“If we had the safest kind of a majority in both houses of the legislature, we couldn’t be sure of accomplishing anything worth while with Gordon in the governor’s office; you know that, Blount.  If Gordon runs and is elected, his platform will be flatly anti-railroad.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” was the calm rejoinder.  “Gordon is a mighty square fellow; an honest man and a fair one.  If you could stay out of the fight and go to him with clean hands—­but you couldn’t do that, McVickar; you’re too badly out of practice.”

“We needn’t go into that phase of it.  We are so savagely handicapped in this State that we can’t afford to take a divided chance; can’t afford to pass our case up to a man who has been elected by an unfriendly opposition.  If we should wash our hands of the fight, as you suggest, we might just as well throw up our franchises and quit, so far as any prospect of earning a reasonable return upon our investment here is concerned.”

“I know; that is what you always say, and you have said it so often—­you and your fellow railroad string-pullers—­that you have lost the straightforward combination completely.  If you ever knew how to make a clean fight you’ve forgotten the moves, and it’s your own fault.”

Once more the man with the fierce eyes and the dominating jaw took time to consider.  Like others of his class, he was partisan only in the sense of one fighting hardily for the side upon which he had happened to be drawn in the great world battle.  If he had not long ago parted with his convictions, the heat and smoke of the battle had obscured them, and he chose his weapons now with little regard for anything beyond their possible efficacy.

“You are sparring with me, Blount,” he said finally.  “You are talking to me as you might talk to a committee of the Good Government League—­and possibly for the same reason.  Let’s get together.  You control the political situation in your State, and we frankly recognize that fact.  It’s a matter of business, and we can settle it on a business basis.  I have been outspoken and above-board with you and have told you what we want.  Meet me halfway and tell me what you want.”

“I want a square deal all around, Hardwick; that’s all.  You’ve got to take the same ground and make a clean fight if you want me with you.  I can’t make it any plainer than that, can I?”

“I don’t know yet what you are driving at,” frowned the vice-president, “nor just why you have taken this particular occasion to read me a kindergarten lecture on political methods.  In times past I suppose we have both done some things that we would like to have decently buried and forgotten, but—­”