ign the bill?" he asked, wondering just what she would
do next.

"Mr. Vickery,--it's against all my principles, you know,--taking money
or its equivalent for my signature," said the Mayor.

"Oh,--I thought we had gone all over that," he retorted.

"Yes, I know. I haven't said I won't," she went on. "But I want just one
day--or rather, one night more to think this over--I wonder what my
father would do in my case."

"Your father was a good politician," answered Vickery confidently. "He
would have known at once what to do."

"I believe he would," answered Gertrude in her most inscrutable manner.
"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll take tonight--only just tonight,
to settle this with my conscience--and I will see you in the
morning--early, if you say so."

"I suppose I shall have to be satisfied with that," answered Vickery,
tucking the little memorandum book safely away in an inner pocket. "But
I would like your promise now."

"Oh,--Mr. Vickery, tomorrow morning, please." She smiled and held out
her hand. He took it and bade her good afternoon. He was not quite sure,
when he went down stairs this time whether he ought to congratulate
himself or not.

"These women," he said to himself, as he sought the aldermen's room,
"are not to be depended on. You think you have 'em one minute, but when
you go to put your finger on 'em, they are not there."

But upstairs, Gertrude was telephoning for the district attorney.

CHAPTER XVI

Divided Interests

Instead of calling on the Mayor the next morning as he had planned to
do, Orlando Vickery found himself hailed before the Special Commissioner
and put on the grill. But he took refuge behind the corporation for
which he claimed to be acting as attorney and refused to admit or
confess to any transactions of a financial nature, or incriminate in any
way the officials whom he had approached. He was arrested on the charge
of extortion, however, and that gave the prosecution a chance to shut
him up, while they arranged for an investigation before the grand jury
(which was already being impaneled) into the schemes of the Boulevard
Railway Company with the city councilmen. These proceedings were
conducted as quietly as possible, but in spite of all precautions, the
newspapers that evening flamed with head-lines, which varied as usual in
size and sensationalism with the character of the sheet which used them;
and before Roma retired for the night, the whole city was