is eyes flashed. Grateful water
was falling at last on the parched desert sands.

"But, friends," he continued, "this man, though his lesson has been
rough, comes to you with no resentment. He has broken the bars of his
prison; he is in the real world at last, and he comes to you asking to
be one of you, to give and take with the crowd. Will you have him?"

"Yes!" a chorus of a thousand voices roared against the side of the
mountain and came back in a thunderous echo.

Old Senator Curtis sprang to his feet, seized Mr. Heathcote by the hand,
and shouted:

"Gentlemen, I, too, need to apologize, and also I want to introduce to
you a real man, Mr. Herbert Henry Heathcote."

"Put me down for an apology, too," said "King" Plummer, in his big,
booming tones.

Jimmy Grayson, on the outskirts of the crowd, returning to learn what
the noise was about, saw and heard all, and murmured to a friend:

"There is now a new member of our group, and all is well again."

XII

CHURCHILL STRIKES

The conversion and adoption of Mr. Heathcote, as Hobart called it, was a
pleasant incident in several senses, bringing much quiet gratification
to them all, and particularly and obviously to the candidate. A hostile
element, one intended by others to be hostile and interfering, had
become friendly, which, of itself, was a great gain. Moreover, the
smoothness of social intercourse was increased, and there, too, was a
new type, adding to the variety and interest of the group.

The only one not pleased was Churchill, who had expected much from Mr.
Heathcote, and who now, as he considered it, saw the committeeman turn
traitor. It was not a matter that he could handle fully in his
despatches to the _Monitor_, being too intangible to allow of bald
assertion, and he was reduced to indirect statement. This not satisfying
him at all, he wrote a long letter to Mr. Goodnight, both for the sake
of the cause and for the sake of his own feelings, which had been much
lacerated. Its production cost him a great deal of thought and labor;
but he had his reward, as its perusal after completion proved to him
that it was a masterpiece.

Churchill showed quite clearly to Mr. Goodnight the steady decay of the
candidate's character and the lower levels to which his campaign was
falling. In the security of a private letter it was not necessary for
him to spare words, and Churchill spoke his mind forcibly about the
manner in which Jimmy Grayson was pan