“I have been waiting till all these gentlemen got the panic worked out of their systems—­or, at least, had said all they could think of about that panic, Colonel.  Now we can go ahead and do real business.  We have not had a battle in this state for a long time, and this panic may be excusable.  They say that the men who are the worst frightened before the battle do the best fighting after they get into the real scrap.  I will admit that the situation in the state has been a little slippery, as Saunders has said.  And some men have dared to do a lot of loud talking since they have arrived here in this city.  It is so strange a thing that it has got everybody in a panic.  The Chinese are wise—­they show dragons to the enemy, but the dragons are only paper.  Wouldn’t think the enemy could be scared that way, eh?  But look at this bunch of state committeemen!  A pasteboard ‘natural-born leader’ set up, and Archer Converse puffing smoke through the nostrils of that effigy!  Gentlemen, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves!”

Colonel Dodd snorted emphatic approval.

“You are talking like children.  Guff and growls can’t carry this convention.  That crowd hasn’t even got a candidate for governor.  Have you heard one mentioned?”

“I don’t suppose they would dare to go as far as that,” said one of the committeemen.  “Governor Harwood, by party usage, is entitled to a renomination, of course.  What they figure on is a new state committee and a platform that will include reforms.”

“Huh!  Yes!  So much striped candy!  Give it to ’em.  Then we’ve got only twenty-four men to handle in the way we have always handled state committees—­and even that crowd can’t find saints and archangels for their candidates!  And as for a political platform—­bah!”

It was the practical politician’s caustic estimate of conditions.

Then the chairman joined in, bolstering this supercilious view:  “As for that legislature—­how many bills were ever passed in our legislature over a governor’s veto after we had got in our work?  We are going to have a safe man for governor.  That band’s lungs won’t last for ever.  Colonel Dodd, are you ready?”

If revolt and the spirit of resentment and rebellion did exist in that assemblage, which the magnates of the party faced when they marched upon the platform, the tumult of applause covered all sinister outward aspects.  The routine of the convention was entered upon:  the secretary read the convention call, the organization was perfected without protest, and the orator of the day, as president pro tem, a conservative United States Senator, began his “key-note speech.”  It was a document which had been in proof slips for a week, and which all the party workers from Colonel Dodd down had read and approved.  Therefore, when Richard Dodd entered from one of the side doors and came tiptoeing across the platform and touched the colonel’s arm and jerked energetic request for the colonel to follow, the colonel followed, glad of an excuse to be absent while the Senator fulminated.