, and they'll probably vote for
Hopkins."

"Wait a moment, sir!" cried Erastus, as Uncle John was turning away.
"That speech demands an explanation, and I mean to have it."

"Oh, you do? Well, I don't object. You may not know it, but Squiers has
registered sixty-six non-voters, and I want to know whether you're
prepared to give half of them to Forbes, or mean to keep them all for
yourself."

"If Squiers has made false registrations he must stand the consequences.
I want you to understand, sir, that I do not countenance any underhand
dealing."

"Then it's all off? You won't vote the mill hands?"

"Not a man shall vote who is not properly registered."

"I'm glad to hear it, Mr. Hopkins. Perhaps you can get that twenty-five
hundred back. I don't think Squiers has cashed the check yet."

The Honorable Erastus gave a roar like a wild bull, but Uncle John had
walked quietly out and climbed into his buggy. He looked back, and
seeing Mr. Hopkins's scowling face at the window returned a pleasant
smile as he drove away.

Mr. Watson had just finished his interview with the dentist when Uncle
John picked him up at the corner. The lawyer had accomplished more than
the other two, for he had secured a paper exonerating Lucy Rogers and
another incriminating the Honorable Erastus Hopkins, as well as the
sixty dollars paid by Tom Gates. The dentist was thoroughly frightened,
but determined, now that the conspiracy was defeated, that the man who
had led him to the crime should not escape in case he was himself
arrested. So he made a plain statement of the whole matter and signed
it, and Mr. Watson assured Squiers immunity from arrest, pending good
behavior. The man had already cashed Hopkins's check, and he knew the
Representative could not get the money away from him, so after all the
dentist lost nothing by the exposure.

It was a jolly party that assembled at the dinner-table in Elmhurst that
evening.

"You see," explained Uncle John, "the thing looked as big as a balloon
to us at first; but it was only a bubble, after all, and as soon as we
pricked it--it disappeared."

CHAPTER XXI

THE "RETURNS" FROM FAIRVIEW

Election day dawned sunny and bright; but there was a chill in the air
that betokened the approach of winter.

Uncle John had suggested serving coffee to the voters at the different
polling places, and Kenneth had therefore arranged for a booth at each
place, where excellent coffee was served free all