Get control of the prints first, Travis, for God's sake.Then raise any kind of a howl you want - before election or after.As I say, if we had a week or two it might be all right to fight.But we can make no move without making fools of ourselves until they are published Monday as the last big thing of the campaign.The rest of Monday and the Tuesday morning papers do not give us time to reply.Even if they were published to-day we should hardly have time to expose the plot, hammer it in, and make the issue an asset instead of a liability.No, you must admit it yourself.There isn't time.We must carry out the work we have so carefully planned to cap the campaign, and if we are diverted by this it means a let-up in our final efforts, and that is as good as McLoughlin wants anyhow.Now, Kennedy, don't you agree with me? Squelch the pictures now at any cost, then follow the thing up and, if we can, prosecute after election?"Kennedy and I, who had been so far little more than interested spectators, had not presumed to interrupt.Finally Craig asked, "You have copies of the pictures?""No," replied Bennett."This Hanford is a brazen fellow, but he was too astute to leave them.I saw them for an instant.They look bad.
And the affidavits with them look worse.""H'm," considered Kennedy, turning the crisis over in his mind.
"We've had alleged stolen and forged letters before, but alleged stolen and forged photographs are new.I'm not surprised that you are alarmed, Bennett, nor that you want to fight, Travis.""Then you will take up the case?" urged the latter eagerly, forgetting both his campaign manager and his campaign manners, and leaning forward almost like a prisoner in the dock to catch the words of the foreman of the jury."You will trace down the forger of those pictures before it is too late?""I haven't said I'll do that yet," answered Craig measuredly."Ihaven't even said I'd take up the case.Politics is a new game to me, Mr.Travis.If I go into this thing I want to go into it and stay in it - well, you know how you lawyers put it, with clean hands.
On one condition I'll take the matter up, and on only one.""Name it," cried Travis anxiously.
"Of course, having been retained by you," continued Craig with provoking slowness, "it is not reasonable to suppose that if I find - how shall I put it - bluntly, yes? - if I find that the story of Hanford has some - er - foundation, it is not reasonable to suppose that I should desert you and go over to the other side.Neither is it to be supposed that I will continue and carry such a thing through for you regardless of truth.What I ask is to have a free hand, to be able to drop the case the moment I cannot proceed further in justice to myself, drop it, and keep my mouth shut.You understand? These are my conditions and no less.""And you think you can make good?" questioned Bennett rather sceptically."You are willing to risk it? You don't think it would be better to wait until after the election is won?""You have heard my conditions," reiterated Craig.
"Done," broke in Travis."I'm going to fight it out, Bennett.If we get in wrong by dickering with them at the start it may be worse for us in the end.Paying amounts to confession."Bennett shook his head dubiously."I'm afraid this will suit McLoughlin's purpose just as well.Photographs are like statistics.
They don't lie unless the people who make them do.But it's hard to tell what a liar can accomplish with either in an election.""Say' Dean, you're not going to desert me?" reproached Travis.
"You're not offended at my kicking over the traces, are you?"Bennett rose, placed a hand on Travis's shoulder, and grasped his other."Wesley," he said earnestly, "I wouldn't desert you even if the pictures were true.""I knew it," responded Travis heartily."Then let Mr.Kennedy have one day to see what he can do.Then if we make no progress we'll take your advice, Dean.We'll pay, I suppose, and ask Mr.Kennedy to continue the case after next Tuesday.""With the proviso," put in Craig.
"With the proviso, Kennedy," repeated Travis."Your hand on that.
Say, I think I've shaken hands with half the male population of this state since I was nominated, but this means more to me than any of them.Call on us, either Bennett or myself, the moment you need aid.Spare no reasonable expense, and - and get the goods, no matter whom it hits higher up, even if it is Cadwalader Brown himself.Good-bye and a thousand thanks oh, by the way, wait.Let me take you around and introduce you to Miss Ashton.She may be able to help you."The office of Bennett and Travis was in the centre of the suite.
On one side were the cashier and clerical force as well as the speakers' bureau, where spellbinders of all degrees were getting=20instruction, tours were being laid out, and reports received from meetings already held.
On the other side was the press bureau with a large and active force in charge of Miss Ashton, who was supporting Travis because he had most emphatically declared for "Votes for Women" and had insisted that his party put this plank in its platform.Miss Ashton was a clever girl, a graduate of a famous woman's college, and had had several years of newspaper experience before she became a leader in the suffrage cause.I recalled having read and heard a great deal about her, though I had never met her.The Ashtons were well known in New York society, and it was a sore trial to some of her conservative friends that she should reject what they considered the proper "sphere" for women.Among those friends, I understood, was Cadwalader Brown himself.
