There are no modern office buildings in Hardiston. Routt’s office was on the second floor of the three-story building at the corner of Main and Broad streets. There was a hardware store on the first floor, and a lodge room on the floor above Routt’s office. Routt and three or four others had quarters on the second floor. Routt’s office faced the street; a single room with a hot-air register in the wall near the door. There were shelves around the wall, with a meager library of brand-new and little-used law books. Routt’s desk was shiny, yellow oak. A diploma, or perhaps a certificate of admission to the bar, framed in mission oak, hung on the wall above the desk. There was an electric light in the middle of the ceiling, and it shed a bald and naked light over the three men who faced each other in the room. Kite said: “Hello, Chase,” and Chase responded to the greeting. Routt asked: “How’d you happen to drop in? Glad to see you.” “I was looking for Kite,” Chase said. “Heard he was with you.” Kite asked eagerly: “Looking for me, Chase? Good news? What’s happened?” Chase looked at Routt, with a curious, dull inquiry. The man was moving in something like a daze; he had not yet found himself in this new alliance. He was hating himself for opposing Wint, and he was flogging his courage to the venture. He wondered what Kite and Jack Routt were doing together. Routt was a Caretall man in politics; also he was a friend of Wint. Chase tried to puzzle this out, and Kite asked again: “What’s happened?” “I--spoke to Wint,” Chase said slowly. Routt asked: “About withdrawing his orders to Radabaugh? He’ll never do it.” “No,” said Chase. “He’ll never do it.” Kite cried fiercely: “He’s got to. He doesn’t understand. Didn’t you tell him, Chase? Didn’t you make him see?” “I couldn’t make him see anything. He would not change.” “He’ll never change unless he’s forced to,” Routt said; and Chase looked at the young man and asked slowly: “I thought you and Wint were friends, Routt?” “We are,” Routt declared. “He’s the best friend I’ve got. That’s why I don’t want to see him made a fool of. That’s why I don’t want to see Amos make a fool of him. You’re his father, but you feel the same as I do, that he’s wrong, that he’s got to be made change his mind.” “I thought you were with Amos,” Chase insisted mildly. “Amos and I have broken,” said Routt hotly. “He tried to trick me as he tricks every one, and I wouldn’t stand for it. That’s all. I’m out to even things with him.” Chase looked around for a chair and sat down. Routt sat on the desk. Kite had not risen when Chase came in. The little man asked Chase now: “What did you say to Wint anyway? I should think he’d take your advice before he’d take Caretall’s.” “I told him Caretall was using him, that he was being used to play politics.” “Well, what did he say?”