“No—­no flaw in his—­record?” Colonel Varney’s agate eyes sought those of Mr. Young, meaningly.

“That’s been tried, too,” declared the Galesburg attorney.  “Say, you can believe it or not, but we’ve never dug anything up so far.  He’s been too slick for us, I guess.”

“Well,” exclaimed the Colonel, at length, “let him squeal and be d—­d!  He can’t do any more than make a noise.  Only I hoped we’d be able to grease this thing along and slide it through the Senate this afternoon, before they got wind of it.”

“He’ll squeal, all right, until you smother him,” Mr. Young observed.

“We’ll smother him some day!” replied the Colonel, savagely.

Mr. Young laughed.

But as I made my way toward the State House I was conscious of a feeling of relief.  I had no sooner gained a front seat in the gallery of the House of Representatives when the members rose, the Senate marched gravely in, the Speaker stopped jesting with the Chaplain, and over the Chaplain’s face came suddenly an agonized expression.  Folding his hands across his stomach he began to call on God with terrific fervour, in an intense and resounding voice.  I was struck suddenly by the irony of it all.  Why have a legislature when Colonel Paul Varney was so efficient!  The legislature was a mere sop to democratic prejudice, to pray over it heightened the travesty.  Suppose there were a God after all? not necessarily the magnified monarch to whom these pseudo-democrats prayed, but an Intelligent Force that makes for righteousness.  How did He, or It, like to be trifled with in this way?  And, if He existed, would not His disgust be immeasurable as He contemplated that unctuous figure in the “Prince Albert” coat, who pretended to represent Him?

As the routine business began I searched for Krebs, to find him presently at a desk beside a window in the rear of the hall making notes on a paper; there was, confessedly, little satisfaction in the thought that the man whose gaunt features I contemplated was merely one of those impractical idealists who beat themselves to pieces against the forces that sway the world and must forever sway it.  I should be compelled to admit that he represented something unique in that assembly if he had the courage to get up and oppose House Bill 709.  I watched him narrowly; the suggestion intruded itself—­perhaps he had been “seen,” as the Colonel expressed it.  I repudiated it.  I grew impatient, feverish; the monotonous reading of the clerk was interrupted now and then by the sharp tones of the Speaker assigning his various measures to this or that committee, “unless objection is offered,” while the members moved about and murmured among themselves; Krebs had stopped making notes; he was looking out of the window.  At last, without any change of emphasis in his droning voice, the clerk announced the recommendation of the Committee on Judiciary that House Bill 709 ought to pass.