Tom nodded.
“Exactly. I knew Conover was a chess fiend, and so this morning, after you told me how you stood, I called on him and invited him to play a game with me after dinner. He was pleased to death. I let him have things his own way, of course, and at three I told him that I hated to spoil the game but that it was time for him to go over and cast his vote. I guess he thought I was trying to rattle him. Anyway, he said he didn’t want to vote and wasn’t going to. So I thought he knew his own mind, and didn’t say any more about it. And then, at twenty after, I started in and did him up. He can’t play chess any more than—than Alf can!”
“Tom, you’re a wonder!” laughed Dan. “That’s the best joke I’ve heard in a year. It was mighty decent of you, though,” he continued seriously, “and I appreciate it.”
“Oh, that’s all right. I had my fun, too.”
“But, just the same, I’m rather glad I got Simms’s vote, for I don’t think I’d have liked being elected that way.”
Tom only grunted.
[CHAPTER VIII]
AT SOUND VIEW
Mr. Pennimore’s return to Sound View was delayed a week, and so it was after Dan’s success at the election when Gerald was summoned to the telephone in the school office one morning and found his father at the other end of the line. And it was three nights later that Dan and Tom and Alf took dinner with Gerald and Mr. Pennimore.