The senator smiled grimly.

“No, no, Grimsby—­not this time.  It’s more serious than that.  Hitherto the road has been unusually lucky in its bench decisions--”

The senator gave a covert glance round to see if any long ears were listening.  Then he added: 

“We can’t expect always to get a favourable decision like that in the Cartwright case, when franchise rights valued at nearly five millions were at stake.  Judge Stollmann proved himself a true friend in that affair.”

Grimsby made a wry grimace as he retorted: 

“Yes, and it was worth it to him.  A Supreme Court judge don’t get a cheque for $20,000 every day.  That represents two years’ pay.”

“It might represent two years in jail if it were found out,” said the senator with a forced laugh.

Grimsby saw an opportunity, and he could not resist the temptation.  Bluntly he said: 

“As far as jail’s concerned, others might be getting their deserts there too.”

The senator looked keenly at Grimsby from under his white eyebrows.  Then in a calm, decisive tone he replied: 

“It’s no question of a cheque this time.  The road could not buy Judge Rossmore with $200,000.  He is absolutely unapproachable in that way.”

The apoplectic face of Mr. Grimsby looked incredulous.

It was hard for these men who plotted in the dark, and cheated the widow and the orphan for love of the dollar, to understand that there were in the world, breathing the same air as they, men who put honour, truth and justice above mere money-getting.  With a slight tinge of sarcasm he asked: 

“Is there any man in our public life who is unapproachable from some direction or other?”

“Yes, Judge Rossmore is such a man.  He is one of the few men in American public life who takes his duties seriously.  In the strictest sense of the term, he serves his country instead of serving himself.  I am no friend of his, but I must do him that justice.”

He spoke sharply, in an irritated tone, as if resenting the insinuation of this vulgarian that every man in public life had his price.  Roberts knew that the charge was true as far as he and the men he consorted with were concerned, but sometimes the truth hurts.  That was why he had for a moment seemed to champion Judge Rossmore, which, seeing that the judge himself was at that very moment under a cloud, was an absurd thing for him to do.

He had known Rossmore years before when the latter was a city magistrate in New York.  That was before he, Roberts, had become a political grafter and when the decent things in life still appealed to him.  The two men, although having few interests in common, had seen a good deal of one another until Roberts went to Washington when their relations were completely severed.  But he had always watched Rossmore’s career, and when he was made a judge of the Supreme Court at a comparatively early age he was sincerely