"Why?" demanded Carlton. "I think we have made it a good case." "You have made it a splendid case," was the sneering response, "but unfortunately Cleverly is a city that does not come within the scope of the work which has been mapped out by this Committee." "What do you mean?" demanded Carlton, angrily. "I mean that we agreed that we should not consider the application of cities or towns with a population of less than thirty thousand." "I know that," assented Carlton, "but--" "There are no 'buts' to it," cried the other, exultingly. "I have here an official copy of the last census," and he held a document in the air, "and according to this book, Cleverly has a population of 29,786." Carlton looked crestfallen. The other members of the Committee yawned. One of them said with a snicker: "We have wasted a lot of valuable time." "Yes," remarked another, "I move that we take up the next bill before the Committee." "But," protested Carlton, "the figures Mr. Hudson has given are eight or nine years old." "Yes," retorted his adversary, "but they are the only official figures we can consider." "One moment," cried a voice from the rear of the room. Everybody looked in that direction. Mr. Daniel Smithers was standing up and waving a sheet of paper in the air. "This gentleman is not a member of the Committee," protested Hudson. "No," shouted the schoolmaster, "but I have some information that the Committee might like to receive." "What is it?" asked the Chairman. "It is simply this: I was in the office of the Director of the Census less than an hour ago. He was good enough to tell me that the computers had just finished the count of the new census of the city of Cleverly." "Yes, yes," cried Carlton, on his feet, "and what were the figures? What is the population of Cleverly today?" Smithers straightened to his full height in order to fire his shot straight at the bull's eye. He spoke impressively, even dramatically: "Cleverly, today," he cried, "has a population of 43,986!" Two or three members of the Committee and the entire delegation from Cleverly broke out in a ripple of applause. Hudson, seated in a corner of the room, looked sick and crestfallen. The Chairman of the Committee turned to the clerk and said, drily: "Lay the Cleverly bill aside. It is evidently worthy of further consideration." The Chairman of the delegation thanked the members of the Committee for their attention and then filed out of the room, with Carlton at their head. As they reached the corridor of the Capitol, the big statesman grabbed the schoolteacher by the hand and cried, impulsively: "By George, Smithers, but you just came in in the very nick of time!" Smithers smiled in his homely way. "I guess it was all right," he admitted, "but, John, don't you remember when we were boys, they used to say I was the best pinch hitter on our base-ball team?" CHAPTER XIII A LITTLE PILGRIMAGE