o the
Convention to cast a free vote for Judge Van Dorn, was Nathan Perry. He
was put on the delegation to look after his father's interests. Van Dorn
was a practical man, Kyle Perry was a practical man and they knew Nate
Perry was a practical youth. But while Tom Van Dorn slept upon the
assurance of victory, Nate Perry was perturbed.

CHAPTER XXVIII

WHEREIN MORTY SANDS MAKES A FEW SENSIBLE REMARKS IN PUBLIC

When Mortimer Sands came down town Saturday morning, two hours before
the convention met, he found the courthouse yard black with prospective
delegates and also he found that the Judge's friends were in a majority
in the crowd. So evident was their ascendancy that the Nesbit forces had
conceded to the Judge the right to organize the convention. At eleven
o'clock the crowd, merchants, clerks, professional men, working men in
their Sunday clothes, delegates from the surrounding country towns, and
farmers--a throng of three hundred men, began to crowd into the hot
"Opera House." So young Mr. Sands, with his finger in a book to keep his
place, followed the crowd to the hall, and took his seat with the Fourth
Ward delegation. Having done this he considered that his full duty to
God and man had been performed. He found Nathan Perry sitting beside him
and said:

"Well, Nate, here's where Anne's great heart breaks--I suppose?"

Nathan nodded and asked: "I presume it's all over but the shouting."

"All over," answered the elder young man as he dived into his book. As
he read he realized that the convention had chosen Captain Morton--a
partisan of the Judge--for chairman. The hot, stifling air of the room
was thick with the smoke of cheap tobacco. Morty Sands grew nervous and
irritated during the preliminary motions of the organization. Even as a
sporting event the odds on Van Dorn were too heavy to promote
excitement. He went out for a breath of air. When he reentered Judge Van
Dorn was making the opening speech of the convention. It was a fervid
effort; the Spanish war was then in progress so the speech was full of
allusions to what the Judge was pleased to call "libertah" and "our
common countrah" and our sacred "dutah" to "humanitah." Naturally the
delegates who were for the Judge's renomination displayed much
enthusiasm, and it was a noisy moment. When the Judge closed his
remarks--tearfully of course--and took his seat as chairman of the
Fourth Ward delegation, which was supposed to be for him unanimousl