Part 13 (1/2)

”What?” asked the Colonel.

”Graft me,” repeated Mayor St.i.tz. ”I say for how much you will graft me when I shall pa.s.s one such ordinance my council through?”

”What's that?” asked the Colonel, puzzled.

”For how much you will make me one graft?” Mayor St.i.tz repeated slowly.

”Graft! Graft! Understand him not?”

The Colonel shook his head.

”What is it?” he asked.

”Graft! Graft! Graft!” exclaimed the mayor with annoyance. ”Don't you know him? When I make you one ordinance to pa.s.s, so, then you make me one graft, so! Like I read me in this book. Me to you, one ordinance; you to me one graft. So!”

A look of dismay came over the face of the Colonel, as he frowned at the smooth, honest face of the mayor, from which beamed eyes of childish honesty and frankness.

”Here in this book,” said the mayor slowly and distinctly, like one explaining some simple thing to a child, ”I read me of this graft business. It is to me this graft comes. So it is by all big cities. Man would have one ordinance. Goot! In every town is such one boss grafter.

To the boss grafter gives the ordinance-wanting man a graft. So! Then for the ordinance-wanting man does the boss grafter get one ordinance made like is wanted. Yes! So, it is; no graft, no ordinance! Some graft, some ordinance! I read him in this book Doc Weaver gives me as a lesson to go by. It is a goot way. I like me that graft business.”

A glimmer of the meaning entered the Colonel's mind, but he could hardly connect the idea of graft with the honest Johann St.i.tz. As a fact, to Mayor St.i.tz 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. Whenever St.i.tz and his council pa.s.sed an ordinance someone complained, and upbraided him; he saw now why this was; they had not used the approved system. But the Colonel still frowned.

”Well, what--how much do you want?” he asked.

Mayor St.i.tz turned up his innocent face and smiled blandly again.

”That makes not!” he exclaimed. ”In the books it says much money, but is not yet Kilo so gross as New York. We go easy yet a while. It is what you want to graft me. One bushel apples--one bushel potatoes--that YOU must say.”

The Colonel moved closer to the mayor. He thought of Miss Sally, and of Skinner.

”I will make you a present of a bushel of apples,” he said.

The mayor laid down his magazine and arose. As the Colonel watched him with surprise, he removed his leathern ap.r.o.n. The Colonel folded his hand into a fist, but on the pleasant face of Mayor St.i.tz there was no sign of anger; no sign of righteous indignation; only a bland look of satisfaction.

”Well,” inquired the Colonel impatiently, ”will ye put the ordinance through, or won't ye?”

The mayor looked at him with surprise in every feature. Clearly this Colonel did not understand the first rudiments of graft.

”First I must go by Mr. Skinner,” said St.i.tz simply. ”Mebby he grafts me more NOT to pa.s.s such an ordinance.”

”Look here, St.i.tz,” 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. It is always so, never different. To the most grafter, so goes he. I read it in this books. When the boss grafter does not so, what use is the grafts? How then does he know which he shall do for, the ordinance-wanting man, or the ordinance-not-wanting man?”

The Colonel tried to argue with him, but the mayor was obdurate. He would not budge from the highest principles of graft, and, as the Colonel had gone too far now to recede with honor, he secured the best terms he could. The most he could obtain was a promise that the mayor would not mention any names, nor so much as hint that graft had been promised. He uneasily awaited the mayor's return.

St.i.tz returned radiant. He was rubbing his hands and beaming.

”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?”