brutal treatment of her, they say. But the whole thing was hushed
up at the time by Linder's pull, and when the husband threatened to
kill him Linder quietly set a commissioner of insanity on the case
and had the man put away. He's never appeared since. No, that
wouldn't be politically effective."

The gray man nodded, and walked away, musing.

"Egbert, the traction boss," explained Waldemar. "We're generally
on opposite sides, but this time we're both against Linder. Egbert
wants a cheaper man for mayor. I want a straighter one. And I could
get him this year if Linder wasn't so well fortified. However, to
get back to our project, Mr. Jones--"

Get back to it they did with such absorption that when the group
broke up, several hours later, Average Jones was committed, by plan
and rote, to the new and hopeful adventure of Life.

In the great human hunt which ever has been and ever shall be till
"the last bird flies into the last light"--some call it business,
some call it art, some call it love, and a very few know it for what
it is, the very mainspring of existence--the path of the pursuer and
the prey often run obscurely parallel. What time the Honorable
William Linder matured his designs on the mayoralty, Average Jones
sat in a suite of offices in Astor Court, a location which Waldemar
had advised as being central, expensive, and inspirational of
confidence, and considered, with a whirling brain, the minor woes of
humanity. Other people's troubles had swarmed down upon him in
answer to his advertised offer of help, as sparrows flock to
scattered bread crumbs. Mostly these were of the lesser order of