"
"Listen to reason, man. You want _something_. What is it?"
"Me?... Um!... I'm a plain kind of a man, Mr. President, with a plain
kind of a wife. Hain't never met Mandy, have you? Wa-al, her and me is
perty contented with life. We got a good hardware store ..."
"Rot! What do you want?"
Scattergood leaned forward, his round face, with its bulging cheeks, as
expressionless as some particularly big and ruddy apple.
"If you're achin' to do favors for me, Mr. President you kin drop in
along about supper time. Right now can't think of a thing you kin do for
me. But I'll try ... I'll spend the afternoon thinkin' over all the
things you might be able to do, and I'll try to pick one of 'em out....
I got to see a hardware salesman now. Afternoon Mr. President."
"Baines," said Castle, losing his temper for the first time in a dozen
years, "we'll smash you for this. We'll drive you out of the state.
Well--"
"Don't slam the door," said Scattergood, placidly; "it might disturb the
other folks in the hotel."
That afternoon the galleries of the House were jammed. Below, in their
seats, the legislators sat uncomfortably. There was a tenseness in the
air which made men's skin tingle.
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