John Harkless lay sick, and Rodney McCune would sit in Congress, for the nomination meant election.

But one day the Harkless forces, demoralized, broken, almost hopeless, woke up to find that they had a leader.

Many of them were content with the belief that this was a young lawyer named Keating, who had risen up in Amo; but Mr.Keating himself had a different impression.
Helen was a little nervous, and very much excited, over the political conference at Judge Briscoe's.

She planned it with careful diplomacy, and arranged the details with a fine sense of the dramatic.

There was a suggestion she desired to have made in this meeting, which she wished should emanate from the Amo and Gaines County people, instead of proceeding from Carlow--for she thought it better to make the outsiders believe her idea an inspiration of their own--so she made a little comedy and provided for Briscoe's entrance at an effective moment.