e blood of a
college brotherhood--is thicker than water. I know now what you're in
for, and I'm going to stand by you, if it costs me my job. First, let's
clear the way a bit. If I say that I haven't had anything to do, even by
implication, with this jolt you've just been given, will you believe
me?"

Blount lifted a pair of heavy-lidded eyes and let them rest for an
instant upon the face of the traffic manager. "If you say so, Dick, I'll
believe it," he returned.

"Good. Now we can dive into the thick of it. I won't insult you by
doubting the premising fact. You had the evidence once?"

"I did--enough of it to keep a grand jury busy for a month. It came to
me in the shape of unsolicited letters from the men who are benefiting
by the railroad company's evasion of the law, and who are, of course,
equally criminal with the railroad officials. Why these letters were
written to me I don't know, Gantry. I merely know that they were wholly
unsolicited."

"They were written to you because you are supposed to be the doctor in
the present crisis."

"But good God, Dick! Haven't I been shouting from every platform in the
State that we were out for a clean campaign?"

Gantry shook his head and his smile was commiserative. "I know; and
every man who has had his fingers in the pitch-barrel has chuckled to
himself, and when two of them would get together they'd pound each other
on the back and swear that you were the smoothest spellbinder that Mr.
McVickar has ever turned loose on this side of the big mountains. It
grinds, Evan, but it's the fact. Not one of the men you are after has
ever taken your speeches seriously."

Blount's head sank lower.

"I'm smashed, Dick!" he groaned; "utterly and irretrievably disgraced
and discredited in my native State! There isn't a man in the sage-brush
hills who would believe me under oath, after this."

"It's hard, Evan--damned hard!" said the traffic manager, driven to
repetition. "But grilling over it doesn't get us anywhere. What are you
going to do"?

"With the election only five days away, there is nothing that can be
done. I had you down, Dick; I could have forced my point with the weapon
I had. Isn't that so?"

Gantry wagged his head dubiously. "I'm not the big boss, but I can tell
you right now that, if you could have shown me what I was fully
expecting to see, the wires between here and wherever Mr. McVickar's
private car happens to be would have been kept pretty hot for a wh