He may live to regret it." It so happened that by now another election was pending Chicago, and Hand, along with Schryhart and Arneel--who joined their forces because of his friendship for Hand--decided to try to fight Cowperwood through this means.
Hosmer Hand, feeling that he had the burden of a great duty upon him, was not slow in acting.

He was always, when aroused, a determined and able fighter.

Needing an able lieutenant in the impending political conflict, he finally bethought himself of a man who had recently come to figure somewhat conspicuously in Chicago politics--one Patrick Gilgan, the same Patrick Gilgan of Cowperwood's old Hyde Park gas-war days.

Mr.Gilgan was now a comparatively well-to-do man.

Owing to a genial capacity for mixing with people, a close mouth, and absolutely no understanding of, and consequently no conscience in matters of large public import (in so far as they related to the so-called rights of the mass), he was a fit individual to succeed politically.