to brass tacks, I'll tell you what I've thought
ever since Bassett got his clamps on the party: that he really hasn't
any qualities of leadership; that grim, silent way of his is a good deal
of a bluff. If anybody ever has the nerve to set off a firecracker just
behind him, he'll run a mile. The newspapers keep flashing him up in big
headlines all the time, and that helps to keep the people fooled. The
last time I saw him was just after he put through that corporation bill
you broke on, and he didn't seem to have got much fun out of his
victory; he looked pretty gray and worried. It wasn't so easy pulling
through House Bill Ninety-five; it was the hardest job of Mort's life;
but he had to do it or take the count. And Lord! he certainly lost his
head in defeating those appropriation bills; he let his spite toward the
governor get the better of him. It wasn't the Republican governor he put
in the hole; it was his own party."

"That's the way with all these men of his type on both sides; they have
no real loyalty; they will sacrifice their parties any time just to
further personal ends, or in this case it would seem to have been out of
sheer bad temper. I didn't use to think Bassett had any temper or any
kind of emotional organization. But when he's mad it's the meanest kind
of mad, blind and revengeful."

"He's forced an extra session--he's brought that on us. Just chew on
that a minute, Dan. A Republican governor has got to reassemble a
Democratic legislature merely to correct its own faults. It looks well
in print, by George! Speaking of print, how did he come to let go of the
'Courier,' and who owns that sheet anyway? I thought when Thatcher
sprung that suit and dragged our Aunt Sally into it, the Wabash River
would run hot lava for the next forty years. But that night of the ball
she and Mort stood there on the firing-line as though nothing had ever
happened."

Harwood grinned and shook his head gravely.

"There are some things, Colonel, that even to a good friend like you I
can't give away. Besides, I promised Atwill not to tell."

"All right, Dan. And now, for fear you may think I've got something up
my sleeve, I want to say to you with my hand on my heart that I don't
want any office now or ever!"

"Now, Colonel, be very careful!" laughed Dan.

"No; I'm not up here on a fishing-trip. But I want you to know where I
stand and the friendly feeling of a whole lot of people toward you. You
say the younger men a