e. "You just take all there is
a-going! You need it bad enough. I know when a man's hard up. I know
the signs. I've been as bad off as you; had to look all ways for five
dollars; had to play second fiddle and say thanky. But what I offer you
ain't a second fiddle. It's as good a chance as my own. Even divides.
One half to you and one half to me. You know the people and I know the
ropes. It's a fair bargain. What do you say?"

Mr. Dicker thought of his decayed practice and his unpaid bills; and
flipping overboard his little grain of conscience, he said, "Snacks."

"All right," grinned Pullwool, his teeth gleaming alarmingly. "Word of
a gentleman," he added, extending his pulpy hand, loaded with
ostentatious rings, and grasping Dicker's recoiling fingers. "Harness
up your little bill as quick as you can, and drive it like Jehu.
Fastburg to be the only capital. Slowburg no claims at all, historical,
geographical, or economic. The old arrangement a humbug; as
inconvenient as a fifth wheel of a coach; costs the State thousands of
greenbacks every year. Figure it all up statistically and dab it over
with your shiniest rhetoric and make a big thing of it every way.
That's what you've got to do; that's your little biz. I'll tend to the
rest."

"I don't quite see where the money is to come from," observed Mr.
Dicker.

"Leave that to me," said the veteran of the lobbies; "my name is
Pullwool, and I know how to pull the wool over men's eyes, and then I
know how to get at their britches-pockets. You bring in your bill and
make your speech. Will you do it?"

"Yes," answered Dicker, bolting all scruples in another half tumbler of
brandy.

He kept his word. As promptly as parliamentary forms and mysteries
would allow, there was a bill under the astonished noses of honorable
lawgivers, removing the seat of legislation from Slowburg and centring
it in Fastburg. This bill Mr. Thomas Dicker supported with that fluency
and fiery enthusiasm of oratory which had for a time enabled him to
show as the foremost man of his State. Great was the excitement, great
the rejoicing and anger. The press of Fastburg sent forth shrieks of
exultation, and the press of Slowburg responded with growlings of
disgust. The two capitals and the two geographical sections which they
represented were ready to fire Parrott guns at each other, without
regard to life and property in the adjoining regions of the earth. If
there was a citizen of the little Common