[Illustration: "DO YOU BEGIN TO SUSPECT THINGS?" SHE ASKED. ]

THEGRAFTERS

BYFRANCIS LYNDE

ILLUSTRATED BYARTHUR I. KELLER

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

 I ASHES OF EMPIRE II A MAN OF THE PEOPLE III THE BOSTONIANS IV THE FLESH-POTS OF EGYPT V JOURNEYS END-- VI OF THE MAKING OF LAWS VII THE SENTIMENTALISTS VIII THE HAYMAKERS IX THE SHOCKING OF HUNNICOTT X WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY XI THE LAST DITCH XII THE MAN IN POSSESSION XIII THE WRECKERS XIV THE GERRYMANDER XV THE JUNKETERS XVI SHARPENING THE SWORD XVII THE CONSPIRATORS XVIII DOWN, BRUNO! XIX DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS XX THE WINNING LOSER XXI A WOMAN INTERVENES XXII A BORROWED CONSCIENCE XXIII THE INSURRECTIONARIES XXIV INTO THE PRIMITIVE XXV DEAD WATER AND QUICK XXVI ON THE HIGH PLAINS XXVII BY ORDER OF THE COURTXXVIII THE NIGHT OF ALARMS XXIX THE RELENTLESS WHEELS XXX SUBHI SADIK

TO MY GOOD FRIENDMR. EDWARD YOUNG CHAPIN

THE GRAFTERS

I

ASHES OF EMPIRE

In point of age, Gaston the strenuous was still no more than a lustyinfant among the cities of the brown plain when the boom broke and thejunto was born, though its beginnings as a halt camp ran back to the daysof the later Mormon migrations across the thirsty plain; to that day whenthe advanced guard of Zophar Smith's ox-train dug wells in the damp sandsof Dry Creek and called them the Waters of Merom. 

Later, one Jethro Simsby, a Mormon deserter, set up his rod and staff onthe banks of the creek, home-steaded a quarter-section of the sage-brushplain, and in due time came to be known as the Dry Creek cattle king. Andthe cow-camp was still Simsby's when the locating engineers of the WesternPacific, searching for tank stations in a land where water was scarce andhard to come by, drove their stakes along the north line of thequarter-section; and having named their last station Alphonse, christenedthis one Gaston. 

From the stake-driving of the engineers to the spike-driving of thetrack-layers was a full decade. For hard times overtook the WesternPacific at Midland City, eighty miles to the eastward; while the Statecapital, two days' bronco-jolting west of Dry Creek, had railroad outletsin plenty and no inducements to offer a new-comer. 

But, with the breaking of the cloud of financial depression, the WesternPacific succeeded in placing its extension bonds, and a little later theearth began to fly on the grade of the new line to the west. Within aSundayless month the electric lights of the night shift could be seen, and, when the wind was right, the shriek of the locomotive whistle couldbe heard at Dry Creek; and in this interval between dawn and daylightJethro Simsby sold his quarter-section for the nominal sum of two thousanddollars, spot cash, to two men who buck-boarded in ahead of thetrack-layers. 

This purchase of the "J-lazy-S" ranch by Hawk and Guilford marked themodest beginning of Gaston the marvelous. By the time the temporarysidings were down and the tank well was dug in the damp sands, it washeralded far and wide that the Western Pacific would make the city on thebanks of Dry Creek--a city consisting as yet only of the Simsby ranchshacks--its western terminus. Thereupon followed one of the senselessrushes that populate the waste places of the earth and give theprofessional city-builder his reason for being. In a fortnight after thedriving of the silver spike the dusty plain was dotted with theblack-roofed shelters of the Argonauts; and by the following spring theplow was furrowing the cattle ranges in ever-widening circles, and Gastonhad voted a bond loan of three hundred thousand dollars to pave itsstreets. 

Then under the forced draft of skilful exploitation, three years of highpressure passed quickly; years named by the promoters the period ofdevelopment. In the Year One the very heavens smiled and the rainfallbroke the record of the oldest inhabitant. Thus the region round aboutlost the word "arid" as a qualifying adjective, and the picturesquefictions of the prospectus makers were miraculously justified. In Year Twothere was less rain, but still an abundant crop; and Jethro Simsby, drifting in from some unnamed frontier of a newer cow-country, saw what hehad missed, took to drink, and shot himself in the lobby of theMid-Continent Hotel, an ornate, five-storied, brick-and-terra-cottastructure standing precisely upon the site of the "J-lazy-S" brandingcorral. 

It was in this same Year Two, the fame of the latest of western Meccas foryoung men having penetrated to the provincial backgrounds of NewHampshire, that David Kent came. 

By virtue of his diploma, and three years of country practice in the NewHampshire county town where his father before him had read Blackstone andChitty, he had his window on the fourth floor of the Farquhar Buildinglettered "Attorney and Counselor at Law"; but up to the day in the latterpart of the fateful Year Three, when the overdue crash came, he was bestknown as a reckless plunger in real estate--this, mind you, at a momentwhen every third man counted his gains in "front feet", and was shoutinghimself hoarse at the daily brass-band lot sales. 

When the bottom fell out in the autumn of Year Three, Kent fell with it, though not altogether as far or as hard as many another. One of hisprofessional hold-fasts--it was the one that afterward became thebread-tackle in the famine time--was his position as local attorney forthe railway company. By reason of this he was among the first to have ahint of the impending cataclysm. The Western Pacific, after so long apause on the banks of Dry Creek, had floated its second mortgage bonds andwould presently build on to the capital, leaving Gaston to way-stationquietude. Therefore and wherefore----

Kent was not lacking in native shrewdness or energy. He foresaw, not thepitiable bubble-burst which ensued, indeed, but the certain and inevitableend of the speculative era. Like every one else, he had bought chieflywith promises to pay, and his paper in the three banks aggregated a sumequal to a frugal New Hampshire competence. 

"How long have I got?" was the laconic wire which he sent to Loring, thesecretary of the Western Pacific Advisory Board in Boston, from whom hishint had come. And when Loring replied that the grading and track-layingcontracts were already awarded, there was at least one "long" on theGaston real estate exchange who wrought desperately night and day to"unload". 

As it turned out, the race against time was both a victory and a defeat. On the morning when the _Daily Clarion_ sounded the first note of publicalarm, David Kent took up the last of his bank promises-to-pay, andtransferred his final mortgaged holding in Gaston realty. When it was donehe locked himself in his office in the Farquhar Building and balanced theaccount. On leaving the New Hampshire country town to try the new cast forfortune in the golden West, he had turned his small patrimony intocash--some ten thousand dollars of it. To set over against the bill ofexchange for this amount, which he had brought to Gaston a year earlier, there were a clean name, a few hundred dollars in bank, six lots, boughtand paid for, in one of the Gaston suburbs, and a vast deal of experience. 

Kent ran his hands through his hair, opened the check-book and hastilyfilled out a check payable to himself for the remaining few hundreds. Whenhe reached the Apache National on the corner of Colorado and TexasStreets, he was the one hundred and twenty-seventh man in the queue, whichextended around the corner and doubled back and forth in the cross-streetto the stoppage of all traffic. The announcement in the _Clarion_ had doneits work, and the baleful flower of panic, which is a juggler's rose forquick-growing possibilities, was filling the very air of the street withits acrid perfume--the scent of all others that soonest drives men mad. 

Major James Guilford, the president of the Apache National, was in thecage with the sweating paying tellers, and it was to him that Kentpresented his check when his turn came. 

"What! You, too, Kent?" said the president, reproachfully. "I thought youhad more backbone. "

Kent shook his head. 

"Gaston has absorbed nine-tenths of the money I brought here; I'll absorbthe remaining tenth myself, if it's just the same to you, Major. Thankyou. " And the hundred and twenty-seventh man pocketed his salvage from thewreck and fought his way out through the jam at the doors. Two hoursfarther along in the forenoon the Apache National suspended payment, andthe bank examiner was wired for. 

For suddenness and thoroughgoing completeness the Gaston bubble-burstingwas a record-breaker. For a week and a day there was a frantic strugglefor enlargement, and by the expiration of a fortnight the life was prettywell trampled out of the civic corpse and the stench began to arise. 

Flight upon any terms then became the order of the day, and if the placehad been suddenly plague-smitten the panicky exodus could scarcely havebeen more headlong. None the less, in any such disorderly up-anchoringthere are stragglers perforce: some left like stranded hulks by the ebbingtide; others riding by mooring chains which may be neither slipped norcapstaned. When all was over there were deserted streets and empty suburbsin ruthless profusion; but there was also a hungry minority of the crewsof the stranded and anchored hulks left behind to live or die as theymight, and presently to fall into cannibalism, preying one upon anotherbetween whiles, or waiting like their prototypes of the Spanish Main forthe stray spoils of any luckless argosy that might drift within grapplingdistance. 

Kent stayed partly because a local attorney for the railroad was asnecessary in Gaston the bereaved as in Gaston the strenuous; partly, also, because he was a student of his kind, and the broken city gave himlaboratory opportunities for the study of human nature at its worst. 

He marked the raising of the black flag as the Gaston castaways, gettingsorrily afloat one by one, cleared their decks for action. Some Bluebeardadmiral there will always be for such stressful occasions, and David Kent, standing aside and growing cynical day by day, laid even chances on Hawk, the ex-district attorney, on Major Guilford, and on one Jasper G. Bucks, sometime mayor of Gaston the iridescent. 

Afterward he was to learn that he had underrated the gifts of the formermayor. For when the famine time was fully come, and there were no moreargosies drifting Gastonward for the bucaneers to sack and scuttle, it wasJasper G. Bucks who called a conference of his fellow werwolves, set forthhis new cast for fortune, and brought the junto, the child of sheerdesperation fiercely at bay, into being. 

It was in the autumn of that first cataclysmic year that Secretary Loring, traveling from Boston to the State capital on a mission for the WesternPacific, stopped over a train with Kent. After a rather dispiriting dinnerin the deserted Mid-Continent café, and some plowing of the field ofrecollection in Kent's rooms in the Farquhar Building, they took thedeserted street in the golden twilight to walk to the railway station. 

"It was a decent thing for you to do--stopping over a train with me, Grantham, " said the host, when the five squares intervening had been halfmeasured. "I have had all kinds of a time out here in this God-forsakendesert, but never until to-day anything approaching a chummy hour with aman I know and care for. "

Kent had not spoken since they had felt their way out of the dark lowerhall of the Farquhar Building. Up to this point the talk had beenpointedly reminiscent; of the men of their university year, of mutualfriends in the far-away "God's country" to the eastward, of the Gastonianepic, of all things save only two--the exile's cast for fortune in theuntamed West, and one other. 

"That brings us a little nearer to the things that be--and to yourprospects, David, " said the guest. "How are you fixed here?"

Kent shrugged. 

"Gaston is dead, as you see; too dead to bury. "

"Why don't you get out of it, then?"

"I shall some day, perhaps. Up to date there has been no place to go to, and no good way to arrive. Like some thousands of others, I've made an assof myself here, Loring. "

"By coming, you mean? Oh, I don't know about that. You have had some hardknocks, I take it, but if you are the same David Kent I used to know, theyhave made a bigger man of you. "

"Think so?"

"I'd bet on it. We have had the Gaston epic done out for us in thenewspapers. No man could live through such an experience as you must havehad without growing a few inches. Hello! What's this?"

A turned corner had brought them in front of a lighted building in TexasStreet with a straggling crowd gathered about the porticoed entrance. AsLoring spoke, there was a rattle of snare drums followed by the _dum-dum_of the bass, and a brass band ramped out the opening measures of acampaign march. 

"It is a rally, " said Kent, when they had passed far enough beyond thezone of brass-throated clamorings to make the reply audible. "I told youthat the Gaston wolf-pack had gone into politics. We are in the throes ofa State election, and there is to be a political speech-making at theOpera House to-night, with Bucks in the title rôle. And there is a fairmeasure of the deadness of the town! When you see people flock togetherlike that to hear a brass band play, it means one of two things: that thetown hasn't outgrown the country village stage, or else it has passed thatand all other stages and is well on its way to the cemetery. "

"That is one way of putting it, " Loring rejoined. "If things are as bad asthat, it's time you were moving on, don't you think?"

"I guess so, " was the lack-luster response. "Only I don't know where togo, or what to do when I get there. "

They were crossing the open square in front of the wide-eaved passengerstation. A thunderous tremolo, dominating the distant band music, thrilledon the still air, and the extended arm of the station semaphore with itstwo dangling lanterns wagged twice. 

"My train, " said Loring, quickening his step. 

"No, " Kent corrected. "It is a special from the west, bringing a Buckscrowd to the political rally. Number Three isn't due for fifteen minutesyet, and she is always late. "

They mounted the steps to the station platform in good time to meet thethree-car special as it came clattering in over the switches, andpresently found themselves in the thick of the crowd of debarkingralliers. 

It was a mixed masculine multitude, fairly typical of time, place andoccasion; stalwart men of the soil for the greater part, bearded andbronzed and rough-clothed, with here and there a range-rider inpicturesque leathern shaps, sagging pistols and wide-flapped sombrero. 

Loring stood aside and put up his eye-glasses. It was his first sight nearat hand of the untrammeled West _in puris naturalibus_, and he was findingthe spectacle both instructive and diverting. Looking to Kent forfellowship he saw that his companion was holding himself stiffly aloof;also, he remarked that none of the boisterous partizans flung a word ofrecognition in Kent's direction. 

"Don't you know any of them?" he asked. 

Kent's reply was lost in the deep-chested bull-bellow of a cattleman fromthe Rio Blanco. 

"Hold on a minute, boys, before you scatter! Line up here, and let's givethree cheers and a tail-twister for next-Governor Bucks! Now, then--_everybody_! Hip, hip----"

The ripping crash of the cheer jarred Loring's eye-glasses from theirhold, and he replaced them with a smile. Four times the ear-splittingshout went up, and as the echoes of the "tiger" trailed off into silencethe stentorian voice was lifted again. 

"Good enough! Now, then; three groans for the land syndicates, alienmortgagees, and the Western Pacific Railroad, by grabs! and to hell with'em!"

The responsive clamor was a thing to be acutely remembered--sustained, long-drawn, vindictive; a nerve-wrenching pandemonium of groans, yelpingsand cat-calls, in the midst of which the partizans shuffled into loosemarching order and tramped away townward. 

"That answers your question, doesn't it?" said Kent, smiling sourly. "Ifnot, I can set it out for you in words. The Western Pacific is thebest-hated corporation this side of the Mississippi, and I am its localattorney. "

"I don't envy you, " said Loring. "I had no idea the oppositioncrystallized itself in any such concrete ill will. You must have the wholeweight of public sentiment against you in any railroad litigation. "

"I do, " said Kent, simply. "If every complainant against us had the rightto pack his own jury, we couldn't fare worse. "

"What is at the bottom of it? Is it our pricking of the Gaston bubble bybuilding on to the capital?"

"Oh, no; it's much more personal to these shouters. As you may, or maynot, know, our line--like every other western railroad with nocompetition--has for its motto, 'All the tariff the traffic will stand, 'and it bleeds the country accordingly. But we are forgetting your train. Shall we go and see how late it is?"

II

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

Train Number Three, the Western Flyer, was late, as Kent hadpredicted--just how late the operator could not tell; and pending thechalking-up of its arriving time on the bulletin board, the two men sat onan empty baggage truck and smoked in companionable silence. 

While they waited, Loring's thoughts were busy with many things, friendlysolicitude for the exile serving as the point of departure. He knew what ahandfast friend might know: how Kent had finished his postgraduate coursein the law and had succeeded to his father's small practice in the NewHampshire county town where he was born and bred. Also, he knew how Kent'sfriends, college friends who knew his gifts and ability, had deprecatedthe burial; and he himself had been curious enough to pay Kent a visit tospy out the reason why. On their first evening together in the stuffylittle law office which had been his father's, Kent had made a cleanbreast of it: there was a young woman in the case, and a promise passedbefore Kent had gone to college. She was a farmer's daughter, with nonotion for a change of environment; wherefore she had determined Kent'scareer and the scene of it, laying its lines in the narrow field of herown choosing. 

Later, as Loring knew, the sentimental anchor had dragged until it washopelessly off holding-ground. The young woman had laid the blame at thedoor of the university, had given Kent a bad half-year of fault-findingand recrimination, and had finally made an end of the matter by bestowingher dowry of hillside acres on the son of a neighboring farmer. 

Thereafter Kent had stagnated quietly, living with simple rigor the lifehe had marked out for himself; thankful at heart, Loring had suspected, for the timely intervention of the farmer's son, but holding himself wellin hand against a repetition of the sentimental offense. All this untilthe opening of the summer hotel at the foot of Old Croydon, and the comingof Elinor Brentwood. 

No one knew just how much Miss Brentwood had to do with the long-delayedawakening of David Kent; but in Loring's forecastings she enjoyed the fullbenefit of the doubt. From tramping the hills alone, or whipping thestreams for brook trout, David had taken to spending his afternoons withlover-like regularity at the Croydon Inn; and at the end of the season hadelectrified the sleepy home town by declaring his intention to go West andgrow up with the country. 

In Loring's setting-forth of the awakening, the motive was not far toseek. Miss Brentwood was ambitious, and if her interest in Kent had beenonly casual she would not have been likely to point him to the widerbattle-field. Again, apart from his modest patrimony, Kent had only hisprofession. The Brentwoods were not rich, as riches are measured inmillions; but they lived in their own house in the Back Bay wilderness, moved in Boston's older substantial circle, and, in a world where success, economic or other, is in some sort the touchstone, were many social planesabove a country lawyer. 

Loring knew Kent's fierce poverty-pride--none better. Hence, he was at noloss to account for the exile's flight afield, or for his unhopefulpresent attitude. Meaning to win trophies to lay at Miss Brentwood's feet, the present stage of the rough joust with Fortune found him unhorsed, unweaponed and rolling in the dust of the lists. 

Loring chewed his cigar reflectively, wishing his companion would open theway to free speech on the subject presumably nearest his heart. He had aword of comfort, negative comfort, to offer, but it might not be saiduntil Kent should give him leave by taking the initiative. Kent brokesilence at last, but the prompting was nothing more pertinent than thechalking-up of the delayed train's time. 

"An hour and twenty minutes: that means any time after nine o'clock. I'mhonestly sorry for you, Grantham--sorry for any one that has to stay inthis charnel-house of a town ten minutes after he's through. What will youdo with yourself?"

Loring got up, looked at his watch, and made a suggestion, hoping thatKent would fall in with it. 

"I don't know. Shall we go back to your rooms and sit a while?"

The exile's eyes gloomed suddenly. 

"Not unless you insist on it. We should get back among the relics and Ishould bore you. I'm not the man you used to know, Grantham. "

"No?" said Loring. "I sha'n't be hypocritical enough to contradict you. Nevertheless, you are my host. It is for you to say what you will do withme until train time. "

"We can kill an hour at the rally, if you like. You have seen the streetparade and heard the band play: it is only fair that you should see themenagerie on exhibition. "

Loring found his match-box and made a fresh light for his cigar. 

"It's pretty evident that you and 'next-Governor' Bucks are on oppositesides of the political fence, " he observed. 

"We are. I should think a good bit less of myself than I do--and that'sneedless--if I trained in his company. "

"Yet you will give him a chance to make a partizan of me? Well, comealong. Politics are not down on my western programme, but I'm here to seeall the new things. "

The Gaston Opera House was a survival of the flush times, and barring acertain tawdriness from disuse and neglect, and a rather garish effectwhich marched evenly with the brick-and-terra-cotta fronts in Texas Streetand the American-Tudor cottages of the suburbs, it was a creditable relic. The auditorium was well filled in pit, dress-circle and gallery when Kentand his guest edged their way through the standing committee in the foyer;but by dint of careful searching they succeeded in finding two seats wellaround to the left, with a balcony pillar to separate them from theirnearest neighbors. 

Since the public side of American politics varies little with thevariation of latitude or longitude, the man from the East found himself atonce in homely and remindful surroundings. There was the customary drapingof flags under the proscenium arch and across the set-piece villa of thebackground. In the semicircle of chairs arched from wing to wing sat thelocal and visiting political lights; men of all trades, these, some ofthem a little shamefaced and ill at ease by reason of their unwontedconspicuity; all of them listening with a carefully assumed air ofstrained attention to the speaker of the moment. 

Also, there was the characteristic ante-election audience, typical of allAmerica--the thing most truly typical in a land where national types aresought for microscopically: wheel-horses who came at the party call; menwho came in the temporary upblaze of enthusiastic patriotism, which islighted with the opening of the campaign, and which goes out like a candlein a gust of wind the day after the election; men who came to applaudblindly, and a few who came to cavil and deride. Loring oriented himselfin a leisurely eye-sweep, and so came by easy gradations to the speaker. 

Measured by the standard of fitness for his office of prolocutor the manstanding beside the stage-properties speaker's desk was worthy a secondglance. He was dark, undersized, trimly built; with a Vandyke beardclipped closely enough to show the lines of a bull-dog jaw, and eyes thathad the gift, priceless to the public speaker, of seeming to hold everyonlooking eye in the audience. Unlike his backers in the awkwardsemicircle, he wore a professional long coat; and the hands that markedhis smoothly flowing sentences were slim and shapely. 

"Who is he?" asked Loring, in an aside to Kent. 

"Stephen Hawk, the ex-district attorney: boomer, pettifogger, promoter--acharter member of the Gaston wolf-pack. A man who would persuade you intobelieving in the impeccability of Satan in one breath, and knife you inthe back for a ten-dollar bill in the next, " was the rejoinder. 

Loring nodded, and again became a listener. Hawk's speech was merelyintroductory, and it was nearing its peroration. 

"Fellow citizens, this occasion is as auspicious as it is significant. When the people rise in their might to say to tyranny in whatsoever formit oppresses them, 'Thus far and no farther shalt thou go, ' the night isfar spent and the light is breaking in the east. 

"Since the day when we first began to wrest with compelling hands thenatural riches from the soil of this our adoptive State, politicaltrickery in high places, backed by the puissant might of aliencorporations, has ground us into the dust. 

"But now the time of our deliverance is at hand. Great movements givebirth to great leaders; and in this, our holy crusade against oppressionand tyranny, the crisis has bred the man. Ladies and gentlemen, I have thepleasure of presenting to you the speaker of the evening: our friend andfellow citizen the Honorable Jasper G. Bucks, by the grace of God, andyour suffrages, the next governor of the State. "

In the storm of applause that burst upon the dramatic peroration of theex-district attorney, a man rose from the center of the stage semicircleand lumbered heavily forward to the footlights. Loring's first emotion wasof surprise, tempered with pity. The crisis-born leader, heralded by sucha flourish of rhetorical trumpets, was a giant in size; but with his hugefigure, unshapely and ill-clad, all promise of greatness seemed to pause. 

His face, broad-featured, colorless, and beardless as a boy's, was eithera blank or an impenetrable mask. There was no convincement in thelack-luster gaze of the small, porcine eyes; no eloquence in the harsh, nasal tones of the untrained voice, or in the ponderous and awkwardwavings of the beam-like arms. None the less, before he had uttered adozen halting sentences he was carrying the audience with him step bystep; moving the great concourse of listeners with his commonplace periodsas a mellifluous Hawk could never hope to move it. 

Loring saw the miracle in the throes of its outworking; saw and felt it inhis own proper person, and sought in vain to account for it. Was theresome subtile magnetism in this great hulk of a man that made itself feltin spite of its hamperings? Or was it merely that the people, weary ofempty rhetoric and unkept promises, were ripe to welcome and to follow anyman whose apparent earnestness and sincerity atoned for all his lacks?

Explain it as he might, Loring soon assured himself that the HonorableJasper G. Bucks was laying hold of the sentiment of the audience as thoughit were a thing tangible to be grasped by the huge hands. Unlike Hawk, whose speech flamed easily into denunciation when it touched on the aliencorporations, he counseled moderation and lawful reprisals. Landsyndicates, railroads, foreign capital in whatever employment, were primenecessities in any new and growing commonwealth. The province of thepeople was not to wreck the ship, but to guide it. And the remedy for allills lay in controlling legislation, faithfully and rigidly enforced. 

"My friends: I'm only a plain, hard-handed farmer, as those of you who aremy fellow townsmen can testify. But I've seen what you've seen, and I'vesuffered what you've suffered. Year after year we send our representativesto the legislature, and what comes of it? Why, these corporations, lookingonly to their own interests, as they're in duty bound to do, buys 'em ifthey can. You can't blame 'em for that; it's business--their business. Butit is our business, as citizens of this great commonwealth, to prevent it. We have good laws on our statute books, but we need more of 'em; laws forcontrol, with plain, honest men at the capital, in the judiciary, in everyroot and branch of the executive, to enforce 'em. With such laws, and suchmen to see that they are executed, there wouldn't be any more extortion, any more raising of the rates of transportation on the produce of ourranches and farms merely because the eastern market for that particularproduct happened to jump a few cents on the dollar. 

"No, my friends; plain, hard-handed farmer though I be, I can see whatwill follow an honest election of the people, by the people, and for thepeople. The State can be--it ought to be--sovereign within its ownboundaries. If we rise up as one man next Tuesday and put a ticket intothe ballot-box that says we are going to make it so, and keep it so, you'll see a new commodity tariff put into effect on the Western PacificRailroad the day after. "

The speaker paused, and into the little gap of silence barked a voice fromthe gallery. 

"That's what you say. But supposin' they don't do it?"

Loring was gazing steadfastly at the blank, heavy face, so utterly devoidof the enthusiasm the man was evoking in others. For one flitting instanthe thought he saw behind the mask. The immobile face, the awkwardgestures, the slipshod English became suddenly transparent, revealing thereal man; a man of titanic strength, of tremendous possibilities for goodor evil. Loring put up his glasses and looked again; but the figure of theflash-light inner vision had vanished, and the speaker was answering hisobjector as calmly as though the house held only the single critic to beset right. 

"I'm always glad to hear a man speak right out in meeting, " he said, dropping still deeper into the colloquialisms. "Supposing the corporationsdon't see the handwriting on the wall--won't see it, you say? Then, myfriend, it will become the manifest duty of the legislature and theexecutive to make 'em see it: always lawfully, you understand; always witha just and equitable respect for the rights of property in which our freeand glorious institutions are founded, but with level-handed justice, andwithout fear or favor. "

A thunderous uproar of applause clamored on the heels of the answer, andthe Honorable Jasper mopped his face with a colored handkerchief and tooka swallow of water from the glass on the desk. 

"Mind you, my friends, I'm not saying we are not going to find plenty ofstumps and roots and a tough sod in this furrow we are going to plow. It'sonly the fool or the ignoramus who underrates the strength of hisopponent. It is going to be just plain, honest justice and the will of thepeople against the money of the Harrimans and the Goulds and theVanderbilts and all the rest of 'em. But the law is mighty, and it willprevail. Give us an honest legislature to make such laws, and an executivestrong enough to enforce 'em, and the sovereign State will stand outglorious and triumphant as a monument against oppression. 

"When that time comes--and it's a-coming, my friends--the corporations andthe syndicates will read the handwriting on the wall; don't you be afraidof that. If they should be a little grain thick-headed and sort o' blindat first, as old King Belshazzar was, it may be that the sovereign Statewill have to give 'em an object-lesson--lawfully, always lawfully, youunderstand. But when they see, through the medium of such an object-lessonor otherwise, as the case may be, that we mean business; when they seethat we, the people of this great and growing commonwealth, mean to assertour rights to live and move and have our being, to have fair, even-handedjustice meted out to ourselves, our wives and our little children, they'llcome down and quit watering their stock with the sweat of our brows; andthat hold-up motto of theirs, 'All the tariff the traffic will stand, 'will be no more known in Israel!"

Again the clamor of applause rose like fine dust on the throng-heated air, and Kent looked at his watch. 

"It is time we were going, " he said; adding: "I guess you have had enoughof it, haven't you?"

Loring was silent for the better part of the way back to the railwaystation. When he spoke it was in answer to a delayed question of Kent's. 

"What do I think of him? I don't know, David; and that's the plain truth. He is not the man he appears to be as he stands there haranguing thatcrowd. That is a pose, and an exceedingly skilful one. He is notaltogether apparent to me; but he strikes me as being a man of immensepossibilities--whether for good or evil, I can't say. "

"You needn't draw another breath of uncertainty on that score, " was thecurt rejoinder. "He is a demagogue, pure and unadulterated. "

Loring did not attempt to refute the charge. 

"Are he and his party likely to win?" he asked. 

"God knows, " said Kent. "We have had so many lightning transformations inpolitics in the State that nothing is impossible. "

"I'd like to know, " was Loring's comment. "It might make some differenceto me, personally. "

"To you?" said Kent, inquiringly. "That reminds me: I haven't given you achance to say ten words about yourself. "

"The chance hasn't been lacking. But my business out here is--well, itisn't exactly a Star Chamber matter, but I'm under promise in a way not totalk about it until I have had a conference with our people at thecapital. I'll write you about it in a few days. "

They were ascending the steps at the end of the passenger platform again, and Loring broke away from the political and personal entanglement to giveKent one more opportunity to hear his word of negative comfort. 

"We dug up the field of recollection pretty thoroughly in our after-dinnerséance in your rooms, David, but I noticed there was one corner of it youleft undisturbed. Was there any good reason?"

Kent made no show of misunderstanding. 

"There was the excellent reason which must have been apparent to youbefore you had been an hour in Gaston. I've made my shot, and missed. "

Loring entered the breach with his shield held well to the fore. He wasthe last man in the world to assault a friend's confidence recklessly. 

"I thought a good while ago, and I still think, that you are making amountain out of a mole-hill, David. Elinor Brentwood is a true woman inevery inch of her. She is as much above caring for false notions of casteas you ought to be. "

"I know her nobility: which is all the more reason why I shouldn't takeadvantage of it. We may scoff at the social inequalities as much as weplease, but we can't laugh them out of court. As between a young woman whois an heiress in her own right, and a briefless lawyer, there aredifferences which a decent man is bound to efface. And I haven't beenable. "

"Does Miss Brentwood know?"

"She knows nothing at all. I was unwilling to entangle her, even with aconfidence. "

"The more fool you, " said Loring, bluntly. "You call yourself a lawyer, and you have not yet learned one of the first principles of commonjustice, which is that a woman has some rights which even a besotted loveris bound to respect. You made love to her that summer at Croydon; youneedn't deny it. And at the end of things you walk off to make yourfortune without committing yourself; without knowing, or apparentlycaring, what your stiff-necked poverty-pride may cost her in years ofuncertainty. You deserve to lose her. "

Kent's smile was a fair measure of his unhopeful mood. 

"You can't well lose what you have never had. I'm not such an ass as tobelieve that she cared greatly. "

"How do you know? Not by anything you ever gave her a chance to say, I'lldare swear. I've a bit of qualified good news for you, but the spirit ismoving me mightily to hold my tongue. "

"Tell me, " said Kent, his indifference vanishing in the turning of a leaf. 

"Well, to begin with, Miss Brentwood is still unmarried, though thegossips say she doesn't lack plenty of eligible offers. "

"Half of that I knew; the other half I took for granted. Go on. "

"Her mother, under the advice of the chief of the clan Brentwood, has beenmaking a lot of bad investments for herself and her two daughters: inother words, she has been making ducks and drakes of the Brentwoodfortune. "

Kent was as deeply moved as if the loss had been his own, and said asmuch, craving more of the particulars. 

"I can't give them. But I may say that the blame lies at your door, David. "

"At my door? How do you arrive at that?"

"By the shortest possible route. If you had done your duty by Elinor inthe Croydon summer, Mrs. Brentwood would have had a bright young attorneyfor a son-in-law and adviser, and the bad investments would not have beenmade. "

Kent's laugh was entirely devoid of mirth. 

"Don't trample on a man when he's down. I was neither a prophet nor theson of a prophet. But how bad is the smash? Surely you know that?"

"No, I don't. Bradford was telling me about it the day I left Boston. Hegave me to understand that the principal family holding at present is inthe stock of a certain western railway. "

"Did he happen to know the name of the stock?" asked Kent, moistening hislips. 

"He did. Fate flirts with you two in the usual fashion. Mrs. Brentwood'slittle fortune--and by consequence, Elinor's and Penelope's--is tied up inthe stock of the company whose platform we are occupying at the presentmoment--the Western Pacific. "

Kent let slip a hard word directed at ill-advisers in general, and Loringtook his cue from the malediction. 

"You swear pretty feelingly, David. Isn't our property as good a thing aswe of the Boston end have been cracking it up to be?"

"You know better about the financial part of it than I do. But--well, youare fresh from this anarchistic conclave at the Opera House. You canimagine what the stock of the Western Pacific, or of any other foreigncorporation doing business in this State, will be worth in six monthsafter Bucks and his crowd get into the saddle. "

"You speak as if the result of the election were a foregone conclusion. Ihope it isn't. But we were talking more particularly of Miss Brentwood, and your personal responsibilities. " The belated train was whistling forthe lower yard, and Loring was determined to say all that was in his mind. 

"Yes; go on. I'm anxious to hear--more anxious than I seem to be, perhaps. "

"Well, she is coming West, after a bit. She, and her sister and themother. Mrs. Brentwood's asthma is worse, and the wise men have orderedher to the interior. I thought you'd like to know. "

"Is she--are they coming this way?" asked Kent. 

The train was in, and the porter had fetched Loring's hand-bag from thecheck-stand. The guest paused with one foot on the step of thesleeping-car. 

"If I were you, David, I'd write and ask; I should, by Jove. It would be atremendously cheeky thing to do, of course, having such a slightacquaintance with her as you have; but I'll be hanged if I shouldn'tchance it. And in the mean time, if I don't go back East next week, you'llhear from me. When you do, or if you do, take a day off and run up to thecapital. I shall need you. Good-by. "

Kent watched the train pull out; stood looking after it until the two redeyes of the rear signals had disappeared in the dusty darkness of theillimitable plain. Then he went to his rooms, to the one which was calledby courtesy his office, and without allowing himself time for a nicebalancing of the pros and cons, squared himself at the desk to write aletter. 

III

THE BOSTONIANS

It was precisely on the day set for the Brentwoods' westward flitting thatthe postman, making his morning round, delivered David Kent's asking atthe house in the Back Bay sub-district. Elinor was busy packing for themigration, but she left Penelope and the maid to cope with the problem ofcompressing two trunkfuls into one while she read the letter, and she wasreading it a second time when Mr. Brookes Ormsby's card came up. 

"You go, Penelope, " she begged. "There is so much to do. "

"Not I, " said the younger sister, cavalierly; "he didn't come to see me. "Whereupon Elinor smoothed the two small wrinkles of impatience out of herbrow, tucked her letter into her bosom, and went down to meet the earlymorning caller. 

Mr. Brookes Ormsby, club-man, gentleman of athletic leisure, and inheritorof the Ormsby millions, was pacing back and forth before the handful offire in the drawing-room grate when she entered. 

"You don't deserve to have a collie sheep-dog friend, " he protestedreproachfully. "How was I to know that you were going away?"

Another time Elinor might have felt that she owed him an explanation, butjust now she was careful, and troubled about the packing. 

"How was I to know you didn't know?" she retorted. "It was in the_Transcript_. "

"Well!" said Ormsby. "Things have come to a pretty pass when I have tokeep track of you through the society column. I didn't see the paper. Dyckman brought me word last night at Vineyard Haven, and we broke apropeller blade on the _Amphitrite_ trying to get here in time. "

"I am so sorry--for the _Amphitrite_, " she said. "But you are here, and ingood season. Shall I call mother and Nell?"

"No. I ran out to see if I'm in time to do your errands for you--take yourtickets, and so on. "

"Oh, we shouldn't think of troubling you. James can do all those things. And failing James, there is a very dependable young woman at the head ofthis household. Haven't I 'personally conducted' the family all overEurope?"

"James is a base hireling, " said the caller, blandly. "And as for thecapable young woman: do I or do I not recollect a dark night on the Germanfrontier when she was glad enough to call on a sleepy fellow pilgrim tohelp her wrestle with a particularly thick-headed customs officer?"

"If you do, it is not especially kind of you to remind her of it. "

He looked up quickly, and the masterful soul of the man, for which theclean-cut, square-set jaw and the athletic figure were the outwardpresentments, put on a mask of deference and humility. 

"You are hard with me, Elinor--always flinty and adamantine, and thatsort. Have you no soft side at all?"

She laughed. 

"The sentimental young woman went out some time ago, didn't she? One can'tbe an anachronism. "

"I suppose not. Yet I'm always trying to make myself believe other thingsabout you. Don't you like to be cared for like other women?"

"I don't know; sometimes I think I should. But I have had to be the man ofthe house since father died. "

"I know, " he said. "And it is the petty anxieties that have made you putthe woman to the wall. I'm here this morning to save you some of them; totake the man's part in your outsetting, or as much of it as I can. Whenare you going to give me the right to come between you and all the littleworries, Elinor?"

She turned from him with a faint gesture of cold impatience. 

"You are forgetting your promise, " she said quite dispassionately. "Wewere to be friends; as good friends as we were before that evening at BarHarbor. I told you it would be impossible, and you said you were strongenough to make it possible. "

He looked at her with narrowing eyes. 

"It is possible, in a way. But I'd like to know what door of your heart itis that I haven't been able to open. "

She ignored the pleading and took refuge in a woman's expedient. 

"If you insist on going back to the beginnings, I shall go back, also--toAbigail and the trunk-packing. "

He planted himself squarely before her, the mask lifted and the masterfulsoul asserting itself boldly. 

"It wouldn't do any good, you know. I am going with you. "

"To Abigail and the trunk-room?"

"Oh, no; to the jumping-off place out West--wherever it is you are goingto hibernate. "

"No, " she said decisively; "you must not. "

"Why?"

"My saying so ought to be sufficient reason. "

"It isn't, " he contended, frowning down on her good-naturedly. "Shall Itell you why you don't want me to go? It is because you are afraid. "

"I am not, " she denied. 

"Yes, you are. You know in your own heart there is no reason why youshould continue to make me unhappy, and you are afraid I mightover-persuade you. "

Her eyes--they were the serene eyes of cool gray that take on slate-bluetints in stressful moments--met his defiantly. 

"If you think that, I withdraw my objection, " she said coldly. "Mother andPenelope will be delighted, I am sure. "

"And you will be bored, world without end, " he laughed. "Never mind; I'llbe decent about it and keep out of your way as much as you like. "

Again she made the little gesture of petulant impatience. 

"You are continually placing me in a false position. Can't you leave meout of it entirely?"

It is one of the prime requisites of successful mastership to know when topress the point home, and when to recede gracefully. Ormsby abruptly shutthe door upon sentiment and came down to things practical. 

"It is your every-day comfort that concerns me chiefly. I am going to takeall three of you in charge, giving the dependable young person awell-earned holiday--a little journey in which she won't have to chafferwith the transit people. Have you chosen your route to the westernsomewhere?"

Miss Brentwood had the fair, transparent skin that tells tales, and theblue-gray eyes were apt to confirm them. David Kent's letter was hidden inthe folds of her loose-waisted morning gown, and she fancied it stirredlike a thing alive to remind her of its message. Ormsby was looking pasther to the old-fashioned ormolu clock on the high mantel, comparing thetime with his watch, but he was not oblivious of the telltale flush. 

"There is nothing embarrassing about the choosing of a route, is there?"he queried. 

"Oh, no; being true Americans, we don't know one route from another in ourown country, " she confessed. "But at the western end of it we want to goover the Western Pacific. "

Ormsby knew the West by rail routes as one who travels much fortime-killing purposes. 

"It's a rather roundabout cow-path, " he objected. "The Overland Short Lineis a good bit more direct; not to mention the service, which is a lotbetter. "

But Elinor had made her small concession to David Kent's letter, and shewould not withdraw it. 

"Probably you don't own any Western Pacific stock, " she suggested. "We do;and we mean to be loyal to our salt. "

Ormsby laughed. 

"I see Western Pacific has gone down a few points since the election ofGovernor Bucks. If I had any, I'd wire my broker to sell. "

"We are not so easily frightened, " she asserted; adding, with a touch ofthe austerity which was her Puritan birthright: "Nor quite soconscienceless as you men. "

"Conscience, " he repeated half absently; "is there any room for such anout-of-date thing in a nation of successfulists? But seriously; you oughtto get rid of Western Pacific. There can be no possible question ofconscience involved. "

"I don't agree with you, " she retorted with prompt decision. "If we wereto sell now it would be because we were afraid it might prove to be a badinvestment. Therefore, for the sake of a presumably ignorant buyer, wehave no right to sell. "

He smiled leniently. 

"All of which goes to prove that you three lone women need a guardian. ButI mustn't keep you any longer from Abigail and the trunks. What time shallI send the expediters after your luggage?"

She told him, and went with him to the door. 

"Please don't think me ungrateful, " she said, when she had thrown thenight-latch for him. "I don't mean to be. "

"I don't think anything of you that I ought not to think: in that I am asconscientious as even you could wish. Good-by, until this evening. I'llmeet you all at the station. "

As had come to be the regular order of things, Elinor found herself underfire when she went above stairs to rejoin her mother and sister. 

Mrs. Brentwood was not indifferent to the Ormsby millions; neither had sheforgotten a certain sentimental summer at the foot of Old Croydon. She wasa thin-lipped little person, plain-spoken to the verge of unfriendliness;a woman in whom the rugged, self-reliant, Puritan strain had becomepanic-acidulous. And when the Puritan stock degenerates in that direction, it is apt to lack good judgment on the business side, and also thepassivity which smooths the way for incompetence in less assertive folk. 

Kent had stood something in awe, not especially of her personality, but ofher tongue; and had been forced to acquiesce silently in Loring'ssumming-up of Elinor's mother as a woman who had taken culture and thehumanizing amenities of the broader life much as the granite of her nativehills takes polish--reluctantly, and without prejudice to its innergranular structure. 

"Elinor, you ought to be ashamed to keep Brookes Ormsby dangling the wayyou do, " was her comment when Elinor came back. "You are your father'sdaughters, both of you: there isn't a drop of the Grimkie blood in eitherof you, I do believe. "

Elinor was sufficiently her father's daughter to hold her peace under hermother's reproaches: also, there was enough of the Grimkie blood in herveins to stiffen her in opposition when the need arose. So she saidnothing. 

"Since your Uncle Ichabod made such a desperate mess of that copperbusiness in Montana, we have all been next door to poverty, and you knowit, " the mother went on, irritated by Elinor's silence. "I don't care somuch for myself: your father and I began with nothing, and I can go backto nothing, if necessary. But you can't, and neither can Penelope; you'dboth starve. I should like to know what Brookes Ormsby has done that youcan't tolerate him. "

"It isn't anything he has done, or failed to do, " said Elinor, wearily. "Please let's not go over it all again, mother. "

Mrs. Brentwood let that gun cool while she fired another. 

"I suppose he came to say good-by: what is he going to do with himselfthis winter?"

The temptation to equivocate for pure perversity's sake was strong uponElinor, and she yielded to it. 

"How should I know? He has the _Amphitrite_ and the Florida coast, hasn'the?"

Mrs. Brentwood groaned. 

"To think of the way he squanders his money in sheer dissipation!" sheexclaimed. "Of course, he will take an entire house-party with him, asusual, and the cost of that one cruise would set you up in housekeeping. "

Penelope laughed with a younger daughter's license. She was a statuesqueyoung woman with a pose, ripe lips, flashing white teeth, laughing eyeswith an imp of mischief in them, and an exquisitely turned-up nose thatwas neither the Brentwood, which was severely classic, nor the Grimkie, which was pure Puritan renaissance. 

"Which is to intimate that he won't have money enough left to do it whenhe comes back, " she commented. "I wish there were some way of making himbelieve he had to give me what remains of his income after he has spentall he can on the Florida cruise. I'd wear Worth gowns and be lapped inluxury for the next ten years at the very least. "

"He isn't going to Florida this winter, " said Elinor, repenting her of thesmall quibble. "He is going West. "

Mrs. Brentwood looked up sharply. 

"With us?" she queried. 

"Yes. "

Penelope clasped her hands and tried to look soulful. 

"Oh, Ellie!" she said; "have you----"

"No, " Elinor retorted; "I have not. "

IV

THE FLESH-POTS OF EGYPT

The westward journey began at the appointed hour in the evening with theresourceful Ormsby in command; and when the outsetting, in which she hadto sustain only the part of an obedient automaton, was a factaccomplished, Elinor settled back into the pillowed corner of hersleeping-car section to enjoy the unwonted sensation of being the onecared for instead of the caretaker. 

She had traveled more or less with her mother and Penelope ever since herfather's death, and was well used to taking the helm. Experience and theresponsibilities had made her self-reliant, and her jesting boast that shewas a dependable young woman was the simple truth. Yet to the most modernof girl bachelors there may come moments when the soul harks back to theeternal-womanly, and the desire to be petted and looked after andsafe-conducted is stronger than the bachelor conventions. 

Two sections away the inevitable newly married pair posed unconsciously topoint the moral for Miss Brentwood. She marked the eagerly anticipativesolicitude of the boyish groom, contrasting it now and then with Ormsby'sless obtrusive attentions. It was all very absurd and sentimental, shethought; and yet she was not without a curious heart-stirring of envyprovoked by the self-satisfied complacency of the bride. 

What had that chit of a girl done to earn her immunity fromself-defendings and the petty anxieties? Nothing, Elinor decided; atleast, nothing more purposeful than the swimmer does when he lets himselfdrift with the current. None the less, the immunity was hers, undeniably, palpably. For the first time in her life Miss Brentwood found herselflooking, with a little shudder of withdrawal and dismay, down the possiblevista--possible to every unmarried woman of twenty-four--milestoned byunbroken years of spinsterhood and self-helpings. 

Was she strong enough to walk this hedged-up path alone?--single-heartedenough to go on holding out against her mother's urgings, against Ormsby'smasterful wooing, against her own unconquerable longing for a sureanchorage in some safe haven of manful care and supervision; all this thatshe might continue to preserve her independence and live the life which, despite its drawbacks, was yet her own?

There were times when she doubted her resolution; and this first night ofthe westward journey was one of them. She had thought at one time that shemight be able to idealize David Kent, but he had gone his way to hew outhis fortune, taking her upstirrings of his ambition in a purely literaland selfish sense, so far as she could determine. And now there wasBrookes Ormsby. She could by no possibility idealize him. He was a fixedfact, stubbornly asserted. Yet he was a great-hearted gentleman, unspoiledby his millions, thoughtful always for her comfort, generous, self-effacing. Just now, for example, when he had done all, he had seemedto divine her wish to be alone and had betaken himself to thesmoking-compartment. 

"I promised not to bore you, " he had said, "and I sha'n't. Send the porterafter me if there is anything I have forgotten to do. "

She took up the magazine he had left on the seat beside her and sought toput away the disquieting thoughts. But they refused to be dismissed; andnow among them rose up another, dating back to that idealizing summer atthe foot of Old Croydon, and having its genesis in a hard saying of hermother's. 

She closed her eyes, recalling the words and the occasion of them. "Youare merely wasting time and sentiment on this young upstart of a countrylawyer, Elinor. So long as you were content to make it a summer day'samusement, I had nothing to say; you are old enough and sensible enough tochoose your own recreations. But in justice to yourself, no less than tohim, you must let it end with our going home. You haven't money enough fortwo. "

Her eyes grew hot under the closed lids when she remembered. At the timethe hard saying was evoked there was money enough for two, if David Kentwould have shared it. But he had held his peace and gone away, and nowthere was not enough for two. 

Elinor faced her major weakness unflinchingly. She was not a slave to theluxuries--the luxuries of the very rich. On the contrary, she had tried tomake herself believe that hardness was a part of her creed. But latterly, she had been made to see that there was a formidable array of things whichshe had been calling comforts: little luxuries which Brookes Ormsby's wifemight reckon among the simplest necessities of the daily life, but whichDavid Kent's wife might have to forego; nay, things which Elinor Brentwoodmight presently have to forego. For she compelled herself to front thefact of the diminished patrimony squarely. So long as the modest WesternPacific dividends were forthcoming, they could live comfortably andwithout pinching. But failing these----

"No, I'm not great enough, " she confessed, with a little shiver. "I shouldbe utterly miserable. If I could afford to indulge in ideals it would bedifferent; but I can't--not when one word of mine will build a barrier sohigh that all the soul-killing little skimpings can never climb over it. And besides, I owe something to mother and Nell. "

It was the final straw. When any weakness of the human heart can find aseeming virtue to go hand in hand with it, the battle is as good as lost;and at that moment Brookes Ormsby, placidly refilling his short pipe inthe smoking-room of the Pullman, was by no means in the hopeless case hewas sometimes tempted to fancy himself. 

As may be surmised, a diligent suitor, old enough to plan thoughtfully, and yet young enough to simulate the youthful ardor of a lover whose hairhas not begun to thin at the temples, would lose no ground in a threedays' journey and the opportunities it afforded. 

In Penelope's phrase, Elinor "suffered him", enjoying her freedom fromcare like a sleepy kitten; shutting the door on the past and keeping itshut until the night when their through sleeper was coupled to the WesternPacific Flyer at A. & T. Junction. But late that evening, when she wasrummaging in her hand-bag for a handkerchief, she came upon David Kent'sletter and read it again. 

"Loring tells me you are coming West, " he wrote. "I assume there is atleast one chance in three that you will pass through Gaston. If you do, and if the hour is not altogether impossible, I should like to meet yourtrain. One thing among the many the past two years have denied me--theonly thing I have cared much about, I think--is the sight of your face. Ishall be very happy if you will let me look at you--just for the minute ortwo the train may stop. "

There was more of it; a good bit more: but it was all guarded commonplace, opening no window in the heart of the man David Kent. Yet even in thecommonplace she found some faint interlinings of the change in him; not amere metamorphosis of the outward man, as a new environment might make, but a radical change, deep and biting, like the action of a strong acidupon a fine-grained metal. 

She returned the letter to its envelope, and after looking up Gaston onthe time-table fell into a heart-stirring reverie, with unseeing eyesfixed on the restful blackness of the night rushing rearward past the carwindows. 

"He has forgotten, " she said, with a little lip-curl of disappointment. "He thinks he ought to remember, and he is trying--trying because Granthamsaid something that made him think he ought to try. But it's no use. Itwas only a little summer idyl, and we have both outlived it. "

She was still gazing steadfastly upon the wall of outer darkness when theporter began to make down the berths and Penelope came over to sit in theopposite seat. A moment later the younger sister made a discovery, orthought she did. 

"Why, Elinor Brentwood!" she said. "I do believe you are crying!"

Elinor's smile was serenity undisturbed. 

"What a vivid imagination you have, Nell, dear, " she scoffed. Then shechanged the subject arbitrarily: "Is mother quite comfortable? Did youhave the porter put a screen in her window?--you know she always insistsshe can't breathe without it. "

Penelope evaded the queries and took her turn at subject-wrenching--an artin which she excelled. 

"We are on our own railroad now, aren't we?" she asked, with purposefullack-interest. "And--let me see--isn't Mr. Kent at some little town wepass through?"

"It is a city, " said Elinor. "And the name is Gaston. "

"I remember now, " Penelope rejoined. "I wonder if we shall see him?"

"It is most unlikely. He does not know we are coming, and he wouldn't belooking for us. "

Penelope's fine eyes clouded. At times Elinor's thought-processes were asplain as print to the younger sister; at other times they were not. 

"I should think the least we could do would be to let him know, " sheventured. "Does anybody know what time the train passes Gaston?"

"At seven-fifteen to-morrow evening, " was the unguarded reply; andPenelope drew her own conclusions from the ready answer and the foldedtime-table in Elinor's lap. 

"Well, why don't you send him a wire? I'm sure I should. "

"Why should I?" said Elinor, warily. 

"Oh, I don't know: any other young woman of his acquaintance would, Ifancy. I have half a mind to do it myself. _I_ like him, if you don't carefor him any more. "

Thus Penelope; and a little while afterward, finding herself in thelibrary compartment with blanks and pen and ink convenient and nothingbetter to do, she impulsively made the threat good in a ten-word messageto Kent. 

"If he should happen to drop in unexpectedly it will give Ellie the shockof her life, " she mused; and the telegram was smuggled into the hands ofthe porter to be sent as occasion offered. 

 * * * * *

Those who knew Mr. Brookes Ormsby best were wont to say that the world ofaction, a world lusting avidly for resourceful men, had lost the chance ofacquiring a promising leader when he was born heir to the Ormsby millions. Be that as it may, he made the most of such opportunities for theexercising of his gift as came to one for whom the long purse leveled mostbarriers; had been making the most of the present leaguer of a woman'sheart--a citadel whose capitulation was not to be compassed by meremoney-might, he would have said. 

Up to the final day of the long westward flight all things had gone wellwith him. True, Elinor had not thawed visibly, but she had been tolerant;Penelope had amused herself at no one's expense save her own--a boon forwhich Ormsby did not fail to be duly thankful; and Mrs. Brentwood hadcontributed her mite by keeping hands off. 

But at the dining-car luncheon on the last day's run, Penelope, languishing at a table for two with an unresponsive Ormsby for avis-à-vis, made sly mention of the possible recrudescence of one DavidKent at a place called Gaston: this merely to note the effect upon anunresponsive table-mate. 

In Penelope's observings there was no effect perceptible. Ormsby said"Ah?" and asked if she would have more of the salad. But later, in acontemplative half-hour with his pipe in the smoking-compartment, he letthe scrap of information sink in and take root. 

Hitherto Kent had been little more than a name to him; a name he had neverheard on Elinor's lips. But if love be blind in the teens and twenties, itis more than apt to have a keen gift of insight in the thirties andbeyond. Hence, by the time Ormsby had come to the second filling of hispipe, he had pieced together bits of half-forgotten gossip about theCroydon summer, curious little reticences on Elinor's part, vague hintslet fall by Mrs. Brentwood; enough to enable him to chart the rock onwhich his love-argosy was drifting, and to name it--David Kent. 

Now to a well-knit man of the world--who happens to be a heaven-borndiplomatist into the bargain--to be forewarned is to be doubly armed. Atthe end of the half-hour of studious solitude in the smoking-room, Ormsbyhad pricked out his course on the chart to a boat's-length; had trimmedhis sails to the minutest starting of a sheet. A glance at his watch andanother at the time-table gave him the length of his respite. Six hoursthere were; and a dining-car dinner intervened. Those six hours, and thedinner, he decided, must win or lose the race. 

Picturing for ourselves, if we may, how nine men out of ten would havegiven place to panic-ardor, turning a possible victory into a hopelessrout, let us hold aloof and mark the generalship of the tenth, who chancesto be the heaven-born. 

For five of the six precious hours Ormsby merely saw to it that Elinor wasjudiciously marooned. Then the dining-car was reopened and the eveningmeal was announced. Waiting until a sufficient number of passengers hadgone forward to insure a crowded car, Ormsby let his party fall in withthe tail of the procession, and the inevitable happened. Single seats onlycould be had, and Elinor was compelled to dine in solemn silence at atable with three strangers. 

Dinner over, there remained but twenty minutes of the respite; but thediplomatist kept his head, going back to the sleeping-car with his chargesand dropping into the seat beside Elinor with the light of calm assurancein his eye. 

"You are quite comfortable?" he began. "Sha'n't I have the Presence in thebuffet make you a cup of tea? That in the diner didn't deserve the name. "

She was regarding him with curious anger in the gray eyes, and her replyquite ignored the kindly offer of refreshment. 

"You are the pink of dragomans, " she said. "Don't you want to go andsmoke?"

"To be entirely consistent, I suppose I ought to, " he confessed, wonderingif his throw had failed. "Do you want me to go?"

"I have been alone all the afternoon: I can endure it a little whilelonger, I presume. "

Ormsby permitted himself a single heart-throb of exultation. He haddeliberately gone about to break down her poise, her only barrier ofdefense, and it began to look as if he had succeeded. 

"I couldn't help it, you know, " he said, catching his cue swiftly. "Thereare times when I'm obliged to keep away from you--times when every fiberof me rebels against the restraints of the false position you have thrustme into. When I'm taken that way I don't dare play with the fire. "

"I wish I could know how much you mean by that, " she said musingly. Deepdown in her heart she knew she was as far as ever from loving this man;but his love, or the insistent urging of it, was like a strong currentdrifting her whither she would not go. 

"I mean all that an honest man can mean, " he rejoined. "I have fought likea soldier for standing-room in the place you have assigned me; I havetried sincerely--and stupidly, you will say--to be merely your friend, just the best friend you ever had. But it's no use. Coming or going, Ishall always be your lover. "

"Please don't, " she said, neither coldly nor warmly. "You are getting overinto the domain of the very young people when you say things like that. "

It was an unpleasant thing to say, and he was not beyond wincing a little. None the less, he would not be turned aside. 

"You'll overlook it in me if I've pressed the thing too hard on the sideof sentiment, won't you? Apart from the fact that I feel that way, I'vebeen going on the supposition that you'd like it, if you could only makeup your mind to like me. "

"I do like you, " she admitted; "more than any one I have ever known, Ithink. "

The drumming wheels and a long-drawn trumpet blast from the locomotivemade a shield of sound to isolate them. The elderly banker in the oppositesection was nodding over his newspaper; and the newly married ones wereoblivious, each to all else but the other. Mrs. Brentwood was apparentlysleeping peacefully three seats away; and Penelope was invisible. 

"There was a time when I should have begged hard for something more, Elinor; but now I'm willing to take what I can get, and be thankful. Willyou give me the right to make you as happy as I can on the unemotionalbasis?"

She felt herself slipping. 

"If you could fully understand----"

"I understand that you don't love me, in the novelist's sense of the word, and I am not asking more than you can give. But if you can give me thelittle now, and more when I have won it--don't curl your lip at me, please: I'm trying to put it as mildly as I can. "

She was looking at him level-eyed, and he could have sworn that she wasnever calmer or more self-possessed. 

"I don't know why you should want my promise--or any woman's--on suchconditions, " she said evenly. 

"But I do, " he insisted. 

The lights of a town suburb were flitting past the windows, and themonotonous song of the tires was drowned in the shrill crescendo of thebrakes. She turned from him suddenly and laid her cheek against thegrateful cool of the window-pane. But when he took her hand she did notwithdraw it. 

"Is it mine, Elinor?" he whispered. "You see, I'm not asking much. "

"Is it worth taking--by itself?"

"You make me very happy, " he said quietly; and just then the train stoppedwith a jerk, and a shuffling bustle of station-platform noises floated inthrough the open deck transoms of the car. 

As if the solution of continuity had been a call to arouse her, Elinorfreed her hand with a swift little wrench and sat bolt upright in hercorner. 

"This station--do you know the name of it?" she asked, fighting hard forthe self-control that usually came so easily. 

Ormsby consulted his watch. 

"I am not quite sure. It ought to be----"

He broke off when he saw that she was no longer listening to him. Therewas a stir in the forward vestibule, and the porter came in with ahand-bag. At his heels was a man in a rough-weather box-coat; a youngishman, clean-shaven and wind-tanned to a healthy bronze, with an eager faceand alert eyes that made an instant inventory of the car and itscomplement of passengers. So much Ormsby saw. Then Penelope stood up inher place to greet the new-comer. 

"Why, Mr. Kent!" she exclaimed. "Are you really going on with us? How niceof you!"

Elinor turned coolly upon her seat-mate, self-possession once more firmlyseated in the saddle. 

"Did you know Mr. Kent was going to board the train here?" she askedabruptly. 

"Do you mean the gentleman Penelope has waylaid? I haven't the pleasure ofhis acquaintance. Will you introduce us?"

V

JOURNEYS END--

It had been a day of upsettings for David Kent, beginning with the latebreakfast at which Neltje, the night watchman at the railway station, hadbrought him Penelope's telegram. 

At ten he had a case in court: Shotwell _vs_. Western Pacific Co. , damagesfor stock-killing; for the plaintiff--Hawk; for the defendant--Kent. Withthe thought that he was presently going to see Elinor again, Kent wentgaily to the battle legal, meaning to wring victory out of a jury drawnfor the most part from the plaintiff's stock-raising neighbors. By dint ofgreat perseverance he managed to prolong the fight until the middle of theafternoon, was worsted, as usual, and so far lost his temper as to gethimself called down by the judge, MacFarlane. 

Whereupon he went back to the Farquhar Building and to his office and satdown at the type-writer to pound out a letter to the general counsel, resigning his sinecure. The Shotwell case was the third he had lost forthe company in a single court term. Justice for the railroad company, under present agrarian conditions, was not to be had in the lower courts, and he was weary of fighting the losing battle. Therefore----

In the midst of the type-rattling the boy that served the few occupiedoffices in the Farquhar Building had brought the afternoon mail. Itincluded a letter from Loring, and there was another reversive upheavalfor the exile. Loring's business at the capital was no longer a secret. Hehad been tendered the resident management of the Western Pacific, withheadquarters on the ground, and had accepted. His letter was a brief note, asking Kent to report at once for legal duty in the larger field. 

"I am not fairly in the saddle yet, and shall not be for a week or so, "wrote the newly appointed manager. "But I find I am going to need alevel-headed lawyer at my elbow from the jump--one who knows the Statepolitical ropes and isn't afraid of a scrap. Come in on Number Threeto-day, if you can; if not, send a wire and say when I may look for you. Or, better still, wire anyway. "

David Kent struggled with his emotions until he had got his feet down tothe solid earth again. Then he tore up the half-written resignation andbegan to smite things in order for the flight. Could he make Number Three?Since that was the train named in Penelope's message, nothing short of acatastrophe should prevent his making it. 

He did make it, with an hour to spare; an hour which he proceeded to turninto a time of sharp trial for the patient telegraph operator at thestation, with his badgerings of the man for news of Number Three. Thetrain reported--he took it as a special miracle wrought in his behalf thatthe Flyer was for this once abreast of her schedule--he fell to trampingup and down the long platform, deep in anticipative prefigurings. Themills of the years grind many grists besides the trickling stream of thehours: would he find Miss Brentwood as he had left her? Could he be sureof meeting her on the frank, friendly footing of the Croydon summer? Hefeared not; feared all things--lover-like. 

He hoped there would be no absence-reared barrier to be painfully leveled. A man among men, a leader in some sort, and in battle a soldier who couldhew his way painstakingly, if not dramatically, to his end, David Kent wasno carpet knight, and he knew his lack. Would Elinor make things easy forhim, as she used to daily in the somewhat difficult social atmosphere ofthe exclusive summer hotel?

Measuring it out in all its despairing length and breadth after the fact, he was deeply grateful to Penelope. Missing her ready help at the momentof cataclysms when he entered the sleeping-car, he might have betrayedhimself. His first glance lighted on Elinor and Ormsby, and he needed nogloss on the love-text. He had delayed too long; had asked too much of theFates, and Atropos, the scissors-bearing sister, had snipped his thread ofhope. 

It is one of the consequences of civilization that we are denied theprivilege of unmasking at the behest of the elemental emotions; that weare constrained to bleed decorously. Making shift to lean heavily onPenelope, Kent came through without doing or saying anything unseemly. Mrs. Brentwood, who had been sleeping with one eye open, and that eye uponElinor and Ormsby, made sure that she had now no special reason to beungracious to David Kent. For the others, Ormsby was good-naturedly suave;Elinor was by turns unwontedly kind and curiously silent; andPenelope--but, as we say, it was to Penelope that Kent owed most. 

So it came about that the outcome of the cataclysm was a thing whichhappens often enough in a conventionalized world. David Kent, with histragedy fresh upon him, dropped informally into place as one of the partyof five; and of all the others, Penelope alone suspected how hard he washit. And when all was said; when the new _modus vivendi_ had been fairlyestablished and the hour grew late, Kent went voluntarily with Ormsby tothe smoking-compartment, "to play the string out decently, " as heafterward confessed to Loring. 

"I see you know how to get the most comfort out of your tobacco, " said theclub-man, when they were companionably settled in the men's room and Kentproduced his pipe and tobacco pouch. "I prefer the pipe myself, for asteady thing; but at this time of night a light Castilla fits me prettywell. Try one?" tendering his cigar-case. 

Fighting shrewdly against a natural prompting to regard Ormsby as anhereditary enemy, Kent forced himself to be neighborly. 

"I don't mind, " he said, returning the pipe to its case. And when theHavanas were well alight, and the talk had circled down upon the politicalsituation in the State, he was able to bear his part with a fair exterior, giving Ormsby an impressionistic outline of the late campaign and theconditions that had made the sweeping triumph of the People's Partypossible. 

"We have been coming to it steadily through the last administration, and apart of the preceding one, " he explained. "Last year the drought cut thecereals in half, and the country was too new to stand it withoutborrowing. There was little local capital, and the eastern article washungry, taking all the interest the law allows, and as much more as itcould get. This year the crop broke all records for abundance, but theprice is down and the railroads, trying to recoup for two bad years, havestiffened the freight rates. The net result is our political overturn. "

"Then the railroads and the corporations are not primarily to blame?" saidOrmsby. 

"Oh, no. Corporations here, as elsewhere, are looking out for the presentdollar, but if the country were generally prosperous, the people would paythe tax carelessly, as they do in the older sections. With us it has beena sort of Donnybrook Fair: the agricultural voter has shillalahed the headhe could reach most easily. "

The New Yorker nodded. His millions were solidly placed, and he took nomore than a sportsman's interest in the fluctuations of the stock market. 

"Of course, there have been all sorts of rumors East: 'bull' propheciesthat the triumph of the new party means an era of unexampled prosperityfor the State--and by consequence for western stocks; 'bear' growlingsthat things are sure to go to the bow-wows under the Bucks régime. What doyou think of it?"

Kent blew a series of smoke rings and watched them rise to become a partof the stratified tobacco cloud overhead before replying. 

"I may as well confess that I am not entirely an unprejudiced observer, "he admitted. "For one thing, I am in the legal department of one of thebest-hated of the railroads; and for another, Governor Bucks, Meigs, theattorney-general, and Hendricks, the new secretary of State, are men whomI know as, it is safe to say, the general public doesn't know them. If Icould be sure that these three men are going to be able to control theirown party majority in the Assembly, I should take the first train East andmake my fortune selling tips in Wall Street. "

"You put it graphically. Then the Bucks idea is likely to prove adisturbing element on 'Change?"

"It is; always providing it can dominate its own majority. But this is byno means certain. The political earthquake is essentially a popularprotest against hard conditions brought about, as the voters seem tobelieve, by the oppressions of the alien corporations and extortionaterailroad rates. Yet there are plenty of steady-going, conservative men inthe movement; men who have no present idea of revolutionizing things. Marston, the lieutenant-governor, is one of that kind. It all depends onwhether these men will allow themselves to be whipped into line by theleaders, who, as I am very well convinced, are a set of consciencelessdemagogues, fighting solely for their own hand. "

Ormsby nodded again. 

"You are likely to have good hunting this winter, Mr. Kent. It hasn'tbegun yet, I take it?"

"Oh, no; the Assembly does not convene for a fortnight, and nobody shortof an inspired prophet can foretell what legislation will be sprung. Butone thing is safe to count on: the leaders are out for spoils. They meanto rob somebody, and, if my guess is worth anything, they are sharp enoughto try first to get their schemes legalized by having enabling laws passedby the Assembly. "

"Um, " said the eastern man. Then he took the measure of his companion in ashrewd overlook. "You are the man on the ground, Mr. Kent, and I'll ask astraightforward question. If you had a friend owning stock in one of theinvolved railways, what would you advise?"

Kent smiled. 

"We needn't make it a hypothetical case. If I had the right to advise Mrs. Brentwood and her daughters, I should counsel them to sit tight in theboat for the present. "

"Would you? But Western Pacific has gone off several points already. "

"I know it has; and unfortunately, Mrs. Brentwood bought in at the top ofthe market. That is why I counsel delay. If she sells now, she is sure tolose. If she holds on, there is an even chance for a spasmodic upwardreaction before worse things happen. "

"Perhaps: you know more about the probabilities than I pretend to. But onthe other hand, she may lose more if she holds on. "

Kent bit deep into his cigar. 

"We must see to it that she doesn't lose, Mr. Ormsby. "

The club-man laughed broadly. 

"Isn't that a good bit like saying that the shallop must see to it thatthe wind doesn't blow too hard for it?"

"Possibly. But in the sorriest wreck there is usually some small chancefor salvage. I understand Mrs. Brentwood's holding is not very large?"

"A block of some three thousand shares, held jointly by her and her twodaughters, I believe. "

"Exactly: not enough to excite anybody's cupidity; and yet enough to turnthe scale if there should ever be a fight for a majority control. "

"There is no such fight in prospect, is there?"

"No; not that I know of. But I was thinking of the possibilities. If asmash comes there will be a good deal of horse-swapping in the middle ofthe stream--buying up of depressed stocks by people who need the linesworse than the original owners do. "

"I see, " said Ormsby. "Then you would counsel delay?"

"I should; and I'll go a step farther. I am on the inside, in a way, andany hint I can give you for Miss--for Mrs. Brentwood's benefit shall bepromptly forthcoming. "

"By Jove! that's decent, " said Ormsby, heartily. "You are a friend worthhaving, Mr. Kent. But which 'inside' do you mean--the railroad or thepolitical?"

"Oh, the railroad, of course. And while I think of it, my office will bein the Quintard Building; and you--I suppose you will put up at theWellington?"

"For the present, we all shall. It is Mrs. Brentwood's notion to take afurnished house later on for herself and daughters, if she can find one. I'll keep in touch with you. "

"Do. It may come to a bit of quick wiring when our chance arrives. Youknow Loring--Grantham Loring?"

"Passably well. I came across him one summer in the mountains of Peru, where he was managing a railroad. He is a mighty good sort. I had mountainfever, and he took me in and did for me. "

"He is with us now, " said David Kent; "the newly appointed general managerof the Western Pacific. "

"Good!" said the club-man "I think a lot of him; he is an all-arounddependable fellow, and plenty capable. I'm glad to know he has caught onhigher up. "

The locomotive whistle was droning again, and a dodging procession ofred-eyed switch-lights flicked past the windows. Kent stood up and flungaway the stump of his cigar. 

"The capital, " he announced. "I'll go back with you and help out with theshawl-strap things. " And in the vestibule he added: "I spoke of Loringbecause he will be with us in anything we have to do in Mrs. Brentwood'sbehalf. Look him up when you have time--fourth floor of the Quintard. "

VI

OF THE MAKING OF LAWS

The session, the shortest in the history of the State, and thus far theleast eventful, was nearing its close; and the alarmists who hadprophesied evil and evil only of the "Populist" victory were fast losingcredit with the men of their own camp and with the country at large. 

After the orthodox strife over the speakership of the House, and theequally orthodox wrangle over contested seats, the State Assembly hadsettled down to routine business, despatching it with such unheard-ofcelerity as to win columns of approval from the State press as a whole;though there were not wanting a few radical editors to raise theante-election cry of reform, and to ask pointedly when it was to begin. 

Notwithstanding the lack of alarms, however, the six weeks had been aperiod of unceasing vigilance on the part of the interests which weresupposed to be in jeopardy. Every alien corporation owning property anddoing business in the State had its quota of watchful defenders on theground; men who came and went, in the lobbies of the capitol, in thevisitors' galleries, at the receptions; men who said little, but who sawand heard all things down to the small talk of the corridors and theclubs, and the gossip of the hotel rotundas. 

David Kent was of this silent army of observation, doing watch-dog dutyfor the Western Pacific; thankful enough, if the truth be told, to have athing to do which kept him from dwelling overmuch upon the wreck of hishopes. But in the closing days of the session, when a despatchfulAssembly, anxious to be quit of its task, had gone into night sittings, the anodyne drug of work began to lose its effect. 

The Brentwoods had taken furnished apartments in Tejon Avenue, two squaresfrom the capitol, and Kent had called no oftener than good breedingprescribed. Yet their accessibility, and his unconquerable desire to searhis wound in the flame that had caused it, were constant temptations, andhe was battling with them for the hundredth time on the Friday night whenhe sat in the House gallery listening to a perfunctory debate whichconcerned itself with a bill touching State water-ways. 

"Heavens! This thing is getting to be little short of deadly!" fumedCrenshawe, his right-hand neighbor, who was also a member of the corps ofobservation. "I'm going to the club for a game of pool. Won't you comealong?"

Kent nodded and left his seat with the bored one. But in the great rotundahe changed his mind. 

"You'll find plenty of better players than I am at the club, " he said inextenuation. "I think I'll smoke a whiff or two here and go back. Theycan't hold on much longer for to-night. "

Five minutes later, when he had lighted a cigar and was glancing over theevening paper, two other members of the corporation committee of safetycame down from the Senate gallery and stopped opposite Kent's pillar tostruggle into their overcoats. 

"It's precisely as I wrote our people two weeks ago--timidity scare, pureand simple, " one of them was saying. "I've a mind to start home to-morrow. There is nothing doing here, or going to be done. "

"No, " said the other. "If it wasn't for House Bill Twenty-nine, I'd goto-night. They will adjourn to-morrow or Monday. "

"House Bill Twenty-nine is much too dead to bury, " was the reassuringrejoinder. "The committee is ours, and the bill will not be heard of againat this session. If that is all you are holding on for----"

They passed out of earshot, and Kent folded his newspaper absently. HouseBill Twenty-nine had been the one measure touching the sensitive "vestedinterests"; the one measure for the suppression of which the corporations'lobby had felt called on to take steps. It was an omnibus bill put forthas a substitute for the existing law defining the status of foreigncorporations. It had originated in the governor's office, --a fact whichKent had ferreted out within twenty-four hours of its first reading, --andfor that reason he had procured a printed copy, searching it diligentlyfor the hidden menace he was sure it embodied. 

When the search proved fruitless, he had seen the bill pass the House by asafe majority, had followed it to the Senate, and in a cunningly wordedamendment tacked on in the upper house had found what he was seeking. Under the existing law foreign corporations were subject to Statesupervision, and were dealt with as presumably unfriendly aliens. But theSenate amendment to House Bill Twenty-nine fairly swept the interstatecorporations, as such, out of existence, by making it obligatory upon themto acquire the standing of local corporations. Charters were to be refiledwith the secretary of State; resident directories and operatingheadquarters were to be established within the boundaries and jurisdictionof the State; in short, the State proposed, by the terms of the new law, to deal only with creatures of its own creation. 

Kent saw, or thought he saw, the fine hand of the junto in all this. Itwas a still hunt in which the longest way around was the shortest wayhome. Like all new-country codes, the organic law of the State favoredlocal corporations, and it might be argued that a bill placing the foreigncompanies on a purely local footing was an unmixed blessing to the aliens. But on the other hand, an unprincipled executive might easily make the newlaw an engine of extortion. To go no further into the matter than therequired refiling of charters: the State constitution gave the secretaryof State quasi-judicial powers. It was within his province to pass uponthe applications for chartered rights, and to deny them if the question_pro bono publico_ were involved. 

Kent put two and two together, saw the wide door of exactions which mightbe opened, and passed the word of warning among his associates; afterwhich he had watched the course of the amended House Bill Twenty-nine withinterest sharp-set, planning meanwhile with Hildreth, the editor of the_Daily Argus_, an exposé which should make plain the immense possibilitiesfor corruption opened up by the proposed law; a journalistic salvo ofpublicity to be fired as a last resort. 

The measure as amended had passed the Senate without debate, and had goneback to the House. Here, after the second reading, and in the very hourwhen the _Argus_ editorial was getting itself cast in the linotypes, therewas a hitch. The member from the Rio Blanco, favoring the measure in allits parts, and fearful only lest corporation gold might find a technicalflaw in it, moved that it be referred to the committee on judiciary for areport on its constitutionality; and, accordingly, to the committee onjudiciary it had gone. 

Kent recalled the passing of the crisis, remembering how he had hastenedto telephone the _Argus_ editor to kill the exposé at the last moment. Theincident was now a month in the past, and the committee had not yetreported; would never report, Kent imagined. He knew the personnel of thecommittee on judiciary; knew that at least three members of it were downon the list, made up at the beginning of the session by his colleagues inthe army of observation, as "approachables". Also, he knew by inference atleast, that these three men had been approached, not without success, andthat House Bill Twenty-nine, with its fee-gathering amendment, was safelyshelved. 

"It's an ill-smelling muck-heap!" he frowned, recalling the incidents ofthe crisis at the suggestion let fall by the two outgoing lobbyists. "Andso much of this dog-watch as isn't sickeningly demoralizing is deadlydull, as Crenshawe puts it. If I had anywhere to go, I'd cut the galleriesfor to-night. "

He was returning the newspaper to his pocket when it occurred to him thathis object in buying it had been to note the stock quotations; a dailyduty which, for Elinor's sake, he had never omitted. Whereupon he reopenedit and ran his eye down the lists. There was a decided upward tendency inwesterns. Overland Short Line had gained two points; and WesternPacific----

He held the paper under the nearest electric globe to make sure: WesternPacific, preferred, was quoted at fifty-eight and a half, which was onepoint and a half above the Brentwood purchase price. 

One minute later an excited life-saver was shut in the box of the publictelephone, gritting his teeth at the inanity of the central operator whoinsisted on giving him "A-1224" instead of "A-1234, " the Hotel Wellington. 

"No, no! Can't you understand? I want twelve-thirty-four; one, two, _three_, four; the Hotel Wellington. "

There was more skirling of bells, another nerve-trying wait, and at lastthe clerk of the hotel answered. 

"What name did you say? Oh, it's you, is it, Mr. Kent? Ormsby? Mr. BrookesOrmsby? No, he isn't here; he went out about two minutes ago. What's thatyou say? _Damn_? Well, I'm sorry, too. No message that I can take? Allright. Good-by. "

This was the beginning. For the middle part Kent burst out of thetelephone-box and took the nearest short-cut through the capitol groundsfor the street-car corner. At a quarter of nine he was cross-questioningthe clerk face to face in the lobby of the Wellington. There was littlemore to be learned about Ormsby. The club-man had left his key and goneout. He was in evening dress, and had taken a cab at the hotel entrance. 

Kent dashed across to his rooms and, in a feverish race against time, madehimself fit to chase a man in evening dress. There was no car in sightwhen he came down, and he, too, took a cab with an explosive order to thedriver: "124 Tejon Avenue, and be quick about it!"

It was the housemaid that answered his ring at the door of the Brentwoodapartment. She was a Swede, a recent importation; hence Kent learnednothing beyond the bare fact that the ladies had gone out. "With Mr. Ormsby?" he asked. 

"Yaas; Aye tank it vill pee dat yentlemans. "

The pursuer took the road again, rather unhopefully. There were a dozenplaces where Ormsby might have taken his charges. Among them there was thelegislative reception at Portia Van Brock's. Kent flipped a figurativecoin, and gave the order for Alameda Square. The reception was perhaps theleast unlikely place of the dozen. 

He was no more than fashionably late at the Van Brock house, andfortunately he was able to reckon himself among the chosen few for whomMiss Portia's door swung on hospitable hinges at all hours. Loring hadknown her in Washington, and he had stood sponsor for Kent in the firstweek of the exile's residence at the capital. Thereafter she had takenKent up on his own account, and by now he was deep in her debt. For onething, she had set the fashion in the matter of legislativereceptions--her detractors, knowing nothing whatever about it, hinted thatshe had been an amateur social lobbyist in Washington, playing the gamefor the pure zest of it--and at these functions Kent had learned manythings pertinent to his purpose as watch-dog for the railroad company andlegal adviser to his chief--things not named openly on the floor of theHouse or of the Senate chamber. 

There was a crush in the ample mansion in Alameda Square, as there alwayswas at Miss Van Brock's "open evenings, " and when Kent came down from thecloakroom he had to inch his way by littles through the crowdedreception-parlors in the search for the Brentwood party. It wasunsuccessful at first; but later, catching a glimpse of Elinor at thepiano, and another of Penelope inducting an up-country legislator into themysteries of social small-talk, he breathed freer. His haphazard guess hadhit the mark, and the finding of Ormsby was now only a question ofmoments. 

It was Miss Van Brock herself who told him where to look for theclub-man--though not at his first asking. 

"You did come, then, " she said, giving him her hand with a frank littlesmile of welcome. "Some one said you were not going to be frivolous anymore, and I wondered if you would take it out on me. Have you been at thenight session?"

"Yes; at what you and your frivolities have left of it. A good third ofthe Solons seem to be sitting in permanence in Alameda Square. "

"'Solons', " she repeated. "That recalls Editor Brownlo's little joke--onlyhe didn't mean it. He wrote of them as 'Solons, ' but the printer got it'solans'. The member from Caliente read the article and the word stuck inhis mind. In an unhappy hour he asked Colonel Mack's boy--Harry, theirrepressible, you know--to look it up for him. Harry did it, and ofcourse took the most public occasion he could find to hand in his answer. 'It's geese, Mr. Hackett!' he announced triumphantly; and after we wereall through laughing at him the member from the warm place turned it justas neatly as a veteran. 'Well, I'm Hackett, ' he said. "

David Kent laughed, as he was in duty bound, but he still had Ormsby onhis mind. 

"I see you have Mrs. Brentwood and her daughters here: can you tell mewhere I can find Mr. Brookes Ormsby?"

"I suppose I could if I should try. But you mustn't hurry me. There is avacant corner in that davenport beyond the piano: please put me there andfetch me an ice. I'll wait for you. "

He did as he was bidden, and when she was served he stood over her, wondering, as other men had wondered, what was the precise secret of hercharm. Loring had told him Miss Van Brock's story. She was southern born, the only child of a somewhat ill-considered match between a youngCalifornia lawyer, wire-pulling in the national capital in the interest ofthe Central Pacific Railroad, and a Virginia belle tasting the delights ofher first winter in Washington. 

Later, the young lawyer's state, or his employers, had sent him toCongress; and Portia, left motherless in her middle childhood, had grownup in an atmosphere of statecraft, or what passes for such, in an era offrank commercialism. Inheriting her mother's rare beauty of face and form, and uniting with it a sympathetic gift in grasp of detail, political andother, she soon became her father's confidante and loyal partizan, takingthe place, as a daughter might, of the ambitious young wife and mother, who had set her heart on seeing the Van Brock name on the roll of theUnited States Senate. 

Rensselaer Van Brock had died before the senatorial dream could berealized, but not before he had made a sufficient number of luckyinvestments to leave his daughter the arbitress of her own future. Whatthat future should be, not even Loring could guess. Since her father'sdeath Miss Van Brock had been a citizen of the world. With a widowed auntfor the shadowiest of chaperons, she had drifted with the tide ofinclination, coming finally to rest in the western capital for no betterreason, perhaps, than that some portion of her interest-bearing securitieswere emblazoned with the great seal of this particular western State. 

Kent was thinking of Loring's recountal as he stood looking down on her. Other women were younger--and with features more conventionally beautiful;Kent could find a round dozen within easy eye-reach, to say nothing of thecalm-eyed, queenly _improvisatrice_ at the piano--his constant standard ofall womanly charm and grace. Unconsciously he fell to comparing the two, his hostess and his love, and was brought back to things present by asharp reminder from Portia. 

"Stop looking at Miss Brentwood that way, Mr. David. She is not for you;and you are keeping me waiting. "

He smiled down on her. 

"It is the law of compensation. I fancy you have kept many a manwaiting--and will keep many another. "

There was a little tang of bitterness in her laugh. 

"You remind me of the time when I went home from school--oh, years andyears ago. Old Chloe--she was my black mammy, you know--had a growndaughter of her own, and her effort to dispose of her 'M'randy' was astanding joke in the family. In answer to my stereotyped question shestood back and folded her arms. 'Naw, honey; dat M'randy ain't ma'ied yit. She gwine be des lak you; look pretty, an' say, _Howdy! Misteh Jawnson_, an' go 'long by awn turrer side de road. '"

"A very pretty little fable, " said Kent. "And the moral?"

"Is that I amuse myself with you--all of you; and in your turn you makeuse of me--or you think you do. Of what use can _I_ be to Mr. David Kentthis evening?"

"See how you misjudge me!" he protested. "My errand here to-night ispurely charitable. Which brings me back to Ormsby: did you say you couldtell me where to look for him?"

"He is in the smoking-room with five or six other tobacco misanthropes. What do you want of him?"

"I want to say two words in his ear; after which I shall vanish and makeroom for my betters. "

Miss Van Brock was gazing steadfastly at the impassioned face lighted bythe piano candles. 

"Is it about Miss Brentwood?" she asked abruptly. 

"In a way--yes, " he confessed. 

She rose and stood beside him--a bewitching figure of a woman who knew herpart in the human comedy and played it well. 

"Is it wise, David?" she asked softly. "I am not denying thepossibilities: you might come between them if you should try--I'm ratherafraid you could. But you mustn't, you know; it's too late. You've marredher, between you; or rather that convention, which makes a woman deaf, blind and dumb until a man has fairly committed himself, has marred her. For your sake she can never be quite all she ought to be to him: for hissake she could never be quite the same to you. "

He drew apart from her, frowning. 

"If I should say that I don't fully understand what you mean?" herejoined. 

"I should retort by saying something extremely uncomplimentary about yourlack of perspicacity, " she cut in maliciously. 

"I beg pardon, " he said, a little stiffly. "You are laboring under anentirely wrong impression. What I have to say to Mr. Brookes Ormsby doesnot remotely concern the matter you touch upon. It's an affair of theStock Exchange. "

"As if I didn't know!" she countered. "You merely reminded me of the otherthing. But if it is only a business secret you may as well tell me allabout it at first hands. Some one is sure to tell me sooner or later. "

Now David Kent was growing impatient. Down in the inner depths of him hewas persuaded that Ormsby might have difficulty in inducing Mrs. Brentwoodto sell her Western Pacific stock even at an advance; might require time, at least. And time, with a Bucks majority tinkering with corporate rightsin the Assembly, might well be precious. 

"Forgive me if I tell Ormsby first, " he pleaded. "Afterward, if you careto know, you shall. "

Miss Van Brock let him go at that, but now the way to the smoking-den onthe floor above was hedged up. He did battle with the polite requirements, as a man must; shaking hands or exchanging a word with one and another ofthe obstructors only as he had to. None the less, when he had finallywrought his way to the smoking-room Ormsby had eluded him again. 

He went back to the parlors, wondering how he had missed the club-man. Inthe middle room of the suite he found Portia chatting with Marston, thelieutenant-governor; and a young woman in the smartest of reception gownshad succeeded to Elinor's place at the piano. 

"You found him?" queried the hostess, excusing herself to the tall, saturnine man who had shared the honors at the head of the People's Partyticket with Jasper G. Bucks. 

"No, " said Kent. "Have you seen him?"

"Why, yes; they all came to take leave just a few moments after you leftme. I thought of telling Mr. Ormsby you were looking for him, but you shutme off so snippily----"

"Miss Van Brock! What have you done? I must go at once. "

"Really? I am complimented. But if you must, you must, I suppose. I hadsomething to tell you--something of importance; but I can't remember whatit was now. I never can remember things in the hurry of leave-takings. "

As we have intimated, Kent had hitherto found Miss Portia's confidencesexceedingly helpful in a business way, and he hesitated. "Tell me, " hebegged. 

"No, I can't remember it: I doubt if I shall ever remember it unless youcan remind me by telling me why you are so desperately anxious to find Mr. Ormsby. "

"I wonder if you hold everybody up like this, " he laughed. "But I don'tmind telling you. Western Pacific preferred has gone to fifty-eight and ahalf. "

"And Mr. Ormsby has some to sell? I wish I had. Do you know what I'd do?"She drew closer and laid a hand on his arm. "I'd sell--by wire--to-night;at least, I'd make sure that my telegram would be the first thing mybroker would lay his hands on in the morning. "

"On general principles, I suppose: so should I, and for the same reason. But have I succeeded in reminding you of that thing you were going to tellme?"

"Not wholly; only partly. You said this matter of Mr. Ormsby's concernedMiss Brentwood--in a way--didn't you?"

"You will have your pound of flesh entire, won't you? The stock is hers, and her mother's and sister's. I want Ormsby to persuade them to sell. They'll listen to him. That is all; all the all. "

"Of course!" she said airily. "How simple of me not to have been able toadd it up without your help. I saw the quotation in the evening paper; andI know, better, perhaps, than you do, the need for haste. Must you gonow?" She had taken his arm and was edging him through the press in theparlors toward the entrance hall. 

"_You_ haven't paid me yet, " he objected. 

"No; I'm trying to remember. Oh, yes; I have it now. Wasn't some onetelling me that you are interested in House Bill Twenty-nine?"

They had reached the dimly lighted front vestibule, and her hand was stillon his arm. 

"I was interested in it, " he admitted, correcting the present to the pasttense. 

"But after it went to the House committee on judiciary you left it to moreskilful, or perhaps we'd better say, to less scrupulous hands?"

"I believe you are a witch. Is there anything you don't know?"

"Plenty of things. For example, I don't know exactly how much it cost ourgood friends of the 'vested interests' to have that bill mislaid in thecommittee room. But I do know they made a very foolish bargain. "

"Beyond all doubt a most demoralizing bargain, which, to say the best ofit, was only a choice between two evils. But why foolish?"

"Because--well, because mislaid things have a way of turning upunexpectedly, you know, and--"

He stopped her in a sudden gust of feverish excitement. 

"Tell me what you mean in one word, Miss Van Brock. Don't those fellowsintend to stay bought?"

She smiled pityingly. 

"You are very young, Mr. David--or very honest. Supposing those 'fellows', as you dub the honorable members of the committee on judiciary, had alittle plan of their own; a plan suggested by the readiness of certain oftheir opponents to rush into print with statements which might derangethings?"

"I am supposing it with all my might. "

"That is right; we are only supposing, you must remember. We may supposetheir idea was to let the excitement about the amended bill die down; tolet people generally, and one fiercely honest young corporation attorneyin particular, have time to forget that there was such a thing as HouseBill Twenty-nine. And in such a suppositional case, how much they would besurprised, and how they would laugh in their sleeves, if some one camealong and paid them handsomely for doing precisely what they meant to do. "

David Kent's smile was almost ferocious. 

"My argument is as good now as it was in the beginning: they have yet toreckon with the man who will dare to expose them. "

She turned from him and spoke to the footman at the door. 

"Thomas, fetch Mr. Kent's coat and hat from the dressing-room. " And thento Kent, in the tone she might have used in telling him of the latestbreeziness of the member from the Rio Blanco: "I remember now what it wasthat I wanted to tell you. While you have been trying to find Mr. Ormsby, the committee on judiciary has been reporting the long-lost House BillTwenty-nine. If you hurry you may be in time to see it passed--it willdoubtless go through without any tiresome debate. But you will hardly havetime to obstruct it by arousing public sentiment through the newspapers. "

David Kent shook the light touch of her hand from his arm and set histeeth hard upon a word hot from the furnace of righteous indignation. Fora moment he fully believed she was in league with the junto; that she hadbeen purposely holding him in talk while the very seconds were priceless. 

She saw the scornful wrath in his eyes and turned it aside with a swiftdenial. 

"No, David; I didn't do that, " she said, speaking to his inmost thought. "If there had been anything you could do--the smallest shadow of a chancefor you--I should have sent you flying at the first word. But therewasn't; it was all too well arranged--"

But he had snatched coat and hat from the waiting Thomas and was runninglike a madman for the nearest cab-stand. 

VII

THE SENTIMENTALISTS

Kent's time from Alameda Square to the capitol was the quickest a floggedcab-horse could make, but he might have spared the horse and saved thedouble fee. On the broad steps of the south portico he, uprushing three ata bound, met the advance guard of the gallery contingent, down-coming. TheHouse had adjourned. 

"One minute, Harnwicke!" he gasped, falling upon the first member of thecorporations' lobby he could identify in the throng. "What's been done?"

"They've taken a fall out of us, " was the brusk reply. "House BillTwenty-nine was reported by the committee on judiciary and rushed throughafter you left. Somebody engineered it to the paring of a fingernail: barequorum to act; members who might have filibustered weeded out, on onepretext or another, to a man; pages all excused, and nobody here with theprivilege of the floor. It was as neat a piece of gag-work as I ever hopeto see if I live to be a hundred. "

Kent faced about and joined the townward dispersal with his informant. 

"Well, I suppose that settles it definitely; at least, until we can testits constitutionality in the courts, " he said. 

Harnwicke thought not, being of the opinion that the vested interestswould never say die until they were quite dead. As assistant counsel forthe Overland Short Line, he was in some sense the dean of the corps ofobservation, and could speak with authority. 

"There is one chance left for us this side of the courts, " he went on;"and now I think of it, you are the man to say how much of a chance it is. The bill still lacks the governor's signature. "

Kent shook his head. 

"It is his own measure. I have proof positive that he and Meigs andHendricks drafted it. And all this fine-haired engineering to-night washis, or Meigs'. "

"Of course; we all know that. But we don't know the particular object yet. Do they need the new law in their business as a source of revenue? Or dothey want to be hired to kill it? In other words, does Bucks want a lumpsum for a veto? You know the man better than any of us. "

"By Jove!" said Kent. "Do you mean to say you would buy the governor of astate?"

Harnwicke turned a cold eye on his companion as they strode along. He wasof the square-set, plain-spoken, aggressive type--a finished product ofthe modern school of business lawyers. 

"I don't understand that you are raising the question of ethics at thisstage of the game, do I?" he remarked. 

Kent fired up a little. 

"And if I am?" he retorted. 

"I should say you had missed your calling. It is baldly a question ofbusiness--or rather of self-preservation. We needn't mince matters amongourselves. If Bucks is for sale, we buy him. "

Kent shrugged. 

"There isn't any doubt about his purchasability. But I confess I don'tquite see how you will go about it. "

"Never mind that part of it; just leave the ways and means with those ofus who have riper experience--and fewer hamperings, perhaps--than youhave. Your share in it is to tell us how big a bid we must make. As I say, you know the man. "

David Kent was silent for the striding of half a square. The New Englandconscience dies hard, and while it lives it is given to drawing sharplines on all the boundaries of culpability. Kent ended by taking thematter in debate violently out of the domain of ethics and standing itupon the ground of expediency. 

"It will cost too much. You would have to bid high--not to overcome hisscruples, for he has none; but to satisfy his greed--which is abnormal. And, besides, he has his pose to defend. If he can see his way clear to aharvest of extortions under the law, he will probably turn you down--andwill make it hot for you later on in the name of outraged virtue. "

Harnwicke's laugh was cynical. 

"He and his little clique don't own the earth in fee simple. Perhaps weshall be able to make them grasp that idea before we are through withthem. We have had this fight on in other states. Would ten thousand belikely to satisfy him?"

"No, " said Kent. "If you add another cipher, it might. "

"A hundred thousand is a pot of money. I take it for granted the WesternPacific will stand its pro-rate?"

The New England conscience bucked again, and Kent made his first openprotest against the methods of the demoralizers. 

"I am not in a position to say: I should advise against it. Unofficially, I think I can speak for Loring and the Boston people. We are not moresaintly than other folk, perhaps; and we are not in the railroad businessfor health or pleasure. But I fancy the Advisory Board would draw the lineat bribing a governor--at any rate, I hope it would. "

"Rot!" said Harnwicke. And then: "You'll reap the benefits with otherinterstate interests; you'll have to come in. "

Kent hesitated, but not now on the ground of the principle to be defended. 

"That brings in a question which I am not competent to decide. Loring isyour man. You will call a conference of the 'powers, ' I take it?"

"It is already called. I sent Atherton out to notify everybody as soon asthe trap was sprung in the House. We meet in the ordinary at the Camelot. You'll be there?"

"A little later--if Loring wants me. I have some telephoning to do beforethis thing gets on the wires. "

They parted at the entrance to the Camelot Club, and Kent went two squaresfarther on to the Wellington. Ormsby had not yet returned, and Kent wentto the telephone and called up the Brentwood apartments. It was Penelopethat answered. 

"Well, I think you owe it, " she began, as soon as he had given his name. "What did I do at Miss Van Brock's to make you cut me dead?"

"Why, nothing at all, I'm sure. I--I was looking for Mr. Ormsby, and----"

"Not when I saw you, " she broke in flippantly. "You were handing MissPortia an ice. Are you still looking for Mr. Ormsby?"

"I am--just that. Is he with you?"

"No; he left here about twenty minutes ago. Is it anything serious?"

"Serious enough to make me want to find him as soon as I can. Did he sayhe was coming down to the Wellington?"

"Of course, he didn't, " laughed Penelope. And then: "Whatever is thematter with you this evening, Mr. Kent?"

"I guess I'm a little excited, " said Kent. "Something hashappened--something I can't talk about over the wires. It concerns you andyour mother and sister. You'll know all about it as soon as I can findOrmsby and send him out to you. "

Penelope's "Oh!" was long-drawn and gasping. 

"Is any one dead?" she faltered. 

"No, no; it's nothing of that kind. I'll send Ormsby out, and he will tellyou all about it. "

"Can't you come yourself?"

"I may have to if I can't find Ormsby. Please don't let your mother go tobed until you have heard from one or the other of us. Did you get that?"

"Ye-es; but I should like to know more--a great deal more. "

"I know; and I'd like to tell you. But I am using the public telephonehere at the Wellington, and--Oh, damn!" Central had cut him out, and itwas some minutes before the connection was switched in again. "Is thatyou, Miss Penelope? All right; I wasn't quite through. When Ormsby comes, you must do as he tells you to, and you and Miss Elinor must help himconvince your mother. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand anything. For goodness' sake, find Mr. Ormsby andmake him run! This is perfectly dreadful!"

"Isn't it? And I'm awfully sorry. Good-by. "

Kent hung up the receiver, and when he was asking a second time at theclerk's desk for the missing man, Ormsby came in to answer for himself. Whereupon the crisis was outlined to him in brief phrase, and he rose tothe occasion, though not without a grimace. 

"I'm not sure just how well you know Mrs. Hepzibah Brentwood, " hedemurred; "but it will be quite like her to balk. Don't you think you'dbetter go along? You are the company's attorney, and your opinion ought tocarry some weight. "

David Kent thought not; but a cautious diplomatist, having got the ideawell into the back part of his head, was not to be denied. 

"Of course, you'll come. You are just the man I'll need to back me up. Ishan't shirk; I'll take the mother into the library and break the ice, while you are squaring things with the young women. Penelope won't carethe snap of her finger either way; but Elinor has some notion's that youare fitter to cope with than I am. After, if you can give me a lift withMrs. Hepzibah, I'll call you in. Come on; it's getting pretty late to govisiting. "

Kent yielded reluctantly, and they took a car for the sake of speed. Itwas Penelope who opened the door for them at 124 Tejon Avenue; and Ormsbymade it easy for his coadjutor, as he had promised. 

"I want to see your mother in the library for a few minutes, " he began. "Will you arrange it, and take care of Mr. Kent until I come for him?"

Penelope "arranged" it, not without another added pang of curiosity, whereupon David Kent found himself the rather embarrassed third of asilent trio gathered about the embers of the sitting-room fire. 

"Is it to be a Quaker meeting?" asked Penelope, sweetly, when the silencehad grown awe-inspiring. 

Kent laughed for pure joy at the breaking of the spell. 

"One would think we had come to drag you all off to jail, Ormsby and I, "he said; and then he went on to explain. "It's about your Western Pacificstock, you know. To-day's quotations put it a point and a half above yourpurchase price, and we've come to persuade you to unload, _pronto_, as themember from the Rio Blanco would say. "

"Is that all?" said Penelope, stifling a yawn. "Then I'm not in it: I'm aninfant. " And she rose and went to the piano. 

"You haven't told us all of it: what has happened?" queried Elinor, speaking for the first time since her greeting of Kent. 

He briefed the story of House Bill Twenty-nine for her, pointing out theprobabilities. 

"Of course, no one can tell what the precise effect will be, " hequalified. "But in my opinion it is very likely to be destructive ofdividends. Skipping the dry details, the new law, which is equitableenough on its face, can be made an engine of extortion in the hands ofthose who administer it. In fact, I happen to know that it was designedand carried through for that very purpose. "

She smiled. 

"I have understood you were in the opposition. Are you speakingpolitically?"

"I am stating the plain fact, " said Kent, nettled a little by hercoolness. "Decadent Rome never lifted a baser set of demagogues intooffice than we have here in this State at the present moment. "

He spoke warmly, and she liked him best when he put her on the footing ofan equal antagonist. 

"I can't agree with your inference, " she objected. "As a people we areneither obsequious nor stupid. "

"Perhaps not. But it is one of the failures of a popular government thatan honest majority may be controlled and directed by a small minority ofshrewd rascals. That is exactly what has happened in the passage of thisbill. I venture to say that not one man in ten who voted for it had thefaintest suspicion that it was a 'graft'. "

"If that be true, what chances there are for men with the gift of trueleadership and a love of pure justice in their hearts!" she saidhalf-absently; and he started forward and said: "I beg pardon?"

She let the blue-gray eyes meet his and there was a passing shadow ofdisappointment in them. 

"I ought to beg yours. I'm afraid I was thinking aloud. But it is one ofmy dreams. If I were a man I should go into politics. "

"To purify them?"

"To do my part in trying. The great heart of the people is honest andwell-meaning: I think we all admit that. And there is intelligence, too. But human nature is the same as it used to be when they set up a man who_could_ and called him a king. Gentle or simple, it must be led. "

"There is no lack of leadership, such as it is, " he hazarded. 

"No; but there seems to be a pitiful lack of the right kind: men who willput self-seeking and unworthy ambition aside and lift the standard ofjustice and right-doing for its own sake. Are there any such mennowadays?"

"I don't know, " he rejoined gravely. "Sometimes I'm tempted to doubt it. It is a frantic scramble for place and power for the most part. The kindof man you have in mind isn't in it; shuns it as he would a plague spot. "

She contradicted him firmly. 

"No, the kind of man I have in mind wouldn't shun it; he would take holdwith his hands and try to make things better; he would put the selfishtemptations under foot and give the people a leader worth following--bethe real mind and hand of the well-meaning majority. "

Kent shook his head slowly. 

"Not unless we admit a motive stronger than the abstraction which we callpatriotism. "

"I don't understand, " she said; meaning, rather, that she refused tounderstand. 

"I mean that such a man, however exalted his views might be, would have tohave an object more personal to him than the mere dutiful promptings ofpatriotism to make him do his best. "

"But that would be self-seeking again. "

"Not necessarily in the narrow sense. The old knightly chivalry was abeautiful thing in its way, and it gave an uplift to an age which wouldhave been frankly brutal without it: yet it had its well-spring in whatappeals to us now as being a rather fantastic sentiment. "

"And we are not sentimentalists?" she suggested. 

"No; and it's the worse for us in some respects. You will not find yourideal politician until you find a man with somewhat of the old knightlyspirit in him. And I'll go further and say that when you do find him hewill be at heart the champion of the woman he loves rather than that of apolitical constituency. "

She became silent at that, and for a time the low sweet harmonies of thenocturne Penelope was playing filled the gap. 

Kent left his chair and began to wish honestly for Ormsby's return. He wassearing the wound again, and the process was more than commonly painful. They had been speaking in figures, as a man and a woman will; yet he madesure the mask of metaphor was transparent, no less to her than to him. Asmany times before, his heart was crying out to her; but now behind the crythere was an upsurging tidal wave of emotion new and strange; a topplingdown of barriers and a sweeping inrush of passionate rebellion. 

Why had she put it out of her power to make him her champion in the Fieldof the Lust of Mastery? Instantly, and like a revealing lightning flash, it dawned upon him that this was his awakening. Something of himself shehad shown him in the former time: how he was rusting inactive in the smallfield when he should be doing a man's work, the work for which histraining had fitted him, in the larger. But the glamour of sentiment hadbeen over it all in those days, and to the passion-warped the high call istransmitted in terms of self-seeking. 

He turned upon her suddenly. 

"Did you mean to reproach me?" he asked abruptly. 

"How absurd!"

"No, it isn't. You are responsible for me, in a certain sense. You sent meout into the world, and somehow I feel as if I had disappointed you. "

"'But what went ye out for to see?'" she quoted softly. 

"I know, " he nodded, sitting down again. "You thought you were arousing aworthy ambition, but it was only avarice that was quickened. I've beentrying to be a money-getter. "

"You can be something vastly better. "

"No, I am afraid not; it is too late. "

Again the piano-mellowed silence supervened, and Kent put his elbows onhis knees and his face in his hands, being very miserable. He believed nowwhat he had been slow to credit before: that he had it in him to hew hisway to the end of the line if only the motive were strong enough to callout all the reserves of battle-might and courage. That motive she alone, of all the women in the world, might have supplied, he told himself inkeen self-pity. With her love to arm him, her clear-eyed faith to inspirehim. .. . He sat up straight and pushed the cup of bitter herbs aside. Therewould be time enough to drain it farther on. 

"Coming back to the stock market and the present crisis, " he said, breaking the silence in sheer self-defense; "Ormsby and I----"

She put the resurrected topic back into its grave with a little gesture ofapathetic impatience she used now and then with Ormsby. 

"I suppose I ought to be interested, but I am not, " she confessed. "Motherwill do as she thinks best, and we shall calmly acquiesce, as we alwaysdo. "

David Kent was not sorry to be relieved in so many words of the persuasiveresponsibility, and the talk drifted into reminiscence, with the Croydonsummer for a background. 

It was a dangerous pastime for Kent; perilous, and subversive of manythings. One of his meliorating comforts had been the thought that howeverbitter his own disappointment was, Elinor at least was happy. But in thisnew-old field of talk a change came over her and he was no longer sure shewas entirely happy. She was saying things with a flavor akin to cynicismin them, as thus:

"Do you remember how we used to go into raptures of pious indignation overthe make-believe sentiment of the summer man and the summer girl? Irecollect your saying once that it was wicked; a desecration of thingswhich ought to be held sacred. It isn't so very long ago, but I think wewere both very young that summer--years younger than we can ever be again. Don't you?"

"Doubtless, " said David Kent. He was at a pass in which he would haveagreed with her if she had asserted that black was white. It was notweakness; it was merely that he was absorbed in a groping search for theword which would fit her changed mood. 

"We have learned to be more charitable since, " she went on; "morecharitable and less sentimental, perhaps. And yet we prided ourselves onour sincerity in that young time, don't you think?"

"I, at least, was sincere, " he rejoined bluntly. He had found themood-word at last: it was resentment; though, being a man, he could see nogood reason why the memories of the Croydon summer should make herresentful. 

She was not looking at him when she said: "No; sincerity is always just. And you were not quite just, I think. "

"To you?" he demanded. 

"Oh, no; to yourself. "

Portia Van Brock's accusation was hammering itself into his brain. _Youhave marred her between you. .. . For your sake she can never be quite allshe ought to be to him; for his sake she could never be quite the same toyou_. A cold wave of apprehension submerged him. In seeking to do the mostunselfish thing that offered, had he succeeded only in making her despisehim?

The question was still hanging answerless when there came the sound of adoor opening and closing, and Ormsby stood looking in upon them. 

"We needn't keep these sleepy young persons out of bed any longer, " heannounced briefly; and the coadjutor said good-night and joined him atonce. 

"What luck?" was David Kent's anxious query when they were free of thehouse and had turned their faces townward. 

"Just as much as we might have expected. Mrs. Hepzibah refuses point-blankto sell her stock--won't talk about it. 'The idea of parting with it now, when it is actually worth more than it was when we bought it!'" he quoted, mimicking the thin-lipped, acidulous protest. "Later, in an evil minute, Itried to drag you in, and she let you have it square on the point of thejaw--intimated that it was a deal in which some of you inside peopleneeded her block of stock to make you whole. She did, by Jove!"

Kent's laugh was mirthless. 

"I was never down in her good books, " he said, by way of accounting forthe accusation. 

If Ormsby thought he knew the reason why, he was magnanimous enough tosteer clear of that shoal. 

"It's a mess, " he growled. "I don't fancy you had any better luck withElinor. "

"She seemed not to care much about it either way. She said her motherwould have the casting vote. "

"I know. What I don't know is, what remains to be done. "

"More waiting, " said Kent, definitively. "The fight is fairly on now--asbetween the Bucks crowd and the corporations, I mean--but there willprobably be ups and downs enough to scare Mrs. Brentwood into letting go. We must be ready to strike when the iron is hot; that's all. "

The New Yorker tramped a full square in thoughtful silence before he said:"Candidly, Kent, Mrs. Hepzibah's little stake in Western Pacific isn'taltogether a matter of life and death to me, don't you know? If it comesto the worst, I can have my broker play the part of the god in the car. Happily, or unhappily, whichever way you like to put it, I sha'n't misswhat he may have to put up to make good on her three thousand shares. "

David Kent stopped short and wheeled suddenly upon his companion. 

"Ormsby, that's a thing I've been afraid of, all along; and it's the onething you must never do. "

"Why not?" demanded the straightforward Ormsby. 

Kent knew he was skating on the thinnest of ice, but his love for Elinormade him fearless of consequences. 

"If you don't know without being told, it proves that your money hasspoiled you to that extent. It is because you have no right to entrap MissBrentwood into an obligation that would make her your debtor for the veryfood she eats and the clothes she wears. You will say she need never know:be very sure she would find out, one way or another; and she would neverforgive you. "

"Um, " said Ormsby, turning visibly grim. "You are frank enough--to draw itmildly. Another man in my place might suggest that it isn't Mr. DavidKent's affair. "

Kent turned about and caught step again. 

"I've said my say--all of it, " he rejoined stolidly. "We've been decentlymodern up to now, and we won't go back to the elemental things so late inthe day. All the same, you'll not take it amiss if I say that I know MissBrentwood rather better than you do. "

Ormsby did not say whether he would or would not, and the talk went asideto less summary ways and means preservative of the Brentwood fortunes. Butat the archway of the Camelot Club, where Kent paused, Ormsby went back tothe debatable ground in an outspoken word. 

"I know pretty well now what there is between us, Kent, and we mustn'tquarrel if we can help it, " he said. "If you complain that I didn't giveyou a fair show, I'll retort that I didn't dare to. Are you satisfied?"

"No, " said David Kent; and with that they separated. 

VIII

THE HAYMAKERS

By the terms of its dating clause the new trust and corporation law becameeffective at once, "the public welfare requiring it"; and though there wasan immediate sympathetic decline in the securities involved, there was nopanic, financial or industrial, to mark the change from the old to thenew. 

Contrary to the expectations of the alarmists and the lawyers, andsomewhat to the disappointment of the latter, the vested interests showedno disposition to test the constitutionality of the act in the courts. Sofar, indeed, from making difficulties, the various alien corporationsaffected by the new law wheeled promptly into line in compliance with itsprovisions, vying with one another in proving, or seeming to prove, thetime-worn aphorism that capital can never afford to be otherwise thanstrictly law-abiding. 

In the reorganization of the Western Pacific, David Kent developed at onceand heartily into that rare and much-sought-for quantity, a man for anemergency. Loring, also, was a busy man in this transition period, yet hefound time to keep an appreciative eye on Kent, and, true to his impliedpromise, pushed him vigorously for the first place in the legal departmentof the localized company. Since the resident manager stood high in theBoston counsels of the company, the pushing was not without results; andwhile David Kent was still up to his eyes in the work of flogging theaffairs of the newly named Trans-Western into conformity with the law, hisappointment as general counsel came from the Advisory Board. 

At one time, when success in his chosen vocation meant more to him than hethought it could ever mean again, the promoted subordinate would have hadan attack of jubilance little in keeping with the grave responsibilitiesof his office. As it fell out, he was too busy to celebrate, and too soreon the sentimental side to rejoice. Hence, his recognition of thepromotion was merely a deeper plunge into the flood of legalities and theadding of two more stenographers to his office force. 

Now there is this to be said of such submersive battlings in a sea ofwork: while the fierce toil of the buffeting may be good for the swimmer'ssoul, it necessarily narrows his horizon, inasmuch as a man with his headin the sea-smother lacks the view-point of the captain who fights his shipfrom the conning tower. 

So it befell that while the newly appointed general counsel of thereorganized Western Pacific was bolting his meals and clipping the nightsat both ends in a strenuous endeavor to clear the decks for a possiblebattle-royal at the capital, events of a minatory nature were shapingthemselves elsewhere. 

To bring these events down to their focusing point in the period oftransition, it is needful to go back a little; to a term of the circuitcourt held in the third year of Gaston the prosperous. 

Who Mrs. Melissa Varnum was; how she came to be traveling from MidlandCity to the end of the track on a scalper's ticket; and in what manner shewas given her choice of paying fare to the conductor or leaving the trainat Gaston--these are details with which we need not concern ourselves. Suffice it to say that Kent, then local attorney for the company, masteredthem; and when Mrs. Varnum, through Hawk, her counsel, sued for fivethousand dollars damages, he was able to get a continuance, knowing fromlong experience that the jury would certainly find for the plaintiff ifthe case were then allowed to go to trial. 

And at the succeeding term of court, which was the one that adjourned onthe day of Kent's transfer to the capital, two of the company's witnesseshad disappeared; and the one bit of company business Kent had beensuccessful in doing that day was to postpone for a second time the comingto trial of the Varnum case. 

It was while Kent's head was deepest in the flood of reorganization that aletter came from one Blashfield Hunnicott, his successor in the localattorneyship at Gaston, asking for instructions in the Varnum matter. Judge MacFarlane's court would convene in a week. Was he, Hunnicott, tolet the case come to trial? Or should he--the witnesses still beingunproducible--move for a further continuance?

Kent took his head out of the cross-seas long enough to answer. By allmeans Hunnicott was to obtain another continuance, if possible. And if, before the case were called, there should be any new developments, he wasto wire at once to the general office, and further instructions wouldissue. 

It was about this time, or, to be strictly accurate, on the day precedingthe convening of Judge MacFarlane's court in Gaston, that Governor Buckstook a short vacation--his first since the adjournment of the Assembly. 

One of the mysteries of this man--the only one for which his friends couldnot always account plausibly--was his habit of dropping out for a day or aweek at irregular intervals, leaving no clue by which he could be traced. While he was merely a private citizen these disappearances figured in thelocal notes of the Gaston _Clarion_ as business trips, object andobjective point unknown or at least unstated; but since his election thenewspapers were usually more definite. On this occasion, the public wasduly informed that "Governor Bucks, with one or two intimate friends, wastaking a few days' recreation with rod and gun on the headwaters of JumpCreek"--a statement which the governor's private secretary stood ready tocorroborate to all and sundry calling at the gubernatorial rooms on thesecond floor of the capitol. 

Now it chanced that, like all gossip, this statement was subject tocorrection as to details in favor of the exact fact. It is true that thegovernor, his gigantic figure clad in sportsmanlike brown duck, might havebeen seen boarding the train on the Monday evening; and in addition to theample hand-bag there were rod and gun cases to bear out the newspapernotices. None the less, it was equally true that the keeper of the GunClub shooting-box at the terminus of the Trans-Western's Jump Creek branchwas not called upon to entertain so distinguished a guest as the Stateexecutive. Also, it might have been remarked that the governor traveledalone. 

Late that same night, Stephen Hawk was keeping a rather discomfortingvigil with a visitor in the best suite of rooms the Mid-Continent Hotel inGaston afforded. The guest of honor was a brother lawyer--though he mighthave refused to acknowledge the relationship with the ex-districtattorney--a keen-eyed, business-like gentleman, whose name as an organizerof vast capitalistic ventures had traveled far, and whose present attitudewas one of undisguised and angry contempt for Gaston and all thingsGastonian. 

"How much longer have we to wait?" he demanded impatiently, when the handsof his watch pointed to the quarter-hour after ten. "You've made me traveltwo thousand miles to see this thing through: why didn't you make sure ofhaving your man here?"

Hawk wriggled uneasily in his chair. He was used to being bullied, notonly by the good and great, but by the little and evil as well. Yet therewas a rasp to the great man's impatience that irritated him. 

"I've been trying to tell you all the evening that I'm only the hired manin this business, Mr. Falkland. I can't compel the attendance of the otherparties. "

"Well, it's damned badly managed, as far as we've gone, " was theungracious comment. "You say the judge refuses to confer with me?"

"Ab-so-lutely. "

"And the train--the last train the other man can come on; is that in yet?"

Hawk consulted his watch. 

"A good half-hour ago. "

"You had your clerk at the station to meet it?"

"I did. "

"And he hasn't reported?"

"Not yet. "

Falkland took a cigar from his case, bit the end of it like a man with agrudge to satisfy, and began again. 

"There is a very unbusinesslike mystery about all this, Mr. Hawk, and Imay as well tell you shortly that my time is too valuable to make metolerant of half-confidences. Get to the bottom of it. Has your manweakened?"

"No; he is not of the weakening kind. And, besides, the scheme is his ownfrom start to finish, as you know. "

"Well, what is the matter, then?"

Hawk rose. 

"If you will be patient a little while longer, I'll go to the wire and tryto find out. I am as much in the dark as you are. "

This last was not strictly true. Hawk had a telegram in his pocket whichwas causing him more uneasiness than all the rasping criticisms of the NewYork attorney, and he was re-reading it by the light of the corridorbracket when a young man sprang from the ascending elevator and hurried tothe door of the parlor suite. Hawk collared his Mercury before he couldrap on the door. 

"Well?" he queried sharply. 

"It's just as you suspected--what Mr. Hendricks' telegram hinted at. I methim at the station and couldn't do a thing with him. "

"Where has he gone?"

"To the same old place. "

"You followed him?"

"Sure. That is what kept me so long. "

Hawk hung upon his decision for the barest fraction of a second. Then hegave his orders concisely. 

"Hunt up Doctor Macquoid and get him out to the club-house as quick as youcan. Tell him to bring his hypodermic. I'll be there with all the helphe'll need. " And when the young man was gone, Hawk smote the air with aclenched fist and called down the Black Curse of Shielygh, or its modernequivalent, on all the fates subversive of well-laid plans. 

A quarter of an hour later, on the upper floor of the club-house at theGentlemen's Driving Park, four men burst in upon a fifth, a huge figure inbrown duck, crouching in a corner like a wild beast at bay. A bottle and atumbler stood on the table under the hanging lamp; and with the crash ofbreaking glass which followed the mad-bull rush of the duck-clothed giant, the reek of French brandy filled the room. 

"Hold him still, if you can, and pull up that sleeve. " It was Macquoid whospoke, and the three apparitors, breathing hard, sat upon the prostrateman and bared his arm for the physician. When the apomorphia began to doits work there was a struggle of another sort, out of which emerged apallid and somewhat stricken reincarnation of the governor. 

"Falkland is waiting at the hotel, and he and MacFarlane can't gettogether, " said Hawk, tersely, when the patient was fit to listen. "Otherwise we shouldn't have disturbed you. It's all day with the schemeif you can't show up. "

The governor groaned and passed his hand over his eyes. 

"Get me into my clothes--Johnson has the grip--and give me all the timeyou can, " was the sullen rejoinder; and in due course the Honorable JasperG. Bucks, clothed upon and in his right mind, was enabled to keep hisappointment with the New York attorney at the Mid-Continent Hotel. 

But first came the whipping-in of MacFarlane. Bucks went alone to thejudge's room on the floor above the parlor suite. It was now nearmidnight, but MacFarlane had not gone to bed. He was a spare man, withthin hair graying rapidly at the temples and a care-worn face; the face ofa man whose tasks or responsibilities, or both, have overmatched him. Hewas walking the floor with his head down and his hands--thin, nervelesshands they were--tightly locked behind him, when the governor entered. 

For a large man the Honorable Jasper was usually able to handle his weightadmirably; but now he clung to the door-knob until he could launch himselfat a chair and be sure of hitting it. 

"What's this Hawk's telling me about you, MacFarlane?" he demanded, frowning portentously. 

"I don't know what he has told you. But it is too flagrant, Bucks; I can'tdo it, and that's all there is about it. " The protest was feebly fierce, and there was the snarl of a baited animal in the tone. 

"It's too late to make difficulties now, " was the harsh reply. "You've gotto do it. "

"I tell you I can not, and I will not!"

"A late attack of conscience, eh?" sneered the governor, who was soberingrapidly now. "Let me ask a question or two. How much was that securitydebt your son-in-law let you in for?"

"It was ten thousand dollars. It is an honest debt, and I shall pay it. "

"But not out of the salary of a circuit judge, " Bucks interposed. "Nor yetout of the fees you make your clerks divide with you. And that isn't all. Have you forgotten the gerrymander business? How would you like to see thetrue inwardness of that in the newspapers?"

The judge shrank as if the huge gesturing hand had struck him. 

"You wouldn't dare, " he began. "You were in that, too, deeper than----"

Again the governor interrupted him. 

"Cut it out, " he commanded. "I can reward, and I can punish. You are notgoing to do anything technically illegal; but, by the gods, you are goingto walk the line laid down for you. If you don't, I shall give thedocuments in the gerrymander affair to the papers the day after you fail. Now we'll go and see Falkland. "

MacFarlane made one last protest. 

"For God's sake, Bucks! spare me that. It is nothing less than the foulestcollusion between the judge, the counsel for the plaintiff--and thedevil!"

"Cut that out, too, and come along, " said the governor, brutally; and bythe steadying help of the chair, the door-post and the wall of thecorridor, he led the way to the parlor suite on the floor below. 

The conference in Falkland's rooms was chiefly a monologue with thesharp-spoken New York lawyer in the speaking part. When it was concludedthe judge took his leave abruptly, pleading the lateness of the hour andhis duties for the morrow. When he was gone the New Yorker began again. 

"You won't want to be known in this, I take it, " he said, nodding at thegovernor. "Mr. Hawk here will answer well enough for the legal part, buthow about the business end of it. Have you got a man you can trust?"

The governor's yellow eyebrows met in a meaning scowl. 

"I've got a man I can hang, which is more to the purpose. It's Major JimGuilford. He lives here; want to meet him?"

"God forbid!" said Falkland, fervently. He rose and whipped himself intohis overcoat, turning to Hawk: "Have your young man get me a carriage, andsee to it that my special is ready to pull east when I give the word, willyou?"

Hawk went obediently, and the New Yorker had his final word with thegovernor alone. 

"I think we understand each other perfectly, " he said. "You are to havethe patronage: we are to pay for all actual betterments for which voucherscan be shown at the close of the deal. All we ask is that the stock bedepressed to the point agreed upon within the half-year. "

"It's going to be done, " said the governor, trying as he could to keep theeye-image of his fellow conspirator from multiplying itself by two. 

"All right. Now as to the court affair. If it is managed exactly as I haveoutlined, there will be no trouble--and no recourse for the other fellows. When I say that, I'm leaving out your Supreme Court. Under certainconditions, if the defendant's hardship could be definitely shown, a writof _certiorari_ and _supersedeas_ might issue. How about that?"

The governor closed one eye slowly, the better to check the troublesomemultiplying process. 

"The Supreme Court won't move in the matter. The ostensible reason will bethat the court is now two years behind its docket. "

"And the real reason?"

"Of the three justices, one of them was elected on our ticket; another isa personal friend of Judge MacFarlane. The goods will be delivered. "

"That's all, then; all but one word. Your judge is a weak brother. Notwithstanding all the pains I took to show him that his action would betechnically unassailable, he was ready to fly the track at any moment. Have you got him safe?"

Bucks held up one huge hand with the thumb and forefinger tightly pressedtogether. 

"I've got him right there, " he said. "If you and Hawk have got your papersin good shape, the thing will go through like a hog under a barbed-wirefence. "

IX

THE SHOCKING OF HUNNICOTT

It was two weeks after the date of the governor's fishing trip, and byconsequence Judge MacFarlane's court had been the even fortnight insession in Gaston, when Kent's attention was recalled to the forgottenVarnum case by another letter from the local attorney, Hunnicott. 

"Varnum _vs_. Western Pacific comes up Friday of this week, and they aregoing to press for trial this time, and no mistake, " wrote the localrepresentative. "Hawk has been chasing around getting affidavits; for whatpurpose I don't know, though Lesher tells me that one of them was sworn byHouligan, the sub-contractor who tried to fight the engineer's estimateson the Jump Creek work. 

"Also, there is a story going the rounds that the suit is to be made ablind for bigger game, though I guess this is all gossip, based on thefact that Mr. Semple Falkland's private car stopped over here two weeksago, from three o'clock in the afternoon till midnight of the same day. Jason, of the _Clarion_, interviewed the New Yorker, and Falkland told himhe had stopped over to look up the securities on a mortgage held by one ofhis New York clients. "

Kent read this unofficial letter thoughtfully, and later on took it in tothe general manager. 

"Just to show you the kind of jackal we have to deal with in the smallertowns, " he said, by way of explanation. "Here is a case that Stephen Hawkbuilt up out of nothing a year ago. The woman was put off one of ourtrains because she was trying to travel on a scalper's ticket. She didn'tcare to fight about it; but when I had about persuaded her to compromisefor ten dollars and a pass to her destination, Hawk got hold of her andinduced her to sue for five thousand dollars. "

"Well?" said Loring. 

"We fought it, of course--in the only way it could be fought in the lowercourt. I got a continuance, and we choked it off in the same way at thesucceeding term. The woman was tired out long ago, but Hawk will hang ontill his teeth fall out. "

"Do you 'continue' again?" asked the general manager. 

Kent nodded. 

"I so instructed Hunnicott. Luckily, two of our most important witnessesare missing. They have always been missing, in point of fact. "

Loring was glancing over the letter. 

"How about this affidavit business, and the Falkland stop-over?" he asked. 

"Oh, I fancy that's gossip, pure and simple, as Hunnicott says. Hawk issharp enough not to let us know if he were baiting a trap. And Falklandprobably told the _Clarion_ man the simple truth. "

Loring nodded in his turn. Then he broke away from the subject abruptly. "Sit down, " he said; and when Kent had found a chair: "I had a caller thismorning--Senator Duvall. "

State Senator Duvall had been the father, or the ostensible father, of theSenate amendment to House Bill Twenty-nine. He was known to thecorporations' lobby as a legislator who would sign a railroad'sdeath-warrant with one hand and take favors from it with the other; andKent laughed. 

"How many did he demand passes for, this time? Or was it a special trainhe wanted?"

"Neither the one nor the other, this morning, as it happened, " said thegeneral manager. "Not to put too fine an edge upon it, he had something tosell, and he wanted me to buy it. "

"What was it?" Kent asked quickly. 

Loring was rubbing his eye-glasses absently with the corner of hishandkerchief. 

"I guess I made a mistake in not turning him over to you, David. He wastoo smooth for me. I couldn't find out just what it was he had for sale. He talked vaguely about an impending crisis and a man who had someinformation to dispose of; said the man had come to him because he wasknown to be a firm friend of the Trans-Western, and so on. "

Kent gave his opinion promptly. 

"It's a capitol-gang deal of some sort to hold us up; and Duvall iswilling to sell out his fellow conspirators if the price is right. "

"Have you any notion of what it is?"

Kent shook his head. 

"Not the slightest. The ways have been tallowed for us, thus far, and Idon't fully understand it. I presented our charter for re-filingyesterday, and Hendricks passed it without a word. As I was coming out ofthe secretary's office I met Bucks. We were pretty nearly open enemies inthe old days in Gaston, but he went out of his way to shake hands and tocongratulate me on my appointment as general counsel. "

"That was warning in itself, wasn't it?"

"I took it that way. But I can't fathom his drift; which is the moreunaccountable since I have it on pretty good authority that the ring iscinching the other companies right and left. Some one was saying at theCamelot last night that the Overland's reorganization of itswithin-the-State lines was going to cost all kinds of money in excess ofthe legal fees. "

Loring's smile was a wordless sarcasm. 

"It's the reward of virtue, " he said ironically. "We were not in the listof subscribers to the conditional fund for purchasing a certain veto whichdidn't materialize. "

"And for that very reason, if for no other, we may look out for squalls, "Kent asserted. "Jasper G. Bucks has a long memory; and just now the fateshave given him an arm to match. I am fortifying everywhere I can, but ifthe junto has it in for us, we'll be made to sweat blood before we arethrough with it. "

"Which brings us back to Senator Duvall. Is it worth while trying to doanything with him?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm opposed to the method--the bargain and saleplan--and I know you are. Turn him over to me if he comes in again. "

When Kent had dictated a letter in answer to Hunnicott's, he dismissed theVarnum matter from his mind, having other and more important things tothink of. So, on the Friday, when the case was reached on JudgeMacFarlane's docket--but really, it is worth our while to be present inthe Gaston court-room to see and hear what befalls. 

When the Varnum case was called, Hunnicott promptly moved for a thirdcontinuance, in accordance with his instructions. The judge heard hisargument, the old and well-worn one of the absence of important witnesses, with perfect patience; and after listening to Hawk's protest, which washardly more than mechanical, he granted the continuance. 

Then came the after-piece. Court adjourned, and immediately Hawk askedleave to present, "at chambers, " an amended petition. Hunnicott waswaylaid by a court officer as he was leaving the room; and a moment later, totally unprepared, he was in the judge's office, listening in some dazedfashion while Hawk went glibly through the formalities of presenting hispetition. 

Not until the papers were served upon him as the company's attorney, andthe judge was naming three o'clock of the following afternoon as the timewhich he would appoint for the preliminary hearing, did the local attorneycome alive. 

"But, your Honor!--a delay of only twenty-four hours in which to prepare arejoinder to this petition--to allegations of such astounding gravity?" hebegan, shocked into action by the very ungraspable magnitude of the thing. 

"What more could you ask, Mr. Hunnicott?" said the judge, mildly. "Youhave already had a full measure of delay on the original petition. Yet Iam willing to extend the time if you can come to an agreement with Mr. Hawk, here. "

Hunnicott knew the hopelessness of that and did not make the attempt. Instead, he essayed a new line of objection. 

"The time would be long enough if Gaston were the headquarters of thecompany, your Honor. But in such a grave and important charge as thisamended petition brings, our general counsel should appear in person, and----"

"You are the company's attorney, Mr. Hunnicott, " said the judge, dryly;"and you have hitherto been deemed competent to conduct the case in behalfof the defendant. I am unwilling to work a hardship to any one, but I cannot entertain your protest. The preliminary hearing will be at threeo'clock to-morrow. "

Hunnicott knew when he was definitely at the string's end; and when he wasout of the judge's room and the Court House, he made a dash for hisoffice, dry-lipped and panting. Ten minutes sufficed for the writing of atelegram to Kent, and he was half-way down to the station with it when itoccurred to him that it would never do to trust the incendiary thing tothe wires in plain English. There was a little-used cipher code in hisdesk provided for just such emergencies, and back he went to laborsweating over the task of securing secrecy at the expense of the preciousminutes of time. Wherefore, it was about four o'clock when he handed thetelegram to the station operator, and adjured him by all that was good andgreat not to delay its sending. 

It was just here he made his first and only slip, since he did not stay tosee the thing done. It chanced that the regular day operator was off onleave of absence, and his substitute, a young man from thetrain-despatcher's office, was a person who considered the company wiresan exclusive appanage of the train service department. At the moment ofHunnicott's assault he was taking an order for Number 17; and observingthat the lawyer's cipher "rush" covered four closely written pages, hehung it upon the sending hook with a malediction on the legal departmentfor burdening the wires with its mail correspondence, and so forgot it. 

It was nine o'clock when the night operator came on duty; and being acareful man, he not only looked first to his sending hook, but wasthoughtful enough to run over the accumulation of messages waiting to betransmitted, to the end that he might give precedence to the mostimportant. And when he came to Hunnicott's cipher with thethrice-underlined "RUSH" written across its face, and had marked the hourof its handing in, he had the good sense to hang up the entire wirebusiness of the railroad until the thing was safely out of his office. 

It was half-past nine when the all-important cipher got itself written outin the headquarters office at the capital; and for two anxious hours thereceiving operator tried by all means in his power to find the generalcounsel--tried and failed. For, to make the chain of mishaps complete inall its links, Kent and Loring were spending the evening at Miss PortiaVan Brock's, having been bidden to meet a man they were both willing tocultivate--Oliver Marston, the lieutenant-governor. And for this cause itwanted but five minutes of midnight when Kent burst into Loring's bedroomon the third floor of the Clarendon, catastrophic news in hand. 

"For heaven's sake, read that!" he gasped; and Loring sat on the edge ofthe bed to do it. 

"So! they've sprung their mine at last: this is what Senator Duvall wastrying to sell us, " he said quietly, when he had mastered the purport ofHunnicott's war news. 

Kent had caught his second wind in the moment of respite, and was settlinginto the collar in a way to strain the working harness to the breakingpoint. 

"It's a put-up job from away back, " he gritted. "If I'd had the sense of apack-mule I should have been on the lookout for just such a trap as this. Look at the date of that message!"

The general manager did look, and shook his head. "'Received, 3:45, P. M. ;Forwarded, 9:17, P. M. ' That will cost somebody his job. What do we do?"

"We get busy at the drop of the hat. Luckily, we have the news, thoughI'll bet high it wasn't Hawk's fault that this message came through withno more than eight hours' delay. Get into your clothes, man! The minutesare precious, now!"

Loring began to dress while Kent walked the floor in a hot fit ofimpatience. 

"The mastodonic cheek of the thing!" he kept repeating, until Loringpulled him down with another quiet remark. 

"Tell me what we have to do, David. I am a little lame in law matters. "

"Do? We have to appear in Judge MacFarlane's court to-morrow afternoonprepared to show that this thing is only a hold-up with a blank cartridge. Hawk meant to take a snap judgment. He counted on throwing the whole thingup against Hunnicott, knowing perfectly well that a little local attorneyat a way-station couldn't begin to secure the necessary affidavits. "

Loring paused with one end of his collar flying loose. 

"Let me understand, " he said. "Do we have to disprove these charges byaffidavits?"

"Certainly; that is the proper rejoinder--the only one, in fact, " saidKent; then, as a great doubt laid hold of him and shook him: "You don'tmean to say there is any doubt about our ability to do it?"

"Oh, no; I suppose not, if it comes to a show-down. But I was thinking ofyour man Hunnicott. Doesn't it occur to you that he is in just about asgood a fix to secure those affidavits in Gaston as we are here, David?"

"Good Lord! Do you mean that we have to send to Boston for ourammunition?"

"Haven't we? Don't you see how nicely the thing is timed? Ten days laterour Trans-Western reorganization would be complete, and we could swear ourown officers on the spot. These people know what they are about. "

Kent was walking the floor again, but now the strength of the man wascoming uppermost. 

"Never mind: we'll wire Boston, and then we'll do what we can here. Couldyou get me to Gaston on a special engine in three hours?"

"Yes. "

"Then we have till eleven o'clock to-morrow to prepare. I'll be ready bythat time. "

"David, you are a brick when it comes to the in-fighting, " said thegeneral manager; and then he finished buttoning his collar. 

X

WITHOUT BENEFIT OF CLERGY

At ten forty-eight on the Saturday morning Kent was standing with thegeneral manager on the Union Station track platform beside the enginewhich was to make the flying run to Gaston. 

Nine hours of sharp work lay between the hurried conference in Loring'sbedroom and the drive to the station at a quarter before eleven. Bostonhad been wired; divers and sundry friends of the railway company had beeninterviewed; some few affidavits had been secured; and now they werewaiting to give Boston its last chance, with a clerk hanging over theoperator in the station telegraph office to catch the first word ofencouragement. 

"If the Advisory Board doesn't send us something pretty solid, I'm goinginto this thing lame, " said Kent, dubiously. "Of course, what Boston cansend us will be only corroborative; unfortunately we can't wireaffidavits. But it will help. What we have secured here lacks directness. "

"Necessarily, " said Loring. "But I'm banking on the Board. If we don't getthe ammunition before you have to start, I can wire it to you at Gaston. That gives us three hours more to go and come on. "

"Yes; and if it comes to the worst--if the decision be unfavorable--it canonly embarrass us temporarily. This is merely the preliminary hearing, andnothing permanent can be established until we have had a hearing on themerits, and we can go armed to that, at all events. "

The general manager was looking at his watch, and he shut the case with asnap. 

"Don't you let it come to that, as long as you have a leg to stand on, David, " he said impressively. "An interregnum of ten days might make itexceedingly difficult for us to prove anything. " Then, as the telegraphoffice watcher came to the door and shook his head as a sign that Bostonwas still silent: "Your time is up. Off with you, and don't let Olesonscare you when he gets 219 in motion. He is a good runner, and you have aclear track. "

Kent clambered to the footplate of the smart eight-wheeler. 

"Can you make it by two o'clock?" he asked, when the engineer, abig-boned, blue-eyed Norwegian, dropped the reversing lever into thecorner for the start. 

"Ay tank maybe so, ain'd it? Yust you climb opp dat odder box, MesterKent, and hol' you' hair on. Ve bane gone to maig dat time, als' ve preaksomedings, _ja_!" and he sent the light engine spinning down the yards toa quickstep of forty miles an hour. 

Kent's after-memory of that distance-devouring rush was a blurred pictureof a plunging, rocking, clamoring engine bounding over mile after mile ofthe brown plain; of the endless dizzying procession of oncoming telegraphpoles hurtling like great side-flung projectiles past the cab windows; ofnow and then a lonely prairie station with waving semaphore arms, sighted, passed and left behind in a whirling sand-cloud in one and the sameheart-beat. And for the central figure in the picture, the one constantquantity when all else was mutable and shifting and indistinct, the big, calm-eyed Norwegian on the opposite box, hurling his huge machine doggedlythrough space. 

At 12:45 they stopped for water at a solitary tank in the midst of thebrown desert. Kent got down stiffly from his cramped seat on the fireman'sbox and wetted his parched lips at the nozzle of the tender hose. 

"Do we make it, Jarl?" he asked. 

The engineer wagged his head. 

"Ay tank so. Ve maig it all right iff dey haf bane got dose track clear. "

"There are other trains to meet?"

"_Ja_; two bane comin' dis vay; ant Nummer Samteen ve pass opp by. "

Oleson dropped off to pour a little oil into the speed-woundings while thetank was filling; and presently the dizzying race began again. For a timeall things were propitious. The two trains to be met were found snuglywithdrawn on the sidings at Mavero and Agriculta, and the stationsemaphores beckoned the flying special past at full speed. Kent checkedoff the dodging mile-posts: the pace was bettering the fastest run evermade on the Prairie Division--which was saying a good deal. 

But at Juniberg, twenty-seven miles out of Gaston, there was a delay. Train Number 17, the east-bound time freight, had left Juniberg at oneo'clock, having ample time to make Lesterville, the next station east, before the light engine could possibly overtake it. But Lesterville hadnot yet reported its arrival; for which cause the agent at Juniberg wasconstrained to put out his stop signal, and Kent's special came to a standat the platform. 

Under the circumstances, there appeared to be nothing for it but to waituntil the delayed Number 17 was heard from; and Kent's first care was toreport to Loring, and to ask if there were anything from Boston. 

The reply was encouraging. A complete denial of everything, signed by theproper officials, had been received and repeated to Kent at Gaston--wasthere now awaiting him. Kent saw in anticipation the nicely calculatedscheme of the junto crumbling into small dust in the precise moment offruition, and had a sharp attack of ante-triumph which he had to walk offin turns up and down the long platform. But as the waiting grew longer, and the dragging minutes totaled the quarter-hour and then the half, hebegan to perspire again. 

Half-past two came and went, and still there was no hopeful word fromLesterville. Kent had speech with Oleson, watch in hand. Would theengineer take the risk of a rear-end collision on a general manager'sorder? Oleson would obey orders if the heavens fell; and Kent flew to thewire again. Hunnicott, at Gaston, was besought to gain time in the hearingby any and all means; and Loring was asked to authorize the risk of arear-end smash-up. He did it promptly. The light engine was to go on untilit should "pick up" the delayed train between stations. 

The Juniberg man gave Oleson his release and the order to proceed with duecare while the sounder was still clicking a further communication fromheadquarters. Loring was providing for the last contingency by sendingKent the authority to requisition Number 17's engine for the completion ofthe run in case the track should be blocked, with the freight engine freebeyond the obstruction. 

Having his shackles stricken off, the Norwegian proceeded "with due care, "which is to say that he sent the eight-wheeler darting down the linetoward Lesterville at the rate of a mile a minute. The mystery of thedelay was solved at a point half-way between the two stations. A brokenflange had derailed three cars of the freight, and the block wasimpassable. 

Armed with the general manager's mandatory wire, Kent ran forward to theengine of the freight train and was shortly on his way again. But in thetwenty-mile run to Gaston more time was lost by the lumbering freightlocomotive, and it was twenty minutes past three o'clock when the countyseat came in sight and Kent began to oscillate between two sharp-pointedhorns of a cruel dilemma. 

By dropping off at the street-crossing nearest the Court House, he mightstill be in time to get a hearing with such documentary backing as he hadbeen able to secure at the capital. By going on to the station he couldpick up the Boston wire which, while it was not strictly evidence, mightcreate a strong presumption in his favor; but in this case he wouldprobably be too late to use it. So he counted the rail-lengths, watch inhand, with a curse to the count for his witlessness in failing to haveLoring repeat the Boston message to him during the long wait at Juniberg;and when the time for the decision arrived he signaled the engineer toslow down, jumped from the step at the nearest crossing and hastened upthe street toward the Court House. 

In the mean time, to go back a little, during this day of hurryings to andfro Blashfield Hunnicott had been having the exciting experiences of adecade crowded into a corresponding number of hours. Early in the morninghe had begun besieging the headquarters wire office for news andinstructions, and, owing to Kent's good intentions to be on the ground inperson, had got little enough of either. 

At length, to his unspeakable relief, he had news of the coming special;and with the conviction that help was at hand he waited at the stationwith what coolness there was in him to meet his chief. But as the time forthe hearing drew near he grew nervous again; and all the keen pains ofutter helplessness returned with renewed acuteness when the operator, whohad overheard the Juniberg-Lesterville wire talk, told him that thespecial was hung up at the former station. 

"O my good Lord!" he groaned. "I'm in for it with empty hands!" None theless, he ran to the baggage-room end of the building and, capturing anexpress wagon, had himself trundled out to the Court House. 

The judge was at his desk when Hunnicott entered, and Hawk was on hand, calmly reading the morning paper. The hands of the clock on the wallopposite the judge's desk pointed to five minutes of the hour, and forfive minutes Hunnicott sat listening, hoping against hope that he shouldhear the rush and roar of the incoming special. 

Promptly on the stroke of three the judge tapped upon his desk with hispencil. 

"Now, gentlemen, proceed with your case; and I must ask you to be as briefas possible. I have an appointment at four which can not be postponed, " hesaid quietly; and Hawk threw down his paper and began at once. 

Hunnicott heard his opponent's argument mechanically, having his earattuned for whistle signals and wheel drummings. Hawk spoke rapidly andstraight to his point, as befitted a man speaking to the facts and with nojury present to be swayed by oratorical effort. When he came to thesummarizing of the allegations in the amended petition, he did it whollywithout heat, piling up the accusations one upon another with the carefulmethod of a bricklayer building a wall. The wall-building simile thrustitself upon Hunnicott with irresistible force as he listened. If thespecial engine should not dash up in time to batter down the wall----

Hawk closed as dispassionately as he had begun, and the judge bowedgravely in Hunnicott's direction. The local attorney got upon his feet, and as he began to speak a telegram was handed in. It was Kent's wire fromJuniberg, beseeching him to gain time at all hazards, and he settledhimself to the task. For thirty dragging minutes he rang the changes onthe various steps in the suit, knowing well that the fatal moment wasapproaching when--Kent still failing him--he would be compelled to submithis case without a scrap of an affidavit to support it. 

The moment came, and still there was no encouraging whistle shriek fromthe dun plain beyond the open windows. Hawk was visibly disgusted, andJudge MacFarlane was growing justly impatient. Hunnicott began again, andthe judge reproved him mildly. 

"Much of what you are saying is entirely irrelevant, Mr. Hunnicott. Thishearing is on the plaintiff's amended petition. "

No one knew better than the local attorney that he was wholly at thecourt's mercy; that he had been so from the moment the judge began toconsider his purely formal defense, entirely unsupported by affidavits orevidence of any kind. None the less, he strung his denials out by everyamplification he could devise, and, having fired his last shot, sat downin despairing breathlessness to hear the judge's summing-up and decision. 

Judge MacFarlane was mercifully brief. On the part of the plaintiff therewas an amended petition fully fortified by uncontroverted affidavits. Onthe part of the defendant company there was nothing but a formal denial ofthe allegations. The duty of the court in the premises was clear. Theprayer of the plaintiff was granted, the temporary relief asked for wasgiven, and the order of the court would issue accordingly. 

The judge was rising when the still, hot air of the room began to vibratewith the tremulous thunder of the sound for which Hunnicott had been solong straining his ears. He was the first of the three to hear it, and hehurried out ahead of the others. At the foot of the stair he ran blindlyagainst Kent, dusty, travel-worn and haggard. 

"You're too late!" he blurted out. "We're done up. Hawk's petition hasbeen granted and the road is in the hands of a receiver. "

Kent dashed his fist upon the stair-rail. 

"Who is the man?" he demanded. 

"Major Jim Guilford, " said Hunnicott. Then, as footfalls coming stairwardwere heard in the upper corridor, he locked arms with Kent, faced himabout and thrust him out over the door-stone. "Let's get out of this. Youlook as if you might kill somebody. "

XI

THE LAST DITCH

It was a mark of the later and larger development of David Kent that hewas able to keep his head in the moment of catastrophes. In boyhood hishair had been a brick-dust red, and having the temperament which belongsof right to the auburn-hued, his first impulse was to face about and makea personal matter of the legal robbery with Judge MacFarlane. 

Happily for all concerned, Hunnicott's better counsels prevailed, and whenthe anger fit passed Kent found himself growing cool and determined. Hunnicott was crestfallen and disposed to be apologetic; but Kent did himjustice. 

"Don't blame yourself: there was nothing else you could have done. Haveyou a stenographer in your office?"

"Yes. "

"A good one?"

"It's young Perkins: you know him. "

"He'll do. 'Phone him to run down to the station and get what telegramsthere are for me, and we'll talk as we go. "

Once free of the Court House, Kent began a rapid-fire of questions. 

"Where is Judge MacFarlane stopping?"

"At the Mid-Continent. "

"Have you any idea when he intends leaving town?"

"No; but he will probably take the first train. He never stays here anhour longer than he has to after adjournment. "

"That would be the Flyer east at six o'clock. Is he going east?"

"Come to think of it, I believe he is. Somebody said he was going to HotSprings. He's in miserable health. "

Kent saw more possibilities, and worse, and quickened his pace a little. 

"I hope your young man won't let the grass grow under his feet, " he said. "The minutes between now and six o'clock are worth days to us. "

"What do we do?" asked Hunnicott, willing to take a little lesson inpractice as he ran. 

"The affidavits I have brought with me and the telegrams which are waitingat the station must convince MacFarlane that he has made a mistake. Weshall prepare a motion for the discharge of the receiver and for thevacation of the order appointing him, and ask the judge to set an earlyday for the hearing on the merits of the case. He can't refuse. "

Hunnicott shook his head. 

"It has been all cut and dried from 'way back, " he objected. "They won'tlet you upset it at the last moment. "

"We'll give them a run for their money, " said Kent. "A good bit of itdepends upon Perkins' speed as a stenographer. "

As it befell, Perkins did not prove a disappointment, and by five o'clockKent was in the lobby of the Mid-Continent, sending his card up to thejudge's room. Word came back that the judge was in the café fortifying theinner man in preparation for his journey, and Kent did not stand uponceremony. From the archway of the dining-room he marked down his man at asmall table in the corner, and went to him at once, plunging promptly intothe matter in hand. 

"The exigencies of the case must plead my excuse for intruding upon youhere, Judge MacFarlane, " he began courteously. "But I have been told thatyou were leaving town----"

The judge waved him down with a deprecatory fork. 

"Court is adjourned, Mr. Kent, and I must decline to discuss the case _exparte_. Why did you allow it to go by default?"

"That is precisely what I am here to explain, " said Kent, suavely. "Thetime allowed us was very short; and a series of accidents----"

Again the judge interrupted. 

"A court can hardly take cognizance of accidents, Mr. Kent. Your localattorney was on the ground and he had the full benefit of the delay. "

"I know, " was the patient rejoinder. "Technically, your order isunassailable. None the less, a great injustice has been done, as we areprepared to prove. I am not here to ask you to reopen the case at yourdinner-table, but if you will glance over these papers I am sure you willset an early day for the hearing upon the merits. "

Judge MacFarlane forced a gray smile. 

"You vote yea and nay in the same breath, Mr. Kent. If I should examineyour papers, I should be reopening the case at my dinner-table. You shallhave your hearing in due course. "

"At chambers?" said Kent. "We shall be ready at any moment; we are readynow, in point of fact. "

"I can not say as to that. My health is very precarious, and I am under aphysician's orders to take a complete rest for a time. I am sorry if thedelay shall work a hardship to the company you represent; but under thecircumstances, with not even an affidavit offered by your side, it is yourmisfortune. And now I shall have to ask you to excuse me. It lacks but afew minutes of my train time. "

The hotel porter was droning out the call for the east-bound Flyer, andKent effaced himself while Judge MacFarlane was paying his bill and makingready for his departure. But when the judge set out to walk to thestation, Kent walked with him. There were five squares to be measured, andfor five squares he hung at MacFarlane's elbow and the plea he made shouldhave won him a hearing. Yet the judge remained impassible, and at the endof the argument turned him back in a word to his starting point. 

"I can not recall the order at this time, if I would, Mr. Kent; neithercan I set a day for the hearing on the merits. What has been done was donein open court and in the presence of your attorney, who offered noevidence in contradiction of the allegations set forth in the plaintiff'samended petition, although they were supported by more than a dozenaffidavits; and it can not be undone in the streets. Since you have notimproved your opportunities, you must abide the consequences. The law cannot be hurried. "

They had reached the station and the east-bound train was whistling forGaston. Kent's patience was nearly gone, and the auburn-hued temperamentwas clamoring hotly for its innings. 

"This vacation of yours, Judge MacFarlane: how long is it likely to last?"he inquired, muzzling his wrath yet another moment. 

"I can not say; if I could I might be able to give you a more definiteanswer as to the hearing on the merits. But my health is very miserable, as I have said. If I am able to return shortly, I shall give you thehearing at chambers at an early date. "

"And if not?"

"If not, I am afraid it will have to go over to the next term of court. "

"Six months, " said Kent; and then his temper broke loose. "JudgeMacFarlane, it is my opinion, speaking as man to man, that you are ascoundrel. I know what you have done, and why you have done it. Also, Iknow why you are running away, now that it is done. So help me God, I'llbring you to book for it if I have to make a lifetime job of it! It's allright for your political backers; they are thieves and bushwhackers, andthey make no secret of it. But there is one thing worse than a trickster, and that is a trickster's tool!"

For the moment while the train was hammering in over the switches theystood facing each other fiercely, all masks flung aside, each after hiskind; the younger man flushed and battle-mad; the elder white, haggard, tremulous. Kent did not guess, then or ever, how near he came to death. Two years earlier a judge had been shot and maimed on a western circuitand since then, MacFarlane had taken a coward's precaution. Here was a manthat knew, and while he lived the cup of trembling might never be putaside. 

It was the conductor's cry of "All aboard!" that broke the homicidalspell. Judge MacFarlane started guiltily, shook off the angry eye-grip ofhis accuser, and went to take his place in the Pullman. One minute laterthe east-bound train was threading its way out among the switches of thelower yard, and Kent had burst into the telegraph office to wire thevolcanic news to his chief. 

XII

THE MAN IN POSSESSION

Appraised at its value in the current coin of street gossip, the legalseizure of the Trans-Western figured mainly as an example of the failureof modern business methods when applied to the concealment of a workingcorporation's true financial condition. 

This unsympathetic point of view was sufficiently defined in a bit ofshop-talk between Harnwicke, the cold-blooded, and his traffic manager inthe office of the Overland Short Line the morning after the newspaperannouncement of the receivership. 

"I told you they were in deep water, " said the lawyer, confidently. "Theyhaven't been making any earnings--net earnings--since the Y. S. & F. Cutinto them at Rio Verde, and the dividends were only a bluff forstock-bracing purposes. I surmised that an empty treasury was what was thematter when they refused to join us in the veto affair. "

"That is one way of looking at it, " said the traffic manager. "But some ofthe papers are claiming that it was a legal hold-up, pure and simple. "

"Nothing of the kind, " retorted the lawyer, whose respect for the law wasas great as his contempt for the makers of the laws. "Judge MacFarlane hadno discretion in the matter. Hawk had a perfect right to file an amendedpetition, and the judge was obliged to act upon it. I'm not saying itwasn't a devilish sharp trick of Hawk's. It was. He saw a chance to smitethem under the fifth rib, and he took it. "

"But how about his client: the woman who was put off the train? Is she anybetter off than she was before?"

"Oh, she'll get her five thousand dollars, of course, if they don't takethe case out of court. It has served its turn. It's an ugly crusher forthe Loring management. Hawk's allegations charge all sorts of crookedness, and neither Loring nor Kent seemed to have a word to say for themselves. Iunderstand Kent was in court, either in person or by attorney, when thereceivership order was made, and that he hadn't a word to say forhimself. "

This view of Harnwicke's, colored perhaps by the fact that theTrans-Western was a business competitor of the Short Line, was thegenerally accepted one in railroad and financial circles at the capital. Civilization apart, there is still a deal of the primitive in humannature, and wolves are not the only creatures that are prone to fall uponthe disabled member of the pack and devour him. 

But in the State at large the press was discussing the event from apolitical point of view; one section, small but vehement, raising the cryof trickery and judicial corruption, and prophesying the withdrawal of allforeign capital from the State, while the other, large and complacent, pointed eloquently to the beneficent working of the law under which thecause of a poor woman, suing for her undoubted right, might be made thewhip to flog corporate tyranny into instant subjection. 

As for the dispossessed stock-holders in the far-away East, they were slowto take the alarm, and still slower to get concerted action. Like many ofthe western roads, the Western Pacific had been capitalized largely bypopular subscription; hence there was no single holder, or group ofholders, of sufficient financial weight to enter the field against thespoilers. 

But when Loring and his associates had fairly got the wires hot with thetale of what had been done, and the much more alarming tale of what waslikely to be done, the Boston inertness vanished. A pool of the stock wasformed, with the members of the Advisory Board as a nucleus; money wassubscribed, and no less a legal light than an ex-attorney-general of thestate of Massachusetts was despatched to the seat of war to advise withthe men on the ground. None the less, disaster out-travels the swiftest of"limited" trains. Before the heavily-feed consulting attorney had crossedthe Hudson in his westward journey, Wall Street had taken notice, andthere was a momentary splash in the troubled pool of the Stock Exchangeand a vanishing circle of ripples to show where Western Pacific had gonedown. 

In the meantime Major James Guilford, somewhile president of the ApacheNational Bank of Gaston, and antecedent to that the frowning autocrat of atwenty-five-mile logging road in the North Carolina mountains, had givenbond in some sort and had taken possession of the company's property andof the offices in the Quintard Building. 

His first official act as receiver was to ask for the resignations of adozen heads of departments, beginning with the general manager and pausingfor the moment with the supervisor of track. That done, he filled thevacancies with political troughsmen; and with these as assistantdecapitators the major passed rapidly down the line, striking off heads indaily batches until the over-flow of the Bucks political following wasprovided for on the railroad's pay-rolls to the wife's cousin's nephew. 

This was the work of the first few administrative days or weeks, and whileit was going on, the business attitude of the road remained unchanged. Butonce seated firmly in the saddle, with his awkward squad well in hand, themajor proceeded to throw a bomb of consternation into the camp of hiscompetitors. 

Kent was dining with Ormsby in the grill-room of the Camelot Club when thewaiter brought in the evening edition of the _Argus_, whose railroadreporter had heard the preliminary fizzing of the bomb fuse. The story wasset out on the first page, first column, with appropriate headlines. 

 WAR TO THE KNIFE AND THE KNIFE TO THE HILT!

 TRANS-WESTERN CUTS COMMODITY RATE. 

 Great Excitement in Railroad Circles. Receiver Guilford's Hold-up. 

Kent ran his eye rapidly down the column and passed the paper across toOrmsby. 

"I told you so, " he said. "They didn't find the road insolvent, but theyare going to make it so in the shortest possible order. A rate war will doit quicker than anything else on earth. "

Ormsby thrust out his jaw. 

"Have we got to stand by and see 'em do it?"

"The man from Massachusetts says yes, and he knows, or thinks he does. Hehas been here two weeks now, and he has nosed out for himself all thedead-walls. We can't appeal, because there is no decision to appeal from. We can't take it out of the lower court until it is finished in the lowercourt. We can't enjoin an officer of the court; and there is no authorityin the State that will set aside Judge MacFarlane's order when that orderwas made under technically legal conditions. "

"You could have told him all that in the first five minutes, " said Ormsby. 

"I did tell him, and was mildly sat upon. To-day he came around and gaveme back my opinion, clause for clause, as his own. But I have no kickcoming. Somebody will have to be here to fight the battle to a finish whenthe judge returns, and our expert will advise the Bostonians to retainme. "

"Does he stay?" Ormsby asked. 

"Oh, no; he is going back with Loring to-night. Loring has an idea of hisown which may or may not be worth the powder it will take to explode it. He is going to beseech the Boston people to enlarge the pool until itcontrols a safe majority of the stock. "

"What good will that do?"

"None, directly. It's merely a safe preliminary to anything that mayhappen. I tell Loring he is like all the others: he knows when he hasenough and is willing to stand from under. I'm the only fool in the lot. "Ormsby's smile was heartening and good for sore nerves. 

"I like your pluck, Kent; I'll be hanged if I don't. And I'll back you towin, yet. "

Kent shook his head unhopefully. 

"Don't mistake me, " he said. "I am fighting for the pure love of it, andnot with any great hope of saving the stock-holders. These grafters haveus by the nape of the neck. We can't make a move till MacFarlane comesback and gives us a hearing on the merits. That may not be till the nextterm of court. Meanwhile, the temporary receiver is to all intents andpurposes a permanent receiver; and the interval would suffice to wreck adozen railroads. "

"And still you won't give up?"

"No. "

"I hope you won't have to. But to a man up a tree it looks very much likea dead cock in the pit. As I have said, if there is any backing to do, I'mwith you, first, last, and all the time, merely from a sportsman'sinterest in the game. But is there any use in a little handful of ustrying to buck up against a whole state government?"

The coffee had been served, and Kent dropped a lump of sugar into his cup. 

"Ormsby, I'll never let go while I'm alive enough to fight, " he saidslowly. "One decent quality I have--and the only one, perhaps: I don'tknow when I'm beaten. And I'll down this crowd of political plunderersyet, if Bucks doesn't get me sand-bagged. "

His listener pushed back his chair. 

"If you stood to lose anything more than your job I could understand it, "he commented. "As it is, I can't. Any way you look at it, your stake inthe game isn't worth the time and effort it will take to play the stringout. And I happen to know you're ambitious to do things--things thatcount. "

"What is it you don't understand--the motive?"

"That's it. "

Kent laughed. 

"You are not as astute as Miss Van Brock. She pointed it out to me lastnight--or thought she did--in two words. "

Ormsby's eyes darkened, and he did not affect to misunderstand. 

"It would be a grand-stand play, " he said half-musingly, "if you shouldhappen to worry it through, I mean. I believe Mrs. Hepzibah would be readyto fall on your neck and forgive you, and turn me down. " Then, half-jestingly: "Kent, what will you take to drop this thing permanentlyand go away?"

David Kent's smile showed his teeth. 

"The one thing you wouldn't be willing to give. You asked me once when wehad fallen over the fence upon this forbidden ground if I were satisfied, and I told you I wasn't. Do we understand each other?"

"I guess so, " said Ormsby. "But--Say, Kent, I like you too well to see yougo up against a stone fence blindfolded. I'm like Guilford: I am the manin possession. And possession is nine points of the law. "

Kent rose and took the proffered cigar from Ormsby's case. 

"It depends a good bit upon how the possession is gained--andheld--doesn't it?" he rejoined coolly. "And your figure is unfortunate inits other half. I am going to beat Guilford. "

XIII

THE WRECKERS

Just why Receiver Guilford, an officer of the court who was supposed to benursing an insolvent railroad to the end that its creditors might not loseall, should begin by declaring war on the road's revenue, was a questionwhich the managers of competing lines strove vainly to answer. But when, in defiance of all precedent, he made the cut rates effective to and fromall local stations on the Trans-Western, giving the shippers atintermediate and non-competitive points the full benefit of thereductions, the railroad colony denounced him as a madman and gave him amonth in which to find the bottom of a presumably empty treasury. 

But the event proved that the major's madness was not altogether withoutmethod. It is an axiom in the carrying trade that low rates make business;create it, so to speak, out of nothing. Given an abundant crop, lowprices, and high freight rates in the great cereal belt, and, be thefarmers never so poor, much of the grain will be stored and held againstthe chance of better conditions. 

So it came about that Major Guilford's relief measure was timed to anicety, and the blanket cut in rates opened a veritable flood-gate forbusiness in Trans-Western territory. From the day of its announcement thetraffic of the road increased by leaps and bounds. Stored grain came outof its hiding places at every country cross-roads to beg for cars; stockfeeders drove their market cattle unheard-of distances, across the tracksof competing lines, over and around obstacles of every sort, to pour theminto the loading corrals of the Trans-Western. 

Nor was the traffic all outgoing. With the easing of the money burden, themerchants in the tributary towns began thriftily to take advantage of thelow rates to renew their stocks; long-deferred visits and business tripssuddenly became possible; and the saying that it was cheaper to travelthan to stay at home gained instant and grateful currency. 

In a short time the rolling stock of the road was taxed to its utmostcapacity, and the newly appointed purchasing agent was buying cars andlocomotives right and left. Also, to keep pace with the ever-increasingprocession of trains, a doubled construction force wrought night and dayinstalling new side tracks and passing points. 

Under the fructifying influence of such a golden shower of prosperity, land values began to rise again, slowly at first, as buyers distrusted thecontinuance of the golden shower; more rapidly a little later, as theGuilford policy defined itself in terms of apparent permanence. 

Towns along the line--hamlets long since fallen into the way-station rutof desuetude--awoke with a start, bestirring themselves joyfully to meetthe inspiriting conditions. At Midland City, Stephen Hawk, the newright-of-way agent, ventured to ask municipal help to construct a ten-milebranch to Lavabee: it was forthcoming promptly; and the mass meeting, atwhich the bond loan was anticipated by public subscription shouted itselfhoarse in enthusiasm. 

At Gaston, where Hawk asked for a donation of land whereon the companymight build the long-promised division repair-shops, people fought withone another to be first among the donors. And at Juniberg, where thecompany proposed to establish the first of a series of grainsubtreasuries--warehouses in which the farmers of the surrounding countrycould store their products and borrow money on them from the railroadcompany at the rate of three per cent, per annum--at Juniberg enough moneywas subscribed to erect three such depots as the heaviest tributary cropcould possibly fill. 

It was while the pendulum of prosperity was in full swing that David Kenttook a day off from sweating over his problem of ousting the receiver andran down to Gaston. Single-eyed as he was in the pursuit of justice, hewas not unmindful of the six lots standing in his name in the Gastonsuburb, and from all accounts the time was come to dispose of them. 

He made the journey in daylight, with his eyes wide open and the mentalpencil busy at work noting the changes upon which the State press had beendilating daily, but which he was now seeing for the first time. They wereincontestable--and wonderful. He admitted the fact without prejudice to asettled conviction that the sun-burst of prosperity was merely anotherbrief period of bubble-blowing. Towns whose streets had been grass-grownsince the day when each in turn had surrendered its right to be called theterminus of the westward-building railroad, were springing into new life. The song of the circular saw, the bee-boom of the planing-mill and thetapping of hammers were heard in the land, and the wayside hamlets weredotted with new roofs. And Gaston----

But Gaston deserved a separate paragraph in the mental note-book, and Kentaccorded it, marveling still more. It was as if the strenuous onrush ofthe climaxing Year Three had never been interrupted. The material for thenew company shops was arriving by trainloads, and an army of men was atwork clearing the grounds. On a siding near the station a huge grainelevator was rising. In the streets the hustling activity of the"terminus" period was once more in full swing; and at the Mid-ContinentKent had some little difficulty in securing a room. 

He was smoking his after-dinner cigar in the lobby of the hotel and tryingas he might to orient himself when Blashfield Hunnicott drifted in. Kentgave the sometime local attorney a cigar, made room for him on theplush-covered settee, and proceeded to pump him dry of Gaston news. Summedup, the inquiries pointed themselves thus: was there any basis for theGaston revival other than the lately changed attitude of the railroad? Inother words, if the cut rates should be withdrawn and the railroadactivities cease, would there not be a second and still more disastrouscollapse of the Gaston bubble?

Pressed hardly, Hunnicott admitted the probability; given another turn, the screw of inquiry squeezed out an admission of the fact, slurred overby the revivalist, that the railway company's treasury was really thealms-box into which all hands were dipping. 

"One more question and I'll let up on you, " said Kent. "It used to be saidof you in the flush times that you kept tab on the real estate transferswhen everybody else was too busy to read the record. Do you still do it?"

Hunnicott laughed uneasily. 

"Rather more than ever just now, as you'd imagine. "

"It is well. Now you know the members of the old gang, from his Excellencydown. Tell me one thing: are they buying or selling?"

Hunnicott sprang up and slapped his leg. 

"By Jupiter, Kent! They are selling--every last man of them!"

"Precisely. And when they have sold all they have to sell?"

"They'll turn us loose--drop us--quit booming the town, if your theory isthe right one. But say, Kent, I can't believe it, you know. It's too big athing to be credited to Jim Guilford and his handful of subs in therailroad office. Why, it's all along the line, everywhere. "

"I'm telling you that Guilford isn't the man. He is only a cog in thewheel. There is a bigger mind than his behind it. "

"I can't help it, " Hunnicott protested. "I don't believe that any man orclique could bring this thing about unless we were really on the upturn. "

"Very good; believe what you please, but do as I tell you. Sell every footof Gaston dirt that stands in your name; and while you are about it, sellthose six lots for me in Subdivision Five. More than that, do it prettysoon. "

Hunnicott promised, in the brokerage affair, at least. Then he switchedthe talk to the receivership. 

"Still up in the air, are you, in the railroad grab case?"

Kent nodded. 

"No news of MacFarlane?"

"Plenty of it. His health is still precarious, and will likely remain sountil the spoilsmen have picked the skeleton clean. "

Hunnicott was silent for a full minute. Then he said:

"Say, Kent, hasn't it occurred to you that they are rather putting meat onthe bones instead of taking it off? Their bills for betterments must beout of sight. "

It had occurred to Kent, but he gave his own explanation of MajorGuilford's policy in a terse sentence. 

"It is a part of the bluff; fattening the thing a little before theybarbecue it. "

"I suppose so. It's a pity we don't live a little farther back in thehistory of the world: say at a time when we could hire MacFarlane's doctorto obliterate the judge, and no questions asked. "

Who can explain how it is that some jesting word, trivial and purposelessit may be, will fire a hidden train of thought which was waiting only forsome chance spark? "Obliterate the judge, " said Hunnicott in grim jest;and straightway Kent saw possibilities; saw a thing to be done, though notyet the manner of its doing. 

"If you'll excuse me, " he said abruptly to his companion, "I believe I'lltry to catch the Flyer back to the capital. I came down to see aboutselling those lots of mine, but if you will undertake it for me----"

"Of course, " said Hunnicott; "I'll be only too glad. You've ten minutes:can you make it?"

Kent guessed so, and made the guess a certainty with two minutes to spare. The through sleeper was lightly loaded, and he picked out the mostunneighbored section, of the twelve, being wishful only for undisturbedthinking ground. But before the train had swung past the suburb lights ofGaston, the smoker's unrest seized him and the thought-wheels demandedtobacco. Kent fought it as long as he could, making sure that thesmoking-compartment liars' club would be in session; but when the demandbecame a nagging insistence, he found his pipe and tobacco and went to themen's room. 

The little den behind the drawing-room had but one occupant besides therear-end brakeman---a tall, saturnine man in a gray grass-cloth duster whowas smoking a Porto Rican stogie. Kent took a second look and held out hishand. 

"This is an unexpected pleasure, Judge Marston. I was counting on threehours of solitary confinement. "

The lieutenant-governor acknowledged the hand-clasp, nodded, and made roomon the leather-covered divan for the new-comer. Hildreth, the editor ofthe _Argus_, put it aptly when he said that the grim-faced old cattle kinghad "blown" into politics. He was a compromise on the People's Partyticket; was no part of the Bucks programme, and had been made to feel it. Tradition had it that he had been a terror to the armed and organizedcattle thieves of the early days; hence the brevet title of "Judge. " Butthose that knew him best did not know that he had once been the brightestman upon the Supreme Bench of his native state: this before failing healthhad driven him into exile. 

As a mixer, the capital had long since voted Oliver Marston a conspicuousfailure. A reticent, reserved man by temperament and habit, and with bothtemperament and habit confirmed by his long exile on the cattle ranges, hehad grown rather less than more talkative after his latest plunge intopublic life; and even Miss Van Brock confessed that she found himimpossible on the social side. None the less, Kent had felt drawn towardhim from the first; partly because Marston was a good man in bad company, and partly because there was something remindful of the elder Kent in thestrong face, the slow smile and the introspective eye of the old man fromthe hill country. 

For a time the talk was a desultory monologue, with Kent doing his best tokeep it from dying outright. Later, when he was fairly driven in upon hisreserves, he began to speak of himself, and of the hopeless fight forenlargement in the Trans-Western struggle. Marston lighted thematch-devouring stogie for the twentieth time, squared himself on the endof the divan and listened attentively. At the end of the recounting hesaid:

"It seems to be a failure of justice, Mr. Kent. Can you prove yourpostulate?"

"I can. With fifteen minutes more on the day of the preliminary hearing Ishould have shown it to any one's satisfaction. "

Marston went into a brown study with his eyes fixed upon thestamped-leather devil in the panel at the opposite end of the compartment. When he spoke again, Kent wondered at the legal verbiage, and still moreat the clear-cut, judicial opinion. 

"The facts in the case, as you state them, point to judicial connivance, and we should always be slow to charge that, Mr. Kent. Technically, thecourt was not at fault. Due notice was served on the company's attorney ofrecord, and you admit, yourself, that the delay, short as it was, wouldhave been sufficient if you had not been accidentally detained. And, sincethere were no contravening affidavits submitted, Judge MacFarlane wastechnically warranted in granting the prayer for a temporary receiver. "

"I'm not trying to refute that, " said Kent. "But afterward, when I calledupon the judge with the evidence in hand----"

"He was under no absolute obligation to retry the case out of court, asyou know, Mr. Kent. Neither was he obliged to give you an unofficialnotice of the day upon which he would hear your motion for the dischargeof the receiver and the vacation of his order appointing him. "

"Under no absolute legal obligation, perhaps, " retorted Kent. "But themoral obligation--"

"We are coming to that. I have been giving you what would probably be aminority opinion of an appellate court, if you could take an appeal. Themajority opinion might take higher ground, pointing to the manifestinjustice done to the defendant company by the shortness of the delaygranted; by Judge MacFarlane's refusal to continue the hearing for onehour, though your attorney was present and pleading for the same; andlastly for the indefinite postponement of the hearing on the merits oninsufficient grounds, since the judge was not at the time, and has notsince been, too ill to attend to the routine duties of his office. "

Kent looked up quickly. 

"Judge Marston, do you know that last assertion to be true?" he demanded. 

The slow smile came and went in the introspective eyes of the older man. 

"I have been giving you the opinion of the higher court, " he said, withhis nearest approach to jocoseness. "It is based upon the supposition thatyour allegations would be supported by evidence. "

Kent smoked on in silence while the train measured the rail-lengthsbetween two of the isolated prairie stations. When he spoke again therewas honest deference in his manner. 

"Mr. Marston, you have a far better right to your courtesy title of'Judge' than that given by the Great American Title Company, Unlimited, "he said. "Will you advise me?"

"As plain Oliver Marston, and a man old enough to be your father, yes. What have you been doing? Trying to oust the receiver, I suppose. "

"Yes; trying to find some technical flaw by which he could be ousted. "

"It can't be done. You must strike higher. Are you fully convinced ofJudge MacFarlane's venality?"

"As fully as I can be without having seen with my own eyes and heard withmy own ears. "

Marston opened his watch and looked at it. Then he lighted another of thevillainous little cigars. 

"We have an hour yet, " he said. "You have been giving me the legal pointsin the case: now give me the inferences--all of them. "

Kent laughed. 

"I'm afraid I sha'n't be able to forget the lieutenant-governor. I shallhave to call some pretty hard names. "

"Call them, " said his companion, briefly; and Kent went deep into thedetails, beginning with the formation of the political gang in Gaston thedismantled. 

The listener in the gray dust-coat heard him through without comment. WhenKent reached the end of the inferences, telling the truth without scrupleand letting the charge of political and judicial corruption lie where itwould, the engineer was whistling for the capital. 

"You have told me some things I knew, and some others that I onlysuspected, " was all the answer he got until the train was slowing into theUnion Station. Then as he flung away the stump of the little cigar thesilent one added: "If I were in your place, Mr. Kent, I believe I shouldtake a supplementary course of reading in the State law. "

"In what particular part of it?" said Kent, keen anxiety in every word. 

"In that part of the fundamental law which relates to the election ofcircuit judges, let us say. If I had your case to fight, I should try toobliterate Judge MacFarlane. "

Kent had but a moment in which to remark the curious coincidence in theuse of precisely the same word by both Hunnicott and his present adviser. 

"But, my dear sir! we should gain nothing by MacFarlane's removal when hissuccessor would be appointed by the executive!"

Marston turned in the doorway of the smoking-compartment and laid afatherly hand on the younger man's shoulder. 

"My boy, I didn't say 'remove'; I said 'obliterate'. Good night. "

XIV

THE GERRYMANDER

With Judge Marston's hint partly to point the way, Kent was no long timein getting at work on the new lead. 

Having been at the time a practitioner in one of the counties affected, heknew the political deal by which MacFarlane had been elected. Brieflydescribed, it was a swapping of horses in midstream. In the preliminarycanvass it was discovered that in all probability Judge MacFarlane'sdistrict, as constituted, would not reelect him. But the adjoiningdistrict was strong enough to spare a county without loss to the party;and that county added to MacFarlane's voting strength would tip the scalein his favor. The Assembly was in session, and the remedy was applied inthe shape of a bill readjusting the district lines to fit the politicalnecessity. 

While this bill was still in the lower house an obstacle presented itselfin the form of a vigorous protest from Judge Whitcomb, whose district wasthe one to suffer loss. The county in question was a prosperous one, andthe court fees--which a compliant clerk might secretly divide with thejudge appointing him--were large: wherefore Whitcomb threatened politicalreprisals if Kiowa County should be taken away from him. The outcome was acompromise. For elective purposes the two districts were gerrymandered asthe bill proposed; but it was expressly provided that the transferredcounty should remain judicially in Whitcomb's district until theexpiration of Whitcomb's term of office. 

Having refreshed his memory as to the facts, Kent spent a forenoon in theState library. He stayed on past the luncheon hour, feeding on a dry dietof Digests; and it was not until hunger began to sharpen his facultiesthat he thought of going back of the statutory law to the fountain-head inthe constitution of the State. Here, after he had read carefully sectionby section almost through the entire instrument, his eye lighted upon aclause which gradually grew luminous as he read and re-read it. 

"That is what Marston meant; it must be what he meant, " he mused; andreturning the book to its niche in the alcove he sat down to put his facein his hands and sum up the status in logical sequence. 

The conclusion must have been convincing, since he presently sprang up andleft the room quickly to have himself shot down the elevator shaft to thestreet level. The telegraph office in the capitol was closed, but therewas another in the Hotel Brunswick, two squares distant, and thither hewent. 

"Hold the pool in fighting trim at all hazards. Think I have found weaklink in the chain, " was his wire to Loring, at Boston; and having sent it, he went around to Cassatti's and astonished the waiter by ordering ahearty luncheon at half-past three o'clock in the afternoon. 

It was late in the evening before he left the tiny office on the fifthfloor of the Quintard Building where one of his former stenographers hadset up in business for herself. Since five o'clock the young woman hadbeen steadily driving the type-writer to Kent's dictation. When the finalsheet came out with a whirring rasp of the ratchet, he suddenly rememberedthat he had promised Miss Van Brock to dine with her. It was too late forthe dinner, but not too late to go and apologize, and he did the thingthat he could, stopping at his rooms on the way to dress while hiscab-driver waited. 

He found Portia alone, for which he was glad; but her greeting wasdistinctly accusative. 

"If I should pretend to be deeply offended and tell Thomas to show you thedoor, what could you say for yourself?" she began, before he could say aword in exculpation. 

"I should say every sort of excuseful thing I could think of, knowing verywell that the most ingenious lie would fall far short of atoning for theoffense, " he replied humbly. 

"Possibly it would be better to tell the truth--had you thought of that?"she suggested, quite without malice. 

"Yes, I had; and I shall, if you'll let me begin back a bit. " He drew up achair to face her and sat on the edge of it. "You know I told you I wasgoing to Gaston to sell my six lots while Major Guilford's little boom ison?"

"I'm trying to remember: go on. "

"Well, I went yesterday morning and returned late last night. Do you know, it's positively marvelous!"

"Which--the six lots, the boom, or the celerity of your movements?" sheasked, with a simulation of the deepest interest. 

"All three, if you please; but I meant the miraculous revival of thingsalong the Trans-Western. But that is neither here nor there--"

"I think it is very much here and there, " she interrupted. 

"I see you don't want me to tell the truth--the whole truth; but I amdetermined. The first man I met after dinner was Hunnicott, and when I hadmade him my broker in the real estate affair we fell to talking about therailroad steal. Speaking of MacFarlane's continued absence, Hunnicottsaid, jokingly, that it was a pity we couldn't go back to the methods of afew hundred years ago and hire the Hot Springs doctor to 'obliterate' him. The word stuck in my mind, and I broke away and took the train chiefly tohave a chance to think out the new line. In the smoking-room of thesleeper I found--whom, do you suppose?"

"Oh, I don't know: Judge MacFarlane, perhaps, coming back to give you achance to poison him at short range?"

"No; it was Marston. "

"And he talked so long and so fast that you couldn't get here in time fordinner this evening? That would be the most picturesque of the littlefictions you spoke of. "

Kent laughed. 

"For the first hour he wouldn't talk at all; just sat there wooden-faced, smoking vile little cigars that made me think I was getting hay-fever. ButI wouldn't give up; and after I had worn out all the commonplaces I beganon the Trans-Western muddle. At that he woke up all at once, and before Iknew it he was giving me an expert legal opinion on the case; meaty andsound and judicial. Miss Van Brock, that man is a lawyer, and anexceedingly able one, at that. "

"Of course, " she said coolly. "He was one of the justices of the SupremeCourt of his own state at forty-two: that was before he had to come Westfor his health. I found that out a long time ago. "

"And you never told me!" said Kent, reproachfully. "Well, no matter; Ifound out for myself that he is a man to tie to. After we had canvassedthe purely legal side of the affair, he wanted to know more, and I went infor the details, telling him all the inferences which involve Bucks, Meigs, Hendricks, MacFarlane and the lot of them. "

Miss Portia's eyes were flashing. 

"Good, good, good!" she said. "David, I'm proud of you. That tookcourage--heaps of it. "

"I did have to forget pretty hard that he was the lieutenant-governor andnominally one of the gang. But if he is not with us, neither is he againstus. He took it all in quietly, and when I was through, he said: 'You havetold me some things that I knew, and some others that I only suspected. '"

"Was that all?" asked Miss Van Brock, eagerly. 

"No; I took a good long breath and asked his advice. "

"Did he give it?"

"He did. He said in sober earnest just what Hunnicott had said in a joke:'If I had your case to fight, I should try to obliterate JudgeMacFarlane. ' I began to say that MacFarlane's removal wouldn't help us solong as Bucks has the appointing of his successor, and then he turned onme and hammered it in with a last word just as we were leaving the train:'I didn't say remove; I said obliterate. ' I caught on, after so long atime, and I've been hard at work ever since. "

"You are obliterating me, " said Miss Portia. "I haven't the slightest ideawhat it is all about. "

"It's easy from this on, " said Kent, consolingly. "You know how MacFarlanesecured his reelection?"

"Everybody knows that. "

"Well, to cut a long story short, the gerrymander deal won't stand thelight. The constitution says--"

"Oh, please don't quote law books at me. Put it in English--woman-English, if you can. "

"I will. The special act of the Assembly is void; therefore there was nolegal election, and, by consequence, there is no judge and no receiver. "

Miss Van Brock was silent for a reflective minute. Then she said:

"On second thought, perhaps you would better tell me what the constitutionsays, Mr. David. Possibly I could grasp it. "

"It is in the section on elections. It says: 'All circuit or districtjudges, and all special judges, shall be elected by the qualified votersof the respective circuits or districts in which they are to hold theircourt. ' Kiowa County was cut out of Judge Whitcomb's circuit and placed inJudge MacFarlane's for electoral purposes only. In all other respects itremains a part of Judge Whitcomb's circuit, and will so continue untilWhitcomb's term expires. Without the vote of Kiowa, MacFarlane could nothave been elected; with it he was illegally elected, or, to put it theother way about, he was not elected at all. Since he is not lawfully ajudge, his acts are void, among them this appointment of Major Guilford asreceiver for the Trans-Western. "

She was not as enthusiastic as he thought she ought to be. In the soilprepared for it by the political confidences of the winter there had grownup a many-branching tree of intimacy between these two; a frank, sexlessfriendship, as Kent would have described it, in which a man who was notvery much given to free speech with any one unburdened himself, and thewoman made him believe that her quick, apprehending sympathy was the onething needful--as women have done since the world began. 

Since the looting of the railroad which had taken him out of the steadyinggrind of regular work, Kent had been the prey of mixed motives. From thefirst he had thrown himself heartily into the problem of retrieval, butthe pugnacious professional ambition to break the power of the machine haddivided time pretty equally with sentiment. Elinor had said little aboutthe vise-nip of hardship which the stock-smashing would impose upon threeunguardianed women; but Penelope had been less reticent. Wanting barejustice at the hands of the wreckers, Elinor would go to her wedding withOrmsby as the beggar maid went to King Cophetua; and all the loyalty of anunselfish love rose up in Kent to make the fight with the grafters apersonal duel. 

At every step in the hitherto discouraging struggle Portia Van Brock hadbeen his keen-sighted adviser, prompter, ally of proof. He told himselfnow and again in a flush of gratitude that he was coming to owe her morethan he had ever owed any woman; that where other men, more--orless--fortunate, were not denied the joy of possession, he, thedisappointed one, was finding a true and loyal comradeship next best, ifnot quite equal to the beatitudes of passion. 

In all of which David Kent was not entirely just to himself. However muchhe owed to Portia--and the debt was large--she was not his only creditor. Something he owed to the unsatisfied love; more, perhaps, to the goodblood in his veins; but most of all to the battle itself. For out of thesoul-harrowings of endeavor was emerging a better man, a stronger man, than any his friends had known. Brutal as their blind gropings were, theFlagellants of the Dark Ages plied their whips to some dim purpose. Natures there be that rise only to the occasion; and if there be nooccasion, no floggings of adversity or bone-wrenchings upon the rack ofthings denied, there will be no awakening--no victory. 

David Kent was suffering in both kinds, and was the better man for it. From looking forward to success in the narrow field of professionaladvancement, or in the scarcely broader one of the righting of one woman'sfinancial wrongs, he was coming now to crave it in the name of manhood; toburn with an eager desire to see justice done for its own sake. 

So, when he had come to Portia with the scheme of effacing JudgeMacFarlane and his receiver at one shrewd blow, the first of the manyplans which held out a fair promise of success as a reward for daring, hewas disappointed at her lack of enthusiasm. 

"What is the matter with it?" he demanded, when he had given her five fullminutes for reflection. 

"I don't know, David, " she said gravely. "Have I ever thrown cold water onany of your schemes thus far?"

"No, indeed. You have been the loyalest partizan a man ever had, I think;the only one I have to whom I can talk freely. And I have told you morethan I have all the others put together. "

"I know you have. And it hurts me to pull back now when you want me topush. But I can't help it. Do you believe in a woman's intuition?"

"I suppose I do: all men do, don't they?"

She was tying little knots in the fringe of the table scarf, but theprophetess-eyes, as Penelope called them, were not following the deftintertwinings of the slender fingers. 

"You mean to set about 'obliterating' Judge MacFarlane forthwith?" sheasked. 

"Assuredly. I have been whipping the thing into shape all afternoon: thatis what kept me from dining with you. "

"It involves some kind of legal procedure?"

"Yes; a rather complicated one. "

"Could you explain it so that I could understand it?"

"I think so. In the first place the question is raised by means of aninformation or inquiry called a _quo warranto_. This is directed to thereceiver, and is a demand to know by what authority he holds. Is it clearthus far?"

"Pellucidly, " she said. 

"In reply the receiver cites his authority, which is the order from JudgeMacFarlane; and in our turn we proceed to show that the authority does notexist--that the judge's election was illegal and that therefore his actsare void. Do I make it plain?"

"You make it seem as though it were impossible to fail. And yet I know youwill fail. "

"How do you know it?"

"Don't ask me; I couldn't begin to tell you that. But in some spiritual ormental looking-glass I can see you coming to me with the story of thatfailure--coming to ask my help. "

He smiled. 

"You don't need to be the prophetess Penelope says you are to foresee partof that. I always come to you with my woes. "

"Do you?--oftener than you go to Miss Brentwood?"

This time his smile was a mere tightening of the lips. 

"You do love to grind me on that side, don't you?" he said. "I and myaffairs are less than nothing to Miss Brentwood, and no one knows it anybetter than you do. "

"But you want to go to her, " she persisted. "I am only the alternative. "

He looked her full in the eyes. 

"Miss Van Brock, what is it you want me to say? What can I say more than Isaid a moment ago--that you are the truest friend a man ever had?"

The answering look out of the brown eyes was age-old in its infinitewisdom. 

"How little you men know when you think you know the most, " she saidhalf-musingly; then she broke off abruptly. "Let us talk about somethingelse. If Major Guilford is wrecking the railroad, why is he spending somuch money on improvements? Have you thought to ask yourself thatquestion?"

"A good many times, " he admitted, following her promptly back to firstprinciples. 

"And you have not found the answer?"

"Not one that fully satisfies me--no. "

"I've found one. "

"Intuitively?" he smiled. 

"No; it's pure logic, this time. Do you remember showing me a letter thatMr. Hunnicott wrote you just before the explosion--a letter in which herepeated a bit of gossip about Mr. Semple Falkland and his mysteriousvisit to Gaston?"

"Yes, I remember it. "

"Do you know who Mr. Falkland is?"

"Who doesn't?" he queried. "He has half of Wall Street in his clientele. "

"Yes; but particularly he is the advisory counsel of the PlantagouldSystem. Ever since you showed me that letter I have been trying to accountfor his presence in Gaston on the day before Judge MacFarlane's springterm of court. I should never have found out but for Mrs. Brentwood. "

"Mrs. Brentwood!"

Miss Van Brock nodded. 

"Yes; the mother of my--of the young person for whom I am the alternative, is in a peck of trouble; I quote her _verbatim_. She and her two daughtershold some three thousand shares of Western Pacific stock. It was purchasedat fifty-seven, and it is now down to twenty-one. "

"Twenty and a quarter to-day, " Kent corrected. 

"Never mind the fractions. The mother of the incomparable--Penelope, hasheard that I am a famous business woman; a worthy understudy for Mrs. Hetty Green; so she came to me for advice. She had a letter from a NewYork broker offering her a fraction more than the market price for herthree thousand shares of Western Pacific. "

"Well?" said Kent. 

"Meaning what did I do? I did what you did not do--what you are not doingeven now; I put two and two together in the twinkling of a bedstaff. Whyshould a New York broker be picking up outlying Western Pacific at afraction more than the market when the stock is sinking every day? I wascurious enough to pass the 'why' along to a friend of mine in WallStreet. "

"Of course he told you all about it, " said Kent, incredulously. 

"He told me what I needed to know. The broker in question is a Plantagouldman. "

"Still I fail to 'connect up, ' as the linemen say. "

"Do you? Ah, David, David! will you leave it for a woman to point out whatyou should have suspected the moment you read that bit of gossip in Mr. Hunnicott's letter?"

Her hand was on the arm of her chair. He covered it with his own. 

"I'll leave it for you, Portia. You are my good angel. "

She withdrew the hand quickly, but there was no more than playfulresentment in her retort. 

"Shame on you!" she scoffed. "What would Miss Brentwood say?"

"I wish you would leave her out of it, " he frowned. "You are continuallyignoring the fact that she has promised to be the wife of another man. "

"And has thereby freed you from all obligations of loyalty? Don't deceiveyourself: women are not made that way. Doubtless she will go on and marrythe other man in due season; but she will never forgive you if you smashher ideals. But we were talking about the things you ought to haveguessed. Fetch me the atlas from the book-case--lower shelf; right-handcorner; that's it. "

He did it; and in further obedience opened the thin quarto at the map ofthe United States. There were heavy black lines, inked in with a pen, tracing out the various ramifications of a great railway system. Thenucleus of the system lay in the middle West, but there was a growingnetwork of the black lines reaching out toward the Pacific. And connectingthe trans-Mississippi network with the western was a broad red lineparalleling the Trans-Western Railway. 

She smiled at his sudden start of comprehension. 

"Do you begin to suspect things?" she asked. 

He nodded his head. 

"You ought to be a man. If you were, I should never give you a moment'speace until you consented to take a partnership with me. It's as plain asday, now. "

"Is it? Then I wish you would make it appear so to me. I am not half assubtile as you give me credit for being. "

"Yet you worked this out. "

"That was easy enough; after I had seen Mrs. Brentwood's letter, and yoursfrom Mr. Hunnicott. The Plantagould people want your railroad, and thereceivership is a part of a plan for acquiring it. But why is MajorGuilford spending so much money for improvements?"

"His reasons are not far to seek now that you have shown me where to look. His instructions are to run the stock down so that the Plantagould can buyit in. Cut rates and big expenditures will do that--have done it. On theother hand, it is doubtless a condition of the deal that the road shall beturned over whole as to its property values--there is to be no wrecking inthe general acceptance of the word. The Plantagould doesn't want a pickedskeleton. "

Miss Portia's eyes narrowed. 

"It's a skilful bit of engineering, isn't it?" she said. "You'd admire itas artistic work yourself if your point of view were not so hopelesslypersonal. "

"You don't know half the artistic skill of it yet, " he went on. "Besidesall these different ends that are being conserved, the gang is taking careof its surplus heelers on the pay-rolls of the company. More than that, itis making immense political capital for itself. Everybody knows what thepolicy of the road was under the old régime: 'All the tariff the trafficwill stand. ' But now a Bucks man has hold of it, and liberality is theword. Every man in Trans-Western territory is swearing by Bucks andGuilford. Ah, my dear friend, his Excellency the governor is a truly greatman!"

She nodded. 

"I've been trying to impress you with that fact all along. The mistake youmade was in not joining the People's Party early in the campaign, David. "

But Kent was following out his own line of thought and putting it in wordsas it came. 

"Think of the brain-work it took to bring all these things into line. There was no hitch, no slip, and nothing was overlooked. They picked theirtime, and it was a moment when we were absolutely helpless. I had filedour charter, but our local organization was still incomplete. They hadtheir judge and the needful case in his court, pending and ready for useat the precise moment. They had Hawk on the ground, armed and equipped;and they knew that unless a miracle intervened they would have nobody butan unprepared local attorney to obstruct them. "

"Is that all?" she asked. 

"No. The finest bit of sculpture is on the capstone of the pyramid. Sincewe have had no hearing on the merits, Guilford is only a temporaryreceiver, subject to discharge if the allegations in Hawk's amendedpetition are not sustained. After the major has sufficiently smashed thestock, Judge MacFarlane will come back, the hearing on the merits will begiven, we shall doubtless make our point, and the road will revert to thestock-holders. But by that time enough of the stock will have changedhands on the 'wreck' price to put the Plantagould people safely in thesaddle, and the freeze-out will be a fact accomplished. "

Miss Van Brock drew a long breath that was more than half a sigh. 

"You spoke the simple truth, David, when you said that his Excellency is agreat man. It seems utterly hopeless now that we have cleared up all thelittle mysteries. "

Kent rose to take his leave. 

"No; that is where they all go out and I stay in, " he said cheerfully. "The shrewder he is, the more credit there will be in making him let go. And you mark my words: I am going to make him let go. Good night. "

She had gone with him to the door; was in the act of closing it behindhim, when he turned back for a belated question. 

"By the way, what did you tell Mrs. Brentwood to do?"

"I told her not to do anything until she had consulted you and Mr. Loringand Brookes Ormsby. Was that right?"

"Quite right. If it comes up again, rub it in some more. We'll save heralive yet, if she will let us. Did you say I might come to dinnerto-morrow evening? Thank you: you grow sweeter and more trulycompassionate day by day. Good night again. "

XV

THE JUNKETERS

When Receiver Guilford took possession of the properties, appurtenancesand appendages of the sequestered Trans-Western Railway, one of theluxuries to which he fell heir was private car "Naught-seven, " acommodious hotel on wheels originally used as the directors' car of theWestern Pacific, and later taken over by Loring to be put in commission asthe general manager's special. 

In the hands of a friendly receiver this car became a boon to the capitolcontingent; its observation platform served as a shifting rostrum fromwhich a deep-chested executive or a mellifluous Hawk often addressedadmiring crowds at way stations, and its dining saloon was the movingscene of many little relaxative feasts, at which _Veuve Cliquot_ flowedfreely, priceless cigars were burned, and the members of the organizationunbent, each after his kind. 

But to the men of the throttle and oil-can, car Naught-seven, in the giftof a hospitable receiver, shortly became a nightmare. Like most privatecars, it was heavier than the heaviest Pullman; and the engineer who wasconstrained to haul it like a dragging anchor at the tail end of a fasttrain was prone to say words not to be found in any vocabulary known torespectable philologists. 

It was in the evening of a wind-blown day, a week after Kent's visit toGaston, that Engineer "Red" Callahan, oiling around for the all-night runwith the Flyer on the Western Division, heard above the din and clamor ofUnion Station noises the sullen thump betokening the addition of anothercar to his train. 

"Now fwhat the divvle will that be?" he rasped, pausing, torch in hand, toapostrophize his fireman. 

The answer came up out of the shadows to the rear on the lips of M'Tosh, the train-master. 

"You have the Naught-seven to-night, Callahan, and a pretty severe headwind. Can you make your time?"

"Haven't thim bloody fools in the up-town office anything betther to dothan to tie that sivinty-ton ball-an'-chain to my leg such a night asthis?" This is not what Callahan said: it is merely a printable paraphraseof his rejoinder. 

M'Tosh shook his head. He was a hold-over from the Loring administration, not because his place was not worth taking, but because as yet nopolitical heeler had turned up with the requisite technical ability tohold it. 

"I don't blame you for cussing it out, " he said; and the saying of it wasa mark of the relaxed discipline which was creeping into all branches ofthe service. "Mr. Loring's car is anybody's private wagon these days. Canyou make your time with her?"

"Not on yer life, " Callahan growled. "Is it the owld potgutted thafe iv arayceiver that's in her?"

"Yes; with Governor Bucks and a party of his friends. I take it you oughtto feel honored. "

"Do I?" snapped Callahan. "If I don't make thim junketers think they're inthe scuff iv a cyclone whin I get thim on the crooks beyant Dolores ye cangimme time, Misther M'Tosh. Where do I get shut iv thim?"

"At Agua Caliente. They are going to the hotel at Breezeland, I suppose. There is your signal to pull out. "

"I'll go whin I'm dommed good an' ready, " said Callahan, jabbing the snoutof his oiler into the link machinery. And again M'Tosh let the breach ofdiscipline go without reproof. 

Breezeland Inn, the hotel at Agua Caliente, is a year-round resort forasthmatics and other health seekers, with a sanatorium annex whichutilizes the waters of the warm springs for therapeutic purposes. Butduring the hot months the capital and the plains cities to the eastwardsend their quota of summer idlers and the house fills to its capacity. 

It was for this reason that Mr. Brookes Ormsby, looking for a comfortableresort to which he might take Mrs. Brentwood and her daughters for anouting, hit upon the expedient of going first in person to Breezeland, partly to make sure of accommodations, and partly to check up theattractions of the place against picturesque descriptions in theadvertisements. 

When he turned out of his sleeper in the early morning at Agua Calientestation, car Naught-seven had been thrown in on a siding a little fartherup the line, and Ormsby recognized the burly person of the governor andthe florid face and pursy figure of the receiver, in the group of mencrossing from the private car to the waiting Inn tally-ho. Being aseasoned traveler, the club-man lost no time in finding the station agent. 

"Isn't there some way you can get me up to the hotel before that crowdreaches?" he asked; adding: "I'll make it worth your while. "

The reply effaced the necessity for haste. 

"The Inn auto will be down in a few minutes, and you can go up in that. Naught-seven brought Governor Bucks and the receiver and their party, andthey're going down to Megilp, the mining camp on the other side of theState line. They've chartered the tally-ho for the day. "

Ormsby waited, and a little later was whisked away to the hotel in thetonneau of the guests' automobile. Afterward came a day which was ratherhard to get through. Breakfast, a leisurely weighing and measuring of theclimatic, picturesque and health-mending conditions, and the writing of aletter or two helped him wear out the forenoon; but after luncheon thetime dragged dispiteously, and he was glad enough when the auto-car cameto take him to the station for the evening train. 

As it happened, there were no other passengers for the east-bound Flyer;and finding he still had some minutes to wait, Ormsby lounged into thetelegraph office. Here the bonds of ennui were loosened by the gradualdevelopment of a little mystery. First the telephone bell rang smartly, and when the telegraph operator took down the ear-piece and said "Well?"in the imperious tone common to his kind, he evidently received acommunication that shocked him. 

Ormsby overheard but a meager half of the wire conversation; and theexcitement, whatever its nature, was at the other end of the line. Nonethe less, the station agent's broken ejaculations were provocative of keeninterest in a man who had been boring himself desperately for the betterpart of a day. 

"Caught him doing it, you say?. .. Great Scott!. .. Oh, I don't believethat, you know . .. Yes--uh-huh--I hear . .. But who did the shooting?"Whether the information came or not, Ormsby did not know, for at thisconjuncture the telegraph instruments on the table set up a furiouschattering, and the railway man dropped the receiver and sprang to hiskey. 

This left the listener out of it completely, and Ormsby strolled out tothe platform, wondering what had happened and where it had happened. Heglanced up at the telephone wires: two of them ran up the graveleddriveway toward Breezeland Inn; the poles of the other two sentineled theroad to the west down which the tally-ho had driven in the early morning. 

In the reflective instant the telegraph operator dashed out of hisbay-windowed retreat and ran up the track to the private car. In a fewminutes he was back again, holding an excited conference with thechauffeur of the Inn automobile, who was waiting to see if the Flyershould bring him any fares for the hotel. 

Curiosity is said to be peculiarly a foible feminine. It is not, as everyone knows. But of the major masculine allotment, Ormsby the masterful hadrather less than his due share. He saw the chauffeur turn his car in thelength of it and send it spinning down the road and across the line intothe adjoining State; heard the mellow whistle of the incoming train, andsaw the station man nervously setting his stop signal; all with no morethan a mild desire to know the reason for so much excitement and haste--adesire which was content to wait on the explanation of events. 

The explanation, such as it was, did not linger. The heavy train thunderedin from the west; stopped barely long enough to allow the single passengerto swing up the steps of the Pullman; and went on again to stop a secondtime with a jerk when it had passed the side-track switch. 

Ormsby put his head out of the window and saw that the private car was tobe taken on; remarked also that the thing was done with the utmostcelerity. Once out on the main line with car Naught-seven coupled in, thetrain was backed swiftly down to the station and the small mystery ofhurryings was sufficiently solved. The governor and his party werereturning, and they did not wish to miss connections. 

Ormsby had settled back into the corner of his section when he heard thespitting explosions of the automobile and the crash of hoofs andiron-tired wheels on the sharp gravel. He looked out again and was in timeto see the finish of the race. Up the road from the westward came thesix-horse tally-ho, the horses galloping in the traces and the automobilestraining in the lead at the end of an improvised tow-line. In a twinklingthe coach was abreast of the private car, the transfer of passengers waseffected, and Ormsby was near enough at his onlooking window to remarkseveral things: that there was pell-mell haste and suppressed excitement;that the governor was the coolest man in the group; and that the receiverhad to be helped across from the coach to the car. Then the train movedout, gathering speed with each added wheel-turn. 

The onlooker leaned from his window to see what became of the tangle ofhorses and auto-car precipitated by the sudden stop of the tally-ho. Mirage effects are common on the western plains, and if Ormsby had notbeen familiar with them he might have marveled at the striking exampleafforded by the backward look. In the rapidly increasing perspective thesix horses of the tally-ho were suddenly multiplied into a troop; andwhere the station agent had stood on the platform there seemed to be adozen gesticulating figures fading into indistinctness, as the fast trainswept on its way eastward. 

The club-man saw no more of the junketing party that night. Once when thetrain stopped to cut out the dining-car, and he had stepped down for abreath of fresh air on the station platform, he noticed that the privatecar was brilliantly lighted, and that the curtains and window shades wereclosely drawn. Also, he heard the popping of bottle corks and the clink ofglass, betokening that the governor's party was still celebrating itssuccessful race for the train. Singularly enough, Ormsby's reflectionsconcerned themselves chiefly with the small dishonesty. 

"I suppose it all goes into the receiver's expense account and therailroad pays for it, " he said to himself. "So and so much for aninspection trip to Megilp and return. I must tell Kent about it. It willput another shovelful of coal into his furnace--not that he is especiallyneeding it. "

 * * * * *

At the moment of this saying--it was between ten and eleven o'clock atnight--David Kent's wrath-fire was far from needing an additional stoking. Once more Miss Van Brock had given proof of her prophetic gift, and Kenthad been moodily filling in the details of the picture drawn by herwoman's intuition. He had gone late to the house in Alameda Square, knowing that Portia had dinner guests. And it was imperative that heshould have her to himself. 

"You needn't tell me anything but the manner of its doing, " she wassaying. "I knew they would find a way to stop you--or make one. And youneedn't be spiteful at me, " she added, when Kent gripped the arms of hischair. 

"I don't mind your saying 'I told you so', " he fumed. "It's the fact thatI didn't have sense enough to see what an easy game I was dealing them. Itdidn't take Meigs five minutes to shut me off. "

"Tell me about it, " she said; and he did it crisply. 

"The _quo warranto_ inquiry is instituted in the name of the State; orrather the proceedings are brought by some person with the approval of thegovernor or the attorney-general, one or both. I took to-day for obtainingthis approval because I knew Bucks was out of town and I thought I couldbully Meigs. "

"And you couldn't?" she said. 

"Not in a thousand years. At first he said he would take the matter underadvisement: I knew that meant a consultation with Bucks. Then I put thewhip on; told him a few of the things I know, and let him imagine a lotmore; but it was no good. He was as smooth as oil, admitting nothing, denying nothing. And what grinds me worst is that I let him put me infault; gave him a chance to show conclusively how absurd it was for me toexpect him to take up a question of such magnitude on the spur of themoment. "

"Of course, " she said sympathetically. "I knew they would find a way. Whatare you doing?"

Kent laughed in spite of his sore _amour-propre_. 

"At this present moment I am doing precisely what you said I should:unloading my woes upon you. "

"Oh, but I didn't say that. I said you would come to me for help. Haveyou?"

"I'd say yes, if I didn't know so well just what I am up against. "

Miss Van Brock laughed unfeelingly. 

"Is it a man's weakness to fight better in the dark?"

"It is a man's common sense to know when he is knocked out, " he retorted. 

She held him with her eyes while she said:

"Tell me what you want to accomplish, David; at the end of the ends, Imean. Is it only that you wish to save Miss Brentwood's little marriageportion?"

He told the simple truth, as who could help, with Portia's eyes demandingit. 

"It was that at first; I'll admit it. But latterly--"

"Latterly you have begun to think larger things?" She looked away fromhim, and her next word seemed to be part of an unspoken thought. "I havebeen wondering if you are great enough, David. "

He shook his head despondently. 

"Haven't I just been showing you that I am not?"

"You have been showing me that you can not always out-plan, the otherperson. That is a lack, but it is not fatal. Are you great enough to runfast and far when it is a straight-away race depending only upon mereman-strength and indomitable determination?"

Her words fired him curiously. He recalled the little thrill ofinspiration which a somewhat similar appeal from Elinor had once givenhim, and tried to compare the two sensations. There was no comparison. Theone was a call to moral victory; the other to material success. None theless, he decided that the present was the more potent spell, perhaps onlybecause it was the present. 

"Try me, " he said impulsively. 

"If I do . .. David, no man can serve two masters--or two mistresses. If Ido, will you agree to put the sentimental affair resolutely in thebackground?"

He took his head in his hands and was a long minute making up his mind. But his refusal was blunt enough when it came. 

"No; at least, not until they are married. "

It would have taken a keener discernment than Kent's or any man's to havefathomed the prompting of her laugh. 

"I was only trying you, " she said. "Perhaps, if you had said yes I shouldhave deserted you and gone over to the other side. "

He got up and went to sit beside her on the pillowed divan. 

"Don't try me again, please--not that way. I am only a man. "

"I make no promises--not even good ones, " she retorted. And then: "Wouldyou like to have your _quo warranto_ blind alley turned into athoroughfare?"

"I believe you can do it if you try, " he admitted, brightening a little. 

"Maybe I can; or rather maybe I can put you in the way of doing it. Yousay Mr. Meigs is obstinate, and the governor is likely to prove still moreobstinate. Have you thought of any way of softening them?"

"You know I haven't. It's a stark impossibility from my point of view. "

"Nothing is impossible; it is always a question of ways and means. " Then, suddenly: "Have you been paying any attention to the development of theBelmount oil field?"

"Enough to know that it is a big thing; the biggest since the Pennsylvaniadiscoveries, according to all accounts. "

"And the people of the State are enthusiastic about it, thinking that nowthe long tyranny of the oil monopoly will be broken?"

"That is the way most of the newspapers talk, and there seems to be somelittle ground for it, granting the powers of the new law. "

She laid the tips of her fingers on his arm and knotted the thread ofsuggestion in a single sentence. 

"In the present state of affairs--with the People's Party as yet on trial, and the public mind ready to take fire at the merest hint of a foreigncapitalistic monopoly in the State--tell me what would happen to the manwho would let the Universal Oil Company into the Belmount field indefiance of the new trust and corporation law?"

"By Jove!" Kent exclaimed, sitting up as if the shapely hand had given hima buffet. "It would ruin him politically, world without end! Tell me; isBucks going to do that?"

She laughed softly. 

"That is for you to find out, Mr. David Kent; not by hearsay, but in good, solid terms of fact that will appeal to a level-headed, conservativenewspaper editor like--well, like Mr. Hildreth, of the _Argus_, let ussay. Are you big enough to do it?"

"I am desperate enough to try, " was the slow-spoken answer. 

"And when you have the weapon in your hands; when you have found the swordand sharpened it?"

"Then I can go to his Excellency and tell him what will happen if hedoesn't instruct his attorney-general in the _quo warranto_ affair. "

"That will probably suffice to save your railroad--and Miss Brentwood'smarriage portion. But after, David; what will you do afterward?"

"I'll go on fighting the devil with fire until I have burned him out. Ifthis is to be a government of dictators, I can be one of them, too. "

She clapped her hands enthusiastically. 

"There spoke the man David Kent; the man I have been trying to discoverdeep down under the rubbish of ill-temper and hesitancy and--yes, I willsay it--of sentiment. Have you learned your lesson, David mine?"

It was a mark of another change in him that he rose and stood over her, and that his voice was cool and dispassionate when he said:

"If I have, it is because I have you for an inspired text-book, Portiadear. "

And with that he took his leave. 

XVI

SHARPENING THE SWORD

In the beginning of the new campaign of investigation David Kent wiselydiscounted the help of paid professional spies--or rather he deferred, itto a later stage--by taking counsel with Jeffrey Hildreth, night editor ofthe _Argus_. Here, if anywhere, practical help was to be had; and thetender of it was cheerfully hearty and enthusiastic. 

"Most assuredly you may depend on the _Argus_, horse, foot and artillery, "said the editor, when Kent had guardedly outlined some portion of hisplan. "We are on your side of the fence, and have been ever since Buckswas sprung as a candidate on the convention. But you've no case. Ofcourse, it's an open secret that the Universal people are trying to breakthrough the fence of the new law and establish themselves in the Belmountfield without losing their identity or any of their monopolisticprivileges. And it is equally a matter of course to some of us that theBucks ring will sell the State out if the price is right. But to implicateBucks and the capitol gang in printable shape is quite another matter. "

"I know, " Kent admitted. "But it isn't impossible; it has got to bepossible. "

The night editor sat back in his chair and chewed his cigar reflectively. Suddenly he asked:

"What's your object, Kent? It isn't purely _pro lono pullico_, I take it?"

Kent could no longer say truthfully that it was, and he did not lie aboutit. 

"No, it's purely personal, I guess. I need to get a grip on Bucks and Imean to do it. "

Hildreth laughed. 

"And, having got it, you'll telephone me to let up--as you did in theHouse Bill Twenty-nine fiasco. Where do we come in?"

"No; you shall come in on the ground floor this time; though I may ask youto hold your hand until I have used my leverage. And if you'll go into itto stay, you sha'n't be alone. Giving the _Argus_ precedence in any itemof news, I'll engage to have every other opposition editor in the Stateready to back you. "

"Gad! you're growing, Kent. Do you mean to down the Bucks crowdded-definitely?" demanded the editor, who stammered a little underexcitable provocation. "Bigger men than you have tried it--and failed. "

"But no one of them with half my obstinacy, Hildreth. It can be done, andI am going to do it. "

The night editor laughed again. 

"If you can show that gang up, Kent, nothing in this State will be toogood for you. "

"I've got it to do, " said Kent. "Afterward, perhaps I'll come around forsome of the good things. I am not in this for health or pleasure. Can Icount on you after the mud-slinging begins?"

Hildreth reflected further, disregarding the foreman's reproachful callsfor copy. 

"I'll go you, " he said at last; "and I'll undertake to swing the chiefinto line. But I am going to disagree with you flat on the project of asudden exposé. Right or wrong, Bucks has pup-popular sentiment on hisside. Take the Trans-Western territory, for example: at the presentspeaking these grafters--or their man Guilford; it's all the same--ownthose people down there body and soul. You couldn't pry Bucks out of theiraffections with a crowbar--suddenly, I mean. We'll have to work up to itgradually; educate the people as we go along. "

"I concede that much, " said Kent. "And you may as well begin on this sameTrans-Western deal, "--wherewith he pieced together the inferences whichpointed to the stock-smashing project behind the receivership. 

"Don't use too much of it, " he added, in conclusion. 

"It is all inference and deduction as yet, as I say. But you will admitit's plausible. "

The editor was sitting far back in his chair again, chewing absently onthe extinct cigar. 

"Kent, did you fuf-figure all that out by yourself?"

"No, " said Kent, briefly. "There is a keener mind than mine behind it--andbehind this oil field business, as well. "

"I'd like to give that mind a stunt on the _Argus_, " said the editor. "Butabout the Belmount mix-up: you will give us a stickful now and then as wego along, if you unearth anything that the public would like to read?"

"Certainly; any and everything that won't tend to interfere with my littleintermediate scheme. As I have intimated, I must bring Bucks to terms onmy own account before I turn him over to you and the people of the State. But I mean to be in on that, too. "

Hildreth wagged his head dubiously. 

"I may be overcautious; and I don't want to seem to scare you out, Kent. You ought to know your man better than I do--better than any of us; but ifI had your job, I believe I should want to travel with a body-guard. I do, for a fact. "

David Kent's laugh came easily. Fear, the fear of man, was not among hisweaknesses. 

"I am taking all the chances, " he said; and so the conference ended. 

Two days later the "educational" campaign was opened by an editorial inthe _Argus_ setting forth some hitherto unpublished matter concerning themanner in which the Trans-Western had been placed in the hands of areceiver. In its next issue the paper named the receivership after itstrue author, showing by a list of the officials that the road under MajorGuilford had been made a hospital for Bucks politicians, and hintingpointedly that it was to be wrecked for the benefit of a stock-jobbingsyndicate of eastern capitalists. 

Having thus reawakened public interest in the Trans-Western affair, Hildreth sounded a new note of alarm pitched upon the efforts of theUniversal Oil Company to establish itself in the Belmount oil region; acry which was promptly taken up by other State editors. This editorial wasfollowed closely by others in the same strain, and at the end of afortnight Kent was fain to call a halt. 

"Not too fast, Hildreth, " he cautioned, dropping into the editor's denlate one night. "You are doing mighty good work, but you are making itinfinitely harder for me--driving the game to deeper cover. One of my menhad a clue: Bucks and Meigs were holding conferences with a man from theBelmount field whose record runs back to New York. But they have taken thealarm and thrown us off the track. "

"The secretary of State's office is the place you want to watch, " saidHildreth. "New oil companies are incorporating every day. Pretty soon oneof these will swallow up all the others: that one will be the Universalunder another name, and in its application for a charter you'll findaskings big enough to cover all the rights and privileges of the originalmonopoly. "

"That is a good idea, " said Kent, who already had a clerk in the secretaryof State's office in his pay. "But how are we coming on in the politicalfield?"

"We are doing business there, and you have the _Argus_ to thank for it. You--or your idea, I should say--has a respectable following all over theState now; as it didn't have until we began to leg for it. "

Again Kent acquiesced, making no mention of sundry journeys he had madefor the sole purpose of enlisting other editors, or of the open house MissVan Brock was keeping for out-of-town newspaper men visiting the capital. 

"Moreover, we've served your turn in the Trans-Western affair, " Hildrethwent on. "Public interest is on the _qui vive_ for new developments inthat. By the way, has the capitol gang any notion of your part in all thisupstirring?"

Kent smiled and handed the editor an open letter. It was from ReceiverGuilford. The post of general counsel for the Trans-Western was vacant, and the letter was a formal tender of the office to the "Hon. David Kent. "

"H'm, " said the editor. "I don't understand that a little bit. "

"Why?"

"If they could get you to accept a general agency in Central Africa or NewZealand, or some other antipodean place where you'd be safely out of theway, it would be evident enough. But here they are proposing to take youright into the heart of things. "

Kent got a match out of the editor's desk and relighted his cigar. 

"You've got brain-fag to-night, Hildreth. It's a bribe, pure and simple. They argue that it is merely a matter of dollars and cents to me, as itwould be to one of them; and they propose to retain me just as they wouldany other attorney whose opposition they might want to get rid of. Don'tyou see?"

"Sure. I was thinking up the wrong spout. Have you replied to the major?"

"Yes. I told him that my present engagements preclude the possibility ofconsidering his offer; much to my regret. "

"Did you say that? You're a cold-plucked one, Kent, and I'm coming toadmire you. But now is the time for you to begin to look out. They havespotted you, and their attempt to buy you has failed. I don't know howdeeply you have gone into Bucks' tinkering with the Universal people, butif you are in the way of getting the grip you spoke of--as this letterseems to indicate--you want to be careful. "

Kent promised and went his way. One of his saving graces was the abilityto hold his tongue, even in a confidential talk with as good a friend asHildreth. As for example: he had let the suggestion of watching thesecretary of State's office come as a new thing from the editor, whereasin fact it was one of the earliest measures he had taken. 

And on that road he had traveled far, thanks to a keen wit, to Portia VanBrock's incessant promptings, and to the help of the leaky clerk inHendricks' office; so far, indeed, that he had found the "stool pigeon"oil company, to which Hildreth's hint had pointed--a company composed, with a single exception, of men of "straw, " the exception being the manRumford, whose conferences with the governor and the attorney-general hadaroused his suspicions. 

It was about this time that Hunnicott reported the sale of the Gaston lotsat a rather fancy cash figure, and the money came in good play. 

"Two things remain to be proved, " said Portia, in one of their manyconnings of the intricate course; "two things that must be proved beforeyou can attack openly: that Rumford is really representing the UniversalOil Company; and that he is bribing the junto to let the Universalincorporate under the mask of his 'straw' company. Now is the time whenyou can not afford to be economical. Have you money?"

Since it was the day after the Hunnicott remittance, Kent could answer yeswith a good conscience. 

"Then spend it, " she said; and he did spend it like a millionaire, lyingawake nights to devise new ways of employing it. 

And for the abutments of the arch of proof the money-spending sufficed. Bydint of a warm and somewhat costly wire investigation of Rumford'santecedents, Kent succeeded in placing the Belmount promoterunquestionably as one of the trusted lieutenants of the Universal; and theleaky clerk in the secretary of State's office gave the text of theapplication for the "straw" company charter, showing that the powers askedfor were as despotic as the great monopoly could desire. 

But for the keystone of the arch, the criminal implication of the plottersthemselves, he was indebted to a fit of ill-considered anger and to achapter of accidents. 

XVII

THE CONSPIRATORS

It was chiefly due to Portia's urgings that Kent took Ormsby into hisconfidence when the campaign was fairly opened. She put it diplomaticallyon the ground of charity to an exiled millionaire, temporarily out of ajob; but her real reason went deeper. From its inception as a one-manfight against political chicanery in high places, the criticism of theBucks formula was beginning to shape itself in a readjustment of partylines in the field of State politics; and Miss Van Brock, whose designsupon Kent's future ran far in advance of her admissions to him, wasanxiously casting about for a managerial promoter. 

A little practice-play in municipal politics made the need apparent. Itcame in the midst of things, basing itself upon the year-gone triumph ofagrarianism in the State. In the upheaval, the capital city hadparticipated to the extent of electing a majority of the aldermen on thePeople's Party ticket; and before long it developed that a majority ofthis aldermanic majority could be counted among the spoilsmen--was in facta creature of the larger ring. 

[Illustration: HE JAMMED THE FIRE END OF HIS CIGAR AMONG THE FINGERS OFTHE GRASPING HAND. ]

Late in the summer an ordinance was proposed by the terms of which asingle corporation was to be given a franchise granting a completemonopoly of the streets for gas and water mains and transit rights of way. Thereupon a bitter struggle ensued. Party lines were obliterated, and menwho shunned the primaries and otherwise shirked their political dutiesraised the cry of corruption, and a Civic League was formed to fight thering. 

Into this struggle, as giving him the chance to front the enemy in a fairfield, David Kent flung himself with all the ardor of a born fighter. Massmeetings were held, with Kent as spokesman for the League, and the outcomewas a decency triumph which brought Kent's name into grateful publicprominence. Hildreth played an able second, and by the time the obnoxiousordinance had been safely tabled, Kent had a semi-political followingwhich was all his own. Men who had hitherto known him only as acorporation lawyer began to prophesy large things of the fiery youngadvocate, whose arguments were as sound and convincing as his invectivewas keen and merciless. 

Figuratively speaking, Portia stood in the wings and applauded. Also, shesaw that her protégé had reached the point where he needed grooming forwhatever race lay before him. Hence her urgings, which made a triumvirateout of the council of two, with Brookes Ormsby as the third member. 

"You understand, I'm not interested a little bit in the merits of thecase, " said the newly elected chairman, in his first official interviewwith Miss Van Brock. "So far as the internal politics of this particularlywild and woolly State are concerned, I'm neither in them nor of them. ButI am willing to do what I can for Kent. "

"Owing him a good turn?" said Portia, with malice aforethought. 

Ormsby's laugh was an Englishman's deep-chested haw-haw. 

"So he has been making you his confidante in that, too, has he?"

"There was no confidence needed, " she retorted. "I have eyes; and, to useone of your own pet phrases, I was not born yesterday. But let that go:you are willing to help us?"

"I said I was willing to help Kent. If you bracket yourself with him, I ammore than willing. But I am rather new to the game. You will have to tellme the moves. "

"We are only in the opening, " she said, continuing the figure. "You willlearn as you go along. By and by you will have to spend money; but justnow the need is for a cool head to keep our young firebrand out of thepersonalities. Where is he to-night?"

Ormsby's smile was a grin. 

"I left him at 124 Tejon Avenue half an hour ago. Do you think he islikely to get into trouble there?"

On the porch of the Brentwood apartment house David Kent was answeringthat question measurably well for himself. With the striking of the CityHall clock at nine Mrs. Brentwood had complained of the glare of theelectric crossing-lamp and had gone in, leaving the caller with Penelopein the hammock on one side of him and Elinor in a basket chair on theother. 

Their talk had been of the late municipal struggle, and of Kent's part init; and, like Miss Van Brock, Penelope was applausive. But Elinor'scongratulations were tempered with deprecation. 

"I am glad you won for the League, of course; everybody must be glad ofthat, " she said. "But I hope the _Argus_ didn't report your speechescorrectly. If it did, you have made a host of bitter enemies. "

"What does a man--a real man--care for that?" This from the depths of thehammock. 

"I, at least, can afford to be careless, " said Kent. "I am not running foroffice, and I have nothing to lose, politically or otherwise. "

"Can any man say that truthfully?" Elinor queried. 

"I think I can. I have given no hostages to fortune. "

Penelope lifted the challenge promptly. 

"Lord Bacon said that, didn't he?--about men marrying. If he were alivenow he wouldn't need to say it. Men don't have to be discouraged. "

"Don't they?" said Kent. 

"No, indeed; they are too utterly selfish for any matrimonial use, as itis. No, don't argue with me, please. I'm fixed--irrevocably fixed. "

Elinor overtook the runaway conversation and drove it back into the pathof her own choosing. 

"But I do think you owe it to yourself to be more careful in your publicutterances, " she insisted. "If these men on the other side are only halfas unprincipled as your accusations make them out to be, they would notstop short of personal violence. "

"I am not hunting clemency or personal immunity just now, " laughed Kent. "On the contrary, I am only anxious to make the score as heavy aspossible. And so far from keeping prudently in the background, I'llconfess that I went into this franchise fight chiefly to let the capitolgang know who I am and where I stand. "

A sudden light came into Elinor's eyes and burned there steadily. She wasof those who lay votive offerings upon the shrine of manly courage. 

"One part of me approves as much as another part disapproves, " she saidafter a time. "I suppose it isn't possible to avoid making politicalenemies; but is it needful to turn them into personal enemies?"

He looked at her curiously. 

"I am afraid I don't know any middle path, not being a politician, " heobjected. "And as for the enmity of these men, I shall count it an honorto win it. If I do not win it, I shall know I am not succeeding. "

Silence for another little space, which Miss Brentwood broke by saying:

"Don't you want to smoke? You may. "

Kent felt in his pocket. 

"I have no cigar. "

She looked past him to the hammock. "Penelope!" she called softly; andwhen there was no response she went to spread the hammock rug over hersister. 

"You may smoke your pipe, " she said; and when she had passed behind him toher chair she made another concession: "Let me fill it for you--you usedto. "

He gave her the pipe and tobacco, and by a curious contradiction of termsbegan to wonder if he ought not to go. Notwithstanding his frank defianceof Brookes Ormsby, and his declaration of intention in the sentimentalaffair, he had his own notions about the sanctity of a betrothal. Mrs. Brentwood had vanished, and Penelope was asleep in the hammock. Could hetrust himself to be decently loyal to Ormsby if he should stay? Nicequestions of conscience had not been troubling him much of late; but thiswas new ground--or if not new, so old that it had the effect of being new. 

He let the question go unanswered--and stayed. But he was minded to flingthe biggest barrier he could lay hands on in the way of possibledisloyalty by saying good things of Ormsby. 

"I owe you much for my acquaintance with him, " he said, when the subjectwas fairly introduced. "He has been all kinds of a good friend to me, andhe promises to be more. "

"Isn't your debt to Penelope, rather than to me?" she returned. 

"No, I think not. You are responsible, in the broader sense, at allevents. He did not come West for Penelope's sake. " Then he took theplunge: "May I know when it is to be--or am I to wait for my bidding withthe other and more formally invited guests?"

She laughed, a low little laugh that somehow grated upon his nerves. 

"You shall know--when I know. "

"Forgive me, " he said quickly. "But from something Ormsby said----"

"He should not have spoken of it; I have given him no right, " she saidcoldly. 

"You make me twice sorry: once if I am a trespasser, and again if I haveunwittingly broken a confidence. But as a friend--a very old friend--Iventured----"

She interrupted him again, but this time her laugh did not hurt him. 

"Yes; our friendship antedates Mr. Ormsby; it is old enough to excuseanything you said--or were going to say. "

"Thank you, " he rejoined, and he meant it. "What I was going to saytouches a matter which I believe you haven't confided to any one. May Italk business for a few minutes?"

"If you will light your pipe and go on smoking. It makes me nervous tohave people hang on the brink of things. "

He lighted the pipe, wondering what other thing he might do to allay hernervousness. None the less, he would not go back from his purpose, whichwas barrier-building. 

"I have thought, wholly without warrant, perhaps, that your loss in thisrailroad steal has had something to do with the postponement of yourhappiness--and Ormsby's. Has it?"

"And if it should have?"

"I merely wanted to say that we still have a fighting chance. But one ofthe hard and fast conditions is that every individual stockholder shallhang on to his or her holdings like grim death. "

She caught her breath with a little gasp. 

"The encouragement comes too late for us. We have parted with our stock. "

Kent turned cold and hot and cold again while she was saying it. Then thelawyer in him came uppermost. 

"Is it gone beyond recall? How much too late am I?" he demanded. 

"My mother wrote the letter to-day. She had an offer from some one in NewYork. "

Kent was on his feet instantly. 

"Has that letter been mailed? Because if it has, it must be stopped bywire!"

Miss Brentwood rose. 

"It was on the hall table this afternoon; I'll go and see, " and in amoment she returned with the letter in her hand. 

Kent took it from her as if it had been an edged weapon or a can of highexplosives. 

"Heavens! what a turn you gave me!" he said, sitting down again. "Can Isee your mother?"

"I think she has gone to bed. What do you want to do?"

"I want to tell her that she mustn't do any such suicidal thing as this. "

"You don't know my mother, " was the calm reply. "Mr. Ormsby saideverything he could think of. "

"Then we must take matters into our own hands. Will you help me?"

"How?" she asked. 

"By keeping your own counsel and trusting me. Your mother supposes thisletter has gone: it has gone--this way. " He tore the sealed envelopeacross and across and dropped the pieces into his pocket. "Now we aresafe--at least until the man at the other end writes again. "

It shocked her a little, and she did not promise to be a party to thesubterfuge. But neither did she say she would not. 

"I am willing to believe that you have strong reasons for taking suchstrong measures, " she said. "May I know them?"

Kent's gift of reticence came to his rescue in time to prevent theintroduction of another and rather uncertain factor into his complicatedproblem. 

"I can explain it more intelligibly a little later on; or if I don't, Ormsby will. In the mean time, you must take my word for it that we shallhave our railroad back in due season. "

It is a question for the psychologists to answer if there be or be notcrises in a man's life when the event, weighty or trivial, turns upon thatthing which, for the want of a better name, is called a premonition. 

In the silence that followed his dismissal of the subject, Kent becameaware of a vague prompting which was urging him to cut his visit short. There was no definable reason for his going. He had finally broughthimself to the point of speaking openly to Elinor of her engagement, andthey were, as he fondly believed, safely beyond the danger point in thatfield. Moreover, Penelope was stirring in her hammock and the perilousprivacy was at an end. Nevertheless, he rose and said good-night, and washalf-way to the next corner before he realized how inexcusably abrupt hisleave-taking had been. 

When he did realize it, he was of two minds whether to go back or to letthe apology excuse another call the following evening. Then the insistentprompting seized him again; and when next he came to a competent sense ofthings present he was standing opposite the capitol building, staringfixedly up at a pair of lighted windows in the second story. 

They were the windows of the governor's room; and David Kent's braincleared suddenly. In the earliest beginnings of the determinate plan towrest the Trans-Western out of the grasp of the junto he had known that itmust come finally to some desperate duel with the master-spirit of theringsters. Was Jasper Bucks behind those lighted windows--alone?

Kent had not meant to make the open attack until he should have a weaponin his hands which would arm him to win. But now as he stood looking up atthe heckoning windows a mad desire to have it out once for all with therobber-in-chief sent the blood tingling to his finger-tips. True, he hadnothing as yet in the oil-field conspiracy that the newspapers or thepublic would accept as evidence of fraud and corruption. But on the otherhand, Bucks was only a man, after all; a man with a bucaneer's record, andby consequence vulnerable beneath the brazen armor of assurance. If theattack were bold enough----

Kent did not stop to argue it out. When a man's blood is up the oddsagainst him shrink and become as naught. Two minutes later he was in theupper corridor of the capitol, striding swiftly to the door of the lightedroom. 

Recalling it afterward he wondered if the occult prompting which haddragged him out of his chair on the Brentwcod porch saw to it that hewalked upon the strip of matting in the tile-paved corridor and so madehis approach noiseless. Also, if the same silent monitor bade him stopshort of the governor's office: at the door, namely, of the publicanteroom, which stood ajar?

A low murmur of voices came from beyond, and for a moment he pausedlistening. Then he went boldly within, crossing the anteroom and standingfairly in the broad beam of light pouring through the open door ofcommunication with the private office. 

Four men sat in low-toned conference around the governor's writing-table, and if any one of them had looked up the silent witness must have beendiscovered. Kent marked them down one by one: the governor; Hendricks, thesecretary of State; Rumford, the oil man; and Senator Duvall. For fivepregnant minutes he stood looking on, almost within arm's reach of thefour; hearing distinctly what was said; seeing the papers which changedhands across the table. Then he turned and went away, noiselessly as hehad come, the thick-piled carpet of the anteroom muffling his footfalls. 

It was midnight when he reached his quarters in the Clarendon and flunghimself full length upon the bed, sodden with weariness. For two hours hehad tramped the deserted streets, striving in sharp travail of soul to fitthe invincible, chance-given weapon to his hand. When he came in the thingwas done, and he slept the sleep of an outworn laborer. 

XVIII

DOWN, BRUNO!

For six days after the night of revelations Kent dived deep, personallyand by paid proxy, in a sea of secrecy which, but for the five pregnantminutes in the doorway of the governor's office, might easily have provedfathomless. 

On the seventh day the conflagration broke out. The editor of the Belmount_Refiner_ was the first to smell smoke and to raise the cry of "Fire!" butby midnight the wires were humming with the news and the entire State wasablaze. 

The story as it appeared under the scare headlines the next morning wascrisply told. An oil company had been formed with Senator Duvall at itshead. After its incorporation it was ascertained that it not only heldoptions on all the most valuable wells in the Belmount region, but thatits charter gave it immunity from the law requiring all corporations tohave their organizations, officers, and operating headquarters in theState. By the time the new company was three days old it had quietly takenup its options and was the single big fish in the pool by virtue of itshaving swallowed all the little ones. 

Then came the finishing stroke which had set the wires to humming. On thesixth day it was noised about that Senator Duvall had transferred hiscontrolling interest to Rumford--otherwise to the Universal Oil Company;that he had served only as a figurehead in the transaction, using hisstanding, social and political, to secure the charter which had beendenied Rumford and his associates. 

It had all been managed very skilfully; the capping of the wells by theUniversal's agent, the practical sealing up of the entire district, beingthe first public intimation of the result of Duvall's treachery and thecomplete triumph of a foreign monopoly. 

The storm that swept the State when the facts came out was cyclonic, andit was reported, as it needed to be, that Senator Duvall had disappeared. Never in the history of the State had public feeling risen so high; andthere were not lacking those who said that if Duvall showed himself hislife would not be safe in the streets of the capital. 

It was after the _Argus_ had gone to press on the night of explosions thatEditor Hildreth sought and found David Kent in his rooms at the Clarendon, and poured out the vials of his wrath. 

"Say, I'd like to know if you cue-call this giving me a fair show!" hedemanded, flinging into Kent's sitting-room and dropping into a chair. "Did I, or did I not understand that I was to have the age on this oilbusiness when there was anything fit to print?"

Kent gave the night editor a cigar and was otherwise exasperatinglyimperturbable. 

"Keep your clothes on, and don't accuse a man of disloyalty until you haveall the documents in the case, " he said. "I didn't know, until I saw yourbulletin a few hours ago, that the thing had been pulled off. In fact, I've been too busy with other things to pay much attention to the Belmountend of it. "

"The ded-devil you have!" sputtered Hildreth, chewing savagely on the giftcigar. "I'd like to know what business you had to mix up in other thingsto the detriment of my news column. You were the one man who knew allabout it; or at least you did a week or two ago. "

"Yes; but other and more important things have intervened. I have beendesperately busy, as I say. "

"Well, you've lost your chance to get your grip on the capitol gang, anyway; that is one comfort, " growled the editor, getting what consolationhe could out of Kent's apparent failure. "They played it too fuf-fine foryou. "

"Did they?" said Kent. 

"It looks pretty much that way, doesn't it? Duvall is the scapegoat, andthe only one. About day after to-morrow Bucks' organ, the _Tribune_, willcome out with an 'inspired' editorial whitewashing the entire capitoloutfit. It will show how Rumford's application for the charter wasrefused, and how a truly good and beneficent state government has beenhoodwinked and betrayed by one of its most trusted supporters. "

Kent threw off his street coat and went to get his dressing-gown from thewardrobe in the bedroom. When he came back he said: "Hildreth, you havetaken me at my word thus far, and you haven't had occasion to call meeither a knave or a fool. Do it a little longer and I'll put you in theway of touching off a set-piece of pyrotechnics that will double discountthis mild little snap-cracker of the Belmount business. "

"Can't you do it now?"

"No; the time isn't ripe yet. We must let the _Tribune's_ coat ofwhitewash dry in first. "

Hildreth wriggled in his chair. 

"Kent, if I thought it would do any good, I'd cuc-curse you out; I wouldfor a fact. You are too blamed close-mouthed for any ordinary newspaperuse. "

But Kent only laughed at him. Now that the strain was in some measurerelaxed he could stand any amount of abuse from so good a friend as thenight editor. 

"Turn on the hot water if you want to, and if it will relieve thepressure. I know about how you feel; and I'd be as sore as you are if Ididn't know that I am going to make it up to you a little later on. Butabout this oil blaze and to-morrow's--or to-day's--issue of the _Argus_. Ihope you haven't said too much. "

"I haven't sus-said anything. The stuff trickled in by Associated wire atthe last minute, and we had to cut and slash for space and run it prettymuch as it came--the bare story. "

"All right; that's better. Now suppose you hint darkly that only half ofthe truth has come out; that more--and more startling--developments may besafely predicted in the immediate hence. Hit it up hard toward thecapitol, and don't be afraid of libeling anybody. "

Hildreth's eyes narrowed. 

"Say, Kent; you have grown a lot in these last few weeks: what is yourdiet?"

"Hard work--and a determination to make my brag good. "

"To down the ring, you mean?"

"Yes; to down the ring. "

"Are you any nearer to it than you were when you began?"

"A good many parasangs. "

"By Jove! I more than half believe you've got hold of somethingded-definite at last!"

"I have, indeed. Hildreth, I have evidence--printable evidence--enough todig a dozen political graves, one of them big enough to hold Jasper G. Bucks' six-feet-two. "

"Let me see it!" said the night editor, eagerly; but Kent laughed andpushed him toward the door. 

"Go home and go to bed. I wouldn't show it to you to-night if I had ithere--as I have not. I don't go around with a stick of dynamite in mypocket. "

"Where is it?" Hildreth asked. 

"It is in a safety-deposit box in the vault of the Security Bank; where itis going to stay until I am ready to use it. Go home, I say, and let me goto bed. I'm ragged enough to sleep the clock around. "

In spite of his weariness, which was real enough, Kent was up betimes thenext morning. He had a wire appointment with Blashfield Hunnicott and twoothers in Gaston, and he took an early train to keep it. The ex-localattorney met him at the station with a two-seated rig; and on the way tothe western suburbs they picked up Frazee, the county assessor, and Orton, the appraiser of the Apache Building and Loan Association. 

"Hunnicott has told you what I am after, " said Kent, when the surrey partywas made up. "We all know the property well enough, but to have it allfair and above-board, we'll drive out and look it over, so that ourknowledge may be said to be fully up to date. "

Twenty minutes afterward the quartet was locating the corners of a squarein Gaston's remotest suburb; an "addition" whose only improvements werethe weathered and rotting street and lot stakings on the bare, brownplain. 

"'Lots 1 to 56 in Block 10, Guilford & Hawk's Addition, '" said Kent, reading from a memorandum in his note-book. "It lies beautifully, doesn'tit?"

"Yes; for a chicken farm, " chuckled the assessor. 

"Well, give me your candid opinion, you two: what is the property worth?"

The Building and Loan man scratched his chin. 

"Say fifty dollars for the plot--if you'll fence it. "

"No, put it up. You are having a little boom here now: give it the topboom price, if you like. "

The two referees drew apart and laid their heads together. 

"As property is going here just now, fifty dollars for the inside lots, and one hundred dollars apiece for the corners; say three thousand for theplot. And that is just about three times as much as anybody but aland-crazy idiot would give for it. " It was Frazee who announced thedecision. 

"Thank you both until you are better paid. Now we'll go back to town andyou can write me a joint letter stating the fact. If you think it will getyou disliked here at home, make the figure higher; make it high enough sothat all Gaston will be dead sure to approve. "

"You are going to print it?" asked the Building and Loan appraiser. 

"I may want to. You may shape it to that end. "

"I'll stand by my figures, " said Frazee. "It will give me my little chanceto get back at the governor. I had it assessed as unimproved suburbanproperty at so much the lot, but he made a kick to the board ofequalization and got it put in as unimproved farm land at fifty dollars anacre. " Then, looking at his watch: "We'd better be getting back, if youhave to catch the Accommodation. Won't you stay over and visit with us?"

"I can't, this time; much obliged, " said Kent; and they drove to theBuilding and Loan office where the joint letter of appraisal was writtenand signed. 

Kent caught his train with something to spare, and was back at the capitalin good time to keep a dinner engagement at Miss Van Brock's. He hadunderstood that Ormsby would be the only other guest. But Portia had alittle surprise in store for him. Loring had dropped in, unannounced, fromthe East; and Portia, having first ascertained that Mrs. Brentwood'sasthma was prohibitive of late dinings-out, had instructed Ormsby to bringElinor and Penelope. 

Kent had been saving the results of his deep-sea divings in the oil-fieldinvestigation to spread them out before Miss Van Brock and Ormsby "incommittee, " but he put a padlock on his lips when he saw the others. 

Portia gave him Elinor to take out, and he would have rejoiced brazenly ifthe table talk, from the bouillon to the ices, had not been persistentlygeneral, turning most naturally upon the Universal Oil Company'ssuccessful _coup_ in the Belmount field. Kent kept out of it as much as hecould, striving manfully to monopolize Elinor for his own especial behoof;but finally Portia laid her commands upon him. 

"You are not to be allowed to maroon yourself with Miss Brentwood anylonger, " she said dictatorially. "You know more about the unpublished partof this Belmount conspiracy than any one else excepting the conspiratorsthemselves, and you are to tell us all about it. "

Kent looked up rather helplessly. 

"Really, I--I'm not sure that I know anything worth repeating at yourdinner-table, " he protested. 

But Miss Van Brock made a mock of his caution. 

"You needn't be afraid. I pledged everybody to secrecy before you came. Itis understood that we are in 'executive session. ' And if you don't knowmuch, you may tell us what you know now more than you knew before you knewso little as you know now. "

"Hold on, " said Kent; "will you please say that over again and say itslowly?"

"Never mind, " laughed Ormsby. "Miss Portia has a copyright on that. Butbefore you begin, I'd like to know if the newspapers have it straight asfar as they have gone into it?"

"They have, all but one small detail. They are saying that Senator Duvallhas left the city and the State. "

"Hasn't he?" Loring asked. 

"He hadn't yesterday. "

"My-oh!" said Portia. "They will mob him if he shows himself. "

Kent nodded assent. 

"He knows it: he is hiding out. But I found him. "

"Where?" from the three women in chorus. 

"In his own house, out in Pentland Place. The family has been away sinceApril, and the place has been shut up. I took him the first meal he'd hadin thirty-six hours. "

Portia clapped her hands. The butler came in with the coffee and shedismissed him and bade him shut the doors. 

"Now begin at the very tip end of the beginning, " she commanded. 

Kent had a sharp little tussle with his inborn reticence, thrust it to thewall and told a plain tale. 

"It begins in a piece of reckless folly. Shortly after I left Mrs. Brentwood's last Thursday evening I had a curious experience. The shortestway down-town is diagonally through the capitol grounds, but someundefinable impulse led me to go around on the Capitol Avenue side. As Iwas passing the right wing of the building I saw lights in the governor'sroom, and in a sudden fit of desperation resolved to go up and have it outwith Bucks. It was abnormally foolish, I'll confess. I had nothingdefinite to go on; but I--well, I was keyed up to just about the rightpitch, and I thought I might bluff him. "

"Mercy me! You do need a guardian angel worse than anybody I know!" Portiacut in. "Do go on. "

Kent nodded. 

"I had one that night; angel or demon, whichever you please. I was fairlydragged into doing what I did. When I reached the upper corridor the doorof the public anteroom was ajar, and I heard voices. The outer room wasnot lighted, but the door between it and the governor's private office wasopen. I went in and stood in that open doorway for as much as fiveminutes, I think, and none of the four men sitting around the governor'swriting-table saw me. "

He had his small audience well in hand by this time, and Ormsby's questionwas almost mechanical. "Who were the four?"

"After the newspaper rapid-fire of this morning you might guess them all. They were his Excellency, Grafton Hendricks, Rumford, and Senator Duvall. They were in the act of closing the deal as I became an onlooker. Rumfordhad withdrawn his application for a charter, and another 'straw' companyhad been formed with Duvall at its head. I saw at once what I fancy Duvallnever suspected; that he was going to be made the scapegoat for the ring. They all promised to stand by him--and you see how that promise has beenkept. "

"Good heavens!" ejaculated Loring. "What a despicable lot of scoundrels!But the bribe: did you learn anything about that?"

"I saw it, " said Kent, impressively. "It was a slip of paper passed acrossthe table by Rumford to Bucks, face down. Bucks glanced at it before hethrust it into his pocket, and I had my glimpse, too. It was a draft on aChicago bank, but I could not read the figures, and I doubt if either ofthe other conspirators knew the amount. Then the governor tossed a foldedpaper over to the oil man, saying, 'There is your deed to the choicestpiece of property in all Gaston, and you've got it dirt cheap. ' I cameaway at that. "

Elinor's sigh was almost a sob; but Miss Van Brock's eyes were dancing. 

"Go on, go on, " she exclaimed. "That is only the beginning. "

Kent's smile was of reminiscent weariness. 

"I found it so, I assure you. So far as any usable evidence was concerned, I was no better off than before; it was merely my assertion against theirdenial--one man against four. But I have had a full week, and it has notbeen wasted. I needn't bore you with the mechanical details. One of my menfollowed Bucks' messenger to Chicago--he wouldn't trust the banks here orthe mails--and we know now, know it in black on white, with the properaffidavits, that the draft was for two hundred thousand dollars, payableto the order of Jasper G. Bucks. The ostensible consideration was thetransfer from Bucks to Rumford of a piece of property in the outskirts ofGaston. I had this piece of land appraised for me to-day by twodisinterested citizens of Gaston, and they valued it at a possible, buthighly improbable, three thousand. "

"Oh, how clumsy!" said Portia, in fine scorn. "Does his Excellency imaginefor a moment that any one would be deceived by such a primitive bit ofdust-throwing?" and Ormsby also had something to say about the fatalmistakes of the shrewdest criminals. 

"It was not so bad, " said Kent. "If it should ever be charged that he tookmoney from Rumford, here is a plain business transaction to account forit. The deed, as recorded, has nothing to say of the enormous price paid. The phrasing is the common form used when the parties to the transfer donot wish to make the price public: 'For one dollar to me in hand paid, andother valuable considerations. ' Luckily, we are able to establishconclusively what the 'other valuable considerations' were. "

"It seems to me that these documents arm and equip you for anything youwant to do, " said Loring, polishing his eye-glasses after his ingrainedhabit. 

Kent shook his head. 

"No; thus far the evidence is all circumstantial, or rather inferential. But I picked up the final link in the chain--the human link--yesterday. One of the detectives had been dogging Duvall. Two days ago the senatordisappeared, unaccountably. I put two and two together, and late lastevening took the liberty of breaking into his house. "

"Alone?" said Elinor, with the courage-worshiping light in the blue-grayeyes. 

"Yes; it didn't seem worth while to double the risk. I did it ratherclumsily, I suppose, and my greeting was a shot fired at random in thedarkness--the senator mistaking me for a burglar, as he afterwardexplained. There was no harm done, and the pistol welcome effectuallybroke the ice in what might otherwise have been a rather difficultinterview. We had it out in an upper room, with the gas turned low and thewindow curtains drawn. To cut a long story short, I finally succeeded inmaking him understand what he was in for; that his confederates had usedhim and thrown him aside. Then I went out and brought him some supper. "

Ormsby smote softly upon the edge of the table with an extendedforefinger. 

"Will he testify?" he asked. 

Kent's rejoinder was definitive. 

"He has put himself entirely in my hands. He is a ruined man, politicallyand socially, and he is desperate. While I couldn't make him give me anyof the details in the Trans-Western affair, he made a clean breast of theoil field deal, and I have his statement locked up with the other papersin the Security vaults. "

It was Penelope who gave David Kent his due meed of praise. 

"I am neither a triumphant politician nor a successful detective, but Irecognize both when they are pointed out to me, " she said. "Mr. Kent, willyou serve these gentlemen up hot for dinner, or cold for luncheon?"

"Yes, " Portia chimed in. "You have outrun your pace-setters, and I'm proudof you. Tell us what you mean to do next. "

Kent laughed. 

"You want to make me say some melodramatic thing about having the shacklesforged and snapping them upon the gubernatorial wrists, don't you? It willbe prosaic enough from this on. I fancy we shall have no difficulty now inconvincing his Excellency of the justice of our proceedings to quash JudgeMacFarlane and his receiver. "

"But how will you go about it? Surely you can not go personally andthreaten the governor of the State!" this from Miss Brentwood. 

"Can't I?" said Kent. "Having the score written out and safely committedto memory, that will be quite the easiest number on the programme, Iassure you. "

But Loring had something to say about the risk. 

"Thus far you have not considered your personal safety--haven't had to, perhaps. But you are coming to that now. You are dealing with a desperateman, David; with a gang of them, in fact. "

"That is so, " said Ormsby. "And, as chairman of the executive committee, Ishall have to take steps. We can't afford to bury you just yet, Kent. "

"I think you needn't select the pall-bearers yet a while, " laughed theundaunted one; and then Miss Van Brock gave the signal and the "executivecommittee" adjourned to the drawing-room. Here the talk, already so deeplychanneled in the groove political, ran easily to forecastings andpredictions for another electoral year; and when Penelope began to yawnbehind her fan, Ormsby took pity on her and the party broke up. 

It was at the moment of leave-taking that Elinor sought and found herchance to extract a promise from David Kent. 

"I must have a word with you before you do what you say you are going todo, " she whispered hurriedly. "Will you come to see me?"

"Certainly, if you wish it. But you mustn't let Loring's nervousnessinfect you. There is no danger. "

"There is a danger, " she insisted, "a much greater danger than the one Mr. Loring fears. Come as soon as you can, won't you?"

It was a new thing for her to plead with him, and he promised in an accessof tumultuous hope reawakened by her changed attitude. But afterward, whenhe was walking down-town with Loring, the episode troubled him a little;would have troubled him more if he had not been so deeply interested inLoring's story of the campaign in the East. 

Taking it all in all, the ex-manager's report was encouraging. The NewEnglanders were by no means disposed to lie down in the harness, and sincethe Western Pacific proper was an interstate line, the Advisory Board hadtaken its grievance to Washington. Many of the small stockholders werestanding firm, though there had been panicky defections in spite of allthat could be done. Loring had no direct evidence to sustain the stockdeal theory; but it was morally certain that the Plantagould brokers werepicking up Western Pacific by littles wherever they could find it. 

"I am inclined to believe we haven't much time to lose, " was Kent'scomment. "Things will focus here long before Washington can get action. The other lines are bringing a tremendous pressure to bear on Guilford, whose cut rates are demoralizing business frightfully. The fictitious boomin Trans-Western traffic is about worked out; and for political reasonsBucks can't afford to have the road in the hands of his henchmen when thecollapse comes. The major is bolstering things from week to week now untilthe Plantagould people get what they are after--a controlling majority ofthe stock--and then Judge MacFarlane will come back. "

They were within two squares of the Clarendon, and the cross-street wasdeserted save for a drunken cow-boy in shaps and sombrero staggeringaimlessly around the corner. 

"That's curious, " Loring remarked. "Don't you know, I saw that samefellow, or his double, lurching across the avenue as we came out ofAlameda Square, and I wondered what he was doing out in that region. "

"It was his double, I guess, " said Kent. "This one is many pegs too drunkto have covered the distance as fast as we have been walking. "

But drunk or sober, the cow-boy turned up again most unexpectedly; thistime at the entrance of the alley half-way down the block. In passing hestumbled heavily against Kent; there was a thick-tongued oath, and Loringstruck out smartly with his walking-stick. By consequence the man's pistolwent off harmlessly in the air. The shot brought a policeman lumberingheavily up from the street beyond, and the skirling of relief whistlesshrilled on the night. But the man with a pistol had twisted out of Kent'sgrasp and was gone in a flash. 

"By Jove!" said Loring, breathing hard; "he wasn't as drunk as he seemedto be!"

Kent drew down his cuffs and shook himself straight in his coat. 

"No; he wasn't drunk at all; I guess he was the man you saw when we cameout of the square. " Then, as the policeman came up puffing: "Let me do thetalking; the whisky theory will be good enough for the newspapers. "

XIX

DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS

"_Oof_! I feel as if I had been dipped in a warm bath of conspiracy andhung up to dry in the cold storage of nihilism! If you take me to any moremeetings of your committee of safety, I shall be like the man withoutmusic in his soul--'fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils. '"

Thus Penelope, after the breaking up of the Van Brock dinner party. Elinorhad elected to walk the few blocks intervening between Alameda Square andTejon Avenue, and Ormsby had dismissed his chauffeur with the motor-car. 

"I told you beforehand it was going to be a political confab, " said theclub-man in self-defense. "And you mustn't treat it lightly, either. Tenprattling words of what you have heard to-night set afloat on the gossippool of this town might make it pretty difficult for our David. "

"We are not very likely to babble, " retorted Penelope. "We are not so richin intimates in this aboriginal desert. " But Elinor spoke to the penalclause in his warning. 

"Then Mr. Kent's danger is more real than he admitted?" she said. 

"It's real enough, I fancy; more real for him than it might be for anotherman in his place. He is a curious combination, is David: keen andsharp-witted and as cold as an icicle in the planning part; but when itcomes to the in-fighting he hasn't sense enough to pound sand, as his NewHampshire neighbors would say. "

"I like that side of him best, " Penelope averred. "Deliver me from a manof the cold and calculating sort who sits on his impulses, sleeps on hisinjuries, and takes money-revenge for an insult. Mr. Loring tells a storyof a transplanted Vermonter in South America. A hot-headed Peruvian calledhim a liar, and he said: 'Oh, pshaw! you can't prove it. '"

"What a merciless generalizer you are!" said Ormsby, laughing. "The manwho marries you will have his work cut out for him if he proposes to fillthe requirements. "

"Won't he?" said Penelope. "I can fancy him sitting up nights to figure itall out. "

They had reached the Tejon Avenue apartment house, and to Elinor's "Won'tyou come in?" Ormsby said: "It's pretty late, but I'll smoke a cigar onthe porch, if you'll let me. "

Penelope took the hammock, but she kept it only during the first inch ofOrmsby's cigar. After her sister had gone in, Elinor went back to thelapsed topic. 

"I am rather concerned about Mr. Kent. You described him exactly;and--well, he is past the planning part and into the fighting part. Do youthink he will take ordinary precautions?"

"I hope so, I'm sure, " rejoined the amateur chairman. "As his businessmanager I am responsible for him, after a fashion. I was glad to seeLoring to-night--glad he has come back. Kent defers to him more than hedoes to any one else; and Loring is a solid, sober-minded sort. "

"Yes, " she agreed; "I was glad, too. "

After that the talk languished, and the silence was broken only by thedistant droning of an electric car, the fizz and click of the arc lightover the roadway, and the occasional _dap_ of one the great beetlesdarting hither and thither in the glare. 

Ormsby was wondering if the time was come for the successful exploiting ofan idea which had been growing on him steadily for weeks, not to saymonths. 

It was becoming more and more evident to him that he was not advancing inthe sentimental siege beyond the first parallel thrown up so skilfully onthe last night of the westward journey. It was not that Elinor was lackingin loyalty or in acquiescence; she scrupulously gave him both as anaccepted suitor. But though he could not put his finger upon the precisething said or done which marked the loosening of his hold, he knew he wasreceding rather than advancing. 

Now to a man of expedients the interposition of an obstacle suggests onlyways and means for overcoming it. Ormsby had certain clear-cut convictionstouching the subjugation of women, and as his stout heart gave himresolution he lived up to them. When he spoke again it was of the matterwhich concerned him most deeply; and his plea was a gentle repetition ofmany others in the same strain. 

"Elinor, I have waited patiently for a long time, and I'll go on doing it, if that is what will come the nearest to pleasing you. But it would be aprodigious comfort if I might be counting the days or the weeks. Are youstill finding it impossible to set the limit?"

She nodded slowly, and he took the next step like a man feeling his way inthe dark. 

"That is as large an answer as you have ever given me, I think. Is thereany speakable reason?"

"You know the reason, " she said, looking away from him. 

"I am not sure that I do. Is it because the moneygods have beenunpropitious--because these robber barons have looted your railroad?"

"No; that is only part of it--the smallest part. "

"I hoped so: if you have too little, I have a good bit too much. But thatcorners it in a way to make me sorry. I am not keeping my promise to winwhat you weren't able to give me at first. "

"Please don't put it that way. If there be any fault, it is mine. You haveleft nothing undone. "

The man of expedients ran over his cards reflectively and decided that themoment for playing his long suit was fully come. 

"Your goodness of heart excuses me where I am to blame, " he qualified. "Iam coming to believe that I have defeated my own cause. "

"By being too good to me?" she suggested. 

"No; by running where I should have been content to walk; by shackling youwith a promise, and so in a certain sense becoming your jailer. That isputting it rather clumsily, but isn't it true?"

"I had never thought of it in that light, " she said unresponsively. 

"You wouldn't, naturally. But the fact remains. It has wrenched your pointof view hopelessly aside, don't you think? I have seen it and felt it allalong, but I haven't had the courage of my convictions. "

"In what way?" she asked. 

"In the only way the thing can be stood squarely upon its feet. It'shard--desperately hard; and hardest of all for a man of my peculiar build. I am no longer what you would call a young man, Elinor, and I have neverlearned to turn back and begin all over again with any show of heartiness. They used to say of me in the Yacht Club that if I gained a half-length ina race, I'd hold it if it took the sticks out of my boat. "

"I know, " she assented absently. 

"Well, it's the same way now. But for your sake--or rather for the sake ofmy love--I am going to turn back for once. You are free again, Elinor. AllI ask is that you will let me begin where I left off somewhere on the roadbetween here and Boston last fall. "

She sat with clasped hands looking steadily at the darkened windows of theopposite house, and he let her take her own time. When she spoke there wasa thrill in her voice that he had never heard before. 

"I don't deserve it--so much consideration, I mean, " she said; and he madehaste to spare her. 

"Yes, you do; you deserve anything the best man in the world could do foryou, and I'm a good bit short of that. "

"But if I don't want you to go back?"

He had gained something--much more than he knew; and for a tremulousinstant he was near to losing it again by a passionate retraction of allhe had been saying. But the cool purpose came to his rescue in time. 

"I should still insist on doing it. You gave me what you could, but I wantmore, and I am willing to do what is necessary to win it. "

Again she said: "You are too good to me, " and again he contradicted her. 

"No; it is hardly a question of goodness; indeed, I am not sure that itescapes being selfish. But I am very much in earnest, and I am going toprove it. Three years ago you met a man whom you thought you couldlove--don't interrupt me, please. He was like some other men we know: hedidn't have the courage of his convictions, lacking the few dollars whichmight have made things more nearly equal. May I go on?"

"I suppose you have earned the right to say what you please, " was theimpassive reply. 

It was the old struggle in which they were so evenly matched--of the womanto preserve her poise; of the man to break it down. Another lover mighthave given up in despair, but Ormsby's strength lay in holding on in theface of all discouragements. 

"I believe, as much as I believe anything in this world, that you weremistaken in regard to your feeling for the other man, " he went on calmly. "But I want you to be sure of that for yourself, and you can't be sureunless you are free to choose between us. "

"Oh, don't!--you shouldn't say such things to me, " she broke out; and thenhe knew he was gaining ground. 

"Yes, I must. We have been stumbling around in the dark all these months, and I mean to be the lantern-bearer for once in a way. You know, and Iknow, and Kent is coming to know. That man is going to be a success, Elinor: he has it in him, and he sha'n't lack the money-backing he mayneed. When he arrives----"

She turned on him quickly, and the blue-gray eyes were suspiciouslybright. 

"Please don't bury me alive, " she begged. 

He saw what he had done; that the nicely calculated purpose had carriedstraight and true to its mark; and for a moment the mixed motives, whichare at the bottom of most human sayings and doings, surged in him like thesea at the vexed tide-line of an iron-bound coast. But it was the betterBrookes Ormsby that struggled up out of the elemental conflict. 

"Don't mistake me, " he said. "I am neither better nor worse than othermen, I fancy. My motives, such as they are, would probably turn out to bepurely selfish in the last analysis. I am proceeding on the theory thatconstraint breeds the desire for the thing it forbids; therefore I removeit. Also, it is a part of that theory that the successful David Kent willnot appeal to you as the unspoiled country lawyer did. No, I'm not goingto spoil him; if I were, I shouldn't be telling you about it. But--may Ibe brutally frank?--the David Kent who will come successfully out of thispolitical prize-fight will not be the man you have idealized. "

There was a muttering of thunder in the air, and the cool precursorybreeze of a shower was sweeping through the tree-tops. 

"Shall we go into the house?" she asked; and he took it as his dismissal. 

"You may; I have kept you up long enough. " And then, taking her hand: "Arewe safely ashore on the new continent, Elinor? May I come and go asheretofore?"

"You were always welcome, Brookes; you will be twice welcome, now. "

It was the first time she had ever called him by his Christian name and itwent near to toppling down the carefully reared structure ofself-restraint. But he made shift to shore the tottering walls with aplayful retort. 

"If that is the case, I'll have to think up some more self-abnegations. Good night. "

XX

THE WINNING LOSER

Editor Hildreth's prophecy concerning the probable attitude of theadministration newspapers in the discussion of the oil field affair waitedbut a day for its fulfilment. On the Friday morning there appeared in the_Capital Tribune_, the _Midland City Chronicle_, the _Range CountyMaverick_ and the _Agriculta Ruralist_ able editorials exonerating thePeople's Party, its policy and the executive, and heaping mountains ofobloquy on the name of Duvall. These editorials were so similar in tone, tenor and texture, as pointedly to suggest a common model--a coincidencewhich was not allowed to pass unremarked by Hildreth and other molders ofpublic opinion on the opposite side of the political fence. 

But Hildreth did not pause at generalities. Two days after the Universal'striumph in the Belmount field, the _Argus_ began to "hit it up" boldlytoward the capitol, and two things came of it. The first was an attempt bysome party or parties unknown to buy up a controlling interest in the_Argus_. The second was the waylaying of David Kent in the lobby of theClarendon Hotel by no less a personage than the Honorable Melton Meigs, attorney-general of the State. 

In his first conversation with Ormsby, Kent had spoken of the threeleading spirits of the junto as from personal knowledge; but of the three, Bucks, Hendricks and Meigs, the attorney-general was the least known tohim. Prior to his nomination on the State ticket Meigs had been best knownas the most astute criminal lawyer in the State, his astuteness lying notso much in his ability as a pleader as in a certain oratorical gift bywhich he was able to convince not only a jury but the public of the entireinnocence of his client. 

He was a small man physically, with womanish hands and feet, and abeardless face of that prematurely aged cast which is oftenest seen indwarfs and precocious infants; and his distinguishing characteristic, theone which stuck longest in the mind of a chance acquaintance or a casualobserver, was a smile of the congealed sort which served to mask whateveremotion there might be behind it. 

Kent had seen little of Meigs since the latter had turned him down in the_quo warranto_ matter; and his guard went up quickly when theattorney-general accosted him in the lobby of the hotel and asked for aprivate interview. 

"I am very much occupied just now, Mr. Meigs, " he demurred; "but if it isa matter of importance----"

"It is; a matter of the greatest importance, " was the smooth-toned reply. "I am sure you will not regret it if you will give me a few moments, Mr. Kent. "

Kent decided quickly. Being forewarned, there was nothing to fear. 

"We will go up to my rooms, if you please, " he said, leading the way tothe elevator; and no other word was spoken until they were behind closeddoors on the fourth floor. 

"A prefatory remark may make my business with you seem a little lesssingular, Mr. Kent, " Meigs began, when Kent had passed his cigar-case andthe attorney-general had apologized for a weak digestive tract. "On whollydivergent lines and from wholly different motives we are both workingtoward the same end, I believe, and it has occurred to me that we might beof some assistance to each other. "

Kent's rejoinder was a mute signal to the effect that he was attending. 

"Some little time ago you came to me as the legal representative of thestock-holders of the Trans-Western Railway Company, and I did not find itpossible at that time to meet your wishes in the matter of a _quowarranto_ information questioning Judge MacFarlane's election and status. You will admit, I presume, that your demand was a little peremptory?"

"I admit nothing, " said Kent, curtly. "But for the sake of expeditingpresent matters----"

"Precisely, " was the smiling rejoinder. "You will note that I said 'atthat time. ' Later developments--more especially this charge made openly bythe public press of juggling with foreign corporations--have led me tobelieve that as the public prosecutor I may have duties which transcendall other considerations--of loyalty to a party standard--of----"

Kent took his turn at interrupting. 

"Mr. Meigs, there is nothing to be gained by indirection. May I ask you tocome to the point?"

"Briefly, then: the course pursued by Senator Duvall in the Belmountaffair leaves an unproved charge against others; a charge which I amdetermined to sift to the bottom--you see, I am speaking quite frankly. That charge involves the reputation of men high in authority; but I shallbe strong to do my sworn duty, Mr. Kent; I ask you to believe that. "

Kent nodded and waved him on. 

"You will readily understand the delicacy of the task, and how, in thenature of things, I am handicapped and hedged up on every side. Evidence--of a kind to enable me to assail a popular idol--is exceedinglydifficult to procure. "

"It is, " said Kent, grimly. 

"Exactly. But in revolving the matter in my own mind, I thought of you. You are known at the capitol, Mr. Kent, and I may say throughout theState, as the uncompromising antagonist of the State administration. Ihave asked myself this: Is it possible that a cool-headed, resoluteattorney like Mr. David Kent would move so far and so determinedly in thismatter of antagonism without substantially paving the ground under hisfeet with evidence as he went along?"

Kent admitted that it was possible, but highly improbable. 

"So I decided, " was the smile-tempered rejoinder. "In that case it onlyremains for me to remind you of your public duty, Mr. Kent; to ask you inthe name of justice and of the people of the State, to place yourinformation in the hands of the public prosecutor. "

Kent's face betrayed nothing more than his appreciation of the confidencereposed in him by the man whose high sense of official honor was makinghim turn traitor to the party leader who had dragged him through asuccessful election. 

"I have what evidence I need, Mr. Meigs, " he declared. "But if I make nosecret of this, neither do I conceal the fact that the motive _pro bonopublico_ has had little to do with its accumulating. I want justice firstfor what might be called a purely private end, and I mean to have it. "

"Pre-cisely, " smiled the attorney-general. "And now we are beginning tosee our way a little clearer. It is not too late for us to move in the_quo warranto_ proceedings. If you will call at my office I shall be gladto reopen the matter with you. "

"And the price?" said Kent, shortly. 

"Oh, my dear sir! must we put it upon the ground of a _quid pro quo_?Rather let us say that we shall help each other. You are in a position toassist me very materially: I may be in a position to serve your turn. Cometo my office to-morrow morning prepared to do your duty as an honest, loyal citizen, and you will find me quite willing to meet you half-way. "

Kent rose and opened his watch. 

"Mr. Meigs, I have given you your opportunity, and you have seemed to giveme mine, " he said coolly. "Will you pardon me if I say that I can paddlemy own canoe--if I ask you to assure his Excellency that one more deviceof his to escape punishment has been tried and found wanting?"

For a flitting moment the cast-iron smile faded from the impassive face ofthe attorney-general and an unrelenting devil came to peer out of thecolorless eyes. Then Meigs rose cat-like and laid his hand on thedoor-knob. 

"Do I understand that you refuse to move in a matter which should be thefirst duty of a good citizen, Mr. Kent?" he asked purringly. 

"I certainly do refuse to fall into any such clumsy trap as you have beentrying to bait for me, Mr. Meigs, " said David Kent, dropping back into hisformer curtness. 

The door opened slowly under the impulse of the slender womanish hand. 

"You have a task of some magnitude before you, Mr. Kent. You can scarcelyhope to accomplish it alone. "

"Meaning that you would like to know if the fight will go on if I shouldchance to meet another drunken cow-boy with a better aim? It will. "

The door closed softly behind the retreating figure of theattorney-general, and Kent released the spring of the night-latch. Then hewent to the dropped portière at the farther end of the room, drew it asideand looked in on a man who was writing at a table pushed out between thewindows. 

"You heard him, Loring?" he asked. 

The ex-manager nodded. 

"They are hard pressed, " he said. Then, looking up quickly: "You couldname your price if you wanted to close out the stock of goods in hand, David. "

"I shall name it when the time comes. Are you ready to go over to the_Argus_ office with me? I want to have a three-cornered talk withHildreth. "

"In a minute. I'll join you in the lobby if you don't want to wait. "

 * * * * *

It was in the afternoon of the same day that Kent found a note in hiskey-box at the Clarendon asking him to call up 124 Tejon Avenue bytelephone. He did it at once, and Penelope answered. The key-box note hadbeen placed at Elinor's request, and she, Miss Penelope, could not saywhat was wanted; neither could she say definitely when her sister would bein. Elinor had gone out an hour earlier with Mr. Ormsby and Miss Van Brockin Mr. Ormsby's motor-car. When was he, David Kent, coming up? Did he knowthey were talking of spending the remainder of the summer at BreezelandInn? And where was Mr. Loring all this time?

Kent made fitting answers to all these queries, hung up the ear-piece andwent away moodily reflective. He was due at a meeting of the executivecommittee of the Civic League, but he let the public business wait whilehe speculated upon the probable object of Elinor's telephoning him. 

Now there is no field in which the inconsistency of human nature is sopersistent as in that which is bounded by the sentimentally narrowedhorizon of a man in love. With Ormsby at the nodus of his point of view, David Kent made no secret of his open rivalry of the millionaire, declaring his intention boldly and taking no shame therefor. But when hefaced about toward Elinor he found himself growing hotly jealous for hergood faith; careful and fearful lest she should say or do something notstrictly in accordance with the letter and spirit of her obligations asOrmsby's _fiancée_. 

For example: at the "conspiracy dinner, " as Loring dubbed it, Ormsby beingpresent to fight for his own hand, Kent, as we have seen, had boldlymonopolized Miss Brentwood, and would have committed himself still morepointedly had the occasion favored him. None the less, when Elinor hadbegged him privately to see her before moving in the attack on the junto, he had almost resented the implied establishing of confidential relationswith her lover's open rival. 

For this cause he had been postponing the promised visit, and therebypostponing the taking of the final step in the campaign of intimidation. The unexplained telephone call decided him, however. He would go and seeElinor and have the ordeal over with. 

But as a preliminary he dined that evening with Ormsby at the CamelotClub, and over the coffee had it out with him. 

"I am going out to see Miss Brentwood to-night, " he announced abruptly. "Have you any objection?"

The millionaire gave him the shrewdest of over-looks, ending with adeep-rumbling laugh. 

"Kent, you are the queerest lot I have ever discovered, and that is sayinga good bit. Why, in the name of all the proprieties, should I object?"

"Your right is unchallenged, " Kent admitted. 

"Is it? Better ask Miss Brentwood about that. She might say it isn't. "

"I don't understand, " said Kent, dry-tongued. 

"Don't you? Perhaps I'd better explain: she might find it a littledifficult. You have been laboring under the impression that we areengaged, haven't you?"

"Laboring under the--why, good heavens, man! it's in everybody's mouth!"

"Curious, isn't it, how such things get about, " commented the player oflong suits. "How do you suppose they get started?"

"I don't suppose anything about it, so far as we two are concerned; I haveyour own word for it. You said you were the man in possession. "

Ormsby laughed again. 

"You are something of a bluffer yourself, David. Did you let my littlestagger scare you out?"

David Kent pushed his chair back from the table and nailed Ormsby with alook that would have made a younger man betray himself. 

"Do you mean to tell me that there is no engagement between you and MissBrentwood?"

"Just that. " Ormsby put all the nonchalance he could muster into thelaconic reply, but he was anticipating the sequent demand which came likea shot out of a gun. 

"And there never has been?"

Ormsby grinned. 

"When you are digging a well and have found your stream of water, it'sfolly to go deeper, David. Can't you let 'good enough' alone?"

Kent turned it over in his mind, frowning thoughtfully into hiscoffee-cup. When he spoke it was out of the mid-heart of manliness. 

"I wish you would tell me one thing, Ormsby. Am I responsible for--for thepresent state of affairs?"

Ormsby stretched the truth a little; partly for Elinor's sake; more, perhaps, for Kent's. 

"You have done nothing that an honorable rival--and incidentally a goodfriend of mine--might not do. Therefore you are not responsible. "

"That is putting it very diplomatically, " Kent mused. "I am afraid it doesnot exonerate me wholly. "

"Yes, it does. But it doesn't put me out of the running, you understand. I'm 'forninst' you yet; rather more stubbornly than before, I fancy. "

Kent nodded. 

"That, of course; I should think less of you if you were not. And youshall have as fair a show as you are giving me--which is saying a lot. Shall we go and smoke?"

XXI

A WOMAN INTERVENES

It was still early in the evening when Kent mounted the steps of theBrentwood apartment house. Mother and daughters were all on the porch, butit was Mrs. Brentwood who welcomed him. 

"We were just wondering if you would imagine the message which Elinor wasgoing to send, and didn't, and come out to see what was wanted, " she said. "I am in need of a little legal advice. Will you give me a few minutes inthe library?"

Kent went with her obediently, but not without wondering why she had sentfor him, of all the retainable lawyers in the capital. And the wonderbecame amazement when she opened her confidence. She had received twoletters from a New York broker who offered to buy her railroad stock at alittle more than the market price. To the second letter she had replied, asking a price ten points higher than the market. At this the broker hadapparently dropped the attempted negotiation, since there had been no moreletters. What would Mr. Kent advise her to do--write again?

Kent smiled inwardly at the good lady's definition of "legal advice, " buthe rose promptly to the occasion. If he were in Mrs. Brentwood's place, hewould not write again; nor would he pay any attention whatever to anysimilar proposals from any source. Had there been any others?

Mrs. Brentwood confessed that there had been; that a firm of Bostonbrokers had also written her. Did Mr. Kent know the meaning of all thisanxiety to buy in Western Pacific when the stock was going down day byday?

Kent took time for reflection before he answered. It was exceedinglydifficult to eliminate the personal factor in the equation. If all wentwell, if by due process of law the Trans-Western should be rescued out ofthe hands of the wreckers, the property would be a long time recoveringfrom the wounds inflicted by the cut rates and the Guilford badmanagement. In consequence, any advance in the market value of the stockmust be slow and uncertain under the skilfullest handling. But, while itmight be advisable for Mrs. Brentwood to take what she could get, thetransfer of the three thousand shares at the critical moment might be thedeath blow to all his hopes in the fight for retrieval. 

Happily, he hit upon the expedient of shifting the responsibility for thedecision to other shoulders. 

"I scarcely feel competent to advise you in a matter which is personalrather than legal, " he said at length. "Have you talked it over with Mr. Ormsby?"

Mrs. Brentwood's reply was openly contemptuous. 

"Brookes Ormsby doesn't know anything about dollars. You have to expressit in millions before he can grasp it. He says for me not to sell at anyprice. "

Kent shook his head. 

"I shouldn't put it quite so strongly. At the same time, I am not theperson to advise you. "

The shrewd eyes looked up at him quickly. 

"Would you mind telling me why, Mr. Kent?"

"Not in the least. I am an interested party. For weeks Mr. Loring and Ihave been striving by all means to prevent transfers of the stock from thehands of the original holders. I don't want to advise you to your hurt;but to tell you to sell might be to undo all that has been done. "

"Then you are still hoping to get the railroad out of Major Guilford'shands?"

"Yes. "

"And in that case the price of the stock will go up again?"

"That is just the difficulty. It may be a long time recovering. "

"Do you think the sale of my three thousand shares would make anydifference?" she asked. 

"There is reason to fear that it would make all the difference. "

She was silent for a time, and when she spoke again Kent realized that hewas coming to know an entirely unsuspected side of Elinor's mother. 

"It makes it pretty hard for me, " she said slowly. "This little drib ofrailroad stock is all that my girls have left out of what their fatherwilled them. I want to save it if I can. "

"So do I, " said David Kent, frankly; "and for the same reason. "

Mrs. Brentwood confined herself to a dry "Why?"

"Because I have loved your elder daughter well and truly ever since thatsummer at the foot of Old Croydon, Mrs. Brentwood, and her happiness andwell-being concern me very nearly. "

"You are pretty plain-spoken, Mr. Kent. I suppose you know Elinor is to bemarried to Brookes Ormsby?" Mrs. Brentwood was quite herself again. 

Kent dexterously equivocated. 

"I know they have been engaged for some time, " he said; but the smallquibble availed him nothing. 

"Which one of them was it told you it was broken off?" she inquired. 

He smiled in spite of the increasing gravity of the situation. 

"You may be sure it was not Miss Elinor. "

"Humph!" said Mrs. Brentwood. "She didn't tell me, either. 'Twas BrookesOrmsby, and he said he wanted to begin all over again, or something ofthat sort. He is nothing but a foolish boy, for all his hair is gettingthin. "

"He is a very honorable man, " said Kent. 

"Because he is giving you another chance? I don't mind telling you plainlythat it won't do any good, Mr. Kent. "

"Why?" he asked in his turn. 

"For several reasons: one is that Elinor will never marry without myconsent; another is that she can't afford to marry a poor man. "

Kent rose. 

"I am glad to know how you feel about it, Mrs. Brentwood: nevertheless, Ishall ask you to give your consent some day, God willing. "

He expected an outburst of some sort, and was telling himself that he hadfairly provoked it, when she cut the ground from beneath his feet. 

"Don't you go off with any such foolish notion as that, David Kent, " shesaid, not unsympathetically. "She's in love with Brookes Ormsby, and sheknows it now, if she didn't before. " And it was with this arrow ranklingin him that Kent bowed himself out and went to join the young women on theporch. 

XXII

A BORROWED CONSCIENCE

The conversation on the Brentwood porch was chiefly of Breezeland Inn as ahealth and pleasure resort, until an outbound electric car stopped at thecorner below and Loring came up to make a quartet of the trio behind thevine-covered trellis. 

Later, the ex-manager confessed to a desire for music--Penelope'smusic--and the twain went in to the sitting-room and the piano, leavingElinor and Kent to make the best of each other as the spirit moved them. 

It was Elinor's chance for free speech with Kent--the opportunity she hadcraved. But now it was come, the simplicity of the thing to be said haddeparted and an embarrassing complexity had taken its place. Under otherconditions Kent would have been quick to see her difficulty, and wouldhave made haste to efface it; but he was fresh from the interview withMrs. Brentwood, and the Parthian arrow was still rankling. None the less, he was the first to break away from the commonplaces. 

"What is the matter with us this evening?" he queried. "We have beensitting here talking the vaguest trivialities ever since Penelope andLoring side-tracked us. I haven't been doing anything I am ashamed of;have you?"

"Yes, " she confessed, looking away from him. 

"What is it?"

"I asked a certain good friend of mine to come to see me when there isgood reason to believe he didn't want to come. "

"What makes you think he didn't want to come?"

"Why--I don't know; did he?" She had turned upon him swiftly with anoutflash of the playful daring which had been one of his major fetteringsin time past--the ecstatic little charm that goes with quick repartee andinstant and sympathetic apprehension. 

"You have never yet asked anything of him that he wasn't glad enough togive, " he rejoined, keeping up the third person figurative. 

"Is that saying very much--or very little?"

"Very little, indeed. But it is only your askings that have beenlacking--not his good will. "

"That was said like the David Kent I used to know. Are you really quitethe same?"

"I hope not, " he protested gravely. "People used to say of me that Imatured late, and year by year as I look back I can see that it was a truesaying. I have done some desperately boyish things since I was a mangrown; things that make me tingle when I recall them. "

"Like wasting a whole summer exploring Mount Croydon with a--a somebodywho did not mature late?"

"No; I wasn't counting that among my lapses. An older man than I ever hopeto be might find excuses for the Croydon summer. I meant in other ways. For one thing, I have craved success as I think few men have ever cravedit; and yet my plowings in that field have been ill-timed and boyish to adegree. "

She shook her head. 

"I don't know how you measure success; it is a word of so many, manymeanings. But I think you are your own severest critic. "

"That may be; but the fact remains. It is only within the past few monthsthat I have begun to get a true inkling of things; to know, for example, that opportunities are things to be compelled--not waited for. "

She was looking away from him again. 

"I am not sure that I like you better for your having discovered yourself. I liked the other David Kent. "

He smiled rather joylessly. 

"Somebody has said that for every new point of view gained we have tosacrifice all the treasures of the old. I am sorry if I am disappointingyou. "

"I don't know that you are. And yet, when you were sitting at Miss VanBrock's table the other evening telling us about your experience with thepoliticians, I kept saying to myself that I didn't know you--that I hadnever known you. "

"I wish I knew just how to take that, " he said dubiously. 

"I wish I knew how to make you understand, " she returned; and then: "Icould have made the other David Kent understand. "

"You are in duty bound to try to make this one understand, don't youthink? You spoke of a danger which was not the violent kind, such asLoring fears. What is it?"

"You have had two whole days, " she rejoined. "Haven't you discovered it?"

"I haven't found anything to fear but failure, " was his reply. 

"That is it; you have given it a name--its only true name--failure. "

"But I am not going to fail. "

"You mean you are going to take our railroad away from these men who havestolen it?"

"That is what I mean. "

"And you will do it by threatening to expose them?"

"I shall tell Governor Bucks what I know about the oil field deal, assuring him that I shall publish the facts if he doesn't let the law takeits course in ousting Judge MacFarlane and the receiver. "

She rose and stood before him, leaning against one of the vine-clad porchpillars with her hands behind her. 

"David Kent, are there any circumstances in which you would accept abribe?"

He answered her in all seriousness. 

"They say every man has his price: mine is higher than any bid they haveyet made--or can make, I hope. "

"Why don't you let _them_ bribe _you_?" she asked coolly. "Is it becauseit is inexpedient--because there is more 'success' the other way?"

He tried to emulate her coolness and made a failure of it. 

"Have I ever done anything to make you think I had thrown common honestyand self-respect overboard?" he demanded. 

Her answer was another question, sharp-edged and well thrust home. 

"Is it any worse to take a bribe than it is to give one? You have justadmitted that you are going to buy the governor's neutrality, you know. "

"I don't see it in that light at all. "

"The other David Kent would have seen it. He would have said: These menare public criminals. If I can not bring them to justice, I can at leastexpose them to the scorn of all good men. Therefore I have no right tobargain with them. "

Kent was silent for a long time. When he spoke it was to say:

"Why have you done this, Elinor?"

"Because I had to, David. Could I do less?"

"I suppose not. It's in the blood--in your blood and mine. Other folk callit the Puritan virus of over-righteousness, and scoff at it. I don't know:sometimes I think they have the best of the argument. "

"I can't believe you are quite sincere when you say that, " she asserted. 

"Yes, I am. One can not compromise with conscience; that says itself. ButI have come to believe latterly that one's conscience may be morbidlyacute, or even diseased. I'll admit I've been taking treatment. "

"That sounds very dreadful, " she rejoined. 

"It does, doesn't it? Yet it had to be done. As I intimated a few minutesago, my life has hitherto been a sort of unostentatious failure. I used tothink it was because I was outclassed: I know now it has been because Iwouldn't do as other men do. It has been a rather heart-breakingprocess--to sort out the scruples, admitting the just and overriding theothers--but I have been given to see that it is the price of success. "

"I want you to succeed, " she said. 

"Pardon me; I don't think you do. You have reopened the door to doubt, andif I admit the doubt I shall fail. "

The sonata Penelope was playing was approaching its finale, and Elinor wassuddenly shaken with a trembling fit of fear--the fear of consequenceswhich might involve this man's entire future. She knew Kent was leaning onher, and she saw herself as one who has ruthlessly thrust an iron baramong the wheels of a delicate mechanism. Who was she to be hisconscience-keeper--to stand in the way and bid him go back? Were her ownmotives always so exalted? Had she not once deliberately debated this samequestion of expediency, to the utter abasement of her own ideals?

Penelope had left the piano, and Loring was looking at his watch. Kent sawthem through the open window and got upon his feet. 

"Grantham is saying he had no idea it was so late, " he hazarded. "If Ithank you for what you have said I am afraid it must be as the patientthanks the surgeon for the knife-stroke which leaves him a cripple forlife. "

It was the one word needed to break her resolution. 

"Oh, forget it; please forget it!" she said. "I had no right. .. . You aredoing a man's work in the world, and it must be done in a man's way. If Ican not help, you must not let me hinder. If you let anything I have saiddiscourage you, I shall never cease regretting it. "

His smile was a mere indrawing of the lips. 

"Having opened the door, you would try to shut it again, would you? Howlike a woman! But I am afraid it can't be done. I had been trying to keepaway from that point of view. .. . There is much to be said on both sides. There was a time when I wouldn't have gone into such a thing as this fightwith the junto; but being in, I should have seen it through regardless ofthe public welfare--ignoring that side of it. I can't do it now; you haveshown me that I can't. "

"But I don't want to be a stumbling-block, " she insisted. "Won't youbelieve that I wanted to help?"

"I believe that your motive was all it should be; yes. But the result isthe same. "

Loring and Penelope were coming out, and the end of their privacy was athand. 

"What will you do?" she asked. 

"I don't know: nothing that I had meant to do. It was a false start and Iam back under the wire again. "

"But you must not turn back unless you are fully convinced of the wrong ofgoing on, " she protested. 

"Didn't you mean to convince me?"

"No--yes--I don't know. I--it seems very clear to me; but I want it toseem clear to you. Doesn't your conscience tell you that you ought to turnback?"

"No, " he said shortly; but he immediately qualified the denial. "You maybe right: I am afraid you are right. But I shall have to fight it out formyself. There are many things to consider. If I hold my hand, thesebucaneers will triumph over the stockholders, and a host of innocentpeople will suffer loss. " Then, seeing the quick-springing tears in hereyes: "But you mustn't be sorry for having done what you had to do; youhave nothing to reproach yourself for. "

"Oh, but I have!" she said; and so they parted. 

XXIII

THE INSURRECTIONARIES

When the Receiver Guilfords, great and small, set their officialguillotines at work lopping off department heads, they commonly ignore aconsequence overlooked by many; namely, the possible effect of suchwholesale changes in leadership upon the rank and file. 

The American railroad in its unconsolidated stage is a modern feudalism. Its suzerains are the president and board of directors; its clan chiefsare the men who have built it and fought for its footing in the sharplycontested field of competition. To these leaders the rank and file isloyal, as loyalty is accorded to the men who build and do, rather than totheir successors who inherit and tear down. Add to this the supplanting ofcompetent executive officers by a staff of political trenchermen, ignorantalike of the science of railroading, and the equally important sub-scienceof industrial manhandling, and you have the kindling for the fire ofinsurrection which had been slowly smoldering in the Trans-Western servicesince the day when Major Guilford had issued his general order Number One. 

At first the fire had burned fitfully, eating its way into the smalleconomies; as when the section hands pelt stray dogs with new spikes fromthe stock keg, and careless freight crews seed down the right of way withcast-off links and pins; when engineers pour oil where it should bedropped, and firemen feed the stack instead of the steam-dome. 

But later, when the incompetence of the new officials became the mockinggibe of the service, and the cut-rate avalanche of traffic had doubled allmen's tasks, the flames rose higher, and out of the smoke of them loomedthe shape of the dread demon of demoralization. 

First it was Hank Brodrick, who misread his orders and piled two freightsin a mountain of wreckage in the deep cut between Long Pine and Argenta. Next it was an overworked night man who lost his head and cranked a switchover in front of the west-bound Flyer, laying the 1020 on her side in theditch, with the postal and the baggage-car neatly telescoped on top tohold her down. 

Two days later it was Patsy Callahan; and though he escaped with his lifeand his job, it was a close call. He was chasing a time freight with thefast mail, and the freight was taking the siding at Delhi to let him pass. One of the red tail-lights of the freight had gone out, and Callahanmistook the other for the target lamp of the second switch. He had time toyell at his fireman, to fling himself upon the throttle-bar and to set theairbrake before he began to turn Irish handsprings down the embankment;but the wrecking crew camped two whole days at Delhi gathering up thedebris. 

It was well on in the summer, when the two divisions, east and west, werestrewn with wreckage and the pit tracks in the shops and shop yard werefilled to overflowing with crippled engines, that the insurrectionariesbegan to gather in their respective labor groups to discuss the growinghazards of railroading on the Trans-Western. 

The outcome was a protest from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, addressed to the receiver in the name of the organization, setting forthin plain terms the grievance of the members, and charging it bluntly tobad management. This was followed immediately by similar complaints fromthe trainmen, the telegraphers, and the firemen; all praying for relieffrom the incubus of incompetent leadership. Not to be behind these, camethe Amalgamated Machinists, demanding an increase of pay for night workand overtime; and last, but not least, an intimation went forth from theFederative Council of all these labor unions hinting at possible politicalconsequences and the alienation of the labor vote if the abuses were notcorrected. 

"What d'ye calc'late the major will do about it?" said Brodrick, in theroundhouse conclave held daily by the trainmen who were hung up or offduty. "Will he listen to reason and give us a sure-enough railroad man ortwo at the top?"

"Not in _ein_ t'ousand year, " quoth "Dutch" Tischer, Callahan's alternateon the fast mail. "Haf you not de _Arkoos_ been reading? It is boloticsfrom der beginning to der ent; mit der governor _vorwärts_. "

"Then I am tellin' you-all right now there's goin' to be a heap o'trouble, " drawled "Pike County" Griggs, the oldest engineer on the line. "The shopmen are b'ilin'; and if the major puts on that blanket cut inwages he's talkin' about----"

"'If', " broke in Callahan, with fine scorn. "'Tis slaping on yer injuriesye are, Misther Griggs. The notice is out; 'twas posted in the shops thisday. "

"Then that settles it, " said Griggs, gloomily. "When does it take hold?"

"The first day av the month to come. An' they're telling me it catcheseverybody, down to the missinger b'ys in the of'ces. "

Griggs got upon his feet, yawning and stretching before he dropped backinto his corner of the wooden settle. 

"You lissen at me: if that's the fact, I'm tellin' you-all that everywheel on this blame', hoodooed railroad is goin' to stop turnin' at twelveo'clock on the night before that notice takes hold. "

An oil-begrimed wiper crawled from under the 1031, spat at the dope-bucketand flung his bunch of waste therein. 

"Gur-r-r! Let 'em stop, " he rasped. "The dope's bad, and the waste's bad;and the old man has cut out the 'lectrics and put us back on _them_, "kicking a small jacket lamp to the bottom of an empty stall. "Give 's achaw o' yer smokin' plug, Mr. Callahan, " and he held out his hand. 

Callahan emptied the hot ashes from his black pipe into the open palm. 

"'Tis what ye get f'r yer impidunce, an' f'r layin' tongue to ould manDurgan, ye scut. 'Tis none av his doin's--the dhirty oil an' the chapewaste an' the jacket lamps. It's ay-conomy, me son; an' the other name f'rthat is a rayceiver. "

"Is Durgan with us?" asked Brodrick. 

"He's wit' himself, as a master-mechanic shu'd be, " said Callahan. "So'sM'Tosh. But nayther wan n'r t'other av thim'll take a thrain out whin thestrike's on. They're both Loring min. "

At the mention of Loring's name Griggs looked up from the stick he waswhittling. 

"No prospects o' the Boston folks getting the road back again, I reckon, "he remarked tentatively. 

"You should read dose _Arkoos_ newsbapers: den you should know somet'ingsalretty, ain'd it?" said Tischer. 

Brodrick laughed. 

"If you see it in the papers, it's so, " he quoted. "What the _Argus_doesn't say would make a 'nough sight bigger book than what it does. ButI've been kind o' watchin' that man Kent. He's been hot after the major, right from the jump. You rec'lect what he said in them Civic League talkso' his: said these politicians had stole the road, hide, hair an' horns. "

"I'm onto him, " said Callahan. "'Tis a bird he is. Oleson was telling me. The Scandehoovian was thryin' to get him down to Gaston the day theyray-ceivered us. Jarl says he wint a mile a minut', an' the little mannever turned a hair. "

"Is he here yet; or did he go back to God's country?" asked EngineerScott, leaning from the cab window of the 1031. 

"He's here; and so is Mr. Loring. They're stopping at the Clarendon, " saidBrodrick. 

"Then they haven't quit, " drawled Griggs; adding: "I wonder if they have aghost of a show against the politicals?"

"Has annybody been to see 'em?" asked Callahan. 

"There's a notion for you, Scott, " said Brodrick. Scott was the presidingofficer in the B. Of L. E. Local. "Get up a committee from the Federativeto go and ask Mr. Loring if there's any use in our tryin' to hold on. "

The wiper was killing time at a window which commanded a view of the upperyards, with the Union Passenger Station at the end of the three-milevista. Being a late comer in the field, the Trans-Western had scanty trackrights in the upper yard; its local headquarters were in the shops suburb, where the two division main lines proper began and ended, diverging, theone to the eastward and the other to the west. 

"Holy smut!" said the wiper. "See Dicky Dixon comin' out with the Flyer!How's that for ten miles an hour in the city limits?"

It was a foot-note commentary on the way the service was going to pieces. Halkett, the "political" general superintendent, had called Dixon on thecarpet for not making time with his train. "If you're afraid to run, sayso, and we'll get a man that isn't, " Halkett had said; and here was Dixoncoming down a borrowed track in a busy yard at the speed which presupposesa ninety-pound rail and nothing in the way. 

The conclave had gathered at the wiper's window. 

"The dum fool!" said Brodrick. "If anything gets in front of him----"

There was a suburb street-crossing three hundred yards townward from the"yard limits" telegraph office, which stood in the angle formed by thediverging tracks of the two divisions. Beyond the yard the street became acountry road, well traveled as the principal southern inlet to the city. When Dixon was within two train-lengths of the crossing, a farm wagonappeared, driven between the cut freight trains on the sidings directly inthe path of the Flyer. The men at the roundhouse window heard the crash ofthe splintering wagon above the roar of the train; and the wiper on thewindow seat yelped like a kicked dog and went sickly green under his maskof grime. 

"There it is again, " said Scott, when Dixon had brought his train to astand two hundred yards beyond the "limits" office where he should havestopped for orders. "We're all hoodooed, the last one of us. I'll get thatcommittee together this afternoon and go and buzz Mr. Loring. "

Now it fell out that these things happened on a day when the tide ofretrieval was at its lowest ebb; the day, namely, in which Kent had toldLoring that he was undecided as to his moral right to use the evidenceagainst Bucks as a lever to pry the Trans-Western out of the grip of thejunto. It befell, also, that it was the day chosen by two other men, notmembers of the labor unions, in which to call upon the ex-manager; andLoring found M'Tosh, the train-master, and Durgan, the master-mechanic, waiting for him in the hotel corridor when he came in from a late luncheonat the Camelot Club. 

"Can you give us a few minutes, Mr. Loring?" asked M'Tosh, when Loring hadshaken hands with them, not as subordinates. 

"Surely. My time is not very valuable, just at present. Come in, and I'llsee if Mr. Kent has left me any cigars. "

"Humph!" said Durgan, when the ex-manager had gone into Kent's room torummage for the smoke offering. "And they give us the major in the placeof such a man as that!" with a jerk of his thumb toward the door of thebedroom. 

"Come off!" warned M'Tosh; "he'll hear you. " And when Loring came backwith the cigars there was dry humor in his eye. 

"You mustn't let your loyalty to the old guard get you into trouble withthe receiver, " he cautioned; and they both smiled. 

"The trouble hasn't waited for our bringing, " said M'Tosh. "That is why weare here. Durgan has soured on his job, and I'm more than sick of mine. It's hell, Mr. Loring. I have been at it twenty years, and I never sawsuch crazy railroading in any one of them. "

"Bad management, you mean?"

"Bad management at the top, and rotten demoralization at the bottom as anatural consequence. We can't be sure of getting a train out of the yardswithout accident. Dixon is as careful a man as ever stepped on an engine, and he smashed a farmer's wagon and killed the farmer this morning withintwo train-lengths of the shop junction. "

"Drunk?" inquired the ex-manager. 

"Never a drop; Dixon's a Prohibitionist, dyed in the wool. But just beforehe took his train, Halkett had him in the sweat-box, jacking him up fornot making his time. He came out red in the face, jumped on his engine, and yanked the Flyer down the yards forty miles an hour. "

"And what is your trouble, Durgan?" asked Loring. 

"Another side of the same thing. I wrote Major Guilford yesterday, tellinghim that six pit gangs, all the roundhouse 'emergencies' and two outdoorrepair squads couldn't begin to keep the cripples moving; and within aweek every one of the labor unions has kicked through its grievancecommittee. His reply is an order announcing a blanket cut in wages, to gointo effect the first of the month. That means a strike and a generaltie-up. "

Loring shook his head regretfully. 

"It hurts me, " he admitted. "We had the best-handled piece of railroad inthe West, and I give the credit to the men that did the handling. And tohave it wrecked by a gang of incompetent salary-grabbers----"

The two left-overs nodded. 

"That's just it, Mr. Loring, " said M'Tosh. "And we're here to ask you ifit's worth while for us to stick to the wreck any longer. Are you folksdoing anything?"

"We have been trying all legal means to break the grip of thecombination--yes. "

"And what are the prospects?" It was the master-mechanic who wanted toknow. 

"They are not very bright at present, I must confess. We have the entirepolitical ring to fight, and the odds are overwhelming. "

"You say you've been trying legal means', " M'Tosh put in. "Can't we downthem some other way? I believe you could safely count on the help of everyman in the service, barring the politicals. "

Loring smiled. 

"I don't say we should scruple to use force if there were any way to applyit. But the way doesn't offer. "

"I didn't know, " said the train-master, rising to close the interview. "But if the time ever comes, all you or Mr. Kent will have to do will beto pass the word. Maybe you can think of some way to use the strike. Ithasn't been declared yet, but you can bet on it to a dead moralcertainty. "

It was late in the afternoon of the same day that the Federative Councilsent its committee, chairmaned by Engineer Scott, to interview theex-general manager at his rooms in the Clarendon. Scott acted asspokesman, stating the case with admirable brevity and conciseness, andasking the same question as that propounded by the train-master, to wit, if there were any prospect of a return of the road to its formermanagement. 

Loring spoke more hopefully to the committee than he had to Durgan andM'Tosh. There had been a little more time for reflection, and there wasthe heartening which comes upon the heels of unsolicited help-tenderings, however futile. So he told the men that the stockholders were movingheaven and earth in the effort to recover their property; that until theroad should be actually sold under an order from the court, there wasalways room for hope. The committee might rest assured that no stone wouldbe left unturned; also that the good will of the rank and file would notbe forgotten in the day of restitution, if that day should ever dawn. 

When Loring was through, Engineer Scott did a thing no union man had everdone before: he asked an ex-general manager's advice touching theadvisability of a strike. 

"I can't say as to that, " was the prompt reply. "You know your ownbusiness best--what it will cost, and what it may accomplish. But I'vebeen on the other side often enough to be able to tell you why moststrikes fail, if you care to know. "

A broad grin ran the gamut of the committee. 

"Tell us what to do, and we'll do it; Mr. Loring, " said Scott, briefly. 

"First, then, have a definite object and one that will stand the test ofpublic opinion; in this case we'll say it is the maintenance of thepresent wage-scale and the removal of incompetent officers and men. Secondly, make your protest absolutely unanimous to a man. Thirdly, don'tgive the major time to fortify: keep your own counsels, and don't send inyour ultimatum until the final moment. And, lastly, shun violence as youwould a temptation of the devil. "

"Yon's a man, " said Angus Duncan, the member from the AmalgamatedMachinists, when the committee was filing out through the hotel corridor. 

"Now you're shouting!" said Engineer Scott. "And you might say a man and abrother. "

XXIV

INTO THE PRIMITIVE

Tested upon purely diplomatic principles, Miss Van Brock's temper waslittle less than angelic, exhibiting itself under provocation only inguarded pin-pricks of sarcasm, or in small sharp-clawed kitten-buffetingsof repartee. But she was at no pains to conceal her scornfuldisappointment when David Kent made known his doubts concerning his moralright to use the weapon he had so skilfully forged. 

He delayed the inevitable confession to Portia until he had told Loring;and in making it he did not tell Miss Van Brock to whom he owed the suddenchange in the point of view. But Portia would have greatly discredited hergift of insight if she had not instantly reduced the problem to its lowestterms. 

"You have been asking Miss Brentwood to lend you her conscience, and shehas done it, " was the form in which she stated the fact. And when Kent didnot deny it: "You lack at least one quality of greatness, David; you swaytoo easily. "

"No, I don't!" he protested. "I am as obstinate as a mule. Ask Ormsby, orLoring. But the logic of the thing is blankly unanswerable. I can eitherget down to the dirty level of these highbinders--fight the devil with abrand taken out of his own fire; or----"

"Or what?" she asked. 

"Or think up some other scheme; some plan which doesn't involve asurrender on my part of common decency and self-respect. "

"Yes?" she retorted. "I suppose you have the other plan all wrought outand ready to drop into place?"

"No, I haven't, " he admitted reluctantly. 

"But at least you have some notion of what it is going to be?"

"No. "

She was pacing back and forth in front of his chair in a way that wasalmost man-like; but her contemptuous impatience made her dangerouslybeautiful. Suddenly she stopped and turned upon him, and there were sharpclaws in the kitten-buffetings. 

"Do you know you are spoiling a future that most men would hesitate tothrow away?" she asked. "While you have been a man of one idea in thisrailroad affair, we haven't been idle--your newspaper and politicalfriends, and Ormsby and I. You are ambitious; you want to succeed; and wehave been laying the foundations for you. The next election would give youanything in the gift of the State that a man of your years could aspireto. Have you known this?"

"I have guessed it, " he said quite humbly. 

"Of course you have. But it has all been contingent upon one thing: youwere to crush the grafters in this railroad struggle--show them up--andclimb to distinction yourself on the ladder from which you had shakenthem. It might have been done; it was in a fair way to be done. And nowyou turn back and leave the plow in the furrow!"

There was more of a like quality--a good bit more; some of it regretful;all of it pungent and logical from Miss Van Brock's point of view; andKent was no rock not to be moved by the small tempest of disappointedvicarious ambition. Wherefore he escaped when he could, though only tobegin the ethical battle all over again; to fight and to wander among thetombs in the valley of indecision for a week and a day, eight miserabletwirlings of the earth in space, during which interval he was invisible tohis friends and innocuous to his enemies. 

On the morning of the ninth day Editor Hildreth telephoned Miss Van Brockto ask if she knew where Kent could be found. The answer was a ratheranxious negative; though the query could have been answered affirmativelyby the conductor and motorman of an early morning electric car which ranto the farthest outskirts of the eastern suburb of the city. Following aboyish habit he had never fully outgrown, Kent had once more taken hisproblem to the open, and the hour after luncheon time found him ploddingwearily back to the end of the car line, jaded, dusty and stiff from muchtramping of the brown plain, but with the long duel finally fought out tosome despairing conclusion. 

The City Hall clock was upon the stroke of three when the inboundtrolley-car landed him in front of the Clarendon. It was a measure of hispurposeful abstraction that he went on around the corner to the SecurityBank, dusty and unpresentable as he was, and transferred the packet ofincriminating affidavits from the safety deposit box to his pocket beforegoing to his rooms in the hotel. 

This paper weapon was the centering point of the struggle which had nowlasted for nearly a fortnight. So long as the weapon was his to use or tocast away, the outcome of the moral conflict hung in the balance. But nowhe was emerging from the night wanderings among the tombs of theundecided. 

"I can't give it up; there is too much at stake, " he muttered, as hetrudged heavily back to the hotel. And before he went above stairs heasked the young woman at the house telephone exchange to ascertain ifGovernor Bucks were in his office at the capitol, and if so, if he werelikely to remain there for an hour. 

When he reached his rooms he flung the packet of papers on thewriting-table and went to freshen himself with a bath. That which laybefore him called for fitness, mental and physical, and cool sanity. Inother times of stress, as just before a critical hour in court, the tuband the cold plunge had been his fillip where other men resorted to thebottle. 

He was struggling into clean linen, and the packet was still lying wherehe had tossed it on entering, when a bell-boy came up with a card. Kentread the name with a ghost of a smile relaxing the care-drawn lines abouthis mouth. There are times when a man's fate rushes to meet him, and hehad fallen upon one of them. 

"Show him up, " was the brief direction; and when the door of the elevatorcage clacked again, Kent was waiting. 

His visitor was a man of heroic proportions; a large man a littlebreathed, as it seemed, by the swift upward rush of the elevator. Kentadmitted him with a nod; and the governor planted himself heavily in achair and begged a light for his cigar. In the match-passing he gatheredhis spent breath and declared his errand. 

"I think we have a little score to settle between us as man to man, Kent, "he began, when Kent had clipped the end from his own cigar and lighted itin stolid silence. 

"Possibly: that is for you to say, " was the unencouraging reply. 

Bucks rose deliberately, walked to the bath-room door, and looked beyondit into the bedroom. 

"We are quite alone, if that is what you want to make sure of, " said Kent, in the same indifferent tone; and the governor came back and resumed hischair. 

"I came up to see what you want--what you will take to quit, " heannounced, crossing his legs and locking the huge ham-like hands over hisknee. "That is putting it rather abruptly, but business is business, andwe can dispense with the preliminaries, I take it. "

"I told your attorney-general some time ago what I wanted, and he did notsee fit to grant it, " Kent responded. "I am not sure that I want anythingnow--anything you can have to offer. " This was not at all what he hadintended to say; but the presence of the adversary was breeding a stubbornantagonism that was more potent on the moral side than all the prickingsof conscience. 

The yellow-lidded eyes of the governor began to close down, and the lookcame into them which had been there when he had denied a pardon to a widowpleading for the life of her convicted son. 

"I had hoped you were in the market, " he demurred. "It would be better forall concerned if you had something to sell, with a price attached. I knowwhat you have been doing, and what you think you have got hold of. It's atissue of mistakes and falsehoods and back-bitings from beginning to end, but it may serve your purpose with the newspapers. I want to buy thatpackage of stuff you've got stowed away in the Security vaults. "

The governor's chair was on one side of the writing-table, and Kent's wason the other. In plain sight between the two men lay the packet Bucks waswilling to bargain for. It was inclosed in a box envelope, bearing theimprint of the Security Bank. Kent was looking steadily away from thetable when he said:

"What if I say it isn't for sale?"

"Don't you think it had better be?"

"I don't know. I hadn't thought much about the advisable phase of it. "

"Well, the time has come when you've got it to do, " was the low-tonedthreat. 

"But not as a matter of compulsion, " said Kent, coolly enough. "What isyour bid?"

Bucks made it promptly. 

"Ten thousand dollars: and you promise to leave the State and stay awayfor one year from the first Tuesday in November next. "

"That is, until after the next State election. " Kent blew a whiff of smoketo the ceiling and shook his head slowly. "It is not enough. "

The governor uncrossed his legs, crossed them the other way, and said:

"I'll make it twenty thousand and two years. "

"Or thirty thousand and three years, " Kent suggested amiably. "Or supposewe come at once to the end of that string and say one hundred thousand andten years. That would still leave you a fair price for your block ofsuburban property in Guilford and Hawk's addition to the city of Gaston, wouldn't it?"

The governor set his massive jaw with a sharp little click of the teeth. 

"You are joking on the edge of your grave, my young friend. I taught youin Gaston that you were not big enough to fight me: do you think you arebig enough now?"

"I don't think; I know, " said Kent, incisively. "And since you havereferred to the Gaston days: let me ask if I ever gave you any reason tobelieve that I could be scared out?"

"Keep to the point, " retorted Bucks, harshly. "This State isn't broadenough to hold you and me on opposite sides of the fence. I could make ittoo hot to hold you without mixing up in it myself, but I choose to fightmy own battles. Will you take twenty thousand dollars spot cash, andMacFarlane's job as circuit judge when I'm through with him? Yes or no. "

"No. "

"Then what will you take?"

"Without committing myself in any sense, I might say that you are gettingoff too cheaply on your most liberal proposition. You and your friendshave looted a seventy-million-dollar railroad, and----"

"You might have stood in on that if you had taken Guilford's offer, " wasthe brusk rejoinder. "There was more than a corporation lawyer's salary insight, if you'd had sense enough to see it. "

"Possibly. But I stayed out--and I am still out. "

"Do you want to get in? Is that your price?"

"I intend to get in--though not, perhaps, in the way you have in mind. Areyou ready to recall Judge MacFarlane with instructions to give us ourhearing on the merits?"

The governor's face was wooden when he said:

"Is that all you want? I understand MacFarlane is returning, and you willdoubtless have your hearing in due season. "

"Not unless you authorize it, " Kent objected. 

"And if I do? If I say that I have already done so, will you come in andlay down your arms?"

"No. "

"Then I'm through. Give me your key and write me an order on the SecurityBank for those papers you are holding. "

"No, " said Kent, again. 

"I say _yes_!" came the explosive reassertion; and Kent found himselflooking down the bright barrel of a pistol thrust into his face across thetable. 

For a man who had been oftenest an onlooker on the football half of life, Kent was measurably quick and resourceful. In one motion he clamped theweapon and turned it aside; in another he jammed the fire end of his cigaramong the fingers of the grasping hand. The governor jerked free with anoath, pain-extorted; and Kent dropped the captured weapon into the tabledrawer. It was all done in two breaths, and when it was over, Kent flungaway the broken cigar and lighted a fresh one. 

"That was a very primitive expedient, your Excellency, to say the best ofit, " he remarked. "Have you nothing better to offer?"

The reply was a wild-beast growl, and taking it for a negative, Kent wenton. 

"Then perhaps you will listen to my proposal. The papers you are soanxious about are here, "--tapping the envelope on the table. "No, don'ttry to snatch them; you wouldn't get out of here alive with them, lackingmy leave. Such of them as relate to your complicity in the Universal Oildeal are yours--on one condition; that your health fails and you getyourself ordered out of the State for the remainder of your term. "

"No!" thundered the governor. 

"Very well; you may stay and take a course of home treatment, if youprefer. It's optional. "

"By God! I don't know what keeps me from throttling you with my hands!"Bucks got upon his feet, and Kent rose, also, slipping the box envelopeinto his pocket and laying a precautionary hand on the drawer-pull. 

The governor turned away and walked to the window, nursing his burnedfingers. When he faced about it was to return to the charge. 

"Kent, what is it you want? Say it in two words. "

"Candidly, I didn't know, until a few minutes ago, Governor. It began witha determination to break your grip on my railroad, I believe. "

"You can have your railroad, if you can get it--and be damned to it, andto you, too!"

"I said it began that way. My sole idea in gathering up this evidenceagainst you and your accomplices was to whittle out a club that would makeyou let go of the Trans-Western. For two weeks I have been debating withmyself as to whether I should buy you or break you; and half an hourbefore you came, I went to the bank and took these papers out, meaning togo and hunt you up. "

"Well?" said the governor, and the word bared his teeth because his lipswere dry. 

"I thought I knew, in the old Gaston days, how many different kinds of ascoundrel you could be, but you've succeeded in showing me some newvariations in the last few minutes. It's a thousand pities that the peopleof a great State should be at the mercy of such a gang of pirates as youand Hendricks and Meigs and MacFarlane, and----"

"Break it off!" said Bucks. 

"I'm through. I was merely going to add' that I have concluded not to buyyou. "

"Then it's to be war to the knife, is it?"

"That is about the size of it, " said Kent; and the governor found his hat. 

"I'll trouble you to return my property, " he growled, pointing to thetable drawer. 

"Certainly. " Kent broke the revolver over the blotting pad, swept theejected cartridges into the open drawer, and passed the empty weapon toits owner. 

When the door closed behind the outgoing visitor the victor in the smallpassage at arms began to walk the floor; but at four o'clock, which wasHildreth's hour for coming down-town, he put on his hat and went to climbthe three flights of stairs to the editor's den in the _Argus_ building. 

XXV

DEAD WATER AND QUICK

The cubby-hole in which Hildreth earned his bread by the sweat of hisbrain was dark even at midday; and during working hours the editor satunder a funnel-shaped reflector in a conic shower-bath of electric lightwhich flooded man and desk and left the corners of the room in a penumbraof grateful twilight. 

Kent sat just outside of the cone of radiance, watching Hildreth's face asthe editor read stolidly through the contents of the box envelope. It wasan instructive study in thought dynamics. There was a gleam of battlesatisfaction in the editorial eye when Hildreth faced the last sheet downupon the accumulation of evidence, saying:

"You didn't overstate the fact in your brag about the political graves. Only this isn't a spade; it's a steam shovel. Do I understand you aregiving me this stuff to use as I please?"

"Just that, " said Kent. 

"And you have made it serve your turn, too?"

"No. " Kent's voice was sharp and crisp. 

"Isn't that what you got it for?"

"Yes. "

"Then why don't you use it?"

"That was what Bucks wanted to know a little while ago when he came to myrooms to try to buy me off. I don't think I succeeded in making himunderstand why I couldn't traffic with it; and possibly you wouldn'tunderstand. "

"I guess I do. It's public property, and you couldn't divert it intoprivate channels. Is that the way it struck you?"

"It is the way it struck a friend of mine whose sense of ultimate rightand wrong hasn't lost its fine edge in the world-mill. I did not want todo it. "

"Naturally, " said the editor. "Giving it up means the loss of all you havebeen working for in the railroad game. I wish I could use it, just as itstands. "

"Can't you?"

"I am afraid not--effectively. It would make an issue in a campaign; or, sprung on the eve of an election, it might down the ring conclusively. Ithink it would. But this is the off year, and the people won't rise to apolitical issue--couldn't make themselves felt if they should. "

"I don't agree with you. You have your case all made out, with theevidence in sound legal form. What is to prevent your trying it?"

"The one thing that you ought to be lawyer enough to see at a glance. There is no court to try it in. With the Assembly in session we might dosomething: as it is, we can only yap at the heels of the ringsters, andour yapping won't help you in the railroad fight. What do you hear fromBoston?"

"Nothing new. The stock is still flat on the market, with thestock-holders' pool holding a bare majority, and the Plantagould brokersbuying in driblets wherever they can find a small holder who is willing tolet go. It is only a question of time; and a very short time at that. "

The editor wagged his head in sympathy. 

"I wish I could help you, David. You've done a big thing for me--for the_Argus_; and all I have to hand you in return is a death sentence. MacFarlane is back. "

"Here? In town?"

"Yes. And that isn't the worst of it. The governor sent for him. "

"Have you any idea what is in the wind?" asked Kent, dry-lipped. 

"I am afraid I have. My young men have been nosing around in theTrans-Western affair, and several things have developed. Matters areapproaching a crisis. The cut-rate boom is about to collapse, and there istrouble brewing in the labor organizations. If Bucks doesn't get hishenchmen out of it pretty soon, they will be involved in the smash--whichwill be bad for them and for him, politically. "

"I developed most of that a good while ago, " Kent cut in. 

"Yes; I know. But there is more to follow. The stock-smashing plan was allright, but it is proving too slow. Now they are going to do somethingelse. "

"Can you give it a name?" asked Kent, nerving himself. 

"I can. But first tell me one thing: as matters stand, could Guilforddispose of the road--sell it or lease it?"

"No; he would first have to be made permanent receiver and be givenauthority by the court. "

"Ah! that explains Judge MacFarlane's return. Now what I am going to tellyou is the deadest of secrets. It came to me from one of the Overlandofficials, and I'm not supposed to gossip. Did you know the Overland ShortLine had passed under Plantagould domination?"

"I know they elected a Plantagould directory at the annual meeting. "

"Exactly. Well, Guilford is going to lease the Trans-Western to itscompetitor for a term of ninety-nine years. That's your death sentence. "

Kent sprang to his feet, and what he said is unrecordable. He was not aprofane man, but the sanguine temperament would assert itself explosivelyin moments of sudden stress. 

"When is this thing to be done?" he demanded, when the temperamental godswere appeased a little. 

Hildreth shrugged. 

"I have told you all I could, and rather more than I had any right to. Open the door behind you, won't you? The air is positively sulphurous. "

Kent opened the door, entirely missing the point of the sarcasm in hisheat. 

"But you must have some idea, " he insisted. 

"I haven't; any more than the general one that they won't let the grassgrow under their feet. "

"No. God blast the whole--I wish I could swear in Sanscrit. Themother-tongue doesn't begin to do justice to it. Now I know what Bucksmeant when he told me to take my railroad, _if I could get it_. He had thewhole thing coopered up in a barrel at that minute. "

"I take it you have no alternative to this, " said the editor, tapping thepile of affidavits. 

"Not a cursed shred of an idea! And, Hildreth--" he broke off shortbecause once again the subject suddenly grew too large for coherentspeech. 

Hildreth disentangled himself from the legs of his chair and stood up toput his hands on Kent's shoulders. 

"You are up against it hard, David, " he said; and he repeated: "I'd giveall my old shoes to be able to help you out. "

"I know it, " said Kent; and then he turned abruptly and went away. 

Between nine and ten o'clock the same evening Kent was walking the floorof his room, trying vainly to persuade himself that virtue was its ownreward, and wondering if a small dose of chloral hydrate would bedefensible under the cruel necessity for sleep. He had about decided infavor of the drug when a tap at the door announced the coming of abell-boy with a note. It was a message from Portia. 

"If you have thrown away your chance definitely, and are willing to take astill more desperate one, come to see me, " she wrote; and he wentmechanically, as a drowning man catches at a straw, knowing it will notsave him. 

The house in Alameda Square was dark when he went up the walk; and whilehe was feeling for the bell-push his summoner called to him out of theelectric stencilings of leaf shadows under the broad veranda. 

"It is too fine a night to stay indoors, " she said. "Come and sit in thehammock while I scold you as you deserve. " And when he had taken thehammock: "Now give an account of yourself. Where have you been for thepast age or two?"

"Wallowing around in the lower depths of the place that Dante visited, " headmitted. 

"Don't you think you deserve a manhandling?"

"I suppose so; and if you have it in mind, I shall probably get it. But Imay say I'm not especially anxious for a tongue-lashing to-night. "

"Poor boy!" she murmured, in mock sympathy. "Does it hurt to be trulygood?"

"Try it some time when you have a little leisure, and see for yourself, "he retorted. 

She laughed. 

"No; I'll leave that for the Miss Brentwoods. By the way, did you go totell the household good-by? Penelope was wondering audibly what had becomeof you. "

"I didn't know they were gone. I have been nowhere since the night youdrove me out with contumely and opprobrium. "

She laughed again. 

"You must have dived deep. They went a week ago Tuesday, and you lost yourghostly adviser and your political stage manager at one fell swoop. But itisn't wonderful that you haven't missed Mr. Ormsby. Having elected MissBrentwood your conscience-keeper-in-chief, you have no further use for theP. S. M. "

"And you have no further use for me, apparently, " he complained. "Did yousend for me so that you might abuse me in the second edition?"

"No; I wanted to give you a bit of news, and to repeat an old question ofmine. Do you know what they are going to do next with your railroad?"

"Yes; Hildreth told me this afternoon. "

"Well, what are _you_ going to do?"

"Nothing. There is nothing to be done. They have held to the form of legalprocedure thus far, but they won't do it any more. They will takeMacFarlane off in a corner somewhere, have him make Guilford permanentreceiver, and the lease to the Overland will be consummated on the spot. Isha'n't be in it. "

"Probably not; certainly not if you don't try to get in it. And thatbrings me back to the old question. Are you big enough, David?"

"If you think I haven't been big enough to live up to my opportunitiesthus far, I'm afraid I may disappoint you again, " he said doubtfully. 

"You have disappointed me, " she admitted. "That is why I am asking: I'dlike to be reasonably sure your Jonathan Edwardsy notions are not going totrip us again. "

"Portia, if I thought you really meant that . .. A conscienceless man isbad enough, God knows; but a conscienceless woman----"

Her laugh was a decorous little shriek. 

"David, you are _not_ big; you are narrow, narrow, _narrow_! Is there thenno other code of morals in the round world save that which the accident ofbirth has interleaved with your New England Bible? What is conscience? Isit an absolute standard of right and wrong? Or is it merely your ideal ormine, or Shafiz Ullah Khan's?"

"You may call it all the hard names you can lay tongue to, " he allowed. "I'm not getting much comfort out of it, and I rather enjoy hearing itabused. But you are thrusting at a shadow in the present instance. Do youknow what I did this afternoon?"

"How should I know?"

"I don't know why you shouldn't: you know everything that happens. ButI'll tell you. I had been fighting the thing over from start to finish andback again ever since you blessed me out a week ago last Monday, and atthe wind-up this afternoon I took the papers out of the bank vault, havingit in mind to go and give his Excellency a bad quarter of an hour. "

"But you didn't do it?"

"No, he saved me the trouble. While I was getting ready to go and hunthim, his card came up. We had it out in my rooms. "

"I'm listening, " she said; and he rehearsed the-facts for her, concealingnothing. 

"What a curious thing human nature is!" she commented, when he had made anend. "My better judgment says you were all kinds of a somebody for notclinching the nail when you had it so well driven home. And yet I can'thelp admiring your exalted fanaticism. I do love consistency, and thecourage of it. But tell me, if you can, how far these fair-fightingscruples of yours go. You have made it perfectly plain that if a thiefshould steal your pocketbook, you would suffer loss before you'dcompromise with him to get it back. But suppose you should catch him atit: would you feel compelled to call a policeman--or would you----"

He anticipated her. 

"You are doing me an injustice on the other side, now. I'll fight asfuriously as you like. All I ask is to be given a weapon that won't bloodymy hands. "

"Good!" she said approvingly. "I think I have found the weapon, but it'sdesperate, desperate! And O David! you've got to have a cool head and asteady hand when you use it. If you haven't, it will kill everybody withinthe swing of it--everybody but the man you are trying to reach. "

"Draw it and let me feel its edge, " he said shortly. 

Her chair was close beside the low-swung hammock. She bent to his ear andwhispered a single sentence. For a minute or two he sat motionless, weighing and balancing the chance of success against the swiftlymultiplying difficulties and hazards. 

"You call it desperate, " he said at length; "if there is a bigger word inthe language, you ought to find it and use it. The risk is that of aforlorn hope; not so much for me, perhaps, as for the innocent--or atleast ignorant--accomplices I'll have to enlist. "

She nodded. 

"That is true. But how much is your railroad worth?"

"It is bonded for fifty millions first, and twenty millions secondmortgage. "

"Well, seventy millions are worth fighting for: worth a very considerablerisk, I should say. "

"Yes. " And after another thoughtful interval: "How did you come to thinkof it?"

"It grew out of a bit of talk with the man who will have to put the apexon our pyramid after we have done our part. "

"Will he stand by us? If he doesn't, we shall all be no better than deadmen the morning after the fact. "

She clasped her hands tightly over her knee, and said:

"That is one of the chances we must take, David; one of the many. But itis the last of the bridges to be crossed, and there are lots of them inbetween. Are the details possible? That was the part I couldn't go into bymyself. "

He took other minutes for reflection. 

"I can't tell, " he said doubtfully. "If I could only know how much time wehave. "

Her eyes grew luminous. 

"David, what would you do without me?" she asked. "To-morrow night, inStephen Hawk's office in Gaston, you will lose your railroad. MacFarlaneis there, or if he isn't, he'll be there in the morning. Bucks, Guilfordand Hawk will go down from here to-morrow evening; and the Overland peopleare to come up from Midland City to meet them. "

There was awe undisguised in the look he gave her, and it had crept intohis voice when he said:

"Portia, are you really a flesh-and-blood woman?"

She smiled. 

"Meaning that your ancestors would have burned me for a witch? Perhapsthey would: I think quite likely they burned women who made bettermartyrs. But I didn't have to call in Flibbertigibbet. The programme is acarefully guarded secret, to be sure; but it is known--it had to beknown--to a number of people outside of our friends the enemy. You'veheard the story of the inventor and his secret, haven't you?"

"No. "

"Well, the man had invented something, and he told the secret of it to hisson. After a little the son wanted to tell it to a friend. The old mansaid, 'Hold on; I know it--that's one'--holding up one finger--'you knowit--that's eleven'--holding up another finger beside the first; 'and nowif you tell this other fellow, that'll be one hundred and eleven'--holdingup three fingers. That is the case with this programme. One of the onehundred and eleven--he is a person high up in the management of theOverland Short Line--dropped a few words in my hearing and I picked themup. That's all. "

"It is fearfully short--the time, I mean, " he said after another pause. "We can't count on any help from any one in authority. Guilford's broomhas swept the high-salaried official corners clean. But the wage-peopleare mutinous and ripe for anything. I'll go and find out where we stand. "And he groped on the floor of the veranda for his hat. 

"No, wait a minute, " she interposed. "We are not quite ready to adjournyet. There remains a little matter of compensation--your compensation--tobe considered. You are still on the company's payrolls?"

"In a way, yes; as its legal representative on the ground. "

"That won't do. If you carry this thing through successfully it must be onyour own account, and not as the company's paid servant. You must resignand make terms with Boston beforehand; and that, too, without tellingBoston what you propose to do. "

He haggled a little at that. 

"The company is entitled to my services, " he asserted. 

"It is entitled to what it pays for--your legal services. But this isentirely different. You will be acting upon your own initiative, andyou'll have to spend money like water at your own risk. You must be freeto deal with Boston as an outsider. "

"But I have no money to spend, " he objected. 

Again the brown eyes grew luminous; and again she said:

"What would you do without me? Happily, my information came early enoughto enable me to get a letter to Mr. Ormsby. He answered promptly by wirethis morning. Here is his telegram. "

She had been winding a tightly folded slip of paper around her fingers, and she smoothed it out and gave it to him. He held it in a patch of theelectric light between the dancing leaf shadows and read:

"Plot Number Two approved. Have wired one hundred thousand to Kent's orderSecurity Bank. Have him draw as he needs. "

"So now you see, " she went on, "you have the sinews of war. But you mustregard it as an advance and name your fee to the Boston folk so you canpay it back. "

He protested again, rather weakly. 

"It looks like extortion; like another graft, " he said; and now she lostpatience with him. 

"Of all the Puritan fanatics!" she cried. "If it were a simple commercialtransaction by which you would save your clients a round seventy milliondollars, which would otherwise be lost, would you scruple to take aproportionate fee?"

"No; certainly not. "

"Well, then; you go and tell Mr. Loring to wire his Advisory Board, and todo it to-night. "

"But I'll have to name a figure, " said Kent. 

"Of course, " she replied. 

Kent thought about it for a long minute. Then he said: "I wonder if tenthousand dollars, and expenses, would paralyze them?"

Miss Van Brock's comment was a little shriek of derision. 

"I knew you'd make difficulties when it came to the paying part of it, andsince I didn't know, myself, I wired Mr. Ormsby again. Here is what hesays, " and she untwisted a second telegram and read it to him. 

"'Fee should not be less than five per cent. Of bonded indebtedness;four-fifths in stock at par; one-fifth cash; no cure, no pay. '"

"Three million five hundred thousand dollars!" gasped Kent. 

"It's only nominally that much, " she laughed. "The stock part of it ismerely your guaranty of good faith: it is worth next to nothing now, andit will be many a long day before it goes to par, even if you aresuccessful in saving its life. So your magnificent fee shrinks to sevenhundred thousand dollars, less your expenses. "

"But heavens and earth! that's awful!" said Kent. 

"Not when you consider it as a surgeon's risk. You happen to be the oneman who has the idea, and if it isn't carried out, the patient is going todie to-morrow night, permanently. You are the specialist in this case, andspecialists come high. Now you may go and attend to the preliminarydetails, if you like. "

He found his hat and stood up. She stood with him; but when he took herhand she made him sit down again. 

"You have at least three degrees of fever!" she exclaimed; "or is it onlythe three-million-five-hundred-thousand-dollar shock? What have you beendoing to yourself?"

"Nothing, I assure you. I haven't been sleeping very well for a fewnights. But that is only natural. "

"And I said you must have a cool head! Will you do exactly as I tell youto?"

"If you don't make it too hard. "

"Take the car down-town--don't walk--and after you have made Mr. Loringsend his message to Boston, you go straight to Doctor Biddle. Tell himwhat is the matter with you, and that you need to sleep the clock around. "

"But the time!" he protested. "I shall need every hour between now andto-morrow night!"

"One clear-headed hour is worth a dozen muddled ones. You do as I say. "

"I hate drugs, " he said, rising again. 

"So do I; but there is a time for everything under the sun. It is a cryingnecessity that you go into this fight perfectly fit and with all your witsabout you. If you don't, somebody--several somebodies--will land in thepenitentiary. Will you mind me?"

"Yes, " he promised; and this time he got away. 

XXVI

ON THE HIGH PLAINS

Much to Elinor's relief, and quite as much, perhaps, to Penelope's, Mrs. Brentwood tired of Breezeland Inn in less than a fortnight and began totalk of returning to the apartment house in the capital. 

Pressed to give a reason for her dissatisfaction, the younger sister mighthave been at a loss to account for it in words; but Elinor's desire to cutthe outing short was based upon pride and militant shame. After manytrap-settings she had succeeded in making her mother confess that the stayat Breezeland was at Ormsby's expense; and not all of Mrs. Brentwood'spetulant justifyings could remove the sting of the nettle of obligation. 

"There is no reason in the world why you should make so much of it: I amyour mother, and I ought to know, " was Mrs. Brentwood's dictum. "Youwouldn't have any scruples if we were his guests on the _Amphitrite_ or inhis country house on Long Island. "

"That would be different, " Elinor contended. "We are not his guests here;we are his pensioners. "

"Nonsense!" frowned the mother. "Isn't it beginning to occur to you thatbeggars shouldn't be choosers? And, besides, so far as you are concerned, you are only anticipating a little. "

It was an exceedingly injudicious, not to say brutal way of putting it;and the blue-gray eyes flashed fire. 

"Can't you see that you are daily making a marriage between us more andmore impossible?" was the bitter rejoinder. Elinor's _métier_ was coolcomposure under fire, but she was not always able to compass it. 

Mrs. Brentwood fanned herself vigorously. She had been aching to have itout with this self-willed young woman who was playing fast and loose withattainable millions, and the hour had struck. 

"What made you break it off with Brookes Ormsby?" she snapped; adding: "Idon't wonder you were ashamed to tell me about it. "

"I did not break it off; and I was not ashamed. " Elinor had regained herself-control, and the angry light in the far-seeing eyes was giving placeto the cool gray blankness which she cultivated. 

"That is what Brookes told me, but I didn't believe him, " said the mother. "It's all wrong, anyway, and I more than half believe David Kent is at thebottom of it. "

Elinor left her chair and went to the window, which looked down on thesanatorium, the ornate parterre, and the crescent driveway. These familybickerings were very trying to her, and the longing to escape them wassometimes strong enough to override cool reason and her innate sense ofthe fitness of things. 

In her moments of deepest depression she told herself that the prolongedstruggle was making her hard and cynical; that she was growing more andmore on the Grimkie side and shrinking on the Brentwood. With theunbending uprightness of the Grimkie forebears there went a prosaic andunmalleable strain destructive alike of sentiment and the artistic ideals. This strain was in her blood, and from childhood she had fought it, hopefully at times, and at other times, as now, despairingly. There weretears in her eyes when she turned to the window; and if they were merelytears of self-pity, they were better than none. Once, in the halcyonsummer, David Kent had said that the most hardened criminal in the dockwas less dangerous to humanity than the woman who had forgotten how tocry. 

But into the turmoil of thoughts half indignant, half self-compassionate, came reproach and a great wave of tenderness filial. She saw, as with asudden gift of retrospection, her mother's long battle with inadequacy, and how it had aged her; saw, too, that the battle had been foughtunselfishly, since she knew her mother's declaration that she couldcontentedly "go back to nothing" was no mere petulant boast. It was forher daughters that she had grown thin and haggard and irritable under thepersistent reverses of fortune; it was for them that she was sinking theGrimkie independence in the match-making mother. 

The tears in Elinor's eyes were not altogether of self-pity when she puther back to the window. Ormsby was coming up the curved driveway in hisautomobile, and she had seen him but dimly through the rising mist ofemotion. 

"Have you set your heart upon this thing, mother?--but I know you have. And I--I have tried as I could to be just and reasonable; to you andPenelope, and to Brookes Ormsby. He is nobleness itself: it is a shame togive him the shadow when he so richly deserves the substance. "

She spoke rapidly, almost incoherently; and the mother-love in the womanwho was careful and troubled about the things that perish put thematch-maker to the wall. It was almost terrifying to see Elinor, thestrong-hearted, the self-contained, breaking down like other mothers'daughters. So it was the mother who held out her arms, and the daughterran to go down on her knees at the chair-side, burying her face in the lapof comforting. 

"There, there, Ellie, child; don't cry. It's terrible to hear you sob likethat, " she protested, her own voice shaking in sympathy. "I have beenthinking only of you and your future, and fearing weakly that you couldn'tbear the hard things. But we'll bear them together--we three; and I'llnever say another word about Brookes Ormsby and what might have been. "

"O mother! you are making it harder than ever, now, " was the tearfulrejoinder. "I--there is no reason why I should be so obstinate. I haven'teven the one poor excuse you are making for me down deep in your heart. "

"David Kent?" said the mother. 

The bowed head nodded a wordless assent. 

"I sha'n't say that I haven't suspected him all along, dear. I am afraid Ihave. I have nothing against him. But he is a poor man, Elinor; and we arepoor, too. You'd be miserably unhappy. "

"If he stays poor, it is I who am to blame, "--this most contritely. "Hehad a future before him: the open door was his winning in the railroadfight, and I closed it against him. "

"You?" said the mother, astonished. 

"Yes. I told him he couldn't go on in the way he meant to. I made it amatter of conscience; and he--he has turned back when he might have foughtit out and made a name for himself, and saved us all. And it was such ahair-splitting thing! All the world would have applauded him if he hadgone on; and there was only one woman in all the world to pry into thesecret places of his soul and stir up the sleeping doubt!"

Now, if all the thrifty, gear-getting "faculty" of the dead and goneGrimkies had become thin and diluted and inefficient in this Mrs. Hepzibah, last of the name, the strong wine and iron of the blood ofuprightness had come down to her unstrained. 

"Tell me all about it, daughter, " she adjured; and when the tale was told, she patted the bowed head tenderly and spoke the words of healing. 

"You did altogether right, Ellie, dear; I--I am proud of you, daughter. And if, as you say, you were the only one to do it, that doesn't matter;it was all the more necessary. Are you sure he gave it up?"

Elinor rose and stood with clasped hands beside her mother's chair; a verypitiful and stricken half-sister of the self-reliant, dependable youngwoman who had boasted herself the head of the household. 

"I have no means of knowing what he has done, " she said slowly. "But Iknow the man. He has turned back. "

There was a tap at the door and a servant was come to say that Mr. BrookesOrmsby was waiting with his auto-car. Was Miss Brentwood nearly ready?

Elinor said, "In a minute, " and when the door closed, she made aconfidante of her mother for the first time since her childhood days. 

"I know what you have suspected ever since that summer in New Hampshire, and it is true, " she confessed. "I do love him--as much as I dare towithout knowing whether he cares for me. Must I--may I--say yes to BrookesOrmsby without telling him the whole truth?"

"Oh, my dear! You couldn't do that!" was the quick reply. 

"You mean that I am not strong enough? But I am; and Mr. Ormsby is manlyenough and generous enough to meet me half-way. Is there any other honestthing to do, mother?"

Mrs. Hepzibah shook her head deliberately and determinedly, though sheknew she was shaking the Ormsby millions into the abyss of theunattainable. 

"No; it is his just due. But I can't help being sorry for him, Ellie. Whatwill you do if he says it doesn't make any difference?"

The blue-gray eyes were downcast. 

"I don't know. Having asked so much, and accepted so much from him--itshall be as he says, mother. "

The afternoon had been all that a summer afternoon on the brown highlandscan be, and the powerful touring car had swept them from mile to mile overthe dun hills like an earth-skimming dragon whose wing-beat was themuffled, explosive thud of the motor. 

Through most of the miles Elinor had given herself up to silent enjoymentof the rapture of swift motion, and Ormsby had respected her mood, as healways did. But when they were on the high hills beyond the mining-camp ofMegilp, and he had thrown the engines out of gear to brake the car gentlydown the long inclines, there was room for speech. 

"This is our last spin together on the high plains, I suppose, " he said. "Your mother has fixed upon to-morrow for our return to town, hasn't she?"

Elinor confirmed it half-absently. She had been keyed up to face theinevitable in this drive with Ormsby, and she was afraid now that he wasgoing to break her resolution by a dip into the commonplaces. 

"Are you glad or sorry?" he asked. 

Her reply was evasive. 

"I have enjoyed the thin, clean air and the freedom of the wide horizons. Who could help it?"

"But you have not been entirely happy?"

It was on her lips to say some conventional thing about the constantjarring note in all human happiness, but she changed it to a simple "No. "

"May I try if I can give the reason?"

She made a reluctant little gesture of assent; some such signal ofacquiescence as Marie Antoinette may have given the waiting headsman. 

"You have been afraid every day lest I should begin a second time to pressyou for an answer, haven't you?"

She could not thrust and parry with him. They were past all that. 

"Yes, " she admitted briefly. 

"You break my heart, Elinor, " he said, after a long pause. "But"--with asudden tightening of the lips--"I'm not going to break yours. "

She understood him, and her eyes filled quickly with the swift shock ofgratitude. 

"If you had made a study of womankind through ten lifetimes instead of apart of one, you could not know when and how to strike truer and deeper, "she said; and then, softly: "Why can't you make me love you, Brookes?"

He took his foot from the brake-pedal, and for ten seconds the releasedcar shot down the slope unhindered. Then he checked the speed and answeredher. 

"A little while ago I should have said I didn't know; but now I do know. It is because you love David Kent: you loved him before I had my chance. "

She did not deny the principal fact, but she gave him his opportunity toset it aside if he could--and would. 

"Call it foolish, romantic sentiment, if you like. Is there no way toshame me out of it?"

He shook his head slowly. 

"You don't mean that. "

"But if I say that I do; if I insist that I am willing to be shamed out ofit. "

His smile was that of a brother who remembers tardily to be loving-kind. 

"I shall leave that task for some one who cares less for you and for yourtrue happiness than I do, or ever shall. And it will be a mighty thanklessservice that that 'some one' will render you. "

"But I ought to be whipped and sent to bed, " she protested, almosttearfully. "Do you know what I have done?--how I have----"

She could not quite put it in words, even for him, and he helped hergenerously, as before. 

"I know what Kent hasn't done; which is more to the point. But he will doit fast enough if you will give him half a chance. "

"No, " she said definitively. 

"I say yes. One thing, and one thing only, has kept him from telling youany time since last autumn: that is a sort of finical loyalty to me. I sawhow matters stood when he came aboard of our train at Gaston--I'm askingyou to believe that I didn't know it beforeand I saw then that my onlyhope was to make a handfast friend of him. And I did it. "

"I believe you can do anything you try to do, " she said warmly. 

This time his smile was a mere grimace. 

"You will have to make one exception, after this; and so shall I. Andsince it is the first of any consequence in all my mounting years, itgrinds. I can't throw another man out of the window and take his place. "

"If you were anything but what you are, you would have thrown him out ofthe window another way, " she rejoined. 

"That would have been a dago's trick; not a white man's, " he asserted. "Isuppose I might have got in his way and played the dog in the mangergenerally, and you would have stuck to your word and married me, but I amnot looking for that kind of a winning. I don't mind confessing that Iplayed my last card when I released you from your engagement. I said tomyself: If that doesn't break down the barriers, nothing will. "

She looked up quickly. 

"You will never know how near it came to doing it, Brookes. "

"But it didn't quite?"

"No, it didn't quite. "

The brother-smile came again. 

"Let's paste that leaf down and turn the other; the one that has DavidKent's name written, at the top. He is going to succeed all around, Elinor; and I am going to help him--for his sake, as well as yours. "

"No, " she dissented. "He is going to fail; and I am to blame for it. "

He looked at her sidewise. 

"So you were at the bottom of that, were you? I thought as much, and triedto make him admit it, but he wouldn't. What was your reason?"

"I gave it to him: I can't give it to you. "

"I guess not, " he laughed. "I wasn't born on the right side of theBerkshire Hills to appreciate it. But really, you mustn't interfere. As Isay, we are going to make something of David; and a little conscience--ofthe right old Pilgrim Fathers' brand--goes a long way in politics. "

"But you promised me you were not going to spoil him--only it doesn'tmatter; you can't. "

Ormsby chuckled openly, and when she questioned "What?" he said:

"I was just wondering what you would say if you knew what he is into now;if you could guess, for instance, that his backers have put up a coolhundred thousand to be used as he sees fit?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed; and there was dismay and sharp disappointment in hervoice. "You don't mean that he is going to bribe these men?"

"No, " he said, relenting. "As a matter of fact, I don't know preciselywhat he is doing with the money, but I guess it is finding its way intolegitimate channels. I'll make him give me an itemized expense account foryour benefit when it's all over, if you like. "

"It would be kinder to tell me more about it now, " she pleaded. 

"No; I'll let him have that pleasure, after the fact--if we can get himpardoned out before you go back East. "

She was silent so long that he stole another sidewise look between hissnubbings of the brake-pedal. Her face was white and still, like the faceof one suddenly frost-smitten, and he was instantly self-reproachful. 

"Don't look that way, " he begged. "It hurts me; makes me feel how heavy myhand is when I'm doing my best to make it light. He is trying a ratherdesperate experiment, to be sure, but he is in no immediate personaldanger. I believe it or I shouldn't be here; I should be with him. "

She asked no more questions, being unwilling to tempt him to breakconfidence with Kent. But she was thinking of all the desperate things adetermined man with temperamental unbalancings might do when the touringcar rolled noiselessly down the final hill into the single street ofMegilp. 

There was but one vehicle in the street at the moment; a freighter'sore-wagon drawn by a team of mules, meekest and most shambling-prosaic oftheir tribe. The motor-car was running on the spent velocity of thedescent, and Ormsby thought to edge past without stopping. But at thecritical instant the mules gave way to terror, snatched the heavy wagoninto the opposite plank walk, and tried to climb a near-by telephone pole. Ormsby put his foot on the brake and something snapped under the car. 

"What was that?" Elinor asked; and Ormsby got down to investigate. 

"It is our brake connection, " he announced, after a brief inspection. "Andwe are five good miles from Hudgins and his repair kit. "

A ring of town idlers was beginning to form about them. An automobile wasstill enough of a rarity in the mining-camp to draw a crowd. 

"Busted?" inquired one of the onlookers. 

Ormsby nodded, and asked if there were a machinist in the camp. 

"Yep, " said the spokesman; "up at the Blue Jay mine. "

"Somebody go after him, " suggested Ormsby, flipping a coin; and a boystarted on a run. 

The waiting was a little awkward. The ringing idlers were good-natured butcurious. Ormsby stood by and answered questions multiform, divertingcuriosity from the lady to the machine. Presently the spokesman said:

"Is this here the steam-buggy that helped a crowd of you fellers to getaway from Jud Byers and his posse one day a spell back?"

"No, " said Ormsby. Then he remembered the evening of small surprises--theracing tally-ho with the Inn auto-car to help; and, more pointedly now, the singular mirage effect in the lengthening perspective as theeast-bound train shot away from Agua Caliente. 

"What was the trouble that day?" he asked, putting in a question on hisside. 

"A little ruction up at the Twin Sisters. There was a furss, an' a gunwent off, accidintally on purpose killin' Jim Harkins, " was the reply. 

The machinist was come from the Blue Jay, and Ormsby helped Elinor out ofher seat while the repairs were making. The town office of the Blue Jaywas just across the street, and he took her there and begged house-roomand a chair for her, making an excuse that he must go and see to thebrake-mending. 

But once outside he promptly stultified himself, letting the repairs takecare of themselves while he went in search of one Jud Byers. The deputysheriff was not hard to find. Normally and in private life he was theweigher for the Blue Jay; and Ormsby was directed to the scale shantywhich served as the weigher's office. 

The interview was brief and conclusive; was little more than a rapid fireof question and answer; and for the greater part the sheriff'saffirmatives were heartily eager. Yes, certainly; if the thing could bebrought to pass, he, Byers, would surely do his part. All he asked was anhour or two in which to prepare. 

"You shall have all the time there is, " was the reply. "Have you a WesternUnion wire here?"

"No; nothing but the railroad office. "

"That won't do; they'd stop the message. How about the Inn?"

"Breezeland has a Western Union all right; wire your notice there, andI'll fix to have it 'phoned over. I don't believe it can be worked, though, " added the deputy, doubtfully. 

"We can't tell till we try, " said Ormsby; and he hurried back to his carto egg on the machinist with golden promises contingent upon haste. 

Miss Brentwood found her companion singularly silent on the five-mile raceto Breezeland; but the lightning speed at which he drove the car putconversation out of the question. At the hotel he saw her into the liftwith decent deliberation; but the moment she was off his hands he fairlyran to the telegrapher's alcove in the main hall. 

"Have you a Western Union wire to the capital direct?" he inquired. 

The young man snapped his key and said he had. 

"It has no connection with the Trans-Western railroad offices?"

"None whatever. "

Ormsby dashed off a brief message to Kent, giving three or four addressesat which he might be found. 

"Send that, and have them try the Union Station train platform first. Don't let them spare expense at the other end, and if you can bring proofof delivery to Room 261 within half an hour, it means a month's pay toyou, individually. Can you do it?"

But the operator was already claiming the wire, writing "deth, " "deth, ""deth, " as rapidly as his fingers could shake off the dots and dashes. 

XXVII

BY ORDER OF THE COURT

Between the hours of eight-thirty and ten P. M. The Union Passenger Stationat the capital presents a moving and spirited spectacle. Within the hourand a half, four through and three local trains are due to leave, and thespace within the iron grille that fences off the track platforms from thepublic part of the station is filled with hurrying throngs oftrain-takers. 

Down at the outer end of the train-shed the stuttering pop-valves of thelocomotives, the thunderous trundling of the heavy baggage trucks, and theshrill, monotonous chant of the express messengers checking in theircargoes, lift a din harmonious to the seasoned traveler; a medley softenedand distance-diminished for those that crowd upon the gate-keepers at theiron grille. 

It was the evening of the last day in the month; the day when theFederative Council of Railway Workers had sent its ultimatum to ReceiverGuilford. The reduction in wages was to go into effect at midnight: if, bymidnight, the order had not been rescinded, and the way opened for a jointconference touching the removal of certain obnoxious officials, a generalstrike and tie-up would be ordered. Trains in transit carrying passengersor United States mail would be run to their respective destinations;trains carrying perishable freight would be run to division stations: withthese exceptions all labor would cease promptly on the stroke of twelve. 

Such was the text of the ultimatum, a certified copy of which EngineerScott had delivered in person into the hands of the receiver at noon. 

It was now eight forty-five P. M. The east-bound night express was readyfor the run to A. & T. Junction; the fast mail, one hour and thirty-fiveminutes late from the east, was backing in on track nine to take on thecity mail. On track eight, pulled down so that the smoke from the engineshould not foul the air of the train-shed, the receiver's private car, with the 1010 for motive power and "Red" Callahan in the cab, had beenwaiting since seven o'clock for the order to run special to Gaston. And asyet the headquarters office had made no sign; sent no word of reply to thestrike notice. 

Griggs was on for the night run eastward with the express; and "Dutch"Tischer had found himself slated to take the fast mail west. The change ofengines on the mail had been effected at the shops; and when Tischerbacked his train in on track nine his berth was beside the 1010. Callahanswung down from his cab and climbed quickly to that of the mail engine. 

"Annything new at the shops, Dutchy?" he inquired. 

"I was not somet'ings gehearing, _nein_. You was dot _Arkoos_ newsbaperdis evening _schen_? He says nodings too, alretty, about dot strike. "

"Divil a worrd. Ye might think Scotty'd handed the major a bit av blankpaper f'r all the notice he's taking. More thin that, he's lavin' town, wid me to pull him. The Naught-seven's to run special to Gaston--bad cessto ut!"

"Vell, I can'd hellup id, " said the phlegmatic Bavarian. "I haf the mailand egspress got, and I go mit dem t'rough to Pighorn. You haf der brivatecar got, and you go mit dem t'rough to Gaston. Den ve qvits, ain'd it?"

Callahan nodded and dropped to the platform. But before he could mount tothe foot-board of the 1010, M'Tosh collared him. 

"Patsy, I have your orders, at last. Your passengers will be down in a fewminutes, and you are to pull out ahead of the express. "

"Is it to Gaston I'm goin', Misther M'Tosh?"

The fireman was standing by with the oil can and torch, ready toCallahan's hand, and the train-master drew the engineer aside. 

"Shovel needn't hear, " he said in explanation. And then: "Are you willingto stand with us, Patsy? You've had time enough to think it over. "

Callahan stood with his arms folded and his cap drawn down over his eyes. 

"'Tis not f'r meself I'm thinkin', Misther M'Tosh, as ye well know. ButI'm a widdy man; an' there's the bit colleen in the convint. "

"She'll be well cared for, whatever happens to you, " was the quick reply. 

"Thin I'm yer man, " said Callahan; and when the train-master was gone, heordered Shovel to oil around while he did two or three things which, to aninitiated onlooker, might have seemed fairly inexplicable. First hedisconnected the air-hose between the car and the engine, tying the endsup with a stout cord so that the connection would not seem to be broken. Next he crawled under the Naught-seven and deliberately bled the air-tank, setting the cock open a mere hair's-breadth so that it would leak slowlybut surely until the pressure was entirely gone. 

Then he got a hammer and sledge out of the engine tool-box, and afterhooking up the safety-chain couplings between the private car and the1010, he crippled the points of the hooks with the hammer so that theycould not be disengaged without the use of force and the proper tools. 

"There ye are, ye ould divil's band-wagon, " he said, apostrophizing theprivate car when his work was done. "Ye'll ride this night where PatsyCallahan dhrives, an' be dommed to ye. "

Meanwhile the train-master had reached the iron grille at the other end ofthe long track platform. At a small wicket used by the station employeesand trainmen, Kent was waiting for him. 

"Is it all right, M'Tosh? Will he do it?" he asked anxiously. 

"Yes, Patsy's game for it; I knew he would be. He'd put his neck in a ropeto spite the major. But it's a crazy thing, Mr. Kent. "

"I know it; but if it will give me twenty-four hours--"

"It won't. They can't get home on our line because we'll be tied up. Butthey can get the Naught-seven put on the Overland's Limited at A. & T. Junction, and that will put them back here before you've had time to turnaround twice. Have they come down yet?"

"No, " said Kent; and just then he saw Loring coming in from the streetentrance and went to meet him. 

"I have the final word from Boston, " said the ex-manager, when he hadwalked Kent out of earshot of the train-takers. "Your terms areaccepted--with all sorts of safeguards thrown about the 'no cure, no pay'proviso; also with a distinct repudiation of you and your scheme if thereis anything unlawful afoot. Do you still think it best to keep me in thedark as to what you are doing?"

"Yes; there are enough of us involved, as it stands. You couldn't help;and you might hinder. Besides, if the mine should happen to explode in ourdirection it'll be a comfort to have a foot-loose friend or two on theoutside to pick up the pieces of us. "

Loring was polishing his eye-glasses with uncommon vigor. 

"I wish you'd drop it, David, if it isn't too late. I can't help feelingas if I had prodded you into it, whatever it is. "

Kent linked arms with him and led him back to the street entrance. 

"Go away, Grantham, and don't come back again, " he commanded. "Then youcan swear truthfully that you didn't know anything about it. It is toolate to interfere, and you are not responsible for me. Go up to seePortia; she'll keep you interested while you wait. "

When Loring was gone, Kent went back to the wicket in the grille; butM'Tosh, who was always a busy man at train-time, had disappeared again. 

It was a standing mystery to the train-master, and to the rank and file, why Receiver Guilford had elected to ignore the fact that he was withinthree hours of a strike which promised to include at least four-fifths ofhis operatives; had taken no steps for defense, and had not confided, asit appeared, in the members of his own official staff. 

But Kent was at no loss to account for the official silence. If the secretcould be kept for a few hours longer, the junto would unload theTrans-Western, strike, tie-up and general demoralization, upon anunsuspecting Overland management. 

None the less, there were other things unexplainable even to Kent; forone, this night flitting to Gaston to put the finishing touch on anedifice of fraud which had been builded shamelessly in the light of day. 

Kent had not the key to unlock this door of mystery; but here the masterspirit of the junto was doing, not what he would, but what he could. Thenegotiations for the lease had consumed much time at a crisis when timewas precious. Judge MacFarlane had to be recalled and once more bulliedinto subjection; and Falkland, acting for the Plantagould interest, hadinsisted upon some formal compliance with the letter of the law. 

Bucks had striven masterfully to drive and not be driven; but the delayswere inexorable, and the impending strike threatened to turn the orderlycharge into a rout. The governor had postponed the _coup_ from day to day, waiting upon the leisurely movements of Falkland; and at the end of theends there remained but three hours of the final day of grace when thetelegram came from Falkland with the welcome news that the Overlandofficials were on their way from Midland City to keep the appointment inGaston. 

Of all this Kent knew nothing, and was anxious in just proportion as theminutes elapsed and the time for the departure of the east-bound expressdrew near. For the success of the desperate venture turned upon this: thatthe receiver's special must leave ahead of the passenger train. With theexpress blocking the way the difficulties became insurmountable. 

Kent was still standing at the trainmen's wicket when Callahan sent theprivate car gently up to the trackhead of track eight. M'Tosh had beentelephoning again, and the receiver and his party were on the way to thestation. 

"I was afraid you'd have to let the express go first, " said Kent, when thetrain-master came his way again. "How much time have we?"

"Five minutes more; and they are on the way down--there they come. "

Kent looked and saw a group of six men making for the nearest exit in thegrille. Then he smote his fist into his palm. 

"Damn!" he muttered; "they've got the vice-president of the Overland withthem! That's bad. "

"It's bad for Mr. Callafield, " growled M'Tosh. "We're in too deep now toback down on his account. "

Kent moved nearer and stood in the shadow of the gate-keeper's box, leaving M'Tosh, who was on the track platform, free to show himself. Fromhis new point of espial Kent checked off the members of the party. WhenMajor Guilford left it to come back for a word with M'Tosh, there werefive others: the governor, his private secretary, Hawk, Halkett, thegeneral superintendent, and the Overland's vice-president. 

"All ready, M'Tosh?" said the receiver. 

"Ready and waiting, Major, " was the bland reply. 

"Who is our engineer?"

"Patrick Callahan. "

"That wild Irishman? The governor says he'd as soon ride behind thedevil. "

"Callahan will get you there, " said the train-master, with deliberateemphasis. Then he asked a question of his own. "Is Mr. Callafield goingwith you?"

"No. He came down to see us off. How is the fast mail to-night?"

"She's just in--an hour and thirty-five minutes late. "

The major swore pathetically. He was of the generation of railwayofficials, happily fast passing, which cursed and swore itself intoauthority. 

"That's another five hundred dollars' forfeit to the Post-officeDepartment! Who's taking it west?"

"Tischer. "

"Give him orders to cut out all the stops. If he is more than fifty-fiveminutes late at Bighorn, he can come in and get his time. "

Tischer had just got the word to go, and was pulling out on the yard mainline. 

"I'll catch him with the wire at yard limits, " said M'Tosh. Then: "Wouldyou mind hurrying your people a little, Major? The express is due toleave. "

Guilford was a heavy man for his weight, and he waddled back to theothers, waving his arms as a signal for them to board the car. 

Kent saw the vice-president of the Overland Short Line shake hands withBucks and take his leave, and was so intent upon watching the tableau ofdeparture that he failed to notice the small boy in Western Union blue whowas trying to thrust a telegram, damp from the copying rolls, into hishand. 

"It's a rush, sir, " said the boy, panting from his quick dash across thetrack platforms. 

It was Ormsby's message from Breezeland; and while Kent was trying tograsp the tremendous import of it, M'Tosh was giving Callahan the signalto go. Kent sprang past the gate-keeper and gave the square of damp paperto the train-master. 

"My God! read that!" he gasped, with a dry sob of excitement. "It was ourchance--one chance in a million--and we've lost it!"

M'Tosh was a man for a crisis. The red tail-lights of the private-carspecial were yet within a sprinter's dash of the trackhead, but thetrain-master lost no time chasing a ten-wheel flyer with "Red" Callahan atthe throttle. 

"Up to my office!" he shouted; and ten seconds later Kent was leaningbreathless over the desk in the despatcher's room while M'Tosh calledDurgan over the yard limits telephone. 

"Is that you, Durgan?" he asked, when the reply came. Then: "Drop theboard on the mail, quick! and send somebody to tell Tischer to side-track, leaving the main line Western Division clear. Got that?"

The answer was evidently prompt and satisfactory, since he began againalmost in the same breath. 

"Now go out yourself and flag Callahan before he reaches the limits. Tellhim the time-card's changed and he is to run _west_ with the special toMegilp as first section of the mail--no stops, or Tischer will run himdown. Leg it! He's half-way down the yard, now!"

The train-master dropped the ear-piece of the telephone and crossedquickly to the despatcher's table. 

"Orders for the Western Division, Donohue, " he said curtly, "and don't letthe grass grow. 'Receiver's car, Callahan, engineer, runs to Megilp asfirst section of fast mail. Fast mail, Hunt, conductor; Tischer, engineer;runs to the end of the division without stop, making up all timepossible. ' Add to that last, 'By order of the receiver. '"

The orders were sent as swiftly as the despatcher could rattle them off onhis key; and then followed an interval of waiting more terrible than abattle. Kent tried to speak, but his lips were parched and his tongue waslike a dry stick between his teeth. What was doing in the lower yard?Would Durgan fail at the pinch and mismanage it so as to give the alarm?The minutes dragged leaden-winged, and even the sounders on thedespatcher's table were silent. 

Suddenly the clicking began again. The operator at "yard limits" wassending the O. K. To the two train orders. So far, so good. Now if Callahancould get safely out on the Western Division. .. 

But there was a hitch in the lower yard. Durgan had obeyed his orderspromptly and precisely, and had succeeded in stopping Callahan at thestreet-crossing where Engineer Dixon had killed the farmer. Durgan climbedto the cab of the 1010, and the changed plan was explained in a dozenwords. But now came the crux. 

"If I stand here till you'd be bringin' me my orders, I'll have the wholekit av thim buzzin' round to know fwhat's the matther, " said Callahan; butthere was no other thing to do, and Durgan hurried back to the telegraphoffice to play the messenger. 

He was too long about it. Before he got back, Halkett was under the cabwindow of the 1010, demanding to know--with many objurgations--whyCallahan had stopped in the middle of the yards. 

"Get a move on you!" he shouted. "The express is right behind us, andit'll run us down, you damned bog-trotter!"

Callahan's gauntleted hand shot up to the throttle-bar. 

"I'm l'avin', Misther Halkett, " he said mildly. "Will yez go back to thecar, or ride wit' me?"

The general superintendent took no chance of catching the Naught-seven'shand-rails in the darkness, and he whipped up into the cab at the firstsharp cough of the exhaust. 

"I'll go back when you stop for your orders, " he said; but a shadowyfigure had leaped upon the engine-step a scant half-second behind him, andCallahan was stuffing the crumpled copy of the order into the sweat-bandof his cap. The next instant the big 1010 leaped forward like a bloodedhorse under an unmerited cut of the whip, slid past the yard limitstelegraph office and shot out upon the main line of the Western Division. 

"Sit down, Misther Halkett, an' make yerself aisy!" yelled Callahan acrossthe cab. "'Tis small use Jimmy Shovel'll have for his box this night. "

"Shut off, you Irish madman!" was the shouted command. "Don't you seeyou're on the wrong division?"

Callahan gave the throttle-bar another outward hitch, tipped his seat andtook a hammer from the tool-box. 

"I know where I'm goin', an' that's more thin you know, ye blandhanderin'divil! Up on that box wit' you, an' kape out av Jimmy Shovel's road, orI'll be the death av yez! Climb, now!"

It was at this moment that the tense strain of suspense was broken in thedespatcher's room on the second floor of the Union Station. The telephoneskirled joyously, and the train-master snatched up the ear-piece. 

"What does he say?" asked Kent. 

"It's all right. He says Callahan is out on the Western Division, withTischer chasing him according to programme. Halkett's in the cab of the1010 with Patsy, and--hold on--By George! he says one of them jumped thecar as it was passing the limits station!"

"Which one was it?" asked Kent; and he had to wait till the reply camefrom Durgan. 

"It was Hawk, the right-of-way man. He broke and ran for the nearestelectric-car line the minute he hit the ground, Durgan says. Does hecount?"

"No, " said Kent; but it is always a mistake to under-rate an enemy'scaliber--even that of his small arms. 

XXVIII

THE NIGHT OF ALARMS

If Editor Hildreth had said nothing in his evening edition about theimpending strike on the Trans-Western, it was not because public interestwas waning. For a fortnight the newspapers in the territory tributary tothe road had been full of strike talk, and Hildreth had said his say, deprecating the threatened appeal to force as fearlessly as he condemnedthe mismanagement which was provoking it. 

But it was Kent who was responsible for the dearth of news on the eve ofthe event. Early in the morning of the last day of the month he had soughtout the editor and begged him to close the columns of the _Evening Argus_to strike news, no matter what should come in during the course of theday. 

"I can't go into the reasons as deeply now as I hope to a little later, "he had said, his secretive habit holding good to the final fathom of theslipping hawser of events. "But you must bear with me once more, andwhatever you hear between now and the time you go to press, don't commenton it. I have one more chance to win out, and it hangs in a balance that afeather's weight might tip the wrong way. I'll be with you between ten andtwelve to-night, and you can safely save two columns of the morning paperfor the sensation I'm going to give you. "

It was in fulfilment of this promise that Kent bestirred himself after hehad sent a wire to Ormsby, and M'Tosh had settled down to the task ofsmoothing Callahan's way westward over a division already twitching in thepreliminary rigor of the strike convulsion. 

"I am going to set the fuse for the newspaper explosion, " he said to hisally. "Barring accidents, there is no reason why we shouldn't begin tofigure definitely upon the result, is there?"

M'Tosh was leaning over Despatcher Donohue's shoulder. He had slippedDonohue's fingers aside from the key to cut in with a peremptory "G. S. "order suspending, in favor of the fast mail, the rule which requires astation operator to drop his board on a following section that is lessthan ten minutes behind its file-leader. 

"The fun is beginning, " said the train-master. "Tischer has his tip fromDurgan to keep Callahan's tail-lights in sight. With the mail treading ontheir heels the gentlemen in the Naught-seven will be chary about pullingPatsy down too suddenly in mid career. They have just passed Morning Dew, and the operator reports Tischer for disregarding his slow signal. "

"Can't you fix that?" asked Kent. 

"Oh, yes; that is one of the things I can fix. But there are going to beplenty of others. "

"Still we must take something for granted, Mr. M'Tosh. What I have to doup-town won't wait until Callahan has finished his run. I thought the maindifficulty was safely overcome. "

"Umph!" said the train-master; "the troubles are barely getting themselvesborn. You must remember that we swapped horses at the last minute. We wereready for the race to the east. Everybody on the Prairie Division had beennotified that a special was to go through to-night without stop fromLesterville to A. & T. Junction. "

"Well?"

"Now we have it all to straighten out by wire on another division; meetingpoints to make, slow trains to side-track, fool operators to hold down;all on the dizzy edge of a strike that is making every man on the linelose his balance. But you go ahead with your newspaper business. I'll dowhat a man can here. And if you come across that right-of-way agent, Iwish you'd make it a case of assault and battery and get him locked up. I'm leery about him. "

Kent went his way dubiously reflective. In the moment of triumph, whenDurgan had announced the success of the bold change in the programme, hehad made light of Hawk's escape. But now he saw possibilities. True, thejunto was leaderless for the moment, and Bucks had no very ablelieutenants. But Hawk would give the alarm; and there was the rank andfile of the machine to reckon with. And for weapons, the ring controlledthe police power of the State and of the city. Let the word be passed thatthe employees of the Trans-Western were kidnapping their receiver and thegovernor, and many things might happen before "Red" Callahan should finishhis long race to the westward. 

Thinking of these things, David Kent walked up-town when he might havetaken a car. When the toxin of panic is in the air there is no antidotelike vigorous action. 

Passing the Western Union central office, he stopped to send Ormsby asecond telegram, reporting progress and asking him to be present in personat the dénouement to put the facts on the wire at the earliest possibleinstant of time. "Everything depends upon this, " he added, when he hadmade the message otherwise emphatic. "If we miss the morning papers, weare done. "

While he was pocketing his change at the receiving clerk's pigeon-hole, acab rattled up with a horse at a gallop, and Stephen Hawk sprang out. Kentsaw him through the plate-glass front and turned quickly to the publicwriting-desk, hoping to be overlooked. He was. For once in a way theex-district attorney was too nearly rattled to be fully alert to hissurroundings. There were others at the standing desk; and Hawk wrote hismessage, after two or three false starts, almost at Kent's elbow. 

Kent heard the chink of coin and the low-spoken urgings for haste at thereceiving clerk's window; but he forbore to move until the cab had rattledaway. Then he gathered up the spoiled blanks left behind by Hawk andsmoothed them out. Two of them bore nothing but the date line, madeillegible, it would seem, by the writer's haste and nervousness. But atthe third attempt Hawk had got as far as the address: "To AllTrans-Western agents on Western Division. "

Kent stepped quickly to the receiver's window. The only expedient he couldthink of was open to reproach, but it was no time to be over-scrupulous. 

"Pardon me, " he began, "but didn't the gentleman who was just here forgetto sign his message?"

The little hook caught its minnow. The receiving clerk was folding Hawk'smessage to place it in the leather carrier of the pneumatic tube, but heopened and examined it. 

"No, " he said; "it's signed all right: 'J. B. Halkett, G. S. '"

"Ah!" said Kent. "That's a little odd. Mr. Halkett is out of town, andthis gentleman, Mr. Hawk, is not in his department. I believe I shouldinvestigate a little before sending that, if I were you. "

Having thus sown the small seed of suspicion, which, by the by, fell onbarren soil, Kent lost no time in calling up M'Tosh over the nearesttelephone. 

"Do our agents on the Western Division handle Western Union business?" heasked. 

The reply came promptly. 

"Yes; locally. The W-U. Has an independent line to Breezeland Inn andpoints beyond. "

"Well, our right-of-way man has just sent a telegram to all agents, signing Halkett's name. I don't know what he said in it, but you canfigure that out for yourself. "

"You bet I can!" was the emphatic rejoinder. And then: "Where are younow?"

"I'm at the Clarendon public 'phone, but I am going over to the _Argus_office. I'll let you know when I leave there. Good-by. "

When Kent reached the night editor's den on the third floor of the _Argus_building he found Hildreth immersed chin-deep in a sea of work. But hequickly extricated himself and cleared a chair for his visitor. 

"Praise be!" he ejaculated. "I was beginning to get anxious. Large thingsare happening, and you didn't turn up. I've had Manville wiring all overtown for you. "

"What are some of the large things?" asked Kent, lighting his first cigarsince dinner. 

"Well, for one: do you know that your people are on the verge of themuch-talked-of strike?"

"Yes; I knew it this morning. That was what I wanted you to suppress inthe evening edition. "

"I suppressed it all right; I didn't know it--day and date, I mean. Theykept it beautifully quiet. But that isn't all. Something is happening atthe capitol. I was over at the club a little while ago, and Hendricks wasthere. Somebody sent in a note, and he positively ran to get out. When Icame back, I sent Rogers over to Cassatti's to see if he could find you. There was a junto dinner confab on; Meigs, Senator Crowley, three or fourof the ring aldermen and half a dozen wa-ward politicians. Rogers has anose for news, and when he had 'phoned me you weren't there, he hungaround on the edges. "

"Good men you have, Hildreth. What did the unimpeachable Rogers see?"

"He saw on a large scale just what I had seen on a small one: somebodypup-passed a note in, and when it had gone the round of the dinner-tablethose fellows tumbled over each other trying to get away. "

"Is that all?" Kent inquired. 

"No. Apart from his nose, Rogers is gifted with horse sense. When thedinner crowd boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the sameconductor. He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago. Thereis some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks' office in the capitol, andmum-messengers are flying in all directions. "

"And you wanted me to come and tell you all the whys and wherefores?" Kentsuggested. 

"I told the chief I'd bet a bub-blind horse to a broken-down mule youcould do it if anybody could. "

"All right; listen: something worse than an hour ago the governor, hisprivate secretary, Guilford, Hawk and Halkett started out on a specialtrain to go to Gaston. "

"What for?" interrupted the editor. 

"To meet Judge MacFarlane, Mr. Semple Falkland, and the Overlandofficials. You can guess what was to be done?"

"Sure. Your railroad was to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel; or leasedto the Overland for ninety-nine years--which amounts to the same thing. "

"Precisely. Well, by some unaccountable mishap the receiver's special wasswitched over to the Western Division at yard limits, and the engineerseems to think he has orders to proceed westward. At all events, that iswhat he is doing. And the funny part of it is that he can't stop to findout his blunder. The fast mail is right behind him, with the receiver'sorder to smash anything that gets in its way; so you see--"

"That will do, " said the night editor. "We don't print fairy stories inthe _Argus_. "

"None the less, you are going to print this one to-morrow morning, just asI'm telling it to you, " Kent asserted confidently. "And when you get theepilogue you will say that it makes my little preface wearisome bycontrast. "

The light was slowly dawning in the editorial mind. 

"My heaven!" he exclaimed. "Kent, you're good for twenty years, at thevery lul-least!"

"Am I? It occurs to me that the prosecuting attorney in the case will havea hard time proving anything. Doesn't it look that way to you? At theworst, it is only an unhappy misunderstanding of orders. And if the endshould happen to justify the means----"

Hildreth shook his head gravely. 

"You don't understand, David. If you could be sure of a fair-minded judgeand an unbiased jury--you and those who are implicated with you: butyou'll get neither in this machine-ridden State. "

"We are going to have both, after you have filled your two columns--by theway, you are still saving those two columns for me, aren't you?--into-morrow morning's _Argus_. Or rather, I'm hoping there will be no needfor either judge or jury. "

The night editor shook his head again, and once more he said, "My heaven!"adding: "What could you possibly hope to accomplish? You'll get thereceiver and his big boss out of the State for a few minutes, or possiblyfor a few hours, if your strike makes them hunt up another railroad toreturn on. But what will it amount to? Getting rid of the receiver doesn'tannul the decree of the court. "

Kent fell back on his secretive habit yet once again. 

"I don't care to anticipate the climax, Hildreth. By one o'clock one oftwo things will have happened: you'll get a wire that will make your backhair sit up, or I'll get one that will make me wish I'd never been born. Let it rest at that for the present; you have work enough on hand to fillup the interval, and if you haven't, you can distribute those affidavits Igave you among the compositors and get them into type. I want to see themin the paper to-morrow morning, along with the other news. "

"Oh, we can't do that, David! The time isn't ripe. You know what I toldyou about----"

"If the time doesn't ripen to-night, Hildreth, it never will. Do as I tellyou, and get that stuff into type. Do more; write the hottest editorialyou can think of, demanding to know if it isn't time for the people torise and clean out this stable once for all. "

"By Jove! David, I've half a mum-mind to do it. If you'd only unbuttonyourself a little, and let me see what my backing is going to be----"

"All in good season, " laughed Kent. "Your business for the present momentis to write; I'm going down to the Union Station. "

"What for?" demanded the editor. 

"To see if our crazy engineer is still mistaking his orders properly. "

"Hold on a minute. How did the enemy get wind of your plot so quickly? Youcan tell me that, can't you?"

"Oh, yes; I told you Hawk was one of the party in the private car. He felloff at the yard limits station and came back to town. "

The night editor stood up and confronted his visitor. 

"David, you are either the coolest plunger that ever drew breath--or thebub-biggest fool. I wouldn't be standing in your shoes to-night for twosuch railroads as the T-W. "

Kent laughed again and opened the door. 

"I suppose not. But you know there is no accounting for the difference intastes. I feel as if I had never really lived before this night; the onlything that troubles me is the fear that somebody or something will get inthe way of my demented engineer. "

He went out into the hall, but as Hildreth was closing the door he turnedback. 

"There is one other thing that I meant to say: when you get your twocolumns of sensation, you've got to be decent and share with theAssociated Press. "

"I'm dud-dashed if I do!" said Hildreth, fiercely. 

"Oh, yes, you will; just the bare facts, you know. You'll have all theexciting details for an 'exclusive, ' to say nothing of the batch ofaffidavits in the oil scandal. And it is of the last importance to me thatthe facts shall be known to-morrow morning wherever the Associated has awire. "

"Go away!" said the editor, "and dud-don't come back here till you canuncork yourself like a man and a Cuc-Christian! Go off, I say!"

It wanted but a few minutes of eleven when Kent mounted the stair to thedespatcher's room in the Union Station. He found M'Tosh sitting atDonohue's elbow, and the sounders on the glass-topped table were cracklinglike overladen wires in an electric storm. 

"Strike talk, " said the train-master. "Every man on both divisions wantsto know what's doing. Got your newspaper string tied up all right?"

Kent made a sign of assent. 

"We are waiting for Mr. Patrick Callahan. Any news from him?"

"Plenty of it. Patsy would have a story to tell, all right, if he couldstop to put it on the wires. Durgan ought to have caught that blamedright-of-way man and chloroformed him. "

"I found him messing, as I 'phoned you. Anything come of it?"

"Nothing fatal, I guess, since Patsy is still humping along. But Hawk'snext biff was more to the purpose. He came down here with Halkett's chiefclerk, whom he had hauled out of bed, and two policemen. The plan was tofire Donohue and me, and put Bicknell in charge. It might have worked ifBicknell'd had the sand. But he weakened at the last minute; admitted thathe wasn't big enough to handle the despatcher's trick. The way Hawk cursedhim out was a caution to sinners. "

"When was this?" Kent asked. 

"Just a few minutes ago. Hawk went off ripping; swore he would findsomebody who wasn't afraid to take the wires. And, between us three, I'mscared stiff for fear he will. "

"Can it be done?"

"Dead easy, if he knows how to go about it--and Bicknell will tell him. The Overland people don't love us any too well, and if they did, the leasedeal would make them side with Guilford and the governor. If Hawk asksthem to lend him a train despatcher for a few minutes, they'll do it. "

"But the union?" Kent objected. 

"They have three or four non-union men. "

"Still, Hawk has no right to discharge you. "

"Bicknell has. He is Halkett's representative, and----"

The door opened suddenly and Hawk danced in, followed by a man bareheadedand in his shirt-sleeves, the superintendent's chief clerk, and the twoofficers. 

"Now, then, we'll trouble you and your man to get out of here, Mr. M'Tosh, " said the captain of the junto forces, vindictively. 

But the train-master was of those who die hard. He protested vigorously, addressing himself to Bicknell and ignoring the ex-district attorney as ifhe were not. He, McTosh, was willing to surrender the office on anofficial order in writing over the chief clerk's signature. But didBicknell fully understand what it might mean in loss of life and propertyto put a new man on the wires at a moment's notice?

Bicknell would have weakened again, but Hawk was not to be frustrated asecond time. 

"Don't you see he is only sparring to gain time?" he snapped at Bicknell. Then to M'Tosh: "Get out of here, and do it quick! And you can go, too, "wheeling suddenly upon Kent. 

Donohue had taken no part in the conflict of authority. But now he threwdown his pen and clicked his key to cut in with the "G. S. , " which claimsthe wire instantly. Then distinctly, and a word at a time so that theslowest operator on the line could get it, he spelled out the message:"All Agents: Stop and hold all trains except first and second fast mail, west-bound. M'Tosh fired, and office in hands of police----"

"Stop him!" cried the shirt-sleeved man. "He's giving it away on thewire!"

But Donohue had signed his name and was putting on his coat. 

"You're welcome to what you can find, " he said, scowling at theinterloper. "If you kill anybody now, it'll be your own fault. "

"Arrest that man!" said Hawk to his policemen; but Kent interposed. 

"If you do, the force will be two men shy to-morrow. The Civic Leagueisn't dead yet. " And he took down the numbers of the two officers. 

There were no arrests made, and when the ousted three were clear of theroom and the building, Kent asked an anxious question. 

"How near can they come to smashing us, M'Tosh?"

"That depends on Callahan's nerve. The night operators at Donerail, Schofield and Agua Caliente are all Guilford appointees, and when the newman explains the situation to them, they'll do what they are told to do. But I'm thinking Patsy won't pull up for anything milder than a spikedswitch. "

"Well, they might throw a switch on him. I wonder somebody hasn't done itbefore this. "

The train-master shook his head. 

"If Tischer is keeping close up behind, that would jeopardize more livesthan Callahan's. But there is another thing that doesn't depend onnerve--Patsy's or anybody's. "

"What is that?"

"Water. The run is one hundred and eighty miles. The 1010's tank is goodfor one hundred with a train, or a possible hundred and sixty, light. There is about one chance in a thousand that Callahan's crown-sheet won'tget red-hot and crumple up on him in the last twenty miles. Let's take acar and go down to yard limits. We can sit in the office and hear whatgoes over the wires, even if we can't get a finger in to help Patsy out ofhis troubles. "

They boarded a Twentieth Avenue car accordingly, but when they reached theend of the line, which was just across the tracks from the junction in thelower yards, they found the yard limits office and the shops surrounded bya cordon of militia. 

"By George!" said M'Tosh. "They got quick action, didn't they? I supposeit's on the ground of the strike and possible violence. "

Kent spun on his heel, heading for the electric car they had just left. 

"Back to town, " he said; "unless you two want to jump the midnightOverland as it goes out and get away while you can. If Callahan fails----"

XXIX

THE RELENTLESS WHEELS

But Engineer Callahan had no notion of failing. When he had drawn thehammer on his superior officer, advising discretion and a seat on JimmyShovel's box, the 1010 was racking out over the switches in the WesternDivision yards. Three minutes later the electric beam of Tischer'sfollowing headlight sought and found the first section on the long tangentleading up to the high plains, and the race was in full swing. 

At Morning Dew, the first night telegraph station out of the capital, thetwo sections were no more than a scant quarter of a mile apart; and theoperator tried to flag the second section down, as reported. This did nothappen again until several stations had been passed, and Callahan set hisjaw and gave the 1010 more throttle. But at Lossing, a town of some size, the board was down and a man ran out at the crossing, swinging a redlight. 

Callahan looked well to the switches, with the steam shut off and his handdropping instinctively to the air; and the superintendent shrank into hiscorner and gripped the window ledge when the special roared past thewarning signals and on through the town beyond. He had maintained a dazedsilence since the episode of the flourished hammer, but now he was movedto yell across the cab. 

"I suppose you know what you're in for, if you live to get out of this!It's twenty years, in this State, to pass a danger signal!" This is notall that the superintendent said: there were forewords and interjections, emphatic but unprintable. 

Callahan's reply was another flourish of the hammer, and a suddenoutpulling of the throttle-bar; and the superintendent subsided again. 

But enforced silence and the grindstone of conscious helplessness willsharpen the dullest wit. The swerving lurch of the 1010 around the nextcurve set Halkett clutching for hand-holds, and the injector lever fellwithin his grasp. What he did not know about the working parts of a modernlocomotive was very considerable; but he did know that an injector, halfopened, will waste water as fast as an inch pipe will discharge it. Andwithout water the Irishman would have to stop. 

Callahan heard the chuckling of the wasting boiler feed before he had gonea mile beyond the curve. It was a discovery to excuse bad language, buthis protest was lamb-like. 

"No more av that, if ye plaze, Misther Halkett, or me an' Jimmy Shovel'llhave to--Ah! would yez, now?"

Before his promotion to the superintendency Halkett had been a ward bossin the metropolis of the State. Thinking he saw his chance, he took it, and the blow knocked Callahan silly for the moment. Afterward there was asmall free-for-all buffeting match in the narrow cab in which the firemantook a hand, and during which the racing 1010 was suffered to find her wayalone. When it was over, Callahan spat out a broken tooth and gave hisorders concisely. 

"Up wid him over the coal, an' we'll put him back in the car where hebelongs. Now, thin!"

Halkett had to go, and he went, not altogether unwillingly. And when itcame to jumping across from the rear of the tender to the forwardvestibule of the Naught-seven, or being chucked across, he jumped. 

Now it so chanced that the governor and his first lieutenant in the greatrailway steal had weighty matters to discuss, and they had not missed thesuperintendent or the lawyer, supposing them to be still out on the rearplatform enjoying the scenery. Wherefore Halkett's sudden appearance, mauled, begrimed and breathless from his late tussle with the twoenginemen, was the first intimation of wrong-going that had penetrated tothe inner sanctum of the private car. 

"What's that you say, Mr. Halkett?--on the Western Division? Whereabouts?"demanded the governor. 

"Between Lossing and Skipjack siding--if we haven't passed the siding inthe last two or three minutes. I've been too busy to notice, " was thereply. 

"And you say you were on the engine? Why the devil didn't you call yourman down?"

"I knocked him down, " gritted the superintendent, savagely, "and I'd havebeat his face in for him if there hadn't been two of them. It's a plot ofsome kind, and Callahan knows what he is about. He had me held up with ahammer till just a few minutes ago, and he's running past stop-signals andover red lights like a madman!"

Bucks and Guilford exchanged convictions by the road of the eye, and thegovernor said:

"This is pretty serious, Major. Have you anything to suggest?" And withoutwaiting for a reply he turned upon Halkett: "Where is Mr. Hawk?"

"I don't know. I supposed he was in here with you. Or maybe he's out onthe rear platform. "

The three of them went to the rear, passing the private secretarycomfortably asleep in his wicker chair. When they stepped out upon therecessed observation platform they found it empty. 

"He must have suspected something and dropped off in the yard or at theshops, " said Halkett. And at the saying of it he shrank back involuntarilyand added: "Ah! Look at that, will you?"

The car had just thundered past another station, and Callahan had underrunone more stop-signal at full speed. At the same instant Tischer'sheadlight swung into view, half blinding them with its glare. 

"What is that following us?" asked Bucks. 

"It's the fast mail, " said Halkett. 

Guilford turned livid and caught at the hand-rail. 

"S-s-say--are you sure of that?" he gasped. 

"Of course: it was an hour and thirty-five minutes late, and we are on itstime. "

"Then we can't stop unless somebody throws us on a siding!" quavered thereceiver, who had a small spirit in a large body. "I told M'Tosh to givethe mail orders to make up her lost time or I'd fire the engineer--toldhim to cut out all the stops this side of Agua Caliente!"

"That's what you get for your infernal meddling!" snapped Halkett. Incatastrophic moments many barriers go down; deference to superior officersamong the earliest. 

But the master spirit of the junto was still cool and collected. 

"This is no time to quarrel, " he said. "The thing to be done is to stopthis train without getting ourselves ripped open by that fellow behind theheadlight yonder. The stop-signals prove that Hawk and the others aredoing their best, but we must do ours. What do you say, Halkett?"

"There is only one thing, " replied the superintendent; "we've got to makethe Irishman run ahead fast enough and far enough to give us room to stopor take a siding. "

The governor planned it in a few curt sentences. Was there a weapon to behad? Danforth, the private secretary, roused from his nap in the wickerchair, was able to produce a serviceable revolver. Two minutes later, thesleep still tingling in his nerves to augment another tingling lesspleasurable, the secretary had spanned the terrible gap separating the carfrom the engine and was making his way over the coal, fluttering hishandkerchief in token of his peaceful intentions. 

He was charged with a message to Callahan, mandatory in its first form, and bribe-promising in its second; and he was covered from the forwardvestibule of the private car by the revolver in the hands of a resoluteand determined state executive. 

"One of them's comin' ahead over the coal, " warned James Shovel; andCallahan found his hammer. 

"Run ahead an' take a siding, is ut?" he shouted, glaring down on themessenger. "I have me ordhers fr'm betther men than thim that sint you. Goback an' tell thim so. "

"You'll be paid if you do, and you'll be shot if you don't, " yelled thesecretary, persuasively. 

"Tell the boss he can't shoot two av us to wanst; an' the wan that'sleft'll slap on the air, " was Callahan's answer; and he slacked off alittle to bring the following train within easy striking distance. 

Danforth went painfully and carefully back with this defiance, and whilehe was bridging the nerve-trying gap, another station with the stop-boarddown and red lights frantically swinging was passed with a roar and awhistle shriek. 

"Fwhat are they doing now?" called Callahan to his fireman. 

"They've gone inside again, " was the reply. 

"Go back an' thry the tank, " was the command; and Jimmy Shovel climbedover the coal and let himself down feet foremost into the manhole. When heslid back to the footplate his legs were wet to the mid shin. 

"It's only up to there, " he reported, measuring with his hand. 

Callahan looked at his watch. There was yet a full hour's run ahead ofhim, and there was no more than a scant foot of water in the tank withwhich to make it. 

Thereafter he forgot the Naught-seven, and whatever menace it held forhim, and was concerned chiefly with the thing mechanical. Would the waterlast him through? He had once made one hundred and seventy miles on aspecial run with the 1010 without refilling his tank; but that was withthe light engine alone. Now he had the private car behind him, and itseemed at times to pull with all the drag of a heavy train. 

But one expedient remained, and that carried with it the risk of his life. An engine, not overburdened, uses less water proportionately to miles runas the speed is increased. He could outpace the safe-guarding mail, savewater--and take the chance of being shot in the back from the forwardvestibule of the Naught-seven when he had gained lead enough to make amain-line stop safe for the men behind him. 

Callahan thought once of the child mothered by the Sisters of Loretto inthe convent at the capital, shut his eyes to that and to all thingsextraneous, and sent the 1010 about her business. At the first reversedcurve he hung out of his window for a backward look. Tischer's headlighthad disappeared and his protection was gone. 

On the rear platform of the private car four men watched the threateningsecond section fade into the night. 

"Our man has thought better of it, " said the governor, marking theincreased speed and the disappearance of the menacing headlight. 

Guilford's sigh of relief was almost a groan. 

"My God!" he said; "it makes me cold to think what might happen if heshould pull us over into the other State!"

But Halkett was still smarting from the indignities put upon him, and hiscomment was a vindictive threat. 

"I'll send that damned Irishman over the road for this, if it is the lastthing I ever do!" he declared; and he confirmed it with an oath. 

But Callahan was getting his punishment as he went along. He had scarcelysettled the 1010 into her gait for the final run against the failing watersupply when another station came in sight. It was a small cattle town, andin addition to the swinging red lights and a huge bonfire to illuminatethe yards, the obstructionists had torn down the loading corral and werepiling the lumber on the track. 

Once again Callahan's nerve flickered, and he shut off the steam. Butbefore it was too late he reflected that the barrier was meant only toscare him into stopping. One minute later the air was full of flyingsplinters, and that danger was passed. But one of the broken planks camethrough the cab window, missing the engineer by no more than ahand's-breadth. And the shower of splinters, sucked in by the whirl of thetrain, broke glass in the private car and sprinkled the quartet on theplatform with split kindling and wreckage. 

"What was that?" gasped the receiver. 

Halkett pointed to the bonfire, receding like a fading star in therearward distance. 

"Our friends are beginning to throw stones, since clods won't stop him. "he said. 

Bucks shook his head. 

"If that is the case, we'll have to be doing something on our own account. The next obstruction may derail us. "

Halkett stepped into the car and pulled the cord of the automatic air. 

"No good, " he muttered. "The Irishman bled our tank before he started. Help me set the hand brakes, a couple of you. "

Danforth and the governor took hold of the brake wheel with him, and for aminute or two the terrible speed slackened a little. Then some part of thedisused hand-gear gave way under the three-man strain and that hope wasgone. 

"There's one thing left, " said the superintendent, indomitable to thelast. "We'll uncouple and let him drop us behind. "

The space in the forward vestibule was narrow and cramped, and with thestrain of the dragging car to make the pin stick, it took two of themlying flat, waiting for the back-surging moment and wiggling it for slack, to pull it. The coupling dropped out of the hook and the engine shot aheadto the length of the safety-chains; thus far, but no farther. 

Halkett stood up. 

"It's up to you, Danforth, " he said, raising his voice to be heard abovethe pounding roar of the wheels. "You're the youngest and lightest: getdown on the 1010's brake-beam and unhook those chains. "

The secretary looked once into the trap with the dodging jaws and thebackward-flying bottom and declined the honor. 

"I can't get down there, " he cried. "And I shouldn't know what to do if Icould. "

Once more the superintendent exhibited his nerve. He had nothing at stakesave a desire to defeat Callahan; but he had the persistent courage of thebull-terrier. With Bucks and the secretary to steady him he loweredhimself in the gap till he could stand upon the brake-beam of the 1010'stender and grope with one free hand for the hook of the nearestsafety-chain. Death nipped at him every time the engine gave or took upthe slack of the loose coupling, but he dodged and hung on until he hadsatisfied himself. 

"It's no good, " he announced, when they had dragged him by main strengthback to a footing in the narrow vestibule. "The hooks are bent into thelinks. We're due to go wherever that damned Irishman is taking us. "

Shovel was firing, and the trailing smoke and cinders quickly made theforward vestibule untenable. When they were driven in, Bucks and thereceiver went through to the rear platform, where they were presentlyjoined by Halkett and Danforth. 

"I've been trying the air again, " said the superintendent, "but it's nogo. What's next?"

The governor gave the word. 

"Wait, " he said; and the four of them clung to the hand-rails, swaying andbending to the bounding lurches of the flying car. 

 * * * * *

Mile after mile reels from beneath the relentless wheels, and still thespeed increases. Station Donerail is passed, and now the pace is sofurious that the watchers on the railed platform can not make out thesignals in the volleying wake of dust. Station Schofield is passed, andagain the signals, if any there be, are swiftly drowned in the graydust-smother. From Schofield to Agua Caliente is but a scant ten miles;and as the flying train rushes on toward the State boundary, two faces inthe quartet of watchers show tense and drawn under the yellow light of thePintsch platform lamp. 

The governor swings himself unsteadily to the right-hand railing and thelong look ahead brings the twinkling arc-star of the tower light onBreezeland Inn into view. He turns to Guilford, who has fallen limp intoone of the platform chairs. 

"In five minutes more we shall pass Agua Caliente, " he says. "Will youkill the Irishman, or shall I?" Guilford's lips move, but there is noaudible reply; and Bucks takes Danforth's weapon and passes quickly andalone to the forward vestibule. 

The station of Agua Caliente swings into the field of 1010's electricheadlight. Callahan's tank has been bone dry for twenty minutes, and he iswatching the glass water-gage where the water shows now only when theengine lurches heavily to the left. He knows that the crown-sheet of thefire-box is bare, and that any moment it may give down and the end willcome. Yet his gauntleted hand never falls from the throttle-bar to theair-cock, and his eyes never leave the bubble appearing and disappearingat longer intervals in the heel of the water-glass. 

Shovel has stopped firing, and is hanging out of his window for thestraining look ahead. Suddenly he drops to the footplate to gripCallahan's arm. 

"See!" he says. "They have set the switch to throw us in on the siding!"In one motion the flutter of the exhaust ceases, and the huge ten-wheelerbuckles to the sudden setting of the brakes. The man standing in theforward vestibule of the Naught-seven lowers his weapon. Apparently it isnot going to be necessary to kill the engineer, after all. 

But Callahan's nerve has failed him only for the moment. There is onechance in ten thousand that the circumambulating side track is empty; oneand one only, and no way to make sure of it. Beyond the station, asCallahan well knows, the siding comes again into the main line, and theswitch is a straight-rail "safety. " Once again the thought of hismotherless child flickers into the engineer's brain; then he releases theair and throws his weight backward upon the throttle-bar. Two gasps and aheart-beat decide it; and before the man in the vestibule can level hisweapon and fire, the one-car train has shot around the station, heavingand lurching over the uneven rails of the siding, and grinding shrillyover the points of the safety switch to race on the down grade to Megilp. 

At the mining-camp the station is in darkness save for the goggle eyes ofan automobile drawn up beside the platform, and deep silence reigns butfor the muffled, irregular thud of the auto-car's motor. But the beam ofthe 1010's headlight shows the small station building massed by men, ascore of them poising for a spring to the platforms of the private carwhen the slackening speed shall permit. A bullet tears into the woodworkat Callahan's elbow, and another breaks the glass of the window besidehim, but he makes the stop as steadily as if death were not snapping athim from behind and roaring in his ears from the belly of the burnedengine. 

"Be doomping yer fire lively, now, Jimmy, b'y, " he says, dropping from hisbox to help. And while they wrestle with the dumping-bar, these two, thepoising figures have swarmed upon the Naught-seven, and a voice is liftedabove the Babel of others in sharp protest. 

"Put away that rope, boys! There's law here, and by God, we're going tomaintain it!"

At this a man pushes his way out of the thick of the crowd and climbs to aseat beside the chauffeur in the waiting automobile. 

"They've got him, " he says shortly. "To the hotel for all you're worth, Hudgins; our part is to get this on the wires before one o'clock. Fullspeed; and never mind the ruts. "

XXX

SUBHI SADIK

The dawn of a new day was graying over the capital city, and the newsboyswere crying lustily in the streets, when David Kent felt his way up thedark staircases of the Kittleton Building to knock at the door of JudgeOliver Marston's rooms on the top floor. He was the bearer of tidings, andhe made no more than a formal excuse for the unseemly hour when the doorwas opened by the lieutenant-governor. 

"I am sorry to disturb you, Judge Marston, " he began, when he had theclosed door at his back and was facing the tall thin figure in flanneldressing gown and slippers, "but I imagine I'm only a few minutes ahead ofthe crowd. Have you heard the news of the night?"

The judge pressed the button of the drop-light and waved his visitor to achair. 

"I have heard nothing, Mr. Kent. Have a cigar?"--passing the box ofunutterable stogies. 

"Thank you; not before breakfast, " was the hasty reply. Then, withoutanother word of preface: "Judge Marston, for the time being you are thegovernor of the State, and I have come to----"

"One moment, " interrupted his listener. "There are some stories that readbetter for a foreword, however brief. What has happened?"

"This: last night it was the purpose of Governor Bucks and ReceiverGuilford to go to Gaston by special train. In some manner, which has notyet been fully explained, there was a confusion of orders. Instead ofproceeding eastward, the special was switched to the tracks of the WesternDivision; was made the first section of the fast mail, which had orders torun through without stop. You can imagine the result. "

Marston got upon his feet slowly and began pacing the length of the longroom. Kent waited, and the shrill cries of the newsboys floated up and inthrough the open windows. When the judge finally came back to his chairthe saturnine face was gray and haggard. 

"I hope it was an accident that can be clearly proved, " he said; and amoment later: "You spoke of Bucks and Guilford; were there others in theprivate car?"

"Two others; Halkett, and the governor's private secretary. "

"And were they all killed?"

A great light broke in upon Kent when he saw how Marston hadmisapprehended. Also, he saw how much it would simplify matters if heshould be happy enough to catch the ball in the reactionary rebound. 

"They are all alive and uninjured, to the best of my knowledge and belief;though I understand that one of them narrowly escaped lynching at thehands of an excited mob. "

The long lean figure erected itself in the chair, and the weight of yearsseemed to slip from its shoulders. 

"But I understood you to say that the duties of the executive had devolvedupon me, Mr. Kent. You also said I could imagine the result of thissingular mistaking of train-orders, and I fancied I could. What was theresult?"

"A conclusion not quite as sanguinary as that you had in mind, though itis likely to prove serious enough for one member of the party in theprivate car. The special train was chased all the way across the State bythe fast mail. It finally outran the pursuing section and was stopped atMegilp. A sheriff's posse was in waiting, and an arrest was made. "

"Go on, " said the lieutenant-governor. 

"I must first go back a little. Some weeks ago there was a shooting affrayin the mining-camp, arising out of a dispute over a 'salted' mine, and aman was killed. The murderer escaped across the State line. Since theauthorities of the State in which the crime was committed had every reasonto believe that a governor's requisition for this particular criminalwould not be honored, two courses were open to them: to publish the factsand let the moral sentiment of the neighboring commonwealth punish thecriminal as it could, or would; or, suppressing the facts, to bide theirchance of catching their man beyond the boundaries of the State which gavehim an asylum. They chose the latter. "

A second time Marston left his chair and began to pace the floor. After alittle he paused to say:

"This murderer is James Guilford, I take it; and the governor--"

"No, " said Kent, gravely. "The murderer is--Jasper G. Bucks. " He handedthe judge a copy of the _Argus_. "You will find it all in the pressdespatches; all I have told you, and a great deal more. "

The lieutenant-governor read the newspaper story as he walked, lightingthe electric chandelier to enable him to do so. When it was finished hesat down again. 

"What a hideous cesspool it is!" was his comment. "But we shall clean it, Mr. Kent; we shall clean it if it shall leave the People's Party without avote in the State. Now what can I do for you? You didn't come here at thishour in the morning merely to bring me the news. "

"No, I didn't, Judge Marston. I want my railroad. "

"You shall have it, " was the prompt response. "What have you done sinceour last discussion of the subject?"

"I tried to 'obliterate' Judge MacFarlane, as you suggested. But I failedin the first step. Bucks and Meigs refused to approve the _quo warranto_. "

The judge knitted his brows thoughtfully. 

"That way is open to you now; but it is long and devious, and delays arealways dangerous. You spoke of the receivership as being part of a plan bywhich your road was to be turned over to an eastern monopoly. How nearlyhas that plan succeeded?"

Kent hesitated, not because he was afraid to trust the man Oliver Marston, but because there were some things which the governor of the State mightfeel called upon to investigate if the knowledge of them were thrust uponhim. But in the end he took counsel of utter frankness. 

"So nearly that if Bucks and the receiver had reached Gaston last night, our road would now be in the hands of the Plantagoulds under aninety-nine-year lease. "

The merest ghost of a smile flitted over the lieutenant-governor's facewhen he said, with his nearest approach to sarcasm:

"How extremely opportune the confusion of train-orders becomes as we goalong! But answer one more question if you please--it will not involvethese singularly heedless railway employees of yours: is Judge MacFarlanein Gaston now?"

"He is. He was to have met the others on the arrival of the specialtrain. "

There were footsteps on the stair and in the corridor, and Marston rose. 

"Our privacy is about to be invaded, Mr. Kent. This is a miserablebusiness; miserable for everybody, but most of all for the deceived andhoodwinked people of an unhappy State. God knows, I did not seek thisoffice; but since it has fallen on me, I shall do my duty as I see it, andmy hand shall be heaviest upon that man who makes a mockery of the justicehe is sworn to administer. Come to the capitol a little later in the day, prepared to go at once to Gaston. I think I can promise you your hearingon the merits without further delay. "

"Thank you, " said Kent, simply, grasping the hand of leave-taking. Then hetried to find other and larger words. "I wish I could do something to showmy appreciation of your--"

But the lieutenant-governor was pushing him toward the door. 

"You have done something, Mr. Kent, and you can do more. Head those peopleoff at the door and say that for the present I refuse positively to beseen or interviewed. They will find me at the capitol during officehours. "

It was seven o'clock in the evening of the fiercest working day Kent hadever fought through when the special train--his own private special, sentto Gaston and brought back again over the strike-paralyzed road by theexpress permission and command of the strikers themselves--set him down inthe Union Station at the capital. 

Looking back to the gray of the morning when he had shaken hands withGovernor Marston at the door of the room on the top floor of the KittletonBuilding, the crowding events made the interval seem more like a week; andnow the events themselves were beginning to take on dream-likeincongruities in the haze of utter weariness. 

"_Evening Argus_! all about the p'liminary trial of Governor Bucks. _Argus_, sir?" piped a small boy at the station exit; but Kent shook hishead, found a cab and had himself conveyed quickly through streets stillrife with excitement to the Clarendon Hotel. 

In the lobby was the same bee-buzzing crowd with which he had beencontending all day, and he edged his way through it to the elevator, praying that he might go unrecognized--as he did. Once safe in his roomshe sent for Loring, stretching himself on the bed in a very ecstasy ofrelaxation until the ex-manager came up. Then he emptied his mind as anoverladen ass spills its panniers. 

"I'm done, Grantham, " he said; "and that is more different kinds of truththan you have heard in a week. Go and reorganize your management, andM'Tosh is the man to put in Halkett's place. The strike will be declaredoff at the mere mention of your name and his. That's all. Now go away andlet me sleep. "

"Oh, hold on!" was the good-natured protest; "I'm not more curious than Ihave to be, but I'd like to know how it was done. "

"I don't know, myself; and that's the plain fact. But I suspect Marstonfell upon Judge MacFarlane: gave him a wire hint of what was due to arriveif he didn't give us a clean bill of health. I had my preliminaryinterview with the governor at daybreak this morning; and I was with himagain between nine and ten. He went over the original papers with me, andabout all he said was, 'Be in Gaston by two o'clock this afternoon, andMacFarlane will give you the hearing in chambers. ' I went on my knees tothe Federative Council to get a train. "

"You shouldn't have had any trouble there. "

"I didn't have, after the men understood what was in the wind. Jarl Olesontook me down and brought me back. The council did it handsomely, dippinginto its treasury and paying the mileage on a Pullman car. "

"And MacFarlane reversed his own order?"

"Without a question. It was the merest formality. Jennison, Hawk's formerlaw partner, stood for the other side; but he made no argument. "

"Good!" said Loring. "That will do for the day's work. But now I'd like toknow how last night's job was managed. "

"I'm afraid you want to know more than is good for you. What do the paperssay? I haven't looked at one all day. "

"They say there was a misunderstanding of orders. That will answer for thepublic, perhaps, but it won't do for me. "

"I guess it will have to do for you, too, Grantham, " said Kent, yawningshamelessly. "Five men, besides myself--six of us in all--know the trueinwardness of last night's round-up. There will never be a seventh. "

Loring's eye-glasses fell from his nose, and he was smiling shrewdly whenhe replaced them. 

"There is one small consequence that doesn't please you, I'm sure. You'llhave to bury the hatchet with MacFarlane. "

"Shall I?" flashed Kent, sitting up as if he had been struck with a whip. "Let me tell you: Marston is going to call an extra session of theAssembly. There is a death vacancy in this district, and I shall be acandidate in the special election. If there is no other way to get atMacFarlane, he shall be impeached!"

"H'm: so you're going into politics?"

"You've said it, " said Kent, subsiding among the pillows. "Now will yougo?"

 * * * * *

It took the general manager a wakeful twenty-four hours to untangle theindustrial snarl which was the receiver's legacy to his successor; andDavid Kent slept through the major part of that interval, rising only intime to dress for dinner on the day following the retrieval of theTrans-Western. 

In the grill-room of the Camelot he came face to face with Ormsby, andlearned, something to his astonishment, that the Breezeland party hadreturned to the capital on the first train in from the west. 

"I thought you were going to stay a month or more, " he said, with his eyescast down. 

"So did I, " said Ormsby. "But Mrs. Brentwood cut it short. She's a townperson, and so is Penelope. " And it was not until the soup plates had beenremoved that he added a question. "Are you going out to see them thisevening, David? You have my royal permission. "

"No"--bluntly. 

"Isn't it up to you to go and give them a chance to jolly you a little? Ithink they are all aching to do it. Mrs. Hepzibah has seen the risingstock quotations, and she thinks you are It. "

"No; I can't go there any more, " said Kent, and his voice was gruffer thanhe meant it to be. 

"Why not?"

"There were good reasons before: there are better ones now. "

"A seven-hundred-thousand-dollar difference?" suggested Ormsby, who hadhad speech with Loring. 

Kent flushed a dull red. 

"I sha'n't strike you, Ormsby, no matter what you say, " he said doggedly. 

"Humph! There is one difference between you and Rabbi Balaam's burro, David: it could talk sense, and you can't, " was the offensive rejoinder. 

Kent changed the subject abruptly. 

"Say, Ormsby; I'm going into a political office-hunt. There is a deathvacancy in the House, and I mean to have the nomination and election. Idon't need money now, but I do need a friend. Are you with me?"

"Oh, sure. Miss Van Brock will answer for that. "

"But I don't want you to do it on her account; I want you to do it forme. "

"It's all one, " said the club-man. 

Kent looked up quickly. 

"You are right; that is the truest word you've said to-night, " and he wentaway, leaving the dessert untouched. 

The evening was still young when Kent reached the house in Alameda Square. Within the week the weather had changed, and the first chill of theapproaching autumn was in the air. The great square house was lighted andwarmed, and the homelikeness of the place appealed to him as it never hadbefore. To her other gifts, which were many and diverse, Miss Van Brockadded that of home-making; and the aftermath of battle is apt to be anacute longing for peace and quiet, for domesticity and creature comforts. 

He had not seen Portia since the night when she had armed him for thefinal struggle with the enemy; he told himself that he should not see heragain until the battle was fought and won. But in no part of the strugglehad he been suffered to lose sight of his obligation to her. He had seenthe chain lengthen link by link, and now the time was come for the weldingof it into a shackle to bind. He did not try to deceive himself, nor didhe allow the glamour of false sentiment to blind him. With an undying lovefor Elinor Brentwood in his heart, he knew well what was before him. Nonethe less, Portia should have her just due. 

She was waiting for him when he entered the comfortable library. 

"I knew you would come to-night, " she said cheerfully. "I gave you a dayto drive the nail--and, O David! you have driven it well!--another day toclinch it, and a third to recover from the effects. Have you fullyrecovered?"

"I hope so. I took the day for it, at all events, " he laughed. "I am justout of bed, as you might say. "

"I can imagine how it took it out of you, " she assented. "Not so much thework, but the anxiety. Night before last, after Mr. Loring went away, Isat it out with the telephone, nagging poor Mr. Hildreth for news until Iknow he wanted to murder me. "

"How much did you get of it?" he asked. 

"He told me all he dared--or perhaps it was all he knew--and it made mefeel miserably helpless. The little I could get from the _Argus_ officewas enough to prove that all your plans had been changed at the lastmoment. "

"They were, " he admitted; and he began at the beginning and filled in thedetails for her. 

She heard him through without comment other than a kindling of the browneyes at the climaxes of daring; but at the end she gave him praiseunstinted. 

"You have played the man, David, as I knew you would if you could be oncefully aroused. I've had faith in you from the very first. "

"It has been more than faith, Portia, " he asserted soberly. "You havetaken me up and carried me when I could neither run nor walk. Do yousuppose I am so besotted as not to realize that you have been the head, while I have been only the hand?"

"Nonsense!" she said lightly. "You are in the dumps of the reaction now. You mustn't say things that you will be sorry for, later on. "

"I am going to say one thing, nevertheless; and will remain for you tomake it a thing hard to be remembered, or the other kind. Will you takewhat there is of me and make what you can of it?"

She laughed in his face. 

"No, my dear David; no, no, no. " And after a little pause: "Howdeliciously transparent you are, to be sure!"

He would have been less than a man if his self-love had not been touchedin its most sensitive part. 

"I am glad if it amuses you, " he frowned. "Only I meant it in allseriousness. "

"No, you didn't; you only thought you did, " she contradicted, and thebrown eyes were still laughing at him. "Let me tell you what you did mean. You are pleased to think that I have helped you--that an obligation hasbeen incurred; and you meant to pay your debt like a man and a gentlemanin the only coin a woman is supposed to recognize. "

"But if I should say that you are misinterpreting the motive?" hesuggested. 

"It would make your nice little speech a perjury instead of a simpleuntruth, and I should say no, again, on other, and perhaps better, grounds. "

"Name them, " he said shortly. 

"I will, David, though I am neither a stick nor a stone to do it withoutwincing. You love another woman with all your heart and soul, and you knowit. "

"Well? You see I am neither admitting nor denying. "

"As if you needed to!" she scoffed. "But don't interrupt me, please. Yousaid I might take what there is of you and make what I can of it: I mightmake you anything and everything in the world, David, except that which awoman craves most in a husband--a lover. "

His eyes grew dark. 

"I wish I knew how much that word means to you, Portia. "

"It means just as much to me as it does to every woman who has ever drawnthe breath of life in a passionate world, David. But that isn't all. Leaving Miss Brentwood entirely out of the question, you'd be miserablyunhappy. "

"Why should I?"

"Because I shouldn't be able to realize a single one of your ideals. Iknow what they are--what you will expect in a wife. I could make you arich man, a successful man, as the world measures success, and perhaps Icould even give you love: after the first flush of youth is past, theheavenly-affinity sentiment loses its hold and a woman comes to know thatif she cares to try hard enough she can love any man who will bethoughtful and gentle, and whose habits of life are not hopelessly at warwith her own. But that kind of love doesn't breed love. Your vanity wouldpique itself for a little while, and then you would know the curse ofunsought love and murder me in your heart a thousand times a day. No, David, I have read you to little purpose if these are the things you willask of the woman who takes your name and becomes the mother of yourchildren. " She had risen and was standing beside his chair, with her handlightly touching his shoulder. "Will you go now? There are others coming, and--"

He made his adieux gravely and went away half dazed and a prey to manyemotions, but strangely light-hearted withal: and as once before, hewalked when he might have ridden. But the mixed-emotion mood was notimmortal. At the Clarendon he found a committee of Civic Leaguers waitingto ask him if he would stand as a "Good Government" candidate in thespecial election to fill the House vacancy in the capital district; and inthe discussion of ways and means, and the setting of political pins whichfollowed there was little food for sentiment. 

It was three weeks and more after Governor Marston's call summoning theAssembly for an investigative session. Kent had fought his waytriumphantly through the special election to a seat in the House, aidedand abetted manfully by Ormsby, Hildreth, and the entire Trans-Westerninfluence and vote. And now men were beginning to say that without thetireless blows of the keen-witted, sharp-tongued young corporation lawyer, the junto might still have reasserted itself. 

But the House committee, of which Kent was the youngest member and thechairman, had proved incorruptible, and the day of the Gaston wolf-packwas over. Hendricks resigned, to escape a worse thing; Meigs came over tothe majority with a show of heartiness that made Kent doubly watchful ofhim; heads fell to the right and left, until at the last there was leftonly one member of the original cabal to reckon with; the judicial tool ofthe capitol ring. 

Kent had hesitated when MacFarlane's name came up; and the judge neverknew that he owed his escape from the inquisitorial House committee, andhis permission to resign on the plea of broken health, to a young womanwhom he had never seen. 

It was Elinor Brentwood who was his intercessor; and the occasion was thelast day of the third week of the extra session--a Saturday afternoon anda legislative recess when Kent had borrowed Ormsby's auto-car, and haddriven Elinor and Penelope out to Pentland Place to look at a house he wasthinking of buying. For with means to indulge it, Kent's Gaston-bred maniafor plunging in real estate had returned upon him with all the acutenessof a half-satisfied passion. 

They had gone all over the house and grounds with the caretaker, and whenthere was nothing more to see, Penelope had prevailed on the woman to openthe Venetians in the music-room. There was a grand piano in the place ofhonor, presided over by a mechanical piano-player; and Penelope went intoecstasies of mockery. 

"Wait till I can find the music scrolls, and I'll hypnotize you, " she saidgleefully; and Kent and Elinor beat a hasty retreat to the wide entrancehall. 

"I don't quite understand it, " was Elinor's comment, when they had putdistance between themselves and Penelope's joyous grinding-out of a Wagnerscroll. "It looks as if the owners had just walked out at a moment'snotice. "

"They did, " said Kent. "They went to Europe, I believe. And by the way; Ithink I have a souvenir here somewhere. Will you go up to the firstlanding of the stair and point your finger at that window?"

She did it, wondering; and when he had the line of direction he knelt inthe cushioned window-seat and began to probe with the blade of hispen-knife in a small round hole in the woodwork. 

"What is it?" she asked, coming down to stand beside him. 

"This. " He had cut out a flattened bullet and was holding it up for her tosee. "It was meant for me, and I've always had an idea that I heard itstrike the woodwork. "

"For you? Were you ever here when the house was occupied?"

"Yes, once; it is the Senator Duvall place. This is the window where Ibroke in. "

She nodded intelligence. 

"I know now why you are going to buy it. The senator is another of thosewhom you haven't forgiven. "

His laugh was a ready denial. 

"I have nothing against Duvall. He was one of Bucks' dupes, and he ispaying the price. The property is to be sold at a forced sale, and it is agood investment. "

"Is that all it means to you? It is too fine to be hawked about as a thingto make money with. It's a splendidly ideal home--leaving out that thingthat Penelope is quarreling with. " And she made a feint of stopping herears. 

He laughed again. 

"Ormsby says I ought to buy it, and marry and settle down. "

She took him seriously. 

"You don't need it. Miss Van Brock has a very lovely home of her own, " shesaid soberly. 

It was at his tongue's end to tell the woman he loved how the woman he didnot love had refused him, but he saved himself on the brink and said:

"Why Miss Van Brock?"

"Because she is vindictive, too, and----"

"But I am not vindictive. "

"Yes, you are. Do you know anything about Judge MacFarlane's familyaffairs?"

"A little. He has three daughters; one of them rather unhappily married, Ibelieve. "

"Have you considered the cost to these three women if you make theirfather's name a byword in the city where they were born?"

"He should have considered it, " was the unmoved reply. 

"David!" she said; and he looked up quickly. 

"You want me to let him resign? It would be compounding a felony. He is aJudge, and he was bribed. "

She sat down beside him in the cushioned window seat and began to pleadwith him. 

"You must let him go, " she insisted. "It is entirely in your hands aschairman of the House committee; the governor, himself, told me so. I knowall you say about him is true; but he is old and wretched, with only alittle while to live, at best. "

There was a curious little smile curling his lip when he answered her. 

"He has chosen a good advocate. It is quite like a man of his stamp to tryto reach me through you. "

"David!" she said again. Then: "I really shouldn't know him if I were tosee him. "

"Then why----" he began; but there was a love-light in the blue-gray eyesto set his heart afire. "You are doing this for me?" he said, trembling onthe verge of things unutterable. 

"Yes. You don't know how it hurts me to see you growing hard and mercilessas you climb higher and higher in the path you have marked out foryourself. "

"The path you have marked out for me, " he corrected. "Do you remember ourlittle talk over the embers of the fire in your sitting-room at home? Iknew then that I had lost the love I might have won; but the desire to bethe kind of leader you were describing was born in me at that moment. Ihaven't always been true to the ideal. I couldn't be, lacking the right towear your colors on my heart----"

"Don't!" she said. "I haven't been true to my ideals. I--I sold them, David!"

She was in his arms when she said it, and the bachelor maid was quite lostin the woman. 

"I'll never believe that, " he said loyally. "But if you did, we'll buythem back--together. "

 * * * * *

Penelope was good to them. It was a full half-hour before she professedherself satisfied with the mechanical piano-toy; and when she was through, she helped the woman caretaker to shut the Venetians with clangings thatwould have warned the most oblivious pair of lovers. 

And afterward, when they were free of the house, she ran ahead to thewaiting auto-car, leaving Kent and Elinor to follow at a snail's pace downthe leaf-covered walk to the gate. There was a cedar hedge to mark thesidewalk boundary, and while it still screened them Kent bent quickly tothe upturned face of happiness. 

"One more, " he pleaded; and when he had it: "Do you know now, dearest, whyI brought you here to-day?"

She nodded joyously. 

"It is the sweetest old place. And, David, dear; we'll bring ourideals--all of them; and it shall be your haven when the storms beat. "