"I'm sorry I offended you, Ross. I supposed myself too seasoned a campaigner to mind mud-slinging."
Shelby laughed apologies away and they parted friends. On the threshold it occurred to Bowers to ask:—
"Who is this Dalgetty fellow Sprague mentions? I never heard of him in politics."
"Nor I. Some ward heeler he thinks I resemble, I guess."
"He'd have made his point stronger by taking somebody that the plain people know. That's something mugwumps never learn."
"And there's another thing they don't grasp," Shelby added. "One personal talk with the average voter will outweigh enough high-toned editorials to sink a ship. When the reformer begins to rub shoulders in all sorts of places with all sorts of men his halo won't be so luminous; perhaps he won't call himself a reformer at all—just politician, perhaps; but he'll saw wood."
CHAPTER II
As a matter of fact, the independent candidate did give the shoulder-rubbing process a trial. Within the by no means contracted limits of Volney Sprague's paper-and-ink horizon the flurry of the attack on Shelby threw its ripples far, but Graves shortly damped the editor's professional delight by the remark that he had been assured of no man's vote because of it.
"There's the pity of our lack of time," frowned Sprague. "An educational campaign can hardly be too long. Many a demagogue has failed of election because we vote in November and not in dog-days."
"You'll have to admit that you've merely revamped old material. It's no news that Shelby has packed caucuses, stolen speeches, blackmailed corporations, jobbed canal contracts, and grovelled to the Boss."