g--and then they begin to club the tree! But standing here spittin'
froth about it ain't convertin' the heathern nor cooperin' them that
imagine vain things. Now here's what _I've_ done, grabbin' in so's to
lose no time. I--"

"No, just tell me what the _other_ side has done," commanded the Duke.

"First place, they've got names in black and white of enough Republicans
to down you in caucus. They've got 'em, them ramrodders have! I've
hairpinned the truth out o' the cracks! They've been sayin' that you've
only wanted your office so as to dicker and trade, and make yourself and
them in your political bunch richer; they're showin' figgers to prove
that much; sayin' you brag you carry our district in your vest-pocket;
sayin' everything to stir up the bile that's in every man when you know
how to stir for it. Furthermore, Squire, the fact that you're gettin'
out yourself and proposin' to put your grandson in gives 'em their
chance to say a lot. Next place, this is goin' to be a _caucus_. It
ain't any imitation. They're goin' to use a marked check-list."

"_What?_" roared the Honorable Thelismer, jarred out of his baleful
calm.

"Yes, sir! They've pulled the town clerk into camp and have had him mark
a list. And you can imagine who they picked out as Republican voters in
this town! And they'll stand and challenge every one else till their
throats are sore. You and me has cut up a few little innocent tricks in
politics in our time, Squire, but we never framed anything quite as tidy
as this for a steal. If your friend, here, is in politics, he--"

"I'm Presson, chairman of the State Committee," explained that
gentleman. The Duke of Fort Canibas was too much absorbed to make
presentations.

"Hell! That so?" ripped out the other, frankly astonished. "Well, I'm
glad you're here. You ought to be able to help us out."

Presson was not cheerful or helpful. "They're slashing this whole State
open from one end to the other with their devilish reform hullabaloo,"
he said.

"I hear there _is_ quite a stir outside," agreed the agitator, blandly.
He looked the chairman up and down with interest. "You may call me
Sylvester--Talleyrand Sylvester. Yankee dickerer! Buy and sell
everything from a clap o' thunder to a second-hand gravestone. It brings
me round the country up here, and so I've been the Squire's right-hand
man in the political game, such as there's been of it." He turned his
back on the pondering Duke and continued, sott