"I know," said Mr. Gorse, and nodded toward me. I was impressed by the
felicity with which a cartoonist of the Pilot had once caricatured him
by the use of curved lines. The circle of the heavy eyebrows ended at
the wide nostrils; the mouth was a crescent, but bowed downwards; the
heavy shoulders were rounded. Indeed, the only straight line to be
discerned about him was that of his hair, black as bitumen, banged
across his forehead; even his polished porphyry eyes were constructed on
some curvilinear principle, and never seemed to focus. It might be said
of Mr. Gorse that he had an overwhelming impersonality. One could never
be quite sure that one's words reached the mark.

In spite of the intimacy which I knew existed between them, in my
presence at least Mr. Gorse's manner was little different with Mr.
Watling than it was with other men. Mr. Wading did not seem to mind.
He pulled up a chair close to the desk and began, without any
preliminaries, to explain his errand.

"It's about the Ribblevale affair," he said. "You know we have a suit."

Gorse nodded.

"We've got to get at the books, Miller,--that's all there is to it. I
told you so the other day. Well, we've found out a way, I think."

He thrust his hand in his pocket, while the railroad attorney remained
impassive, and drew out the draft of the bill. Mr. Gorse read it, then
read it over again, and laid it down in front of him.

"Well," he said.

"I want to put that through both houses and have the governor's
signature to it by the end of the week."

"It seems a little raw, at first sight, Theodore," said Mr. Gorse, with
the suspicion of a smile.

My chief laughed a little.

"It's not half so raw as some things I might mention, that went through
like greased lightning," he replied. "What can they do? I believe it
will hold water. Tallant's, and most of the other newspapers in the
state, won't print a line about it, and only Socialists and Populists
read the Pilot. They're disgruntled anyway. The point is, there's no
other way out for us. Just think a moment, bearing in mind what I've
told you about the case, and you'll see it."

Mr. Gorse took up the paper again, and read the draft over.

"You know as well as I do, Miller, how dangerous it is to leave this
Ribblevale business at loose ends. The Carlisle steel people and the
Lake Shore road are after the Ribblevale Company, and we can't afford
to run any risk of their getting it. It's logically a par