A Gentleman from Mississippi Part 15

Come over to the committee room, where I am, right away. Say it's an urgent message and get in with a tip."

The secretary looked up, with a laugh.

"You win, Norton. I'm off. Good-by." And he started on a run to the Senator's aid.

Norton turned angrily on the girl as the door closed.

"See here, Carolina," he cried, "what do you mean by letting that fellow make love to you?"

Carolina Langdon would not permit rebuke, even from the man she cared for. She tossed back her head and said, coolly:

"Why shouldn't I let him make love to me if I choose?"

"You know why," exclaimed Norton, his dark face flus.h.i.+ng sullenly.

"Because I love you and you love me!" And he seized her and pressed her to him. "That is why!" he cried, and he kissed her again and again.

"Yes, I love you, Charlie; you know that," Carolina said, simply. She was conquered by the Southerner's masterfulness.

"Then why do you stand for that whippersnapper's talk?" asked Norton, perplexedly.

Carolina laughed.

"Don't you see, Charlie, I have to stand for it? I have to stand for it for your sake, for Randolph's sake, for my own sake, for all our sakes. You know the influence he has over father.

"He can make father do anything he wants, and suppose I don't lead him on? Where's our project? Let him suspect a thing and let him go to father, and you know what will happen. Father would turn against that Altacoola scheme in a moment. He'd beggar himself, if it were necessary, rather than let a single one of us make a dollar out of a thing he had to decide."

"You're right, I reckon, Carolina," said Norton, dejectedly. "Your father is a real type of the Southern gentleman. He hasn't seen any real money in so long he can't even bear to think of it. Somebody's got to make money out of this, and we should be the ones."

"We'd lose frightfully, Charlie, if they changed to Gulf City, wouldn't we?" said the girl, apprehensively. "I'm horribly afraid sometimes, Charlie. That's why I came here to-day. I wanted to influence Haines, to keep him straight. Is there any danger that they'll change? You don't think there is, do you?"

"Of course not, child. Stevens has got his money in, and Peabody.

There are only five on the committee. It's bound to go through."

"Then why is father so important to them?" asked Carolina.

"It's past my understanding, Carolina. I don't see how he's done it, but the whole country has come to believe whatever your father does is right, and they've got to have him."

"And father is completely under the domination of this secretary,"

murmured the girl, thoughtfully.

Norton nodded.

"We've got to get rid of him, Carolina. That's all there is to it. He has to go! When it comes to bossing the Senator and making love to you, too, he's getting too strong."

"How can you do it?" she asked. "You know when father likes any one he won't believe a thing against him."

Norton agreed, sorrowfully.

"That's right. Seems like the Senator's coming to think more of this fellow than he does of his own family. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd even let one of you girls marry him if he wanted to marry you."

"We'd have something to say about that," Carolina laughed, amusedly.

"Do you think that Hope or I could ever care for a man like this fellow? Of course not. This Altacoola business must go through right.

It would be too cruel not to have it so. And then--"

"And then you and I'll be married at once, Carolina, whether your father likes it or not," ended Norton for her. "With Altacoola safe, we can do as we please, as between us we'll be rich. What does it matter how we get the money, as long as we get it?"

CHAPTER XIV

WHEN A DAUGHTER BETRAYS HER FATHER

Bud returned to find Miss Langdon and Norton still in the room. New buoyancy, new courage, thrilled in his veins. He would give this Congressman the battle of his life for this prize, of that he was confident.

"I have an engagement with Mrs. Holcomb, Senator Holcomb's wife," she said, "so I must hurry away, but I expect to be back to see father."

"I think I'll just wait," suggested Norton. "I have to see the Senator as soon as possible, and he ought to return from that ways and means committee meeting pretty soon."

When Carolina had gone a slight feeling of constraint settled over the two.

"The Senator's pretty busy these days with his naval base matter coming up, isn't he?"

"Yes; keeps him pretty busy receiving delegations from Altacoola and Gulf City and patting them both on the back," said Haines. "Had a man from Gulf City in this morning with some pretty strong arguments."

The secretary watched Norton keenly to note the effect of this hint in favor of Gulf City."

"Gulf City!" Norton sneered. "Shucks! Who'd put a naval base on a bunch of mud flats? I reckon those Gulf City fellows are wasting their time."

"Think so?" suggested Haines. "Are you absolutely sure?"

Norton started.

"Why, you don't mean to tell me," he exclaimed, "that Senator Langdon would vote for Gulf City for the naval base?"

"I don't mean to tell you anything, Congressman," was the cool rejoinder. "It's not my business. The Senator's the one who does the talking."

An ugly sneer wrinkled the Congressman's face.

"Well, I'm glad he attends to his own business and doesn't trust too many people," he said pointedly.

The secretary smiled in puzzling fas.h.i.+on.

"That's exactly why I don't talk, Congressman," he said pleasantly.

"The Senator doesn't trust too many people. If he did, there might be too much money made out of land speculation. Senator Langdon doesn't happen to be one of those Senators who care for that kind of thing."

"I suppose you think you're pretty strong with the Senator," ventured the Mississippian.