"I only came here to tell you that I couldn’t be scared." "Why to me?" "Perhaps just because I like to talk to you, Judge." The Judge bowed a sincere acknowledgment. "I have already told you," he said, "that I think you could go far if you were cooler. Now you are confusing possible legitimate influence—I say possible, not certain—with physical attack." "They’ve both seemed probable, Judge." "The former may be. As to the latter—well, like most young enthusiasts, you have forgotten that elections go by majorities, and that the majorities are controlled by the lower forces of society. That is the one flaw in our republican system, and nothing but social evolution, generations of free education, will cure it. You have not only very wrongly assailed legitimate business; you have quite properly threatened to close to the criminal classes their chief sources of revenue. It is their livelihood against yours. My friends can have nothing in common with these people. We cannot control them. You must know that." Luke shrugged his shoulders. Stein continued: "As a politician and a lawyer, you must have counted on the opposition of the criminal classes when you began your campaign. If you did not" the Judge bent his head to the roses—"well, I don’t want to alarm you, but if I were in your place, I should leave the fight." Luke got up. "The alternative?" he inquired. The Judge did not answer. He merely looked at Luke. "I won’t take it," said Luke. "I tell you again, that we have nothing to do with the forces that seem to worry you most." "I know you say so. Well, we haven’t got much further than at our last talk, have we?" "At that talk, Mr. Huber, I said to you that you could help yourself, your party, the public good——" "If I’d do what you wanted? I won’t. I merely thought that if I told you you’d failed so far, you might do what _I_ asked." The Judge sadly shook his head. "If you would only listen to reason!" "I’ll wait for the month and not a day longer. Meanwhile, I’m not the kind that’s easy scared. Nothing you can do—you, and your friends, or anybody hired by your friends—will stop me." The Judge stood up. "I am afraid you will be stopped," he said. "Try it," said Luke. "Good-by." "Good-day, Mr. Huber," Stein replied. "I shall always be glad to have a call from you. I am interested in your career—more genuinely interested than you suppose." §5. That night it was Betty who came to the door when Luke rang the bell. She ran to it. "Luke," she cried, "father told me! I knew you would find a way out. And, oh, Luke, I don’t believe, in the end, I could have given you up, even if you hadn’t found one!" *CHAPTER XII*