out of the fight
and go to him with clean hands--but you couldn't do that, McVickar;
you're too badly out of practice."

"We needn't go into that phase of it. We are so savagely handicapped in
this State that we can't afford to take a divided chance; can't afford
to pass our case up to a man who has been elected by an unfriendly
opposition. If we should wash our hands of the fight, as you suggest,
we might just as well throw up our franchises and quit, so far as any
prospect of earning a reasonable return upon our investment here is
concerned."

"I know; that is what you always say, and you have said it so often--you
and your fellow railroad string-pullers--that you have lost the
straightforward combination completely. If you ever knew how to make a
clean fight you've forgotten the moves, and it's your own fault."

Once more the man with the fierce eyes and the dominating jaw took time
to consider. Like others of his class, he was partisan only in the sense
of one fighting hardily for the side upon which he had happened to be
drawn in the great world battle. If he had not long ago parted with his
convictions, the heat and smoke of the battle had obscured them, and he
chose his weapons now with little regard for anything beyond their
possible efficacy.

"You are sparring with me, Blount," he said finally. "You are talking to
me as you might talk to a committee of the Good Government League--and
possibly for the same reason. Let's get together. You control the
political situation in your State, and we frankly recognize that fact.
It's a matter of business, and we can settle it on a business basis. I
have been outspoken and above-board with you and have told you what we
want. Meet me halfway and tell me what you want."

"I want a square deal all around, Hardwick; that's all. You've got to
take the same ground and make a clean fight if you want me with you. I
can't make it any plainer than that, can I?"

"I don't know yet what you are driving at," frowned the vice-president,
"nor just why you have taken this particular occasion to read me a
kindergarten lecture on political methods. In times past I suppose we
have both done some things that we would like to have decently buried
and forgotten, but--"

"But right there we break apart, McVickar," cut in the other, setting
his jaw with a peculiar hardening of the facial muscles that gave him
the appearance of a fierce old viking attacking at the head of his
squadrons.