The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1913-12-11

The third Of the trio was an iron-gray
man OF clean-cut face and scrupulously
well groomed aspect.
Wanda knew him well. by sight. For
whenever political crises swept Wash.
ington he was as certain to appear as
are vultures 10 congregate for the
feast. He was Ralph Van Dyke. a
New Yorker, and counsel for a grea.
railroad. His was one of the shrewd-
est legal minds in America. And he
had SO carefully trained that mind 20
the million DARK intricacies of CORPORA
ton Law as to be doubly worth the an
nua1 fortune he reaped from the inter
ests. What Jim Blake was in politics.
Ralph Van Dyke was in corporation
Law. The chance word Wanda had
just overheard had been spoken by
him.
Are things still going As badly with
the Mullins bin as when you wired the
today" he had asked Neligan.
-Oh." returned Neligan, I'VE had the
house cinched when 1t was reported
We'd have passed It. hands down. il
We could have jammed II through then
But now-We may as well stand up to
facts-we're as good as licked"
But, gentemen.' urged Van Dyke
impatfently, this bill has to pass"
Sure it has" gloomily assented
Neligan. only It can't. Unless some
thing explodes Standish before il
comes to vote. Oh, It's the people,
They're retorm-crazy. They don't know
what they want. and nine years out OF
ten they don't want anything except To
stay asleep and let the right crowd
handle the country. But when a man
like Stanlish gets them to listen 10
him. they all wake up and yell for re-
form and purity In politics as hard as
. waking baby squalls for its bottle
They've made him a popular idol"
"The Deople." scohed Van Dyke
They make an idol one minute and
Overturn it the next"
That's right" agreed Gregg. but
the Mullins bill will be defeated before
they get time to overturn Standish
The people are awake. They really
seem to have an idea we ought to keep
some OF our promises. And. say! After
all. We did promise them a lot OF
things"
did we?" echoed Neligan. 1--WE
made our platform look like cross
section of the Ten Commandments
fringed with pages of Pilgrims Prog
ress. YAH That's the trouble. We're
over-promised"
III We could loosen Standishs pull
with the parsons" said Neligan, "we'd
have him against the ropes in one
round"
"Now you are talking sanity" ap
proved the lawyer THAT was JUS,
what | was waiting to suggest"
"Well. We didn't wait for you to sug
gest It." retorted Neligan. I'VE aren',
corporation law-contortionists. per
haps. but we've got a few grains Of
gray matter left. That's the first stunt
We tried We put good men on the
case to look up Standish's record-to
find one break that we could hang q
story on"
"Well?"
well, from their reports, standist
seems to have led a life that woulc
make Saint Anthony and Sir Galahat
and the Pilgrim fathers look like &
bunch Of soused Tenderloin FOUNDERS.
You're sure your men left nothing
uncovered?"
DO you think we'd overlook any
thing when the whole game hangs or
| it,"
That's right. Van Dyke" supple
mented Gregg. We've been ovei
| Standish's record with a microscope
| He's cost us enough to make the
search mighty careful. Even II you
don't give US credit for sense enough
to probe the business, you'll have tG
allow that Mark Robertson's no fool
And Robertson's moved heaven and
hell to get something on Standish. But
he can't. Robertson's got more al
stake than any OF U.S. II Standish licks
him In this fight and gets the speaker
ship it'll cost Mark Robertson more
than most people could understand
Seh-respect and ambition and future
and"
1T sure WILL" agreed Neligan. Lets
sect must be close on five years
now, that Standish and Robertson