"We'll look out for the public," I assured him, smiling.
"Well," he said, with one of his glances that were like flashes, "what you got up your sleeve?"
"Suppose another telephone company steps in, and bids a little higher for the franchise. That relieves, your aldermen of all responsibility, doesn't it?"
"Another telephone company!" he repeated.
I had already named it on my walk.
"The Interurban," I said.
"A dummy company?" said Mr. Jason.
"Lively enough to bid something over a hundred thousand to the city for its franchise," I replied.
Judd Jason, with a queer look, got up and went to a desk in a dark corner, and after rummaging for a few moments in one of the pigeon-holes, drew forth a glass cylinder, which he held out as he approached me.
"You get it, Mr. Paret," he said.