| Show i H by lyv DAVID GRAHAM I 1 M author athor ot of the cost the deluge etc WC ch tod I 1 IOK D b by y ROD ball Coi ais i continued from dec 21 aw we e must never forget her said carlotta trying to console me by grieving ing with me I 1 did not answer how could I 1 explain never forget her on oil the contrary I 1 knew that I 1 must forget and that I 1 must work and add grow and so heal the wound and cover its scar I 1 lost not a day in beginning to those few succeeding succeed ins months I 1 owe the power I 1 have had all these years to concentrate my mind upon whatever I 1 will to think about tor for in those months I 1 fought the fight I 1 dared not lose fought it and won let those who have nover never loved talk of remembering the dead I 1 turned away from her grave with the resolve that my first act of power would be to stamp out dominick but for him she would not have hav egone gone tor for many a year it was his persecutions that involved us in the miseries mi which wasted her and made her fall a victim to the mortal disease it was his malignity that poisoned her last years which but tor for him would have been happy As my plans for ousting dunkirk took shape I 1 saw clearly that it ho he were vere to be overthrown at once I 1 must use part of the existing control ot of the machine of 0 the party it would take several years at least three to build up an entirely new control to work quickly I 1 must use ir croffut Dun kirks colleague in the senate and croffut was the creature of dominick early in september woodruff came to me at fredonia Fre donla his manner jubilant 1 I can get dominick he exclaimed he is furious against dunkirk because hes just discovered that dunkirk cheated him out ot of on that perpetual street railway franchise last winter rut but we dont want dominick said 1 I my face must have reflected my mind for woodruff merely replied oh very well of course that alters the case wo we must get croffut without him I 1 went on woodruff shook his head cant get him aim he said dominick Domin lck controls the two southern ranges of counties lie he clances fiances his own machine from what he collects from vice and crime in those cities he gives that branch of the plum tree to the boys ile he keeps the bigger one the corporations tor for himself he can be destroyed said 1 I waving aside these significant reminders yes in five years or so ot of hard work meanwhile dunkirk will run things at the capital to suit himself anyhow youre taking on a good deal eiore thans necessary starting with two big fights one of em against a man you ought to use to do up the other its like breaking your own sword at the beginning of the duel go back to the capital said I 1 after a moments thought ill telegraph you up there what to do it was my first test my first chance to show whether I 1 had learned at the savage s school at which I 1 had been a pupil scores hundreds of men can plan and plan wisely at almost any crossroads cross roads general store you hear ir in the conversation round the stove a as good plans as ever moved the arold to admiration but execution theres the rub and the first essential of an executive Is freedom from partialities and hatreds not to say do I 1 like ilka him do I 1 hate him was he my enemy a year or a week or a moment ago but only to ask oneself the one question can he be useful to me now 1 I will use dominick to destroy dunkirk and then I 1 will destroy him I 1 said to myself but that did not satisfy sa me 1 I saw that I 1 was temporizing with the weakness that has wrecked more careers than misjudgment I 1 felt that I 1 must decide then and thorp there whether or not I 1 would eliminate per bonal hatred from my life after a long iong and bitter struggle I 1 did decide once and tor for all I 1 telegraphed woodruff to go ahead when I 1 went nent back to pulaski to settle my affairs there dominick came to see me not that he dreamed of the existence stence of my combine or of my con with the new political deal but simply because I 1 had married into the ramsay family and was therefore now in the olympus ot of corporate power before which ho he was on ills his knees for a price like a wise devotee un troubled by any such qualmishness as self respect I 1 was ready for him I 1 1 put out my hand im glad youre willing to let by gones be bygones mr sayler sale said lie e so moved that the tears stood it in his eyes j then it flashed on me that after all he was only a big brute driven blindly by his appetites how silly to plot re upon the creatures of circumstance how like a child beating the chair it happens to strike against hatreds and rei revenges enges are tor for the small mind with small matters to occupy it of 0 the stones I 1 have quarried to build my career not one has been or could have been spared to waste as a missile I 1 went dow down n to the cedar grove cemetery where my mother lay beside my father my two sisters who died before I 1 was born were at their feet her parents and his on either side and I 1 said to ar her mother alother I 1 am going to climb up to a place where I 1 can use my life as you would hav me use ilse it to rise in such a world as this I 1 shall have to do many things you would not approve I 1 shall do them kit when I 1 reach the height I 1 shall justify myself and you I 1 know how many have hane started with the same pledge and have been so denied by eliat they had to handle that when they arrived they were past cleansing and they neither kept nor cared to keep their pledge but I 1 mother shall not break this pledge t to you CHAPTER vill A call from the party about a month after the chicago and fredonia Fre donla bill was smothered committee there appeared upon the threshold of 0 my office in the administration building of tile the ramsay company a man whom at first glanc eyou might have taken for an exhorted or a collector tor for some pious enterprise but it if you had bad made a study of faces aces your second glance would have cut dj J through that glaze of oily apologetic a appeal behind BAI d a thin screen of short gray beard lay a heavy loose mouth cruel and strong above it a great beak and a pair of pale gr green en eyes intensely alive they ivere in startling contrast to the apparent decrepitude of 0 the stooped shambling body far too small for its covering of decent but somewhat rusty black senator dunkirk saidi rising and advancing to greet the justly feared leader of my party I 1 knew there was an intimate connection between this visit and the death of his hia pet project I 1 thought it safe to assume that he had bad somehow som some ehor hof stumbled upon woodruffs tunnell and with that well trained nose of his had smelled led out their origin but I 1 need not have disquieted myself 1 1 did not then know how softly woodruff moved sending no warnings ahead and leaving ho he trail behind for several minutes the senator and I 1 both felt for each other in the dark in which wo we both straightway hid ile he was the first to give up and reveal himself in tho the open but I 1 do not wish to waste your time and my own mr sayler lie he said 1 I have come to see you about the threatened split in the party you are perhaps surprised that I 1 should have come to you when you have been so ma many ny years out of politics but I 1 think y you on will understand as I 1 explain myself you know mr roebuck 9 1 I cant say that I 1 know him I 1 replied he Is not an easy man to know indeed who Is A very ablo able man in some respects a great man dunkirk went on dut but like so many ot of our great men of business buino sj he cannot appreciate politics tho the difficulties of 0 the theman man in life whose persuasion arid com promise must be used authority al most never and because I 1 have restated resisted some ot of his impossible demands he has declared declai ed war on the party lie ile has raised up in it a faction head ed by your old enemy dominick Domin lck I 1 need not tell you what a brute what a beast ho he Is the i representative of all that Is abhorrent in politics A faction headed by dominick Domin lck bo be very formidable I 1 suggested but dominick domanich the nominal leader replied Dlin dunkirk kirk roebuck la Is tar far too shrewd for that no he has put forward as the decoy ray my c colleague croffut perhaps you know him if so I 1 tell you what a vain shallow venal fellow he Is with his gift of gab that fools the people 1 I know him said 1 I in a tone which did not deny the accuracy of Dun kirks description their object continued the senator is to buy the iho control ot of the party machinery away from those choso who now manage it in the interests of conservatism ism and fair dealing it if they succeed the only business interest nt erest that will be considered in tills this state will ile be the power trust and we shall have dominick the ignorant brute lashed on by roebucks appetites until the people will rise lise in fury and elect tile the opposition and you know what it is what you say is most inte interesting sa aalde d 1 I but I 1 confess I 1 haven t imi imagination enough to conceive a condition of affairs in which anybody with the price get what lie he wanted by paying for it perhaps the bustness business interests would gain by a change the be other crowd might be less less e expensive x certainly the demands of our bartys machine have become intolerable it astonishes me mr sayler to hear you say that you who ullo have been in politics he protested taken aback by my hardly disguised attack upon him for he was in reality party and machine surely I 1 you understand the situation we must have money to maintain our organization iza tion and to run our campaign our workers cant live on air and to speak of only one other factor there are thousands and thousands of our voters honest fel fellow lovs s too vibo must be paid to come to the polls they vote against us for any sum but unless we pay them to for tile the day lost in the fields they stay at home now where does our money I 1 I 1 I 1 ill I 1 your record speaks for itself senator I 1 put in politely but pointedly omo come from the bis big corporations aro are the only source vilia vho else could or of 7 would uld give largely enough and it is kec essary and just that they should be repaid but they are ho no longer content with moderate and prudent rewards for their patriotism they mako make bigger and bigger and more and more unreasonable dern demands on us and so undermine our popularity for thep the people dople cantlo cant bo be blinded wholly to going on and thus ibar year by year it takes more and more money to keep us in control you seem to have forgotten my iny said 1 I smiling why should you ou be kept in control it if you go outs out tho the others come in they bluster and threaten in order to get themselves in but once elected they discover that it the peoples woes boes they were shouting about but their own and soon they are docile conservatives lapping away avay at the he trough with nothing dangerous in them hem but their appetites precisely their appetites said sad he A starved man has to practice eat ing ng a long long time before he can equal the performances of a trained glutton I 1 suggested ills his facial response to my good humor ed raillery was feeble indeed an and it soon died in a look of depression that made him seem even older anti and more decrepit than was his wont the same story Nhe wherever rever I 1 go said he sadly the business interests refuse to see their peril and when 1 in my zeal persist they several of them sayler have grinned at me ard reminded rue me that the legislature to be elected next fall will choose ma successor As it if ay own selfish interests were all I 1 have in mind I 1 am old and feeble on the verge of the grave do you think mr sayler that I 1 would continue in public life it if it were not for what I 1 conceive to be my duty to my party I 1 have toiled too long tor for it your record speaks for itself senator I 1 put in politely but pointedly you are very discouraging sayler he said forlornly but I 1 refuse to be discouraged the party needs you and I 1 have come to do my duty and I 1 wont leave without doing it 1 I have nothing to do with the com banys political contributions said I 1 you will have to see mr ramsay as usual he waved his hand let me explain please Is about to resign as you probably know hes been chairman of the bartys state committee for 17 years ive come to ask you to take his place it was impossible wholly to hide bid my amazement my stupefaction had he had the shado wiest suspicion of my plans of ct the true inwardness ot of the croffutt dominick movement he would as readily have offered me his own head in tact fact he be was offering me his own head for with the money and the other resources at my command I 1 needed only this place of official executive of the party to make me master and here he be was giving me the place under the delusion that he could use me as he had been using ile he must have misread my expression expresion for he went on dont refuse oll 01 impulse sayler I 1 and the others win hii do everything to make your duties as light as possible 1 I should not be content to bo be a mere figurehead as has been I 1 I 1 warned him lie he had come in hii declaration desla desi ration to iii try to get the man who combined the advantage ot of bc aag as he supposed dominicks enemy and a member of one of the states financially influential families ile he had come to cozen me into letting him use me in return for a mockery 0 oc an honor honer and I 1 nas as simply turn tum jling bling him or rather permitting him to tumble himself into the pit he had dus dug for rue me still I 1 felt that I 1 owed it to myself to gle him a chance 1 I I 1 take the place I 1 shall fill ell it to the best of my ability certainly certainly we want you ability behind ills his bland cordial mask I 1 saw the spider eyes fleamin gle amin and the spider claws twitching as hs he felt his net quiver under hovering hov erins wings we want you we need you sayler we expect you to do your best my best what would my best have been had I 1 been only what he thou thought glit dependent upon him tor for supplies surrounded by his lieutenants hearing nothing but what he chose to tell me and able to execute only such orders as lie he gave or approved 1 I am sure we can count on you lie he urged 1 I will try it said L I 1 after au ther hesitation that was not altogether show ile he did not linger he wished to give me ine no chance to change my mind and fly by his net I 1 was soon alone staring dazedly at my windfall and wondering it if fortune would ever give me anything without attaching to it that which would make me doubt whether my iny gift had more of bitter or more of sweet in lt it I 1 ills bis mission was accomplished to be continued |
