to rid himself of Bassett; to
breathe free air again! On the other hand, Bassett had himself suggested
that Harwood, once in a position to command attention, might go his own
gait. His servitude would be for a day only, and by it he should win
eternal freedom. He caught eagerly at what Bassett was saying, grateful
that the moment of his choice was delayed.

"The state convention is only three weeks off and I had pretty carefully
mapped it out before the 'Courier' dropped that shot across Thatcher's
bows. I've arranged for you to go as delegate to the state convention
from this county and to have a place on the committee on resolutions.
This will give you an introduction to the party that will be of value.
They will say you are my man--but they've said that of other men who
have lived it down. I want Thatcher to have his way in that convention,
naming the ticket as far as he pleases, and appearing to give me a
drubbing. The party's going to be defeated in November--there's no
ducking that. We'll let Thatcher get the odium of that defeat. About the
next time we'll go in and win and there won't be any more Thatcher
nonsense. This is politics, you understand."

Harwood nodded; but Bassett had not finished; it clearly was not his
purpose to stand the young man in a corner and demand a choice from him.
Bassett pursued negotiations after a fashion of his own.

"Thatcher thinks he has scored heavily on me by sneaking into
Fraserville and kidnaping old Ike Pettit. That fellow has always been a
nuisance to me; I carried a mortgage on his newspaper for ten years, but
Thatcher has mercifully taken that burden off my shoulders by paying it.
Thatcher can print anything he wants to about me in my own town; but it
will cost him some money; those people up there don't think I'm so
wicked, and the 'Fraser County Democrat' won't have any advertisements
for a while but fake medical ads. But Ike will have more room for the
exploitation of his own peculiar brand of homely Hoosier humor."

Bassett smiled, and Harwood was relieved to be able to laugh aloud. He
was enjoying this glimpse of the inner mysteries of the great game. His
disdain of Thatcher's clumsy attempts to circumvent Bassett was
complete; in any view Bassett was preferable to Thatcher. As the senator
from Fraser had said, there was really nothing worse than Thatcher, with
his breweries and racing-stable, his sordidness and vulgarity.
Thatcher's efforts to practice Bassett's