They get a
thousand dollars for every one we get; but they are tip-top swells,
and they wouldn't speak to one of us low grafters on the street. And
they're eminent citizens and pillars of the church--wouldn't it make
you sick?"
"Yes," said Samuel in a low voice, "that's just what it does. It makes
me sick!"
CHAPTER XXII
Samuel now had his evidence; and he went straight back to Dr. Vince.
"Doctor," he said, "I am able to tell you that I know. I have heard it
from one of the men who got the money."
"Who is he?" asked the doctor.
"I could not tell you that," said the boy--"it would not be fair. But
you know that I am telling the truth. And this man told me with his
own lips that Mr. Hickman paid twenty thousand dollars to Slattery,
the Democratic boss, to be paid to ten of the supervisors to vote
against the other company's water bill."
There was a long pause; the doctor sat staring in front of him. "What
do you want me to do?" he asked faintly.
"I don't know," said Samuel. "Is it for me to tell you what is right?"
And again there was a pause.
"My boy," said the doctor, "this is a terrible thing for me. Mr.
Hickman is my wife's brother, and she loves him very dearly. And he is
a very good friend of mine--I depend on him in all the business
matters of the church.
"Yes," said Samuel. "But he bribed the city council."
"This thing would make a frightful scandal if it were known," the
other went on.
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