The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-27
(Continued)

@sBut l tell you we can't withdraw the specials, you wild eyed fanatfc!'
 "Au right; then level down the pub He's rate to fit them. And do 1t quick ly, Dick. The time is growing fear fully short, and my patience isn't what it used to be-
 Anybody would think you owned the Transcontinental, lock, stock and barrel! Where under heaven did you get your nerve, Evan? Blest if I don't believe you could outbluf the o1d-er- your father himself if you once, got the fool notion into your head that it was your duty to try"
 This time Blount's smile was rather sorrowful, and he shook his head.
 Come and hear me speak tonight if you're staying over that long, Then you'll know why must have the solid rock of good faith under my feet, Gantry. You spoke of my father just now. bear the name, toe, Dick. Don't you see that I've. got to make goodp,
 1t was during this hardworking in terval that Blount saw, with keen re- gret. the gradual widening of the breach between him and his father. That the long arm of the machine of which his father was the acknowl- edged head was reaching out into all COIuGIS OI tue BASL6 LAGAG Wrlo 6AAAARAO evidence, and that the machine cam paign was a thing to be reczoned with and fought against was a cardinal principle with the young reformer-
 But it is hard to fight in the dark. The organization was so perfect that its very existence seemed mythical at times-a mere bugbear set up to be knocked down by the honest voter at the polls on election day.
 Yet Blount knew that it was no myth Sometimes he fancjed that it was the machine which was interpos- ing the invisible barrier beyond which he was E0t permitted te pass. With that thought came the old doubts and fears that his father and McFickar had consulted together to make him the fence behind which all the trickery of a venal campaign could be safely screened. But while this thought wis ibly widened the growing breach it made him only more determined to fight to the bitter end. What one man could do to herald the dawn of a new political epoch for his native state should be done.
 It was on one of his short stopoverS in the capital city that Blount found himself seated opposite his father at a table for two in the Inter-Mountain cafe The meeting was purely acci- dental, as most of their meetings had come to be. Inquirfng for his father at the desk, Blount had been told that the senator was out of town. But an hour later, when he had taken his seat at the dinner table, the supposed ab- sentee had walked in to take the op- posite chair.
 For time their ta1kawas of the do- ings at Warrace Hall, of the profes- sor's enthusiastic digging for fossils, of Patricia's keen enjoyment of the life in the open and-this put with gentle hesitation on the part of the news bringer-of Mrs. Honoria's growing love for the young woman whose am bitions reached out toward ''career.''
 ''Working you pretty hard these days, aren't they, son?' was the friendly re- mark that opened the way for more to follow. '1f you belonged to my generation instead of your own you wouldn't be cold shouldering that young woman out atsWartrace the way you do-not for all the politics that was ever hatched.''
 sI have my work to do," said the Son graveIy, land Patricia Anners would be the last person in the world to put obstacles in the way of it I wish could say as much for other people"
 The boss looked up quickly. "Some- body been trying to block you?'
 Evan Blount met the gaze of the shrewd gray eyes without hinch1ng.
 '1 don't know of any good reason why we shouldn't be frank with each other, dad" he said, using for the first time since his return the old boy hood father name. You know better chan any one else, I think, what the Stumbling blocks are and who is put eing them in my way"
 Instantly the faraway look came into the gray eyes
 'I know a heap of things that can't teI1-not just yet, son. Has Me Vickar been calling you down?"
 'No one has called me down, but some one or something is keeping me out of the real fight There isn't any fight that can get into. Everywhere I go there is the same cut and dried welcome, the same predetermined en- thusiasm- Sometimes it seems as if all the people I meet had been in structed to make things pleasant and, easy for me''
 The senator's chuckle was barely audible
 ''I wouldn't find much fault with that if I were you, son." he said. You'll get enough of the real thing by and by"
 Blount felt his anger rising He was in precisely the right mood to be- A@AE0 that his father, failing to make