VIII

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

When the news went forth to the dwellers in the sage-brush hills that Boss David’s son had been appointed to fill an important office as a member of the railroad company’s legal staff, the first wave of astoundment was swiftly followed by many speculations as to what young Blount’s debut as a railroad placeman really meant.

The Plainsman, the capital city’s principal daily, and the outspoken organ of the people’s party, was quick to discover an ulterior motive in Evan Blount’s appointment and its acceptance.  Blenkinsop, the leader-writer on The Plainsman, took a half-column in which to point out in emphatic and vigorous Western phrase the dangers that threatened the commonwealth in this very evident coalition of the railroad octopus and the machine.

The Lost River Miner, on the contrary, was unwilling to believe that the younger Blount was acting in the interest of machine politics in taking an employee’s place on the railroad pay-roll.  In this editor’s comment there were veiled hints of a disagreement between father and son; of differences of opinion which might, later on, lead to a pitched battle.  The Capital Daily, however—­the stock in which was said to be owned or controlled by local railroad officials—­took a different ground, covertly insinuating that nothing for nothing was the accepted rule in politics; that if the railroad company had made a place for the son, it was only a justifiable deduction that the father was not as fiercely inimical to the railroad interests as the opposition press was willing to have a too credulous public believe.

Elsewhere in the State press comment was divided, as the moulders of public opinion happened to read party loss or gain in the appointment of the new legal department head.  Some were fair enough to say that young Blount had merely shown good sense in taking the first job that was offered him, following the commendation with the very obvious conclusion that the railroad company’s pay check would buy just as much bread in the open market as anybody’s else.  On the whole, the senator’s son was given the benefit of the doubt and a chance to prove up.

Of the interview between the father and the son, in which Evan announced his intention of accepting a place under McVickar, nothing was said in the newspapers, for the very good reason that no reporter was present.  If the young man who had so summarily taken his future into his own hands was anticipating a storm of disapproval and opposition, he was disappointed.  He had seen Mr. McVickar’s private car coupled to the east-bound Fast Mail, and had dined with Patricia and her father, the fourth seat at the table of reunion being vacant because the senator was dining elsewhere.  Later in the evening he faced the music in the sitting-room of the private suite, waylaying his father on the Honorable David’s return to the hotel.