Meantime the face of old Barnaby was drawn into one indescribable
pucker of amazement. He could not believe his eyes or his ears. Surely that
was not Colonel Sommerton standing up there telling such an enormous
falsehood on him! He shook his woolly head dolefully, and gnawed a little
splinter that he had plucked from the stump.
"Of course, fellow-citizens," the Colonel went on, "that settled the
matter, and the niggers endorsed Tom Bannister unanimously by a rising
vote!"
The yell that went up when the speaker, bowing profoundly, took his seat,
made it seem certain that Bannister would be beaten; but when the ballot
was taken it was found that he had been chosen by one vote majority.
Colonel Mobley Sommerton's face turned as white as his hair. The iron of
defeat went home to his proud heart with terrible effect, and as he tried
to rise, the features of the hundreds of countenances below him swam and
blended confusedly in his vision. The sedentary bubbles on the knees of his
trousers fluttered with sympathetic violence.
Tom Bannister was on his feet in a moment--it was an appealing look from
Phyllis that inspired him--and once more his genial voice rang out clear
and strong.
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