t faction now intended to force the
issue--that is, either to subject Mr. Grayson or to ruin him, and he saw
that the affair would require the most delicate handling; only that and
the best of fortune could postpone the issue long enough.

They took Sylvia into their confidence, both by necessity and choice,
but they were rather surprised to find that in this case she did not
believe in diplomacy.

"If I were Uncle James," she said, with indignant anger, "I would tell
them to go to--well, well, where a man would tell them to go to, and I
would not be polite about it, either."

Harley laughed at her heat, although he liked it, too.

"And then you'd lose the election," he said.

"I'd lose it, if I must, but at least I'd save my independence and
self-respect in doing so. Is Uncle James the nominee, or is he not? If
he is the nominee, shouldn't he say what he ought to do?"

"Perhaps, but it isn't politics; even if he were elected he wouldn't be
absolutely free; no ruler ever was, whether president or king."

But she clung to her opinion.

It was no easy matter to hide the tariff issue from Jimmy Grayson, who
was exceedingly watchful of all things about him, despite his great
labors in the campaign; yet his associates were aided to some extent by
the rather meagre character of the newspapers which now reached them,
newspapers published in small towns, and therefore unable to pay for
long despatches from the East. But even these were censored with the
most jealous care; if they contained anything about the hot tariff
discussion off there in the Atlantic States, they disappeared before
they could reach the candidate. All the news was inspected with the most
rigid care, just as if the real feeling of his subjects was being hidden
from a kaiser or a czar.

But Harley and his friends soon found that they had laid upon themselves
a great and onerous task, and to Harley, at least, it was all the
heavier because he found, at last, that his heart was not wholly in it.
Despite all their caution, references to the tariff debate would dribble
in; Jimmy Grayson began to grow suspicious; he would ask about the work
of the campaign orators in the East, and he seemed surprised that his
friends, above all the correspondents, should have so little news on the
subject.

"I should like to see some of the New York or Chicago newspapers, even
if they are ten days old," he said. "It seems odd that we have not had
any for a week now."