“Before we begin,” she said, “let me be your assistant for a day. I wish to see the city as you see it, that I can direct my girls with intelligence.”
On the day fixed, she acted as usher for his callers at the church.
The President of his boys’ club was admitted first to tell him a saloon had been opened next door to their building in spite of their protest to the Board of Excise.
Gordon frowned.
“It’s no use to waste breath on the Board. They know that saloon is within the forbidden number of feet from our church. But as the Governor of New York has recently said, ‘Give me the vote of the saloons; I don’t mind the churches,’ go down to this lawyer and tell him to insist on an indictment of Crook, the Chairman of the Board, for the violation of his oath of office.”
“It’s no use, sir,” said Anderson, his assistant. “I’ve been to see him. He tells me there were three indictments for penitentiary offenses pending against Crook when the Mayor promoted him to be Chairman of the Board. Three courts have pronounced him guilty, but the new Legislature is going to pass an ex-post facto law to relieve him of his term in prison.”
“Then try him with one more indictment and include the whole Board of Excise this time. We will let them know we are alive.”
Kate ushered in a slatternly little woman, dirty, ugly, cross-eyed and her face red from weeping. “Please, Doctor, come quick. They’ve got Dan. They knocked him in the head, dragged him down the stairs and flung him in the wagon. He’s in jail, and they say they’ll have him in Sing Sing in a week. He ain’t done a thing. You’re the only friend we’ve got in the world.”
“On what charge did they arrest him, Mrs. Hogan?”
“Just a lot o’ policemen charged on him with billies!”