e further effort to dominate it and send it orders from abroad?"

"Undoubtedly," returned Enfield, to whom the query was put, "Mr.
Croker will strive in all ways to prolong himself. It is with him both
a matter of money and a matter of pride. But he will fail; his whilom
follower, Mr. Carroll, is too powerful. Mr. Carroll is in possession
and will yield only to Mr. Martin,--that inveterate foe of Mr.
Croker."

"Do you know why Mr. Croker attacked Mr. Carroll just before he left?"
asked Vacuum "and ordered his destruction? One morning, he was taken
by Mr. Fox to view Mr. Carroll's building operations near Fifth Avenue
in Fifty-seventh Street. Mr. Fox called attention to the grandeur of
Mr. Carroll's plans. The workmen were tearing down a house to make
room for Mr. Carroll's coming palace. Mr. Croker gazed for full ten
minutes in wordless, moody gloom. Then turning to the sympathetic Mr.
Fox he broke forth: 'What do you think of that? He's tearing down a
better house than mine!' From that moment Mr. Croker went about the
tearing down of Mr. Carroll."

"I had not supposed him so small," said Fatfloat, "as to feel piqued
because Mr. Carroll would build a better house than his own."

"He didn't feel piqued," said Lemon; "he felt plundered, and doubtless
asked a question concerning Mr. Carroll that has been so often asked
about himself."

* * * * *

"And yet," observed Van Addle, appealing to Enfield, "I should love
prodigiously to hear your views on the situation in Tammany as it
stands. I confess both an ignorance and a curiosity for light."

"And I am sure, my dear Van Addle," returned Enfield, "you are
heartily welcome to aught I may know or believe on the subject. A
great noble of Rome observed that to direct a wanderer aright was like
lighting another man's candle with one's own; it assisted the fortunes
of the beneficiary without subtracting from the estate of the
Samaritan. For myself, I need neither the Roman argument nor the Roman
example to create within me a benevolent willingness to hang a lantern
in the tower of truth for the guidance of any gentleman now groping as
to the actual status of Mr. Croker with Tammany Hall.

"It requires no word to those initiate to convince them that Mr.
Croker no longer sits on the throne, and that his potentialities are
forever departed away. For myself, grown too indolent for an interest
in aught beyond the sentimentalities of politics, I s