“I’m coming to the point if you’ll give me a chance. Parkman’s preparing a set of tables showing not only how municipal funds are squandered at present but how they were misspent in the past. In the course of his investigations, he has come to the City Hall and the County Court House.”
“Well?” queried Conover, “What then? Both of ’em was built ten years ago. That’s over an’ done with.”
“The Shevlin Contracting Company did the work,” interpolated Caine.
“What of that? Neither building’s caved in, has it?”
“Not yet. Though, if all Parkman claims is true, I don’t know why they haven’t. He came to me this morning with the whole story. Proofs, affidavits and all. He wants to give the Star first chance to publish the exposure. I told him to come back at noon, and—”
“What exposure?” asked Caleb in perplexity.
“It seems he took pains to hunt up the original specifications on both buildings,” resumed Caine, “And then he hired an architectural expert to go over the plans and the work and see how the two agreed. Thus far, he has found cheap foundations and sandstone bedding where the best concrete and granite were called for. Stucco has been used in no less than four corridors where the plans called for marble. The ‘solid marble pillars’ on the east portico are ‘composition,’ shells filled with cement. Then the facade—”
“Say, son,” interrupted Conover with perfect sincerity, “what in blazes is the matter with you and Parkman? You’ve bit into a mare’s nest, an’ any practical man’ll tell you so. Of course a contractor’s goin’ to make what he can on a job. He ain’t in the business for his health or to endow the city, is he? He’s got to get his, an’ the pol’ticians who throw the job to him have got to get theirs. An’ that bein’ so, how’s he goin’ to foller out all the arch’tect’s spec’fications an’ still make the right money out of it? He can’t. I thought ev’rybody knew that much pol’tics.”
“Conover,” observed Caine, in unwilling admiration. “I’ve heard people say you’re a man of bad morals. It isn’t true. You’re simply a man of no morals at all. Do you mean to say—?”
“I mean to say business is business an’ pol’tics is business too. I never heard of any good comin’ from mixin’ up morals with either of ’em. If you came here to-day to tell me this story, with an idee that I’d slap my manly brow an’ say: ‘Great heaven! Can such things be?’ you’ve brought your s’prise party to the wrong house. Of course, Shevlin made a good thing out of those two buildin’s. Even after the folks higher up had got their rake-off, I guess he must a’ cleaned up close to $800,000. An’ then the old fool went an’ blowed it all in Wall Street, an’ died before he could make a new pile. But, say! What’s this got to do with—?”