Arthur Stanwood Pier

“ Bob Dunbar and his cousin leaned over the edge of their boat, peering along the surface.
"Will any of them get out as far as this, Bob?" asked Lydia.
"One or two, maybe; it's about the limit. Hello! There's Halket."
He pointed to the figure gliding smoothly a foot below the surface. Lydia gazed with fascination. "He moves like an automaton,—almost as if he were n't alive," she murmured. "Oh, look at Jack Folsom!" and she laughed as a red face popped above the surface and settled, gasping, to its chin.
"There!" cried Lydia. "There! It's Stewart! See, Bob, it's Stewart!" ”

“ Where does labor come in?"
"In a thousand ways," declared Colonel Halket. "My dear Floyd, you seem to have the uneducated theory of most men—that if something is done for the profit of the capitalist, it is at the expense of the laborer. Not at all; the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the other. It is true that my plan provides for the realizing of large profits immediately by those who enter into it; but it is also true that in the larger, ultimate sense the great benefits resulting from its adoption will fall to labor. ”

“ Stewart and Lydia were living life in its fullness; he was not. The man who had no wife to cherish, no children to train and love, was a petty, pinching fellow; inglorious middle age would wait upon his wasted youth, and would in turn be followed by lonely and unblest senility. Hitherto there had been a certain pride with which Floyd had measured himself up to the stature of one whom Lydia might have loved; now he was of a humble mind.
Colonel Halket was mildly interested at hearing the news from Floyd. ”

“ There was in Floyd a ruthless, unscrupulous hardness of character, an insensitiveness of disposition, a view of other men, even friends and dependents, as merely impersonal agents to be used and cast aside, a disregard of all the claims to which a man of sympathy and kindness would be most responsive. The men of New Rome were suffering now at Floyd's hands as Stewart himself had suffered—locked out, deprived of their rights, hampered and cramped in their effort, denied the recognition for which they had striven and to which, no doubt, they were entitled. ”

“ Floyd, looking out of the trolley car, saw an almost precipitous slope ascending on one side, descending on the other, with houses flattening themselves against the wall, seeming to hang on one another's shoulders, boosting, clinging hard for toe-hold,—some with only the top story peering above the sidewalk, others mounting for two stories in front and dropping down for four behind. They all seemed temporary, as if a gust of wind would sweep them down in an avalanche of rotten wood and broken brick. Below them were the abysmal iron mills, in a continuous, three-mile line. ”

“ Floyd crawled into the boat with Bob Dunbar and Lydia, and curled himself up in the stern, dripping and silent; his chest heaved painfully and his arms and legs were trembling.
"Let go the mooring. Bob," Lydia said; "I'll row;" and she bent to the oars. Floyd struggled up to a sitting posture and gazed over her shoulder; they were carrying Stewart up the beach.
"Oh, if you could only have got him the moment he went down!"
The girl's passionate exclamation echoed Floyd's own passionate wish. But he answered,—
"Perhaps—sometimes—they bring drowned people to life." ”

“ He went to the head of the stairs and leaned against the wall.
If his mood had suddenly become virtuous, it was still ugly. He kept his eyes fastened on Farrell and his partner. At the end of the dance they sat down on one of the benches across the room; Farrell threw one arm carelessly over her shoulders, and she nestled up to him and chewed her gum in the serenity of being possessed. Floyd stood looking at them; his vindictive, chastising rage on behalf of virtue simmered harmlessly away, and in its place came the wish to help rather than to punish a friend. ”

“ Do you think that mercenaries like these, who live by the sword, will be careful of human life? They are sent that the works may be opened by force of arms—and that means slaughter. Why, the most innocent demonstration that any two or three of you may make, one irresponsible outcry by some one in a crowd, may be the signal for a rifle volley. Once the first shot is fired, who may forecast the bloodshed and murder that will follow? And when by force of arms you are crushed, out comes Uriah from the hospital, marches boldly into the works with his gang, and claims his reward. ”

“ Lydia sat looking at her husband with startled eyes.
"Stewart!" she said at last, "Stewart!"
He lowered his magazine reluctantly.
"You say you know—you cast a blight on Floyd's good name. You make it all a mystery, you do not say what you know or how you know it—and I, being a woman, will not ask what this dreadful thing is." She spoke with a swift earnestness in her low voice. "But one thing I have a right to demand—and that is how you know. Who gave you your knowledge? What is your proof?"
"The matter has been common talk among the people of New Rome for years," he replied indifferently. ”

“ Stewart's imagination, grasping hastily one possibility after another, carried him far afield. He was conscious of a power to express himself in burning words, whether on paper or in speech; once let him gain the ear of the people, and they would be glad to listen. Dreaded by the benighted satraps with whom he had once consorted, beloved by the common people for whom his sympathy had always been deep and tender, though hitherto undemonstrative, ready speaker, wise thinker, public-spirited man, he might eventually be caught up in popular enthusiasm and raised to high office ”

“ On the beach tle little fluttering movements in the crowd were stilled, and the light sound of talk and laughter was hushed. Backward the boy went with a whirl, and as before he seemed to straighten out in mid-air and drop slenderly. Applause volleyed for a perfect dive.
"He wins," said Bob Dunbar, the judge, to Stewart. "Now, then, it's time for you fellows to get ready for the swim under water." He picked up his megaphone and spoke through it, ordering those who had entered for this contest out to the raft. Stewart stood up to jump overboard.
"Do you think you will win?" asked Lydia. ”

“ But Stewart's act had maddened the mob beyond all power of words to control; down close in front of the car men were stooping, digging up clinkers of slag with both hands, cursing and yelling as they stooped to the ground; a man rushed in and flung his lantern at Floyd, but it went to one side, whirling down into the river. Stewart sprang in front of Floyd, faced him, and with his back to the crowd flung both arms wide to protect him. "Lie down, Floyd; lie down!" he besought him; struck heavily in the back by a stone, he lurched forward against Floyd, still crying, "Lie down!" ”

“ But the news had been spreading and was still spreading before him, faster than he could run; boys and men were speeding up the beach, and off through the woods. Floyd plunged into the woods path toward the Dunbar cottage, and came face to face with Lydia; she was hurrying back to learn if the word that some one had cried out to her was true. She looked at Floyd; her lips began to tremble, and there was the radiance of happy tears in her eyes. The hand that she gave Floyd was as cold as the sea.
"You will be a hero—always," she said. ”

“ The triumphant clear-headedness of this analysis brought Stewart into sudden contemplation of a course of action. The impulse with which he had painted the pictures of Labor was revived, the sympathy which Floyd so reprehensibly lacked grew once more incandescent in his soul. Here in Avalon, where the sinister influences of pride and avarice and lust of power prevailed in detestable completeness, there was a noble work for a man who had wealth and education and the high purpose of a gentleman, and who dared for the right to demolish the idols of his friends. ”

“ Floyd sat overlooked in a corner of the room, absorbed in a slow, burning wonder and disgust. Nineteen men, who had for years been reasonably honest, single-minded producers of useful materials, were being transformed before his eyes into as many chaffering hucksters whose only aim was to find for what multiple of its worth they might sell their property to the ignorant and gullible. His grandfather and the banker had evidently arranged even small details of the scheme; it was hardly the fault of the other men that they should exhibit such eagerness to profit by it. ”

“ It seems to me that when a man's dying, he's entitled to have everybody agree with him on everything—for once in his life. Instead of being disputed so obstinately on one or two minor points. You don't dispute me—that's why I get you in here so often and bore you."
"Oh, you don't bore me," Floyd said, with a laugh. "It's so calm and restful sitting here with you that I like it. In fact I think I like you sick better than well, Grandfather."
"I believe I agree with you; I like myself better," Colonel Halket said.
"We never used to be able to sit together idly this way," Floyd continued. ”

“ Colonel Halket declared, with an impatient gesture. "Competition's the life of trade—and everybody's fighting everybody else. Of course after I close up the combination, that will no longer be true,—and it will be better for every one,—but meanwhile, no doubt, some one will have to suffer. There are always sacrifices in the path of human progress."
"It does not seem to me," said Floyd, "that it is the part of a humane and just man to profit by them." ”

“ But it was very soon after this that she returned to Avalon, and that Floyd had an opportunity to discover with shame how unkind and unsympathetic had been his apprehensions. He found her far more lovable than he had been supposing her—even if he did not wholly love her. She was really very sweet and gentle, she took an immediate interest in his problems—an interest which was intelligent and not obnoxious, and which was enlivened with a humorous light. Floyd found her, as he had always hitherto found her, a pleasant, happy companion ”

“ Lydia turned her back; he might go on playing, but as for her she no longer had any heart for skating—for any of her pretty tricks. She sat down and took off her skates and then went, carrying them, forlornly to the club-house. Her eyes were wet with tears of anger and sorrow; but to her grieved, astounded senses Floyd turning from her, not broken-hearted and bowed down, but springing to play a game,—that was the Floyd she could not forgive. ”

“ I have followed with unhappiness the course of affairs at New Rome. Our long intimacy and the leaning that I should naturally have to your side in the dispute cannot make me ignore what now appears the fundamental fact—that you are using compulsion to deprive American citizens of the rights of liberty and citizenship. When a man reaches such a conviction as I have now reached, it becomes his imperative duty to support those whose rights are being attacked, even though in so doing he opposes one who has long been his friend and to whom he owes much. It is his duty as an American. ”

“ When the tight jam swung slowly upon an axis until it burst apart into two reeling, fighting bodies, Floyd helped to rally the host and incite it to a fresh onset. The freshmen were driven against the walls of brick buildings, tripped over low wire fences that lurked for their unfamiliar feet; but they rose to rush more lustily, shouting with delirious affection the numerals of their class. In the brief intervals of rest, Floyd looked for Stewart, but there was no finding any one in such a crowd. ”

“ Hero, hero, hero, hero—"
"Oh, shut up!" said Floyd, choking him by the back of the neck playfully.
Stewart cut the song off with an ornate sweep of the ladle.
"Hero, hero," muttered Jim Hobart, squirming in Floyd's grip.
"He is a hero!" Stewart proclaimed contentiously. "I was under water thirty-five minutes. Some say an hour. I was dead."
"How did it feel to be dead?" asked one boy. He swayed a little as he asked the question, but he was serious and pop-eyed.
"Why, just dead, that's all. The way you'll be feeling to-night."
"I'm not tight; I've never been tight in my life. ”

“ He knew that her gratitude for what Floyd had done years before had been enshrined in her heart as a sacred sentiment and that a word in Floyd's disparagement was not to be easily drawn from her lips. That a woman should be reluctant to admit a flaw in the character of one to whom she owed all and to whom she had been steadfast in her loyalty, was fitting—especially when the man was he whose name she had given to her own little son. The delicacy of such reluctance was a feminine quality that Stewart prized. ”