The tubby little man felt the edge of irony in the quiet voice. "Sure. That's what Winton told me," he assented nervously.
"Then you'll be interested to know that a special field agent of the Land Department sat opposite me last night and without batting an eye came across with the glad news that he was here to investigate our claims."
Selfridge bounced up like a rubber ball from the chair into which he had just settled. "What!"
"Pleasant surprise, isn't it? I've been wondering what you were doing outside. Of course I know you had to take in the shows and cabarets of New York. But couldn't you edge in an hour or two once a week to attend to business?"
Wally's collar began to choke him. The cool, hard words of the big Scotchman pelted like hail.
"Must be a bluff, Mac. The muckrake magazines have raised such a row about the Guttenchild crowd putting over a big steal on the public that the party leaders are scared stiff. I couldn't pick up a newspaper anywhere without seeing your name in the headlines. It was fierce." Selfridge had found his glib tongue and was off.
"I understand that, Wally. What I don't get is how you came to let them slip this over on you without even a guess that it was going to happen."
That phase of the subject Selfridge did not want to discuss.
"Bet you a hat I've guessed it right--just a grand-stand play of the Administration to fool the dear people. This fellow has got his orders to give us a clean bill of health. Sure. That must be it. I suppose it's this man Elliot that came up on the boat with us."
"Well, that's easy. If he hasn't been seen we can see him."
Macdonald looked his man Friday over with a scarcely veiled contempt. "You have a beautiful, childlike faith in every man's dishonesty, Wally. Did it ever occur to you that some people are straight--that they won't sell out?"
"All he gets is a beggarly two thousand or so a year. We can fix him all right."
"You've about as much vision as a breed trader. Unless I miss my guess Elliot isn't that kind. He'll go through to a finish. What I'd like to know is how his mind works. If he sees straight we're all right, but if he is a narrow conservation fanatic he might go ahead and queer the whole game."
"You wouldn't stand for that." The quick glance of Selfridge asked a question.