Mr. Kerrigan, shrewd though seemingly simple, fixed him with an amiable eye. "What's your scheme?" he said. "I'm always open to a good idea."
"Well, it's just this," began Mr. Gilgan, feeling his way. "You have a fine big ward here that you carry in your vest pocket, and so has Tiernan, as we all know; and we all know, too, that if it wasn't for what you and him can do there wouldn't always be a Democratic mayor elected. Now, I have an idea, from looking into the thing, that neither you nor Tiernan have got as much out of it so far as you might have."
Mr. Kerrigan was too cautious to comment as to that, though Mr.
Gilgan paused for a moment.
"Now, I have a plan, as I say, and you can take it or leave it, just as you want, and no hard feelings one way or the other. I think the Republicans are going to win this fall--McKenty or no McKenty--first, second, and third wards with us or not, as they choose. The doings of the big fellow"--he was referring to McKenty--"with the other fellow in North Clark Street"--Mr. Gilgan preferred to be a little enigmatic at times--"are very much in the wind just now. You see how the papers stand. I happen to know where there's any quantity of money coming into the game from big financial quarters who have no use for this railroad man. It's a solid La Salle and Dearborn Street line-up, so far as I can see.
Why, I don't know. But so it is. Maybe you know better than I do. Anyhow, that's the way it stands now. Add to that the fact that there are eight naturally Republican wards as it is, and ten more where there is always a fighting chance, and you begin to see what I'm driving at. Count out these last ten, though, and bet only on the eight that are sure to stand. That leaves twenty-three wards that we Republicans always conceded to you people; but if we manage to carry thirteen of them along with the eight I'm talking about, we'll have a majority in council, and"--flick! he snapped his fingers--"out you go--you, McKenty, Cowperwood, and all the rest. No more franchises, no more street-paving contracts, no more gas deals. Nothing--for two years, anyhow, and maybe longer.
If we win we'll take the jobs and the fat deals." He paused and surveyed Kerrigan cheerfully but defiantly.
"Now, I've just been all over the city," he continued, "in every ward and precinct, so I know something of what I am talking about.
I have the men and the cash to put up a fight all along the line this time. This fall we win--me and the big fellows over there in La Salle Street, and all the Republicans or Democrats or Prohibitionists, or whoever else comes in with us--do you get me?
We're going to put up the biggest political fight Chicago has ever seen. I'm not naming any names just yet, but when the time comes you'll see. Now, what I want to ask of you is this, and I'll not mince me words nor beat around the bush. Will you and Tiernan come in with me and Edstrom to take over the city and run it during the next two years? If you will, we can win hands down. It will be a case of share and share alike on everything--police, gas, water, highways, street-railways, everything--or we'll divide beforehand and put it down in black and white. I know that you and Tiernan work together, or I wouldn't talk about this. Edstrom has the Swedes where he wants them, and he'll poll twenty thousand of them this fall. There's Ungerich with his Germans; one of us might make a deal with him afterward, give him most any office he wants. If we win this time we can hold the city for six or eight years anyhow, most likely, and after that--well, there's no use lookin' too far in the future--Anyhow we'd have a majority of the council and carry the mayor along with it."
"If--" commented Mr. Kerrigan, dryly.
"If," replied Mr. Gilgan, sententiously. "You're very right.
There's a big 'if' in there, I'll admit. But if these two wards--yours and Tiernan's--could by any chance be carried for the Republicans they'd be equal to any four or five of the others."
