e in favor will say 'Aye!'"

Every delegate in that hall was looking at Farr. They were staring at
him with curiosity and interest. But even curiosity does not always
prompt politicians to open a convention to a person who may prove to be
a bomb that will upset plans and precedent.

Then Farr gave them that wonderful smile!

The "Ayes" were scattered and sporadic! Men did not relish shutting off
a chap who stood there and smiled upon them in that fashion.

At the call for the "Noes" a bellow of voices shook the hall.

The convention had given this stranger permission to speak by that
refusal to subscribe to the cut-and-dried plans. Colonel Dodd was no
longer smug. He scowled ferociously.

"Gentlemen of the convention, I am grateful," cried Walker Farr. "And I
will not abuse your patience."

"Platform--take the platform!" called many of the delegates.

He smiled and shook his head. "Let me talk to you standing here where
I can look into your eyes, gentlemen. I feel pretty much alone in this
convention. I _am_ alone! I represent no faction, no interest except the
cause of the humble who have asked for help from the masters who have
been set over them. Perhaps I ought to have remained silent here to-day.
My cowardice has been prompting me to keep still. It is no easy matter
for me to stand up here and disturb the order of events which had been
arranged by the gentlemen who have managed your public affairs for
you so many years. But it would be much more difficult for some of the
others here to speak, because the gentlemen who manage politics have
methods by which they can discredit a man in his profession, ruin him
in his business, stop his credit at banks and in other ways make him pay
dearly for his boldness in speech. I have no money in banks, no business
which can be ruined."

"I rise to a point of order!" shouted a delegate, obeying a nod from the
stage. "The business in hand is the nomination of a governor."

"That is my business," stated Farr, calmly.

With political scent sharpened by his apprehension, Colonel Dodd
narrowed his eyes, sat straight in his chair, and desperately endeavored
to fathom the intentions of this rank outsider.

In spite of his bluster to the state committee he was worried. He had
not felt comfortable since his conference with Judge Ambrose Warren.
He did not like the "feel" of political conditions. There was some
indefinable slipperiness about matters.

He could not bring hims