on't take a bit of care of
yourself!"

But in the evening, after a day in the open air, he brightened, and
under the old spell of comradeship he took on the boyish manner that had
been so marked a characteristic.

"And how are all our friends at Helena?" inquired the doctor, after he
had secured a favorable report of Eva and the baby. "All well, of
course, or I should have heard from them!" he went on, with the
geniality that Latimer remembered so well. "And little Arthur--he must
be quite a lad now----"

"Six--and so proud of his new sister," replied the father, with a note
of pride that Danvers marked with thankfulness. The tenderness in the
man's eyes told him that this little son was the sole balm of a
harrassed life, and he wondered if even this great compensation was
adequate for all the man had given--and lost.

"Why didn't you bring the little chap with you?" questioned the doctor.

"I did think of it," confessed Latimer, "but this is a business trip
chiefly, if I must own up to it. I want to talk over the situation with
someone I know--someone I can trust."

"Anything special?" asked the doctor.

"Politics!" replied the judge. "The political pot is beginning to get a
scum on the top, preparatory to boiling."

"How domestic a simile!" jeered the doctor.

Latimer laughed. "We've been without a maid lately, and I've had a
chance to see the inside workings of a kitchen. Not that it's Eva's
fault," he added hastily. "Maids are hard to get."

"H-m-m," assented the doctor, judicially, and soon the three were deep
in Montana politics.

The probable nominees for state officials were gone over, and Danvers
remarked:

"You are sure of re-election, Arthur."

"No, I'm not; not even of nomination," objected the judge. "The
Honorable William Moore has been to see me----"

Danvers shot him a keen glance, and the doctor listened curiously.

"He was interested in the Hall and Burroughs case." Latimer hesitated,
and a spot of color suddenly burned in his cheeks. "Moore evidently
thought it necessary to come to me and ask that Burroughs have _fair
play_!"

The doctor laughed. It was an opportunity to tease the boy he loved; not
a serious impeachment of the character of the judge of the Supreme
Court.

"He offered me a hundred thousand dollars if I'd take a rest! Suggested
Europe!" The judge's voice trembled.

"The devil he did!" burst from the physician.

"He raised his price by the time he got to you," c