"He has issued a statement to the public since you lied to the _Intelligencer_ reporter about him to-day. I suppose it's part of your official duty to misrepresent the head of the state administration in the press, but the governor is in the saddle and I advise you to be good." The attorney-general felt that he was not making headway. His disadvantage in dealing with a stranger whose identity he still questioned angered him. He did not know why Griswold had sought him out, and he was chagrined at having allowed himself to be so easily cornered. "You seem to know a good deal," he sneered. "How did you get into this thing anyhow?" "My dear sir, I was chosen by the governor because of my superior attainments, don't you see? But I'm in a hurry now. I came here on a particular errand. I want that requisition in the Appleweight case--quick!--if you please, Mr. Bosworth." He jumped down from the table and took up his hat and stick. "Mr. Griswold, or whoever you are, you are either a fool or a blackguard. There isn't any requisition for Appleweight. The governor never had the sand to issue any, if you must know the truth! If you knew anything about the governor you would know that that's why Osborne is hiding himself. He can't afford to offend the Appleweights, if you must know the disagreeable truth. Your coming here and asking me for that requisition is funny, if you had the brains to see it. Poor old Osborne is scared to death and I doubt if he's within a hundred miles of here. You don't know the governor; I do! He's a dodger, a trimmer and a coward." "Mr. Bosworth," began Griswold deliberately, "that requisition, duly signed and bearing the seal of the secretary of state as by the statutes in such cases made and provided, was in Governor Osborne's desk this morning at the time you were so daintily kicking the door in your anxiety to see the governor. It has since been taken from the drawer where the governor left it when he went to New Orleans. You have gone in there like a sneak-thief, pried open the drawer and stolen that document; and now--" "It's an ugly charge," mocked the attorney-general. "It's all of that," and Griswold smiled. "But you forget that you represent Mr. Osborne. On the other hand I represent Governor Osborne, and if I want the Appleweight papers I had every right to them." "After office hours, feloniously and with criminal intent?" laughed Griswold. "We will assume that I have them," sneered Bosworth, "and such being the case I will return them only to the governor." "Then,"--and Griswold's smile broadened--"if it comes to concessions, I will grant that you are within your rights in wishing to place them in the governor's own hands. The governor of South Carolina is now, so to speak, _in camera_." "The governor is hiding. He's afraid to come to Columbia, and the whole state knows it." "The papers, my friend; and I will satisfy you that the governor of South Carolina is under this roof and transacting business."