Port O' Gold Part 37

"Well, well, Sherman," he greeted, "glad to see you." Then his brow knit in a kind of puzzled provocation. "What's that Vigilante Committee doing here with you?"

Terry grunted and spat. Sherman looked them over with a repulsion he could not completely conceal. They were men of violent prejudices. It was bad to see the Governor so completely in their grasp.

"They are not Vigilantes, your Excellency," he began with punctilious hauteur.

"The h.e.l.l they're not!" said Terry.

Sherman ignored him completely. "My meeting with them was purely casual," he resumed. "They are prominent, impartial citizens of San Francisco, seeking to make peace. They have, I understand, seen Coleman; are prepared to offer certain compromises."

"Aha!" cried Howard, "the rabble is caving in. They're ready to quit."

Johnson looked at Sherman as if for confirmation. He shook his head.

"Far from it."

"Cannot they state their business in writing?" asked Johnson.

"Send them packing, the d.a.m.ned pork merchants!" Terry said, as if issuing a command.

Again the Governor seemed to hesitate. Again his glance sought Sherman's. "That would be unwise," returned the soldier.

The Governor summoned a clerk. "Ask the committee to put their business in writing!" he ordered. When the man had gone he once more addressed Sherman: "Wool absolutely refuses to provide the militia with arms."

Terry's fist smote the table with a crash. A stream of vituperation issued from his lips. General Wool, the Vigilance Committee and Admiral Farragut were vilified in terms so crude that even the other men surveyed the Chief Justice with distaste.

Sherman turned to the door. "Governor, I've had enough of this," he spoke sharply. "I shall send you my resignation tonight." He went out, leaving Johnson to mutter distressedly. "Never mind," said Terry, "give his job to Volney. He'll drive the d.a.m.ned pork merchants into the sea."

"What about rifles and ammunition?" asked Howard with sudden practicality.

They looked at each other blankly. Then the wily Jones came forward with a shrewd suggestion. "Wool can't refuse you the regular quota of arms for annual replenishment," he said. "Get those by requisition. s.h.i.+p them down to San Francisco. Reub Maloney is here. He'll carry them down in a sloop."

"But they're only a few hundred guns," said the Governor.

"They'll help," contended Jones. "They'll make a showing."

"Suppose Coleman hears about it; he'll seize them on the bay."

"Then he'll commit an act of 'piracy'," Baker said, explosively.

Terry took his feet from the table, rose. "By G.o.d!" he exclaimed, "there's an idea! Piracy! A capital offense!" He crammed his hands into his pockets and strode heavily up and down.

"Coleman's not likely to hear of our sending these arms," said the Governor.

Jones poured another drink and sipped it. "Isn't he, though?" He laughed softly. "You fellows just leave that to me." He caught up his hat and went out.

"A smart little man," remarked Howard Baker, complacently.

CHAPTER XLIX

TERRY STABS HOPKINS

The peace-makers took an early boat for San Francisco. They were hopelessly alienated from the Law and Order Party. After some deliberation they decided to call a ma.s.s meeting in front of the Oriental Hotel. Thus they hoped to make the Vigilante sentiment practically unanimous and request through popular acclaim, a withdrawal of the Governor's proclamation.

Early on June 14, the day appointed, citizens began to gather at Bush and Battery streets; by noon they blocked both thoroughfares and overflowed into Market street. Each window, roof and balcony near by was filled. Women in their summer finery lent gay splashes of color, waved parasols or handkerchiefs excitedly at their acquaintances below.

Inez Windham called to David Broderick, who was pa.s.sing, "There's room for one more on our balcony. Come up." As he stood behind her in the window, stooping a little, she looked eagerly into his careworn face.

"One might think it was a circus." He smiled.

"You remind me of champagne, you San Franciscans. The inherent quality of you is sparkle.... Even if an earthquake came along and swallowed you, I think you'd go down with that same light, laughing nonchalance."

Mrs. Stanley made a moue at him. "You find us--different from your Eastern ladies, Mr. Broderick?" she asked expectantly.

He considered for a moment. "Sometimes I think it is the land more than the women. They come from everywhere--with all their varied prejudices, modes, conventions. But, after a time, they become Californians--like you."

"That's what Benito says," returned his sister. "He's daft about San Francisco. He calls it his Golden City. I think"--she leaned nearer, "but you must not say I told you--I think he has written poetry about it."

"Ah, yes," said Broderick, "he has that strain. And how is Alice?"

"Alice is well," he heard Inez say. Then a great shout from the street silenced their converse. Colonel Bailie Peyton was speaking.

"We are here to consider principles of the first magnitude and which may result in the shedding of innocent blood. One of the objects of this meeting is to prevent so dire a calamity.

"The Vigilance Committee must be sustained or put down. If they are put down it must be at the point of the bayonet. The question is whether we shall appeal to the Governor to put them down in this way, or whether we shall ask him to withdraw his opposition."

He looked up at the balconies across the street.

"The Vigilance Committeemen have the prayers of the churches on their side, and the smiles of the ladies--G.o.d bless them."

There were cheers and applause.

Again his voice rose to crescendo:

"Let us show the Governor that if he fights the Committee he will have to walk over more dead bodies than can be disposed of in the cemetery.

Let us indorse all the Committeemen have done. Let us be ready to fight for them if necessary."

The crowd broke into wild huzzas. Volney Howard and Richard Ashe, the naval officer, paused on a near-by corner, attracted by the uproar.

Howard scowled and muttered something about "d.a.m.ned pork merchants,"

but he looked uneasy.

The Vigilance Committee, undaunted by Governor Johnson's proclamation or the efforts of the Law and Order element, continued quietly the work of ridding San Francisco of its criminals and undesirables.

On June 10 the National Guard of San Francisco disbanded and Marshal Hampton North resigned. Rumor had it that the Vigilance Committee's work was finished. On July 4 they would disband with a great public demonstration, it was rumored. Coleman did not deny this.

On July 19 came news that rifles and ammunition were being s.h.i.+pped from Benicia; Wool was said at last to have capitulated. But it turned out to be a small annual replenishment order of 130 muskets with a few rounds of powder and ball. Later came the exciting rumors that John Durkee, Charles Rand and a crew of ten men had captured the sloop carrying these arms on the bay; had arrested Reuben Maloney, John Phillips and a man named McNab. The arms were brought to Committee Headquarters in San Francisco. On arrival there, perhaps through oversight, the prisoners were released.