Jim lighted his pipe and leaned back in his chair. "I won't be here, boys," he said. "This is confidential. I have been asked for my resignation and it takes effect the day after election." There was utter silence in the room for a moment, then Henderson leaned forward and spat past Uncle Denny into the grate. "Hell's fire!" he said gently. "How long have you known this, Boss?" asked Murphy. "Nearly three months," answered Jim. "Pen told me," said Dennis. "Suma-theek told her." Jim looked up in astonishment, then he shook his head. "I'm sorry Pen has that to bother her, too." Murphy jumped to his feet. "And you have known this three months and never told us! Is that any way to treat your friends? Do you suppose we want to lie by and see you licked off this dam like a yellow cur? It's no use for you to ask this to be kept quiet, Boss. I won't do it." Jim rose and pointed his pipe at Murphy. "Murphy, if you try to use this confidential talk to raise sentiment for me, I'll fire you!" "You can't fire my friendship!" shouted Murphy. "You can have my job any time you want it!" Here Oscar Ames spoke for the first time. "When's Mrs. Penelope coming back?" "Don't you get her out here," said Jim. "She can do no good and she needs peace and quiet." CHAPTER XXVI THE END OF THE SILENT CAMPAIGN "The dream in them of a greater good lifts humans from the level of brutes. Take this dream from them and they are like quenched comets." MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT. It was Oscar's turn to get to his feet. "Manning," he said, "ain't you learned your lesson yet? Who was it kicked me out of the dirty political scrape I was getting into and made me see straight? Huh? Who was it? Well, it was my wife. And who woke my wife up? It was Mrs. Pen, wasn't it? And who, by your own admission, showed you things you'd been seeing crooked all your life? Huh? 'Twas Mrs. Pen, wasn't it? You're as moss-bound in lots of ways as a farmer. Now I've learned my lesson. I'm willing to admit that women folks has got intuitions that beat our fine ideas all hollow. She may not do us any good. But I want to know what she thinks about things. I'll be yelling votes for women next. Gimme her address. I'm going to send her a night message they'll have to use an adding machine to count the words in." "What can be done in a week?" asked Jim, with his first show of irritation. "I won't have her bothered, I tell you." "Still Jim," said Uncle Denny, "do you suppose she's thought of anything else but the situation out here, excepting, of course, poor Sara? And Pen's Irish! Even long distance fighting has charms for her." Henderson looked at Jim's dark circled eyes and his compressed lips. "Go to bed, Boss," he said in his tender voice. "See if you can't get some sleep. You have done your best. Is there anyone in the valley you ain't seen yet?" "Two or three," said Jim.