ecognize too closely party lines; the Democratic
administration has brought on a panic, the business men in that party
are down on it, and it ought to be rebuked. And we feel, too, that some
of the city's Democrats ought to be loyal to Mr. Watling,--not that we
expect them to vote for him in caucus, but when it comes to the joint
ballot--"

"Who?" demanded Mr. Jason.

"Senator Dowse and Jim Maher, for instance," I suggested.

"Jim voted for Bill 709 all right--didn't he?" said Mr. Jason abruptly.

"That's just it," I put in boldly. "We'd like to induce him to come in
with us this time. But we feel that--the inducement would better come
through you."

I thought Mr. Jason smiled. By this time I had grown accustomed to
the darkness, the face and figure of the man in the bed had become
discernible. Power, I remember thinking, chooses odd houses for itself.
Here was no overbearing, full-blooded ward ruffian brimming with
vitality, but a thin, sallow little man in a cotton night-shirt, with
iron-grey hair and a wiry moustache; he might have been an overworked
clerk behind a dry-goods counter; and yet somehow, now that I had talked
to him, I realized that he never could have been. Those extraordinary
eyes of his, when they were functioning, marked his individuality as
unique. It were almost too dramatic to say that he required darkness to
make his effect, but so it seemed. I should never forget him. He had in
truth been well named the Spider.

"Of course we haven't tried to get in touch with them. We are leaving
them to you," I added.

"Paret," he said suddenly, "I don't care a damn about Grunewald--never
did. I'd turn him down for ten cents. But you can tell Theodore Watling
for me, and Dickinson, that I guess the 'inducement' can be fixed."

I felt a certain relief that the interview had come to an end, that the
moment had arrived for amenities. To my surprise, Mr. Jason anticipated
me.

"I've been interested in you, Mr. Paret," he observed. "Know who you
are, of course, knew you were in Watling's office. Then some of the boys
spoke about you when you were down at the legislature on that Ribblevale
matter. Guess you had more to do with that bill than came out in the
newspapers--eh?"

I was taken off my guard.

"Oh, that's talk," I said.

"All right, it's talk, then? But I guess you and I will have some more
talk after a while,--after Theodore Watling gets to be United States
Senator. Give him my regards, and-