“You know as well as I do that Judge Stratton patented that mine and did the necessary amount of development work, then found it salted and abandoned it. That was twenty-eight years ago. He forgot it, and so, apparently, did this office. It was regarded as an abandoned prospect hole, if anyone thought about it at all. I haven’t discussed the matter with Mr. Blake, but assume that he’s merely been waiting for his bill. Now, for reasons of my own, I’ve telegraphed him to meet me here this morning, but in case he can’t come I’m prepared to pay the amount myself. How much?” and he took out his checque book. The treasurer looked as if the cane seat of his chair had turned to hot coals. “Really--that is a large order, Mr. Compton. Twenty-eight years. It will take time to go over the records.” “I’m prepared to wait all day if necessary.” “But why this haste?” “I have my reasons. They don’t concern you in the least. Do they?” “Why--no--but I am very busy----” “Then put someone else on the job. I assume that the county is not averse to raking in a tidy little sum in a hurry.” “Really----” Gregory leaned back in his chair and smiled pleasantly. “You had a telephone from Mr. John Robinson this morning.” This time the man started visibly, but he made an effort to control himself. “I have just come in----” “He telephoned to you last night, did he not? What did he offer you to permit him to pay those taxes today?” “I will not be insulted, sir.” The man’s voice was almost a scream. He heartily wished he had been in training a few years longer, a graduate of the famous Heinze-Amalgamated orgy of corruption, or of the Clark-Daly epoch, when nearly every man in office had been bribed or hoped to be. “I never heard of Mr. Robinson!” “Of course he reminded you that as the taxes are long delinquent the county has the right to put the property up at public auction, and that in any case Mrs. Blake would hardly be given the usual year in which to redeem it. But why auction when the money is ready to be paid over at once? How much did he offer you?” “I repeat----” “I think I can guess. It was five thousand dollars. I’ll make it ten. Get to work.” The man, in whom excitement had destroyed his appetite for breakfast, and who had started out in life with the usual negative ideals of honesty, burst into tears. “My God!” he sobbed. “I’ve heard of the third degree. Your eyes bore a hole through one. They hurt, I say. To think that you should come in here and accuse me of taking bribes.”