Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/32

8 quite prepared, and this his manner exhibited to such a degree that the stolid Celestial wondered vaguely what was up with the big foreign devil.

“Our train stops at El Paso,” ran the telegram, “you will come up, won't you?—M. L.”

The Governor stroked his Van Dyke beard, and the fine lines came out on his face. “Of all times,” he muttered. Then he turned to the Chinaman. “Have my overcoat at the depot at six. I am going to El Paso, and shall not return until late.”

The Chinaman vanished, and the Executive crushed the telegram in his hands, thrust it into his pocket, and resumed his march up and down the private office.

This Governor was the crowning achievement of a machine. He was the elder son of an ancient family in Massachusetts, and had been reared and educated in an atmosphere of culture. It had been the intention of his family to have him succeed his father with the practice of the law, but the plans of men are subject to innumerable perils, and it soon developed that young Mr. Randal was not at