o days. That'll be time
enough. And then I want you."

Harlan's eyes questioned him.

"You know I opened up a little to you last night, bub. You're all I've
got, you know. I've not been much of a hand to talk. I don't believe
you've realized just how I've felt. But we'll let it stand as it is.
I've got plans for you, boy, better than the little pancake politics of
this district. I know a few things in politics. I'm old enough to
understand how to put you in right. It's one thing to know how, and it's
another thing to find occasion just ripe and ready."

He rolled his cigar to the centre of his mouth and lifted the corners in
an illuminating grin.

"Bub, in two days be ready to come with me. I'm going to put you in
right!"

CHAPTER X

A POLITICAL CONVERT

For two days Harlan Thornton rode about over the Fort Canibas district.
He talked to men at their doors, in their shops, over the fences of
their fields. He knew that some sneered at him behind his back. Some
even dared to arraign him, boldly and angrily, and flung his motives in
his face, accusing the grandfather of inciting the grandson to this
attempt to catch votes.

He realized that most of the voters did not understand him aright. They
did not understand sincerity in politics. But his own consciousness of
rectitude supplied his consolation and provided his impetus. Till then
he had employed the Thornton grit only in his business efforts; he
employed it now with just as much vigor in his proselyting. Once in the
fight, he was awake to what it meant. His frank earnestness impressed
those with whom he talked. He did not lose his temper, when men assailed
him and tried to discredit his protestations. Here and there, in
neighborhoods, knots of farmers gathered about him and listened. He
began to win his way, and he knew it. The knowledge that Harlan Thornton
was a square man in business needed no herald in that section.

That this integrity would extend to his politics grew into belief more
and more as he went about.

The distrust of him, because of his associations, a suspicion fostered
by the paid agents of the opposition, began to give way before his calm,
earnest young manhood. But in every knot of men he found a few bitter
irreconcilables still. They were those whom change invites, and the
established order offends. One man, unable to provoke him by
vituperation, and in a frenzy of childish rage because Harlan's calm
poise was not disturbed b