No stream of Millionaires comes to the Independence Party’s Headquarters; no line of retainers Stand with open hands to receive the funds of fraud; there is as sharp a contrast between the two headquarters as there is between the platforms and candidates of the parties.

Harvey Trueman is the guiding spirit at Drover’s Hall.  It is Tuesday, a month before election.  He visits the Hall for the last time before the verdict of the people shall be recorded.

“I am going to New York to-night,” he tells his friend Maxwell, the Chairman of the Speakers’ Committee.  “You had better notify the leaders all along the line that I am prepared to make short speeches at every available place.”

“Have you made arrangements with the railroads?” asks Maxwell.

“It will not be necessary for me to consult with them; I have outlined my route so that I can make connections on one road or another and go through to New York in sixty hours.  This will give me time to make twenty short speeches.”

“When do you reach New York city?”

“Friday night.  It will be about seven o’clock.  I want you to arrange for a meeting in Madison Square Garden.  It may cost us two thousand dollars, but it will be money well spent.”

“We cannot get the Garden; not if we offered five thousand dollars.  It has been leased for three months straight by the Plutocrats,” Maxwell replies.

“Then get the New York Committee to obtain a permit for an out-door meeting.  I will speak to twenty thousand people in New York on Friday if I have to address them from a house-top.”

“One of the best places for an out-door meeting in New York is on West street, between Cortlandt and Spring streets,” suggests an operator who has overheard the conversation.  “That’s the broadest thoroughfare in the city.”

“Yes, that is a splendid place,” acquiesces Trueman.

“Have the meeting located there, Maxwell.”

Maxwell departs to carry out the order.

A dozen men are soon receiving final instructions from their leader.  They hear the plan for the invasion of the East, and all agree that it will be a wise move, and one which the enemy cannot counteract in so short a time as will be left.

The Judas that is present in almost all human conclaves, is among the loudest in his remarks of approval.

“You could do nothing that would give the Plutocrats a harder rub than to speak on the eve, as it were, of election, in the hotbed of Plutocracy,” he assures Trueman.

After a few minutes of further conversation on this line, the betrayer departs.  He is closeted with Marcus an hour later.  The scheme for a counter demonstration in New York is quickly formulated.

Unconscious of the treachery that has been practiced, Trueman prepares for the trip East.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ON TO NEW YORK.