anion; "hadn't yesterday, when I took the
train."

"Pretty stiff contest."

"Pretty slick man bound to win out."

"Wish I was a member, with all the swag there is floating 'round."

"Wish I was a member with a right pretty woman coaxing for my vote!"

"What's that? I hadn't heard of that yet." The speaker leaned forward,
scenting scandal.

"Aw! It's no secret in Helena. It's the talk of the town."

"I never heard a word. I thought politics was free from petticoats out
here."

"They never are--anywhere. You know Charlie Blair?"

The drummer interrogated shook his head.

"Well, he's a Helena man, and one of the State senators. There's a woman
lobbyin' for Burroughs, so they say, and she's got Blair batty! Last man
in the world you'd expect to be caught by a woman. They say he's a great
friend of her husband's, too--Judge Latimer."

A stifled moan came from the seat behind the drummers.

"You don't say! Any talk about her before?"

"Search me!"

"Probably there's nothing in it," concluded the other, with unexpected
charity. "You know how people surmise the worst. She doesn't care for
him, I take it."

"Naw! At least, not if I size her up correct. She's a good-looker, all
right; she was pointed out to me one night in the hotel dining-room. It
was easy to see where _she_ was stuck! She couldn't keep her eyes off a
tall, good-looking fellow, that I was told was the senator from Chouteau
County."

The other nodded. "I've heard of him. He's the head of the opposition to
Burroughs in the Republican party. Danvers, his name is--Englishman--in
the cattle business."

"I saw the situation right away. Bill Moore, Burroughs' political boss,
you know, says that years ago they had an affair over in the Whoop Up
Country--wherever that is, and----"

"Bozeman!" said the porter, interrupting the conversation.

"I got to see a man here," said one of the drummers. "Come along. It
won't take but a minute. He'll be waiting on the platform; I wired
him."

"That man looked bad," commented the other, jerking his thumb backward
as they stepped from the car. "Did you notice how ghastly his face was?
I thought for a moment he was going to speak to you."

They passed on, and the conductor, who followed a moment later, stopped
abruptly at sight of the limp figure, and hurried into the next coach.

"Is there a doctor on board?" he asked. "A man has fainted--or had a
stroke. It's Judge Latimer, of Helena."

And the instrume