"You want to serve the people, Mr. West? How could you do it better than in public orf'ce. Lemme talk to you straight f'r once--will you? Or am I only offendin' you by buttin' in this way, without having ever been asked?" West gave his admirer the needed assurance. "I'm glad of it, f'r I can hardly keep it in my system any longer. Listen here, Mr. West. As you may have heard, there's to be a primary f'r city orf'cers in June. Secret ballot or no secret ballot, the organization's going to win. You know that. Now, who'll the organization put up f'r Mayor? From what I hear, they dassen't put up any old machine hack, same's they been doin' f'r years. They might want to do it, but they're a-scared the people won't stand f'r it. From what little I hear, the feelin's strong that they _got_ to put up some young progressive public-spirited man of the reformer type. Now s'posin' the friends of a certain fine young man, sittin' not a hundred miles from this table, had it in their minds to bring _him_ forward f'r the nomination. This young man might say he wasn't seekin' the orf'ce and didn't want it, but I say public orf'ce is a duty, and no man that wants to serve the people can refuse it, partic'larly when he may be needed to save the party. And now I ask you this, Mr. West: What show would the friends of this young man have, if he had a bad spot on his record? What chance'd there be of namin' to lead the party in the city the _man who had knifed the party in the State_?" West's chin rested upon his hand; his gaze fell dreamily upon the table-top. Before his mind's eye there had unrolled a favorite vision--a white meadow of faces focussed breathlessly upon a great orator. He recalled himself with a start, a stretch, and a laugh. "Aren't you wandering rather carelessly into the future, Plonny?" "If I am," said Mr. Neal, solemnly, "it's because you stand at the crossroads to-day." * * * * * West found the office deserted, his assistant being gone for lunch. He finished two short articles begun earlier in the day, and himself departed with an eye to food. Later, he had to attend a couple of board meetings, which ran off into protracted by-talk, and the rainy twilight had fallen before his office knew him again. Not long after, Queed, already hatted and overcoated to go, pushed open the connecting door and entered. The two chatted a moment of the make-up of next day's "page." Presently West said: "By the bye, written anything about the reformatory?" "Anything!" echoed Queed, with a faint smile. "You might say that I've written everything about it--the best article I ever wrote, I should say. It's our last chance, you know." Queed thought of Eva Bernheimer, and a light crept into his ordinarily impassive eye. At the same time, West's ordinarily buoyant face fell a little. "That so? Let me see how you've handled it, will you?"