"All right—I carry one too," said the young man easily. "But you'll find it's time gained to hear what I've got to say."
Mr. Spragg considered the vista of chimneys without speaking, and Moffatt continued: "I don't suppose you care to hear the story of my life, so I won't refer you to the back numbers. You used to say out in Apex that I spent too much time loafing round the bar of the Mealey House; that was one of the things you had against me. Well, maybe I did—but it taught me to talk, and to listen to the other fellows too. Just at present I'm one of Harmon B. Driscoll's private secretaries, and some of that Mealey House loafing has come in more useful than any job I ever put my hand to. The old man happened to hear I knew something about the inside of the Eubaw deal, and took me on to have the information where he could get at it. I've given him good talk for his money; but I've done some listening too. Eubaw ain't the only commodity the Driscolls deal in."
Mr. Spragg restored his watch to his pocket and shifted his drowsy gaze from the window to his visitor's face.
"Yes," said Moffatt, as if in reply to the movement, "the Driscolls are getting busy out in Apex. Now they've got all the street railroads in their pocket they want the water-supply too—but you know that as well as I do. Fact is, they've got to have it; and there's where you and I come in."
Mr. Spragg thrust his hands in his waistcoat arm-holes and turned his eyes back to the window.
"I'm out of that long ago," he said indifferently.
"Sure," Moffatt acquiesced; "but you know what went on when you were in it."
"Well?" said Mr. Spragg, shifting one hand to the Masonic emblem on his watch-chain.
"Well, Representative James J. Rolliver, who was in it with you, ain't out of it yet. He's the man the Driscolls are up against. What d'you know about him?"
Mr. Spragg twirled the emblem thoughtfully. "Driscoll tell you to come here?"