The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-18
f decision TO any one so Ia

free nom guile.
Twill you authorize me to contradict
the talk as I can?' he asked quickly.
Blount was still warm enough to be
peremptory. Yes; you may contra
dict it You may say that it is wholly
unauthorized" Then he remembered
the claims of friendship "I'n be frank
with you, Gantry. This thing has been
mentioned to me once, but nothing was
decided, absolutely nothing. I didn't
even promise to take it under advise
ment.''
Among those who knew him exter-
nally Mr.. Richard Gantry had the rep
utatton of owning a loose tongue. But
none knew better than the real Rich
ard Gantry when to make the loose
tongue wag away from the subject
which has reached its nicely adjusted
climax.
Almost before he knew it Evan
Blount was gossiptng with his table
companion over a social function two
days old. A little later the waiter
brought the cigars, and the danger
point, If any there were, was safely
past.
1t was when the two young men
were on their way to the club smok-
ing room that some one stopped Gan
tIy u ld1k business Win Nun.
Blount strolled on by himself and.
finding the smoking room, went to
lounge in lazy chair, whose chief at
traction was that it stood half hidden
in a little alcove lined with bookcases.
He craved solitude and chance to
think things over fairly and without
heat.
A few minutes later Gantry looked
in and, apparently missing the half
concealed easy chair and its occupant
in the bookcase alcove, went his way.
He was scarcely gone before two
men entered, coming down the corri-
dor from the grill room.
B1ount saw them, and he made sure
that they saw him. But when they
had taken chairs on the other side of
the room he was suddenly assured that
they had not seen him. They were
talking quite freely of him and OF his
father.
sEWell, the Honorable Sagebrush has
got McVickar dead to rights this
time" said the elder of the two, a full
faced man, to whom Blount had been
introduced on his first day in the capt.
tai, but whose name and station he
could not recall. F@This scheme of put
ting his son up for attorney general is
the foxiest thing the senator has ever
put across. You can bet the air was
blue in the Transcontinenta1 Chicago
Offices when the news got there
what do you suppose McV1ekar
will do?'' asked the other.
''He viii do anything the senator
wants him to do. Blount is land hun
CRY. and guess he'll take a few more
sections of the railroad mesa land I'M
der the Clearwater ditch. That was
what he did two years ago, when Nc
Viekar wanted the right of way for
the branch through Carnadine coun-
ty."
Don't you believe he's going to
take any little Christmas gift this
Hme," was the rasping reply. Hell
sell the railroad something and take
good hard money for it! It's cinch.
The railroad can't afford to have the
courts against it, and Mcvtckar will
be made to sweat blood. You watch
the wheels go round when McVickar
comes out here
Evan Blount found himself turning
sick at heart. Gould it be his father
whom they were thus calmly accusing
of graft and trickery and blaekmail-
ing methods?
His first impulse was to face the
two men. to demand proofs, to do and
say what a loyal son should. But the
sickening conviction that they were
discussing only well assured and well
known facts, crushed him back into
his chair, and after that he was anX-
fous for only one thing-that they
might finish their cigars and go away
without discovering him.
Fate was kind to him thus far. After
little further talk, in which the &C
cepted point of view of the onlookeF
was made still more painfully evident,
the younger Of the two men spoke OF
an engagement, and they both went
out together.
One clear thought, and only one,
came to Evan out of the sorrowful
confusion. Not for any inducement
that could be offered would he now
lend himself to the furtheranee of his
fathers plans.
Beyond this he did not go in the mis-
cradle hour wrought out in the quiet
of the club smoking room.
But when he rose to go another
prompting was forcing it's way to the
front-a prompting to throw himself
boldly into the scale against graft and
ehicanery, to redeem by whatsoever
means might offer the good old name
that had been SO shamefully dragged
in the mire.
He did not know just how it was to
be done, but he would find way.
That it would be full of thorns he
could not doubt, since every step in 1t
would open and widen the breach be-
tween him and his father. But, though
it should lead him to the bar of justice
as that fathers aeeuser, he must walk
in it. He said to himself in a fresh
access Of discrimination that, though
he might have to blush for his father,
Patricia should not be made ashamed
for her lover.
Upon leaving the club he hesitated
long enough on the steps to remember
that he was In no fit frame of mind TO
risk an immediate meeting with his ia