able under the chandelier and began to read.

The preamble was after the usual stereotyped form; the first sections
endorsed the cardinal principles of the party, and Mr. Wasgatt, getting
into the spirit of the thing, began to deliver the rounded periods
sonorously. General Waymouth leaned slightly over the table, propping
himself on the knuckles of his one hand. The light flowed down upon his
silvery hair, his features were set in the intentness of listening.

"'We view without favor the demagogic attempts to throttle enterprise,
check the proper development of our State, lock up the natural resources
away from the fostering hands of commerce and labor, thereby preventing
the establishment of industries that will extend their beneficent
influence to the workingman, dependent upon his daily wage.'"

"One moment, Wasgatt!" The General tapped a knuckle on the table, and
the reader waited.

Waymouth turned his gaze full upon the Senator when he spoke.

"Gentlemen, understand me aright at the start. I'm not here to try to
dictate. That would be presumptuous in me, for I am not yet your
candidate. To-morrow is not here."

Wasgatt's pop-eyes protruded still more. He stared from man to man, and
it became necessary for Thelismer Thornton to take one more into the
secret. He did it a bit ungraciously. He had not expected the General to
be so blunt and precipitate. The candidate waited patiently until the
brief explanation was concluded and Wasgatt had pledged fidelity.

"I want you fully to understand my spirit in this," went on the General.
"We'll be honest with each other; we know that the floor of a convention
is not the place to discuss the platform frankly; I don't want to wash
our linen in public. We'll settle it now between ourselves. That plank,
there, comes out of the platform if you expect me to stand on it."

The Senator, challenged by his eyes, spoke.

"You don't take exceptions to honest efforts to develop our State, do
you, General Waymouth?"

"I do not. But that proposition, no matter how good it sounds, is the
sugar-coated preface to an attempt to steal the undeveloped water-powers
of this State."

The Senator's fat neck reddened.

"You may be inclined to modify that rather rash statement, General
Waymouth, when I tell you that I suggested the insertion of that
resolution."

"I recognized it as yours, Senator. Some time ago my bankers gave me the
personnel of the group behind the Universal Developm