ou so your friends can't tell
what you looked like. And somebody that ain't got brains enough to plug
the hole in a watch-key has been talkin' around that Bud Shoop is a
fighter, with a record for gettin' what he goes after. And that this
same Bud Shoop is as honest as the day is long. Now, I've seen some
mighty short days when I was tradin' hosses. And then this here stingin'
lizard goes to work and digs up my deputy number over to Sterling and
sets the papers to printin' as how it was me, with the help of a few
parties whose names are of no special int'rest, settled that strike."

"So you were at Sterling?"

"Uh-uh. Between you and me, I was. And it wa'n't what you'd call a
girl's school for boys, neither. But that's done. What I'm gettin' at
is: If I resign here, after givin' my word to Torrance to stick, it
looks like I been playin' with one hand under the table. The papers will
lie like hell boostin' me, and if I don't lie like hell, boostin'
myself, folks'll think I'm a liar, anyhow. Now, takin' such folks one at
a time, out back of the store, mebby, where they ain't no wimmin-folks,
I reckon I could make 'em think different. But I can't lick the county.
I ain't no angel. I never found that tellin' the truth kep' me awake
nights. And I sleep pretty good. Now, I writ to Torrance, tellin' him
just how things was headed. What do you think he writ back?"

"Why, he told you to go ahead and win, didn't he?"

"Yep. And he said that it was apparent that the State needed my services
more than the Service did. That's somethin' like a train with a engine
on each end. You don't know which way it's headed."

"I'd take it as a sincere compliment."

"Well, I did swell up some. Then I says to myself: 'Bud, you ain't no
fancy office man, and even if you are doin' good work here, you can't
put it in writin' for them big bugs at Washington.' Mebby John is so
dog-gone busy--like the fella with both bands full and his suspenders
broke--- that he'd be glad to get behind 'most anything to get shut of
me."

"I think you're mistaken. You know you can't keep a born politician out
of politics."

"Meanin' me?"

"You're the type."

"By gravy, Bronson! I never seen you hidin' your watch when I come up to
visit you before."

"See here, Shoop. Why don't you write to Torrance and ask him
point-blank if he has had a hand in getting you nominated for Senator?
Torrance is a big man in his line, and he probably knows what he is
doing."