When that, too, pictured Phillips's plan as a diabolical intent to take from them even the little that they had, and give it to the loafing socialist and the bloated foreigner, no room for doubt was left to them.
He had organized volunteer cycle companies of speakers from the towns, young working-men and women and students, to go out on summer evenings and hold meetings on the village greens.

They were winning their way.
But it was slow work.

And Carleton was countering their efforts by a hired opposition that followed them from place to place, and whose interruptions were made use of to represent the whole campaign as a fiasco.
"He's clever," laughed Phillips.

"I'd enjoy the fight, if I'd only myself to think of, and life wasn't so short." The laugh died away and a shadow fell upon his face.
"If I could get a few of the big landlords to come in on my side," he continued, "it would make all the difference in the world.

They're sensible men, some of them; and the whole thing could be carried out without injury to any legitimate interest.