election campaign which had resulted in the
complete overthrow of the former government. The "Honorable"
Harrington Rives with his large head and bushy shock of black curls had
been a picturesque figure on the rostrums of the country districts. He
took a good photo--and knew it! It was displayed in every conceivable
pose in the newspapers and fought the weather on the side of many a
livery barn long after the "Grand Rally" with its crop of
cheer-strained throats was a thing of the past. His ability as a stump
speaker and his hail-fellow-well-met-and-how's-the-baby way of mixing
with the crowd had popularized him to the bamboozlement of his
admirers. So that in election forecasts his seat in the Legislature
always had headed the list at party headquarters, while in the
opposition camp it had been chalked up as "election conceded."

But as is the law of it, there cometh a day when the evil a man doeth
findeth him out. Whispers had stolen abroad in the land and the rumors
had drawn men together in scattered groups. Rivulets of resentment had
run together in widening pools of public opinion till the mysterious
forces which slowly arouse the "Great Common People" had broken loose
suddenly in one of those periodic reform waves which sweep everything
before them. And into the arena with shining sword drawn had stepped a
brilliant lawyer named Waring to pick up the gauge of battle against
Rives and his corrupt associates, with Rives himself as his individual
opponent.

The fight in Rives' constituency had gone to bitter lengths. The
government forces had poured money into the campaign and under the
practiced hand of Harrington Rives the "Machine" had gone to indiscreet
lengths to defeat Waring. Bribery and corruption, which for a long
time had characterized the administration's political organization, had
become more open and Rives' opponent quietly had gathered the
irrefutable evidence which ended in the arrest of Rives and several of
his henchmen on the eve of the election. The exposure had been so
complete and far-reaching--actual misappropriation of public funds in
Rives' case--that the reform forces had made a clean sweep amid great
public rejoicing.

It would require a short memory indeed to forget all this, thought
Kendrick. Remembrance of the Rives case, which he had taken the
trouble once to look up in the old newspaper files, never failed to
re-establish his faith in his uncle and it was with a sweep o