"Certumalee," answered Toby with alacrity, reaching for his hat.

But no one could have been more surprised than the chestnut vender
when, on reaching the vacant street, his companion glancing cautiously
about, beckoned him into the darkness of an alley-way, and,
noiselessly upsetting a barrel, indicated it as a seat for both.

"Here," said Pixley, "I reckon this is better. Jest two men by
theirselves kin fix up a thing like this a lot quicker, and I seen you
didn't want to talk too much before _them_. You make your own
deal with 'em afterwards, or none at all, jest as you like! They'll do
whatever you say, anyway. I sized you up to run _that_ bunch,
first time I ever laid eyes on the outfit. Now see here, Pete, you
listen to me. I reckon I kin turn a little trick here that'll do you
some good. You kin bet I see that the men I pick fer my leaders--like
you, Pete--git their rights! Now here: there's you and the other six,
that's seven; it'll be three dollars in your pocket if you deliver the
goods."

"No! no!" said Pietro in earnest protestation. "We seven a good
Republican. We vote a Republican--same las' time, all a time. Eesa not
a need to pay us to vote a Republican. You save that a money, Meesa
Peaslay."

"You don't understand," groaned Pixley, with an inclination to weep
over the foreigner's thick-headedness. "There's a chance fer a big
deal here for all the boys in the precinck. Gil. Maxim's backers'll
pay _big_ fer votes enough to swing it. The best of 'em don't
know where they're at, I tell you. Now here, you see here"--he took an