Part 61 (1/2)

”I mean just that,” said Jennie, stolidly. ”I helped set it, with him pretending to be all worked up, for the doctor to see. He got rid of me all right. He's got one of his spies there now, a Bolshevik like himself. You can ask the neighbors.”

Howard was out, and when the woman had gone Anthony ordered his car.

Lily, frightened by the look on his face, made only one protest.

”You mustn't go alone,” she said. ”Let me go, too. Or take Grayson--anybody.”

But he went alone; in the hall he picked up his hat and stick, and drew on his gloves.

”What is the house number?”

Lily told him and he went out, moving deliberately, like a man who has made up his mind to follow a certain course, but to keep himself well in hand.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII

Acting on w.i.l.l.y Cameron's suggestion, Dan Boyd retained his members.h.i.+p in the union and frequented the meetings. He learned various things, that the strike vote had been padded, for instance, and that the Radicals had taken advantage of the absence of some of the conservative leaders to secure such support as they had received. He found the better cla.s.s of workmen dissatisfied and unhappy. Some of them, men who loved their tools, had resented the order to put them down where they were and walk out, and this resentment, childish as it seemed, was an expression of their general dissatisfaction with the autocracy they had themselves built up.

Finally Dan's persistent attendance and meek acquiescence, added to his war record, brought him reward. He was elected member of a conference to take to the Central Labor Council the suggestion for a general strike.

It was arranged that the delegates take the floor one after the other, and hold it for as long as possible. Then they were to ask the President of the Council to put the question.

The arguments were carefully prepared. The general strike was to be urged as the one salvation of the labor movement. It would prove the solidarity of labor. And, at the Council meeting a few days later, the rank and file were impressed by the arguments. Dan, gnawing his nails and listening, watched anxiously. The idea was favorably received, and the delegates went back to their local unions, to urge, coerce and threaten.

Not once, during the meeting, had there been any suggestion of violence, but violence was in the air, nevertheless. The quant.i.ty of revolutionary literature increased greatly during the following ten days, and now it was no longer furtively distributed. It was sold or given away at all meetings; it flooded the various headquarters with its skillful compound of lies and truth. The leaders notified of the situation, pretended that it was harmless raving, a natural and safe outlet for suppressed discontents.

Dan gathered up an armful of it and took it home. On a Sunday following, there was a ma.s.s meeting at the Colosseum, and a business agent of one of the unions made an impa.s.sioned speech. He recited old and new grievances, said that the government had failed to live up to its promises, that the government boards were always unjust to the workers, and ended with a statement of the steel makers' profits. Dan turned impatiently to a man beside him.

”Why doesn't he say how much of that profit the government gets?” he demanded.

But the man only eyed him suspiciously.

Dan fell silent. He knew it was wrong, but he had no gift of tongue.

It was at that meeting that for the first time he heard used the word ”revolution.”

CHAPTER x.x.xIV

Old Anthony's excursion to his daughter's house had not prospered.

During the drive to Cardew Way he sat forward on the edge of the seat of his limousine, his mouth twitching with impatience and anger, his stick tightly clutched in his hand. Almost before the machine stopped he was out on the pavement, scanning the house with hostile eyes.

The building was dark. Paul, the chauffeur, watching curiously, for the household knew that Anthony Cardew had sworn never to darken his daughter's door, saw his erect, militant figure enter the gate and lose itself in the shadow of the house. There followed a short interval of nothing in particular, and then a tall man appeared in the rectangle of light which was the open door.

Jim Doyle was astounded when he saw his visitor. Astounded and alarmed.

But he recovered himself quickly, and smiled.

”This is something I never expected to see,” he said, ”Mr. Anthony Cardew on my doorstep.”

”I don't give a d.a.m.n what you expected to see,” said Mr. Anthony Cardew.

”I want to see my daughter.”