ed, a bit apprehensive, neither answered.

"You didn't come back to your room last night, Harlan. You weren't
afraid of this old chap, were you? Didn't think I'd be running around
the room on all fours, eh, or climb the wall, or growl and try to bite
you?"

"I didn't want to disturb you, and Mr. Linton and I wanted to talk after
we left General Waymouth," said Harlan.

"It's all right if you weren't afraid of me, my boy. We can't afford to
have politics put us in that state of mind. Now, own up! You thought I'd
pitch in and pull you over to the machine--you were afraid of that, now,
weren't you?"

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't want any argument with you,
grandfather, but I wasn't afraid you'd convert me. You couldn't do
that."

"Bub, 'politics before friendship' is all right for a code. I practice
that myself, but it hurts me to have you put politics before
relationship--the kind that's between us."

"Grandfather," replied the young man, firmly, "you remember that you
told me you were going to put me into politics right. I consider that
you've done so. I'm going to stay where you put me."

"Oh, you mean one thing and I mean another, my boy, as matters stand
just now. You're in wrong. A man isn't in right when he's playing on the
losing end."

"I stay where you put me," insisted Harlan, doggedly. "I'm with General
Waymouth."

"General Waymouth was a winner till he committed hari-kari there last
night. He had Luke's machine, and he had my scheme. He kicked over the
machine, and the scheme won't work now; it could have been _snapped_
through, but it can't be _bulled_ through--not with the bunch forewarned
and on the lookout. Your political chances with Vard Waymouth, Harlan,
don't amount to that!" He clicked his finger smartly above his head.
"You may as well go back up-country and boss the Quedaws."

"And yet you know that General Waymouth is right, Mr. Thornton," broke
in Linton, pausing in lacing his shoes. "There's no chance for argument
about that. Why is it the big men of this State--men like you, that have
the influence to set things straight--won't back the man that's honest
and right?"

"Linton, that's the kind of a question that's asked by the man whose
experience in practical politics is limited to a term on the School
Board and the ownership of a subscription edition of _American
Statesmen_, bound in half morocco. I'll tell you why we don't: we're
dealing with conditions, not theories. The ch