Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stacy Brown Thellend and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE HONORABLE SENATOR SAGE-BRUSH [Illustration: "He's taken our retainer!" snapped the vice-president] THE HONORABLE SENATOR SAGE-BRUSH BY FRANCIS LYNDE CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK : : : : : 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS * * * * * Published September, 1913 [Illustration] TO MR. GEORGE ADY My Regius Professor in the School of Western Railroading, and himself a keen observer, _in situ_, of the conditions which I have herein sought to portray, this book is most affectionately inscribed. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BECAUSE PATRICIA SAID "NO" 3 II. THE BOSS 26 III. A FALSE GALLOP OF MEMORIES 40 IV. THE HIGHBINDERS 56 V. AT WARTRACE HALL 69 VI. ON THE WING OF OCCASIONS 86 VII. A BATTLE ROYAL 96 VIII. THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT 110 IX. THE RANK AND FILE 121 X. IN THE HERBARIUM 138 XI. THE GREAT GAME 148 XII. A WELL-SPRING IN THE DESERT 165 XIII. THE LIEGEMAN 178 XIV. BARRIERS INVISIBLE 193 XV. SWORD-PLAY 203 XVI. THE SAFE-BLOWER 213 XVII. ON THE KNEES OF THE HIGH GODS 230 XVIII. THE CHASM 241 XIX. A COG IN THE WHEEL 256 XX. A STONE FOR BREAD 264 XXI. THE UNDER-DOG 280 XXII. THE ICONOCLAST 293 XXIII. A CRY IN THE NIGHT 302 XXIV. FIELD HEADQUARTERS 320 XXV. BLOOD AND IRON 327 XXVI. APPLES OF GOLD 343 XXVII. IN WHICH PATRICIA DRIVES 356 XXVIII. THE GOSSIPING WIRES 367 XXIX. AT SHONOHO INN 379 XXX. THE RECKONING 390 XXXI. _A LA BONNE HEURE_ 407 THE HONORABLE SENATOR SAGE-BRUSH I BECAUSE PATRICIA SAID "NO" Some one was giving a dinner dance at the country club, and Blount, who was a week-end guest of the Beverleys, was ill-natured enough to be resentful. What right had a gay and frivolous world to come and thrust its light-hearted happiness upon him when Patricia had said "No"? It was like bullying a cripple, he told himself morosely, and when he had read the single telegram which had come while he was at dinner he begged Mrs. Beverley's indulgence and went out to find a chair in a corner of the veranda where the frivolities had not as yet intruded.