HE Secretary of State came slowly down the steps from Randolph Mason's
office. At the entrance to the great building he stopped and looked up
and down the busy, jostling thoroughfare. It had been but a few years
since he was a grain in this vortex, and now that past seemed ages
removed. He was not conscious of anything of interest in the very
familiar scene. Just why he had stopped to look, this man would not
have been quite able to explain. In truth, he was striving to obtain his
mental bearings. He had been flung violently upon another view point,
and he was endeavoring to comprehend the loom of this new land. His
sensations were not unlike those of one who but an hour before had gone
into the operating room of a surgeon, walking as he believed to his
death, and now returned with the tumor dissected out, and the hope of
life big in his bosom. The world was an entirely different place from
what it had been some hours before, and the gambler's steps were firmer,
and his ancient careless spirit had returned.
At this moment, as it pleased Fate, a cab stopped before a broker's
office on the opposite-side of the street, and the Governor stepped out.
The gambler darted across and caught his companion by the shoulder. The
Governor turned suddenly.
“Well,” he said, in astonishment, “is this an assault _vi et armis?_”
“No,” said the gambler. “It's worse than that, Al. It's a mandamus. You
are not to go in that broker's office.”
“Not to go in?” echoed the Executive. “Why not?”
“Al,” said the gambler, grinning like a Hindoo idol, “I said this here
was a mandamus. I guess the judge don't ever explain 'why not' in a
mandamus.”
“Good chancellor,” replied the Governor, with mock gravity, “I resist
the order.”
“On what ground?” said the lion. Ambercrombie Hergan, with such a sage
judicial air as might obtain with a truck horse.
“First,” replied the Governor, “that the mandamus was improvidently
awarded. Second, that the Court issuing the writ was without
jurisdiction. And, third, that the act sought to be restrained is not
entirely ministerial, but one largely within the discretion of the
officer.”
“All them objections,” said the gambler, “this Court overrules.”
“But,” continued the Executive, “in this case the mandamus cannot lie. I
move to quash the writ.”
“But it does lie,” asserted the powerful devotee of fortune, hooking his
arm through that of the Executive and turning him down the street, “and
she can't be squashed.”
The Governor had observed the very great change in the man, and knowing
the Honorable Ambercrombie Hergan, he knew that this erratic person
had chanced upon some solution for his dilemma--strange and but
half-practical, the Governor had no doubt, but certainly not
commonplace, and so he made no further offer of resistance.
“Al,” said the gambler, hurrying his companion through the crowded
street, “do you know where you are going?”
“I have n't the slightest idea,” observed the Governor, with greatest
unconcern.
“Well, I'll tell you. You are going first to the hotel, then to the
railroad, then to the Southwest, and you have just fifty-nine minutes
between you and the train.”
The Governor stopped short. “I can't go, Bill. I must sell these
stocks.”
“That's just the point,” said the gambler. “You aint going to sell
them stocks. That's why I issued this here mandamus.” And he seized the
Executive by the arm and fairly dragged him across the street.
“Bill,” protested the Governor, “Bill, this is all nonsense. It don't
go.”
“Everything goes,” said the gambler. “Come on. We have lost three of
them fifty-nine minutes already.”