Abell started to his feet, and began to apologize.
The other said nothing, but stooped and waked Moneta.
And at that moment I heard the shrill blast of a whistle
outside on the street! “There’s the
Brigade!” whispered Old Joe.
I ran down the stairs, and peered through the doorway,
and sure enough, there were four or five automobiles
stopped before the headquarters, having approached
from opposite direction. I stood just long enough
to see a crowd of men in khaki uniforms jumping out;
then I ran back, and leaving Old Joe and Lynch to keep
guard at the top of the stairs, I walked in and greeted
Carpenter.
He expressed no surprise at seeing me. Evidently
his thoughts were on other things. For my part,
I was trembling with excitement, so that my knees
would barely hold me. How long would it be before
T-S and his crowd appeared? I could figure the
time it should take them to drive from Eternal City;
but suppose something held them up? How long
would the ex-service men stay out on the street, waiting
for Hamby to answer their signal? Surely not
many minutes! They would storm the place, and
hunt out their victim for themselves. And suppose
they should carry him off before the others arrived?
I had Hamby’s two revolvers in my pocket.
Should we use them, or not? The thought hit me
all of a sudden; and apparently it hit Old Joe at
the same moment. “Give me those guns, Billy,”
he whispered, and I put them obediently into his hands,
and he went quickly into the rear rooms. At the
end of a minute, he returned, saying, “I unloaded
them and threw them out of the back window.”
And even as he spoke, the silence of the night outside
was shattered by the scream of that siren, which served
to warn people out of the way when T-S was moving
his companies about “on location.”
I went up to Carpenter. I didn’t enjoy
telling him a lie; in fact, I had an idea that one
couldn’t lie to him successfully. But I
tried it. “Mr. Carpenter, Hamby left a
message; he had to go downstairs, and said he wanted
to see you. Would you come down and meet him?”
“Ah, yes!” said Carpenter. And he
walked to the door and down the stairs without another
word. The rest of us followed him; Abell and
Moneta first, they being innocent and unsuspicious;
and then Lynch, and then Joe and I.
The prophet stepped out to the street, and was instantly
surrounded by a group of a dozen ex-service men, two
of whom grasped him by the arms. He did not lift
a hand, nor even make a sound. Comrade Abell,
of course, started to cry out in protest; Moneta, the
Mexican, reverted to his ancestors. His hand
flashed to an inside pocket, and a knife leaped out.
A soldier had hold of him, and Moneta shouted, “Stand
back, or I cut off your ears.” At which
Carpenter turned, and in a stern, commanding voice
proclaimed: “Let no man use force in my
behalf! They who use force shall perish by force.”
Moneta stood still; and of course Lynch and Old Joe
and I stood still; and the dozen men about Carpenter
started to lead him away to their automobiles.
