descending to
the methods of the grafters and the machine politicians the country
over. If you have been sending these pie-eaters to me, stop it--don't do
it any more. I have no earthly use for them; and they won't have any use
for me after I open up on them and tell them a few things they don't
seem to know, or to care to know."

"I don't believe I'd do anything brash," Gantry suggested mildly, and he
was still saying the same thing in diversified forms when Blount led the
way back to the crowded drawing-rooms.

Dating from this little heart-to-heart talk with the traffic manager,
Blount began to carry out the new policy--the starvation policy, as it
soon came to be known among the would-be henchmen. The result was not
altogether reassuring. The first few rebuffs he administered left him
with the feeling that he was winning Pyrrhic victories; it was as if he
were trying to handle a complicated mechanism with the working details
of which he was only theoretically familiar. There were wheels within
wheels, and the application of the brakes to the smallest of them led to
discordant janglings throughout the whole.

Many of the small grafters were on the pay-rolls of the railroad
company, and Blount was soon definitely assured of what he had before
only suspected--that they were merely nominal employees given a pay-roll
standing so that there might be an excuse for giving them free
transportation, and a retainer in the form of wages, if needful.

In many cases the ramifications of the petty graft were exasperatingly
intricate. For example: one Thomas Gryson, who was on the pay-rolls as a
machinist's helper in the repair shops, demanded free transportation
across the State for eight members of his "family." Questioned closely,
he admitted that the "family" was his only by a figure of speech; that
the relationship was entirely political. Blount promptly refused to
recommend the issuing of employees' passes for the eight, and the result
was an immediate call from Bentley, the division master mechanic.

"About that fellow Gryson," Bentley began; "can't you manage some way to
get him transportation for his Jonesboro crowd? He is going to make
trouble for us if you don't."

Blount was justly indignant. "Gryson is on your pay-roll," he retorted.
"Why don't you recommend the passes yourself, on account of the
motive-power department, if he is entitled to them?"

"I can't," admitted the master mechanic. "I am held down to the