Blaney

“ They had now something to talk about! Everyone that knew Blaney felt himself of importance: had he not a superior right of opinion upon his behavior? Nor was he without a few sympathizers. Was he not the same flesh and blood? they said. After the swells had had it all their own way so long, why shouldn't poor Blaney have his turn? But those who knew Hester, especially the women of them, were indignant with him.
Hester sang again and again, but no song would go quite to her mind. Vavasor also sung several times—as often, that is, as Hester asked him ”

“ McNally folded his hands on the table and looked at Blaney with twinkling eyes.
“That's all rot, Blaney.”
“No, it ain't. The boys are right with Weeks.”
“See here, Blaney. You just stop and ask yourself what Weeks has done for you. He's sunk a lot of your money and a lot of St. Johns's money, to say nothing of Chicago, in a road that never has paid and never will pay. Why, man, the stock would be at forty now if we hadn't pushed it up. I tell you Jim Weeks is licked. The only way for you to get your money back is to vote in men who can make it go. ”

“ Blaney nodded sourly. He was a man of bullying rather than of tactful propensities and he could not conceal his distaste for an interview with Jim Weeks at this particular moment. To tell the truth, he had begun to fear the results of the agreement with McNally which rested in his coat pocket. Weeks was a hard man to fight, and wasted no words on disloyalty. However, Blaney knew that dissimulation would profit him nothing, for to keep the changed vote a secret would be impossible ”

“ To make the bluff most effective, Blaney should be frightened into seeking Jim. If he went to Blaney's house, the contractor would probably suspect that some weakness in Jim's position made him depend on Blaney's aid. Jim was not worrying over the problem as other men worry, for he had been quite sincere in telling Bridge that they were sure to win. Years of this kind of fighting had given him a just estimate of the immense value of time, and he had forty-eight hours left in which to get control of the Tillman City stock. Campaigns have been lost and won again in less time than that. ”

“ There isn't any good in trying to fight Jim Weeks, and I should think you'd know it. If ever a man had a cinch—”
“What are you up to, anyhow?” demanded Blaney, now thoroughly exasperated. “Did you come around here to try to bulldoze me? Well, I'll just tell you you may as well save your breath. Do you understand that? Weeks thinks he can come his old bluff down here, but he's going to get fooled just once. We've got the backing that'll beat him. ”

“ He'll have some news for you to-night. He's going to get what Blaney's dug up about you to-day,” she said to the supposed Scar Henry'. “He'll be full of that when he gets back—and of hootch, too, probably. And he'll talk his arm off to me—about everything. And, after that, to-morrow—if not to-night—you can jump in and confront him with what you heard him say, and you can beat it out of him and drag him over to the police or the district attorney's office. He's a rat at heart, and he's worse now—almost on the verge of tears.”
“Will you stick—when we get him up there?” Flame Carney asked her. ”

“ Edmund Blaney, of the Atlantic Avenue police station, Brooklyn, who locked up his son brought in on the charge of fighting, is to be commended for his determination that his own shall be treated no better than others. ”

“ Fairfield, don't resist the influence."
They were out on the tiny veranda that graced the Blaney's dwelling. The stars shone down through the pure winter air, and Patty felt as if she had been rescued from a malarial swamp. But Blaney was impressive. His deep, soft voice persuaded her against her will that she was pettish and crude to rebel at the unwholesome atmosphere inside. "You don't understand," he said gently. "Give us a fair trial. That's all I ask. I know your inner nature will respond, if you give it its freedom. Ah, freedom! That's all we aim for,—all we desire." ”

“ There's a good getaway in the back of this place here you wouldn't know about as I do, being longer in the business. He'd have got away from you, I'm afraid,” said Slip Blaney, his speech and his smile both growing easier.
“I'll tell you how I happened to get here, boys,” he said when no one spoke, and smiled again his ingratiating smile at Zimmer, who stood nearest to him, now with his gun slightly lowered, “so you can get how it is done. There was a bad man,” he said, looking down, indicating Joe the Greek with the toe of his shoe. ”

“ They haven't education and genius,—they only pretend they have."
"Phil, I think you're horrid. They have so. Why, Sam Blaney wrote a poem that's the most beautiful thing I ever read!"
"Let me see it."
"I can't. I promised I wouldn't. It's—it's sort of sacred——"
"A sacred poem! Blaney?"
"No, I don't mean religious. But it's sacred to me,—it's—it's a real poem, you see."
"Well, he isn't a real poet, by a long chalk! I did think, Patty, that when you came home from Lakewood you'd forget all that rubbish bunch."
"How you do love to call them names! I don't think it's nice of you, one bit. ”

“ That's just what the Cosmic Centre people are,—they're blue roses! I never thought of it before, but they are."
"Then beware of them. Blue roses are freaks——"
"Yes, I know it. But there are worse things in this world than freaks.
I'd rather a man would be a freak than a—a mud turtle!"
"Are many of your friends mud turtles?"
"Yes, they are. They stick their heads in the sand——"
"Look out for your Natural History! You're thinking of ostriches."
"All the same. Now, Sam Blaney——"
"Patty! You don't mean to say that chap is Sam Blaney! I thought he looked a bit familiar! Sam! old Sam Blaney! Well!" ”

“ She's the greatest little old liker you ever saw! Why, she even likes people who don't like her."
"Are there such?" asked Blaney, properly.
"Yes, indeed," Patty declared; "and I can't help admiring their good taste."
"I can't either," and Blaney spoke so seriously, that Patty almost gasped.
"That isn't the answer," she smiled; "you should have contradicted me."
"No," the poet went on; "people who don't like you show real discrimination. It is because you are so crude and unformed of soul."
But Patty was too wise to be caught with such chaff. ”

“ This rather pleased Patty, for she feared Chick's gay banter and she knew he didn't care for the Cosmic Centre Club and their ways.
"You are so wonderful!" Blaney was saying, as he looked at her. "I never cared for Christmas before."
Patty's gown was a long, sweeping robe of poinsettia red velvet. It would not have been becoming to most blondes, but Patty's fairness triumphed over all colour schemes. She wore a girdle of red velvet poinsettia blossoms and a wreath of small ones encircled her head.
"You are so beautiful——" Blaney's soft, purring voice went on. ”

“ Though not greatly attracted by the unusual sights and strange people, Patty was interested and curious. She wanted to see the affair in its entirety, and was glad when Sam Blaney came over to where she sat by Philip on the divan.
"I've come to carry you off," Blaney said to her; "you must mingle with the crowd, if you want to become one of us."
"I'd like to mingle a little," Patty replied, "but I can't hope to become one of such a talented bunch as this."
"They're not all so talented," Blaney assured her, as he led her away, leaving Philip a bit moody and disapproving. ”

“ Say they would.”
“And all the time they were feeding The and you and the rest with glad tales that everything was going right—up to now—when you all get the sure tip that the governor's coming through.”
“Isn't he?” asked Flame Carney, with a sudden clutch of her sleeve.
“A swell chance—with the police and the big business bunch and their special pols and private wires all pulling the same direction! And Blaney steering them all!”
“You're trying to tell me——”
“I'm telling you the truth,” reaffirmed Joe Anargas's woman. “You know how The is. He thinks everybody's like himself. ”

“ We are a law unto ourselves. Bohemians are free of conventions and rules. Simply tell Mrs. Farrington that you have joined our circle and you will henceforth be governed by our ideas and customs. As you say, you are not a child, you can do as you like."
"Of course you can," said Mr. Griscom. "I'm going that way, I'll take you home, if you like."
"Thank you," said Patty, "but I have accepted Mr. Blaney's escort."
"That's right," said Blaney, heartily. "Oh, there'll be no trouble,—no trouble at all. I'll take Miss Fairfield home, and if any comments are made, they'll be made to me." ”

“ Fairfield nearly choked as he watched her intent face, "just that. Unless one does use one's soul it becomes rusted and useless."
Her face was drawn with intensity, her lifted hand shook a long slender forefinger at Chick, and that urbane young man had just about all he could do to preserve his gravity.
But he went calmly on. "Do you know," he said, "I sometimes think my soul is a bit rusty."
"Very likely," said Sam Blaney, who didn't like to be long out of the conversation. "Suppose you join our coterie and get the rust removed. Nor am I joking, Mr. Channing. ”

“ You've made a fool of yourself long enough. And I've fooled with you long enough. You've been trying ever since you were alderman to throw me down. You've talked about how much you were going to do, and all the while we've been laughing at you. Then this McNally came along and set up you and Williams to a dinner at the Hotel Tremain and paid you some money and gave you this fool contract, to get you to vote the Tillman City proxies his way.”
Jim took a copy of the contract out of his pocket and read it aloud, while Blaney listened in stupid amazement. ”

“ On this Friday afternoon the gift from Uncle Justus was spent in little scalloped cakes of maple sugar, at which the children nibbled as they ran back to the square.
"There's Phil Blaney now," said Louis. "Come along, Edna;" and the little girl followed her cousin to a bench where a boy, somewhat older than Louis, was sitting. He looked Edna over rather contemptuously, and she, on her part, took a dislike to him which she never overcame, although the boy tried to be friendly, especially after Louis told him of Edna's exciting journey. ”

“ I do."
"I know you do, and so do I. But the Blaney crowd are neither wise nor brainy. They are frauds."
"Do you mean conscious frauds? Wilfully deceptive?"
"To a certain degree, yes. They do fool themselves, sometimes, into thinking they are sincere, but they can't even fool themselves all the time,—let alone other people."
"Your observations do not interest me." Patty's air was lofty, she looked away into space, as if bored to death with her companion.
"Would it interest you to know that I know Sam Blaney to be a fraud and a dishonest man?" ”

“ Real interpretation of Grantham's wonderful ideas."
"They are wonderful," agreed Patty. "Mr. Grantham is a true poet. He sees Nature at her best and with an intuition almost divine."
Her blue eyes shone with earnestness and Blaney gazed at her in adoration.
"You perfect thing!" he murmured; "you have found your right environment among us. You are wasted on the ordinary, unthinking masses of society. You are Nature's child. What a pity you must live a conventional life. Patty, can't you break loose? Can't you give up your present hampering existence and come and throw in your lot with ours? ”

“ It depends some on the effect of the hootch he's drinking all the time. But a battle won't be necessary—will it?—not the way Vida thinks. For we'll be following out a different program as I get it. You'll get the information, and they're going to wait—the other dicks—watch from the outside—while we work inside. And then they'll try and round up Blaney and the Greek together themselves—probably at the Hectic Club dance—if not before,” she said, stopping, getting nervous, thinking of her brother probably, Kane thought, and how little time there was left to save him. ”

“ Oh, we have adopted you, and now you are ours, isn't she, Sam?"
"Indeed, yes," returned Blaney, enthusiastically; "never was such a rare soul added to our circle. Priestess Patricia, our star soul!"
Patty was flattered at the attention she was receiving. She didn't quite understand what a star soul meant, but she knew she held an elevated position among these highly intellectual people, and it dazzled her.
"I have always had an ambition," she admitted, "for something bigger and better than my social butterfly life, and with you I hope to achieve it. ”

“ I admit that is not one of the poet's best known bits,—it's in 'Flying Islands of the Night,'—but it is so exquisite that it ought to be better known. And, by the way, Patty, if you thought Blaney did that gem, I don't wonder you admired him. But, dear little girl, do you see now that the man is capable of deception? ”

“ We're not going to do any harm." And Ellen, after standing helplessly looking at them for a moment, went back to her work.
"Will she tell on you, Louis?" asked the boys.
"I don't care if she does," returned he. "If they make a fuss, I know what I can do. I can run away."
"Good for you!" cried Phil Blaney. "Of course you can. You can go out West. ”

“ There was Doc Gibbons handling the pressure tank, there was Chunk Blaney rolling out a God-damned cannon I never knew was there—how many more little secrets are there that I don’t know about?”
Marconi grinned. “They have gun drill once a month, my young friend, and they never say a word about it. Let the right rabble-rouser get hold of the story and he might sail into office on a platform of ‘Keep the bug-eyed monsters off of Halsey’s Planet.’ You have to have reasonable precautions, military and medical, though—and this is the straight goods—there’s never been any trouble of either variety.” ”