g to gain? It's a thousand pities
that such a royal good fellow has to turn himself into a wild-eyed,
impossible crank! The Lord knows, I'd do anything in reason for him; but
I can't let him turn anarchist and blow us all to kingdom come. He's got
to be muzzled in some way, and I'll be hanged if I know how it's going
to be done."

The pacing monologue paused when the traffic manager stopped at the
window and stood looking with unseeing eyes upon the morning bustle of
Sierra Avenue. Then he broke out again.

"It's a beautiful tangle--damn' beautiful! Evan says I know that we've
got the machine with us; I wish to heaven I did know it, and could be
sure of it. That would simplify matters a whole lot. But the
vice-president won't say, and he's the one who has been doing all the
dickering with the Honorable David. They quarrelled at first; I'd bet
every dollar I've got on that. But I more than half-believe they've
patched it up now, and I believe it was Mr. McVickar's quick swiping of
Evan--jerking him out from under his father's thumb the way he did--that
brought on the peace negotiations."

He turned away from the window and resumed the floor-pacing, still
wrestling with the deductions.

"By George! I believe I've got hold of the end of the thread at last!
The senator _is_ with us, working in the dark, as he always does. And
that Hathaway business: that was one of his smooth little
side-moves--his or Mrs. Honoria's. He didn't want Evan to get in too
deep in the righteousness puddle, and he took that way of letting him
get a peek at the real thing. It was overdone, though; horribly
overdone. Confound it all! I wish Mr. McVickar would loosen up a little
more with me! If he'd tell me a few of the things I ought to know--"

The interruption was the entrance of the boy from the train-despatcher's
office with a verbal message. The vice-president, moving westward, had
changed his plans and cut out some of his stop-overs. Car "008" would be
in on the noon train and would proceed westward, running special, at one
o'clock. The despatcher had thought that Mr. Gantry might want to know.

The traffic manager did want to know, and when the boy had ducked out,
the knowledge was promptly utilized. A touch of a desk-button brought
the stenographer, and Gantry dictated a message. "'Important that I
should have conference with you on arrival. Will meet you at train at
twelve-three.' Send that to Mr. McVickar over the despatcher's wire,