ity and condescension to Senator Hanway.
Everybody stood up, and Mr. Gwynn's health was drunk with proper
solemnity.

The highbred conduct of Mr. Gwynn from the beginning had been worthy of
him as an old-school English gentleman. He said nothing; but he took
wine with a decorous persistency that was almost pious and seemed like a
religious rite. It should be observed that while he drank twice as much
as did any other gentleman, not excepting Mr. Harley himself, it in no
whit altered the stony propriety of his visage. There came no color to
his cheek; nor did the piscatorial eye blaze up, but abode as pikelike
as before. Also, with every bumper Mr. Gwynn became more rigid, and more
rigid still, as though instead of wine he quaffed libations of starch.
Of those who experienced Mr. Gwynn's kingly hospitality that night there
departed none who failed to carry with him a multiplied respect for his
host--a respect which with the President and General Attorney of the
Anaconda fair mounted to veneration. Altogether, from the standpoint of
everyone except the alarmed Senator Coot, the affair was not a dinner,
but a victory.

It was ten o'clock the morning after, and Richard had just reached the
street. From across the way came a gentleman who apparently had been
waiting for him to appear. It was none other than Mr. Sands, that
warlike printer whom Richard rescued from the Africans and set to work.
Richard had not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sands since bestowing
those benefits upon him.

"There was nothing to come for," explained Mr. Sands when Richard
mentioned that deprivation. "I wouldn't bother you now, only, being in
the business, I've naturally a nose for news. I thought I might put you
onto a scoop for the _Daily Tory_. Would a complete copy, verbatim, of
the coming report of Senator Hanway's committee on Northern Consolidated
be of any service to you?"

CHAPTER XV

HOW RICHARD MET INSPECTOR VAL

When, prior to the hour of Mr. Gwynn's dinner, Richard talked with Mr.
Bayard, the burden of their conversation was Northern Consolidated, and
what manner of report might be expected from Senator Hanway's committee.
Mr. Bayard was sure the members of the osprey pool designed a "bear"
campaign. For all that, he could not overstate the importance of getting
possession of the Hanway report the moment it was prepared. Mr. Bayard's
belief in a "bear" movement to occur was only a deduction; it was not
information--h