FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  
going on which we didn't hear about, even from our fat cops, it would be investigated, all right. What's the matter with you?" "I'm glad now you told me about that hearing to-night," stated Farr, ignoring the other's curiosity. "I'm glad I know when and where to locate the mayor and his men in session. I'll find out if they propose to waste the people's time hearing funny stories about policemen and are going to let murder go on while they are laughing." He strode away, cursing at his workmen as he tramped along the side of the ditch. Farr knocked at the garret room of Etienne early that evening. "I want you to come with me," he commanded. The old man obeyed without questions. As they walked along the streets Farr did not volunteer information. He was grimly sure that if Etienne should receive an inkling of what was expected of him the old man would not stop running until he had crossed the Canadian border. They were ten minutes worming their way through the press that packed the corridors of City Hall. Groups were bulked at the doors admitting to the aldermen's room--men thatched against each other and overlapping like bees in a swarm at the door of a hive. But the young man was tall and his shoulders were broad and he kept uttering the magic words, "Room for witnesses!" In his own consciousness he knew that what he should attempt to testify to that night was not on the slate, but the crowd accepted him as one of those from whom they anticipated entertainment, and allowed him to pass--and Etienne, holding to his young friend's coat, followed close and made his way before the throng could close in again. The hearing began and progressed, and there was much laughter when the delinquencies of certain fat policemen were related--it was a free-and-easy affair--a sort of midsummer fantasy in municipal politics--a squabble between ward bosses who had become jealous in matters of the distribution of police patronage. Walker Farr, standing against the wall of the audience-chamber, did not laugh. He was busy with thoughts of his own. This bland fooling in municipal matters while stealthy death, protected by city franchise, dripped, so he believed, from every faucet in the tenement-house district, stirred his bitter indignation. Etienne Provancher stood beside him, and the old man did not laugh, either, because he did not understand in the least what those men were talking about. And he was very uneasy, wistfu
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Etienne
 

hearing

 

matters

 
municipal
 

policemen

 

related

 

delinquencies

 

laughter

 

progressed

 

allowed


attempt

 
testify
 

consciousness

 
witnesses
 
accepted
 

throng

 

friend

 

holding

 

anticipated

 

entertainment


distribution

 

faucet

 

tenement

 

wistfu

 

believed

 
protected
 

franchise

 

dripped

 

district

 

stirred


understand

 

talking

 
uneasy
 

bitter

 

indignation

 

Provancher

 

stealthy

 

bosses

 

jealous

 

midsummer


fantasy
 
politics
 

squabble

 

police

 

uttering

 
thoughts
 

fooling

 
chamber
 
audience
 

patronage