from some of the men that you have been able to do some
prospecting in the last weeks, Mr. Everett," remarked the Senator
casually from behind the veil, as he accepted and lighted a cigar.

"Just knocked around a bit," answered Everett carelessly. "The whole
Mississippi Valley is interesting geologically. There is quite a
promise of oil here, but practically no outcrop."

"Your examination been pretty thorough--professional?" queried the
Senator, still in an equally careless voice, though his little eyes
gleamed out of their slits.

"Oh, yes, I thrashed it all out, especially Mr. Alloway's place. I'd
like to have found oil for him--and the rest of Sweetbriar, too, but
it isn't here." Everett spoke decidedly, and there was a note in his
voice as if to end the discussion. His own eyes he kept down on his
cigar and, as he lounged against a post he had an air of being
slightly bored by an uninteresting shop topic. The Senator looked at
him a few seconds keenly, started to make a trivial change in the
conversation, then made a flank movement, bent toward Everett and
began to speak in a suave and most confidential manner.

"I'm sorry, too, you didn't find the oil on the old gentleman's
place," he said in his most open and dulcet tones. "I am very fond of
Mr. Alloway; I may say of the whole family. Farming is too hard work
for him at his years and I would have liked for him to have had the
ease of an increased income. Some time ago a phosphate expert examined
these regions, but reported nothing worth working. I had more hope of
the oil. As I say, I am interested in Mr. Alloway and the family--I
may say it to you in confidence, particularly interested in one of the
members." And the smile that the Senator bestowed upon Everett aroused
a keen desire for murder in the first degree. There was a challenge
and a warning in it and a cunning, too, that was deeper than both.
Controlling his impulse to smash the Senatorial bulldog jaw, Everett's
mind went instantly after the cunning.

"So you only got the phosphate in your examination report of the
Alloway place?" he asked in a friendly, interested tone, as if the
hint had failed to make a landing. The cunning in his own glance and
tone he was shrewd enough to hide.

"That was about all--nothing that was worth taking up then," answered
the Senator again carelessly, and at that moment Mr. Crabtree came out
to join them.

In a few minutes Everett threw away his cigar, glanced acro