President, whom we meet frankly as enemies,
and we deal with them accordingly; and there are others who oppose us
and yet are not enemies. It is merely that our paths of duty cross. We
may have the greatest respect for them and they for us, but purposes are
unalterably different. In other words there is a personal enmity and a
political enmity. You, for instance, might be a close personal friend of
the man whom you defeated for president. There might"--he stopped
suddenly.
"Go on," urged the president.
"I think every man meets once in his life an individual with whom he
would like to reckon personally," the young man continued. "That
reckoning may not be a severe one; it may be less severe than the law
would provide; but it would be a personal reckoning. There is one
individual in this affair with whom I should like to reckon, hence the
personal equation enters very largely into the case."
For a little while the silence of the room was unbroken, save for the
steady tick-tock of a great clock in one corner. Mr. Grimm's eyes were
fixed unwaveringly upon those of the chief executive. At last the
secretary of war crumpled a sheet of paper impatiently and hitched his
chair up to the table.
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