. It's up to you to get around the
Interstate Commerce Commission in any way you can, and buttress this
little monopoly against competition and reform-infected legislatures.
I don't care what it costs."

"What about Crabbe?" asked Hood dubiously.

"We'll send Crabbe to the Senate," Ames coolly replied.

"You seem to forget that senators are now elected by the people, Mr.
Ames."

"I forget nothing, sir. The people are New York City, Buffalo, and
Albany. Tammany is New York. And Tammany at present is in my pocket.
Buffalo and Albany can be swept by the Catholic vote. And I have that
in the upper right hand drawer of my private file. The 'people' will
therefore elect to the Senate the man I choose. In fact, I prefer
direct election of senators over the former method, for the people are
greater fools _en masse_ than any State Legislature that ever
assembled."

He took up another letter from the pile on his desk and glanced
through it. "From Borwell," he commented. "Protests against the way
you nullified the Glaze-Bassett red-light injunction bill. Pretty
clever, that, Hood. I really didn't think it was in you."

"Invoking the referendum, you mean?" said Hood, puffing a little with
pride.

"Yes. But for that, the passage of the bill would have wiped out the
whole red-light district, and quartered the rents I now get from my
shacks down there. Now next year we will be better prepared to fight
the bill. The press will be with us then--a little cheaper and a
trifle more degraded than it is to-day."

A private messenger entered with a cablegram. Ames read it and handed
it to his lawyer. "The _Proteus_ has reached the African Gold Coast at
last," he said. Then he threw back his head and laughed heartily. "Do
you know, Hood, the _Proteus_ carried two missionaries, sent to the
frizzle-topped Zulus by Borwell and his outfit. Deutsch and Company
cable that they have arrived."

"But," said Hood in some perplexity, "the cargo of the _Proteus_ was
rum!"

"Just so," roared Ames; "that's where the joke comes in. I make it a
point that every ship of mine that carries a missionary to a foreign
field shall also carry a cargo of rum. The combination is one that the
Zulu finds simply irresistible!"

"So," commented Hood, "the Church goes down to Egypt for help!"

"Why not?" returned Ames. "I carry the missionaries free on my rum
boats. Great saving to the Board of Foreign Missions, you know."

Hood looked at the man before hi