The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot
Dodd's present state of mind.
However, Colonel Dodd did receive Miss Kate Kilgour politely when she
came to him; he had always held her in estimation next to the bouquets
in his office.
“I have come to you,” she explained, “because I could not get the
information anywhere else. I have tried. I do not want to bother you,
sir.”
The girl was pitifully broken, her voice trembled.
“Well, well, what is it?” he demanded, impatiently, and yet with a touch
of kindly tolerance. “You needn't be afraid of me even if you did leave
me in hop-and-jump style, Miss Kilgour.”
“Where is your nephew, Richard?”
And then, in spite of his assuring statement, Miss Kilgour _was_ afraid
of him.
His square face was suffused with red, he thwacked his fist on his
desk and leaped out of his chair and stamped away from her, cursing
viciously.
“Who sent you here to ask me that question?” he shouted, advancing on
her from the window.
“It's my own business--I came on my own account,” she stammered.
“How comes it to be your business, miss?”
“I gave him my promise to marry him.”
“If you did you made a devil of a mistake; I can tell you that, young
woman!”
“I realize it, Colonel Dodd. I want to know where he is. I want to take
back that promise.”
He controlled himself and stared at her. “Take my advice and consider
your contract with Richard Dodd annulled--for good and sufficient
reasons, Miss Kilgour. I don't want to say any more. I can't say any
more. This thing touches me on a sore spot. Don't be afraid. I'm not
angry at you. But just forget that fellow and go on about your own
business.”
“I will do so, Colonel Dodd, after I have settled certain business with
him.”
“What business?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“You'll have to tell me,” he insisted, roughly. “I'm now engaged in
looking into my nephew's affairs. I want all the information I can get.”
“I can only ask you--implore you to tell me where he is.”
“I'd like to know, myself,” he retorted, bluntly. “I'd give considerable
to know. You needn't look at me as if you think I'm lying! Now you may
as well be frank with me, Miss Kilgour. I'm going to be frank with you.
I have always found you to be a young woman of prudence and caution.
I'll take a chance and tell you something which I have been keeping
to myself. I want you to know why you needn't feel bound to keep any
promise you have made to my nephew. He has played a despicable trick on
me, his own uncle, after all the help I have given him. He practically
stole five thousand dollars from me and has run away, and I don't know
where he is. Now, what have you to tell me?”
“I want to put this in his hands, sir.” She produced a packet, at which
the colonel peered with curiosity. “You will certainly find out where he
is. I want you to give it to him.”
“Oh, love-letters, eh?”
“No, sir!”
With shaking fingers she untied the cord and displayed the contents. The
packet was money, many bills stacked neatly, and the size of the bundle
made the colonel open his eyes very wide.
“We--I--we owe it to him, sir. There are five thousand dollars here.”
“So that's what he did with my money, eh? Well, I'll take it.”
“I don't think it is your money, Colonel Dodd. I have good reason to
feel sure that it is not. I have not seen your nephew since the day
of the convention, and then only at a distance. And this money--it was
borrowed a long time ago.”
“Borrowed by whom--by you?”
“No, sir. I cannot tell you the circumstances. I simply want you to give
it back to him. I shall feel that I am released from my obligation.”
“Look here, my dear young woman,” said the colonel, with all his
masterful firmness, “there are going to be no more riddles here. You
must tell me the truth. I must have it--hear? Otherwise I shall take
steps to make you tell--and that may not be as confidential as a chat
here with me. I propose to know about my nephew's affairs, I inform you
once again!”
“My mother borrowed this money from him. She was in trouble. He helped
her.”
“Your mother needs a guardian. I beg your pardon! But I thought she had
had her lesson once before in her life. So my nephew loaned money to
your mother! Where did he get that money?”
“I do not--”
“Hold on! Wait before you say that, Miss Kilgour. I'll not endure
falsehoods from anybody just now. I have been lied to too much lately.
This is a matter of my own nephew. I command you to tell me the truth.”
She hesitated a long time, her countenance expressing her agony. “I
haven't any right to betray him, sir.”
“He did not get five thousand dollars by any honest means. The
reputation of the family is in jeopardy just now, Miss Kilgour. I want
to protect it for my own sake. He confessed to you, didn't he?”
“Yes.”
“I can better understand your sense of obligation now. When a man
commits a crime for a woman she gets some fool notions into her head
about standing by him. I know my nephew's extravagances, Miss Kilgour.
He had to steal to get five thousand dollars for your mother. There is
just one handy place where he could steal. He took that money from the
state treasury. He has told you so. Am I not right?”
“Yes.”
Colonel Dodd turned his back on her and looked up at his bouquets.
Perspiration streaked his thick neck. His jowls trembled. She pitied
this man, even in her own tribulation. She had never seen him moved
before.
“How did you get this money, Miss Kilgour?” he asked, after a time, his
voice very low.
“Must I tell you?”
“Certainly. We are going to the bottom of this thing.”
“I received a little legacy from my aunt a few years ago--I had put it
away in the bank. I had saved some money from the wages I got here.
My mother--I am sorry to say that she has been vain and extravagant,
sir--she had wasted money on jewels and dress, and now she has sold
everything. We have disposed of all our furniture and have gone to board
in a very cheap place. I have been able to make out the amount of the
debt. Here it is!” She placed it on his desk beside the flabby hand
which lay there.
He did not speak for a long time. “I am sorry for you,” he said at last.
“This is a wicked thing. But I know better than to tell you to keep this
money.”
“Thank you,” she said, quietly. “I know you understand!”
“I will put it in the place where it belongs. That's all!”
And when he kept his broad back to her she went out of the office, her
feet making no sound on the thick carpet.
XXXIII
ALL THE WORLD OUTSIDE
A good lawyer can accomplish much when men are willing to listen to
reason and to accept the proffer of reparation!
“All going to show,” declared the Honorable Archer Converse to his
young protege, after they had parted at last from Morgan Bristol in the
Western city, “that a thistle doesn't hurt much, after all, if you grab
it with all your might and vim. We have found honest gentlemen here,
thank God! It has been made plain to me, my boy, that they all knew you
better than you knew yourself and that's why they waited so patiently.
But, oh, that folly of yours!” However, he patted Thornton Bristol's
shoulder when he said it. “It's a good thing for a young man to have a
healthy debt when he starts out--a debt that's a joy to pay. Just look
on it as an incentive, boy! You simply mortgaged your future!”
“I am glad that I have been called on to pay for what I wasted,”
declared Bristol. “And I am not sorry, Mr. Converse, that my folly led
me out into the byways of this world. I'll know how to appreciate the
rest of life more highly.”
“Needs a hot fire to make good steel--that's so,” agreed his mentor.
“And speaking of fire--I reckon we're going to find it almighty hot when
we get back to the place where we're expected. Now that we're leaving
affairs all serene behind us, you must let me do a little careful
thinking about how to meet the situation that's ahead of us.”
Archer Converse reappeared in his home city as unobtrusively as he had
left it and he held the polished shield of his urbane reserve over any
vulnerable points which darts of questions might attack.
Mr. Breed, assuring himself that he had certain personal rights in
the matter, came with a veritable lance of interrogation, and thrust
tirelessly.
“It is the custom when a man has been nominated never to close an eye
or leave the job for a minute. You have broke over all rules and I have
been doing my best to fix up a story to account for it,” stated Mr.
Breed.
“Thank you,” returned Mr. Converse. “No doubt you have done a very good
job.”
“I done the best I could without knowing what I was talking about.”
“And the general comment--the run of talk was--what?”
“General talk was that you didn't seem to be worrying much about the
election.”
Mr. Converse turned a benignant smile on his new law partner.
“It's generally conceded, then, that I feel sure of being elected?”
“Why, they think you wouldn't have skyhooted off unless you were
confident.”
“Exactly! That attitude of mine takes care of the band-wagon crowd. They
have climbed aboard, I'm told.”
“Yes,” admitted Mr. Breed. “But the state committee has taken advantage
and has laid down on ye!”
“Breed, you run along and tell the chairman of that committee--from
me--that unless he gets busy with his crowd in every county of this
state inside of twenty-four hours I'll come out with a public statement
that I have been forced to run my own campaign in behalf of the people.
You don't think there'd be any doubt about my election after that
statement, do you?”
“Not a bit,” confessed Mr. Breed. “You're more of a politician than I
had any idea of. Excuse me for any other kind of remarks. I'll go shoot
a little hot lead in that chairman's left ear.”
“Ordinary intelligence and common honesty,” commented the Honorable
Archer Converse when Mr. Breed had departed. “They are such new elements
in running politics in this state that they seem to the crowd to be a
brand-new variety of political astuteness, Thornton! I'm not going to
be quite as frank and honest in some other statements I'm about to
make, under the circumstances. I don't believe my conscience is going to
trouble me a bit. We'll go over, if you please, and have a word or two
with Colonel Symonds Dodd.”
Mr. Converse's secretary prefaced that call by a telephoned request for
an appointment, and therefore Mr. Peter Briggs led them directly into
the presence of the colonel.
“This is my friend and law partner, Mr. Thornton Bristol,” said
Converse, apparently and blandly unconscious that he was tossing at the
magnate something much in the nature of a bomb.
Colonel Dodd came forward in his chair, his hands clutching the carved
mahogany of the desk in front of him.
“Oh, I beg your pardon, Colonel,” purred Mr. Converse, amiably. “I
forget that you are not as familiar with Mr. Bristol's identity as I am.
You have known him merely as a stranger who has called himself Walker
Farr.”
“Yes, and he has registered himself on the voting-lists as Walker Farr,”
blustered Colonel Dodd. “Mr. Converse, something will drop in your camp
before long--and it won't be rose-leaves!”
Mr. Converse fixed a penetrating gaze on the angry man.
“Colonel,” he said, with meaning, “you are probably well aware that in
politics many things are done for a certain purpose--and many of those
things are a bit off color so far as the strict law is concerned. If you
particularly care about digging up the past of politics in this state I
will come with my own little shovel and assist with great pleasure.”
“You're making an ass of me with this peek-a-boo business.”
“Mr. Bristol,” continued the nominee, with composure, “after long study
abroad and at home has devoted himself enthusiastically to study in