"Never mind me," she answered. "What am I here for if it is not to
purify city government? I don't expect to make friends in the process;
but if I can serve the city--and thereby my state and my country,
why,--" She stopped and looked fearlessly at Armstrong.

"Then I shall go ahead--looking into the matter of contracts and
appropriations?" he asked.

"Certainly," she replied. "No matter whom it hits, investigate every
department of the administration."

"Bravo!" said he. "You're a chip of the old block all right." Gertrude
remembered with a twinge of apprehension what McAlister had said about
her father's "pile." "But you must be prepared for war--underhanded,
tricky, politicians' war," added Bailey.

A week later he appeared again at her office and asked for a private
interview.

"Gertrude," he began, "it's as I feared about McAlister. He has an
infamous contract--or, rather, a whole set of them--and he is fleecing
the city with every yard of pavement he puts down."

"That doesn't surprise me," replied the Mayor. "It's the scared bird
that flutters."

"He has a separate contract for every 300 square yards of pavement he
lays," said Armstrong. "Instead of accepting the terms of the lowest
bidder, the board of aldermen let him these contracts. It is a wrong
system from the start. We ought to have a competitive system and award
our contracts to the lowest bidder who will do good work. Instead of
that, there seems to have been some sort of chicanery by which McAlister
was given all these little contracts,--on every one of which he makes a
big profit,--while the other bidders were not even considered."

"Who has the giving out of contracts, anyway? Oughtn't there to be a
regular system about it?"

"There should be a law about it," said Bailey. "But I find nothing in
the city charter. And I find that contracts have been given out by
aldermen, councilmen or mayor, just as happened to suit their notions
best."

"Suppose you go to work, Bailey, and draft me a bill providing that
every piece of work to be done for the city shall be open to all
bidders. We must have some definite plans of considering and acting on
these bids--so that none of the officials can give out contracts without
such action and vote as the whole council and the mayor think best.
Better make it obligatory that the bids be opened in the presence of all
who may wish to be present and in the presence of, or by, the mayor.
That would be somethi