Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/222

 McLeod, and as he laughed changed his tone in the midst of his laughter.

"And what is the great proposition you have to make to me?" asked Gaston.

"Join with us in this new coalition, and stump the state for us. Your fortune will be made, win or lose. I'll see that the National Republican Committee pays you a thousand dollars a week for your speeches, at least five a week, two hundred dollars apiece. If we lose, you will make ten thousand dollars in the canvass, and stand in line for a good office under the National Administration. If we win, I'll put you in the Governor's Palace for four years. There's a tide in the affairs of men, you know. It's at the flood at this moment for you."

Gaston was silent a moment and looked thoughtfully out of the window. The offer was a tremendous temptation. A group of old fogies had dominated the Democratic party for ten years, and had kept the younger men down with their war cries and old soldier candidates, until he had been more than once disgusted. He felt as sure of McLeod's success as if he already saw it. It was precisely the movement he had warned the old pudding-head set against in the preceding campaign in which they had deliberately alienated the Farmer's Alliance. They had pooh poohed his warning and blundered on to their ruin.

It was the dream of his life to have money enough to buy back his mother's old home, beautify it, and live there in comfort with a great library of books he would gather. The possibility of a career at the state Capital and then at Washington for so young a man was one of dazzling splendour to his youthful mind. For the moment it seemed almost impossible to say no.

McLeod saw his hesitation and already smiled with the