Peter went to the police-station, but they never found
the woman, or if they did, they divided with her and
not with Peter. He threw himself on the mercy
of the sergeant at the desk, and succeeded in convincing
the sergeant that he, Peter, was a part of the machinery
of his country’s defense, and the sergeant agreed
to stand sponsor for ten words to Guffey. So
Peter sat himself down with a pencil and paper, and
figured over it, and managed to get it into ten words,
as follows: “Woman again broke any old
job any pay wire fare.” And it appeared
that Guffey must have sat himself down with a pencil
and paper and figured over it also, for the answer
came back in ten words, as follows: “Idiot
have wired secretary chamber commerce will give you
ticket.”
So Peter repaired forthwith to the stately offices
of the Chamber of Commerce, and the hustling, efficient
young business-man secretary sent his clerk to buy
Peter a ticket and put him on the train. In a
time of need like that Peter realized what it meant
to have the backing of a great and powerful organization,
with stately offices and money on hand for all emergencies,
even when they arose by telegraph. He took a
new vow of sobriety and decency, so that he might
always have these forces of law and order on his side.
Section 77
Peter was duly scolded, and put to work as an “office
man” at his old salary of twenty dollars a week.
It was his duty to consult with Guffey’s many
“operatives,” to tell them everything he
knew about this individual Red or that organization
of Reds. He would use his inside knowledge of
personalities and doctrines and movements to help
in framing up testimony, and in setting traps for too
ardent agitators. He could no longer pose as
a Red himself, but sometimes there were cases where
he could do detective work without being recognized;
when, for example, there was a question of fixing a
juror, or of investigating the members of a panel.
The I. W. Ws. had been put out of business in American
City, but the Socialists were still active, in spite
of prosecutions and convictions. Also there was
a new peril looming up; the returned soldiers were
coming back, and a lot of them were dissatisfied,
presuming to complain of their treatment in the army,
and of the lack of good jobs at home, and even of
the peace treaty which the President was arranging
in Paris. They had fought to make the world safe
for democracy, and here, they said, it had been made
safe for the profiteers. This was plain Bolshevism,
and in its most dangerous form, because these fellows
had learned to use guns, and couldn’t very well
be expected to become pacifists right off the bat.
Copyrights
100%: the Story of a Patriot from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
