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It was about this time that Hunnicott reported the sale of the Gaston lots at a rather fancy cash figure, and the money came in good play.
The judge was rising when the still, hot air of the room began to vibrate with the tremulous thunder of the sound for which Hunnicott had been so long straining his ears. He was the first of the three to hear it, and he hurried out ahead of the others. At the foot of the stair he ran blindly against Kent, dusty, travel-worn and haggard. "You're too late!" he blurted out. "We're done up.
The hands of the clock on the wall opposite the judge's desk pointed to five minutes of the hour, and for five minutes Hunnicott sat listening, hoping against hope that he should hear the rush and roar of the incoming special. Promptly on the stroke of three the judge tapped upon his desk with his pencil. "Now, gentlemen, proceed with your case; and I must ask you to be as brief as possible.
The ex-local attorney met him at the station with a two-seated rig; and on the way to the western suburbs they picked up Frazee, the county assessor, and Orton, the appraiser of the Apache Building and Loan Association. "Hunnicott has told you what I am after," said Kent, when the surrey party was made up.
"Did he give it?" "He did. He said in sober earnest just what Hunnicott had said in a joke: 'If I had your case to fight, I should try to obliterate Judge MacFarlane. I began to say that MacFarlane's removal wouldn't help us so long as Bucks has the appointing of his successor, and then he turned on me and hammered it in with a last word just as we were leaving the train: 'I didn't say remove; I said obliterate. I caught on, after so long a time, and I've been hard at work ever since."
"The minutes between now and six o'clock are worth days to us." "What do we do?" asked Hunnicott, willing to take a little lesson in practice as he ran. "The affidavits I have brought with me and the telegrams which are waiting at the station must convince MacFarlane that he has made a mistake.
Hawk's petition has been granted and the road is in the hands of a receiver." Kent dashed his fist upon the stair-rail. "Who is the man?" he demanded. "Major Jim Guilford," said Hunnicott. Then, as footfalls coming stairward were heard in the upper corridor, he locked arms with Kent, faced him about and thrust him out over the door-stone. "Let's get out of this.
Yet I am willing to extend the time if you can come to an agreement with Mr. Hawk, here." Hunnicott knew the hopelessness of that and did not make the attempt. Instead, he essayed a new line of objection. "The time would be long enough if Gaston were the headquarters of the company, your Honor.
I have an appointment at four which can not be postponed," he said quietly; and Hawk threw down his paper and began at once. Hunnicott heard his opponent's argument mechanically, having his ear attuned for whistle signals and wheel drummings. Hawk spoke rapidly and straight to his point, as befitted a man speaking to the facts and with no jury present to be swayed by oratorical effort.
"In what particular part of it?" said Kent, keen anxiety in every word. "In that part of the fundamental law which relates to the election of circuit judges, let us say. If I had your case to fight, I should try to obliterate Judge MacFarlane." Kent had but a moment in which to remark the curious coincidence in the use of precisely the same word by both Hunnicott and his present adviser.
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