The Grafters

ith the late breakfast at which Neltje, the night watchman

to see Elinor again, Kent went gaily to the battle legal, meaning to wring victory out of a jury drawn for the most part from the plaintiff's stock-raising neighbors. By dint of great

sel, resigning his sinecure. The Shotwell case was the third he had lost for the company in a single court term. Justice for the railroad c

ing, and there was another reversive upheaval for the exile. Loring's business at the capital was no longer a secret. He had been tendered the resident management of

ng to need a level-headed lawyer at my elbow from the jump-one who knows the State political ropes and isn't afraid of a scrap.

the half-written resignation and began to smite things in order for the flight. Could he make Number Three? Si

e took it as a special miracle wrought in his behalf that the Flyer was for this once abreast of her schedule-he fell to tramping up and down the long platform, deep in anticipative prefigurings. The mills of the years grind many

oldier who could hew his way painstakingly, if not dramatically, to his end, David Kent was no carpet knight, and he knew his lack.

f cataclysms when he entered the sleeping-car, he might have betrayed himself. His first glance lighted on Elinor and Ormsby, and he needed no gloss

Penelope, Kent came through without doing or saying anything unseemly. Mrs. Brentwood, who had been sleeping with one eye open, and that eye upon Elinor and Ormsby, made sure that she had now no special reaso

ormally into place as one of the party of five; and of all the others, Penelope alone suspected how hard he was hit. And when all was said; when the new modus vivendi had been

bly settled in the men's room and Kent produced his pipe and tobacco pouch. "I prefer the pipe myself, for a s

ting to regard Ormsby as an hereditary en

own upon the political situation in the State, he was able to bear his part with a fair exterior, giving Ormsby an impress

ew to stand it without borrowing. There was little local capital, and the eastern article was hungry, taking all the interest the law allows, and as much more as it could get. This year the

corporations are not prima

nerally prosperous, the people would pay the tax carelessly, as they do in the older sections. With us it ha

placed, and he took no more than a sportsman's

rty means an era of unexampled prosperity for the State-and by consequence for western stocks; 'bear'

ed them rise to become a part of the strati

her, Governor Bucks, Meigs, the attorney-general, and Hendricks, the new secretary of State, are men whom I know as, it is safe to say, the general public doesn't know them. If I could b

e Bucks idea is likely to prove

pressions of the alien corporations and extortionate railroad rates. Yet there are plenty of steady-going, conservative men in the movement; men who have no present idea of revolutionizing things. Marston, the lieutenant-governor

nodde

unting this winter, Mr. Kent.

ll be sprung. But one thing is safe to count on: the leaders are out for spoils. They mean to rob somebody, and, if my guess is

ok. "You are the man on the ground, Mr. Kent, and I'll ask a straightforward question. I

smi

ght to advise Mrs. Brentwood and her daughters, I should

Pacific has gone off s

That is why I counsel delay. If she sells now, she is sure to lose. If she holds on,

lities than I pretend to. But on the othe

deep into

that she doesn't

man laugh

at the shallop must see to it that th

sually some small chance for salvage. I underst

shares, held jointly by her an

ity; and yet enough to turn the scale if there

ch fight in pro

there will be a good deal of horse-swapping in the middle of the stream-buying up o

sby. "Then you wo

de, in a way, and any hint I can give you for Miss-for

ou are a friend worth having, Mr. Kent. But which '

it, my office will be in the Quintard Building; a

ion to take a furnished house later on for herself and dau

k wiring when our chance arrives.

of Peru, where he was managing a railroad. He is a mighty good

ent; "the newly appointed general

is an all-around dependable fellow, and plenty cap

rocession of red-eyed switch-lights flicked past the wind

And in the vestibule he added: "I spoke of Loring because he will be with us in anything we hav