Miss Williams, the naval committee’s stenographer, entered.

“Senator Langdon,” she said, “Senator Peabody and Senator Stevens are in committee room 6, and they told me to tell you that they’d be—­I can’t say it.  Please, sir, I—­”

“D—­d,” interpolated Langdon, laughing.

“Yes, sir, that’s it.  They’ll be—­that—­if they come in here at 12:30.  You must come to them, they say.”

“Tell the gentlemen I’m sitting here with my hat on the back of my head, smoking a good see-gar, with nails driven through both shoes into the floor—­and looking at the clock.”

At 12:25 Senator Stevens entered.

“I came to warn you, Langdon,” he said, “that Senator Peabody’s patience is nearly exhausted.  You must come to see him at once if you expect the South to get a naval base at Altacoola or anywhere else.  If you do not agree to take his advice this naval bill and any other that you are interested in now or in future will be trampled underfoot in the Senate.  Mississippi will have no use for a Senator who cannot produce results in Washington, and that will prove the bitterest lesson you have ever learned.”

“I’m waiting for Peabody here, Stevens.”

“Oh, ridiculous!  Of course he’s not coming.  Why, Langdon, he’s the king of the Senate.  He has the biggest men of the country at his call.  He’s—­”

“He’s got one minute left,” observed Langdon, looking at the clock, “but he’ll come.  I trust Peabody more than the best clock made at a time like this, when—­”

The figure of the senior Senator from Pennsylvania appeared in the doorway.

“Good-day, Senator Langdon,” he remarked, icily.

“Same to you.  Have a see-gar, Senator?” said Langdon.  He turned and winked significantly at Haines.

The three Senators seated themselves.

“I suppose you wouldn’t consider yourself so important, Langdon, if you knew that we now find we can get another member of the naval affairs committee over to our side for Altacoola?” began Peabody.  “That gives us a majority of the committee without your vote.”

“That wouldn’t prevent me from making a minority report for Gulf City and explaining why I made that report, would it?” the Mississippian asked, blandly.

Peabody and Stevens both knew that it wouldn’t.  Stevens exchanged glances with “the boss of the Senate,” and in low voice began making to Langdon a proposition to which Peabody’s assent had been gained.

“Langdon, we would like to be alone,” and he nodded toward Haines.

“Sorry can’t oblige, Senator,” Langdon replied.  “Bud and I together make up the Senator from Mississippi.”

“All right.  What I want to say is this:  The President is appointing a commission to investigate the condition of the unemployed.  The members are to go to Europe, five or six countries, and look into conditions there, leisurely, of course, so as to formulate a piece of legislation that will solve the existing problems in this country.  A most generous expense account will be allowed by the Government.  A member can take his family.  A son, for instance, could act as financial secretary under liberal pay.”