“Well, well, well!” gurgled Caleb. “To think how that wicked old Curtis fox has imposed on my trust in human nature! He’s got us, eh?” “It looks so, I’m afraid.” “Looks so to him, too. It’ll keep on looking so till I shove him into court and make him swear on the witness stand that no contract ever existed. Then it’ll be time enough to produce the certified copy I had made just after I got his request to send the original to his hotel. Poor old Curtis! Please write him a very blustering, scared, appealing kind of letter. Next?” “O’Flaherty’s sent another begging note, about that claim of his against the road. It begins: ‘_Dear Mr. Conover: As you know, I’ve seen better days_’——” “Tell him I can’t be held accountable for the weather. And—say, Miss Lanier, let all the rest of this routine go over for to-day. I’ve a bigger game on, and I’ve got to hustle. That Governorship business——” “Yes?” “That was the foolest thing I ever did. It seemed to me at the minute a grand idea as a wind-up for my crazy speech. But I guess I’ll have to pay my way all right before I’m done with last evening. The free list’s suspended as far’s I’m concerned.” “You mean there’s some doubt of your getting the nomination?” she asked, a sudden hope making her big eyes lustrous. “Doubt? _Doubt?_ Say, I thought you knew me better than that. Why, the nomination’s right in front of me on a silver salver and trimmed with blue ribbons. And the election, too, for that matter.” “Then”—the hope dying—“why do you speak as you did just now?” “It’s this way: I’ve held Granite and the Mountain State by the nape of the neck for ten years. I’m the Boss. And when I give the word folks come to heel. But all this time I’ve been standing in the background while I pulled the strings. It was safer that way and pleasanter. I’d a lot rather write the play than be just a paid actor in it. But now I’ve got to jump out of my corner in the wings and take the centre of the stage. There’s a lot more glory on the stage than in the wings, but there’s lots more bad eggs and decayed fruit drifting in that direction, too. If the audience don’t like the actor they hiss him. The man in the wings don’t get any of that. All he has to do is to call off that actor and put on another the crowd’ll like better, or maybe a new play if it comes to the worst. “But here I’m to take the stage and get the limelight and the newspaper roasts—outside the State—and not an actor can I shunt it off on. That’s why I’ve never took public office since I was Mayor. And then it was only a stepping-stone to the Leadership. Now I’ve got to leave the background and pose in the Capitol. There’s nothing in it for me, except a better social position. That’s a lot, I know. But I’m not so sure that even such a raise is worth the price.” “Then why not withdraw?”