ed. And
it got the young fellow; got him right in the solar plexus. If you don't
see some fireworks within the next few days, I miss my guess and lose my
ante."

This is what Evan Blount, carrying out his intention of going to Gantry,
might have seen and heard. On the other hand, if he had lingered a few
minutes longer on the station platform he could scarcely have failed to
mark the side-tracking of private car "008," and he might have seen the
herculean figure of the vice-president crossing to the carriage-stand
to climb heavily into a waiting automobile.

Mr. McVickar's order to the chauffeur was curtly brief, and a little
later the vice-president entered the lobby of the Inter-Mountain and
shot a brisk question at the room-clerk.

"Is Senator Blount in his rooms?"

"I think not. He was here a few minutes ago. I'll send a boy to hunt him
up for you. You want your usual suite, I suppose, Mr. McVickar?"

"No; I'm not stopping overnight. Is young Blount here in the hotel?"

"He has just gone up to the fifth floor with some friends of his--Mr.
Anners and his daughter, from Boston. Shall I hold him for you when he
comes down?"

"No; I want to see the senator. Hustle out another boy or two. I can't
wait all night."

It was at this moment that Evan Blount, bearing luggage-checks and going
in search of the house baggageman, missed another incident which might
have drawn him back suddenly to his problem and its unsettled condition.
The incident was the meeting between his father and the railroad
vice-president at the room-clerk's counter. It was neither hostile nor
friendly; on McVickar's part it was gruffly business-like.

"Well, Senator, I'm here," was the follow-up of the perfunctory
hand-shake. "Let's find a place where we can flail it out," and together
the two entered an elevator.

Reaching the floor of the private dining-room suites, the
ex-cattle-king led the way in silence to his own apartments; rather let
us say he pointed the way, since in the march down the long corridor the
two field commanders tramped evenly abreast as if neither would give the
other the advantage of an inch of precedence. In the sitting-room of the
private suite the senator snapped the latch on the door, and pressed the
wall-button for the electric lights. McVickar dragged a chair over to
one of the windows commanding a view of the busy street, and dropping
solidly into it, like a man bracing himself for a fight, began abruptly: