"I'd like to know why."
"Because I have my own notion of the way in which it should be handled."
"All right, go ahead; but I don't propose to sit still and see him hurt the boy."
Barry intervened at this stage of the conversation.
"Mr. Carlton," he said, very earnestly, "I'm very grateful for your good will and your friendship, but I hope you will not permit me to stand in your way politically. I'm not blind. I know that I've brought this thing on myself, and I'm willing to take the consequences. It's not fair to ask you to bear the brunt of my faults, and I don't expect it."
"My dear Barry," said the Congressman, soothingly, "Jesse Hudson's not after you; he's after me. Now, I must either fight him or turn tail and run. Surely you wouldn't ask me—"
"No, no," said the boy, eagerly, "I never thought of that side of it."
"By the way, Conway," remarked Carlton, turning to the correspondent, "did Hudson write privately to the Sergeant-at-Arms?"
The journalist laughed.
"Not much. He gave his letter to all the newspapers. That's what made me hot. He's courting publicity, and I'll bet he gets all he wants before he is through."