Part 29 (1/2)
”I'm very sorry to have come back at such a time,” he began.
The girl cut him short with a gesture.
”I want to say to you,” she said, then halted--”that I want to be friends with you. I want you to forget the happenings of yesterday--last evening--so far as I was concerned in them. I want to work together with you and father--and so does Randolph. Father and you are standing together to uphold the honor of the Langdons of Mississippi, and Randolph and I, no matter the cost of our former folly, want to share in that work.”
Before Haines could reply Senator Langdon burst into the room.
”Bud! Bud!” he cried, ”I've got it! I've got it!”
”You've got what, Senator?” exclaimed the secretary.
”That idea, my boy, that idea! It's incubated all right, and Peabody and Stevens can come just as soon as they want to.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BATTLES OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON
At twenty minutes after 12 Senator Langdon and Secretary Haines were still undisturbed by any move on the part of Peabody and Stevens, who maintained a silence that to Haines was distinctly ominous. His experience at the Capitol had taught him that when the Senate machine was quiet it was time for some one to get out from under.
Miss Williams, the naval committee's stenographer, entered.
”Senator Langdon,” she said, ”Senator Peabody and Senator Stevens are in committee room 6, and they told me to tell you that they'd be--I can't say it. Please, sir, I--”
”D--d,” interpolated Langdon, laughing.
”Yes, sir, that's it. They'll be--that--if they come in here at 12:30.
You must come to them, they say.”
”Tell the gentlemen I'm sitting here with my hat on the back of my head, smoking a good see-gar, with nails driven through both shoes into the floor--and looking at the clock.”
At 12:25 Senator Stevens entered.
”I came to warn you, Langdon,” he said, ”that Senator Peabody's patience is nearly exhausted. You must come to see him at once if you expect the South to get a naval base at Altacoola or anywhere else. If you do not agree to take his advice this naval bill and any other that you are interested in now or in future will be trampled underfoot in the Senate. Mississippi will have no use for a Senator who cannot produce results in Was.h.i.+ngton, and that will prove the bitterest lesson you have ever learned.”
”I'm waiting for Peabody here, Stevens.”
”Oh, ridiculous! Of course he's not coming. Why, Langdon, he's the king of the Senate. He has the biggest men of the country at his call.
He's--”
”He's got one minute left,” observed Langdon, looking at the clock, ”but he'll come. I trust Peabody more than the best clock made at a time like this, when--”
The figure of the senior Senator from Pennsylvania appeared in the doorway.
”Good-day, Senator Langdon,” he remarked, icily.
”Same to you. Have a see-gar, Senator?” said Langdon. He turned and winked significantly at Haines.
The three Senators seated themselves.