Preserve and Protect Read Online Free Page B

so slightly—
    “—do solemnly swear—”
    “—that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States—”
    “—that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States—”
    “—and will to the best of my ability—”
    “—and will to the best of my ability—”
    “—preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
    “Preserve,” the Speaker says, his voice falling suddenly to a soft, grave, deeply determined note, “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
    “Mr. President!” a cameraman shouts, and with a little smile he turns and faces the clicking, whirring, omnivorous machines, his sister and brother-in-law at his side. Their weathered faces blink into the lights a little uncertainly, plain, simple, unaffected, as if, for a second, beseeching the support and understanding of the world.
    Behind and below them, over the porch railing, the beautiful lake can be seen, stretching far away in the gathering darkness to the distant lights against the distant mountains on the farther shore. Quite by accident, by no one’s design but simply because the Speaker happens to have been there when he got the news, a curiously bucolic air is lent the occasion. For just a second something subconscious, almost visceral, touches the hearts of his watching countrymen—something harking far back into the innocence of an earlier America, this swearing-in of the new President of the United States in a simple log cabin, in a forest, by a lake.

    As if the actual ceremony has released them all, within the hour a few answers begin to be given to some of the questions of what-will-they-do.
    The first headlines read:
    ABBOTT SWORN IN, RETAINS CABINET. NAMES COMMISSION TO PROBE HUDSON CRASH. MAY SUMMON NATIONAL COMMITTEE IMMEDIATELY AFTER FUNERAL TO CHOOSE NEW NOMINEES.
    They are followed quickly by:
    PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR RECALL OF CONVENTION.
    And shortly thereafter:
    SECRETARY KNOX ANNOUNCES, “I EXPECT TO HEAD THE TICKET.”
    And moments later:
    GOVERNOR JASON REPUDIATES THIRD PARTY, PLEDGES FIGHT FOR TOP SPOT.
    It appears that the tale as before is about to be retold.
    But there will be differences.
    3
    So the power had come to him, the President thought as the last cameraman gathered his gear and departed, as the last gaping tourist, privileged by sheer happenstance to have been in the vicinity, gathered his gaping wife and drowsy kids and drove away.
    The power had come to him: the ultimate power of America, which he had never sought and never wanted, being one of those who find in Washington their proper place and fill it to the full, knowing that this is right for them and that no amount of striving will make it any better or produce from it satisfactions greater than it already provides.
    There were not many such, he reflected with a grim little amusement. Not many such. Mr. Speaker had been a rarity because he had always known exactly the power he wanted, had gone after it, won it, and settled in without another ambition forever after.
    Until now.
    Until now …
    He sighed, a small unconscious sound that went unnoticed in the velvet night with its enormous stars shining over Tahoe, its little cool wind rustling in the pines, its distant sounds of laughter and music from somewhere down the shore.
    He was alone on the porch for the first time in five hours. Inside, his sister and brother-in-law were getting ready for bed. In the two neighboring cabins, commandeered for press and Secret Service, the final poker game had ended, the last hectic political argument was over, the lights were going out.
    He would have liked to have known what they had said about him this evening, that shrewd, experienced crew whom he had known so long and so well in Washington. He was pretty sure they had always respected Mr. Speaker, for he had conducted himself with a dignity and forcefulness that had guaranteed they should. But in this past week at the wild