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"It might be that fire-extinguishers ordinance," he said slowly. "Stitz pushed that through. And Skinner had to buy them. And they were owned by Miss Briggs and the Colonel negotiated the sale."
There were hints and innuendoes, too well veiled, but no names mentioned. The specific act of graft was not brought to the surface. It was as if the writer had a "spread" of some vaguely uncertain rumor, and yet there was not doubt that Colonel Guthrie and Mayor Stitz and the fire-extinguishers were meant.
What he says, we'll do." And Stitz never would say. As the Colonel entered the mayor's shoe shop Stitz was reading a magazine, which he laid beside him on the car seat while he listened to the Colonel. A pile of similar magazines lay beside him on the seat. They were the missionary offerings of Doc Weaver, who was interested in whatever was latest in religion, government or popular science.
Mayor Johann Stitz was an honest, upright shoemaker, and owned his own building. It had once been a street car in Franklin, and when the horse cars were superseded by electric cars, Stitz had bought this car at auction, and had paid ten dollars to have it hauled to Kilo.
Guthrie bribed him, and I've got enough left to give Stitz and Guthrie a good shot. I'll leave Skinner and Miss Briggs out, but I'll go for Stitz and Guthrie. I'll show them that in Kilo the press is alert, wide awake, and not to be trifled with. I'll teach them a lesson." "So do!" said Eliph'. "And make Miss Sally mad. And make Mrs. Smith mad. And make Miss Susan mad. And me.
"Fine!" he exclaimed. "Fine! I make me one boss grafter yet! Mister Skinner grafts me one roast beef and six pigs' feet. He ain't much liking those fire-extinguishers to have. How much more will you graft me now?" The Colonel looked the mayor squarely in the eye. "Stitz," he said, "I ain't goin' to run no auction with that there Skinner.
Skinner, angry as he had been at having to buy the four fire-extinguishers, would never have dared to wreck the party he had helped to create. The Colonel would have been no such fool. Stitz? He would hardly accuse himself. Who then? One passage set the attorney thinking again as he re-read the article.
He would use the influence you have with the city council and the mayor to have an ordinance passed making YOU put fire-extinguishers in YOUR opera house, and compel YOU to buy them of HIM. But you will not use your huge influence with Mayor Stitz and the city council. You hesitate."
Clearly this Colonel did not understand the first rudiments of graft. "First I must go by Mr. Skinner," said Stitz simply. "Mebby he grafts me more NOT to pass such an ordinance." "Look here, Stitz," said the Colonel in alarm. "You ain't goin' to do that, are ye?" "Vell," said the mayor, "still must I do it! So always does the boss grafter. Which side grafts him the most, so he does.
A glimmer of the meaning entered the Colonel's mind, but he could hardly connect the idea of graft with the honest Johann Stitz. As a fact, to Mayor Stitz the idea of unlawful gain did not come. Graft was a way out of the difficulty of having to decide things. It was a system authorized by the lawmakers of great cities, and a system that could operate in Kilo.
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