Well, now is your chance to get even, he vociferated. It is now or never. You can take it and save the situation for yourselves and all California or you can leave it and rot on your own ranches. Buck, I know you. I know youre not afraid of anything that wears skin. I know youve got sand all through you, and I know if I showed you how we could put our deal through and seat a Commission of our own, you wouldnt hang back. Governor, youre a brave man. You know the advantage of prompt and fearless action. You are not the sort to shrink from taking chances. To play for big stakes is just your gameto stake a fortune on the turn of a card. You didnt get the reputation of being the strongest poker player in El Dorado County for nothing. Now, heres the biggest gamble that ever came your way. If we stand up to it like men with guts in us, well win out. If we hesitate, were lost.
I dont suppose you can help playing the goat, Osterman, remarked Annixter, but whats your idea? What do you think we can do? Im not saying, he hastened to interpose, that youve anyways convinced me by all this cackling. I know as well as you that we are in a hole. But I knew that before I came here to-night. YOUVE not done anything to make me change my mind. But just what do you propose? Lets hear it.
Well, I say the first thing to do is to see Disbrow. Hes the political boss of the Denver, Pueblo, and Mojave road. We will have to get in with the machine some way and thats particularly why I want Magnus with us. He knows politics better than any of us and if we dont want to get sold again we will have to have some one thats in the know to steer us.
The only politics I understand, Mr. Osterman, answered Magnus sternly, are honest politics. You must look elsewhere for your political manager. I refuse to have any part in this matter. If the Railroad Commission can be nominated legitimately, if your arrangements can be made without bribery, I am with you to the last iota of my ability.
Well, you cant get what you want without paying for it, contradicted Annixter.
Broderson was about to speak when Osterman kicked his foot under the table. He, himself, held his peace. He was quick to see that if he could involve Magnus and Annixter in an argument, Annixter, for the mere love of contention, would oppose the Governor and, without knowing it, would commit himself to hisOstermansscheme.
This was precisely what happened. In a few moments Annixter was declaring at top voice his readiness to mortgage the crop of Quien Sabe, if necessary, for the sake of busting S. Behrman. He could see no great obstacle in the way of controlling the nominating convention so far as securing the naming of two Railroad Commissioners was concerned. Two was all they needed. Probably it WOULD cost money. You didnt get something for nothing. It would cost them all a good deal more if they sat like lumps on a log and played tiddledy-winks while Shelgrim sold out from under them. Then there was this, too: the P. and S. W. were hard up just then. The shortage on the States wheat crop for the last two years had affected them, too. They were retrenching in expenditures all along the line. Hadnt they just cut wages in all departments? There was this affair of Dykes to prove it. The railroad didnt always act as a unit, either. There was always a party in it that opposed spending too much money. He would bet that party was strong just now. He was kind of sick himself of being kicked by S. Behrman. Hadnt that pip turned up on his ranch that very day to bully him about his own line fence? Next he would be telling him what kind of clothes he ought to wear. Harran had the right idea. Somebody had got to be busted mighty soon now and he didnt propose that it should be he.
Now you are talking something like sense, observed Osterman. I thought you would see it like that when you got my idea.
Your idea, YOUR idea! cried Annixter. Why, Ive had this idea myself for over three years.
What about Disbrow? asked Harran, hastening to interrupt. Why do we want to see Disbrow?
Disbrow is the political man for the Denver, Pueblo, and Mojave, answered Osterman, and you see its like this: the Mojave road dont run up into the valley at all. Their terminus is way to the south of us, and they dont care anything about grain rates through the San Joaquin. They dont care how anti-railroad the Commission is, because the Commissions rulings cant affect them. But they divide traffic with the P. and S. W. in the southern part of the State and they have a good deal of influence with that road. I want to get the Mojave road, through Disbrow, to recommend a Commissioner of our choosing to the P. and S. W. and have the P. and S. W. adopt him as their own.
Who, for instance?
Darrell, that Los Angeles manremember?
Well, Darrell is no particular friend of Disbrow, said Annixter. Why should Disbrow take him up?
PREE-cisely, cried Osterman. We make it worth Disbrows while to do it. We go to him and say, Mr. Disbrow, you manage the politics for the Mojave railroad, and what you say goes with your Board of Directors. We want you to adopt our candidate for Railroad Commissioner for the third district. How much do you want for doing it? I KNOW we can buy Disbrow. That gives us one Commissioner. We need not bother about that any more. In the first district we dont make any move at all. We let the political managers of the P. and S. W. nominate whoever they like. Then we concentrate all our efforts to putting in our man in the second district. There is where the big fight will come.
I see perfectly well what you mean, Mr. Osterman, observed Magnus, but make no mistake, sir, as to my attitude in this business. You may count me as out of it entirely.
Well, suppose we win, put in Annixter truculently, already acknowledging himself as involved in the proposed undertaking; suppose we win and get low rates for hauling grain. How about you, then? You count yourself IN then, dont you? You get all the benefit of lower rates without sharing any of the risks we take to secure them. No, nor any of the expense, either. No, you wont dirty your fingers with helping us put this deal through, but you wont be so cursed particular when it comes to sharing the profits, will you?
Magnus rose abruptly to his full height, the nostrils of his thin, hawk-like nose vibrating, his smooth-shaven face paler than ever.
Stop right where you are, sir, he exclaimed. You forget yourself, Mr. Annixter. Please understand that I tolerate such words as you have permitted yourself to make use of from no man, not even from my guest. I shall ask you to apologise.
In an instant he dominated the entire group, imposing a respect that was as much fear as admiration. No one made response. For the moment he was the Master again, the Leader. Like so many delinquent school-boys, the others cowered before him, ashamed, put to confusion, unable to find their tongues. In that brief instant of silence following upon Magnuss outburst, and while he held them subdued and over-mastered, the fabric of their scheme of corruption and dishonesty trembled to its base. It was the last protest of the Old School, rising up there in denunciation of the new order of things, the statesman opposed to the politician; honesty, rectitude, uncompromising integrity, prevailing for the last time against the devious manoeuvring, the evil communications, the rotten expediency of a corrupted institution.
For a few seconds no one answered. Then, Annixter, moving abruptly and uneasily in his place, muttered: