er thought of that!" exclaimed Ed. "I believe you're right,
Harvey, and you've taken a weight off my conscience. There's nothing
like a good lawyer to make a man see straight. What an infernal hound
old Dunkirk is!"

"And," I went on, "if he should build the road, what would he do with
it? Why, the easiest and biggest source of profit would be to run big
excursions every Saturday and Sunday, especially Sunday, into Fredonia.
He'd fill the place every Sunday, from May till November, with
roistering roughs from the slums of Chicago. How'd the people like
that?"

"He wouldn't dare," objected Ramsay, stupidly insisting on leaning
backward in his determination to stand straight. "He's a religious
hypocrite. He'd be afraid."

"As Deacon Dunkirk he wouldn't dare," I replied. "But as the Chicago and
Fredonia Short Line he'd dare anything, and nobody would blame him
personally. You know how that is."

Ed was looking at me in dazed admiration. "Then," I went on, "there are
the retail merchants of Fredonia. Has it ever occurred to them, in their
excitement in favor of this road, that it'll ruin them? Where will the
shopping be done if the women can get to Chicago in two hours and a
half?"

"You're right, you're right!" exclaimed Ed, rising to pace the floor in
his agitation. "Bully for you, Harvey! We'll show the people that the
road'll ruin the town morally and financially."

"But you must come out in favor of it," said I. "We mustn't give Dunkirk
the argument that you're fighting it because you'd be injured by it. No,
you must be hot for the road. Perhaps you might give out that you were
considering selling your property on the lake front to a company that
was going to change it into a brewery and huge pleasure park. As the
lake's only a few hundred yards wide, with the town along one bank and
your place along the other, why, I think that'd rouse the people to
their peril."

"That's the kind of fire to fight the devil with," said he, laughing. "I
don't think Mister Senator Dunkirk will get the consent of Fredonia."

"But there's the legislature," said I.

His face fell. "I'm afraid he'll do us in the end, old man."

I thought not, but I only said, "Well, we've got until next winter,--if
we can beat him here."

Ed insisted that I must stay on and help him at the delicate task of
reversing the current of Fredonia sentiment. My share of the work was
important enough, but, as it was confined entirely to making
suggest