gazing with much
relish past the flame of the match, studying Harlan's dismay.

The young man suddenly came to himself, struck his horse, and galloped
wildly away.

The next morning he departed to offer political hand and sword in the
cause of General Waymouth.

CHAPTER XXI

STARTING A MULE TEAM

Some men are extremely good and loyal politicians so long as the machine
runs smoothly, and they are not called upon to sacrifice their interests
and their opinions. Luke Presson and his associates on the State
Committee were of that sort. But Thelismer Thornton was a better
politician than they.

The Duke had saved the chairman and his committeemen from themselves at
that critical moment in the little room off the convention stage, when
they were ready to invite ruin by defying General Waymouth. It had been
as bitter for Thornton as it had been for the others. Beyond question,
he would have gone down fighting were the question a private or a
personal one. But when the interests of his party were at stake he knew
how to compromise, taking what he could get instead of what he had
determined to get. After the convention he gave fatherly advice to the
committee, and then Presson went up to Burnside village with the
olive-branch. But while he extended that in one hand, he held out his
little political porringer in the other. He couldn't help doing it. The
chairman was no altruist in politics. He didn't propose to cultivate the
spirit.

He put it plainly to General Waymouth--that while he sympathized to some
extent with the latter's desires for general reform, there were certain
interests that propped the party and must be handled with discretion in
the clean-up. He had already drawn some consolation from the fact that
General Waymouth had modified in a measure the planks that he submitted
for the party platform. He followed up this as a step that hinted a
general compromise, and at last frankly presented his requests. He asked
that tax reform be smoothed over, that the corporations be allowed an
opportunity to "turn around," and finally that the prohibitory law
should be let alone. He argued warmly that General Waymouth could not be
criticised by either side if he left the law as he found it. The
radicals were satisfied with the various enactments as they stood, and
if there were infractions it became a matter of the police and sheriffs,
and the Governor could not be held accountable. And he laid stress on
the fac