So ran the saving hope; and not content with mere watchfulness, Blount tried to get his finger upon the pulse of occasions whenever he could.  On his brief stop-overs in the capital he kept his eyes and ears open for the earliest hint of any charge of chicanery, and though he was unable to get hold of Gantry personally, he kept up a steady fire of letters and telegrams, all pointing to the same end—­absolute and utter good faith, and the upholding of his hands in the public plea for a square deal.  To these the traffic manager always replied guardedly and optimistically.  Everybody was delighted with the good work done, and doing, by the railroad company’s field manager; public opinion was slowly but surely changing; let the good work go on—­and much more to the same effect.

Blount did let the good work go on; but as the critical pre-election weeks approached, he began to arm himself, reluctantly but resolutely.  A little quiet investigation, which was made to dovetail cleverly with his speech-making journeys, revealed—­as Gantry had confessed it would—­convincing evidence of past corruption and present law-breaking.  Hathaway had told the truth when he had asserted that his own involvement was only one of many similar bargains.  Blount called upon the president of the Irrigation Alliance at Romero, in the heart of the agricultural district, upon the managers of several of the electric-power companies, and upon a number of influential mining men—­all shippers, and all large employers of labor.  It was the same story everywhere.  Preferential freight rates had been given in return for votes controlled, and the rates were still in effect.

The investigator turned sick at heart when these men talked quite freely to him, thus showing conclusively that they were cynically discounting his public utterances.  McDarragh, owner and manager of the “Wire-Gold” properties in the Moscow district, winked slyly when Blount cautiously inserted the probe.

“You’re on, Mr. Blount.  I sat up there in the Op’ry-house last night listening to your game, and says I to myself, ’Thim railroad shift-bosses know their trade.’  ’Twas a gr-reat talk you gave us, and it’ll make the swinging of the har-rd-rock vote as easy as twice two.  Of course, we have a thin paring on the ore rate; you’ll be knowing that as well as annybody in the game, I’m thinking.  ’Tis well that we fellows at the top know how to make one hand wash the other.  Come again, Mr. Blount, and give my regards to the sinator when ye see him.  And ye might whisper in his ear that it’s a waste of good wor-rk for him to be sinding his gum-shoe wire-pullers to be laboring with our min.  We’re safe as the clock up here in the Moscow.”