Blount saw them, and he made sure that they saw him. But
when they had taken chairs on the other side of the sheltering newspaper
files he was suddenly assured that they had not seen him. They were
talking quite freely of him and of his father.
"Well, the Honorable Dave has got McVickar dead to rights this time,"
remarked the older of the two, a hard-featured, round-bodied real-estate
promoter to whom Blount had been introduced on his first day in the
capital, but whose name he could not now recall. "This scheme of the
senator's for shoving his son into the race for the attorney-generalship
is just about the foxiest thing he has ever put across. You can bet the
air was blue in the Transcontinental Chicago offices when the news got
there."
"What do you suppose McVickar will do?" asked the other.
"He will do anything the senator wants him to--he's got to. Blount is
land hungry, and I guess he'll take a few more sections of the railroad
mesa-land under the Clearwater ditch. That was what he did two years ago
when McVickar wanted the right of way for the branch through Carnadine
County."
"Don't you believe he's going to take any little Christmas gift this
time!" was the rasping reply. "He'll sell the railroad something, and
take good hard money for it. It's a cinch. The railroad can't afford to
have the courts against it, and McVickar will be made to sweat blood
this heat.
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