you sure! No, sir! You can't afford to smash a man that way."

"Then we'll ram him through the convention, reformers or no reformers!"

"You haven't got your crowd."

"Thelismer, you're right! I wouldn't have admitted it yesterday, but
after seeing how they came roaring up against you, I'm scared. I'm going
to pull Everett out of the fight and set up another man--one of the
young and liberal fellows. I'll do it within twenty-four hours!"

The Duke replaced his clippings and shoved the big wallet into his
pocket.

"Sudden remedies are sometimes good in extreme cases, Luke," he drawled,
"but administering knockout drops to a sick party is not to be
recommended."

The chairman's patience left him then.

"What kind of a trick is this, standing up here at the eleventh hour and
putting the knife into your party?" he demanded, wrathfully.

"I had a dog once, Luke, that was snapping at flies in general as he was
lying on the porch here, and he snapped at a brown hackle fly that was
hitched onto a fish-line. And he ran off down the road with a hook in
his mouth and sixty yards of line and a pole following him. You'd better
spit out that last fly, Luke. Now will you take a little advice from me,
on the condition that I'll follow up that advice with some practical
help?"