Page:O'Higgins--From the life.djvu/329

 That was "the nigger in the woodpile," as Wickson would have said. And having uncovered it, he nodded and rose.

He began to walk thoughtfully up and down his office, ignoring McPhee Harris, as if, having discovered "what was up," he had turned to concentrate on that instead of the familiar face behind which the secret had been concealed.

Wickson had been carried into office, as I have said, by an agitation against the red-light district. And as long as he had devoted his office to a crusade against vice he had been backed by the Purity League, by McPhee Harris, by the Federation of Women's Clubs, by the church-goers and all the good people of the town. But he had found vice protected by both the political organizations, and when he attacked them he found them protected by the rich men of the community who owned the public-utility monopolies that had been voted to them by the politicians. He had made enemies not only in the dive district, but among the best citizens "on the Hill." He had been accused of "attacking vested interests" and of "stirring up class hatreds." He had offended some of the most generous contributors to the funds of the Purity Defense League. He had offended McPhee Harris. Hence the silence with which he had listened to Harris and the suspicion with which he had scru-