"Well," Rankin went on, "you see Pusey's been comin' up in the world this last year. After he got holt o' the _Citizen_, which no one thought he ever could do, he braced up consider'ble an' started in fer to edit a clean sheet--a reg'lar home an' fireside companion. You wouldn't know 'im now--new clothes, plug hat Sundays, an' he gets shaved." "Shaved?" "Yep, has a cup at the barber's with a quill pen painted onto it." They marveled sufficiently, and Rankin resumed: "He's al'ays had it in fer me you know, an' he's a pretty slick one, he is, if I must say so. He went to work quiet like, to beat me out--" "And he did it!" "Yes, sir, he done it." Rankin sunk his hands in his trousers' pockets and slid his heels across the floor until his legs were stretched out before him. Then he stared abstractedly, thinking of his defeat. "Well--I'll get through with it. I read in the papers 'at Congress 'uld adjourn the last o' May. I thought we'd ought to have an early convention. I wanted to fix it all up and have an instructed delegation waitin' fer you on your return, so I calls a meetin' o' the county committee, settin' it on Saturday the twenty-seventh. I felt pretty good over it, too, for I thought I'd took Pusey by surprise. He didn't say nothin' in the paper, but he ain't the feller to be caught nappin'--no sir, he ain't. I didn't give him credit fer it." "Well, what did he do?" "Do? Why, he didn't do a thing but--well, I'll tell it to you in its order. Everything seemed all right. We met at the Cassell House. There wasn't many there at first, not enough to make a quorum. Then in walks old Sol Badger, an' with him Lige Coons from Ball to'nship, an' then who should follow but Pusey himself! Well, I didn't think nothin' of it then, fer I s'posed Pusey had come in as a representative of the press, you know, and o' course, I didn't feel like sayin' an'thin'. Some o' our fellers hadn't got in yit, but when Es Miller arrived, up jumps Pusey an' he says, 'Well, we've got a quorum now, let's get down to business.' I looks at him a minute inquirin' like, an' he smiles back at me with that sof' grin o' his, like a cat, an' he says, 'I hold Mr. Golden's proxy.'" "Proxies!" exclaimed Garwood, "so that was it!" "Yes sir, ev'ry one o' them fellers had proxies, an'--well, you can easy see how it come out. When I see how it had been fixed, I changed my plans in a minute, an' wanted a late date fer the convention, but they proposed an early one, fer the thirtieth. An' on the test vote they beat us by just one. Well, Pusey had fixed it all up on the quiet. They sprung their early convention, an', though they hadn't any candidate, they beat the resolutions to instruct fer you, an' the delegation goes to the convention fer to support who it wants to." "Whom will it support?" "Well, Sprague, I reckon." "I thought it looked like one of his tricks. Has Moultrie held her convention?" "No, they hold it next Saturday."