“The point is, the wicked thing that's been done. It's this robbing of the people that must be stopped! And it's the things that have been stolen!—Let me give you an example. To-day I met the man who came here with me to rob your house; and I learned for the first time that he had carried off some of your silver.”
“Yes,” said the other.
“And the man asked me to say nothing about what he had done, and I promised. I felt about him just as you do about your brother-in-law—I wouldn't denounce him and put him in jail. But I saw right away that I must do one thing—I must make him return the things he had stolen! That was right, was it not, doctor?”
“Yes,” said Dr. Vince promptly, “that was right.”
“Very well,” said the boy; “and the same thing is true about Mr. Hickman. He has robbed the people. He has got a franchise that enables him and the Lockman estate to make about ten thousand dollars a month out of the public. And they must give up that franchise! They must give up every dollar that they have made out of it! That is the whole story as I see it—nothing else counts but that. You can make all the fuss you want about bribery and graft, but you haven't accomplished anything unless you get back the stolen money.”
There was a pause. “Don't you see what I mean, doctor?” asked Samuel.
“Yes,” was the reply, “I see.”
“Well?” said Samuel.
“It would be no use to try it,” said the doctor. “They would never do it.”
“They wouldn't?”