“Then Eddy’s gone, too. And Benson?”
“We might get him,” said Stone, “if he’s worked right.”
“And that new fellow, Lindsay,” continued Whitely, turning to Marchmont. “You’ve got him well in hand, haven’t you?”
“I guess so,” returned Marchmont, smiling. “He’s rather green and innocent, and has some kindergarten notions which he’ll have to get rid of, but he’ll come round in time. I think I can deliver the goods there all right.”
So they ran over the catalogue of their intimates. It appeared that about a dozen could be counted on at the outset.
“Let’s pledge these and gradually build up a party,” said Whitely, when the list of sure men was at last complete. “I believe we can get such a start before the election that they can’t get near us.”
“It would be great to give that fellow a good, hard fall,” declared Marchmont, with enthusiasm. “He certainly needs it.”
In the evening Wolcott dropped in, as happened frequently nowadays, for a half hour with Marchmont.
“Kind of all-round man, Laughlin is, isn’t he?” commented Marchmont, as Lindsay sprawled on the couch before the open fire and recounted some of his experiences of the day. “Football captain, scholar, musician, pillar of the church, butler, furnace tender, dish-washer—it isn’t every fellow from the woods who has a record like that. I don’t think I should want him to handle my china.”
“What I don’t understand is why the fellows generally seem to have such a high opinion of him,” said Lindsay.