toes of his right foot bandaged and exposed
through a slit in the red leather. He was forlornly sober, pale, with
his moustache drooping like a rooster's tail in the rain.

"Fifty dollars, Colonel!" exclaimed Acres.

"I'm absolutely obliged to have it, Mabel."

"Make it fifty cents and I'll be glad to accommodate you."

"Very well, fifty cents then. Thank you, Mabel. I'll just go down with
this. No use to face Mike with half a dollar. He wants fifty."

"Shearing you, too?"

"No, you can't shear a sheep that's been plucked as clean as your hand.
Prim keeps me mighty cool."

"What's he want with so much money, do you know?"

The Colonel limped forward very painfully, placed one hand upon Acres's
shoulder, ogled Prim's door, and whispered:

"There are only two things in this world more expensive than women and
wine, Mabel: politics and piety."

"You ought to be able to economize on piety," Acres retorted.

"When you do that, you get in deeper with politics--comes to the same
thing--and I've never held an office in my life!" he concluded with a
groan, as he placed his good foot on the second step of the stairs and
drew the other tenderly after it. When he had descended three in this
manner, he beckoned to Acres.

"Say, Mabel, if Mike asks about me, tell him I'm standing on the
courthouse steps, with both feet bandaged and my trousers rolled up
showing my barked shins. Tell him I'm begging for the cause, and as soon
as I've got fifty dollars I'll be up to see him!"

The next minute Acres was facing Prim, who sat with his hands spread
upon the desk in front of him, his elbows sticking out, his hair
bristling, his mouth sucked in, and his eyes spitting venom. He looked
like a reptile about to spring, and Acres had much the expression of a
rabbit facing the reptile, slowly being drawn to his fate.

"But a hundred dollars, Mike! I can't spare that much now. Besides,
what's the hurry?" he was protesting despairingly.

"Look here, Acres, who's kept this town wide open for five years? Mike
Prim! Who's profited by that? Every business man in it! Who's given
Jordantown an easy reputation that draws workingmen and all kinds of men
who spend liberally what they make for what they want? Mike Prim! Who's
profited by the jug business in the back of Bill Saddler's livery
stable? Not Prim! I get my liquor cheap, that's all. Who's borne the
reputation for the dirty work in your elections while you fellows played
the part o