“Is that all?” Kent inquired.

“No.  Apart from his nose, Rogers is gifted with horse sense.  When the dinner crowd boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the same conductor.  He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago.  There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks’ office in the capitol, and mum-messengers are flying in all directions.”

“And you wanted me to come and tell you all the whys and wherefores?” Kent suggested.

“I told the chief I’d bet a bub-blind horse to a broken-down mule you could do it if anybody could.”

“All right; listen:  something worse than an hour ago the governor, his private secretary, Guilford, Hawk and Halkett started out on a special train to go to Gaston.”

“What for?” interrupted the editor.

“To meet Judge MacFarlane, Mr. Semple Falkland, and the Overland officials.  You can guess what was to be done?”

“Sure.  Your railroad was to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel; or leased to the Overland for ninety-nine years—­which amounts to the same thing.”

“Precisely.  Well, by some unaccountable mishap the receiver’s special was switched over to the Western Division at yard limits, and the engineer seems to think he has orders to proceed westward.  At all events, that is what he is doing.  And the funny part of it is that he can’t stop to find out his blunder.  The fast mail is right behind him, with the receiver’s order to smash anything that gets in its way; so you see—­”

“That will do,” said the night editor.  “We don’t print fairy stories in the Argus.”

“None the less, you are going to print this one to-morrow morning, just as I’m telling it to you,” Kent asserted confidently.  “And when you get the epilogue you will say that it makes my little preface wearisome by contrast.”

The light was slowly dawning in the editorial mind.

“My heaven!” he exclaimed.  “Kent, you’re good for twenty years, at the very lul-least!”

“Am I?  It occurs to me that the prosecuting attorney in the case will have a hard time proving anything.  Doesn’t it look that way to you?  At the worst, it is only an unhappy misunderstanding of orders.  And if the end should happen to justify the means——­”

Hildreth shook his head gravely.

“You don’t understand, David.  If you could be sure of a fair-minded judge and an unbiased jury—­you and those who are implicated with you:  but you’ll get neither in this machine-ridden State.”

“We are going to have both, after you have filled your two columns—­by the way, you are still saving those two columns for me, aren’t you?—­in to-morrow morning’s Argus.  Or rather, I’m hoping there will be no need for either judge or jury.”

The night editor shook his head again, and once more he said, “My heaven!” adding:  “What could you possibly hope to accomplish?  You’ll get the receiver and his big boss out of the State for a few minutes, or possibly for a few hours, if your strike makes them hunt up another railroad to return on.  But what will it amount to?  Getting rid of the receiver doesn’t annul the decree of the court.”