"Sanders, you and I, sir, must never meet again, because I might not
succeed in keeping my hands off you. What would my old comrades of the
Third Mississippi say if they saw me sitting here and you there with
a whole body, sir, after what you have said? They would not believe
their eyes, thank God, sir. They would all go over to Stuart City and
buy new glasses, sir." A suspicious moisture appeared on the Colonel's
cheeks which he could not dry too quickly to escape Sanders'
observation.

"But I had to let you stay, sir, because you, the sole accuser, are
the only one who can tell me what I must know."

"What do you want to know?" asked Sanders, who had realized his great
mistake in losing his temper, in talking as openly and as violently
as he had and in dragging the name of Senator Stevens into the
controversy. He must try to keep Stevens from hearing of this day's
blunder, for Jim Stevens knew as well as he, didn't he, that the man
who loses his temper, like the man who talks too much, is of no use in
politics.

"I want to know how you formed your opinion of political matters--of
Senators. Is it possible, sir, that you have actual knowledge of
actual happenings that give you the right to talk as you have? I want
to know if I must feel shame, feel disgrace, sir, to be a Senator from
Mississippi; that State, sir, that the Almighty himself, sir, would
choose to live in if he came to earth."

"There, there, Senator, don't take too seriously what I have said,"
Sanders replied in reassuring tone, having outlined his course of
action. "I lost my head because you wouldn't promise me something I