do you call him a fraud?" she asked.

"Because he is a fraud," said Charlton. "He is trying to confuse the
issue. He says the whole trouble is petty dishonesty in public life.
Bosh! The trouble is that the upper and middle classes are milking the
lower class--both with and without the aid of the various governments,
local, state and national. THAT'S the issue. And the reason it is
being forced is because the lower class, the working class, is slowly
awakening to the truth. When it completely awakens----" Charlton made
a large gesture and laughed.

"What then?" said Hastings.

"The end of the upper and the middle classes. Everybody will have to
work for a living."

"Who's going to be elected this fall?" asked Jane. "Your man?"

"Yes," said Doctor Charlton. "Victor Dorn thinks not. But he always
takes the gloomy view. And he doesn't meet and talk with the fellows
on the other side, as I do."

Hastings was looking out from under the vizor of his cap with a
peculiar grin. It changed to a look of startled inquiry as Charlton
went on to say:

"Yes, we'll win. But the Davy Hull gang will get the offices."

"Why do you think that?" asked old Hastings sharply.

Charlton eyed his patient with a mocking smile. "You didn't think any
one knew but you and Kelly--did you?" laughed he.

"Knew what?" demanded Hastings, with a blank stare.

"No matter," said Charlton. "I know what you intend to do. Well,
you'll get away with the goods. But you'll wish you hadn't. You
old-fashioned fellows, as I've been telling you, don't realize that
times have changed."

"Do you mean, Doctor, that the election is to be stolen away from you?"
inquired Jane.

"Was that what I meant, Mr. Hastings?" said Charlton.

"The side that loses always shouts thief at the side that wins," said
the old man indifferently. "I don't take any interest in politics."

"Why should you?" said the Doctor audaciously. "You own both sides.
So, it's heads you win, tails I lose."

Hastings laughed heartily. "Them political fellows are a lot of
blackmailers," said he.

"That's ungrateful," said Charlton. "Still, I don't blame you for
liking the Davy Hull crowd better. From them you can get what you want
just the same, only you don't have to pay for it."

He rose and stretched his big frame, with a disregard of conventional
good manners so unconscious that it was inoffensive.

But Charlton had a code of manners of his own, and somehow it