induced to stay away from the polls
altogether; and at least a dozen irreconcilables had been laid by the
heels with bad whiskey before they had done protesting that not all the
powers of darkness could deter them from casting an unsullied ballot
under the emblem of the Square.

The Poles came hulking in, Shelby himself keeping tally at the door, and
when Kiska had urged the last loiterer over the threshold, the key was
turned. Drinks were sparingly circulated, and Kiska harangued the crowd
briefly in Polish, hammering in Shelby's instructions for their conduct
in the voting booths, and impressing them with the fact that good cheer
in plenty would await them here on their return. Under the efficient
supervision of Jasper Hinchey and his lieutenants they were now guided to
the polling-place in squads of three or four, returning presently to
unlimited refreshment and a surreptitious two-dollar bill--shining
examples and incentives to such as had not yet voted to speed their going.

Yet with all their willingness, the affair consumed time, and twice
Shelby went into the dusty wings of the stage to a window overlooking the
canal, and strained to detect the panting of a laboring launch or tug.
But the last quarryman voted, the polls closed, darkness fell, and Joe
Hilliard was not yet come.

CHAPTER XIV

A pleasant local custom fell this night into abeyance. Years out of
mind the adherents of the leading political parties had mingled
sociably before a non-partisan bulletin board in the courthouse, much
as hostile camps fraternize in the truce forerunning peace. But the
old, simpler order of things had suffered more wrenches than one in
this acrid congressional campaign, and the warring factions could unite
only on the hibernian proposition that union was impossible. One
party, therefore, made ready to gather in the accustomed place, the
other in the Grand Opera House, while seceding remnants from both
swelled the crowd in the street before the office of the _Whig_, which,
with unlooked-for enterprise, had prepared to announce the returns by
stereopticon.

At six o'clock Shelby broke his fast with a ravenous meal at the hotel,
which Bowers shared, and three-quarters of an hour later the two men
shouldered through the boisterous mob in the streets to Shelby's law
office, where arrangements had been perfected to receive the returns by
messenger and private wire. The _Whig_ bulletin over the way had
already mas