e the _Daily Tory_ on the
services of one so keen, so sure, so graphic; which last was the more
kind, since Senator Hanway could have known no single reason for
assuming anything of the sort. He told Richard that he hoped to see him
personally every day. Here Richard broke in on the Senatorial flow to
ask if he might wait upon Senator Hanway every morning at eleven.

"For I am warned by Mr. Gwynn," explained Richard, with an alert
mendacity which would have done honor, to Senator Hanway himself, "that
he will hold anything short of calling upon you once a day as barefaced
neglect of his interests."

"Certainly, sir; most barefaced!" creaked Mr. Gwynn, giving the mandarin
bow.

Senator Hanway would be graciously pleased to see Richard every morning
at eleven. Also, he would aid him, as far as was proper, with a recount
of what gusts and windy currents of news were moving in the upper ethers
of government.

Then, having been polite, Senator Hanway got down to business and stated
that Mr. Frost, if Speaker, would favor a certain pooling bill, much
desired by railways, and particularly dear to the Anaconda Airline. On
the obdurate other hand, Mr. Hawke was an enemy to pooling bills and
railways. Mr. Gwynn's interest was plainly with Mr. Frost.

"Not that I care personally for the success of Mr. Frost," remarked
Senator Hanway, "but I know how the railways desire that pooling bill,
and how that pooling bill is a darling measure with Mr. Frost."

"Which brings us back," observed Richard, who never took his eye off a
question, once put, until he saw it mated with an answer, "to Mr.
Gwynn's first interrogatory: What can the Anaconda Airline do?"

Senator Hanway explained. The Anaconda Airline could press down the
weights of its influence upon those twenty-three members. The Anaconda
influence might better be exerted through its President and General
Attorney, and perhaps what special attorneys were local to the
congressional districts of those twenty-three.

"Mr. Gwynn," observed Richard, "anticipated something of the kind, and I
think is prepared to request those officers you name to come to
Washington."

"They shall be requested, sir; certainly, sir," rasped Mr. Gwynn.
Richard's words seemed ever to reverberate in Mr. Gwynn's noble interior
as in a cavern, and thereafter to issue forth by way of his mouth in the
manner of an echo. "Certainly, sir; they shall be requested," repeated
the cavernous Mr. Gwynn.

"Now