"What evidence have you, I should like to know?" he said; "you can't prove these things, Murgatroyd."

"That," returned Murgatroyd, "is for me to worry about--not you. I'm going on, and when I'm through, you can stake your last dollar that I'll know all about this rotten system that you call your organisation--from the most insignificant ward politician up to Peter Broderick!"

The accusing forefinger shifted from Thorne to the County Chairman; under it the avoirdupois of that gentleman seemed to shrivel and grow less. In all his career no man had ever honoured Broderick with this kind of talk, and he wasn't used to it. All at once, he felt that his courage was slipping from him.

"I've got to see a man--" he began, looking nervously at his watch; then hunching his shoulders, he stole softly and almost on tiptoe to the door.

"_Broderick!_" sung out the prosecutor sharply.

Broderick stopped, but did not look back.

"Broderick!" thundered Murgatroyd, "I want you in this office to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock--I want to have a talk with you--alone. If you don't come, I'll--send for you. Do you understand?"

Broderick did not answer; he opened the door, and slipping through it, disappeared.

Murgatroyd laughed, and turning to Thorne, he went on:--

"Thorne, I sent for you to tell you to close up Cradlebaugh's--to close it up at once. If you don't----"

But Thorne's self-possession had come back, and he demanded fearlessly:--

"And what about you, Murgatroyd? Are your hands clean?"

The tiger leaped into Murgatroyd's face; his eyes flashed fire; the accuser became the fighter.

"I can take care of myself!" he answered quickly. "I'm talking about you, now. You are sworn as a counsellor to uphold the law; you have lined your pockets and built up your career with the coin of suicides, profligates, drunkards, like Challoner, for instance.

"Yes," he went on, "and there is something more between you and me than this, Thorne." His voice now dropped almost to a whisper: "You have the effrontery to pay attentions to----"

Thorne interrupted him, his tone, his glance, his manner leaping at once into insolence.

"So that's how the land lies, is it? Well, let me tell you something that possibly you already know. All my life I have had the things I wanted--all my desires have been fulfilled. I wanted money--I got it. I wanted power, social and political--I got it. I have never stopped; I have always progressed. You have already said that I would be Senator of the United States--if I could. I tell you that I shall! Again, you have hinted at a woman who is worth while.... Well, I'm going on and on and on, in spite of you----"

"You are going on to your finish," returned Murgatroyd. "I have only just begun with you. Before I go further, it may be just as well for you to relinquish the last two of your desires. I don't demand it--I advise it."

Thorne glanced uncertainly at the prosecutor, who had spoken with complete a.s.surance. Thorne recognised the danger. Murgatroyd had been getting indictments lately, and for every indictment, a conviction.

Thorne did not know what proof Murgatroyd had in his possession, and he knew of no way that he could find out. Besides, the people liked Murgatroyd. Thorne believed in compromise, therefore he extended his hand.

"Look here, Murgatroyd," he said, "you know neither of us can afford to have things like these talked about. Don't let us sling mud--let's fight in the open. A fair fight and no favour--let's be decent."

"Why don't you get your ammunition in the open, then?" asked the prosecutor.

Thorne flared up.

"Why didn't you?"

Murgatroyd smiled and said:--

"You'll find my ammunition in the open, Thorne, the next time the legislature meets to choose a Senator!"

Thorne's insolence had returned as he demanded:--

"Do you mean to tell me that your name will be presented in the caucus?"

"That's precisely what I mean."

"Of course you'll try to buy votes with the Challoner money you have."

"I'll get the votes--never fear."

"Try it, then--I'll match you dollar for dollar."

"Not with dollars coined from Cradlebaugh's, nor from corruptions,"

declared Murgatroyd.

Thorne's eyes narrowed.

"Murgatroyd," said he, "you reckon without your host--no matter who owns Cradlebaugh's--or runs it. The organisation has its finger on every Grand Jury, every pet.i.t jury, every judge. You can't accomplish the impossible until you've beaten Peter Broderick and the organisation, and until you do this you can't beat me--you can't prove your a.s.sertions--your hands are tied. The organisation backs me up."

"If your name," retorted Murgatroyd deliberately, "is presented for Senator, it will be withdrawn; and mine will be presented in its place."

"Who'll present it?" sneered Thorne.

"That," smiled Murgatroyd, mysteriously, "is my business and not yours.

But inasmuch as you told me your story, Thorne," he went on, "let me tell you mine now. All my life I've struggled like the devil to get the things I wanted; and I failed. But a big change is about to take place--here and now. You stop right here; and where you stop, I begin.

It's my turn! The things you want--I want. Your surest and your best desires are my desires. If you've got them in your hand, as you think you have, why then--" he clenched his hands--"I'll take them away from you. The time has come, Thorne, when you are going to get the things that you don't want,--and you are going to get them hard. I'm going to get the things you want, yes, and by George, I'll get you too! That's all I've----"

Murgatroyd did not finish; Thorne had departed.

The next day at four o'clock there was a resounding rap on the prosecutor's private office door.

"Come in!" said Murgatroyd.

The door opened, and Peter Broderick came puffing into the room with perfect nonchalance. He had had a day to think things over, and he had made up his mind that the outburst of the prosecutor had been all bl.u.s.ter. Seizing a chair, he drew it up to the desk and sat down, saying:--

"I never refuse an invitation to see a man alone; and now that we are alone, I don't mind telling you that I'm ready for another one of them good cigars."

The prosecutor pa.s.sed a box, from which Broderick helped himself to a cigar, lit it, and after sending a few clouds of smoke in the air, went on:--

"Do you know, Murgatroyd, that I haven't had a good chance to talk to you since the Challoner case--you've been so blamed offish all the time.

But now, here I am sittin' here with you,--you, the only mugwump in the town that I ever used to be afraid of,--and you know I can say any blamed thing I please to you, and you got to take it and say nothin'. Do you know that I'm one of the few that believe the truth about that bribe?"

Murgatroyd smiled.

"In other words, you think we're both in the same boat--is that it?"

"Not a bit of it!" returned Broderick. "I'm in a coal barge; you're in a motor boat. Why, Murgatroyd, there's many a man been in honest politics all his life, like me, for instance, and who's never pulled out three quarters of a million! Not much! And out of one deal, too! Why, look at me?" he went on glibly, "I've been in a lot of deals; but that gets me!

Three quarters of a million and more on just one deal! Confound it, man, do you know the most I ever made out of any one deal?"