“To a T.”
“Tell me, is there any rotten politics, any graft or corruption going on?” She flushed. “Of course, I mean except what’s charged against my father.”
“When Blind Charlie Peck was in power, there was more graft and dirty——”
“Not then, but now?” she interrupted.
“Now? Well, of course you know that since Blake run Blind Charlie out of business ten years ago, Blake has been the big gun in this town.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Then you must know that in the last ten years Westville has been text, sermon, and doxology for all the reformers in the state.”
“But could not corruption be going on without Mr. Blake knowing it? Could not Mr. Peck be secretly carrying out some scheme?”
“Blind Charlie? Blind Charlie ain’t dead yet, not by a long sight—and as long as there’s a breath in his carcass, that good-natured old blackguard is likely to be a dangerous customer. But though Charlie’s still the boss of his party, he controls no offices, and has got no real power. He’s as helpless as Satan was after he’d been kicked out of heaven and before he’d landed that big job he holds on the floor below. Nowadays, Charlie just sits in his side office over at the Tippecanoe House playing seven-up from breakfast till bedtime.”