left his chieftaincy behind. That was to happen in the nature of
things, and Mr. Croker would have foreseen it had he been a true
scientist of supremacy. Remember it, all ye kings and princes and
potentates among men! a crown will never travel, a scepter cannot
leave the realm, and there are no wheels on a throne. Mr. Croker was
not aware of these cardinal truths of kingcraft when he sailed away;
the knowledge became his at a time too late to have a value beyond the
speculative. Mr. Croker left the garments of his leadership behind him
and eighteen of the 'leaders' appropriated them with a plot. They
caught their chief in bathing and they stole his clothes.

"Mr. Croker was home ten days before he missed his leadership, and
even then he was made aware of its spoliation only by beholding it in
the hands of the cabal. Mr. Croker meant Mr. Nixon for the mayoralty;
but the plotting eighteen, intriguing with Brooklyn blocked the way
with Mr. Coler. The coalition was too strong for Mr. Croker to force,
and the logic of that same word pressed to a conflict meant his
destruction in the city convention.

"'When the lion's skin is too short,' said Lysander, 'we piece it out
with the fox's,' and while the Greeks thought this sentiment
unbecoming a descendant of Hercules, they were fain to acquiesce in
its practice when met by a peril too strong for their spears. Mr.
Croker remembered Lysander; and, being thus hedged and hemmed about,
sought safety by nominating Mr. Shepard. There need be no mistake; Mr.
Shepard was not a candidate, he was a refuge. And such a refuge as is
Scylla when one is threatened of Charybdis.

"When Mr. Croker seized on Mr. Shepard, he defeated the Coler plot,
but made no safety for his leadership. He succeeded only in losing the