own.

These were small matters, but vital in their way. Failing to keep in
touch with Gantry, Blount could never be sure that the policy of the
railroad company had been reformed or changed in any respect. Moreover,
his journeyings, which brought him in direct contact with the voters
themselves, seemed to have the effect of isolating him curiously in the
actual battle-field. That a hot political campaign was raging throughout
the length and breadth of the State was not to be doubted; the
newspapers were full of it, and in many districts the fight had become
acrimonious and bitter. But although he was supposed to be in the thick
of the fight, he knew that he was not; that some mysterious influence
was shutting him out and holding him at arm's length.

Everywhere he went the cordial reception, the attentive and hospitable
committeemen, the packed house, and the generous applause were always
awaiting him. It was as if his progress had been carefully prearranged,
like a sort of triumphal procession. None the less, the invisible
barrier--the barrier which was excluding him from a hand-to-hand grapple
with the inner workings of the campaign--was always there, and he could
neither surmount it nor push it aside.

Notwithstanding the hard work and hard travelling, he did not allow the
missionary effort and its curious isolation to obscure in any sense the
sturdier purpose. By every means he could devise he was holding his
principals up to the mirror of a vigilant watchfulness. Arguing that the
opposition newspapers would be quick to seize upon any charge of
corruption involving the railroad company, he read them faithfully. As
yet there had been only innuendoes and a raking over of past misdeeds,
though by this time many of the editors were openly claiming that the
old alliance between the railroad and the machine had never been broken,
and warning their readers accordingly.

Blount winced when he read such editorials as these. Though he was going
about, striving to do his part manfully, and even with enthusiasm, the
burden of the cruel responsibility he had voluntarily shouldered was
never less than crushing. His only hope lay in success. If he could make
Gantry and his superiors come clean-handed to the election, there need
be no exposure, no cataclysm involving both the railroad officials and
his father.

So ran the saving hope; and not content with mere watchfulness, Blount
tried to get his finger upon the pulse of occa