The Machine

by Upton Sinclair

dive-keepers and betraying helpless young girls! Naming legislators

  and judges, and receiving bribes to corrupt the highest Court in the

  State.

  HEGAN. Laura . . .

  LAURA. Father, I did not seek this discussion! He challenged me . . .

  and he shall hear the truth! For all these months the thing that has

  been driving me to desperation has been the knowledge that my father

  was the business associate and ally of a master of infamy like Robert

  Grimes!

  GRIMES. Thanks, ma'am! And so now he's to break with me!

  [A knock at the door.]

  ANDREWS. [Enters, centre.] Mr. Hegan, these orders for your brokers

  must be signed.

  HEGAN. I won't sign them!

  ANDREWS. Sir?

  HEGAN. Never mind them.

  GRIMES. [Springing to his feet.] Jim Hegan, you're mad! [TO ANDREWS.]

  Go out, will you? ANDREWS exit.] Hegan, man . . . surely you don't

  mean this?

  HEGAN. Yes . . . I'm sick of it!

  GRIMES. But, man, think of the rest of us! . . . What are we to do?

  HEGAN. You can buy just the same.

  GRIMES. But without you? Why, we won't be able to corner Murdock! And

  if he gets out of this hole, it'll be worse than ever! There'll be

  hell to pay!

  HEGAN. I don't care.

  GRIMES. But, man, you've pledged yourself! Look at what Harris has

  done! . . . What excuse will you be able to make to him? And what will

  you tell Henry Stevens?

  HEGAN. I'll tell them I've quit.

  GRIMES. But you told them last night you were going in with every

  dollar you could raise! You told Isaacson he could break with Murdock!

  And now you'll tell them you've turned tail and run! Why, Hegan, it's

  treason!

  HEGAN. Listen to me . . .

  GRIMES. I don't want to listen to you! Half an hour from now you'll be

  ashamed of yourself . . . wishing that nobody had heard you! You'll be

  begging me not to mention it! You . . . Jim Hegan . . . the traction

  king! To lose your nerve over a little thing like this! What's come

  over you, anyhow . . . after all the things we've been through

  together? Why, man . . .

  [The 'phone rings.]

  HEGAN. Hello! Who is it? Oh, Isaacson. Yes; I'll speak with him.

  Hello, Isaacson! Yes. No; I've not forgotten. I'll do whatever I said

  I'd do. Er . . . yes; that's all right. I've been delayed. Yes. I'll

  get the money to you. Right away. Oh, certainly, that's all right.

  [Hangs up receiver.] Ah, God!

  GRIMES. Hegan, listen here. You're in the midst of a battle. And

  you're the general. Everything depends on you this morning. And you've

  a right to be afraid . . but you've no right to let others see it.

  You've no right . . . do you understand me? And, by God, I won't let

  you! . . . I'll be a man for two of you! Shake yourself together now !

  [Seizes him.] Come, man ! Shake yourself together!

  HEGAN. But think of the exposure!

  GRIMES. The exposure! And this is Jim Hegan talking! How many times

  have you been exposed already? And how many times have I been?

  HEGAN. But this is different.

  GRIMES. How different? We've got the police, and we've got the

  district attorney, and we've got the courts. What more do we want?

  What can they do but talk in the newspapers? And is there anything

  they haven't said about us already? [Takes HEGAN by the arm, and

  laughs.] Come, old man! As my friend Leary says: "Dis is a nine-day

  town. If yez kin stand de gaff for nine days, ye're all right!" We'll

  stand the gaff!

  HEGAN. I'm tired of standing it.

  GRIMES. Yes, we all get tired now and then. But this afternoon it'll

  be Murdock that's tired. Think of him, Hegan . . . try to realize him

  a bit! You've got him where you want him at last! Remember what he did

  to you in the Brooklyn Ferry case! Remember how he lied to you in the

  Third Avenue case! And he told Isaacson, only last week, that he'd

  never let up on you till he'd driven you out of the traction field!

  HEGAN. Did he say that?

  GRIMES. He did that! And only yesterday he said he was getting ready

  to finish you! He's as sure of this Court decision as I am of the

  sunrise! I'm told he's short already over a quarter of a million

  shares!

  HEGAN. But his judges'll get word to him . . . he'll buy!

  GRIMES. Of course! But that's just why you ought to be busy! Buy

  first, and make him pay . . . damn his soul!

  ANDREWS. [Knocks and enters.] Mr. Stevens is here, Mr. Hegan.

  GRIMES. Henry Stevens? We'll see him. [ANDREWS exit.] Come on, man!

  We'll go over to your brokers and take the orders. It'll give you a

  smell of the powder smoke.

  LAURA. [AS HEGAN Starts to follow.] Father, you are going with him?

  HEGAN. My dear child, what can I do?

  LAURA. But think of the disgrace . . . the shame of it! You will carry

  it with you all your life!

  HEGAN. I can't help it. I am bound hand and foot.

  LAURA. Father! [She rushes to him, and flings her arms about him.] Do

  you realize what you are doing? You are driving me away from you! . .

  . You are casting me off ! And all for a few more dollars !

  HEGAN. My dear, it is not that. My word is pledged.

  LAURA. You are trampling me in the dust. You are spurning all that is

  best in your life!

  GRIMES. Come, come, man ! The game is called

  HEGAN. Let me go, my dear.

  LAURA. Father!

  HEGAN. No! No! [He gently, but firmly, puts her arms from him.] Good-

  bye, dear.

  LAURA. Father! [HEGAN and GRIMES go out centre; she sinks by the

  table, and buries her face in her arms, sobbing; after a considerable,

  interval, a knock on the door, centre.] Come in!

  MONTAGUE. [Enters.] Well?

  LAURA. I have failed. [Rises and stretches out her arms.] Failed! He

  has gone with Grimes!

  MONTAGUE. I saw him go, Miss Hegan.

  LAURA. [Swiftly.] And yet . . . I have not failed utterly. I have

  failed to turn back the decision . . . to save him from this disgrace.

  But that is not all.

  MONTAGUE: How do you mean?

  LAURA. I shall not give him up . . . and, in the end, I shall have my

  way; I can see that quite clearly. Ah, how I hurt him! I almost broke

  his heart! And just now he is in the midst of the battle . . . the

  rage of it is on him. But, afterwards, he will recollect . . . he will

  be overwhelmed with grief! And then he will see! He will do what I

  have begged him to!

  MONTAGUE. Yes . . . perhaps that is so.

  LAURA. I know what my love means to him! I know what he is at heart!

  And when he sees that I mean to carry out my threat, to go by myself

  and to refuse to touch his money . . . that will be more than he can

  bear, Mr. Montague!

  MONTAGUE. You mean to do that?

  LAURA. I mean to do it! I mean to do it today; and I will never yield

  to him . . . never until he has atoned for this wrong he has done! And

  don't you see that I will win in the end?

  MONTAGUE. Yes; I see.

  LAURA. [Quickly.] Understand, that has nothing to do with your course.

  I am not asking you to spare
him. You must go ahead and do your duty .

  . . you must do just what you would have done if I had never stood in

  the way.

  MONTAGUE. It is a terrible thing to me, Miss Hegan. I cannot turn back

  . . .

  LAURA. You must not! You must not think of it! It will be a part of my

  father's punishment . . . and he has deserved it. He has prepared that

  cup, and he must drink it . . . to the dregs!

  MONTAGUE. You can bear it?

  LAURA. It is not any question of what I can bear. It is a question of

  the rights of the people. I saw that quite clearly, as my father

  talked with me. Whether it is he who wins, or whether it is Murdock,

  it is always the people that lose. And, let it hurt whom it may, the

  people must have the truth!

  MONTAGUE. And then . . . you will be able to forgive me! Ah, what a

  weight you lift from me! I hardly dared to face the thought of what I

  had to do! Hesitating.] And then, the thought that you mean to

  renounce your father's wealth . . . that you are going out into the

  world . . . alone . . .

  LAURA. It will not be hard for me. You cannot know how I have hated my

  past life. To know that my father has plundered the public . . . and

  then to give his money, and call it charity. To be flattered and

  fawned upon . . . to be celebrated and admired . . . and never for

  anything that I am, but always for my money!

  MONTAGUE. I understand what you feel! And see what your decision means

  to me . . . it sets me free at last!

  LAURA. Free!

  MONTAGUE. Free to speak! Miss Hegan, I came to New York, and I met

  these rich people, and I saw how their fortunes were poisoning their

  lives. I saw men who could not have a real friend in the world,

  because of their money. I saw young girls whose souls were utterly

  dead in them because they had been brought up to think of themselves

  as keepers of money-bags, and to guard against men who sought to prey

  upon them. I hated the thing . . . I fled from it as I would from a

  plague. In that world I had met a woman I might have loved . . . a

  woman who was noble and beautiful and true; and yet I dared not speak

  to her . . . I dared not even permit myself to know her . . . because

  I was a poor man, and she was rich. But now she is to be poor also!

  And so I may speak!

  LAURA. [Starting.] Oh!

  MONTAGUE. Miss Hegan, from the first time I met you I felt that you

  were the woman I should love. But then, as fate would have it, I found

  myself preparing to attack your father; so I said that we must never

  meet again. But now you see how it has happened. I have come to know

  you as I never hoped to know you, and I know that I love you.

  LAURA. I had no idea . . .

  MONTAGUE. You say that you are going away alone. Let us go together.

  We have the same purpose . . . we have the same battle to fight. We

  can go out to the people and help to teach them.

  LAURA. You . . . you know that you love me?

  MONTAGUE. I love you! I want nothing so much as the chance to serve

  you and help you. The chance to tell you so is more than I had ever

  ventured to hope for. To find you free and alone . . . to be able to

  speak to you, with no thought of wealth or position! To tell you that

  I love you . . . just you! You!

  LAURA. I hardly dare to think of it . . . now . . . here . . .

  MONTAGUE. We can put all the past behind us . . . we can take a new

  start and win our own way. If only you love me!

  LAURA. Ah, to let myself be happy again. How can I?

  MONTAGUE. If you love me, then we have the key to happiness . . . then

  everything is clear before us. We can face the world together! Do you

  love me? [Stretches out his arms to her.] Laura!

  LAURA. [Sways toward him.] I love you.

  MONTAGUE. [Embraces her.] My love!

  CURTAIN

  End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Machine, by Upton Sinclair