never
faltered.

The whistle blew, the bell rang, and again the train rumbled. The
two-forty accommodation freight on the branch line to connect with the
'Frisco Express on the B. P. was moving out, and Plover had been held.
He could not go now, and once more Harley breathed that deep sigh of
relief. Twenty minutes passed, and he heard far off in the east a faint
rumble. He knew it was the Denver Express, and, in spite of his
resolution, he began to grow nervous. Suppose the woman should not come?

The rumble grew to a roar, and the train pulled into the station.
Grayson was faithful to the last, and still thundered forth the
invective that delighted the soul of Plover. The train whistled and
moved off again, and Harley waited in breathless anxiety.

A tall form rose out of the darkness, and a woman, middle-aged and
honest of face, appeared. The correspondent knew that it must be Susan.
It could be nobody else. She was looking around as if she sought some
one. Harley's eye caught Grayson's, and it gave the signal.

"And now, gentlemen," said the candidate, "I am done. I thank you for
your attention, and I hope you will think well of what I have said."

So saying, he left the stage, and the crowd dispersed. But Harley
waited, and he saw Plover and his wife meet. He saw, too, the look of
surprise and then joy on the man's face, and he saw them throw their
arms around each other's neck and kiss in the dark. They were only a
poor, prosaic, and middle-aged couple, but he knew they were now happy
and that all was right between them.

When Grayson went to his room, he fell from exhaustion in a half-faint
across the bed; but when Harley told him the next afternoon the cause of
it all, he laughed and said it was well worth the price.

They obtained, about a week later, the New York papers containing an
account of the record-breaking day. When Harley opened the _Monitor_,
Churchill's paper, he read these head-lines:

GRAYSON'S GAB

HE IS TALKING THE FARMERS OF THE WEST TO
DEATH

TWENTY-FOUR SPEECHES IN TWENTY-FOUR
HOURS

HE TALKS FIFTY THOUSAND WORDS IN ONE DAY,
AND SAYS NOTHING

But when he looked at the _Gazette_, he saw the following head-lines
over his own account:

HIS GREATEST SPEECH

GRAY