Counsel for the Defense

e, and Katherine rose to her feet. She wiped her eyes and looked

piring lawyer yo

ant a truer,"

hs, and things are stretched tighter and tighter, and at last something makes things snap, why you just can't

avowed he

of the worst ravages of the storm, and then

in the glass, the old man stoop and take something from the waste

irror and came

you lookin

d, and gl

ould happen, with me even indirectly the cause of it-why, Katherine, it really would

y what invariably happens whenever a city tries municipal ownership," declared the editorial. "The situation has grown so unbearably acute that the city's only hope of good water lies in the sale of the system to some private concern, which will give us that superior servic

egree it had stirred Doctor West. She was interested in the water-works only in so far as it co

ggest was that they plead for a postponement on the ground that they needed more time in which to prepare their defense. If

m the table and again read the editorial with troubled face, while Ka

sell, it will be t

" said Katheri

saying that the system isn't worth

?" she aske

f up and his faded chee

's wrong, but it's the very best sys

pa

g any attention to what I

umed he

st continued, "the company will probably get it f

it," commented Katherine, "things could not have worked

and stood gazing at her fath

etter for the corporation if it

aid Doc

quickly read the editoria

voice was a lo

es

r face a breathless look, and caug

it was

ha

rang out m

it was

ine-what do

is before!" she cried to herself. "I thought of graft-political corruption-everything else. But it

union. Her connection with the Municipal League in New York had given her an intimate knowledge of the devious means b

re her father, face flus

it was

" sa

"They have got hold of almost all the valuable public utilities in the great cities, and now they are turning to a fresh field-the small cities. Westville

what peo

chly profitable at once, but it would be worth a fortune as the city grows. Now if a com

n offer, I

make the people want to sell. And how woul

y-w

le would be disgusted, just as they now are, and willing to sell at any price. And now, father-and now, father-" he c

only blin

rything he had done would be discredited, the one incorruptible man whose ca

ld man, "if I know wha

making the water bad and the plant itself a failure-just exactly what has been done. You are not the real victim. You are ju

atching the light th

possible people would do such things. But pe

ig

"But if there is a strong company behind all this, fo

exultantly. "What has almost broken my heart ti

l on the old

atherine, it is a

its every known circumstance of the case. It is only a guess-but I'll stake my life on its being the right guess!" Her voice ros

nging confidence in her voice

e cried, and o

to clear you, father! And, oh, wo

ld each other close

going to do fi

son, or corporation,

will you

wished his advice. He knows the situation here-he has the interests of Westville at hear

urn till the following day on the one forty-five. It occurred to Katherine to advise with old Hosie Hollingsworth, for during the long summer her blind, childish shrinking had changed to warm liking of the dr

e actively in the current of modern affairs. No, Blake was her great hope, and precious and

the sending of that fifty dollars. The company had been confronted with two obvious difficulties. First, it had to make certain that the check would not be received until after the two thousand dollars was in the hands of her father. Second, the date of the check and the date of the Westville postmark must be earlier than the day the two thousand dollars was delivered-else Doctor West could produce check and envelope to p

hen she came to Bruce her hands clenched the arms of her wicker rocking chair. In a fl

ent of the hidd

t the city's betterment, that was mere sham-merely the virtuous front behind which he could work out his purpose unsuspected. No one could quote the scripture of civic improvement more loudly than the civic desp

ichness appropriate to a growing great man with a constituency half of the city and half of the country. She had sat some time at a window looking down upon the Square, its foliage now a dusty, s

y-four hours had had an almost more than mortal clearness, had an impression

of his desk and himself sat down, his da

n I serve yo

t her eyes, but excit

to-morrow is

ve a hard, hard f

y think." She tried to keep he

not,"

prove easy-if yo

lp

come to ask y

see-as I t

to you," she put in quickly, not quite able to res

"You have fo

ound some

him happily,

hat?"

aned f

rather, thousands of little gold mines. That all over the country they have gained control, and are work

el

more definitely than it really was, to

stville. I have discovered that my father is not guilty. He is the victim of a trick to ruin the water-works and make the

or had overspre

-to find this ma

er reason-it would help you in your larger ambition. If you could disclose this scheme, save the ci

ce reply, but sa

u see?" s

I s

the Senate into a certainty! It woul

eated, huskily.

deep concern. "But y

upon his face, so strangely altered. In her present high-wrough

yes. Then she stood slowly up, and one ha

d terrified tone. She continued to stare

s to master himself with a mighty effort. He tried t

, "to ask what is the ma

ed her hold upon his

r

You seem upset. I suppose it is the

was stupef

what I have

most valuable, if true. But it is just

ooking straight

lowly, almost breathlessly. "For I

d! And

u know him,

I

han any o

le had

ho

moment in silence. Then she slowly

and was leaning heavily upon it. He looked like a man sick unto death. But soon a shiver ran through

ingly and indulgently, but there was a quaver in

the oldest of police expedients. I have suddenly confronted the cri

xplain it only on the theory tha

re was I so

she had striven so long to find was at last reveale

thing, Mr. Blake?" she burs

to smile at her perversity-bu

rough being the champion of the people-and, once in power, the opportunities, the temptation,

njured air of the m

explain your charges by supposin

inking about them, and watching them. I have lost my faith in the old parties, but I had kept my faith in some of their leaders. I believe some of th

d his hands with the manner of exasp

eaded rapidly. "You have only started on this, you have not gone too far to turn back. You have done no real wrong as yet, save to my f

watched him, breathless, awaiting the outcome

do!-do!-I beg y

n through his body. Then by a mighty e

for me to drop,"

g to the part y

ued. "Your charges are so absurd that it would be foolish to

s is you

is my

for a long moment

; and she turned away an

bered the gallant fight this man had made against Blind Charlie Peck; she remembered that fragrant, far-distant night of

ulously. "Good-by." And turning, she wa