Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-12-06

I~~-~~~~~~>~>~-~~~~~~~~
The upshot of the matter had been
the. forced dismissal of the spectators
Standish had secuted Ansels sugges-
ton that the whole catastrophe was
ruse of Conover's, until, as ne
walked down the dark aisle toward
the door, he heard a policeman whis-
per:
IL was waitin' for the chief to give
some of US the tip to pinch him"
An let HIM make noise ike a
martyr" grunted second voice easl-
ly recognized as Billy Shevlln's. ~ on
must think the Boss is as balmy In the
belfry as you blue Holsters. He'd a
had Geoghegan broke If he'd"
The rest OF the reply had been lost.
No other disengaged hall could be
found in the vicinity; and the meet
ing from which Give had expected so
much had gone by the board. lie
walked home in a daze OF chagrln.
How could he hope TO fight man
who employed such weapons; who
swayed such power in every city de-
partment; who thus early in the cam
paign showed plainly he would stop
at nothing in beating his opponent?
Then the young candidates teeth
clenched tight, and the sullen grit
that for so many centuries has carried
the bulldog race of yellow-haired,
strong jawed Anglo-SaXOns to victory
against hopeless odds came to his aid.
He shook his big shoulders as If toss
ing off some physical weight, entered
his rooms, and switched on the cleo
trio light.
On his study table lay a special de-
livery letter, neatly typewriter, as
was the single sheet of follscap 1t
contained. Standish glanced at the
bottom of the page. There was no
signature. Then he read:
"The date for the various county
conventions has not been formally set.
1t is unotficially given as a week from
Saturday. Instead, the caucus will be
held in three of the eight counties
next Saturday. The Machines men
know this. The Leagues don't. 1t
will be sprung as a surprise, with two
DAYS notice instead of the customary
seven. This will keep many Of the
Leagues people from attending. AT
the Bowden and Jericho caucuses
kilograms will be received saying you
have withdrawn.
"At Watawan and Haldane the reg
ular delegates will be notified to meet
at the town halls. While they are
waiting outside the locked front doors,
the county chairman and his own
crowd will step in the back way and
hold their caucus and elect their dele
gates. kloaters will be brought into
several counties. In Wills County the
chairman will fail to hear the names
of your delegates. Have your mana
ger arrange for the Wills men to bolt
at the right time. Force the State
Committee at once to declare the date
for the county conventions. Notify
the Leagues men at Matawan and
Haldane of the back door trick, and
have the telegraph operators at Jeri-
cho and Bowden warned not to re-
ceive or transmit any fake message
of your withdrawal.
"On your State tour you will find
newspapers closed to your speeches
and advertisements, and number of
the halls engaged before you get to
town. Arrange for injunctions re
straining the papers from barring
your notices, and have someone go
ahead of you to secure halls. And ar
range for police protection to break
up rowdyism at your meetings"
Give Standish read and re-read
this remarkable epistle. That it had
come from the Conover camp he could
not doubt. He had heard, before Ca
leb's hint of the previous afternoon,
that there was a certain discomfort
and vague rumor of treachery, in
more than one of the multifarious
branches of the Boss's business and
political interests. For the unexpect-
ed strength developed by the Civic
League and the eloquence of it's can
didate had shaken divers of the enc
my's less resolute followers, and more
than one of these might readily seek
to curry favor with the winning side
by casting just such an anchor to
windward.
In any case, there was the letter,
it's authors identity, for the moment,
was of no great matter.
Anonymous unused Standish, eye
ing the missive with strong distaste.
"Is it a trick of Conover's or a bit
of treachery on the part of one of
the men he trusts? In either case
there's only one course a white man
can take with thing of this kind"
Picking up the letter, he crumpled
it into a ball and threw it into the
fireplace.
Better not say anything about it
to Ansel," he decided as he watched
the paper twist open under the heat
and break into blaze. He'd only
call me visionary crank again. And
if it's trap, the precautions he'd
take would play straight into Como
ver's hand"
Some blocks away, in his Pompton
Avenue Mausoleum, the Railroader
was giving final orders to the bench
men to whom he had intrusted the de-
tails of watching Standish's forth
coming tour. And some of these
same details he had even intrusted to
the unenthusiastic Gerald.
CHAPTER VIII.