phatic and vigorous Western phrase the dangers that threatened
the commonwealth in this very evident coalition of the railroad octopus
and the machine.

The _Lost River Miner_, on the contrary, was unwilling to believe that
the younger Blount was acting in the interest of machine politics in
taking an employee's place on the railroad pay-roll. In this editor's
comment there were veiled hints of a disagreement between father and
son; of differences of opinion which might, later on, lead to a pitched
battle. The _Capital Daily_, however--the stock in which was said to be
owned or controlled by local railroad officials--took a different
ground, covertly insinuating that nothing for nothing was the accepted
rule in politics; that if the railroad company had made a place for the
son, it was only a justifiable deduction that the father was not as
fiercely inimical to the railroad interests as the opposition press was
willing to have a too credulous public believe.

Elsewhere in the State press comment was divided, as the moulders of
public opinion happened to read party loss or gain in the appointment of
the new legal department head. Some were fair enough to say that young
Blount had merely shown good sense in taking the first job that was
offered him, following the commendation with the very obvious conclusion
that the railroad company's pay check would buy just as much bread in
the open market as anybody's else. On the whole, the senator's son was
given the benefit of the doubt and a chance to prove up.

Of the interview between the father and the son, in which Evan announced
his intention of accepting a place under McVickar, nothing was said in
the newspapers, for the very good reason that no reporter was present.
If the young man who had so summarily taken his future into his own
hands was anticipating a storm of disapproval and opposition, he was
disappointed. He had seen Mr. McVickar's private car coupled to the
east-bound Fast Mail, and had dined with Patricia and her father, the
fourth seat at the table of reunion being vacant because the senator was
dining elsewhere. Later in the evening he faced the music in the
sitting-room of the private suite, waylaying his father on the Honorable
David's return to the hotel.

Planning it out beforehand, Blount had meant to give the ethical reasons
which had constrained him to put a conclusive end to the
attorney-generalship scheme. But when the crux came, the carefully
plan