midnight
`` You may work for my nomination , '' he says , `` and be assured if I am nominated I shall strive to be elected . `` If it is the will of the people to elect me I shall be faithful to the high duties of the office . '' Nevins bids his protege good night , assuring him that they will keep in constant communication . The Committee of Forty , which is in session in a hall on the outskirts of the city in the vicinity of the stock yards , is surprised when , at midnight , Nevins appears before them to announce that he has selected Harvey Trueman to be the candidate for the Presidency on the Independence ticket . Eternal vigilance is the policy of the Magnates in keeping their sleuths ever on the alert for the unearthing of the plans of the anti-trust advocates . In every city detectives are untiring in their efforts to discover the work of the Committee of Forty . It is suspected that the committee is to obtain damaging evidence against some of the most oppressive of the monopolies and bring the full story of the wholesale robbery of the people out as a climax in the coming campaign .