ief-maker here. There are enough of us to see that you don't."

Harley turned his back scornfully upon Churchill, who said nothing more,
and began to tell his friends of Grayson.

"He is an orator," he said. "We know that by undoubted report, and his
manner is simple and most agreeable. He has more of the quality called
personal magnetism than any other man I ever saw."

"What of his ability?" asked Tremaine, the oldest of the correspondents.

Harley thought a little while before replying.

"I can't make up my mind on that point," he said. "I find in him, so far
as I can see, a certain simplicity, I might almost say an innocence,
which is remarkable. He is unlike the other public men whom I have met,
but I don't know whether this innocence indicates superficiality or a
tact and skill lying so deep that he is able to plan an ambush for the
best of his enemies."

"Well, we are to be with him five months," said Tremaine, "and it is our
business to find out."

III

THE START

They were to start at dawn the next day, going back to Chicago, where
the campaign would be opened, and Harley, ever alert, was dressing while
it was yet dusk. From a corner of the dining-room, where he snatched a
quick breakfast, he saw the sun shoot out of the prairie like a great
red cannon-ball and the world swim up into a sea of rosy light. Then he
ran for the special train, which was puffing and whistling at the
station, and the flock of correspondents was at his heels.

Harley saw Mr. and Mrs. Grayson alighting from a cab, and, satisfied
with the one glance, he entered the car and sought his place. Always,
like the trained soldier, he located his camp, or rather base, before
beginning his operations, and he made himself comfortable there with his
fellows until the train was well clear of the city and the straggling
suburbs that hung to it like a ragged fringe. Then he decided to go into
the next coach to see Mr. and Mrs. Grayson, making, as it were, a dinner
call.

The candidate and his wife had taken the drawing-room, not from any
desire of his for seclusion or as an artificial aid to greatness, but
because he saw that it was necessary if he would have any time for
thought or rest. Harley approached the compartment, expecting to be
announced by the porter, but a veiled lady in the seat next to it rose
up before him. She lifted the veil, which was not a disguise, instead
being intended merely as a protection against the dust