t there were two men with the cab which
carried John Allingham, lest,--the people said,--he should try to break
the plate glass front and jump from his moving prison. But that the plot
was a well-matured one was proven by the fact that outside locks had
been placed on the doors to both cabs, so that they could not be forced
open from the inside.

No definite clue, however, could be obtained to the perpetrators of the
kidnaping scheme, although both sufferers from it had put private
detectives at work upon the affair. But, like many startling public
events, the midnight ride of the two candidates was a "nine days'
wonder" and then the public interest centered around the newly elected
mayor.

Gertrude had need not only of public sympathy, but of all the courage
and clear-sightedness which she had inherited. This she realized more
fully than ever, when the excitement of campaigning was over. If she had
chosen to spend her time and strength and money on automobiles or fine
clothes, people would have passed upon her choice as the natural thing,
and envied her way of living; but now that she had elected to work hard
and to give herself freely to fighting for principle and establishing
good government in her city, her friends of different tastes whispered
among themselves, "How strange!" "How unwomanly!" "How unnatural for a
woman!"

"The only motives many people can understand," said Gertrude one day to
her cousin, "are the ones by which they themselves are actuated. And not
always then. My rich friends may not be able to understand, but the
plain people will; the ones who are capable of conviction and of
sacrifices for conviction will."

"All the same, Gertie," retorted her cousin, "this world is not made up
of Savonarolas nor other burn-at-the-stake folks. You are in a bad
scrape and I wish you had had sense enough to say no when those women
dragged you forth," which only went to prove the axiom that one's
relatives are privileged of speech.

But the new mayor paid no attention to her cousin and went on calmly
planning for the future of Roma, visiting its various institutions and
getting as thorough an insight into its public administration as
possible before taking her place in the mayor's chair. She visited the
schools, the hospitals, the police stations, the jail. She was
overwhelmed with the magnitude of what she had undertaken, but already
dreamed of a new and beautiful development of the city. She consulted
wit