“’Cause it’s fartherest from Sullivan fer one thing, an’ then Joe Hale wanted to get it fer his home town. He was a little skeery at first. I had to fix him—promised him you’d have him appointed postmaster. You’ll have to do it.” Garwood scowled the scowl that comes when the vexed question of patronage is mooted, but said:
“I’ll take care of him.”
“Yes,” Rankin went on, “you’ll have to. He says he can land a delegation from Tazewell all right. Their county convention’s Thursday. There’s thirty votes to start on. O’Malley says Logan’s all right, too. They’ll have a mass convention called fer Saturday. That’ll be twenty-four more—fifty-four.” Rankin leaned over to Garwood’s desk and began to make figures on an old envelope. “Fifty-four,” he repeated. “Mac thinks he can fetch up his county; that’s eighteen more—seventy-two in all. With our twenty-two here that’ll make—le’s see, two’n’ two’s four—seven an’ two’s nine—ninety-four. An’ you’re nominated, ol’ man.”
And Rankin, dropping his pencil, slapped Garwood on the knee, though an instant later he regretted having taken what once would not have been a liberty, for he had a sudden intuition that a new divinity now hedged his congressman. But he speedily covered his slight confusion by proceeding:
“An’ now we’ve only got a week to get ready in, but a week’s as good as a month. We must cinch the thing in Tazewell an’ Logan an’ Mason. That end o’ the district’s our’s naturally. We’ll give ’em Piatt an’ DeWitt; an’ Moultrie—course they’ve got that coopered up already.”
Garwood placed the tips of his fingers together and knitted his brows in thought. Rankin dutifully awaited the result of his thinking.
“Don’t you think,” the congressman said presently, “that we could gain a few more votes here in Polk? Perhaps, with certain concessions, Pusey might—”
Rankin did not, however, dutifully await the full expression of the thought.
“Concessions hell!” he cried. “Concessions to that little whelp? Well, I should say not! We’ll lick him, an’ then ram it down his throat!”
Rankin breathed heavily as he exploded this imperfect figure.