"Well, I hardly reckoned you would," he returned. "But I expect if
Mr. Knowles wants it warm all round, _I'm_ willing. We may be
able to do some of the heating up, ourselves."

This surprised me, coming from him, and I felt pretty sore. "You mean,
then," I said, "that you think you've got a line on something our boys
have been planning--like the way we got onto the closet trick--and
you're going to show _us_ up because we can't control Knowles;
that you hold that over me as a threat unless I shut him up? Then I
tell you plainly I know I can't shut him up, and you can go ahead and
do us the worst you can."

"Whatever little tricks I may or may not have discovered," he
answered, "that isn't what I mean, though I don't know as I'd be above
making such a threat if I thought it was my only way to keep out of
the penitentiary. I know as well as you do that such a threat would
only give Knowles pleasure. He'd take the credit for forcing me to
expose you, and he's convinced that everything of that kind he does
makes him solider with the people and brings him a step nearer this
chair I'm sitting in, which he regards as a step itself to the
governorship and Heaven knows what not. He thinks he's detached
himself from you and your organization till he stands alone.
_That_ boy's head was turned even before you fellows nominated
him. He's a wonder. I've been noticing him long before he turned up as
a candidate, and I believe the great surprise of his life was that
John the Baptist didn't precede and herald _him_. Oh, no, going
for you wouldn't stop him--not by a thousand miles. It would only do
him good."