Counsel for the Defense Part 58

"But you can't do it alone!"

"Of course not." Her voice began to gather energy. "We've got to get the _Express_ people here at once--and especially Mr. Harper.

Everything depends on Mr. Harper. He'll have to get the paper out."

"Yes! Yes!" said Old Hosie, catching her excitement.

"You look for him here in this crowd--and, also, if you can see to it, send some one to get the foreman and his people. I'll look for Mr.

Harper at his hotel. We'll meet here at the office."

With that they hurried away on their respective errands. Arrived at the National House, where Billy Harper lived, Katherine walked into the great bare office and straight up to the clerk, whom the ma.s.s-meeting had left as the room's sole occupant.

"Is Mr. Harper in?" she asked quickly.

The clerk, one of the most prodigious of local beaux, was startled by this sudden apparition.

"I--I believe he is."

"Please tell him at once that I wish to see him."

He fumbled the white wall of his lofty collar with an embarra.s.sed hand.

"Excuse me, Miss West, but the fact is, I'm afraid he can't see you."

"Give him my name and tell him I simply _must_ see him."

The clerk's embarra.s.sment waxed greater.

"I--I guess I should have said it the other way around," he stammered.

"I'm afraid you won't want to see him."

"Why not?"

"The fact is--he's pretty much cut up, you know--and he's been so worried that--that--well, the plain fact is," he blurted out, "Mr.

Harper has been drinking."

"To-night?"

"Yes."

"Much?"

"Well--I'm afraid quite a little."

"But he's here?"

"He's in the bar-room."

Katherine's heart had been steadily sinking.

"I must see him anyhow!" she said desperately. "Please call him out!"

The clerk hesitated, in even deeper embarra.s.sment. This affair was quite without precedent in his career.

"You must call him out--this second! Didn't you hear me?"

"Certainly, certainly."

He came hastily from behind his desk and disappeared through a pair of swinging wicker doors. After a moment he reappeared, alone, and his manner showed a degree of embarra.s.sment even more acute.

Katherine crossed eagerly to meet him.

"You found Mr. Harper?"

"Yes."

"Well?"

"I couldn't make him understand. And even if I could, he's--he's--well," he added with a painful effort, "he's in no condition for you to talk to, Miss West."

Katherine gazed whitely at the clerk for a moment. Then without a word she stepped by him and pa.s.sed through the wicker door. With a glance she took in the garishly lighted room--its rows of bottles, its glittering mirrors, its white-ap.r.o.ned bartender, its pair of topers whose loyalty to the bar was stronger than the lure of oratory and music at the Square. And there at a table, his head upon his arms, sat the loosely hunched body of him who was the foundation of all her present hopes.

She moved swiftly across the sawdusted floor and shook the acting editor by the shoulder.

"Mr. Harper!" she called into his ear.

She shook him again, and again she called his name.

"Le' me 'lone," he grunted thickly. "Wanter sleep."

She was conscious that the two topers had paused in mid-drink and were looking her way with a grinning, alcoholic curiosity. She shook the editor with all her strength.

"Mr. Harper!" she called fiercely.

"G'way!" he mumbled. "'M busy. Wanter sleep."

Katherine gazed down at the insensate ma.s.s in utter hopelessness.

Without him she could do nothing, and the precious minutes were flying. Through the night came a rumble of applause and fast upon it the music of another patriotic air.

In desperation she turned to the bartender.

"Can't you help me rouse him?" she cried. "I've simply _got_ to speak to him!"

That gentleman had often been appealed to by frantic women as against customers who had bought too liberally. But Katherine was a new variety in his experience. There was a great deal too much of him about the waist and also beneath the chin, but there was good-nature in his eyes, and he came from behind his counter and bore himself toward Katherine with a clumsy and ornate courtesy.

"Don't see how you can, Miss. He's been hittin' an awful pace lately.

You see for yourself how far gone he is."

"But I must speak to him--I must! Surely there is some extreme measure that would bring him to his senses!"