“The hell he is!” responded Jennings. “I hadn’t heerd ary word. When’d he die?”

“This afternoon.”

“Sudden?”

“Rather.”

“What was ailin’ of him?”

The attorney-general smiled, a peculiar, mirthless smile.

The secretary of state ceased to rock.

“You don’t reckon now—”

“That’s it exactly.”

“I didn’t know it’d got that bad. What’d they give out fer the cause?”