who told him you had a friend, who
would put up the money. I didn't tell him who the friend was; for it
happens to be myself. No: you needn't blow up, Dick; or drop dead of
apoplexy! He didn't come to tell me, or ask a woman's money! He had
come hunting you; and I pumped it out of him. He's a brick not to
mention my name to you. I like that in a man; and I am going to do it,
Dick; and you needn't blow up with rage! You can swear if it would
relieve pressure; but I am going to do it! I am going to do it at
once! Don't you see what a cowardly foolish thing it would be of you
to give up and slink into a hole just because you're defeated? It's
just what you said would happen that night on the Ridge. Don't you
remember, you said it was bound to be a losing fight; and I said it
didn't matter a bit if a man were crucified long as the cause won out?
Well, you sent me the note saying you had set out on the Trail and
would never quit till you got the Man Higher Up. How are you going to
get the Man Higher Up if you don't go right after him in the House and
the Senate? They've crucified you; and it's going to be the making of
you. Men don't destroy an opponent unless they fear him! If he's a
fool, they give him rope enough to hang himself; but if they fear him,
they slander him and blacken him and misrepresent him and try to
destroy him! Well, they've done all that to you and tried to destroy
you; and instead of destroying you, they've only made the people call
on you for a leader! Don't you see what a cowardly thing it would be
to slink away now because you are defeated? Why, that's the very time
a man can't afford to quit, and still call himself a man. No, don't
try to stop me! I lay awake all last night thinking it out! They'll
not have a chance to call you a woman-made man! I'll place a certain
amount with my lawyer for Mr. Williams. You know my father always
helped the Mission School more or less; and a woman is supposed to be
soft on Missions. Mr. Williams will loan it to the news editor. Only,
I may as well tell you, Dick, you are not going to be allowed to stop
now! You wrote me that a person couldn't stab certain things to life
and then expect them to lie quiet as if nothing had happened. That
cuts both ways. Men are pretty good egotists; but I wonder if you ever
thought what that means with me, with the people you have prodded up to
resent the Ring in the Valley here. Do you know Dick, if you wo