Port O' Gold Part 26

"What for?" asked Brannan, quickly.

"To publish the full list of names," Coleman responded. "We're all in this together; no group must bear the brunt."

"But," objected Brannan, "is that wise?"

"Of course.... in union there is strength. These crooks will hesitate to fight two hundred leading citizens; if they know them all they can't pick out a few for persecution."

"Well, I'll go along," said Brannan. "Eh, what's that? What's happened now?"

The Monumental engine bell was tolling violently. Coleman listened. "Its not a fire," he declared, "it's the Vigilante signal. We'll wait here."

A man came running toward them from the bay. "They've captured James Stuart," he shouted. "Bludgeoned a captain on his s.h.i.+p but the man's wife held on to him and yelled till rescue came."

"But Stuart's in the Auburn jail, awaiting execution for the murder of the sheriff," Coleman said bewildered.

"No," cried the man, "this is the real one. The other's Tom Berdue, his double."

"Then there'll be another hanging," Coleman muttered.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

THE PEOPLE AND THE LAW

Frightened, desperate, angered by the usurpation of their power, varied forces combined in opposition to the Vigilance Committee. Political office-holders, good and bad, were naturally arrayed against it, and for the first time made a common cause. Among the politicians were many men of brains, especially those affiliated with the "Chivalry" faction, as it was known--Southern men whose object it was to introduce slavery into California. These were fiery, fearless, eloquent and quick at stratagem.

There was also Broderick's Tammany organization, an almost perfect political machine, though as yet in the formative stage. There was the tacit union of the underworld; gamblers, thieves, plug-uglies, servitors of or parasites upon the stronger factions. Each and all they feared and hated this new order of the Vigilantes.

Coleman's scheme of publis.h.i.+ng the names of the entire committee was carried out after a meeting of the executive committee. It had the effect of taking the wind out of their opponents' sails for a time. But it also robbed committee members of a certain security. In a dozen dark and devious ways the Vigilantes were hara.s.sed, opposed; windows of shops were broken; men returning to their homes were set upon from ambush; long-standing business accounts were diverted or withdrawn. Even socially the feud was felt. For the Southerners were more or less the arbiters of society. Wives of Vigilante members were struck from invitation lists in important affairs. Whispers came to them that if their husbands were persuaded to withdraw, all would be well.

A few, indeed, did hand their resignations to the committee, but more set their names with eagerness upon its roster.

The hanging of James Stuart was impressive and conducted with extreme decorum. Stuart, tried before twelve regularly impaneled talesmen and defended by an advocate, cut matters short by a voluntary confession of his crimes. In fact, he boasted of them with a curious pride. Arson, murder, robbery, he admitted with a lavishness which first aroused a doubt as to his sanity and truth, but when in many of the cases he recited details which were later verified, all doubt as to his evil triumphs vanished.

On the morning of July 11 he was sentenced. In the afternoon his body swung from a waterfront derrick at Battery and Market streets.

"Get it over with," he urged his executioners, "this 'ere's d.a.m.ned tiresome business for a gentleman." He begged a "quid o' terbacker" from one of the guards and chewed upon it stolidly until the noose tightened about his neck. He did not struggle much. A vagrant wind blew off his hat and gently stirred his long and wavy hair.

When Benito next saw Broderick he asked the latter anxiously if all were well with him. The latter answered with a wry smile, "I suppose so. I have not been ordered to leave town so far."

"You've remembered what we told you--Alice and I?"

"Yes," said Broderick, "and it was good advice. Tell your wife for me that woman's intuition sometimes sees more clearly than man's cunning.... It is nearer G.o.d and truth," he added, softly.

"I shall tell her that. 'Twill please her," Benito replied. "You must come to see us soon."

Brannan joined them rather anxiously and drew Benito aside with a brusque apology. "Do you know that Governor McDougall has issued a proclamation condemning the Vigilance Committee?... I happen to know that Broderick inspired this." He gave a covert glance over his shoulder, but the Lieutenant-Governor had wandered off. "So far he's taken no part against us. And we've left him alone. Now we shall strike back."

"I shall advise against it," Windham objected. "Dave is honest. He's played fair."

"If you think we're going to let this pa.s.s, you're quite mistaken,"

Brannan answered, hotly. "Why, its not long ago that Governor McDougall came to our committee room and commended our work. Said he hoped we'd go on."

"Exactly," said Benito, "in the presence of witnesses. Let us see if King and Coleman are inside. I have a plan."

They found their tall and quiet leader with James King of William and half a dozen others already in session. Brannan, in fiery anger, read the Governor's proclamation. There was silence when he finished.

Possibly a shade of consternation. "Windham's got a scheme to answer him," said Brannan.

That day the _Evening Picayune_ printed the Committee's defn. It was as follows:

San Francisco, Aug. 20, 1851.

"We, the undersigned, do hereby aver that Governor McDougall asked to be introduced to the executive committee of the Committee of Vigilance, which was allowed and hour fixed. The Governor, upon being introduced, states THAT HE APPROVED OF THE ACTS OF THE COMMITTEE and that much good had taken place.

He HOPED THEY WOULD GO ON and endeavor to act in concert with the authorities, AND IN CASE ANY JUDGE WAS GUILTY OF MAL-ADMINISTRATION TO HANG HIM and he would appoint others."

To this was appended the names of reputable citizens--men whose statements no one doubted. It was generally conceded, with a laugh, that Governor McDougall's private opinion differed from his sense of public duty.

That afternoon representatives of the Committee met an incoming vessel and examined the credentials of all pa.s.sengers. Several of these not proving up to standard, they were denied admittance to the port. The outraged captain bl.u.s.tered and refused to take them back to Sydney. But in the end he agreed. There was nothing else to do. A guard was placed on the non-desirables and maintained until the vessel cleared--until the pilot boat returned in fact. San Francisco applauded.

But all the laurels were not with the Committee. On Thursday morning, August 21, Sheriff Hayes surprised Vigilante Headquarters at dawn and captured Samuel Whitaker and Robert McKenzie both convicted of murder by the Committee and sentenced to hang.

The City Government was much elated but the victory was short. For, on the following Sunday, Vigilantes gained an entrance to the jail and took their prisoners back without a struggle.

Broderick and Windham, en route to the latter's ranch that afternoon, heard the Monumental bell toll slowly, solemnly. "What's up?" asked Broderick, startled.

"It means," Benito answered, "that the Vigilance Committee still rules.

Two more scoundrels have been punished."

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

FEVERS OF FINANCE

Four years had pa.s.sed since the Vigilance Committee ceased active labors. Some said they preserved a tacit organization; theirs was still a name to conjure with among evil doers, but San Francisco, grown into a city of some 50,000, was more dignified and subtle in its wickedness.

Politics continued notoriously bad. Comedians in the new Metropolitan Theatre made jokes about ballot-boxes said to have false bottoms, and public officials who had taken their degrees in "political economy" at Sing Sing.

"Honest Harry" Meiggs and his brother, the newly-elected City Controller, had sailed away on the yacht "American," leaving behind them an unpaid-for 2000-foot wharf and close to a million in debts; forged city warrants and promissory notes were held by practically every large business house in San Francisco.

It was concerning this urbane and gifted prince of swindlers that Adrian Stanley talked with William Sherman, manager of the banking house of Turner, Lucas & Company.

Sherman, once a lieutenant in the United States Army, had returned, after an Eastern trip, as a civilian financier. In behalf of St. Louis employers, he had purchased of James Lick a lot at Jackson and Montgomery streets, erecting thereon a $50,000 fire-proof building. The bank occupied the lower floor; a number of professional men had their offices on the second floor; on the third James P. Casey, Supervisor, journalist and politician, maintained the offices of _The Sunday Times_.

He pa.s.sed the two men as they stood in front of the bank and shouted a boisterous "h.e.l.lo." Adrian, ever courteous and good-natured, responded with a wave of the hand while Sherman, brusk and curt, as a habit of nature and military training, vouchsafed him a short nod.

"I have small use for that fellow," he remarked to Stanley, "even less than I had for Meiggs." The other had something impressive about him, something almost Napoleonic, in spite of his dishonesty. If business had maintained the upward trend of '51 and '52, Meiggs would have been a millionaire and people would have honored him--"