"If that is the case, Gantry, it is high time that some one should have
nerve enough to break the charm. I haven't said that I would accept the
nomination if it were tendered me, and I am not at all sure that I am
going to say it. And if I don't say it, by all that's good and great,
that settles it!"
Gantry was plainly shocked. "You're not trying to make me believe that
you've got nerve enough to buck the old m--your father, I mean? Why,
great cats, Evan! you don't know what that stands for in the greasewood
hills!"
"And I don't care, Dick. Up to this present moment I am a free moral
agent; I haven't surrendered any right of decision to my father, or to
any one else, so far as I am aware."
Gantry's eyes dropped to his plate, and his rejoinder was not wholly
free from guile.
"Will you authorize me to contradict the talk as I can?" he asked,
without looking up.
Blount was still warm enough to be peremptory.
"Yes, you may contradict it. You may say that it is entirely
unauthorized--that I have told you so myself." Then he remembered the
claims of friendship. "I'll be frank with you, Dick; this thing has been
mentioned to me once, but nothing was decided--absolutely nothing. I
didn't even promise to take it under advisement."
Among those who knew him only externally, Mr. Richard Gantry had the
reputation of owning a loose tongue.
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