“I don’t know what to think. He has changed.”
“There’s no doubt of that. But does he, or does he not believe in that meeting? He spoke warmly on both sides.”
Alden took a few turns up and down the room. Esther resumed her chair, rested her chin on her hand, and watched him with thoughtful eyes. He finally brought up at the mantel, and, leaning against it, looked down at her. The lines slowly left his forehead, and a boyish, humorous expression hovered about his eyes and month. “What have I done, Esther?” said he.
She shook her head, with a faint response to his good humor.
“There isn’t a clearer-headed man in the State than Ellery Truman,” he continued. “If his talk is foggy, it is because he means it to be foggy.” He paused, stood thoughtfully silent, and then his eyes twinkled again. “Do you know, Esther, I feel as if I had challenged Lasker to a game of chess. I suppose I’m walking blindfolded into some horridly complicated political row. Truman is best known for his independence. Suppose Governor Harkworth and the State boss have tried to put the bit on him, for fear he might work up enough of a following to make this a doubtful State in the next national campaign; there have been such rumors lately, and if he could do it, it would give him great power. Suppose even that the boss owns the Governor, and the railroad owns the boss—some people think that. If it’s anywhere near true, then Truman might have had a glimmer here to-night, from my putting the thing before him in this way, that if he could make a successful raid on the railroad the railroad would have to reckon with him and put him on a basis where he could over turn both the boss and Governor. But it’s too complicated for me. I give it up.”
“Who is the State boss?” asked Esther.
“Callahan, of River Rapids,—the man they call ‘Side-Door Sam’ in the papers.”
“Isn’t he a saloon-keeper?”
“Not now. He was. He is mysteriously rich now, and doesn’t do anything outside of politics.”
“But, Bradford, how can the people of this State—a New England State, too—submit to be controlled by a saloon-keeper and a foreigner!”
Alden smiled. “Give it up. That’s the mystery of our politics. And here we are, you and I, deep in it at one jump. Heaven help us!—I’ll call up Carpenter again. After to-night I certainly have no business in the employ of the M. & R.R.”
Esther, to compose her mind, took up her Calverly. She could not see very far into the situation which was taking shape about them. She did not care to see very far into it, for the mere suggestion of
