got well, the devil a monk was he!"

Bassett had left town, but the regular staff of the "Courier" kept up
the fight along the lines of the articles Dan had contributed. The
"Advertiser," finding that the Republican prosecuting attorney of Ranger
County joined with the local bank in certifying to Miles's probity,
dropped the matter after a few scattering volleys.

However, within a week after the Miles incident, the "Advertiser" gave
Harwood the shock of an unlooked-for plunge into ice-water by printing a
sensational story under a double-column headline, reading, "The Boss in
the Boordman Building." The Honorable Morton Bassett, so the article
averred, no longer satisfied to rule his party amid the pastoral calm
of Fraser County, had stolen into the capital and secretly established
headquarters, which meant, beyond question, the manifestation of even a
wider exercise of his malign influence in Indiana politics. Harwood's
name enjoyed a fame that day that many years of laborious achievement
could not have won for it. The "Advertiser's" photographers had stolen
in at night and taken a flashlight picture of the office door, bearing
the legend

66

DANIEL HARWOOD

Harwood's personal history was set forth in florid phrases. It appeared
that he had been carefully chosen and trained by Bassett to aid in his
evil work. His connection with the "Courier," which had seemed to Dan at
the time so humble, assumed a dignity and importance that highly amused
him. It was quite like the Fraserville boss to choose a young man of
good antecedents, the graduate of a great university, with no previous
experience in politics, the better to bend him to his will. Dan's
talents and his brilliant career at college all helped to magnify the
importance of Bassett's latest move. Morton Bassett was dangerous, the
"Advertiser" conceded editorially, because he had brains; and he was
even more to be feared because he could command the brains of other men.

Dan called Bassett at Fraserville on the long distance telephone and
told him of the disclosure. Bassett replied in a few sentences.

"That won't hurt anything. I'd been expecting something of the kind. Put
you in, did they? I'll get my paper to-night and read it carefully.
Better cut the stuff out and send it in an envelope, to make sure. Call
Atwill over and tell him we ignore the whole business. I'm taking a
little rest, but I'll be in town in about a week."

Dan was surprised t