Page:The council of seven.djvu/244

 at Hellington the next day he got a broken head instead of a hearing."

Honest Sir Munt, having made his point, subsided now in a brief period of deglutition.

A few minutes later, in a favorite corner of the smoking room, he had a little serious talk with Alderman Murrell.

"I don't like voting Yellow," the Imperialist confided in a rather perplexed voice. "Somehow it goes against the grain, as it did against that of my father before me, but if Mr. Endor can satisfy us that he is not in favor of playing tricks with the Navy and the two-power standard will be maintained, I'm not sure it isn't my duty on this occasion"—even in the sanctity of the Club precincts the worthy alderman could not resist a rhetorical flourish—"on this occasion to record my vote for the Clean, the Decent, the Aboveboard."

Sir Munt looked in quite "an old-fashioned way" at his friend. "You must be careful, Murrell, my boy,"—the grin of the great man was almost saturnine—"you must be vur-ry careful how you interfere wi' the liberties o' the Press."