fever away, sah!"

The Mayor sat directly in front of Haines, at the opposite side of his
desk. Regaining his composure, he suddenly leaned forward and half
whispered to the secretary:

"Mah young friend, don't let Senator Langdon get switched away from
Gulf City by them cheap skates from Altacoola. Now, if you'll get th'
Senator to vote fo' Gulf City we'll see--I'll see, sah, as an officer
of th' Gulf City Lan' Company--that you get taken ca-ah of."

Haines' eyes opened wide.

"Go on, Colonel; go on with your offer," he said.

"Well, I'll see that a block of stock, sah--a big block--is set
aside fo' Senator Langdon an' another fo' you, too. We've made this
ah-rangomont else-wheah. We'll outbid Altacoola overall time. They're
po' sports an' hate to give up."

"So Altacoola is bidding, too?" excitedly asked Haines.

"Why, of co'se it is. Ah yo' as blind as that o' ah yo' foolin' with
me?" questioned Telfer, suspiciously. "Seems to me yo' ought to know
more about that end of it than a fellah clear from th' gulf."

"Certainly, certainly," mumbled Haines, impatiently, as he endeavored
to associate coherently, intelligently, in his mind those startling
new revelations of Telfer with certain incidents he had previously
noted in the operations of the committee on naval affairs.

Then he looked across at the Mayor and smiled. Apparently he had heard
nothing to amaze him.

"Colonel," he returned calmly, dropping into a voice that sounded of
pity for the gray hairs of the lobbyist, "about fifty men a day come
to me with propositions like that. There is nothing doing, Colonel. I
couldn't possibly interest Senator Langdon, because he has the faculty
of judging for himself, and he would be prejudiced against either town
that came out with such, a proposition."

"Lan' speculation is legitimate," protested, the Colonel, cunningly.

Haines agreed.

"Certainly--by outsiders. But it's d--d thievery when engaged in by
any one connected with putting a bill through. If I were to tell
Senator Langdon what you have told me it would decide him unalterably
in favor of Altacoola. Senator Langdon, sir, is one of the few men in
Washington who would rather be thought a fool than a grafter if it
came down to that."

The Mayor of Gulf City jumped to his feet, his face blazing in rage,
not in shame.

"Seems to me yo're mighty fresh, young man," he blustered. "What kind
of politics is Langdon playin'?"

"Not fresh, Colonel; only fr