on runnin' in
this State the way they have been runnin'. Way he talks, him and them
back of him think they've got you layin' with all four paws in the air.
But we in the village here, that's behind you, don't understand it that
way. Nor we can't figger what started it."

"Don't bother your heads about it to-day, Briggs. Simply stand by and be
ready to grab in, you and the boys. That's all."

The post-office was in the lower story of the town house. The walls were
brick to the second story. This upper part was a barn-like structure
propped on the lower walls. Broad outside stairs led up to it.

Thornton and Presson were obliged to push their way through a crowd to
reach the foot of the stairway. They were stopped there by an
obstruction. Some men were lifting off a low wagon a cripple in a
wheel-chair. He had an in-door pallor that made him seem corpselike. A
man in a frock-coat and with a ministerial white tie was bossing the
job.

The Duke stopped and gazed on the work amiably. The man of the white tie
scowled.

"Raising a few reliable Republicans from the dead, are you, elder?"
inquired the Duke, pleasantly.

The elder did not reply until he had started the cripple's chair bumping
up the stairs. Then he turned on Thornton. He was not amiable.

"It's time some of the voters with honest convictions got a chance to
attend a caucus in this district, even if they have to be brought from
beds of pain."

Thelismer Thornton did not lose his smile.

"I'd like to have you meet the Rev. Enoch Dudley, evangelist, Luke. This
is Mr. Presson, chairman of the State Committee, elder. Now that you're
getting into politics you'd ought to be acquainted with your chief
priest."

But Rev. Mr. Dudley, not approving the company that the State chairman
was keeping, did not warm up.

"I thank you for your pleasantries, Mr. Thornton," he returned, stiffly.
"I hope your sneers may make you as many votes to-day as they have in
the past."

"Well, they won't," blurted a voice from a knot of men at the foot of
the stairs. "We're getting woke up in this district. And it ain't going
to be an empire any longer."

"I'm rather too humble a man, sir, to associate with the high lords of
politics," Mr. Dudley remarked to the chairman. "The Honorable Thornton
has always been up there. I'm simply one of the plain people."

"And it's time for the plain people to have their innings," declared
another in the crowd.

"The pack is off!" mutte