the effect on the crowd. Roger moved at once to his wife who stood near the window and whispered the first total into her ear. They gave each other a warm and hopeful look.
The operator received a great deal of attention as he wrote the figures on his slide and slipped it into place. Then from the people outside there went up a heartening roar of approval.
“They’re with you, Roger, old man, they’re with you,” said Allison hoarsely, slapping his chief on the back.
Then back to the little room they all went to await Jimmy’s next appearance.
Through the door he came as if shot from a gun, charging Bob with out-thrust hands so that not a fraction of a second be lost, and back through the door he slid with the precision of machinery. Grins of appreciation followed him. More than one of them were to remember Jimmy as one of the spectacles of that night.
Bob and Valerie halved the messages, tossing aside at once those that related to other electorates till they should be done with their own.
“Aratapu,” said Valerie, jotting down numbers.
“And Te Koperu,” said Bob.
There was a minute heavy with anxiety while they worked. These two places might tell the final tale.
“You lead now by 198.” Bob checked again. “Yes, that’s right, 198.”
The men looked solemnly at each other. Roger had hoped that his two towns would give him a bigger lead than that over Mobray’s stronghold, for he was afraid the farmer vote would come nowhere near balancing the labour vote in the bushes and the mills.
Bob and Valerie went on opening the other envelopes. Whatever happened they had to keep their wits clear.
