"What!"
"Yes, I want to sit in the Senate," repeated Murgatroyd.
Broderick burst into a peal of laughter that well-nigh shook the
building.
"And you want me to help you?" roared Broderick.
"Yes, of course," persisted Murgatroyd.
Once more Broderick laughed immoderately.
"You'll be the death of me," he said, sinking into his chair.
"You laugh too soon," remarked Murgatroyd.
"Is there more comin'?" questioned Broderick, with a howl. "You know the
valvular workin's of my heart ain't over strong. You're crazy, man!" he
added; "the whole organisation is against you!"
"The whole organisation," repeated Murgatroyd, "except _you_."
"You blamed idiot!" roared Broderick. "The organisation's against you
because I am."
"I've got to be the next Senator," persisted Murgatroyd; "and you've got
to put me there."
"I can't put you there."
Murgatroyd cast an appealing glance at the other.
"But--you want to, don't you?"
"Indeed I do not!" returned Broderick, indignantly.
Murgatroyd rose to his feet, saying, as though speaking to a spoiled
child:--
"I don't like to see that spirit; it looks as though you were opposed to
me."
"Have I ever been anythin' else?" returned Broderick. "Will I ever be
anythin' else?"
Murgatroyd continued to reprove him.
"I prefer to see a man do with a good grace that which he has to do."
"And who has got to do?" queried Broderick, also rising.
"I have just told you," went on Murgatroyd, looking him full in the
face, "that you've got to put me in the Senate."
Instantly Broderick became doggedly belligerent.
"I'll spend my last dollar to keep you out of it--I'll work against you
till I drop in my tracks!"
Murgatroyd seized a small thick book and leafed it over.
"You'll do both," he remarked, "and when you drop in your tracks,
Broderick, it will be with hard labour. Sit down, and take that pencil
and piece of paper--I want you to do some figuring."
Broderick, wondering, seated himself; Murgatroyd peered over the little
book.
"Seven and seven are fourteen," he mused, "and six are twenty, and
eleven----"
"What have you got there?" Broderick asked with mild interest.
"The Penal Code," answered Murgatroyd, lightly.
"Look under B. for Bribe," suggested Broderick, with an accusing glance.
Murgatroyd shook his head.
"I'm just figuring up the number of years you'd have to serve----"
"But I'm not goin' to the Senate," protested the politician.
"No, but I am," retorted the prosecutor. "Four times six are
twenty-four; besides the amount of fines you'll have to pay. Take the
first on the list, Broderick. You'll get seven years on that, and seven
thousand dollars fine. Put that down."
"I'll put nothin' down--I never was a hand at figures."
"Then I'll do it. Twenty indictments for corrupting voters--I've got the
goods on that; twenty years and twenty thousand dollars fines. Hold on a
minute, we won't add up just yet. There's your interest in
Cradlebaugh's; there's the hospital; there's your pool-rooms;
log-rolling with police-headquarters--Why, say, Broderick," he exclaimed
suddenly, gasping with surprise, "it will cost you in the neighbourhood
of one hundred thousand cash in fines!"
"You don't say!" sarcastically returned the chairman.
"And," continued Murgatroyd, suavely, "about one hundred and thirty-five
years to serve in sentences."
"I'm booked for a ripe old age," returned Broderick, still with sarcasm
in his voice.
"So that eliminates you from the Senate," facetiously continued the
prosecutor; "you'll go up for the rest of your unnatural life." He
paused and shot at Broderick a glance that went home--one that meant
business.
Broderick squirmed.
"You don't mean to tell me, prosecutor," he exclaimed, "that you're
going to prosecute me for these things?"
The other shrugged his shoulders.
"How can I help it?"
"You don't dare prosecute me! You blamed idiot!" screamed Broderick. "If
you do, I'll send you up myself--you with three-quarters of a million
dirty money in your clothes."
Murgatroyd thought over his words and weighed them. Presently, he
said:--
"I would get out in five years; you would be there for a hundred and
thirty more."
Broderick snorted with rage.
"What are you driving at, anyway?"