MERWYN was now very anxious to reach police headquarters inMulberry Street, for he felt that the safety of the city, as wellas all personal interests dear to him, depended upon adequate andwell-organized resistance.
The driver, having been promised a handsome reward to remain, stillwaited. Indeed, he had gained the impression that Merwyn was insympathy with the ruthless forces then in the ascendant, and hefelt safer in his company than if returning alone.
Mounting the box again, Merwyn directed the driver to make his waythrough the more open streets to Broadway and 14th Street.
They had not gone far through the disturbed districts when fourrough-looking men stopped them, took possession of the hack, andinsolently required that they should be driven to Union Square. Thelast ugly-visaged personage to enter the vehicle paused a moment,drew a revolver, and said, "An' ye don't 'bey orders, this littlebull-dog will spake to ye next."
The Jehu looked with a pallid face at Merwyn, who said, carelessly:"It's all right. They are going in my direction."
The quartet within soon began to entertain suspicions of Merwyn,and the one who had last spoken, apparently the leader, thrust hishead out of the window and shouted: "Shtop! Who the divil is thatchap on the box wid ye?"
"I'll answer for myself," said Merwyn, seeking to employ thevernacular as well as the appearance of an American mechanic. "Thedriver don't know anything about me. A cop knocked a friend of mineon the head this morning, and I've been taking his wife to him."
The driver now took his cue, and added, "Faix, and a nice, dacentlittle Irishwoman she was, bedad."
"Then ye're wan wid us?" cried the leader of the gang.
"It looks mighty like it," was the laughing reply. "This would bea poor place for me to hang out, if I was afraid of you or yourfriends."
"Yez may bet your loife on that. How coomes it ye're so hand-and-glovewid an Irishman, when ye spake no brogue at all?"
"Thunder! man, do you think no one but Irishmen are going to havea fist in this scrimmage? I'm as ready to fight as you are, and amonly going down town to join my own gang. Why shouldn't I have anIrishman for a friend, if he's a good fellow, I'd like to know?"
"Beloikes they'll be yez best frin's. All roight. Dhrive on andmoind your eye, or the bull-dog will bark."
They ordered a halt several times, while one and another went toa saloon for a drink. It was fast becoming evident that, shouldthere be any want of courage or recklessness, whiskey would supplythe lack.
Merwyn preserved nonchalant indifference, even when his disreputablecompanions were approached by those with whom they were in league,and information and orders were exchanged which he partiallyoverheard. Although much was said in a jargon that he scarcelyunderstood, he gathered that nothing less was on foot than an attackon police headquarters, in the hope of crushing at the start thepower most feared. Therefore, while he maintained his mask, everysense was on the alert.
At length they reached Union Square, and the occupants of thehack alighted. Two went east and one west, while the leader saidto Merwyn, who had also jumped down: "Take me to your gang. We'reafther needing ivery divil's son of 'im widin the next hour or so.It's a big game we're playin' now, me lad, an' see that ye playsquare and thrue, or your swateheart'll miss ye the noight."
"You'll have to have a bigger crowd on Broadway before you'll getour fellows out," Merwyn replied. "We're not going to face the copsuntil there's enough on hand to give us a livin' chance."
"There'll be plenty on hand--more'n ye ever seed in yer loife--beforeye're an hour older. So lead on, and shtop your palaver. I'm notquite sure on ye yet."
"You soon will be," replied Merwyn, with his reckless and misleadinglaugh. "My course is down Broadway to Bleecker Street and thenwest. I can show you as pretty a lot of fellows as you'll want tosee, and most of us are armed."
"All roight. Broadway suits me. I want to see if the coast isclear."
"So do I, and what the cops are about in these diggin's. The rightthing to do is for all hands to pitch right on to them in MulberryStreet, and then the game's in our own hands."
"If that's the lark we have on foot, can ye promise that yer gang'lljoin us?"
"Yes, sir, for we'd know that meant business."
"How many could ye muster?"
"I hardly know. We were a-growin' fast when I left."
"Well, lead on loively. Ivery minute now should give me a dozenmen, an' we want to start the blaze down this way. I tell ye it'sa burning-up town."
"So I should guess from the smoke we see," said Merwyn, with hisold laugh. "Jupiter! there comes a squad of cops."
"Well, what do we care? We're two paceable, dacent citizens,a-strollin' down Broadway."
"Oh, I'm not afraid," was the careless reply. "I'm going to seethis scrimmage out, and I like the fun. Let's watch the cops crossthe street, and see how they are armed."
As the little squad approached Broadway from a side-street, hasteningto headquarters, the Hibernian firebrand and his supposed ally stoodon the curbstone, A moment later Merwyn struck his companion sucha powerful blow on the temple that he fell in the street, almostin front of the officers of the law. The young fellow then sprungupon the stunned and helpless man, and took away his weapons, atthe same time, crying: "Secure him. He's a leader of the mob."
"Yes, and you too, my hard hitter," said the sergeant in command.
"I'll go quietly enough, so long as you take him with me. Be quickabout it, too, for I have news that should be known at headquartersas soon as possible."
The police now supposed that they recognized one of a bandof detectives, everywhere busy about the city in all kinds ofdisguises,--men of wonderful nerve, who rendered the authoritiesvery important services, and often captured the most dangerous ofthe ruffianly leaders.
The fellow in question was hustled to his feet, having discoveredMerwyn's gang sooner than he desired. The squad pushed through thefast-gathering and bewildered crowd, and soon reached headquarters.The young fellow told his story in the presence of Mr. Vosburgh, whoevidently had credentials which secured for him absolute confidenceon the part of the authorities.
Merwyn soon learned to recognize in his interlocutor, thesuperintendent of the metropolitan police, a man to whose activebrain, iron will, and indomitable courage, the city chiefly owedits deliverance,--Thomas C. Acton.
Confirmation of the sinister tidings was already coming in fast. Thebrutal mob that had sacked and burned the Colored Orphan Asylum wasmoving southward, growing with accessions from different quarters,like a turbulent torrent. Its destination was well understood,and Acton knew that the crisis had come thus early. He frequentlyconferred with Chief Clerk Seth C. Hawley, upon whom, next tohimself, rested the heaviest burdens of those terrific days.
Merwyn offered his services on the force, stipulating, however,that he might be in a measure his own master, since he had otherduties to perform, at the same time promising to do his share ofthe fighting.
Mr. Vosburgh drew Acton to one side, and made a few whisperedexplanations. Merwyn's request was granted at once, Acton adding,"There will be a general call in the morning papers for the enrolmentof citizens as policemen."
The moments were crowded with preparations, counsels, and decisions.The telegraph wires, concentring there from all parts of the city,were constantly ticking off direful intelligence; but the mostthreatening fact was the movement down Broadway of unknown thousands,maddened by liquor, and confident from their unchecked excessesduring the day. They knew that they had only to destroy the handfulof men at police headquarters and the city was theirs to plunderand destroy with hyena-like savagery.
Acton, now cognizant of the worst, went to the police commissioners'room and said: "Gentlemen, the crisis has come. A battle must befought now, and won, too, or all is lost."
None doubted the truth of his word; but who should lead the smallforce at hand? Inspector Carpenter's name was suggested, for he wasknown to be a man of great resolution and courage, and leadershipnaturally fe
ll to him as one of the oldest and most experiencedmembers of the force. Acton instructed him not only that a battlemust be fought immediately, but also that it MUST be successful.
Carpenter listened quietly, comprehending both the peril and thenecessity; then after a moment's hesitation he rose to his fullheight, and with an impressive gesture and a terrible oath said,"I will go, and I'll win that fight, or Daniel Carpenter will nevercome back a live man."
He instantly summoned his insignificant force, and the order, "Fallin, men," resounded through the street.
Merwyn, with a policeman's coat buttoned over his blouse, avowedhis purpose of going with them; and his exploit of the afternoon,witnessed and bruited by members of the force, made his presencewelcome.
It was now between five and six in the evening. The air was hotand sultry, and in the west lowered heavy clouds, from which thethunder muttered. Emblematic they seemed to such as heeded them inthe intense excitement.
Few in the great city at that hour were so deeply stirred as Merwyn.The tremendous excitements of the day, to which his experience atMr. Vosburgh's residence had chiefly contributed, were cumulativein their effect. Now he had reached the goal of his hope, and hadobtained an opportunity, far beyond his wildest dreams, to redeemhis character from the imputation of cowardice. He was part of thelittle force which might justly be regarded as a "forlorn hope."The fate of the city depended upon its desperate valor, and no oneknew this better than he, who, from early morning, had witnessed thetiger-spirit of the mob. If the thousands, every minute approachingnearer, should annihilate the handful of men who alone were presentto cope with them, that very night the city would be at the mercyof the infuriated rioters, and not a home would be secure fromoutrage.
The column of police was formed scarcely two hundred strong.Merwyn, as a new recruit, was placed in its rear, a position thathe did not mean to keep when the fight should begin. Like theothers, he was armed with a locust-club, but he had two revolverson his person, and these he knew how to use with fatal precision.From an open window Superintendent Acton shouted, "InspectorCarpenter, my orders are, Make no arrests, bring no prisoners, butkill--kill every time."
It was to be a life-and-death struggle. The mob would have no mercy:the officers of the law were commanded to show none.
As Carpenter went forward to the head of his column, his face asdark with his sanguinary puipose as the lowering west, Merwyn sawthat Mr. Vosburgh, quiet and observant, was present.
The government officer, with his trained instincts, knew just whereto be, in order to obtain the most vital information. He now joinedMerwyn, and was struck by his extreme pallor, a characteristic ofthe young fellow under extreme emotion.
"Mr. Merwyn," he said, hastily, "you have done enough for twoto-day, You need rest. This is going to be a desperate encounter."
"Forward!" shouted Carpenter.
A proud smile lighted up Merwyn's features, as he said: "Good-by.Thank you for such faith as you have had in me;" and he moved offwith the others.
Mr. Vosburgh muttered, "I shall see this fight, and I shall solvethat embodied mystery whom we have thought a coward;" and he followedso near as to keep Merwyn under his eye.
A black, sulphurous cloud was rising in the west. This littledark blue column approaching from the east, marching down BleeckerStreet, was insignificant in comparison, yet it was infinitely themore dangerous, and charged with forces that would scatter deathand wounds such as the city had never witnessed.
No words were spoken by the resolute men. The stony pavementechoed their measured, heavy tread. Turning into Broadway they sawthe enemy but a block and a half away, a howling mob, stretchingnorthward as far as the eye could reach. It was sweeping thethoroughfare, thousands in line. Pedestrians, stages, vehicles ofall kinds, were vanishing down side-streets. Pallid shopkeeperswere closing their stores as sailors take in sail before a cyclone.
Carpenter halted his command, and sent small detachments up parallelside-streets, that they might come around and fall upon the flanksof the mob.
As these men were moving off on the double-quick, Merwyn left hissquad and said to Carpenter: "I am a citizen, and I stipulated thatI should fight as I chose. I choose to fight with you."
"Well, well, so long as you fight," was the hasty answer. "You shallhave plenty of it, if you keep near me." Then he added, sternly:"Mark you, young fellow, if you show the white feather I'll knockyou over myself. Those devils yonder must be taught that the onething this force can't do is run."
"Brain me if I do not do my whole duty," was the firm reply; andhe took his place at the right of the front rank.
A moment later he was startled by Mr. Vosburgh, who seized his handand said, earnestly: "Merwyn, no man ever did a braver thing thanyou are doing now. I can't forgive myself that I wronged you in mythoughts."
"You had reason. I'm doing no better than these other men, and Ihave a thousand-fold their motive." Then he added, gravely, "I donot think you ought to be here and your daughter alone."
"I know my duty," was the quiet reply; "and there are those whomust be informed of the issue of this fight as soon as it is over.Once more, farewell, my brave friend;" and he disappeared.
Carpenter was holding his force until his flanking detachments shouldreach their co-operative points. When the mob saw the police, itadvanced more slowly, as if it, too, instinctively recognized thatthe supreme crisis was near. In the van of the dense mass a largeboard was borne aloft, inscribed with the words, "No Draft!" andbeside it, in mocking irony, floated the stars and stripes.
The hesitation of the rioters was but brief. They mistook theinaction of the few policemen opposed to them for timidity, and theimmense masses behind pushed them forward. Therefore, with a newimpetus, the howling, yelling throng approached, and Merwyn coulddistinguish the features of the liquor-inflamed, maddened faces thatwere already becoming familiar to him. In the sultry July eveningthe greater part of the rioters were in their shirt-sleeves, andthey were armed with every description of weapon, iron bars, clubs,pitchforks, barrel-staves, and not a few with guns and pistols.
Carpenter stood out before his men, watching the approach of hisvictims with an expression which only the terrible excitement ofbattle can produce. His men, behind him, were like statues. Suddenlyhis stentorian command rang out,--
"BY THE RIGHT FLANK, COMPANY FRONT! DOUBLE-QUICK! CHARGE!"
As if the lever of a powerful engine had been pressed, all clubswere raised aloft, and with swift, even tread the trained, powerfulmen rushed after their leader, who kept several paces ahead.
When such a disciplined force, with such a leader, have resolved tofight till they die, their power is not to be estimated by numbers.They smote the astonished van of the mob like a thunderbolt, Carpenterleading by several steps, his face aflame with his desperate resolve.He dealt the first blow, sending down, bleeding and senseless, ahuge ruffian who was rushing upon him with a club. A second laterthe impetuous officer was in the midst of the mob, giving deadlyblows right and left.
His men closed up with him instantly, Merwyn being among the firstto reach his side, and for a few moments the thud of clubs on humanskulls was heard above every other sound. Mr. Vosburgh, keeping alittle to the rear on the sidewalk, watched Merwyn, who held hisattention almost equally with the general issues of this decisivebattle. The youth was dealing blows like an athlete, and keepingpace with the boldest. The windows of the buildings on Broadwaywere now crowded by thousands witnessing the conflict, while Mr.Vosburgh, following closely, heard the ominous "sing" of more thanone bullet. The man who had come that day to the protection of hishome and child should not be left to the mercy of strangers, shouldhe fall. To his surprise he soon saw that Merwyn had shifted hisclub to his left hand, and that he was fighting with a revolver. Hewatched the young fellow with renewed interest, and observed thathis aim was as deliberate as it was quick, and that often when hefired some prominent figure in the mob dropped.
"By all the powers! if he is not coolly sho
oting the leaders, andpicking out his man every time!" ejaculated the astonished officer.
The police made a clean sweep of the street, and only prostrateforms were left in their rear. Therefore Mr. Vosburgh could almostkeep pace with Merwyn.
The rioters soon became appalled at their punishment. Like a darkblue wave, with bloody clubs forming a crimson crest, that unfalteringrank of men steadily advanced and ingulfed them. All within reachwent down. Those of the police who were wounded still fought on,or, if disabled, the ranks closed up, and there was no cessationin the fatal hail of blows. The rioters in front would have givenway, had not the thousands in their rear pressed them forward totheir fate.
The judicious Carpenter had provided for this feature of thestrife, for now his detachments were smiting both flanks of thehuman monster with the same terrific vengeance dealt upon its head.The undisciplined herd fought desperately for a time, then gaveway to panic and the wild effort to escape. Long since a policemanhad seized the national flag, and bore it triumphantly with hisleft hand while he fought with his right. The confusion and uproarwere beyond description. The rioters were yelling their conflictingviews as to what ought to be done, while others were shouting tothose in their rear to cease crowding forward. The pressure downBroadway now came from a desire to escape the police. In brief,a large section of the mob was hemmed in, and it surged backwardsand forwards and up against the stores, while hundreds, availingthemselves of the side-streets, ran for their lives. In a veryshort time what had been a compact, threatening mass was flying infragments, as if disrupted by dynamite, but the pursuing clubs ofCarpenter's men never ceased their levelling blows while a rioter'shead was in reach. Far northward the direful tidings of defeatspread through the ragged hosts as yet unharmed, and they meltedaway, to come together again and again during the lurid days andnights which followed.
The Gettysburg of the conflict had been fought and won. Unspeakableoutrages and heavy battles were yet to come; but this decisivevictory gave the authorities advantage which they never lost, andtime to organize more effective resistance with the aid of themilitary. The police saved the city.
Broadway looked like a battle-field, prostrate forms strewing itscrimsoned pavement throughout the area of the conflict. The majoritywere left where they fell, and were carried off by their friends.
As the melee was drawing to a close, Mr. Vosburgh saw Merwyn chasinga man who apparently had had much influence with his associates,and had been among the last to yield. After a brief pursuit theyoung fellow stopped and fired. The man struggled on a few steps,then fell. Merwyn, panting, sat down on the curbstone, and here Mr.Vosburgh joined him with radiant face, exclaiming, as he wrung theyoung man's hand: "I've seen it all,--seen how you smote them hipand thigh. Never has my blood been so stirred. The city is saved.When a mob is thus dealt with it soon gives up. Come, you havedone more than your part. Go with me, and as soon as I have senta despatch about this glorious victory, we'll have supper and alittle rest."
"Impossible, Mr. Vosburgh. The inspector has heard that the mobis sacking the mayor's house, and we have orders to march there atonce. I'll get my wind in a moment."
"But you are not under obligations, in view of all you have done."
"I'm going to see this fight out. If the force were ordered backto headquarters I'd go with you."
"But you will come soon?"
"Yes; when the fighting is over for the night I'll bring the latestnews. There, the men are falling in for their march up Broadway,and I must go."
"Well, I congratulate you. No soldier ever won greener laurels inso short a time. What's more, you were cool enough to be one ofthe most effective of the force. I saw you picking off the leaders.Good-by;" and he hastened away, while Merwyn followed Carpenterand the captured flag to a new scene of battle.
CHAPTER XLVI.
"I HAVE SEEN THAT YOU DETEST ME."
An Original Belle Page 47
