"She told Colonel Jolson he'd
just have to find you a position, and I have been delegated to
show you about."
"You don't say. I supposed there were plenty of openings."
"Not good ones. However, she usually gets what she wants. If I'm
not a good guide, you must put it down to inexperience."
"The Cortlandts seem to have considerable influence for outsiders.
I thought I'd have to begin at the bottom."
Runnels glanced at his companion quickly.
"Outsiders! You don't call them outsiders?"
"I never quite figured out who they are. Funny, by-the-way, how
everybody says 'they' in referring to them."
"Oh, she's the whole team. Cortlandt's a nice fellow--but--Did you
really think that she'd let you start at the bottom?"
"Why, yes."
"I guess you don't know her."
"You're right; I do not."
"Well, she knows everybody and everything in this country. She's
the whole diplomatic service. Take the Colombian trouble, for
instance--"
"What trouble?"
"When Panama seceded. She manipulated that, or at least Steve
Cortlandt did under her direction. She was the brains of the whole
affair, however, and those New York lawyers merely did what she
told them. It was one of the cleverest exploits on record.
Colombia wouldn't let us build the Canal, so Panama seceded.
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