ot of this state led his
people with high chivalry. For the next governor of this state, in these
trying times, I nominate the son of that patriot--the Honorable Archer
Converse of this city--God bless him!"

"We're licked," gasped Colonel Dodd, trying to make the state chairman
hear him, for the roar that rocked the great hall was deafening. "A
boomerang has come back and mowed us flatter than an oven door in
tophet."

In the rout, in the retreat--horse, foot and dragoons--crisp orders
were issued and obeyed. The friends of Governor Harwood had only one
resource--it was to save that gentleman's face. His nomination was
withdrawn.

That convention had run amuck, it was a mass of wild men who were
feeling liberty from oppression for the first time and gloried in their
new and sudden freedom from ring rule.

Then the delegates who came upon their feet roared the unanimous
nomination of Archer Converse.

In the gale of that acclaim the opposition uttered no protest; the
delegates who still remained loyal to the machine scowled and kept their
seats.

Ducking under the tossing arms of men who flung aloft their hats and
cheered with the frenzy of delight that the amazing victory inspired,
Richard Dodd escaped to the rear of the hall and jammed himself into the
press of the spectators. He hid behind a hedge of bodies and then dared
to look at Colonel Dodd's face. The mighty passion which flamed on
the uncle's countenance was revealed to the nephew's gaze even at that
distance. The colonel was at the edge of the platform and was beckoning
imperiously to some one. Young Dodd saw Detective Mullaney work his
way out of the throng which surrounded Walker Farr; the officer was
obviously obeying the summons of Colonel Dodd and marched to the
platform and climbed on a chair in order to converse with the angry man
who had beckoned.

And when Richard Dodd saw that conference begin overwhelming fear swept
out of his soul all other emotions. He no longer had eyes for that girl
in the gallery. Not even love and the promise she had made availed to
stay him. Panic allowed him no time for planning an excuse or framing a
lie. In playing for the stakes he had exacted he had felt that his uncle
would hold no autopsy on the price of success. But five thousand dollars
plucked from the Dodd pocket by a falsehood for which no excuse could
be offered! And on top of that a crushing defeat which had been made
definite and final by the work wh