“I don’t....” Wint flushed. “Why, I....”

“Routt?”

“No, by God!” Wint exclaimed angrily. “I’ve done a good job; and I’ll do another. He’d open the town up. Let things go.”

“Do you want to be Mayor? For your own sake?”

“Why, yes.”

“Like the job so well?

“No, not particularly. But I want—well, it would show that people think I’ve made good.”

“If you’re going to make a better Mayor than Routt, your election is best for the town, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so.”

“Then it’s best for every man in Hardiston, isn’t it?”