by stratagem, abandoned for
conscience' sake, and re-invested on lines of fairer warfare, to say
nothing of the investment of the mayoralty--the hope of victory is
swallowed up in a sea of disasters. The meeting on the stairway, the
repudiation of Mrs. Hunter, the arrested flirtation in the east room:
all these--any of these--were enough: but what hope for us remains,
after this sensational summons, served in the small hours of a
bacchanalian revel, in a breach-of-promise action at the suit of the
dreadful "Strawberry Blonde"? Verily, Bulliwinkle, here is indeed a
how-de-do!

"Old man," said Mr. Alvord, in private communication to Mr. Amidon at
parting, "we're none of us in condition to discuss this calmly now; but
don't give up. It's a blow, but with our pull with the press, and our
personal relations with Cox, can be squelched, I believe. Until after
election----"

"Until when?" asked Amidon dazedly.

"After election," answered Alvord. "After that, while it will be a
blow, of course, it won't wreck things quite so completely, you know.
And even if it does sort of leak out, it's one of those mix-ups that
lots of voters'll rather admire you for, you know. It may react in
your favor, if we can----"

"Mr. Alvord," said Amidon, "please to understand that I don't care a
rush, one way or the other, about this election!"

"Now, now, don't say that!" said Alvord soothingly. "I can see how you
feel, 'Gene--pride, and affection, and Bessie, and the wedding coming
on--but, pshaw, we lots of us have things kind of tangle up on us
coming in on the home stretch of a pretty swift heat! Go home, and
don't worry too much. I'm with you, and we'll win. F. D. and B., you
know. Keep the other strings pulling right--it's only a day or so now.
Good night, old man, and brace up! See you to-morrow."

One rather likes the optimistic fighter--purely as a fighter--of the
Alvord stripe. He was so occupied with plans for the next day's battle
that the dubious features of the contest were already clearing up in
his mind with the forming of plans for attacking the situation. A few
hours of sleep, and he was up and at them. His telephone called up the
editors of the town with the morning star. Long before the enemy could
have known of the breach in his works, his trusty troops were busy
filling it up. He was almost happy again, when Edgington rushed into
his presence with a newspaper crushed in his clenched fist, and all
sorts