op of Quien Sabe,
if necessary, for the sake of "busting S. Behrman." He could see no
great obstacle in the way of controlling the nominating convention so
far as securing the naming of two Railroad Commissioners was concerned.
Two was all they needed. Probably it WOULD cost money. You didn't get
something for nothing. It would cost them all a good deal more if they
sat like lumps on a log and played tiddledy-winks while Shelgrim sold
out from under them. Then there was this, too: the P. and S. W. were
hard up just then. The shortage on the State's wheat crop for the last
two years had affected them, too. They were retrenching in expenditures
all along the line. Hadn't they just cut wages in all departments? There
was this affair of Dyke's to prove it. The railroad didn't always act as
a unit, either. There was always a party in it that opposed spending too
much money. He would bet that party was strong just now. He was kind of
sick himself of being kicked by S. Behrman. Hadn't that pip turned up on
his ranch that very day to bully him about his own line fence? Next he
would be telling him what kind of clothes he ought to wear. Harran had
the right idea. Somebody had got to be busted mighty soon now and he
didn't propose that it should be he.

"Now you are talking something like sense," observed Osterman. "I
thought you would see it like that when you got my idea."

"Your idea, YOUR idea!" cried Annixter. "Why, I've had this idea myself
for over three years."

"What about Disbrow?" asked Harran, hastening to interrupt. "Why do we
want to see Disbrow?"

"Disbrow is the political man for the Denver, Pueblo, and Mojave,"
answered Osterman, "and you see it's like this: the Mojave road don't
run up into the valley at all. Their terminus is way to the south of us,
and they don't care anything about grain rates through the San Joaquin.
They don't care how anti-railroad the Commission is, because the
Commission's rulings can't affect them. But they divide traffic with the
P. and S. W. in the southern part of the State and they have a good
deal of influence with that road. I want to get the Mojave road, through
Disbrow, to recommend a Commissioner of our choosing to the P. and S. W.
and have the P. and S. W. adopt him as their own."

"Who, for instance?"

"Darrell, that Los Angeles man--remember?"

"Well, Darrell is no particular friend of Disbrow," said Annixter. "Why
should Disbrow take him up?"

"PREE-cisely," cried