rd no candidate had ever defeated
him. "Nice people" had very little to do with Mr. Martin; the laborer
who was honest had little to do with him, either. He was a pariah, but
a very formidable one. Yet, no one, though many accused him, caught
him in a dishonest deal.

On the other hand, Senator Henderson's party had the cloak of
respectability on its shoulders. His lieutenants were prominent
business men who went into politics as a light diversion, young men of
aristocratic families who were ambitious to go to Albany or
Washington, and lawyers. The senator was a shrewd politician, with an
unreadable face, clean-shaven but for a stubby mustache, and keen blue
eyes that saw everything. He was loyal to his party and above
dishonesty.

This was the political situation in Herculaneum.

One May evening the senator called up Warrington. He was told that Mr.
Warrington was at the club. The senator drove to the club forthwith.
He found the dramatist in the reading-room, and greeted him
pleasantly.

"My boy, I want half an hour of your time."

"You are welcome to an hour of it, Senator," replied Warrington,
curious to know what the senator had to say to him.

"Come into a private dining-room, then." Once seated at the table, the
senator reached over and touched Warrington mysteriously on the arm.
"Young man, I heard you speak the other night at the Chamber of
Commerce banquet. You're a born orator, and what is better than that,
you've common sense and humor. How would you like to be mayor of
Herculaneum next fall?"

"Mayor?" gasped Warrington.

"Yes."

"I'd make a fine mayor," with forced laughter, but thinking rapidly.
"Aren't you jollying me, Senator?"

"I'm dead in earnest, Warrington. There is not another available man
in sight. By available I mean a man who can pull the party out of the
bog. There are a hundred I could nominate, but the nomination would be
as far as they could go. We want a man who is fresh and new to the
people, so far as politics goes; a man who can not be influenced by
money or political emoluments. There are thousands of voters who are
discontented, but they'd prefer to vote for Donnelly again rather than
to vote for some one they know would be no better. You are known the
world over. A good many people would never have known there was such a
place as Herculaneum but for you. It is the home of the distinguished
playwright."

"But I know practically nothing about political machinery," Warr