the Senator will do what he thinks right. That might bring power and
fame--a right decision in this case--but it can't bring money."

Carolina shrugged her shoulders.

"Money?" She laughed with affected carelessness. "Well, we'll have to
let the money take care of itself for a time. But I do want him to
vote for Altacoola, because I believe that will be the best for him.
You believe in Altacoola, don't you?"

Haines hesitated, then answered:

"Well, between the two sites merely as sites Altacoola seems to me
rather better."

Miss Langdon held out her hand impulsively.

"Then it will be Altacoola!" she cried. "Thank you, Mr. Haines. We are
partners, then, for Altacoola."

The young man grasped her hand earnestly.

"I'd like to be your partner for good, Carolina!" he cried.

They stood there close together, holding each other's hands, looking
into each other's eyes, when the door opened and in came Charles
Norton.

CHAPTER XIII

AN OLD-FASHIONED FATHER

Congressman Norton was startled at the sight of Carolina and Haines
apparently so wrapped up in each other. Perhaps she was getting
interested in the handsome, interfering secretary. That a woman
sometimes breaks her promise to wed he well knew. Plainly Carolina
was carrying things too far for a girl who was the promised wife of
another.

Carolina and Haines showed surprise at Norton's entrance.

The Congressman advanced and spoke sneeringly, his demeanor marking
him to be in a dangerous mood.

"Do I intrude?" he drawled, deliberately.

Carolina drew away her hands from Haines and faced the newcomer.

"Intrude!" she exclaimed, contemptuously, in a tone that Norton
construed as in his favor and Haines in his own.

"Intrude!" Haines laughed, sarcastically, feeling that now he was
leader in the race for love against this Mississippi representative,
who was, he knew, a subservient tool and a taker of bribes. "You
surely do intrude, Norton. Wouldn't any man who had interrupted a
tete-a-tete another man was having with Miss Langdon be intruding?"

"I suppose I can't deny that," he replied.

The secretary smiled again.

"I'll match you to see who stays," he said.

But Norton's turn to defeat his rival had come. He held out a paper to
Haines.

"Senator Langdon gave me this for you. I reckon I don't have to
match."

The secretary opened the note to read:

"Where in thunder does that hydrate come from--South America or
Russia? How