There was utter silence in the room while Enoch lighted a cigarette.
"Have you told any one the er--tale?" demanded Brown, hoarsely. "I can
prove that not a word of it is true!"
"Can you?" Enoch squared round on him. "Are you willing to risk having
the story told with the idea of disproving it, afterward? Isn't your
system of scandal mongering built on the idea that mud once slung
always leaves a stain in the public mind? And Curly was an eye
witness. He is dead, but I do not believe all the other eye witnesses
are dead. At any rate--"
Brown suddenly leaned forward in his chair. "Mr. Huntingdon, I'll give
you my check for $100,000, if you will give me that document and swear
to keep your mouth shut."
"Your bribe is not large enough," Enoch answered tersely.
"Five hundred thousand! I'll agree to make a public retraction of
everything I said about you and to work for you with all the power of
my newspapers."
"Not enough!" repeated Enoch, watching Brown's white face, keenly.
"What do you want?" demanded the newspaper publisher.
"First," Enoch threw his cigarette away, "I want Secretary Fowler to
break with you, absolutely and completely."
"Curly can't implicate me, in that Mexican affair!" cried Fowler.
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