Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 14355-h.htm or 14355-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/5/14355/14355-h/14355-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/5/14355/14355-h.zip) 54-40 OR FIGHT by EMERSON HOUGH Author of _The Mississippi Bubble_, _The Way of the Man_, etc. With Four Illustrations by Arthur I. Keller A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York 1909 [Illustration: "Madam," said I, "let me, at least, alone." Page 49] TO Theodore Roosevelt PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND FIRM BELIEVER IN THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH THE LOYALTY AND ADMIRATION OF THE AUTHOR CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE MAKERS OF MAPS II BY SPECIAL DESPATCH III IN ARGUMENT IV THE BARONESS HELENA V ONE OF THE WOMEN IN THE CASE VI THE BOUDOIR OF THE BARONESS VII REGARDING ELISABETH VIII MR. CALHOUN ACCEPTS IX A KETTLE OF FISH X MIXED DUTIES XI WHO GIVETH THIS WOMAN XII THE MARATHON XIII ON SECRET SERVICE XIV THE OTHER WOMAN XV WITH MADAM THE BARONESS XVI DÉJEÛNER A LA FOURCHETTE XVII A HUNTER OF BUTTERFLIES XVIII THE MISSING SLIPPER XIX THE GENTLEMAN FROM TENNESSEE XX THE LADY FROM MEXICO XXI POLITICS UNDER COVER XXII BUT YET A WOMAN XXIII SUCCESS IN SILK XXIV THE WHOA-HAW TRAIL XXV OREGON XXVI THE DEBATED COUNTRY XXVII IN THE CABIN OF MADAM XXVIII WHEN A WOMAN WOULD XXIX IN EXCHANGE XXX COUNTER CURRENTS XXXI THE PAYMENT XXXII PAKENHAM'S PRICE XXXIII THE STORY OF HELENA VON RITZ XXXIV THE VICTORY XXXV THE PROXY OF PAKENHAM XXXVI THE PALO ALTO BALL EPILOGUE CHAPTER I THE MAKERS OF MAPS There is scarcely a single cause in which a woman is not engaged in some way fomenting the suit.--_Juvenal_. "Then you offer me no hope, Doctor?" The gray mane of Doctor Samuel Ward waved like a fighting crest as he made answer: "Not the sort of hope you ask." A moment later he added: "John, I am ashamed of you." The cynical smile of the man I called my chief still remained upon his lips, the same drawn look of suffering still remained upon his gaunt features; but in his blue eye I saw a glint which proved that the answer of his old friend had struck out some unused spark of vitality from the deep, cold flint of his heart. "I never knew you for a coward, Calhoun," went on Doctor Ward, "nor any of your family I give you now the benefit of my personal acquaintance with this generation of the Calhouns. I ask something more of you than faint-heartedness." The keen eyes turned upon him again with the old flame of flint which a generation had known--a generation, for the most part, of enemies. On my chief's face I saw appear again the fighting flush, proof of his hard-fibered nature, ever ready to rejoin with challenge when challenge came.