They were sitting in a cramped booth beside a jukebox in the corner of a roadhouse in Texas. Tinyman watched the bartender polishing glasses. Then the bartender did something strange. Very deliberately, he put a martini on the edge of the bar, looking at Werd and Tinyman, and positioning the glass just so, on the edge of the bar, right next to their table.

Then Tinyman forgot about it and told Werd that he was scared and wanted out, but not to print that.

Werd assured him that printing that statement of Tinyman's would not adversely affect his chances of winning the election, inasmuchas Tinyman's popular appeal rested on his meekness, but that, no, Werd would not print it, because he didn't want Tinyman to be elected.

Tinyman was relieved. He didn't want to be elected either.

Then the cocktail olive in the martini on the edge of the bar started emitting high-pitched noises.