第91章

XVI.

The Pilot published a series of sensational articles and editorials about the Galligan matter,a picture of Galligan,an account of the destitute state of his wife and family.The time had not yet arrived when such newspapers dared to attack the probity of our courts,but a system of law that permitted such palpable injustice because of technicalities was bitterly denounced.What chance had a poor man against such a moloch as the railroad,even with a lawyer of such ability as had been exhibited by Hermann Krebs?Krebs was praised,and the attention of Mr.Lawler's readers was called to the fact that Krebs was the man who,some years before,had opposed single-handed in the legislature the notorious Bill No.709.It was well known in certain circles--the editorial went on to say--that this legislation had been drawn by Theodore Watling in the interests of the Boyne Iron Works,etc.,etc.Hugh Paret had learned at the feet of an able master.This first sight of my name thus opprobriously flung to the multitude gave me an unpleasant shock.I had seen Mr.Scherer attacked,Mr.Gorse attacked,and Mr.Watling:I had all along realized,vaguely,that my turn would come,and I thought myself to have acquired a compensating philosophy.I threw the sheet into the waste basket,presently picked it out again and reread the sentence containing my name.Well,there were certain penalties that every career must pay.I had become,at last,a marked man,and I recognized the fact that this assault would be the forerunner of many.

I tried to derive some comfort and amusement from the thought of certain operations of mine that Mr.Lawler had not discovered,that would have been matters of peculiar interest to his innocent public:certain extra-legal operations at the time when the Bovine corporation was being formed,for instance.And how they would have licked their chops had they learned of that manoeuvre by which I had managed to have one of Mr.

Scherer's subsidiary companies in another state,with property and assets amounting to more than twenty millions,reorganized under the laws of New Jersey,and the pending case thus transferred to the Federal court,where we won hands down!This Galligan affair was nothing to that.

Nevertheless,it was annoying.As I sat in the street car on my way homeward,a man beside me was reading the Pilot.I had a queer sensation as he turned the page,and scanned the editorial;and I could not help wondering what he and the thousands like him thought of me;what he would say if I introduced myself and asked his opinion.Perhaps he did not think at all:undoubtedly he,and the public at large,were used to Mr.

Lawler's daily display of "injustices."Nevertheless,like slow acid,they must be eating into the public consciousness.It was an outrage--this freedom of the press.

With renewed exasperation I thought of Krebs,of his disturbing and almost uncanny faculty of following me up.Why couldn't he have remained in Elkington?Why did he have to follow me here,to make capital out of a case that might never have been heard of except for him?...I was still in this disagreeable frame of mind when I turned the corner by my house and caught sight of Maude,in the front yard,bending bareheaded over a bed of late flowers which the frost had spared.The evening was sharp,the dusk already gathering.

"You'll catch cold,"I called to her.

She looked up at the sound of my voice.

"They'll soon be gone,"she sighed,referring to the flowers."I hate winter."She put her hand through my arm,and we went into the house.The curtains were drawn,a fire was crackling on the hearth,the lamps were lighted,and as I dropped into a chair this living-room of ours seemed to take on the air of a refuge from the vague,threatening sinister things of the world without.I felt I had never valued it before.Maude took up her sewing and sat down beside the table.

"Hugh,"she said suddenly,"I read something in the newspaper--"My exasperation flared up again.

"Where did you get that disreputable sheet?"I demanded.

"At the dressmaker's!"she answered."I--I just happened to see the name,Paret.""It's just politics,"I declared,"stirring up discontent by misrepresentation.Jealousy."She leaned forward in her chair,gazing into the flames.

"Then it isn't true that this poor man,Galligan--isn't that his name?--was cheated out of the damages he ought to have to keep himself and his family alive?""You must have been talking to Perry or Susan,"I said."They seem to be convinced that I am an oppressor of the poor.

"Hugh!"The tone in which she spoke my name smote me."How can you say that?How can you doubt their loyalty,and mine?Do you think they would undermine you,and to me,behind your back?""I didn't mean that,of course,Maude.I was annoyed about something else.And Tom and Perry have an air of deprecating most of the enterprises in which I am professionally engaged.It's very well for them to talk.All Perry has to do is to sit back and take in receipts from the Boyne Street car line,and Tom is content if he gets a few commissions every week.They're like militiamen criticizing soldiers under fire.I know they're good friends of mine,but sometimes I lose patience with them."I got up and walked to the window,and came back again and stood before her.

"I'm sorry for this man,Galligan,"I went on,"I can't tell you how sorry.But few people who are not on the inside,so to speak,grasp the fact that big corporations,like the Railroad,are looked upon as fair game for every kind of parasite.Not a day passes in which attempts are not made to bleed them.Some of these cases are pathetic.It had cost the Railroad many times fifteen thousand dollars to fight Galligan's case.But if they had paid it,they would have laid themselves open to thousands of similar demands.Dividends would dwindle.The stockholders have a right to a fair return on their money.Galligan claims that there was a defective sill on the car which is said to have caused the wreck.