tay."

As the meeting broke up, "Mexico's" friends warned him against "Peachy."

"Pshaw! 'Peachy'!" said "Mexico" contemptuously. "He couldn't hold his
gun steady at me."

"He's all right behind a tree, though, an' there's lots of 'em round."

But "Mexico" only spat out his contempt for anything that "Peachy" could
do, and went calmly on his way, "keeping the boys in line." But he began
to be painfully conscious of an undercurrent of feeling over which he
could exercise no control. Not that there was any lack of readiness
on the part of the boys to "line up" at the word, but there was no
corresponding readiness in pledging their support to the "same old
party." There was, on the contrary, a very marked reserve on the part
of the men who formerly, especially after the lining up process had been
several times repeated, had been distinguished for unlimited enthusiasm
for all "Mexico" represented. They "lined up" still, but beyond this
they did not go.

The editor of The Pioneer, too, became conscious of this change in the
attitude of the men he had always counted upon to do his bidding at the
polls. "It's that cursed doctor!" he exclaimed to McKenty, the Member
for the district. "He's been working a deep game. Of course, his
brother's putting up all kinds of a fight, but we expect that and we
know how to handle him. But this fellow is different. I tell you I'm
afraid of him."

"Pshaw! He hasn't got any backing," said McKenty.

"How?"

"Well, he hasn't got any grease, and you can't make anything go without
grease." McKenty spoke out of considerable experience.

"That's all right as an ordinary thing, but the doctor has grease of
another kind. This library and clubroom business is catching the boys
all round."

"I've heard about it," said McKenty. "I guess the Government could take
a hand in libraries and institutes and that sort of thing, too."

"That's all right," replied the editor. "Might do some good. But you
can't beat him at that game. It isn't his libraries and his clubs
altogether or chiefly, it's himself and his work. He's a number one
doctor, and night and day he's on the road. By Jove! he's everywhere.
He's got no end of stay, confound him! I tell you he's a winner. He can
get a thousand men in a week to back him for anything he says."

McKenty thought deeply for some moments. "Well," he said, finally,
"something has got to be done. We can't afford, you and I, at this stage
to get out of the game.