ad
never been wanting in a vein of humorous sympathy, nor in a fair
capacity for friendship as well as enmity.

He raised his eyes from the coals and looked directly at Gwynne, who was
relighting his pipe.

"I don't like Tom Colton," he said, abruptly. "And it's not so much
because he is the son of that old skinflint, neither. He is a little too
much the product of the times--a sort of polished up descendant of that
hoodlum element that terrorized San Francisco in the Seventies. He
started out as a mere or'nary politician, but the Democratic Boss took
him up and his ambitions are growing. What with the money he has and
will inherit, and the devilish gall of him, he can play a deep game, and
his chances of winning look a little too fair to suit a good many of us.
He's nothing better than an anarchist, and without the excuse of the
common anarchist--who, at the worst--or his own best--risks his life.
Tom Colton and men of his stamp wouldn't risk the skin of their little
fingers. All they do is to build a red-hot fire under the political
caldron, stir it up with a big stick until it doesn't know where it is
at or what it is made of, and then float into power on the steam. This
has been one of the rottenest States in the Union for a good many years,
and no wonder such men as Tom think they can about do as they please;
but a good many are getting pretty damned tired of it, and there's a
sort of reform mutter going on here and there that will gather and swell
if skilfully manipulated. We've been talking you over, and have
concluded to back you up for all we are worth as soon as you are
ready--that is to say we would but for one drawback--your friendship
with Colton."

"If you choose to call it that. I have told him in as plain English as
he will ever hear what I think of his politics, and that if I ever enter
public life myself I shall devote my energies to running him and his
like out of it. He is too good-natured and too sure of himself--and his
State!--to mind. Moreover, he has four years the start of me. It is
possible that I shall go to Sacramento with, and even speak for, him;
but he understands perfectly that I am only after experience, will
advocate nothing I disapprove of--he actually has certain reforms in his
political basket, and whatever may be his intention to compromise when
he reaches Sacramento, I, at least, can advocate them in all sincerity;
and further open the eyes of all these people to what they ough