Escaping from these men Justin returned to his room, to which Fogg came soon, though Justin was in no mood to receive him. Fogg closed the door softly and dropped somewhat heavily into a chair. His fat face looked worried. “You don’t doubt that I’m your friend, Justin?” he said, cautiously. “I don’t know that I’ve any right to doubt it; you’ve always been my friend, heretofore.” “And I’m your friend now—the best friend you’ve got in this city.” “The only one, I suppose,” said Justin, tipping his chair against the wall and looking at Fogg keenly. “I’m a stranger here.” “So I’ve come to talk this matter over with you. I don’t need to go into details—you know how you were elected, by a queer combination of opposing interests. The cowboys who voted for you did it because they like you and dislike Ben Davison, and not because they want you to oppose the ranch interests in the legislature. If they considered the matter at all, which is doubtful, they thought they could trust you not to do anything here that would be to their injury. Likely you think you owe your election to the farmers, but you don’t; they supported you, but it was the cowboy vote which elected you.” “I have never questioned that fact,” said Justin. “Perhaps not, but you seem to forget it. Now, there’s another thing, of even greater importance, it appears to me, which you ought to take into consideration. The cattlemen are a power in this state. At present they are allied with the party in control here, and the same party is in control at Washington. You know what that means.” “I should be a fool if I didn’t.” “Just so; and understanding the situation, is it the part of wisdom—under all the circumstances now, Justin—is it the part of wisdom for you to oppose that party? The opposition, which is just now making such a noise, is a composite thing bound together with a rope of sand. A half-dozen factions have thrown their influence to the minority party and are making a desperate effort to get control of the legislature. Suppose they succeed this time, where will they be next year, or two or four years from now? They are antagonistic on every question but this, and they will fall apart; nothing else can happen, as you must see yourself. Don’t you see that?” “Yes, I can see that all right.” “Well, then, what is to be gained, in a personal way, by going over to them? I’m not going to argue the thing with you, but just make these statements to set you to thinking.” Fogg knew when he had said enough, and he arose to go. “What did that paper mean, by attacking me in that way?” Justin asked. Fogg sat down again. “Newspaper men are as likely to make fools of themselves as other men. They rushed that edition onto the street as a ‘beat,’ or ‘scoop.’ They’re sorry they did it already, if they’ve got as much brains as I think they have.”