sn't
it?" Langdon queried of his secretary.

"Yes," said Haines, consulting his memorandum book. "At 11 o'clock you
go before ways and means to put forward the needs of your State on
the matter of the reduction of the tariff on aluminium hydrates. The
people of Mississippi believe it has actually put back life into the
exhausted cotton lands. In Virginia they hope to use it on the tobacco
fields."

"Where does the pesky stuff come from?" asked the Senator.

"From South America," coached the secretary. "The South is in a hurry
for it, so the duty must come down. You'll have to bluff a
bit, because Peabody and his crowd will try to make a kind of
bargain--wanting you to keep up iron and steel duties. But you don't
believe that iron and steel need help, you will tell them, don't you
see, so that they will feel the necessity of giving you what you want
for the South in order to gain your support for the iron and steel
demands."

The office door opened and Senator Peabody appeared.

"Peabody," whispered the secretary.

Instantly the Mississippian had his cue. His back to Peabody, he
rose, brought down his fist heavily upon the desk, and expounded
oratorically to Haines:

"What we can produce of aluminium hydrates, my boy, is problematical,
but the South is in a hurry for it, and the duty must come down. It's
got to come down, and I'm not going to do anything else until it
does."

The secretary stretched across the desk.

"Excuse me, Senator; Senator Peabody is here," he said, loudly and
surprisedly, as though he had just sighted the boss of the Senate.

The Mississippian turned.

"Oh, good-morning, Senator. I was just talking with my secretary about
that hydrate clause."

Peabody bowed slightly.

"Yes, I knew it was coming up," he said, "so I just dropped over.
I'm not opposed to it or any Southern measure; but it makes it more
difficult for me when you Southern people oppose certain Pittsburg
interests that I have to take care of."

Langdon smiled.

"I've never been in Pittsburg, but they tell me it looks as if it
could take care of itself."

The visitor shrugged his shoulders.

"That's true enough; but give and take is the rule in political
matters, Langdon."

This remark brought a frown to Langdon's face.

"I don't like bargaining between gentlemen, Peabody. More important
still, I don't believe American politics has to be run on that plan.
Why can't we change a lot of things now that we are he