onder of which, pervading all Dearborn Street and the city
council, had won him the soubriquet of "Emerald Pat." At first he
rejoiced heartily in this title, as he did in a gold and diamond medal
awarded him by a Chicago brewery for selling the largest number of
barrels of beer of any saloon in Chicago. More recently, the
newspapers having begun to pay humorous attention to both himself and
Mr. Tiernan, because of their prosperity and individuality, he resented
it.

The relation of these two men to the present political situation was
peculiar, and, as it turned out, was to constitute the weak spot in the
Cowperwood-McKenty campaign. Tiernan and Kerrigan, to begin with,
being neighbors and friends, worked together in politics and business,
on occasions pooling their issues and doing each other favors. The
enterprises in which they were engaged being low and shabby, they
needed counsel and consolation. Infinitely beneath a man like McKenty
in understanding and a politic grasp of life, they were, nevertheless,
as they prospered, somewhat jealous of him and his high estate. They
saw with speculative and somewhat jealous eyes how, after his union
with Cowperwood, he grew and how he managed to work his will in many
ways--by extracting tolls from the police department, and heavy annual
campaign contributions from manufacturers favored by the city gas and
water departments. McKenty--a born manipulator in this respect--knew
where political funds were to be had in an hour of emergency, and he
did not hesitate to demand them. Tiernan and Kerrigan had always been
fairly treated by him as politics go; but they had never as yet been
included in his inner council of plotters. When he was down-town on
one errand or another, he stopped in at their places to shake hands
with them, to inquire after business, to ask if there was any favor he
could do them; but never did he stoop to ask a favor of them or
personally to promise any form of reward. That was the business of
Dowling and others through whom he worked.

Naturally men of strong, restive, animal disposition, finding no
complete outlet for all their growing capacity, Tiernan and Kerrigan
were both curious to see in what way they could add to their honors and
emoluments. Their wards, more than any in the city, were increasing in
what might be called a vote-piling capacity, the honest, legitimate
vote not being so large, but the opportunities afforded for colonizing,
repea