What, after all, the schemers concluded, is the little matter of an
investigation among Senators to guilty Senators who, deeply versed
in the law, have destroyed every compromising document that could be
admissible as evidence?

Why, the Senate would appoint an investigating committee and
investigate itself, would it not, when the ridiculous scandal came?

And what Senator would fear himself, or for himself, as he
investigated himself, when the blame had already been put publicly on
some one else, some simple-minded old soul who could go back to his
cotton fields in Mississippi and forget all about it, strong in his
innocence, even though shorn of reputation, and desire to live?




CHAPTER X

WHEN SENATORS DISAGREE


The wiseacres of Washington had nightly predicted, that the site of
the hundred-million-dollar gulf naval base would be decided on in
March, after the excitement and gayety attending the presidential
inauguration had subsided.

On the morning of the day before this action of the committee on naval
affairs was to be taken Secretary Haines sat at his desk in Senator