CHAPTER XXVIII.
IN THE REFUGE.
Far on the western slopes of Clingman Dome in the great Smoky Mountainsof North Carolina, a broad, low-built bungalow stood facing the settingsun. Vast stretches of pine forest shut it off from civilization and theprying activities of Plutocracy. The nearest settlement was Ravens,twenty miles away to eastward, across inaccessible ridges and ravines.Running far to southward, the railway left this wilderness untouched.High overhead, an eagle soared among the "thunder-heads" that presaged astorm up Sevier Pass. And, red through the haze to westward, the greathuge sunball slid down the heavens toward the tumbled, jagged mass ofpeaks that rimmed the far horizon.
Within the bungalow, a murmur of voices sounded; and from the huge stonechimney a curl of smoke, arising, told of the evening meal, within, nowbeing made ready. On the wide piazza sat a man, writing at a table ofplain boards roughly pegged together. Still a trifle pale, yet with alook of health and vigor, he sat there hard at work, writing as fast aspen could travel. Hardly a word he changed. Sheet by sheet he wrote, andpushed them aside and still worked on. Some of the pages slid to theporch-floor, but he gave no heed. His brow was wrinkled with theintensity of his thought; and over his face, where now a disguisingbeard was beginning to be visible, the light of the sinking sun cast asit were a kind of glowing radiance.
At last the man looked up, and smiled, and eyed the golden mountain-topsfar off across the valley.
"Wonderful aerie in the hills!" he murmured. "Wonderful retreat andhiding-place--wonderful care and forethought to have made this possiblefor me! How shall I ever repay all this? How, save by giving my lastdrop of blood, if need be, for the final victory?"
He pondered a moment, still half-thinking of the poem he had justfinished, half-reflecting on the strange events of the past week--thesecret ways, by swift auto, by boat, by monoplane which had brought himhither to this still undiscovered refuge. How had it all been arranged,he wondered; and who had made it possible? He could not tell, as yet. Noinformation was forthcoming. But in his heart he understood, and hislips, murmuring the name of Catherine, blessed that name and tenderlyrevered it.
At last Gabriel bent, picked up the pages that had fallen, and arrangedthem all in order.
"Tomorrow this shall go out to the world," said he, "and to ourpress--such of it as still remains. It may inspire some fainting heartand thrill some lagging mind. Now, that the final struggle is at hand,more than guns we need inspiration. More than force, to meet the forcethat has ravished our every right and crushed Constitution and Law,alike, we need spiritual insight and integrity. Only through these, andby these, come what may, can a true, lasting victory be attained!"
In the doorway of the bungalow a woman appeared, her smile illumined bythe sunset warmth.
"Come, Gabriel," said she. "We're waiting--the Granthams, Craig, andBrevard. Supper's ready. Not one of them will sit down, till you come."
"Have I been delaying you?" asked Gabriel, turning toward the woman,with a smile that matched her own.
"I'm afraid so, just a little," she answered. "But no matter; I'm glad.When you get to writing, you know, nothing else matters. One line ofyour verse is worth all the suppers in the world."
"Nonsense!" he retorted. "I'm a mere scribbler!"
"We won't argue that point," she answered. "But at any rate, you'redone, now. So come along, boy--or the comrades will begin 'dividing up'without us; for this mountain air won't brook delay."
Gabriel took a long breath, stretched his powerful arms out toward themountains, and raised his face to the last light of day.
"Nature!" he whispered. "Ever beautiful and ever young! Ah, could manbut learn thy lessons and live close to thy great heart!"
Then, turning, he followed Catherine into the bungalow.
Beautiful and restful though the outside was, the interior was morerestful and more charming still.
In the vast fireplace, to left, a fire of pine roots was crackling. Theroom was filled with their pitchy, wholesome perfume, with the dancinglight of their blaze and with the warmth made grateful by that mountainheight.
Simple and comfortable all the furnishings were, hand-wrought for useand pleasure. Big chairs invited. Broad couches offered rest. Nohunting-trophies, no heads of slaughtered wild things disfigured thewalls, as in most bungalows; but the flickering firelight showedpictures that inspired thought and carried lessons home--pictures oftoil and of repose, pictures of life, and love, and simple joy--picturesof tragedy, of reality and deep significance. Here one saw Millet's"Sower," and "Gleaners" and "The Man with the Hoe." There, Fritel's "TheConquerors," and Stuck's "War." A large copy of Bernard's "Labor,"--thesensation of the 1922 Paris Salon--hung above the mantelpiece, on whichstood Rodin's "Miner" in bronze. Portraits of Marx, Engels, LaSalle andDebs, with others loved and honored in the Movement, showed betweenoriginal sketches by Walter Crane, Balfour Kerr, Art Young and RyanWalker. And in the well-filled bookshelves at the right, Socialist booksin abundance all told the same tale to the observer--that this was aSocialist nest high up there among the mountains, and that every thoughtand word and deed was inspired by one great ideal and one alone--theRevolution!
At a plain but well-covered table near the western windows, where fadingsunlight helped firelight to illumine the little company, sat threemen--two of them armed with heavy automatics--and a woman. Anotherwoman, Catherine, was standing by her chair and beckoning Gabriel tohis.
"Come, Comrade!" she exclaimed. "If you delay much longer, everythingwill be stone cold, and _then_ beg forgiveness if you dare!"
Gabriel laughed.
"Your own fault, if you wait for me," he answered, seating himself. "Youknow how it is when you get to scribbling--you never know when to stop.And the scenery, up here, won't let you go. Positively fascinating,that view is! If the Plutes knew of it, they'd put a summer resorthere, and coin millions!"
"Yes," answered Craig, once Congressman Craig, but now hiding from theAir Trust spies. "And what's more, they'd mighty soon confiscate thisresting-up place of the Comrades, and have us back behind bars, orworse. But they _don't_ know about it, and aren't likely to. ThankHeaven for at least one place the Party can maintain as an asylum forour people when too hard-pressed! Not a road within ten miles of here.No way to reach this place, masked here in the cliffs and mountains,except by aeroplane. Not one chance in a thousand, fellows, that they'llever find it. Confusion take them all!"
The meal progressed, with plenty of serious and earnest discussion ofthe pressing problems now close at hand. Brevard, a short, spare man,editor of the recently-suppressed "San Francisco Revolutionist" and nowin hiding, made a few trenchant remarks, from time to time. Grantham andhis wife, both active speakers on the "Underground Circuit" and bothunder sentence of long imprisonment, said little. Most of theconversation was between Catherine, Craig and Gabriel. Long before thesupper was done, lamps had to be brought and curtains lowered. At lastthe meal was over.
"Dessert, now, Gabriel!" exclaimed Grantham. "Your turn!"
"Eh? What?" asked Armstrong. "My turn for what?"
"Your turn to do your part! Don't think that you're going to write apoem and then put it in your pocket, that way. Come, out with it!"
Gabriel's protests availed nothing. The others overbore him. And atlast, unwillingly, he drew out the manuscript and spread it open on hisknee.
"You really want to hear this?" he demanded. "If you can possibly spareme, I wish you would!"
For all answer, Craig pushed a lamp over toward him. The warm light onGabriel's face, now slightly bearded, and on his strong, corded throat,made a striking picture as he cast his eyes on the manuscript and invibrant and harmonious voice, read:
_I SAW THE SOCIALIST_
I saw the Socialist sitting at a great Banquet of Men, Sitting with honored leaders of the blind, unwitting Multitude; I saw him there with the writers, editors, painters, men of letters, Legislators and judges, the Leaders of the People, Leaders flushed w
ith the wines of price, eating costly and rare foods, Making loud talk, and boastful, of that marvel, American Liberty! Thinking were they no thought of hunger and pinching cold; Of the blue-lipped, skinny children, the thin-chested, coughing men, The dry-breasted mothers, the dirt, disease and ignorance, The mangled workmen, the tramps, drunkards, pickpockets, prostitutes, thieves, The mad-houses, jails, asylums and hospitals, the sores, the blood of war, And all the other wondrous blessings that attend our civilization-- That civilization through which the wines and foods were given them.
I saw the Socialist there, calm, unmoved, unsmiling, thoughtful, Sober, serious, full of dispassionate and prophetic vision, Not like the other men, the all-wise Leaders of the People. The political economists, the professors, the militarists, heroes and statisticians; Not like the kings and presidents and emperors, the nobles and gold-crammed bankers, But mindful, more than they, of the cellars under the House of Life Where blind things crawl in the dark, things men and yet not human, Things whose toil makes possible the Banquets of the Leaders of Men, Things that live and yet are not alive; things that never taste of Life; Things that make the rich foods, themselves snatching filthy crumbs; Things that produce the wines of price, and must be content with lees; Things that shiver and cringe and whine, that snarl sometimes, That are men and women and children, and yet that know not Life!
I saw the Socialist there; I sat at the banquet; beside him, Listened to the surging music, saw all the lights and flowers, Flowers and lights and crystal cups, whereof the price for each Might have brought back from Potter's Field some bloodless, starving baby. I heard the Leaders' speeches, the turgid oratory, The well-turned phrases of the Captains, the rotund babble of prosperity, (Prosperity for whom? Nay, ask not troublesome questions!) The Captains' vaunting I heard, their boasts of glory and victory, While red, red, red their hands dripped red with the blood of the butchered workers. I heard the Judges' self-glorification, Quixotic fighting of windmills, Heard also the unclean jests that those respected Leaders told. And as I looked and listened, I still observed the Socialist, Unmoved and patient and serious, calm, full of sober reflections.
Then there spake (among many others) an honored and full-paunched Bishop. Rubicund he was, and of portly habit of body, Shepherd of a well-pastured flock, mightily content with God, Out of whose omnipotent Hand (no doubt) the blessings of his life descended. I heard this exponent of Christ the Crucified, Christ the Carpenter, Christ the Leader of Workingmen, the Agitator, the Disturber, Christ the Labor-organizer, Christ the Archetypal Socialist, Friend of the dwellers in the pits of Life, Consoler of earth's exploited, Who once with the lash scourged from the Temple the unclean graft-brood of usurers. And the rotund Bishop's words were as the crackling of dry thorns Under a pot, bubbling without use in the desert of dreary platitudes. The story he told was spiced and garnished with profane words, Whereat the Leaders laughed in their cups, making great show of merriment, So that the banquet-hall rang, and wine was spilt on the linen. Wine as red as blood--the blood of the shattered miner, Blood of the boy in the rifle-pits, blood of the coughing child-slave, Blood of the mangled trainman, blood that the Carpenter shed.
And still I watched the Socialist. Sober, judicial, observant And full of greater wisdom he was than to laugh with the tipsy Leaders. His eyes were fixed on the Bishop, vice-regent of God upon earth. And as I watched the Socialist, the unmoved, the contemplative one, He thoughtfully took his pencil, he took the fine and large card Whereon the names of the rich foods and all the costly wines were printed, And made a few notes of the feast, notes of the Bishop's speech, Notes to remind him to search the slums for the great, God-given prosperity, Which all the Judges, Lawmakers, Captains and Leaders knew to be "our" portion; Notes of the flowers, the wine, the lights, the music, the splendor, Notes of the Leaders' oratory, notes of the Bishop's deep-voiced unctiousness, Notes he made; and as I looked at the notes he was carefully writing, The words ran red like wine and blood, they blazed like the blazing lights! Words they were of blood and fire, that spread, that filled the banquet-hall. Words of old, I read them--"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSHIN!-- Weighed in the Balance you are, ye Leaders respected of men, You Statesmen, Lawmakers, Judges, Captains, Bishops, vice-regents of God! Weighed and tried and found wanting. Give way, now, to what shall come after! Make ye way for the Men who shall do what ye have but neglected and shirked! Make ye way for a Time which hath more than Power and Greed for its watchwords! Soon your day shall decline forever, your sun shall sink and shall vanish. Then from the Cellars of Life the darkness-dwellers shall issue, Greeting another daunt which shall have more than pain for its portion. Then no more shall the humble, the lowly, the friends of the Nazarene Carpenter Be starved, be mangled for gold, be crucified, slaughtered, bled. Make ye way!...Make ye way!..."
Such was the message I read, the words of that fire-writ warning. Then peace came back to my spirit, calm peace, and hope and patience: Then, through my anger and heat, I thought of the Retribution. But even more clearly I saw the New Birth of this weary world, This world now groaning in chains, with the bloody sweat of oppression. These things and many more, such as were hard to write of, I read in the words of the Socialist, patient, peaceful and sober, Full of prophetic vision, above all things hopeful and patient, Written in living flame at the Feast of the Leaders of Men....