Things began to look serious for the first sergeant.
Stone and Hooper were keeping tally with trembling fingers.
Barriscale, himself, was still optimistic concerning his success, and when the next three votes were recorded for him, carrying his lead up to five, the confident smile reasserted itself in his face, and he foresaw an easy victory.
There were only fourteen more ballots to be counted, and it was hardly within the range of possibility that he could now be defeated.
Then, alas for human probabilities! five votes in succession were announced for McCormack, so that, with the counting of the fifty-eighth ballot, the two candidates were for the first time tied.
Number fifty-nine was for Barriscale; but numbers sixty, sixty-one and sixty-two were all for McCormack, giving him a lead of two votes.
For the first time in all the strenuous campaign, the glimmer of hope in Hal’s breast, alternately fading and reappearing, brightened into a steady flame. There were but five more votes to be counted. Surely he might reasonably hope to get two of them.
As for Sergeant Barriscale, there was no smile on his lips now. He stared at the tally sheet with incredulous eyes. The votes that he had confidently counted on had not been forthcoming. It was evident that some one, more than one indeed, had played traitor to him. Already the fires of anger were beginning to blaze up in his breast. Had he harbored resentment too soon? It might be; for the next three ballots were for him. On the sixty-fifth count he was one ahead. There were but two more ballots to be counted. Surely he had a right to expect one of these. He grasped at the proverbial straw with the clutch of a drowning man.
The excitement in the room was intense but suppressed. Save for the voice of the chairman announcing the names on the ballots, and the voice of the clerk repeating them, there was absolute stillness. No one else spoke, or even whispered. Men scarcely breathed for the suspense that was on them.
Ballot number sixty-six was removed from the box, read and recorded. It was for McCormack.