ouldn't be more right. What next?"

"As I figure it out, our only chance, and that a bare fighting chance,
is to put up men who are not only irreproachable, but who are radicals
and fighters. We've got to do something new, big, sensational, or
we're lost."

"Well?" said Bruce.

"I was thinking," said Blind Charlie, "that our best move would be to
run you for mayor."

"Me?" cried Bruce, starting forward.

"Yes. You've got ideas. And you're a fighter."

Bruce scrutinized the old face, all suspicion.

"See here, Charlie," he said abruptly, "what the hell's your game?"

"My game?"

"Oh, come! Don't expect me to believe in you when you pose as a
reformer!"

"See here, Bruce," said the other a little sharply, "you've called me
about every dirty word lying around handy in the Middle West. But you
never called me a hypocrite."

"No."

"Well, I'm not coming to you now pretending that I've been holding a
little private revival, and that I've been washed in the blood of the
Lamb."

"Then what's behind this? What's in it for you?"

"I'll tell you--though of course I can't make you believe me if you
don't want to. I'm getting pretty old--I'm sixty-seven. I may not live
till another campaign. I'd like to see the party win once more before
I go. That's one thing. Another is, I've got it in for Blake, and want
to see him licked. I can't do either in my way. I can possibly do both
in your way. Mere personal satisfaction like this would have been
mighty little for me to have got out of an election in the old days.
But it's better than nothing at all"--smiling good-naturedly--"even to
a cunning, unprincipled, hardened old rascal of a politician."

"But what's the string tied to this offer?"

"None. You can name the ticket, write the platform----"

"It would be a radical one!" warned Bruce.

"It would have to be radical. Our only chance is in creating a
sensation."

"And if elected?"

"You shall make every appointment without let or hindrance. I know I'd
be a fool to try to bind you in any way."

Bruce was silent a long time, studying the wrinkled old face.

"Well, what do you say?" queried Blind Charlie.

"Frankly, I don't like being mixed up with you."

"But you believe in using existing party machinery, don't you? You've
said so in the _Express_."

"Yes. But I also have said that I don't believe in using it the way
you have."

"Well, here's your chance to take it and use it your own way."

"But what