He met this
nervous, wiry, sharp-eyed man in the managing editor's office now and
again. Once he had entered rather unexpectedly upon a conference of
Heney, former Mayor James D. Phelan, Rudolph Spreckels, son of the sugar
nabob, and William J. Burns. Frank, who guessed he was intruding, made a
noiseless exit; not, however, till he heard that there would be a
thorough, secret search into the trolley franchise and some other
actions of the Ruef administration. Spreckels and Phelan guaranteed to
raise $100,000 for this purpose. Burns and his detectives had for
several months been quietly at work.
On October 24 District Attorney Langdon publicly announced the
appointment of Francis J. Heney as his assistant, stating that a
thorough and fearless search into the actions of the city government
would ensue.
On October 25 the Supervisors met. Frank, himself, went to the council
chamber to learn what was afoot. He suspected a sensation. But the Board
met quietly enough at 2:30 o'clock, with Jim Gallagher in the chair. At
2:45 a special messenger called the acting Mayor to Ruef's office. Three
hours later he was still absent from the angry and impatient Board.
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