l convention of next year was self-evident; and that a
presidential candidate with New York's backing would attract allies
from several eastern and at least two southern boss-ruled states, was
well warranted by the tale of the great politician's excursions into
national affairs in the recent past. By implication of the April
banquet the leader's personal choice, Shelby, had therefore no trivial
chance of capturing the nomination; and in the Boss's opinion the
favored pawn owed a decent deference to the master chess-player. So
Shelby thought, too; but they split over definition of terms in the
same old way.

"You juggled millions like a Napoleon of Finance," complained the Boss
at a breakfast for two shortly after the state convention. "Is that
the kind of talk for people just recovering from hard times?"

His tone chafed the governor.

"It's the kind of talk for a proper handling of the canal problem," he
retorted crisply. "The canal has been the prey of peanut politics too
long."

"The speech was ill-advised--ill-advised," persisted the Boss,
irritably. "You should have consulted somebody."

Shelby provoked him with a smile.

"That was my idea, precisely," he returned. "I thought I'd consult the
people."

A difference springing from the November elections strained their
relations farther, and goaded Shelby's patience to its utmost reach.
Although they favored the organization as a whole, the elections
wrought certain damaging changes in detail, one of which involved the
fortunes of Handsome Ludlow. Early in his term the governor had
appointed the man to a temporary commission, at the urgent plea of the
Boss, who painted the ex-senator in the light of a faithful soldier
haply fallen outside the breastworks by reason of the ingratitude of a
fickle city constituency. Ludlow had regularly drawn a salary, which
his subordinates earned, and divided his abundant leisure between the
diversions peculiar to Mrs. Tommy Kidder's coterie and schemes for the
recovery of his senatorial seat. In the latter business he met with a
defeat more telling than he had yet experienced. But Ludlow was an
office-seeker of resource. Through a channel which he did not
disclose, he got wind of a judgeship whose forthcoming vacancy was
known to the governor and those in his confidence, and promptly
undertook a still-hunt for the place. Presently his name came to
Shelby with the strong recommendation of the Boss.

The governor