“I’ll have as many witnesses as you,” declared Presson, “I’ll—­”

“Stop!” It was a tone that cowed the chairman, struggling with his guilty conscience.  “I have warned you that I’m not here to argue this matter with you.  I’ll not be drawn into any discussion.  What I have, I have!” He waved his papers above his head.  “What I can do that I’ll do!  I would remind you, gentlemen, that the convention is waiting.”

Thelismer Thornton caught the secretary of the State Committee by the arm and propelled him toward the door, ordering Harlan to open it.  “Signal that band!  Start it to going!” he directed.  “Keep those delegates easy.”  He turned on the chairman.  “Now, Luke, you’re licked.  And it’s your own deadfall that’s caught you.  I know just how you feel, but here’s a laundry-bag that you’ve got to draw the puckering-strings on.  Shut up!  I’m going to save you from yourself.  You’re running amuck, now.  You’re a lunatic, and not responsible.”  He dragged the defiant chairman back into the room.  He held him in firm grip.  “There’s a new bribery law in this State.  You haven’t forgotten it, have you!  It’s State prison!”

“Look here, gentlemen,” he went on, addressing the members of the State Committee, “you’ve got just five minutes leeway between a devilish good political walloping and striped suits.  Get out on the floor.  Get busy with those delegations.  And the man of all of you who dares to say one word too much about what’s been done here to-day will peek through bars and wish his tongue had been torn out by the roots before he talked!  Presson, this thing is out of your hands.  You shan’t cut your own throat, I say!  Get onto that floor, men!”

They went.  It was the rush of men to save themselves.  Each man as he passed out cast a glance upon the papers that General Waymouth clutched, and a second glance at Harlan, brawny guard, at his side.

“Take Everett across to the committee-room and call in the men who were to present him,” directed the Duke, releasing the chairman.  “And it’s up to you two to give ’em a story that will hold ’em.  It’s short notice, but you’ve got General Waymouth for a text!  Look here, Dave,” he whirled on Everett, who was frantically protesting, “your strength was the strength the boys of the machine put behind you.  It hasn’t been personal strength.  You can’t afford to be a blasted fool now, even if you are crazy mad.  You’ve been lecturing considerably the past few weeks on ‘party exigencies.’  This is one.  It’s an exigency that will put you before a grand jury if you don’t tread careful.  Get across there, you and Presson!  I’m eating dirt myself.  Get down on your hands and knees with me, and make believe you like it!”

He hustled them out.

The band was rioting through a jolly melange of popular melodies.

The old man hesitated a moment, and then walked across to the General.

“Vard, politics is most always a case of dog eat dog, but I want to assure you that I’m not hungry just now if you are not!  And my grandson seems to have more political foresight than I gave him credit for.  I’m getting old, I see!”