When a committee of the Municipal Club visited that august body to listen to a debate on a certain paving contract, they could not help being impressed by the large knowledge of materials and methods displayed by their representatives, and the unanimity with which they agreed that a particular bid was, if not the cheapest, the most deeply satisfying of those offered. What they could not know was the ingenuity with which Murdock saved both the brain and the time of the council by arranging its debate beforehand. But the committee did mention, among themselves, the incongruity between the actual condition of St. Etienne's streets and the wisdom of the Solons. But, though Murdock's was the brain to originate and systematize schemes of plunder for which Barry alone had been incapable, once in a while the "boss" grew restive under dominion, in spite of the knowledge that, if he should once break with the master mind, he would soon make some fatal mistake and another would become the whole show. So, if the reign of King Barry was for long temperate and orderly, it was because Murdock impressed upon him that royal arrogance breeds discontent and finally revolt, and that by big rake-offs, on the quiet, enough could be gained to satisfy the ambition of a well-regulated man; and that while plundering was done with decency, the reform-talk of the Municipal Clubites would prove no more useful nor ornamental than a Christmas card. "Don't hog everything!" as Murdock sagely put it. "Let the other fellow have the small end of the trough, and as long as he ain't hungry, he won't squeal." With equal sternness he repressed Billy's fancy for fast horses and Mrs. Billy's taste for green velvet and diamonds. "It don't look well on a salary of eighteen hundred," he said. "Just you be contented with having things your own way without talking about it. Throw all the dust you like, but don't let it be gold dust." "You cut a pretty wide swath yourself," Billy growled. "I ain't a alderman, serving the city for pure love and a small salary," grinned the other. "A contractor's got a right to make money." "You make money out o' me," said Billy sourly. "You keep me under your big fat ugly thumb. I guess I can run this business alone. I got all the strings pretty well in my own hand." "All right, Barry. I'll be sorry to be on the other side, but if you say so, all right." Barry swore a moment under his breath and changed the subject. So matters went on, with Barry still subservient, but growing daily more inclined to believe himself the autocrat he seemed, daily a little less cautious, a little more fixed in his assurance that the officeholders, the delegates and the saloon men constituted, in themselves, a sufficient prop for his dominion, and that Murdock was a nuisance. "Of course, it's to his interest to keep me under," he said to himself, "and I dunno' whether I'm a fool to let him do it, or whether I'm a fool to try to break away."