hing big and glorious to win her."

"I'm willing to give him a chance," John said. "I can't help but think
he's sincere. Let's hope so, anyway."

"Gallant," said Brennan, after they had walked half a block without
speaking. "I'd give anything in the world to have your faith in mankind.
Try and keep it as long as you can. That's the trouble with most
reporters. They see so much of the other side of life that they drop
into cynicism and that ruins them. You are ready to believe, I am ready
to disbelieve. Keep on believing, Gallant. If you're deceived once,
twice, any number of times, keep on believing."

John was strangely impressed by these words from Brennan. It was a new
light on the character of the most interesting man he had ever met. He
wondered if years ahead he would be saying the same thing to some young
reporter.

As P. Q. had predicted, Gibson was in the headlines for the remainder of
the week. His announcement of a clean-up crusade although apparently a
direct slap at the administration, was followed by a pledge from the
mayor to support him.

"What else could the mayor do?" Brennan said to John. "He can't very
well sit back while Gibson goes ahead in his campaign to clamp down the
lid and clean up the department. He would put himself in a position to
be attacked for failure to enforce the law.

"He can't fire Gibson. That would give Gibson a chance to holler that
the mayor was afraid of a graft expose and was hand in hand with crooks.
If he comes out and fires him as a misguided sensationalist--it would be
hard to get that across because of Gibson's holler about graft--it's a
confession of his own poor judgment. Whoever wished Gibson on him
certainly got the mayor in a jam.

"Suppose he goes ahead and supports Gibson, don't you see what that will
mean? It means that Gibson will be mayor. Everybody will say, 'Why
didn't our mayor do this before Gibson came along?' Gibson will be the
uncrowned king. Why, unless something upsets him, Gibson will be able
to name the next mayor of Los Angeles by simply indorsing the man's
candidacy.

"Gibson may not realize all this, but if he doesn't I'll be badly
fooled. Whatever his game is, he has the mayor all tied up right at the
start. All he has to do is to go ahead with his program of personally
conducted raids and exposes. Then he'll be the most powerful man in Los
Angeles. When he is that, we'll know for sure whether he was right or
not. It's when a man gets