--straight to the train. I did not pause at Fredonia but
went on to the capital. The next morning I had the legislature and the
attorney-general at work demolishing Granby's business in my state--for
I had selected him to make an example of, incidentally because he had
insulted me, but chiefly because he was the most notorious of my ten,
was about the greediest and crudest "robber baron" in the West. My
legislature was to revoke his charter; my attorney-general was to
enforce upon him the laws I had put on the statute books against just
such emergencies. And it had never entered their swollen heads that I
might have taken these precautions that are in the primer of political
management.

My three mutineers pursued me to the capital, missed me, were standing
breathless at the door of my house near Fredonia on the morning of the
third day. I refused to be seen until the afternoon of the fourth day,
and then I forbade Granby. But when I descended to the reception-room he
rushed at me, tried to take my hand, pouring out a stream of sickening
apologies. I rang the bell. When a servant appeared, I said, "Show this
man the door."

Granby turned white and, after a long look into my face, said in a
broken voice to Roebuck: "For God's sake, don't go back on me, Mr.
Roebuck. Do what you can for me."

As the curtain dropped behind him, I looked expectantly at Roebuck,
sweating with fright for his imperiled millions. Probably his mental
state can be fully appreciated only by a man who has also felt the dread
of losing the wealth upon which he is wholly dependent for courage,
respect and self-respect.

"Don't misunderstand me, Harvey," he began to plead, forgetting that
there was anybody else to save besides himself. "I didn't mean--"

"What _did_ you mean?" I interrupted, my tone ominously quiet.

"We didn't intend--" began Partridge.

"What _did_ you intend?" I interrupted as quietly as before.

They looked nervously each at the other, then at me. "If you think
Burbank's the man," Roebuck began again, "why, you may go ahead--"

There burst in me such a storm of anger that I dared not speak until I
could control and aim the explosion. Partridge saw how, and how
seriously, Roebuck had blundered. He thrust him aside and faced me.
"What's the use of beating around the bush?" he said bluntly. "We've
made damn fools of ourselves, Senator. We thought we had the whip. We
see that we haven't. We're mighty sorry we didn't do a litt