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around at his parties. It was just that, in truth, he was alone, some-
times.

The music was especially soft and mellow, and Beth was especially
warm and beautiful. She was thirty-four, but the years had treated
her kindly. For a minute, but only for a minute, I fell completely
into the tempting world of Jack Stone-the gay, empty parties, the
beautiful, hollow women, the important, faceless people. Then the
dance ended, and I left Beth quickly, all too quickly. She was left
alone.

I stepped out of the, jammed room into a hungry mob milling
around tht door. I made my way to the elevator, unrecognized, and
stepped through the entrance-way. The door closed, and cries of "We
want Jack" fell away into silence.

After descending but a floor, the elevator stopped abruptly. The
door opened and a second passenger stepped in-Senator Potter.

"Hello, Senator, how's the celebration?"
"Well, well, well, hello, son. Yah, how you doin', boy? Say, ain't

this a fine blow-off?"
I had worked with Senator Potter before at the nominating con-

vention. Yet I had never seen him like this. He had been drinking
and was putting on his homey act more heavily than usual.

"Yes, my friend, between you and me, I just talked to the boys.
and it's going to be a fine four years, or maybe eight for Jack. If he
plays ball, we'll run him again. Oh, hell, we might need a soldier
four years from now. Can't tell, depends on the damn opposition."

I stared blankly. He was such a powerful man-but no more than
a man. A red vest, walking stick, money, prestige ... but he was his
Own man 01'-

"Yah, we'll get on all right, Jack and me. We got the world right
in our fingers, but the boys downstairs-they got crazy ideas. We got
to work things out now .... " He mumbled incoherently.

1£ Potter weren't his own man, was Jack? Or did Potter ... no

... that couldn't be. The elevator stopped again. It was the base-
ment exit-the back door where no flash bulbs or scrambling people
would greet those who chose to leave incognito. The senator stumbled
into his waiting car, and I stood alone in the alleyway. It was quiet,
except for the sharp clank of pans banged together in the cafeteria
and the mournful baying of a chained spaniel.

Glancing upward, I saw stars through a break in the towering
skyline. It looked clean and sacred up there. I walked around the
long corner until I could hear the noise of the celebrating mob again.

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