“What will you do, then?” she asked. “If Justin casts that vote you lose your senator. I can keep him from casting it.” “If you will be quite frank with me, we’ll get on faster, Mrs. Dudley,” Fogg urged. “You could perhaps tell me something of your plans; I don’t ask to know too much. But five thousand dollars is a big sum of money.” “It’s a small sum, Mr. Fogg, for what I propose to do. You don’t believe I can prevent Justin from voting against your man. I can see you don’t.” “Well, I’ll say this much—nobody else could! Everything has been tried that could be thought of. The fellow is a fool, and it’s impossible to reason with a fool.” “Justin is anything but a fool, but he has an uncomfortable lot of queer notions. I think he must have obtained them from that doctor he has been living with down in Paradise Valley. I chance to know something of the character of Doctor Clayton; and while he is, I suppose, one of the best men in the world, so far as pure goodness goes, he is as foolish and illogical as a cat, or a woman.” “Yet you are a woman!” Fogg was beginning to be comfortable again. He would not have to advance money to Mrs. Dudley, and having safely weathered that dangerous cape he felt better. “All women are not cats or fools. For instance, I am not so foolish as not to know the value of money, and the value of the ability I happen to have. You say you won’t advance me anything; what will you do?” Fogg looked at her and jingled his watch chain. “Mrs. Dudley, I’m willing to be as generous as you can expect, conditionally. If that money should be paid I’d have to take a big part of it out of my own pocket. The rest I could probably raise among my friends. I will promise you, as faithfully as a promise can be made that is not put in writing, that if by any means you can induce or force Justin Wingate to vote for our man for United States senator, or even to withhold his vote from the opposition, you shall have the five thousand dollars you named. We could win with his vote, and if he refused to vote at all I think we still could win. Will that promise do?” “Five thousand dollars is not enough, if I am to have no money in advance. I shall charge you interest; a thousand dollars in interest.” She laughed lightly. “Give me your promise that if Justin refuses to cast his vote for United States senator, or votes for your man, I may draw on you for six thousand dollars through any bank if you do not pay the money at once, and I will demonstrate my ability to control him. Six thousand dollars if I succeed, and not a cent if I fail. That is fair.” Fogg twisted uneasily in his chair, which was almost too small for his big body. “You’re trying to drive a hard bargain. Remember that I shall probably have to pay the most of that money myself, if you succeed.”