“Oh, they'll never get me,” he said. And I knew, as I gazed at him, that they never would.
“What sort of things did they say?” I asked.
“Haven't you read the Pilot and the Mail and State?”
“I just glanced over them. Did they call names?”
“Call names! I should say they did. They got drunk on it, worked themselves up like dervishes. They didn't cuss you personally,—that'll come later, of course. Judd Jason got the heaviest shot, but they said he couldn't exist a minute if it wasn't for the 'respectable' crowd—capitalists, financiers, millionaires and their legal tools. Fact is, they spoke a good deal of truth, first and last, in a fool kind of way.”
“Truth!” I exclaimed irritatedly.
Ralph laughed. He was evidently enjoying himself.
“Is any of it news to you, Hughie, old boy?”
“It's an outrage.”
“I think it's funny,” said Ralph. “We haven't had such a circus for years. Never had. Of course I shouldn't like to see you go behind the bars,—not that. But you fellows can't expect to go on forever skimming off the cream without having somebody squeal sometime. You ought to be reasonable.”