marked, and grim; when
opened, deep and cavernous; when closed, it seemed to snap so tightly that
the lower lip protruded.

Of all his make-up, his eye was the most fascinating, and it held Ben
spellbound. It could thrill to the deepest fibre of the soul that looked
into it, yet it did not gleam. It could dominate, awe, and confound, yet
it seemed to have no colour or fire. He could easily see it across the
vast hall from the galleries, yet it was not large. Two bold, colourless
dagger-points of light they seemed. As he grew excited, they darkened as
if passing under a cloud.

A sudden sweep of his huge apelike arm in an angular gesture, and the
drollery and carelessness of his voice were riven from it as by a bolt of
lightning.

He was driving home his message now in brutal frankness. Yet in the height
of his fiercest invective he never seemed to strengthen himself or call on
his resources. In its climax he was careless, conscious of power, and
contemptuous of results, as though as a gambler he had staked and lost all
and in the moment of losing suddenly become the master of those who had
beaten him.

His speech never once bent to persuade or convince. He meant to brain the
opposition with a single blow, and he did it. For he suddenly took the
breath from his foes by shouting in their faces the hidden motive of which
they were hoping to accuse him!

"Admit these Southern Representatives," he cried, "and with the Democrats
elected from the North, within one term they will have a majority in
Congress and the Electoral College. The supremacy of our party's life is
at stake. The man who dares palter with such a measure is a rebel, a
traitor to his party and his people."

A cheer burst from his henchmen, and his foes sat in dazed stupor at his
audacity. He moved the appointment of a "Committee on Reconstruction" to
whom the entire government of the "conquered provinces of the South"
should be committed, and to whom all credentials of their pretended
representatives should be referred.

He sat down as the Speaker put his motion, declared it carried, and
quickly announced the names of this Imperial Committee with the Hon.
Austin Stoneman as its chairman.

He then permitted the message of the President of the United States to be
read by his clerk.

"Well, upon my soul," said Ben, taking a deep breath and looking at Elsie,
"he's the whole thing, isn't he?"

The girl smiled with pride.

"Yes; he is a genius. He wa