at the entrance to the hotel. He walked quietly 
 around the corner and started up the street that 
 looks directly up to the Capitol of Illinois 
 through the grating of the same kind of a rail- 
 road bridge that crosses Buckwheat Creek in 
 Arkansas. 
 
 " And, nevertheless, I shall control my own 
 future," she had said. That was four years ago, 
 and Shacklett knew that the home was waiting 
 for him when he reached it as surely as the house- 
 boat wintering in the canal would finally tie up 
 in the warm sunlight at New Orleans. 
 
 195 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Now, for the first time, Shacklett saw the 
 home and the girl closer to him than the railroad 
 bridge and the portico of the State-house. He 
 had at least fifteen thousand dollars in his pocket 
 that would be his own money, unless McKee 
 made a bull. McKee was not always sure; but 
 this " rake-off " ought to make him as certain 
 as a sharpshooter. Anyhow, those chances had 
 to be taken. There was no way to improve them 
 except to make McKee over, and that could not 
 be done in two hours. 
 
 Once when Shacklett had run over to Ham- 
 ilton to see Mary Stoddard they had watched 
 a lumber boat pushing a raft through the draw 
 of the long bridge. There were acres of lumber, 
 and at the foot of the rapids the force of the cur- 
 rent gave it a momentum of millions of tons. 
 But patience and the pilot had swung the long 
 raft through the narrow opening as deftly as the 
 boy guides his little sled on the hill. 
 
 They had spoken of how proud they would 
 be after accomplishing the feat that the man at 
 the wheel in the high pilot-house took as a mat- 
 ter of course. Shacklett felt the same elevation 
 now that his self-sacrifice, and what he thought 
 to be the infinitely greater self-sacrifice of the girl, 
 in their patient waiting had at last given him the 
 thing he sought for most in life. He never 
 worked without a definite object. The one 
 thing which he had kept in view for seven years 
 196 
 
Just a Common Steal 
 
 was to lay the toga from a Western State at the 
 feet of the girl in the Senate chamber at Wash- 
 ington. To get the toga seemed infinitely 
 easier than to get the money which would justify 
 him in marrying the girl. Now he had it in his 
 pocket, and in two hours it would be his own — 
 unless McKee failed him. 
 
 It might as well be said for the satisfaction 
 of the good people who can not make the dis- 
 tinction between buying votes in the Legislature 
 and other equally illegal methods of obtaining 
 things, that such a thing as stealing the money 
 of the Chicago gang would never have entered 
 Shacklett's mind. If there had been danger of 
 that Cantwell would not have given it to him, of 
 course. Both knew that there could be no real 
 demand made for the return of the money given 
 for such a purpose by that gang; but both knew 
 it was as safe with Shacklett as with the cashier 
 of the First National Bank. Shacklett had long 
 since got past the stage of moralizing about the 
 purchase of legislators. It was five years before 
 that he was a clerk of committee, and ever since 
 he had been a close student of that particular 
 genus. He read the remarks about bribery in 
 the papers exactly as the rest of us read Tolstoi, 
 and he had no more intention of living up to the 
 standard of the civil service reformers than the 
 rest of us have of living up to the example of 
 Jesus of Nazareth. He watched a new Legisla- 
 197 
 
Shacklett 
 
 ture come in as the orator watches the people 
 ushered into his audience; and he looked at the 
 members seriatim as the physiologist studies the 
 animals in his laboratory, but with a little more 
 enjoyment in vivisection. It was as near right 
 to use a legislator for one's own purpose as it 
 was to open an oyster shell or shoot a bear. The 
 whole genus were in Springfield solely because 
 of the operation of the law of the survival of the 
 strongest in practical politics. If they suc- 
 cumbed to the stronger lobbyist the law was still 
 fulfilled. Shacklett, however, could not have 
 formulated all this, for he was little given to in- 
 trospection; but it paints the Legislature from his 
 point of view. Below him his field of vision was 
 filled with the Legislature; above him it could 
 contain only the girl. And as he walked rapidly 
 down under the bridge and up the steps of the 
 State-house, he was looking upward at the girl — 
 nearer than she had ever been to him before. 
 
 Shacklett took the elevator to the second 
 floor and went directly to the office of the board 
 of which McKee was chief clerk. As he walked 
 through to the private office of the secretary 
 with his staid dignity, not so much as glancing 
 to either side nor seeming to notice even McKee, 
 anybody not acquainted in the Third House at 
 Springfield would have been sure that he was 
 the executive officer of the board. That was a 
 way that Shacklett had. He never beckoned a 
 198 
 
Just a Common Steal 
 
 man to him, even by so much as a turn of 
 the eyes. When he went past a friend without 
 speaking, that friend followed him; it saved much 
 suspicion on the part of the people who had an in- 
 terest in knowing whom he met. 
 
 When McKee came into the inner office and 
 shut the door Shacklett was not sitting down in 
 the best chair, as usual. Contrary to his habit, 
 he was waiting by the mantel in an attitude of 
 impatient haste. McKee's heart sank as visions 
 of revelations, exposures, and warnings flitted 
 before his mind at the unusual hurry of his old 
 friend. 
 
 " Say, do you know where you can get one 
 more vote for the Chicago bill? " Shacklett began 
 at once. " They need two. If you can get one, 
 I'll dig up the other if I have to hold him up 
 with a gun. There's twenty thousand in it for 
 a vote if you can get it and I can get mine. 
 We've got to get 'em for that money; but two 
 is too big a contract for me. Can you get one 
 of them? " 
 
 " Where's* the money? " queried McKee. 
 
 " In my pocket. We've got less than two 
 hours to get 'em in. Man, we can't let a chance 
 like this slip by us. We can't overlook such a 
 bet." 
 
 " I don't know," said McKee slowly; " I be- 
 lieve I can get him. I wouldn't ask it of him for 
 
 less; but twenty thousand " 
 
 199 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " There's not a man outside now that a thou- 
 sand won't get as quick as a million. See him 
 right away. I'll see my man and be back here 
 in an hour. Remember, it's got to be both or 
 none." And Shacklett sauntered out through 
 the outer office, and when once in the corridor 
 walked as fast as he dared to the elevator. 
 
 Down to the first floor, through the east 
 entrance, with sundry nods to some members 
 and a word to others coming in slowly to the 
 Senate and House chambers, into, a carriage 
 just dismissed by the Lieutenant-Governor, and 
 Shacklett was driving as fast as the horses could 
 trot toward the St. Nicholas — almost as soon as 
 McKee had secured his own hat and met his 
 member in one of the committee rooms. 
 
 Shacklett told the cabman to wait, and went 
 into the long office of the hotel with a sharp look 
 around, then walked through into the writing- 
 room; but the man he most desired to see of 
 all the human family was not there. Up an 
 elevator again, and in ten seconds more he 
 walked into a room without knocking. 
 
 200 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE DEVIL AT THREE TO ONE 
 
 Old Senator McNamara was in. He looked 
 very different from the senators from the districts 
 with low numbers, up near Cook County. He 
 was a farmer who had come from Kentucky to 
 the same part of Illinois that Logan, Morrison, 
 Dubois, and others have made famous. He had 
 arrived in time to sit on the knee of Jesse K. 
 Dubois and ask lisping questions about the man 
 Lincoln, whose name he heard so often. He had 
 grown up without much schooling, but with the 
 hard sense and Irish wit which made him a nat- 
 ural politician. Best of all, those who lived 
 nearest and knew him best knew that he never 
 had been so much as accused of any question- 
 able act. He was called " John " by most of the 
 inhabitants of three counties, and " Honest 
 John " by the young lawyers who traded school 
 districts with one another in order to " conduct 
 a campaign " with fervid oratory. 
 
 " Hello, John," began Shacklett before he re- 
 moved his hat., " Let that laundry alone and sit 
 14 201 
 
Shacklett 
 
 down for about ten minutes. I want to talk to 
 you like a brother." 
 
 John McNamara let the collars and cuffs fall 
 to the floor and dropped into a chair, while 
 Shacklett drew up another, pushed back his hat, 
 and rested both hands on his cane. He was 
 going to talk for twenty thousand dollars — and 
 the girl — and when that hat went back in that 
 way the other side always went to work with 
 increased energy. 
 
 " Now, John," he began at once, " I'm 
 not going to talk about any account with you. 
 You know how the books stand, and I'll admit 
 there's a little balance due me since I turned that 
 trick at the ville for you and knocked out old 
 Putnam; but that cuts no ice now. I did that 
 because you've always been a friend, even if you 
 never got a chance to do much for me. Now's 
 your chance." The old man nodded energet- 
 ically and opened his mouth to speak, but Shack- 
 lett went on rapidly. " It's the chance of my 
 lifetime. I'm not going to offer to buy you; you 
 know I'm too smart for that, and that I know 
 that a million couldn't touch you with a tele- 
 graph pole. But there's twenty thousand dol- 
 lars in it for me for one more vote for the 
 Chicago bill. You know what that is for me. 
 Will you do it and not take a cent, but do it 
 for me? " 
 
 The old Senator from Egypt, out of whom 
 202 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 some of the city members got a good deal of fun 
 at times, scarcely moved his head, and his tone 
 was as even as if he was discussing the price of 
 wheat or the best crop to follow clover. 
 
 " Noel," he said, " I never called on you for 
 anything yet that you didn't accomplish for me. 
 You always got there, and you always got there 
 for me. I don't forget such things. There was 
 that time you came down and saved that conven- 
 tion for me. I know that you gave up a week 
 in Chicago to do that, and there was a hot time 
 among the boys there then, too. I've never 
 done much thanking with words in my life; some- 
 how I don't take to tellin' a feller how much I 
 thank him. But I never yet went back on a 
 friend that asked my help. 
 
 " You know that it's no use to offer me 
 money, and you haven't done it. If you had I 
 don't know but what that would o' evened up our 
 score to date. But you know me too well — or 
 maybe you was too smart. Anyhow, I guess 
 you know that there's not money enough in Chi- 
 cago to buy me — and never will be. 
 
 " But I'll vote for the bill for you. I know 
 what the money is to you, and you won't lose any 
 sleep about the morals of spending it, I guess. 
 Only, them Chicago fellers and their members 
 mustn't come around me. I'll follow the lead 
 of Forsythe, their steering committee, and if 
 there's anything to be said off the floor you must 
 203 
 
Shacklett 
 
 come and tell me. Now don't say a word till 
 I'm done talking." 
 
 Shacklett's eyes were shining, which they 
 had not done for years, and which he had care- 
 fully trained them for years not to do, and he was 
 about to become effusively thankful, which he 
 had never been before in his life — though he had 
 never won so much before. But Senator Mc- 
 Namara went on without a change in his tone 
 or any tightening of his control over himself 
 and his visitor. Shacklett afterward envied him 
 his poise from the bottom of his heart. The 
 next words made Shacklett glad that he had not 
 interrupted the monologue. 
 
 " You know my position, Noel," the stream 
 of language flowed on without a ripple, " and you 
 know exactly what this is to me. The folks 
 down home call me ' Honest John,' and no man 
 dares to say a word about my honesty. When 
 the Chicago crowd threw a lot of money into 
 the district to help Walsh beat me, and it got 
 out, that made me solid as long as I want to 
 stay. I'm going to quit now. You know it. 
 I'm going home knowing that I never touched 
 a cent of crooked money and am as honest as I 
 was when I came here. 
 
 " But I'm going home covered with the filth 
 
 of the stock-yards, whether I stole a hog or not. 
 
 They'll believe that I was bought. I can't make 
 
 'em believe anything else, and you can't, by a 
 
 204 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 long shot. They'll say I got a big pile, for it 
 would take a fortune to get me. They'll wonder 
 at all the stores o' nights what I done with it. 
 They'll come around to sell me their blasted 
 farms and a new buggy, and they'll watch to see 
 how Mary and the girls dress. 
 
 "As long as I live they'll say to strangers: 
 ' That's old John McNamara; he used to be in 
 the Senate, but he sold out the time of them big 
 Chicago deals; he got a big pile; nobody 'd 'a' be- 
 lieved he'd done it.' 
 
 " And then, when I die they'll say of my chil- 
 dren that Bob has a nice farm — his father got rich 
 selling out when he was in the Senate; and that 
 Carrie married well because she was rich — Jier 
 father made a lot of money when he was a senator 
 and them big Chicago bills was passed. Yester- 
 day I thought I'd go down into my grave old 
 Honest John McNamara; now I'm going to go 
 home disgraced among the people that've known 
 me so long, if you say so. It sha'n't be said that 
 I ever went back on a friend. ' If you say so, 
 Noel, I'll vote for the bills; but I want you to 
 understand the situation. Send me some kind o' 
 word I'll understand when the tussle begins in 
 the Senate and I'll play your suit." 
 
 The old man got up and began to count his 
 
 collars on the floor as if his laundry slips were 
 
 the most important things in the world. The 
 
 conference was closed, very evidently. Shack- 
 
 205 
 
Shacklett 
 
 lett went out without a word and with his face 
 as impassive as it was the time he won the 
 twenty-five hundred dollars from the member 
 from Cook County on a pair of sevens. 
 
 He did not ring for the elevator, but walked 
 down the stairs and went out the side entrance. 
 As he passed the Palace he saw the man he felt 
 sure McKee had in mind, sitting on the sidewalk 
 in front of the office with a clerk in the auditor's 
 office and a deputy warden of a penitentiary 
 telling stories. Even Shacklett could not guess 
 what he had said to McKee. 
 
 For as Shacklett walked up to the State- 
 house again it all depended upon whether Mc- 
 Kee had been successful. Shacklett hoped from 
 the bottom of his heart that McKee had failed. 
 That would settle the matter easily. If McKee 
 had not failed, then the whole decision would be 
 on his own shoulders. He had thought it all 
 over before he got to the street. He would be 
 the meanest rascal that ever sold his brother if 
 he accepted McNamara's offer. He knew that, 
 but then there was the twenty thousand dol- 
 lars — and the girl. What the girl would think 
 did not matter, for she would never know it. 
 Whether the devil or the training of his own 
 mother won, in either case she would never know, 
 anything about it. It was a nasty thing to do, 
 and a dirtier thing than Shacklett had ever done; 
 but a man's a fool if he does not sell his soul when 
 206 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 the devil offers such a price, he reasoned. The 
 more he thought about it the more mixed up he 
 became. Finally, by the time that he was pass- 
 ing under the railroad bridge again, he seemed 
 to be watching a struggle going on in some other 
 man's mind, as he might look at a fight between 
 a brakeman and a tramp on a passing train, which 
 had come into his environment from somewhere 
 indefinite and was going out into somewhere un- 
 known. It was no use to argue it any longer. 
 What McKee had done — or rather had failed to 
 do — would probably settle the whole question, 
 and what was the use of bothering with it now? 
 This was what he found running through his 
 brain as he walked up the pavement to the wide 
 steps. He felt that it was about three to one 
 that the devil would win if McKee did have his 
 man. Twenty thousand and the girl, in his own 
 opinion of himself, probably had a bigger "pull " 
 than the inborn and inbred instincts of a gentle- 
 man — he gave them no higher name. And so, 
 with the devil a favorite at three to one, he went 
 in to see the end of the game. 
 
 As Shacklett entered the door of the outer 
 office McKee picked up an account-book with 
 a preoccupied air, and went into the inner cham- 
 ber of his chief. Shacklett affably greeted the 
 man in the outer office, shook hands with a post- 
 master from down country, passed the stenog- 
 raphers and minor clerks in the inner office with 
 207 
 
Shacklett 
 
 dignity, and went on into the private room of 
 the secretary of the board. He gently shut the 
 door, and found McKee standing in the middle 
 of the floor facing him. 
 
 " Well, did you get him? " asked Shacklett 
 heartily, and with one of those most cordial 
 smiles generally reserved for asking about the 
 health of the baby of a member from the country. 
 
 "You bet I did; did you get yours?" 
 McKee almost shouted. 
 
 " What did he say? " asked Shacklett, ignor- 
 ing the question addressed to himself. 
 
 " He wouldn't take a cent of money, but said 
 if I wanted him to he'd vote for the bill. Said 
 it would ruin him up at home, and all that, and 
 that people would always talk about his family 
 as the children of that man that was in the Sen- 
 ate the time the Chicago bills were passed and 
 sold out to the gang, and all that; but he said 
 he'd vote all right to make me the twenty 
 thousand, if I said so. Did you get yours? " 
 
 When McKee had a fortune hanging on the 
 answer it was cruel of Shacklett to ignore the 
 momentous question again, but he only asked: 
 
 " Are you going to have him do it? " 
 
 " Course; that twenty thousand's too much 
 for me to let go by. It's kind o' mean, but I 
 can't stand the pressure. What did your man 
 say? " And McKee was almost in a frenzy of 
 impatience. 
 
 208 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 " Stuff's off; I couldn't get mine," said 
 Shacklett quietly. 
 
 McKee looked at Shacklett a moment with a 
 wobegone expression that changed into a look 
 of wonderment and despair. Without a word 
 he walked over to the vault, took a package out 
 of a compartment and carried it back to Shack- 
 lett. By that time McKee's face was impassive, 
 though his eyes were keenly boring into Shack- 
 lett's face, where they met a steely obstruction 
 of lack of expression as fatal to scrutiny as the 
 walls of the vault were to tempered drills. 
 Shacklett took the package, placed it in his in- 
 side pocket, and as he turned to go out said 
 casually: 
 
 " The advantage in this business is, that if 
 you don't draw to your bobtailed flush you 
 don't lose anything, and if you do you win a 
 lot. Come over to-night, if you've nothing else 
 to do." 
 
 The last words were said while Shacklett was 
 passing into the public office. He walked out 
 with nods to those there and cheery words to 
 the three people in the outer office, and seemed 
 straighter than when he went in a few minutes 
 before. 
 
 McKee had dropped into a chair in the 
 
 private office where Shacklett left him and was 
 
 looking out the window. " Well," he said to 
 
 himself slowly, " I'm wrecked again, and I can't 
 
 209 
 
Shacklett 
 
 see that I can do much kicking, for he's broken 
 up worse than I am. He had his man all right, 
 just as I had mine. He turned his man loose 
 again, and I didn't. It looks — like that man 
 Shacklett — would — let go — of his life — to keep 
 some other fellow — out of trouble; he's getting 
 the worst reputation in the State — and I guess 
 he's the best man in the State to tie to. He's 
 a kind o' cross between a good woman and a 
 devil, and I'll be damned if I don't wish the devil 
 had been running him this trip." 
 
 McKee went to Shacklett's apartments that 
 night more from curiosity than anything else. 
 He wanted more knowledge of the details of 
 Shacklett's operations for the vote, but he failed 
 to get it. Shacklett had from the beginning a 
 businesslike tone, and in a little while was sit- 
 ting with the side of his face toward the grate 
 fire in his room, saying: 
 
 " I've been talking to Cantwell and others 
 about you. They're ready to believe that I'm 
 not so much force as I'm cracked up to be, and 
 I've been telling them that very thing. The fact 
 is I'm not good enough for this work here, and 
 I'm going to quit it. I've been playing it a 
 good while for a big stake, and the big thing's 
 gone by. They don't come in dozen lots, you 
 know, and I'm like the man at the depot after 
 the train's left. I can't wait for another killing 
 here, and I'm going to leave. I've had two 
 210 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 strings to my bow; one's broke now, and I'm 
 going to use the other. I'm going out West 
 and take up another game. I've told the fellows 
 from Chicago that you're better than I ever was 
 to help them, and that they'd better give you 
 the business they've been giving me. I think 
 they'll do it — and you won't fall down like I did 
 at the critical moment to-day. You got your 
 man and I didn't get mine, and that's the differ- 
 ence between us — between success and failure. 
 In two weeks I'll be out West with a sign out as 
 a lawyer, and I don't want anybody but you 
 around here to know where it is. I'm going to 
 be different, and square and honest and a decent 
 man, and it's the last chance I have." 
 
 Shacklett's conversation with Mary Stod- 
 dard a week later was a stimulus to him to a 
 greater degree than he suspected. " I played 
 for big stakes and I failed," he repeated to her 
 as they sat in the large parlor at The Heights 
 at Warsaw. " I did think once that I had a plan 
 to make fifteen or twenty thousand dollars in a 
 year or less, but it went wrong in spite of me. 
 In all the time I've been in Springfield I've 
 not been able to save enough to buy a house- 
 boat fit for a hunting trip, and I've worked 
 out that place. In short, I'm a failure, and I 
 came over to tell you that stuff's off. I'm going 
 out West to be a two-by-four lawyer, and dab- 
 ble in politics, and maybe get to be mayor of 
 211 
 
Shacklett 
 
 some city that has to be staked down to keep 
 it from sliding down a mountain." 
 
 " And if the city should slide down-hill I 
 suppose you'd go with it," she suggested with 
 a smile that was deceptive in its effect. 
 
 " Of course; that's my general direction any- 
 how, and I might as well go with the crowd," he 
 replied, off his guard. 
 
 " That's exactly my own idea," she said 
 gravely, but with a light in her eyes; "but I 
 shall wait until the landslide comes before wor- 
 rying about it. The city might have a boom, 
 you know, and you would feel foolish if it should 
 grow out of all identification the year after you 
 declined to be mayor, wouldn't you? Of course 
 you might get defeated at the polls. Men do 
 cruel things sometimes in denying things to 
 others from foolish motives." 
 
 " The previous question has been carried," 
 he replied with one of the large smiles that 
 meant so much of decision to those who knew 
 him best, " and further discussion is out of 
 order." 
 
 " Yes," she said, " and the situation is that 
 you love me so much that you won't marry me, 
 and I love you so much that I won't marry any- 
 body else. It might as well be put into bald 
 words. I shouldn't be a woman worthy to be 
 my mother's daughter if I let you outdo me; it's 
 a deadlock, isn't it? " She walked up to the 
 212 
 
The Devil at Three to One 
 
 mantel and put out her foot to the grate, with 
 her face turned downward as she spoke with half 
 a smile. Now her eyes glistened with tears and 
 she stepped quickly behind him. In a moment 
 she stooped over his chair and lightly kissed his 
 forehead under the curl that she pushed back. 
 In another instant she was sitting again in her 
 old seat and asking when he intended to start. 
 
 Ten years later, when somebody asked Shack- 
 lett what was really the best control of his nerve 
 that he ever maintained, he smilingly and mus- 
 ingly shook his head, and the questioner had 
 a fleeting vision of some dark secret of politics 
 that would startle the whole country if told. 
 Shacklett often said that a big book ought to be 
 written about the mistakes made by unanswered 
 questioners. 
 
 213 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE DOMINANT AND A DISCORD 
 
 Nobody back in Illinois heard from Shacklett 
 for a year except McKee and Mary Stoddard. 
 He wrote discouragingly to both, one of his let- 
 ters to McKee being: 
 
 " Friend McKee: You might do well here 
 in mining stocks, but I left them alone because 
 I don't know mining. If I could find a country 
 where farms were owned by corporations and the 
 stocks listed I would take fliers and come out all 
 right. But here there is little chance for a ten- 
 derfoot — that is, for all but one out of a thou- 
 sand. I have had ten cases in court now and lost 
 six of them, but I have learned some things out 
 of them. You might do something here around 
 the Legislature, but it's not as good a graft as 
 there, because the good people with the schemes 
 never have any trouble getting them through, 
 and don't have to do much fine work. I have 
 not been here long enough yet to tell how I am 
 214 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 going to come out, but I will have a little fun 
 soon, as I am going to join the reform element 
 here in the city to bounce the mayor and some 
 other people that I don't like. You will get 
 some papers after a while roasting me for a re- 
 former, and if I don't write often it will be be- 
 cause I don't want them to catch on to my 
 former address and get any news from there 
 about me. You might come out and watch me 
 a while." 
 
 The reform forces won; and while the preach- 
 ers and deacons and elders and other really good 
 people felt the self-satisfaction of work well 
 done, the people in the city hall laid the blame on 
 Shacklett. There was little noteworthy in the 
 campaign except the application of modern and 
 practical political methods in favor of the side 
 to which they are generally found in opposition, 
 and the side which is generally utterly ignorant 
 of them. 
 
 His work was remembered in the autumn, 
 and a candidate of his party for the Legislature 
 appealed to him for help and got it. Shacklett 
 had never made a dozen speeches east of the 
 Mississippi River, but he found that his direct 
 methods of expression and perfect frankness 
 won more votes there among the mountains than 
 the highest oratory of the schools, scholastic 
 or political. In a fortnight a candidate in the 
 215 
 
Shacklett 
 
 adjoining district had him over there helping 
 him, and in a month the chairman of the State 
 Central Committee had offered a pretty good 
 thing if Shacklett would go out into all the 
 close and opposition districts for a rapid cam- 
 paign tour. 
 
 Shacklett went on the tour, but declined the 
 pretty good thing in a way that made an im- 
 pression of sincere' philanthropy that stunned the 
 chairman. Shacklett said that he was too new 
 to the State to expect much, and that he would 
 return to his law practice and make money at 
 that as soon as the campaign was over. In each 
 legislative district he had a short but lucid talk 
 with the candidate to whose aid he had come. 
 The lucidity was in the talk and not in the under- 
 standing, however. The talk culminated in an 
 agreement that the legislative candidate, if 
 elected, should respond without fail to any one 
 demand that Shacklett might make upon him in 
 the Legislature; and the understanding of the 
 prospective legislator was that this demand 
 would be to help along the bill of some friends of 
 Shacklett's in the city, which bill might or might 
 not come up — just providing for a possibility, if 
 the candidate thought there should be some- 
 thing coming from him, Shacklett said. 
 
 The result of the election was great eclat 
 to the candidates in the large number of close 
 districts which went for Shacklett's party, and 
 216 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 special reputation to the several candidates of 
 his party who were elected in opposition dis- 
 tricts. A few men at State headquarters puck- 
 ered their brows as they analyzed the vote on the 
 day after election, and decided that that man 
 Shacklett should not again be given so much 
 swing in the State. 
 
 But nobody felt more that a proper caution 
 until the time for the Legislature to meet. There 
 was nothing very important coming up except 
 the choice between Calloway and Sommers for 
 the seat in the Senate at Washington; and the 
 fight between these two began so early and was 
 so warm that very few members had pledged 
 themselves to either, most of the members wait- 
 ing to discover which would win in time to get 
 on the side that would gain the victory and the 
 patronage. 
 
 Then came the unexpected; it was Shacklett 
 making sight drafts upon his friends whose 
 promise to accept them he had secured in those 
 lucid but smoke-hidden talks, and Shacklett's re- 
 serves coming in from the most unexpected 
 quarters, that started a panic and something of a 
 stampede. " Shacklett for Senator " was the 
 largest headline on the first page of all the news- 
 papers one day. There suddenly sprang into ex- 
 istence, almost as quickly as a mining corpora- 
 tion can be formed, an organization made up of 
 the remnants of the reform forces who .had 
 15 217 
 
Shacklett 
 
 learned a little of practical methods and felt 
 grateful to their teacher, and of scattered indi- 
 viduals whose admiration for Shacklett's power 
 to produce results and the idea that it would pay 
 had more to do with their loyalty to him than 
 their gratitude for being the beneficiaries of 
 those results. The stampede was growing in 
 force, and the panic weakening, by the lapse of 
 time when the crash came. 
 
 It started in a discord in a convention of mu- 
 sicians hundreds of miles away; grew in force as 
 it crossed the Mississippi River to the West, 
 and was re-enforced by a quickly moving howl 
 that overtook it in the race from Illinois, and 
 finally reverberated among the mountain canons 
 and precipices in a confused thunder, wail, and 
 clamor that drove Shacklett flying away across 
 the prairies. 
 
 It started, as storms often do, in the most 
 peaceful surroundings possible to imagine. The 
 State Music Teachers' Association had come 
 en masse to accept the invitation to an excursion 
 on the river, with tea on the lawn of The Heights. 
 Mary Stoddard had talked of Chopin and 
 Rimsky-Korsakow to bespectacled young men 
 and rotund Germans until she had been called to 
 assist a young girl with an old face who had 
 become entangled in the shrubbery; then she 
 called Mr. Bradbury and went out on the Point. 
 She felt tired of the compliments to the place 
 218 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 in all keys by the musicians, and said to herself 
 that she liked crowds less every day. Mr. Brad- 
 bury was a restful man to talk to. He seldom 
 talked education, missions, or purity in politics 
 outside of the pulpit of the church in Warsaw. 
 He felt his responsibilities, but he also remem- 
 bered the world he had known before he donned 
 the cloth. Miss Stoddard just now desired 
 most of all to get a breath of the air of the 
 real world, and the spiritualities of the lovers 
 of Beethoven and Dargomijsky did not appeal 
 to her. 
 
 " That river," she said, when they reached 
 the promontory where the flagstaff of the geo- 
 detic survey had been, " has two mouths, you 
 see. They have changed locations several times 
 since I was a little girl, and sometimes there is 
 but one. But whatever the situation there, the 
 Des Moines empties into the Mississippi in some 
 way or other. I admire the certainty of its ac- 
 complishment regardless of means and obstruc- 
 tions. It is a case of the end justifying the 
 means, and the more I look at it the more apt I 
 am to adopt that theological tenet." 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Bradbury only smiled. 
 He had no fears of this sheep of his flock straying 
 even the least distance from the creed held by 
 her forefathers and herself. After a little he 
 said: " But there is only one means used — the 
 natural tendency to flow down-hill. Men and 
 219 
 
Shacklett 
 
 women move upward or downward with the same 
 certainty according to the direction in which they 
 are traveling." 
 
 A party of the music teachers strolled up and 
 interrupted whatever she was about to reply. 
 Talking to a thin-faced girl was a young reporter 
 from one of the Chicago papers, sent down to 
 cover his first assignment out of the city, and 
 duly impressing the people he met with bis 
 journalistic importance. Just now he was re- 
 counting as his own the experiences of a man 
 who did the legislative work for his paper. 
 
 " Now, there was the king of the lobby, 
 Shacklett," he rattled off, and the name made 
 Miss Stoddard listen to him instead of to what 
 Mr. Bradbury was saying in an attempt to con- 
 tinue their own conversation. " Now, there was 
 Mr. Shacklett. He had a cool million dollars to 
 spend to buy members with, and he took old 
 Senator McNamara up in a room and spread out 
 twenty thousand in currency before him, and 
 told him it was all his if he would vote for the 
 Chicago bills. But old Mac was too honest or 
 too smart or too badly scared — he refused. Then 
 there was Cantwell; he was a nervy one, 
 too " 
 
 But Miss Stoddard turned back to Mr. Brad- 
 bury with new interest. " Now take that boy, 
 for instance," the minister said, seizing an op- 
 portunity to attract her wandering thoughts, 
 220 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 " He is starting down-hill by his very association 
 with such schemes as he has been telling of. But 
 the man he spoke of — the man who offered the 
 other a fortune to sell his vote for corrupt meas- 
 ures — that man will continue to go downward 
 exactly as the Des Moines does. He is certain 
 to get to his level finally — as certain as the 
 river is to flow into the Mississippi, if not by 
 one channel, then by another, or by both 
 together." 
 
 " But because he did that one thing, does 
 that make it a necessity for him to do more like 
 it? May he not do such a thing once in his life 
 without its determining the trend of his char- 
 acter? " As Miss Stoddard said this she tried 
 not to show too much feeling. 
 
 " But this man was already the king of the 
 lobby, you see. That was the level to which he 
 descended by a gradual evolution of character, 
 you know." 
 
 " Yes, that is true," she replied. " Let us 
 go back and discuss the chord of the diminished 
 seventh in the minor scale." 
 
 As soon as the adieus of the musicians had 
 been said and the guests from Warsaw had de- 
 parted, Mary Stoddard went out again upon the 
 Point and looked at the rivers. Beyond the tops 
 of the stunted trees growing on the high bluff 
 the Mississippi lay at her feet like a lake of nar- 
 row width and indefinite length. After its rush 
 221 
 
Shacklett 
 
 over the rapids above Keokuk it moved along 
 so sedately that it could not be seen to flow, but 
 seemed to be a stationary body of water, the two 
 ends of which reached out into the unknown. 
 Its one suggestion "was the inconceivable. To 
 the right it reached out into the tree-tops, and to 
 the left it extended past the big elm that cut off 
 the picture. Beyond these one knew it was 
 drawn through a great nation from top to bot- 
 tom. But one had to reason this out, just as 
 one had to make an appreciable effort to grasp 
 the fact of the nation. For all that one actually 
 felt, it came from the unknown and went into 
 the unknowable. 
 
 On the other side was something hardly more 
 definite. Directly in front, the Des Moines was 
 drawn under the railroad bridge down to the 
 water's edge. Of course, when one comes to 
 think of it, the Des Moines traverses a great 
 State and is a very respectable river; but in the 
 picture that Mary Stoddard saw it was only one 
 of the lines, lying like a forked stick on a dirty 
 table. A little farther down nestled the village 
 of Alexandria, seen only when looked for and 
 indefinite always. Beyond the brown plain of 
 corn in the bottom lands were the Missouri 
 bluffs, ten miles away, making a hazy sky line 
 that served to separate the fields from the clouds, 
 and, by their distance, to add the quality of im- 
 pressiveness to the view. The one thing with 
 222 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 definition was the Mississippi, cutting the ground 
 from under one's feet. 
 
 As Mary Stoddard sought the one tangible 
 thing to grasp, one definite axiom on which to 
 build a proposition, the only thing that came to 
 her was the memory of the words of the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Bradbury. They had seemed easy to 
 overcome at the time, but they continued to 
 stand out like the Mississippi in the view before 
 her, and she felt that, however stagnant they ap- 
 peared in themselves, they had force enough to 
 change the drift of her life. It was not yet dark 
 when she walked to her room and wrote the let- 
 ter to Shacklett which, indirectly, caused the 
 greatest political surprise one of the American 
 capitals had ever seen. When Monday came 
 she drove to Warsaw for the mail. Incidentally 
 she passed the depot and stopped to talk to 
 the telegraph operator about the Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Miss Stoddard did not reply meekly when old 
 Barbara chided her for keeping dinner waiting 
 until two o'clock. She led the gardener a merry 
 chase the rest of the afternoon, showing him 
 contemplated changes in the flower-beds, and at 
 evening she went to her room instead of coming 
 to supper. When the electric lights in her room 
 flashed up, as the dynamo station in the town 
 started for the night, she turned them off at the 
 lamps. She was born twenty years too late to 
 223 
 
Shacklett 
 
 cry, under the circumstances, and she thought 
 more of the past than of the present. 
 
 When the moon shining through the window 
 made the room as light as a poor lamp would 
 have made it, she petulantly remembered that 
 the moon could not be extinguished as an elec- 
 tric light, and wondered whether the time would 
 ever come when men of science could accomplish 
 even that. A little later she was on the settee 
 where the bluff fell away from the edge of the 
 lawn down into the indefinite depths, at the bot- 
 tom of which the river shone out strong and 
 clear, and more mighty because of the moon- 
 light tipping the tops of the waves and making 
 them each recognizable. There was nothing 
 now to suggest man; all spoke of the God who 
 wrote his character in his work. The very es- 
 sence of peace pervaded everything — the sweet, 
 beautiful peace that passeth understanding, and is 
 fairly tangible from a Mississippi bluff when all 
 is still. 
 
 Then a note of discord was struck when into 
 view came a steamboat with its red signal light 
 high in the air and its dim yellow glow shining 
 through the openings of its cabin and engine- 
 room. Slowly it crept over the burnished river 
 like a planet over the disk of the sun, and sud- 
 denly Mary Stoddard started. 
 
 After all, what had made the river what it 
 was? Millions of years of calm had left it only 
 224 
 
The Dominant and a Discord 
 
 a peaceful picture, with savages in the foreground 
 and heathen monuments in the middle distance. 
 But a hundred years of burning hot steam had 
 brought churches and colleges and civilization to 
 an empire. 
 
 What came with the steamboat was injustice, 
 oaths, the violation of each and every one of the 
 commandments, and what men call modern con- 
 ditions. Did it pay? Would it have been bet- 
 ter to have left the river to flow on in peace than 
 to have stirred up the mud from its bottom with 
 the revolving paddle-wheels of selfish strife, 
 after cutting the line that for so long held men 
 fast to the old, godly ideas? 
 
 The boat passed on into the night. The girl 
 did not see it disappear. The thing she saw was 
 the line of flat tombstones marking the graves of 
 her ancestors, each of whom had lived a godly 
 life of peace and slipped out of view as the boat 
 had done. They had without doubt saved their 
 own souls, but what else had they done? Her 
 father had become county clerk, and her grand- 
 father had built the old stone church. Her 
 brother had had some hope of becoming county 
 superintendent of schools, and his real ambition 
 was to make the address of welcome at the old 
 settlers' meeting. Her grandfather, she remem- 
 bered, had made the pleasures of this home pos- 
 sible by venturing out upon the furthermost 
 edge of the frontier and stopping only where the 
 225 
 
Shacklett 
 
 river made the boundary of settlement. . . . 
 She had chosen the only right road — the road 
 that leads to the peace of a clear conscience — ■ 
 she felt sure. But would it pay her to glide 
 through life to the sea when the gain is in 
 inertia and the loss in energy? It was four days 
 before she decided that question for herself — 
 and for Shacklett. 
 
 226 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE HAND OF THE MASTER 
 
 It was the beginning of the tenth week of 
 the fight in the legislative caucus over the elec- 
 tion of a new senator. If the previous incumbent 
 of the seat in the Upper House at Washington 
 had foreseen how extraordinarily bitter would be 
 the fight over the toga he laid down, perhaps he 
 would not have died just before the end of the 
 session that completed his term. At any rate, 
 the new bills were still reposing in the breast 
 pockets or the locked desks, while the daily 
 sessions of the House and Senate consisted of 
 dispensing with the reading of the journal, wish- 
 ing that the prayer could be dispensed with 
 also, and adjourning. The few members who 
 took the trouble to go to the capitol to do this 
 were looked upon as the best fellows in the world 
 for their generous performance of what somebody 
 had to do. 
 
 But there was no tendency to shirk attend- 
 ance at the caucus. By one of the queer per- 
 versions of the theory of our government, the 
 227 
 
Shacklett 
 
 man who was to represent the greatest of the 
 Rocky Mountain States in the Federal Senate 
 was to be selected by that caucus which met 
 daily, fought continually, and refused admission 
 to four ninths of the members of the Legislature. 
 Such were the actual conditions — with some ad- 
 ditional details of the fighting, about which 
 Shacklett knew more than anybody else and 
 some of which he never told — as the first week 
 passed with no choice and Shacklett gaining a 
 little each day over his opponents. 
 
 Then came the big sensation. Everybody 
 out West heard of it at the time, and every poli- 
 tician still remembers it. It was cunningly de- 
 signed to kill off Shacklett, and seemed to have 
 done so the day it appeared. But nobody ex- 
 pected Shacklett to take it in the way he did, 
 for everyone supposed him to be a thoroughly 
 practical politician, always fighting to a finish. 
 
 Shacklett smiled when he saw the morning 
 paper, and seemed especially amused at the 
 " scare heads " in which the opposition press in- 
 dulged. There had been some advance specu- 
 lation among the men gathered in the Times 
 office, the day before, as to how he would look 
 when he read the article which the managing ed- 
 itor had just ordered the most vitriolic pen on 
 the paper to write. But none of the predictions 
 suggested a smile; for none of the men knew 
 Shacklett. 
 
 228 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 The result of the conference between Swart, 
 the managing editor of the Times, Pickens, 
 who was managing Sommers's campaign, and a 
 man from Illinois whose name was not men- 
 tioned at the time, was not known to another 
 person until the Times appeared the next morn- 
 ing. Part of the force of the publication lay in 
 its unexpectedness; the rest of the momentum 
 it had came from its boldness. People generally 
 believe any charge that is made with sufficient 
 energy and particularity if it be something they 
 never dreamed of before. They believed this 
 one, but they expected Shacklett to deny it in 
 a way that would keep things boiling for weeks 
 at least. 
 
 Released from the thraldom of alliteration 
 and debased from wood type, the head-lines told 
 quite as much as did the article below, lacking 
 only a few minor details. They said that Shack- 
 lett had been a member of the lobby at Spring- 
 field before coming West, and had been thor- 
 oughly mixed up with the notorious Chicago 
 bills, the scandal of which had been carried even 
 to the mountains. They also said that, in case 
 of his election, the opposition party had arranged 
 to begin prosecutions back in Illinois, and send a 
 requisition for the new senator from the splendid 
 State, the insignia of which was never sullied, 
 and whose sun should not be sent down in dis- 
 grace for Shacklett's sin. But it was not the 
 229 
 
Shacklett 
 
 alliteration at which Shacklett smiled. His was 
 the smile of a man who had a straight flush in his 
 hand when the other side of the table displays 
 four aces. He saw the humor in the situation 
 and enjoyed being the only man who knew all 
 about it. 
 
 Fletcher and Van Steen took it differently. 
 They came in with angry faces and flashing eyes, 
 to tell Shacklett that the trick was the most das- 
 tardly ever seen, and that they would shoot Swart 
 at sight if Shacklett thought it would not do fur- 
 ther injury to their campaign. Before they were 
 entirely through the door Shacklett had banished 
 the smile, and his face was the inscrutable mask 
 that was the only one the Westerners knew. 
 
 " I tell you men that I'm all right," Shack- 
 lett said to his two chief lieutenants, " and you 
 know that when I say that, it ends it. If you 
 fellows stick to me and let me play this thing 
 out, we'll all win. I'm going to take you 
 through fire and hot water; but, if you fall by 
 the wayside, you'll miss the train that's going 
 right into the station. The first thing I want 
 you to do is to stay away from me till eleven 
 o'clock; then I want you to come here." 
 
 When they had gone Shacklett took a car- 
 riage down to a hotel, and as he got to his room 
 sent for a messenger. Next he wrote two notes, 
 and told the messenger boy to hurry with them 
 as fast as a dollar could make him go. Then he 
 230 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 sat down, took a letter from his pocket, and read 
 it over twice. There is no means of telling what 
 he thought, for his face showed nothing; but the 
 letter was from the only girl that Shacklett ever 
 even thought he loved. He had come West 
 to gain money enough and position sufficiently 
 high to marry her, and for five years the girl had 
 been the object of all his work and the expected 
 reward for all his successes. The fact that he 
 might have married at any time cut no figure, 
 since Shacklett knew perfectly well that he 
 ought not to marry the girl until he was rich 
 enough to give her the life she deserved. That 
 had been all argued out and settled — by Shack- 
 lett — in spite of the views of the girl herself. 
 
 He had left what some of his friends had 
 thought a very fine position back in Illinois to 
 come West and take the chances of politics, and 
 incidentally of the profession of law, with a well- 
 worked-out plan in his head. He came deter- 
 mined to be senator from the State that had at- 
 tracted him as affording the best opportunities 
 for a skilful manipulator of politics; but that, 
 after all, was only incidental to becoming able 
 to marry Mary Stoddard. 
 
 When he had gone to bed, at three o'clock 
 that morning, Shacklett knew the senatorial dig- 
 nity would be his within a week, but he did not 
 feel the toga on his shoulders — he felt only the 
 hand of the girl upon his hot forehead. He did 
 231 
 
Shacklett 
 
 not imagine the cheers of his party when the final 
 vote should be declared. He heard only the 
 words of the young Presbyterian minister back 
 in the Illinois city saying the simple marriage 
 service. When Shacklett arose, at seven o'clock 
 the same morning, the first thing he picked up 
 was the letter from the girl which he was reading 
 again in the room at the hotel while he was wait- 
 ing for answers to his notes. It was a warm, 
 carefully written letter, sensible enough, no 
 doubt, and showed the greatest faith in Shack- 
 lett. It said: 
 
 " I have just heard, from a man whom I shall 
 hate to my dying day, that you were part of the 
 gang which bought up the Legislature for the 
 notorious Chicago bills; that you were given 
 twenty thousand dollars to get the vote of a sen- 
 ator named McNamara from down in the State, 
 but he was so honest that even that fortune could 
 not tempt him, and you failed. Do not imagine 
 that I believe this. If I did I would not tell you. 
 But the evidence is so strong that I must ask 
 you about it. Did you approach Senator Mc- 
 Namara with a large sum of money in the interest 
 of the bills in that Legislature? If your answer 
 is ' No,' wire it to me quick, for I shall die if 
 this state of mind continues much longer. 
 
 " If you can not answer ' No ' you had best 
 not answer at all. You will receive this on Mon- 
 232 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 day morning. Your telegram can reach me by 
 noon in any event. If it is not here by Monday 
 noon I shall know that you can not say ' No,' 
 and 
 
 " I do not know just what will become of me, 
 for, unfortunately, people do not die when they 
 ought to. I suppose it will be like a bad wound 
 that finally gets well, but always leaves a scar. I 
 do not see how mine can ever heal, but they tell 
 me that wounds do generally. 
 
 " But the surgeon's knife sometimes is the 
 least evil. If you are that kind of a man, I should 
 feel at the altar like a woman going on a boat that 
 the inspectors had condemned throughout. Of 
 course some of them reach port again, but most 
 of them do not, and it is only a matter of time 
 when such a man wrecks his life. 
 
 " It is not that I am afraid for myself entirely. 
 The essential question is whether I could love 
 you then. I love the man I learned to know 
 here, but could I love the other man I found 
 later on I had married, as development would 
 come along the lines of character he chose? 
 That is the great thing, for, if I did not love my 
 husband, both of us would be driven farther into 
 the whirlpool and both of us be more unhappy 
 than if we separate now." 
 
 It seemed a sensible letter, but Shacklett had 
 another view-point. " When the police have 
 16 233 
 
Shacklett 
 
 nabbed the stakes, what's the use of keeping on 
 playing the game? " were his first words after 
 reading the letter. His next thought was being 
 worked out by his presence at this down-town 
 hotel, where he was seldom seen. Now, as he 
 read the letter over yet again, he was revolving 
 other plans in his mind. The thought of telling 
 the truth, which would place him on a pedestal, 
 never entered his head. And although this fight 
 was finished, he began to plan for the next one 
 as naturally as a clerk takes up another letter 
 when the first is written. Everything that he 
 had considered to be two weeks ahead was 
 pushed forward two years. But life was longer 
 than the two years, and this was a case of hav- 
 ing to win. These things were not thoughts 
 in his mind; they were perceptions, coming to 
 him apparently exactly as did the fact that the 
 door was between him and the hall. 
 
 A few taps on the door changed the trend of 
 his mind instantly. Shacklett called out an in- 
 vitation to enter without taking his leg off the 
 arm of the chair or looking up. Not until the 
 door was fully open did he slowly rise and greet 
 his visitor. He had none of the air of a host; 
 he was rather the man who has casually met 
 another on the curb and stopped for a moment 
 to chat about a little matter still unfinished. 
 
 It was Calloway who entered, and before he 
 had closed the door Sommers arrived, looking 
 
 234 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 furtively up and down the hall. Both had been 
 followed by the reporters for some distance, but 
 Calloway had dropped his squad in the mazes of 
 the park through which he drove slowly, greatly 
 enjoying the freshness of the morning, while 
 Sommers had passed through one of the other 
 hotels too swiftly for his shadows. 
 
 Shacklett had arranged the chairs and the 
 table, and when he motioned each to a seat and 
 sat down in the only remaining chair, it hap- 
 pened that they were seated with the table be- 
 tween them. Shacklett began to speak at once, 
 and his tone was low and distinct, his words 
 clear-cut, but with an apparent slight drawl on 
 each that indicated little genuine interest in the 
 first sentences spoken. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he began, " before I saw the 
 Times this morning I had made up my mind to 
 a certain line of action, and I don't feel like hav- 
 ing my plans disturbed by a little thing like that. 
 So I've thus far kept on the route I had chosen. 
 I've the game we've been playing in my own 
 hands. I drew the card last night that made 
 me winner. After I've smashed to smithereens 
 the lies in the Times, which I can do by three 
 o'clock, nothing can beat me. I'm keeping off 
 of debatable ground ; I didn't invite you here for 
 argument." And his eyes twinkled with that 
 sparkle that won over people at whom it was 
 directed. 
 
 235 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " But some of my priyate affairs have gone 
 wrong back where my brother lives," he went 
 on, without a pause or change of manner, " and 
 I'll lose a pot if I stay here and fool any longer 
 with this fight. I'm going to quit, gentlemen, 
 and leave the game with you, with your permis- 
 sion, and lay down my royal flush, so that you 
 can continue to back your full house and your 
 two pair." 
 
 The other men were so taken off their guard 
 that they made little attempt to keep their feel- 
 ings from showing in their faces. Shacklett saw 
 the look of alarm in Sommers's eyes. It was 
 quickly followed by the one that shows in the 
 pupils of cornered, desperate men. He also 
 noted the relief in the face of Calloway, though 
 the old politician quickly hid it under a look 
 merely of surprise and polite interest. Shacklett 
 kept on talking smoothly. 
 
 " Sommers, you don't know me a little bit. 
 I don't punish my enemies that way. I'm not 
 going to throw you over the cliff, and until just 
 now I didn't know which of you was the several 
 kinds of idiot that was behind the Times. 
 And, Calloway, I know I ought to send Som- 
 mers back to his justice shop in La Jara and let 
 you hold a wake here on his political remains, 
 but I don't do those things; it isn't my way. 
 
 " What I'll do, under certain easy conditions, 
 is to get out bag and baggage and let you two 
 236 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 grab whatever each of you can of my estate in 
 the Legislature. I won't throw a vote to either 
 of you. I'll say to my people, ' Go where you 
 please,' and I'll stick to that. Each of you get 
 what you can, understand? That is, if you meet 
 my terms. If you don't both come in, the one 
 that does will get votes enough to elect him on 
 the next ballot. If neither of you sees fit to ac- 
 cept my generous offer, I'll let the private busi- 
 ness go, and to-morrow morning will see the 
 game over and the pot in my pocket. I can wait 
 over here that long, I guess. 
 
 " My terms are these: Whoever is elected, 
 and regardless of how they vote, my friends must 
 be taken care of for the six years. I'll give you 
 a list of them and of how big a graft each is to 
 have. If one of them goes to Sommers, and 
 you, Calloway, are elected, you must take care 
 of him just the same. You, too, catch the point, 
 Sommers? The same thing goes if you are 
 elected and some of the men fight for Calloway. 
 
 " The only other thing is that the Times 
 must come out in the morning with three col- 
 umns on its first page taking back everything it 
 said this morning. I don't care how it gets out 
 of the hole itself. It can say that the man that 
 brought the stuff from Illinois turns out to be an 
 escaped convict, or something of that kind, if it 
 wants to; but it must say that the Times and 
 Sommers and Calloway have investigated the 
 
 237 
 
Shacklett 
 
 rumors and found them all to be infernal rot 
 which imposed on the paper and the State. I 
 know, Calloway, that you can't turn that trick; 
 but if Sommers don't do it, he goes back to the 
 mines, and you get the best thing I have to hand 
 out after I get to Washington. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I want an answer, and I'm 
 sorry I haven't time to give you a better chance 
 for consideration. We'd better all stay here 
 until the decision's made, and I don't think it's 
 necessary for you two to consult. I'm to meet 
 my men at eleven o'clock to give them final di- 
 rections, and it lacks ten minutes of that hour 
 now. What do you say? " 
 
 Shacklett saw Sommers's thoughts in his 
 sharp eyes, that had just the faintest glitter in 
 them. He knew that Sommers needed still 
 another blow, so he kept on: " Calloway, sup- 
 pose you speak first. Is it a go? " 
 
 Neither Calloway nor Sommers could see 
 much of the face of the other. Both had from 
 habit looked around for a mirror that would help 
 them out, but that was the one hotel suite in the 
 city without a mirror on the wall. Now each 
 furtively tried to glance at the other out of the 
 corner of his eye, but it could not be accom- 
 plished. If one accepted, the other was lost if 
 he refused Shacklett's plan. Calloway gave up 
 the effort to seem cool. He exclaimed: " Of 
 course I'll do it, Shacklett. Do you imagine 
 238 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 that I'm a degenerate idiot? I'll tell you frankly 
 now that I was scared to death when I saw that 
 thing in the Times, for I figured that you'd 
 make it a boomerang to elect you. I've not en- 
 joyed this fight against you, and I'm only too 
 glad to be able to talk to you again in the cor- 
 ners of the corridors." 
 
 " Judge Sommers? " Shacklett let out the 
 words with all the suavity of gesture of which 
 a mendicant is capable, and with all the modula- 
 tion of tone that a long lesson in elocution 
 might have given. There were but two words 
 uttered, but they stood for " If you dare — be a 
 dead duck, or acknowledge you're a rascal ! You 
 have to — and you know it; take your medicine 
 like a little man." 
 
 " It's a go," said Sommers. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, each two of us stand as 
 witnesses to the pledge of the other. You'll 
 want to go to arrange for bagging my men, and, 
 as I said, I go to tell them to fly to either coop 
 they please. I shall also tell them that they have 
 lost nothing by sticking to Shacklett. Sommers, 
 you can take the front door, the way you came 
 in. Calloway, you pass into that adjoining room 
 and turn to the right; you'll get to the ladies' 
 entrance. I'll go through that other room and 
 see my friend the chef as I go out the back way." 
 
 During the next four days there was no lack 
 of energy in the fight for the senatorship. 
 
 239 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett had started east on the fastest train 
 out of the capital, and at Council Bluffs was de- 
 lighted to hear of the phenomenal runs made to 
 Burlington. At the latter city he felt he was 
 nearly home again, and from the very station the 
 railroad ran so near the river that he threw a 
 cigar stump into the water from the car window. 
 Above Keokuk he took a long look at the hills 
 of Illinois, less than a mile away, but yet belong- 
 ing to that other world that the river cut off so 
 thoroughly that it seemed to have been moved 
 over a little, leaving a crack like the space be- 
 tween great stepping-stones. He had forsaken 
 that office back there determined to induce Mary 
 Stoddard to change her mind. When he saw 
 the road across the river, so near that he could 
 distinguish the different kinds of vehicles, and 
 so far that it seemed in another hemisphere, the 
 road over which they had driven so often, he 
 said to himself that this was a case of absolute 
 necessity, and that he never before really knew 
 what necessity meant. 
 
 He left the train at the little depot at Alex- 
 andria, and the driver of the carryall drawn up 
 at the platform seemed to take it as a personal 
 injury that Shacklett ignored him and started 
 to walk briskly toward the ferry. He crossed 
 the river to Warsaw, and jumped into the first 
 hack, but not before the boy in the railroad tele- 
 graph office had caught sight of him. With the 
 240 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 prescience of telegraph-office boys, this one had 
 reasoned that a well-dressed gentleman coming 
 off the down K-line train and hurrying over the 
 river into a hack must be the great man from 
 out West for whom the telegram was meant. 
 
 Shacklett differed from the townspeople who 
 got telegrams, in that he signed the book and 
 tipped the boy before he tore open the envelope. 
 The telegram did not seem to be of much interest 
 to him, and the office boy wondered how it would 
 affect such a man to be elected general manager 
 or train-master of the universe. In fact, he made 
 a remark of this kind to the agent when he got 
 back to the office. The telegram was this: 
 
 "Hon. N. C. Shacklett, Warsaw, 111.: 
 
 " Deadlock between Sommers and Calloway 
 broken by election of yourself as senator. We 
 sprung it right without hearing from you. 
 Messages scattered all along the road for you. 
 Why don't you answer? Van Steen." 
 
 Shacklett thought it just as well to delay 
 answering now until he had seen the girl who 
 had the decision to make. He might be able to 
 telegraph Van Steen yet to-night that the un- 
 expected honor was accepted as a duty that he 
 owed to the State of his adoption, and one that 
 he could not shirk. He might have to stay back 
 here for ten or twelve years before he could in- 
 241 
 
Shacklett 
 
 duce the girl to see things in the right way, and 
 by that time it would be another term and he 
 should have to make a keen contest for the 
 honor. 
 
 The shadows were creeping up the bluff from 
 the river when Shacklett arrived at The Heights. 
 Mary Stoddard came to the door when he rang. 
 She started back so suddenly when she saw 
 Shacklett, whom she thought a thousand miles 
 away, that she trod on the toes of the Reverend 
 Mr. Bradbury. The light of amusement in her 
 eyes at the evident disapproval of the minister 
 was still there when she turned to Shacklett and 
 said: " Your coming east is somewhat of a sur- 
 prise." 
 
 " I did not wire you," said Shacklett, " be- 
 cause I wanted to begin the conversation when 
 I could talk directly at you. I came to make 
 an argument, and I'm going to start it in person. 
 It'll be to your benefit to assist me, Mr. Brad- 
 bury, and I hope you'll help me out if I call 
 upon you." 
 
 Mary Stoddard spoke up quickly and a little 
 coquettishly: " Mr. Bradbury would assist me, I 
 am sure, if I desired to argue with you; but I 
 don't. I can do that later, you know, Mr. Brad- 
 bury, for we're to be married some time." 
 
 " Yes; next week, in fact," said Shacklett. 
 
 Mr. Bradbury hastened to offer his congrat- 
 ulations, though he could not keep from looking 
 242 
 
The Hand of the Master 
 
 at Miss Stoddard a little curiously all the time. 
 Face to face with the man whom he had used 
 for a text out on the Point that night of the 
 music teachers' reception, he thought if Mary 
 Stoddard was going to marry him there must be 
 some mistake. It was a little puzzling to under- 
 stand at once, but he hoped to solve the riddle 
 later. As he walked home the young minister 
 was in a reverie on possibilities and impossibili- 
 ties in life, during which the face of Mary Stod- 
 dard gradually faded away into the mist which 
 had surrounded it in his mental vision for years. 
 
 243 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE MOTH BY THE GRATE 
 
 Shacklett staid at The Heights that even- 
 ing until very late, and as he and Mary Stoddard 
 sat on the settee made from the twisted, live 
 grape-vine, at the very edge of the bluff over- 
 looking the moonlit river and the stretch of land 
 on the other side fading away in the western 
 haze over Missouri and Iowa, their talk was in 
 low, cooing tones. What they said may be re- 
 produced from any love story of the sentimental 
 type or the memory of any happily married 
 couple. It was the most conventional time in 
 Shacklett's life, because it was the first time that 
 they two had met on an exactly identical plane 
 and found absolutely nothing between them. 
 The girl said afterward that their married life 
 began just there, and she was not far wrong. 
 
 The wedding was not for ten days, notwith- 
 standing Shacklett's quick decision given first to 
 the Reverend Mr. Bradbury. There were no 
 cards, and the time was suited to convenience 
 largely. Shacklett had never entered society in 
 244 
 
The Moth by the Grate 
 
 his new home, and in the ignorance of his private 
 life that prevailed there the news of his marriage 
 came as another great surprise to the people. 
 McKee sent a column of telegraph to the papers 
 out there, but there was little to say of the wed- 
 ding itself, and he filled the most of the space 
 with biography, character sketching and per- 
 sonal description of the bride, which suited the 
 papers exactly, for every woman in the State — 
 and especially those in the capital — was dying 
 to find out what sort of person she was. 
 
 The ceremony was in the large front parlor, 
 with flowers everywhere, and about a dozen girl 
 friends present. McKee was the only man in- 
 vited. The fine lace curtains were veiled over 
 the large window, and into them were worked 
 threads of asparagus fern, and here and there a 
 white rosebud, making a charming background 
 of delicate white and green for the two as they 
 stood facing the minister and the company 
 there. 
 
 The honeymoon was spent at The Heights, 
 Shacklett declaring that it was the prettiest place 
 in the world, and Mrs. Shacklett being delighted 
 at his saying so, with the childlike joy of a young 
 girl whose home is praised. Nobody came out 
 to call upon them, and they spent the time al- 
 ternately between sentimentalism, overlooking 
 the ever-changing river, and the instruction by 
 Shacklett of his wife about the new world she 
 24s 
 
Shacklett 
 
 would enter when the honeymoon was over. 
 She once told him that the most foolish couple 
 in the world is a bride and groom of advanced 
 years, and her questions about what would be 
 expected of her out West as the wife of a United 
 States senator brought more indirect knowledge 
 by inference and insight than direct information 
 from Shacklett's actual knowledge. 
 
 When she reached her new home in the 
 mountains, it did not take Mrs. Shacklett long 
 to see that her duties were quite as important as 
 her husband's were in political life. Shacklett 
 had come out into the glare of his new position 
 through a passageway that was not only tor- 
 tuous, but one which had hid him from the public 
 view to a considerable extent. On that stage he 
 had been seen unobtrusively a few times, but now 
 that it was his scene and he was down in the 
 center close to the footlights, it was vastly differ- 
 ent. If he caught the applause of the audience, 
 extending from the orchestra seats in the capi- 
 tal city to the galleries down in the mines, he 
 was safe; and his wife really brought out the 
 first • hand-claps, which were joined by others 
 until the whole State was enthusiastically ap- 
 plauding. 
 
 She met people with an open frankness, com- 
 bined with a certain kind of dignity that was not 
 emphatic, and a refinement which was felt rather 
 than observed, and met them on their own 
 246 
 
The Moth by the Grate 
 
 ground in such a way that each felt that she had 
 been especially educated in his own school of 
 experience. 
 
 " I've just been talking to Mrs. Shacklett," 
 said a member from a distant district with pride 
 in his voice that he could not conceal, " and I'll 
 be blankety blanked if she's not the greatest 
 woman that ever come to this State. There's 
 two things she's proud of: one, that she's the 
 wife of the senator, and the other, that she was 
 raised on a farm. Told me the last herself, and 
 proved it by what she said when she found out 
 I was raised on a farm myself. There's no more 
 stuckupishness about her than there ought to 
 be, for she bears more metal to the ton of ore 
 than anybody I've seen lately." 
 
 And while he was saying this at the hotel, 
 one of the larger of the ordinary mining kings 
 of the State was telling his own wife in a house 
 that was a little too gaudily decorated: 
 
 " I don't know whether you women will like 
 Mrs. Shacklett, but you'd better act like it, for 
 she's going to have the swell men around her. 
 She is open and above-board in admitting that 
 she's a tenderfoot; but her family is one of the 
 very best in Illinois. She's aristocratic as the 
 devil, and she's had money to burn ever since she 
 was old enough to buy macaroons for herself. 
 She strikes me as being pretty sharp, too, and I 
 wish you'd get on as good terms with her as pos- 
 247 
 
Shacklett 
 
 sible. I imagine her friendship would be useful 
 in a pinch." 
 
 All unconscious of these descriptive observa- 
 tions, Mrs. Shacklett herself was talking to a 
 lawyer who had been a judge once and came up 
 to the Legislature every session to escape the 
 ennui of the continual clatter of mining stock 
 and real estate transfers at home. He was say- 
 ing with fine, old-fashioned dignity: 
 
 " Mrs. Shacklett, you must allow me to ex- 
 press my gratification at meeting you. Do you 
 know, you're the first woman I've met out West 
 who knew anything about the Confession of 
 Faith? Of course there are such here, but 
 they're missionary society women that I don't 
 meet; and if I did, they'd talk about religion 
 when I want to talk about the practical relation 
 between such things as your church's Confession 
 of Faith and the laws men have made and are 
 now enforcing by government. I am sorry that 
 the public life of your husband is likely to keep 
 you from your studies more than you expected, 
 perhaps, but I hope I may be allowed to come up 
 occasionally to sharpen my own wits at your 
 fireside." 
 
 Mrs. Shacklett herself had misgivings about 
 living up to her own standard of help to her 
 husband; but Shacklett, who was keeping one 
 eye on her with something of wonder and all of 
 admiration, assured her that nobody could do 
 248 
 
The Moth by the Grate 
 
 better, and that if he had married her seven or 
 eight years sooner he might have been President 
 by this time. She felt the need of something for 
 comparison, and for this reason was anxious to 
 go to Washington to study the wives of the 
 public men there. Shacklett said that it was a 
 good thing she had not made this study, for her 
 original methods were far superior to the some- 
 what hackneyed ones at Washington, which have 
 been worked over so often in every conceivable 
 way that they are fast losing force from intimate 
 acquaintance with them by the masses. 
 
 After the break in the current of her life 
 caused by the rocks projecting at the point 
 where she selected the house in Washington, en- 
 gaged the servants, bought the furnishings, and 
 planned the new home, all of which took nearly 
 a month of hurried work, Mrs. Shacklett took 
 stock of herself, as she phrased it to her hus- 
 band. 
 
 " It is all so different," she said to him, " but 
 I don't see that it is either better or worse than 
 the old habits I had. I think I have enjoyed it, 
 because it has supplied something I never had 
 before that seems part of the nature of woman- 
 kind. I always was a quiet, studious girl, con- 
 cerned more about the solid realities of things 
 than about the frothier pleasures that come into 
 life to make it happier. A generation before, I 
 would have been called a blue-stocking, and the 
 17 249 
 
Shacklett 
 
 French salons of a hundred years ago always 
 seemed to me to be the best things the world 
 has ever seen. I never had the spirit of other 
 girls that make them enjoy the admiration of 
 men — a spirit that I suppose is instinctive in all 
 normal femininity. The fact is, I did not know 
 many men, and the idea of being charming was 
 one I never thought of. 
 
 " This was not right, because it was not nor- 
 mal, and I'm getting now what I missed at the 
 usual age. I enjoy it just as much, because I 
 am trying to make men charmed with you, as 
 if I were doing it for myself — perhaps more so. 
 I have been thinking about the deceits and lack 
 of candor involved in it all, but I don't see any 
 more wrong in what I've been doing than there 
 is in the little concealments and tactful arts of 
 the young girl in a bevy of young men. I was 
 afraid that politics, even up here where we are, 
 was full of really wicked intrigue, but I do not 
 find that — or at least I can smile at the crude- 
 ness of the intrigue which always fails its pur- 
 pose and thus proves its undesirability from any 
 view-point. Noel, I'm a thousand times happier 
 than I ever dreamed of being, and the most of 
 it comes to me from trying to give it to you." 
 
 A man like Shacklett, trained to secrecy as 
 
 the corner-stone of most success, could no more 
 
 tell anybody everything than an old doctor could 
 
 be a gossip or a successful financier be loquacious. 
 
 250 
 
The Moth by the Grate 
 
 He told his wife so much that he seemed to make 
 her his general manager; and he failed to tell her 
 so much that she knew no more about the engine 
 running the hidden machinery forming political 
 loaves of bread and shaping destinies of men 
 than the reader of the newspaper does. 
 
 For instance, two years after their first and 
 only victory the reform forces in their home city 
 were routed, horse, foot, and dragoons, and she 
 could hardly understand why. Shacklett said 
 that he could not afford to meddle in a city elec- 
 tion, now that his duties lay all over the State 
 with its diversified interests, and she could appre- 
 ciate that. But she grieved a little that the good 
 people might have won if her husband had given 
 them the aid which he gave in the first instance — 
 for this was what Colonel Baker told her, and he 
 talked to her with much frankness and true 
 friendliness, as became a man who had known her 
 people in Illinois, and had been a stanch and 
 warm supporter of Shacklett in the State which 
 had adopted all three of them. Colonel Baker 
 used to entertain her with accounts of fights over 
 appointments about which her husband said 
 little, and she noticed that Shacklett smiled as 
 if really amused when she recounted these stories 
 to him in the evening. Somehow Shacklett did 
 not take Colonel Baker very seriously to his wife, 
 although he gave the colonel all the respect and 
 plums political that go to favorites. Sometimes 
 251 
 
Shacklett 
 
 she felt that Shacklett did not really like Colonel 
 Baker very well, but she could not help liking 
 him on account of his continual deferential way 
 of advising her, which she found saved her many 
 petty annoyances. 
 
 In the stampede which trampled the reform 
 forces at home into the ground, an opposition 
 congressman managed to be carried past the win- 
 ning goal in the district of the capital city and 
 Shacklett's home. This gave the senator all the 
 Federal patronage of that district, even to minor 
 offices, and greatly increased his worries. His 
 wife tried hard to ease his shoulders of part of 
 this new burden, but he told her that the recom- 
 mendations and delegations for candidates always 
 came to Washington in a hurry, so that he could 
 not bring many of them to the house, and he did 
 not like to think of them any more than was 
 necessary. The pestiferous swarm of office- 
 seekers did not decrease after two years more 
 had elapsed, for the opposition member of the 
 House made such good use of his own opportuni- 
 ties — listed from the names of the dozen men 
 who were disappointed whenever an appoint- 
 ment was made — that he came back again, and 
 the patronage was still in the hands of Shack- 
 lett. 
 
 Mrs. Shacklett was worried about this, but 
 Shacklett took it with excellent grace. " I did 
 so hope that Mr. Shacklett would be saved the 
 252 
 
The Moth by the Grate 
 
 worry of the appointments in that district after 
 this year," she said to Colonel Baker one day; 
 " but it seems that they are to be on his shoulders 
 again. He does bear it charmingly, though. 
 He doesn't tell me as much about his troubles 
 as I would like, but I really believe there was 
 much truth in his remark to me that he found 
 he was getting used to that bother, and felt that 
 he might actually miss it if it were taken off his 
 mind." 
 
 Which was exactly what Colonel Baker 
 wanted to know; and the result was that the 
 colonel buckled his armor on with extraordinary 
 care. 
 
 " Nobody'll ever be able to get proof to raise 
 a probability," he mused on his way from Mrs. 
 Shacklett's reception-room, " but I've got 
 enough to convince me. Whenever I want to 
 run for office I'll ask Shacklett whether it's 
 agreeable, and then figure out for myself whether 
 it's likely to cross his plans. It'd been better if 
 the other man had done that before he went on 
 the ticket. He got beat, and Shacklett keeps 
 the patronage — um-um — and that means that 
 Shacklett's put a cutthroat mortgage on another 
 term in the Senate, and that he wants it bad 
 enough to slaughter one of his friends — um- 
 um — and he rather thinks he'd miss the bother of 
 it all ! " And Colonel Baker chuckled a little 
 and continued his reverie. 
 
 253 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Whether Shacklett did really shoot in the 
 back his own candidate for the Lower House in 
 order to keep him at home and leave the Federal 
 patronage to the senator who wanted another 
 term and the leverage which that patronage gave 
 him, never was known. Some of those who 
 knew him best said it was an impossibility; and 
 others who knew him equally well had an argu- 
 ment in favor of the contention that it was a 
 fact. There was no other evidence than motive 
 and Shacklett's own characteristics, and anyone 
 who knew him had a right to his own opinion. 
 
 254 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE DOOR OF HADES 
 
 Shacklett had given a good deal of thought 
 to his own future during the last year or two of 
 his term. He could become general counsel of 
 any one of several large corporations, and that 
 would make his income four or five times what it 
 was now. The money would obtain many things, 
 but would not obtain the satisfaction of soul that 
 his seat in the Senate gave him. However, all 
 these things were not very relevant to the dis- 
 cussion with himself, and he went to the heart 
 of the matter. It took him three days — or the 
 parts of days that he was at home — to discover 
 that his wife got more satisfaction from the posi- 
 tion than he himself did, and that she would not 
 exchange it for any position in private life paying 
 twenty times the salary. That decided the ques- 
 tion for him, and he began to look closely after 
 politics at home. His State was particularly in- 
 terested in an irrigation bill, and that bill finally 
 became a law after more narrow escapes than 
 Shacklett and its originators liked to recall. 
 
 255 
 
Shacklett 
 
 This success, where others had failed, made the 
 outlying State his partizans beyond danger; but 
 there was coming up a cloud over his own home 
 city which was rapidly growing too large to be 
 covered by one man's hand or diverted by one 
 man's power. His wife called the office-seekers 
 grasshoppers, and Shacklett felt that his grass- 
 hoppers were coming home to roost in his 
 own favorite fields and in a cloud that looked 
 ominous. 
 
 Turner wanted the post-office, and, what was 
 worse, everybody out home, except Shacklett 
 and some people who did not count, wanted him 
 to have it. Shacklett knew that Turner was 
 without a peer as a rascal in politics, but he knew 
 some other men in the same category. He de- 
 termined not to recommend Turner if he could 
 help it, but was not sure whether he could help 
 it or would have to succumb to the inevitable. 
 He worried over the matter for several weeks 
 while the papers in the case continued to pour 
 in, and then came a telegram stating that six 
 of the right people were coming to Washington 
 to see him about it. Shacklett tore the telegram 
 into pieces in an abstracted way, but his eyes 
 were shining, and his mouth had the same old 
 smile of hard lines which was not seen so often 
 lately as a few years before. That interview 
 would be something tangible, and it would be a 
 battle royal, in which he hoped the best man 
 256 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 would win — the best man, of course, being Sen- 
 ator Shacklett. Shacklett received the party 
 from home in his committee room, and in half 
 an hour of social chat and joviality, which all 
 forced, he managed to discern that all of them 
 were desperately in earnest, and that Colonel 
 Baker was to do most of the talking. He himself 
 opened the topic which had brought them there, 
 and his first move was in the words: 
 
 " That reminds me, colonel, of the time the 
 reform element carried the city because things 
 got so rotten in our party that they wouldn't 
 hang together any more. You remember that 
 campaign, don't you? " 
 
 " Yes," replied the colonel, " and it reminds 
 me of something, too, which is, that the same 
 trick won't work twice in the same town. If I 
 thought it would, I'd go home and start a reform 
 movement and land in the Senate; but it won't." 
 
 Everybody laughed with the colonel, who was 
 sitting on the edge of a chair in front of Shack- 
 lett, with his hat held between his knees and his 
 round face fairly radiant with good humor. He 
 leaned forward a little more, reduced his smile 
 by a large fraction, but kept a tone of great good 
 humor as he continued: 
 
 " Now, senator, I'm going to talk to you in 
 
 a new way. Your best friends don't know you 
 
 well yet out at home, but I do. Since you've 
 
 been on the other side of the case you haven't 
 
 257 
 
Shacklett 
 
 changed a bit — since you used to work govern- 
 ors and senators at Springfield in the old days, 
 long before either of us ever thought of going on 
 a chase after the star of empire. You used to be 
 the frankest man that ever argued for an appoint- 
 ment, and I'm going to be the frankest man 
 you've ever heard ask you for an appointment 
 since you've been handing them round instead 
 of scheming to get another fellow to make them. 
 You know I'm your best friend, and anything I 
 may say can't eradicate that from your mind. 
 I'm going to prove to you that you must give 
 that post-office to Turner, and I've taken the 
 contract to succeed." 
 
 " But, John, you " 
 
 " Now let me talk till I quit; and then, if 
 you have any ' buts ' or ' ifs,' I'll put in a re- 
 joinder. Just now I've got a mandamus to file, 
 you 'see." 
 
 Senator Shacklett smiled, and then settled 
 back in his chair and allowed his face to relax 
 until it took on the absolutely immobile, ex- 
 pressionless features that made somebody at 
 home once say it looked like a sand-bar just after 
 the river went down, and indicated about as 
 much as a field of wheat stubble. He puffed his 
 cigar with the regularity of an engine, although 
 every other man in the group was rapidly breath- 
 ing out masses of smoke, and trying to flake in- 
 visible ashes upon the floor with a little finger 
 258 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 that sometimes missed the end of the cigar half 
 an inch. 
 
 Besides Colonel Baker, there were two mem- 
 bers of the Lower House who were nearest to the 
 Governor, the chairman of the State Central 
 Committee, and two others of Shacklett's closest 
 political friends. Of them all Shacklett secretly- 
 liked Colonel Baker best, and he knew that the 
 colonel was the most persistent and successful 
 campaigner in the State. The opening words 
 upon the business at hand meant that Senator 
 Shacklett had a bad half hour before him, and 
 he himself knew that it was to be the crucial half 
 hour of his whole life. He intended to hold out 
 against the devil in the last ditch, but he felt 
 that a ditch is, after all, a difficult earthwork to 
 defend. The colonel's reference to the old days 
 was the first shot that hit Shacklett's entrench- 
 ments, for in those days he had persistently re- 
 fused to recognize that there was a stopping- 
 place. Of late years he had decided that there 
 are depths into which even he would not descend, 
 and which he would avoid at any cost; so that, 
 as the colonel talked on, Senator Shacklett re- 
 enforced his low redoubt, and was as calm as a 
 big fight always made him feel. 
 
 " It's exactly this way," continued the colo- 
 nel, " and you and I both know it. The other 
 man is a gentleman and an honest man, and 
 against him no man can say a word, except that 
 259 
 
Shacklett 
 
 he never carried more than one ward at a time 
 in his life. Our man Turner is as far from being 
 a candidate for heavenly honor as I am from 
 being a candidate for holy orders. He hasn't 
 spent a cent in this fight for the post-office, 
 I'm telling you, and we pay our own ex- 
 penses for this trip even. Why is this queer 
 kind of a campaign on? I'll tell you what you 
 already know. 
 
 " There's not a man of our crowd in the State 
 but owes Turner more than he can ever pay. 
 Who was it stole that box of ballots and elected 
 me that time? I don't know, but Turner does. 
 Who was it that sent Major Jim over the road 
 for five years and three months before that Treas- 
 ury scandal came out? Turner's brother gave 
 the strongest evidence at the trial, you remem- 
 ber. Who was it that got up that Spanish grant 
 story on the fellow that thought he had old 
 Clark beaten for Governor? Turner started that 
 most successful lie. Who was it that left the 
 title out of the engrossed copy of the redisrict- 
 ing bill so our two friends might come back to 
 keep you good company in Washington? Tur- 
 ner was engrossing clerk that term, if Robbins 
 did have to pay the penalty for it. In short, who 
 saved all our scalps, time and again, but Turner? 
 And, moreover, he did things that nobody else 
 would take the chances on for us. That's why 
 we are for him, and why, if he doesn't get the 
 260 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 post-office he wants, there's going to be the big- 
 gest cloudburst, avalanche, and mine disaster all 
 in one that our State ever saw. You know I'm 
 telling the truth. You know that with it all 
 Turner hasn't got an enemy in the State " 
 
 Senator Shacklett moved his eyes toward the 
 colonel the merest trifle. 
 
 " Of course all the preachers, and the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor people, and the Salvation Army 
 of politicians are raising Cain. The reformers 
 are against him ; but who ever heard of a reformer 
 going to a primary? You don't care for their 
 buzzing any more than you do for the froth on 
 a bottle of soda pop, and it's no use to lug that 
 in. They " 
 
 " But why not select a man who has been a 
 valuable party man, without taking up the most 
 odorous one in the State? I don't want a Sun- 
 day-school teacher, but I don't like to take the 
 nephew of the devil. There are others, aren't 
 there? Say, colonel, can't we compromise this 
 thing some way? I don't believe you folks can 
 pick another man in the State besides Turner 
 that I won't indorse." 
 
 " Compromise nothing, senator; it's Turner 
 or fight. The pot's too big to divide now, and 
 the biggest hand takes it. Come, senator, ad- 
 mit we've got it, and stay here in the Senate as 
 long as you please, without a bit of bother." 
 
 " Gentlemen, I've never posed as a Puritan 
 261 
 
Shacklett 
 
 in politics. You might as well try to make a 
 prospector out of a tenderfoot as to expect to 
 make a politician out of a preacher. But there's 
 got to be a limit somewhere, for any game with- 
 out a limit is too dangerous a game for me to 
 stay in. If I indorse Turner I take the limit off 
 for all time, for I'll never run up against a worse 
 man than our friend Turner, as I look at it; eh, 
 colonel? " 
 
 "All right; we'll admit that. But why do 
 we want any limit on? The rest of us can't 
 write ' U. S. S.' on public documents yet, and 
 we consider that about the proper limit. If you 
 must stop at any ravine at all, you'd better not 
 try to climb the mountain of politics, and stick 
 to the flats. I haven't any argument against 
 moralizing, and I don't need to make any to you, 
 senator." 
 
 " But you can appreciate this," rejoined Sen- 
 ator Shacklett, " when I call your attention to 
 the fact that it isn't good politics. You can 
 climb out on a limb for some distance all right, 
 but if you crawl out too far, down you drop. 
 You can get pretty far away from the ten com- 
 mandments in politics, but when you get clear 
 to the door of Hades, you're mighty likely to 
 get the stuffing knocked out of you in the most 
 surprising way. What's the use of loading the 
 party down with this dead load of Turner for 
 postmaster when we don't have to? " 
 262 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 " But, you see, we do have to," smiled the 
 colonel, who continued with a very grave face 
 which began to get somewhat flushed. " You 
 see, we do have to, for if we don't we've got to 
 fight the whole organization from center to cir- 
 cumference. The party says it must have 
 Turner appointed. It takes the responsibility in 
 the person of the chairman here, the Times, and 
 everybody from the Central Committee to the 
 ward workers. You needn't to bother about the 
 responsibility or the party at all. 
 
 " Now, see here, senator, I'll tell you what 
 we'll do. Proof of what I've been saying to you 
 is the fact that Turner can get the appointment 
 without your indorsement, if you'll merely let it 
 go through. If you'll tell us now that you'll 
 wash your hands of the whole matter it'll be very 
 satisfactory all around. You can eat your cake 
 and have it, too. You can keep your conscience, 
 or whatever you call it, clear, prevent any roor- 
 back, and keep ready to say ' I told you so,' and 
 we'll credit you up the same as if you had in- 
 dorsed Turner, and take care of your future just 
 the same. I mean, we'll give you at least two 
 more terms in the Senate. We'll see that Turner 
 gets appointed, if you'll only allow us to say that 
 you'll not pull senatorial courtesy on us and 
 fight his confirmation. Just go to sleep now, 
 will you? " 
 
 " Colonel, I'll give you the post-office for 
 263 
 
Shacklett 
 
 being the best talker in the State," said Senator 
 Shacklett, with just enough of a suggestion of 
 seriousness in the tone of his voice to make the 
 others tremble. 
 
 " That's the highest compliment you ever 
 paid me, Shacklett, in your certainty that I 
 wouldn't touch the bait," laughed the colonel. 
 " But enough of this monkeying," he went on, 
 with a quiver in his deep chest-tones. " Will 
 you indorse Turner, or will you fight the whole 
 lot of us now and forever, and knock the party 
 off the top of the peak into the bottom of the 
 deepest canon it ever heard of? That's exactly 
 where we are, and where we were before I began 
 to talk." 
 
 Shacklett picked up a pen and toyed with it 
 while he smilingly said, looking the colonel 
 straight in the eye: " Don't get excited, colonel. 
 The fact is, I've got something very important 
 to do just now, and I'm going to presume on our 
 friendship to ask you to come in to-morrow after- 
 noon, and then I promise you to have a definite 
 answer. Won't that do?" 
 
 The others chorused acquiescence, consider- 
 ing that delay was better than the answer they 
 were certain to get if they insisted on one just 
 then; but Colonel Baker kept silent, and struck 
 a match with particular savagery to light an- 
 other cigar before he went out. As soon as 
 they were gone the private secretary to the 
 264 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 senator came in, and was met at the door by 
 the words: 
 
 " Mr. Edwards, I've decided to turn Turner 
 down. I want to feel that there is something 
 that I won't do in politics after all. I've had a 
 rather varied career, but because I've done some 
 things nearly as bad as Turner ever did is no 
 reason why I should throw conscience and honor 
 to the winds entirely. Please give out a hint to 
 the newspaper people without allowing them to 
 claim any authority, and fix up the papers in the 
 case so I can go up to the department with them 
 in the morning." 
 
 The party of Turner's friends maintained un- 
 common silence on the way to Colonel Baker's 
 room. The colonel himself was abstracted, and 
 the others saw that he desired to be let severely 
 alone. Once in his room his face was clearer, and 
 he motioned the others toward the decanter on 
 the table with some little appearance of cheerful- 
 ness. The representative of the Governor was 
 the first to address him directly, and his remarks, 
 censored for polite reading, amounted to the ob- 
 servation that, since their last hope had faded 
 in the failure of the colonel's plan, they might as 
 well all go home and prepare to dig Shacklett's 
 political grave, taking great care not to be buried, 
 with him, if, indeed, this last catastrophe were 
 avoidable. But the colonel, long noted for his 
 ignorance of when he was whipped, took a fresh 
 18 265 
 
Shacklett 
 
 cigar with great deliberation, lighted it with con- 
 siderable care, and sat down by the window with 
 a thoughtful face. 
 
 " I'll tell you," he said, " what one of my re- 
 marks up there meant. You see, I knew Shack- 
 lett long before he came West. I got there a 
 year or so after he did, and you feel that you knew 
 him first; but I learned his plays in Illinois long 
 before that. I used to live at The Palace in 
 Springfield when he did, and I was in the Legisla- 
 ture one term when he was in one of the offices 
 in the State-house." The colonel smiled in fond 
 reminiscence. 
 
 " I'm willing to go a little supper that we win 
 out yet. Of course, he told us to-day that he 
 couldn't be moved, as plainly as if he had said 
 so in so many words. But for once he overshot 
 the mark. That delay until to-morrow is what 
 saves us, or I don't know Mary Stoddard." 
 
 The other men glanced up quickly, and every 
 cigar sent up merely a thin spiral of blue smoke 
 from its motionless end. 
 
 " Oh, no," the colonel said at once, " that's 
 his wife. She was born and raised at Warsaw, 
 on the Mississippi, over in the fifteenth district, 
 you know. Say, you never found out why he 
 threw up that fight for the Senate and left town 
 so suddenly, did you? It's not so very strange, 
 after all, when you understand it. And our get- 
 ting Turner in hangs on that same trip, by the 
 266 
 
The Door of Hades 
 
 way. I might as well tell you all about it; for, 
 whether it works or not, it's a good scheme, and 
 you must admit that when you know the story 
 in all its details. 
 
 " It was this way: he was at Springfield one 
 session acting as distributing agent for the pro- 
 prietors of the finest watermelon that ever was 
 cut in any State capital, and he got a pious spell 
 just like this one. Old McNamara, from Egypt, 
 was his particular friend, and the gang needed 
 just one more vote. Shacklett got two hundred 
 centuries in a wad to get old Mac, and Mac said 
 he'd do it for nothing for him. Then Shacklett 
 wouldn't let him do it, though he was dead gone 
 on the girl he afterward married, and needed the 
 stuff to start out on the marital sea with. Well, 
 after he came West she found out a little about 
 it, and thought old Mac had refused him and 
 given him a combing down. She's of old Pres- 
 byterian stock, and was as near an angel as they 
 ever get, I can testify from personal knowledge. 
 She writes him a letter throwing him over for 
 being so wicked, and he gets it the same morning 
 that he dropped the senatorial fight in our cau- 
 cus. He didn't want the Senate without the 
 wife, you see. Where he went to was Warsaw, 
 to put up a campaign for the girl, and let the 
 seat here go to the dogs. By the time he got 
 there she decided it doesn't pay to be too good, 
 and met him at the door with a request to with- 
 267 
 
Shacklett 
 
 draw the papers in the case. Just then we elected 
 him out home, and he had the girl and the Senate 
 both. He always was the luckiest fellow I ever 
 saw. 
 
 " Now, that same girl that thought she 
 couldn't marry a man that had sugared a State 
 senator, when she did decide to be naughty and 
 become an accessory after the fact, took a header 
 clear to the bottom of the gulch. She's become 
 interested in politics, and you know how big a 
 help she is to Shacklett. You never suspected 
 she came near passing him up to marry a 
 preacher, did you? She likes Washington, and 
 if it's necessary to continue this story further 
 you'd better take another eye-opener out of that 
 bottle there." 
 
 " But," cried the member from the Lower 
 House, " how do you know she can control him 
 after we fix her? " 
 
 " That's to be worked out in the details," the 
 colonel replied; "but details seldom get away 
 with me. I believe it'll win. It won't cost a 
 cent, anyhow, for the likelihood of having to 
 leave Washington will be more to her than to 
 stand to lose a million or so. That's the thing 
 to hold out to her strong. We won't need to lie, 
 either; for as sure as Turner don't get that post- 
 office, her husband don't get that seat again. 
 Gentlemen, excuse me a little while; I'm going 
 up to see her, anyhow." 
 268 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE 
 
 William P. Griggs was somewhat perplexed 
 when he received the message orally from the 
 messenger boy, and was inclined to investigate a 
 little before leaving the work he had in hand. 
 The boy insisted that all he knew about it was 
 that a lady he never saw before stopped him in 
 the street, and told him to say to Mr. Griggs, the 
 correspondent in Newspaper Row, that he could 
 get some good stuff by calling that evening upon 
 Mrs. Senator Shacklett. He was not sure that 
 she said " Mrs. Senator," but he was certain 
 that the rest of the message was delivered ver- 
 batim, and it was the wife of the senator who was 
 meant, " dead sure." 
 
 The relations of the Times of Senator 
 Shacklett's State with the senator himself were 
 so delicately poised, since that post-office matter 
 had come up, that William P. Griggs, who hoped 
 to get an appointment in the diplomatic service 
 soon, felt that his calling at the house in Four- 
 tenth Street might in itself have consequences 
 269 
 
Shacklett 
 
 unsuspected by less diplomatic but well-mean- 
 ing people, who expected to do him a favor by 
 sending him after a society item or something 
 of the sort. 
 
 But William P. Griggs felt the weight of his 
 responsibility as the Washington representative 
 of the Times, and it would not do to allow 
 anything to escape which might have an im- 
 portant bearing on his paper's attitude toward 
 the senator. The more he thought about it the 
 more he was perplexed. Why was the message 
 anonymous? Was it a part of the plan of some 
 meddling, self-appointed peacemaker, who im- 
 agined that she was earning the reward men- 
 tioned in the fifth chapter of Matthew, or was 
 it the trap of some of the other wing of the party, 
 who hoped to make a mess of the whole thing 
 and hurt both the paper and Shacklett? But 
 the only thing to do, he finally said to himself, 
 was to go up to see what it all meant, and trust 
 to his diplomatic ability to get safely through 
 the five minutes or half an hour into which he 
 would plunge blindfolded. 
 
 He went a little early to have it over as soon 
 as possible, and Mrs. Shacklett came down so 
 soon after his card went up that Griggs felt re- 
 assured as to her desire to appear friendly. But 
 was the friendliness toward himself personally, or 
 toward the paper? And was it real, or was it the 
 diplomatic play of a woman acknowledged to be 
 270 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 one of the shrewdest in Washington? He finally 
 decided that it was deep diplomacy, because he 
 always saw deep diplomacy in the acts of every- 
 one, including himself. Your true diplomat 
 is never aught but a diplomat, even at a Bo- 
 hemian party or in dealing with the janitor of 
 his flat. All these thoughts passed through the 
 mind of Griggs while Mrs. Shacklett was pass- 
 ing the portieres. They gave place to others 
 when she did not display any great cordiality 
 in her tone, as she said: 
 
 " Mr. Griggs, this is an unexpected pleasure, 
 but I am glad you have come to see me again, and 
 I can give you a couple of columns to-night. 
 Make yourself perfectly comfortable in that other 
 chair, and I'll talk to you first about home affairs, 
 for I know how hurried you correspondents al- 
 ways pretend to be at this time in the evening. 
 Afterward we can chat as long as you have time 
 to stay, for I am not going out to-night." 
 
 Griggs decided that the proper diplomatic 
 tone was one of genuine interest without too 
 much appreciation; and, after he had made the 
 remarks he chose as appropriate to the occasion, • 
 Mrs. Shacklett went on: 
 
 " I was just thinking of the eminent domain 
 bill before your card was brought to me. It will 
 pass to-morrow, and the President has promised 
 Senator Shacklett to sign it. Nobody knows 
 that but you among the newspaper men. You 
 271 
 
Shacklett 
 
 can write a lot about the immense benefit it will 
 be to the people of our State who depend upon 
 irrigation, and you can truthfully say that it be- 
 comes a law solely because Senator Shacklett 
 pushed it with great energy and tact. You know 
 it was fought rather bitterly when it was in the 
 House, and Senator Shacklett had to do some 
 rather fine work to get the opposing interests 
 won over. He made personal sacrifices, too, for 
 there were at least six appointments which would 
 have done him more good in other directions 
 that were given up to help oil the passageway 
 of the bill. You know all about the fight he 
 made for it in the Senate, and I tell you that the 
 President only signs it upon the personal guar- 
 antee of Senator Shacklett that it is all right. 
 If you want to mention the influence of our State 
 in national legislation, you have a good chance. 
 So far as the success of the measure is concerned, 
 it will be a beat for you, for I'm sure that the 
 other people know nothing about it. You like 
 exclusive news, I think." 
 
 For once Griggs began to think that he was 
 hardly ready for that appointment from the " for- 
 eign office." Here he was on a paper which had 
 been covertly fighting Shacklett for weeks, by 
 failing to mention his name once in all that time, 
 and here was Shacklett's wife coolly asking him 
 to write two columns of praise of her husband. 
 She knew, too, that the fight was because her 
 272 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 husband had shamefully treated the Times by 
 getting ready to install its worst enemy, polit- 
 ically, in the most influential office in the State. 
 He was beyond his depth, but he finally came to 
 the surface long enough to say: 
 
 "lama thousand times thankful to you, Mrs. 
 Shacklett, and will write something to-morrow 
 and send it, and see what Mr. Swart will do 
 with it." 
 
 " I wish you would telegraph it to-night," 
 was the next remark the senator's wife delivered 
 very coolly, and without apparent regard for its 
 absolutely paralyzing effect upon Griggs. 
 
 " I ought to do that, I know," he stammered; 
 " but, you see, to-night I have to send that de- 
 bate on silver, and it will be about all I can get 
 off. If you will be kind enough to keep it from 
 the rest of the men for a few days — and I know 
 you will — why won't it do as well by mail? " 
 
 " But, you see," she replied, " we must always 
 look for the diplomatic effect of things " — the 
 diplomatic Griggs gasped — " and in that way it 
 will never do at all to have it appear in the 
 Times after to-morrow morning, so it should 
 be wired." 
 
 " If you do not choose to be perfectly frank 
 with me I do not see how I can accomplish it," 
 said Griggs, determined to be suggestive him- 
 self, and thinking of what his employer would 
 say when he received a couple of columns about 
 
 273 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett's value to the State, and very little 
 about the silver side of the debate. 
 
 " I am frank," said Mrs. Shacklett, " but I 
 supposed that you would see at once the ulti- 
 mate effect of having the Times praise Senator 
 Shacklett day after to-morrow instead of to- 
 morrow. Day after to-morrow you will send the 
 news that your man Turner is to be appointed 
 at once." 
 
 Griggs was no longer a budding diplomat, 
 and felt that he was only a reporter. He gasped 
 out, without any attempt at concealing his 
 feelings: 
 
 " I did not know that." 
 
 " Nobody knows it but you," she said, " and 
 I rely on you not to print a word about it, and 
 not to tell anyone but your editor, in confidence, 
 until after your article on the eminent domain 
 bill is published in the Times." 
 
 " May I tell Mr. Swart privately that Turner 
 will be appointed, and that I have it direct? " 
 Griggs asked eagerly. 
 
 " You may say that I guarantee it," she re- 
 plied; " but if my wishes are not carried out to 
 the letter I shall deny this whole conversation." 
 
 Griggs had an idea that he could tell the 
 paper about this sudden change of front; and 
 since Swart had failed to compel Shacklett to 
 do as he desired, he could take the credit for a 
 grand coup, and therefore control the manage- 
 274 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 merit of affairs in that direction for the future. 
 What he said was: 
 
 " The eminent domain bill will make the bulk 
 of my report to-night, and you may rest assured 
 that your wishes about the publication of the 
 other will be observed. I must go now and write 
 the article. When shall I see you again? " 
 
 " See Senator Shacklett to-morrow night 
 here, and get an authorized interview with him," 
 she said. " That will be the better way, I think." 
 
 Griggs was busy when Colonel Baker came in, 
 and the latter remained but a few moments ; but 
 in that time he got the trend of the despatch 
 being written for the Times, and when he went 
 out he was smiling to himself. He chuckled at 
 the idea of the Times praising Shacklett on the 
 first page under a big head, and wondered how 
 many of the boys at home would see the sig- 
 nificance of the despatch about the eminent do- 
 main bill and the subject of irrigation. 
 
 " I never knew it to fail yet," he said to him- 
 self, " but, when a woman went into politics, and 
 got along as far as practical politics, she went to 
 the very bottom of the sea at once. You can't 
 always tell what a man will do, for there are all 
 kinds of men in politics; but there are only two 
 kinds of women — the ones that want to run 
 politics as they do a church, and they don't 
 amount to much in results; and the ones that 
 take the bull by the horns and do in politics 
 275 
 
Shacklett 
 
 as the politicians do, and they go the whole 
 thing. Even Shacklett, who used to buy up 
 votes for bills as he bought cigars, finds a line 
 to draw; but his wife, who used to be pious until 
 she concluded to be wicked enough to marry 
 such a man, when she finally decided to swallow 
 her scruples, gulped down the whole mess that 
 she found here in Washington. I really like the 
 woman in politics when she is a politician, for 
 you can depend on her. I wonder what Shack- 
 lett will think when he finds out how she has 
 boxed him up so that he could not get out if he 
 were twice the smartest other man in the State, 
 which he is? " 
 
 What Shacklett first thought of was money. 
 He had so long been used to money as the lever 
 which moves things that it was natural that he 
 should think of that first. He was perfectly im- 
 perturbable outwardly when his wife told what 
 she had done, and only that old way of his of 
 throwing his head up just a trifle, and being too 
 preternaturally calm, told of the strain he was 
 under. He saw instantly the situation in full. 
 It surprised but did not perplex him. 
 
 He had to recommend Turner for the post- 
 office or throw off on his wife, he said to himself 
 at once. He felt, rather than thought, that the 
 only thing for him to do was to recommend 
 Turner and keep silent on the subject, whatever 
 might come. But, if she had been in any money 
 276 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 deal, there might be trouble ahead, and the thing 
 he could not afford just then was any suspicion 
 of crookedness about money. They might say 
 he was a rascal, and a caterer to all the baser 
 elements, without hurting him much, but if they 
 had a pretty good case of itching palm against 
 him, he was finished, he knew. 
 
 Hence he was much relieved to hear that the 
 only motive his wife had was to insure his election 
 for another term. He heard all her arguments 
 in favor of looking out for himself patiently, be- 
 cause he secretly liked to meet old friends he had 
 used so often in the past. The idea of anybody 
 using those arguments upon himself rather 
 amused him. He disliked to back down to Tur- 
 ner's crowd, but there was no other way; and 
 his final remark, and the sixth one he had made 
 in the whole conversation, was: 
 
 " When the other fellow has a better hand, 
 there's nothing to do but put your cards in the 
 deck without his seeing them. I'll recommend 
 Turner, and we must keep mum about how it 
 happened." 
 
 The telling of what she had done did not 
 affect Mrs. Shacklett much, because she was so 
 firmly convinced that she was in the right when 
 she began. It cut her when Shacklett at once 
 raised the question of consideration; but after 
 she had indignantly denied the soft impeach- 
 ment, she was in a humor to be more belligerent 
 27; 
 
Shacklett 
 
 than she had previously decided to be. The 
 manner in which Shacklett looked at affairs left 
 her with little incentive to argument; and after 
 he had sauntered out, she spent the most hor- 
 rible half hour of her life. 
 
 Shacklett's reference to the other fellow hav- 
 ing the winning cards, with the inference that she 
 was only the flexible paper with which they were 
 playing, illuminated things in a way that startled 
 her more than had ever happened to her before. 
 She sat looking at the shelves in the library, and 
 getting from the backs of the books more in- 
 formation than she had ever gleaned from their 
 pages. 
 
 The covers of the books became to her imag- 
 ination sentient things with feeling and char- 
 acter, for to one who loves books it is easy to 
 imagine that they live and think and have indi- 
 vidual being. Her mind rebounded from its trou- 
 ble to the books, back again this time to the news- 
 papers, then — as it generally did when she was 
 much moved — she thought of the river at home. 
 
 Mrs. Shacklett sat for some time thinking of 
 a description she had read in a home paper of a 
 flood coming down the Des Moines river, which 
 the ice had dammed, throwing the waters out 
 over the fields until the natural dam finally broke 
 tinder the strain and turned a deluge of water 
 and great blocks of ice into the Mississippi, that 
 was sent in a great ellipse, so that part of the 
 278 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 current ran directly up-stream for hours. As she 
 sat there, stunned, her mind turned to this news- 
 paper description and wandered in reverie from 
 that to the subject of men's wives, and then back 
 again to the tumult in the river, which was 
 typical of human life to a greater degree than 
 anything that had come within her view for a 
 long time. The majestic, great river was flowing 
 calmly on to the sea, when a slighter stream 
 opened the flood-gates of its passion in the mists 
 outside the reach of vision and turned the 
 stronger river current back upon its normal di- 
 rection, at the same time tearing out the bonds 
 of ice and warming it into swifter, greater action. 
 
 Many a strong man, she thought, has been 
 pursuing the even tenor of his way quietly down 
 to the eternal sea, when a slighter, feminine cur- 
 rent has joined that of his own existence and 
 changed him entirely. The smaller current came 
 from the mists of womankind beyond the myopic 
 vision of man, and sent down a torrent of love 
 that proved stronger than the calm, masculine 
 strength that had generations of inherited inertia 
 behind it. 
 
 The current of the man's mind and soul was 
 turned back upon its source, and ran up-stream, 
 swirling in great eddies that formed one immense 
 ellipse, the focal points of which were duty and 
 ambition. Calm, superior strength succumbed 
 before the possibilities of action. The man 
 279 
 
Shacklett 
 
 awoke, a Samson unshorn, and accomplished 
 wonders while the world looked on, did him 
 homage, and talked about him for a generation 
 or two at least. The ice melted out of his na- 
 ture, and the big, cold dam that had obstructed 
 his advancement broke away. And as he went 
 on to the sea, blended with him was the smaller, 
 slighter stream that caused it all; but the world 
 still called him by his former name, and saw noth- 
 ing of the other stream that had met him farther 
 up, so perfect was the coalescing of minds and 
 souls in a God-performed marriage. 
 
 She knew of such instances in the history of 
 the world, annals of the country, biographies of 
 the West; and some of them came to her mind 
 while Mrs. Shacklett thought of the description 
 of the cataclysm in the Mississippi written by the 
 reporters for the paper at home. In this man- 
 ner her thoughts ran on without much self-con- 
 trol, the automatic reflection of the wish dearest 
 to her heart that she might be a wife like some 
 of those others of whom she had often thought — 
 like those women who received the credit in 
 inner circles at Washington, if not in history, of 
 having made their husbands famous in spite of 
 the fact that the husbands had deficiencies in 
 early educational advantages. 
 
 She had designed to solve a problem which 
 was vexing her husband, and had thought that he 
 would, in the end, be pleased that she had taken 
 280 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 the decision out of his hands. If not, she sup- 
 posed that he would deny her right to speak for 
 him, and would act as he chose. But Shacklett 
 had made it very clear that he would do anything 
 whatever, and suffer anything, before he would 
 admit that his wife was in the wrong, and before 
 he would refuse to deliver goods already paid 
 for by the Times, which relied upon her word. 
 His wife should not break an obligation, he said, 
 if the political heavens were rent into little pieces. 
 She had not looked at it in that way before, 
 thanks to the prudence of Colonel Baker, who 
 had seen thus far into Shacklett's character, 
 and, as she sat motionless in the library that 
 night, she saw many things she had almost for- 
 gotten. 
 
 She had done all she could to keep her hus- 
 band in the Senate. He had worked for long 
 years to get there, and that he had worked only 
 for her had been abundantly proved in the past. 
 When she had written once that she could not 
 marry him, he had thrown up a certainty of elec- 
 tion because he did not desire the office unless 
 she could share its pleasures with him. How 
 clearly she remembered that letter just then, 
 when the day before she could not have repeated 
 a line of it! She had been afraid that the practical 
 politician, who planned and carried out all kinds 
 of deals, would grow into the man without any 
 principle at all; and then she could not love that 
 V) 281 
 
Shacklett 
 
 man, she wrote, whether he was her husband or 
 not. So he would better not be her husband. 
 She remembered how she had sat on the bluff 
 at home and studied the matter over, asking the 
 oracle on the broad plain of the Mississippi 
 River for hours, and had finally decided to 
 marry him to keep him from going too far into 
 iniquity by her constant influence and her own 
 life. 
 
 In watching Shacklett, she had forgotten to 
 look into the mirror until then, and the change 
 in herself came as a great shock. After five 
 years Senator Shacklett was the same Shacklett 
 as of old, with his own ideas of honor and his own 
 ideas of dishonor, drawing a line about himself 
 which he could not be induced to cross. But Mrs. 
 Senator Shacklett, as some of the people at home 
 called her, was no more like the Mary Stoddard 
 who resolved her doubts there by the river than 
 a snag is like an anchor. What would be the 
 result of all this? Was it not better, after all, 
 to enjoy life in Washington instead of entertain- 
 ing clubs and church societies at Warsaw? The 
 Mississippi was useful in the warm summer with 
 its activities; what did it amount to when it was 
 frozen over? 
 
 Often she had sat on the Point at home and 
 
 looked down on the river when all that was to 
 
 be seen was motionless ice. The currents were 
 
 rushing beneath, but no one ever thought of 
 
 282 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 that until it was too late, and the searchers had 
 to look for the body miles below. But the ice 
 did not stay always, and the river showed its 
 greatest power when it was torn with the con- 
 vulsions which came when the ice broke up 
 in the spring. Somehow the thought of the 
 river brought to her that picture, for the human 
 mind runs on the irrelevant things at its times of 
 greatest crises. This was not so lacking in rele- 
 vancy, either; for the turmoil in the mind of a 
 strong woman, brought face to face with her 
 sins, is much analogous to that opening of the 
 river which those who live on the Mississippi 
 appreciate only as something common enough, 
 though she did not think of that. 
 
 She sees herself as a girl watching the quiet 
 expanse of ice nearly a mile wide and extending 
 fifty miles farther than she can see. It is as mo- 
 tionless as it has been all winter; but, while she 
 looks, there is a line drawn out from the shore 
 far below her feet, and this line grows a little 
 wider. In a minute little waves of water can be 
 seen in the broadening line, and far below there 
 is a crunching sound as the great sheet of ice 
 mounts upon the other expanse below and the 
 whole plain moves a little. Then comes a boom, 
 distant but clear, like the surf beating on a rocky 
 coast, and with the power of invincibility the 
 whole surface of the river moves down a dozen 
 feet, irresistible and terrible in its magnificence. 
 283 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Crash follows crash, and draws her eyes down to 
 the lower edge of the moving glacier, where frag- 
 ments of ice as big as a gunboat are being thrown 
 up in the air where a sand-bar obstructs the river 
 and a rock juts up from the bottom. Never an 
 instant does the vast plain stop, and the line at 
 the upper edge has become a wide ribbon of 
 mauve across the white marble plaza. At the 
 lower edge, far below, the ice is piling in masses 
 of crystal, from which the sunlight is reflected 
 in prismatic colors, and the white of the surface 
 is changed to gray, decorated with mother-of- 
 pearl. Higher still piles the gray and white and 
 parti-colored blocks, and that the river is laboring 
 hard is proved by its groans, which may be heard 
 a mile away. A war-ship would be crushed like 
 boxwood in that terrible strain, and few who 
 have been on the river, when it came, have lived 
 to tell what they experienced so close to the mill- 
 stones of the gods. The masses of crystals direct 
 from the workshop of Omnipotence continue to 
 pile higher and higher, and the roar of their fric- 
 tion sounds the diapason of the river, heard but 
 once each year, and, once heard, never forgotten. 
 The mauve ribbon above turns into a lake of rip- 
 pling waves with cakes of ice floating in it, and 
 in half an hour the river is running by again, 
 filled with hugh pieces of ice, but yet the river of 
 the summer-time, with its currents and bars, its 
 snags and its towheads, waiting for its working 
 284 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 dress of churning wheels, and low, flat barges 
 with red and green signal lights, to replace the 
 neutral color tone of the winter. 
 
 It takes only a half hour for the river to 
 open, and it took only a half hour for that 
 woman's soul to go through the travail which 
 God sends at times to change the character of 
 rivers and women. When Senator Shacklett 
 came in he was surprised to find her still in the 
 library, with the room flooded with light, as 
 when he had left her. 
 
 " Do you think," she said, " that you love me 
 enough — to give up everything — and take me 
 back to The Heights at Warsaw, where I can 
 see the river — and keep close to the truth of 
 things — and to you? " 
 
 " Mr. Griggs," Shacklett called back to the 
 young man who was struggling out of his over- 
 coat in the hall, " come in here. I've brought 
 you clear up here to tell you that I shall not be 
 a candidate for the next term. You can say so 
 whenever you like. Some business interests will 
 keep me in Illinois for some time, and we go 
 there as soon as the session ends." 
 
 Mr. Griggs came running in after dropping 
 his overcoat on the foot of the hall-tree, and 
 gasped: 
 
 " Do you mean that you're quitting our State 
 for good? " 
 
 "W-e-1-1," drawled Shacklett, "perhaps 
 285 
 
Shacklett 
 
 you'd better not put it that way, or some mean 
 people might ask for whose good." 
 
 " But shall I say that you're going to move 
 to Illinois? And I'll have to have a lot more 
 about that, you know. Senator, I'm tremen- 
 dously obliged to you for giving this to me ex- 
 clusive; but, personally, I feel so sorry and 
 shocked at what you tell me that I am sure the 
 State will be in the same condition of mind in 
 the morning. It seems to me that the State 
 should have a full explanation in the beginning; 
 don't you think so? " 
 
 " I'm in the good humor to-night to give you 
 all you want to know, Mr. Griggs, and if you'll 
 take a cigar there and sit at that table I'll dictate 
 the whole thing to you. I don't want it to goas 
 an interview, though. Let it go as your own 
 statement entirely — say as a big piece of news 
 your rare tact and ability enabled you to get 
 ahead of everybody else. You know how to give 
 that impression, of course, and since it won't 
 hurt me, you might as well get some credit for 
 it. Are you ready? Then take this." 
 
 While Shacklett was talking Mr. Griggs had 
 arranged some paper on the table and taken 
 out a fountain pen, and Shacklett himself had 
 walked over to his wife, who was sitting stupefied 
 on a divan not far from the correspondent and 
 behind that young man, who again had the feel- 
 ing that he might get into the " foreign office " 
 286 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 after all. Shacklett sat down by his wife, and 
 with his arm around her waist held her close as 
 he dictated rather slowly to the writer too busy 
 with his notes to see them. Shacklett spoke in 
 an even tone, much as if dictating a letter of 
 courteous thanks to his own stenographer, and 
 said: 
 
 " I have always felt out home a good deal 
 like a favorite son-in-law living with his wife's 
 family. They have been good to me beyond my 
 deserts; but there are other sons of our great 
 State who deserve more than I and have not 
 received as much as I. I went out West be- 
 cause I thought I would like the country, and I 
 liked it better than I had ever imagined. The 
 mountain air and the spirit of energy that perme- 
 ates everything there led me into politics in a 
 small way, and the people showed more apprecia- 
 tion of my merits than I had any idea they 
 would. I felt that I should do all I could for 
 them, and I have done that, however much it is. 
 I feel that I have been as faithful to them as they 
 have been generous toward me. Just now I find 
 that the irrigation law caps the climax of my 
 work for them, and I have further acceded to 
 the wish of all the representative men of my party 
 there by recommending Mr. Turner for the post- 
 office. With the supreme desire of the people 
 accomplished, and the wishes of the men of af- 
 fairs furthered in these ways, it seems to me that 
 287 
 
Shacklett 
 
 this is a specially appropriate time to quit my 
 present position, when perhaps some people will 
 be sorry to have me go. Having decided that 
 other men deserve the place more than I, and 
 that this is an opportune time for me to quit the 
 stage, it is simple justice, it seems to me, that 
 I notify the State of my intention, so that the 
 people may select my successor with delibera- 
 tion, and those who covet the high honor may 
 place themselves properly before the people. 
 
 "As for my residence, that is a result, and 
 not a cause, of my determination not to seek to 
 return to Washington. You may say that I 
 never did have much law practice out there, and 
 that I am really a poor man now, while I feel that 
 money is required to live in a State and city with 
 such a wealth of natural advantages. Mrs. 
 Shacklett has some little inheritance in Illinois, 
 on the bank of the Mississippi — if you take to 
 description, Mr. Griggs, you can elaborate all 
 you choose upon the beauty of her old home- 
 stead, and you can't overdo it — which has been 
 allowed to run down somewhat. It needs my 
 attention, and at the same time — I guess I might 
 as well tell you all of it — a railroad system in 
 that section desires my services enough to ofTer 
 me a quite snug salary to be its general counsel — 
 make it twenty thousand dollars a year, if you 
 must use figures, but that's not exactly it — and 
 I do not know enough about mining to be worth 
 288 
 
The Breaking Up of the Ice 
 
 that out home. Unlike many better men, I shall 
 quit politics and live for my little family of the 
 two of us hereafter. 
 
 " Mrs. Shacklett has been an influence in this, 
 too. Please make it emphatic that she does not 
 find life in Washington as congenial as out at 
 home, or in the home of her childhood, and that 
 she has for a long time wanted me to quit the 
 Senate and politics as soon as possible and live 
 a more quiet life. Since all the other influences 
 upon my mind lead to the same decision, this de- 
 sire of hers has weight, of course. Mrs. Shack- 
 lett is too honest and sincere to take to politics — 
 this here is only a suggestion of my own, and 
 you needn't put it in unless you choose — and 
 much prefers the more domestic life which she 
 enjoyed in the first portion of our married life 
 among our friends, your readers. 
 
 " I shall be at home more frequently here- 
 after, during the rest of my term, but it will be 
 entirely upon private business. I shall take ab- 
 solutely no part in the choice of my successor. 
 I have no enemies to punish, and my friends have 
 told me recently that I have balanced all accounts 
 with them. 
 
 " That is enough for you to make a long 
 story of, isn't it, Mr. Griggs? " 
 
 Mrs. Shacklett listened in a dazed way to the 
 beginning of this statement, and as she heard 
 the latter part of it, and recognized that it would 
 289 
 
Shacklett 
 
 entirely remove her from the position in which 
 Colonel Baker had placed her, she turned and 
 looked into Shacklett's eyes with a prolonged 
 stare of love and admiration. Shacklett let his 
 eyes twinkle into hers a trifle as he went on, 
 and for him the twinkle was what a wink and a 
 guffaw is to other men. Mr. Griggs had his 
 back turned to the finest comedy-drama in which 
 Shacklett ever took the leading role. 
 
 290 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE SWINGING OF THE PENDULUM 
 
 After the flurry caused by the publication 
 of Mr. Griggs's telegraph letter in the Times, it 
 seemed to both Senator Shacklett and his wife 
 that it was only a day until the events of months 
 had passed, his successor elected, and Washing- 
 ton had been left behind them. Mrs. Shacklett 
 said the final homeward trip to Warsaw was like 
 going home from a funeral where one had only 
 a slight acquaintance with the deceased. Her 
 husband said that it was to him more like what 
 he had always imagined going home from college 
 after graduation was like. 
 
 After they changed cars at Burlington they 
 moved over to the eastern side of the car, and 
 Mrs. Shacklett did not take her eyes off the Mis- 
 sissippi River while they were on its banks for 
 miles. She felt that she always absorbed 
 strength from the river, and that it was impos- 
 sible to do petty things in sight of its vastness 
 and greatness and power. 
 
 Once installed at The Heights overlooking 
 291 
 
Shacklett 
 
 the river and the wide landscape, she felt a rest- 
 ful spirit, which Shacklett himself experienced in 
 part. For a while they were vibrating from this 
 plan to that one, and Shacklett was making such 
 frequent trips to Chicago and the East that his 
 wife said she felt that he was the bob on the end 
 of a great pendulum which swung toward her at 
 almost regular intervals. In her new happiness 
 she was full of odd little conceits, which amused 
 her husband and gave an outlet for her overflow- 
 ing spirits that she herself called silliness at 
 times. 
 
 Then came the position as general counsel of 
 the railroad and some hard work for Shacklett, 
 who said that he was now indeed a pendulum 
 swinging from the law of contributory negli- 
 gence, in personal injury cases, to the decisions 
 upon reversionary interests and eminent domain, 
 in cases growing out of the extension of the road 
 that was being built. Shacklett had stipulated 
 that he was not to do any but strictly law prac- 
 tise for the road, and that the conduct of the law- 
 makers should be placed entirely in other hands. 
 So he kept away from Springfield, except when 
 he had business in the Supreme Court, and his 
 work took him into the circuit courts of all the 
 counties on his road, where he was quick to make 
 friends among the lawyers, and soon had a repu- 
 tation for doing an immense amount of work 
 in a short time. He said he enjoyed the new 
 292 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 phase of his life, and told his wife that he much 
 preferred to be the pendulum swinging from one 
 court to another to being the clockwork that 
 wrecked itself as soon as the pendulum's re- 
 straint was taken off. 
 
 In one particular case Larry McNoogan's 
 cow ran against the pendulum and started the 
 swinging, which, before it ceased, made the 
 clockwork sound an alarm that was heard all 
 over the State. She gave up her life, it is true, 
 but Larry did all he could to prevent that catas- 
 trophe. Indeed, that is how it all came about. 
 The cow managed in some way to get within 
 the enclosed right of way of the railroad, and 
 when Larry tried to drive her out where the wires 
 joined the hedge and could be separated, she be- 
 came frolicsome. The Jacksnipe was com- 
 ing, and, being the fastest train on the road, it 
 could not afford to slow down on the chance that 
 the man would fail to keep the cow off the track. 
 The engineer blew sundry short blasts with his 
 whistle, as legal notice to all concerned, but when 
 the cow, with Larry a rod behind her, started 
 across the rails at the most inopportune moment, 
 the pilot threw her high in the air, gave her a 
 complete turn to starboard, and landed her upon 
 Larry himself with the force of a missile from a 
 sixteenth-century catapult. 
 
 The company, under the circumstances, did 
 not think it wise to send its surgeon, and the 
 
 293 
 
Shacklett 
 
 doctor who set Larry's broken leg managed to 
 leave him with both a stiff ankle and a false joint, 
 half-way between the knee and the foot, which 
 contributed more to his lameness than did the 
 lack of a joint at the ankle. 
 
 The lawyer that Larry went to see as soon as 
 he got out on crutches was not certain about the 
 legal right to recover, but felt sure that the rail- 
 road would compromise the case for something, 
 and, of course, agreed with his client that the 
 company ought to pay for both the cow and the 
 lameness, although, as he well knew, railroads 
 never pay any claims they can fight. 
 
 Larry told his story better each time he came 
 to town and called on his attorney, industriously 
 practising in the interims different variations of 
 expression in order to choose the one which 
 would make his evidence weigh heaviest with 
 the jury. 
 
 His lawyer, who was to get half the receipts, 
 was equally hard at work planning his attack on 
 the claim agent of the company, in order to in- 
 sure success as far as possible. He first wrote 
 a formal letter informing the road that he repre- 
 sented Lawrence P. McNoogan, and he thought 
 it worth while to have the county clerk copy this 
 for him on a typewriter. When this, and several 
 other letters, some of which were in pen-text 
 because the clerk was out of town and the deputy 
 was not on good terms with the attorney, re- 
 294 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 mained unanswered, he filed a suit for twenty 
 thousand dollars, and waited for the attorney of 
 the road to call upon him. But the answer was 
 filed by mail the last day but one within the 
 statutory provision, and the lawyer deemed it 
 best to impress the importance of his case upon 
 the company by going past two division points 
 and superintendents to call upon the general 
 manager. Right here is where the pendulum 
 started upon its first full beat with accelerating 
 force. The general manager had just authorized 
 a draft of considerable size upon the company's 
 treasury for the right of way across the last piece 
 of land upon the new extension, and the recep- 
 tion of the lawyer was at first very cold and a 
 little later very heated. Compromise was not 
 the password to the company's strong-box that 
 day, and before the lawyer reached the street the 
 general manager's stenographer had taken down 
 this, to go by wire: 
 
 " N. C. Shacklett, Warsaw: Please give 
 enough personal attention to McNoogan case to 
 beat it without any chance of failing. I want 
 that case won with peculiar smoothness and 
 directness, for special reasons. 
 
 " J. P. Norton." 
 
 When ex-Senator Shacklett, general counsel 
 for the Chicago, Galesburg and Mississippi Rail- 
 295 
 
Shacklett 
 
 way, had the papers brought to him, he smiled at 
 the idea of taking time from the leased line re- 
 ceivership case to attend to so simple and absurd 
 a suit; but he wrote the road's local attorney to 
 get the case to trial as soon as possible and notify 
 him at as early a date as might be when it would 
 come up, as he intended to be there himself. 
 
 When he went to the court to try the case 
 he found the hotel was not a good one, but it 
 was the only one in the town, and it had for din- 
 ner the first day Shacklett was there some hot 
 biscuits that made him rather like the place. He 
 spent nearly all the afternoon telling the con- 
 gressman he had known in Washington about 
 his life when he was a young man on the farm in 
 southern Illinois, where nobody ever thought of 
 any other kind of bread than hot biscuits and 
 corn-bread. When he strolled out for a walk 
 before supper he was rather ceremoniously ac- 
 costed by Larry McNoogan's attorney, who in- 
 vited him into the dingy little room up-stairs, 
 where the sign and half a hundred sheep-bound 
 books indicated that the lawyer had his lair. It 
 was only five minutes afterward that Shacklett 
 came out, stopping in the door to say, in a voice 
 that could be heard down the stairs and across 
 the sidewalk: 
 
 " I begin to understand why Mr. Norton 
 asked me to come up here and give my personal 
 attention to this suit. You are without doubt 
 296 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 the smallest-souled cur and the biggest ass that 
 the Supreme Court ever admitted to practise. 
 You contemptible knot-hole in the bar, you mi- 
 crobe of putrefaction, if you think you can buy 
 me with any little twenty centuries you haven't 
 got sense enough to file a saw or a note for col- 
 lection. You want to understand that if you 
 live to be as old as the other devil is, you'll never 
 get a cent out of this case. I'm going to keep 
 you from getting a cent now, if I have to give all 
 my time to you for the next ten years. You mark 
 that right down on the fly-leaf of your Haines's 
 treatise, for I suppose that's the only law-book 
 you ever open." And Shacklett came down the 
 short and narrow stairway with his eyes flashing 
 and his head up in that way that made those who 
 knew him best turn a corner to avoid him. 
 
 When the trial started, the next day, there 
 was no prospect of any features of special interest 
 in the case. The local attorney for the company 
 had pleaded contributory negligence on the part 
 of the plaintiff in running toward the rapidly 
 approaching train, after he had become a tres- 
 passer, without any rights, on the property of 
 the company. Larry interrupted the lawyer 
 once to inquire whether he expected a man to 
 let his only cow stay in there without trying to 
 get her out, and the court had some difficulty in 
 suppressing his interjections during the prelimi- 
 naries. 
 
 20 297 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett had done nothing but see that the 
 papers were without any loophole, and merely 
 sat by the local attorney of the road, thinking of 
 other things, while the case went along to the 
 selection of a jury. Then he sat leaning his 
 folded hands on a table and looking straight into 
 the eyes of each one of the venire as the man took 
 the chair for examination as to his qualifications. 
 He allowed the other lawyer to ask all the ques- 
 tions, but twice he curtly took his right of per- 
 emptory challenge, and told his junior confrere 
 that he could not explain just why he knew it, 
 but the man was certainly crooked. 
 
 Larry told his story of the cow and her un- 
 timely fate better than he had ever told it before, 
 and Shacklett grew interested in the man. Larry 
 testified that his condition was very serious in- 
 deed, and the leg with a joint in the wrong place, 
 and no joint at the ankle, prevented him from 
 making a living any more, especially as he had 
 no cow. 
 
 Then a short, heavy, well-knit man, with 
 straight hair combed back pompadour-fashion 
 from a low forehead, aquiline nose, and thin, 
 nearly straight lips, took the stand and corrobo- 
 rated Larry's story of how it all happened, with 
 some additional and very important details. He 
 said that he was about forty rods away, up the 
 slope of the field adjoining the track, and was 
 watching Larry's efforts to get the cow through 
 298 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 the narrow, improvised gateway where the wire 
 fence joined the hedge, for some time before the 
 train came. When the Jacksnipe came down the 
 track, he gave his attention to the train, as one 
 naturally would, and noticed that after whistling 
 the train increased its speed perceptibly just be- 
 fore it reached Larry and the cow. 
 
 " How much faster did it go? " asked Larry's 
 attorney. 
 
 " Well, it just seemed to leap for'd like a 
 dog at the end of a chain; I can't say that it really 
 went much faster, but it seemed to give a sud- 
 dint hunch for'd." 
 
 " Could you see .what the engineer was 
 doing? " 
 
 " Yes; he had been setting on his seat lean- 
 ing out of the window on my side, but jest before 
 the train gave the hunch he pulled himself inside 
 the cab and did something to the reverse lever. 
 I think he pushed it for'd, but I'm not sure about 
 that — it looked that way from where I was — he 
 did something, anyhow, and then the train 
 seemed to pick itself up and jump at that cow." 
 
 There was some more of the same kind of 
 testimony from the witness, while Larry's at- 
 torney looked meaningly at the jury, and Shack- 
 lett at first sat with his eyes on the man giving 
 the damaging evidence, and then sauntered over 
 to the pitcher on the bench and took a drink of 
 water. But by the time the evidence in chief 
 299 
 
Shacklett 
 
 was in, he was back in his chair, and he asked the 
 company attorney by his side to let him cross- 
 examine this witness. 
 
 " You were about forty rods away," he began 
 in quiet tones, " up an incline, on the right-hand 
 side of the track counting the way the train came, 
 and you were watching Mr. McNoogan and the 
 cow, until your attention was attracted to the 
 train? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," the witness replied, straightening 
 himself up and palpably preparing for a tussle. 
 
 After going over again the time of day and the 
 whole story, in which the witness could hardly 
 have wavered, even if he had not had it pat, be- 
 cause Shacklett fairly put his former words into 
 his mouth; and after emphasizing in a way that 
 made Larry's attorney smile, the most damaging 
 of the evidence, that the engineer had deliber- 
 ately and unnecessarily increased the speed of the 
 train, and hit the cow as hard as possible, out 
 of pure wantonness, Shacklett walked around 
 the table to within a few feet of the witness- 
 chair. 
 
 He leaned forward just a little, brushed back 
 a lock of hair from his forehead, and looked into 
 the eyes of the man on the stand with his own 
 eyes glittering in a way that made the witness 
 think of a snake. His tone was low, but pene- 
 trated every part of the little court room, and 
 seemed fairly to cause the window-sash to vibrate 
 300 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 as he began, with each word separated just a little 
 from its fellows in his sentences: 
 
 " Is it not a fact that this lawyer here, Mr. 
 McNoogan's attorney, on last evening promised 
 that if you would give this testimony he would 
 give you thirty dollars? " 
 
 The local railroad attorney started in aston- 
 ishment, for he could not conceive of the general 
 counsel's having such information and not men- 
 tioning it to him. Larry's lawyer sprang to his 
 feet, and began a rather disjointed harangue to 
 the court, the witness, the jury, and Shacklett 
 all at once. Every man on the jury leaned for- 
 ward and fixed his eyes on the two men between 
 whom the questions and answers were being 
 passed. Shacklett was motionless, and his eye 
 never wavered for the thousandth part of a 
 second, but seemed to bear on the face of the 
 witness like some mechanical instrument boring 
 into his brain. The face of the witness flushed, 
 became more rosy, paled slightly, and then re- 
 sumed its natural expression. With that, Shack- 
 lett walked back to his seat and sat down; then 
 he looked over at the witness expectantly. The 
 latter said, in a most matter-of-fact way: 
 
 " Yes, sir; he did." 
 
 The physical and linguistic contortions of 
 Larry's lawyer, and the fact that the State's at- 
 torney, who happened to be in the room, walked 
 over to the stenographer and told him to make 
 301 
 
Shacklett 
 
 a transcript of that, have nothing to do with the 
 present story. Such matters do not end trials, 
 and it was the next day before this hearing was 
 finished and a verdict rendered for the railroad 
 company. Of course, there was a motion for a 
 new trial formally entered, and this kept the case 
 alive, at any rate. 
 
 " Mr. Shacklett, how in the world did you 
 find out about it? " the company's attorney could 
 not help asking, when they were alone after the 
 sensational session of court. 
 
 " Oh, I didn't," laughed Shacklett with his 
 warm smile, which had in it just a trace of the 
 analytical geometry that one of his friends once 
 remarked. " I saw he was lying; that ass must 
 have paid him to do that, and the only question 
 was how much. That disgrace to the bar wasn't 
 paying more than was necessary, and I figured 
 that about thirty was the price of that fellow on 
 the stand. Since he tried to buy me, late yes- 
 terday afternoon, and was busy all morning to- 
 day, the cuss must have done it last evening. I 
 just ran a cold bluff on my system of play, and it 
 won." 
 
 The pendulum started by Larry's cow, com- 
 ing down on another sweep, knocked Larry off 
 his mental balance and started Shacklett off on 
 a tangent, both at once. Shacklett was in his 
 little room up-stairs in the hotel writing to his 
 wife, when with a light knock, more apologetic 
 302 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 than otherwise, Larry entered. Shacklett laid 
 down his pen and motioned the visitor to a seat. 
 Larry began, in a vdice so free from the anger 
 which Shacklett had learned to expect on such 
 occasions, that the general counsel listened pa- 
 tiently to the telling of his tale of tribulation. 
 
 He had been able to make both ends meet, 
 he said, as long as he could work and had the 
 cow to give milk for the children. But since the 
 cow was killed, and he could not work, he had 
 been living on money borrowed from some kind 
 friends on the strength of his lawsuit. Now 
 there was nothing ahead but the poorhouse for 
 them all, and that meant separation a little later 
 from the two boys and three girls. Shacklett 
 was listening across the table as Larry went on: 
 
 " Now, Misther Shacklett, Oi want ye to 
 know that Oi'd nawthin' at all to do wid that 
 dirty loiyer buyin' that man to shwear to a lie. 
 Oi'm an honest man, Misther Shacklett, an' if Oi 
 didn't think the road ought to pay me for killin' 
 me cow an' shmashin' me leg, Oi wouldn't ask it 
 for a cint. But ye see how 'tis yerself, now, an' 
 whin Oi saw how ye could look into a man's very 
 sowl loike ye did into that liar's on the witness- 
 shtand, says Oi to meself, Oi says, Oi'll go to 
 Misther Shacklett an' let 'im see that Oi musht 
 have the money to kape the childhren wid, now 
 that Oi can't wurrk an' haven't anny cow. Ye 
 won yer suit all roight, but Oi came to ask ye, 
 303 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Misther Shacklett, if ye wouldn't pay me the 
 money annyway. Av coorse Oi don't want 
 twinty thousand dollars, but two thousand dol- 
 lars'd bring me in a hundhred and sixty dollars 
 a year at eight per cint, an' Oi could live on that 
 wid the childhren." 
 
 Shacklett did not feel like smiling. He was 
 looking at Larry all the time the latter was speak- 
 ing, and wishing that he could make him a pres- 
 ent of the money without prejudice to the road. 
 But that it could not be done after the bungling 
 of Larry's lawyer he saw at once. He did not try 
 to make Larry understand the intricacies of the 
 matter, but in a very kind tone told him that it 
 was impossible without allowing the lawyer to 
 annoy the company for years to come. 
 
 " But ye musht," said Larry in the same 
 monotone. " Ye see Oi musht have the money 
 or we can't live — at laste togither, an' Oi won't 
 live apart from the childhren." And Larry 
 fumbled the buttons on his coat with his fingers, 
 at first spasmodically and then bunglingly. " Ye 
 
 musht, Misther Shacklett " and at the last 
 
 word the general counsel was looking into the 
 barrel of a forty-four-caliber revolver. 
 
 Shacklett did not think of the sins he had 
 committed during forty-odd years, nor did he 
 think of calling for help. The latter would have 
 been worse than useless, and the former happens 
 only in fiction when a man faces death. Shack- 
 
 304 
 
The Swinging of the Pendulum 
 
 lett simply noted the great similarity in the con- 
 ditions to that night twenty years before when 
 he was a committee clerk at Springfield, and the 
 Chicago gambler had undertaken to win the jack- 
 pot with a blue-steel card having six spots in 
 the cylinder. That, too, was in a little room in 
 a hotel, across a table much like this, and Shack- 
 lett noticed that this was the same make of re- 
 volver as the other one he had looked into. All 
 this went through his mind like a kinetoscope 
 running away, but the case could not be met in 
 the same way, because there was another kind of 
 man behind the gun this time. Shacklett, with- 
 out a shade of hesitation, assumed an air of suc- 
 cumbing to the inevitable, and reached for his 
 pen as he remarked : 
 
 " If I must I must, I suppose; at any rate, 
 I'll give you the company's check." 
 
 He reached the pen toward the ink-bottle 
 with his right hand, and moved aside a paper with 
 his left. The next moment the ink-bottle had 
 struck Larry full in the face and knocked him 
 over backward to the floor. Before he had fairly 
 landed, Shacklett was over the table and upon 
 him, and although Larry had muscles seasoned 
 by many summers and winters of hard labor, he 
 found his arms in vises, with his elbows against 
 his sides, and his hands up at his shoulders — a 
 trick that Shacklett had learned from a doctor 
 accustomed to the giving of anesthetics. The 
 305 
 
Shacklett 
 
 revolver was out of the way on the floor, and 
 Shacklett was saying: 
 
 " Whenever you give me your word of honor 
 that you'll not kick up any more fuss here to- 
 night, I'll let you up." 
 
 After Larry had gone, Shacklett finished his 
 letter to his wife, and wrote: 
 
 " It has been a hard case for me, because the 
 fellow is really in a pitiable condition as a result 
 of the accident, and is crazed by his present situ- 
 ation. I wish I could do something for him, 
 but the way his fool of an attorney talked to 
 Norton and to me, makes it necessary that I 
 keep bearing down on his client. I have got to 
 fight that whipper-snapper to a standstill, but I 
 am sorry that he is connected with this Irishman, 
 who is as nearly all right as his lawyer is all wrong. 
 If the Irishman had seen me before he hired his 
 lawyer, and I had known what I do now, I would 
 have recommended that the company give him 
 at least a switch-stand; but I do not see how I 
 can do anything for him now, for my opinion as 
 a lawyer must be that he has no case at all. But, 
 somehow, it worries me." 
 
 306 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE GODS AND KISMET 
 
 " Say, Shacklett, can't you run over to 
 Springfield and look into that bill for the regula- 
 tion of railroads with termini on river boundaries 
 of the State, otherwise the Chicago, Galesburg, 
 and Mississippi Railway? It's the most peculiar 
 sandbagging measure I ever had held over my 
 head, and I imagine it's worthy of your interest," 
 General Manager Norton was saying during a 
 chat over many affairs of the road in the private 
 office. 
 
 " Sorry," replied the general counsel, " but 
 when I stipulated in the beginning that I should 
 attend- only to strictly legal business, I did it 
 especially to preclude my ever having to work 
 for the road at any capital. I want to be free 
 to introduce a sandbagging bill myself," he 
 laughed, " and I'm not going to do anything 
 which will tend in the least to show that I ought 
 to be for the road in the Legislature. If I'm 
 elected justice of the peace some time, I shall 
 feel bound by my contract to decide all cases in 
 
 307 
 
Shacklett 
 
 your favor; but if I go to the Legislature, I'm 
 free to vote against you every time, if I want to." 
 
 Norton laughed, too, and Shacklett con- 
 tinued: 
 
 " But I see no objection to recommending 
 good men to you for that work, if they're my 
 friends. Now, there's young McKee, of my 
 town, who is a statesman out of a job, since he 
 lost a committee clerkship, and he can manage 
 your lobby for you this winter as well as anybody, 
 and better than some you've had there lately. I 
 wish you'd give him the place, and I'll guarantee 
 his quality." 
 
 Norton looked at his desk to hide the smile 
 in his eyes at the metaphysics involved in Shack- 
 lett's chosen position when it was all worked out, 
 and responded that McKee would be sent for 
 that afternoon. 
 
 McKee found that the bill to regulate his 
 particular road was peculiar, in that it displayed 
 an astonishing amount of detailed knowledge of 
 the conduct of railroads, and their desires which 
 are kept the most deeply hidden. The strangest 
 thing was that a member from far down in 
 Egypt, who had been raising horses and wheat 
 for thirty years, should happen to light upon so 
 many particularly distasteful features and get 
 them into one bill. Of course, a lawyer had 
 written it, but the member made no secret of 
 the fact that he had caused his son-in-law, a law- 
 308 
 
The Gods and Kismet 
 
 yer in a country town, to fix up the language and 
 insert " said " and " provided " in the proper 
 places. 
 
 The lobbyist in charge of the interests of the 
 railroad spent a week studying the member who 
 introduced the bill, and then decided to seek 
 elsewhere for an opening in the lines pi the 
 enemy. The member certainly was in earnest, 
 and, curiously enough, was honest in his views. 
 
 "There's bills enough bein' introduced here," 
 he said, " an' I wouldn't add to the straw comin' 
 out of the thrashin'-machine if I don't believe 
 that a bill like mine oughter be passed. You 
 fellers can't understand the farmer any more than 
 the farmer can understand you, so I don't see 
 much use of our argering. But I expect to find 
 enough members here who can understand it to 
 get it passed — that is, if you don't buy up too 
 many o' 'em. I hain't goin' to preach about 
 your currupt methods, for all's fair in war, an' 
 that's the way you fight. But if I can beat you 
 with my own little game, I'm goin' to do it." 
 
 Then McKee went to two or three members 
 who had shown themselves earnest supporters 
 of the farmer member's bill. He got little sat- 
 isfaction from them. One of them talked about 
 the oppression by capital, and the danger to the 
 country from corporation greed and the other 
 things, so glibly that McKee knew that he did 
 not believe what he was saying, and was using it 
 
 3°9 
 
Shacklett 
 
 for a mask. But he found it impossible to pull 
 off the mask. Only one of them was candid with 
 him, and this one said: 
 
 " Young man, I know pretty well what your 
 road's worth, and within a few thousand what it 
 has to spend; but I want to tell you that you're 
 raised- out of this game, and are playing in com- 
 pany too rich for your blood. If this bill hit 
 other roads so they could pool, they would prob- 
 ably break the push behind the bill; but your 
 one road can't do it by itself, and I know it, 
 and you'll find it out by failing to weaken our 
 side." 
 
 " But who can have enough affirmative in- 
 terest in this thing to raise us out of the game, 
 and enough money to do it that he wants to 
 spend in that way — how can he make anything 
 by it? " McKee asked boldly, hoping that the 
 candor of the other man would extend to some 
 valuable information. 
 
 " I don't know how he's going to make any- 
 thing by the bill passing," was the reply, " and, 
 to tell the truth, I don't know exactly who he is, 
 but I know he's spending hardly any money. I 
 didn't say he was, did I? There's other valuable 
 considerations around here besides legal tender, 
 ain't there?" 
 
 " I see," said McKee, with puckered lips, 
 " it's influence. Who has the appointments? 
 The Governor and the senator; but what are 
 310 
 
The Gods and Kismet 
 
 they up to? We might satisfy them in some 
 other way, if they'll only state what they want." 
 
 " No; it's not the Governor nor the senator, 
 I'm pretty sure from what I know. It seems to 
 me, young man, that you'd better post yourself 
 on the situation before you expect to bust the 
 machine you're up against. I wouldn't tell you 
 if I knew who's behind the measure, but I will 
 tell you that I get out of it certain things that 
 will be worth more to me than any money that's 
 paid around here very often." 
 
 McKee felt that his future was at stake, for 
 if he executed this job for the railroad, Norton 
 would keep him for years in charge of the railroad 
 lobby at Springfield at a good salary and with 
 plenty of chances to pick up something besides. 
 But if he failed, somebody else would succeed 
 him before the session was a week older. He 
 knew that results are the measure of efficiency in 
 the lobby, and that there was no argument in 
 anything else. He saw the bill referred to com- 
 mittee, and heard the chairman tell its sponsor 
 that it would be reported back the following 
 week. He saw membe- after member suddenly 
 take an interest in the bill, and the only light he 
 got was by noticing that those whose terms ex- 
 pired with the session and who would be up 
 again soon for re-election, composed the princi- 
 pal part of those sending the bill along toward 
 passage and signature. He soon found out that 
 
 3ii 
 
Shacklett 
 
 the Governor would sign the bill if it passed, and 
 would not meddle in the matter, or consider it, 
 before the bill had got through the Legislature. 
 In despair, he ran down to Warsaw one morning 
 and saw Shacklett. 
 
 " I understand you guaranteed my value to 
 the company," he said, " and I came to tell you 
 that you'll have to meet the paper when it's due, 
 from the present outlook. I never saw such a 
 close combination behind any bill as there is be- 
 hind this one, and it's as powerful as it's invisible. 
 It's like a big trolley-car pushing along with the 
 dynamo hid in a swamp, and the swamp not on 
 the map. If you won't get into that side of the 
 road's affairs, can't you help me personally? I 
 hope you catch the distinction." And McKee 
 tried hard to laugh. 
 
 " I think you can work it out, if you go at 
 it right," Shacklett said, with little display of in- 
 terest. " It's always the best rule to bunch your 
 shots, in legislatures as well as in fighting in the 
 navy. Now, if it were I, although I'm not 
 posted enough to know much about this case, 
 I'd let the main line of privates and non-coms 
 alone, and fire all my ammunition at one shot at 
 the commander-in-chief. That might work — 
 but I can't tell, of course, as well as you can, 
 when you've been there so long." 
 
 " That ' so long ' was unkind," wailed Mc- 
 Kee; " and how can I do that when I can't find 
 312 
 
The Gods and Kismet 
 
 out who the commander-in-chief is? I'd give 
 half what Norton allowed me to find that out." 
 
 Shacklett laid down the law-book which he 
 had been furtively reading while they were talk- 
 ing, and looked up at McKee for almost the first 
 time. 
 
 " I'll tell you frankly," he said, " that I don't 
 want to have anything to do with this part of 
 the company's business, and I don't want to talk 
 to you about it; but evidently the chairman of 
 the committee that has the bill knows his busi- 
 ness and knows whom he's working for. Now, 
 why don't you go to him and talk business from 
 the jump? Find out what will bring him off the 
 perch, and then shoot it at him. That's what I'd 
 do. But I don't even advise you to do it, nor 
 suggest it to you for action. Let me do some- 
 thing else for you, and don't mix me up in this 
 thing, please." 
 
 McKee went out vexed, but the more he 
 thought of the plan Shacklett had laid down, the 
 better he liked it, and at any rate there was noth- 
 ing else to do, as far as he could see. So, as soon 
 as he got back, he asked the committee chairman 
 up to his room at the hotel, having casually met 
 him in the corridor. 
 
 " I've been thinking that you folks weren't 
 
 taking much interest in that bill," the chairman 
 
 replied to McKee's opening, " and there's not 
 
 the least doubt that it will make farmer votes 
 
 21 313 
 
Shacklett 
 
 for me and the rest of them by the wagon-bed 
 full. What benefit do you think the State will 
 derive from its defeat that is greater than a 
 wagon-bed full of ballots? " 
 
 " A hundred thousand dollars more," said 
 McKee, quietly and firmly. 
 
 " Then hunt up somebody to pay the money 
 to, and your hand full of artistic engravings is 
 better than theirs full of cheap job printing. 
 That lets me out, of course. I don't mind telling 
 you, so that you'll understand it, that a hundred 
 million dollars is no temptation to me, and I 
 think you ought to know it yourself, if you're 
 capable of earning your salary in the Third 
 House." 
 
 " Senator," McKee said, groping in darkness 
 again, and at the extreme end of his string, 
 " would you mind telling the unknown, invisi- 
 ble, impalpable, unfindable, indefinite spook that 
 drew that bill, and is pushing it along here like a 
 heavy express train on a down-grade, that if it 
 will tell me the mystic words which will send it 
 back where it belongs, and stop its infernal work 
 in this Legislature, I'll say them, and I don't care 
 what they are. I'm exceeding the limit given 
 me, but I don't care. I'll give our road away and 
 hunt another one to work for, but I'll kill this 
 sandbagging bill if I have to sell the devil my 
 well-earned right to the chairmanship of his 
 Committee on Thermostats and Apparatus." 
 
 3H 
 
The Gods and Kismet 
 
 The chairman leaned back and laughed heart- 
 ily, while McKee continued to scowl. " Oh, 
 yes; I'll be medium for you," he said. " Come 
 to my room to-morrow evening at eight o'clock, 
 after I've had my great materializing seance." 
 
 When McKee kept the appointment, he sat 
 down without a word, and while he looked ex- 
 pectantly at the chairman, he said nothing, for he 
 was thoroughly discouraged and disgusted with 
 the problem that had not only no solution by 
 any known rules, but not even a point of attack. 
 The chairman's eyes twinkled at the remem- 
 brance of his last speech at the hotel, as he opened 
 the conversation briskly. 
 
 " There's one way to beat that bill," he 
 said, " and only one. I will never report it 
 out of committee, and you can go into the 
 committee-room and steal it if you want to, 
 provided " 
 
 McKee leaned forward almost over the table 
 and looked straight into the chairman's eyes, 
 which only continued to laugh back at him. A 
 twinkle is a mask for the eyes that nothing can 
 penetrate or pass behind, and McKee was furious, 
 although he did not dare to show it. He kept 
 silent and perfectly motionless for the several 
 seconds that the chairman paused. Then the 
 latter went on — 
 
 " Provided that you pay the sum of five 
 thousand dollars in cash, with a contract for suit- 
 
 315 
 
Shacklett 
 
 able employment for life to Lawrence P. Mc- 
 Noogan." 
 
 " We'll do it," snapped out McKee, like the 
 breaking of a taut violin string. " But who the 
 devil is Lawrence P. McNoogan? " 
 
 " He's the plaintiff in a suit against your road 
 for damages resulting from the killing of his cow 
 and the breaking of his leg, which suit is now ap- 
 pealed from the refusal of the trial court to give 
 him a new hearing. His lawyer is out of the 
 case, having given it up in disgust, and because 
 he is busy defending himself from various crim- 
 inal charges. Since he has no attorney now, it 
 will be necessary for your road to appear, and of 
 its own motion allow the granting of a new trial, 
 and then consent to the entering of judgment for 
 five thousand dollars. He won't need to employ 
 another lawyer then." 
 
 Even if McKee had failed to find the mechan- 
 ism concealed in the box, it was pretty evident 
 that the pendulum started by Larry's cow was 
 still swinging. What it accomplished after that 
 belongs to the chronicles of an ordinary life with 
 another cow and the children, and not to the 
 present biography. 
 
 On the evening before the next Fourth of 
 July, McKee was trying to comply with Shack- 
 lett's request to find his celebration speech in 
 the middle drawer of his desk, while Shacklett 
 himself packed his valise in time to catch the 
 316 
 
The Gods and Kismet 
 
 train. When the general counsel of the railroad 
 came in hurriedly to pick up the manuscript and 
 drive rapidly to the station, he found McKee 
 standing beneath the electric lamp with several 
 sheets of cap paper in his hand. 
 
 McKee looked up at Shacklett with distended 
 eyes and open mouth, looked back at the paper, 
 and then at Shacklett again. The paper was cov- 
 ered with writing much interlined and crossed 
 out, with notations scattered through it, and ad- 
 ditions to sentences running up and down the 
 sides. Shacklett hardly noticed McKee, and said 
 quickly : 
 
 " Got my speech? Let's have it. Much 
 obliged, but I'd have missed that train if I'd tried 
 to find it myself." 
 
 McKee at last found his voice, though it 
 sounded little like his own as he blurted out : 
 
 " And you wrote that damned bill yourself. 
 It's right here in your own handwriting — the 
 first draft. What the " 
 
 " See here, McKee," and Shacklett's voice 
 was as quiet as a frozen pond and as hard and 
 cold as ice, " McNoogan got what I wanted him 
 to have, and you got a position at three thousand 
 per. No man ever threw me down and kept out 
 of the poorhouse. Understand me? " 
 
 McKee threw the draft of the bill into the 
 grate, and held out the manuscript of the oration 
 for next day with a steady look into Shacklett's 
 
 317 
 
Shacklett 
 
 eyes. Shacklett caught the train, and the audi- 
 ence which heard his Fourth of July oration, 
 upon " The Political Methods of the Founders 
 of the Republic," found it very enjoyable, partly 
 because it was so different from the routine grist 
 of Independence Day addresses, and was full of 
 information of a kind seldom given in popular 
 histories. 
 
 3i8 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE INTANGIBLE FORCE 
 
 In his travels to the courts, and to make 
 speeches at Fourth of July celebrations and at 
 picnics given by various organizations, Shacklett 
 found himself in the midst of a great force, in- 
 tangible chiefly because it was not named. He 
 kept out of politics entirely at this time, but 
 could not keep out of contact with the people in 
 the aggregate any more than he could stay away 
 from a public sale in the old days, or his mother 
 keep away from a quilting bee down in the 
 home of his boyhood before he was born. He 
 heartily enjoyed attending and speaking at these 
 public meetings, and his hold on his audiences 
 seemed greater than ever before, now that he did 
 not care for their franchises, the concrete repre- 
 sentation of their good-will and admiration. He 
 found it a new pleasure, and a great one, to mix 
 with people with no ulterior object for his natural 
 sociability, and he found that he liked best to 
 talk to well-informed, sensible laboring men in 
 and out of unions. 
 
 319 
 
Shacklett 
 
 The intangible force permeating all around 
 him was easily felt by Shacklett, and easily under- 
 stood by him, although he had only the casual 
 interest in it that one takes in a real giant if one 
 has been in the museum business. The com- 
 ponent parts of the intangible force took the 
 same interest in Shacklett that Wall Street takes 
 in a great financier who has retired from the 
 Stock Exchange, or that an old and hard-work- 
 ing criminal takes in a reformed burglar who is 
 living up to his new position as superintendent 
 of a Sunday-school — the intangible force itself 
 will prefer one simile, and another more tangible 
 force exerted in another direction will prefer the 
 other figure. For the intangible force was not 
 exerting its influence upon the mobile body 
 politic unopposed, though it was never neutral- 
 ized, and little diverted from its original direc- 
 tion of action. 
 
 The moment the intangible force was named, 
 it became somewhat tangible; but it really was 
 not named because of a dispute about termi- 
 nology — it wanted itself called the organization, 
 and the opposing force wanted it called the ma- 
 chine. Since it were better so, for practical pur- 
 poses, it was little known to the masses of voters, 
 whose hands it guided as ballots were marked in 
 the election booths. The force became tangible 
 some years later, and at once the organization 
 divided, or the machine burst to pieces, which- 
 320 
 
The Intangible Force 
 
 ever form of expression one prefers. To Shack- 
 lett it was as beautiful a piece of mechanism as 
 his watch, and he understood it much better than 
 he did the works in the gold case, because he was 
 not a watchmaker, but was a politician by birth- 
 right and education. He called the intangible 
 force the organization to other lawyers, as being 
 the more polite term, and he called it the ma- 
 chine to himself and wife, as being the most ap- 
 propriate name for it, and a more direct ex- 
 pression. 
 
 The intangible force, which always had been 
 resistless, had the velocity and something of the 
 diffusion of electricity. At a greater rate of 
 speed than an order from the brain moves the 
 foot, an order from its source moved whole coun- 
 ty conventions, two hundred miles away from 
 Springfield. Since Shacklett finally was mixed 
 up in the whirling wheels and cams and eccen- 
 trics of this organization, it may be called in 
 these historical pages the machine, as a con- 
 venient term used without intention of being 
 rude. 
 
 The machine was delightfully simple when 
 one understood it. There were two men, Black 
 and Ramsey, in the center of a web of lines ex- 
 tending all over the State. These men had a 
 more or less intimate acquaintance with people 
 in each county, and had a colonel in each con- 
 gressional district. In each county was a tried 
 321 
 
Shacklett 
 
 and trusted captain who had demonstrated his 
 ability to get results, and in each township was a 
 lieutenant who was able to instruct the voters 
 of the party in the correct principles of the selec- 
 tion of the fittest. When the properly instructed 
 voters had selected delegates at the primaries, 
 and these carefully selected delegates had met in 
 county convention, it followed logically that the 
 delegates to the State convention and the con- 
 gressional and the legislative district conven- 
 tions would be excellent judges of timber from 
 which to hew statesmen. At any rate, they could 
 not go wrong, for before the convention con- 
 vened they had been told by men, close to the 
 source of all wisdom in Springfield, which candi- 
 dates for nomination were the best men. Since 
 nomination was equivalent to election, there 
 were opportunities for the return flow of the 
 intangible force moving the convention dele- 
 gates into offices, and surrounding the colonels 
 and captains with sinecures and honors, thus 
 preserving a proper conservation of energy and 
 a correlation of force that was perfectly natural. 
 Sometimes a little heat would be caused by 
 the operation of the opposing force, which was 
 called a body of reformers or a lot of soreheads, 
 according to one's own relation to the two 
 forces. The opposition was by no means as 
 simple a thing as the intangible force which it 
 opposed — oppositions are always complex un- 
 322 
 
The Intangible Force 
 
 less they consist of one man each, and then they 
 are called cranks. In this case the opposition 
 Was composed of three elements: some good 
 people who did not approve all the manifesta- 
 tions of the intangible force; some bad people 
 who openly admitted that they wanted to be 
 able to do the same objectionable things for their 
 own profit; and some other bad people who se- 
 cretly desired the opportunities for plucking and 
 eating the apples, now forbidden fruit to them — 
 the eating of which involved governmental 
 sins — but who made a great display of their own 
 political piety as a sheepskin covering for their 
 personal wolfishness. Of course these three di- 
 verse elements could not harmonize into a chord, 
 but were always full of discords, which sometimes 
 annoyed the ears of the persons in power, who 
 were the neurons of the intangible force, al- 
 though little else was accomplished. 
 
 The opposition had been in existence ever 
 since the organization had been perceptible in its 
 results. Its personnel had changed, as one or 
 another of its component parts had gone over 
 to the successful power, or had dropped out of 
 the unequal contest full of disappointment and 
 of bitterness against politics. But its ranks were 
 recruited with greater or less rapidity each year, 
 generally from the older men in the State with a 
 taste for politics, and an ambition not satisfied 
 by the output of the machine run by the in- 
 
 323 
 
Shacklett 
 
 tangible force. The younger men, with an eye 
 always on the future, generally chose to ally 
 themselves with success, and there could be no 
 doubt on which side success steadily sat. 
 
 Once or twice the opposition received the 
 accession of a whole regiment of deserters from 
 the enemy. In one case it was the man whom 
 the intangible force had elevated to the guber- 
 natorial chair, and had placed at the very door of 
 the chamber from which the power issued — a 
 man whom the automatic working of the ma- 
 chine would have lifted up into the seat of su- 
 preme power itself, in preparation for the days 
 when the always-present contingency of death — • 
 recognized only by lawyers and politicians — 
 should leave a vacancy there. This man got so 
 close to the generator of intangible force that he 
 thought he could chain it as men do the electric 
 vibration of molecules. But when he undertook 
 to handle the wires close to the dynamo, he re- 
 ceived a shock from which he did not recover 
 for years. The intangible force hurled him out 
 of the State-house, threw him two hundred miles 
 into his dusty, neglected, musty law office, locked 
 the door, and kept him there. He immediately 
 began to help the opposition, and the men whom 
 he had appointed to office while he was Governor 
 joined him — except those who looked back of 
 the hand-giving gifts to the neuraxion moving 
 the hand. These continued their faith in the in- 
 
 324 
 
The Intangible Force 
 
 tangible force — and it was not faith without 
 works. Such accessions made the opposition 
 feel cheerful for a time, but its general mental 
 attitude was that of a forlorn hope full of bravery 
 and despair. Success in politics corresponds to 
 right in other things, and it is as hard to keep a 
 clear head when unsuccessful in politics, as it is 
 difficult to plan well with a guilty conscience in 
 daily life. So the opposition was as autocratic 
 in its own working in a circle around failure as 
 the organization was machinelike in its move- 
 ments in the circle with success for a center. 
 
 Shacklett knew nearly all the leaders of both 
 sides personally or professionally, but knew none 
 of them politically. That is to say, he listened 
 to them talk, understood perfectly their feelings, 
 rejoiced with the winner, and sympathized with 
 the loser, and was known by them all to be the 
 only man in the State with experience enough to 
 thoroughly sympathize with them all, as a piano 
 string synchronizes with the musical tone above 
 it. All of them knew equally well that he was 
 not in the least affected by the magnetism of 
 either organization or opposition, because, as he 
 had to say every time he was interviewed now, 
 he was absolutely out of politics, and intended to 
 stay out of both politics in general and the con- 
 test between the organization and any opposition 
 to it, " if there is any opposition, I really am not 
 informed about the situation at all." 
 
 325 
 
Shacklett 
 
 The pendulum of fate swings true regardless 
 of any attempt to cause it to swerve, but at each 
 extreme of its arc it stops for an instant. This 
 is an observation that is axiomatic in the abstract 
 and never utilized in the concrete. Shacklett 
 recognized the pendulum that swung him from 
 the character of his father to the character of his 
 mother, but, like all other men, failed to perceive 
 the much-longer, slower, steadier swing of the 
 pendulum, the attachment of which is, in the na- 
 ture of things, above human ken and human 
 regulation. 
 
 Shacklett had a rather intimate acquaintance 
 with Reverend Thomas Barnes, to whom he was 
 attracted because of the efforts of that good man 
 to be a factor in politics and a consistent minister 
 at the same time. The good man found it diffi- 
 cult to accomplish results against men who were 
 not hampered by duties, conscience, opinions as 
 to right and wrong, and such things which min- 
 isters have and successful politicians have not. 
 He was only a little over thirty years old, tall, 
 sufficiently angular in form to make his clothes 
 hang upon him like a lot of family dyeing upon 
 a private bush, and with more strength of gesture 
 than grace of motion. His face and head were 
 the most striking features in his appearance, and 
 the long black hair combed back from a high 
 forehead, the pale face with sharp nose and clear- 
 cut features, and the large, mobile mouth with its 
 326 
 
The Intangible Force 
 
 smooth upper lip hanging wide under expansive 
 nostrils, all gave him the appearance of a man 
 who has courage, perseverance, a good deal of 
 tact, some scheming ability, and scholarly tastes 
 not warped too much out of shape by transcen- 
 dental notions. As one or the other of these 
 attributes came uppermost, there was much of a 
 change in the status of the mind of Mr. Barnes, 
 and this made him a puzzle to some people, and 
 a constant source of joy to Shacklett. The lat- 
 ter thoroughly understood the minister, from his 
 deeply religious nature, which made him strain 
 for the righteous thing, to his practical knowl- 
 edge of men, which made him sometimes talk in 
 formulae which were actually cant phrases skil- 
 fully strung together. 
 
 Another man whom Shacklett liked to hear 
 talk was General French, who lived in a district 
 over on the Wabash River not far from where 
 ex-Senator Shacklett had been wont to hunt 
 coons, farm, attend court, and help conduct the 
 affairs of his county. General French was an el- 
 derly man who was accustomed to say to the 
 younger men: 
 
 " It's different with me, you know. You 
 have the future to live for, but my life is in the 
 past, and whatever will be said in history about 
 me is already accomplished. I can't afford to 
 build for the future as you can, and you've many 
 chances which are behind me now." 
 327 
 
Shacklett 
 
 This remark, often repeated, was pointed in 
 two directions. It called attention, with proper 
 pride and modesty, to the record of the general, 
 and it suggested the idea that the younger men 
 could afford to keep out of his way, let him have 
 his inning, and then take theirs. He was so dig- 
 nified that his remarks, although they would 
 have been bombastic many times if spoken by a 
 pompous man, sounded well from under his heavy 
 iron-gray mustache, which adorned a face round, 
 wrinkled with good humor, and soured by dis- 
 appointment at the same time. His countenance 
 was beaming when he smiled, and almost haggard 
 when at rest — one of those faces that brave men 
 whipped by fate wear. His hair was still thick, 
 although gray, and added to his dignity, and his 
 fine physique made him a man of distinguished 
 appearance in any assemblage. He had entered 
 the civil war as a lieutenant, and in 1865 was a 
 colonel. He had been brevetted brigadier upon 
 his discharge, and was the specially honored 
 guest at every old-soldier reunion in his part of 
 the State. But he had been a wall-flower at 
 every political ball since the war ceased to be 
 much of a factor in politics. 
 
 The preacher fought the intangible force be- 
 cause he believed it to be the highest duty of the 
 hour; the general fought the machine because he 
 saw no chance of becoming even one of its small 
 bevel-gears. They were attracted by community 
 328 
 
The Intangible Force 
 
 of interest in at least the first thing to be ac- 
 complished — the downfall of the organization — 
 and they discovered that each admired Shack- 
 lett. In the conversation they had in the be- 
 ginning, each failed to state to the other what 
 qualities in the ex-senator he especially liked; 
 and if they had exchanged ideas on this point, it 
 is probable that events would have been shaped 
 differently and the conversation would have 
 broken up in a discussion without either being 
 convinced. But they talked about the things 
 they did agree upon without discovering the 
 thing they disagreed upon, and the conversa- 
 tion ended in a compact between the minister, 
 who preached politics, and the soldier, who 
 had been vanquished by politics, to make an 
 alliance offensive and defensive for a common 
 object. 
 
 There were trips over the State separately, 
 and meetings together at places where railroad 
 lines cross; there was much correspondence with 
 others of the opposition. Finally there was a 
 meeting of half a hundred members of the op- 
 position — each with a different ulterior object, 
 and each a leader in embryo — at which Gen- 
 eral French presided, and recognized Reverend 
 Thomas Barnes to make the keynote speech. 
 The result of this conference of the clans of the 
 opposition was that General French and Rever- 
 end Thomas Barnes traveled from the place of 
 22 329 
 
Shacklett 
 
 meeting directly to Warsaw, walked out to The 
 Heights, and had a little conference of their own 
 with the railroad general counsel, who was so 
 completely out of politics that he felt that he 
 would refuse an election as chairman of a mass- 
 meeting of his neighbors. 
 
 330 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 A FAILURE OF FINESSE 
 
 " Senator," they said to Shacklett, " we 
 think we see a way of ridding the State of the 
 boss rule that has been holding us by the throat 
 for so long." It was the general who was speak- 
 ing, and the preacher kept up a continual nod- 
 ding of assent while the other spoke, occasionally 
 putting in a word of his own. " We have been 
 trying for over fifteen years to have the people's 
 sentiments represented in the conventions of the 
 party, but have accomplished very little in that 
 direction. We have had the machine cornered, 
 and we seemed on the very verge of success, when 
 one of its conscienceless tricks would cause our 
 defeat. We held a conference yesterday, and as 
 a result we come to you, as a committee repre- 
 senting the reform element in the party, and with 
 authority to speak for our side and the many 
 who desire better government. 
 
 " We have decided to try finesse where the 
 strong arm of right had to succumb to might and 
 money and spoils. We come to you after a close 
 
 33i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 and full study of your career as a public man. 
 We know that the honors we offer you are be- 
 neath those you have already attained, but we 
 come to ask you to be the Moses to lead us into 
 the land of promise, sir, and to aid us, not because 
 of any reward we can offer you, but in the name 
 of good government, of the people, for the peo- 
 ple, and especially by the people, instead of for 
 and by a ring of office-holders self-perpetuating 
 and corrupt throughout." 
 
 At this point Reverend Mr. Barnes put in 
 his own oar, and said in the grave, emphatic, 
 orotund voice which betokened his cloth more 
 than did his dress: 
 
 " Yes, senator, we believe that you will aid 
 us because you know it to be the thing to round 
 out your career as a statesman. You have been 
 honored as highly as can be attained by any man; 
 but if you end your political life by rescuing the 
 State of your beginning in life from the political 
 ring, which nobody has succeeded in downing 
 thus far, it will be a fitting close for the career 
 of a politician, and a glorious end for the political 
 life of a true statesman." 
 
 Shacklett did not smile as he quietly asked: 
 
 " You have not yet told how your own ma- 
 chine expects to use me to break the other one 
 into bits. It strikes me that in any event it would 
 involve considerable work upon my part, with 
 little chance of success and the production of 
 
 332 
 
A Failure of Finesse 
 
 many antagonisms with men who are now my 
 friends. I do not think I care to play Moses at 
 such a price, and with so little hope of winning 
 out. You know, Mr. Barnes, that Moses spent 
 forty years at his job, and you know, general, 
 that it takes a long time to carry a strongly forti- 
 fied position." 
 
 At the cool reference to their own machine 
 the general winced, and the preacher made a 
 gesture of dissent. It was the latter who an- 
 swered Shacklett: 
 
 " But, senator, if we have been harmless as 
 doves in the eyes of the ring thus far, we have 
 now become wise as serpents. Our plan was de- 
 vised to avoid antagonisms and to capture the 
 citadel somewhat more like the Greeks were led 
 into Troy than like Moses led the Hebrews into 
 the promised land. 
 
 " We have confidence that you are a man 
 who will give us the representative government 
 that we desire. We are willing and anxious to 
 throw our whole strength to you at the right 
 time. That time we conceive to be when the 
 machine is trying to nominate you for Governor. 
 To be perfectly frank, we want you to become 
 the machine candidate for the nomination, with 
 the full assurance that whatever we say about 
 you in advance, every vote we have in the 
 convention will be cast for you on the first 
 ballot." 
 
 333 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett reached over for the cigars. He 
 turned his eyes from his visitors that they might 
 not see the twinkle in them, for here was a situa- 
 tion capable of surprising the oldest school- 
 master in practical politics. He slowly cut off 
 the end of a cigar, pushed the box toward the 
 general with a motion of command to him and a 
 gesture of understanding toward the preacher, 
 watched the match burn almost to his fingers, 
 lit his cigar, and poured out several dense clouds 
 before he spoke. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he said, " allow me to say that 
 in the present condition of things in the party 
 your scheme does credit to you as workers to a 
 degree that fairly takes away my breath. For 
 the first time I think that the machine " — with 
 a slight bending of the head and a half wave of 
 the hand holding the cigar — " is up against the 
 most dangerous opposition it ever had. If exe- 
 cuted with the same skill that has been used in its 
 planning, your scheme would probably win. I am 
 duly grateful for the confidence and honor you 
 show me. But I am out of politics permanently 
 for a reason which is purely personal, and which 
 is insuperable. It is not necessary to continue 
 this conversation, even enough for me to ask 
 what pledges you would require of the candidate 
 whom you would use as a wooden horse at the 
 convention." 
 
 " We picked out a man we were willing to 
 334 
 
A Failure of Finesse 
 
 take unpledged. There is no other in the State, 
 and if your declination stands, our rose-colored 
 plans are turned to ashes of roses, sir," the gen- 
 eral said. " But, senator, we can't take it as a 
 declination, and we'll still hope that a little more 
 consideration will induce you to accept the offer 
 we make you. Of course, only about a dozen of 
 us know anything about it, and the facts will 
 never leak out." 
 
 Shacklett walked over to the mantel and 
 brushed the ashes from his cigar into a tray 
 there. He remained standing as he replied that 
 he seldom changed his mind, and his visitors 
 took their leave with careful courtesy from both 
 sides. 
 
 " It's a magnificent scheme," Shacklett told 
 his wife, " and it makes the old quiver come into 
 my nerves, but it involves too much work for me 
 now. The fact is, I find I'm growing very in- 
 dolent." 
 
 " Too lazy to obstruct the machine? " she 
 said in a curious tone. 
 
 " That's the mistake that people make, my 
 dear; exactly where they make a mistake. They 
 try to stop the machine when they ought to use 
 it for their own ends. It's just like a big thrash- 
 ing machine on a farm. You can clutch the 
 driving belt, and the only result will be that 
 you'll get hurt. The machine goes on taking in 
 weeds and chess, and pouring out a cloud of dirt 
 
 335 
 
Shacklett 
 
 and the pestiferous seeds to grow in the fields 
 the next year. 
 
 " But, if you wait until the men are off their 
 guard, you can slip in a shock of wheat behind 
 their backs, and that same machine will send out 
 No. I Hard ready for the next step of milling 
 it into the finest flour you ever saw to sustain 
 the body. 
 
 " It's exactly the same way with political 
 machines. I've no sympathy with the people 
 that think they can knock the machine in their 
 own party into smithereens by exploding a fire- 
 cracker under it or by all pulling together on the 
 driving belt. The machine that's accomplish- 
 ing anything at all is so well oiled, and has such 
 a power behind it, that you can't choke it down 
 with paper wads, whether they are of the old 
 style white kind, or the more recent Austra- 
 lian multi-column, stalls-at-a-county-fair variety. 
 But if you're smart enough, you can catch the 
 chief engineer napping sometimes, and slip in 
 some good men on him, and that same machine 
 will send out officers of high character ready for 
 the next step of official acts that will be the best 
 nutriment for the body politic. 
 
 " But here you've drawn me into a speech 
 on politics when I'm out of politics. It's too 
 much trouble, for anybody with cuteness enough 
 to do it, to lie out nights and Sundays to catch 
 the machine men off their guard. Personally, 
 336 
 
A Failure of Finesse 
 
 I'd prefer to hire to the boss at regular wages, 
 and work for promotion in the regular gang." 
 
 Since she had been living again at The 
 Heights, where she spent her girlhood and de- 
 cided the great questions which troubled her 
 then, Mrs. Shacklett felt more like the Mary- 
 Stoddard of other days than at any time since her 
 marriage. There had come back the same trust 
 in men, women, and things, characteristic of 
 youth, which she had entirely lost, for the nonce, 
 by the end of her husband's term in the Senate 
 in Washington. 
 
 " The perspective is different now," she said 
 to her husband, " and looking from the banks of 
 the Mississippi to the banks of the Potomac, I 
 can't see why one may not be in politics and 
 be a true man at the same time." Shacklett 
 shrugged his shoulders the least bit, and brushed 
 back the lock of hair from his forehead. " In 
 the old days," she continued, " looking from the 
 Potomac to the Mississippi, I could not see a 
 way to be successful in politics and retain the 
 self-respect that my father had — and that all of 
 us have in the Middle West." Shacklett's eyes 
 were vacant, and turned to the misty forest on 
 the distant Missouri bluffs. Mrs. Shacklett went 
 on: " I suppose that the mote of wickedness so 
 close to my eyes in Washington obscured the 
 wide breadth of goodness so far away out here. 
 And, of course, it does not take much goodness 
 337 
 
Shacklett 
 
 close at hand here to cover the same visual angle 
 as the great mass of badness at the capital." 
 
 " You are talking of two extremes," said 
 Shacklett. 
 
 " Yes," she smiled; " and the golden truth 
 lies in the mean between them, of course." 
 
 " Most results are compromises," he sug- 
 gested, " and we've got to make a compromise 
 between Washington and Warsaw in our lives 
 and our actions. But when we undertake to 
 compromise with the devil, his majesty always 
 asserts his ability to grab the whole thing." 
 
 " It seems to me," she answered, " that our 
 own lives — yours and mine — are not a compro- 
 mise, but an average. We're living the com- 
 bination of heredity and environment as char- 
 acter builders. I'm a weak creature molded al- 
 most entirely by my surroundings. You're a 
 strong force, determined before your birth by the 
 resultant of the characters of your father and 
 your mother. Both heredity and environment 
 are working out their results in us, each in its 
 most susceptible object. Our lives are one, and 
 the resultant of both these influences. If you 
 become Governor, and I can stay in Illinois and 
 come here often, I shall be kept close to the 
 right." 
 
 " That all sounds very well," said her hus- 
 band, " and is rather convincing, but you've left 
 out the strongest element of all. What has 
 338 
 
A Failure of Finesse 
 
 pushed aside both heredity and environment, and 
 dominates the whole situation, is love — and love 
 is to be taken, as we find it, without philosophy, 
 science, analysis, or even much description." — 
 He was looking at her with shining eyes. — 
 " My decisions are all based upon the one funda- 
 mental principle of love for you." 
 
 " And what about woman's whole exist- 
 ence? " his wife replied. " Just as we are united, 
 it seems to me now that politics and righteous- 
 ness can be married and amalgamated. My hap- 
 piness depends upon your happiness and success, 
 Noel, and I feel strong enough now to withstand 
 anything." 
 
 Shacklett again brushed back the lock of hair, 
 and in the action Mrs. Shacklett detected the 
 war-horse smelling the battle afar off. She did 
 not take long to determine that she would have 
 him return to his own proper sphere of action. 
 She told him she would go with him with new 
 ideas and a new inspiration to hold them both up 
 in the sunlight while traveling over the bog 
 where there was much good to be done by the 
 right people with skill and good motives com- 
 bined. 
 
 " Why not go into it just for auld lang 
 syne? " she said; " I'm going to skate to Keokuk 
 as sure as next winter comes. Let's not dismiss 
 the old pleasures entirely and settle down to be 
 people without a past." 
 
 339 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett laughed with a true ring. " You're 
 sure of yourself, then. But you were sure of 
 yourself the other time, weren't you? I left poli- 
 tics because my better-half said she found it nec- 
 essary in order to preserve her own self-respect, 
 and now the burnt child seeks the candle again, 
 eh? My dear, the first maxim in politics is to 
 take no more chances than can be avoided. 
 Come here and kiss me, and tell me about Mrs. 
 Gordon's campaign for president of the woman's 
 club." 
 
 Out on the lawn of The Heights, overlooking 
 the Mississippi River, the conversation wandered 
 into other topics, for Mrs. Shacklett did not like 
 to recall some experiences on this same bluff 
 which marked her own entrance into the whirl 
 of politics. She was glad she had become en- 
 gaged to marry the man who knew enough about 
 politics to secure the senatorship from a moun- 
 tain State, but in some details of the subsequent 
 proceedings she had been a fool, and she knew it. 
 So they talked of the boats and the lumber rafts, 
 the Iowa and Missouri scenery on either side of 
 the Des Moines, which joined the Father of 
 Waters at their feet, and of the sources of the 
 rivers that joined to make the mighty and moody 
 Mississippi. 
 
 340 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 VIEWING BOTH SIDES 
 
 It takes a number of streams to make a great 
 river, and by the same token, it takes a number 
 of causes to make much of a result in anything. 
 In politics it takes many men of many minds, as 
 the school copy-books used to phrase it, to make 
 the picture painted in the school histories of the 
 future. While Shacklett and his wife were talk- 
 ing of the visit of Reverend Mr. Barnes and 
 General French, there was a consultation going 
 on in Chicago by the organization. It was to 
 select one man of a half dozen as the best minister 
 plenipotentiary and ambassador extraordinary to 
 send to the court at Warsaw, to induce the rec- 
 ognized power there to throw its influence on the 
 side of the machine, and quit the State of political 
 lethargy and factional neutrality in which it had 
 steadily remained. The intangible force felt 
 the need of exactly such a man as Shacklett to 
 direct its manifestations when the present master 
 machinist should die, and it was reaching out 
 toward the ex-senator one of its numerous radi- 
 
 34i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 ating lines. McDougal was finally chosen to 
 carry the ideas of the organization — that is, of 
 its head — to Warsaw, and plant them firmly in 
 the mind of Shacklett, so that they would stay 
 there and flourish and be properly nourished. 
 McDougal was selected because he combined 
 tact with great directness of expression, was 
 capable of making himself perfectly clear without 
 the least jarring of the sensibilities, and was the 
 quickest in his judgments of men and their moods 
 at the moment. He was an ordinary-enough 
 looking man, as business men go, with hair care- 
 fully cut in the mode of the time, with a beard 
 which was most unobtrusive and, by hiding the 
 strongest part of his features, made him seem a 
 small factor, with a forehead which was cor- 
 rugated over bushy eyebrows, and with eyes that 
 were the most noticeable part of his face, because 
 so large and bright, and especially because they 
 were blue, under his black hair. He was an in- 
 ductive argument for the proposition that men 
 with black hair and blue eyes have an inexhausti- 
 ble supply of courage and fidelity to friends. He 
 certainly was a very successful lawyer, and his 
 successes in court over General Counsel Shack- 
 lett, of the railroad, only made the latter like 
 him the more. Now he was called to headquar- 
 ters, told what was to be accomplished, given his 
 instructions and authority to speak for the high- 
 est powers in the party. He spent several days in 
 342 
 
Viewing Both Sides 
 
 considering exactly the best manner of talking 
 to the general counsel of a railroad to induce him 
 to change his habits in life which had become 
 permanent, so far as could be seen. He finally 
 telegraphed Shacklett, asking when he could 
 have a talk with him at home. 
 
 When Shacklett received the telegram from 
 McDougal, he thought that attorney desired to 
 consult with him again about the bond case in 
 the Federal court, and at once replied, asking 
 him to come to The Heights any day that week. 
 But McDougal began as soon as he settled into 
 a chair in the large parlor : 
 
 " Senator, I'm ambassador extraordinary, and 
 I want to make a treaty with you before I go 
 back. The party needs a certain kind of man 
 for a certain place, and the certain kind of man 
 is hard to find. The Governor talked it over 
 with some of us last week, and we agreed that 
 the best way out lies past your door. It's not 
 much to offer a man like you, I know, but there's 
 possibilities in it for you in the future — and I'll 
 tell you in the first place that we thought of all 
 that, and agreed that you should have all that 
 you could make out of it in the way of promotion. 
 We expect you to climb over our backs, but 
 we're willing to bend the backs to help you up, 
 partly because somebody must be placed in the 
 position, and we expect fairer treatment from 
 you than from anyone else we might select. 
 
 343 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " The fact is, senator, Black is going to re- 
 tire, and live the few days remaining of his life on 
 his history. The Governor, of course, will suc- 
 ceed him, and somebody must be put in training 
 to follow in the footsteps of Governor Ramsey. 
 It must be somebody capable of playing the 
 game, capable of filling the place, and incapable 
 of trying to kick away the ladder by which he 
 climbed up. It must be a man strong enough 
 to become United States senator, active enough 
 to get there, and smart enough to keep in place 
 the stairway leading up to the loft at Washing- 
 ton, which we have constructed so carefully and 
 kept in such good repair. 
 
 " We have decided that you are the man, and 
 although it involves some apparent steps back- 
 ward, we think you know enough about the 
 means justifying the end to cause you to waive 
 the more unpleasant preliminaries." 
 
 By this time Shacklett plainly showed that 
 he was tired of the preliminary playing for posi- 
 tion in which McDougal was indulging, and 
 wanted to know what it all meant. McDougal 
 plunged at once into the gist of his mission. 
 
 " Ramsey will head the ticket again, and we 
 want you to take the nomination for Lieutenant 
 Governor with him. We'll attend to sending him 
 to the United States Senate, and then you'll be 
 acting Governor, and in line for next term. 
 After that you can construct your own fortunes 
 
 344 
 
Viewing Both Sides 
 
 after any plan that suits you, always able to de- 
 pend on the party being at your back. May I 
 tell them you'll do it? " 
 
 Shacklett smiled to himself as he thought of 
 how, only a week before, the minister and the 
 general had spoken, in the name of the people, 
 favoring purity in politics, when they really rep- 
 resented the outs and the opposition to the ins, 
 while now McDougal, the accredited representa- 
 tive of the successful machine, came as the 
 mouthpiece of the party. He knew that the 
 latter sometimes used " the organization " as a 
 synonym, but that neither group liked the word 
 machine, or faction, applied to itself. He had 
 rallied the others by speaking of their machine, 
 but here was a different kind of thing, and he 
 spoke with more tact as he said: 
 
 " And what kind of pledges does the organ- 
 ization want from me? " 
 
 " None whatever," replied McDougal, " for 
 if we didn't believe you were square, we wouldn't 
 give you a serious thought." 
 
 " I can't help but appreciate the honor you 
 do me, McDougal, and I wish you'd make that 
 emphatic to Ramsey. There are plenty of men 
 who would promise their heads and right arms 
 for the chance, but I'm in a peculiar position that 
 I can't explain, and I've sworn off ever going 
 into politics for myself again. I thought that 
 was settled, but it seems I'm to be tempted 
 23 345 
 
Shacklett 
 
 sorely. I think, though, that I can withstand 
 your offer, that comes like the rattle of chips to 
 an old gambler, or the sound of the gong to an 
 old fire-horse, and I'll have to decline. At the 
 same time I want to keep it clear that I ap- 
 preciate the favor you fellows are trying to show 
 me, but I find I can not express it as fully as I 
 feel it. I'll credit you with it, though, and my 
 books are indestructible as long as I live, at 
 any rate." 
 
 " A man can hold his own against all the 
 devils or against all the preachers in his environ- 
 ment, but he has the short end of the lever when 
 his own inclinations and his wife are pulling 
 against him at the same time," Shacklett said to 
 himself, when he told his wife of McDougal's 
 secret mission to him and its result. They were 
 out on the lawn again, where there was less like- 
 lihood of being overheard by the servants, and 
 it was a warm afternoon in May. 
 
 " I've been thinking ever since those other 
 men from the opposition were here," she said, 
 " and I've concluded that there's a new life open- 
 ing before us. We are apt to close a case and 
 consider it ended for all time, forgetting all about 
 such things as a supersedeas or a new trial. Did 
 you ever think of that? " 
 
 "Yes, frequently," he replied; "but why 
 have a new trial when the present settlement is 
 eminently satisfactory? Here we are, happy 
 346 
 
Viewing Both Sides 
 
 with each other, lovers as in the old days, and 
 out of danger. Why undertake to shoot the 
 rapids just because we used to do it skilfully 
 once upon a time? " 
 
 " Well, for one thing," she said slowly, " be- 
 cause of duty; for another thing, because the 
 rapids cease to be rapids when the water is high. 
 You're constantly thinking of my danger, it 
 seems, but I know that I am out of danger; I 
 know it this time, while I recognize that I used 
 to think I knew it when I didn't. It's like falling 
 in love, you see; one is sure that they love to 
 distraction, and later, when love does come, one 
 knows that the other was something else. I 
 went to pieces in Washington, I know, and I 
 thought I was strong then. I thought I could 
 play politics just as some of the men thought 
 they could play poker; but don't you suppose 
 that some of those men can play whist now with- 
 out getting into a jack-pot? I probably paid as 
 high a price in drafts on my Christianity for 
 being the wife of a senator as some of the rest 
 paid for their seats in election expenses. But 
 my safe is full again, thanks to your giving up 
 everything to bring me here, and I was wounded 
 too badly to want to get into that conflict 
 again. 
 
 " And, as I said, there is a question of actual 
 duty. It seems to me that when God gave you 
 the ability to secure places of trust and responsi- 
 
 347 
 
Shacklett 
 
 bility, he meant for you to take them and use 
 them in the right way. We did nothing worth 
 while, as I see things now, when we had the posi- 
 tion before; let's go in again, and use our power 
 and privileges for good." 
 
 Shacklett was looking at her in a way which 
 told her that he was trying to see into the depths 
 of her mind. She looked him straight in the 
 eyes and went on: 
 
 " Because I skated out there on the thin ice 
 two years ago, and came near drowning, is no 
 indication that I should not skate again next 
 January. Because a man upsets his skiff down 
 there is no reason why he should not cross the 
 same place with a steamboat; very especially, it 
 is no reason why he should fail to run the ferry 
 given him by someone, and thus fail to be of 
 service to his neighbors." 
 
 Shacklett looked over the Mississippi with- 
 out replying. Over the flat Missouri lowland 
 he saw the Capitol at Washington, and up above 
 the iron bridge across the Des Moines, just above 
 its mouth, the house in which they lived while 
 he was in the Senate. The haze hiding the bluff 
 a dozen miles from the western bank became to 
 him the fog in which his wife had wandered until 
 she was lost, and he came near perishing also 
 before she found her way out. There was a little 
 matter concerning a post-office appointment, in 
 which the shrewdest of workers had used Shack- 
 348 
 
Viewing Both Sides 
 
 lett's wife to get him into a cloud which came 
 near hiding them both forever. He had reached 
 her just in time to snatch her away, and bring her 
 here to safety and the old peace which she had 
 enjoyed close to the religion of her forefathers. 
 Now she felt strong enough, and nimble enough, 
 to go back into the dangerous places and live 
 there without danger to her religious life, which, 
 to her husband, was the most beautiful he had 
 ever seen. Should they try it? 
 
 Along the river on the other side a train ran 
 swiftly northward, although it seemed to be mov- 
 ing very slowly to the watcher over a mile away. 
 Shacklett kept his eyes on the engine, deeply 
 engrossed in thought, and after a little while he 
 saw the white steam rise, like a miniature tor- 
 nado, behind the black cloud of smoke. After 
 an interval sufficient for his mind to go over the 
 entire incident of the post-office appointment 
 again, Shacklett heard the sound of the steam 
 whistle coming loud and clear to his elevated 
 position, and he saw the train slow down and 
 stop for the briefest instant before going over the 
 bridge across the river. The rule he had seen on 
 the trainmen's schedule so many times came 
 into his mind irrelevantly to the subject which 
 had filled it, and he found himself thinking, " In 
 case of doubt take the safe side." 
 
 He looked over to his wife again, and she saw 
 that warm smile that had captured so many re- 
 
 349 
 
Shacklett 
 
 calcitrant politicians, and to his friends always 
 meant sincerity. 
 
 " No," he said; " I think we had better stay 
 here and watch the other pilots shooting the 
 political rapids. I've already declined both 
 propositions, anyhow, and we'll let it go at that." 
 
 35o 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 IN THE CRATER 
 
 When the time of the State convention 
 came, Shacklett went to Springfield, because the 
 situation presented some problems he did not 
 fully understand, and he did not feel comfortable 
 with a lack of understanding of political situa- 
 tions under his very nose. He knew he would 
 enjoy spending two days in the midst of the 
 whirl there, without having any part in it or any 
 interest in it — except a natural curiosity which a 1 
 professional man always feels in a remarkable 
 case involving the law of res gestce, the operation 
 of antitoxins, or the psychology of pauperization, 
 depending upon the profession. There were few 
 of the men left in the capital with whom he was 
 acquainted in the old days when he was a mem- 
 ber of the Third House, but he could not see 
 that their successors were any farther along in 
 the process of evolution. He knew all the lead- 
 ers who arrived a day or two before the State 
 convention met, and he found that he knew 
 many of the delegates as they came into the cor- 
 
 3Si 
 
Shacklett 
 
 ridors of the Leland after registering at one of 
 the cheaper hotels. Shacklett himself always 
 went to the Palace, for old times sake, but soon 
 found himself made entirely at home in the 
 rooms of the party managers at the Leland. He 
 sat almost silent most of the time, although he 
 listened so well that each man in the room 
 thought him a specially fine conversationalist. 
 He seemed to be seeing little that was happen- 
 ing, but he managed to get a better insight into 
 the situation than did even the trained Chicago 
 newspaper writers, with all their familarity with 
 arms and men. 
 
 There were three candidates for the nomina- 
 tion for Governor, and the great problem was, 
 Which one would the intangible force put up 
 in the top place on the ticket? The force of the 
 organization became almost tangible in the tre- 
 mendous pressure there in the hotel, as even 
 oxygen may be liquefied with sufficient retarda- 
 tion of its molecules. In this case the delegate 
 molecules were so many, and the hotel so insuf- 
 ficiently large, that they were compressed until 
 it seemed to the newspaper men who had the best 
 grasp of things that the invisible had become 
 visible, and that the motion produced by the 
 intangible force could be seen by a discerning 
 eye. 
 
 But each paper, when it arrived from Chicago 
 the next morning, showed that each staff man 
 352 
 
In the Crater 
 
 in charge of the work had seen the vaporous drift 
 moving in a different direction, and each candi- 
 date was announced as the choice of the ma- 
 chine — or of the organization — according to the 
 fealty of the paper. And this meant that the or- 
 ganization was running its machine so smoothly 
 that the character of its output could not be 
 guessed. Everybody believed that there would 
 come a time when a quickly spoken word, passing 
 over the convention like a shadow over a field of 
 wheat, would announce the choice of the nomi- 
 nee; but that time might come very late. 
 
 Richardson was the best newspaper man on 
 the ground, because of his recognized ability to 
 see through a grindstone farther than other peo- 
 ple, and his hard-earned reputation for respect- 
 ing confidences and making the exact distinction 
 between private talk and an interview. He had 
 come out of the West to Chicago, and he had 
 known something of Shacklett when the latter 
 was senator. When he saw Shacklett at the Ice- 
 land, Richardson dropped everything for half an 
 hour to watch the ex-senator from the far West, 
 who was now announced as out of politics and 
 attending strictly to his duties as railroad at- 
 torney. After a little while he strolled toward 
 Shacklett, and casually remarked: 
 
 " Senator, I understand now what I thought 
 so wonderful in you out West. When I day- 
 dream, I think of what might have been had I 
 
 353 
 
Shacklett 
 
 had this training when I was young instead of 
 after I'm forty. I don't wonder now that you 
 waked us up so thoroughly out there when you 
 brought the new system of education out to the 
 mountains; and I can understand pretty well why 
 you like to run over here yet to watch the wheels 
 go round, even if you are entirely out of the 
 game. Rather interesting, this time, isn't it? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Shacklett; "it does seem to 
 be rather complicated; but the only trouble seems 
 to be that you fellows want to know now what 
 it is not intended that you know until to-morrow 
 afternoon. I don't know myself what that is, 
 and I confess that I can't make a guess, which 
 argues that I wouldn't make a very good staff 
 correspondent, eh? " 
 
 " Oh, any of us can guess," said Richardson, 
 " but some of the guesses we don't dare to 
 breathe to our own men, not to speak of printing 
 them. Now I have a guess that I'm sure no- 
 body else has thought of, because the other fel- 
 lows all came from the effete East, or else from 
 about as far West as Schuyler, Nebraska, while 
 I've the advantage of being able to call them 
 tenderfeet. But that guess I shall not hint to 
 a soul, Senator Shacklett, until there are genuine 
 signs of its being verified." 
 
 Shacklett looked up at Richardson with an 
 expression of curiosity in his eyes, and kept his 
 look fastened upon the face of the correspondent, 
 
 354 
 
In the Crater 
 
 as he replied in something of the old drawl that 
 he had nearly lost: 
 
 " I believe it would pay me to make a pool 
 on information with you, for you certainly have 
 a deeper insight into things here than I have, 
 from what you say." 
 
 While Richardson was rapidly dictating his 
 stuff in his headquarters that evening, he sud- 
 denly changed his monotonous tone to one of 
 decided animation as he remarked to an as- 
 sistant: 
 
 " I got on to the best indication of gold- 
 bearing quartz to-day that I ever saw anywhere 
 in my life, and I worked it all by myself clear out 
 to the very end, to find that it wasn't worth five 
 minutes. It failed, but it's the best thing I ever 
 saw fail to materialize." 
 
 The first half of the night was spent in hard 
 work by the managers of each candidate to get 
 some expression of favoritism from the men con- 
 trolling the machine, but all the aspirants ob- 
 tained were very friendly and diplomatic expres- 
 sions of satisfaction that since all three men were 
 good ones, the nominee was sure to be the win- 
 ner in any event at the election. During this 
 same time, the fellowcraft workmen of each can- 
 didate were talking to delegates, and getting 
 very few pledges but many good wishes ; the del- 
 egates were also waiting to see in what direc- 
 tion the attraction of the intangible force was 
 
 355 
 
Shacklett 
 
 exerted. Shacklett went to bed early, know- 
 ing that nothing would transpire during the 
 night. 
 
 The next forenoon he walked up to the State- 
 house under the same angular railroad bridge 
 that still cut a line across the facade of the great 
 white stone building, and a tender smile came to 
 his face as he thought of old Honest John Mc- 
 Namara, who had put him in such a box some 
 years before when he went along that same street. 
 It struck him very forcibly just now, in the midst 
 of all this scheming and confused deceit of the 
 convention, that he had never had another quite 
 so good friend as the old senator from down the 
 State, who had really driven him out West and 
 into what had become his later life. In the hall 
 of the House of Representatives, little changed 
 from the old days when he saw so much of it, he 
 chose a seat almost out of sight to the left of the 
 Speaker's chair, now occupied by the chairman 
 of the State central committee. 
 
 The scene before him did not look like a ses- 
 sion of the House, yet the two had certain 
 similarities. He looked out upon a crater lined 
 with men from the bottom of the cup in the 
 center of the floor up the sides to the top of the 
 gallery seats. Men sat in the seats on the floor, 
 and other men stood in the space all around the 
 plane of desks, carrying the human lining of the 
 crater almost up to the front row in the rising 
 356 
 
In the Crater 
 
 gallery. It was intensely human, and under the 
 faces were volcanic fires burning briskly. In 
 several places there were light spots where the 
 big placard on a staff told were the seats of a 
 county which was out in caucus; and in the Cook 
 County seats, on the right side in front, were 
 several dark faces of delegates of the race freed 
 not so many years before — and the only negro 
 delegates in the convention came from the cos- 
 mopolitan metropolis of the State. The aisles 
 were filled with men slowly walking from one 
 place to another, nobody seeming flurried in the 
 least, unless it were the dozen women in the front 
 seats in the rear gallery, who had a plank on 
 temperance that they intended to urge upon the 
 committee on resolutions, to the worriment of 
 that body of platform-makers. 
 
 The gavel pounded the desk as the chairman 
 of the State central committee called the con- 
 vention to order. Without a speech he intro- 
 duced the temporary chairman, whose special 
 province it was to make an address upon national 
 issues and the glory of the party, without refer- 
 ence to the matters that were uppermost in every 
 mind. Then came the appointment of the com- 
 mittee on permanent organization, which re- 
 ported in a few minutes; then the escorting of 
 the permanent chairman to his seat in the Speak- 
 er's chair; then another speech that made the 
 whole convention cheer at the places where 
 
 357 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " (applause) " was already marked in the advance 
 proof-slips held by the newspaper men; then the 
 appointment of the committee on rules, which 
 reported immediately, the most important rule 
 being that all resolutions be referred to the com- 
 mittee on resolutions without debate. This last 
 prevented much annoyance, for with that rule the 
 opposition, the temperance women, and the other 
 irregular sections, could not make much of a 
 showing; and the committee on resolutions acted 
 as one man, moved, as they were, by the same in- 
 tangible force. There was no time now for 
 movement by indirection, and the organization 
 became almost tangible again as it controlled 
 things with a hand of steel and a brain sur- 
 charged. Somebody moved that nominating 
 speeches be limited to ten minutes, and while the 
 whole convention howled approval that the men 
 to make nominating speeches might know its 
 mind, the motion was not noticed by the chair, 
 because the delegate making it had not been 
 recognized. The committee on resolutions sent 
 in word that it would not be ready to report for 
 some time. Somebody moved to adjourn, but 
 the powers that were there touched a wire, and 
 tip jumped a delegate who moved that the Hon- 
 orable Robert Ramsey be invited to address the 
 convention. There was a great roar as the Gov- 
 ernor of the State, master machinist of the or- 
 ganization, idol of the dominant portion of the 
 358 
 
In the Crater 
 
 party, and hated despot of the opposition, came 
 forward to the side of the chairman. 
 
 Every man there wanted to know what Ram- 
 sey wished done — or rather was desperate to 
 know what Ramsey was going to will to be done. 
 When he began to speak there was a hush ; dele- 
 gates listened expectantly for the cue that did not 
 come, as he talked of loyalty to party and the 
 success that had perched upon the banners car- 
 ried by them all, arid emphasized the unity of ac- 
 tion inherent in the party. The managers of the 
 campaigns of the three candidates watched his 
 face for a sign let slip without intention, and were 
 disappointed. When Ramsey had ceased speak- 
 ing, the roar went up again, and one would have 
 thought that the volcanic forces under that cra- 
 ter would now cause an explosion, did not one 
 know that like lions in leash they were under 
 absolute control. Instead of an eruption, there 
 was a motion from the center of the crater of 
 cheering humanity, and in half a minute the 
 gavel fell upon the desk, and the convention 
 had adjourned until two o'clock in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 Shacklett had not paid much attention to the 
 proceedings or speeches. The proceedings were 
 routine, and he did not expect anything of im- 
 portance to be gleaned from the speeches by even 
 the most careful searcher for wheat among the 
 straw. He did watch the floor from his excel- 
 
 359 
 
Shacklett 
 
 lent point of observation, and he was the only 
 one who noticed the delegation from a central 
 county come in from its caucus, while the con- 
 vention was in one of its cheering moods, with 
 half the delegates from that county looking surli- 
 ly at the other half as they filed into their seats. 
 It happened that this county was the home of 
 one of the candidates for the nomination for Gov- 
 ernor. Shacklett saw exactly the same thing 
 happen when the delegation from the county of 
 another candidate came into the hall, except in 
 that case three fourths of the delegates from that 
 county were evidently in ill humor with the 
 other fourth. 
 
 Shacklett had smiled a little to himself at the 
 first incident, and at the second incident the smile 
 broadened. His eyes lighted up. He put down 
 his head on his cane, and laughed without any- 
 body noticing him. But almost instantly his 
 body ceased to shake, the muscles in his bent 
 back stiffened, his head came up and was held 
 high, and the smile on his face took on a quality 
 that erased all the humor previously in it, and put 
 in its place the quintessence of earnestness — it 
 was Richardson who wrote once for his paper 
 that Shacklett was the only man who ever lived 
 who expressed the most intense earnestness by 
 a smile, and then he went on to describe the 
 smile in terms of Euclid. 
 
 It happened that at that instant Governor 
 360 
 
In the Crater 
 
 Ramsey finished his rounded periods, and the 
 convention was seizing the opportunity to lessen 
 the pressure of repression under which it was 
 laboring. The man directly opposite Shacklett 
 thought his change of posture was due to this, 
 but Shacklett was hearing nothing of speech 
 or cheers. He saw how the third candidate 
 could checkmate in five moves, and he was men- 
 tally making the moves over and over to see 
 whether there was any escape for the others if 
 those moves were made. The drunkard had 
 sniffed the bouquet of the poteen; the old race- 
 horse had heard the clang of the bell; the most 
 skilful political manager of them all had seen a 
 road leading to victory for one candidate which 
 nobody else had noticed; the general had seen an 
 opportunity for a flank-turning movement, but 
 he was a neutral, and only an onlooking student 
 of affairs, and his lips were sealed. If the active 
 managers of one candidate had paid less attention 
 to Ramsey's face and tone, and more to what was 
 indicated to the close observer of things in the 
 middle of the floor, the philosophy of history 
 would have furnished a different conclusion to 
 the proposition at hand. 
 
 McDougal came near seeing the critical mo- 
 ment, but he, too, missed it. He chanced to 
 look at Shacklett before the latter had taken his 
 eyes from the second delegation to go to their 
 seats late. Instantly McDougal looked down at 
 24 361 
 
Shacklett 
 
 that group also, but in that short time the ex- 
 pression of the composite face of the county 
 delegation had changed, and they were prepar- 
 ing to cheer with the rest at the next oratorical 
 climax period. Then McDougal looked back at 
 Shacklett, and narrowly watched him until the 
 speech of Governor Ramsey was ended. It was 
 McDougal who then made the motion to ad- 
 journ as soon as he could catch the eye of the 
 chairman, who knew McDougal's position in af- 
 fairs of state. 
 
 Everybody hurried back to the hotels to din- 
 ner, and the corridors .and dining-rooms were 
 again seething with pretty kettles of fish over 
 a very hot political fire. When Shacklett was 
 brought a card by a waiter, he at once left the 
 table, went to the Leland, rode up in the elevator 
 to the parlor floor, and walked briskly into the 
 room designated on McDougal's card. Mc- 
 Dougal was alone. He was smoking a black 
 cigar of huge size, and stood facing the door. 
 He waved Shacklett to a chair, sank into another 
 facing him, and began at once: 
 
 " Senator, did you ever talk to your wife any 
 about my visit to you? And what did she say 
 about it, may I ask? " 
 
 While there was no interval between the two 
 questions, the first had been answered by a nod 
 before it was quite finished. Shacklett replied: 
 
 " Well, McDougal, like a good many wives, 
 362 
 
In the. Crater 
 
 I fancy, she is willing to sacrifice her own com- 
 fort to further the political advancement of her 
 husband; and, unlike most husbands, I fancy, I 
 told her I wouldn't have it." 
 
 McDougal laughed a little, looked intently 
 into the ring of smoke he had just sent circling 
 upward, laid his cigar on the table with care that 
 the burning end should project from the edge, 
 leaned forward so that one hand could reach 
 Shacklett's knee, looked Shacklett full in the 
 face for half a minute, and then, after all this de- 
 liberation, began the real conversation, which 
 continued for nearly an hour. When Shacklett 
 left the room he was a return to the type and 
 much the same Shacklett who haunted the same 
 upper halls of the same hotel years before, when 
 he was a part of the Third House — that portion 
 of the State government not recognized in the 
 Constitution, but the most effective of any. 
 
 By that time the thousand and more men 
 who had come to Springfield to take possession 
 of the town like a swarm of locusts, were begin- 
 ning to gather at the State-house again. There 
 had been no word from Governor Ramsey, the 
 head of the organization, and when the gains 
 claimed by each candidate were tabulated, they 
 showed the maintenance of the status quo as re- 
 gards all three of them. The dozen men who by 
 this time knew whom the convention would 
 nominate were expressing the most hopeless ig- 
 363 
 
Shacklett 
 
 norance; the newspaper men were in a state of 
 taut mental tension, waiting for the sign that 
 might come at any moment to solve the mys- 
 tery; the delegates were beginning to consider 
 whom they really preferred to nominate, if it 
 should be that they were allowed to vote their 
 own preferences; the people in the galleries were 
 already in place and making a buzz of conversa- 
 tion, each asking whomever might be beside him 
 for some definite information. The force con- 
 trolling the situation had become perfectly in- 
 tangible again, and seemed to have stopped its 
 generator of opinion, or to have really decided 
 that this time the unswerved opinion of the 
 masses of the people — that is, the county politi- 
 cians — had better be left to send the nomination 
 where it pleased. 
 
 364 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE RETURN TO THE TYPE 
 
 Shacklett did not go with the crowds up 
 to the State-house, and while Representatives' 
 Hall was filling he was shown to a better room at 
 the hotel by the boy who never seemed quite 
 complete without a long brass tag dangling 
 from his hand. Once in his room, Shacklett 
 threw his hat and cane on the bed, touched the 
 bell, and sat down with his back to the window 
 and his face toward the door. When the bell-boy 
 came he ordered writing materials and cigars 
 without moving; when the boy returned he 
 lighted a cigar and drew up to the table almost 
 with the same motion. He began to write furi- 
 ously and to smoke even more furiously, so that 
 the room was full of smoke as soon as the first 
 page of the letter had been completed. The let- 
 ter was to his wife, and being mailed within 
 fifteen minutes it reached her only an hour after 
 a telegram sent later in the afternoon, which it 
 explained in detail as to cause and effect, and as 
 to premises and corollaries. As soon as the letter 
 
 365 
 
Shacklett 
 
 had been sent down by another boy, Shacklett 
 pushed back the chair from the table, stretched 
 out his feet along the floor, pulled his body down 
 in the upholstery until he was reclining on the 
 middle of his back, and kept his eyes on the va- 
 cancy on the other side the ceiling. He puffed 
 out cigar smoke in an almost continuous roll, as 
 it comes from the funnels of a fast cruiser steam- 
 ing at full speed from one port to another when 
 the commander is not very certain about what 
 the weather will be next day. 
 
 Events were moving swiftly now, and dele- 
 gates were talking in groups that granulated the 
 great mass on the floor of the convention hall. 
 Men were telling one another that to nominate 
 either of the three candidates who had fought so 
 hard for the nomination, and were fighting still 
 harder, now that there seemed to be no inter- 
 ference contemplated, would tend to the defeat 
 of whichever won there that day. All the man- 
 agers of the three candidates were combating 
 this idea, and each was swearing hearty support 
 to the nominee whatever happened; but the tide 
 against all three rose steadily, spread all over the 
 counties, and was as irresistible as the tide in the 
 ocean drawn by the lunar interference with mun- 
 dane things from an extraneous point. The in- 
 tangible force, which kept it so clear that it was 
 not a part of the convention, and not in contact 
 with it, was exerting its influence at last from the 
 366 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 outside, and doing it in a way that prevented its 
 identification with events. The managers of the 
 three candidates were all frantic, and messages 
 to the candidates at the hotel kept the door of 
 the telephone booth constantly closed. But 
 without the interposition of even a wire, the 
 sentiment to drop all three of them was growing 
 in the convention itself, becoming more fixed, 
 spreading even into the very districts of the 
 candidates themselves, being announced in cer- 
 tain quarters as a policy determined upon by the 
 convention as of one mind, and being considered 
 as something already done. With this went, not 
 whispers, but strongly spoken dicta, that the man 
 to nominate was ex-Senator Shacklett. He was 
 the man friendly to all interests and opposed by 
 none, it was said over and over. There was no 
 discussion, and when some ambitious man, who 
 sought to embrace the opportunity of filling the 
 gap, was mentioned by his friends, the idea was 
 grandly and conclusively waved aside with a ges- 
 ture and a stronger statement than ever that 
 Shacklett was the man. The one thing that the 
 intangible force could not do was to stop the 
 flight of time, but the chairman did not enter 
 the hall from the Speaker's room until forty 
 minutes after the hour set for the reassembling 
 of the convention. 
 
 Some of the shrewder members of the or- 
 ganization stopped a moment to consider the un- 
 36; 
 
Shacklett 
 
 expected aid that was coming from the opposi- 
 tion, not an opposition now, but talking that 
 Shacklett was the man. The ordinary cog-wheel 
 in the machine now whirling so silently and so 
 forcibly chuckled to himself that the work was 
 being done so smoothly that the opposition had 
 not detected that the great machine was moving; 
 but the better politicians saw deeper than that 
 into the actions of the opposition, and felt a mo- 
 mentary fear that somehow they might be mak- 
 ing a mistake — but it was too late now to do 
 anything but move steadily on. The opposition 
 certainly had not caucused. There had been 
 little groups of that faction talking with heads 
 together, and a few leaders had rushed up to Gen- 
 eral French, standing against the wall by the 
 door, for a word in his ear and a reply in three 
 words; but as rapidly as the other side had pushed 
 forward the name of Shacklett, the opposition 
 had taken it up and insisted upon it. Finally the 
 gavel of the chairman pounded a clatter upon 
 the desk, and the delegates seemed to soak into 
 their seats in the great hall. 
 
 At that particular time there was a conference 
 going on down at the hotel between the three 
 candidates for the nomination. It was short, 
 sharp, and decisive that neither should withdraw. 
 The speeches began in the convention as one 
 after the other was placed formally before the 
 delegates, but the cheering of names came almost 
 368 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 entirely from their own counties. Then General 
 French slowly made his way to the front as the 
 last speaker finished, and was recognized. He 
 did not make a speech, but simply said: 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the conven- 
 tion: I place in nomination for the head of our 
 ticket a man in every way worthy of that honor, 
 and a man known to you all, the Honorable Noel 
 C. Shacklett, of Hancock County." 
 
 Delegates all over the hall looked him 
 askance, and there was not the cheer that some of 
 the newspaper men at the press table expected. 
 They looked over the convention quickly, and de- 
 cided that the stampede to Shacklett had already 
 lost its momentum, and would be entirely dead 
 long before the first ballot was completed. It 
 had turned out, after all, that the Shacklett boom 
 was an effort of the opposition to take advantage 
 of circumstances, instead of the manifestation of 
 a choice by anybody else in particular. The pro- 
 ceedings seemed to have lost their zest for those 
 looking for sensations and scare-heads on the 
 first page. 
 
 Somehow McDougal happened to be well up 
 in front just then. Nobody had noticed him be- 
 fore, as he was sitting well in from the aisle, and 
 chatting casually with his next neighbor. He 
 did not move until the short applause at Shack- 
 lett's name had ceased, and then he climbed up on 
 his chair by the aid of the broad shoulders of the 
 369 
 
Shacklett 
 
 man in the next seat. The convention became 
 silent as a lecture audience, for everybody won- 
 dered what the flank movement of the organiza- 
 tion would be, now that the opposition seemed 
 more dangerously near success than ever before. 
 Delegates who had received a straight tip on 
 Shacklett, that they believed to be from their 
 commanding officers, had felt utterly at sea when 
 General French nominated him. There was a 
 mistake somewhere, and it looked like a sharp 
 trick which had nearly or entirely succeeded. 
 Now McDougal would sound the bugle signal, 
 and two thirds of that convention would shape 
 their actions in accordance with his desires, what- 
 ever these might be. McDougal began as 
 loudly as if the former noise of the convention 
 was still going on. He spoke so slowly that each 
 word seemed an idea in itself, instead of a part 
 of a stream of talk. Every syllable was as dis- 
 tinct as if cut out of crystal. And there could 
 be no misinterpretation of what he would have 
 understood. He said: 
 
 " Mr. Chairman: This is a great day for the 
 party of which we are all so proud. There have 
 been times when some of us could not agree with 
 others as to exactly the best kind of campaign to 
 make. There have been differences of opinion 
 among us, but never disagreements in the sense 
 of divisions. With a party made up of men, each 
 capable of thinking for himself, it is impossible 
 370 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 for all to take the same view of things very often; 
 but to-day all vestiges of differences, of divergent 
 policies, should be swept aside in this great repre- 
 sentative convention, and there should be una- 
 nimity of action. I have often found myself 
 looking in a different direction from that to 
 which my friend, General French, turned his 
 eyes, but we both have one object at heart al- 
 ways. I believe to-day that we will agree on one 
 proposition, and that is that the party needs to 
 move forward against the enemy, alined in 
 straight ranks, keeping step in exact unison to 
 the same music, and under a leader chosen unani- 
 mously by us all. I can not insist on others com- 
 ing to my way of thinking, but I am willing to 
 for once adopt their plans. I hail with satisfac- 
 tion the name just presented by General French, 
 and take great pleasure in seconding the nomina- 
 tion of Mr. Shacklett." 
 
 Then came the deluge. There was no longer 
 any doubt of what the delegates had to do, how- 
 ever little they knew of the grand tactics in- 
 volved, and they made up for the long suspense 
 and inactivity in the cheer that rose through the 
 hall as McDougal sat down. The convention 
 finally understood itself, and the rest could have 
 been told at that moment by almost anybody 
 there. Before the roll-call was half over all the 
 three original candidates had withdrawn their 
 names through their accredited agents, and 
 
 37i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 Shacklett had been nominated for Governor by 
 acclamation. 
 
 "MACHINE SURRENDERS," was the 
 top head-line in one of the papers; " PERFECT 
 UNANIMITY," stared at the readers of another 
 in large type; "HARMONY RESTORED," 
 was the head-line in an organization organ, and 
 " GREEKS BEAR GIFTS," was the dominant 
 expression in a paper of the other party, whose 
 staff man at the convention had a tendency to 
 the classical. Interviews were easily obtained, 
 and like most such interviews hardly worth send- 
 ing, for they were so palpably half-truths and 
 whole-lies. Shacklett said little, and his own in- 
 terview was given out to the correspondents in 
 manifold typewriter by McKee, who reached him 
 first, and at once assumed the position of private 
 secretary on his own motion. 
 
 " I came to Springfield without thought of 
 such a thing as being nominated," it read, " and 
 if such a remote possibility had been suggested 
 to me, I should have said that I would not take 
 the honor. But since, without consulting me, 
 the convention of the party in the whole State 
 has nominated me in the manner it did, I can not 
 see how I can get away from its mandate, al- 
 though I would rather have had it different. I 
 am absolutely free from pledges, promises, or, so 
 far as I know, enemies. I shall make a campaign 
 as the State central committee may advise, and, 
 
 372 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 if I am elected, shall act so as to be as thoroughly 
 the Governor of all the people of the State as I 
 seem to have been the choice of all the party. I 
 am really too much surprised to say much, and 
 have had no time in which to even think of plans. 
 I hope you will excuse me from talking further 
 just now." 
 
 Everybody conceded that it was a very grace- 
 ful interview for a man nominated so unexpect- 
 edly, and showed both a proper idea of his posi- 
 tion, and a carefulness that was needed in the 
 executive office. 
 
 That night Richardson closed the dictation 
 of the lead to his sketch report of the convention 
 by turning away from the typewriter and saying 
 to his confreres: 
 
 " I told you last night about working out a 
 blind lead. Well, like a variegated idiot, there 
 was a mine worth a million just beyond where I 
 stopped and missed it. The worst of it is, that 
 I ought to have known there was a big nugget 
 there, even if I had to doubt all my seven senses 
 to do it; and, because this nomination of Shack- 
 lett is the most natural thing in the world, is the 
 very reason I missed calling the turn last night 
 and beating the town. There's queer things, we 
 all know, but you'll see more queer things in the 
 next four years than you ever dreamed of in all 
 your philosophy, my dear Horatios." 
 
 That evening a number of people came out 
 
 373 
 
Shacklett 
 
 to The Heights from Warsaw to offer hearty con- 
 gratulations to Mrs. Shacklett, and she took no 
 pains to conceal her pleasure at the turn events 
 had taken, according to the news the telegraph 
 operator had heard on the wires and had given 
 out. She got her own telegram from her hus- 
 band while the people were there, and the word- 
 ing of it satisfied her. She knew that his taking 
 the nomination meant that he was to be Gov- 
 ernor in fact, as well as in name, with no promises 
 out to the machine or the reformers; but it meant 
 to her a sweeter thing than that — it meant that 
 her husband trusted her completely, and to her it 
 was the end of the old life, and the banishment 
 forever of the shadows looming out of the past. 
 
 The campaign had no excitements, and she 
 did not find the moving into the Governor's man- 
 sion as tiresome as she had expected. It did not 
 seem to her as being much of a change in life, 
 but rather like getting back home again after a 
 long visit abroad. She was glad to observe how 
 much her husband seemed to enjoy his new life, 
 and how easily he dropped into its labors, cares, 
 and duties. She had expected him to take things 
 as easily as possible, and to allow the well-oiled 
 machinery of state to run on in the old grooves; 
 but while the new appointments were made with- 
 out much trouble, a cloud began to rise in the 
 south that disturbed her much more than it 
 seemed to concern the new Governor. She 
 
 374 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 talked to him of the dangers of even a small-sized 
 labor trouble ; but he replied that with her help he 
 could handle anything coming up down there in 
 that little town, and they need not worry as long 
 as Chicago seemed quiet. But Mrs. Shacklett 
 became more gloomy every day as she read in 
 the papers the reports of the growing dissatisfac- 
 tion among the miners, and finally her husband 
 packed her off, with considerable baggage, to 
 Warsaw, saying, as he kissed her good-by at the 
 train : 
 
 " Study your river there from the Point, and 
 notice how safely every boat comes down the 
 rapids and under the bridge, even if the rafts do 
 act a little balky sometimes." 
 
 The strike in itself was not of sufficient pro- 
 portions to have occupied much space in the 
 history of the State, except for its ending. Pub- 
 lic opinion, if that means the opinion of the 
 masses who read the daily papers, favored the 
 strikers. There was no doubt that the men had 
 been underpaid, and robbed of part of what was 
 given them each week, by extravagant profits de- 
 manded at the truck store. In the beginning 
 Governor Shacklett had called in the mine own- 
 ers and talked plainly to them. He told them 
 frankly that he hoped the strikers would win by 
 proper means, and that there was no doubt that 
 the men had the sympathy of most of the State, 
 regardless of any worked-up sentiment or leaning 
 375 
 
Shacklett 
 
 toward unionism. He pointed out that the only- 
 remedy labor has for low prices is by decreasing 
 the supply, exactly as in the case of wheat, and 
 that any man or body of men, in his opinion, were 
 perfectly justifiable in walking out at pleasure 
 in the absence of time contracts. 
 
 The president of the coal company talked of 
 competition and the prices of their product, giv- 
 ing figures and data regarding the expenses of 
 their business and cost put into the coal outside 
 of labor, but the Governor interrupted him: 
 
 " To my mind," he said, " that is entirely ir- 
 relevant. It may be that you cannot sell coal 
 for more than two dollars a ton, and that the men 
 want ten dollars a day for their work; which, of 
 course, you could not pay with your product at 
 that price. But if a man, or your men, refuse 
 to work for what you can afford to pay, you will 
 have to get other workmen, suspend operations, 
 or get more for your coal. The State is not 
 regulating supply and demand among its citizens, 
 and, as long as I am Governor, the power of the 
 State is not going to be used to interfere between 
 two parties to a contract." 
 
 " Precisely," replied the suave president; " we 
 had no idea of asking so much; but what we want 
 to know is this: If we find men who are willing 
 to work at a price we are willing to pay, will the 
 State protect them from the assaults of the strik- 
 ers, which we know will come as soon as the 
 376 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 new men appear? We helped elect a Governor 
 to protect the property of citizens and the per- 
 sons of the poor workingmen and rich banker 
 alike. We are a little anxious to know whether 
 we chose the right man, or made a costly mistake 
 to be rectified in the future." 
 
 Governor Shacklett's face turned enough to 
 be presented squarely to the capitalist, and his 
 eyes looked into those of his interrogator as they 
 often looked at one who threatened when he 
 should have argued. " As long as I am Gov- 
 ernor," he slowly said, " the laws of the State 
 shall be enforced exactly as they have been dur- 
 ing the past week, with exactly the same energy 
 and care, and in exactly the same way in one city 
 or county as in another. I recognize no special 
 rights, and am slow to recognize special condi- 
 tions. Assault and battery is the commonest of 
 misdemeanors, and I imagine every peace offi- 
 cer and magistrate knows how to handle of- 
 fenders." 
 
 " Then I understand that you will wait until 
 the law has been broken before taking steps to 
 secure the rights of respectable citizens, includ- 
 ing the right to work for a living? " The presi- 
 dent was losing his temper and his hold on the 
 situation at the same time. 
 
 " I am not infringing on the rights of a court 
 of equity," replied the Governor with some im- 
 patience of tone; " and the usual way to execute 
 25 377 
 
Shack! ett 
 
 the criminal law against' assault is to arrest and 
 punish the offender, which I shall certainly cause 
 to be done whenever my attention is called to the 
 laxity of the proper county officers." The im- 
 patience had given way to ennui in his tone, and 
 the mine owners, five minutes later, were in the 
 corridor of the State-house. 
 
 Governor Shacklett sat in the same position 
 after they left that he had been occupying when 
 they were announced, his head pushed back upon 
 the leather of a chair, and his feet on a pile of 
 letters on the table. Through half-opened eyes 
 he peered at one of his predecessors looking 
 down upon him from the wall, and wondered 
 how that other Governor would have handled 
 such a situation. It struck the last Governor of 
 Illinois that some of the first who occupied the 
 gubernatorial chair would have been a little con- 
 fused to have received a message from a distant 
 part of the State, dated ten minutes before, ask- 
 ing for five companies of militia to be sent before 
 dark to keep the peace on account of a strike. 
 He smiled slightly to himself, and his eye wan- 
 dered to the picture of Oglesby, and from that to 
 the portrait of Cullom, and then he thought of 
 Lincoln. He was really resting, and allowed his 
 mind to flit lightly over the affairs of the day and 
 the times, and now it seemed to rest upon the ca- 
 reer of the war President, with whom Springfield 
 was so closely connected. Governor Shacklett 
 
 378 
 
The Return to the Type 
 
 smiled again as he compared his little strike of 
 two hundred men — he had grown to consider it 
 as a part of the office supplies turned over to him 
 — with the great conflict that pressed down upon 
 Lincoln, and finally pushed him into his grave. 
 Shacklett remained there until his private secre- 
 tary came in softly to discover why the carriage 
 had been kept waiting so long, and then as he 
 sprang to his feet, he said: 
 
 " McKee, whenever you're in doubt in poli- 
 tics or statesmanship, read up on the life of Lin- 
 coln. It's the Bible of the really successful politi- 
 cian who aspires above the Legislature. That, 
 and a good wife, are to a governor what Haines' 
 Treatise is to the country justice of the peace. 
 By the way, McKee, I wish you'd wire Mrs. 
 Shacklett that I'd like her to get back as soon as 
 she conveniently can — there's that trip to Kan- 
 kakee coming on, you know." 
 
 379 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 A FIN DE SIECLE KNIGHT 
 
 By the time Mrs. Shacklett arrived, the peace 
 had been broken at the mines, and the papers 
 were putting the accounts of the events there 
 upon the first page. The sheriff had telegraphed 
 for militia the first day the imported miners ar- 
 rived, and the Governor had replied that he could 
 not send soldiers until the posse comitatus had 
 failed to keep the peace. Then began a tele- 
 graphic correspondence, and that night Governor 
 Shacklett had sent McKee to the scene of the 
 trouble to make a private report upon the sit- 
 uation. The private secretary telegraphed 
 that fights were frequent, generally started by 
 a few men who looked like miners and talked 
 anarchy, but never attended the miners' meet- 
 ings, however, for he had kept them under ob- 
 servation. 
 
 The Governor went to the mines at once, and 
 
 his wife went with him. On the way they talked 
 
 of nothing but the situation confronting the 
 
 State, and the Governor argued with his wife 
 
 380 
 
A Fin de Steele Knight 
 
 two propositions. One was that the mine own- 
 ers must have clean hands before they could claim 
 protection for any imported men, with the result- 
 ing long-continued state of siege; and the other 
 was that every man violating the laws must be 
 punished exactly as if it all had happened last 
 summer on a farm with only two people inter- 
 ested in the quarrel. 
 
 At the mines, Governor Shacklett sent for the 
 owners first, and after assuring them that their 
 property should be protected as it stood that day, 
 asked for a description of the existing conditions 
 from their point of view. They told him that 
 the miners were anarchistic and determined to 
 prevent men from going to work who wished to 
 do so, even if every imported miner had to be 
 killed. The owners talked of the right of con- 
 tract and other things, and when they left they 
 were absolutely in the dark as to what was in the 
 Governor's mind. 
 
 Then Governor Shacklett sent for the leaders 
 of the miners, who were the officers of their 
 union. These talked of wages not affording a 
 living, and starvation being pushed off day by 
 day. To this the Governor sternly replied that 
 is was not the business of the State to keep wages 
 up, even to the living point, in any field of labor; 
 that if the miners were not satisfied with what 
 the company paid, they had a perfect right to 
 quit the mines, and go to farming, ditch digging, 
 381 
 
Shacklett 
 
 or into any other employment they choose, where 
 they could obtain wages to suit themselves. The 
 union committee talked of the right of every man 
 to a living, and the Governor replied that he 
 thought every man had a living lying around 
 somewhere, if he would but look in the right 
 place for it. Then they spoke of robbery in 
 truck stores, and the Governor told them that if 
 the owners discharged a man for buying his gro- 
 ceries and other goods where he pleased, that 
 man would be put back in the mine, if it took all 
 the soldiers in the State to do it. They argued 
 against bringing in labor from outside the State, 
 and Governor Shacklett answered that people in 
 less favored States had as much right to employ- 
 ment as if they were fortunate enough to be citi- 
 zens of Illinois; but that any owners who took 
 pains to import labor would get the strict justice 
 of Shylock and no favors whatever. By this time 
 the officers of the miners' union were not sure 
 whether they had a foxy politician, a crank, or a 
 Solomon, to deal with, and finally the Governor 
 said: 
 
 " I made no reply to what you said about your 
 miners being peaceable, and that forcible preven- 
 tion of men going to the mines is the work of an- 
 archistic spirits taking advantage of the situation, 
 because my private information is to the same 
 effect. I am going to be frank with you, and 
 play my hand with the cards face up on the table. 
 382 
 
A Fin de Siecle Knight 
 
 This trouble is going to be ended in less than a 
 week, and have no blank-cartridge business in it. 
 I might as well kill a hundred men a day for three 
 days as kill one man a day for a year. There is 
 one proviso that I want you to keep in mind, but 
 provided only that you have told me the truth, 
 this is what I shall do. You can handle your 
 men, for you have been doing so; I can handle 
 my troops " ; and Shacklett seized the chance to 
 give the president of the federation a warm, mag- 
 netic smile. " You are to keep your men far 
 enough away to be out of danger, and I'll send 
 the brute-force fellows to the hospital or the 
 bone-yard. Then I'll put the mines in a bottle, 
 with the neck extending out the old corduroy 
 road, by throwing a circle of guards out a half 
 mile from the shafts, with each end of the line 
 extending up the side of the road for a quarter 
 of a mile. The only way that anybody can get 
 near the mines will be down the corduroy road, 
 and anybody who chooses can pass there. You're 
 to see that your men don't choose to enter my 
 bottle, and you can have the whole quarter of a 
 mile of road from the ends of the guard-line to 
 the mouth of the bottle itself, at the inner end of 
 the road, to try your moral suasion on the new 
 men. I'll have eyes and ears there that I can 
 trust completely, and at the first sign of force 
 taking the place of proper argument, another 
 plan goes into effect. 
 
 383 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " The other plan is to load the new men on 
 cars out the railroad anywhere within a hundred 
 miles, and carry them to the mouths of the shafts 
 on trains guarded by troops, sending every man 
 that attempts to interfere to join these dead an- 
 archists sent on before. I won't do anything 
 like this as long as your miners stick to their right 
 of moral suasion and don't cross the line of im- 
 proper force — and that'll be a dead-line to them. 
 The owners have a right to put to work every 
 man they can, and you have a right to properly 
 persuade every man you can to refuse their job. 
 I'm going to give you both a fair show, arrest 
 every man that uses force, and kill every man that 
 resists the law. That is simple enough, and I 
 think you understand it. 
 
 " But I don't want to push the button until 
 I see for myself what my private sources of in- 
 formation have told me. I want to go out and 
 get over the entire ground with my own eyes and 
 ears in a way that will give me personally an ac- 
 curate idea of the whole thing. The first thing 
 I want you to do, is to bring me a miner's suit 
 of clothes that I can wear among the men with- 
 out being recognized. I want one that will fool 
 the manager of the mine himself, too." And his 
 eyes twinkled in response to the smiles of quick 
 comprehension on the part of the labor leaders. 
 " If you are afraid of a real investigation," he con- 
 tinued more slowly and very distinctly, " it will 
 
 384 
 
A Fin de Siecle Knight 
 
 get out about my stroll ; if you can stand investi- 
 gation, it won't." 
 
 Governor Shacklett assented that it was fair 
 for two of the officers of the labor union to follow 
 him on his scout, taking care not to expose his 
 incognito, and the president and secretary were 
 chosen for this purpose. He walked through a 
 group around a ranting inciter to riot ; staggered 
 through another group too drunk to be very ac- 
 tive, except with their tongues; sat down in the 
 midst of a sullen collection of men, women, and 
 children; went into a saloon and bought a cheap 
 cigar, and then he started through the middle of 
 the scene of active operations toward the shaft 
 of mine No. 2. The voice of a guard crying 
 " Halt! " and then a shot fired at the same place, 
 caused him to turn to the right and hurry faster. 
 Over there a group of very rough-looking men 
 were attempting to force a guard-line, and the 
 Governor could see the backs of at least twenty 
 of them as they made a rush away from him and 
 toward the guard. 
 
 He was to the leeward of the disturbance, and 
 heard an officer halt his main guard, which had 
 come up at double time, and caution them with 
 the word, " Ste-e-a-ady-y-y-y-y! " long drawn 
 out in a waving but firm tone; then suddenly and 
 rapidly rang out, " Load; ready; aim; ste-e-a-a- 
 dy-y-y-y-y! " — tne voice became a slow croon 
 again, kept up for a half a minute, and the Gover- 
 
 385 
 
Shacklett 
 
 nor began to run in that direction, followed by 
 the labor leaders at a little distance. The presi- 
 dent of the labor federation called out, " For 
 God's sake, man, lie down ! " and with his com- 
 panion dropped to the ground. Before they had 
 flattened themselves against the earth, the officer 
 of the guard snapped out like a 'cello string 
 breaking from strain, "Fire!" The Governor 
 stumbled, put his hands to his chest, and slowly 
 sank down in a heap. Men came running toward 
 the single roar that was the continuation of the 
 officer's command; but all stopped where the two 
 highest officials of their federation were standing 
 by a wounded man, with their hats at their feet 
 and each with a hand up with an identical ges- 
 ture, and their own commands coming sharp and 
 tense: 
 
 " Let no man come within forty feet of this 
 spot! Hats off and perfect silence! The man 
 that fails to obey every order now is on the scab 
 list forever! Hats off! Perfect silence! Me- 
 haffey, run like the wind and tell the colonel to 
 come here. You don't know what's the matter, 
 but something terrible has happened." 
 
 The Governor's private secretary, in a bicycle 
 suit much mud-besplashed, had followed unper- 
 ceived at a distance that always gave him a clear 
 passage to his chief. He made a dash through 
 the lines now that put him by Governor Shack- 
 lett's side before the crowd had time to form 
 386 
 
A Fin de Siecle Knight 
 
 in the neighborhood. He took the Governor's 
 head on his arm, and tears streamed down his 
 white, set face, as he said: 
 
 " Are you — are you " 
 
 " Quick, McKee; your note-book," said Gov- 
 ernor Shacklett with the old ring in his voice, 
 albeit low and forced. McKee took out the 
 pocket memorandum ruled in close double' lines, 
 and a pencil. Governor Shacklett began at once, 
 his voice growing gradually more feeble, but dis- 
 tinct to the end: " I, N. C. Shacklett, being 
 wounded in the County of Coles and State of 
 Illinois, and believing that I am about to die, do 
 make this, my ante-mortem statement. The shot 
 which struck me was fired by some soldiers act- 
 ing in the line of duty, and pursuant to orders in 
 conformity with the directions given by me to 
 their commanding officers. Their action was 
 right and legal, and that I happened to be shot 
 was no fault of theirs, or their officers." 
 
 The Governor reached out his right hand, and 
 McKee placed in it the book. The leaves shook 
 as the note-book was transferred to the left hand, 
 and the right was held out again, not so far this 
 time, for the pencil. Without looking at the 
 page, the Governor began his signature with the 
 usual flourish on the first initial, and the " N. C. 
 Shacklett," for its first half was his characteristic 
 sign manual ; the last half was wavering, and the 
 final " t " was not there. 
 387 
 
Shacklett 
 
 " McKee," he whispered, " wire Cox, and tell 
 Bradbury to tell the truth at the funeral. And 
 tell her that — the last — thing — I thought of — 
 was — Mary Stod " 
 
 McKee, in that stunned state which causes 
 the mind to shoot out on tangents like the arms 
 of an aurora borealis, swept over in a moment the 
 life of the Warsaw girl who had become the wife 
 of an historic character, but to her husband was 
 still Mary Stoddard. He staid there with the 
 head of his best friend on his arm until the militia 
 colonel touched his shoulder and appealingly 
 asked for advice. Then he tenderly laid Shack- 
 lett's head upon a coat offered by a miner whose 
 black face was furrowed by white streaks from 
 the eyes down, straightened up, and said: 
 
 " Keep your guard here; use your best judg- 
 ment; take orders from no one but acting Gov- 
 ernor Cox; advise with Mrs. Shacklett as soon 
 as she arrives, and remember that in his dying 
 agony Governor Shacklett took care to prevent 
 any harm coming to your men — his men — on ac- 
 count of what has happened." And McKee took 
 from the cold hand the note-book with its ante- 
 mortem statement written in shorthand, signed 
 in pencil, but constructed by a lawyer to meet all 
 the requirements of the laws of the State regard- 
 ing admissible evidence in any court. 
 
 The next week seemed an oppressive night- 
 mare to the whole State. While there was a 
 388 
 
A Fin de Siecle Knight 
 
 tremble like that of an earthquake among all 
 classes of people from the Wabash to the Missis- 
 sippi, and from Lake Michigan to the Ohio, Mrs. 
 Shacklett sat stunned beyond movement and 
 talked to no one. McKee met the reporters and 
 correspondents who got together every after- 
 noon, and he gave them, with a drawn face, the 
 day's further arrangements for the funeral, which 
 was to be held in the hall of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives in the State-house, and to be followed 
 by a private last trip to Warsaw by rail. Burial 
 was to be in the soil of Governor Shacklett's 
 native State on the high bluff of the Mississippi 
 River. The newspapers found an unusual ab- 
 sence of biographical material prepared years in 
 advance, and some of them sent staff men down 
 into Egypt to learn something of the dead Gov- 
 ernor's early life. One of these was accompanied 
 by an illustrator, who found by the side of the 
 long, but little, Embarras River, the carefully 
 tended graves of the Governor's parents; and the 
 writer, with the artist, managed to learn some- 
 thing of the shrewd old Sammy Shacklett, who 
 had managed to be elected sheriff repeatedly, and 
 his wife, who had been a power for good in the 
 community in earlier days, and had gone to 
 heaven after a pious life. Some of the people 
 said that Noel Shacklett was just like his father, 
 and others said that he resembled his mother 
 more in his actions and character — but the inci- 
 
 389 
 
Shacklett 
 
 dents in the Governor's early life which they told 
 the newspaper writer somehow did not make 
 good matter for publication, after his death, with- 
 out leaving out half of each one. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Bradbury prepared at 
 Warsaw his sermon for the state funeral at 
 Springfield. He read his Bible for an hour in 
 the study, and then closed the book and looked 
 at the fire in the grate until the clock struck 
 midnight. He thought of the means closest at 
 hand for the practical politician, and the use that 
 had been made of these means by the man whose 
 heart was right after all. He put his theological 
 works out of sight on the table behind him, and 
 he picked up a Shakespeare, and did not lay it 
 down for a long time. When he sat down at his 
 typewriter, he felt that he had a better grasp on 
 religion than ever before. 
 
 His sermon, with the body of his friend below 
 him, and the trappings of the civil and military 
 parts of the government of a great State all 
 around him, was very simple. He began without 
 any formality, standing by the side of the pulpit, 
 and told some biographical matter that held the 
 vast assemblage breathless. He told of resist- 
 ance to great temptation involving injury to a 
 friend; he gave hints of a story of a post-office 
 appointment that was a sermon in itself; he told 
 of a simple Irish laborer who had come two hun- 
 dred miles to be one heart-broken mourner amid 
 
 390 
 
A Fin de Steele Knight 
 
 all the signs of respect around ; he told how ene- 
 mies had been forgiven and friends cared for; he 
 wove the tapestry of the life just ended into a 
 picture having quite as much shade as high lights, 
 and said in conclusion: 
 
 " My only text is the man before you. There 
 are those whose only statute is the decalogue en- 
 forced in the court of conscience with criers and 
 the paraphernalia of gowns and a recording clerk. 
 To these his life does not appeal. There are oth- 
 ers, who, in the pure atmosphere above the clouds 
 of cant and formulae, perceive that God uses in- 
 struments adapted to his ends, and for a thousand 
 years works by indirection to accomplish his pur- 
 pose, using the left hand of omniscience instead 
 of hurling thunderbolts with the right arm of 
 omnipotence. To these I may speak, sure of 
 sympathyand appreciation for his character. He 
 was human, as he was finite; to err is human; to 
 keep the good always for an object is divine. He 
 never entered the pulpit, but while others 
 preached amid pageantry, he planned and per- 
 formed in the secret cells of his own brain. He 
 knew his environment, and who shall say that 
 God was not constantly using him? He broke 
 one or two of the ten commandments over the 
 strong shoulders of wrong in his lifelong fight for 
 the good; he was a fin de siecle knight, careless 
 of his weapons and careful only of his armor and 
 the object at the other end of the lists. I come 
 
 39i 
 
Shacklett 
 
 not to praise him, nor to bury him. He needs 
 no excuses, and he will live as long as loyalty is 
 one of the foundations of the Christian faith — 
 loyalty lives in the citadel of love, and greater 
 
 love hath no man than this " 
 
 And the minister of God stood silent with 
 his finger pointing down at the wounded body 
 before him, and his face uplifted to the shaft of 
 sunlight coming down through the uppermost 
 oriel window. 
 
 THE END 
 
 392 
 
I