"I say you can't. I know a good bit more now than I knew this morning!"
"Catalogue it," said Blount tersely.
"Mr. McVickar came in on the noon train to-day, and I had an interview with him."
"That doesn't tell me anything."
Again the traffic manager took time to smoke and to reflect.
"You made some pretty savage threats this morning, Evan; about shoving this thing to the point where the grand juries, Federal and State, could take hold of it. As a lawyer, you know even better than I do what that would mean."
"I told you what it would mean. In the present state of public sentiment it would mean prison sentences for every man of you caught with the goods."
"Yes, for every man of us," said Gantry slowly; "for the railroad man who has given, and for the other man who has taken. Evan, the jails of this State wouldn't be big enough to hold us all."
"I can readily believe you. That is the full weight of the stick with which I am going to club you fellows into decency."
"And you'll let the club fall wherever it may?"