Garwood looked at Rankin in stupefaction.
"An' then," Rankin went on, "they said you didn't answer the'r letters 'bout it when they wrote an' told you."
"Well, Crawford did, didn't he?" Garwood said. Crawford was his private secretary.
"Yes," answered Rankin, "but they said you didn't answer the'r letters personally. Does Crawford sign your name, or stamp it onto the letters?"
"The damn fools!" Garwood could only exclaim, helplessly.
"Well, you know ol' General Bancroft's strong holt al'ays was 'at he answered his constits' letters right away, an' in his own hand write. An'--oh, ther' 'as a lot o' little things like that."
"Was there any feeling over my vote on the armor-plate bill?" asked the congressman.
"Oh, some, that is, some talk about your sidin' in 'ith the corporations, but not a great deal, mostly just such little feelin's as a man al'ays encounters after he's been in office a little while. I didn't think it 'uld amount to much, but--"
"But it did," said Garwood, setting his lips.
"Yes, it did," acquiesced Rankin. "But Pusey was at the bottom of it all."
"Yes, Pusey. The truth is I underrated Pusey's stren'th--that's the whole of it."
They were silent a minute, and then Garwood said:
"Well," Rankin went on, "you see Pusey's been comin' up in the world this last year. After he got holt o' the _Citizen_, which no one thought he ever could do, he braced up consider'ble an' started in fer to edit a clean sheet--a reg'lar home an' fireside companion. You wouldn't know 'im now--new clothes, plug hat Sundays, an' he gets shaved."
"Yep, has a cup at the barber's with a quill pen painted onto it."
They marveled sufficiently, and Rankin resumed:
"He's al'ays had it in fer me you know, an' he's a pretty slick one, he is, if I must say so. He went to work quiet like, to beat me out--"
Rankin sunk his hands in his trousers' pockets and slid his heels across the floor until his legs were stretched out before him. Then he stared abstractedly, thinking of his defeat.
"Well--I'll get through with it. I read in the papers 'at Congress 'uld adjourn the last o' May. I thought we'd ought to have an early convention. I wanted to fix it all up and have an instructed delegation waitin' fer you on your return, so I calls a meetin' o' the county committee, settin' it on Saturday the twenty-seventh. I felt pretty good over it, too, for I thought I'd took Pusey by surprise. He didn't say nothin' in the paper, but he ain't the feller to be caught nappin'--no sir, he ain't. I didn't give him credit fer it."