ake-off and she's just where she was before. How could you
fall for a mouse-trap like Pink Alden, Archie?"

Dr. Archie laughed as he began to carve. "Pink seems to get under your
skin. He's not worth talking about. He's gone his limit. People won't
read about his blameless life any more. I knew those interviews he gave
out would cook him. They were a last resort. I could have stopped him,
but by that time I'd come to the conclusion that I'd let the reformers
down. I'm not against a general shaking-up, but the trouble with Pinky's
crowd is they never get beyond a general writing-up. We gave them a
chance to do something, and they just kept on writing about each other
and what temptations they had overcome."

While Archie and his friend were busy with Colorado politics, the
impeccable Japanese attended swiftly and intelligently to his duties,
and the dinner, as Ottenburg at last remarked, was worthy of more
profitable conversation.

"So it is," the doctor admitted. "Well, we'll go upstairs for our coffee
and cut this out. Bring up some cognac and arak, Tai," he added as he
rose from the table.

They stopped to examine a moose's head on the stairway, and when they
reached the library the pine logs in the fireplace had been lighted, and
the coffee was bubbling before the hearth. Tai placed two chairs before
the fire and brought a tray of cigarettes.

"Bring the cigars in my lower desk drawer, boy," the doctor directed.
"Too much light in here, isn't there, Fred? Light the lamp there on my
desk, Tai." He turned off the electric glare and settled himself deep
into the chair opposite Ottenburg's.

"To go back to our conversation, doctor," Fred began while he waited for
the first steam to blow off his coffee; "why don't you make up your mind
to go to Washington? There'd be no fight made against you. I needn't say
the United Breweries would back you. There'd be some KUDOS coming to us,
too; backing a reform candidate."

Dr. Archie measured his length in his chair and thrust his large boots
toward the crackling pitch-pine. He drank his coffee and lit a big black
cigar while his guest looked over the assortment of cigarettes on the
tray. "You say why don't I," the doctor spoke with the deliberation of a
man in the position of having several courses to choose from, "but, on
the other hand, why should I?" He puffed away and seemed, through his
half-closed eyes, to look down several long roads with the intention of
luxuriousl