This frequent raiding cut frightfully into the profits of the
enterprising firm of Oaks & McDonald, and set the junior member
thinking again. He had already solved the great problem that it is
better to run a brace game than to play one, but he found there were
thorns even in running a game. Therefore he set to work to discover
how these thorns could be removed.
The thorns that beset his career as a gambler were the police. But
the police acted under instructions from the chief of police. The
chief of police acted under instructions from the administration.
Therefore, McDonald figured out that he would have to control the
administration. So he straightway blossomed out as a politician, and
grew in importance until finally he ruled Chicago, and realized the
great ambition of his life, to make and unmake things like chiefs of
police, with a curt nod of his head.