CHAPTER XXIII

Vassar’s Committee of Public Safety in the rear room of Schultz’ store grew rapidly into a recruiting stand for volunteers.

Before twelve o’clock the old Armory across the way was packed with hundreds of excited followers eager to fight. A bare hundred of them had permits to carry revolvers. A few had secured sticks of dynamite from builders. A hundred old muskets Vassar’s East Side Guard had used were there--but not a shell.

While they talked and raged in stunned amazement over the situation, a newsboy’s hoarse cry of extra startled the meeting. The morning papers had all gone to press before the blow had been struck.

“Get a paper--quick!” Vassar cried to Brodski, his district leader.

The familiar call of the two newsboys yelling from each side of the street could now be heard. This time their words were clearly heard above the din.

“Wuxtra! Wuxtra!”

“New York City captured!”

“Proclamation of Prince Karl von Waldron!”

“Wuxtra! Wuxtra! Wuxtra!”

Brodski returned with copies of the _Herald_, _Tribune_, _Times_, _World_, _Sun_, and _Press._

Each had issued a morning extra.

On the front page, in double-leaded black-faced type, surmounted by an imperial coat-of-arms supporting a crown, the proclamation of the new Governor-General was printed:

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES

Your Republic no longer exists. The invincible fleet of the Imperial Federation of Northern and Central Europe is now rapidly approaching New York. The transports which it guards bear the first division of the Imperial Army of Occupation, one hundred and fifty thousand strong.

The chief cities of the country have already surrendered to my garrisons of 200,000 veteran soldiers. Under my immediate command in Greater New York are 50,000 soldiers--25,000 infantry and cavalry and 25,000 men equipped with 8000 machine guns.

We are here to preserve order, guard your property and deliver the first city of America intact to the Commander-in-Chief of the approaching Imperial Army.

All saloons are ordered closed until opened by license of the new government. All assemblies in schools, churches, theaters, public halls or on the streets or parks are forbidden under penalty of death.

All persons found with firearms, explosives or weapons of any kind which might be used in war or for the purpose of rioting will be given until noon tomorrow to deposit the same in the Seventy-first Regiment Armory, Park Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street.

After that hour the penalty for any citizen, male or female, caught bearing arms, will be instant death and the confiscation of property.

All automobiles, motor-cars, bicycles and horses are hereby proclaimed the property of the Imperial Government and it is forbidden under penalty of death for any person save a soldier in royal uniform to use them.

The railroads will be opened for traffic under Imperial control within forty-eight hours. No uneasiness need be felt, therefore, that your food supply will fail. The subways and surface lines will be ready for use within twenty-four hours.

All persons are ordered to resume their usual occupations tomorrow morning at daylight when the means of transportation have been restored.

Resistance of any kind will be absolutely futile. The President of the United States and his entire Cabinet are prisoners of war, and your Capitol, duly guarded, is in my hands. Your fleet is in the Pacific, and I have destroyed the locks of the Panama Canal.

The Imperial Government earnestly desires that all bloodshed be avoided. We have the best interests of the people at heart. We will establish for the first time in your history a government worthy of this nation. My Imperial Master will treat all loyal subjects as his beloved children. His foes will be ground to dust beneath his feet. For these no quarter will be asked, none given.

I have already caused the arrest and imprisonment of two hundred well-known citizens to be held as hostages for your good behavior.

Your great churches, your municipal buildings and your big commercial houses have all been mined. At the first outbreak of rebellion, your hostages will be shot and your city reduced to ashes.

In the name of my Imperial Master I command the peace.

PRINCE KARL VON WALDRON, Governor-General of the Provinces of North America.

Vassar read this remarkable proclamation aloud amid a silence that was strangling.

He opened the papers and glanced at the editorial columns. It was as he feared.

A free press in America no longer existed.

Waldron was dictating every utterance from his tower on the heights of Manhattan.

Each paper earnestly appealed to all citizens to refrain from violence and make the best of their situation until intelligent advice could be given after a sufficient time had passed for reflection and conference with all parts of the nation.

Vassar mopped his brow and groaned.

“Well, boys,” he began, “we must give them credit for doing a good job. They don’t bungle, they don’t muddle, they don’t leave anything to chance. They’ve got us for the moment. There’s but one thing to do, submit--”

“No!--No!” came the angry growl.

Vassar smiled.

“Submit for the present, I was trying to tell you, until we can find the nucleus of an army to support. He didn’t mention our forts or our little army. They failed to get those forts from the rear and they’re intact. There are half a dozen battleships somewhere on the Atlantic side. The main fleet cannot reach us within a month. The Panama Canal has been blown up of course. But the ships that are here with two dozen efficient submarines and aeroplanes will be heard from before the army lands--”

“That’s the talk!” Benda cried. “We’re all Americans, signor!”

“Ya, gov’nor!” Schultz whispered. “This is _my_ country now--I fight--if you’ll give me a gun.”

A boy of eighteen, smeared with dirt and mud, pushed his way into the crowd and thrust a note into Vassar’s hand.

“In God’s name, Billy!” the young leader cried. “What are you doing here?”

The boy saluted.

“My duty, sir. When I heard what was happening I reported to General Hood. I’m on secret dispatch work.”

Vassar gripped the boy’s hand, dropped it, tore the letter open, read it hastily, and turned to the crowd:

“Now men, listen! The forts are intact. General Wood appoints me on his staff, with the rank of colonel. He is establishing his headquarters at Southhampton, Long Island. The _Pennsylvania_ has slipped to sea and is gathering our fleet. She has picked up wireless messages which leads her to believe that the landing will be made at that point. Our little fleet is getting ready for the fight. I want every man that can find a gun to hustle over to Jamaica. The army holds the Long Island Railroad from Jamaica. Trains are now waiting for you there.

“They can’t begin to enforce that proclamation until their army lands. The garrisons here will stick to the armories and their machine guns until reinforced--”

A suppressed cheer swept the crowd.

Vassar lifted his hand for silence.

“Now I want volunteers to take this order to every election district in New York--”

“Si--si, signor,” Benda cried. “Angela and my bambino--they go too. I play and shout for the Emperor. Angela she beat the tambourine and play for the soldiers. We get the word in the danger places, quick!”

“Good boy!” Vassar exclaimed. “I’ll send you where the others might fail--”

In rapid succession he sent his five hundred followers through the city bearing the whispered word to every district.

When the last man had hurried away he turned to Billy.

“Your sister and the children?”

“Virgina’s gone to a mountaineer’s cabin in the Adirondacks--left the night the Jubilee began--”

“No wonder she didn’t reply--“ Vassar muttered.

“She’ll be back here in double quick time, though, when she hears of this. You know Virginia’s got no commonsense--”

“And the kids?”

“I took Zonia and Marya over to our house. The old man and your father’s with them. They’ve a couple of shotguns and two revolvers. They’re all right.”

Vassar smiled grimly at the boy’s faith.

“Report to General Hood that I will reach Jamaica within six to eight hours and that he may expect twenty thousand men to be there before nine o’clock tonight. How’d you get here?”

“Hid my bicycle in Brooklyn and walked across the bridge.”

“I’ll follow suit. I know where I can put my hand on a good bicycle or two at the Athletic Club--”

Billy saluted and hurried on his mission.

At nine o’clock, the Jamaica terminal was jammed with forty thousand volunteers armed with every weapon conceivable, from a crowbar to a yacht cannon. A sailor had actually smuggled an old brass saluting piece into a ramshackled automobile and gotten into the station with it. These relics from the ark were left in the basement of the terminal.

General Hood had succeeded in getting sixty thousand rifles from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Governor’s Island, the Forts and one uncaptured armory in Brooklyn which the guns of the _Pennsylvania_ had torn open and held until occupied by his troops.

All night the Volunteers from Brooklyn and New York streamed into Jamaica. Before daylight a hundred thousand men were struggling to board the trains for Southampton.

But fifty thousand were allowed to leave. There were no more guns. The remaining fifty thousand were held as reserves with such rude weapons as they possessed. Guards were placed defending the approaches to Brooklyn and New York and a camp established for drilling and training the new recruits into the semblance of an army.