ater ones.

CHAPTER XIII

In the regular course of political events, Laird was renominated on a
fusion ticket. Thereupon the old ring, which had so long battened on the
corruption or local government, put up a sleek and presentable
figurehead. Marrineal nominated himself amidst the Homeric laughter of
the professional politicians. How's he goin' to get anywhere, they
demanded with great relish of the joke, when he ain't got any
organization at-tall! Presently the savor oozed out of that joke.
Marrineal, it appeared, did have an organization, of sorts; worse, he
had gathered to him, by methods not peculiarly his own, the support of
the lesser East-Side foreign language press, which may or may not have
believed in his protestations of fealty to the Common People, but
certainly did appreciate the liberality of his political advertising
appropriation, advertising, in this sense, to be accorded its freest
interpretation. Worst of all, he had Banneker.

Banneker's editorials, not upon Marrineal himself (for he was too shrewd
for that), but upon the cause of which Marrineal was standard-bearer,
were persuasive, ingenious, forceful, and, to the average mind,
convincing. Was Banneker himself convinced? It was a question which he
resolutely refused to follow to its logical conclusion. Of the justice
of the creed which The Patriot upheld, he was perfectly confident. But
did Marrineal represent that creed? Did he represent anything but
Marrineal? Stifling his misgivings, Banneker flung himself the more
determinedly into the fight. It became apparent that he was going to
swing an important fraction of the labor vote, despite the opposition of
such clear-eyed leaders as McClintick. To this extent he menaced the old
ring rather than the forces of reform, led by Laird and managed by
Enderby. On the other hand, he was drawing from Laird, in so far as he
still influenced the voters who had followed The Patriot in its original
support of the reform movement. That Marrineal could not be elected,
both of his opponents firmly believed; and in this belief,
notwithstanding his claims of forthcoming victory, the independent
candidate privately concurred. It would be enough, for the time, to
defeat decisively whichever rival he turned his heaviest guns upon in
the final onset; that would insure his future political prestige. Thus
far, in his speeches, he had hit out impartially at both sides,
denouncing the old ring for its corruption