Susan Keating Glaspell

“ When half way between the basement and the first floor, he stopped the elevator. He must have time to think. If he took that man up to the Senate Chamber, he would simply strike the death-blow to reform! And so he knelt and pretended to be fixing something, and he thought fast and hard.
"Something broke?" said an anxious voice.
Freckles looked around into Mr. Ludlow's face, and he saw that the eminent lobbyist was nervous.
"Yes," he said calmly. "It's acting queer. Something's all out of whack." ”

“ He thought of stories he had read of lonely turrets in which men were beheaded, and otherwise made away with. It seemed he would never come to the top, and when at last he did it was to find two of the most awful-looking eyes he had ever seen peering down upon him. ”

“ Ludlow down? Why didn't you notify some one, or do something about it?"
"Why, I supposed, of course, he walked down by the stairs," said Freckles. "I never dreamed he'd wait to trust the elevator after the way it had acted."
"The door was locked," snarled the eminent lobbyist.
"Well, now, you see, I didn't know that," explained Freckles expansively. "Late in the afternoon I took a run up just to test the car—and there you were! I never was so surprised in my life. I supposed, of course, sir, that you'd spent the afternoon in the Senate along with everybody else." ”

“ Freckles turned his car back to the basement. Somehow he wanted to be all alone for a minute, to dwell in solitude upon the fact that it was he Freckles McGraw, who had won this great victory for reform. It was he, Freckles McGraw, who had assured the Governor's future! Why, perhaps he had that afternoon made for himself a name which would be handed down in the histories!
Freckles was a kind little boy. and he knew that an elegant gentleman could not find the attic any too pleasant a place in which to spend the afternoon. So he decided to go up and get Mr. Ludlow. It took courage ”

“ In just an hour Freckles tried it again. He sent the car to within three feet of the attic floor. and then peered through the grating, his face tied in a knot of interrogation. The eminent lobbyist stood there gulping down wrath and pride, knowing well enough what was expected of him.
"Oh—all right," he muttered at last, and with that much of an understanding Freckles sent the car up, opened the door, and Henry Ludlow stepped in. No word was spoken between them until the light from the floor upon which the Senate Chamber was situated came in view. ”

“ Ludlow, possibly deep in something else, had simply knit together his brows and had given no sign of having heard. After that, Henry Ludlow, lobbyist, and Freckles McGraw, elevator boy, were enemies.
II.
A little before noon, one day near the end of the session, a member of the Senate and a member of the House rode down together in the elevator.
"There's no use waiting any longer," the Senator was saying as they got in. "We're as strong now as we're going to be. It's a matter of Stacy's vote, and that's a matter of who sees him last." ”