an's phrase, 'United
States of the World,' kind of caught on with the crowd: they've kind of
wakened up! Funny thing, the way that happens to a crowd! Your
professional wind-jammer can orate till he busts his head, he never
knows it has happened till the crowd has got away from him! Been a
crush of men round Wayland all day, by G--, I beg your pardon--but if
he isn't drowned, 'twon't be their fault! They are talking of putting
him up as a candidate."

"As a what?" exclaimed Eleanor.

"Run for Congress," explained the news man.

She had gone quickly forward to the window, righting a shade to hide
the flood of joy that surged up to her face.

"Excuse me--Mr.----? But I don't know your name?"

"My name? Oh, my name is--Legion," said the news editor dryly.

"Well, what was it you said the other day," she had mustered courage to
turn and face him again, "what was it you said the other day about a
moneyed man backing an independent paper through this fight? Don't you
remember, after the inquest, Mr. Legion?"

He uttered a shout of laughter, and she understood and laughed too.

"Oh, the independent paper is floundering on the edge of failure.
They'll have to swing in line with the side that pays them best at
election time. One could buy up their debts now for a few thousand
dollars, perhaps not twenty thousand. Another fifty or so would swing
her off on an independent tack. There's been a great awakening. The
people have their ears down to the ground for the coming change, Miss
MacDonald; and the politicians don't know it! If we could swing her
off well, she'd be a paying concern in a year; then the politicians
could be d--I beg your pardon, the special interests could go to the
Devil! That's what I wanted to talk about to Wayland. He's the
winning horse! We haven't either of us got anything left to lose but
some frayed convictions, and by God," (this time, he did not notice he
had said it), "we'd invest 'em in an independent for all we're worth!
I'm hot; and I've an idea Wayland isn't just at milk and water
temperature; and the public isn't; and we'd have them! We'd force the
other crowd to yell at the top of their voices for reform inside of six
months. There's a lot about that Rim Rocks affair even the owners of
the sheep don't know; but why in the Devil am I telling all this to a
woman?"

She had drawn her chair up to the table where he sat.

"Because, I suppose, the woman wants to know. In ca