§ 61
Peter awoke next morning with a vivid sense of the pain and terror of
life. He had been clamoring to have those Reds punished; but somehow or
other he had thought of this punishment in an abstract way, a thing you
could attend to by a wave of the hand. He hadn't quite realized the
physical side of it, what a messy and bloody job it would prove. Two
hours and more he had listened to the thud of a whip on human flesh, and
each separate stroke had been a blow upon his own nerves. Peter had an
overdose of vengeance; and now, the morning after, his conscience was
gnawing at him. He had known every one of those boys, and their faces
rose up to haunt him. What
had any of them done to deserve such treatment? Could he say that he had
ever known a single one of them to do anything as violent as the thing
they had all suffered?
But more than anything else Peter was troubled by fear. Peter,
the ant, perceived the conflict of the giants becoming more ferocious,
and realized the precariousness of his position under the giants' feet.
The passions of both sides were mounting, and the fiercer their hate
became, the greater the chance of Peter's being discovered, the more
dreadful his fate if he were discovered. It was all very well for
McGivney to assure him that only four of Guffey's men knew the truth,
and that all these might be trusted to the death. Peter remembered a
remark he had heard Shawn Grady make, and which had caused him to lose
his appetite for more than one meal. "They've got spies among us," the
young Irishman had said. "Well, sooner or later we'll do a bit of spying
of our own!"
And now these words came back to Peter like a voice from the
grave. Suppose one of the Reds who had money were to hire somebody to
get a job in Guffey's office! Suppose some Red girl were to try Peter's
device, and seduce one of Guffey's men — by no means a difficult task!
The man mightn't even mean to reveal that Peter Gudge was a secret
agent; he might just let it slip, as little Jennie had let slip the
truth about Jack Ibbetts! Thus Mac would know who had framed him up; and
what would Mac do to Peter when he got out on bail? When Peter thought
of things like that he realized what it meant to go to war; he saw that
he had gained nothing by staying at home, he might as well have been in
the front-line trenches! After all, this was war, class-war; and in all
war the penalty for spying is death,
Also Peter was worried about Nell. She had been in her new
position for nearly a week, and he hadn't heard a word from her. She had
forbidden him to write, for fear he might write something injudicious.
Let him just wait, Edythe Eustace would know how to take care of
herself. And that was all right, Peter had no doubt about the ability
of Edythe Eustace to take care of herself. What troubled him was the
knowledge that she was working on another "frame-up," and he stood in
fear of the exuberance of her imagination. The last time that
imagination had been pregnant, it had presented him with a suit-case
full of dynamite. What it might bring forth next time he did not know,
and was afraid to think. Nell might cause him to be found out by Guffey;
and that would be nearly as horrible as to be found out by Mac!
Peter got his morning "Times," and found a whole page about the
whipping of the Reds, portraying the job as a patriotic duty heroically
performed; and that naturally cheered Peter up considerably. He turned
to the editorial page, and read a two column "leader" that was one whoop
of exultation. It served still more to cure Peter's ache of conscience;
and when he read on and found a series of interviews with leading
citizens, giving cordial endorsement to the acts of the "vigilantes,"
Peter became ashamed of his weakness, and glad that he had not revealed
it to anyone. Peter was trying his best to become a real "he-man," a
100% red-blooded American, and he had the "Times" twice each day,
morning and evening, to guide, sustain and inspire him.
Peter had been told by McGivney to fix himself up and
pose as one of the martyrs of the night's affair, and this
appealed to his sense of humor. He cut off the hair from a
part of his head, and stuck some raw cotton on top, and
plastered it over with surgical tape. He stuck another big
wad of surgical tape across his forehead, and a criss-cross
of it on his cheek, and tied up his wrist in an excellent
imitation of a sprain. Thus rigged out he repaired to the
American House, and McGivney rewarded him with a
hearty laugh, and then proceeded to give some instructions
which, entirely restored Peter's usual freshness of soul.
Peter was going up on Mount Olympus again!
The rat-faced man explained in detail. There was a lady of great
wealth — indeed, she was said to be several times a millionaire — who was
an openly avowed Red, a pacifist of the most malignant variety. Since
the arrest of young Lackman she had come forward and put up funds to
finance the "People's Council," and the "Anti-Conscription League," and
all the other activities which for the sake of convenience were
described by the term "pro-German." The only trouble was this lady was
so extremely wealthy it was hard to do anything to her. Her husband was
a director in a couple of Nelse Ackerman's banks, and had other powerful
connections. The husband was a violent, anti-Socialist, and a buyer of
liberty bonds; he quarrelled with his wife, but nevertheless he did not
want to see her in jail, and this made an embarrassing situation for the
police and the district attorney's office, and even for the Federal
authorities, who naturally did not want to trouble one of the courtiers
of the king of American City. "But something's got to be done," said
McGivney. "This camouflaged German propaganda can't go on." So Peter was
to try to draw Mrs. Godd into some kind of "overt action."
"Mrs. Godd?" said Peter. It seemed to him a singular coincidence
that one of the dwellers on Mount Olympus should bear that name. The
great lady lived on a hilltop out in the suburbs, not so far from the
hilltop of Nelse Ackerman. One of the adventures looked forward to by
Reds and pacifists in distress was to make a pilgrimage to this palace
and obtain some long, green plasters to put over their wounds. Now was
the time at all times for Peter to go, said McGivney. Peter had many
wounds to be plastered, and Mrs. Godd would be indignant at the
proceedings of last night, and would no doubt express herself without
restraint.
