tively.

"No. Nothing went right that day, until just at the last. When I was
about to give up and go to bed, Patricia came into the smoking-room. I
had to talk to somebody, so I talked to her; told her where I had
landed."

"And she advised you to throw up your hands?"

"You don't know Patricia. She put a heart into my body and blood into my
veins. What she said to me that night is what has kept me going,
dad--what has made me drive this fight for a clean election on the part
of the railroad company home to the hilt. I have driven it home. There
will be no crooked deals on the part of the railroad company this time."

The senator looked up quickly. "That's a mighty good stout thing to
say," he remarked, adding: "I reckon you're not saying it without having
the right and proper club hid out somewhere where you can lay hands on
it?"

Blount tapped his coat-pocket. "I have the club right here--documentary
evidence that will rip this State wide open and send a lot of people to
the penitentiary. I've told Gantry to pass the word: a clean sheet, or I
go over to the other side and tell what I know. And that brings me to
the thing that I've got to say to you, dad--the thing that made me hope
I'd find you here to-night. After I'd got my battle-word from Patricia,
I had a jolt that was worse than the other. When I pulled the gun on
Gantry, he told me that I couldn't shoot without killing you; that you
were just as deeply involved as any one of the railroad officials. Is
that the truth?"

The senator had pushed his chair back and was burying his hands in his
pockets.

"You've come to try to haul me out of the fire?" he inquired, ignoring
the direct question.

"I've come to ask you, first, if it is possible for you to stand from
under. Can you?"

"Oh, yes; I reckon I could dodge, if I had to."

"Then do it, and do it quickly, dad! As there is a God above us, I'm
going to push this thing through to the bitter end. To-morrow morning I
shall give Gantry his time limit. If the time goes by, leaving the
house-cleaning still undone, I shall keep my promise to the letter. You
know, and I know, what will happen after that."

"Yes; I reckon I know," was the half-absent reply.

Blount threw his napkin aside and glanced at his watch.

"I've got to go back to the office and work a while," he said. And then:
"I feel better for having had this talk with you, dad. I'm sorry you are
finding it necessary to fight me, and a thousan