"But when I left him," the calm, rich voice went on, "I told him that he could write down the story and send it to my house in Washington. Now the chances are that having drifted so many years without telling it, he would have drifted on indefinitely. But fate intervened. Curly went to the Mexican border. Certain gentlemen have seen to it that the Mexican border is not safe. Curly was shot and he made it his death-bed duty to dictate this delectable tale to a friend. In due course of time, the document reached my house in Washington, and here it is!" He tapped the upper drawer of his desk. There was utter silence in the room while Enoch lighted a cigarette. "Have you told any one the er--tale?" demanded Brown, hoarsely. "I can prove that not a word of it is true!" "Can you?" Enoch squared round on him. "Are you willing to risk having the story told with the idea of disproving it, afterward? Isn't your system of scandal mongering built on the idea that mud once slung always leaves a stain in the public mind? And Curly was an eye witness. He is dead, but I do not believe all the other eye witnesses are dead. At any rate--" Brown suddenly leaned forward in his chair. "Mr. Huntingdon, I'll give you my check for $100,000, if you will give me that document and swear to keep your mouth shut." "Your bribe is not large enough," Enoch answered tersely. "Five hundred thousand! I'll agree to make a public retraction of everything I said about you and to work for you with all the power of my newspapers." "Not enough!" repeated Enoch, watching Brown's white face, keenly. "What do you want?" demanded the newspaper publisher. "First," Enoch threw his cigarette away, "I want Secretary Fowler to break with you, absolutely and completely." "Curly can't implicate me, in that Mexican affair!" cried Fowler. "Why, my whole attitude was one of disapproval and disgust. I told Brown over and over, that he was a fool and after the shooting I broke with him, absolutely, for years. I am--" Enoch interrupted. "Brown, was Fowler in on the trouble?" "No!" replied Brown, sullenly. "I'm very glad to hear it," Enoch exclaimed. "Mr. Fowler, as far as I am concerned all that I learned from Field regarding you is a closed book and forgotten if you will break with Brown." "I'd break with him, gladly, if he'd cease to blackmail me about the Field matter," said Fowler. "Good God! How many of us are there who've not committed sins that we never forgive ourselves?" "None of us!" said Enoch. "Mr. Fowler, why did you break with me?" "Didn't you do your best to undermine me with the President? Didn't you go to Ambassador Johns-Eaton and tell him--" Here, catching a curious flickering of young Ames' eyelids, Fowler interrupted himself to demand, "Or was that more of your dirty work, Ames?" "Answer, Ames!" Enoch's voice was not to be ignored. "Brown paid me for it," muttered Ames.