When the meeting was over, Garwood went to the hotel to wait for Rankin, who had a mysterious, but always purposeful way of disappearing at times of such political excitement as had been rocking Lincoln all that day. Garwood had long since learned, when Rankin thus went under the political waters, to await calmly his reappearance at the surface, and so he wrote Rankin's name and his own name on the blotted register of the hotel, and asked for a room. He had scarcely laid down the corroded pen the landlord found in a drawer, when a voice beside him said: "Did you see it yet, Jerry?" Garwood turned to look in the grinning face of Julius Vogt, who had come over with the Grand Prairie "excursion" that morning. "See what?" asked Garwood. "Why," said Vogt, drawing something from his pocket, "Pusey's article about you--there," and he opened the copy of the _News_ and gave it to Garwood. "Oh!" said Garwood, "_that!_--I saw part of it." And he smiled on Vogt, whom he felt like striking. "Well," said Vogt, still grinning, though his grin was losing something, "I jus' thought, maybe,--" "Thanks," said Garwood. Several others of the Grand Prairie boys, as any one, considering them in their political capacity, would have called them, had drawn near, attracted by their candidate for Congress, whose wide hat rode above all the heads in the crowd. Doubtless they expected Garwood to open the paper, but he was too good a politician for that. As he stood there he idly picked at the ragged edges of the sheets, and when he spoke seemed to have forgotten it, for he said: "Well, how'd you like the speech?" "Great," said Billy Feek. "You bet," said Doris Fox. "Didn't he lam into 'em?" said Burr Rippleman. Still their eyes were on the paper which Garwood seemed to be in danger of picking to pieces. "Yes, it was as fine an effort as I ever heard under such circumstances," said Garwood. "He's a great campaigner." He carelessly thrust the paper into the side pocket of the black alpaca coat he wore. The boys were sober faced again. "Goin' back with us to-night, Jerry?" said Elam Kirk. "We're goin' to hold the train till after your speech." "Reckon not," Garwood replied. "I'm going over to Pekin in the morning." He looked at his watch. "Well!" he exclaimed, "it's nearly supper time, and I haven't given a thought to what I'm going to say to-night. Will you come have a little drink before supper?"