him. He was considering the importance of the situation. For, as I
have said, it was at the height of the political campaign in which
Carton had been renominated independently by the Reform League--of
which, more later.

"You don't think that Langhorne is really in the inner ring,
then?" questioned Craig.

"No, not yet."

"Well, then," I put in hastily, "can't you approach him or someone
close to him, and get---"

"Say," interrupted Carton, "anything that took place in that
private dining-room at Gastron's would be just as likely to
incriminate Langhorne and some of his crowd as not. It is a
difference in degree of graft--that is all. They don't want an
open fight. It was just a piece of finesse on Langhorne's part.
You may be sure of that. No, neither of them wants a fight. That's
the last thing. They're both afraid. What Langhorne wanted was a
line on Dorgan. And we should never have known anything about this
Black Book, if some of the women, I suppose, hadn't talked too
much. Mrs. Ogleby added two and two and got five. She thought it
must be I who put the instrument in."

Carton was growing more and more excited again, "It's
exasperating," he continued. "There's the record--somewhere--if I
could only get it. Think of it, Kennedy--an election going on and
never so much talk about graft and vice before!"