party machine a possibility? What was
his position with regard to the presidential nomination? Did he
approve of an out-and-out indorsement of the gold standard?

He was through with them finally, and the office-seeking, news-hungry
world, supposing him gone to his home, left him alone in his cell to
complete his interrupted work. Half-past five o'clock! His thoughts
strayed to follow the course of two trains. By now the fugitives were
below the Highlands; North must already be entering the city. Fort
George and the bridges of the Harlem were above his head, the long,
straight streets reeled away like the spokes of a giant wheel.
Presently he would pace the platform at Forty-second Street. In an
hour they would meet.

Shelby forced his mind back to his desk. The closely written sheets of
manuscript which had filled his evening yesterday lay before him. He
called his private secretary from the adjoining room.

"Have the stenographers all gone?"

"All but one, governor," said the secretary. "He is working past hours
on a personal matter for me."

"Let me borrow him."

For an hour the governor slowly dictated from his sheets.

"You will miss your regular dinner over this," he said to the man, at
the end, and pressed a bank-note upon him. "We'll need several copies,
of course."

The stenographer went to his typewriter, and Shelby walked out to his
secretary's desk.

"He's working on this," he explained, showing him a page of the
manuscript. "I suppose he doesn't leak news?"

The secretary flushed a little over the hasty reading.

"He is wholly trustworthy," he replied.

"There is nothing of the Star Chamber order about the matter, but I
always prefer to be the source of information. I should have put this
through to-day if a personal affair hadn't prevented. Have the
formalities in readiness for the morning. Good night."

He again consulted his watch. They had met! Without seeing him he
walked past an orderly with a telegram. The man overtook him at the
elevator.

"So soon?" said the governor, absently.

The orderly exchanged glances with the elevator boy.

Shelby tore open North's message. It said "Come," and named a
Forty-second Street hotel. One of the fastest trains in the world was
due in less than a half-hour. In fifteen minutes he gained the
station. With the time which remained he wired North of his coming,
and telephoned Milicent a cheery message that he should not return