第22章

``No--Lansing,'' said Kelly.``He don't come up for re-election for five years.Freilig comes up next fall, and we'll have hard work to pull him through, though House is going to put him on the ticket, too.Dorn's going to make a hot campaign--concentrate on judges.''

``There's nothing in that Dorn talk,'' said Hastings.``You can't scare me again, Dick, as you did with that Populist mare's nest ten years ago.''

That had been Kelly's first ``big killing'' by working on the fears of the plutocracy.Its success had put him in a position to buy a carriage and a diamond necklace for Mrs.Kelly and to make first payments on a large block of real estate.``It was no mare's nest, Mr.Hastings,'' gravely declared the boss.``If Ihadn't 'a knowed just how to use the money we collected, there'd 'a been a crowd in office for four years that wouldn't 'a been easy to manage, I can tell you.But they was nothing to this here Dorn crowd.Dorn is----''

``We must get rid of him, Dick,'' interrupted Hastings.

The two men looked at each other--a curious glance --telegraphy.

No method was suggested, no price was offered or accepted.But in the circumstances those matters became details that would settle themselves; the bargain was struck.

``He certainly ought to be stopped,'' said Kelly carelessly.

``He's the worst enemy the labor element has had in my time.''

He rose.``Well, Mr.Hastings, I must be going.'' He extended his heavy, strong hand, which Hastings rose to grasp.``I'm glad we're working together again without any hitches.You won't forget about that there stock?''

``I'll telephone about it right away, Dick--and about Judge Lansing.You're sure Lansing's all right? I didn't like those decisions of his last year--the railway cases, I mean.''

``That was all right, Mr.Hastings,'' said Kelly with a wave of the hand.``I had to have 'em in the interests of the party.Iknowed the upper court'd reverse.No, Lansing's a good party man--a good, sound man in every way.''

``I'm glad to hear it,'' said Hastings.

Before going into his private room to think and plan and telephone, he looked out on the west veranda.There sat his daughter; and a few feet away was David Hull, his long form stretched in a hammock while he discoursed of his projects for a career as a political reformer.The sight immensely pleased the old man.When he was a boy David Hull's grandfather, Brainerd Hull, had been the great man of that region; and Martin Hastings, a farm hand and the son of a farm hand, had looked up at him as the embodiment of all that was grand and aristocratic.As Hastings had never travelled, his notions of rank and position all centred about Remsen City.Had he realized the extent of the world, he would have regarded his ambition for a match between the daughter and granddaughter of a farm hand and the son and grandson of a Remsen City aristocrat as small and ridiculous.

But he did not realize.

Davy saw him and sprang to his feet.

``No--no--don't disturb yourselves,'' cried the old man.``I've got some things to 'tend to.You and Jenny go right ahead.''

And he was off to his own little room where he conducted his own business in his own primitive but highly efficacious way.Acorps of expert accountants could not have disentangled those crabbed, criss-crossed figures; no solver of puzzles could have unravelled the mystery of those strange hieroglyphics.But to the old man there wasn't a difficult--or a dull--mark in that entire set of dirty, dog-eared little account books.He spent hours in poring over them.Just to turn the pages gave him keen pleasure; to read, and to reconstruct from those hints the whole story of some agitating and profitable operation, made in comparison the delight of an imaginative boy in Monte Cristo or Crusoe seem a cold and tame emotion.

David talked on and on, fancying that Jane was listening and admiring, when in fact she was busy with her own entirely different train of thought.She kept the young man going because she did not wish to be bored with her own solitude, because a man about always made life at least a little more interesting than if she were alone or with a woman, and because Davy was good to look at and had an agreeable voice.

``Why, who's that?'' she suddenly exclaimed, gazing off to the right.

Davy turned and looked.``I don't know her,'' he said.``Isn't she queer looking--yet I don't know just why.''

``It's Selma Gordon,'' said Jane, who had recognized Selma the instant her eyes caught a figure moving across the lawn.

``The girl that helps Victor Dorn?'' said Davy, astonished.

``What's SHE coming HERE for? You don't know her--do you?''

``Don't you?'' evaded Jane.``I thought you and Mr.Dorn were such pals.''

``Pals?'' laughed Hull.``Hardly that.We meet now and then at a workingman's club I'm interested in--and at a cafe' where Igo to get in touch with the people occasionally--and in the street.But I never go to his office.I couldn't afford to do that.And I've never seen Miss Gordon.''

``Well, she's worth seeing,'' said Jane.``You'll never see another like her.''

They rose and watched her advancing.To the usual person, acutely conscious of self, walking is not easy in such circumstances.But Selma, who never bothered about herself, came on with that matchless steady grace which peasant girls often get through carrying burdens on the head.Jane called out:

``So, you've come, after all.''