William T. Coleman joined us at the lunch hour, and the sight of his face, masterful and calm, renewed our spirits.
"You are keeping things pretty near even in the markets," he said. "We shall weather the gale if there isn't another outbreak."
"Well, that's on the cards," I said. "The circulars are out for another meeting on the sand-lots."
"Come with me, and tell what you know about this, while we have a bite of lunch," he said.
I was more than pleased at this request, but looked doubtfully at the accumulation of papers before us with the feeling that I was the indispensable man at the desk. Coleman interpreted my unspoken thought, and said:
"Oh, sign a dozen checks in blank, and Partridge and Nelson can attend to everything necessary while you are gone."
I was reluctant to surrender my place as dispenser of fortune, even for a brief space of time. The position of a financial magnate in a period of storm and stress was not one that I could conscientiously describe as free from anxieties and perturbations. But it was clothed with power, and power possesses a fascination of its own. Monarchs do not abdicate, except under compulsion; and even among minor office-holders, whose mastership is far more limited than that of a millionaire in business, we have the word of a president that "few die and none resign." But at the compelling glance of William T. Coleman I signed my name to twelve checks, and said that I was happy to attend him.
During our hasty luncheon I told of the warning of coming outbreak that had been given me by Big Sam, of the words of Parks, and of the information I had received from Clark. Then, at his inquiries, I told all that I knew of the Council of Nine--its organization from among the anarchists, socialists and communists, its visionary idea of seizing the city government, and the manner in which it was using the anti-Chinese agitation to secure the physical force to bring about its revolutionary ends.
"You think the anti-Chinese leaders are being used without their knowledge?" asked Coleman thoughtfully.
"To a large extent, yes. They know, of course, that these men have wider designs, but they do not take them seriously."