Really, you astonish me! Do you know something about everybody here in Washington?"

She laughed. "I have learned much here," she said, "about popular government as exemplified by these United States. The knowledge is a little saddening. But it is especially saddening to see our const.i.tutional liberties threatened by this Bureau of Health bill, and by the Government's constant truckling to the Church of Rome. Doctor, can it be that you want to commit this nation to the business of practicing medicine, and to its practice according to the allopathic, or 'regular' school? The American Medical a.s.sociation, with its reactionary policies and repressive tendencies, is making strenuous endeavors to influence Congress to enact certain measures which would result in the creation of such a Department of Health, the effect of which would be to monopolize the art of healing and to create a 'healing trust.' If this calamity should be permitted to come upon the American people, it would fall as a curtain of ignorance and superst.i.tion over our fair land, and shut out the light of the dawning Sun of Truth. It would mean a reversion to the blight and mold of the Middle Ages, in many respects a return in a degree to the ignorance and tyranny that stood for so many centuries like an impa.s.sable rock in the pathway of human progress. The attempt to foist upon a progressive people a system of medicine and healing which is wholly unscientific and uncertain in its effects, but which is admittedly known to be responsible for the death of millions and for untold suffering and misery, and then to say, '_Thou shalt be cured thereby, or not be cured at all_,' is an insult to the intelligence of the Fathers of our liberties, and a crime upon a people striving for the light. It smacks of the Holy Inquisition: You accept our creed, or you shall go to h.e.l.l--after we have broken you on the rack! Why, the thought of subjecting this people to years of further dosing and experimentation along the materialistic lines of the 'regular' school, of curtailing their liberties, and forcing their necks under the yoke of medical tyranny, should come to them with the insistence of a clarion call, and startle them into such action that the subtle evil which lurks behind this proposed legislative action would be dragged out into the light and exterminated! To permit commercialism and greed, the l.u.s.t of mammon, and the pride of the flesh that expresses itself in the demand, 'Who shall be greatest?' to dictate the course of conduct that shall shape the destinies of a great people, is to admit the failure of free government, and to revert to a condition of mind that we had thought long since outgrown. To yield our dear-bought liberties to Italian ecclesiastics, on the other hand--well, Doctor, _it is just unthinkable_!"

"H'm! Well, at least you are delightfully frank with me. Yet you have the effect of making me feel as if--as if I were in some way behind a veil. That--"

"Well, the human mind is very decidedly behind a veil--indeed, behind many of them. And how can it see G.o.d through them? Mankind just grope about all their lives back of these veils, not knowing that G.o.d is right before them all the time. G.o.d has got to be everything, or else He will be nothing. With or without drugs, it is G.o.d 'who healeth all thy diseases.' The difficulty with physicians is that they are densely ignorant of what healing means, and so they always start with a dreadful handicap. They believe that there is something real to be overcome--and of course fail to permanently overcome it. Many of them are not only pitiably ignorant, but are in the profession simply to make money out of the fears and credulity of the people. Doctor, the physician of to-day is in no way qualified to handle the question of public health--especially those doctors who say: 'If you won't take our medicines we'll get a law pa.s.sed that will make you take them.' To place the health of the people in their hands would be a terrible mistake. The agitation for a federal Department of Health is based upon motives of ignorance and intentional wrong. If the people generally knew this, they would rise in a body against it. Make what laws you wish for yourself, Doctor. The human mind is constantly occupied in the making of ridiculous laws and limitations. But do not attempt to foist your laws upon the people. Tell me, why all this agitation about teaching s.e.x-hygiene in the public schools? Why not, for a change, teach Christianity? What would be the result? But even the Bible has been put out of the schools. And by whom? By your Church, that its interpretation may continue to be falsely made by those utterly and woefully ignorant of its true meaning!"

For some moments they continued their meal in silence. Then the girl took up the conversation again. "Doctor," she said, "will you come out from among them and be separate?"

He looked at her quizzically. "Oppose Ames?" he finally said.

"Ah, that is the rub, then! Yes, oppose ignorance and falsity, even though incarnate in Mr. Ames," she replied.

"He would ruin me!" exclaimed the doctor. "He ruins everybody who stands in his way! The cotton schedule has gone against him, and the whole country will have to suffer for it!"

"But how can he make the country suffer because he has been blocked in his colossal selfishness?" she asked.

"That I can not answer," said the doctor. "But I do know that he has intimated that there will be no cotton crop in this country next year."

"No cotton crop! Why, how can he prevent that?"

The doctor shook his head. "Mr. Ames stands as the claim of omnipotent evil," was his laconic reply.

And when the meal was ended, the girl went her way, pondering deeply.

"No cotton crop! What--what did he mean?" But that was something too dark to be reported to the Express.

Three weeks from the day he had his brush with Carmen in the presence of the President, Ames, the great corruptionist, the master manipulator, again returned from a visit to Washington, and in a dangerous frame of mind. What might have been his mental state had he known that the train which drew his private car also brought Carmen back to New York, can only be conjectured. It was fortunate, no doubt, that both were kept in ignorance of that fact, and that, while the great externalization of the human mind's "claim" of business sulked alone in his luxurious apartments, the little follower after righteousness sat in one of the stuffy day coaches up ahead, holding tired, fretful babies, amusing restless children, and soothing away the long hours to weary, care-worn mothers.

When the financier's car drew into the station his valets breathed great sighs of relief, and his French chef and negro porter mopped the perspiration from their troubled brows, while silently offering peans of grat.i.tude for safe delivery. When the surly giant descended the car steps his waiting footman drew back in alarm, as he caught his master's black looks. When he threw himself into the limousine, his chauffeur drew a low whistle and sent a timidly significant glance in the direction of the lackey. And when at last he flung open the doors of his private office and loudly summoned Hood, that capable and generally fearless individual quaked with dire foreboding.

"The Express--I want a libel suit brought against it at once! Draw it for half a million! File it in Judge Penny's court!"

"Yes, sir," responded the lawyer meekly. "The grounds?"

"d.a.m.n the grounds!" shouted Ames. Then, in a voice trembling with anger: "Have you read the last week's issues? Then find your grounds in them! Make that girl a defendant too!"

"She has no financial interest in the paper, sir. And, as for the reports which they have published--I hardly think we can establish a case from them--"

"What? With Judge Penny sitting? If you and he can't make out a case against them, then I'll get a judge and a lawyer who can! I want that bill filed to-morrow!" bringing his fist down upon the desk.

"Very well, sir," a.s.sented Hood, stepping back.

"Another thing," continued Ames, "see Judge Hanson and have the calling of the Ketchim case held in abeyance until I am ready for it.

I've got a scheme to involve that negro wench in the trial, and drag her through the gutters! So, she's still in love with Rincon, eh?

Well, we'll put a crimp in that little affair, I guess! Has Willett heard from Wenceslas?"

"Not yet, sir."

"I'll lift the scalp from that blackguard Colombian prelate if he tries to trick me! Has Willett found Lafelle's whereabouts?"

"No, sir. But the detectives report that he has been in Spain recently."

"Spain! What's he--up to there?" he exclaimed in a voice that began high and ended in a whisper.

He lapsed into a reflective mood, and for some moments his thoughts seemed to wander far. Then he pulled himself together and roused out of his meditations.

"You told Jayne that I would back the Budget to any extent, provided it would publish the stuff I sent it?"

"Yes, sir. He was very glad to accept your offer."

"Very well. You and Willett set about at once getting up daily articles attacking the Express. I want you to dig up every move ever made by Hitt, Haynerd, that girl, Waite, Morton, and the whole miserable, sneaking outfit! Rake up every scandal, every fact, or rumor, that is in any way a.s.sociated with any of them. I want them literally cannonaded by the Budget! Hitt's a renegade preacher!

Haynerd was a b.u.m before he got the Social Era! Waite is an unfrocked priest! Miss Wall's father was a distiller! That girl--that girl is a--Did you know that she used to be in a brothel down in the red-light district? Well, she did! Great record the publishers of the Express have, eh? Now, by G.o.d! I want you and Jayne to bury that whole outfit under a mountain of mud! I'm ready to spend ten millions to do it!

Kill 'em! Kill 'em all!"

"I think we can do it, Mr. Ames," returned the lawyer confidently.

"You've got to! Now, another matter: I'm out to get the President's scalp! He's got to go down! Begin with those New York papers which we can influence. I'll get Fallom and Adams over here for a conference.

Meanwhile, think over what we'd better say to them. Our attacks upon the President must begin at once! I've already bought up a Washington daily for that purpose. They have a few facts now that will discredit his administration!"

"Very well, Mr. Ames. Ah--a--there is a matter that I must mention as soon as you are ready to hear it, Mr. Ames--regarding Avon. It seems that the reports which that girl has made have been translated into several languages, and are being used by labor agitators down there to stir up trouble. The mill hands, you know, never really understood what your profits were, and--well, they have always been quite ignorant, you know, regarding any details of the business. But now they think they have been enlightened--they think they see how the tariff has benefited you at their expense--and they are extremely bitter against you. That priest, Father Danny, has been doing a lot of talking since the girl was down there."

"By G.o.d!" cried Ames, rising from his chair, then sinking back again.

"You see, Mr. Ames," the lawyer continued, "the situation is fast becoming acute. The mill hands don't believe now that you were ever justified in shutting down, or putting them on half time. And, whether you reduce wages or not, they are going to make very radical demands upon you in the near future, unless I am misinformed. These demands include better working conditions, better tenements, shorter hours, and very much higher wages. Also the enforcement of the child labor law, I am sorry to say."

"They don't dare!" shouted Ames.

"But, after all, Mr. Ames, you know you have said that it would strengthen your case with Congress if there should be a strike at Avon."

"But not now! Not now!" cried Ames. "It would ruin everything! I am distinctly out of favor with the President--owing to that little negro wench! And Congress is going against me if I lose Gossitch, Logue, and Mall! That girl has put me in bad down there! Wales is beginning to threaten! By G--"

"But, Mr. Ames, she can be removed, can she not?"

"Violence would still further injure us. But--if we can drive the Express upon the shoals, and then utterly discredit that girl, either in the libel suit or the Ketchim trial, why, then, with a little show of bettering things at Avon, we'll get what we want. But we've got work before us. Say, is--is Sidney with the Express?" he added hesitatingly.

Hood started, and shot a look of mingled surprise and curiosity at his master. Was it possible that Ames--

"You heard my question, Mr. Hood?"

"I--I beg pardon! Yes, sir--Sidney is still with them. He--a--they say he has quite conquered his--his--"

"You mean, he's no longer a sot?" Ames asked brutally. "Out with it, man! Don't sit there like a smirking Chinese G.o.d!"

"Well, Mr. Ames, I learn that Sidney has been cured of his habits, and that the--that girl--did it," stammered the nervous lawyer.

Ames's mouth jerked open--and then snapped shut. Silence held him. His head slowly sank until his chin touched his breast. And as he sat thus enwrapped, Hood rose and noiselessly left the room.