Page:The gold brick (1910).djvu/319

 The governor's features relaxed with a smile, but quickly his brow contracted again, and he said:

"Well—poor things—I pity them. I could wash my hands in women's tears every week."

"Well," said Gilman, opening the door, "I told her she could see you. I'll slide her out."

The governor bent to his desk, but just as the door was closing he called:

"Oh, Gilman!"

Gilman stopped.

"Don't do that—tell her I'll see her after a while."

Gilman, as he returned to his desk, smiled and shook his head at the governor's weakness.

Thomas Whalen was a life convict in the penitentiary. The crime was committed on the night of the election at which John Chatham had been chosen chief executive of his state. Whalen was a boss in the nineteenth ward and a Chatham man. The campaign had developed such bitterness that Whalen found it necessary to name himself a judge of election in the fourth precinct of his ward. Many times during the day blue patrol wagons had rolled into the precinct.

The polling place of the fourth precinct was a