Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/88

 "Why, I'd trust him with anything I've got—outside of business, Pete! But there it is. 'Make a clean breast of it,' I said yesterday. 'Tell 'em we've done this and that and are ready to take our medicine. Tell 'em we'll behave after this. What's the use of having an investigation with the papers full of it?' He was terribly distressed. 'It would never do,' he said. 'No, no, we must fight it out. There are interests that can be reached; it's quite probable that the Commission will act—er—discreetly; after all our methods have been only those universally followed; let us sit snug and—er—see what happens.' That means that there's to be dirty, underhand work at Washington, and a raft of money spent in an effort to hush it all up, or, failing that, to get off easily. Got any money not working, Peter?"

"A little, I guess. How much do you want?"

"I don't want it; you do. You're going to be a director of the C. and W., old man, and it will cost you something."

"All right," said Peter. "Let me know when you're ready."