aid Mr. Boulder.

"I think he means to play fair with us," answered Mr. Fyshe. "I put it
to him as a matter of honour, between man and man, a week ago. Since
then, I have had him carefully dictaphoned and I'm convinced he's
playing straight."

"How far will he go with us?" said Mr. Boulder.

"He is willing to throw overboard Gorfinkel, Schwefeldampf and
Undercutt. He says he must find a place for O'Hooligan. The Irish, he
says, don't care for clean government; they want Irish Government."

"I see," said Mr. Boulder very thoughtfully, "and in regard to the
renewal of the franchise and the expropriation, tell me just exactly
what his conditions are."

But Mr. Fyshe's answer to this was said so discreetly and in such a low
voice, that not even the birds listening in the elm trees outside the
Mausoleum Club could hear it.

No wonder, then, that if even the birds failed to know everything about
the Clean Government League, there were many things which such good
people as Mr. Newberry and Mr. Peter Spillikins never heard at all and
never guessed.

* * * * *

Each week and every day brought fresh triumphs to the onward march of
the movement.

"Yes, gentlemen," said Mr. Fyshe to the assembled committee of the
Clean Government League a few days later, "I am glad to be able to
report our first victory. Mr. Boulder and I have visited the state
capital and we are able to tell you definitely that the legislature
will consent to change our form of government so as to replace our
council by a Board."

"Hear, hear!" cried all the committee men together.

"We saw the governor," said Mr. Fyshe. "Indeed he was good enough to
lunch with us at the Pocahontas Club. He tells us that what we are
doing is being done in every city and town of the state. He says that
the days of the old-fashioned city council are numbered. They are
setting up boards everywhere."

"Excellent!" said Mr. Newberry.

"The governor assures us that what we want will be done. The chairman
of the Democratic State Committee (he was good enough to dine with us
at the Buchanan Club) has given us the same assurance. So also does the
chairman of the Republican State Committee, who was kind enough to be
our guest in a box at the Lincoln Theatre. It is most gratifying,"
concluded Mr. Fyshe, "to feel that the legislature will give us such a
hearty, such a thoroughly American support."

"You are sure of this, are you?" questioned Mr. Newberry