“All very fine,” replied Mr. Kerrigan, pretending a dullness which he did not feel; “but it’s damned ticklish business at best. I don’t know that I want anything to do with it even if we could win. It’s true the City Hall crowd have never played into my hands very much; but this is a Democratic district, and I’m a Democrat. If it ever got out that I had thrown the party it would be pretty near all day with me. “I’m a man of my word,” declared Mr. Gilgan, emphatically, getting up. “I never threw a man or a bet in my life. Look at me record in the eighteenth. Did you ever hear any one say that I had?” “No, I never did,” returned Kerrigan, mildly. “But it’s a pretty large thing you’re proposing, Mr. Gilgan. I wouldn’t want to say what I thought about it offhand. This ward is supposed to be Democratic. It couldn’t be swung over into the Republican column without a good bit of fuss being made about it. You’d better see Mr. Tiernan first and hear what he has to say. Afterward I might be willing to talk about it further. Not now, though—not now.” Mr. Gilgan went away quite jauntily and cheerfully. He was not at all downcast. CHAPTER XXXVI. An Election Draws Near Subsequently Mr. Kerrigan called on Mr. Tiernan casually. Mr. Tiernan returned the call. A little later Messrs. Tiernan, Kerrigan, and Gilgan, in a parlor-room in a small hotel in Milwaukee (in order not to be seen together), conferred. Finally Messrs. Tiernan, Edstrom, Kerrigan, and Gilgan met and mapped out a programme of division far too intricate to be indicated here. Needless to say, it involved the division of chief clerks, pro rata, of police graft, of gambling and bawdy-house perquisites, of returns from gas, street-railway, and other organizations. It was sealed with many solemn promises. If it could be made effective this quadrumvirate was to endure for years. Judges, small magistrates, officers large and small, the shrievalty, the water office, the tax office, all were to come within its purview. It was a fine, handsome political dream, and as such worthy of every courtesy and consideration but it was only a political dream in its ultimate aspects, and as such impressed the participants themselves at times.