e had at least asserted his independence.

Io called him up by 'phone, avid of news of the editorial, and he was
permitted to take her to luncheon and tell her all about it. In her
opinion he had won a victory; established a position. Banneker was far
less sanguine; he had come to entertain a considerable respect for
Marrineal's capacity. And he had another and more immediate complication
on his mind, which fact his companion, by some occult exercise of
divination, perceived.

"What else is worrying you, Ban?" she asked.

Banneker did not want to talk about that. He wanted to talk about Io,
about themselves. He said so. She shook her head.

"Tell me about the paper."

"Oh, just the usual complications. There's nothing to interest you in
them."

"Everything," she maintained ardently.

Banneker caught his breath. Had she given him her lips, it could hardly
have meant more--perhaps not meant so much as this tranquil assumption
of her right to share in the major concerns of his life.

"If you've been reading the paper," he began, and waited for her silent
nod before going on, "you know our attitude toward organized labor."

"Yes. You are for it when it is right and not always against it when it
is wrong."

"One can't split hairs in a matter of editorial policy. I've made The
Patriot practically the mouthpiece of labor in this city; much more so
than the official organ, which has no influence and a small following.
Just now I'm specially anxious to hold them in line for the mayoralty
campaign. We've got to elect Robert Laird. Otherwise we'll have such an
orgy of graft and rottenness as the city has never seen."

"Isn't the labor element for Laird?"

"It isn't against him, except that he is naturally regarded as a
silk-stocking. The difficulty isn't politics. There's some new influence
in local labor circles that is working against me; against The Patriot.
I think it's a fellow named McClintick, a new man from the West."

"Perhaps he wants to be bought off."

"You're thinking of the old style of labor leader," returned Banneker.
"It isn't as simple as that. No; from what I hear, he's a fanatic. And
he has great influence."

"Get hold of him and talk it out with him," advised Io.

"I intend to." He brooded for a moment. "There isn't a man in New York,"
he said fretfully, "that has stood for the interests of the masses and
against the power of money as I have. Why, Io, before we cut loose in
The Patriot, a b