elementary, as you say; but there is another phase of the transaction
which seems to have escaped you. Are you aware that the present
arrangement which you have so accurately described, and the continuance
of it which you are proposing, are crimes for which both parties
involved may be called into court and punished?"

Hathaway started as if the comfortable chair in which he was lounging
had been suddenly electrified.

"Say, Blount, are you working for the railroad, or not?" he demanded.
"If you are, what in the name of Heaven are you driving at? I know the
line of talk you've been handing out since McVickar gave you your job
and set you up in business here, but that's for the dear public. You
don't have to wear your halo when a man comes in to talk hard facts from
the inside. It comes to just this: you do something for me, and I do
something for you. You make it possible for us to live and sell lumber,
and we do what we can to make it easy for your railroad to get its
'square deal' from a pie-cutting legislature. That's the whole thing
in a nutshell."

"One more question," snapped Blount, striving to fix the roving gaze of
the hawk-like eyes. "With whom did you make this arrangement two years
ago?"

"With your boss, if you want to know; with Mr. McVickar himself!"

"And you think you can do it again?"

"I know damned well I can; only I don't care to go over your head unless
I have to. They tell me you're handling this end of it for the railroad
company, and I'm not going around hunting a chance to make enemies.
That's all I've got to say"--and he rose to go--"all but this: you've
got a lot to learn about this something-for-something business, and the
quicker you get at it, Mr. Blount, the sooner you'll arrive somewhere.
About this little matter of ours, there's no special hurry. Take your
own time to think it over; take it up with McVickar, if you want to.
Then, when you get things fixed, wire me one word to Twin Buttes. Just
say 'Yes,' and sign your name to it. That'll be enough."

For a long half-hour after the president of the Twin Buttes Lumber
Company and its allied corporations had closed the door of the private
office behind him, Blount sat rocking gently in his pivot-chair. In the
fulness of time the bitter thoughts wrought their way into words.

"So this is what I was hired for!" he mused, "a fence; a wretched mask
put up to hide the trickery and chicanery and criminality--the
crookedness which has