f facial contortion Kiska puzzled out the meaning, and handed
the message to Shelby, who gave it grave perusal.

"Ah," said he. "You see he's anxious about it, too. If there was any
way of reaching him by wire, we could relieve his mind; as there is not,
the wise course is to go ahead. His coming by boat is uncertain. It
will be a nice little surprise for him to find that you've got the votes
all in."

So it seemed to Kiska, and the business of rallying Little Poland to its
civic duties was instantly got under way. Here, too, were obstacles.
Having been told to present themselves at a later hour, the villagers
were in all states of unreadiness; but by impressing this helper and
that, doing the work of three men himself, and with the reenforcement of
Jap Hinchey and his co-workers, whom Bowers hurried to the scene in a
hired carriage whose bravery of varnish made mock of their rags, Kiska at
last collected his compatriots. The rented vehicle was urged back at a
gallop to Bowers and continued public usefulness, and the whole body of
enfranchised Poles, under the escort of Kiska, Jap Hinchey, and his
fellows, trudged off in groups of five and ten to New Babylon.

Little Poland lay within the same voting precinct as the Flats, and when
Shelby had assured himself that the straggling column was finally in
motion, he rode on in advance toward this quarter and the concert hall to
which he had made mysterious reference in his telephoned directions to
the Hon. Seneca Bowers. From the elevation of a canal bridge he searched
the waterway for a sign of Hilliard's coming, pondering anxiously whether
a pillar of smoke at the horizon's rim were his herald; but a glance at
his watch reassured. The train which Hilliard had missed was barely due,
and to cover the distance by boat meant an additional hour at least.
Employing a street urchin to lead his horse to its stable, he struck out
on foot for the Flats.

At the tawdry concert hall everything was as it should be, and in the
brief interval before the arrival of the Poles he received inspiriting
news from one of his workers. Money was flowing, buckets of it, but
beyond doubt they held the longer purse. Their policy of offering high
prices to the floaters at the outset had drained the disciples of the
late Chuck O'Rourke before twelve o'clock, and patriots were now to be
had at bargain rates. Some few conscientious souls who could not see
their way to a Shelby vote had been