When the Fight Begins

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BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1925 By SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY (Incorporated) t Second Printing, March, 1926 * Printed in the United States of America THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASS. THE BOSTON BOOKBINDINC COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASS. © Cl AS90257 N CONTENTS CHAPTER PACK I The Test of Love . 1 II A Judge Defines Love . 13 III Reba and Mavis .... 24 IV Old Trask of the Double T . 34 V New Love and Old Wine 45 VI The Girl with a Plea . 53 VII The Twist Bit .... 66 VIII The New Mayor 76 IX At Home with the Trasks . 82 X A Specter from the North . 92 XI Why the Music Stopped 102 XII A Woman's Whim 114 XIII Ears and Eyes .... 123 XIV At the Bar of Justice . 138 XV The Verdict of the Jury 145 XVI The Verdict of the Husband 149 XVII One, as an Example . 158 XVIII As Others See Us! . 165 XIX On Angel Knob 173 XX Though the King Was Dead, THE Queen Lived .... 185 XXI On the Matter of Thieves . 191 V VI CONTENTS CHAPTER PACE XXII The Apparition on Bores tone . 204 XXIII The Way of the Woods . 214 XXIV Two Alone on Borestone . 221 XXV He Who Came in the Morning . 229 XXVI The Spark in the Tinder . 236 XXVII The Law. 243 XXVIII The Magic of a Voice . 255 XXIX With the Eyes of a Man . 266 XXX The Revelation of a Dream . 277 XXXI The Man on the Broad Highway . 282 XXXII The Pilgrims in the Dust . 291 XXXIII The Mystery of the Night . 302 XXXIV The Truth from the Eyes . 313 XXXV A Glance Beyond the Rim . 329 WHEN THE FIGHT BEGINS \ WHEN THE FIGHT BEGINS CHAPTER ONE The Test of Love URING the week of John Lang’s absence from the city, affairs for his attention had piled up. Clients had become aware of his unexpected return and had come crowding into his waiting room. However, at four o’clock that afternoon, he abruptly shut off conferences and ordered his secretary to turn away those who were still in line. He hastily dragged on his topcoat, took hat and stick and left his office suite by the private exit. He trotted down the stairs, avoiding chance meetings in the elevator. Opposite the towering office building was the mid- urban park of the metropolis, and he headed straight across, treading along the broad, gravelled path, taking the most direct route to the county buildings. Out¬ wardly, he was quite himself—the dominant John Lang, the doughty defender in the State’s most notable criminal cases, a particularly well recognized figure in the city’s life. Inwardly, he was conscious that he was not at all his usual self; he was ashamed of the quest which he had undertaken on uncontrollable impulse. He was ashamed, too, because this quest involved sen¬ timent. He had never before allowed that emotion to divert him from serious affairs. As he marched past them, men saluted him deferen- l 2 WHEN THE FIGHT BEGINS daily. Women turned to give him an admiring survey after he had passed on. “He will be our next mayor,” was the gist of mascu¬ line comment by those on the inside of affairs as the situation was developing. “The office will be handed to him on a silver platter—like everything else that has come his way.” The women’s estimate took account of personality, not politics. First of all, his bachelorhood at thirty- five presented a problem for strictly feminine con¬ sideration. There were detractors, of course. Some women did not approve his bold features, almost heavy; and they found his eyes disconcerting under the out-thrust bristle of brows which met above his nose. On the other hand, his defenders found his facial aspect in complete harmony with his rugged physical architecture. All women were agreed on the interesting quality of one characteristic; it was revealed when Lang lifted his hat in respectful response to smiling greetings: a lock of white hair sprayed upward from the middle of his forehead, contrasting oddly with the rest of his shaggy mane of dead black. Women insisted on perceiving in that white lock the memento of some buried sorrow. For men it had an entirely different meaning, especially for prosecuting attorneys against whom John Lang battled in his role as the State’s most astute, most aggressive counsel for the defense in criminal cases. He had the habit of twisting that white lock into a veritable horn just be¬ fore he arose to attack the tender spots in the flanks of circumstantial evidence. As he swung along in the first shadows of the autumn’s late afternoon, he seemed to be exulting in his physical well-being and in the consciousness of THE TEST OF LOVE 3 fortune’s favor. His inner, secret humiliation was his own affair and he concealed it. He had stopped argu¬ ing with himself, however, and was going to the job, hateful as he found it. He did relish the nip of the frost in the air; he would have been glad if the snows of the north woods had swept far enough to the south to hide the sere raggedness of the park. He was freshly down from those woods, out of those snows where he had been satisfying his virile zest for muscle- wearying exertion. He had intended to take at least two weeks for his annual hunting trip, but he had cut in half the vacation to which he had looked forward all the year. Now he was rasped by the wire edge of resentment though he did not know whether to blame himself or others. He had impressed upon Reba Donworth that he would be away from the city for two weeks. To fortify his spirit in what he was now doing he tried to con¬ vince himself that she was in fault, provided gossip, and his own suspicions were well founded. In the past he had been punctilious in his methods of meeting Reba. There had been none of the betray¬ ing, uncalculating, obvious fervor of a lover and none of his friends had construed his attentions as love making. He always apprised her by telephone of his intention to call at her home of an evening. His reserved delicacy in the matter of springing surprises squeezed all the spontaneity out of his affair with the girl, such as it was. Undoubtedly, if she were asked bluntly what were John Lang’s intentions, Reba would have been unable to tag them accurately. As a lawyer, he had occasion to drop into the office of the clerk of courts where she was first assistant. When he walked up the court house steps this after¬ noon he felt helplessly incapable of assuming the mask 4 WHEN THE FIGHT BEGINS of an offhand caller attending to business. His con¬ science was working. Straightforwardness was a prin¬ ciple of action with him. His sense of shame told him he had come sneaking on her—a week ahead of the time he had set. He was demeaning himself, as if he had come to play a game of peek-a-boo, squawking at her childishly. He resented his actions and his state of mind; they were something new and foreign in the nature of John Lang, whose custom it was to go boldly and serenely straight at any objective. Among the other apothegms which Lang, keen law¬ yer, had hammered out on the anvil of court experience was this: “Let the mouth speak the story; but let the eyes tell the truth.” Lang wrathfully beat his cane against his leg as he walked down the corridor; whether to drive himself along to the job or to flog himself as a fool and a spy he did not bother to consider. His chief thought was on what he might surprise in her eyes. Reba rose from her desk when he called to her over the rail barrier. She came to him without haste or visible evidence of surprise, her hand outstretched. Avidly Lang sought in her eyes; they were clear pools of composure. Her tone was placidly noncommittal when she answered his first question. “Why, no!” she told him. “You haven’t surprised me, John! I’ve been thinking the politicians wouldn’t allow you to stay two weeks at this time.” His bristle of brows crawled down in a scowl. “I don’t intend to take the nomination; I’ve come back to tell them so.” “Don’t try to make out that you’re not human, John!” She laughed at him, frankly, disconcertingly. Walking across the park he had come to realize with THE TEST OF LOVE 5 chagrin how human he was—human in a cheap and childish way! All at once, in his new temper, he found himself demanding something from her in the way of love demonstration although in the past he had never tried to evoke it.

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