THE FIGHTING SHEPHERDESS
that he had no doubt whatever that the amusement park would make ample returns upon the investment.
Mr. Butefish made a note of Mr. Scales's vision, but very much questioned as to whether Prouty was ripe for a* street railway, since — he admitted reluctantly — such a project might be a little ahead of the immediate require- ments.
Other suggestions followed among them, the possibility of opening up an outcropping of marble in a canyon sixteen miles from Prouty. The marble, though badly streaked with yellow, would, it was opined, serve excel- lently for tombstones. Also, there was a clay peculiar to a certain gulch in the vicinity which was believed by the discoverer to contain the necessary qualities for successful brick making.
Then " Gov'nor " Sudds arose in a flattering silence to give the Club the benefit of his cogitations. Something large always could be expected of the " Gov'nor." Al- though he lived in three figures, he thought in seven, and not one of the Gov'nor's many projects had been capital- ized at less than a million.
Conrad has said that listening to a Russian socialist is much like listening to a highly accomplished parrot — one never can rid himself of the suspicion that he knows what he is talking about. The same, at times, applied to the Gov'nor. He said nothing so convincingly that always it was received with the closest attention.
Now, as Sudds stood up, large, grave and impressive, he looked like a Roman Senator about to address a gathering in the Forum. No one present could dream from his manner that he had that day received a shock, the violence of which could best be likened to a well-planted blow in the pit of the stomach. As a hardy perennial
candidate for poitcal office, he had become inured to dis-
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