than was his wont, and yet not unduly anxious to appear tranquil.  He had precipitated one of the most interesting political struggles the state had ever witnessed, but his air of unconcern before this mixed company of his fellow partisans, among whom there were friends and foes, was well calculated to inspire faith in his leadership.  Some one was telling a story, and at its conclusion Bassett caught Harwood’s eye and called to him in a manner that at once drew attention to the young man.

“Hello, Dan!  You’re back from the country all right, I see!  I guess you boys all know Harwood.  You’ve seen his name in the newspapers!”

Several of the loungers shook hands with Harwood, who had cultivated the handshaking habit, and he made a point of addressing to each one some personal remark.  Thus the gentleman from Tippecanoe, who had met Dan at the congressional convention in Lafayette two years earlier, felt that he must have favorably impressed Bassett’s agent on that occasion; else how had Harwood asked at once, with the most shameless flattery, whether they still had the same brand of fried chicken at his house!  And the gentleman from the remote shores of the Lake, a rare visitor in town, had every right to believe, from Dan’s reference to the loss by fire of the gentleman’s house a year earlier, that that calamity had aroused in Dan the deepest sympathy.  Dan had mastered these tricks; it rather tickled his sense of humor to practice them; but it must be said for him that he was sincerely interested in people, particularly in these men who played the great game.  If he ever achieved anything in politics it must be through just such material as offered itself on such occasions as this in the halls of the Whitcomb.  These men might be tearing the leader to pieces to-morrow, or the day after; but he was still in the saddle, and not knowing but that young Harwood might be of use to them some day, they greeted him as one of the inner circle.

Most of these men sincerely liked and admired Bassett; and many of them accepted the prevailing superstition as to his omniscience and invulnerability; even in the Republican camp many shared the belief that the spears of the righteous were of no avail against him.  Dan’s loyalty to Bassett had never been more firmly planted.  Bassett had always preserved a certain formality in his relations with him; to-night he was calling him Dan, naturally and as though unconscious of the transition.  This was not without its effect on Harwood; he was surprised to find how agreeable it was to be thus familiarly addressed by the leader in such a gathering.