one to each member;
then two; then four; then five; then all you have. Give about fifteen
minutes between consignments. Have you got my plan?"

The taciturn one nodded.

"Here is a one-hundred-dollar bill," observed Senator Hanway, "for your
night's work. Four more wait for you when Mr. Frost is declared the
caucus nominee."

Saturday afternoon; and the caucus met behind locked doors. It was a
mighty struggle; now and then some waifword reached the outside world of
what Titan deeds were being done. There were speeches, and roll calls;
men lost their heads and then their reputations. The sixteen threatened
of the Anaconda Airline, with the fear of political death upon them,
voted for Mr. Frost. Messrs. Patch and Swinger held fast through ballot
after ballot, keeping their delegations together, while the Hawke
captains pleaded and begged and promised and threatened in their efforts
to make them withdraw and release their followings to the main battle.
Through roll call after roll call the tally never varied. With two
hundred and ten members voting, the count stood: Frost, ninety-two;
Hawke, ninety; Swinger, fifteen; Patch, thirteen. Of the twenty-eight
who voted for Messrs. Patch and Swinger, it was understood that Mr.
Hawke would take three-fourths upon a breakaway. For this reason the
Hawke captains labored and moiled with Messrs. Patch and Swinger to
withdraw and cast those twenty-eight votes into the general caldron.

[Illustration: At the Door of the Caucus Room]

On the touch of three, and while the fourth roll-call was in progress,
the first of Senator Hanway's prepared messages were received and signed
for at the caucus door. Ten minutes later, and something like forty more
were given entrance. During the sixth roll-call sixty messages came in,
and a rickety little representative, with a beard like a goat and terror
tugging at his heart, arose and changed his vote to Mr. Frost. The
rickety little man had been for Mr. Hawke, and this sudden turning of
his coat provoked a tempest of cheers from the Frosts and maledictions
from the Hawkes. A dozen men of both factions crowded about the little
rickety man, some to hold him for Mr. Frost and others to drag him back
to Mr. Hawke. The rickety little man was well-nigh torn in two. Kingdoms
and thrones were being gambled for and the players were in earnest.

In the height of the uproar over the rickety little man, two more of the
flock of Hawke arose, and with falte