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"Also, it might have been Kahn," he added. "I see he has an office in Wall Street, too. He has been the legal beneficiary of several shady transactions down there." "Oh," put in Carton, "it might have been any of them they're all capable of it from Dorgan down. If Murtha was only out, I'd be inclined to suspect him." He tossed over a typewritten sheet of paper.
"Good-bye and good luck," it traced. "Murtha!" The Smiling Boss could not resist his little joke at the end, even now. "Can we get it?" asked Carton, almost stunned at the unexpected turn of events. "No," cautioned Kennedy, "not yet. To-morrow. I made the same promise to Murtha that I made to Dorgan, when I went to him with Walter, although Walter did not hear it.
"That was what hurt me when I er heard that you had gone with Murtha to that dinner of Dorgan's. I couldn't help trying to warn you of it. I know Martin neglects you. But I was mad mad clean through when I saw you playing with Carton a few months ago. I don't know anything about it don't want to. Maybe he was innocent and you were tempting him. I don't care.
"That's enough," says I. "All I want is your O. K. on any terms I can make with Mrs. Murtha." "She's a hard woman," says he. "And she doesn't come by her money straight." "Nor lose it easy," says I. "She wants it back. Might talk business, though, if I could show her how " "Anything!" says Allston. "Anything to get me out!" "Now you're usin' your bean," says I. "I'm off.
I had run across him now and then in the course of my newspaper career and, aside from his well-known character in delivering the "goods" to the organization whenever it was necessary, I had found him a most interesting character. It was due to such men as Murtha that the organization kept its grip, though one wave of reform after another lashed its fury on it. For Murtha understood his people.
Whatever it was, however, Murtha was changed. As for Dorgan, he was never much in the limelight anyhow and was less so now than ever. He preferred to work through others, while he himself kept in the background. He had never held any but a minor office, and that in the beginning of his career. Interviews and photographs he eschewed as if forbidden by his political religion.
What was the significance of the added mystery? Someone else had an interest in watching her movements. At once I thought of Dorgan. Could he have known of the intimacy of his guest at the Gastron dinner with Langhorne, rather than with Murtha, with whom she had gone? Suddenly another explanation occurred to me. What was more likely than that Martin Ogleby should have heard of his wife's escapade?
I may be beaten I may win. But I will be beaten, if at all, by the old methods. If I win it will be that I win honestly." A half sneer crossed Murtha's face. He neither understood nor cared to understand the kind of game Carton played. "You'll never get anything on that boy," blustered Murtha.
She paused, then resumed hastily to forestall questioning, "I began to think it over myself, and the more I thought of it, the stranger it seemed that anyone else, outside, should know. I began to wonder how it leaked out, for I understood that it was a strictly private affair. I asked Mr. Murtha and he told Mr. Dorgan. Mr. Dorgan at once guessed that there had been something queer.
You and I understand each other. These men understand life. It's a game that's what it is a game. Sometimes one move is right, sometimes another. You know what you want to accomplish here in this city. I show you a way to do it. Don't answer me," persisted Murtha, raising a hand, "just think it over." Carton had taken a step forward, the tense look on his face unchanged.
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