Several times men had passed notes to him, whereupon he had risen and searched out the writer to give his answer with a nod or shake of the head.

When Thatcher appeared, Dan had waited for the hubbub to subside and then he left his seat to shake hands with Bassett's quondam ally.

He held meanwhile a bit of notepaper the size of his hand, and scrutinized it carefully from time to time.

It contained the precise programme of the convention as arranged by Bassett.

Morton Bassett was on a train bound for the pastoral shades of Waupegan a hundred miles away, but the permanent chairman had in his vest pocket a copy of Bassett's scheme of exercises; even Thatcher's rapturous greeting had been ordered by Bassett.