From somewhere down the track came the detonating boom of a cannon. There
was a dash of brass, and the travellers became aware of a band playing
"Marching through Georgia." Meredith laid his hand on his companion's
shoulder. "John," he said, "John----" The cannon fired again, and there
came a cheer from three thousand throats, the shouters all unseen.
The engine coughed and panted, the train rolled on, and in another minute
it had stopped alongside the station in the midst of a riotous jam of
happy people, who were waving flags and banners and handkerchiefs, and
tossing their hats high in the air, and shouting themselves hoarse. The
band played in dumb show; it could not hear itself play. The people came
at the smoker like a long wave, and Warren Smith, Briscoe, Keating, and
Mr. Bence of Gaines were swept ahead of it. Before the train stopped they
had rushed eagerly up the steps and entered the car.
Harkless was on his feet and started to meet them. He stopped.
"What does it mean?" he said, and began to grow pale. "Is Halloway--did
McCune--have you----"
Warren Smith seized one of his hands and Briscoe the other. "What does it
mean?" cried Warren; "it means that you were nominated for Congress at
five minutes after one-o'clock this afternoon."
"On the second ballot," shouted the Judge, "just as young Fisbee planned
it, weeks ago."
It was one of the great crowds of Carlow's history. They had known since
morning that he was coming home, and the gentlemen of the Reception
Committee had some busy hours; but long before the train arrived,
everything was ready. Homer Tibbs had done his work well at Beaver, and
the gray-haired veterans of a battery Carlow had sent out in '61 had
placed their worn old gun in position to fire salutes. At one-o'clock,
immediately after the nomination had been made unanimous, the Harkless
Clubs of Carlow, Amo, and Gaines, secretly organized during the quiet
agitation preceding the convention, formed on parade in the court-house
yard, and, with the Plattville Band at their head, paraded the streets to
the station, to make sure of being on hand when the train arrived--it was
due in a couple of hours. There they were joined by an increasing number
of glad enthusiasts, all noisy, exhilarated, red-faced with shouting, and
patriotically happy. As Mr. Bence, himself the spoiled child of another
county, generously said, in a speech, which (with no outrageous pressure)
he was induced to make during the long wait: "The favorite son of Carlow
is returning to his Lares and Penates like another Cincinnatus accepting
the call of the people; and, for the first time in sixteen years, Carlow
shall have a representative to bear the banner of this district and the
flaming torch of Progress sweeping on to Washington and triumph like a
speedy galleon of old. And his friends are here to take his hand and do
him homage, and the number of his friends is as the number given in the
last census of the population of the counties of this district!"