“Linder.”

“Linder? Surely not! Why, his name hasn’t been heard.”

“It will be.”

“His Federal job?”

“He resigns in two weeks.”

“His record will kill him.”

“What record? You and I know he’s a grafter. But can we prove anything? His clerk has always handled all the money.”

“Wasn’t there an old scandal—a woman case?” asked the questioner vaguely.

“That Washington man’s wife? Too old. Linder would deny it flatly, and there would be no witnesses. The woman is dead—killed by his brutal treatment of her, they say. But the whole thing was hushed up at the time by Linder’s pull, and when the husband threatened to kill him Linder quietly set a commissioner of insanity on the case and had the man put away. He’s never appeared since. No, that wouldn’t be politically effective.”

The gray man nodded, and walked away, musing.