"I'm very sorry to have come back at such a time," he began.

The girl cut him short with a gesture.

"I want to say to you," she said, then halted--"that I want to be friends with you. I want you to forget the happenings of yesterday--last evening--so far as I was concerned in them. I want to work together with you and father--and so does Randolph. Father and you are standing together to uphold the honor of the Langdons of Mississippi, and Randolph and I, no matter the cost of our former folly, want to share in that work."

Before Haines could reply Senator Langdon burst into the room.

"Bud! Bud!" he cried, "I've got it! I've got it!"

"You've got what, Senator?" exclaimed the secretary.

"That idea, my boy, that idea! It's incubated all right, and Peabody and Stevens can come just as soon as they want to."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BATTLES OF WASHINGTON

At twenty minutes after 12 Senator Langdon and Secretary Haines were still undisturbed by any move on the part of Peabody and Stevens, who maintained a silence that to Haines was distinctly ominous. His experience at the Capitol had taught him that when the Senate machine was quiet it was time for some one to get out from under.

Miss Williams, the naval committee's stenographer, entered.

"Senator Langdon," she said, "Senator Peabody and Senator Stevens are in committee room 6, and they told me to tell you that they'd be--I can't say it. Please, sir, I--"

"D--d," interpolated Langdon, laughing.

"Yes, sir, that's it. They'll be--that--if they come in here at 12:30.

You must come to them, they say."

"Tell the gentlemen I'm sitting here with my hat on the back of my head, smoking a good see-gar, with nails driven through both shoes into the floor--and looking at the clock."

At 12:25 Senator Stevens entered.

"I came to warn you, Langdon," he said, "that Senator Peabody's patience is nearly exhausted. You must come to see him at once if you expect the South to get a naval base at Altacoola or anywhere else. If you do not agree to take his advice this naval bill and any other that you are interested in now or in future will be trampled underfoot in the Senate. Mississippi will have no use for a Senator who cannot produce results in Washington, and that will prove the bitterest lesson you have ever learned."

"I'm waiting for Peabody here, Stevens."

"Oh, ridiculous! Of course he's not coming. Why, Langdon, he's the king of the Senate. He has the biggest men of the country at his call.

He's--"

"He's got one minute left," observed Langdon, looking at the clock, "but he'll come. I trust Peabody more than the best clock made at a time like this, when--"

The figure of the senior Senator from Pennsylvania appeared in the doorway.

"Good-day, Senator Langdon," he remarked, icily.

"Same to you. Have a see-gar, Senator?" said Langdon. He turned and winked significantly at Haines.

The three Senators seated themselves.

"I suppose you wouldn't consider yourself so important, Langdon, if you knew that we now find we can get another member of the naval affairs committee over to our side for Altacoola?" began Peabody.

"That gives us a majority of the committee without your vote."

"That wouldn't prevent me from making a minority report for Gulf City and explaining why I made that report, would it?" the Mississippian asked, blandly.

Peabody and Stevens both knew that it wouldn't. Stevens exchanged glances with "the boss of the Senate," and in low voice began making to Langdon a proposition to which Peabody's a.s.sent had been gained.

"Langdon, we would like to be alone," and he nodded toward Haines.

"Sorry can't oblige, Senator," Langdon replied. "Bud and I together make up the Senator from Mississippi."

"All right. What I want to say is this: The President is appointing a commission to investigate the condition of the unemployed. The members are to go to Europe, five or six countries, and look into conditions there, leisurely, of course, so as to formulate a piece of legislation that will solve the existing problems in this country. A most generous expense account will be allowed by the Government. A member can take his family. A son, for instance, could act as financial secretary under liberal pay."

"I've heard of that commission," said Langdon.

"Well, Senator Peabody has the naming of two Senators who will go on that commission, and I suggested that your character and ability would make you--"

"Good glory!" exclaimed Langdon. "You mean that my character and ability would make me something or other if I kept my mouth shut in the Senate this afternoon! Stevens, I've been surprised so many times since I came to the capital that it doesn't affect me any more. I'm just amused at your offer or Senator Peabody's.

"I want to tell you two Senators that there's only one thing that I want in Washington--and you haven't offered it to me yet. When you do I'll do business with you."

"What's that? Speak out, man!" said Peabody, quickly.

"A square deal for the people of the United States."

"Good Lord!" exclaimed "the boss of the Senate. Is this Washington or is it heaven?"

"It is not heaven, Senator," put in Haines.

"Man alive!" cried Peabody, "I've been in Washington so long that--"

"So long that you've forgotten that the American people really exist,"

retorted Langdon; "and there are more like you in the Senate, all because the voters have no chance to choose their own Senators. The public in most States have to take the kind of a Senator that the Legislature, made up mostly of politicians, feels like making them take. You, Peabody, wouldn't be in the Senate to-day if the voters had anything to say about it."

The Pennsylvanian shrugged his shoulders.

"And now I'll tell you honorable Senators," went on Langdon, thoroughly aroused, "something to surprise you. I have discovered that you were not working for yourselves alone in the Altacoola deal, but that you intend to turn your land over to the Standard Steel Company at a big profit as soon as this naval base bill is pa.s.sed. Then that company will squeeze the Government for the best part of the hundred millions that are to be spent."

The Senator sank back in his chair and gazed at his two opponents.

Those two statesmen jumped to their feet.

"Come, Stevens, let him do what he will. We cannot stay here to be insulted by the ravings of a madman," cried the Pennsylvanian. But he brought his a.s.sociate to a standstill midway to the door. "By the way, Langdon, what is it you are going to do in the Senate this afternoon?"

he asked, "You said you were going to make us honest against our will.

You know you can't do anything."