Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1912 — THE MAN HIGHER UP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE MAN HIGHER UP

By HENRY RUSSELL MILLER

CHAPTER XIX. j STRATAGEMS. WHEN Eleanor left the Dunmeade household she was convinced that she did not care ever again to see the grimy, busy Steel City. Therefore she went to New York, ostensibly to visit a friend of her school days, in reality that she might think out the new problem confronting her. There was one thing that she made no effort to disguise from herself. 11 Every day she dispatched a servant to get the Steel City papers. When they were brought to her she spent long hours poring over them. On the first page of one of (he papers was a photograph of the Republican, candidate, the first she had ever seen of him. His eyes looked straight out at the reader. At last she came to a resolution. - “I will go back,” she declared to herself, “and tonight.” Calling a maid, she had her trunk packed at once. Nor could all the. arguments and pleas of her hostess dissuade her. • She reached the city, early next morning. Jit noon her brother came home to luncheon, much to her surprise. It was his custom to lunch at one of his clubs. /At its conclusion he made no move to return to his office, and Sanger was a busy man. “Well?” she queried, with a smile. “Out with it. What did you come home to tell me?” “Eleanor, why don’t you marry Paul Remington?” t .,, . , , * “Why?” ' ~ . \i ►- “He Is- in love with you. He Is a charming fellow. I liave-taken an interest in kiln, ne is a rising man or can rise under favorable conditions, cwhlch lam ready to insure. And, forgive me, my dear, but thirty is coming?” She smiled pleasantly. "I'm not afraid of thirty.” “I’m serious in this, Eleanor,” he went on evenly. “Under certain conditions he has a chance for the next governorship”— “What do you know of Mr. McAXfoo’s plans?” she asked, surpri&ed. “McAdoo”— Sanger began almost venomously. Then he went on calmly: “McAdoo doesn’t necessarily have the last word in these things. After the governorship there is no reason why Remington shouldn’t go to Washington. I think I’ll-take you into my confidence. You’re a Sanger through and through. You’ll understand it. With me it’s a question of how I am to apply my ability, I’m only fortyfive years old and in perfect health. We Sangers aren’t idlers. I could go and get together a tremendous fortune so big that I’d he a slave to it. But already I’m 'vorth about fifty lions”--“I didn’t know you were so rich!” “Very few even suspect it,” he returned calmly. “Two years from now this state will choose a new senator. The choice, I think, will fall up&n Henry Sanger, .Tr. And the minute I take the oath of office” 1 — “If you do.” •

“When I do I become a national power. My office multiplied by my money and my backing. The senate is the most powerful body in our governBehind me will be the influence of the principal financial combinations In tne country. Only one man in the senate has the backing I shall have, and he is an old man. Soon he must die or retire, and his leadership will fall to me. I shall control the senate, which controls all national legislation.’’ Sanger’s eyes began to glitter- * “I’m not talking vlldly. For some time I have been working solely to this end. I’m not the sort to waste energy. What I suggest is now a certainty—but for one thing. Between me and my ambition there is but one ■obstacle—one man, Robert McAdoo.” Sanger’s serenity was slowly giving way to,his inward excitement. “Here is where Remington comes in. As it looks now McAdoo is sure to win. He has got a grip on this city that I can’t understand. It is contrary to all political precedents. Nothing that we have tried so far—money, organization, newspaper attacks”— Eleanor started. “Henry! Do you own the Gazette?” “Yes. What of it?’ “Then you are responsible for the slanders against Mr. McAdoo?” “Nonsense! You have been listening to the Dunmeades. We have published nothing that hasn’t been essentially true. But we have one card left that, I think, will settle friend -McAdoo if played at the right time and by the right person.” He paused. “He has been posing as a sort of reformer. What do you think the people, who are shouting themselves hoarse over him today, will think when they hear that the delegates whose votesi nominated him were bribed with his money?” “Another lie?” “I suggest the use of another word, if you please,” he said icily. “This is true* I already have half a dozen

affidavits from delegates who took his money.” “Then why haven’t you published them?” “Because they won’t be effective. The testimony of an accomplice is never more than half believed. The ex posure must come from a different source. I want Taul Remington to make the revelation. Think! The whole state is watching McAdoo—McAdoo, the reformed and reformer. In the last hours of the campaign the man who for years has been I known as his only close personal friend suddenly breaks with him and exposes the reformer as a candidate who won his nomination by flat, incontestable bribery! There isn’t a man living who could Jvithstnnd the reaction. “And that,” lie concluded, “is why I Want you to marry Remington.” i She looked at him curiously. “I see. You want to use me as a bribe to buy Mr. Remington’s betrayal of his friend.” “Bah! Don’t be melodrama tie. There’s no treachery here, no moral wrong. 1 offer Remington a thousand times more than McAdoo could ever give him. '/is my fellow senator from this state h.p, will have an influence and import a nee second only to mine. I offer you a future you can never have otherwise. A brainy woman In Washington can do a great deal to help me. You would he my partner. As any sister and Senator Remington’s wife you Would be welcomed wherever you chose to go. And this is offered you merely for the public telling of the truth about a man who Is morally and legally a criminal.” “I seem to remember,” she said quietly, “that he was driven to buy the

delegates by Hemenway’s withdrawal. Do you always work through treachery, Henry?” Sanger assumed an air of hurt reproach. “My dear sister, you’re unfair. You defend him on the ground that he was driven to dishonesty to meet similar tactics, but for the same action.you criticise me. Guo would almosf believe this demagogue is something to you.” * “Henry, you are too crafty by far. I inflict you with hysterical reproaches. i realize there has been nothing in my life—nothing you are aware of, at least—to lead you to believe your proposal distasteful to me. But really I must decline. Of course I quite understand it would be useless for me to try to dissuade you from attacking Mr. McAdoo unfairly, although it might be more to your credit to cease.” She spoke indifferently. Sanger rested his-folded arms bn the table and looked at her steadily. JVben he answered • u. 1 e was an edge to his voice she had never heard before. “You’re .quite correct. If it takes twenty years I intend to crush that man. Whatever means are necessary I shall use. The end justifies them. But that is neither here nor there. I give you the chance to better both yourself and' the man you love. I hope you won’t be so foolish as to refuse it.” « Left alone, Eleanor went up to her sitting room. She threw herself on-a couch in profound disgust. “And that man is my brother! He’s a thousand times more relentless than —than the other. , And the shameful part of it is,” she cried in bitter self accusation, “that two weeks ago his offer would have tempted me. No wonder Mr. McAdoo hates us.”

. When Sanger reached his office he telephoned to Paul, asking him to call on him at some convenient time. Paul, who had eagerly perused the morning’s stock market reports, appeared with exemplary promptness. Sanger met him pleasantly. > “I merely wanted the pleasure of giving you this myself.” And he handed Paul a check. Paul took it and stared at it as though fascinated. Then his face broke into a boyish, gleeful smile. “Mr. Sanger,” he laughed, “this is the finest bit of literature ever written. You can’t know what it means to me. I don’t know how to thank you. I can never repay you.”

“Nonsense! I charged you interest for the margin money. You owe me nothing—but a box of cigars.” He pushed a box across the desk toward .Paul.' “Here’s the brand I smoke. Try one?” jff ... He chose a cigar for himself and r —-mntorlly at Paul.

“Remington, I like you. J dop’f give a personal interest to many people. I’m j not sentimental; I’m as unromantie as a cold in tlie head. But you’re an exception. That w\s why I confirmed Brown’s tip. It was my only reason. I want you to understand that it had no connection with what I’m going to say. I expect you to accept or refuse my proposal without considering this stock transaction. I don’t kilims, what you think of me—probably "that Bin a mere money grubber and that my political interest is purely financial./ Thattis wrong. I want to he the next senator from this state.” “Senator!" Paul , exclaimed in unfeigned amazement. “Yes, Remingturt. Twice I have asked you to help mo. Twice you have refused. Will you tell me frankly why!;” “You have yourself charged me with being a friend of the people,” Paul parried, trying to speak jocularly. Sanger leveled an accusing finger at Paul, his face twitching mirthfully. “Remington, I’m not a fool. You' don’t care a twopenny d— for the people." “Still there, are honor and loyally, you knew,” Paul said gravely. “Honor?*, Whose honor?” “Mine.” “Loyalty—to whom?” “To the man who has made me politically valuable to you to McAdoo." “Why should you be loyal to him?” “Because he has been loyal to me.” “Hohor! Loyalty!. McAdoo! Ha!” Sanger’s snort, a departure from his usual suave manner, expressed the very depth of disgust, “Mr. Sanger, your tone”— “If m.v tone doesn’t speak the highest regard for you.” Sanger interrupted forcefully, “I express myself poorly. l admire your loyalty and respect you for it. You’re the victim of base ingratitude—treachery, I call It. You ’ may not know how strong T am in state politics. Take my word for it, I am so strong I could go to McAdoo, as 1 did, and offer to make him boss of the state, hut lie refused. When a ijuui like him refuses the chance to realize his pet ambition he can’t lay it to noble ideals. lie lms lower motives. His motive in this case isn’t hard to find, lie hates me and my sister.” The last words were a chance' shot. Paul stirred uneasily iq his seat.

“Yfls. lie hate* you aud Mrs. Gilbert/’ “That Isn’t all. Part of my offer was to make you the uext governor”— “What! Me governor! It is more than I have dared to dream of so soon.” “But not more than you’re worthy of. However, there’s no use discussing, that, siuce it was included in his refiHal. lie placed his hate of me and my sister higher than his loyalty to you.” “Man, don’t!" The cry told Sanger that he had at last penetrated a joint in Paul’s armor. “Mr. Sanger. I—l beg Of you” - Sanger sprang to his feet, his finger leveled at Paul. “Remington, wait! You talk of honor. Is it honor that lets you tie played the fool by a man who uses you to lift himself to political heights, but refuses to carry you up with him? You talk of loyalty. Loyalty is a fine thing when mutual. But what is it when the man to whom you give it and from whom you have earned it won't ignore a petty hatred when by doing so he could make you governor of this state?” ■ A pen which Paul bad been fumbling snapped suddenly. “Mr. Sanger,” ho cried pleadingly. “I must ask 'you to eirnffis”—

“Remington, you shall hear me out. Oh, he has played a pretty game! He says, ‘Let us lie friends of the people, because it’s going to pay some day.’ lie teaches you to be a hypocrite like himself. But what,” Sanger concluded dramatically—"what do you think the people—the dear, dear people—will think of your friend next Monday when they learn that the great reiormer won Ids nomination by bribing the delegates of the convention?” Paul rose uncertainly to his feet, staring wildly at Sanger. “My God! No; that can’t be true.” “And do you think,” Sanger insisted triumphantly, “that you, his chief supporter, can clear your skirts of she mud?” - - “Mr. Sanger, what proof have you of this?”

“Read that, and that, and that, and these:” Sanger caught up and tossed to Paul a sheaf of documents. Thejp were affidavits of delegates, setting forth the facts of their bribing. “Good God l” Paul groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Good God!” “It’s hard on you, I know,” Sanger said gently, “and it adds to my determination to crush the man who seeks to drag you into his disgrace. Remington, twice you have refused to come with me. I ask you again and for the last time. The offer I made to McAdoo 1 repeat to you, and when your term as governor is ended you and I will work together as senators froxh the greatest state in the Union. All I ask is that you publicly cut loose from McAdoo, disavowing your. own connection or knowledge of his corrupt practices. Here~is your reason.” He tapped the sheaf of affidavits. Paul’s hand dropped to the table, and he looked up at Sanger, a hunted look in his eyes. “Have you no mercy?”

Sanger suddenly leaned over and grasped him by the arm. “I ask you nothing wrong, only what is your dhty to the people, who have been deceived, and to yourself. And”—he hesitated—“and I have more reasons than one for liking you. " I hope soon to know you in a closer relation’,’ — He paused artistically.' • Paul shook his head despondently.

“No, I fear there’s no hope for me.” Sanger shook his arm vigorously. “For shame, man! Faint heart, , you know — And .my own opinion is that y(j>u have no reason to be faint of heart.” Paul turned white; his heart gave a great throb. Even Sanger was touched by the passionate joy that flashed across Paul’s face. “Do you really believe”— Paul began incredulously. “I’m sure of it,” Sanger said quietly. “And I’m glad of it. Come, burn your bridges.” He tapped the sheaf of affidavits again. “You know best whether she wants you to do It or not.” The joy faded from Paul’s face; he answered in a despairing cry: “God help me! Nothing seems right! Nothing is clear. I must stand by him. I ean’t do what,you ask, and 1 can’t say no.” He turned and fled from the temptation as though pursued by 'an overwiielming enemy, as indeed he was. Stinger watched his exit with narrowed eyes. “But he didn’t return tlie check,” he thought cynically and hopefully.

HE HANDED PAUL A CHECK.