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moment's consideration. Stener's face was grayish-white, his lips blue. Cowperwood, despite
various solemn thoughts concerning a possible period of incarceration which this hue and cry
now suggested, and what that meant to his parents, his wife and children, his business
associates, and his friends, was as calm and collected as one might assume his great mental
resources would permit him to be. During all this whirl of disaster he had never once lost his
head or his courage. That thing conscience, which obsesses and rides some people to
destruction, did not trouble him at all. He had no consciousness of what is currently known as
sin. There were just two faces to the shield of life from the point of view of his peculiar mind-
strength and weakness. Right and wrong? He did not know about those. They were bound up in
metaphysical abstrusities about which he did not care to bother. Good and evil? Those were
toys of clerics, by which they made money. And as for social favor or social ostracism which, on
occasion, so quickly followed upon the heels of disaster of any kind, well, what was social
ostracism? Had either he or his parents been of the best society as yet? And since not, and
despite this present mix-up, might not the future hold social restoration and position for him? It
might. Morality and immorality? He never considered them. But strength and weakness--oh,
yes! If you had strength you could protect yourself always and be something. If you were
weak--pass quickly to the rear and get out of the range of the guns. He was strong, and he
knew it, and somehow he always believed in his star. Something--he could not say what--it was
the only metaphysics he bothered about--was doing something for him. It had always helped
him. It made things come out right at times. It put excellent opportunities in his way. Why had he
been given so fine a mind? Why always favored financially, personally? He had not deserved
it--earned it. Accident, perhaps, but somehow the thought that he would always be
protected--these intuitions, the "hunches" to act which he frequently had--could not be so easily
explained. Life was a dark, insoluble mystery, but whatever it was, strength and weakness were
its two constituents. Strength would win--weakness lose. He must rely on swiftness of thought,
accuracy, his judgment, and on nothing else. He was really a brilliant picture of courage and
energy--moving about briskly in a jaunty, dapper way, his mustaches curled, his clothes
pressed, his nails manicured, his face clean-shaven and tinted with health.
In the meantime, Cowperwood had gone personally to Skelton C. Wheat and tried to explain his
side of the situation, alleging that he had done no differently from many others before him, but
Wheat was dubious. He did not see how it was that the sixty thousand dollars' worth of
certificates were not in the sinking-fund. Cowperwood's explanation of custom did not avail.
Nevertheless, Mr. Wheat saw that others in politics had been profiting quite as much as
Cowperwood in other ways and he advised Cowperwood to turn state's evidence. This,
however, he promptly refused to do--he was no "squealer," and indicated as much to Mr.
Wheat, who only smiled wryly.
Butler, Sr., was delighted (concerned though he was about party success at the polls), for now
he had this villain in the toils and he would have a fine time getting out of this. The incoming
district attorney to succeed David Pettie if the Republican party won would be, as was now
planned, an appointee of Butler's--a young Irishman who had done considerable legal work for
him--one Dennis Shannon. The other two party leaders had already promised Butler that.
Shannon was a smart, athletic, good-looking fellow, all of five feet ten inches in height, sandy-
haired, pink-cheeked, blue-eyed, considerable of an orator and a fine legal fighter. He was very
proud to be in the old man's favor--to be promised a place on the ticket by him--and would, he
said, if elected, do his bidding to the best of his knowledge and ability.
There was only one fly in the ointment, so far as some of the politicians were concerned, and
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