The gentleman in the bed did not reply, but apparently nestled more closely beneath the coverlids.

“I have brought the shares I spoke of,” continued Mr. Wiles, insinuatingly.

“Hev you a friend within call?” interrupted the recumbent man gently.

“I don’t quite understand!” smiled Mr. Wiles.  “Of course any name you might suggest—­”

“Hev you a friend, any chap that you might waltz in here at a moment’s call?” continued the man in bed.  “No?  Do you know any of them waiters in the house?  Thar’s a bell over yan!” and he motioned with his eyes towards the wall, but did not otherwise move his body.

“No,” said Wiles, becoming slightly suspicious and wrathful.

“Mebbe a stranger might do?  I reckon thar’s one passin’ in the hall.  Call him in,—­he’ll do!”

Wiles opened the door a little impatiently, yet inquisitively, as Dobbs passed.  The man in bed called out, “Oh, stranger!” and, as Dobbs stopped, said, “Come yar.”

Dobbs entered a little timidly, as was his habit with strangers.

“I don’t know who you be—­nor care, I reckon,” said the stranger.  “This yer man”—­pointing to Wiles—­“is Wiles.  I’m Josh Sibblee of Fresno, Member of Congress from the 4th Congressional District of Californy.  I’m jist lying here, with a derringer into each hand,—­jist lying here kivered up and holdin’ in on’y to keep from blowin’ the top o’ this d——­d skunk’s head off.  I kinder feel I can’t hold in any longer.  What I want to say to ye, stranger, is that this yer skunk—­which his name is Wiles—­hez bin tryin’ his d—­dest to get a bribe onto Josh, and Josh, outo respect for his constituents, is jist waitin’ for some stranger to waltz in and stop the d—­dest fight—­”

“But, my dear Mr. Sibblee, there must be some mistake,” said Wiles earnestly.

“Mistake?  Strip me!”

“No!  No!” said Wiles, hurriedly, as the simple-minded Dobbs was about to draw down the coverlid.

“Take him away,” said the Hon. Mr. Sibblee, “before I disgrace my constituency.  They said I’d be in jail afore I get through the session.  Ef you’ve got any humanity, stranger, snake him out, and pow’ful quick, too.”

Dobbs, quite white and aghast, looked at Wiles and hesitated.  There was a slight movement in the bed.  Both men started for the door; and the next minute it closed very decidedly on the member from Fresno.

CHAPTER XI

HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOR

The Hon. Pratt C. Gashwiler, M.C., was of course unaware of the incident described in the last chapter.  His secret, even if it had been discovered by Dobbs, was safe in that gentleman’s innocent and honorable hands, and certainly was not of a quality that Mr. Wiles, at present, would have cared to expose.  For, in spite of Mr. Wiles’s discomfiture, he still had enough experience of character to know that the irate member from Fresno would be satisfied with his own peculiar manner of vindicating his own personal integrity, and would not make a public scandal of it.  Again, Wiles was convinced that Dobbs was equally implicated with Gashwiler, and would be silent for his own sake.  So that poor Dobbs, as is too often the fate of simple but weak natures, had full credit for duplicity by every rascal in the land.