circumstances.

The reformers were making a great deal of noise, mostly threats. They
were passing to candidates specific questions as to their stand on the
larger issues. Many candidates who had subscribed and declared
themselves dodged up to headquarters on the sly and assured the State
chairman that they had pledged their positions because it seemed to be a
reform year, and they had to do something to shut up the yawp of the
reformers. When they privately assured Presson that they would be found
on the right side just the same after election, he took heart for a
moment, and then was downcast after they were gone; it was tabulating
liars--an uncertain job. Presson listened and took what courage he
could, but the asterisks in his lists confessed his doubts.

"There's a line of stars down those lists that would puzzle the man who
invented political astronomy," he told his intimates. "But I don't dare
to go looking for the trouble right now. It'll be like a man looking for
measles in his family of thirteen; it'll break out if it's there--he
won't have to hunt for it."

The Republican State Convention was called for late June. The party
managers believed that it would clarify the situation somewhat; "it
would afford an opportunity for conference and free debate on the big
questions where division of opinion existed," so the party organs
assured their readers day by day. Chairman Presson asked them to drum
this idea into the heads of the people.

But what he told himself and the secret council was that there needed to
be a round-up where some of the wild steers could be thrown and branded
before they should succeed in stampeding the main herd. It was a