Part 7 (2/2)
Harley was not alone interested in ”King” Plummer, but also in the kiss that he had put upon the white forehead of Sylvia Morgan and his boisterous joy at seeing her. Since he was not her father, it was likely that he was her uncle, not by blood, as Jimmy Grayson was, but as the husband of an aunt, perhaps. Yes, this must be it, he concluded, and the kiss seemed more reasonable.
When ”King” Plummer was introduced to Harley and Hobart, he shook hands with them most cordially, but as keen a man as Harley could see that he regarded them as mere youths, or ”kids,” as the ”King” himself would have said. There was nothing depreciatory in this beyond the difference between age and great achievement and youth which had not yet had the time to fulfil its promise, and Harley, because of it, felt no decrease of liking and respect for ”King” Plummer.
”The far Northwest is for you solidly, Jimmy,” said the big man, with a joyous smile. ”Idaho is right in line at the head of the procession, and Wyoming, Montana, and the others are following close after. They haven't many votes, but they have enough to decide this election.”
Jimmy Grayson smiled. He had reason to smile. He, too, liked ”King”
Plummer, and, moreover, this was good news that he brought.
”I fancy that you have had something to do with this,” he said. ”You still know how to whisper a sweet word in the ear of the people.”
The big man shook himself, laughed again, and looked satisfied.
”Well, I have done a lot of whispering,” he admitted, ”if you call it whispering, though most people, I'll gamble, would say it is like the clatter of a mill. And I've done some riding, too, both train and horse.
The mountains are going to be all right. Don't you forget that, Jimmy.”
”And it's lucky for me that 'King' Plummer is my friend,” said Mr.
Grayson, sincerely.
During this talk of politics, Sylvia Morgan was silent, and once, when ”King” Plummer laid his big hand protectingly on her arm, she shrank slightly, but so slightly that no one save Harley noticed, not even the ”King.” The action roused doubts in his mind. Surely a girl would not shrink from her uncle in this manner, not from a big, kindly uncle like Plummer.
”I wanted to get down to Chicago and hear you at your first speech,”
went on ”King” Plummer, in his big, booming voice, that filled the room, ”but I couldn't manage it. There was a convention at Boise that needed a little attention--one likes to look on at those things, you know”--his left eye contracted slightly--”and as soon as that was over I hurried down as fast as an express could bring me. But I've read in all the papers what a howlin' success it was, an' I'm goin' to hear you give it to the other fellows to-night--won't we, Sylvia?”
He turned to the girl for confirmation of what needed no confirmation, and her eyes smiled into his with a certain pride. She seemed to Harley to admire his bigness, his openness of manner and speech, and his wholesome character. After all, he was her uncle; the look that she gave him then was that of one who received protection, half paternal and half elder-brotherly.
”And now, Jimmy, I guess I've taken up enough of your time,” exclaimed ”King” Plummer, his big, resonant chest-tones echoing in the room, ”and it's for you to do all the talkin' that's left. But I'll be in a box listenin', and just you do your best for the credit of the West and the mountains.”
Grayson smiled and promised, and ”King” Plummer joined them in the carriage that bore them to the hall. He took his place with them in such a natural and matter-of-fact manner that Harley was confirmed in his renewed opinion that he was Sylvia Morgan's uncle, or, at least, her next of kin, after Mr. Grayson.
At the hall ”King” Plummer, as he had promised, sat in a box with Mrs.
Grayson and Miss Morgan, and always he led the applause, which in reality needed no leading, the triumph at Chicago being repeated in full degree. Harley, watching him from his desk, saw that the big man was filled with sanguine expectation of triumph, and, with the glow of Jimmy Grayson's oratory upon him, could not see any such result as defeat. But Miss Morgan was strangely silent, and all her vivacity of manner seemed to be gone.
When the speech was nearly over Churchill sauntered in lazily by the stage entrance and took a seat near Harley. Harley had not noticed his previous absence until then.
”How's the speech to-night?” he asked, languidly; ”same old chestnuts, I suppose.”
”As this is Mr. Grayson's second speech,” replied Harley, sharply, ”it is a little early to call anything that he says 'same old chestnuts.'
Besides, I don't think that repet.i.tion will ever be one of his faults.
Why haven't you been here?”
”Oh, I've been cruising around a bit on the outside. The a.s.sociated Press, of course, will take care of the speech, which is mere routine.”
He spoke with such an air of supercilious and supreme satisfaction that Harley looked at him keenly.
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