meet constantly and consider the question
of electing men that were not mere politicians, that would deliver the
State from the medieval tyranny that oppressed it; advised his hearers
to employ the best legal counsel they could get, and to give their
leisure moments to the study of practical politics, instead of
indolently submitting all great questions to the hands of men as
unscrupulous as the State bosses and corporations. With his peculiar
gift he made each breathless man in the auditorium feel not only that he
was being personally addressed, but that his mental equipment had
mysteriously been raised to the plane of the speaker's. When Gwynne
finished amid applause as great as any he had evoked in England after
the expounding of great issues dear to his heart, he turned to find
Colton regarding him with sharp eyes and lowering brow. He immediately
took his arm and led him without.

"I am glad a climax has come so soon," he said. "Otherwise I should have
begun to feel like a hypocrite. Not only are your principles and mine
utterly antagonistic, but you must consider me as your rival. I can do
nothing definite, of course, for nearly four years, and meanwhile you
may reach the United States Senate. If you do I shall do my utmost to
oust you. Nevertheless, if I can be of any service in sending you there
I am perfectly willing to place myself at your disposal, for the
experience and insight I shall acquire in exchange. And as you are no
worse than the others, and some one must go, it might as well be you as
another. But, I repeat, I shall use all my powers to oust you and take
your place."

Colton stood for a few moments, his hands in his pockets, regarding the
ground. Then he lifted his eyes and smiled ingenuously.

"You are dead straight, for a fact. And I think I have got just as good
an opinion of myself as you have of yourself. You put me in the United
States Senate with that tongue of yours--God, you can talk!--and I'll
take the chances of even you getting me out. It will take more than
eloquence to upset a great State machine, and before I get through I'll
have the Democratic machine stronger than the Republican is to-day. You
can't get anywhere in this country without the machine, and the man in
control stays in control unless he falls down, and this I don't propose
to do. I'll swap frankness and tell you right here that when I'm boss I
may let you come to Congress as my colleague, but that you've got to do
a