Then he pulled a handy chair to the table and motioned to Miss Bunker. She sat down and opened her note-book. "I have come here on business, gentlemen, and you must allow me to follow some of my business methods. The heat of argument often causes men to forget what has been said. I'm willing to leave what I may say to the record, and, in view of the fact that all this is public business, I trust I'll have your co-operation along the same line. And there's a young lady present," he added. "That fact will help us to get along wonderfully well together." "What's that devilish policeman doing at my door?" demanded the Governor, finding that his frantic gestures were not starting the adjutant-general on his way. "Insuring complete privacy!" The mayor beamed on the Governor. "Nothing gets in--nothing gets out!" North grabbed the telephone instrument on his desk. One of Stewart's hands was covering the keys; with the fingers of the other hand he had been fumbling under the edge of the desk. He suddenly pulled wires from the confining staples; he yanked a big mill-knife from his trousers pocket and cut the wires. North flung a dead instrument clattering on the broad table and found only oaths fit to apply to this perfectly amazing effrontery. "You need not take, Miss Bunker!" The quiet dignity of Morrison and the rebuke the Governor found in the girl's contemplative eyes choked off the profanity as effectively as would gripping fingers at his throat. "I realize that all this is absolutely unprecedented--has never been done before--is unadulterated gall on my part, Governor North. Perhaps I haven't a leg to stand on." "Morrison, this infernal nonsense must cease!" Senator Corson shouted, leaping from his chair and shaking both fists. "You need not take, Miss Bunker!" Corson gulped and surveyed the young lady, and found her eyes as disconcertingly rebuking as they had proved in the case of North. "Not especially on account of the style of your language, Senator! But you are merely a visitor here, the same as I! At the present time your comments on the business between the Governor and myself can scarcely have any weight in the record." "What in blazes is that business? Get it out of you!" commanded the other principal in the controversy. "With pleasure! Thank you for coming down to the matter in hand. You may take, Miss Bunker. "Governor North, I have been about among people this evening and--" "You have been making incendiary speeches, and I demand to know what you have said and why you have said it!" "I have no time now to go into those details. My business is more pressing, sir." "You're in cahoots with a mob! I saw you operating, with my own eyes, under my own roof," asserted Senator Corson, violently. "I have no time for discussing that matter." Morrison looked up at the clock on the wall. "This other business, I assert, is urgent."