As a first step, I resigned the chairmanship of the state committee and ordered the election of Woodruff to the vacancy. I should soon have substituted Woodruff for myself, in any event. I had never wanted the place, and had taken it only because to refuse it would have been to throw away the golden opportunity Dunkirk so unexpectedly thrust at me. Holding that position, or any other officially connecting me with my party's machine, made me a target; and I wished to be completely hidden, for I wished the people of my state to think me merely one of the party servants, in sympathy with the rank and file rather than with the machine. Yet, in the chairmanship, in the targetship, I must have a man whom I could trust through and through; and, save Woodruff, who was there for the place? When my resignation was announced, the independent and the opposition press congratulated me on my high principle in refusing to have any official connection with the machine responsible for such infamies. When Woodruff's election was announced it came as a complete surprise. Such of the newspapers as dared, and they were few, denounced it as infamy's crown of infamy; and the rank and file of the party was shocked,--as I had known it would be. He made not a murmur, but I knew what must be in his mind. I said nothing until six weeks or two months had passed; then I went straight at him. "You are feeling bitter against me," said I. "You think I dropped out when there was danger of heavy firing, and put you up to take it." "No, indeed, Senator," he protested, "nothing like that. Honestly, I have not had a bitter thought against you. I'm depressed simply because, just as I had a chance to get on my feet again, they won't let me." "But," I rejoined, "I did resign and put you in my place because I didn't want to take the fire and thought you could." "And so I can," said he. "I haven't any reputation to lose. I'm no worse off than I was before. Let 'em do their damnedest." "Your first campaign will probably be a failure," I went on, "and, the day after election, there'll be a shout for your head." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm enlisted for the war," said he. "You're my general. I go where you order." I hope the feelings that surged up in me showed in my face, as I stretched out my hand. "Thank you, Doc," said I. "And--there's another side to it. It isn't all black." "It isn't black at all," he replied stoutly. I explained: "I've wanted you to have the place from the outset. But I shouldn't dare give it to you except at a time like this, when our party has done so many unpopular things that one more won't count; and there's so much to be said against us, so much worse things than they can possibly make out your election to be, that it'll soon be almost neglected." "They're beginning to drop me already and go back to harrying those poor devils of ours in the legislature," said Woodruff.