Groups of members were retiring to quiet corners to discuss the crisis.
Bassett had already designated a committee room where he would meet his
followers and stanch adherents. Thatcher men had gone forth to seek
their chief. The Democrats would gain a certain moral strength through
the possession of a Senator in Congress. The man chosen to fill the
vacancy would have an almost irresistible claim upon the senatorship if
the Democrats should control the next legislature. It was worth fighting
for, that dead man's seat!
The full significance of the news was not wasted upon Representative
Harwood. The house adjourned promptly, and Dan hastened to write
telegrams. He wired Colonel Ramsay, of Aurora, to come to the capital on
the first train. Telegrams went flying that afternoon to every part of
Indiana.
Thatcher read the evening papers in Chicago and kept the wires hot while
he waited for the first train for Indianapolis.
One of his messages, addressed to Harwood, read:
"Breakfast with me to-morrow morning at my house. Strictly private.
This is your big chance."
Harwood, locked in his office in the Law Building, received this message
by telephone, and it aroused his ire. His relations with Thatcher did
not justify that gentleman in tendering him a strictly private
breakfast, nor did he relish having a big chance pointed out to him by
Mr.
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