The Grafters

public welfare requiring it"; and though there was an immediate sympathetic decline in the securiti

tutionality of the act in the courts. So far, indeed, from making difficulties, the various alien corporations affected by the new law wheeled promptly into line in complianc

an appreciative eye on Kent, and, true to his implied promise, pushed him vigorously for the first place in the legal department of the localized company. Since the resident manager stood high in the Boston counsels of the company, the pus

ubilance little in keeping with the grave responsibilities of his office. As it fell out, he was too busy to celebrate, and too sore on the sentimental side to rej

buffeting may be good for the swimmer's soul, it necessarily narrows his horizon, inasmuch as a man with

lting his meals and clipping the nights at both ends in a strenuous endeavor to clear the decks for a

of transition, it is needful to go back a little; to a term of

ng the train at Gaston-these are details with which we need not concern ourselves. Suffice it to say that Kent, then local attorney for the company, mastered them; and when Mrs. Varnum, through Hawk, her cou

e capital, two of the company's witnesses had disappeared; and the one bit of company business Kent had b

in the local attorneyship at Gaston, asking for instructions in the Varnum matter. Judge MacFarlane's court would convene in a week.

ain another continuance, if possible. And if, before the case were called, there should be any ne

g the convening of Judge MacFarlane's court in Gaston, that Governor Buc

ances figured in the local notes of the Gaston Clarion as business trips, object and objective point unknown or at least unstated; but since his election the newspapers were usually more definite. On this occasion, the public was duly informed that "Governor Bucks, with one

en seen boarding the train on the Monday evening; and in addition to the ample hand-bag there were rod and gun cases to bear out the newspaper notices. None the less, it was equally true that the keeper of the Gun Club

t of honor was a brother lawyer-though he might have refused to acknowledge the relationship with the ex-district attorney-a keen-eyed, business-like gentleman, whose nam

watch pointed to the quarter-hour after ten. "You've made me travel two thousand m

ot only by the good and great, but by the little and evil as well. Y

'm only the hired man in this business, Mr. Falkland

we've gone," was the ungracious comment. "

o-lut

train the other man can

sulted h

half-h

lerk at the sta

d

hasn't r

t y

bit the end of it like a man with a

ay as well tell you shortly that my time is too valuable to make me toler

. And, besides, the scheme is his ow

is the mat

k r

nger, I'll go to the wire and try to find

criticisms of the New York attorney, and he was re-reading it by the light of the corridor bracket when a young man sprang fro

e queried

icks' telegram hinted at. I met him at the

has h

same old

ollowe

is what kept

he barest fraction of a second. T

ll be there with all the help he'll need." And when the young man was gone, Hawk smote the air with a clenched fist

figure in brown duck, crouching in a corner like a wild beast at bay. A bottle and a tumbler stood on the table under the hanging lamp; a

g hard, sat upon the prostrate man and bared his arm for the physician. When the apomorphia began to do its work the

" said Hawk, tersely, when the patient was fit to listen. "Otherwise we shou

ed and passed his

n rejoinder; and in due course the Honorable Jasper G. Bucks, clothed upon and in his right m

not gone to bed. He was a spare man, with thin hair graying rapidly at the temples and a care-worn face; the face of a man whose tasks or responsibilities, or both,

e his weight admirably; but now he clung to the door-knob unti

about you, MacFarlane?" he de

I can't do it, and that's all there is about it." The protest was f

culties now," was the harsh

can not, and

was sobering rapidly now. "Let me ask a question or two. Ho

lars. It is an honest de

s you make your clerks divide with you. And that isn't all. Have you forgotten the gerrym

if the huge gesturin

began. "You were in th

overnor int

illegal; but, by the gods, you are going to walk the line laid down for you. If you don't, I shall give th

made one la

ing less than the foulest collusion between the j

d by the steadying help of the chair, the door-post and the wall of

r in the speaking part. When it was concluded the judge took his leave abruptly, pleading the l

e governor. "Mr. Hawk here will answer well enough for the legal part,

low eyebrows met i

ore to the purpose. It's Major Jim Gui

overcoat, turning to Hawk: "Have your young man get me a carriage, and see

e New Yorker had his final w

re to pay for all actual betterments for which vouchers can be shown at the close of the de

ing as he could to keep the eye-image of his fe

recourse for the other fellows. When I say that, I'm leaving out your Supreme Court. Under certain conditions, if t

owly, the better to check the

r. The ostensible reason will be that the

e real

on our ticket; another is a personal friend of

ding all the pains I took to show him that his action would be technically una

with the thumb and forefin

wk have got your papers in good shape, the thing wi