Stacey watched him as he measured out the gin and vermouth.
“Disgraceful, the whole business!” Mr. Carroll went on, emphasizing his words by a vigorous agitation of the silver shaker. “There’s never been a time in the history of this country when respect for law and order was at so low an ebb.” He poured his cocktail into a glass and took it over to the table. “Come on, son,” he said, “sit down. Dinner will be served in a few minutes, I dare say. Sit down and tell me the whole story. Your health, my boy!”
“Thank you, sir,” said Stacey, obeying. “But there isn’t very much to tell. I’ll spare you details of the lynching itself—they were in all your papers, of course. After the riot the Legion men organized, and, as I happened to have my uniform with me, I went in with them and helped arrest a lot of the people implicated. Young Traile and I worked together.”
Mr. Carroll sat up straight, his eyes shining. “You did that? Good for you, Stacey! Tell me all about it.”
Stacey related his experiences, stressing details which seemed unimportant to himself, such as his and the lieutenant’s adventures in making the arrests, and omitting to speak of Monahan, because he thought his father would not approve of his behavior in that matter, and Stacey, though with a sort of melancholy absence of feeling, wanted to be agreeable to his father. Parker had served the soup, but Mr. Carroll, though he prized dinner highly, left it untouched until Stacey had finished speaking.
“Good!” he cried then, “good! I’m proud of you. But, hang it!” he added boyishly, “how adventures do dog you about, don’t they? So General Wood was the man for the job? I knew he’d prove to be.”
“Yes,” said Stacey.
“A good man!” remarked Mr. Carroll, eating his soup now. “I hope he’ll be our next president.”
“Hope so, too,” Stacey assented.
Mr. Carroll’s face was radiant. “Glad you feel the same way about it. We’ve had enough of the waste and radicalism and shilly-shallying of this administration,” he asserted. “We want a strong safe man for president, representing a decent party. General Wood fills the bill.”