Knapp

“ O. C. Knapp, U. S. Agent at the Klamath Reservation, served in the Union Army during the Civil War and was promoted twice for gallantry and meritorious services at the battle of Mission Ridge, Tennessee, and during the Atlanta campaign. Honorably discharged at his own request, returned to his home at Bellefontaine, Ohio, where he died April 16, 1877.
By the kindness of the Rev. E. M. Knapp. agent's office. Mr. Knapp was in. He asked Jack what he could do for him. Jack told him about making the rails, about the Klamaths hauling them away, and what the Klamaths had told him. ”

“ Before me sat Doddridge Knapp, the King of the Street, the man for whom above all others in the world I felt loathing and fear.
Doddridge Knapp finished signing his name to a paper on his desk before he looked up.
“Come in and sit down,” he said. The voice was alert and businesslike—the voice of a man accustomed to command. But I could find no trace of feeling in it, nothing that could tell me of the hatred or desperate purpose that should inspire such a tragedy as I had witnessed, or warn me of danger to come. ”

“ I said modestly.
“Another life than yours depends on your skill and courage. That must give you strength,” she said softly.
“It does indeed,” I replied. I was thinking of Doddridge Knapp's life.
“But here come Luella and Mrs. Bowser,” said Mrs. Knapp. “I see I shall lose your company.”
My heart gave a great bound, and I turned to see the queenly grace of Luella Knapp as she entered the room in the train of Mrs. Bowser. ”

“ The following luncheon hour, Edward sought the offices of the company, and explained his idea to Mr. Joseph P. Knapp, now the president of the American Lithograph Company.
"I'll give you ten dollars apiece if you will write me a one-hundred-word biography of one hundred famous Americans," was Mr. Knapp's instant reply. "Send me a list, and group them, as, for instance: presidents and vice-presidents, famous soldiers, actors, authors, etc."
"And thus," says Mr. Knapp, as he tells the tale today, "I gave Edward Bok his first literary commission, and started him off on his literary career." ”

“ In 1818 Knapp published anonymously a poem entitled ‘Arthur, or the Pastor of the Village,’ and between 1820 and 1830 a series of articles, under the title of ‘The Naturalist's Diary,’ in ‘Time's Telescope.’ These formed the germ of his most successful work, the ‘Journal of a Naturalist,’ a botanical companion to White's ‘Selborne,’ which was published anonymously in 1829, and went through three editions during his lifetime. ”

“ As I held in the bank securities worth nearly three millions of dollars, I believed that I spoke within bounds.
“I suppose it would do no good to try to dissuade him from his plans?”
“It would take a bolder man than I,” said I with a smile at the audacity of the idea.
Mrs. Knapp smiled sadly in response.
“Do you think, Henry,” she asked hesitatingly, “do you think that Mr. Knapp is quite himself?”
My mind leaped at the recollection of the Wolf figure in the opium-dens. But I choked down the thought, and replied calmly:
“He certainly has a vigorous business head on his shoulders.” ”

“ Knapp, the pressure relieved, was his Cockney self again in a second. He swung on at a leisurely trot with the flick of heel, and swagger of elbow, peculiar to the crack taking his ease.
"Thank-ye!" he called, pert and patronising. "Lucky shot!"
"Run, fool, run!" yelled Kit. "The sentry!"
On the crest of the hill, against the sky-line, the sentry was kneeling as he took aim. ”

“ It was part of the Sunday edition of the Stockton Expositor, and in it he read of the approaching trial of Knapp. Both Danny Leonard and Jim Bailey had identified him by his hands and his size as the man who had wounded the messenger, and Knapp had admitted it. The paper predicted a life sentence for him. Then it went on to Garland, who was still at large. Various people were sure they had seen him. A saloon keeper on the outskirts of Placerville was ready to swear that a mounted man, who had stopped at his place one night for a drink, was the fugitive outlaw. ”

“ It was the middle of the afternoon when he reached the forge and found Karl, who stared at sight of him.
“I’d dreamed thou wast safe away, boy,” he said, shaking him lovingly by the broad shoulders. “What madness is this? The baron’s men have been here for thee, and thy life is naught worth if they find thee. Why art so foolhardy, son?”
“Count Rudolf is at St. Ursula’s, and sends for thee,” Wulf said, laughing at his fears.
Karl turned on the instant, and seized a great sword that lay on the anvil.
“Sayst so? And thou hast seen the count—I mean the emperor? How looked he? ”

“ Captain Dunlap isn't the man to wait five minutes after the ropes are pulled in."
"Those two men have shrunk away behind some mast or other," cried Knapp. "They are the fellows he's after. But what can they have to do with the murder? Have you ever seen them here about town, Dr. Talbot?"
"Not that I remember; they have a foreign air about them. Look like
South Americans."
"Well, they're going to South America. Sweetwater can't stop them. He has barely time to get off the ship himself. There goes the last rope! Have they forgotten him? They're drawing up the ladder." ”

“ He has never seen either of our friends, so it will be easy for me to impersonate the Spanish captain. You and Knapp will have to be the reception committee and entertain our friends while I have a chin-chin with the señor. Of course he runs a little risk, but he is paid for that, and a few pesos to the Spaniards will square things. In case there is any delay in loading, or getting out of this hole to-morrow morning, it is easily possible that we may have a little fight on our hands. Now what do you say?"
What was I to say? What would any man with a spark of spirit have said? ”

“ Tell your Poppa that I’m coming right over there this afternoon to see him just as soon as I get my trunk unpacked and things straightened around a little.”
[Pg 186] Chapter 13
“He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride,”
said Lester Knapp aloud to himself. It was a great pleasure to him to be able to say the strong short Saxon words aloud. For years he had been shutting into the cage of silence all the winged beautiful words which came flying into his mind! And beautiful words which you do not pronounce aloud are like children always forced to “be quiet” and “sit still.” ”

“ You didn’t want everybody to be unusual. There were moods in which Lester Knapp took the greatest comfort in Henry’s being just like anybody else. So much the better for him! For everybody! There would never be tragedy in his life, no thwarted, futile struggling against an organization of things that did not fit him. At times, [Pg 226] too, there was something poignant to Lester about Henry’s patient, unrebellious attitude. He never fought to get what he wanted. ”

“ As a leader of men he was unrivalled, and his zeal and enthusiasm were a constant inspiration to the men he loved so much and who in turn loved him. As a parade N.C.O. Sergeant Knapp was once described as a “Ragtime” soldier, but his enthusiasm and sterling work in the face of danger endeared him to the hearts of all men in the Battalion. All members of the 1st Civil Service Rifles were justly proud of “Knappski”—a leader whom the men would follow anywhere. ”

“ Make thou their best speed to thy grandsire, and tell him that Count Rudolf rides to the Swartzburg and would have him at hand. Canst do that?”
“Ay, Sire.”
“But stay,” said Rudolf; “haply he has grown too feeble for bearing arms?”
Wulf flushed with indignation for stalwart Karl.
“Nay,” he said stoutly; “he will carry what weapon thou wilt, and enter the castle close behind thee.”
“Sh!” cried Mother Ursula, shocked at the boy’s speech. “Thou’rt speaking to the emperor, lad!”
Rudolf laughed. “Let the boy alone,” he said. “One may speak freely to whom he will of a man like Karl.” ”

“ When he should be free; able to hold up his head without shame among men; then the right to speak would be his. Then he would lay his life at her feet. It was hers. But now, he would have given his last drop of blood just to know that she knew, and that she believed him.
He left Mrs. Hallard’s papers, securely sealed, in Sing Fat’s care, seeing them put in a place of safety before he turned away to where he had put up his horse.
The animal was still feeding; for himself Gard 279had forgotten the need of food. He hesitated, loth to take the creature out. ”

“ The Crusader had taken the beast for his own charger, and a rare 62war-horse he was, but getting on in years by now, and turning wild at times, after the manner of his kind. Not a groom or stable-lad about the castle but had reason to know his temper; so that, because of their fear of him, the horse often lacked for care.
When Herr Banf had said that Wulf must come with him, Karl stood silent for a moment, watching the lad at Siegfried’s head; then, turning to the knight, he said:
“In truth, they seem fast friends. Well, it shall be as the boy shall choose.” ”

“ Wulf persisted, with manly modesty that still further won Rudolf’s straightforward heart, “no messenger could go so quickly as I—by ways I know that are quite safe. I can fare back now, and be there by daylight.”
“By the rood, no!” cried the emperor. “Thou shalt rest some hours ere we think further of this. There’s none too much such timber as thou in the land, that we should be in haste to fell it. Get thee now to refreshment and rest, and if we need thee thou shalt know it.” ”

“ OF HOW WULF FIRST WENT TO THE CASTLE, AND WHAT BEFELL For a matter of nine or ten years Wulf dwelt with Karl at the forge, and knew no other manner of finding than if he had been indeed the armorer’s own grandson, as he was known to those who took the trouble to wonder, Karl himself never dissenting to the idea. He was now a well grown lad of perhaps fourteen years, not tall, but sturdy, strong of thigh and arm, good to look at, with a ruddy color, fair hair, and steady eyes that met the gaze fearlessly. ”

“ The emperor’s face grew thoughtful as he looked at Wulf from under lowered brows.
“Ay,” he said at last; “’tis like to be true. Count Bernard rode this way with the babe, meaning to leave him with our cousin at St. Ursula; for his mother was dead, and he was off to the Holy Land. He must have missed the convent road and got on the wrong way. Thou art strongly like him in looks, lad.”
His voice was shaking, but Wulf noted it not; for he had drawn near to Karl, who was bending over the wan prisoner. The boy’s heart was nearly broken with pity. ”

“ The big wheel-of-fortune had ceased to whirr now, and the silence of the room was broken only by a snarling question from one of the men Gard had addressed.
“What in hell o’ your business is it?”
“It’s every man’s business when another man breaks the law,” was the quiet reply. “You’d better quit playing now, friend,” Gard continued, turning to the Papago. “You’d better quit right off, while you’ve got something left, and go home.”
130“You stay where you be, Joe,” growled the man who had asked the question. “Don’t you climb out fer no tenderfoot. ”

“ He’s got that much a’ plenty. But ’stid o’ that he comes back here to this God-forsaken place; an’ what for? Why to help me. He must a’ tracked over half the territory to find me an’ gimme back that deed; an’ when he finds how things stands he settles down here to see I git my rights. With this thing a’ hangin’ over him, so far’s he knows, he’s gone back where he was known, to try ’n’ find a feller that witnessed the transfer....”
Kate Hallard was all but sobbing with excitement and fear.
“Lord above us,—if they is any!” she gasped. “They ain’t never a man like that. He’s pure angel!” ”

“ He was troubled, too, about Karl’s hurt, of which he told Herr Banf, and begged to be let to hasten back to the smithy.
“Go, then,” said Herr Banf, at last, “and I will see thy grandsire to-morrow; thou’rt too promising a varlet to be left to grow up an armorer. We need thy kind elsewhere.”
So, when he had given the nearly forgotten corselet to Gotta Brent, Wulf fared down the rocky way to the forge, where he told Karl all that had chanced to him that day. ”

“ Hallard said, grimly.
“You couldn’t.” Gard shook his head thoughtfully.
“You couldn’t see the whole scheme,” he continued. “And we don’t need to want to. Whoever’s doing it is making up a whole piece out of ’em. That’s this world we’re in. It’s our world. We belong in it; and there ain’t anything in it for us to be afraid of but just ourselves.” ”

“ So Wulf was summoned before the great emperor, and came with swift-beating heart. Brought face to face with Rudolf, he fell upon one knee, cap in hand, and waited the monarch’s will.
When the latter spoke it was with great kindliness; for well was he pleased with the goodly-looking youth.
“Thou mayst rise,” he said, when he had glanced keenly over the kneeling figure. “And so thou’rt my old friend Karl’s grandson. If there’s aught in blood, thou shouldst be an honest man and a brave; for truer nor braver man ever lived, and well knows Rudolf of Hapsburg that.” ”

“ He dreaded what might have taken place at the Palo Verde. What had taken Mrs. Hallard there? What had Sandy Larch been told? What did Miss Anderson believe?
The last was the question of his deepest thought. He was not fearful for himself, of anything that might come. The doubts and the temptations of the situation had all been settled in his mind. He had learned stern lessons in solitude, and he brought them sternly to bear in this exigency. This thing had been given to him, Gabriel Gard, to carry through. Whatever might come to him as one human being did not count. ”