and when somebody said Blaine, the
teacher of the infant class in our Sunday School said Blaine who? That
reminds me of one time when I met Dan Voorhees, than whom God Almighty
never made a nobler soul; I met Dan down here in the lobby of the old
Bates House, carrying a 'Harper's Weekly' with one of Tom Nast's
cartoons spread wide open. You know Dan had--"

Colonel Ramsay had been edging toward the door of Harwood's private
room, and he now broke in upon the editor's reminiscences.

"You tell that story to Miss Farrell, Ike. I'm spouting myself to-night,
at a Christian Endeavor rally at Tipton, and want to see Dan a minute."

Miss Farrell was inured to Pettit's anecdotes of Dan Voorhees, and the
Fraserville editor continued, unmindful of the closing of the door upon
Dan and Ramsay.

Ramsay pushed his fedora to the back of his head and inspected Dan's new
furniture.

"Well, you did it! You've cut loose from your base and burned your
bridges behind you. I would have brought my congratulations sooner, but
I've had a long jury case on hand. You did it, my boy, and you did it
like a gentleman. You might have killed him if you had wanted to."

"I don't want to kill anybody," smiled Dan. "I want to practice law."

"That's a laudable ambition, but you can't go back on us now. What we've
needed for a long time was a young man of about your make-up who wasn't
afraid."

"Don't rub it in, Colonel. I was a mighty long time seeing the light,
and I don't deserve any praise from anybody. I mean what I say about
practicing law. I'm a free man now and any political work I do is going
to be along the lines of the simple, childish ideas I brought home from
college with me. I had begun to feel that all this political idealism
was sheer rubbish, but I put the brakes on before I got too far
downhill. If a few of us who have run with the machine and know the
tricks will turn and help the bewildered idealists, we can make idealism
effective. Most of the people don't want a handful of crooks to govern
them, but there's a kind of cheap cynicism abroad that discourages the
men who are eager to revolt. There are newspapers that foster that
sentiment, and scores of men who won't take time to go to a caucus keep
asking what's the use. Now, as for Bassett, I'm not going to bite the
hand that fed me; I'm simply going to feed myself. Pettit was just in
here to sound me as to my feelings toward Thatcher. Quite frankly, I'm
not interested in Tha