"Come," cried Bruce, "out with what you've got to tell me!"
"It is a matter of the very first importance," returned the prosecutor, who was posing for a prominent place in the _Express's_ account of this affair--for however much the public men of Westville affected to look down upon the _Express_, they secretly preferred its superior presentment of their doings. "Doctor Sherman, in his capacity of president of the Voters' Union, has just brought before me some most distressing, most astounding evidence. It is evidence upon which I must act both as a public official and as a member of the Arrangements Committee, and evidence which concerns you both as a committeeman and as an editor. It is painful to me to break----"
"Let's have it from first hands," interrupted Bruce, irritated by the verbal excelsior which the prosecutor so deliberately unwrapped from about his fact.
He turned to the minister, a slender man of hardly more than thirty, with a high brow, the wide, sensitive mouth of the born orator, fervently bright eyes, and the pallor of the devoted student--a face that instantly explained why, though so young, he was Westville's most popular divine.
"What's it about, Doctor Sherman?" the editor asked. "Who's the man?"
There was no posing here for Bruce's typewriter. The minister's concern was deep and sincere.
"About the water-works, as Mr. Kennedy has said," he answered in a voice that trembled with agitation. "There has been some--some crooked work."
"Crooked work?" ejaculated the editor, staring at the minister.
"Crooked work?"
"Yes."
"You are certain of what you say?"
"Yes."
"Then you have evidence?"
"I am sorry--but--but I have."
The editor was leaning forward, his nostrils dilated, his eyes gleaming sharply behind their thick glasses.
"Who's mixed up in it? Who's the man?"
The minister's hands were tightly interlocked. For an instant he seemed unable to speak.
"Who's the man?" repeated Bruce.
The minister swallowed.
"Doctor West," he said.
Bruce sprang up.
"Doctor West?" he cried. "The superintendent of the water-works?"
"Yes."
If the editor's concern for the city's welfare was merely a political and business pose, if he was merely an actor, at least he acted his part well. "My God!" he breathed, and stood with eyes fixed upon the young minister. Then suddenly he sat down again, his thick brows drew together, and his heavy jaws set.
"Let's have the whole story," he snapped out. "From the very beginning."
"I cannot tell you how distressed I am by what I have just been forced to do," began the young clergyman. "I have always esteemed Doctor West most highly, and my wife and his daughter have been the closest friends since girlhood. To make my part in this affair clear, I must recall to you that of late the chief attention of the Voters' Union has naturally been devoted to the water-works. I never imagined that anything was wrong. But, speaking frankly, after the event, I must say that Doctor West's position was such as made it a simple matter for him to defraud the city should he so desire."
"You mean because the council invested him with so much authority?"
demanded Bruce.
"Yes. As I have said, I regarded Doctor West above all suspicion. But a short time ago some matters--I need not detail them--aroused in me the fear that Doctor West was using his office for--for----"
"For graft?" supplied Bruce.
The minister inclined his head.
"Later, only a few weeks ago, a more definite fear came to me," he continued in his low, pained voice. "It happens that I have known Mr.
Marcy here for years; we were friends in college, though we had lost track of one another till his business brought him here. A few small circumstances--my suspicion was already on the alert--made me guess that Mr. Marcy was about to give Doctor West a bribe for having awarded the filter contract to his company. I got Mr. Marcy alone--taxed him with his intention--worked upon his conscience----"
"Mr. Marcy has stated," the prosecutor interrupted to explain, "that Doctor Sherman always had great influence over him."
Mr. Marcy corroborated this with a nod.
"At length Mr. Marcy confessed," Doctor Sherman went on. "He had arranged to give Doctor West a certain sum of money immediately after the filtering plant had been approved and payment had been made to the company. After this confession I hesitated long upon what I should do.
On the one hand, I shrank from disgracing Doctor West. On the other, I had a duty to the city. After a long struggle I decided that my responsibility to the people of Westville should overbalance any feeling I might have for any single individual."
"That was the only decision," said Bruce. "Go on!"
"But at the same time, to protect Doctor West's reputation, I decided to take no one into my plan; should his integrity reassert itself at the last moment and cause him to refuse the bribe, the whole matter would then remain locked up in my heart. I arranged with Mr. Marcy that he should carry out his agreement with Doctor West. Day before yesterday, as you know, the council, on Doctor West's recommendation, formally approved the filtering plant, and yesterday a draft was sent to the company. Mr. Marcy was to call at Doctor West's home this morning to conclude their secret bargain. Just before the appointed hour I dropped in on Doctor West, and was there when Mr. Marcy called.
I said I would wait to finish my talk with Doctor West till they were through their business, took a book, and went into an adjoining room.
I could see the two men through the partly opened door. After some talk, Mr. Marcy drew an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Doctor West, saying in a low voice, 'Here is that money we spoke about.'"
"And he took it?" Bruce interrupted.
"Doctor West slipped the envelope unopened into his pocket, and replied, 'Thank you very much; it will come in very handy just now.'"
"My God!" breathed the editor.
"Though I had suspected Doctor West, I sat there stunned," the minister continued. "But after a minute or two I slipped out by another door. I returned with a policeman, and found Doctor West still with Mr. Marcy. The policeman arrested Doctor West, and found the envelope upon his person. In it was two thousand dollars."
"Now, what do you think of that?" Kennedy demanded of the editor.
"Won't the town be thunderstruck!"
Bruce turned to the agent, who had sat through the recital, a mere corroborative presence.
"And this is all true?"
"That is exactly the way it happened," replied Mr. Marcy.
Bruce looked back at the minister.
"But didn't he have anything to say for himself?"
"I can answer that," put in Kennedy. "I had him in here before I sent him over to the jail. He admits practically every point that Doctor Sherman has made. The only thing he says for himself is that he never thought the money Mr. Marcy gave him was intended for a bribe."