Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-26
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Ferry of Beaucaire.

The Ferry of B~eaucatre.
For more than an hour two people had
been following the dogs trail, which led
zigzak down the bald precipices Of the
Cause where it overhsngs the river. The
stars twinkling above them grew sparser
and more r~ainbow-like in their sparkling
as the adventurers dipped lower into the
valley haze.
But the two minded nothing but them
~elves-neither in the heavens above nor
in the earth beneath-as, indeed, is the way
Of such. They had heard behind them as
they fed from La Cavalerie the sound of
the chanted evening psalm, telling Of peace
and mercy and the stern Joy of righteous
ness. And to Yvette FOy 1t was no more
than the crying Of the whooper swans high
overhead in the MINDLESS November dusks,
or the winter wolves bowling across the
wilderness In the gray ~dawnings. But to
Cavalier every note came to him sharp
toothed with remorse. Each line was hal
lowed by the associations OF bygone COM
munions, of gales Of the spirit sweeping
e over the congregation of the Lords Folk.
And clearer than all, Cavalier saw the
empty place where he should have stood.
the little red Bible he had brought from
Geneva, with a hundred places marked,
yellowed at the bottom of every page by the
NANhAO up AAC hou thOdbhN W paw
with that. 1t was to have accompanied
him to the conn, so that lin That Day. he
might, as 1t were, readily find the place and
stand with the Charter of Salvation Patent
in his hand.
All, but It was over. Standing high as
heaven, he had fallen lower than the low
est pit. For others there might be hope;
for him none.
Jean Cavalier felt all this as he went
further from the low, easily destructible
walls, which for his sake the hands of the
faithful hill men had built. He overpassed
the ordered lines of trenches, now half
filed with snow and left behind him the
sound of that slow and sorrowful chanting.
Once he put his hands to his ears to shut
out the call. But 1t came clearer than
ever, sharp as reproach. They seemed to
be singing over an open grave-the entomb-
minded Of 1t by one of the v~igilants sent
out from the headquarters. And then on
election day this same army Of guardian
angels will still ply their busy craft and
see that none of those stragglers whom
they registered fail to vote. This takes
money and lots of 1t, for 1t requires livery
rigs at $40 a day each and not less than
forty can do the work for a single party in
this city; better have fifty or sixty. So
there Is $500 or 5000 without going any
further. Another very important element
and an expensive one, is the maintenance
of challengers in every voting place in the
city to see that their respective sides are
not unfairly treated and that illegal voters
are not rushed in.
The modus Operandi then, of a city cam
paign or any other kind Of a political war
fare, must be a machine-an organization
so systematically and scientifically con-
structed as to be nothing else in effect but
a machine. Every part Of the machine
must At into the other readily and so az
to cause no friction. Harmony in the
ranks, mutual confidence and thorough CO.
operation Of all the component factors are
absolutely essential. The ordeal is a try
ing one; II is a test of patience, strength
both mental and physical, in short Of al
the powers of human endurance and unless
there is perfect unanimHy Of plans and
purposes the best results are not possible
OF the present city campaign In omaht
while It may be said that it is one Of the
most closely contested, 1t is comparatively
free, thus far at least. from those spec.
tacular features which might have beer
expected as q result Of the acrimonioul
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