The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush

ied state in a castle-like mansion in Mesa Circle, the most expensive, if not the most aristocratic, no-thoroughfare of the capital city. Weatherford, the father, egged on

d away inside of it-an outlook upon life which was a survival from his hard-working past-would willingly have dodged, but Mrs. We

un occasion the great house in Mesa Circle was lighted from basement to turret-to all of the numerous turrets; an awning fringed with electric bulbs sheltered the carpeted walk from the street to the grand

m believer in the maxim that in numbers there is strength, the hostess had made her invitation-list long and catholic. For the gossips

as a reproduction, on a generous scale, of a tropical garden. Half-grown palms and banana-trees made a well-ordered jungle of the softly lighted interior; and if, in the gathering of her floral treasures,

ving assistants were still on duty. Having successfully passed the line with her husband and Patricia, little Mrs. Blount looked about her, saw Mr. Richard Gantry, signalled to h

hin-faced man who seemed to be nervously trying to hunch himself into better relations with his ill-fitting dress-coat, an eager gentleman whose hawk-like eyes never lost sight of the little lady with her

s so slow in making itself. But it was not until the little lady in the claret-colored party-gown had drifted, still with a hand on Gantry's arm, in among the palm and banana trees of the herbarium that the bird-of-prey person

; but Mrs. Gordon said I would find you here, and so I took the liberty of following you. I'm needing a little stra

o sit in, but which was in perfect harmony with the background of gigantic palmettos. He nodded gratefully and to

; if you can talk business in such a place

th the abruptness of one whose dealings have been with men oftener than with women: "In th

d you had been doing anythin

rtly, adding: "He told me I'd

anese figures on the ivory sticks of her fan. "You wa

t statement of the need. "Our freight contract with the Transcontinental is

ingenuously, "why

r had any contract, and Gantry is just as bad. And when I go to the senator he tells me I must make my peace with you. I'm left out in the cold; I can't begin to sabe what t

-gown reached up and pinched a leaf fr

in a very few minutes," she suggested mildly. "Consider your

to the only phrase that seemed to fit the exigencies of

tting her fan slowly. "What was you

luntly. "But you do know. It's the rebate lumber rate from our mills at Twin Butt

tion?" she asked,

nging of the solid employees' vote of the Twin B

make the same a

ave that preferential ra

u make the contra

sn't anything put down in black and white, but th

" she murmured; and then: "You

referred me

did Mr. Ga

t," said the lumber magnate grittingly. "The most I cou

that you went to see t

uld Gantry mean by 'the boss'

d, tapping a pretty cheek with the folded fan. "Ha

State to running around in circles with this appointment of young Blount. Some say it's a deal between the senator and McVickar, and some say it

walking in their sleep," she returned, "but I might offer a su

nd frowned. "I'm in bad there-r

van waylaid and man-handled on the first night of his return to his native State. But you needn't w

ain. "H'm-reason, eh? How big a block o

a silvery pe

and cents, don't you, Mr. Simo

ound it the chea

try may be back any minute, and I can give you only the tiniest hint. You must g

they say he's all

t where it will do the most good. Put it in the name of Professor William J. Anners, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and show Mr. Blount how dreadful

de a pencil memorandum of the name

ofessor Anners is, or why I should be making him a present of a block of s

unt, and don't let him put you off. He may pretend

d Gantry and McVickar are playing some sort of a game, and you ain't showing me anything more than the back of the cards. Tha

taken so much time to procure, and the lumber magnate rose reluctant

can I find Evan

the city now, but-" Here Gantry's coming put an end to the private c

the private dining-room suite at the Inter-Mountain, with Miss Anners safely behind the closed d

ed. "He will go to see Evan day after