naging editor in Pittsburg, and a
business manager in Minneapolis before coming to supervise the "Courier"
for its new owner.

"Atwill, you and Harwood had better keep in touch with each other.
Harwood is studying law here, but he will know pretty well what I'm
doing. He will probably write an editorial for you occasionally, and
when it comes in it won't be necessary for the regular employees of the
'Courier' to know where it comes from. Harwood won't mind if they take
all the glory for his work."

When Atwill left, Bassett talked further to Harwood, throwing his legs
across a chair and showing himself more at ease than Dan had yet seen
him.

"Harwood," he said,--he had dropped the mister to-day for the first time
in their intercourse,--"I've opened the door wider to you than I ever
did before to any man. I trust you."

"I appreciate that, Mr. Bassett."

"I've been carrying too much, and it's a relief to find that I've got a
man I can unload on. You understand, I trust you absolutely. And in
coming to me as you did, and accepting these confidences, I assume that
you don't think me as wicked as my enemies make me out."

"I liked you," said Dan, with real feeling, "from that moment you shook
hands with me in your house at Fraserville. When I don't believe in you
any longer, I'll quit; and if that time comes you may be sure that I
shan't traffic in what I learn of your affairs. I feel that I want to
say that to you."

"That's all right, Harwood. I hope our relations will be increasingly
friendly; but if you want to quit at any time you're not tied. Be sure
of that. If you should quit me to-morrow I should be disappointed but I
wouldn't kick. And don't build up any quixotic ideas of gratitude toward
me. When you don't like your job, move on. I guess we understand each
other."

If Dan entertained any doubts as to the ethics involved in Bassett's
handling of the situation in Ranger County they were swept away by the
perfect candor with which Bassett informed their new intimacy. The most
interesting and powerful character in Indiana politics had made a
confidant of him. Without attempting to exact vows of secrecy, or
threatening vengeance for infractions of faith, but in a spirit of
good-fellowship that appealed strongly to Harwood, Bassett had given him
a pass-key to many locked doors.

"As you probably gathered," Bassett was saying, "Atwill represents me at
the 'Courier' office."

"I had never suspected it," Da