"I'm afraid we are a good many miles apart in this matter of politics," he said, when the proposal had been given time to sink in. "America is supposed to be a free country, with a representative government elected by the suffrages of the people; do you mean to say that you and a few of your friends ignore the basic principles of democracy to such an extent that you nominate and elect anybody you please to any office in the State?" The far-seeing eyes of the veteran were twinkling again. "Oh, I don't know about our being so far apart," was the deprecatory protest. "You're just a little bit long on theory, that's all, son. When it comes down to the real thing--practical politics, as some folks call it--somebody has to head the stampede and turn it. And if we don't do it this coming fall, the other bunch will." "What other bunch?" "In this case it's the corporations: the timber people, the irrigation companies, and, most of all, the railroad." "Gantry seems to think that the railroads--or his railroad, at least--are persecuted." The senator pulled his horse down to a still slower walk. "Where did you see Dick Gantry?" he demanded. Evan told of the meeting on the veranda of the Winnebasset Club, adding the further fact of the college friendship. "Just happened so, did it?" queried the older man, "that getting together last Saturday night?" "Why--yes, I suppose so. Dick knew I was in Boston, and he said he had meant to look me up." "I reckon he did," was the quiet comment; "yes, I reckon he did. And he filled you up plumb full of Hardwick McVickar's notions, _of_ course. I reckon that's about what he was told to do. But we won't fall apart on that, son. To-morrow we'll run down to the city, and you can look the ground over for yourself. I want you to draw your own conclusions, and then come and tell me what you'd like to do. Shall we leave it that way?" Evan Blount acquiesced, quite without prejudice, to a firm conviction that his opinion, when formed, was going to be based on the larger merits of the case, upon a fair and judicial summing-up of the pros and cons--all of them. He felt that it would be a blow struck at the very root of the tree of good government if he should consent to be the candidate of the machine. But, on the other hand, he saw instantly what a power a fearless public prosecutor could be in a misguided commonwealth where the lack was not of good laws, but of men strong enough and courageous enough to administer them. He would see: if the good to be accomplished were great enough to over-balance the evil ... it was a temptation to compromise--a sharp temptation; and he found himself longing for Patricia, for her clear-sighted comment which, he felt sure, would go straight to the heart of the tangle.