A second time Marston left his chair and began to pace the floor. After a little he paused to say:
"This murderer is James Guilford, I take it; and the governor—"
"No," said Kent, gravely. "The murderer is—Jasper G. Bucks." He handed the judge a copy of the Argus. "You will find it all in the press despatches; all I have told you, and a great deal more."
The lieutenant-governor read the newspaper story as he walked, lighting the electric chandelier to enable him to do so. When it was finished he sat down again.
"What a hideous cesspool it is!" was his comment. "But we shall clean it, Mr. Kent; we shall clean it if it shall leave the People's Party without a vote in the State. Now what can I do for you? You didn't come here at this hour in the morning merely to bring me the news."
"No, I didn't, Judge Marston. I want my railroad."
"You shall have it," was the prompt response. "What have you done since our last discussion of the subject?"
"I tried to 'obliterate' Judge MacFarlane, as you suggested. But I failed in the first step. Bucks and Meigs refused to approve the quo warranto."
The judge knitted his brows thoughtfully.
"That way is open to you now; but it is long and devious, and delays are always dangerous. You spoke of the receivership as being part of a plan by which your road was to be turned over to an eastern monopoly. How nearly has that plan succeeded?"