The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 197/212

From somewhere down the track came the detonating boom of a cannon. There

was a dash of brass, and the travellers became aware of a band playing

"Marching through Georgia." Meredith laid his hand on his companion's

shoulder. "John," he said, "John----" The cannon fired again, and there

came a cheer from three thousand throats, the shouters all unseen.

The engine coughed and panted, the train rolled on, and in another minute

it had stopped alongside the station in the midst of a riotous jam of

happy people, who were waving flags and banners and handkerchiefs, and

tossing their hats high in the air, and shouting themselves hoarse. The

band played in dumb show; it could not hear itself play. The people came

at the smoker like a long wave, and Warren Smith, Briscoe, Keating, and

Mr. Bence of Gaines were swept ahead of it. Before the train stopped they

had rushed eagerly up the steps and entered the car.

Harkless was on his feet and started to meet them. He stopped.

"What does it mean?" he said, and began to grow pale. "Is Halloway--did

McCune--have you----"

Warren Smith seized one of his hands and Briscoe the other. "What does it

mean?" cried Warren; "it means that you were nominated for Congress at

five minutes after one-o'clock this afternoon."

"On the second ballot," shouted the Judge, "just as young Fisbee planned

it, weeks ago."

It was one of the great crowds of Carlow's history. They had known since

morning that he was coming home, and the gentlemen of the Reception

Committee had some busy hours; but long before the train arrived,

everything was ready. Homer Tibbs had done his work well at Beaver, and

the gray-haired veterans of a battery Carlow had sent out in '61 had

placed their worn old gun in position to fire salutes. At one-o'clock,

immediately after the nomination had been made unanimous, the Harkless

Clubs of Carlow, Amo, and Gaines, secretly organized during the quiet

agitation preceding the convention, formed on parade in the court-house

yard, and, with the Plattville Band at their head, paraded the streets to

the station, to make sure of being on hand when the train arrived--it was

due in a couple of hours. There they were joined by an increasing number

of glad enthusiasts, all noisy, exhilarated, red-faced with shouting, and

patriotically happy. As Mr. Bence, himself the spoiled child of another

county, generously said, in a speech, which (with no outrageous pressure)

he was induced to make during the long wait: "The favorite son of Carlow

is returning to his Lares and Penates like another Cincinnatus accepting

the call of the people; and, for the first time in sixteen years, Carlow

shall have a representative to bear the banner of this district and the

flaming torch of Progress sweeping on to Washington and triumph like a

speedy galleon of old. And his friends are here to take his hand and do

him homage, and the number of his friends is as the number given in the

last census of the population of the counties of this district!"