gislature took up the reports of the Commissions. He found strong
lobbies against both bills, and had a long struggle with them. He had
the help of the newspapers, and he had the help of Costell, yet even
with this powerful backing, the bills were first badly mangled, and
finally were side-tracked. In the actual fight, Pell helped him most,
and Peter began to think that a man might buy an election and yet not be
entirely bad. Second only to Pell, was his whilom enemy, the former
District-Attorney, now a state senator, who battled himself into Peter's
reluctant admiration and friendship by his devotion and loyalty to the
bills. Peter concluded that he had not entirely done the man justice in
the past. Curiously enough, his chief antagonist was Maguire.

Peter did not give up the fight with this defeat. His work for the bills
had revealed to him the real under-currents in the legislative body, and
when it adjourned, making further work in Albany only a waste of time,
he availed himself of the secret knowledge that had come to him, to
single out the real forces which stood behind and paid the lobby, and to
interview them. He saw the actual principals in the opposition, and
spoke with utmost frankness. He told them that the fight would be
renewed, on his part, at every session of the legislature till the bills
were passed; that he was willing to consider proposed amendments, and
would accept any that were honest. He made the fact very clear to them
that they would have to pay yearly to keep the bills off the statute
book. Some laughed at him, others quarrelled. But a few, after listening
to him, stated their true objections to the bills, and Peter tried to
meet them.

When the fall elections came, Peter endeavored to further his cause in
another way. Three of the city's assemblymen and one of her senators had
voted against the bills. Peter now invaded their districts, and talked
against them in saloons and elsewhere. It very quickly stirred up hard
feeling, which resulted in attempts to down him. But Peter's blood
warmed up as the fight thickened, and hisses, eggs, or actual attempts
to injure him physically did not deter him. The big leaders were
appealed to to call him off, but Costell declined to interfere.

"He wouldn't stop anyway," he told Green, "so we should do no good. Let
them fight it out by themselves." Both of which sentences showed that
Mr. Costell understood his business.

Peter had challenged his opponent