For two disgustful minutes
they extracted from him his solemn promise that henceforth he would
keep his hands off the laws. Then they turned him out.
"Suppose you enlighten me with the story, gentlemen," suggested the
governor.
Average Jones told it, simply and modestly. At the conclusion,
Governor Arthur looked from the wrecked camera-gun to the
mathematical formula which had fallen to the floor.
"Mr. Jones," he said, "you've done me the service of saving my life;
you've done the public the service of killing a vicious bill. I
wish I could thank you more publicly than this."
"Thank you, Governor," said Average' Jones modestly. "But I owed
the public something, you know, on account of, my uncle, the late
Mayor Van Reypen."
Governor Arthur nodded. "The debt is paid," he said. "That
knowledge must be your reward; that and the consciousness of having
worked out a remarkable and original problem."
"Original?" said Average Jones, eying the diagram on the envelope's
back, with his quaint smile.
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