chairman) but at a hotel room I'd hired as a convenient place for the
more important conferences and to keep out of the way of every
Tom-Dick-and-Harry grafter. Bob Crowder, a ward committee-man,
brought him up and stayed in the room, while the fellow--his name was
Genz--went over the whole thing.

"What do you think of it?" says Bob, when Genz finished. "Ain't it
worth the money? I declare, it's so neat and simple and so almighty
smart besides, I'm almost ashamed some of our boys hadn't thought of
it for us."

I was just opening my mouth to answer, when there was a signal knock
at the door and a young fellow we had as a kind of watcher in the next
room (opening into the one I used) put his head in and said
Mr. Knowles wanted to see me.

"Ask him to wait a minute," said I, for I didn't want him to know
anything about Genz. "I'll be there right away."

Then came Farwell Knowles's voice from the other room, sharp and
excited. "I believe I'll not wait," says he. "I'll come in there now!"

And that's what he did, pushing by our watcher before I could hustle
Genz into the hall through an outer door, though I tried to. There's
no denying it looked a little suspicious.

Farwell came to a dead halt in the middle of the room.

"I know that person!" he said, pointing at Genz, his brow mighty
black. "I saw him and Crowder sneaking into the hotel by the back way,