Jewel Weed Part 26

"Percival. He's too much of a kid to put himself forward, but he's really the whole thing. He's been sneaking around town for months, picking up information. He has a confounded cheerful way of making friends that has cut him out for the job of politics, if he would just put himself on the right side. Of course he has no more idea of practical politics than--" Mr. Murdock looked around for an object of comparison and concluded lamely, "than that girl on your magazine cover.

And what do you think is the latest?"

"What?"

"He's stirred up that mare's nest of a dude club till they've taken to sending a committee to attend every meeting of the council--which is irritating."

"But not necessarily serious."

"Not in itself, though it's getting on Barry's nerves, as you people of fas.h.i.+on say. To tell you the truth, I've had to make a concession to Barry, just to keep him in order. I preferred him right on the council where he is, but he's got a bee in his top-hat. He wants to run for mayor. I suppose he wants to show people what a great man he really is.

I gave in to him on that point. Now here comes in the thing that made me look you up. Barry has some sort of an acquaintance with this Percival fellow, and when he proclaimed his intentions, Percival jumped on him with a flat defiance--told him that he had proof of a disreputable affair in Barry's career that would queer him with the whole community.

How your neighbor got hold of this thing, I'm jiggered if I can guess. I thought I was the only man in the city that knew it, and it has been my chief club to keep Barry in order. But however he got them, Percival's facts were all square, and Barry collapsed. Now, these two patched up an agreement. Barry promised to give up his candidacy for mayor, and stay in his seat in the council, and Percival, on his part, agreed to keep quiet."

"Well, that suits you all right."

"It would if it ended there, but what I started out to tell you is this: the Munic.i.p.al Club is beginning to take up city politics in earnest.

They are organizing systematically in every ward to be ready for a fight for the council in next fall's election, and, to cap the climax, I was told to-day that they had succeeded in getting Preston to run for mayor.

Now you know they could hardly have picked out a worse man, so far as we are concerned. Preston is popular and strong, and he's perfectly unapproachable. I'd as soon tackle the law of gravitation. It isn't even pleasant for respectable citizens, like you and me, to come out publicly against the whole movement. We can't afford to do it. Everything we do has got to be done on the quiet."

"You needn't get so hot, Jim. It'll blow over. This kind of thing always does. It's only spasmodic. You ought to know that."

"Well, it's taking a very inconvenient time for its spasms. It may result in spasmodically losing Billy his seat in the council in November. Nice thing if we didn't have a clear majority of aldermen next winter, wouldn't it?" Mr. Murdock was becoming finely sarcastic in his rage.

"I suppose it would be inconvenient," a.s.sented Mr. Early.

"Inconvenient!" growled Murdock. "Is that the strongest swear word you can raise? Do you happen to remember that the lighting franchise expires next fall? Now do we want it renewed, or do we not? Can we afford to lose the biggest thing we've got? Do we want Billy to see it through, or do we not?"

"We certainly do."

"Well, what do you propose to do about it?"

"I don't see that there is much to do except to sit pat, and let it blow over."

"Suppose when it blew over it should be a cyclone and you and me in the cellar? No siree, I'm no sitter-down. I'm a fighter, even when I fight in secret. d.a.m.n this feller, Percival, and his gift for making friends and stirring up enthusiasm for himself! I suspect he has ambitions. So much the worse for him, if James Murdock is in the ring against him. Do you know my inferences? I am sure he is not one of the invulnerables.

The fact that he made a concession to Barry gives him away. He didn't need to. If Barry can work him by a little flattery and an appeal to their shoddy friends.h.i.+p, he's not one of your out-and-out, no-compromise, reform-or-die fellows. Say, Early, you know him well.

Can't you get at him?"

Mr. Early gave one of those roundabout motions that suggest a desire to wriggle out of the whole matter, and answered slowly:

"I shouldn't wonder if the entire business petered out, anyway. It's almost a year to the next election, and Percival is going to be married in a few weeks to a pretty little girl, who would never stir a man's ambitions to anything more than a smart carriage and pair. He's turned idiotic about her, and let's hope he'll stay so. Just at present I don't believe all the boodle and graft in the world would turn a hair on him.

Love and politics, my boy, are no more congenial than water and oil--especially if the politics is rancid."

"We'll have to go into partners.h.i.+p with the lady to keep him down," said Murdock with a grin. "I've formed more unlikely alliances than that in my time. Why, good Lord! what's that?" he exclaimed for the second time that night.

His eyes had fallen upon a tall white column at the back of the room, and at his words the column moved forward and displayed the flowing robes, the snowy white turban, the gleaming ruby of Ram Juna.

"Pardon my interruption," said the Hindu courteously. "I have been out.

I am but just returned. And I come to a.s.sure myself that all is well with my admirable host."

"Ah, Murdock, this is my friend, the Swami. He's going to stay with me while he writes a book. I've given him the west ell, off in the quiet of the garden, you know," said Mr. Early.

"With kindness you give it. Obligation is mine," said the Swami, with a deferential movement of his hands. "And I go at once to devote myself to my greatest work. But now I have visited a lady, Mrs. Appleton, who has great interest in me, and who desires to form what she calls a cla.s.s. I call it, rather, a circle of my friends."

"And what do you do with them?" asked Mr. Murdock, with the same bald curiosity that one displays at the zoo before the performing seals.

"We increase the sum of n.o.bility in the world," said the Swami softly.

"We sit together in long white robes, such as you see on me, and we pour out love upon the universe."

"Oh!" said Mr. Murdock. He was too astonished to pursue his investigations.

"It is a serene and blessed occupation," said the Swami.

"And do they--does the cla.s.s pay for that?" Murdock recovered so far as to ask.

"Pay? Not so!" said the Swami indignantly. "I ask of life no more than a bare existence and that, a thousand times that, is mine, by the benevolence of Mr. Early."

"They're devilish pretty women, some of 'em, though. You have that reward," said Mr. Early jocularly.

The Swami cast on him a glance of cow-like anger, but Mr. Murdock went on persistently: "And they don't give you any money at all?"

"For myself, no. Some, if it harmonize with their desires, make contribution through me to the great temple in India, where the brothers may a.s.semble, a sacred spot among the lonely hills. Some give to that, but not to me. But I must no longer interrupt. I have made my salute. I go to my remote room."

With a reverential movement of the head, the white column moved away.

"Gee!" said Mr. Murdock. "Can you stand that kind of thing around all the time?"

"Oh, I'm interested in all kinds of people," said Mr. Early. "And he's the most inoffensive creature. I shall hardly see him. He intends to lock himself up out there in his room most of the time. He meditates in silence ten hours a day and comes forth to give a lecture that n.o.body understands. He's going to be all the rage."

"And, of course, if he's the rage, you have him. I wish you'd make Billy Barry the rage," said Murdock.

"It's all I can do to popularize myself," said Early whimsically. "I'll think over the situation a bit, Jim, and see if I can see any way out from under. Of course, Percival hasn't any record by which you can discredit him and keep his mouth shut--at least not yet."

As Mr. Murdock took a last sip at the c.o.c.ktail and made an unceremonious exit, again Mr. Early settled himself for a period of repose, and again he was interrupted.

"Pardon," said the deep voice of the Swami. "You sit alone. Is it permitted that I repose here and join your meditations? For a few moments? In silence, if you will?"

"I wish you'd pour out a little rest," said Early. "I'm tired."

"In spirit and in body," answered the Swami. "The rush of the wheel of life, it exhausts. But I comprehend. I also am a man. The great world of business has its necessities and its value. My outer nature shares in it. Ah, you know not. You think of me only on one side of being. But, like you, I have my sympathies with many things."

Mr. Early made no reply, but sank deeper into his chair. The two sat long in silence. Sebastian looked at the fire and began to build up a picture of Madeline's face. The Hindu was apparently lost to the surrounding world, and yet he occasionally darted a glance of swift, animal-like inquiry at his host.

"Neither do I like the young man Percival," he said placidly, and Mr.

Early started.

"It is your next neighbor, Percival, is it not, who annoys?" the Swami inquired equably. "The youth who sneers when first I speak at your house? In India, now, one may do many things that are here impossible.

Ah, but yes, you say, here you may do many things that are in India impossible. So goes it. Still more. The same forces exist everywhere; but we in India, we understand the forces that you, brilliant workers with the superficial, you do not understand. I shall be glad to help the benevolent Early, if at any time my services are of value. I know to do many things besides to meditate."

Mr. Early stared in amazement at the unmoved face before him, a face almost as round and mystifying as the syllable "Om", on which its thoughts were supposed to be centered.