Page:The council of seven.djvu/205

 must come within three months. I've had the nous, thank God, to keep the old party machine in being. It needs overhauling and bringing up to date, but there is a certain amount of money in the party chest, and if I can get the right people in charge—alas, honest men are very shy of me!—it is just possible—don't let us put it higher—that W. W. may catch the Colossus napping."

Much beguiled was this venerable-looking, white-haired and ineffably cunning gentleman with the idea that was slowly coming to birth in his mind. No sooner had the member for Blackhampton sat down, which he did amid murmurs of ironical applause, after boring the House of Commons for a full hour, although posterity may be inclined to take a more lenient view of the performance, than the prime minister retired to his room. In that seclusion, he amused himself with a little quiet study of Whitaker. This young man, at the Stunt Election of 19—, although not taking quite so kindly to the Coupon as he might have done, had yet been returned for Blackhampton by a solid majority of four thousand odd.

"Well," ruminated the prime minister, "Blackhampton is the metropolis of the midland counties and in those parts they are a shrewd, hard-headed folk. They have a knack of going pretty straight to the root of most matters. And they appear to have a good opinion of John Endor. It might do no harm to have a little preliminary try-out at Blackhampton, to learn the thick