Carnac laughed. “Yes, there’s no engagement to prevent it.” He thanked Junia and Sibyl for all they had done for him, and added: “I’d like a couple of hours among the rivermen. Where’s the boat?” Fabian’s wife told him, and added: “I’ve got the roan team here, and you can drive us down, if you will.”
A few moments afterwards, with the cheers of the crowd behind them, they were being driven by Carnac to the wharf where lay the “Fleur-de-lis.” On board was Fabian.
“Had a good meeting, Carnac?” Fabian asked.
“I should call it first-class. It was like a storm, at sea-wind from one direction, then from another, but I think on the whole we had the best of it. Don’t you think so?” he added to Fabian’s wife.
“Oh, much the best,” she answered. “That’s so, Junia, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t say so positively,” answered Junia. “I don’t understand Monsieur Barouche. He talked as if he had something up his sleeve.” Her face became clouded. “Have you any idea what it is, Carnac?”
Carnac laughingly shook his head. “That’s his way. He’s always bluffing. He does it to make believe the game’s his, and to destroy my confidence. He’s a man of mark, but he’s having the biggest fight he ever had—of that I’m sure.... Do you think I’ll win?” he asked Junia presently with a laugh, as they made their way down the river. “Have I conquest in my eye?”
How seldom did Junia have Carnac to herself in these days! How kind of Fabian to lend his yacht for the purpose of canvassing! But Sibyl had in her mind a deeper thing—she had become a match-maker. She and Fabian, when the boat left the shore, went to one corner of the stern, leaving Carnac and Junia in the bow.
Three miles below the city was the Island on which many voters were working in a saw-mill and lumberyard. It had supporters of Barouche chiefly in the yards and mills. Carnac had never visited it, and it was Junia’s view that he should ingratiate himself with the workers, a rough-and-ready lot. They were ready to “burst a meeting” or bludgeon a candidate on occasion.
When Carnac asked his question Junia smiled up at him. “Yes, I think you’ll win, Carnac. You have the tide with you.” Presently she added: “I’m not sure that you’ve got all the cards, though—I don’t know why, but I have that fear.”