een posting myself generally on
railroad and other matters--_other_ matters! I don't want to say too
much, but I'd like to have you run over in your mind what those other
matters might be. Now, you and I can't afford to be enemies. I got the
tough end, and I'm willing to overlook and forget. You owe me a little
something. I hope you're going to square it. Let me remind you that I'm
a bad man with my tongue. I'm free to say it, I depend on my tongue for
what I get out of life."

It occurred to Harlan that this brazen threat referred to the scandal of
the Fort Canibas caucus.

"Bring them on," he sneered: "Ivus Niles and his buck sheep and Enoch
Dudley and the rest of the petty rogues that you hired with your
corporation money to defeat me."

"You're on the wrong trail," replied Spinney. "I can hit you harder than
that, and in a tenderer spot."

He returned Harlan's amazed stare.

"I've been keeping my eyes open down here, Mr. Thornton, and I kept my
ears open up in Fort Canibas." His face grew hard. "D--n you, I'll never
forget what you did to me! I'm coming right out open with you. I'd like
to do you in return. I can do it. But I'll give you a chance; it's for
my interest to do so, providing you buy the let-off. If you don't stand
by me in that tax rebate, I'll launch the story. What I lose in support
I'll more than make up in seeing you squirm. I'm pretty frank, ain't I?
Well, I play strong when I've got enough trumps under my thumb."

"Spinney, I've had enough of that kind of talk. What do you mean?"

"Don't you have the least idea?"

"Not the slightest."

"A good bluff! Well, I know about the girl up country! See? It's a bad
story to be passed up to another girl. And I know how to get the details
to my friend Presson's daughter in time to spoil your ambition in that
quarter. Now, how about that?"

They were in one corner of the State-House lobby, and the presence of a
hundred men about them probably saved Spinney from a beating there and
then. Harlan quivered with rage. He did not grasp the full purport of
Spinney's hints. He only understood that the man had grossly intruded on
his private affairs. He could not speak. He dared not trust his voice.

"Now do you want to let it go further?" inquired the lobbyist. He felt
that the proximity of others protected him.

"I'll meet you alone--I'll hunt you out, and I'll mash that face of
yours into pulp!" choked the young man, and hurried away before he lost
co