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Las diagrammas suivants illuatrant la mathoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART [ANSI ond liO TEST CHART No. 2| 1.0 gis li^ ^ /APPLIED IIVMGE ^S\ 1653 East Moin Slree) r.S Rochester, Men Yofk U609 US, 'JS (716) «a2 - 0300 - Phone ^^ (716) 288 - 59S9 - Fq» ■r r / ^HE NEW DAWN She felt ralhcr than saw the shadow on his face THE NEW DAWN BY AGNES C. LAUT ACTHOR OF " FREEBOOTIKS OP THE WILDERNESS,' "LORDS 01 THE NORTH," ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1913 .'-7- COPYMGBT 1913, BY KOFFAT, VARD AND COHPANT All Rights Resemd PDBUSHEI), NOVEHBEE, I9I3 CONTENTS I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Part I. The Win for Power. * PAGE WARD STUDIES THE SECRET OF SUCCESS . . ii WARD ADOPTS A NEW CREED OF LIFE ... 26 WHEREIN TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT CON- TINUES TO PLAY AN INTERESTING PART IN THE SCHEMES OF MISS FATE 45 WHEREIN TOM WARD GOES ON THE FIRST RUNGS OF THE LADDER 56 A DOUBLE CROSS AND A DOUBLE SHUFFLE AND THE PRICE OF POWER 66 THE REWARD j, vn. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. Part II. In the Fullness of His Power. WARD'S NEW CREED IN PRIVATE go WARD'S CREED IN PRACTICE jog MORE OF WARD'S CREED IN PRACTICE . . 1,6 THE CREED AND A GIRL ijj THE CREED WORKED OUT BY LITTLE MEN AND LESS BRAINS ,jj THE CREED IN THE LITTLE MAN WITH A CONSCIENCE jjo CONTENTS Part in. „„, PACE XIII. THE CREED THAT THE GREATER POWER WINS XIV. THE CREED IN A WIFE XV. THE CREED WORKED OUT BY PLEASURE SEEKERS XVI. THE CREED AND THE LABOR LEADER ' 'Z XVII. AFTERWARDS 2XX XVin. ONE W.\Y TO RECOVER A CONSCIENCE j., XIX. TO STRENGTH AND WILL-ADD PURPOSE 2,0 XX. THE CREED ON EXHIBITION ... .^^ XXI. THE CREED IN ACTION XXII. THE MOMENTUM THAT PUSHES US FOR- WARD XXIIL BY-PRODUCTS NOT included' IN LEDGERS 33" XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVTII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV Part IV. Power Triumphant. THE CREED RECKONS WITH DEMOS ,60 UNMOORED OLD FRIENDS IN STRANGE PLACES . . 387 MADELINE MEETS THE GRIM SHADOW -or AFTERWARDS 41 r WHEN LABOR ADOPTS THE BRUTE CREED 4^8 WARD REVISES HIS CREED . BUT IT IS TOO LATE ° THE DAWN '' '' 476 THE CREED CONFRONTS ITSELF .... .g^ THE ARMAGEDDON THE GREAT FACT OF ALL CREEDS .' .' .' ' .' ^ I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A woman, with black hair massed at the neck, entered disdainfully (Outside Cover) She felt rather than saw the shadow of his face. FrmUsp; That she was being watched" . "So she pointed" PAGE 260 310 THE NEW DAWN PART I THE WILL FOR POWER I CHAPTER I WARD STUDIES THE SECRET OF SUCCESS The young fellow studied the face of the great capitalist as he had never before studied any face in his life — youth wresting secrets from age; trying to solve the riddles which youth has not yet had the experience to understand. The elder man stood erect, hands in pockets, be- hind the wicket of the sh!p yards' office. Clerks were paying out checks to the long lines of work- men — seven thousand there were in the lines where the boy stood. In the president's appearance there was nothing remarkable. He was slightly bald, and clean-shaven except for a close-cropped mustache. A hard firmness of jaw and massiveness of shoulder power and chest gave evidence of strength and reso- lution to battle with tasks— perhaps, of sheer de- light in the game of life being complex and difficult and baffling. He reminded the young workman of 12 THE NEW DAWN la al rt Ih Tu" ""= P-^-^-Kile. muscu- lar alert ,n bra>n and brawn, with crushing force hidden away somewhere in his personality H yes were cold, unemotional, steady, seeing L end from wh,ch h.s will would never swerve, ^treng'h • • • • strength o( body and mind; Will the r k'°or St''"' '"= ^'■P"'^ • • ■ • '"^ ^ shining mark or star that was the man, with the qu.ck judgment that leaps to conclusions and he conscence that scruples at nothing . Con '"^""^ , Why, this man would have no con- c,ence except the consciousness of failure! Ward looked at h,m and knew these things as surely as he knew that the president of the co .pany had the cold blue eyes of a woods hunter! Superfically, the president of the ship yards re- sembled the general ru.. of prosperous people He was well groomed, but not so well-dressed as to di rect attention to dress. Above all, he was piritu- w I 'fi'r'^'y. -'^-'l-tly healthy-"fit •• That ^ at man^, '""^ "°^''"^" '°°'^'='l '"^'=^ '° the great man s eyes-no remorse, no pity, no thought of good or ,11, only masterful purpose bent to an unswervmg end; but wait . . i f the Ld Z s7dL^r:;j:rtr'^^°-j^r-'— ^^^^^ sidle, and, if the aim receded as this man advanced he would pursue. The boy knew this in a vague son of way from his own life. As a little chap fiv ".g a starving sort of life on the edge of Shan^ Town, he remembered that his sole ambition had THE Sr-CRET OF SUCCESS 13 been to get a footing— any kind of footing— in the big ship yards. When he had gone home to tell his mother that he was to be messenger boy at a do!- lar and a half a week he had been so mad with hap- piness all night that he could not sleep; but, inside of a month, he had set his aim to advance to the p ace of the boy who helped the blast furnace men Now, at eighteen, he was second furnace man, earn- mg seventy a month; and it had been forcing itself on him for the last year that he could not save much more on seventy a month than he used to at a dol- lar and a half a week. Something amiss in the home off the edge of Shanty Town absorbed all his thrift and foresight like an absorbing sponge; but that did not quench his desire to get on. He was furnace man now; but he knew progress would be blocked unless he did one of two things— joined the iron workers' union, or lifted himself to another plane of work. He was using his hands now. Un- less he could climb up where he would use both his head and his hands— and that was what he was try- ing to read in the face of the president As fast and far as the aim receded, this man would pur- sue It. Young Ward felt strangely moved. If it had been in a religious meeting instead of in the long lines of the ship yards' workers waiting for their pay, we would say he was undergoing a change of heart, a rebirth. It was half attraction, half fear wholly admiration, and not a vestige of the jealous resentment which many feel toward those who beat 14 THE NEW DAWN them in the game of life. Ward was keen to get into the arena to play the game of life with all its odds and handicaps, and never a whimper for one of theml The long lines kept moving up to the pay wickets. The men kept shuffling out as they exchanged their checks for cash envelopes; and Ward knew exactly where many of those fattest pay envelopes would disgorge themselves before Monday morning. The chasm between the man behind the wicket and the man in front of it was wider than the chasm be- tween Lazarus in Heaven and Dives in Hell. Why .... theboy asked himself; and again the realiza- tion came Given .... Strength .... Will .... Purpose: the result blazed in letters of fire ... . There could be only one result .... Success .... Then, the singsong of the pay clerk calling out .... Tom Ward .... six-six-eight — eight .... He was only a number .... yet, only one of an infinite number of moiling millions; and the earth was limed with the bones of the dead of such as he. As Ward signed his initials to the pay list he felt his employer eyeing him. It caused a tingle of hope that was ridiculous; for the great man may not have noticed him; still less, suspected that he was planting a seed in the mind of a smudgy hobble-de-hoy in blue overalls, destined to overshadow nations in its growth. The stillest hours may be the greatest hours; for the birth of a new thought dated from that moment. Th • SECRET OF SUCCESS ij When he left the olficc, young Ward did not board the tramcar with the other workers. He wanted to be alone .... to think! He had a vague consciousness that men, who didn't stand back, alone and aloof, detached from vei-min and vatr.. pires, from sponges and parasites .... to think, were sure to become dray horses, oxen yoked to the treadmill of bootless toil — muzzled oxen, too, per- haps, not permitted to snatch at grain trodden from the mill of toil for other men. His thoughts were running he had no idea where, though he knew if he did not succeed in realizing some of them that he world be in a maelstrom of life-long discontent. Wc think that material things dominate life, how much we earn, how much we .-.pend, what we eat and wear; but here was a grimy youth earning and spending much the same as seven thousand other em- ployees in the ship yards; and what marked him out from the others forever was the new thought born in his soul ... the resolution to Strength . . . and Will .... and Power! Quickly crossing the commons, he struck along the river road through the woods. Neither the flakes of cloud rose-red in the sunset, ncr a shimmer- ing haze of spring hanging over the gray-green fields in a veil— caught the eye of young Tom Ward. His thoughts were chaos; and out of chaos are flung new stars. Just above the apple bloom and lilac hedges a star picked through the gray twilight, a diamond point in a veil of mist; but the star rising for Ward unknown to himself shone far down life's i6 THE NEW DAWN hazy trail beckoning from a rosy glow raved with hope, quivering and pulsing with a new electrifying fire; and its name was .... Success . . . that much he knew ... He was going to do the thing called . . . Success; or die game and at it! f le scented blossoms gave a riotous sense of new lift . . . joyous life .... life at the foam .... as though he had kicked off rags and tatters of a mean sordid existence, as he nightly kicked off his grimed overalls, and leaped, washed and clean and keen to the race tracks of life, where he was going to run to win, whether or no! The spring lights flickering the gray-green fields were not edged so bright a gold as the hopes thrown off by his own thoughts. It was not the ticklingi of vanity, of passion at its spring tide in the veins of youth. The ideal he w.is building in flashes of thought and de- termination and fiope was not an idol with sawdust stuffing made up of ego; he didn't see himself be- coming a little tin god set up on the necks of other men, spoonfed with adulation, slathered with flat- tery. It was zest of the joy of life .... the race . . . . the game ... the pursuing ... not the winning! Success didn't consist of getting hold of tangible chunks of something and sitting hatching on it like an old hen till life became addled and rot- ten ... . Success consisted in this game-thing, this coursing the race track of life . . . this aihieving and pursuing a fleet-footed aim higher and farther and wider afield .... He'd found the secret of life ... of youth ... or being ... of doing! 1 THE SPXRET OF SUCCESS 17 . . . Once hidden by the woods Ward threw out his chest, tossed down liis dinner pail, drew a deep breath of the spring air, and uttered x boyish yell of exultation! . . . Life .... was good spite of hard knocks in Shanty Town! Life .... was wine in pulsing joyous veins! Hope, rose-red, edged with gold, suffused itself through the bright future of his ilreains .... Success .... Success at any price of body or soul, time or work ... he was going to have this Success Thing .... if Strength and Will and Purpose would do it I To be sure, there were hanilicaps; so there were in all races; but the fleet of foot left handicapf be- hind! For seven years he had done a man's work with a boy's body, supporting a father whose sole belief was that he should increase the race — not maintain it — and whose belief took form in eight more children than he could suppoit. He had been handicapped by burdens that others had Dound, handicapped by lack of education, by lack of train- ing except such as the hard and effective knocks of life afforded, by lack of a start where his ancestors had left off. Tom Ward senior having fallen be- hind in the progress of the race, Tom Ward junior must make up lost ground. He remembered just before the mortgage had been foreclosed on the old farmstead, which his ancestors had won from the Indians at d worked for two hundred years — was it the fifth or sixth baby that had been born? . he couldn't remember that; but, anyway, the doctor was in his mother's room ; and the pale-faced little i8 THE NEW DAWN girls— the others of the family were all girls— were standing at the foot of the bed; and a little red- faced mite of something human lay muffled in white beside his mother; and the doctor had looked frst at the mother s weary face, then at the wan little girls, then at himself, at that time, a sturdy farm boy of ten. "How is it your eldest boy is such a husky little piker when the others aren't?" asked the doctor genially. ' "Oh, I guess I had hopes and dreams and happy thoughts before Tom came," his mother had an- swered. He hadn't known, then, what she meant. 1 here came a queer look to the doctor's face. He blew his nose like a piece of pulpit artillery. "Well, Tom's a throw-back to the good old stock that pioneered these New England hills," the doctor had said. "Yes, Tom resembles his grandfather," his mother had answered. Then, his father had come in, red-faced, wagging his beard. As a child he had not understood, then; but he realized now. It was his mother's inheritance that his father's blundering had dispersed; and even then all the children knew that the father resented people talking to his mother —hated her superiority. Perhaps, it was the gruel- ing ar J gnlimg of that daily sad spectacle in his childhood home that had rooted out of his own nature any jealousy to superiority. Anyway, he was "a throw-bark to the good old stock," whatever that was, and had ten times more energy ir. lis little THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 19 finger than the rest of the family had in two gener- ations. Then, the mortgage had been foreclosed; and his people joined the procession of the thou- sands who flocked from farm to factory, exchanging the birth-right of broad acres for the mess of pot- tage in town tenement. They had never quite come down to tenement life. His earnings as messenger boy had paid the rent of a small house on the edge of phanty Town, between the woods and the sea. "We can keep our bodies and souls clean here, at all events," his mother had said wearily as the boy had passed stove pipes and broken crockery and backless chairs and babies down off the farm wagon into the little shabby house. But to-night, with the rose-red of the sunset aslant through the lilac hedges and the rose-red of his reso- lution tinting ihe future with the pure, steady light of one guiding star— his courage took a leap out beyond all handicaps. He understood now what "a throw-back to the good old stock" meant. By the light of the furnace, when he was fireman to the night shift, he had read the ship yards' library voraciously. He also knew now that if some men had not leaped beyond the heritage of their handi- caps the human race might yet be slinking through the jungle in pursuit, not of stars, but prey. Sweat was oozing from his shaggy hair in beads. His temples pounded like hammers. Ward knew the pain of concentrated joy in the birth-throes of his hopes. Strength .... Will .... Purpose! The secret ... he had it at last! He was going 20 THE NEW DAWN to "make the race tracks of life hum, by God; and Devil take the hindermostl" He was sick of in- competents, of unfits, of sponges and parasites and no-goods and grurablers at life, whose refrain was self pity, and whose fate that of the swine that went over the precipice into the sea I Ward sat down on a log with hands linked round one knee and eyes fixed on space . . . There were really two worlds ... the Ups and the Downs .... the On-Tops and the Unders .... the Commanders and the Commanded Why? .... Then the same thought back like a battle cry .... Strength . . . Will .... Purpose .... The result must be Success; and success meant power, the game, pursuing a fleet-of-foot aim up and out and beyond I . . . Ward jumped to his feet with a second joyous yell. "Gee-whizz 1 One of the shovel stiffs from your ship yards, Admiral Westerly; and he's got bats in his belfry," cried the broken falsetto of a youth in adolescence; and Tom Ward crumpled up in hot red-faced confusion; for almost on top of his hiding place galloped five riders— a carrot-headed boy in khaki and silk shirt blouse and scarlet tie leading the way on a pony, followed by the president of the ship yards and a red-faced man in a military suit mounted on high-paced, dock-tailed cobs. A smallish black- eyed boy and a very little girl with shaking curls came cantering behind on Shetland ponies. Even as he dropped from the clouds of his dreams to an earth that he wished would close over him, the young THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 21 workman recognized the group at a glance. The little girl was the only child of the ship yards' presi- dent, whom the boy had addressed as Admiral Westerly; the other rider, officer of the State Infan- try, of whose malodorous life not an operative in the yards was ignorant. The small, black-eyed boy on the Shetland pony was evincing symptoms of snickering wh-;n the president spoke : "A gentlcnan doesn't say thrt sort of thing, Hebden ! Whsh " But the little girl was not paying the least atten- tion to anyone. She was slipping off her pony with eyc3 intent on a violet bank, when the military man spoke. "Pretty damp for little feet and bare legs — Westerly." "Louie," called the president, "go back on your pony this minute! Ground's damp here, and tht sea fog coming in " and he had flung his foot stirrup free to dismount, when Tom Ward junior came out of his embarrassment with a jump, jerked off his cap and, extending his hand, had given the little girl a lift back to her saddle. "By Jove — that was neat," said the military man to the red-headed youth, whom Ward heard quot- ing something about "a Don Wan in the rustic." The president was visibly fingering his vest pocket for a tip. "Go on with the children. Colonel Dillon," he was saying, "I think this is one of our men." 22 THE NEW DAWN Ward had put on his cap and turned his back as the colonel rode off with the children. "I saw you in the ship yards to-night, didn't I?" asked the admiral. Ward felt the electric thrill go from his spine to I'.is finger tips. The president had brought out a handful of change and was picking out two quarters. Ward turned. "Yes, sir!" The president put the two quarters back in his pocket. Ward did not want the tip; but he did not know whether to feel grim or cynical when he saw the coins slip back. The president was rummaging his trousers pockets. "A dime, ill bet," thought Ward grimly; and he wanted to laugh at this drop from dream clouds to a dime's worth of mortification; but Admiral West- erly did not proffer more coins. He sat rummaging his trousers pocket with one hand, reining his horse in with the other, looking Ward over with a search- ing glance that bored into the boy's marrow. Again, that electric tingling ran from the woi cer's spine to his finger tips. At that moment, so far from being in rose-hued clouds, he felt himself all hands, all feet, all legs; in a word, a huge lumbering gawk reddening the color of a turkey's wattle. "Which 's your department?" asked the president curtly. "Second furnace man; day shift now; used to be night boy — — " THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 23 "Never mind 'used-to-be'sl' Do you want to get on — to go ahead?" Ward was so taken aback that he didn't know whether to expect some "be-good-and-you-will-bc- happy" advice, some platitudes about working classes saving their money, or a round call-down for intruding on the group of ri icrs to help the little girl. "I asked you," repeated Admiral Westerly, "do vou want to rise?" Ward was so taken aback that he did not recog- nize his own voice, nor pick his words. "More than hell I do," was what he managed to blunder out. "Never mind the nell; and remove that cap of yours! It doesn't grow there, does it?" The president was slowly twisting the invisible ends of his clone-cropped mustache. "\Vhat I meant, sir," blundered young Ward, "was that I'd give all I own " "Which isn't much," interjected the president. "Just to get my feet on the lowest rung of the ladder." "Hm," ruminated the president. "I know I can make good if I can just get my feet on th-; bot'.om run of the ladder " "Yes, if somebody doesn't stamp on your fingers from above, or pull you down by the legs below, or upset your ladder altogether," ruminated the man on horseback, putting his hand back in his trousers pocket and pulling out a twenty dollar gold piece. 24 THE NEW DAWN Ward made no reply, because there didn't seem any to make. "I see you don't let the grass grow under your feet; or your hat." "What is he driving at?" thought the boy; but he had sense enough or fright enough to hold his tongue. "Who are these delegate union fellows working up trouble among the riveters and platers?" de- manded the great man. "I don't know," answered Ward. "I have never been able to afford to join the firemen's union, but I guess I'll have to at twenty-one." "Not a member yet?" "No, sir," answered Ward. "Can you find out for me if these agitators are from the foreign yards, and keep your mouth shut about it?" "I think so; they are to meet secretly in the fur- nace room to-morrow — Sunday — when the cleaners are supposed to be at won; " "Don't think," emphasized the admiral. "Will you, or will you not?" And the answer came from Ward like a stone from a catapult— "Will I— Yes, I will!" (Strength . . . Will .... Purpose . . . Power — the boy was drunk with a wine the great man did not guess.) The president took the gold coin from his palm and handed it between his forefinger and thumb to- ward the grimy faced workman in oily blue over- alls. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS 25 ;'No, sir," said Ward, "not till I've ear.ed my price. ' "There may be no price " laddw-^"" ^" ""^ ^'" °" ''"^ ''"' '■""8 °^ ^'"= The answer of the president of the ship yards' company was a dig of the spurs that sent his horse on the gallop after the other riders. Ward stood rooted; but as the cob went hurling into the woods the president turned sidewise and glanced back at the figure of the young workman. Ward looked up just at the moment to catch the glance. He felt as It an arrow had ripped into his inner slumbering consciousness. He had been picked out from the mob of other men. It remained for him to make good. , CHAPTER II WARD ADOPTS A NEW CREED OF LIFE Right here and now it would be very simple to preach a httle sermon on the mistake Tom Ward made at the beginning of his career by choosing Success as h,s aim instead of Service. When he thought of his fellow workers as "a mob," he was on the edge of a precipice, from which Lucifer and many other Sons of Morning have plunged from a heaven of dreams to the pit of their own fierv discontent. We have all heard the allegory of the man who set out to follow the mountain stream from US sprmg in the snows down to the sea, and who made the mistake of setting out on the wrong side of the tricklet. The trouble with that pretty parable .s you en n't always follow the mountain stream tricklmg from the snows. It loses itself under quaking moss and in swamps. It dips down under a glacier and takes to curving round preci- pices, where you would break your neck if you fol lowed. Bemg good is something n.ore than follow- mg a silver thread in the sunlight. It is often using good judgment to find the thread when you lose ^t and to recognize the thread when you find it; and' generally, life hurries us into action before we have 26 A NEW CREED OF LIFE 27 time or wisdom to talce stock of our own mo- When Ward came out of the daze where the nders ad left him standing i„ the wood eem ngly-I suppose-he walked home. In rea ity, Z trod on the vv.ngs of the wind. He did not feci the earth beneath his feet. All fatigue had go e o o h.s hmbs and m .ts place was a sort of living He'd Tl u'"""^ '"^'''"^ '" « "^^ glory He felt as ,f he had put himself in touch wlh a aid n" '""? -'T™""^ '"''" ^'"^'h dominated Syrobetng '""" ^''' '' ^°""^ -"""^'^ Alas for the hopes! They were like a powerful electnc current turned into a broken wire ending .n a sputtenng and burning; for, as he emerged frlm the woods there stood the little house on 'he edfc" wan i„"th 7' 7^ ''""'^^ "^'="' ""P^'"^^J -d wan, m the m.dst of an unkempt garden with a fall- InH ? h- °V''''"'"S '^°'' «"d '°o^^"ing grip and dashmg hopes^ It had been quite a hous' lo, m ts day, a seaside pleasure place for some pros! perous merchant m days gone by before the ship yards bu,lt up a Shanty Town, and the Shanty Tow,' zirti °" ''' "^ ""p- Ward look/d it r over w,th new eyes. There was an old colonia mansion turned mto a tenement. The porter', lod^ was now a Poli.h lodging house. What made th d.fference between this place now and long a^o 28 THE NEW DAWN The souls of the people inside the houses; and with new eyes the boy noted as he passed into the yard the top hinge of the gate gone, the pig weed in the vegetable garden, the broken slats in the board walk, a rickety board in the house steps. "Wha' kep' yo' late?" mumbled a thick voice, sleepily, from a wooden rocker on the veranda. Ward had always noticed how his father dragged his feet. He had never so sharply noticed how the words dragged in the same inert way. "I walked!" he answered barely civilly, an un- speakable rage suddenly flaring up in him. "Wha' d' y' walk for? Why didn't y' take the car? Funny thing if other men can ride and my son has to walk " "You're mighty thoughtful about your son, all of a sudden," returned the boy sullenly. He was well aware that if he had ridden his father would hav; demanded why he had not walked. The man had the habit of looking at life with a snarl. Things went wrong with him because he always went wrong with them. Ward was now looking at his father with new eyes. This head was massive, too, but it was not the massiveness of strength. Where the president's head had suggested a lion in action this man's gave the imnression of the sodden stupidity of a cross-grained ox. His square shoulders slouched. His great hands dangled loose. Here was strength, too, but it wasn't the strength of the fit. A great wave of revulsion went over the boy's being. "How is mother?" he asked. A NEW CREED OF LIFE 29 "Oh, she's done a good djy's job, this time ' It's a boy— this time. That makes two boys to seven girls; and that's 'bout what girls are worth in earn- in' wages, tool You're gettin' seventy. Would take three and a half girls t' earn that. Boy brings in money from time he's in his teens. Girl never brings in .nuch and is a burden till " "Burden?" The boy burst out in a hard laugh that the wooden-headed sire did not in the least understand. Though he had not earned a dollar honestly or dishonestly in ten years, Ward senior was smh an authority on earnings and savings and economics in his family's affairs and Shanty Town's affairs and ship yard affairs as never before spouted from an apple barrel in a grocery store. The man rose and gazed dully after the boy. The boy went to his own room, changed his clothes, and emerged dressed as if to go out. He sat down to the supper table without a word. The other children had gone out. Father and son ate alone. Suddenly, the father noticed something and threw down his knite with an unpleasant sneer. "What y' putt your white shirt on for?" Ward didn't answer, but went on with his mea'. The elder man's amused look hardened. "Needn't think a boy could fool him." A thin girl of twelve or thereabouts toiled over the stove. She was hot, white, ansmic, and she shufided her feet like her father. She wore the deadly pallor of an invalided woman and was listless with that most pathetic of all old ages— the ol^ age of the young. The son 30 THE NEW DAWN finished his meal and sat back. Something newly awakened arose in blind, furious, ragmg revolt against his surroundings. There was the twisted window-shade that ought to have been rolled. There was the gate with the broken hinge which one nai" would have righted. Ihere was the garden path which an hour's work would have cleared of weeds. Young Ward hardly knew whether to laugh at his dreams or at what he saw. Certain it was— one of the two must give place to the other— dreams of success, or proofs of failure. "I aut'd y' whad y' putt y' white shirt on for?" "I suppose." answered the boy, "if a hog were taken out of a pig-sty and put in a parlor it would still be a hog." "Oh, you needn't try t' fool me by talkin' some- thin' else I You mind y'rself and be careful what kind of a trollop y' go trapezin' round streets Satur- day night." Instead of being angry young Ward nearly luughed. He leaned forward with his elbow on the table and his face in his palm. It was becoming comical. If Ward senior had been suspicious be- fore, he was certain now. "Mary, you bring me that sugar bowl," he roughly ordered the little girl. The look of amusement faded to hard contempt on the son's face. He folded his arms over the table and leaned forward. "I guess not," he countermanded quietly. "You leave that lump sugar where it is, Maryl We're I I A NEW CREED 01 LIFE 3, not going to use lump jugar till the bills for the new baby arc paid." The son sat up suddenly very straight. The father threw his knife and fork to his plate open- mouthed. I he revolt h:,d come so suddenly his dull head could not take it in. The little alarm clock on the k.tchen shelf was ticking the minutes off so furiously that .t threatened to jump in the middle of the floor. "p'j' hear me, Mary?" roared the man. "Vou tn'hiJ "".h K^.'T""'." "'-• ^'"^ '=»■"■•" hold of the table w.th both hands and had half risen, leaning forward so, open-mouthed. Young Ward rose, set nis chair in, and waited. fn2' '"S. ^''''' r'^'"^ ^''"' ^'="' «''''«= with fright. There am t any more sucjar," she stam- mered in what was obviously a stared lie Then, I'll git't, myself " "No!" That was all the boy said; but he ut- tered it so firmly the father paused. Father and son glared across the table. The boy's ambition rebelled against sonship to unworth. He felt a sudden, over- whelming sense of shame that his father had „o uTx'/ n, '"''" '"'''°°'' 'f ^°' weakening. . We 11 see; we'll see," he muttered thickly, mak- mg to move. ■' "Sfop right there and now!" ordered the boy with outstretched arm. "Father, will you be good plainly, for the first time in your life? No— I'm across your way !" He had planted himself squarely 32 THE NEW DAWN in front of his father. "Just take in the fact, will you?— that I weight one hundred and sixty-five pounds; and it's every ounce muscle. You weigh two hundred pounds; and it's all fat; and flabby fat, too. It wouldn't help mother if we got into a fight." The man had raised his arm, but he dropped it. "Who's talkin' o' fight?" he stormed in a voice meant for the sick room. "Speak low, and sit down," answered the son. "I have something to tell you." The burly face dropped angrily behind the table again, but, for the life of him, Tom Ward junior didn't know what to say. He took hold of the back of his chair. What was there to say? The eyes that had sought the secret of success now sought the secret of failure. "Well?" demanded the man. "Have you got into some mess with a trollop?" The funny side of it suddenly overwhelmed Ward. He laughed uproariously. "Yes, yes; that's It, dad! It's a Miss Fate, you may have seen work- mg in the offices of the ship yards' company." "Fate— so that's the huzzy! Office girl all trick't out in millin'ry an' airs, I s'pose! If she's in trouble, why don't you marry her?" The promise of a juicy revelation from the son had eclipsed all thought of the lump sugar and set the old man licking his chops, eating voraciously and ferociously. "Why don't you marry her?" he repeated. I I A NEW CKEED OF LIFE 33 Ward junior sat down in his chair and slowly lighted a cigarette. "I'm ^-.,,5 to marry her if sh-j'll have me," he said vith a wry ,,'rin, "but I don't exactly know how to .'XDlain " 'Well, you needn't think 1 w^.u fxplainin's and explainin's 'bout a mess any son o' mine's got into with a flighty huzzy," returned the father, ob- viously on the point of bursting with curiosity. "While you're thinkin' up excuses for misdoin's, I'd thank somebody t'help me mend the pump." "Somebody?" said Ward junior softly. He could not remember a day in his life when his father had not wanted "somebody" to help him to do some- thing. "Did you look for work, to-day?" he asked gently. A sense of pity for the inevitableness of failure had touched the boy. ^ "No, I didn't! What'd be the use? I ain't goin' t' work like a convict t' have foremen swear at me like a dog I I ain't goin' to join the union: and you know, well as I do, if a man don't join he ain't got a chance at the ship yards. If you didn't do a man's work at a boy's pay you couldn't hold your job! Better confess your own misdoin's. As far as work's concerned— there's nothin' doin'! I tell you— there's nothin' doin' !" Young Ward dropped his cigarette in the dregs of the coffee cup. "Nothing doing?" he repeated. A great wave of bitterness and sadness and grimness had taken the mirth out of him. "There never will be any- thing doing for a family that lets the grass grow 34 THE NEW DAWN "Whad's that'" Ti,„ °^vious,y going off J*;"-;-^^^ -oney for putting yadT to "'^.^ '° ^^ «-'^ ship yard people wan I f !:'^^''- ^ '"^«" '^e that's all r- ^ ^=!"f g°od work for good money; "All?" Tjiedder man grew slowly purple. '^'^|^^;^!?t^"^^^'^^eardasHepul^ worf? mrtV'y-T '':,•:? ^-'^ ^^^ ^'- «- «■ The beard wagged from the ^^'' "7 '^'' ^'S^'"'" lap of an angfy bull '"^ """^ ^'''^ ^J*^ ^ew- retaHatl'al^enn?''' '^/r''^ P-''^^'>' ''^ve -a perfor„,a„cf L which 'r ' '°"^ '" ^y^^"'" thicker head is ccrta „ „ '^""' P'^'" ^'^^^ '^e he rose, chest flu g out sh '^^ °"' '^^ ''^"^^•- but '^'■^ arms. It ,Z7o, \ "' "''''"'' ^"'^ ^o'ded with the cau of fat , 1°""'' '^'' '""koning half way. When he nnl" ^' "" ^'"^ ^^^^''^ng^ "I don't blame vo"^ " 'T ''"^ 'J"''^^- There is no e. "e for a"f " ?'" ' '"^ =>" ^^ -• o-- three generatLn "l/ aTu' I ^°^^ .^ -"^'^ ^wo rut— that's it; and we'-/ ^^^ ^^ 8°* '" a been wallowi;g in th m^d '° f ' °"^' ^e've fe the mud— there's something NEW CREED OF LIFE I and find out^^hat s wTon: 1" '' '? ^^" ^'^'"g'' raponsibrlity which he hn.l h ! ^"S* shoulder, of 0,1,7. '"''"S °" "' .« drop r if: s ";™ ■: "'''-"'• "">«• i'.;'=f,otrs:fr'--'" fessiI°l'o~''°K r''°''' ''°PP^'^ '■" fhe middle o' con- yrrXXillt-^^'^'' ---'--- -he Shi; "Cut that outi" interjected the boy. "If y,. 36 THE NEW DAWN were not so jumping keen for the unclean, father you would notice I was making fun about fate and luck and that sort of thing. I'm not reproaching you more than any one of us. I only say— we'd better mend our ways than wallow round in ditch water pretending it's God's fault. God has noth- ing to do with our poverty and failure. Long as we are stupid as hogs, God Himself couldn't make us succeed if He tried." It dawned through the father's thick skull at last He was ! eing defied in his own house. He was being taunted with failure under his own roof His boy, who had been docile as the sheep dog up to that night— docile or thoughtless— was making fun of his father, defying parental authority, talking lightly of some misdoings with a girl in the office He seemed to have called his father— a hog. "You— you," he roured thickly, shuffling round to his son's side of the table, flourishing his arms "I have a rnind to— thrash you !" "Don't you hit mel" said the son speaking quickly; "for if I hit you back— it will— it will— hurt you." Midway of his rush the enraged old man paused. His face slowly purpled till the veins stood out thickly in his neck and forehead. "Poor dad," said the son. "I guess you can't help It! It s the way you're built. You'd pretty nearly like to knock me down, only you daren't I guess you'll take it out kicking the dog and raging at mother and cuffing the kids at family players A NEW CREED OF LIFE 37 S,v',^"'JT'r T"^' ' ^''PPy '"""^' dad!" The boy^reached for his hat hanging on a peg of the The old man could scarcely articulate. The thetw'-So""'"' '''f ""'^ ^P'^P'-^'^ ^-- the throat Go-go-go from this house forever I Never darken the.e doors agam. And-and-" h added magnammou.Iy, "may God forgive your ^n toward your father." ^ The son passed out to the cool twilight without 1 r ^/"^ '^"' ^"^ ^P^""g f° his face a new look Manhood Resolute. He had left h s youti behmd m the ne'er-do-well home. On his squared shoulders rested a new Manhood forlr"^'' ^'.- u' *"'" '^""'^'"8 "'^ ^!"^ I bought for my j^other?' he asked himself out in the garden Af er all, such disputes were so useless. His fathT; hadhadnov.s,on. Scales were on his eyes. How could he see? .\s well take the ho,, out of thi stye and expect it to change in a parlor us the n an out of a wallow of failure and expect him to sue ceed wuhout a change in his on„ heart I bark I'nf '^" ''""■'■'' "^^^ "^^'"^ ^' did not turn back to beg an unneeded forgiveness as, perhaps he stubborn old man secretly hoped. $; fhis Ts he beg„,nmg of the high .reams! . . He h"/ h.! "'"'"^''' ■ • • B-^fter have done w"h the shiftless, wrong-headed, poverty-cursed pis!- \Vh 'uA . . '^"'^ P*'^ ^"'y 'f« dead! . \Vho hadsa.d that? . . . or was ,t . "Let the dead bury their dead?" Nn „,« 7 , . . . ixo matter who said 38 THE NEW DAWN it, it was the only motto for a true beginning! . . . He could do better without the home than it could do without him; but then, there was his mother! . . . That gave pause to the reckless resolve . . . A great weight seemed suddenly to come back . . . A chill swept over h's enthusiasm. It was the last protest of the old ties against the new creed. Well, then, if he had to be hard, he must be hard; that was all ! Strength! . . . Will! . . . Purpose! that was it! . . . The arms of love round one's neck must not drag down like a mill-stone ! He still had his week's pay. His mother should have that, though it would be sucked down in the quick-sands of six years' debts. He did not weigh the right or the wrong of what he was about to do He had brushed right and wrong aside, with love and pity, when he took the new creed of life. Far beyond the moon-etched fields came the rush of the flowing river drawn by its own destiny to boundless seas. From farther yet came the muffled roar of the city's traffic, of multitudinous voices, of multitudinous feet marking time in a ceaseless narch. Long ago, men had marched to battle- fields for laurels. Now, battles were fought on the markets. In the heat of traffic — man pitted against man — victories were won. That was the meanii - of the muffled roar. It was a hymn .... a hymn, to the God of Traffic! Ho knew very well, as he stood in the cool of dewy darluiess opposite his mother's window, he A NEW CREED OF LIFE 39 knew better than words could express that he had not chosen the easier way. The wooden rocker and his father's creed of a somewhat benevolent, easy- going Providence were the path of least resistance. Why had he chosen the harder way? He was not sure that it would even bring him happiness. He was not thinking of happiness. He had no desire for the adulation that comes licking the feet of Suc- cess; and I am bound to add that the boy had no mental vision of steam yachts, and race horses, and wines. Why, then, was he casting off from the old life? Why have the bold spirits of every age set sail for unknown seas that sent back their freightage for the race? Why, but because man would not be man unless he strove for the Eternal Better? What he would do with the Power, when he won it, he did not know. One must first cross the unknown seas. Somehow, the vision of that other man's success, and the sting of his own family's failure, had driven home the truth — one must go up and on, or down and out; strive, or cease! The dewy darkness, the cold, white star-light, the wandering, hushed voices of the voiceless night, spoke to him in their own language. In cutting away from a handicapped past he had thrown him- self as bare of equipment as the most primitive man into the arms of Nature, man's primordial mother; and the dew gathered on his fevered fore- head like a cooling hand — a hand of blessing. The collie dog sniffed affectionately at his feet; and through the open window he could hear his 40 THE NEW DAWN father storming over the quarrel to the invMid n-other. Such unctuous phrases as "prayin' for the boy s good and "power o' prayer for the prodi- gal, floated out on the night air like the humminr of beetles. Then, the little girl came in to the mother s room with the lamp, and the father went out with a loud banging of the door in a sort of dumb oath. It was the boy's chance. With a touch on the wmdow sill he leaped noiselessly through the win- dow and sank on his knees at his mother's bed Ihe httle girl who had lied about the lump sugar fled to guard the door. The mother lay spent and wan Her hair was prematurely white; her brow Imeless, with the light of a marble purity; but mouth and chin were abnormally small with a tremor about the lips, like a child on the verge of tears. He had told himself that her life was past- his to come; therefore, he must not allow her to stand in the way of his resolution; but when he leaned over the closed eyes such a pain gripped h.m by the throat that he could not speak. Sud- denly, he comprehended the Gethsemane of such lives— the weakness that brute strength could crush and trample, as the ox treads field-flower into mire Great God, mother!" he laid his face on the pillow beside her, "how— can I leave— you?" The woman opened her eyes— gray eyes, full of a hfe-long wondering at pain. She put out her hand. His big grasp closed like steel over it. "What happened with your father, Tom?" A NEW CREED OF LIFE 4, . ^h- ""thing. He isn't specially to Man,., t II' just the way the years ha^c buil hil -' i u made uD mv m n,I f« •. • • . ° ' "" the way wevT done alth" """'? '" '^'''^h-water. home, Ind saw th same oT/h""' ''"^"' ' """= mmm You've stood it twenty y?ars and it' T' '°"^"' in' A,u) ;.' " ^' ""^ ^^"^ ""'y pulled you rnry""H7r''''^^'--^''"a'wa;Vse:'o hThand. ''■■"' =• ""'"^''^'^ -" "^ bills into ;'What are you going to do?" she aslced rise T f '"^ '° '"""'^' '"°"'"' I ="" going to rise I I am gomg to conquer— conauer . everything that stands in mv wavT T ''"" bust, mother! Fd rather ZL '^ >. " """'^ °' ;han go on wallop; -^^^"^ X^^^^^^^^ - hell ! It has ki Id'yo - Z ,7 ? ''"' '^^ I'm going to get there or' t T ? ^ '" ''"'' "' why! I've J „ T ''""''^ '^' 'P"'' °« the H.-c , ■ ^ . '''' S°^ to— succeed!" H.S vo.ce was husky, and his hand trembled over 4» Tin; NKVV DAWN his mother's. She had closed her eyes. He knew that she was praying. A stab of anguish choked speech. In the silence there was a raging conflict between his resolution and the oM ties, ties so strong that they seemed knitted into the fiber of his being. If she had not been lying there so ill, if she had been a different type of woman — coarse and self-satisfied and content in the swine life of failure — he could have gone away light of heart. But there was the father, greasing the family's way to ruin with self-excuse — that meant failure! And here was the mother, who stood for the purest goodness he had ever known; but it was goodness under the feet of greed, loo weak to carry the day against the odds of the i:.ute with the thick neck — that, too, meant failure ! Strength — strength — strength — that was the way to Power! Will and purpose must not flinch! "Tom !" the eyes opened. What the little woman said now was the supremely bravest thing she had ever done in her life. "It doesn't matter! Don't think of me! It won't last long! I'm only one of an army of women who don't last long. Don't stay dragged down by your love for me " "Tom !" called a chattering whisper from the doorway, "do go way! Father's coming! Don't have a scene!" Through vision blurred he saw the gray eyes look up from the pillow with a light that he carried with him through all his after-life. Then, he was out in the darkness, with a pain wrenching at his throat, A NEW CREED OF LIFE 43 There Ul'' ""■? t'=V''"^"'-8 »>- 'i^ht. Some- ninrh r T^ u' ^"'"'^ °' ^'^' '^' '°"i<= in- ning hard. Then, he realised that he had torn away from the home at a run. "PoorShepl" He stroked the dog', head. It •Toor Sh!'" "vv"'""'^ '" '*•' P"'"' °f »'- hand. loorShep! We've cut and run, now, sure ! It's a^ rocky d ahead, and you go back! Bless my log! Go, now, go home 1" he ordered But the collie curled at his feet bacU°a'r?i' T'^^'f' ''"^' '"'"'^ ^''""''^'l «« with ba kvvard looks and pauses. "I've done with the past . . . I ve done wth pity! If I've „„f .„ , «in ha d ,11 start now," an'dL huVed?s°tLrtht sent the dog whming. .hY'V^-"""' ' "■"''-'' '"'^ 'he twisted window shade; but th.s, too, had its meaning Succe^sTl ^'"^ ^'"^ '°"' "''^ ^" "'^^ hampered Tom Vv"h ''="^,!'"'^^"<=d hir. heart to Success! Tom Ward would trample all things that lay in the way of h.s masterful march to Power! He was qu.te sure that the old way-weakness and goodness, greed and hypocrisy-Ld to t di ch Wh.ther the new way led he did not know Far ahead the ship yards' smokestacks sent up a lund glare ,ke a sign of blood and fire; the sacri fice of the World of Work to the God ^f T raffi The roar of the c.ty, ^he beat of multitudinous feet' the throb of hammered steel, •■'--», iiiu WItK 44 THE NEW DAWN ceaseless toil — grew distincter as he ran. In an- other half mile he would be on the new battle- field of the new age — the muTkct. Above the stars shone like a blue field seeded with jewels. The night was drugged with the sub- tle joy of orchard blossoms. But the young man's feet were set on the path to Power. Weakness of spirit in his mother, the avid greed o. flesh in his father — had made of his heart a thing of flint. Down by the sea he remembered that he had not even kept street car fare in his pocket. CHAPTER III WHEKEm TOM W.HO-S W,„rK SH.RT CONTINUES TO PLAy AN INTERESTING PART IN THE SCHEMES OF Miss FATE human emotions reffref H„ • l ■ ' '""'^ o' a" in^u!, regret. He might have naralv^*,) h.s buoyancy, his rebound, his leap at ^,7^1 ^ arguments with God's scheme of thLQ^/""'' ™^ht have added to his'Zrf, h ' a/'fe the stuP , , . , . , . of Li^; '"■■" ""'y '° '"P °ver he!el.r nr -""y healthy. Henceforward to hold „; h "' "'"'"'"' P"'"'"'^'' ^ ''^'^k thought ean so d d h 'r "T"- "'■' P"'^'^ continued to leap, so did his thoughts; and he never ceased run bT the s : T ''T'' " ''^' P'-^ - ^"wood"" by the sea where the president of the ship yards had found him planning how to grasp Success Hi only distinct sensations were a hardening aga" regret over parting from his mother anda^d elirZ ot abandon to a great current of Life called piie^ That was why he wandered on through the sUrUt 4S 46 THE NEW DAWN woods to the very margin of the sea. The tide was coming lapping in. Warships and ocean vessels came churning up through the night mist to the glittering lines of harbor lights not far from the lurid glare of the ship yard smoke stacks. One great vessel — he took it to be the wonderful new dreadnought — sent the arc of a searchlight cutting the night in a sword of blue fire. Ward saw it shoot out in the dark like a presence, then swing piercingly to right and left, slowly, in a sword of fire till the line of light came mystically over the glassy sea toward himself. Everything seemed to represent the current of a great invisible power. Its gradual silent swing through the dark had a curious effect on his own spirit — it seemed to bathe him in the new life toward which he had set his face — if it crossed his feet and went behind him — "let the dead bury their dead" — he would regard it as an invisible sword between him and his past. It touched the sea i. little phosphorescent gleams and set the wave-wash of the steamer trail atremble in electric fire. It lighted up a multitude of idle craft rocking in the darkness. Then, suddenly, he, too, was enveloped in the mystic fire. It had swept far behind into the darkest recesses of the woods — a sword between him and the past; an Exclusion of Purpose to cut everything off but his one aim — Success. While he gazed it had swept over the harbor again, lighting up a myriad of unnoticed craft rocking Idly to the tide. TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT 47 Afterward Ward could not recall how he had spent the rest of the night. He knew he had conned over every word and turn of expression on the part of the admiral, who was president of the ship yards He remembered about the cap to be removed- the square up-held shoulders, as though the center of gravity of men who succeeded rested higher in the body than of men who failed. Unconsciously he drew himself up. It was as if from the man's atti- tudes he would learn the secret of the personality behind the physical expression. His foot was reach- ing for the bottom rung of the ladder— he must not be clumsy footed mentally. "Who were the delegate union fellows working up trouble among the iron workers ?"_that was the first thing to be learned. Then, "were the agitators from the foreign ship yards?" Why should for- eign ship yards send agitators to America? Why was this contest for supremacy on the sea a world contest? The question pierced the dark of his ig- norance hke the searchlight from the ship— it flashed mto significance a thousand trivial things which he understood now for the first time. The young fel- low gave a low laugh "By Jupiter, if I get that secret I ve got a search lantern will light to the top of the ladder, with a fire <1.partment extension on— and he threw himself down on the shore, burying his face in his arms as if to shut out the very starlight The ship yards, then, were in a world fight-for what? For control of the sea- of the carrying trade of the world. What a fool he 48 THE NEW DAWN had been not to observe these things before. Units of capital were more than banks for workers' pay checks— they were fighters, too, for world power. He lay on the shore dreaming of great ships going up and down the harbors of the world's seas; and, all through his dreams, his purpose to master Life flashed a revealing light like the search arc of the great dreadnought. When he entered the main big furnace room on Sunday afternoon he could hardly believe that any human being could have been so blind as not to realize what was going on behind these doors with the big sign "Admittance to Employees Only." Many afternoons when he had been cleaning up his own furnace the labor agitators had been about with big handbills printed in red. They had been talking in Italian and Spanish and German to the foreign workmen. To-day he would have given his right arm to know what the foreigners gesticulating in groups were saying to one another. A voluble German was spitting fire-cracker speech through his beard to one group. He also recognized a Spaniard and a Russian as leaders in other groups. A Scotch- man was holding forth from a soap-box in words that came out of his mouth tight and hard as stones from a catapult. Ward linked his arm in the elbow of a furnace helper a few years older than himself and drew near this group. The talk was Greek to the boy. It was of "the great Armageddon— the final day of reckoning between labor and capital, TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT 49 slave and master. I„ the Great General Strike would T;;;' ^^"r ""--'ity. color, and ted would^ay down p.ck and shovel, axe and ham- as Jth" Tou'tf M^e'; "ST'' "l-'S '^''-'y own fatheJwho Hlf:,^,''^, IZ^tVl ''' to to 1 ,0 ,,„ ,^^^^^^ ole .,fe_ ref..„, doing. He was wondering whether he were con tenjplating a „,asquerade or a sleeping Jdcano The big fellow called McGee was visibly excTt d' You wa.t and see," he admonished. "We do^t s^i^fo^'^tfseTorrrL^I^r" "^ ^^'^ terS^wtS ""' '°" ""^'^ °'- ""'^ ^- '^o?" - "Bet your life," emphasized McGee "the e=,r^h IS the Lord's and the fullness thereof-the earth s labor s the day we unite to demand it. To-morrow .s ours Feudansm-we have seen. Industrirm- it IS to-day To-morrow-it's labor's; and don't you forget It ; and get right in the procession now- we re demanding eight hours nowl It will be four hours to-morrow; and three hours next-ill we Ve down to a two-hour day at $4 an hourl Think capital can stand that? That scale of wage will transfer all capital over to labor; and that's our a^m m the great bloodless revolution. I tel you i" syndicalism is the thing! Age of force 1^ naetl W7«'- • , ^ °'^'^^ and war is pastl Were in a new day when capital's going 50 THE NEW DAWN to be out of a job! The day every working man on earth throws down his tools and refuses to work for wages and will work only share for share — capi- tal has to capitulate and hand over everything to "Whether you've earned it or not?" asked Ward. McGee punched his hands in his trousers pockets. "Say, Ward, don't turn on that josh ! Has capital earned all it owns? Feudalism, industrialism, capi- talism! Those old fellows have had their day! Now it's oi rs." "Isn't t' at fellow over there among the foreign riveters Scotch Calvy?" asked Ward of a big raw- boned man declaiming with the light of a fanatical belief in his eyes — he had transferred the passionate Calvinism of his Scotch up-bringing to as passionate and relentless a syndicalism — as the only salvation for the human race. "I thought," said Ward, "that he was brought over by the company for special work?" McGee smiled. "That's the beauty of this sys- tem," he explained. "We've got our secret agents everywhere. That is the joke. The company brings him in to teach our men tricks of the foreign yards. The railroads give him graft on the q. t. to stir up a strike and bedevil ocean traffic; and, by hickory, the fellow double crosses 'em both — comes over as a delegate for the world union of all labor for the big General Strike. Why don't you join us? Do you more good th.m all the books you're ever- lastingly studying by firnace light half the night! TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT 5, Listen— hear him pour it into them hot and heavy I Can't dodge that kind of dope! Old day of lot of httle kindergarten labor unions is past " "Fear? What do we fear?" demanded the Scotch delegate fiercely. "It's your half-way-ups and on-tops who tremble at the thought of civiliza- tion toppling down I We are down I We are the bottom dregs of life! We're Atlas holding the weight of the world on our bowed shoulders We don't need to fear. We can't lose anything; and we may gain everything. He that loseth his life shall save It; and he that saveth his life shall lose it! In twenty years we have gained hours shortened by half and wages doubled. In twenty more years we can gain the whole world // we hold together We don't need to fear a fall. Let the present system smash— smash it !— I say I If you are sent to prison we pay you a salary for service to the common good —volunteer for it like men! We can send more men to prison than the prison can feed! We can make civilization so expensive that it will have to hand over all industry to us! Just stand together to a man! I Won't Works— they call us I Of course we are! We won't work till the earth and the fullness thereof is handed over to us. Spain is cursl Why does the king tremble on his throne? Because we've secretly tunneled under his old rot- ten monarchy. Portugal is ours! Why did their manikin kid king run from his own throne? Ask the men who threw the bomb! There were more bombs in Portugal than ever were thrown! Eng- 52 THE NEW DAWN !n"FWlal7r ^"" ' ^ ^^''y ''°" ""■''= ^°""- strike cessions?) Germany .s coming our way soon as we can undermme the army and place one'of our m"n ■n every battalion. The day U. S. workmen l" fc hands across the seas with what they call cheap European labor-at the drop of a hat-the wor d ours, Work stops till the earth is handed ovJr to us We ve a stronger weapon than shot guns and bombs m the new system. Capital will nf" iTbo^^h; 'T"' '.^'''"'^ -'^ fi-^ gun; and abor throws down the gun " the Scotchman laughed a hard „, irthless laugh. "Refuse to woX" he shouted. "Spod tools! Work slowly! Work o you w,ll have to do your work twice ! Make employ" ment expens, ye ! We're not fighting for this or that ! We are fightmg to transfer all power, all posses- ion from capital to labor! The General Strike will makejhe French Revolution look like child's "It's like this," continued McGee feverishly, and, before Ward realised, McGee was the cen'W o another hstenmg group. Talk was going on i„ a dozen languages. Ward wandered from group to group and learned more of the inner working^ of the sh.p yards than years of service had taught him. He heard how Admiral Westerly and Colonel Dil- Ion, though outwardly friendly, were struggling agamst each other for a control of stock in thf ^.p yards trust. Dillon represented railroads; Westerly naval mterests; and the balance of the TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT „ miral k^nf fi, ^^"""a'e— boys at school. The aH that sSs: o t trerSiVi'"^ r^^^^- "^^ ship yards because he killed ! '° '"'^ ^""'^" them Poles? Thev had If """?'"' "P^- ^ee and that fellow gbbeH„VL\" ^'■°'" ^"'"'='•• -artia: after B^Zllotl'^'^ T '1 '^°"^^- McGee laughed uproa ious I' ^The -'"°"-" yard, there ain't a railr^ f'^' . , ^'" ' « ship tory in Europe o AmeS '^ ' '''"'' ^ '^' secret agents ThsVhTnT -7 "' ^' ''^"^"'^ ""^ ism-,/-: «,„,/^i2;'::':S '^ ^ y^"'- ^'^ fade um-on. "and weVe go "ur J^,?'""'^ ''l""'^'' '^e words, hicky, we've got con^ .'^u°""'^ '''"'' ^'"d. by J, rvi, vc got control of the c.ir.V^i,k i ^ We can tap any wire m ru ■ '.'^'^'^^hoard, too! want." '^ ' '" ^^''■•'stendoin for news we The two moved careles^Iv (r-r, McGee giving swif sk £ of "afhTJ" ^""P" from Barcelona from R / leader— men sylvania and Wales and tTe'' T T'' '" P^"" Workersof the Wo;id"^„d L ""1 '^"^'^^^'^ young. '^ ""-'d , and they were all amazingly Toward six o'clock the most of the workmen be- i 54 THE NEW DAWN gan going home. The furnace men had set the fires going for the night shifts who would come at mid- night. The watchman went into the steel plate room, leaving McGee and Ward alone in the furnace cham- bers. Ward was leaning thoughtfully against one of the brick furnace walls. McGee was kicking off his overalls. "Why don't you join?" asked McGee. Ward thought a moment. "I may," he said. "Why don't you join now?" emphasized McGee. Ward thrust his hands in his pockets. "I haven't a darn dime left," he laughed. McGee scrutinized him. "Been burning day- light? You look as if you hadn't slept for a week. Aw! Cut it all out. Ward! Start fresh! Here's fifty cents. Send in your name to some of the boys to-night." Ward took the coin ai.d looked at it queerly and thought of a larger coin of a different color which he had refused the night before. "Are you on duty to-night, McGee? Do you mind if I sleep in here?" For answer McGee smote him on the back and admonished heartily about "cutting it out" ; so that later, when Ward came to the fullness of his power, it was a stand-by for the newspapers how McGee, "the rampant red," had once loaned Ward fifty cents to join the unions. A moment later Ward was alone in the furnace room. He searched his pockets frantically for TOM WARD'S WHITE SHIRT 5j paper and pencil. Then he rummaged the pockets of McGee's discarded smock and overalls. He found a carpenter's pencil but no paper. By the light of the lantern he leaned over and, on the cuffs of that starched shirt which had opened the con- troversy with his father, began writing the names of all the labor delegates. The left cuff was rapidly covered with enigmatical initials and catch words. He could not write on the right cuff with his left hand, so he threw open his vest and dotted down more catch words and names on the starched shirt front. Then he recalled that he had to sleep in the furnace room that night. He surveyed the tell-tale cuff and the betraying shirt-front. Reaching over, he picked up McGee's blue smock and put it on and buttoned it tightly to the chin. Then he left the furnace room and, with the fifty cents loaned by the rising young labor leader, bought the first food he had tasted since leaving the home roof. When McGee returned with the night shift at eleven he found young Ward sound asleep on a bencii beside the furnace. He looked for the smock; then recognized it on Ward and for a moment con- templated asking for it; but the boy was plainly in a sleep of utter exhaustion. McGee smiled. He thought he had made a convert. Had the sleeve of the smock fallen back from the white cuff Tom Ward's white shirt might have played a different role in the little drama of Miss Fate. CHAPTER IV WHEREIN TOM WARD GOES ON THE FIRST RUNGS OF THE LADDER The heat of the furnaces ^oing full blast wakened Ward soon after midnight. He sat up rubbing hi, eyes and from force of habit was about to pull off smock and coat when he saw McGee's figure stripped to the waist silhouetted against the red glare of an open furnace door raking live coals back and for- T-""/;^ !. '"■°"^''' ^"""^ memory. He slid be- hind McGee and went out into the night. There were stili some twenty cents left of the fifty loaned by the young labor leader to join the Workers of the World. Ward knew that the admiral lived some twenty miles out from the ship yards on what were known as the Sea Cliffs. No suburban express would run thert before eight next morning and Ward was too wise to ' ^ seen going to the head offices out at the yards. He decided to see the head of the company out at his house. Tram cars carried him five miles and, where the street railway seemed to end in the dark, he could see through the woods a light in the room of his old home where his mother lay ill. Just for the fraction of a sec- ond a longing came over him to go and look in at 56 THE FIRST RUNGS OF THE LADDER 57 onft"tl' ''"'^''* dreadnought still lay far out of h ute7 "'• "''•'^" '''^ "^°'^'"« '"-flight ot the turret came swinging through the dark of the woods he recalled how that blue sword of fi^e wa to cut h,m off frorn all the Past. Strength W. . . Purpose! There must be no side-steppin.^ of W.ll, no wabbling of flabby Purpose! '' et Je terpreted that verse as "the dead in sin " V-„ Ward now had another interpretatr' Why'dX^ the B,b.e speak plainer?-he used to wonder Now o Gabr'ier '"."""' '■' '' 'P°'"= "''h the trump stln^ n i """ "'^° '""'= '^"'^ '^°"'d "°t under stand till they came to life. Turning, he loped along the shore path like a runner on a race track. The searchlight kept bVhr 1 A' ,"""^ "^'' '"'^' ^^"^ the arc of .ght struck back seaward, he could see the Cliffs loom agamst the sky. the^'nnr^' "'? J" the morning when Ward came to the porter s lodge of park-like grounds, where a passmg aborer had told him the admiral lived Stone p,llars marked the entrance. He was about to go up the driveway when a man came out of the mtle stone house and demanded what he wanted ; """was dressed in dark ma.oon with a peak cap and black leather leggings. It was not what he »^Veri hut the manner of the asking that stung the 58 THE NEW DAWN "I have come with a special message for the president of the ship yards," he answered, not for- getting to remove his cap. The fellow eyed him quizzically. "What mes- sage?" he asked. Ward felt the steeled muscles of his forearm twitch. He looked the man straight back in the two eyes without flicking an eyelash. "Come now, no nonsense; you say what you want or get out of here," added the man insolently. "You'd better go in and telephone up to the house that I'm here," warned Ward. "You say what you want or get out," said the man advancing threateningly. "I've said what 1 want. I have come with a special message for the president of the ship yards," answered the boy hotly. He was wondering if alt life would be like this — obstructionists and block- heads at every gateway up. "You don't come that over me," answered the man. "Cranks, beggars, and peddlers not allowed on these grounds! If you had any message you could have telephoned it up! You say what the message is or git off the place — d'y' hear me?" ordered the man coming forward. Tofri Ward had had only one meal in thirty- seven hours. Also he had slept less than six hours in two nights. Before the man in livery knew what had happened a ringing swat from the palm of a great hand that seemed to swing on an arm like a steel derrick took him over the head, and a fist THE FIRST RUNGS OF THE LADDF R 59 that hit like a hammer came with unforcwarned im- pact under the chin; and the maroon livery tilted back on a parabolic curve that 1/ che driveway "You sawdust monkey," Ward was gritting through his teeth. "I don't want to hurt you, but you get out of my way! If I'd give a message meant for the president to such a fool flunky as you I'd be a fakir o« the first bat " and he straightened up to find himself face to face with the admiral, leading a Shetland pony in a basket cart down the driveway. In the pony cart sat the little girl with the curls— behind cantered the two boys Ward had seen in the woods that Saturday night. The little girl was bursting with suppressed laughter. The two boys were openly snickering. The admiral smiled. "Seems to me, Buskins, you got the worst of that argument," he was saying. "Here, Hebden," to the red-haired boy with the red tie— Ward noticed he was dressed in spotless white riding breeches; the other boy wore flannel shirt and khaki trousers — "Here, Hebden, I'll take your horse back to the stable! You drive with Louie in the pony cart; and don't run him down hill, you know! Go care- fully!" ^^ "Oh, Uncle Wes " grumbled the older boy, "and I wanted to try my own horse this morning." "Let me, Admiral Westerly," exclaimed the other youth; and he was in the pony cart with his own horse in tow as he spoke. The three children trotted on down the driveway. The liveried man 6o THE NEW DAWN had withdrawn to the gateway lodge. The admiral stood, r.^^^^^^^^ out'tf i'"^''l^ 7'^'':'''^' "''^'" g^» 'hat trin^med out of hitn m the foreign schools." tio^ '"''''^ "" *"' "P ^"d «°°d « atten- The admiral led the way slowly a pace or two eJm in front of an old-fashioned red brick man sion house. He seated himself thoughtfully Ms" mind seemed still with the children-fomewLt " fraught the boy thought. Nothing was saTd for a moment or two Ward stood waiting, won/e" n' .f these beautiful grounds and the old weH-S hom. ffV'^^"'^ g'-andeur where his own old -^s the" ' ;""'. T''' '''•'^ ''°'^" from labor -as the speakers of the Sunday afternoon meeting had declared; or because the soul inside tre man of he mansion house had some advantage over^Se rd^:ikt7retr^:^°-^°^^^^-^^--'" trouble are from the foreign ship yards? Y s s^r i H "'■ 7t '°"'' °^ '^''^ =»- P^id by the r i : roads and he recited as nearly as he could all he it"'^ the afternoon before. ^' Who told you about the railroads ?" McGee," answered Ward. THE FIRST RUNGS OF THE LADDER 6, Z;.X"."fel." '"''"'■■ ■■''>'«"'•"'>« Ward made no answer. He felt sq ,f >,• l i future life depended on no false Love Vow''^ "'°^^ "Yes, sir." hrs'hinl''^'"'"'"^'"^'''"-' Westerly held out Ward went blank; then red. I haven't them That ichiiurv ^i pickled in oil for nothing? Do you thinV r , culti- vated those ranting fools every Sunday nl.ht r,r cght years for nothing? I've been waitin-- >or th.s summons, he said. "Ranting fools, eh?" The words seemed to give the manager assurance. "Come, then, at once," he said. If you don't fall down on this it means a place on the board." When Ward entered the directors' room he sav the admiral closely for the first time in these eight years. Westerly sat at the head of a long ma- hogany table. He had aged greatly but held him- self with exaggerated erectness, like a soldier front- ing a foe. He was thin, almost attenuated, and his hair had grown snow white. One hand heid eye- glasses of tortoise shell frame and black silk guard before his face; the other had a sheaf of documents which he was scanning. Ward noticed that both hands had a slight tremor as of a man nerve stru^c At the other end of the table sat Dillon, gr an older fatter more rubicund, with a red wattle of grizzled flesh connecting his chin and his neck. The mans life was notoriously evil; and the mottled 74 THE NEW DAWN face and dulled eyes bore the stamp of it. Even Ward in his hermit life of work had heard tales of it. McGee it was, one Sunday night, who had said: "If men like him was poor they'd be lynched! Law! Faugh!" At the table also sat two youngish men — one about Ward's age, with red hair and red tie ; the other black iyed, a mere boy. Ward recog- nized them as the cousins who held the minors' stock in the ship yards— the boys of the horseback rides long ago in the woods by the sea, and up on the driveway to the Sea Cliff mansion house. Heb- den was cracking jokes with the old colonel. Trues- dale sat with a bored look, as if wondering why he was present in a business conference at all. The admiral was dictating letters to a typist without look- ing up. Ward took the typewritten letters and went out to translate them. "Bring them up to my house to-night at ten," ordered the admiral as Ward receded through the door. This time he went out to the Sea Cliff mansion house in the company motor car. He laughed to himself as he whisked up the driveway past the porter's lodge. The obstructions in the gateways of progress didn't matter so much, once you had learned how to dispose of them. The butler di- rected him straight to the library. Apparently he was unannounced, for the admiral sat in a red leather chair before the fireplace with his arm round the shoulder of his daughter, who was on a foot- A DOUBLE CROSS 75 rest before the fire. The chandeliers were heavily shaded m red, and the Venetian shade of mosaic green on the h'brary table gave only a tempered hght. Ward stood in the door for the moment, waiting some sign of recognition. The red flame ot the fire played on the face of the girl. She looked to be not more than seventeen; and was in tears. "I can't marry Mr. Hebden if he doesn't propose to me, papa," she was saying. "And, by Heavens, you shan't marry that ob- scene old man if he crushes the shipping interests to an eggshell," vowed the admiral. Ward stepped back in the hall and asked the butler to announce him. When he reentered the library the daughter ha,^. gone. The father still sat before the fire shading his eyes. "Come in— sit down," he said absently "Here are the letters and the translations," said Ward, not accepting the invitation to sit down The admiral took them, switched on stronger ^^w rM^' ''^''' ^'^'"^ ^''' B'««" and looked at Ward. His look rested. "Where have I seen you?" he acked. Ward noted with regret how thin the voice had grown. "I think you saw me in a scrap with your porter eight years ago, sir, when I was trying to bring a message up to you about the labor delegates from the loreign ship yards." "Ah; are you the lad who wrote all the names 76 THE NEW DAWN down on your shirt? I have wondered what became of you. Wanted a leg up the ladder of life, or you something— didn't you? Well— how have y„u found It? Did the feet above trample the fingers below " "That hasn't bothered me as much as the hands below pulling a fellow's leg," said Ward. The admiral put on his glasses, tilted the table shade so that the light fell on the young man's face, and scrutinized him. "Glad to see you've made good," he remarked absently. "If one repentant sinner causes rejoicing in Heaven I wonder what kind of hilarious time the angels have when one man of all one helps makes good. Sit down"; and he went carefully over the letters one by one. "Been abroad?" he asked. "No, sir." "How have you learned a technical speaking knowledge of French and German?" "Cultivated the foreign delegates you sent mc to interview eight years ago." "And did you take down all the lessons on your shirt?" "No; I tried to soak a few on the tip of my tongue and lingers." "You've succeeded very well," commented the admiral. Thereafter Ward was frequently called up to the iea Cliff mansion to take dictation in foreign Ian- A DOUBLE CROSS ,7 furniture or oL /x^V sL IZ . '"""""'^^ Ward didn't know whf her to 1° '"'"i°' ^""'^'^• that she didn't trertSrt ° J, ''"'""^ "^ P'"^^'' descension of an upperse™ ''^g JP^^ -- -"- him ; and her airv ^L.^Iu '""P'^ '8"°'-^^ and feet in her oresenre H ( 1 ? *" ''^"'^^ couth co..on s';r irthe";retc;r: "^' ""; fine statuar- and v^f !»► t"^'=sencf ot a piece of raw produc't-hf /ever :: th P^'^'^''^^^'^ ^° 'he by the woman :„ her He J. "^"Z",'"'" «--d but was as in,! adm/red the statuary, Milo pa ste c'.stTh t"';'." '" ' ""'^- ^^^ ^ becausJ it "d n^ttorklnt 'i:- ''' '"'''' ^^'"^' I'urpose! That,, I « ^'■''^'■''«' '^"'"g ary did not «tk in/o . "' '""' "^ ^'"""'"' ''"" house Th. '.""i^thmg impending in the great nouse. The serving men looked anxlo,,, W ! h«d a sensation that Admiral Well" , posely keeping out of the wny W nd Ln T" open window blew the ferns ak');:rtlrcl:" f •wwev t'- •^■k ir r 7« THE NEW DAWN fountain. Ward caught a glimpse of Dillon's purp- ling face against the window — the apoplectic col- onel held the admiral's young daughter firmly in his arms in an eiwbracc that was a farce at the fatherly and boce close resemblance to the leer of a wanton satyr. He was calling her his "child — his old friend's baby," and more of the same ; but he had kissed her twice upon the lips, and the girl's face was scarlet. Beneath her lidded eyes was a frenzy of fear; yet a greater fear seemed to rob her of resistance. "Just say the word, my dear, just one word, and your father shall be set free of these hell hounds that are destroying his business " The girl had drawn her lips as far away from the mottled old red face as she could reach; but he held her girdled tightly round the waist. It came to Tom Ward in a flash, in a sort of sixth sense, as it had come to him that night when the searchlight swung round his feet like a sword; as it came again that morning long ago on the drive- way, when he saw the admiral's troubled look follow the receding figures of the children ; as it had come that first night he came up to the library and heard the father vow she "should not marry that obscene old man though he crushed the ship yards to an eggshell." Tom Ward's heavy boot — and it was a big one — came down on the vitrified brick of the fountain floor with a clump like the hammer of Thor. ,f'\v9iam)'% CHAPTER VI THE REWARD "As I was saying, admiral, " began the colonel. His arms had freed the captive us by magic and the girl had vanished rather than fled— VVard saw her vault through the window into the shrubbery before the old colonel had slowed his ponderosity round to face, not the admiral, but the head en- gineer of the ship yards. He gave Ward a piercing look as of an old satyr caught in misdeeds. Ward's face wore a mask. He had elevated that number eleven boot on the edge of the marble fountain and affected to be tying his shoe lace. It was not the pose of a picturesque hero; but it was effective. The old colonel's face lighted up with the glee of a sly young thing of sixty who had not been wanton after all. "Oh, hullo Ward," he said. "Been wantin' to see you for a long time." He was clap-him-on-the- shoulder, diffusely, profusely affable— oh, a devil of a fellow, all puffed up in his chest, with his wat- tles reddening and purpling, purpling and reddening as he panted out asthmatic wheezy greeting. "Been wantin' to see you for a long time ! I understand you're strong with labor and that kind of thing " 79 fto THE NEW DAWN Ward had tied his shoe and now elaborately turned up his trousers leg before he took the number eleven boot off the marble edge of the fountain. For years after, though Dillon came to eat humbly from Ward's hand like a whipped dog, the old colonel used to tell that story of the big financier's gawky manners— "why, >^-'d seen him with his own eyes put a dirty boot — a positively dirty boot — on the Venetian fountain " of such recollections is the history of the great composed. The .-pisode of what the colonel had seen c\ en got into the papers. What Ward had seen was never published for reasons that may be inferred. Ward clumped his foot down, straightened himself — and the colonel never knew just how tense Ward's steel muscles had grown for a second — then he walked across to the open window beside the colonel. "Yes," he answered, literally forgetting the ex- istence of the admiral's daughter, "I've tried to keep my hand in with the labor situation always. I like to know not what men tell me, but the real motives behind what they tell me " The colonel offered young Ward a cigar and looked .vice at him. "Dtc ced pretty monkey — my friend, the admiral's daughter," he puffed, lighting his own cigar first and offering Ward the remnants of a ma^ch. Ward took the match and threw it out of the window and put the cigar in his pocket. "The admiral's daughter?" he questioned with- -:-in^wa^v '• THE REWARD gi out changing an eyelash. "I didn't know he had one. I never see her." 'i'he colonel's face lighted again. "Yes- been wanting to see you about this labor situation for a long time! We railroad men are supposed to be hostile to shipping ocean interests— water freights, in fact; but we were not, my boy! Let me tell you there isn t a railroad in the country to-day doesn't own its own steamships " "You mean the railroads own all the coastal ships. I know thai " -nswered Ward. "It keeps the freights " he w.s going to say "up" but he changed and said, "it keeps water and land freights level ' "Ves; my boy, on the level, that's why we're just as keenly interested in the welfare of our sailors as our tram hands. Now, this seaman's bill pro- viding more comforts for the crews, better wages better fare— why can't you get together with McGee and push that through Congress? McGee won't deal with me-thinks I have the cloven hoof and that kind of thing— won't listen to a word from me; but, if living conditions were improved on the ships. It wouldn't be so hard to get sailors " Ward could have laughed in the old man's face. 1 he bill was designed to make it so difficult to man ships at all that the ship yards had wondered if it were blackmail to compel "a buy off" from them; suspect railroads. Ward had warned McG. but McGee had accused Ward of b ee against it; eing pot- 82 THE NEW DAWN bellied straddler; of trying to save capital by shav- ing labor." McGee had fallen into the trap head- long. The bill needed only the backing — sincere or insincere — of the ship yards to get a favorable hearing in a Congress distracted by the fact that the country's flag was \ ^.i.shing from the seas. "You want mc to ; , down to Washington and lobby for that?" aske>. Ward. The colonel blinked. No — that was a bit direct; but couldn't he stir up these crazy fool World Workers, or what did he call 'em, to clamor so loudly for the bill that Congress would tumble to it without any lobbying? "I'll try," said Ward. The colonel became apoplectic with gratitude. He put his arms round Ward's husky shoulders. He invited him to his down town apartments on a cer- tain "gay" night. "Excuse me, Colonel," Ward disengaged himself from the clammy embrace. "We'll have to have it a little plainer, and in contract form, black and white, signed by you. I'll get the men to push behind M:Gee on that bill on condition — well — in a word — what's my reward? Where do I come in?" The colonel purpled. "I hold the proxies of scattered stock in the ship yards for the railroads." he aaid. "I have known that ever since I was born," an- swered Ward. THE REWARD 83 Dillon blinked at the end of his cigar and spunked the ashes off through the open window. "Wt can give you swift advancement," he prom- ised. "Too vague," answered Ward. "I am on a three- year contract now. If I do this it may hurt me with the ship yards and undo eight years' work. I've got to have a contract 'or something tangible better than I now have — say ten thousand a year for five years. I don't know that I care to tie up for more than five years " The colonel blew a hot oath out with his cigar smoke and informed Ward that, by Blank, he wasn't the Standard Oil Company or Steel Trust; they weren't burning dollar bills in fool salaries. Ward sat down on the edge of the window-sill. "Colonel Dillon," he said, "let us lay off our masks and quit bluffing 1 You, as a railroad man, want this legislation to go through before the open- ing of Panama to put the steamships at a disad- vantage against the railroads ! In a word, to keep freights up to their present level of all land routes. All right! If this legislation goes through the steamships are hamstrung, boycotted, tied in bow- knots; and you've got the end of the rope tying them! One single minute's saving in the freights of the transcontinentals would pay you the salary I am asking," and he rattled off detailed figures at which the older man gasped. Dillon smoked three cigars in succession without speaking. "It's such a conditional gamble whether 84 THE NEW DAWN you can put it through," he said, "let me suggest another arrangement that wouldn't fall on the rail- roads! I hold the proxies in ship yards' stock for the railroads! Suppose we let you hold that stock as dummy — I'd rather not appear in this, consider- ing my friendship for Westerly and his daughter! If you held those proxies you could easily vote your- self in vice-president — eh?" They heard the admiral coming slowly and feebly across the fountain floor. "Have that ready in a contract at your apartment to-morrow night and I'll put the union behind the demand," said Ward. The admiral nodded to the two men perfunctorily and gave Ward some signed letters to carry back to the ship yards' office. To Dillon he gave such a look as a victim might give to an executioner. Ward's comment as he passed out was that the old man was "not strong enough to handle the hog." The gentleman so designated called from the open window to Ward on the drive way "not to hurry"; he'd "pick him up in the limousine and run him in to town." Ward proceeded slovly down the driveway, per- fectly aware that he hnd one hand in a railroad scheme; the other in a ship yards' plan. The aim of his life was slowly framing to rivet these two to- gether in the great wor'd trust. Midway down the driveway he paused. On the bench where he had been interviewed by the admiral eight years before sat the admiral's daughter. Her face was still crim- THE REWARD 8S son. Her eyes questioned him with horrible shame. Ward took off his hat and sat down beside her. I he cnms >n on I r cheeks deepened. Plainly, this was the kmd nf girl who would never know how to defend herself from anything in life-a hot-house product that needed hot-house walls and high tem- perature Ward intended in the most impersonal way m the world to have a hot-house some day. What he said had nothing personal in it whatever- Do you know exactly how many shares of ship yards Admiral Westerly controls?" The girl's eyes flashed the most furious anger bo her. was another man angling her father's ruin through her. ;'You had better ask him," she retorted, rising. Sit down," ordered Ward; "for God's sake don't Hy ott at a tangent the way women always do and spoil the best plans! For your own sake listen— for your father's! I'm not prying into your father's aftairs; but once, long ago, your father did me the only favor any human being has ever done me He gave me my chance to get my feet on the ladder- and now I'd like to repay him. I saw that hog with you through the ferns. Your father is afraid of h.m in the company! You were afraid to resist him! I clumped my seventeen boot on your china fountain on purpose to scare him off! By hccky I wanted to get my clutches in his red jelly neck- but, when you've an aim ahead, never lose your head— use it— use such swine as Dillon; then throw MICROCOPY •ESOLUTION TEST CHAKT (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No. 2| 1.0 Iff lllaii ^ lio III 2.0 1.8 1^5 llllil.4 ^ /1PPLIED IM/1GE Inc =^ 1653 Easl Mam St-eet ITi^S RocMeslef. Ne« York 14609 USA '.^S (716) *82 - 0300 - PMone ^^ (716) 388 - 5989 - fox 86 THE NEW DAWN them over the cliffs into the sea. Just learn how to protect yourself from them — that's all!" She was sitting almost as rigid as the marble, looking straight into his soul; and, let it be set down to her credit, or discredit, that she was a little piqued — this was the first man she had ever met whom she could not stir. "How can you repay my father?" she asked. "If you are going to do anything, do it before the direc- tors meet next month; or they will depose him." "If your father had Dillon's proxies would that give him control by a sure big majority?" he asked, twirling his hat and never seeing her. She noticed that his nails were not manicured properly. "Would it?" she cried with little ripples in her voice. If Ward had not been gazing afar, listening to the siren of his own ambition, he would have heard those ripples and seen the look; and his soul might have bounded to meet her quest of youth, looking for a great love; but he was twirling his hat and thinking — thinking. "Why, half Dillon's prox- ies would secure father," she cried. Tom Ward sat silent a moment — then spoke ab- sently and apart from the subject. "Most women are babbling fools," he said, "and spill the pail soon as the cow is milked; but I reckon as your dad's life depends on it you'll hold your tongue! I want to repay the favor your father did mel If you doubt that then you'll believe that, in repaying the favor he did me, I also want to do myself a bigger favor! You avoid that obscene old man — take abed sick THE REWARD 87 or something— just don't see him for a while ! You girls think a man like that loves only you! Bahl It's only an old dotard's frenzy— he'd hug and slob- ber that bronze dancer kicking her heels above your fountam if you put a flounce on it! But it's dan- gerous for a girl as green of life as you are ! Look here— don't let us deceive ourselves! You avoid that old goat and let me take care of you! In a month I'll have all Dillon's proxies or give him a tussle with the labor unions! If your father will hitch up with me we'll control the yards; but, look here, don't let us have high-flying nonsense! You have no more interest in me than you have in that block of wood under yon tree. I'm uncouth and rude and raw! I have no more interest in you than in that bronze dancer on top your fountain; but I need fine finishing in my scheme of life! You need protection— hot-house atmosphere and that kind of thmg! Well, then " he was speaking still slower, still more awkwardly, "just to make secure your father will always stand by me if I double- cross Dillon, why don't you — marry me?" Did ever a swain utter more brutal, blunt, awk- ward proposal? The girl had listened with wild, amazed, widening eyes. "I'll leave you free— so help me God— free as your own father would," he added, with a sudden flush. They heard the chug of the colonel's limousine commg round the curve of the driveway. Before Tom Ward had got his awkward lover wits gath- 88 THE NF.W DAWN cred together she had bent her beautiful neck, kissed his hand, and sprung into hiding behind the shrub- bery; and Ward swung lightly into the front seat of the moving car. The next day Admiral Westerly and his daugh- ter sailed abroad; and, when the directors' meeting came round, Tom Ward found himself holding not only Dillon's proxies but Westerly's. He was easily and unanimously elected vice-president at a salary of $25,000 a year; but the rescue caine too late for the admiral. He died from a stroke of paralysis at some Mediterranean resort. When Ward heard that Dillon was sailing for the Mediterranean he cabled to the dead man's daughter and secretly took swift passage for Southampton. There he was quietly married to Louise Westerly. I am not quite sure if even at this stage she did not feel herself a puppet in the game. Hebden was on the home- bound steamer and ministered to her self-pity. Why had she taken this rash step before giving him a chance to declare himself? It was not a happy home-coming to the Sea Cliff mansion house; but the years rolled on with Tom Ward's plans; and sometimes he remembered his wife and sometimes he forgot her. As to that seaman's bill — the price of his power — he had spent all his eight years' sav- ings setting the labor unions and the press shouting for it. Then, when the thing took form in Wash- ington, he quietly hung it up in one of the Congres- sional committees and asphyxiated all demand for THE REWARD 89 it from press and public. When the growing world ot traffic began encroaching on the Sea Cliff he wrote h.s wife a blank check to build a new mansion house— which the press described us "a palace"— down in the millionaire square facing the park. PART II IN THE FULLNESS OF HIS POWER CHAPTER VII WARD S NEW CREED IN PRIVATE It was colossal ! The man ran his big hand through the tuft of yellow hair that stood up from the crown of his head in a crest, and feeling his temples beady with sweat began mopping at his forehead. Rising im- patiently, he threw open the window sash and leaned out in the cool of the winter night. The stars shone clear as steel over the snow-padded silences of a white park; but the man did not see them. He was looking to a far future, like the long avenue that ran to the twinkling lights of the city down there below the park. It had always been at way; the light ahead, receding as fast as he pursued; the shadow of his past, behind; thvnew reaches, the endless distances, opening to th. ' ore, beckoning, baffling, leading on to new battl> j -;lds, new conquests. The odd thing of it was — you i luld not stop going! Life was a road without stop. There was always the grim shadow of yourself be- 90 WARD'S NEW CREED IN PRIVATE 91 hind— of what you had done, driving you on with momentum to do more! The future was not so rose-tinted as it had been thirty years before, when Ward sei cut from the httie, unpamted house behind the woods. The gold edges of hope had turned to the steel grays of con- Hict. What was hope at nineteen had become a struggle at forty-ninc; a struggle, a conquest, a triumph! To succeed you must fight; and once into a hght It IS come out, under or on top; and to hold what you have won vou must keep fighting' That was why the gold had turned to gray, and Ward's future at forty-nine— while dazzling as a mid-day sun — foreshadowed storm. He had succeeded beyond the outermost reach of hope! His dream had been to succeed and . . . stop; but, now, he was unable to stop. He could not rest satisfied if he had wished. There were the yelping foreign rivals ready to leap at first sign of weakening. Weakening in him meant gain to them. Feace had to be a victory, a continuous victory, a victory reenacted at every step of the way. These market place battles were worse than primitive club They never stopped. They made life one relentless ceaseless fight. ' It was when planning a defensive campaign against rivals one night that a cipher cable had come to Tom Ward, which read: "// we combine av/A foreign steamship pools we can control the commerce of America through carry- ing trade." ■' 92 THE NEW DAWN The cable was signed by his liuropeaii manager. Ward read and reread the message. I hen, he be- gan pacing the hbrary. 1 lere, at last, was a chance to conquer all rivals; rival railroad and rival coal mine, by levying tribute on all they shipped. If he missed this opportunity he must keep on fighting — or be beaten off the stock market, and drop out. That was the way the idea first came. Then, with a meteoric suddenness, out of chaotic thoughts flashed a light .... the light of a tremendous possibility .... a chance to stop this cut-throat game of competition in ocean traffic forever! If his own home rivals would only come together in an understanding, what was to hinder controlling the commerce of the world through its carrying trade? Steamship and railroad could levy surer tribute on the commerce of all nations than Roman conqueror ever exacted from shackled captive, or subjected na- tion. At most, the Roman conqueror never exacted more than a few pennies of tribute from subjugated kingdoms; but the world carriers by water and rail could exact a fifth of all a nation ate or wore, shipped or bought. As his mind ran along the lines of a new century's possibilities. Ward saw himself, not a plutocrat drawing tribute of gold from all men and all nations, but a beneficent Power binding all nations in a gold-riveted peace that must last forever; because he, who controlled the seas, con- trolled the world. He laughed as he bit on his cigar and thought back all the long, tumultuous, crowded years. Ship yards had led to steel. He WARD'S NEW CREED IN PRIVATE 93 had been the man to induce the ship yards to com- bine, then to induce steel to buy into ship yards; and steel had led to railroad control ; and what use were railroads if foreign ships wholly controlled entrance to world markets? What use reducing tariffs to the American public if the foreign steam ship pools advanced rates to cover every reduction? Please note that at this stage Ward considered him- self an altogether beneficent factor in public life! The idea of combination, or consolidation, had not originated with Ward. Other men had at- tempted the same thing more or less successfully with oil, and steel, and machinery; but the idea came to him now, because the things of which his wealth consisted— food supplies, coal, railroads, steam ships— tottered on the brink of ruin through com- binations abroad. Let him but grip the markets of the world, he could hold the fighting grounds of earth; and the ntw century might witness the last, great struggle, the Armageddon, for possession of the whole earth ! The more he thought the more alluring the chance seemed! First, the human family had expanded to a clan; then, a tribe; then, a race; then, nations of different races. What next— what but the gradual spread of the few big powers over more and more of the world's surface till there came the last great struggle for possession of earth? And then, who must will— he, who held the markets in the palm of his hand? Ward walked faster and faster, finally throwing 94 THE NEW DAWN himself in a leather chair with the remark, "Kings ran climb up on a shelf! They've had their day. I could buy up half a do/i ii I'^urupcan kingdoms with my wife's dress allowance. Kings I Kings! What are kings?" He laughed stertorously. J'.ne- miiis said that he assumed this attitude of contempt only when he had had hn'f a dozen glasses of cham- pagne; but the wine that intoxicated him to-night was the daring of his own world-wide ambitions. There would be opposition ! . . . Ward jingled the coins in his pockets. There always had been opposition from the night he had left the little, un- painted house, and sent the dog howling with the stick Oppositions and howls I .... As if any man would throw up the sponge for opposition and howls! To be sure, some of the opposition would be more serious than the dog's, but not much. Love that impeded was always more dangerous than unity that challenged. There was the merciless grapple with enemies over that brib- ery business, when recalcitrant legislators had re- quired encouragement to do as desired; but when the elections came round he had trodden those legis- lators into a mire of defeat from which there was no resurrection. Ward bit the end off his cigar. "It had been a great fight," he told himself, as he struck a match, "but you could always depend on the public being fooled before elections, or after elections! .... It just took a coin put near enough a man's eye to shut the world out! You could depend on the man WARD'S NEW CREFD IN PRIVATE 95 with a coin in front being a fool ! Yes . . . there would be opposition!" Ward smok. >. The yellow hair standing up in tufts, the promi- nent temples, the hard-set lips, the square jaw with clean-shaven, massive, double chin— were silhouetted agamst the back of the old Venetian chair like a face in bronze. There was something abo it the broad, flung-out chest, the muiicular hands, the pow- erful shoulders, that resembled the statue of a gladiator. It was a face without appeal, without response. It was a calculating face with strength or iron, will of iron, purpose of iron. \