Lawyers -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918 -- Fiction
He passed with Forbes through the revolving doors of the office-building
and walked to the curb. He glanced back and saw the commonplace man
coming through the doorway behind him. Then he remembered: when he left
the Arapahoe that morning, he saw this man walking down the other side
of Thirty-ninth Street. He had thought nothing of it at the time, but
now his experience of detectives told him that this man bore the marks
of the detective.
Luke called a taxicab. The man, he saw, prepared to call another.
"I’ll try to keep my promise to see Betty to-night," said Luke to
Forbes.
"You must," said Forbes. His gratitude, though not so hot as it had
been, was still warm.
"I’ll try. There’s a lot to be done—politically, you know. But I’ll
try-"
They shook hands. Forbes started away. Luke gave his chauffeur that
address in Wall Street at which he had issued his orders to the men who
were now fighting him.
He was disappointed; the person whom he sought was not there. Luke
doubted the statement of the doorkeeper, but could get no other. He
went to the offices of Hallett and to those of Rivington, but with no
better luck. At each descent from his taxi, he caught sight of the
detective and knew that the detective meant to be seen. Then he sought
the quarters of Stein, Falconridge, Falconridge & Perry, and was
immediately admitted to the presence of the head of that firm.
The Judge sat at his handsome desk, a telephone at one elbow and a vase
of Abel Chatney roses at the other. His plentiful white hair and his
smooth frock-coat still potent, still spread around him the aura of
dignity. He rose slowly as Luke came in and bowed with magisterial
calm.
"How do you do, Mr. Huber?" he said pleasantly. "I am glad to see
you—very glad, indeed."
He resumed his chair. Luke took a chair close by.
"The papers," pursued the Judge, "tell me that you are open to
congratulations. You have mine."
"Thank you," said Luke. He stretched his legs. "Yes, I got the
nomination. There was a little opposition, but I got it."
"Opposition?" The Judge raised his white eyebrows. "Hum! Well, of
course, Mr. Huber, you had to expect that in the circumstances."
"What were the circumstances, Judge?"
Stein shook his head and smiled benignantly.
"There you go," he said. "You will insist on flattering me with your
assumptions of my omniscience."
"But not of your omnipotence, Judge; for I did get the nomination. What
were the circumstances?"
The Judge still smiled:
"You can’t expect to hurt the more important business interests without
hurting the lesser ones; and the lesser dislike being hurt even more
than the greater, Mr. Huber."
"I gathered that you might think so."
This time the Judge’s smile was a song without words.
"Very well," said the younger man. "As I say, I overcame the opposition
inside the League. I believe I can overcome the same opposition at the
polls."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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