Page:The council of seven.djvu/250

 *ceasingly, the real issues might be obscured in a cloud of poison gas, all its black arts might be called into play, but from the start there was no burking the fact that for once the Newspaper Ring was not going to have a walk-over.

To begin with, it was soon apparent that Cosmos Alley had shown less than its usual acumen in choosing a candidate. At the first blush, Sir Stuyvescent Milgrim, with his protection for key industries, preferential tariffs within the Empire and other shining lures for a purely mercantile community was "the sure card." But, as John Endor's first meeting proved, the U. P. champion was not well adapted to withstand the fire of criticism that was suddenly directed upon him from an unexpected quarter.

To the surprise of every politician in the City, the chair at Mr. Endor's first meeting was occupied by Blackhampton's Big Noise. For years Sir Josiah Munt had held a unique position in its public life. He was the friend of every good cause. If money had to be raised for a worthy object, a piece of legislation demanded, or a wrong denounced it was "as sure as Monday morning" that Sir Munt in his own characteristic fashion would sit at a small table with a tiny hammer in his hand in the center of the platform of the City's largest public hall. Moreover, he would bring the occasion home in a few words peculiarly his own. In the art of "putting it over" he had locally no equal. Disdaining mere grammar, verbal finesse, mi