acks, and the knaves whose
gifts you buy know whom they sell to and for what. But remember this,
the day you run for District Attorney will be the day I take these
papers where they will do the most good, and we will see if the People
want a perjurer to prosecute in their name!"

Gordon tore from his pocket the "affidavit of merits," with the proofs
of its falsity, and slapped them down upon the desk.

Willard glanced at the papers and then at his adversary. His answer was
almost a whisper--hard and rasping.

"Gordon, I will convict your man if I never win another case in my
life!"

"By God--you dare not!"

The study door slammed as with a threat--"You dare not!"

The front door echoed "You dare not!" as a challenge.

When Willard looked up again the clock was striking three. But it chimed
"You dare not," in the even tone of statement.

* * * * *

The second day of John Winter's trial brought a series of reverses for
the prosecution, and the prisoner was acquitted, to the utter disgust of
the police.

About that time the Assistant District Attorney's career suffered one of
those sudden blights, the origin of which is the mystery of a city's
politics.

A few years after this Red Farrell was really found and convicted, but
then Willard had been so long on the political shelf that those who put
him there had completely forgotten his existence.

But I believe they were right in accusing him of bungling that case. Of
course, he may have been intimidated, but the chances are he could never
have been convicted of perjury. The crime has almost the sanction of
custom. This he must have known. So why not credit him with worthy
motives and say he was a good fellow at heart, even though Gordon,
Indian-hater that he is, will never admit it?

THE LATEST DECISION.

There was a black-edged card on the bulletin board. That means a vacancy
in the club membership until some one of the waiting-list steps into the
dead man's shoes.

The card bore the inscription:

JOHN FURMAN DELAFIELD.
December 30, 1898.

Jack Delafield had been no chum of mine, but I never thought the
Governors did right by him, and I was glad to remember my partisanship
in the days when his mere name was sufficient to provoke instant debate
among the Thespians. I liked him then for some of the enemies he made,
and perhaps my enthusiasm was always more for the cause tha