e face
of the chairman. However, every specimen could not be expected to meet
every requirement. No doubt of it--here was the made-to-order creature
for clever manipulation; and there followed then the suggestion to visit
New Ireland, with artful words to whet a fighting man's appetite for
that kind of job.

"And now for one last little touch before we send the poor boob to his
political extinction," whispered the chairman to his next at hand. Aloud
he said:

"Yes, sir--I believe in frankness, Mr. Riley. And I will tell you now
that we didn't poll many votes in New Ireland last year. I don't just
remember how many--I have mislaid the figures; but I wish to tell you
frankly--frankly, I say--that we did not poll many. What they need
there, I think, is a determined man like yourself to pile into them
hammer and tongs. That would be the way, I think. And you show me, Mr.
Riley, a fair Republican increase in New Ireland--fifty out of five
hundred, say--and you can lay out your own itinerary for the rest of the
campaign. Now isn't that fair?"

"Why, yes; that seems all right." As he said it, however, the new man,
his eyes ever on the chairman's, had a feeling that it was not all
right. And, as he was one of those intuitive ones with whom to feel was
almost to prove, his attitude changed from the subjective to the
objective. He had not liked this man a bit from the first, and he was
liking him less and less; that finishing "Now isn't that fair?" was
surely not meant for his benefit.

The new man left the committee-rooms with a disturbed soul, and on his
way to the elevator he began to think things over. Among a dozen other
things which flashed through his kindling brain he recalled the glint of
what now he knew was mockery brightening the pale eyes of the chairman
as the door closed behind him.

He pressed the button for the elevator; but before the upcoming car
reached his floor he decided not to descend. He would have it out. He
almost ran back to the committee-rooms and, brushing by the knowing but
inefficient outer guard, made for the room where the leaders were.
Already he could hear the laughter--yes, and the roaring at something or
other; and as he placed his hand on the knob of the inner door he heard:
"He's come here from the other end of the State, with a reputation for
burning things up. Let him try to burn up New Ireland--and then go back
to where he came from. Why, let his kind come butting in on us and soon