For twelve hot weeks, with a public spirit which is worthy of the highest praise, the Committee sit in their shirt sleeves all day long and listen to arguments for and against consolidation; and ask learned questions that startle rural witnesses; and smoke big Florizel cigars (a majority of them).  Judge Abner Parkinson defends his bill, quoting from the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and the Bible; a celebrated lawyer from the capital riddles it, using the same authorities, and citing the Federalist and the Golden Rule in addition.  The Committee sit open-minded, listening with laudable impartiality; it does not become them to arrive at a hasty decision on a question of such magnitude.  In the meantime the House passes an important bill dealing with the bounty on hedgehogs, and there are several card games going on in the cellar, where it is cool.

The governor of the state is a free lance, and may be seen any afternoon walking through the park, consorting with no one.  He may be recognized even at a distance by his portly figure, his silk hat, and his dignified mien.  Yes, it is an old and valued friend, the Honorable Alva Hopkins, patron of the drama, and sometimes he has a beautiful young woman (still unattached) by his side.  He lives in a suite of rooms at the Pelican.  It is a well-known fact (among Mr. Worthington’s supporters) that the Honorable Alva promised in January, when Mr. Bass retired, to sign the Consolidation Bill, and that he suddenly became open-minded in March, and has remained open-minded ever since, listening gravely to arguments, and giving much study to the subject.  He is an executive now, although it is the last year of his term, and of course he is never seen either in the Throne Room or the Railroad Room.  And besides, he may become a senator.

August has come, and the forces are spent and panting, and neither side dares to risk the final charge.  The reputation of Jethro Bass is at stake.  Should he risk and lose, he must go back to Coniston a beaten man, subject to the contempt of his neighbors and his state.  People do not know that he has nothing now to go back to, and that he cares nothing for contempt.  As he sits in his window day after day he has only one thought and one wish,—­to ruin Isaac D. Worthington.  And he will do it if he can.  Those who know—­and among them is Mr. Balch himself—­say that Jethro has never conducted a more masterly campaign than this, and that all the others have been mere childish trials of strength compared to it.  So he sits there through those twelve weeks while the session slips by, while his opponents grumble, and while even his supporters, eager for the charge, complain.  The truth is that in all the years of his activity be has never had such an antagonist as Mr. Flint.  Victory hangs in the balance, and a false move will throw it to either side.

Victory hangs now, to be explicit, upon two factors.  The first and most immediate of these is a certain canny captain of many wars whose regiment is still at the disposal of either army—­for a price, a regiment which has hitherto remained strictly neutral.  And what a regiment it is!  A block of river towns and a senator, and not a casualty since they marched boldly into camp twelve weeks ago.  Mr. Batch is getting very much worried about this regiment, and beginning to doubt Jethro’s judgment.