pipe smoked out, and he, too, emptied the ashes and preserved the last charred bits of tobacco as Amos had done. Then he rose, reached slowly for his hat. “I’ll go along, Amos,” he announced.
The Congressman lumbered up out of his chair, his broad countenance beaming. “Fair enough, Peter. But, Pete--I want to ask you something.”
Gergue shifted his hat to his left hand; his right went to the back of his neck. “What is it?”
“Take a man like young Wint, Peter. Suppose he was give a job--sudden--that was right up to him. Responsibility, power, something to do that had to be done. Nobody to boss him but himself. Him and his heart. What would that do to a man like Wint, Pete?”
Gergue scratched his head--hard. He thought--hard. Amos said softly: “Don’t hurry, Pete. Think it over.” Gergue nodded; and presently he said:
“Man just like Wint--that’s what you mean?”
“Say--Wint himself.”
“It’d depend on the man.”
“Say it’s Wint.”
“Depend on whether he had any backbone--any stuff in him.”
“Has Wint got it?”
Gergue shook his head. “Ain’t sure.”
“Say he has.”
“Then--this job you mentioned would straighten him out--likely.”
“Say he hadn’t.”
“‘Twouldn’t hurt him none.”
Amos nodded. “That’s what I thought, Pete.” He laid his hand on the other’s shoulder and propelled him gently toward the door. There he paused, added: “You do what I asked, will you, Pete? Make a study of Wint.”
“All right.”
“And--Pete.”
Gergue turned.
“Tell V. R. Kite I wish he’d come and see me.”
Peter’s eyes lighted slowly--and after a moment, he grinned. “All right, Amos,” he said quietly, and went down the walk to the gate.

CHAPTER VI
WINTHROP CHASE, SENIOR

Winthrop Chase, Senior, took himself seriously.
When he walked the streets of Hardiston, bowing most affably, smiling most genially, he was inwardly conscious of the gaze of all who passed that way. He felt their eyes upon him; and this gave him a sense of responsibility, a sense of duty. His duty, as he saw it, was to set an example to the town; an example of erectness and respectability and high ideals. And it must be said for Chase that he did his utmost along these lines.
He was not an educated man. He had been born in Hardiston, and had attended the Hardiston schools; but in those days the Hardiston schools were not 

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