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Updated: May 29, 2025
Hendricks presented themselves at the door of Hamilton Burton's house the clock was striking nine. After divesting himself of his overcoat the politician stood waiting before the open fire with the manner of one who faces a doubtful half-hour and who faces it with grave anxiety. Ruferton meanwhile made opportunity to slip his portfolio to the butler with the request that Mr.
Fail and " Hamilton Burton shrugged his shoulders. Slowly a light crept into the resourceful eyes of Mr. Ruferton, driving out the vacancy. The matter by its very desperateness began to appeal to him, and already a formula of campaign was shaping itself in his constructive mind.
The man is in a political campaign and you know enough of his record to give weight to your suggestions. You say he doesn't want to sell make him want to! My plans are rather too large to admit of 'buts' and 'ifs. Presumably I employ men who can override them." Ruferton continued to stare blankly. "But surely " Hamilton had already turned to Tarring and he wheeled with a snap in his voice.
It was plain that this silence had fallen upon them only as they heard the door slam, and that, like their attitudes, it was strained and artificial. Hamilton Burton stood before the hearth with his face set as unyielding and immobile as chiseled granite. Ruferton eyed the two bankers with a sidewise stare between drooping lids, and Hendricks, at the window, presented to view only his back.
Hendricks paced the path for a few minutes in the disquiet of intense nervousness, then he spoke with sharp accusation and distrust. "You don't know what this matter is! You have come here by special train to warn me that I face ruin; and you pretend to have no inkling of the nature of my peril! You speak of veiled threats. Are you lying to me, Ruferton?" "Draw your own conclusions."
"Hello, Ruferton," he shouted amiably, "what brings you here?" Mr. Ruferton's face wore an expression of deep concern. He consulted his watch. "I came on a special train, Hendricks," he bluntly declared, "and it's waiting to take us both back to New York." Hendricks laughed. "My dear fellow, I've been speech-making until my throat is raw. The final days before election mean more hard work.
This extraordinary man's hypnotic dominance of personality had carried other audacious days and now it swept the lawyer with its tide of confidence. Mr. Ruferton became at once the man who recognizes the value of seconds and minutes. "I will be here tomorrow evening at this hour," he categorically announced. "And I shall bring with me a proxy or a senator or his remains.
Meantime I am resting. It's the doctor's stern command." Ruferton stood at the gate and faced his host. He spoke impressively. "An election-eve scandal threatens you which will probably involve a grand-jury investigation. If that is a matter of indifference, stay here, by all means, but if your future is in any degree important to you, pack your bag and pack it quick."
For an instant the former state senator and present candidate stood bewildered. What traitor had betrayed a false step? His tracks were all well covered, he thought. At last he found his tongue. "In God's name, what are you talking about?" Mr. Ruferton held his portfolio tightly grasped in his hand.
An old trick of badgering witnesses with a brow-beating stare from half-closed lids clung unpleasantly to him, discounting his acquired distinction of bearing. This was Isaac Ruferton, of the firm of Ruferton and Willow. From criminal lawyer to corporation-scourge and from corporation-scourge to corporation counsel are logical stages of development.
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