During the night subtle electricity had carried the
tale over all the wires of the continent and under
the sea; and in all villages and towns of the Union,
from the. Atlantic to the territories, and away
up and down the Pacific slope, and as far as London
and Paris and Berlin, that morning the name of Laura
Hawkins was spoken by millions and millions of people,
while the owner of it—the sweet child of
years ago, the beautiful queen of Washington drawing
rooms—sat shivering on her cot-bed in the
darkness of a damp cell in the Tombs.
Philip’s first effort was to get Harry out of
the Tombs. He gained permission to see him,
in the presence of an officer, during the day, and
he found that hero very much cast down.
“I never intended to come to such a place as
this, old fellow,” he said to Philip; “it’s
no place for a gentleman, they’ve no idea how
to treat a gentleman. Look at that provender,”
pointing to his uneaten prison ration. “They
tell me I am detained as a witness, and I passed the
night among a lot of cut-throats and dirty rascals—a
pretty witness I’d be in a month spent in such
company.”
“But what under heavens,” asked Philip,
“induced you to come to New York with Laura!
What was it for?”
“What for? Why, she wanted me to come.
I didn’t know anything about that cursed Selby.
She said it was lobby business for the University.
I’d no idea what she was dragging me into that
confounded hotel for. I suppose she knew that
the Southerners all go there, and thought she’d
find her man. Oh! Lord, I wish I’d
taken your advice. You might as well murder
somebody and have the credit of it, as get into the
newspapers the way I have. She’s pure devil,
that girl. You ought to have seen how sweet
she was on me; what an ass I am.”
“Well, I’m not going to dispute a poor,
prisoner. But the first thing is to get you
out of this. I’ve brought the note Laura
wrote you, for one thing, and I’ve seen your
uncle, and explained the truth of the case to him.
He will be here soon.”
Harry’s uncle came, with; other friends, and
in the course of the day made such a showing to the
authorities that Harry was released, on giving bonds
to appear as a witness when wanted. His spirits
rose with their usual elasticity as soon as he was
out of Centre Street, and he insisted on giving Philip
and his friends a royal supper at Delmonico’s,
an excess which was perhaps excusable in the rebound
of his feelings, and which was committed with his
usual reckless generosity. Harry ordered, the
supper, and it is perhaps needless to say, that Philip
paid the bill.
Neither of the young men felt like attempting to see
Laura that day, and she saw no company except the
newspaper reporters, until the arrival of Col.
Sellers and Washington Hawkins, who had hastened to
New York with all speed.
