A Gentleman from Mississippi Part 32

"Well, what are--"

"Never mind now. But first gather in all I say, Senator, as we've no time to lose. When I couldn't locate you and I saw you probably wouldn't be at the Senate chamber in time to make your speech on the naval base bill, I persuaded Senator Milbank of Arkansas to rise and make a speech on the currency question, which subject was in order.

He was under obligation to me for some important information I once obtained for him, and he consented to keep the floor until you arrived, though he knew he would earn the vengeance of Peabody. That was over an hour and a half ago. He must be reading quotations from 'Pilgrim's Progress' to the Senate by now to keep the floor."

Bud paused to look at his watch.

The Senator stretched his head out of the window and cried: "Drive faster!"

"Got your speech all right?" called Bud above the din of the rattling wheels.

"Yes, here," was the response, the Senator tapping his inner breast pocket.

"Thought maybe she--" cried Bud, jerking his head back in the direction from which they had come.

The Mississippian shook his head negatively, and set his jaws determinedly.

The coach swung up to the Capitol entrance.

"Tell me," asked Langdon, as both jumped out, "how did you find out that--"

"I 'phoned the house--gave a name Peabody uses--"

"Great heavens! but how did you know where to 'phone?"

They were at the door of the Senate chamber.

"Norton gave me the tip--for your sake and Carolina's--for old times'

sake, he said," was Bud's reply.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE

Too much occupied in concentrating his thoughts on his speech, Langdon failed to notice the consternation on the faces of Peabody and Stevens as he walked to his seat in the Senate. They had failed to succeed in getting Milbank to conclude, and consequently could not push the naval base report through. But they noted the pa.s.sing of over an hour after their opponent's appointed time and had felt certain that he would not appear at all.

"The boss of the Senate" leaned across to Stevens and whispered, hurriedly:

"We must tear him to pieces now--discredit him publicly. It's his own fault. Our agents can sell the land to Standard Steel. Our connection with the scheme will be impossible to discover--after we have made the public believe Langdon is a crook."

"But how about our supposed combination to protect the Government that Langdon will tell about?" asked Stevens. "We can't deny that, of course."

"No," answered Peabody. "We can't deny it, but we will not affirm it.

We will tell interviewers that we prefer not to talk about it."

"It's our only chance," replied Stevens, cautiously.

"Yes; and we owe it all to Jake Steinert," went on Peabody. "That fellow Telfer will do anything to please Jake. Jake has convinced Telfer that Langdon was responsible for the defeat of Gulf City, and the Mayor is wild for revenge."

"The boss of the Senate" rose and walked to the rear of the Senate chamber to issue orders to two of his colleagues.

"Report of the committee on naval affairs." droned the clerk, mechanically. "House Bill No. 1,109 is amended to read as follows--"

And his voice sank to an unintelligible mumble, for every Senator present he well knew was aware that the amendment named Altacoola as the naval base site.

Senator Langdon rose in his seat.

"Mr. President," he called.

"Chair recognizes the gentleman from Mississippi," said the presiding officer, as he leaned back to speak to Senator Winans of Kansas, who had approached to the side of the rostrum.

The Langdon speech on "The New South and the South of the Future"

proved more than a doc.u.ment suited only to a reverent burial in the _Congressional Record_. Although wearied at the start owing to the exciting happenings of the day, the Mississippian's enthusiasm for his cause gave him strength and stimulation as he progressed. His voice rose majestically as he came to the particular points he wished to accentuate, and even those in the uppermost rows in the galleries could hear every word.

At the close of his formal speech he began on his statement of the action of the naval affairs committee in buying control of the Altacoola land to foil attempts to rob the Government. As he had predicted, the Senate did "sit up." The Senate did agree that a new kind of politics had arrived.

During this latter part of the speech many curious glances were directed at Peabody and Stevens, who sat in the same tier of seats, in the middle of the chamber, only an aisle separating them. Through this choice of seats they could confer without leaving their places.

Various senatorial a.s.sociates of these two men in other deals found it difficult to believe their ears--but was not old Langdon at this moment narrating the amazing transaction on the floor of the Senate?

Would the statue on the pedestal step down? Would the sphinx of the desert speak the story of the lost centuries? Would honor take the place of expediency in the affairs of state? What might not happen, thought the Senate machine, now that Peabody and Stevens had taken to their bosoms what they termed the purple pup of political purity?

Neither did the full portent of the situation escape the attention of the reporters' gallery. d.i.c.k Cullen observed to Hansel of the _Record_:

"Virtue's getting so thick around here it's a menace to navigation."

"Blocking the traffic, eh?" queried Hansel; and both laughed.

"h.e.l.lo! What's this?" exclaimed Cullen a few minutes later. "Horton has been recognized, when the program was to adjourn when the naval base bill was over with."

Langdon's speech had proved the hit, the sensation of the session.

After he concluded, amid resounding applause, in which Senators joined, as well as occupants of the galleries, Senator Horton of Montana rose and caught the presiding officer's eye.

"I ask unanimous consent to offer a resolution."

Hearing no objection, he continued, in a manner that instantly attracted unusual attention:

"It is my unpleasant duty"--Peabody and Stevens exchanged glances--"to place a matter before this body that to me, as a member of this honorable body, is not only distasteful, but deeply to be regretted.

"There has arisen ground to suspect a member of this body with having endeavored to make money at the Government's expense out of land which he is alleged to have desired his own committee to choose as the naval base.

"I therefore offer this resolution providing for the appointment of an investigating committee to look into these charges."

Langdon was intensely excited over this new development. "Some one has learned something about Peabody or Stevens," he muttered. He feared that this new complication might in some way affect the fate of the naval base--that the South, and Mississippi, might lose it. He rose slowly in his seat, while the Senate hummed with the murmur of suppressed voices.

"I ask for more definite information," he began, when recognized and after the President of the Senate had pounded with the gavel to restore quiet, "so that this house can consider this important matter more intelligently."

Senator Horton rose. He said: