views on machine-made government. But
from a few little things he has said, I've gathered that he isn't with
you; that there has been a quarrel of some kind between him and Mr.
McVickar--"

"There was a set-to--a battle royal," Gantry put in. "The last act of it
was played to a finish that evening when Mr. McVickar took you down to
his car and hired you. But there has been a meeting since. Ask yourself
again, Evan. Haven't you had good and sufficient reasons for believing
that you are bucking, not only the railroad company, but your own flesh
and blood?"

This time it was Blount who took time for reflection. The shot had gone
home. He told himself that there were only too many reasons for
believing that Gantry was stating the simple fact. None the less, he
made a final effort to break down the conclusion that Gantry was
relentlessly thrusting upon him.

"In all our talks, Dick--there haven't been very many of them--my father
has taken, or seemed to take, a different line. I don't recall anything
specific just now, but he has given me the impression that he hasn't
much in common with Mr. McVickar and his methods. To hear him talk--"

Gantry smiled. "You know your father very superficially, Evan, if you'll
permit me to say so. What the Honorable David Blount says in talk with
you or me or anybody outside of the inner circle is a mighty poor
foundation upon which to build any idea of what's going on in the back
of his head. No--hold on; don't get mad. What I'm trying to tell you is
what everybody in the sage-brush hills--save and excepting
yourself--knows like a book, and that is that the big boss's moves are
all made strictly in the dark. He doesn't let his own right hand know
what the left is doing. That's the secret of his absolutely Czarish
power, I think."

The shriek of a distant locomotive whistle floated in through the open
window at Blount's back and he got up stiffly.

"That's my train coming," he said. And then: "Tell me plainly, Dick:
you brought me up here to throw a final brick--a bigger one than you
have yet thrown--and I know it. What did Mr. McVickar tell you to-day
that will make my job harder than I am already finding it?"

Gantry turned his head, refusing to meet the straightforward gaze of the
questioner.

"You intimated this morning that you would go at it lawyer-fashion,
Evan," he said; "which means, I suppose, that you would get the evidence
on us. You can do it; the Lord knows, there's p