FORTY-EIGHT hours were indeed necessary for John Endor to make up his mind. A big decision confronted him. Even if he were given the Home Office on his own terms, and he had promptly decided that he would take it on no other, it was certain that, with the full weight of the U. P. against him, he would have a terrific fight to hold his seat. Moreover, if he managed to retain it, and faced with “the machine,” the chances were that he would not, within a few months a general election was due, and he would have to fight again.
Brief study of the tactical position, combined with a little analysis of Slippery Sam’s fair-seeming offer soon brought him perilously near the truth. A by-election in such a constituency as East Blackhampton would be a ballon d’essai, a try-out, a testing of the ice. The astute personage who dangled this lure of office would risk little. If a tyro, a comparative free lance, new to high places, failed to win East Blackhampton, he would be dropped like a hot coal. The rebuff would be accepted gracefully and an orthodox coupon-swallower, a “safe” man put up in his stead. Things would go on as they were; and the noble company of time-servers would trim their sails for the coming dissolution in the old happy way. But as Endor clearly saw, failure for him in such circumstances was likely to mean the end of his political career.
Was he justified in taking such a tremendous risk? He put the case squarely to Helen; it was but fair and right that he should do so. And she, at least, did not hesitate. Her faith in him was complete. Let him follow his star. The chance of his life had come. Let him show himself worthy of it.
His own instincts were knightly, but he could not rid his mind of a secret fear of Slippery Sam. How far would it be possible for John Endor to serve under the official banner of the most accomplished trimmer in the land? Finally, before deciding the matter one way or the other, he determined to see what terms he could make with this illustrious chieftain.
In effect his answer, when duly delivered to the prime minister was that he would accept the Office and run the gauntlet if, in the event of success, Mr. Williams would himself frame a bill to deal with the Newspaper Trust. Such a measure must be the first plank in the Government platform when he appealed to the country six months hence.
Somewhat to Mr. Endor’s surprise, the prime minister agreed to this course. Great parliamentarian as Slippery Sam undoubtedly was, with an insight almost uncanny into the workings of the minds of his chosen instruments, he had anticipated the need for some such compact, before making the offer. Indeed, John Endor’s demand came to him as a subtle reminder of his own prescience.
Mr. Williams was the last man in the world to take a leap in the dark. His plans were laid pretty deep. This picturesque young visionary, with his ancient name, his family tradition, his virile enthusiasm, was the one man in that House or out of it to sweep the whole country if the cause that nerved him were great enough.
In the considered opinion of Mr. Williams the cry Break the Newspaper Trust and Bring Down the Price of Everything was the only possible counter to the massed and entrenched forces of the enemy. At least it would rally the cruelly overburdened upper and middle classes; and conceivably it might woo sufficient of the “workers” from the spells of the U. P. to rout the Colossus with all his stunts and all his wiles.
At all events, Mr. Williams had now reached the conclusion that the yoke of Saul Hartz was intolerable. The question of China was the final straw that had broken the back of the camel. In his own good time he would try a fall with the U. P. Sooner or later it would have to be. His chains had grown unbearable. If he failed, rather than endure the ignominy of serving such a tyrant, he would retire from politics. If he succeeded, politics once again might offer a career for reasonably honest men.
In any event, nothing could have shown a more statesmanlike grasp of the amazingly complex conditions of the time than his choice of John Endor as the prophet of the new gospel—Down with the U. P.