closing and came to the door
of the private room, note-book and pencil in hand. "Anything to give me
before you go out?" he asked.

"Yes," said Blount almost savagely. "Take a message to Mr. McVickar. Are
you ready?"

The stenographer nodded.

Blount dictated curtly: "'Pending another interview with you in person,
I shall close my offices in Temple Court and confine myself strictly to
the routine legal business of the company. Meanwhile, my resignation is
in your hands if you wish to appoint a new division counsel.' Have you
got that, Collins? Very well; write it out and send it at once. I shall
be at the Inter-Mountain for a little while, if you want to reach me
between now and closing time."

XII

A WELL-SPRING IN THE DESERT

Going to the hotel, Blount shut himself into a telephone booth and
tried, ineffectually, to get a long-distance connection with Wartrace
Hall. When he finally grew exasperated at the central operator's
oft-repeated "line's busy," he called up Gantry to ask if the traffic
manager knew anything about the purposes and movements of his father.
Gantry did not know, but he knew something else--a thing which proved
the leakiness of the railroad telegraph department.

"Come down here and tell me what you mean by sending incendiary
telegrams to the vice-president," he commanded, with jesting severity.
And with a hard word for the department which had gossiped, Blount went
down to the general offices in the station building.

Gantry was busy with the stenographer, but the business was immediately
postponed and the clerk dismissed when Blount entered.

"'Tell it out among the heathen,'" the traffic manager quoted jocosely,
when the door closed behind the shorthand man.

"There is nothing to tell--more than you seem to know already," snapped
Blount morosely. "I have wired my resignation, that's all."

"But why?" persisted Gantry.

"Because I'm not going to be an accessory, either before or after the
fact--not if I know it," was the curt rejoinder.

"An accessory to what?"

"To the criminal disregard for the laws of this State and the nation
which seems to be the underlying motive actuating every move in this
corrupt game of politics. Gantry, if you and some others had your just
deserts, you would be breaking stone in the penitentiary this blessed
minute!"

"Suffering Moses!" gasped the traffic manager. "Somebody must have been
hitting you pretty hard. Who was it; some more of the