see Senator Rickrose. He came forward to meet him--a tall, middle-aged,
well-groomed man, with sandy hair, whose principal recommendation for
the post he filled was the fact that he was the largest contributor to
the campaign fund in his State, and his senior senator needed him in
his business, and had refrigerated him into the Cabinet for safe
keeping--that being the only job which insured him from being a
candidate for the Senator's own seat. It is a great game, is politics!

"Mr. Secretary!" said Rickrose, "my friends want a permit to camp for
two weeks on Greenberry Point."

"Greenbury Point!" said the Secretary, vaguely--"that's somewhere out
in San Francisco harbor?"

"Not the Greenberry Point they mean," the Senator replied. "It's down
at Annapolis--across the Severn from the Naval Academy, and forms part
of that command, I presume. It is waste land, unfortified and wind
swept."

"Oh! to be sure. I know it. Why wouldn't the Superintendent give you a
permit?" turning to Macloud. "It is within his jurisdiction."

"We didn't think to ask him," said Macloud. "We supposed it was
necessary to apply direct to you."

"They are not familiar with the customs of the service," explained
Rickrose, "and, as I may run down to see them, just issue the permit to
me and party. The Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee is inspecting
the Point, if you need an excuse."

"Oh, no! none whatever--however, a duplicate will be forwarded to the
Superintendent. If it should prove incompatible with the interests of
the service," smiling, "he will inform the Department, and we shall
have to revoke it."

He rang for his stenographer and dictated the permit. When it came in,
he signed it and passed it over to Rickrose.

"Anything else I can do for you, Senator?" he asked.

"Not to-day, thank you, Mr. Secretary," Rickrose answered.

"Do you actually intend to come down?" asked Macloud, when they were in
the corridor. "That will be bully."

He shot a look at Croyden. His face was a study. Hunting the Parmenter
treasure, with the Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee as a
disinterested spectator, was rather startling, to say the least. The
Senator's reply reassured them.

"Impossible!" he said. "The campaign opens next week, and I'm drawn as
a spell-binder in the Pacific States. That figurehead was ruffling his
feathers on you, just to show himself, so I thought I'd comb him down a
bit. You'll experience no difficulty, I fanc