re knew all about that strenuous period of political chaos.
Twelve years ago he had been an eager-eyed young reporter with a large
appreciation of newspaper sensations. His skill at ferreting into
hidden recesses by unscrupulous methods had made him a valuable man for
a paper which was willing to ignore certain time-honored traditions of
the press. Under editorial stimulus Hughey had blossomed forth among
the flowers of the journalistic profession as a yellow chrysanthemum.
"Mum" became the word wherever Hughey showed himself! His reputation
finally had ostracised him into other fields of endeavor.

Those had been the days! If only he and Rives had been working
together! If he had been managing Rives' campaigns there would have
been no crude mistakes to land the "people's idol" behind the bars,
Waring or no Waring. He would have seen that every dainty dish was
properly cooked before it was set before the King, its inner rawness
safely covered, done up brown. By all means let there be lemon
filling, but smothered in a beaten white purity that would pass the
public censor! Under his management there would have been no tangible
evidence to show that favored contractors, bidding upon public works,
had been secretly advised that their tenders were too low, and
instructed as to the amounts to which it was safe for them to raise
their new tenders; there would have been no evidence of election
contributions from these favored contractors for the amounts thus
squeezed out of the public treasury.

With such an example of folly to warn him, it was no wonder that the
Honorable Milton Waring had told Nickleby and Alderson he would have
nothing to do with their proposed campaign fund contribution. Nickleby
must have a pretty strong connection even to dare such an approach;
evidently he had felt pretty sure of himself to go ahead with the plan
on his own initiative.

Nickleby believed that Ferguson had the money now. What would he say
if he knew the facts--that the money was really in the hands of some
person unknown, some person perhaps who was interested in gathering
evidence that would upset the present Government? There was only one
thing for Mr. Podmore to do, now that his own pet scheme had failed,
and that was to keep quiet as to his own ambitions and stick to the
three-handed game which he was supposed to be playing with Nickleby and
his henchman, Alderson; for Nickleby was worth tying to.

Thus ran the reflecti