, so far as you two are concerned, this ghastly thing
should be only an unhappy dream which you'll strive to forget, I'm
sure," he said. "It's all over and done with, isn't it?"

"Over and done with for her--yes," said Miss Smith. "But how about your
duty as governor? How about my duty as a citizen? Shouldn't we each of
us, you in your big way and I in my small way, work to bring about a
reform in the statutes under which such errors are possible? Think,
governor, of what happened to this child! It may happen again to-day or
to-morrow to some other equally innocent sufferer. It might happen to
any one of us--to me or to someone dear to you."

"Miss Smith," he stated, "if ever it happens to you I shall take the
witness stand on your account and testify to two things: First, that you
are the sanest human being in this state; and second, that you certainly
do know how to play a hunch when you get one. If I had your intuition,
plus my ambition, I wouldn't be governor--I'd be running for president.
And I'd win out too!"

CHAPTER V

THE RAVELIN' WOLF

When the draft came to our town as it came to all towns it enmeshed Jeff
Poindexter, who to look at him might be any age between twenty-one and
forty-one. Jeff had a complexion admirably adapted for hiding the wear
and tear of carking years and as for those telltale wrinkles which
betray care he had none, seeing that care rarely abode with him for
longer than twenty-four hours on a stretch. Did worry knock at the front
door Jeff had a way of excusing himself out of the back window. But this
dread thing they called a draft was a worry which just opened the door
and walked right in--and outside the window stood a jealous Government,
all organized to start a rookus if anybody so much as stepped sideways.

Jeff had no ambition to engage in the jar and crash of actual combat;
neither did the idea of serving in a labor battalion overseas appeal to
one of his habits. The uniform had its lure, to be sure, but the
responsibilities presaged by the putting on of the uniform beguiled him
not a whipstitch. Anyhow, his ways were the ways of peace. As a diplomat
he had indubitable gifts; as a warrior he felt that he would be out of
his proper element. So when answering a summons which was not to be
disregarded Jeff appeared before the draft board he was not noticeably
happy.

"Unmarried, eh?" inquired his chief inquisitor.

"Yas, suh--I means, naw, suh," stated Jeff. "I ain't