The polished hypocrites looked at him, too astonished to move.

“How?  What?” they gasped.

Swept on by his own enthusiasm and the force of his own courageous honesty, the voice of the Southerner rose to oratorical height.

“This afternoon,” he exclaimed, “when the naval base committee makes its report, I will rise in my place and declare that for once in the history of the Senate men have been found who place the interests of the Government they serve above any chance of pecuniary reward.  These men are the members of the naval base committee.

“With this idea in view, realizing that dishonest men would try to make money out of the Government, these members of the naval base committee, after they settled on Altacoola, went out quietly and secured control of all the land that will be needed for the naval base, and these men secured this at a very nominal figure.  Now they are ready to turn over their land to the Government at exactly what they paid for it, without a cent of profit.

“Then they’re going to sit up over there in that Senate.  They’re going to realize that a new kind of politics has arrived in Washington—­the kind that I and lots of others always thought there was here.

“And, gentlemen”—­he advanced on his colleagues triumphantly—­“when I, Senator Langdon of Mississippi, your creation in politics, have finished that speech, I dare one of you to get up and deny a word!”

“The boss of the Senate” and his satellite were dumfounded.  Firmly believing that Langdon could find no way to pass the bill for Altacoola and yet spoil their crooked scheme, they were totally unprepared for any such denouement.  To think that a simple, old-fashioned planter from the cotton fields of Mississippi could originate such a plan to outwit the two ablest political tricksters in the Senate!

Langdon eyed his colleagues triumphantly.

Peabody, however, was thinking quickly.  He was never beaten until the last vote was counted on a roll call.  He knew that, no matter how apparently insurmountable an opposition was, a way to overcome it might often be found by the man who exercises strong self-control and a trained brain.  This corrupt victor in scores of bitter political engagements on the battlefield of Washington was now in his most dangerous mood.  He would marshal all his forces.  The man to defeat him now must defeat the entire Senate machine and the allies it could gain in an emergency; he must overcome the power of Standard Steel; he must fight the resourceful brain of the masterful Peabody himself.

Peabody whispered to Stevens, “We must pretend to be beaten,”

[Illustration:  “After I have finished I dare one of you to deny A word!”]

Then the Pennsylvanian advanced, smiling, to Langdon and held out his hand.