"I mean that he has kept his word given to me at a conference which Mr.Jameson saw but did not hear.I told him I would publish the whole thing, not caring whom or where or when it hit if he did not let up on Travis.I advised him to read his Revised Statutes again about money in elections, and I ended up with the threat, 'There will be no dough day, McLoughlin, or this will be prosecuted to the limit.' There was no dough day.You see the effect in the returns.""But how did you do it?" I asked, not comprehending."The faked photographs did not move him, that I could see."The words, "faked photographs," caused Miss Ashton to glance up quickly.I saw that Kennedy had not told her or any one yet, until the Boss had made good.He had simply arranged one of his little dramas.
"Shall I tell, Miss Ashton?" he asked, adding, "Before I complete my part of the compact and blot out the whole affair?""I have no right to say no," she answered tremulously, but with a look of happiness that I had not seen since our first introduction.
Kennedy laid down a print on a table.It was the pinhole photograph, a little blurry, but quite convincing.On a desk in the picture was a pile of bills.McLoughlin was shoving them away from him toward Bennett.A man who was facing forward in the picture was talking earnestly to some one who did not appear.I felt intuitively, even before Kennedy said so, that the person was Miss Ashton herself as she stuck the needle into the wall.The man was Cadwalader Brown.
"Travis," demanded Kennedy, "bring the account books of your campaign.I want the miscellaneous account particularly."The books were brought, and he continued, turning the leaves, "It seemed to me to show a shortage of nearly twenty thousand dollars the other day.Why, it has been made up.How was that, Bennett?"Bennett was speechless."I will tell you," Craig proceeded inexorably."Bennett, you embezzled that money for your business.
Rather than be found out, you went to Billy McLoughlin and offered to sell out the Reform campaign for money to replace it.With the aid of the crook, Hanford, McLoughlin's tool, you worked out the scheme to extort money from Travis by forged photographs.You knew enough about Travis's house and library to frame up a robbery one night when you were staying there with him.It was inside work, Ifound, at a glance.Travis, I am sorry to have to tell you that your confidence was misplaced.It was Bennett who robbed you and worse.
"But Cadwalader Brown, always close to his creature, Billy McLoughlin, heard of it.To him it presented another idea.=20 To him it offered a chance to overthrow a political enemy and a hated rival for Miss Ashton's hand.Perhaps into the bargain it would disgust her with politics, disillusion her, and shake her faith in what he believed to be some of her 'radical' notions.All could be gained at one blow.They say that a check-book knows no politics, but Bennett has learned some, I venture to say, and to save his reputation he will pay back what he has tried to graft."Travis could scarcely believe it yet."How did you get your first hint?" he gasped.
Kennedy was digging into the wall with a bill file at the place where he had buried the little vulcanised disc.I had already guessed that it was a dictograph, though I could not tell how it was used or who used it.There it was, set squarely in the plaster.
There also were the wires running under the carpet.As he lifted the rug under Miss Ashton's desk there also lay the huge circles of wire.That was all.
At this moment Miss Ashton stepped forward."Last Friday," she said in a low tone, "I wore a belt which concealed a coil of wire about my waist.From it a wire ran under my coat, connecting with a small dry battery in a pocket.Over my head I had an arrangement such as the telephone girls wear with a receiver at one ear connected with the battery.No one saw it, for I wore a large hat which completely hid it.If any one had known, and there were plenty of eyes watching, the whole thing would have fallen through.
I could walk around; no one could suspect anything; but when I stood or sat at my desk I could hear everything that was said in Mr.
Bennett's office."
"By induction," explained Kennedy."The impulses set up in the concealed dictograph set up currents in these coils of wire concealed under the carpet.They were wirelessly duplicated by induction in the coil about Miss Ashton's waist and so affected the receiver under her very becoming hat.Tell the rest, Miss Ashton.""I heard the deal arranged with this Hanford," she added, almost as if she were confessing something, "but not understanding it as Mr.Kennedy did, I very hastily condemned Mr.Travis.I heard talk of putting back twenty thousand into the campaign accounts, of five thousand given to Hanford for his photographic work, and of the way Mr.Travis was to be defeated whether he paid or not.
I heard them say that one condition was that I should carry the purchase money.I heard much that must have confirmed Mr.Kennedy's suspicion in one way, and my own in an opposite way, which I know now was wrong.And then Cadwalader Brown in the studio taunted me cynically and - and it cut me, for he seemed right.I hope that Mr.
Travis will forgive me for thinking that Mr.Bennett's treachery was his"A terrific cheer broke out among the clerks in the outer office.
A boy rushed in with a still unblotted report.Kennedy seized it and read:
"McLoughlin concedes the city by a small majority to Travis, fifteen election districts estimated.This clinches the Reform League victory in the state."I turned to Travis.He was paying no attention except to the pretty apology of Margaret Ashton.
Kennedy drew me to the door."We might as well concede Miss Ashton to Travis," he said, adding gaily, "by induction of an arm about the waist.Let's go out and watch the crowd."
End
