d politics to start
with. If every man that came here came to stand by his party--_and_ the
United States--and do the square thing by them, the republic would be
pretty safe, if they couldn't do another durned thing."

The Judge rubbed his already rather rough head and seemed to cheer up a
little.

"Do you think so?" he said.

Big Tom stood up and gave him a slap on his shoulder.

"Think so?" he exclaimed, in his great, cheerful voice. "I'm a greenhorn
myself, but, good Lord! I _know_ it. Making laws for a few million people
is a pretty big scheme, and it's the fellows who intend to do the square
thing who are going to put it through. This isn't ancient Greece, or
Sparta, but it's my impression that the men who planned and wrote the
Constitution, and did the thinking and orating in those days, had a sort
of idea of building up a thing just as ornamental and good to write
history about as either one; and, what's more, they counted on just such
fellows as you to go on carrying the stones and laying them plumb, long
after they were gone."

"Jupiter, Tom!" the Judge said, with something actually like elation in
his voice, "it's good to hear you. It brings old Hamlin back and gives a
man sand. You're an orator, yourself."

"Am I?" said Tom. "No one ever called my attention to it before. If it's
true, perhaps it'll come in useful."

"Now, just think of me sitting here gassing," exclaimed the Judge, "and
never asking what you are here for. What's your errand, Tom?"

"Perhaps I'm here to defraud the Government," Tom answered, sitting down
again; "or perhaps I've got a fair claim against it. That's what I've
come to Washington to find out--with the other claimant."

"A claim!" cried the Judge. "And you've left the Cross-roads--and Sheba?"

"Sheba and the other claimant are in some little rooms we've taken out
near Dupont Circle. The other claimant is the only De Willoughby left
beside myself, and he is a youngster of twenty-three. He's my brother De
Courcy's son."

The Judge glowed with interest. He heard the whole story, and his
excitement grew as he listened. The elements of the picturesque in the
situation appealed to him greatly. The curiously composite mind of the
American contains a strong element of the romantic. In its most
mercantile forms it is attracted by the dramatic; when it hails from the
wilds, it is drawn by it as a child is drawn by colour and light.

"It's a big thing," the Judge ejaculated at in