XVI
THE TWO CANAANS
When Joe left Ariel at Judge Pike's gate she lingered there, her
elbows upon the uppermost cross-bar, like a village girl at twilight,
watching his thin figure vanish into the heavy shadow of the maples,
then emerge momentarily, ghost-gray and rapid, at the lighted crossing
down the street, to disappear again under the trees beyond, followed
a second later by a brownish streak as the mongrel heeled after
him. When they had passed the second corner she could no longer
be certain of them, although the street was straight, with flat,
draughtsmanlike Western directness: both figures and Joe's quick
footsteps merging with the night. Still she did not turn to go;
did not alter her position, nor cease to gaze down the dim street.
Few lights shone; almost all the windows of the houses were darkened,
and, save for the summer murmurs, the faint creak of upper branches,
and the infinitesimal voices of insects in the grass, there was
silence: the pleasant and somnolent hush, swathed in which that
part of Canaan crosses to the far side of the eleventh hour.
But Ariel, not soothed by this balm, sought beyond it, to see that
unquiet Canaan whither her old friend bent his steps and found his
labor and his dwelling: that other Canaan where peace did not fall
comfortably with the coming of night; a place as alien in habit,
in thought, and almost in speech as if it had been upon another
continent. And yet--so strange is the duality of towns--it lay but
a few blocks distant.
Here, about Ariel, as she stood at the gate of the Pike Mansion,
the houses of the good (secure of salvation and daily bread) were
closed and quiet, as safely shut and sound asleep as the churches;
but deeper in the town there was light and life and merry, evil
industry,--screened, but strong to last until morning; there were
haunts of haggard merriment in plenty: surreptitious chambers where
roulette-wheels swam beneath dizzied eyes; ill- favored bars, reached
by devious ways, where quavering voices offered song and were harshly
checked; and through the burdened air of this Canaan wandered heavy
smells of musk like that upon Happy Fear's wife, who must now be
so pale beneath her rouge. And above all this, and for all this,
and because of all this, was that one re- sort to which Joe now
made his way; that haven whose lights burn all night long, whose
doors are never closed, but are open from dawn until dawn --the
jail.
There, in that desolate refuge, lay Happy Fear, surrendered sturdily
by himself at Joe's word. The picture of the little man was clear
and fresh in Ariel's eyes, and though she had seen him when he was
newly come from a thing so terrible that she could not realize it
as a fact, she felt only an overwhelming pity for him. She was not
even horror-stricken, though she had shuddered. The pathos of the
shabby little figure crossing the street toward the lighted doors
had touched her. Something about him had appealed to her, for he
had not seemed wicked; his face was not cruel, though it was desperate.
Perhaps it was partly his very desperation which had moved her.
She had understood Joe, when he told her, that this man was his
friend; and comprehended his great fear when he said: "I've
got to clear him! I promised him."
Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to save him! I've
got to!" She had answered gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying
to keep up with him. "He's a good man," he said. "I've
known few better, given his chances. And none of this would have
happened except for his old-time friendship for me. It was his loyalty--oh,
the rarest and absurdest loyalty!--that made the first trouble between
him and the man he shot. I've got to clear him!"
"Will it be hard?"
"They may make it so. I can only see part of it surely. When
his wife left the office, she met Cory on the street. You saw what
a pitiful kind of fool she was, irresponsible and helpless and feather-
brained. There are thousands of women like that everywhere--some
of them are `Court Beauties,' I dare say--and they always mix things
up; but they are most dangerous when they're like Claudine, because
then they live among men of action like Cory and Fear. Cory was
artful: he spent the day about town telling people that he had always
liked Happy; that his ill feeling of yesterday was all gone; he
wanted to find him and shake his hand, bury past troubles and be
friends. I think he told Claudine the same thing when they met,
and convinced the tiny brainlet of his sincerity. Cory was a man
who `had a way with him,' and I can see Claudine flattered at the
idea of being peace- maker between `two such nice gen'lemen as Mr.
Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest asseveration-- quite genuine,
too--is that she doesn't like to have the gen'lemen making trouble
about her! So the poor imbecile led him to where her husband was
waiting. All that Happy knew of this was in her cry afterwards.
He was sitting alone, when Cory threw open the door and said, `I've
got you this time, Happy!' His pistol was raised but never fired.
He waited too long, meaning to establish his case of `self-defence,'
and Fear is the quickest man I know. Cory fell just inside the door.
Claudine stumbled upon him as she came running after him, crying
out to her husband that she `never meant no trouble,' that Cory
had sworn to her that he only wanted to shake hands and `make up.'
Other people heard the shot and broke into the room, but they did
not try to stop Fear; he warned them off and walked out without
hindrance, and came to me. I've got to clear him."
Ariel knew what he meant: she realized the actual thing as it was,
and, though possessed by a strange feeling that it must all be medieval
and not possibly of to-day, understood that he would have to fight
to keep his friend from being killed; that the unhappy creature
who had run into the office out of the dark stood in high danger
of having his neck broken, unless Joe could help him. He made it
clear to her that the State would kill Happy if it could; that it
would be a point of pride with certain deliberate men holding office
to take the life of the little man; that if they did secure his
death it would be set down to their efficiency, and was even competent
as campaign material. "I wish to point out," Joe had heard
a candidate for re-election vehemently orate, `that in addition
to the other successful convictions I have named, I and my assistants
have achieved the sending of three men to the gallows during my
term of office!"
"I can't tell yet," said Joe, at parting. "It may
be hard. I'm so sorry you saw all this. I--"
"Oh NO!" she cried. "I want to UNDERSTAND!"
She was still there, at the gate, her elbows resting upon the cross-bar,
when, a long time after Joe had gone, there came from the alley
behind the big back yard the minor chordings of a quartette of those
dark strollers who never seem to go to bed, who play by night and
playfully pretend to work by day:
"You know my soul is a-full o' them-a-trub-bils, Ev-ry mawn!
I cain' a-walk withouten I stum-bils! Then le'ss go on-- Keep walkin'
on! These times is sow'owful, an' I am pow'owful Sick an' fo'lawn!"
She heard a step upon the path behind her, and, turning, saw a white-wrapped
figure coming toward her.
"Mamie?" she called.
"Hush!" Mamie lifted a warning hand. "The windows
are open," she whispered. "They might hear you!"
"Why haven't you gone to bed?"
"Oh, don't you see?" Mamie answered, in deep distress,--"I've
been sitting up for you. We all thought you were writing letters
in your room, but after papa and mamma had gone to bed I went in
to tell you good night, and you weren't there, nor anywhere else;
so I knew you must have gone out. I've been sitting by the front
window, waiting to let you in, but I went to sleep until a little
while ago, when the telephone-bell rang and he got up and answered
it. He kept talking a long time; it was something about the Tocsin,
and I'm afraid there's been a murder down-town. When he went back
to bed I fell asleep again, and then those darkies woke me up. How
on earth did you expect to get in? Don't you know he always locks
up the house?"
"I could have rung," said Ariel.
"Oh--oh!" gasped Miss Pike; and, after she had recovered
somewhat, asked: "Do you mind telling me where you've been?
I won't tell him--nor mamma, either. I think, after all, I was wrong
yesterday to follow Eugene's advice. He meant for the best, but
I--"
"Don't think that. You weren't wrong." Ariel put her arm
round the other's waist. "I went to talk over some things with
Mr. Louden."
"I think," whispered Mamie, trembling, "that you
are the bravest girl I ever knew--and--and--I could almost believe
there's some good in him, since you like him so. I know there is.
And I--I think he's had a hard time. I want you to know I won't
even tell Eugene!"
"You can tell everybody in the world," said Ariel, and
kissed her.