stump?"

"Oh, I don't know," returned the guest, with large good-nature. "We are
all growing older--and wiser, perhaps. You don't deny the debt you owe
us, do you?"

"Do we owe you anything, Blount?" asked the magnate pointedly, and with
a definite emphasis upon the personal pronoun. "If we do, we are willing
to pay it in spot cash, on demand."

The big man on the other side of the table was leaning back in his chair
with his hands in his pockets, and the smile wrinkling at the corners of
his eyes was half-genial, half-satirical.

"It's lucky we're alone, McVickar," he remarked. "A third fellow
standing around and hearing you talk might imagine that you are trying
to bribe me."

"That's all right, Blount; this is between us two, and we understand
each other. Nothing for nothing is the accepted rule the world over, and
we both recognize it. You are figuring on something; I know you are.
Name it. If it is anything less than a mortgage on the earth and one or
two of the planets I'll get it for you."

"I'm afraid we are a good deal more than a mile or two apart yet,
McVickar," said the man who was not smoking, after a long minute. "Let's
ride back to the beginning and get us a fresh start. I said that Gordon
is going to be the next governor of the State."

"I know you did; and I said--and I say it again--he isn't going to
be--not if we can help it," declared the railway magnate, with emphatic
determination.

"The methods you will take to defeat him will insure his election,
McVickar. You fellows are mighty slow to learn your lesson; mighty slow
and obstinate, Hardwick. You don't know anything but wire-pulling and
crookedness and bribery. The times have changed, and you haven't had the
common-sense or the courage or the business shrewdness to change with
them. I say Gordon will be the next governor."

Again there was a strained silence like that which follows the
hand-shake in the prize-ring when the two antagonists have drawn apart
and are warily watching each for his opening. After the pause the
vice-president said:

"If we had the safest kind of a majority in both houses of the
legislature, we couldn't be sure of accomplishing anything worth while
with Gordon in the governor's office; you know that, Blount. If Gordon
runs and is elected, his platform will be flatly anti-railroad."

"Oh, I don't know," was the calm rejoinder. "Gordon is a mighty square
fellow; an honest man and a fair one. If you could stay