"
Bassett smiled, and Harwood was relieved to be able to laugh aloud. He
was enjoying this glimpse of the inner mysteries of the great game. His
disdain of Thatcher's clumsy attempts to circumvent Bassett was
complete; in any view Bassett was preferable to Thatcher. As the senator
from Fraser had said, there was really nothing worse than Thatcher, with
his breweries and racing-stable, his sordidness and vulgarity.
Thatcher's efforts to practice Bassett's methods with Bassett's own
tools was a subject for laughter. It seemed for the moment that
Harwood's decision might be struck on this note of mirth. Dan wondered
whether, in permitting Bassett thus to disclose his plans and purposes,
he had not already nailed his flag to the Bassett masthead.
"I don't want these fellows who are old-timers in state
conventions--particularly those known to be my old friends--to figure
much," Bassett continued. "I'm asking your aid because you're new and
clean-handed. The meanest thing they can say against you is that you're
in my camp. They tell me you're an effective speaker, a number of
county chairmen have said your speeches in the last campaign made a good
impression. I shall want you to prepare a speech about four minutes
long, clean-cut and vigorous,--we'll decide later what that speech shall
be about. I've got it in mind to spring something in that convention
just to show Thatcher that there are turns of the game he doesn't know
yet.
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