III
THE KIDNAPPERS
During the last two weeks of the "whirlwind" campaign, automobiles hadcarried the rival candidates to every election district in Greater NewYork.
During these two weeks, at the disposal of Ernest Peabody--on theReform Ticket, "the people's choice for Lieutenant-Governor--"Winthrop had placed his Scarlet Car, and, as its chauffeur, himself.
Not that Winthrop greatly cared for Reform, or Ernest Peabody. The"whirlwind" part of the campaign was what attracted him; the crowds,the bands, the fireworks, the rush by night from hall to hall, fromFordham to Tompkinsville. And, while inside the different Lyceums,Peabody lashed the Tammany Tiger, outside in his car, Winthrop wasmaking friends with Tammany policemen, and his natural enemies, thebicycle cops. To Winthrop, the day in which he did not increase hisacquaintance with the traffic squad, was a day lost.
But the real reason for his efforts in the cause of Reform, was one hecould not declare. And it was a reason that was guessed perhaps byonly one person. On some nights Beatrice Forbes and her brother Samaccompanied Peabody. And while Peabody sat in the rear of the car,mumbling the speech he would next deliver, Winthrop was given thechance to talk with her. These chances were growing cruelly few. Inone month after election day Miss Forbes and Peabody would be man andwife. Once before the day of their marriage had been fixed, but, whenthe Reform Party offered Peabody a high place on its ticket, he asked,in order that he might bear his part in the cause of reform, that thewedding be postponed. To the postponement Miss Forbes made noobjection. To one less self-centred than Peabody, it might haveappeared that she almost too readily consented.
"I knew I could count upon your seeing my duty as I saw it," saidPeabody much pleased, "it always will be a satisfaction to both of usto remember you never stood between me and my work for reform."
"What do you think my brother-in-law-to-be has done now?" demanded Samof Winthrop, as the Scarlet Car swept into Jerome Avenue. "He'spostponed his marriage with Trix just because he has a chance to beLieutenant-Governor. What is a Lieutenant-Governor anyway, do youknow? I don't like to ask Peabody."
"It is not his own election he's working for," said Winthrop. He wasconscious of an effort to assume a point of view both noble andmagnanimous.
"He probably feels the 'cause' calls him. But, good Heavens!"
"Look out!" shrieked Sam, "where you going?"
Winthrop swung the car back into the avenue.
"To think," he cried, "that a man who could marry--a girl, and thenwould ask her to wait two months. Or, two days! Two months lost outof his life, and she might die; he might lose her, she might change hermind. Any number of men can be Lieutenant-Governors; only one man canbe----"
He broke off suddenly, coughed and fixed his eyes miserably on theroad. After a brief pause, Brother Sam covertly looked at him. Couldit be that "Billie" Winthrop, the man liked of all men, should love hissister, and--that she should prefer Ernest Peabody? He was deeply,loyally indignant. He determined to demand of his sister an immediateand abject apology.
At eight o'clock on the morning of election day, Peabody, in theScarlet Car, was on his way to vote. He lived at Riverside Drive, andthe polling-booth was only a few blocks distant. During the rest ofthe day he intended to use the car to visit other election districts,and to keep him in touch with the Reformers at the Gilsey House.Winthrop was acting as his chauffeur, and in the rear seat was MissForbes. Peabody had asked her to accompany him to the polling-booth,because he thought women who believed in reform should show theirinterest in it in public, before all men. Miss Forbes disagreed withhim, chiefly because whenever she sat in a box at any of the publicmeetings the artists from the newspapers, instead of immortalizing thecandidate, made pictures of her and her hat. After she had seen herfuture lord and master cast his vote for reform and himself, she was todepart by train to Tarrytown. The Forbes's country place was there,and for election day her brother Sam had invited out some of hisfriends to play tennis.
As the car darted and dodged up Eighth Avenue, a man who had beenhidden by the stairs to the Elevated, stepped in front of it. Itcaught him, and hurled him, like a mail-bag tossed from a train,against one of the pillars that support the overhead tracks. Winthropgave a cry and fell upon the brakes. The cry was as full of pain asthough he himself had been mangled. Miss Forbes saw only the manappear, and then disappear, but, Winthrop's shout of warning, and thewrench as the brakes locked, told her what had happened. She shut hereyes, and for an instant covered them with her hands. On the frontseat Peabody clutched helplessly at the cushions. In horror his eyeswere fastened on the motionless mass jammed against the pillar.Winthrop scrambled over him, and ran to where the man lay. So,apparently, did every other inhabitant of Eighth Avenue; but Winthropwas the first to reach him and kneeling in the car tracks, he tried toplace the head and shoulders of the body against the iron pillar. Hehad seen very few dead men; and to him, this weight in his arms, thisbundle of limp flesh and muddy clothes, and the purple-bloated facewith blood trickling down it, looked like a dead man.
Once or twice when in his car, Death had reached for Winthrop, and onlyby the scantiest grace had he escaped. Then the nearness of it hadonly sobered him. Now that he believed he had brought it to a fellowman, even though he knew he was in no degree to blame, the thoughtsickened and shocked him. His brain trembled with remorse and horror.
But voices assailing him on every side brought him to the necessity ofthe moment. Men were pressing close upon him, jostling, abusing him,shaking fists in his face. Another crowd of men, as though fearing thecar would escape of its own volition, were clinging to the steps andrunning boards.
Winthrop saw Miss Forbes standing above them, talking eagerly toPeabody, and pointing at him. He heard children's shrill voicescalling to new arrivals that an automobile had killed a man; that ithad killed him on purpose. On the outer edge of the crowd men shouted:"Ah, soak him," "Kill him," "Lynch him."
A soiled giant without a collar stooped over the purple, blood-stainedface, and then leaped upright, and shouted: "It's Jerry Gaylor, he'skilled old man Gaylor."
The response was instant. Every one seemed to know Jerry Gaylor.
Winthrop took the soiled person by the arm.
"You help me lift him into my car," he ordered. "Take him by theshoulders. We must get him to a hospital."
"To a hospital? To the Morgue!" roared the man. "And the policestation for yours. You don't do no get-away."
Winthrop answered him by turning to the crowd. "If this man has anyfriends here, they'll please help me put him in my car, and we'll takehim to Roosevelt Hospital."
The soiled person shoved a fist and a bad cigar under Winthrop's nose.
"Has he got any friends?" he mocked. "Sure, he's got friends, andthey'll fix you, all right."
"Sure!" echoed the crowd.
The man was encouraged.
"Don't you go away thinking you can come up here with your buzz wagonand murder better men nor you'll ever be and----"
"Oh, shut up!" said Winthrop.
He turned his back on the soiled man, and again appealed to the crowd.
"Don't stand there doing nothing," he commanded. "Do you want this manto die? Some of you ring for an ambulance and get a policeman, or tellme where is the nearest drug store."
No one moved, but every one shouted to every one else to do as Winthropsuggested.
Winthrop felt something pulling at his sleeve, and turning, foundPeabody at his shoulder peering fearfully at the figure in the street.He had drawn his cap over his eyes and hidden the lower part of hisface in the high collar of his motor coat. "I can't do anything, canI?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not," whispered Winthrop. "Go back to the car and don'tleave Beatrice. I'll attend to this."
"That's what I thought," whispered Peabody eagerly. "I thought she andI had better keep out of it."
"Right!" exclaimed Winthrop. "Go back and get Beatrice awa
y."
Peabody looked his relief, but still hesitated.
"I can't do anything, as you say," he stammered, "and it's sure to getin the 'extras,' and they'll be out in time to lose us thousands ofvotes, and though no one is to blame, they're sure to blame me. Idon't care about myself," he added eagerly, "but the very morning ofelection--half the city has not voted yet--the Ticket----"
"Damn the Ticket!" exclaimed Winthrop. "The man's dead!"
Peabody, burying his face still deeper in his collar, backed into thecrowd. In the present and past campaigns, from carts and automobileshe had made many