“Hello, Jim,” said the Colonel.  “I was just wondering where you were.”

“Sure, you must have been!” replied the gentleman sarcastically.

But the Colonel’s geniality was unruffled.

“Mr. Maker,” he said, “you ought to know Mr. Paret.  Mr. Maker is the representative from Ward Five of your city, and we can always count on him to do the right thing, even if he is a Democrat.  How about it, Jim?”

Mr. Maker relighted the stump of his cigar.

“Take a fresh one, Jim,” said the Colonel, opening a bureau drawer.

Mr. Maker took two.

“Say, Colonel,” he demanded, “what’s this bill that went into the judiciary this morning?”

“What bill?” asked the Colonel, blandly.

“So you think I ain’t on?” Mr. Maker inquired.

The Colonel laughed.

“Where have you been, Jim?”

“I’ve been up to the city, seem’ my wife—­that’s where I’ve been.”

The Colonel smiled, as at a harmless fiction.

“Well, if you weren’t here, I don’t see what right you’ve got to complain.  I never leave my good Democratic friends on the outside, do I?”

“That’s all right,” replied Mr. Maker, doggedly, “I’m on, I’m here now, and that bill in the Judiciary doesn’t pass without me.  I guess I can stop it, too.  How about a thousand apiece for five of us boys?”

“You’re pretty good at a joke, Jim,” remarked the Colonel, stroking his goatee.

“Maybe you’re looking for a little publicity in this here game,” retorted Mr. Maker, darkly.  “Say, Colonel, ain’t we always treated the Railroad on the level?”

“Jim,” asked the Colonel, gently, “didn’t I always take care of you?”

He had laid his hand on the shoulder of Mr. Maker, who appeared slightly mollified, and glanced at a massive silver watch.

“Well, I’ll be dropping in about eight o’clock,” was his significant reply, as he took his leave.

“I guess we’ll have to grease the wheels a little,” the Colonel remarked to me, and gazed at the ceiling....

The telegram apropos of the Ward Five leader was by no means the only cipher message I sent back during my stay.  I had not needed to be told that the matter in hand would cost money, but Mr. Watling’s parting instruction to me had been to take the Colonel’s advice as to specific sums, and obtain confirmation from Fowndes.  Nor was it any surprise to me to find Democrats on intimate terms with such a stout Republican as the Colonel.  Some statesman is said to have declared that he knew neither Easterners nor Westerners, Northerners nor Southerners, but only Americans; so Colonel Varney recognized neither Democrats nor Republicans; in our legislature party divisions were sunk in a greater loyalty to the Railroad.

At the Colonel’s suggestion I had laid in a liberal supply of cigars and whiskey.  The scene in his room that evening suggested a session of a sublimated grand lodge of some secret order, such were the mysterious comings and goings, knocks and suspenses.  One after another the “important” men duly appeared and were introduced, the Colonel supplying the light touch.