Garret Smith

“ So the time of the State convention arrived, and, as Boss Quaid had feared, the fight was carried to its floor with the chance of victory ready to fall either way according to the words a sick man might utter into his telephone in the privacy of his bedroom.
For when the convention opened, Warren Hammond was really ill, broken down by the strain of the campaign on top of the shock of his injuries. With great effort he had finished dictating his final radio statement which he hoped to read over the wire to the convention. Now there were grave doubts whether he would be able to read it himself. ”

“ At the end of this table, facing them, sat a dark youth, even more rat-visaged than the red-headed Barney. He winked knowingly at the latter.
“Who’s that young gunman?” Forsythe asked a little distastefully.
“That’s Jim Neenan,” Barney told him. “He’s a vaudeville actor and a friend of the organization. Jim and his little pals will kind of unofficially supervise what goes over the radio. Watch ’em if anything breaks.”
And something did break. It held off so long that less acute observers of political nature than Boss Quaid were beginning to breathe freely. ”

“ The question of State control of water power on which the boss saw fit to hedge was threatening internal disruption.
To-morrow was county convention day. He was hoping that Forsythe’s speech at this dinner tonight would swing sentiment in enough doubtful counties to give him a majority of pledged delegates when the State convention opened.
But he was uncomfortably conscious of that great unseen radio audience in a hundred thousand homes already settled before their “speakers,” listening eagerly to the preliminary gossip of the announcer as the faithful gathered around the tables. ”

“ Forsythe was worrying, too, under his suave exterior.
“Suppose somebody did break loose tonight,” he remarked, leaning insinuatingly toward the boss’s secretary. “Couldn’t an accident happen to the radio temporarily?”
“Oh, nothing raw like that!” Barney deprecated with outpushed palm. “They’d smell something rotten to the end of the State. No, I got a better way.”
He glanced at a smaller table adjoining the low platform on which the speakers’ table stood. It was surrounded by a group of dashing and determined-appearing young men. ”

“ Barney laughed. “As long as you’re cagy about the State power proposition, it doesn’t matter a whoop what else you say. It’s some dark horse popping up here tonight that we’re afraid of. Every yahoo in the State will know it as soon as we do.”
“Barney’s right,” Boss Quaid sighed again. “People hear too damn much these days.”
Boss Quaid’s domain had for twenty years been practically a one-party State, dominated by the machine which Quaid till lately held tight in his fat hand. ”

“ Quaid remarked, looking hard at Forsythe.
“Meaning that’s what I am?” he asked.
“No! No!” Barney assured him. “He means that’s what they might figure if you go to talk to ’em personally. They’re shy of city men. You’re a polished gentleman. Hammond’s sort of rough and ready. Other things equal, they’d be for him if they got a look at you both. And it’s a cinch Hammond’ll go around and talk to ’em. I expect Mr. Quaid would like to keep you both out of sight of those birds. For once he’d like a straight radio campaign.”
“Barney’s right!” rumbled the boss. ”

“ Morris,” the new Governor began when the young man appeared, “I feel that I owe you an apology and a reward as well, in case anything in the line of jobs that I have to dispose of would appeal to you. I’ve looked you up, and the only thing I find against you is that on a certain evening when you were acting as announcer at our party’s keynote pre-convention dinner, you took a chance and went home early, thereby making me Governor of the State.” ”

“ Quaid added.
And the big fellow clung to that belief to his dying day.
A good sized knot of delegates came in, making the roof ring with cheers for Forsythe. Another knot across the hall tried to drown them out with counter cheers for Hammond.
“Hello, you bedroomers!” Shouted a Forsythe man above the din.
“Go on, you ghost walkers,” a man from the other ranks retorted.
And in Hammond’s sick room out in the little suburban farmhouse, the invalid was listening to the tumult in the convention hall as it came to him over his radio. ”

“ Quaid demanded in bewilderment.
“No. The boys all left when Forsythe got through. The A. P. man stayed, but he must have been drunk and gone to sleep. We couldn’t get anything out of him.”
“Listen, boss,” Barney broke in. “Somebody double crossed us, unless the spooks have been at work. I bet Hammond played in with the broadcasting station some way and got ’em to let him break in. The whole mischief’s been done for tonight. We better lie low till we find out how it was done.”
“Barney’s right,” Quaid decided, and stalked out. ”

“ Also he had innumerable phone calls from people who had been at the dinner, asking what it was all about and confirming the fact that no one at the dinner had heard Hammond’s speech.
Following Barney’s hint, the staff at the radio broadcasting station were given the third degree. They swore that Hammond’s speech had come over the regular wire along with the rest of the dinner program.
Their announcer on duty at the hall that night could shed no further light, as he had gone home after the Forsythe speech, arranging with the toastmaster to give the radio “good night.” ”

“ So we’ve got our wish, and little Jimmie’s come for his pay.”
“How’s that?”
“Wasn’t I to get one grand if I arranged it so that Hammond would consent to a radio campaign?”
Forsythe was frankly puzzled for a moment, then saw a light.
“Look here, you young thug, do you mean you deliberately wrecked Hammond’s car? Suppose you’d killed him! Good Lord, did you think I meant anything like that? We talked about persuading.”
Neenan grinned.
“We’re practical politicians, ain’t we? There’s different kinds of persuadin’. ”

“ Mind, I’m not confessin’ anything, but I leave it to your judgment if that looks just like an accident. There wasn’t a chance in the world of his being killed, with a guy hidden in the back of the car to stop him if he got to goin’ too fast with his wheel loosened up. ”