to keep everybody
out to-night because I want to know exactly what I'm going to say on the
floor tomorrow. I don't want 'em to give me trouble. Did you bring some
of those papers with you?"

Mr. Tooting fished a bundle from his overcoat pocket. The papers in
question, of which he had a great number stored away in Ripton,
represented the foresight, on Mr. Tooting's part, of years. He was a
young man with a praiseworthy ambition to get on in the world, and during
his apprenticeship in the office of the Honourable Hilary Vane many
letters and documents had passed through his hands. A less industrious
person would have neglected the opportunity. Mr. Tooting copied them; and
some, which would have gone into the waste-basket, he laid carefully
aside, bearing in mind the adage about little scraps of paper--if there
is one. At any rate, he now had a manuscript collection which was unique
in its way, which would have been worth much to a great many men, and
with characteristic generosity he was placing it at the disposal of Mr.
Crewe.

Mr. Crewe, in reading them, had other sensations. He warmed with
indignation as an American citizen that a man should sit in a mahogany
office in New York and dictate the government of a free and sovereign
State; and he found himself in the grip of a righteous wrath when he
recalled what Mr. Flint had written to him. "As a neighbour, it will give
me the greatest pleasure to help you to the extent of my power, but the
Northeastern Railroads cannot interfere in legislative or political
matters." The effrontery of it was appalling! Where, he demanded of Mr.
Tooting, did the common people come in? And this extremely pertinent
question Mr. Tooting was unable to answer.

But the wheels of justice had begun to turn.

Mr. Tooting had not exaggerated the tumult and affright at the Pelican
Hotel. The private telephone in Number Seven was busy all evening, while
more or less prominent gentlemen were using continually the public ones
in the boxes in the reading room downstairs. The Feudal system was
showing what it could do, and the word had gone out to all the holders of
fiefs that the vassals should be summoned. The Duke of Putnam had sent
out a general call to the office-holders in that county. Theirs not to
reason why--but obey; and some of them, late as was the hour, were
already travelling (free) towards the capital. Even the congressional
delegation in Washington had received telegrams, and sent t