If you see
hand laid on me or on a respectable voter going up these stairs, you
pile in with those men. Go ahead up, boys, one and all!" He stepped
between the deputies and beckoned to the voters. He stood there like a
lighthouse marking safe channel. He challenged both the sheriff and the
minister with his gaze. "We've got peace in stock and fight on tap,
gentlemen," he declared. "Full assortment, and no trouble to show
goods."
The village loyalists trooped forward promptly and flocked up. The
deputies made no effort to stop them. Niles did not issue orders.
Threats and badges might cow voters. But he knew woodsmen. He was not
prepared to fight fifty of them.
The opposition hurried up also. Men streamed past on both sides of the
old man, looming there in his wrinkled suit of crash.
"Let 'em go. We've got him licked in the caucus anyway," growled Niles
to one of his deputies. "The back districts are here two to one against
his village crowd."
Chairman Presson stood at one side and waited. Harlan Thornton came to
him, leading his horse through the crowd.
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