The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1904, Page 3

—— TH N FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL the delayed No. 17 was Weard and Ke was to re- port to Lorin, if there Were anything from Boston The reply was encc uraging. A com- al gned by receiv it at Gaston—w Kent anticipatior scheme of the inte mall dust in moment of tack of to walk long grew 1gineer sion on Oleson Hu ught to gain n 3 again, 1- uisition tion of t > him dur and ved wn, st courthbuse. ime, o go back a little, wngs 10 and fro having icott had been xperiences « rresponding € he had the mor the headquarters wire ws and instructio nt's good intentio d in person, had got little either. 7 1, to his unspeakable relief, Ip was station with ere was in hliin to meet But as the time for the drew near he grew nervous nd all the keen pains of utter returned with renewed tor, who had erg - Lesterville m that the special was station. at the forme: good Lora! . “I'm Wi y ne the the baggage-room end \ding and, captring an ex- wagon, had himself trundled out he courthg The Judg: s at his desk iwhen Hunnicott cntered, and Hawk was on band, calmly reading the morning pa- per. The hands of the clock on the wall opposite the Judge's desk pointed to five r utes -of the nour, ad for es Hunnic sat ning, nst hope that he should ush and roar of the incom- ptly on the stroke of 3 the Judge his desk with his pencil proceed with your case; and 1 must ask you to be as possible. 1 have an appointr four which cannot be said quie and Haw bis paper and begar Hunnicott heard his opponent’s ar- gument mechanically, having his ear attuned for whistle signals and wheel drummings. Hawk spoke rapidly and straight to his point, as befitted a man speaking to the facts and with no jury present to be swayed by oratorial ef- fort. When e to the summariz- ing of the allegations in the amended petition, he did it wholly without heat, plling up the accusations one upon an- other with the careful method of a bricklayer building a wall. The wall- buliding simile thrust itself upon Hun- nicott with irresistible force as he lis- tened. If the special engine should not dash up in time to batter down the wall— Hawk closed as dispassionately as he had begun, and the Judge bowed gravely in Hunnicott’s direction. The local attorney got upon his feet, and es he began to speak a telegram was handed in. It was Kent's wire from Juniberg, beseeching him to gain time at all hazards, and he settled himself to the task. For thirty dragging minutes he rang the changes on the various steps In the suit, knowing full well that the fatal moment was ap- proaching when—Kent still falling him—he would be compelled to sub- mit the case without a scrap of an af- fidavit to support it. The moment came, and still there was no encouraging whistle shiek from the dun plain beyond the open windows. Hawk was visibly disgusted, and Judge MacFarlane was growing justly impatient. Hunnicott begain again, and the Judge reproved him mildly. “Much of what you are saying entirely irrelevant, Mr. This hearing is on the amended petition.” No one knew better than the local attorney that he was wholly at the court’s mercy; that he had been so from the moment the Judge began to consider his purely formal defense, entirely unsupported by aflidavits or evidence of any kind. None the IJess, he strung his denials out by every implication he could devise, and having fired his last shot, sat down in despairing breathlessness to hear the Judge’s summing-up and decision. - Judge MacFarlane was mercifully brief. On the part of the plaintiff there -was an amended petition fully fortified by uncontrovertible affidav- its. On the part of the defendant com- pany there was nothing but a formal is Hunnicott. plaintiff’s denial of the allezations. The duty of the court in the premises was clear. The prayer of the plaintiff was granted, the temporary relief asked for was given, and the order of the court would “ue accordingly. The Judge was rising when the still, hot air of the room began to vibrate with the tremulous thunder of the sounds for which Hunnicott had been so long straining his ears. He was the fi of the three to hear it, and he hurried out ahead of the others. At the foot of the stair he ran blindly against Kent, dusty, travel-worn and haggard. You're too lat “We're done up. Hawk’s pet been granted and the road ds of a receiver.” }‘\un dashed his fist upon the stair- rail he blurted Who is the ma Major Jim cott he demanded. Guilford,” said Hunni- Then, as footfails coming stai rd in the upper corri- dor he loc arms with Kent, faced him zbout and thrust him out over the doorstone. “Let's get out of here. You look as if you might kill some- body.” CHAPTER XI. The Last Ditch. < of the later and nt of David Kent able to keep his head in of catastrophes. 1In boy- hood his hair had been a brick-dust red da ving the temp which beloungs of right to the auburn- Lued, his first impulse was to face 2 and make a personal matter of al robbery with Judge Mac- 1e momer d, Hunni- 1 ed and - fit pussed Kent found ing cool and determined. crestfallen and dis- getic;, but Kent did all cour ourself; could pher there was have done, in your of- you know Phone him to run down get what telegrams d we'll talk as we courthouse, Kent of questions. MacFarlane stop- itine v idea when he in- robably take the stays here an has to after ad- That would be the lock going ea ink of it said he He's er east at 6 believe he was going to in miserable mora possibilities, and ickened his pace a little, young man won't let under his feet,” he “What do we do willing to take a litt: he ran. aflidavits T have brought with h are wait- tation must convince Mac- t he has made a mistake. T re 4 motion for the of the receiver, for the vacation of the order appointing him, and k the Judge to set an early day for the hearing on the merits of the case. He can't refuse.” Hunnicott shook his head. “It has been all cut anc *way back,” he objected dried from hey won't let you upset it at he last moment.” “We'll give them a run for their szid Kent. good bit of it depends upon Perkins' speed as a sten- ographer.” appointment, and by 5 o'clock Kent s in the lobby of the Mid-Continent, sending his card up to the Judge's room. Word came back that the Judge was in the cafe fortifying the inner man in preparation for his journey, and Kent did not stand upon ceremony. “rom the archway of the dining-room he marked down his man at a small table in the corner, and went to him at once, plunging promptly into the matter in hand. “The exigencies of the case must plead my excuse for intruding upon you here, Judge MacFKarlane,” he be- gan courteously. “But I have been told that you were leaving town——" The Judge waved him down with a deprecatory fork. “Court is adjourned, Mr. Kent, and I must decline to discuss the case ex parte. Why did you allow it to go by default?” “That is precisely here to lain,” s The time llowed us was very short; and a series of accidents— Again the Judge interrupted. A court can hardly take cognizance of accidents, Mr. Kent. Your local at- torney was on the ground and he had the full benefit of the delay.” “I know,” W the patient rejoinder. ly, your order is unassail- None the I a great injustice has been dome, as are prepared to prove. I am not here to ask you to reopen the case at your dinner table, but if you will glance over these pa- pers I am sure you will set an early day for the hearing upon the merits.” Judge MacFarlane forced a gray smile. % “You vote yea and nay in the same breath, Mr. ent. If T should examine your papers, I should be reopening the case at my dinner table. You shall have your hearing in due course.” “At chambers?” said Kent. “We shall be ready at any moment; we are ready now, in point of fact.” “l cannot say as to that. My health is very precarious, and I am under a physician’s orders to take a complete rest for a time. I am sorry if the de- lay shall work a hardship to the com- pany you represent; but under the cir cumstances, with not even an affidavit offered by your'side, it is your misfor- tune. And now I shall have to ask you to excuse me. It lacks but a few min- utes of my train time.” The hotel porter was droning out the call for the eastbound flyer, and Kent eftaced himself while Judge MacFar- lane was paying his bill and making ready for his departure.” But when the Judge set out to walk to the station. K walked with him. There were five squares to be measured, and for five squares he hung at MacFarlane's elbow and the plea he made should have won him a hearing. Yet the Judge remained impass#ble, and at the end of the argument turned him back in a word to his starting point. “I can not recall the order at this time, if I would, Mr. Kent; neither can 1 set a day for the hearing on the mer- its What has been done was done in open court and in the presence of your attorney, who offered no evidence in contradiction of the allegations set forth in the plaintiff’'s amended peti- tion, although they were supported by more than a dozen affidavits; and it can not be undone in the streets. Since you have not improved your opportuni- tieg, you must abide the consequences. The law can not be hurried.” They had reached the station and the east bound train was whistling for Gaston. Kent's patience was nearly gone, and the auburn-hued tempera- ment was clamoring hotly for its in- nings. . “This vacation of yours, Judge Mac- Farlane; how long is it likely to last?"” he inquired,. muzzling his wrath yet another moment. “I can not say; if T could I might be able tu give you a more definite answer a8 to the hearing on the merits. But my health is very miserable, as I have said. If T am able to return shortly, I £hall give you the hearing at chambers at an early date.” As it befell, Perkins did not prove a “And if not? “If not, I am afraid it will have to g0 over to the next term of court.” “Six months, id Kent; and then his temper broke lo “Judge Mac- Farlane, it is my opinion, speaking as man to man, that you are a scoundrel. I know what you have done, and why you have done it. Also, I know why you are running away, now that it is done. So help me God, I'll bring you to book for it if T have to make a life- time job of it! It's all right for your political backe they are thieves and bushwhackers, and they make no se- cret of it. But there is one thing wo than a trickster, and that is a tric ster's tool!” For the moment while the train was mmering in over the switch they facing ich othe all ng aside, each after his kind; nger man flushed and battle- mad; the cilder white, haggard, tremu- 1o Kerft did not guess, then or ever, how near he came to death. Two years earlier a Judge had been shot and maimed on a western circult and since then, MacFarlane had taken a coward’s pre- caution. Here was a man that knew, of trem- de, anda while he lived the cup bling might never be put as it w the conductor’s c aboard!” that broke the spell. Judge MacFarlane ily, shook off the angry ey accuser and went to take his place in the Pullman. One minute later the eastbound train was threading its way out among the switches of the lower yard, and Kent had burst into the tele- graph oftice to wire the volcanic news to his chief. CHAPTER XIL The Man in Possession. Appraised at its value in the current coin of street gossip, the legal seizure of the Transwestern figured mainly as an example of the failure of modern busfness methods jvhen applied to the concealment of a working corporation's truc financial condition. This unsympathetic point of view was sufficiently defined in a bit of shop talk between Harnwicke, the cold- blooded, and his traffic manager in the oftice of the Overland Short Line the morning after the newspaper an- nouncement of the receivership. “I told you they were in deep water,” said the lawyer, confidently. “They haven't been making any earnings— net earnings—since the Y into them at Rio Verde, dends were only a bluff for stock-brac- ing purposes. I surmised that an empty treasury was what was the matter when they refused to join us in the veto affair.” “That is one way of looking at it,” sald the traffic manager. “But some of the papers are claiming that it was a legal hold-up, pure and simple.” “Nothing of the kind,” retorted the lawyer, whose respect for the law was as great as his contempt for the mak- ers of the laws. “Judge MacFarlane had no discretion in the matter. Hawk had a perfect right to file an amended petition, and the Judge was obliged to act upon it. I'm not saying it wasn't a devilish sharp trick of Hawk's. It was. He saw a chance to smite them under the fifth rib, and he took it.” “But how about his client—the woman who was put off the train? Is she any better off than she was be- fore?” *“‘Oh, she'll get her five thousand dol- lars, of course, if they don't take the case out of court. It has served its turn. It's an. ugly crusher for the Loring management. Hawk's allega- tions charge all sorts of crookedness, of “All homicidal arted guilt- grip of his and neither_ Loring nor Kent seemed to have a word to say for themselves. I understand Kent was in court, either in person or by attorney, when the re- ceivership order was made, and that he hadn't a word to say for himself.” This view of Harnwicke's, colored perhaps by the fact that the Trans- western was a business competitor of the Short Line, was the generally ac- cepted ome in railroad and financial circles at the capital. Civilization apart, there is still a deal of the primitive in human nature, and wolves are not the only creatures that are prone to fall upon the disabled member of the pack and devour him. But in the State at large the press was discussing the event from a polit- ical point of view: one section, small but vehement, raising the cry of trick- ery and judicial corruption, and proph- esying the withdrawal of all foreign capital from the State, while the other, large and complacent, pointed elo- quently to the beneficent working of the law under which the cause of a poor woman, sulng for her undoubted right, might be made the whip to flog corporate tyranny into instant subjec- “JUDGE MARS' YO YOU KNOW THAT LAF RTION TO BE ' HE DEMANDED. : + tion. As for the dispossessed stockholders in the far-away East, they were slow to take the alarm, and still slower to get concerted action. Like many of the ‘Western roads, the Western Pacific had been capitalized largely by popular subscription; hence there was no single holder, or group of holders, of sufficient financial weight to enter the field against the spoilers. But when Loring and his associates had fairly got the wires hot.with the tale of what had been done, and the much more alarming tale of what was likely to be done, the Boston inertness vanished. A Dpool of the stock was formed, with the members of the Ad- ory Board as a nucleus; money was subscribed, less a legal light than an ex-Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts was dis- patched to the seat of war to advise with the men on the ground. None the less, disaster out-travels the swiftest of “limited” trains. Before the heav- ily feed consulting attorney had crossed the Hudson in his westward journey, ‘Wall street had taken notice, and there was a momentary sblash in the trou- bled pool of the Stock Exchange and a vanishing circle of ripples to show where Western Pacific had gone down. In the meantime Major James Guil- ford, somewhile president of the Apache National Bank of Gaston, and antecedent to that the frowning auto- crat of a twenty-five-mile logging road in the North Carolina Mountains, had given bond in some sort and had taken possession of the company’s property and of the offices in the Quintard build- ing. His first official act as receiver was to ask for the resignations of a dozen heads of departments, beginning with the general manager and pausing for the moment with the supervisor of track. That done, he filled the vacan- cies with political troughsmen; ,and with these as assistant decapitators the major passed rapidly down the line, striking off heads in daily batches until the overflow of the Bucks political fol- Jowing was provided for on the rail- road’s payrolls to the wife’'s cousin's nephew. . This was the work of the first few administrative days or weeks, and while it was going on, the business at- titude of - the road remained un- changed. But once seated firmly in the saddle, with his awkward squad well in hand, the major proceeded to throw a bomb of consternation into the camp of his competitors. Kent was dining with Ormsby In the grillroom of the Camelot Club when the waiter brought in the evening edi- tion of the Argus, whose railroad re- porter had heard the preliminary fiz- zing of the bomb fuse. The story was set out on the first page, first column, with appropriate headlines. WAR TO THE KNIFE AND THE KNIFE TO THE HILT. Transwestern Cuts Commodity Rate. Great Excitement in Railroad Circles— Recelver Guilford's Hold-Up. Kent ran his eye rapidly down the column and passed the paper across to Ormsby. “I told you s80,” he said. “They didn't find the road insolvent, but they are going to make it so in the shortest pos- sible order. A rate war will do it quicker than anything else on earth.” Ormsby thrust out his jaw. “Have we got to stand by and, see ‘em do it?” “The man from Massachusetts says ves, and ne Knows, or tmnks ne does,” He Has been here two weeks now, and he has ncsed out for him- self -all the deadwall We can’'t ap- peal, becauge there is no decision to appeal from. We can't take it out of the lower court until it is finished in the lower court. We can't enjoin’ an officer of the court; there is no author- ity in-the State that will set aside Judge Maclarlane’s order when that order was made under technically le- gal conditions.” “You could have told him all that in the first five minutes,” said Ormsby. +I did tell him and was mildly sat To-day he came around and upon. 1 gave me back my opinion, clause for clause, as his own. But 1 have no kick coming. Somebody will have to be here to fight the battle to a finish when the Judge returns, and our ex- pert will advise the Bostonlans to re- tain me.” . “Does he stay?” Ormsby asked. B going back with Lor- ing to-night. Loring has an idea of his own which may or may not be worth the powder it will take to ex- plode it. He is going to beseech the Boston people to enlarge the pool until it controls a safe majority of the stock.” “What good will that do?” “None directly. It's merely a safe preliminary to anything that may hap- pen. I tell Loring he is like all the others; he knows when he has enough and is willing to stand from under. T'm the only fool in the lot.” Ormsby’s smile was heartening and good for sore nerves. “I like your pluck, Kent; I'll be hanged if I don't. And I'll back you to win, yet.” Kent shook his head, unhopefuliy. “Don’t mistake me,” he said. “I am fighting for the pure love of it, and not with any great hope of saving the stockholders. These grafters have us by the nape of the neck. We can't make a move till MacFarlane comes back and gives us a hearing on the merits. That may not be till the next term of court. Meanwhile, the tem- porary receiver is to all intents and purposes a permanent receiver; and the interval would suffice to wreck a dozen ratlroads.” “And still you won't give up?” “No.” “I hope you won't have to. But to a man up a tree it looks very much like a dead cock In the pit. As I have said, if there is any backing to do, I'm with you, first, last and all the time, merely from a sportsman’s interest in the gamé. But is there any use in a handful of us trying to buck up against a whole State government?” The coffee had been served, and Kent dropped a lump of sugar into his cup. A “Ormsby, I'll never let go while I'm alive enough to fight,” he said slowly. “One decent quality I have— and the only one, perhaps. I don't know when I'm beaten. And I'll down this crowd of political plunderers yet, if Bucks doesn't get me sandbagge His listener pushed back his chair. “1f you stood to lose anything more than your job I could understand it.” he commented. “As it is, I can't. Any way you look at It, your stake in the game isn’t worth the time and effort it will take to play the string out. And I happen to know you're ambitious to do things—things that count.” “What is it you don’t understand— the moti “That's it. Kent laughed. “You are not as astute as Miss Van Brock. She pointed it out to me last night—or thought she did—in two words. Ormsby’'s eyes darkened, and he did not affect to misunderstand. “It would be a grand-stand play.” he said half musingly, “if you should happen to worry it through, I mean. I believe Mrs. Hepzibah would be ready to fall on your neck and forgive you, and turn me down.” Then, half jest- Ingly: “Kent, what will you take to drop this thing permanently and go away?” David Kent showed his teeth. ‘The one thing you wouldn’t be will- Ing to give. You asked me once when we had failen over the fence upon this forbidden ground if I were satisfied, end I told you I wasn’t. Do we un- derstand each other?” “I guess so,” said Ormsby. “But— Bay, Kent, I like you too well to see you go up against a stone fence blind- folded. I'm like Guilford: I am the man in possession. And possession is nine points of the law.” Kent rose and took the eigar from Ormsby's case. “It depends a good bit upon how the possession is gained—and held—doesn’t 1t?” he rejoined cooll; “And your fig- ure is unfortunate in its other half. I am going to beat Guilford.” CHAPTER XIIIL The Wreckers. Just why Receiver Guilford, an offi- cer of the court who was supposed to be nursing an insolvent railroad to the end that its creditors might not lose all, should begin by declaring war on the road’'s revenue, was a question ‘which the managers of competing lines strove vainly to answer. But when, in defiance of all precedent, he made the cut rates effective to and from all local stations on the Transwestern, giving the shippers at intermediate and non-competitive points the full benefit of the reductions, the railroad colony denounced him as a madman, and gave him a month in which to find the bottom of a presumably empty treasury. But the, event proved that the major's madness was not altogether without method. It is an axiom in the carrying trade that low rates make business; create it, so to speak, out of nothing. Given an abundant -crop, low prices, and high freight rates in the great cereal belt, and, be the farm- ers never so poor, much of the grain will be stored and held against the chance of better conditions. So it came about that Major Guil- ford’s relief measure was timed nicety, and the blanket cut in rates opened a_ veritable floodgate for busi- ness in Transwestern territory. From the day of its announcement the traffic of the road increased by leaps and bounds, Stored grain came out of its hiding places at every country cross-roads to beg for cars; stock feed- ers drove their market cattle unheard- of distances, across the tracks of com- peting lines, over and around obstacles of every sort, to pour them into the loading corrals of the Transwestern. Nor was the traffic all outgoing. With the easing of the money burden, the merchants in the tributary towns began thriftily to take advantage of the low rates to renew their stocks; long-deferred visits and business trips suddenly became possible; and the say- ing that it was cheaper to travel than to stay at home gained instant and grateful currency. In a short time the rolling stock of the road was taxed to its utmost ca- pacity, and the newly appointed pur- chasing agent was buying cars and locomotives right and left. Also, to keep pace with the ever-increasing procession of trains, a doubled con- struction force wrought night and day installing new side tracks and passing points. Under the fructifying influence of such a golden shower of prosperity, land values began to rise again, slow- ly at first, as buyers distrusted the con- tinuance of the golden shower; more rapidly a little later, as the Guilford policy defined itself in terms of appar- ant permanence. 2 Towns along the line—hamlets long since fallen into the wyay-station rut of desuetude—awoke with a start, be- stirring themselv Joyfully to meet he inspiriting conditions. At Midland City, Stephen Hawk, the new right-of- way agent, ventured to ask municipal help to construct a ten-mile branch to Lavabee; it was forthcoming prompt- ly; and the mass meeting, at which the bond loan was anticipated by pub- lic subscription shouted itself hoarse in enthusiasm. At Gaston, where Gaston asked for a dcnation of Jand whereon the com- pany might build the long-promised division repair shops, people fought with one another to be first among the donors. And at Juniberg, where the company proposed to establish the first series of grain sub-treasuries— warehouses in which the farmers of the surrounding country could store their products and borrow money on them from the railread company at the rate of 3 per cent per annum—at Juniberg enough money was subscribed to erect three such depots as the heav- iest tributary could possibly fill. It was while the pendulum of pros- perity was in full swing that David Kent took a day off from sweating over his problem of ousting the re- ceiver and ran down to Gaston. Sin- gle-eyed as he was in the pursuit of Justice, he was not unmindful of the six lots standing in his name in the Gaston suburbs, and frcm all accounts the time was come to dispose of them. He made the journmey in daylight, with his eyes wide open and the mental pencil busy at work noting the changes upon which the State press had been dilating daily, but which he was now seeing for the first time. They were incontestable—and wonderful. He ad- mitted the fact without prejudice to a settled tonviction that the sunburst of prosperity was merely another brief period of bubble-blowing. Towns whose streets had been grass-grown since the day when each in turn had surrendered its right to be called the terminus of the westward-building railroad, were springing into new life. The song of the circular saw, the bee- boom of the planing-mill and the tap- ping of hammers were heard in the land, and the wayside hamlets were dotted with new roofs. And Gaston— But Gaston ‘deserved a separate paragraph in the mental note-book, and Kent accorded it, marveling still more: It was as if the strenuous on- rush of the climaxing Year Three had never been interrupted. The material for the new company shops was ar- riving by trainloads, and an army of men was at work clearing the grounds. On a siding near the station a huge grain elevator was rising. In the proffered streets the hustling activity of the ‘terminus” period was once more in full swin and at the Mid-Continent Kent had some little difficulty curing a room. He was smoking cigar in the lcbby of the hotel and try- ing as he might to orient himself when Blashficld Hunnicott drifted in. Kent gave the sometime local attorney a cigar, made room for him on the plush-covered settee, and proceeded to in se- his after-dinner pump him dry of Gaston news. Summed up, the inquiries pointed themselves thus: Was there any basis for the Gaston revival other than the lately changed attitude of the railroad? In other words, if the cut rates should be withdrawn and the railroad activities « would thers not be a se disastrous collapse T T Pressed hardly, H the probability; given anot the screw of inquiry sque ma and still more the Gaston bub- nnicott admitted r turn, d out an admission of the fact, slurred over by the revivalist, that the pany’s treasury was rea box into which all hands “One more question on you,” said Kent. railway Iy be used said of you in the flush times that you kept tab on the real estate transfers when everybody else was tgo busy to “It to read the record. Hunnicott lav “Rather mof 'd imagine.” u still do it?" easily an ever just now, as “It is . N you know the members of the old gang, from his Ex- cellency down. Tell n one thing: Are they buying or selling?” | Jlunnicott sprang up and slapped his ex. “By Jupiter, Kent! They are —every last man of them! ’recisely. And whe they have soid all they Rave to seil?” “They'll turn us loose—drop t booming the town, if your theory is the night one. But say, Kent, I can't believe it, you know It's too big a thing to be credited to Jim Guilford and his handfu! of subs in the railroad office. Why, it's all along the line, everywhere."” “I'm telling you that Guilford 1 the man. He is only a cog ini the whee There is a bigger mind than his be- hind 1t.” “I can’t help it,"” Hunnicott protested. “I don’t believe that any m or thing clique could bring this unless we were really n the t “Very good; beli what you please, but do as I tell you. ell every foot of Gaston dirt that stands In your name; and while you are about Subdlv do it pretty sell those six lots for me | ion Five. More than that, soon.’ Hunnicott promised In the broker- age affair at least. Then he switched the taik to the receivership. “Still up in the air, are you, in the raiiroad grab case?” Kent nodded “No news of MacFarlane “Plenty of it. His heaith 1s still precarious, and will likely remain so until the spoilsmen have picked the skeleton clean.” Hunnicott was silent for a full min- ute. Then he said Say, Kent, hasn't it occurred to you that they are rather putting meat on the boues Instead of taking it off? Their bil for better- ment must be out of sight It had occurred to K but he gave his own explanation of Major Guil- ford’s policy in a terse sentence. “It is a part of the bluff; fattening the thing a little before they barbecus 1 I suppose so. It's a pity we don't live a little farther back in the history of the world: say at a time when we could hire MacFarlane's doctor to ob- literate the Judge, and no questions asked.” Who can explain how it is that some Jesting word, trivial and purposeless it may be, will fire a hidden train -of thought which was waiting only for some chance spark? “Obliterate the Judge,” said Hunnicott in grim jes and straightway Kent saw possibilitie: saw a thing to be done, though not yet the manner of its doins. “If you'll excuse m: he said ab- ruptly to his companion, “I believe I'l! try to catch the flyer back to the capital. I came down to see about selling those lots of mine, but iIf you will undertake jt for me—" “Of course,” said Hunnicott; “I'll be only too glad. You've ten minutes; can u make it?"” Kent guessed so, and made the guess a certainty with two minutes to spare. The through sleeper was lightly loaded, and he picked out the most unuoelgh- bored section of the twelve, peing wishful only for undisturbed thinking ground But before train had swung past the subu hts of Gas- b 1 ton, smoker’s unrest seized him, and the thought-wheels demanded to- bacco. Kent fought it as long as he could, making sure that the smoking- compartment liars’ club would be in session; but when the demand became a nagging Insistence, he found his pipe and tobacco and went to the men’s rocm. The little den behind the drawing- room had but one occupant besides the rear-end brakeman—a tall, turnine man in a gray grass-cloth duster who was smoking a Porto Rican stogie. Kent took a second look and held out his hand. “This is an unexpected pleasure, Judge Marston. T was counting on three hours of solitary confinement.”™ The Lieutenant Governor acknowl- edged the hand-clasp, nodded and made room on the leather-covered di- van for the newcomer. Hildreth, the editor of the Argus,’ put it aptly when he said that the grim-faced oid cattle king had “blown” into politics. He was a compromise on the People's party ticket; was no part of the Bucks programme, and had been made to feel it. Tradition had it that he had been a terror to the armed and organ- ized cattle thieves of the early days hence the brevet title of “Judge. But those that knew him best did not know that he had once been the bright- est man upon the Supreme Bench of his native State; this before failing health had driven him into exile. As a mixer, the capital had long since voted Oliver Marston a conspicu- ous failure. A reticent, reserved man by temperament and habit, and with both temperament and habit confirmed by his long exile on the cattle range, he had grown rather less than more talkative after his latest plunge into public life; and even Miss Van Brock confessed that she found him impossi- ble on the social side. None the less, Kent had drawn toward him from the first; partly because Marston was a good man in bad company, and partly because there was something remind- ful of the elder Kent in the strong face, the slow smile and the introspec- tive eye of the old man from the hill country. For a time the talk was a desultory monologue, with Kent doing his best to keep it from dying outright. Later, when he was driven in upon his re- serves, he began to speak of himself, and of the hoveless fight for the en- largement in the Transwestern strug- gle. Marston lighted the match-de- vouring stogie for the twentieth time, squared himself on the end of the divan and listened attentively. At the end of the recounting he said: “It seems to be a failure of justice, Mr. Kent. Can you prove your postu- late?” “I can. With fifteen minutes more on the day of the preliminary hearing I should have shown it to 2ny one's satisfaction.” Marston went into a brown study with his eyes fixed upon the stamped- leather devil in the panel at the oppo- site of the end of the compartment. ‘When h: spoke again, Kent wopdered