which you
shall sell your skill and your labor, and at the same time leaving it
optional with every man from whom you buy, the butcher, the baker, the
grocer, to charge you what he pleases or what he can get! That, my good
friends, is the situation of the railroad company in this State
to-day"--and he went on to analyze the hard situation, filling his hour
very creditably and, if the frequent bursts of applause could be taken
to mean anything, to the complete satisfaction of his hearers. Indeed,
at the end of his argument he was given what the local paper of the
following day was pleased to call "a spontaneous and pandemonious
ovation."

After the cheering and hand-shaking, Steuchfield and his
fellow-committeemen went to the train with the visiting speaker, and no
one in the throng of congratulators was more enthusiastic than the
opposition chairman.

"That was a cracking good speech--a great speech, Mr. Blount!" he said,
as the branch train rattled in from the north. "If you can go all over
the State making as good talks as the one we've just heard, you'll tie
the whole shooting-match up in a hard knot for us fellows. But McVickar
won't let you do it--not by a long shot!"

The potential tier of hard knots laughed genially. "I don't blame you
for wanting to be shown, Mr. Steuchfield. But I can assure you that the
new policy has come to stay. I have the management behind me in this
thing, and any day you'll come down to the capital I'll put my time
against yours and try to show you that we are out for open publicity
and a square deal for every man--including the railroad man."

"All right," was the cordial reply. "I'll be down along some of these
days, and if you can convince me that McVickar isn't going into politics
any further than you've gone here to-night, I'll promise you to come
back to Carnadine and tell the boys the jig's up."

A few minutes later the branch train pulled out, and the chairman and
his fellow-committeemen gave the departing joint-debater three cheers
and another. After the red tail-lights of the train had disappeared
around the first curve, Steuchfield turned to the others with a broad
grin.

"Well, boys," he said, "there goes a mighty nice young fellow, and I
guess we did it up all right for him and accordin' to orders. I don't
know any more'n a sheep what sort of a game Dave Sage-brush is playin'
this time, but whatever he says goes as she lays, and I figure it that
we gave the young ch