e to be courageous without
being silly, had made a snappy little speech of thanks which had been
received with great applause, and that later he had sung his campaign
song and others, and that finally, in company with an ex-judge, whose
hat was also decorated with a wreath of smilax, he had rolled amiably
about the town in a hack, going from one place where drinks could be
gotten to another, and singing with great fervor and patriotism:

Zhohn Brownzh bozhy liezh a mole-ring in zhe grave.

Aladdin thought over these things with pleasure, for he had fallen
under the dangerous flattery of older men, and with less pleasure of the
editorial which it was his immediate business to write. His brisk,
crisp chief, Mr. Blankinship, came in for a moment, walking testily and
looking like the deuce.

"So you've showed up, Aladdin, have you?" he said. "That's young
blood. If any question of politics--I mean policy--arises, I leave it
absolutely to you. I'm going back to bed. Can't you stop smoking that
rotten cigar?"

Aladdin laughed aloud, and Mr. Blankinship endeavored to smile.

"Somewhere," he said, "in this transcendentally beautiful continent,
Aladdin, there may be some one that feels worse than I do, but I doubt
it." He turned to go.

"Won't Mr. Orde be here either?" said Aladdin.

"No; he's home in bed. You're editor-in-chief and everything else for
the day, see? And I wish I was dead." Mr. Blankinship nodded, very
slightly, for it hurt, and went out.

The misery of others is a great cure: with the first sight of Mr.
Blankinship, Aladdin's headache had gone, and he now pounced upon fresh
paper, got a notion out of the God-knows-where, wrote his editorial at
full speed, and finished it without once removing the cigar from his
mouth.

He had just done when the shrewd, inky little boy, who did everything
about the "Spy" offices which nobody else would do, entered and said
that a gentleman wanted to speak with Mr. O'Brien. Aladdin had the
gentleman shown up, and recognized the oldest of Hannibal St. John's
sons; he knew them well by sight, but it so happened that he had never
met them. They were the three biggest and most clean-cut young men
in Maine, measuring between six feet three and four; erect, massive,
utterly composed, and, if anything, a little stronger than so many
dray-horses. They were notable shots, great fishermen, and the whole
State was beginning to speculate with excitement about their respective