oon. Good day, Mr.
Brassfield!"

Mr. Edgington went forth from Amidon's presence in a state of mind
which can be appreciated by no one but some "good" citizen who has
perfected all the preliminaries for securing a particularly fat
financial prize by the cheap and simple device of a popular vote, and
finds the man on whom he relies going off into a fanciful ism induced
by some maggot of so-called conscientiousness. Any one ought to be
able to see that there is nothing wrong in accepting gifts from those
able to give: and who is more able than the public? Everybody would be
better off for the arrangement contemplated, and no one the worse. So
reasoned Mr. Edgington as he saw with chagrin the Bellevale franchise
slipping away, and with it the core of their ambitious project of
interurban lines connecting half a dozen cities. Bellevale, with its
water-power, was the hub of it; and to lose here by such a sudden
exhibition of so-called "civic patriotism"--Edgington knew the patter
of these reformers--was disgusting, and all the more so from the fact
that the one to blame was Brassfield, whose ethical attitude had always
been so "safe and sane" in business matters.

He must find some way of re-forming the lines, and adjusting the action
of the machine--now engaged in grinding out Brassfield's nomination--so
as to produce other grist just as good, if that were possible. It was
ticklish business, but it must be done. The time was short, but before
the caucuses met a new candidate must be found, and the word passed
down the line that the dear people had changed their minds over night
on the subject of the next mayor.

To decide, with Mr. Edgington (who fancied that he resembled the first
Napoleon), was to act, and almost instantly, his forces, hastily
mobilized, began an enveloping movement for the purpose of surrounding
and bringing into camp a proper candidate for the local chief
magistracy.

Mr. Amidon was flushed after this encounter. Mr. Edgington's cool
manner of approaching him with this questionable and shady political
job had generated some heat in Florian--a man always possessed of
strong convictions concerning civic purity. He was offended; yet he
knew that it was to the turpitude of Brassfield that he owed this,
rather than to any fault of Edgington's.

"How could such a fellow as Brassfield reap such success!" was Amidon's
mental ejaculation. "Ready to rob the community, he enjoys the
confidence of a