If he had not known it, the Judge’s face betrayed no surprise.
"Really, Mr. Huber, I told you at our last interview that I had no professional interest in this matter."
"You admitted that the people back of all this were your friends."
"I _said_ that I was a friend of certain persons."
"Then, you might as well say now that your friends intend to prevent my election and that they’ll use any means to do it."
"Don’t get excited, Mr. Huber." The Judge’s right hand waved a deliberate protest against Luke’s violent language. "Of course, I say nothing of the sort. What I do say is that you must understand that your own plan of action is bound to alienate the voters. There are more people interested in this election than you and me—more even than my friends. A great many people don’t want to see you elected District-Attorney. There are the business men, there are the police, and there are the people of the underworld. You have been reckless enough to make no ethical distinctions. You lump the good with the bad, and attack everybody. Well, you must not be surprised at the result."
"I only came here to tell you that I couldn’t be scared."
"Perhaps just because I like to talk to you, Judge."
The Judge bowed a sincere acknowledgment.
"I have already told you," he said, "that I think you could go far if you were cooler. Now you are confusing possible legitimate influence—I say possible, not certain—with physical attack."
"The former may be. As to the latter—well, like most young enthusiasts, you have forgotten that elections go by majorities, and that the majorities are controlled by the lower forces of society. That is the one flaw in our republican system, and nothing but social evolution, generations of free education, will cure it. You have not only very wrongly assailed legitimate business; you have quite properly threatened to close to the criminal classes their chief sources of revenue. It is their livelihood against yours. My friends can have nothing in common with these people. We cannot control them. You must know that."
Luke shrugged his shoulders. Stein continued:
"As a politician and a lawyer, you must have counted on the opposition of the criminal classes when you began your campaign. If you did not" the Judge bent his head to the roses—"well, I don’t want to alarm you, but if I were in your place, I should leave the fight."