Page:The gold brick (1910).djvu/230

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have beyond any question"—he consulted his paper, as if to make sure of the number—"we have fifty-three, and that doesn't include the nine hold-over senators who are with us. We can lose ten of them at the polls and still have enough to control the caucus. In Cook County, to-morrow, we'll carry the First, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Seventeenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-first, Twenty-third and the country towns—the Seventh—giving us thirty-five more candidates, or ninety-seven in all. This is a conservative estimate, and gives the doubtful districts to Warren. We can lose Cook to-morrow and still have a fighting chance to win out. I regard the battle as ours. Senator Warren is defeated."

"Over at the Richelieu," said Cowley, of the News-Despatch, "Baldwin claims they have you whipped to a standstill."

"They're welcome over there to any comfort they can get out of the situation," said Garwood in a superior way.

It rained on the day of the primaries. All morning politicians, big and little, stamped into Senator Warren's hotel on Michigan Avenue, or stamped