"Like to get over to Frankfort, don't you, Colonel?" asked Conley of Ohio, in the bald way that men had of inducing the colonel to talk about Kentucky. "Well, suh, yes, suh, in a ce'tain sense I dew. It's ve'y pleasant to' a gentleman to meet all his old friends and comrades in ahms, as I do theah, but I will say this, suhs, that theah is at Frankfo't an aggregation of men who seemingly fo' ages have been hanging onto the public teat theah, suhs, and who, if the good Lawd would see fit to snatch them to his bosom, would be the subjects of a special dispensation of divahn Providence in which I could acquiesce, suhs, with an enthusiasm that would be tuhbulent and even riotous." After this the colonel, feeling that politeness demanded the elimination of himself from his conversation, temporarily at least, turned to Garwood and said: "Have you got a contes' on in yoah district this yeah, Colonel?" "I always have had," said Garwood, and a sudden rueful expression overspread his countenance, "and I know no reason to expect any change in the ordinary routine this year." "Well, suh. I wish I weh at liberty to go into yoah district this fall and make some speeches fo' you," said the colonel, with that naïve conceit of his which led him to feel that his presence would save the day for Garwood. "If you could go out there _now_, with your gun, and in approved Kentucky style, kill off a few men I could name, I would like it almost as well," Garwood replied. The colonel made no answer to this. But he looked a stern rebuke at Garwood, as at one who trifled with grave and serious matters. They sat there and drank and listened to the colonel's stories until the evening came, until the night itself had fallen. And then Garwood received Pusey's telegram, and it smote him dumb in the middle of a laugh. He had only time to ask Colonel Bird to request a leave of absence for him, before he hurried away to pack his bag. The colonel was delighted, of course, to have the opportunity to act for a friend in any matter. In fact, nothing could please him more than to be enabled to rise in his place in the House in all that morning dignity which no dissipation of the previous night could impair, and address the Speaker. And it may have been merely to show his appreciation of the confidence thus reposed in him, that he went with Garwood to see him safely aboard his train, on which he was to speed westward, with troubled mind, through the mountains and over the plains, out to Illinois. VII