Danvers made no reply. The Honorable William waited for a moment, and then put back the packages he had flung on the table. He looked his surprise; he could not understand how he had been foiled with no anger. "You say you know my standards," began Danvers, slowly. "Then why did you come to me?" "We had to make the try; nobody could influence Judge Latimer like you." "But what good would the money do him?" questioned Danvers, unable to follow the reasoning of the politician. "It would be found out and Latimer would be ruined." "Oh, no, it wouldn't." Moore was hopeful again. "Why didn't you approach him yourself?" It was an afterthought. "It looks more natural for you to be interested in your brother-in-law. Bob said to see you." "So this is his method of beginning a campaign for a seat in the United States Senate!" "We knew we could trust you!" replied Moore. And Danvers knew that the man believed he was paying a sincere tribute. More than a month after this conversation Judge Latimer also paid a visit to Fort Benton and straightway sought his dearest friend. "I wanted to get away from business, from--everything that distracts one," he explained, "and I wanted to see you, Phil, and the doctor, and dear old sleepy Fort Benton again." He looked worn and distracted--thinner than Philip remembered him, and in need of something more than physical relaxation. "Are you quite well, Arthur?" asked Danvers solicitously. "I'm going to have the doctor over to give you a thorough examination, and I'll see that you carry out all his directions. You don't take a bit of care of yourself!" But in the evening, after a day in the open air, he brightened, and under the old spell of comradeship he took on the boyish manner that had been so marked a characteristic. "And how are all our friends at Helena?" inquired the doctor, after he had secured a favorable report of Eva and the baby. "All well, of course, or I should have heard from them!" he went on, with the geniality that Latimer remembered so well. "And little Arthur--he must be quite a lad now----" "Six--and so proud of his new sister," replied the father, with a note of pride that Danvers marked with thankfulness. The tenderness in the man's eyes told him that this little son was the sole balm of a harrassed life, and he wondered if even this great compensation was adequate for all the man had given--and lost. "Why didn't you bring the little chap with you?" questioned the doctor. "I did think of it," confessed Latimer, "but this is a business trip chiefly, if I must own up to it. I want to talk over the situation with someone I know--someone I can trust." "Anything special?" asked the doctor. "Politics!" replied the judge. "The political pot is beginning to get a scum on the top, preparatory to boiling." "How domestic a simile!" jeered the doctor.