The Ely miner., 1913-08-01


overspread them. His eyes had con-
tracted to sharp points under angry
brows. The governor scrutinized the
two men closely as he advanced, and
said, speaking in a calm tone:
"And so, II you gentlemen have con-
cluded your business paused-T
shall proceed to the execution of that
duty"
81 am" he added, a moment after
ward, perhaps fortunate in finding
you here, Mr.. Mendenhall. You may
be able to assist me-"
He drew toward them, and they
stood aside. He entered the vaults
where gas-jet glimmered, it's light
glinting on the nickel-plated knobs of
the great steel doors. He tried the
doors. They were locked He re-
mained an instant in thought, and
then took from his pocket a stick of
red sealing wax He hesitated an
| other instant
NO." he said, "the great seal could
not be utilized"
The great seal of state of the state
of Illinois, though it has political
history, is nevertheless, physically
but huge overgrown seal such as no
| taries public use in their little bust.
| nesses. And in Illinois the governor
has no privy seal as he has in
some commonwealths. The governor
warmed the sealing wax in the gas Jet
| that blazed beside him in the vault
When it began to melt he dribbled
and daubed it's softened surface, drop
by drop, on the combination of the
huge safe, as girl would seal let
ter. When he had quite covered the
lock with the molten wax, he sealed
it with the seal ring he wore on his
left hand, a ring which bore the coat
of-arms of colonial governor. The
| midnight secret of those two men,
| whatever it might be, was either safe
with them or more safely still, sealed
with other secrets behind those mas,
sive doors. And then he TUNED the
gas down until only tiny star blinked
In the vault, and came out and swung
| together the big steel gates that
| clanked like prison bars, their locks
| swapping automatically.
He returned to the outer door of the
department and placed his hand upon
| the knob.
Gentlemen he said tremendously,
II await your pleasure"
He bent his gaze full upon William
| Grigsby and that little man, throwing
back his head with something like de-
fiance, strobe on his short legs out of
the high-ceiled room, and Mendenhall
followed him, but meekly. AS they
filed past, Grigsby, with face upturned,
face that now in anger had taken
on the blue tinge of butchered beef,
drew his hands from his overcoat
| pocket and clasped them behind his
back. The governor bowed as the lit
tie man and Mendenhall swept out
before him. And then he drew the big
walnut door to.
Standing out in the corridor Grigsby
waited, and as he stood and waited,
he fumbled in the outer pocket of his
! overcoat. Suddenly he drew forth his
hand. His face had turned white, the
white of a fish's belly.
AS the governor drew the big wal
nut door to, and as it swung behind
him, it pushed before it, scraping
with the peevish voice of a ratchet
| along the matted floor, a piece Of
crumbled paper. Grigsby, who had
turned toward Mendenhall with look
of deaths despair, saw 1t, and started,
faint ray of hope beaming in his
eye. But the paper lay under the gov
ernorS feet.
The governor closed the doors.
"You may lock them, Mr. Menden-
hail." he said.
The assistant state treasurer drew
a jingling bunch of keys from his
pocket and locked the door. Grigsbys
eyes were fastened on the paper at the
governors feet. His heart was swell
ing in his throat His fingers were
twitching, and he was sweating like
stoker. At MendenhalPs approach
paper. When Mendenhall had done,
the governor picked it up. He
| smoothed it out in his fingers, and
slowly adjusted his glasses. By the
dim light that always burns at night
just outside the door of the state
treasury he read 1t. Then he placed it
in the pocket of his overcoat He
kept his hand upon 1t. The blue of
Grigsby's face deepened.
The three men went down the
stairs, the governor standing aside at
the top to let them precede him. They
crossed the rotunda, past the slumber
ing janitor whose snores ascended and
exploded in the east corridor and so
out into the darkness. They walked
together down the wide stone walk,
the stone walk as wide as street,
that sweeps, with a strip of sward
down its middle, across the state
house lawns to Capitol avenue. The
governor did not turn up Second
street by the way he had come He
kept on with his two companions, and
all three were silent. Not a word
had any one of them spoken. They
were drowned in thought. 1t matters
not of what the assistant state treas
urer was thinking. He held only an
appointive Office. He was political
villain, and had a collar on his neck.
The attorney general was thinking of
the days that We're to come. The
governor was thinking of the days that
were gone. Silent, thoughtful, thus
they kept on up Capitol avenue. When
they approached the shades that gath
cred under the ugly iron bridge
which spans the ragged street that
Lands to tbo capitoI of Illinois the AL.