The Davis boomers were paralyzed.

The earth seemed to have risen and hit them midships.

The incoming delegates were arrested and forewarned.
Six months of adroit scheming was set at naught, and little more was heard of "D.

Davis." We were, like the Mousquetaires, equally in for fighting and foot-racing, the point with us being to get there, no matter how; the end--the defeat of the rascally machine politicians and the reform of the public service--justifying the means.

I am writing this nearly fifty years after the event and must be forgiven the fling of my wisdom at my own expense and that of my associates in harmless crime.
Some ten years ago I wrote: "Reid and White and I the sole survivors; Reid a great Ambassador, White and I the virtuous ones, still able to sit up and take notice, with three meals a day for which we are thankful and able to pay; no one of us recalcitrant.