CHAPTER X
PROFESSOR GRISWOLD TAKES THE FIELD
Barbara and Griswold stopped at the telegraph office on their way backto the executive mansion, and were met with news that the sheriff ofMingo had refused to receive Griswold's message.
"His private lines of communication with the capital are doubtless wellestablished," said Griswold, "and Bosworth probably warned him, but itisn't of great importance. It's just as well for Appleweight and hisfriends, high and low, to show their hands."
When they were again on the veranda, Griswold lingered for a moment withno valid excuse for delay beyond the loveliness of the night and hiskeen delight in Barbara's voice and her occasional low laughter, whichwas so pleasant to hear that he held their talk to a light key, that hemight evoke it the more. Professor Griswold's last flirtation was now soremote that he would have been hard put to say whether the long-departedgoddess' name had been Evelyn or Laura. He had so thoroughlysurrendered himself to the exactions of the law that love and marriageheld small place in his speculations of the future. He had heard himselfcalled a bachelor professor with the humorous tolerance of one who ispretty sure of himself, and who is not yet reduced to the cynicalexperiment of peering beneath the top layer of his box of strawberriesto find the false bottom. He recalled the slender manuscript volume ofverses in his desk at home, and he felt that it would be the easiestthing in the world to write a thousand songs to-night, beside which thesoundest brief ever filed in any court would be the silliest of literarytwaddle.
"You have done all that could be asked of you, Mr. Griswold, and I cannot permit you to remain longer. Father will certainly be hereto-morrow. I assure you that it is not like him to avoid his publicobligations. His absence is the most unaccountable thing that everhappened. I have my difficulties here at home, for since my mother'sdeath I have had the care of my young sisters, and it is not pleasant tohave to deceive them."
"Oh, but your father isn't absent! He is officially present and in thesaddle," laughed Griswold. "You must not admit, even to me, that he isnot here in full charge of his office. And as for my leaving the field,I have not the slightest intention of going back to Virginia until theAppleweight ghost is laid, the governor of North Carolina brought toconfusion, and the governor of South Carolina visibly present andthundering his edicts again, so to speak, _ex cathedra_. My own affairscan wait, Miss Osborne. My university may go hang; my clients may bemulcted in direst damages, but just now I am your humble servant, and Ishall not leave your service until my tasks are finished. I amconsulting not my duty, but my pleasure. The joy of having a hand in alittle affair like this, and of being able to tell my friend TommyArdmore about it afterward, would be sufficient. Ardmore will neverspeak to me again for not inviting him to a share in the game."
He was more buoyant than she had seen him, and she liked the note ofaffection that crept into his tone as he spoke of his friend.
"Ardmore is the most remarkable person alive," Griswold continued. "Youremember--I spoke of him this morning. He likes to play the inscrutableidiot, and he carries it off pretty well; but underneath he's reallyclever. The most amazing ideas take hold of him. You never could imaginewhat he's doing now! I met him accidentally in Atlanta the other day,and he was in pursuit of a face--a girl's face that he had seen from acar window for only an instant on a siding somewhere."
"He must have a romantic temperament," suggested Barbara.
"Quite that. His family have been trying to marry him off to some one intheir own set ever since I have known him, but he's extremely difficult.One of the most remarkable things about him is his amazing democracy. Heowns a palace on Fifth Avenue, but rarely occupies it, for he says itbores him. He has a camp in the Adirondacks, but I have never known himto visit it. His place in North Carolina pleases him because there hecommands space, and no one can crowd him or introduce him to people hedoesn't want to meet. He declares that the most interesting people don'thave more than a dollar a day to spend; that the most intelligent andthe best-looking girls in America clerk in shops and work in factories.A philanthropic lady in New York supplies him every Christmas with alist of names of laundry girls, who seem to appeal particularly toArdy's compassion, though he never knew one in his life, but he admiresthem for the zeal with which they destroy buttonholes and develop thedeckle-edge cuff; and he has twenty-dollar bills mailed to them quitemysteriously, and without any hint of who Santa Claus really is."
"But the girl he saw from the car window--did she also appeal to himaltruistically?"
"No; it was with her eye. He declared to me most solemnly that the girlwinked at him!"
Griswold was aware that Miss Osborne's interest in Ardmore cooledperceptibly.
"Oh!" she said, with that delightful intonation with which a womanutterly extinguishes a sister.
"I shouldn't have told you that," said Griswold, guiltily aware offalling temperature. "He is capable of following a winking eye at aperfectly respectful distance for a hundred years, and of beingentertained all the time by the joy of pursuit."
"It seems very unusual," said Barbara, with cold finality.
Griswold remembered this talk as, the next day, aboard the train boundfor Turner Court House, the seat of Mingo County, South Carolina, hepondered a telegram he had received from Ardmore. He read and re-readthis message, chewing cigars and scowling at the landscape, and thecause of his perturbation of spirit may be roughly summarized in thesewords:
On leaving the executive mansion the night before, he had studied mapsin his room at the Saluda House, and carefully planned his campaign. Hehad talked by telephone with the prosecuting attorney of Mingo County,and found that official politely responsive. So much had gone well. Thenthe juxtaposition of Ardmore's estate to the border, and the possibleuse of the house as headquarters, struck in upon him. He would, afterall, generously take Ardmore into the game, and they would uphold thehonor and dignity of the great commonwealth of South Carolina together.The keys of all Ardmore's houses were, so to speak, in Griswold'spocket, and invitations were unnecessary between them; yet, at AtlantaArdmore had made a point of asking Griswold down to help while away thetedium of Mrs. Atchison's house party, and as a matter of form Griswoldhad wired from Columbia, advising Ardmore of his unexpected descent.
Even in case Ardmore should still be abroad in pursuit of the winkingeye, the doors of the huge house would be open to Griswold, who hadentered there so often as the owner's familiar friend. These things hepondered deeply as he read and re-read Ardmore's reply to his message, areply which was plainly enough dated at Ardsley, but which, he couldnot know, had really been written in caboose 0186 as it lay on a sidingin the southeastern yards at Raleigh, and thence despatched to themanager at Ardsley, with instructions to forward it as a new message toGriswold at Columbia. The chilling words thus flung at him were:
Professor Henry Maine Griswold, Saluda House, Columbia, S. C.:
I am very sorry, old man, but I can not take you in just now. Scarlet fever is epidemic among my tenants, and I could not think of exposing you to danger. As soon as the accursed plague passes I want to have you down.
ARDMORE.
An epidemic that closed the gates of Ardsley would assume theproportions of a national disaster; for even if the great house itselfwere quarantined, there were lodges and bungalows scattered over thedomain, where a host of guests could be entertained in comfort. Griswoldreflected that the very fact that he had wired from Columbia must haveintimated to Ardmore that his friend was flying toward him, pursuant tothe Atlanta invitation. Griswold dismissed a thousand speculations asunworthy. Ardmore had never shown the remotest trace of snobbishness,and as far as the threatened house party was concerned, Griswold knewMrs. Atchison very well, and had been entertained at her New York house.
The patronizing tone of the thing caused Griswold to flush at everyreading. If the Ardsley date-line had not been so plainly written; ifthe phraseology were not so characteristic, there might be room fordoubt; but A
rdmore--Ardmore, of all men, had slapped him in the face!
But, scarlet fever or no scarlet fever, the pursuit of Appleweight hadprecedence of private grievances. By the time he reached Turner CourtHouse Griswold had dismissed the ungraciousness of Ardmore, and his jawswere set with a determination to perform the mission intrusted to him byBarbara Osborne, and to wait until later for an accounting with hisunaccountable friend.
Arrived at Turner's, Griswold strode at once toward the court house. Thecontemptuous rejection of his message by the sheriff of Mingo hadangered Griswold, but he was destined to feel even more poignantinsolence when, entering the sheriff's office, a deputy, languidly posedas a letter "V" in a swivel-chair, with his feet on the mantel, took acob pipe from his mouth and lazily answered Griswold's importunate querywith:
"The sheriff ain't hyeh, seh. He's a-visitin' his folks in Tennessy."
"When will he be back?" demanded Griswold, hot of heart, but maintainingthe icy tone that had made him so formidable in cross-examination.
"I reckon I don't know, seh."
"Do you know your own name?" persisted Griswold sweetly.
"Go to hell, seh," replied the deputy. He reached for a match, relightedhis pipe, and carefully crossed his feet on the mantel-shelf. The momentGriswold's steps died away in the outer corridor the deputy rose andbusied himself so industriously with the telephone that within an hourall through the Mingo hills, and even beyond the state line, alonglonely trails, across hills and through valleys, and beside cheerycreeks and brooks, it was known that a strange man from Columbia was inMingo County looking for the sheriff, and Appleweight, _alias_ Poteet,and his men were everywhere on guard.
Griswold liked the prosecuting attorney on sight. His name wasHabersham, and he was a youngster with a clear and steady gray eye.Instead of the Southern statesman's flowing prince albert, he wore asack-coat of gray jeans, and was otherwise distinguished by a shirt ofwhite and blue check. He grinned as Griswold bent a puzzled look uponhim.
"I took your courses at the university two years ago, Professor, and Iremember distinctly that you always wore a red cravat to your Wednesdaylectures."
"You have done well," replied Griswold, "for I never expected to find anold student who remembered half as much of me as that. Now, as Iunderstood you over the telephone, Appleweight was indicted for stealinga ham in this county by the last grand jury, but the sheriff has failedor refused to make the arrest. How did the grand jury come to indict ifthis outlaw dominates all the hill country?"
"The grand jury wanted to make a showing of virtue, and it was, ofcourse, understood between the foreman, the leader of the gang, and thesheriff that no warrant could be served on Appleweight. I did my duty;the grand jury's act was exemplary; and there the wheels of justice areblocked. The same thing is practically true across the state line inDilwell County, North Carolina. These men, led by Appleweight, use theirintimate knowledge of the country to elude pursuers when at times therevenue men undertake a raid, and the county authorities have neverseriously molested them. Now and then one of these sheriffs will make afeint of going out to look for Appleweight, but you may be sure that duenotice is given before he starts. Three revenue officers have latelybeen killed while looking for these men, and the government is likely totake vigorous action before long."
"We may as well be frank," said Griswold in his most professional voice."I don't want the federal authorities to take these men; it is importantthat they should not do so. This is an affair between the governors ofthe two Carolinas. It has been said that neither of them dares press thematter of arrest, but I am here in Governor Osborne's behalf to give thelie to that imputation."
"That has undoubtedly been the fact, as you know," and Habersham smiledat his old preceptor inquiringly. "Osborne once represented theAppleweights, and he undoubtedly saved the leader from the gallows. Thatwas before Osborne ever thought of becoming governor, and he acted onlywithin his proper rights as a lawyer. I don't recall that anything inprofessional ethics requires us to abandon a client because we know he'sguilty. If such were the case we'd all starve to death."
"Governor Osborne has been viciously maligned," declared Griswold."While he did at one time represent these people--no doubt thoroughlyand efficiently--he holds the loftiest ideal of public service, and itwas only when his official integrity was brought into question byunscrupulous enemies that he employed me as special counsel to carrythis affair through to a conclusion. That accounts for my presence here,Habersham, and, with your assistance, I propose to force GovernorDangerfield's hand. Suppose all these people were arrested in MingoCounty under these indictments, what would be the result--trial andacquittal?"
"Just that, in spite of any effort made to convict them."
"Well, Governor Osborne is tired of this business and wants theAppleweight scandal disposed of once and for all."
"That's strange," remarked Habersham, clearly surprised at Griswold'svigorous tone. "I called on the governor in his office at Columbia onlyten days ago, and he put me off. He said he had to prepare an address todeliver before the South Carolina Political Reform Association, and hecouldn't take up the Appleweight case; and I called on Bosworth, theattorney-general, and he grew furiously angry, and said I was guilty ofthe gravest malfeasance in not having brought those men to book longago. When I suggested that he connive with the governor toward removingour sheriff, he declared that the governor was a coward. He seemedanxious to put the governor in a hole, though why he should take thatattitude I can't make out, as it has been generally understood thatGovernor Osborne's personal friendliness for him secured his nominationand election to the attorney-generalship, and I have heard that he isengaged to the governor's oldest daughter."
"He is a contemptible hound," replied Griswold with feeling, "and at theproper time we shall deal with him; but it is of more importance justnow to make Appleweight a prisoner in North Carolina. If he's arrestedover there, that lets us out; and if the North Carolina authoritieswon't arrest their own criminals we'll go over into Dilwell County andshow them how to be good. The man's got to be locked up, and he'd lookmuch better in a North Carolina jail, under all the circumstances."
"That's good in theory, but how do you justify it in law?"
"Oh, that's the merest matter of formulae! My dear Habersham, all theusual processes of law go down before emergencies!"
The airiness of Griswold's tone caused the prosecutor to laugh, for thiswas not the sober associate professor of admiralty whose lectures he hadsat under at the University of Virginia, but a different person, whosenew attitude toward the law and its enforcement shocked himimmeasurably.
"You seem to be going in for pretty loose interpretations, and if thatplaster bust of John Marshall up there falls from the shelf, you neednot be surprised," and Habersham still laughed. "I might be impudent andcite you against yourself!"
"That would constitute contempt of court, and I can not just now spareyour services long enough for you to serve a jail sentence. Go on now,and tell me what you have done and what you propose."
"Well, as I told you over the telephone, we hear a great deal aboutAppleweight and his crowd, but we never hear much of their enemies, whoare, nevertheless, of the same general stock, and equally determinedwhen aroused. Ten of these men I have quietly called to meet at my farmout here a few miles from town, on Thursday night. They come fromdifferent points over the country, and we'll have a small but grimposse that will be ready for business. You may not know it, but theAppleweights are most religious. Appleweight himself boasts that henever misses church on Sunday. He goes also to the mid-week service onThursday night, so I have learned, and thereby hangs our opportunity.Mount Nebo Church lies off here toward the north. It's a lonely point initself, though it's the spiritual center and rendezvous for a wide area.If Appleweight can be taken at all, that's the place, and I'm willing tomake the trial. Whether to stampede the church and make a fight, orseize him alone as he approaches the place, is a question for discussionwith the boys I have enga
ged to go into the game. How does it strikeyou?"
"First rate. Ten good men ought to be enough; but if it comes down tonumbers, the state militia can be brought into use. The South CarolinaNational Guard is in camp, and we can have a regiment quick enough, if Iask it."
Habersham whistled.
"Osborne is certainly up and doing!" he exclaimed, chuckling. "I supposehe has tossed a quarter, and decided it's better to be good than to besenator. By the way, that was a curious story in the newspapers aboutDangerfield and Osborne having a row at New Orleans. I wonder just whatpassed between them?"
Griswold was conscious that Habersham glanced at him a little curiously,with a look that implied something that half formed itself on theprosecuting attorney's lips.
"I know nothing beyond what I read in the newspapers at the time. Somepolitical row, I fancy."
"I suppose Governor Osborne hasn't discussed it with you since hisreturn to Columbia?" asked Habersham carelessly. The shadow of a smileflitted across his face but vanished quickly as though before areturning consciousness of the fact that he was facing Henry MaineGriswold, who was first of all a gentleman, and not less a scholar and aman of the world, who was not to be trifled with.
"No," replied Griswold, a little shortly. "I was appealed to in ratheran unusual way in this matter of Appleweight. It is quite out of my lineas a legal proposition, but there are other considerations of which Imay not speak."
"Pardon me," murmured Habersham; but he asked: "What was GovernorOsborne doing when you left Columbia?"
"When I left Columbia," remarked Griswold, and it was he that smilednow, "to the best of my knowledge and belief the governor of SouthCarolina was deeply absorbed in knitting a necktie, the color of whichwas, I think, the orange of a Blue Ridge autumn sunset. And now, if youwill kindly give me pen and paper, I will communicate the Appleweightsituation and our prospects to my honored chief."