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Show The Fiction LIKE A FOX r. Richard H. Wilkinson Corner that. He didn't show up until two weeks before election, and then it was to announce a piece of news that overshadowed Al's great work. Tyler, it seemed, had made a trip to the capitol himself. He had consulted con-sulted the proper authorities and received a promise that the state would employ local labor in constructing con-structing that section of the road that ran through Dexter. The news was something to cheer about. It began to look as if Tyler had pulled another fast one. Well, Tyler might have been elected if news hadn't drifted back into town that the state, because of adverse business conditions, had decided de-cided to abandon the idea of building build-ing the road that year. Al made a hurried trip to the capitol. He didn't return during the next week, and folks began to forget for-get he was even a candidate. And then on the day before election elec-tion one of the newspapers from the capitol that claims a fair-sized circulation in Dexter came out with the announcement that the road would definitely be put through. The words were a direct quotation from Commissioner Higgins, whose picture appeared on the front page alongside a picture of Al Slater. It was through Al's efforts, the article read, that the course of the road would pass through Dexter. Dexter was jubilant. At the polls on the day following, Al was unanimously elected to fill the expired term of Tyler Jenkins. Jenk-ins. "Dumb, am I?" Al said to his wife after it was over. "Well, this is one time Tyler pulled his fast one too early in the game. He thought the psychological moment was two weeks ago, instead of yesterday. I wonder," he went on, "what Tyler would say if he knew I started that rumor about abandoning the road idea. I wonder if the folks would say I was dumb if they knew I just did it so's I could make it appear like I persuaded the state to change its mind on the day before election. Dumb, am I? Dumb like a fox." town of Dexter. Al Slater is determined de-termined to be elected state representative repre-sentative from the 31st Belknap district. Al has tried for three consecutive con-secutive terms to win out over Tyler Jenkins. At every election he had the vote sewed up. But O " minute Tyler, who is one Fiction tne shrewdest politicians a man would want to meet, always contrived to pull a fast one, two or three days before voting day, and succeeded in swinging the vote his way. "Folks think I'm dumb," Al confided con-fided to his wife. "It's got to be a Joke, me running for office against Jenkins." Al began his campaign 10 months before election. He knew that folks in Dexter were eager to have the contemplated new state highway run through town, instead of swinging swing-ing off to the northward toward Bartlett. And he knew that if he could persuade the highway commissioner com-missioner to chart the course of the proposed road through Dexter, it would mean a big thing; it would probably mean Al's election. And so Al went to the capitol, looked up the highway commissioner, commis-sioner, whose name was Higgins, Hig-gins, and talked the thing over. At first Higgins was obstinate. The highway, he told Al, was scheduled to run through Bartlett. Bart-lett. Well, Al didn't get discouraged. He called on Mr. Higgins a month later and talked things over again. This time he took Mr. Higgins to lunch and bought tickets for the theater afterward. Higgins began to weaken. Al talked himself blue in "Folks think I'm dumb," Al confided to his wife. "It's got to be a Joke, me running; gainst Jenk." tte face, and finally went away with a promise that Mr. Higgins would think the matter over. Al was mighty satisfied with him-elf. him-elf. A month before election a story came out In the papers that, through the efforts of Albert T. Slater, the new state highway ould run through Dexter. AL RECEIVED a lot of credit for his work, and a lot of prom-ei prom-ei of votes. |