Before he could grasp her arm, the girl was gone. That night Jap lay awake long hours, thinking, thinking. With the morning, reason returned. He had assumed responsibility for Flossy and the boy. He must not think again. And indeed the next few days gave him little time for thought. Wat Harlow slipped into the office late one afternoon. He wore a furtive look and an appearance of guilt. There was about him a suggestion of gum shoes. Something must be amiss. "I want to see you alone, Jap," he confessed. Jap led the way to the little private office. Harlow was pulling nervously at the stubby mustache that hid his short upper lip. "In trouble, Wat?" asked Jap anxiously. "No--not exactly. You see, it's this way----" He coughed apologetically. "The wife had a dream, a funny dream, the other night. She's had curious dreams ever since we took that long trip, to New York and all over, last year, and there may be nothing to it, but----" He lit a fresh cigar, and went at it again. "She says that she saw me going into the Capitol at Washington just as if I belonged there. And she got a notion---- Jap, you know how notionate women are. She thinks--well, she thinks that I might be called to run for the House of Representatives." "Oh, I see," said Jap, illuminated. "It would sound good for the _Herald_ to mention that you are in line?" "Not rough-like, Jap! Just a little tickle in the ribs, to see what they'd say." "Oh, I'll fix that," declared Jap, laughing. And the _Herald_ flung the hat in the ring for "Harlow, the one honest man." Jap smiled sadly as he read his copy over. He had a habit of wondering what Ellis would have said. He wondered, too, what attitude the editor of the Barton _Standard_ would take. The _Standard_ had recently changed hands, and since Bloomtown had pulled a saloon, a sunbonnet factory and two business houses out of Barton, a rapid-fire editorial war had been in progress. By some curious dispensation of Providence, Jones of the _Standard_ and Herron of the _Herald_ had never met. Jap was not hunting trouble, but the same spirit that prompted him to thrash his tormentors, the day of his advent in Ellis Hinton's town, caused him to wield a fire-tipped pen against the _Standard_. That opposition to Wat's candidacy would develop, before the nomination, was to be expected; but opposition on the part of the Barton _Standard_ would be a purely personal matter, the _Standard_ having its own party fights to foster. But that was all Jap feared.