The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-16

VIII. Inc Special act VI liC AS
sembly is void; therefore there was
nc legal election. and, by consequence,
there is no Judge and no receiver.
Miss Van Brock was silent for re-
Elective minute. Then she said:
"On second thought, perhaps you
would better tell me what the constl-
tuition says, Mr.. David. Possibly
could grasp it,
1T is in the section on elections. 1t
says: All Circuit or District Judges,
and all special Judges. shall be elected
by the qualified voters of the respec-
tive circuits or districts in which they
are to hold their court k1owa Coun-
ty was cut out of Judge Whitcomb' S
circuit and placed in Judge MacFar-
lanes for electoral purposes only. In
ali other respects it remains a part of
Judge Whitcomb's circuit, and will so
continue until Whitcomb's term eX-
pires. Without the vote of Kiowa,
MacFarlane could not have been elect
ed; with it he was illegally elected or,
to put it the other way about, he was
not elected at all. Since he is not law
fully Judge, his acts are void, among
them this appointment of Major Gull
ford as receiver for the Transwest-
ern."
She was not as enthusiastic as he
thought she ought to be. In the soil
prepared for it by the political conf
dences of the winter there had grown
up branching tree of intimacy
between these two; a frank, sexless
friendship, as Kent would have de-
scribed it, in which a man who was
not very much given to free speech
with any one unburdened himself, and
the woman made him believe that her
quick, experimenting sympathy was
the one thing needful--as women have
done since the world began.
Since the looting of the railroad
which had taken him out of the
steadying grind of regular work, Kent
had been the prey of mixed motives.
From the first he had thrown himself
heartily into the problem of retrievaI,
but the pugnacious professional ambi-
ton to break the power of the ma
chine had divided time pretty equally
with sentiment Elinor had said
little about the vise-nip of hard
ship which the stock-smashing would
impose upon three unguardianed wom-
en-, but Penelope had been less retcent.
Wanting bare justice at the hands of
the wreckers, Elinor would go to her
wedding with Ormsby as the beggar
maid went to King Cophetua; and all
the loyalty of an unselfish love rose up
in Kent to make the fight with the
grafters a personal duel.
At every step in the hitherto discour-
aging struggle Portia Van Brock had
been his keen-sighted adviser, prompt
er, ally of proof. He told himself now
and again in a flush of gratitude that
he was coming TO owe her more than
he had ever owed any woman; that
where other men, more-or less-fortu-
nate, were not denied the Joy of pos
session, he, the disappointed one, was
finding a true and loyal comradeship
next best, If not quite equal to the
beatitudes. of passion.
In all of which David Kent was not
entirely just to himself. However much
he owed to PORTLAND the debt was
large-she was not his only creditor.
Something he owed to the unsatisfied
love; more, perhaps, to the good blood
in his veins; but most of all to the bat
tie itself. For out of the soul-harrow-
ingS of endeavor was emerging a better
man, stronger man, than any his
friends had known. Brutal as their
blind groupings were, the f1agellants of
the dark ages piled their whips to
some dim purpose. Natures there be
that rise only to the occasion, and if
there be no occasion, no f1oggings of
adversely or e-wrenchings upon the
rack of things denied, there will be no
awakenlng-no victory.
David Kent was suffering in both
kinds and was the better man for 1t.
IOlIl lOOhil6 lOl w dIQ W SuCC6SS III the
narrow field of professional advance
ment, or in the scarcely broader one of
the righting of one woman's financial
wrongs, he was coming now to crave it
in the name of manhood-to burn with
a desire to see justice done for its own
sake.
So when he had come to Portia with
the scheme of effacing Judge MacFar-
lane and has receiver at one shrewd
IL he,
held out a fair promise of success as a
reward for daring, he was disappointed
at her lack of enthusiasm.
What is the matter with it?" he de-
manded, when he had given her five
full minutes for reflection.
Il don't know, David" she said
gravely. "Have 1 ever thrown cold
water on any Of your schemes thus
far?"
mo, indeed. You have been the 10y
alest partisan a man ever had, think;
the only one I have to whom 1 can
talk freely. And I have told you more
than I have all the others put to-
gether.''
Il know you have. And it hurts me
to pull back now when you want me to
push. But 1 can't help it. Do you be-
lieve in, womans intuition?"
Il suppose 1 do; all men do, don't
they?"
She was tying little knots in the
fringe of the table scarf, but the
prophetess-eyes, as Penelope called
them, were not following the deft in
tertwinings of the slender fingers.
You mean to set about 'obifterat-
ing Judge MacFarlane forthwith 2"
she asked.
"Assuredly. I have been whipping
the thing into shape all afternoon:
that is what kept me from dining with
you
1T involves some kind of legal pro-
cedure?"
Yes; rather complicated one"
Gould you explain it so that could
understan 1t ?"
Il think so. In the first place the
question is raised by means of an in
formation or inquiry called a quo war
ranto. This is directed to the receiver,
and is a demand to know what au-
thority he holds. Is it clear thus far ?"
"Pellucidly," she said.
I'm reply the receiver cites his au-
thority, which is the order from Judge
MacFarlane; and in our turn we pro-
coed to show that the authority does
80 he