w, George, and we want to clean it up down there just as
much as you do," said the pacific Doolittle; "but what we're sayin' is,
this ain't the time to do it. Later, mebbe, when the conditions is jest
right----"

"Somebody has got the women stirred up fer fair. It's up to you to call
'em off, George," said Mr. Norton.

"How can I call them off?"--tartly.

"Ye can put the brakes on Mrs. Remington and that there Sheridan girl,
can't ye?"

"Miss Sheridan is no longer in my employ. As for Mrs. Remington, if
she is not one in spirit with me, I cannot force her to be. Every human
being has a right to----"

"Some change sence ye last expressed yerself, George. Seems like I
recall ye sayin', 'I'll settle that!'" remarked Doolittle coldly.

"We will leave my wife's name out of the discussion, please," said
George with tardy but noble loyalty. "Well, them two I mentioned can
stir up some trouble; but they ain't the brains of their gang, by a
long shot. It's this E. Eliot we gotta deal with. She's as smart, if not
smarter, than any man in this town. She's smarter than you, George--or
me, either," he added consolingly.

"I've seen her about, but I've never talked to her. What sort of woman
is she?"

"Quiet, sensible kind. Ye keep thinking, 'How reasonable that woman is,'
till ye wake up and find she's got ye hooked on one of the horns of
yer own damfoolishness! Slick as they make 'em and straight as a
string--that's E. Eliot."

"What do you want me to do about it?"--impatiently.

"Are ye aimin' to answer them voiceless questions?" Pat inquired.

Silence.

"Plannin' to tear down Kentwood and enforce them factory laws?" demanded
Wes' Norton.

Still no answer.

"I'm jest callin' yer attention to the fact that this election is
gittin' nearer every day." "What am I to do with her? I can't afford to
show we're afraid of her."

"Huh."

"I can't bribe her to stop."

"I'd like to see the fella that would try to bribe E. Eliot," Doolittle
chuckled. "Wouldn't be enough of him left to put in a teacup."

"Then we've got to ignore her."

"_We_ can ignore her, all right, George; but the women an' some of the
voters ain't ignoring her. It's my idea she's got a last card up her
sleeve to play the day before we go to the polls that'll fix us."

"Have you any plan in your mind?"

Doolittle scratched his head, wrestling with thought.

"We was thinking that if she could be called away suddenly, and detained
till after ele