Page:The gold brick (1910).djvu/266

 Heartened by this confession of weakness on Nolan's part, they kept on yelling lustily:

"No! no! no!"

They even laughed, and Muldoon smote the table, to declare the motion lost.

On the forty-seventh ballot, one of the Simmons votes went over to Conway, and there was a faint cheer. On the forty-eighth, one of the Simmons votes went to Underwood, and parity was restored. On the forty-ninth, Underwood gained another of Simmons' votes—Nolan, it seemed, had promised to get him on the janitor's pay-roll in the state house—and the vote was tied. This ballot stood:

First     Second      Fifth Ward       Ward       Ward       Total

Conway        —         10          22           32 Underwood     21          4           7           32 Simmons       —          5          —            5

The Simmons men were holding out, waiting to throw their strength to the winner. When the sixty-seventh ballot had been taken, Muldoon, squinting in the miserable light, at the secretary's figures, hit the table with the chair leg and said:

"On this ballot Conway receives 32, Underwood