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+Project Gutenberg's 100%: The Story of a Patriot, by Upton Sinclair
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: 100%: The Story of a Patriot
+
+Author: Upton Sinclair
+
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5776]
+This file was first posted on September 1, 2002
+Last updated: April 29, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 100%: THE STORY OF A PATRIOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo
+
+
+
+
+
+
+100%: THE STORY OF A PATRIOT
+
+By Upton Sinclair
+
+Published By The Author
+
+Pasadena, California
+
+1920
+
+
+
+TO MY WIFE
+
+Who is the creator of the most charming character in this story,
+"Mrs. Godd," and who positively refuses to permit the book to go to
+press until it has been explained that the character is a Grecian
+Godd and not a Hebrew Godd, so that no one may accuse the creator of
+sacrilege.
+
+
+
+
+Section 1
+
+
+Now and then it occurs to one to reflect upon what slender threads
+of accident depend the most important circumstances of his life; to
+look back and shudder, realizing how close to the edge of
+nothingness his being has come. A young man is walking down the
+street, quite casually, with an empty mind and no set purpose; he
+comes to a crossing, and for no reason that he could tell he takes
+the right hand turn instead of the left; and so it happens that he
+encounters a blue-eyed girl, who sets his heart to beating. He meets
+the girl, marries her--and she became your mother. But now, suppose
+the young man had taken the left hand turn instead of the right, and
+had never met the blue-eyed girl; where would you be now, and what
+would have become of those qualities of mind which you consider of
+importance to the world, and those grave affairs of business to
+which your time is devoted?
+
+Something like that it was which befell Peter Gudge; just such an
+accident, changing the whole current of his life, and making the
+series of events with which this story deals. Peter was walking down
+the street one afternoon, when a woman approached and held out to
+him a printed leaflet. "Read this, please," she said.
+
+And Peter, who was hungry, and at odds with the world, answered
+gruffly: "I got no money." He thought it was an advertising dodger,
+and he said: "I can't buy nothin'."
+
+"It isn't anything for sale," answered the woman. "It's a message."
+
+"Religion?" said Peter. "I just got kicked out of a church."
+
+"No, not a church," said the woman. "It's something different; put
+it in your pocket." She was an elderly woman with gray hair, and she
+followed along, smiling pleasantly at this frail, poor-looking
+stranger, but nagging at him. "Read it some time when you've nothing
+else to do." And so Peter, just to get rid of her, took the leaflet
+and thrust it into his pocket, and went on, and in a minute or two
+had forgotten all about it.
+
+Peter was thinking--or rather Peter's stomach was thinking for him;
+for when you have had nothing to eat all day, and nothing on the day
+before but a cup of coffee and one sandwich, your thought-centers
+are transferred from the top to the middle of you. Peter was
+thinking that this was a hell of a life. Who could have foreseen
+that just because he had stolen one miserable fried doughnut, he
+would lose his easy job and his chance of rising in the world?
+Peter's whole being was concentrated on the effort to rise in the
+world; to get success, which means money, which means ease and
+pleasure--the magic names which lure all human creatures.
+
+But who could have foreseen that Mrs. Smithers would have kept count
+of those fried doughnuts every time anybody passed thru her pantry?
+And it was only that one ridiculous circumstance which had brought
+Peter to his present misery. But for that he might have had his
+lunch of bread and dried herring and weak tea in the home of the
+shoe-maker's wife, and might have still been busy with his job of
+stirring up dissension in the First Apostolic Church, otherwise
+known as the Holy Rollers, and of getting the Rev. Gamaliel Lunk
+turned out, and Shoemaker Smithers established at the job of pastor,
+with Peter Gudge as his right hand man.
+
+Always it had been like that, thru Peter's twenty years of life.
+Time after time he would get his feeble clutch fixed upon the ladder
+of prosperity, and then something would happen--some wretched thing
+like the stealing of a fried doughnut--to pry him loose and tumble
+him down again into the pit of misery.
+
+So Peter walked along, with his belt drawn tight, and his restless
+blue eyes wandering here and there, looking for a place to get a
+meal. There were jobs to be had, but they were hard jobs, and Peter
+wanted an easy one. There are people in this world who live by their
+muscles, and others who live by their wits; Peter belonged to the
+latter class; and had missed many a meal rather than descend in the
+social scale.
+
+Peter looked into the faces of everyone he passed, searching for a
+possible opening. Some returned his glance, but never for more than
+a second, for they saw an insignificant looking man, undersized,
+undernourished, and with one shoulder higher than the other, a weak
+chin and mouth, crooked teeth, and a brown moustache too feeble to
+hold itself up at the corners. Peters' straw hat had many straws
+missing, his second-hand brown suit was become third-hand, and his
+shoes were turning over at the sides. In a city where everybody was
+"hustling," everybody, as they phrased it, "on the make," why should
+anyone take a second glance at Peter Gudge? Why should anyone care
+about the restless soul hidden inside him, or dream that Peter was,
+in his own obscure way, a sort of genius? No one did care; no one
+did dream.
+
+It was about two o'clock of an afternoon in July, and the sun beat
+down upon the streets of American City. There were crowds upon the
+streets, and Peter noticed that everywhere were flags and bunting.
+Once or twice he heard the strains of distant music, and wondered
+what was "up." Peter had not been reading the newspapers; all his
+attention had been taken up by the quarrels of the Smithers faction
+and the Lunk faction in the First Apostolic Church, otherwise known
+as the Holy Rollers, and great events that had been happening in the
+world outside were of no concern to him. Peter knew vaguely that on
+the other side of the world half a dozen mighty nations were locked
+together in a grip of death; the whole earth was shaken with their
+struggles, and Peter had felt a bit of the trembling now and then.
+But Peter did not know that his own country had anything to do with
+this European quarrel, and did not know that certain great interests
+thruout the country had set themselves to rouse the public to
+action.
+
+This movement had reached American City, and the streets had broken
+out in a blaze of patriotic display. In all the windows of the
+stores there were signs: "Wake up, America!" Across the broad Main
+Street there were banners: "America Prepare!" Down in the square at
+one end of the street a small army was gathering--old veterans of
+the Civil War, and middle-aged veterans of the Spanish War, and
+regiments of the state militia, and brigades of marines and sailors
+from the ships in the harbor, and members of fraternal lodges with
+their Lord High Chief Grand Marshals on horseback with gold sashes
+and waving white plumes, and all the notables of the city in
+carriages, and a score of bands to stir their feet and ten thousand
+flags waving above their heads. "Wake up America!" And here was
+Peter Gudge, with an empty stomach, coming suddenly upon the
+swarming crowds in Main Street, and having no remotest idea what it
+was all about.
+
+A crowd suggested one thing to Peter. For seven years of his young
+life he had been assistant to Pericles Priam, and had traveled over
+America selling Priam's Peerless Pain Paralyzer; they had ridden in
+an automobile, and wherever there was a fair or a convention or an
+excursion or a picnic, they were on hand, and Pericles Priam would
+stop at a place where the crowds were thickest, and ring a dinner
+bell, and deliver his super-eloquent message to humanity--the elixir
+of life revealed, suffering banished from the earth, and all
+inconveniences of this mortal state brought to an end for one dollar
+per bottle of fifteen per cent opium. It had been Peter's job to
+handle the bottles and take in the coin; and so now, when he saw the
+crowd, he looked about him eagerly. Perhaps there might be here some
+vender of corn-plasters or ink-stain removers, or some three card
+monte man to whom Peter could attach himself for the price of a
+sandwich.
+
+Peter wormed his way thru the crowd for two or three blocks, but saw
+nothing more promising than venders of American flags on little
+sticks, and of patriotic buttons with "Wake up America!" But then,
+on the other side of the street at one of the crossings Peter saw a
+man standing on a truck making a speech, and he dug his way thru the
+crowd, elbowing, sliding this way and that, begging everybody's
+pardon--until at last he was out of the crowd, and standing in the
+open way which had been cleared for the procession, a seemingly
+endless road lined with solid walls of human beings, with
+blue-uniformed policemen holding them back. Peter started to run
+across--and at that same instant came the end of the world.
+
+
+
+
+Section 2
+
+
+One who seeks to tell about events in words comes occasionally upon
+a fundamental difficulty. An event of colossal and overwhelming
+significance may happen all at once, but the words which describe it
+have to come one by one in a long chain. The event may reveal itself
+without a moment's warning; but if one is to give a sense of it in
+words, one must prepare for it, build up to it, awaken anticipation,
+establish a climax. If the description of this event which fate
+sprung upon Peter Gudge as he was crossing the street were limited
+to the one word "BANG" in letters a couple of inches high across the
+page, the impression would hardly be adequate.
+
+The end of the world, it seemed to Peter, when he was able to
+collect enough of his terrified wits to think about it. But at first
+there was no thinking; there was only sensation--a terrific roar, as
+if the whole universe had suddenly turned to sound; a blinding white
+glare, as of all the lightnings of the heavens; a blow that picked
+him up as if he had been a piece of thistledown, and flung him
+across the street and against the side of a building. Peter fell
+upon the sidewalk in a heap, deafened, blinded, stunned; and there
+he lay--he had no idea how long-until gradually his senses began to
+return to him, and from the confusion certain factors began to stand
+out: a faint gray smoke that seemed to lie upon the ground, a bitter
+odor that stung the nostrils and tongue, and screams of people,
+moaning and sobbing and general uproar. Something lay across Peter's
+chest, and he felt that he was suffocating, and struggled
+convulsively to push it away; the hands with which he pushed felt
+something hot and wet and slimy, and the horrified Peter realized
+that it was half the body of a mangled human being.
+
+Yes, it was the end of the world. Only a couple of days previously
+Peter Gudge had been a devout member of the First Apostolic Church,
+otherwise known as the Holy Rollers, and had listened at
+prayer-meetings to soul-shaking imaginings out of the Book of
+Revelations. So Peter knew that this was it; and having many sins
+upon his conscience, and being in no way eager to confront his God,
+he looked out over the bodies of the dead and the writhing wounded,
+and saw a row of boxes standing against the building, having been
+placed there by people who wished to see over the heads of the
+crowd. Peter started to crawl, and found that he was able to do so,
+and wormed his way behind one of these packing-boxes, and got inside
+and lay hidden from his God.
+
+There was blood on him, and he did not know whether it was his own
+or other peoples'. He was trembling with fright, his crooked teeth
+were hammering together like those of an angry woodchuck. But the
+effects of the shock continued to pass away, and his wits to come
+back to him, and at last Peter realized that he never had taken
+seriously the ideas of the First Apostolic Church of American City.
+He listened to the moans of the wounded, and to the shouts and
+uproar of the crowd, and began seriously figuring out what could
+have happened. There had once been an earthquake in American City;
+could this be another one? Or had a volcano opened up in the midst
+of Main Street? Or could it have been a gas-main? And was this the
+end, or would it explode some more? Would the volcano go on
+erupting, and blow Peter and his frail packing-box thru the walls of
+Guggenheim's Department-store?
+
+So Peter waited, and listened to the horrible sounds of people in
+agony, and pleading with others to put them out of it. Peter heard
+voices of men giving orders, and realized that these must be
+policemen, and that no doubt there would be ambulances coming. Maybe
+there was something the matter with him, and he ought to crawl out
+and get himself taken care of. All of a sudden Peter remembered his
+stomach; and his wits, which had been sharpened by twenty years'
+struggle against a hostile world, realized in a flash the
+opportunity which fate had brought to him. He must pretend to be
+wounded, badly wounded; he must be unconscious, suffering from shock
+and shattered nerves; then they would take him to the hospital and
+put him in a soft bed and give him things to eat--maybe he might
+stay there for weeks, and they might give him money when he came
+out.
+
+Or perhaps he might get a job in the hospital, something that was
+easy, and required only alert intelligence. Perhaps the head doctor
+in the hospital might want somebody to watch the other doctors, to
+see if they were neglecting the patients, or perhaps flirting with
+some of the nurses--there was sure to be something like that going
+on. It had been that way in the orphans' home where Peter had spent
+a part of his childhood till he ran away. It had been that way again
+in the great Temple of Jimjambo, conducted by Pashtian el Kalandra,
+Chief Magistrian of Eleutherinian Exoticism. Peter had worked as
+scullion in the kitchen in that mystic institution, and had worked
+his way upward until he possessed the confidence of Tushbar Akrogas,
+major-domo and right hand man of the Prophet himself.
+
+Wherever there was a group of people, and a treasure to be
+administered, there Peter knew was backbiting and scandal and
+intriguing and spying, and a chance for somebody whose brains were
+"all there." It might seem strange that Peter should think about
+such things, just then when the earth had opened up in front of him
+and the air had turned to roaring noise and blinding white flame,
+and had hurled him against the side of a building and dropped the
+bleeding half of a woman's body across his chest; but Peter had
+lived from earliest childhood by his wits and by nothing else, and
+such a fellow has to learn to use his wits under any and all
+circumstances, no matter how bewildering. Peter's training covered
+almost every emergency one could think of; he had even at times
+occupied himself by imagining what he would do if the Holy Rollers
+should turn out to be right, and if suddenly Gabriel's trumpet were
+to blow, and he were to find himself confronting Jesus in a long
+white night-gown.
+
+
+
+
+Section 3
+
+
+Peter's imaginings were brought to an end by the packing-box being
+pulled out from the wall. "Hello!" said a voice.
+
+Peter groaned, but did not look up. The box was pulled out further,
+and a face peered in. "What you hidin' in there for?"
+
+Peter stammered feebly: "Wh-wh-what?"
+
+"You hurt?" demanded the voice.
+
+"I dunno," moaned Peter.
+
+The box was pulled out further, and its occupant slid out. Peter
+looked up, and saw three or four policemen bending over him; he
+moaned again.
+
+"How did you get in there?" asked one.
+
+"I crawled in."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To g-g-get away from the--what was it?"
+
+"Bomb," said one of the policemen; and Peter was astounded that for
+a moment he forgot to be a nervous wreck.
+
+"Bomb!" he cried; and at the same moment one of the policemen lifted
+him to his feet.
+
+"Can you stand up?" he demanded; and Peter tried, and found that he
+could, and forgot that he couldn't. He was covered with blood and
+dirt, and was an unpresentable object, but he was really relieved to
+discover that his limbs were intact.
+
+"What's your name?" demanded one of the policemen, and when Peter
+answered, he asked, "Where do you work?"
+
+"I got no job," replied Peter.
+
+"Where'd you work last?" And then another broke in, "What did you
+crawl in there for?"
+
+"My God!" cried Peter. "I wanted to get away!"
+
+The policemen seemed to find it suspicious that he had stayed hidden
+so long. They were in a state of excitement themselves, it appeared;
+a terrible crime had been committed, and they were hunting for any
+trace of the criminal. Another man came up, not dressed in uniform,
+but evidently having authority, and he fell onto Peter, demanding to
+know who he was, and where he had come from, and what he had been
+doing in that crowd. And of course Peter had no very satisfactory
+answers to give to any of these questions. His occupations had been
+unusual, and not entirely credible, and his purposes were hard to
+explain to a suspicious questioner. The man was big and burly, at
+least a foot taller than Peter, and as he talked he stooped down and
+stared into Peter's eyes as if he were looking for dark secrets
+hidden back in the depths of Peter's skull. Peter remembered that he
+was supposed to be sick, and his eyelids drooped and he reeled
+slightly, so that the policemen had to hold him up.
+
+"I want to talk to that fellow," said the questioner. "Take him
+inside." One of the officers took Peter under one arm, and the other
+under the other arm, and they half walked and half carried him
+across the street and into a building.
+
+
+
+
+Section 4
+
+
+It was a big store which the police had opened up. Inside there were
+wounded people lying on the floor, with doctors and others attending
+them. Peter was marched down the corridor, and into a room where sat
+or stood several other men, more or less in a state of collapse like
+himself; people who had failed to satisfy the police, and were being
+held under guard.
+
+Peter's two policemen backed him against the wall and proceeded to
+go thru his pockets, producing the shameful contents--a soiled rag,
+and two cigarette butts picked up on the street, and a broken pipe,
+and a watch which had once cost a dollar, but was now out of order,
+and too badly damaged to be pawned. That was all they had any right
+to find, so far as Peter knew. But there came forth one thing
+more--the printed circular which Peter had thrust into his pocket.
+The policeman who pulled it out took a glance at it, and then cried,
+"Good God!" He stared at Peter, then he stared at the other
+policeman and handed him the paper.
+
+At that moment the man not in uniform entered the room. "Mr.
+Guffey!" cried the policeman. "See this!" The man took the paper,
+and glanced at it, and Peter, watching with bewildered and
+fascinated eyes, saw a most terrifying sight. It was as if the man
+went suddenly out of his mind. He glared at Peter, and under his
+black eyebrows the big staring eyes seemed ready to jump out of his
+head.
+
+"Aha!" he exclaimed; and then, "So I've got you!" The hand that held
+the paper was trembling, and the other hand reached out like a great
+claw, and fastened itself in the neck of Peter's coat, and drew it
+together until Peter was squeezed tight. "You threw that bomb!"
+hissed the man.
+
+"Wh-what?" gasped Peter, his voice almost fainting. "B-b-bomb?"
+
+"Out with it!" cried the man, and his face came close to Peter's,
+his teeth gleaming as if he were going to bite off Peter's nose.
+"Out with it! Quick! Who helped you?"
+
+"My G-God!" said Peter. "I d-dunno what you mean."
+
+"You dare lie to me?" roared the man; and he shook Peter as if he
+meant to jar his teeth out. "No nonsense now! Who helped you make
+that bomb?"
+
+Peter's voice rose to a scream of terror: "I never saw no bomb! I
+dunno what you're talkin' about!"
+
+"You, come this way," said the man, and started suddenly toward the
+door. It might have been more convenient if he had turned Peter
+around, and got him by the back of his coat-collar; but he
+evidently held Peter's physical being as a thing too slight for
+consideration--he just kept his grip in the bosom of Peter's jacket,
+and half lifted him and half shoved him back out of the room, and
+down a long passage to the back part of the building. And all the
+time he was hissing into Peter's face: "I'll have it out of you!
+Don't think you can lie to me! Make up your mind to it, you're going
+to come thru!"
+
+The man opened a door. It was some kind of storeroom, and he walked
+Peter inside and slammed the door behind him. "Now, out with it!" he
+said. The man thrust into his pocket the printed circular, or
+whatever it was--Peter never saw it again, and never found out what
+was printed on it. With his free hand the man grabbed one of Peter's
+hands, or rather one finger of Peter's hand, and bent it suddenly
+backward with terrible violence. "Oh!" screamed Peter. "Stop!" And
+then, with a wild shriek, "You'll break it."
+
+"I mean to break it! mean to break every bone in your body! I'll
+tear your finger-nails out; I'll tear the eyes out of your head, if
+I have to! You tell me who helped you make that bomb!"
+
+Peter broke out in a storm of agonized protest; he had never heard
+of any bomb, he didn't know what the man was talking about; he
+writhed and twisted and doubled himself over backward, trying to
+evade the frightful pain of that pressure on his finger.
+
+"You're lying!" insisted Guffey. "I know you're lying. You're one of
+that crowd."
+
+"What crowd? Ouch! I dunno what you mean!"
+
+"You're one of them Reds, aint you?"
+
+"Reds? What are Reds?"
+
+"You want to tell me you don't know what a Red is? Aint you been
+giving out them circulars on the street?"
+
+"I never seen the circular!" repeated Peter. "I never seen a word in
+it; I dunno what it is."
+
+"You try to stuff me with that?"
+
+"Some woman gimme that circular on the street! Ouch! Stop! Jesus! I
+tell you I never looked at the circular!"
+
+"You dare go on lying?" shouted the man, with fresh access of rage.
+"And when I seen you with them Reds? I know about your plots, I'm
+going to get it out of you." He grabbed Peter's wrist and began to
+twist it, and Peter half turned over in the effort to save himself,
+and shrieked again, in more piercing tones, "I dunno! I dunno!"
+
+"What's them fellows done for you that you protect them?" demanded
+the other. "What good'll it do you if we hang you and let them
+escape?"
+
+But Peter only screamed and wept the louder.
+
+"They'll have time to get out of town," persisted the other. "If you
+speak quick we can nab them all, and then I'll let you go. You
+understand, we won't do a thing to you, if you'll come thru and tell
+us who put you up to this. We know it wasn't you that planned it;
+it's the big fellows we want."
+
+He began to wheedle and coax Peter; but then, when Peter answered
+again with his provoking "I dunno," he would give another twist to
+Peter's wrist, and Peter would yell, almost incoherent with terror
+and pain--but still declaring that he could tell nothing, he knew
+nothing about any bomb.
+
+So at last Guffey wearied of this futile inquisition; or perhaps it
+occurred to him that this was too public a place for the prosecution
+of a "third degree"--there might be some one listening outside the
+door. He stopped twisting Peter's wrist, and tilted back Peter's
+head so that Peter's frightened eyes were staring into his.
+
+"Now, young fellow," he said, "look here. I got no time for you just
+now, but you're going to jail, you're my prisoner, and make up your
+mind to it, sooner or later I'm going to get it out of you. It may
+take a day, or it may take a month, but you're going to tell me
+about this bomb plot, and who printed this here circular opposed to
+Preparedness, and all about these Reds you work with. I'm telling
+you now--so you think it over; and meantime, you hold your mouth,
+don't say a word to a living soul, or if you do I'll tear your
+tongue out of your throat."
+
+Then, paying no attention to Peter's wailings, he took him by the
+back of the collar and marched him down the hall again, and turned
+him over to one of the policemen. "Take this man to the city jail,"
+he said, "and put him in the hole, and keep him there until I come,
+and don't let him speak a word to anybody. If he tries it, mash his
+mouth for him." So the policeman took poor sobbing Peter by the arm
+and marched him out of the building.
+
+
+
+
+Section 5
+
+
+The police had got the crowds driven back by now, and had ropes
+across the street to hold them, and inside the roped space were
+several ambulances and a couple of patrol-wagons. Peter was shoved
+into one of these latter, and a policeman sat by his side, and the
+bell clanged, and the patrol-wagon forced its way slowly thru the
+struggling crowd. Half an hour later they arrived at the huge stone
+jail, and Peter was marched inside. There were no formalities, they
+did not enter Peter on the books, or take his name or his finger
+prints; some higher power had spoken, and Peter's fate was already
+determined. He was taken into an elevator, and down into a basement,
+and then down a flight of stone steps into a deeper basement, and
+there was an iron door with a tiny slit an inch wide and six inches
+long near the top. This was the "hole," and the door was opened and
+Peter shoved inside into utter darkness. The door banged, and the
+bolts rattled; and then silence. Peter sank upon a cold stone floor,
+a bundle of abject and hideous misery.
+
+These events had happened with such terrifying rapidity that Peter
+Gudge had hardly time to keep track of them. But now he had plenty
+of time, he had nothing but time. He could think the whole thing
+out, and realize the ghastly trick which fate had played upon him.
+He lay there, and time passed; he had no way of measuring it, no
+idea whether it was hours or days. It was cold and clammy in the
+stone cell; they called it the "cooler," and used it to reduce the
+temperature of the violent and intractable. It was a trouble-saving
+device; they just left the man there and forgot him, and his own
+tormented mind did the rest.
+
+And surely no more tormented mind than the mind of Peter Gudge had
+ever been put in that black hole. It was the more terrible, because
+so utterly undeserved, so preposterous. For such a thing to happen
+to him, Peter Gudge, of all people--who took such pains to avoid
+discomfort in life, who was always ready to oblige anybody, to do
+anything he was told to do, so as to have'an easy time, a
+sufficiency of food, and a warm corner to crawl into! What could
+have persuaded fate to pick him for the victim of this cruel prank;
+to put him into this position, where he could not avoid suffering,
+no matter what he did? They wanted him to tell something, and Peter
+would have been perfectly willing to tell anything--but how could he
+tell it when he did not know it?
+
+The more Peter thought about it, the more outraged he became. It was
+monstrous! He sat up and glared into the black darkness. He talked
+to himself, he talked to the world outside, to the universe which
+had forgotten his existence. He stormed, he wept. He got on his feet
+and flung himself about the cell, which was six feet square, and
+barely tall enough for him to stand erect. He pounded on the door
+with his one hand which Guffey had not lamed, he kicked, and he
+shouted. But there was no answer, and so far as he could tell, there
+was no one to hear.
+
+When he had exhausted himself, he sank down, and fell into a haunted
+sleep; and then he wakened again, to a reality worse than any
+nightmare. That awful man was coming after him again! He was going
+to torture him, to make him tell what he did not know! All the ogres
+and all the demons that had ever been invented to frighten the
+imagination of children were as nothing compared to the image of the
+man called Guffey, as Peter thought of him.
+
+Several ages after Peter had been locked up, he heard sounds
+outside, and the door was opened. Peter was cowering in the corner,
+thinking that Guffey had come. There was a scraping on the floor,
+and then the door was banged again, and silence fell. Peter
+investigated and discovered that they had put in a chunk of bread
+and a pan of water.
+
+Then more ages passed, and Peter's impotent ragings were repeated;
+then once more they brought bread and water, and Peter wondered, was
+it twice a day they brought it, or was this a new day? And how long
+did they mean to keep him here? Did they mean to drive him mad? He
+asked these questions of the man who brought the bread and water,
+but the man made no answer, he never at any time spoke a word. Peter
+had no company in that "hole" but his God; and Peter was not well
+acquainted with his God, and did not enjoy a tete-a-tete with Him.
+
+What troubled Peter most was the cold; it got into his bones, and
+his teeth were chattering all the time. Despite all his moving
+about, he could not keep warm. When the man opened the door, he
+cried out to him, begging for a blanket; each time the man came,
+Peter begged more frantically than ever. He was ill, he had been
+injured in the explosion, he needed a doctor, he was going to die!
+But there was never any answer. Peter would lie there and shiver and
+weep, and writhe, and babble, and lose consciousness for a while,
+and not know whether he was awake or asleep, whether he was living
+or dead. He was becoming delirious, and the things that were
+happening to him, the people who were tormenting him, became
+monsters and fiends who carried him away upon far journeys, and
+plunged him thru abysses of terror and torment.
+
+And yet, many and strange as were the phantoms which Peter's sick
+imagination conjured up, there was no one of them as terrible as the
+reality which prevailed just then in the life of American City, and
+was determining the destiny of a poor little man by the name of
+Peter Gudge. There lived in American City a group of men who had
+taken possession of its industries and dominated the lives of its
+population. This group, intrenched in power in the city's business
+and also in its government, were facing the opposition of a new and
+rapidly rising power, that of organized labor, determined to break
+the oligarchy of business and take over its powers. The struggle of
+these two groups was coming to its culmination. They were like two
+mighty wrestlers, locked in a grip of death; two giants in combat,
+who tear up trees by the roots and break off fragments of cliffs
+from the mountains to smash in each other's skulls. And poor
+Peter--what was he? An ant which happened to come blundering across
+the ground where these combatants met. The earth was shaken with
+their trampling, the dirt was kicked this way and that, and the
+unhappy ant was knocked about, tumbled head over heels, buried in
+the debris; and suddenly--Smash!--a giant foot came down upon the
+place where he was struggling and gasping!
+
+
+
+
+Section 6
+
+
+Peter had been in the "hole" perhaps three days, perhaps a week--he
+did not know, and no one ever told him. The door was opened again,
+and for the first time he heard a voice, "Come out here."
+
+Peter had been longing to hear a voice; but now he shrunk terrified
+into a corner. The voice was the voice of Guffey, and Peter knew
+what it meant. His teeth began to rattle again, and he wailed, "I
+dunno anything! I can't tell anything!"
+
+A hand reached in and took him by the collar, and he found himself
+walking down the corridor in front of Guffey. "Shut up!" said the
+man, in answer to all his wailings, and took him into a room and
+threw him into a chair as if he had been a bundle of bedding, and
+pulled up another chair and sat down in front of Peter.
+
+"Now look here," he said. "I want to have an understanding with you.
+Do you want to go back into that hole again?"
+
+"N-n-no," moaned Peter.
+
+"Well, I want you to know that you'll spend the rest of your life in
+that hole, except when you're talking to me. And when you're talking
+to me you'll be having your arms twisted off you, and splinters
+driven into your finger nails, and your skin burned with
+matches--until you tell me what I want to know. Nobody's going to
+help you, nobody's going to know about it. You're going to stay here
+with me until you come across."
+
+Peter could only sob and moan.
+
+"Now," continued Guffey, "I been finding out all about you, I got
+your life story from the day you were born, and there's no use your
+trying to hide anything. I know your part in this here bomb plot,
+and I can send you to the gallows without any trouble whatever. But
+there's some things I can't prove on the other fellows. They're the
+big ones, the real devils, and they're the ones I want, so you've
+got a chance to save yourself, and you better be thankful for it."
+
+Peter went on moaning and sobbing.
+
+"Shut up!" cried the man. And then, fixing Peter's frightened gaze
+with his own, he continued, "Understand, you got a chance to save
+yourself. All you got to do is to tell what you know. Then you can
+come out and you won't have any more trouble. We'll take good care
+of you; everything'll be easy for you."
+
+Peter continued to gaze like a fascinated rabbit. And such a longing
+as surged up in his soul--to be free, and out of trouble, and taken
+care of! If only he had known anything to tell; if only there was
+some way he could find out something to tell!
+
+
+
+
+Section 7
+
+
+Suddenly the man reached out and grasped one of Peter's hands. He
+twisted the wrist again, the sore wrist which still ached from the
+torture. "Will you tell?"
+
+"I'd tell if I could!" screamed Peter. "My God, how can I?"
+
+"Don't lie to me," hissed the man. "I know about it now, you can't
+fool me. You know Jim Goober."
+
+"I never heard of him!" wailed Peter.
+
+"You lie!" declared the other, and he gave Peter's wrist a twist.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know him!" shrieked Peter.
+
+"Oh, that's more like it!" said the other. "Of course you know him.
+What sort of a looking man is he?"
+
+"I--I dunno. He's a big man."
+
+"You lie! You know he's a medium-sized man!"
+
+"He's a medium-sized man."
+
+"A dark man?"
+
+"Yes, a dark man."
+
+"And you know Mrs. Goober, the music teacher?"
+
+"Yes, I know her."
+
+"And you've been to her house?"
+
+
+
+"Yes, I've been to her house."
+
+"Where is their house?"
+
+"I dunno--that is--"
+
+"It's on Fourth Street?"
+
+"Yes, it's on Fourth Street."
+
+"And he hired you to carry that suit-case with the bombs in it,
+didn't he?"
+
+"Yes, he hired me."
+
+"And he told you what was in it, didn't he?"
+
+"He--he--that is--I dunno."
+
+"You don't know whether he told you?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, he told me."
+
+"You knew all about the plot, didn't you?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, I knew."
+
+"And you know Isaacs, the Jew?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, I know him."
+
+"He was the fellow that drove the jitney, wasn't he?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, he drove the jitney."
+
+"Where did he drive it?"
+
+"H-h-he drove it everywhere."
+
+"He drove it over here with the suit-case, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes, he did."
+
+"And you know Biddle, and you know what he did, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I know."
+
+"And you're willing to tell all you know about it, are you?"
+
+"Yes, I'll tell it all. I'll tell whatever you--"
+
+"You'll tell whatever you know, will you?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"And you'll stand by it? You'll not try to back out? You don't want
+to go back into the hole?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+And suddenly Guffey pulled from his pocket a paper folded up. It was
+several typewritten sheets. "Peter Gudge," he said, "I been looking
+up your record, and I've found out what you did in this case. You'll
+see when you read how perfectly I've got it. You won't find a single
+mistake in it." Guffey meant this for wit, but poor Peter was too
+far gone with terror to have any idea that there was such a thing as
+a smile in the world.
+
+"This is your story, d'you see?" continued Guffey. "Now take it and
+read it."
+
+So Peter took the paper in his trembling hand, the one which had not
+been twisted lame. He tried to read it, but his hand shook so that
+he had to put it on his knee, and then he discovered that his eyes
+had not yet got used to the light. He could not see the print. "I
+c-c-can't," he wailed.
+
+And the other man took the paper from him. "I'll read it to you," he
+said. "Now you listen, and put your mind on it, and make sure I've
+got it all right."
+
+And so Guffey started to read an elaborate legal document: "I, Peter
+Gudge, being duly sworn do depose and declare--" and so on. It was
+an elaborate and detailed story about a man named Jim Goober, and
+his wife and three other men, and how they had employed Peter to buy
+for them certain materials to make bombs, and how Peter had helped
+them to make the bombs in a certain room at a certain given address,
+and how they had put the bombs in a suit-case, with a time clock to
+set them off, and how Isaacs, the jitney driver, had driven them to
+a certain corner on Main Street, and how they had left the suit-case
+with the bombs on the street in front of the Preparedness Day
+parade.
+
+It was very simple and clear, and Peter, as he listened, was almost
+ready to cry with delight, realizing that this was all he had to do
+to escape from his horrible predicament. He knew now what he was
+supposed to know; and he knew it. Why had not Guffey told him long
+ago, so that he might have known it without having his fingers bent
+out of place and his wrist twisted off?
+
+"Now then," said Guffey, "that's your confession, is it?"
+
+"Y-y-yes," said Peter.
+
+"And you'll stand by it to the end?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"We can count on you now? No more nonsense?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"You swear it's all true?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And you won't let anybody persuade you to go back on it--no matter
+what they say to you?"
+
+"N-n-no, sir," said Peter.
+
+"All right," said Guffey; and his voice showed the relief of a
+business man who has closed an important deal. He became almost
+human as lie went on. "Now, Peter," he said, "you're our man, and
+we're going to count on you. You understand, of course, that we have
+to hold you as a witness, but you're not to be a prisoner, and we're
+going to treat you well. We'll put you in the hospital part of the
+jail, and you'll have good grub and nothing to do. In a week or so,
+we'll want you to appear before the grand jury. Meantime, you
+understand--not a word to a soul! People may try to worm something
+out of you, but don't you open your mouth about this case except to
+me. I'm your boss, and I'll tell you what to do, and I'll take care
+of you all the way. You got that all straight?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir," said Peter.
+
+
+
+
+Section 8
+
+
+There was once, so legend declares, a darky who said that he liked
+to stub his toe because it felt so good when it stopped hurting. On
+this same principle Peter had a happy time in the hospital of the
+American City jail. He had a comfortable bed, and plenty to eat, and
+absolutely nothing to do. His sore joints became gradually healed,
+and he gained half a pound a day in weight, and his busy mind set to
+work to study the circumstances about him, to find out how he could
+perpetuate these comfortable conditions, and add to them the little
+luxuries which make life really worth living.
+
+In charge of this hospital was an old man by the name of Doobman. He
+had been appointed because he was the uncle of an alderman, and he
+had held the job for the last six years, and during that time had
+gained weight almost as rapidly as Peter was gaining. He had now
+come to a condition where he did not like to get out of his armchair
+if it could be avoided. Peter discovered this, and so found it
+possible to make himself useful in small ways. Also Mr. Doobman had
+a secret vice; he took snuff, and for the sake of discipline he did
+not want this dreadful fact to become known. Therefore he would wait
+until everybody's back was turned before he took a pinch of snuff;
+and Peter learned this, and would tactfully turn his back.
+
+Everybody in this hospital had some secret vice, and it was Mr.
+Doobman's duty to repress the vices of the others. The inmates of
+the hospital included many of the prisoners who had money, and could
+pay to make themselves comfortable. They wanted tobacco, whiskey,
+cocaine and other drugs, and some of them wanted a chance to
+practice unnamable horrors. All the money they could smuggle in they
+were ready to spend for license to indulge themselves. As for the
+attendants in the hospital, they were all political appointees,
+derelicts who had been unable to hold a job in the commercial world,
+and had sought an easy berth, like Peter himself. They took bribes,
+and were prepared to bribe Peter to outwit Mr. Doobman; Mr. Doobman,
+on the other hand, was prepared to reward Peter with many favors, if
+Peter would consent to bring him secret information. In such a
+situation it was possible for a man with his wits about him to
+accumulate quite a little capital.
+
+For the most part Peter stuck by Doobman; having learned by bitter
+experience that in the long run it pays to be honest. Doobman was
+referred to by the other attendants as the "Old Man"; and always in
+Peter's life, from the very dawn of childhood, there had been some
+such "Old Man," the fountain-head of authority, the dispenser of
+creature comforts. First had been "Old Man" Drubb, who from early
+morning until late at night wore green spectacles, and a sign across
+his chest, "I am blind," and made a weary little child lead him thru
+the streets by the hand. At night, when they got home to their
+garret-room, "Old Man" Drubb would take off his green goggles, and
+was perfectly able to see Peter, and if Peter had made the slightest
+mistake during the day he would beat him.
+
+When Drubb was arrested, Peter was taken to the orphan asylum, and
+there was another "Old Man," and the same harsh lesson of
+subservience to be learned. Peter had run away from the asylum; and
+then had come Pericles Priam with his Pain Paralyzer, and Peter had
+studied his whims and served his interests. When Pericles had
+married a rich widow and she had kicked Peter out, there had come
+the Temple of Jimjambo, where the "Old Man" had been Tushbar
+Akrogas, the major-domo--terrible when he was thwarted, but a
+generous dispenser of favors when once you had learned to flatter
+him, to play upon his weaknesses, to smooth the path of his
+pleasures. All these years Peter had been forced to "crook the
+pregnant hinges of the knee"; it had become an instinct with him--an
+instinct that went back far behind the twenty years of his conscious
+life, that went back twenty thousand years, perhaps ten times twenty
+thousand years, to a time when Peter had chipped flint spear-heads
+at the mouth of some cave, and broiled marrow-bones for some "Old
+Man" of the borde, and seen rebellious young fellows cast out to
+fall prey to the sabre-tooth tiger.
+
+
+
+
+Section 9
+
+
+Peter found that he was something of a personality in this hospital.
+He was the "star" witness in the sensational Goober case, about
+which the whole city, and in fact the whole country was talking. It
+was known that he had "turned State's"; but just what he knew and
+what he had told was a mighty secret, and Peter "held his mouth" and
+looked portentous, and enjoyed thrills of self-importance.
+
+But meantime there was no reason why he should not listen to others
+talk; no reason why he should not inform himself fully about this
+case, so that in future he might be able to take care of himself. He
+listened to what "Old Man" Doobman had to say, and to what Jan
+Christian, his Swedish assistant had to say, and to what Gerald
+Leslie, the "coke" fiend, had to say. All these, and others, had
+friends on the outside, people who were "in the know." Some told one
+thing, and others told exactly the opposite; but Peter put this and
+that together, and used his own intrigue-sharpened wits upon it, and
+before long he was satisfied that he had got the facts.
+
+Jim Goober was a prominent labor leader. He had organized the
+employees of the Traction Trust, and had called and led a tremendous
+strike. Also he had called building strikes, and some people said he
+had used dynamite upon uncompleted buildings, and made a joke of it.
+Anyhow, the business men of the city wanted to put him where he
+could no longer trouble them; and when some maniac unknown had flung
+a dynamite bomb into the path of the Preparedness parade, the big
+fellows of the city had decided that now was the opportunity they
+were seeking. Guffey, the man who had taken charge of Peter, was
+head of the secret service of the Traction Trust, and the big
+fellows had put him in complete charge. They wanted action, and
+would take no chances with the graft-ridden and incompetent police
+of the city. They had Goober in jail, with his wife and three of his
+gang, and thru the newspapers of the city they were carrying on a
+propaganda to prepare the public for the hanging of all five.
+
+And that was all right, of course; Jim Goober was only a name to
+Peter, and of less importance than a single one of Peter's meals.
+Peter understood what Guffey had done, and his only grudge was
+because Guffey had not had the sense to tell him his story at the
+beginning, instead of first nearly twisting his arm off. However,
+Peter reflected, no doubt Guffey had meant to teach him a lesson, to
+make sure of him. Peter had learned the lesson, and his purpose now
+was to make this clear to Guffey and to Doobman.
+
+"Hold your mouth," Guffey had said, and Peter never once said a word
+about the Goober case. But, of course, he talked about other
+matters. A fellow could not go around like a mummy all day long, and
+it was Peter's weakness that he liked to tell about his exploits,
+the clever devices by which he had outwitted his last "Old Man." So
+to Gerald Leslie, the "coke" fiend, he told the story of Pericles
+Priam, and how many thousands of dollars he had helped to wheedle
+out of the public, and how twice he and Pericles had been arrested
+for swindling. Also he told about the Temple of Jimjambo, and all
+the strange and incredible things that had gone on there. Pashtian
+el Kalandra, who called himself the Chief Magistrian of
+Eleutherinian Exoticism, gave himself out to his followers to be
+eighty years of age, but as a matter of fact he was less than forty.
+He was supposed to be a Persian prince, but had been born in a small
+town in Indiana, and had begun life as a grocer-boy. He was supposed
+to live upon a handful of fruit, but every day it had been Peter's
+job to assist in the preparation of a large beef-steak or a roast
+chicken. These were "for sacrificial purposes," so the prophet
+explained to his attendants; and Peter would get the remains of the
+sacrificial beef-steaks and chickens, and would sacrificially devour
+them behind the pantry door. That had been one of his private
+grafts, which he got in return for keeping secret from the prophet
+some of the stealings of Tushbar Akrogas, the major-domo.
+
+A wonderful place had been this Temple of Jimjambo. There were
+mystic altars with seven veils before them, and thru these the Chief
+Magistrian would appear, clad in a long cream-colored robe with gold
+and purple borders, and with pink embroidered slippers and symbolic
+head-dress. His lectures and religious rites had been attended by
+hundreds--many of them rich society women, who came rolling up to
+the temple in their limousines. Also there had been a school, where
+children had been initiated into the mystic rites of the cult. The
+prophet would take these children into his private apartments, and
+there were awful rumors--which had ended in the raiding of the
+temple by the police, and the flight of the prophet, and likewise of
+the majordomo, and of Peter Gudge, his scullion and confederate.
+
+Also, Peter thought it was fun to tell Gerald Leslie about his
+adventures with the Holy Rollers, into whose church he had drifted
+during his search for a job. Peter had taken up with this sect, and
+learned the art of "talking in tongues," and how to fall over the
+back of your chair in convulsions of celestial glory. Peter had
+gained the confidence of the Rev. Gamaliel Lunk, and had been
+secretly employed by him to carry on a propaganda among the
+congregation to obtain a raise in salary for the underpaid
+convulsionist. But certain things which Peter had learned had caused
+him to go over to the faction of Shoemaker Smithers, who was trying
+to persuade the congregation that he could roll harder and faster
+than the Rev. Gamaliel. Peter had only held this latter job a few
+days before he had been fired for stealing the fried doughnut.
+
+
+
+
+Section 10
+
+
+All these things and more Peter told; thinking that he was safe now,
+under the protection of authority. But after he had spent about two
+months in the hospital, he was summoned one day into the office, and
+there stood Guffey, glowering at him in a black fury. "You damned
+fool!" were Guffey's first words.
+
+Peter's knees went weak and his teeth began to chatter again.
+"Wh-wh-what?" he cried.
+
+"Didn't I tell you to hold your mouth?" And Guffey looked as if he
+were going to twist Peter's wrist again.
+
+"Mr. Guffey, I ain't told a soul! I ain't said one word about the
+Goober case, not one word!"
+
+Peter rushed on, pouring out protests. But Guffey cut him short.
+"Shut up, you nut! Maybe you didn't talk about the Goober case, but
+you talked about yourself. Didn't you tell somebody you'd worked
+with that fellow Kalandra?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"And you knew the police were after him, and after you, too?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"And you said you'd been arrested selling fake patent medicines?"
+
+"Y-y-yes, sir."
+
+"Christ almighty!" cried Guffey. "And what kind of a witness do you
+think you'll make?"
+
+"But," cried Peter in despair, "I didn't tell anybody that would
+matter. I only--"
+
+"What do you know what would matter?" roared the detective, adding
+a stream of furious oaths. "The Goober people have got spies on us;
+they've got somebody right here in this jail. Anyhow, they've found
+out about you and your record. You've gone and ruined us with your
+blabbing mouth!"
+
+"My Lord!" whispered Peter, his voice dying away.
+
+"Look at yourself on a witness-stand! Look at what they'll do to you
+before a jury! Traveling over the country, swindling people with
+patent medicines--and getting in jail for it! Working for that
+hell-blasted scoundrel Kalandra--" and Guffey added some dreadful
+words, descriptive of the loathsome vices of which the Chief
+Magistrian had been accused. "And you mixed up in that kind of
+thing!"
+
+"I never done anything like that!" cried Peter wildly. "I didn't
+even know for sure."
+
+"Tell that to the jury!" sneered Guffey. "Why, they've even been to
+that Shoemaker Smithers, and they'll put his wife on the stand to
+prove you a sneak thief, and tell how she kicked you out. And all
+because you couldn't hold your mouth as I told you to!"
+
+Peter burst into tears. He fell down on his knees, pleading that he
+hadn't meant any harm; he hadn't had any idea that he was not
+supposed to talk about his past life; he hadn't realized what a
+witness was, or what he was supposed to do. All he had been told was
+to keep quiet about the Goober case, and he had kept quiet. So Peter
+sobbed and pleaded--but in vain. Guffey ordered him back to the
+hole, declaring his intention to prove that Peter was the one who
+had thrown the bomb, and that Peter, instead of Jim Goober, had been
+the head and front of the conspiracy. Hadn't Peter signed a
+confession that he had helped to make the bomb?
+
+
+
+
+Section 11
+
+
+Again Peter did not know how long he lay shivering in the black
+dungeon. He only knew that they brought him bread and water three
+times, before Guffey came again and summoned him forth. Peter now
+sat huddled into a chair, twisting his trembling hands together,
+while the chief detective of the Traction Trust explained to him his
+new program. Peter was permanently ruined as a witness in the case.
+The labor conspirators had raised huge sums for their defense; they
+had all the labor unions of the city, and in fact of the entire
+country behind them, and they were hiring spies and informers, and
+trying to find out all they could about the prosecution, the
+evidence it had collected and the moves it was preparing. Guffey did
+not say that he had been afraid to kick Peter out because of the
+possibility that Peter might go over to the Goober side and tell all
+he knew; but Peter guessed this while he sat listening to Guffey's
+explanation, and realized with a thrill of excitement that at last
+he had really got a hold upon the ladder of prosperity. Not in vain
+had his finger been almost broken and his wrist almost dislocated!
+
+"Now," said Guffey, "here's my idea: As a witness you're on the bum,
+but as a spy, you're it. They know that you blabbed, and that I know
+it; they know I've had you in the hole. So now what I want to do is
+to make a martyr of you. D'you see?"
+
+Peter nodded; yes, he saw. It was his specialty, seeing things like
+that.
+
+"You're an honest witness, you understand? I tried to get you to
+lie, and you wouldn't, so now you go over to the other side, and
+they take you in, and you find out all you can, and from time to
+time you meet somebody as I'll arrange it, and send me word what
+you've learned. You get me?"
+
+"I get you," said Peter, eagerly. No words could portray his relief.
+He had a real job now! He was going to be a sleuth, like Guffey
+himself.
+
+"Now," said Guffey, "the first thing I want to know is, who's
+blabbing in this jail; we can't do anything but they get tipped off.
+I've got witnesses that I want kept hidden, and I don't dare put
+them here for fear of the Goober crowd. I want to know who are the
+traitors. I want to know a lot of things that I'll tell you from
+time to time. I want you to get next to these Reds, and learn about
+their ideas, so you can talk their lingo.
+
+"Sure," said Peter. He could not help smiling a little. He was
+supposed to be a "Red" already, to have been one of their leading
+conspirators. But Guffey had abandoned that pretence--or perhaps had
+forgotten about it!
+
+It was really an easy job that Peter had set before him. He did not
+have to pretend to be anything different from what he was. He would
+call himself a victim of circumstances, and would be honestly
+indignant against those who had sought to use him in a frame-up
+against Jim Goober. The rest would follow naturally. He would get
+the confidence of the labor people, and Guffey would tell him what
+to do next.
+
+"We'll put you in one of the cells of this jail," said the chief
+detective, "and we'll pretend to give you a `third degree.' You'll
+holler and make a fuss, and say you won't tell, and finally we'll
+give up and kick you out. And then all you have to do is just hang
+around. They'll come after you, or I miss my guess."
+
+So the little comedy was arranged and played thru. Guffey took Peter
+by the collar and led him out into the main part of the jail, and
+locked him in one of a row of open cells. He grabbed Peter by the
+wrist and pretended to twist it, and Peter pretended to protest. He
+did not have to draw on his imagination; he knew how it felt, and
+how he was supposed to act, and he acted. He sobbed and screamed,
+and again and again he vowed that he had told the truth, that he
+knew nothing else than what he had told, and that nothing could make
+him tell any more. Guffey left him there until late the next
+afternoon, and then came again, and took him by the collar, and led
+him out to the steps of the jail, and gave him a parting kick.
+
+Peter was free! What a wonderful sensation--freedom! God! Had there
+ever been anything like it? He wanted to shout and howl with joy.
+But instead he staggered along the street, and sank down upon a
+stone coping, sobbing, with his head clasped in his hands, waiting
+for something to happen. And sure enough, it happened. Perhaps an
+hour passed, when he was touched lightly on the shoulder. "Comrade,"
+said a soft voice, and Peter, looking between his fingers, saw the
+skirts of a girl. A folded slip of paper was pressed into his hand
+and the soft voice said: "Come to this address." The girl walked on,
+and Peter's heart leaped with excitement. Peter was a sleuth at
+last!
+
+
+
+
+Section 12
+
+
+Peter waited until after dark, in order to indulge his sense of the
+romantic; also he flattered his self-importance by looking carefully
+about him as he walked down the street. He did not know just who
+would be shadowing him, but Peter wanted to be sleuthy.
+
+Also he had a bit of genuine anxiety. He had told the truth when he
+said to Guffey that he didn't know what a "Red" was; but since then
+he had been making in quiries, and now he knew. A "Red" was a fellow
+who sympathized with labor unions and with strikes; who wanted to
+murder the rich and divide their property, and believed that the
+quickest way to do the dividing was by means of dynamite. All "Reds"
+made bombs, and carried concealed weapons, and perhaps secret
+poisons--who could tell? And now Peter was going among them, he was
+going to become one of them! It was almost too interesting, for a
+fellow who aimed above everything to be comfortable. Something in
+him whispered, "Why not skip; get out of town and be done with it?"
+But then he thought of the rewards and honors that Guffey had
+promised him. Also there was the spirit of curiosity; he might skip
+at any time, but first he would like to know a bit more about being
+a "dick."
+
+He came to the number which had been given him, a tiny bungalow in a
+poor neighborhood, and rang the doorbell. It was answered by a girl,
+and at a glance Peter saw that it was the girl who had spoken to
+him. She did not wait for him to announce himself, but cried
+impulsively, "Mr. Gudge! Oh, I'm so glad you've come!" She added,
+"Comrade!"--just as if Peter were a well-known friend. And then,
+"But _are_ you a comrade?"
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Peter.
+
+"You're not a Socialist? Well, we'll make one of you." She brought
+him in and showed him to a chair, saying, "I know what they did to
+you; and you stood out against them! Oh, you were wonderful!
+Wonderful!"
+
+Peter was at a loss what to say. There was in this girl's voice a
+note of affection, as well as of admiration; and Peter in his hard
+life had had little experience with emotions of this sort. Peter had
+watched the gushings and excitements of girls who were seeking
+flirtations; but this girl's attitude he felt at once was not
+flirtatious. Her voice tho soft, was just a trifle too solemn for a
+young girl; her deep-set, wistful grey eyes rested on Peter with the
+solicitude of a mother whose child has just escaped a danger.
+
+She called: "Sadie, here's Mr. Gudge." And there entered another
+girl, older, taller, but thin and pale like her sister. Jennie and
+Sadie Todd were their names, Peter learned; the older was a
+stenographer, and supported the family. The two girls were in a
+state of intense concern. They started to question Peter about his
+experiences, but he had only talked for a minute or two before the
+elder went to the telephone. There were various people who must see
+Peter at once, important people who were to be notified as soon as
+he turned up. She spent some time at the phone, and the people she
+talked with must have phoned to others, because for the next hour or
+two there was a constant stream of visitors coming in, and Peter had
+to tell his story over and over again.
+
+The first to come was a giant of a man with tight-set mouth and so
+powerful a voice that it frightened Peter. He was not surprised to
+learn that this man was the leader of one of the most radical of the
+city's big labor unions, the seamen's. Yes, he was a "Red," all
+right; he corresponded to Peter's imaginings--a grim, dangerous man,
+to be pictured like Samson, seizing the pillars of society and
+pulling them down upon his head. "They've got you scared, my boy,"
+he said, noting Peter's hesitating answers to his questions. "Well,
+they've had me scared for forty-five years, but I've never let them
+know it yet." Then, in order to cheer Peter up and strengthen his
+nerves, he told how he, a runaway seaman, had been hunted thru the
+Everglades of Florida with bloodhounds, and tied to a tree and
+beaten into insensibility.
+
+Then came David Andrews, whom Peter had heard of as one of the
+lawyers in the Goober case, a tall, distinguished-looking man with
+keen, alert features. What was such a man doing among these
+outcasts? Peter decided that he must be one of the shrewd ones who
+made money out of inciting the discontented. Then came a young girl,
+frail and sensitive, slightly crippled. As she crossed the room to
+shake his hand tears rolled down her cheeks, and Peter stood
+embarrassed, wondering if she had just lost a near relative, and
+what was he to say about it. From her first words he gathered, to
+his great consternation, that she had been moved to tears by the
+story of what he himself had endured.
+
+Ada Ruth was a poet, and this was a new type for Peter; after much
+groping in his mind he set her down for one of the dupes of the
+movement--a poor little sentimental child, with no idea of the
+wickedness by which she was surrounded. With her came a Quaker boy
+with pale, ascetic face and black locks which he had to shake back
+from his eyes every now and then; he wore a Windsor tie, and a black
+felt hat, and other marks of eccentricity and from his speeches
+Peter gathered that he was ready to blow up all the governments of
+the world in the interests of Pacificism. The same was true of
+McCormick, an I. W. W. leader who had just served sixty days in
+jail, a silent young Irishman with drawn lips and restless black
+eyes, who made Peter uneasy by watching him closely and saying
+scarcely a word.
+
+
+
+
+Section 13
+
+
+They continued to come, one at a time or in groups; old women and
+young women, old men and young men, fanatics and dreamers, agitators
+who could hardly open their mouths without some white-hot words
+escaping, revealing a blaze of passion smouldering in the deeps of
+them. Peter became more and more uneasy, realizing that he was
+actually in the midst of all the most dangerous "Reds" of American
+City. They it was whom our law-abiding citizens dreaded, who were
+the objects of more concern to the police than all the plain,
+everyday burglars and bandits. Peter now could see the reason--he
+had not dreamed that such angry and hate-tormented people existed in
+the world. Such people would be capable of anything! He sat, with
+his restless eyes wandering from one face to another. Which one of
+this crowd had helped to set off the bomb? And would they boast
+about it to him this evening?
+
+Peter half expected this; but then again, he wondered. They were
+such strange criminals! They called him "Comrade"; and they spoke
+with that same affection that had so bewildered him in little
+Jennie. Was this just a ruse to get his confidence, or did these
+people really think that they loved him--Peter Gudge, a stranger and
+a secret enemy? Peter had been at great pains to fool them; but they
+seemed to him so easy to fool that his pains were wasted. He
+despised them for this, and all the while he listened to them he was
+saying to himself, "The poor nuts!"
+
+They had come to hear his story, and they plied him with questions,
+and made him tell over and over again every detail. Peter, of
+course, had been carefully instructed; he was not to mention the
+elaborate confession he had been made to sign; that would be giving
+too dangerous a weapon to these enemies of law and order. He must
+tell as brief a story as possible; how he had happened to be near
+the scene of the explosion, and how the police had tried to force
+him to admit that he knew something about the case. Peter told this,
+according to orders; but he had not been prepared for the minute
+questioning to which he was subjected by Andrews, the lawyer, aided
+by old John Durand, the leader of the seamen. They wanted to know
+everything that had been done to him, and who had done it, and how
+and when and where and why. Peter had a sense of the dramatic, and
+enjoyed being the center of attention and admiration, even tho it
+was from a roomful of criminal "Reds." So he told all the
+picturesque details of how Guffey had twisted his wrist and shut him
+in a dungeon; the memory of the pain was still poignant, and came
+out of him now, with a realism that would have moved a colder group.
+
+So pretty soon here were all these women sobbing and raging. Little
+Ada Ruth became inspired, and began reciting a poem--or was she
+composing it right here, before his eyes? She seemed entranced with
+indignation. It was something about the workers arising--the outcry
+of a mob--
+
+     "No further patience with a heedless foe--
+     Get off our backs, or else to hell you go!"
+
+Peter listened, and thought to himself, "The poor nut!" And then
+Donald Gordon, the Quaker boy, took the floor, and began shaking his
+long black locks, and composing a speech, it seemed. And Peter
+listened, and thought again, "The poor nut!" Then another man, the
+editor of a labor journal, revealed the fact that he was composing
+an editorial; he knew Guffey, and was going to publish Guffey's
+picture, and brand him as an "Inquisitionist." He asked for Peter's
+picture, and Peter agreed to have one taken, and to be headlined as
+"The Inquisitionist's Victim." Peter had no idea what the long word
+meant; but he assented, and thought again, "The poor nut!" All of
+them were "nuts"--taking other people's troubles with such
+excitement!
+
+But Peter was frightened, too; he couldn't altogether enjoy being a
+hero, in this vivid and startling fashion; having his name and fame
+spread from one end of the country to the other, so that organized
+labor might know the methods which the great traction interests of
+American City were employing to send a well-known labor leader to
+the gallows! The thing seemed to grow and grow before Peter's
+frightened eyes. Peter, the ant, felt the earth shaking, and got a
+sudden sense of the mountain size of the mighty giants who were
+stamping in combat over his head. Peter wondered, had Guffey
+realized what a stir his story would make, what a powerful weapon he
+was giving to his enemies? What could Guffey expect to get from
+Peter, to compensate for this damage to his own case? Peter, as he
+listened to the stormy oratory in the crowded little room, found
+himself thinking again and again of running away. He had never seen
+anything like the rage into which these people worked themselves,
+the terrible things they said, the denunciations, not merely of the
+police of American City, but of the courts and the newspapers, the
+churches and the colleges, everything that seemed respectable and
+sacred to law-abiding citizens like Peter Gudge.
+
+Peter's fright became apparent. But why shouldn't he be frightened?
+Andrews, the lawyer, offered to take him away and hide him, lest the
+opposition should try to make way with him. Peter would be a most
+important witness for the Goober defense, and they must take good
+care of him. But Peter recovered his self-possession, and took up
+his noble role. No, he would take his chances with the rest of them,
+he was not too much afraid.
+
+Sadie Todd, the stenographer, rewarded him for his heroism. They had
+a spare bedroom in their little home, and if Peter cared to stay
+with them for a while, they would try to make him comfortable. Peter
+accepted this invitation, and at a late hour in the evening the
+gathering broke up. The various groups of "Reds" went their way,
+their hands clenched and their faces portraying a grim resolve to
+make out of Peter's story a means of lashing discontented labor to
+new frenzies of excitement. The men clasped Peter's hand cordially;
+the ladies gazed at him with soulful eyes, and whispered their
+admiration for his brave course, their hope, indeed their
+conviction, that he would stand by the truth to the end, and would
+study their ideas and join their "movement." All the while Peter
+watched them, and continued saying to himself: "The poor nuts!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 14
+
+
+The respectable newspapers of American City of course did not waste
+their space upon fantastic accusations brought by radicals, charging
+the police authorities with using torture upon witnesses. But there
+was a Socialist paper published every week in American City, and
+this paper had a long account of Peter's experiences on the front
+page, together with his picture. Also there were three labor papers
+which carried the story, and the Goober Defense Committee prepared a
+circular about it and mailed out thousands of copies all over the
+country. This circular was written by Donald Gordon, the Quaker boy.
+He brought Peter a proof of it, to make sure that he had got all the
+details right, and Peter read it, and really could not help being
+thrilled to discover what a hero he was. Peter had not said anything
+about his early career, and whoever among the Goober Defense
+Committee had learned those details chose to be diplomatically
+silent. Peter smiled to himself as he thought about that. They were
+foxy, these people! They were playing their hand for all it was
+worth--and Peter admired them for that. In Donald Gordon's narrative
+Peter appeared as a poor workingman; and Peter grinned. He was used
+to the word "working," but when he talked about "working people," he
+meant something different from what these Socialists meant.
+
+The story went out, and of course all sorts of people wanted to meet
+Peter, and came to the home of the Todd girls. So Peter settled down
+to his job of finding out all he could about these visitors, their
+names and occupations, their relations to the radical movement.
+Guffey had advised him not to make notes, for fear of detection, but
+Peter could not carry all this in his head, so he would retire to
+his room and make minute notes on slips of paper, and carefully sew
+these up in the lining of his coat, with a thrill of mystery.
+
+Except for this note-taking, however, Peter's sleuthing was easy
+work, for these people all seemed eager to talk about what they were
+doing; sometimes it frightened Peter--they were so open and defiant!
+Not merely did they express their ideas to one another and to him,
+they were expressing them on public platforms, and in their
+publications, in pamphlets and in leaflets--what they called
+"literature." Peter had had no idea their "movement" was so
+widespread or so powerful. He had expected to unearth a secret
+conspiracy, and perhaps a dynamite-bomb or two; instead of which,
+apparently, he was unearthing a volcano!
+
+However, Peter did the best he could. He got the names and details
+about some forty or fifty people of all classes; obscure workingmen
+and women, Jewish tailors, Russian and Italian cigar-workers,
+American-born machinists and printers; also some "parlor
+Reds"--large, immaculate and shining ladies who came rolling up to
+the little bungalow in large, immaculate and shining automobiles,
+and left their uniformed chauffeurs outside for hours at a time
+while they listened to Peter's story of his "third degree." One
+benevolent lady with a flowing gray veil, who wafted a sweet perfume
+about the room, suggested that Peter might be in need, and pressed a
+twenty dollar bill into his hand. Peter, thrilled, but also
+bewildered, got a new sense of the wonders of this thing called "the
+movement," and decided that when Guffey got thru with him he might
+turn into a "Red" in earnest for a while.
+
+Meantime he settled down to make himself comfortable with the Todd
+sisters. Sadie went off to her work before eight o'clock every
+morning, and that was before Peter got up; but Jennie stayed at
+home, and fixed his breakfast, and opened the door for his visitors,
+and in general played the hostess for him. She was a confirmed
+invalid; twice a week she went off to a doctor to have something
+done to her spine, and the balance of the time she was supposed to
+be resting, but Peter very seldom saw her doing this. She was always
+addressing circulars, or writing letters for the "cause," or going
+off to sell literature and take up collections at meetings. When she
+was not so employed, she was arguing with somebody--frequently with
+Peter--trying to make him think as she did.
+
+Poor kid, she was all wrought up over the notions she had got about
+the wrongs of the working classes. She gave herself no peace about
+it, day or night, and this, of course, was a bore to Peter, who
+wanted peace above all things. Over in Europe millions of men were
+organized in armies, engaged in slaughtering one another. That, of
+course, was, very terrible, but what was the good of thinking about
+it? There was no way to stop it, and it certainly wasn't Peter's
+fault. But this poor, deluded child was acting all the time as if
+she were to blame for this European conflict, and had the job of
+bringing it to a close. The tears would come into her deep-set grey
+eyes, and her soft chin would quiver with pain whenever she talked
+about it; and it seemed to Peter she was talking about it all the
+time. It was her idea that the war must be stopped by uprisings on
+the part of the working people in Europe. Apparently she thought
+this might be hastened if the working people of American City would
+rise up and set an example!
+
+
+
+
+Section 15
+
+
+Jennie talked about this plan quite openly; she would put a red
+ribbon in her hair, and pin a red badge on her bosom, and go into
+meeting-places and sell little pamphlets with red covers. So, of
+course, it would be Peter's duty to report her to the head of the
+secret service of the Traction Trust. Peter regretted this, and was
+ashamed of having to do it; she was a nice little girl, and pretty,
+too, and a fellow might have had some fun with her if she had not
+been in such a hysterical state. He would sit and look at her, as
+she sat bent over her typewriter. She had soft, fluffy hair, the
+color of twilight, and even white teeth, and a faint flush that came
+and went in her cheeks--yes, she would not be bad looking at all, if
+only she would straighten up, and spend a little time on her looks,
+as other girls did.
+
+But no, she was always in a tension, and the devil of it was, she
+was trying to get Peter into the same state. She was absolutely
+determined that Peter must get wrought up over the wrongs of the
+working classes. She took it for granted that he would, when he was
+instructed. She would tell him harrowing stories, and it was his
+duty to be duly harrowed; he must be continually acting an emotional
+part. She would give him some of her "literature" to read, and then
+she would pin him down and make sure that he had read it. He knew
+how to read--Pericles Priam had seen to that, because he wanted him
+to attend to the printing of his circulars and his advertisements in
+the country newspapers where he was traveling. So now Peter was
+penned in a corner and compelled to fix his attention upon "The A.
+B. C. of Socialism," or "Capital and Proletariat," or "The Path to
+Power."
+
+Peter told himself that it was part of his job to acquire this
+information. He was going to be a "Red," and he must learn their
+lingo; but he found it awfully tiresome, full of long technical
+words which he had never heard before. Why couldn't these fellows at
+least talk American? He had known that there were Socialists, and
+also "Arnychists," as he called them, and he thought they were all
+alike. But now he learned, not merely about Socialists and
+"Arnychists," but about State Socialists and Communist Anarchists,
+and Communist Syndicalists and Syndicalist Anarchists and Socialist
+Syndicalists, and Reformist Socialists and Guild Socialists, to say
+nothing about Single Taxers and Liberals and Progressives and
+numerous other varieties, whom he had to meet and classify and
+listen to respectfully and sympathetically. Each particular group
+insisted upon the distinctions which made it different, and each
+insisted that it had the really, truly truth; and Peter became
+desperately bored with their everlasting talk--how much more simple
+to lump them all together, as did Guffey and McGivney, calling them
+all "Reds!"
+
+Peter had got it clearly fixed in his mind that what these "Reds"
+wanted was to divide up the property of the rich. Everyone he had
+questioned about them had said this. But now he learned that this
+wasn't it exactly. What they wanted was to have the State take over
+the industries, or to have the labor unions do it, or to have the
+working people in general do it. They pointed to the post office and
+the army and the navy, as examples of how the State could run
+things. Wasn't that all right? demanded Jennie. And Peter said Yes,
+that was all right; but hidden back in Peter's soul all the time was
+a whisper that it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. There was
+a sucker born every minute, and you might be sure that no matter how
+they fixed it up, there would always be some that would find it easy
+to live off the rest. This poor kid, for example, who was ready to
+throw herself away for any fool notion, or for anybody that came
+along and told her a hard-luck story--would there ever be a state of
+society in which she wouldn't be a juicy morsel to be gobbled up by
+some fellow with a normal appetite?
+
+She was alone in the house all day with Peter, and she got to seem
+more and more pretty as he got to know her better. Also it was
+evident that she liked Peter more and more as Peter played his game.
+Peter revealed himself as deeply sympathetic, and a quick convert to
+the cause; he saw everything that Jennie explained to him, he was
+horrified at the horrible stories, he was ready to help her end the
+European war by starting a revolution among the working people of
+American City. Also, he told her about himself, and awakened her
+sympathy for his harsh life, his twenty years of privation and
+servitude; and when she wept over this, Peter liked it. It was fine,
+somehow, to have her so sorry for him; it helped to compensate him
+for the boredom of hearing her be sorry for the whole working class.
+
+Peter didn't know whether Jennie had learned about his bad record,
+but he took no chances--he told her everything, and thus took the
+sting out of it. Yes, he had been trapped into evil ways, but it
+wasn't his fault, he hadn't known any better, he had been a pitiful
+victim of circumstances. He told how he had been starved and driven
+about and beaten by "Old Man" Drubb, and the tears glistened in
+Jennie's grey eyes and stole down her cheeks. He told about
+loneliness and heartsickness and misery in the orphan asylum. And
+how could he, poor lad, realize that it was wrong to help Pericles
+Priam sell his Peerless Pain Paralyzer? How could he know whether
+the medicine was any good or not--he didn't even know now, as a
+matter of fact. As for the Temple of Jimjambo, all that Peter had
+done was to wash dishes and work as a kitchen slave, as in any hotel
+or restaurant.
+
+It was a story easy to fix up, and especially easy because the first
+article in the creed of Socialist Jennie was that economic
+circumstances were to blame for human frailties. That opened the
+door for all varieties of grafters, and made the child such an easy
+mark that Peter would have been ashamed to make a victim of her, had
+it not been that she happened to stand in the path of his higher
+purposes--and also that she happened to be young, only seventeen,
+with tender grey eyes, and tempting, sweet lips, alone there in the
+house all day.
+
+
+
+
+Section 16
+
+
+Peter's adventures in love had so far been pretty much of a piece
+with the rest of his life experiences; there had been hopes, and
+wonderful dreams, but very few realizations. Peter knew a lot about
+such matters; in the orphan asylum there were few vicious practices
+which he did not witness, few obscene imaginings with which he was
+not made familiar. Also, Pericles Priam had been a man like the
+traditional sailor, with a girl in every port; and generally in
+these towns and villages there had been no place for Peter to go
+save where Pericles went, so Peter had been the witness of many of
+his master's amours and the recipient of his confidences. But none
+of these girls and women had paid any attention to Peter. Peter was
+only a "kid"; and when he grew up and was no longer a kid, but a
+youth tormented with sharp desires, they still paid no attention to
+him--why should they? Peter was nothing; he had no position, no
+money, no charms; he was frail and undersized, his teeth were
+crooked, and one shoulder higher than the other. What could he
+expect from women and girls but laughter and rebuffs?
+
+Then Peter moved on to the Temple of Jimjambo, and there a
+devastating experience befell him--he tumbled head over heels and
+agonizingly in love. There was a chambermaid in the institution, a
+radiant creature from the Emerald Isles with hair like sunrise and
+cheeks like apples, and a laugh that shook the dish-pans on the
+kitchen walls. She laughed at Peter, she laughed at the major-domo,
+she laughed at all the men in the place who tried to catch her round
+the waist. Once or twice a month perhaps she would let them succeed,
+just to keep them interested, and to keep herself in practice.
+
+The only one she really favored was the laundry deliveryman, and
+Peter soon realized why. This laundry fellow had the use of an
+automobile on Sundays, and Nell would dress herself up to kill, and
+roll away in state with him. He would spend all his week's earnings
+entertaining her at the beach; Peter knew, because she would tell
+the whole establishment on Monday morning. "Gee, but I had a swell
+time!" she would say; and would count the ice-creams and the
+merry-go-rounds and the whirly-gigs and all the whang-doodle things.
+She would tell about the tattooed men and the five-legged calf and
+the woman who was half man, and all the while she would make the
+dishpans rattle.
+
+Yes, she was a marvelous creature, and Peter suddenly realized that
+his ultimate desire in life was to possess a "swell lady-friend"
+like Nell. He realized that there was one essential prerequisite,
+and that was money. None of them would look at you without money.
+Nell had gone out with him only once, and that was upon the savings
+of six months, and Peter had not been able to conceal the effort it
+cost him to spend it all. So he had been set down as a "tight-wad,"
+and had made no headway.
+
+Nell had disappeared, along with everybody else when the police
+raided the Temple. Peter never knew what had become of her, but the
+old longings still haunted him, and he would find himself
+imagining--suppose the police had got her; suppose she were in jail,
+and he with his new "pull" were able to get her out, and carry her
+away and keep her hid from the laundry man!
+
+These were dreams; but meantime here was reality, here was a new
+world. Peter had settled down in the home of the Todd sisters; and
+what was their attitude toward these awful mysteries of love?
+
+
+
+
+Section 17
+
+
+It had been arranged with Guffey that at the end of a week Peter was
+to have a secret meeting with one of the chief detective's men. So
+Peter told the girls that he was tired of being a prisoner in the
+house and must get some fresh air.
+
+"Oh please, Mr. Gudge, don't take such a chance!" cried Sadie, her
+thin, anxious face suddenly growing more anxious and thin. "Don't
+you know this house is being watched? They are just hoping to catch
+you out alone. It would be the last of you."
+
+"I'm not so important as that," said Peter; but she insisted that he
+was, and Peter was pleased, in spite of his boredom, he liked to
+hear her insist upon his importance.
+
+"Oh!" she cried. "Don't you know yet how much depends on you as a
+witness for the Goober defense? This case is of concern to millions
+of people all over the world! It is a test case, Mr. Gudge--are they
+to be allowed to murder the leaders of the working class without a
+struggle? No, we must show them that there is a great movement, a
+world-wide awakening of the workers, a struggle for freedom for the
+wage slaves--"
+
+But Peter could stand no more of this. "All right," he said,
+suddenly interrupting Sadie's eloquence. "I suppose it's my duty to
+stay, even if I die of consumption, being shut up without any fresh
+air." He would play the martyr; which was not so hard, for he was
+one, and looked like one, with his thin, one-sided little figure,
+and his shabby clothes. Both Sadie and Jennie gazed at him with
+admiration, and sighed with relief.
+
+But later on, Peter thought of an idea. He could go out at night, he
+told Sadie, and slip out the back way, so that no one would see him;
+he would not go into crowds or brightly lighted streets, so there
+would be no chance of his being recognized. There was a fellow he
+absolutely had to see, who owed him some money; it was way over on
+the other side of the city--that was why he rejected Jennie's offer
+to accompany him.
+
+So that evening Peter climbed a back fence and stole thru a
+neighbor's chicken-yard and got away. He had a fine time ducking and
+dodging in the crowds, making sure that no one was trailing him to
+his secret rendezvous--no "Red" who might chance to be suspicious of
+his "comradeship." It was in the "American House," an obscure hotel,
+and Peter was to take the elevator to the fourth floor, without
+speaking to any one, and to tap three times on the door of Room 427.
+Peter did so, and the door opened, and he slipped in, and there he
+met Jerry McGivney, with the face of a rat.
+
+"Well, what have you got?" demanded McGivney; and Peter sat down
+and started to tell. With eager fingers he undid the amateur sewing
+in the lining of his coat, and pulled out his notes with the names
+and descriptions of people who had come to see him.
+
+McGivney glanced over them quickly. "Jesus!" he said, "What's the
+good of all this?"
+
+"Well, but they're Reds!" exclaimed Peter.
+
+"I know," said the other, "but what of that? We can go hear them
+spout at meetings any night. We got membership lists of these
+different organizations. But what about the Goober case?"
+
+"Well," said Peter, "they're agitating about it all the time;
+they've been printing stuff about me."
+
+"Sure, we know that," said McGivney. "And the hell of a fine story
+you gave them; you must have enjoyed hearing yourself talk. But what
+good does that do us?"
+
+"But what do you want to know?" cried Peter, in dismay.
+
+"We want to know their secret plans," said the other. "We want to
+know what they're doing to get our witnesses; we want to know who it
+is that is selling us out, who's the spy in the jail. Didn't you
+find that out?"
+
+"N-no," said Peter. "Nobody said anything about it."
+
+"Good God!" said the detective. "D'you expect them to bring you
+things on a silver tray?" He began turning over Peter's notes
+again, and finally threw them on the bed in disgust. He began
+questioning Peter, and Peter's dismay turned to despair. He had not
+got a single thing that McGivney wanted. His whole week of
+"sleuthing" had been wasted!
+
+The detective did not mince words. "It's plain that you're a boob,"
+he said. "But such as you are, we've got to do the best we can with
+you. Now, put your mind on it and get it straight: we know who these
+Reds are, and we know what they're teaching; we can't send 'em to
+jail for that. What we want you to find out is the name of their
+spy, and who are their witnesses in the Goober case, and what
+they're going to say."
+
+"But how can I find out things like that?" cried Peter.
+
+"You've got to use your wits," said McGivney. "But I'll give you one
+tip; get yourself a girl."
+
+"A girl?" cried Peter, in wonder.
+
+"Sure thing," said the other. "That's the way we always work. Guffey
+says there's just three times when people tell their secrets: The
+first is when they're drunk, and the second is when they're in
+love--"
+
+Then McGivney stopped. Peter, who wanted to complete his education,
+inquired, "And the third?"
+
+"The third is when they're both drunk and in love," was the reply.
+And Peter was silent, smitten with admiration. This business of
+sleuthing was revealing itself as more complicated and more
+fascinating all the time.
+
+"Ain't you seen any girl you fancy in that crowd?" demanded the
+other.
+
+"Well--it might be--" said Peter, shyly.
+
+"It ought to be easy," continued the detective. "Them Reds are all
+free lovers, you know."
+
+"Free lovers!" exclaimed Peter. "How do you mean?"
+
+"Didn't you know about that?" laughed the other.
+
+Peter sat staring at him. All the women that Peter had ever known or
+heard of took money for their love. They either took it directly, or
+they took it in the form of automobile rides and flowers and candy
+and tickets to the whang-doodle things. Could it be that there were
+women who did not take money in either form, but whose love was
+entirely free?
+
+The detective assured him that such was the case. "They boast about
+it," said he. "They think it's right." And to Peter that seemed the
+most shocking thing he had yet heard about the Reds.
+
+To be sure, when he thought it over, he could see that it had some
+redeeming points; it was decidedly convenient from the point of view
+of the man; it was so much money in his pocket. If women chose to be
+that silly--and Peter found himself suddenly thinking about little
+Jennie Todd. Yes, she would be that silly, it was plain to see. She
+gave away everything she had; so of course she would be a "free
+lover!"
+
+Peter went away from his rendezvous with McGivney, thrilling with a
+new and wonderful idea. You couldn't have got him to give up his job
+now. This sleuthing business was the real thing!
+
+It was late when Peter got home, but the two girls were sitting up
+for him, and their relief at his safe return was evident. He noticed
+that Jennie's face expressed deeper concern than her sister's, and
+this gave him a sudden new emotion. Jennie's breath came and went
+more swiftly because he had entered the room; and this affected his
+own breath in the same way. He had a swift impulse towards her, an
+entirely unselfish desire to reassure her and relieve her anxiety;
+but with an instinctive understanding of the sex game which he had
+not before known he possessed, he checked this impulse and turned
+instead to the older sister, assuring her that nobody had followed
+him. He told an elaborate story, prepared on the way; he had worked
+for ten days for a fellow at sawing wood--hard work, you bet, and
+then the fellow had tried to get out of paying him! Peter had caught
+him at his home that evening, and had succeeded in getting five
+dollars out of him, and a promise of a few dollars more every week.
+That was to cover future visits to McGivney.
+
+
+
+
+Section 18
+
+
+Peter lay awake a good part of the night, thinking over this new
+job--that of getting himself a girl. He realized that for some time
+he had been falling in love with little Jennie; but he wanted to be
+sane and practical, he wanted to use his mind in choosing a girl. He
+was after information, first of all. And who had the most to give
+him? He thought of Miss Nebbins, who was secretary to Andrews, the
+lawyer; she would surely know more secrets than anyone else; but
+then, Miss Nebbins was an old maid, who wore spectacles and
+broad-toed shoes, and was evidently out of the question for
+love-making. Then he thought of Miss Standish, a tall, blond beauty
+who worked in an insurance office and belonged to the Socialist
+Party. She was a "swell dresser," and Peter would have been glad to
+have something like that to show off to McGivney and the rest of
+Guffey's men; but with the best efforts of his self-esteem, Peter
+could not imagine himself persuading Miss Standish to look at him.
+There was a Miss Yankovich, one of the real Reds, who trained with
+the I. W. W.; but she was a Jewess, with sharp, black eyes that
+clearly indicated a temper, and frightened Peter. Also, he had a
+suspicion that she was interested in McCormick--tho of course with
+these "free lovers" you could never tell.
+
+But one girl Peter was quite sure about, and that was little Jennie;
+he didn't know if Jennie knew many secrets, but surely she could
+find some out for him. Once he got her for his own, he could use her
+to question others. And so Peter began to picture what love with
+Jennie would be like. She wasn't exactly what you would call
+"swell," but there was something about her that made him sure he
+needn't be ashamed of her. With some new clothes she would be
+pretty, and she had grand manners--she had not shown the least fear
+of the rich ladies who came to the house in their automobiles; also
+she knew an awful lot for a girl--even if most of what she knew
+wasn't so!
+
+Peter lost no time in setting to work at his new job. In the papers
+next morning appeared the usual details from Flanders; thousands of
+men being shot to pieces almost every hour of the day and night, a
+million men on each side locked in a ferocious combat that had
+lasted for weeks, that might last for months. And sentimental little
+Jennie sat there with brimming eyes, talking about it while Peter
+ate his oatmeal and thin milk. And Peter talked about it too; how
+wicked it was, and how they must stop it, he and Jennie together. He
+agreed with her now; he was a Socialist, he called her "Comrade,"
+and told her she had converted him. Her eyes lighted up with joy, as
+if she had really done something to end the war.
+
+They were sitting on the sofa, looking at the paper, and they were
+alone in the house. Peter suddenly looked up from the reading and
+said, very much embarrassed, "But Comrade Jennie--"
+
+"Yes," she said, and looked at him with her frank grey eyes. Peter
+was shy, truly a little frightened, this kind of detective business
+being new to him.
+
+"Comrade Jennie," he said, "I--I--don't know just how to say it, but
+I'm afraid I'm falling a little in love."
+
+Jennie drew back her hands, and Peter heard her breath come quickly.
+"Oh, Mr. Gudge!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I--I don't know--" stammered Peter. "I hope you won't mind."
+
+"Oh, don't let's do that!" she cried.
+
+"Why not, Comrade Jennie?" And he added, "I don't know as I can
+help it."
+
+"Oh, we were having such a happy time, Mr. Gudge! I thought we were
+going to work for the cause!"
+
+"Well, but it won't interfere--"
+
+"Oh, but it does, it does; it makes people unhappy!"
+
+"Then--" and Peter's voice trembled--"then you don't care the least
+bit for me, Comrade Jennie?"
+
+She hesitated a moment. "I don't know," she said. "I hadn't
+thought--"
+
+And Peter's heart gave a leap inside him. It was the first time that
+any girl had ever had to hesitate in answering that question for
+Peter. Something prompted him--just as if he had been doing this
+kind of "sleuthing" all his life. He reached over, and very gently
+took her hand. "You do care just a little for me?" he whispered.
+
+"Oh, Comrade Gudge," she answered, and Peter said, "Call me `Peter.'
+Please, please do."
+
+"Comrade Peter," she said, and there was a little catch in her
+throat, and Peter, looking at her, saw that her eyes were cast down.
+
+"I know I'm not very much to love," he pleaded. "I'm poor and
+obscure--I'm not good looking--"
+
+"Oh, it isn't that!" she cried, "Oh, no, no! Why should I think
+about such things? You are a comrade!"
+
+Peter had known, of course, just how she would take this line of
+talk. "Nobody has ever loved me," he said, sadly. "Nobody cares
+anything about you, when you are poor, and have nothing to offer--"
+
+"I tell you, that isn't it!" she insisted. "Please don't think that!
+You are a hero. You have sacrificed for the cause, and you are going
+on and become a leader."
+
+"I hope so," said Peter, modestly. "But then, what is it, Comrade
+Jennie? Why don't you care for me?"
+
+She looked up at him, and their eyes met, and with a little sob in
+her voice she answered, "I'm not well, Comrade Peter. I'm of no use;
+it would be wicked for me to marry."
+
+Somewhere back in the depths of Peter, where his inner self was
+crouching, it was as if a sudden douche of ice-cold water were let
+down on him. "Marry!" Who had said anything about marrying? Peter's
+reaction fitted the stock-phrase of the comic papers: "This is so
+sudden!"
+
+But Peter was too clever to reveal such dismay. He humored little
+Jennie, saying, "We don't have to marry right away. I could wait, if
+only I knew that you cared for me; and some day, when you get
+well--"
+
+She shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid I'll never get really well.
+And besides, neither of us have any money, Comrade Peter."
+
+Ah, there it was! Money, always money! This "free love" was nothing
+but a dream.
+
+"I could get a job," said Peter--just like any other tame and
+conventional wooer.
+
+"But you couldn't earn enough for two of us," protested the girl;
+and suddenly she sprang up. "Oh, Comrade Peter, let's not fall in
+love with each other! Let's not make ourselves unhappy, let's work
+for the cause! Promise me that you will!"
+
+Peter promised; but of course he had no remotest intention of
+keeping the promise. He was not only a detective, he was a man--and
+in both capacities he wanted Comrade Jennie. He had all the rest of
+the day, and over the addressing of envelopes which he undertook
+with her, he would now and then steal love-glances; and Jennie knew
+now what these looks meant, and the faint flush would creep over her
+cheeks and down into her neck and throat. She was really very pretty
+when she was falling in love, and Peter found his new job the most
+delightful one of his lifetime. He watched carefully, and noted the
+signs, and was sure he was making no mistake; before Sadie came back
+at supper-time he had his arms about Comrade Jennie, and was
+pressing kisses upon the lovely white throat; and Comrade Jennie was
+sobbing softly, and her pleading with him to stop had grown faint
+and unconvincing.
+
+
+
+
+Section 19
+
+
+There was the question of Sadie to be settled. There was a certain
+severe look that sometimes came about Sadie's lips, and that caused
+Peter to feel absolutely certain that Comrade Sadie had no sympathy
+with "free love," and very little sympathy with any love save her
+own for Jennie. She had nursed her "little sister" and tended her
+like a mother for many years; she took the food out of her mouth to
+give to Jennie--and Jennie in turn gave it to any wandering agitator
+who came along and hung around until mealtime. Peter didn't want
+Sadie to know what had been going on in her absence, and yet he was
+afraid to suggest to Jennie that she should deceive her sister.
+
+He managed it very tactfully. Jennie began pleading again: "We ought
+not to do this, Comrade Peter!" And so Peter agreed, perhaps they
+oughtn't, and they wouldn't any more. So Jennie put her hair in
+order, and straightened her blouse, and her lover could see that she
+wasn't going to tell Sadie.
+
+And the next day they were kissing again and agreeing again that
+they mustn't do it; and so once more Jennie didn't tell Sadie.
+Before long Peter had managed to whisper the suggestion that their
+love was their own affair, and they ought not to tell anybody for
+the present; they would keep the delicious secret, and it would do
+no one any harm. Jennie had read somewhere about a woman poet by the
+name of Mrs. Browning, who had been an invalid all her life, and
+whose health had been completely restored by a great and wonderful
+love. Such a love had now come to her; only Sadie might not
+understand, Sadie might think they did not know each other well
+enough, and that they ought to wait. They knew, of course, that they
+really did know each other perfectly, so there was no reason for
+uncertainty or fear. Peter managed deftly to put these suggestions
+into Jennie's mind as if they were her own.
+
+And all the time he was making ardent love to her; all day long,
+while he was helping her address envelopes and mail out circulars
+for the Goober Defense Committee. He really did work hard; he didn't
+mind working, when he had Jennie at the table beside him, and could
+reach over and hold her hand every now and then, or catch her in his
+arms and murmur passionate words. Delicious thrills and raptures
+possessed him; his hopes would rise like a flood-tide--but then,
+alas, only to ebb again! He would get so far, and every time it
+would be as if he had run into a stone wall. No farther!
+
+Peter realized that McGivney's "free love" talk had been a cruel
+mistake. Little Jennie was like all the other women--her love wasn't
+going to be "free." Little Jennie wanted a husband, and every time
+you kissed her, she began right away to talk about marriage, and you
+dared not hint at anything else because you knew it would spoil
+everything. So Peter was thrown back upon devices older than the
+teachings of any "Reds." He went after little Jennie, not in the way
+of "free lovers," but in the way of a man alone in the house with a
+girl of seventeen, and wishing to seduce her. He vowed that he loved
+her with an overwhelming and eternal love. He vowed that he would
+get a job and take care of her. And then he let her discover that he
+was suffering torments; he could not live without her. He played
+upon her sympathy, he played upon her childish innocence, he played
+upon that pitiful, weak sentimentality which caused her to believe
+in pacifism and altruism and socialism and all the other "isms" that
+were jumbled up in her head.
+
+And so in a couple of weeks Peter had succeeded in his purpose of
+carrying little Jennie by storm. And then, how enraptured he was!
+Peter, with his first girl, decided that being a detective was the
+job for him! Peter knew that he was a real detective now, using the
+real inside methods, and on the trail of the real secrets of the
+Goober case!
+
+And sure enough, he began at once to get them. Jennie was in love;
+Jennie was, as you might say, "drunk with love," and so she
+fulfilled both the conditions which Guffey had laid down. So Jennie
+told the truth! Sitting on Peter's knee, with her arms clasped about
+him, and talking about her girlhood, the happy days before her
+mother and father had been killed in the factory where they worked,
+little Jennie mentioned the name of a young man, Ibbetts.
+
+"Ibbetts?" said Peter. It was a peculiar name, and sounded
+familiar.
+
+"A cousin of ours," said Jennie.
+
+"Have I met him?" asked Peter, groping in his mind.
+
+"No, he hasn't been here."
+
+"Ibbetts?" he repeated, still groping; and suddenly he remembered.
+"Isn't his name Jack?"
+
+Jennie did not answer for a moment. He looked at her, and their eyes
+met, and he saw that she was frightened. "Oh, Peter!" she whispered.
+"I wasn't to tell! I wasn't to tell a soul!"
+
+Inside Peter, something was shouting with delight. To hide his
+emotion he had to bury his face in the soft white throat.
+"Sweetheart!" he whispered. "Darling!"
+
+"Uh, Peter!" she cried. "You know--don't you?"
+
+"Of course!" he laughed. "But I won't tell. You needn't mind
+trusting me."
+
+"Oh, but Mr. Andrews was so insistent!" said Jennie, "He made Sadie
+and me swear that we wouldn't breathe it to a soul."
+
+"Well, you didn't tell," said Peter. "I found it out by accident.
+Don't mention it, and nobody will be any the wiser. If they should
+find out that I know, they wouldn't blame you; they'd understand
+that I know Jack Ibbetts--me being in jail so long."
+
+So Jennie forgot all about the matter, and Peter went on with the
+kisses, making her happy, as a means of concealing his own
+exultation. He had done the job for which Guffey had sent him! He
+had solved the first great mystery of the Goober case! The spy in
+the jail of American City, who was carrying out news to the Defense
+Committee, was Jack Ibbetts, one of the keepers in the jail, and a
+cousin of the Todd sisters!
+
+
+
+
+Section 20
+
+
+It was fortunate that this was the day of Peter's meeting with
+McGivney. He could really not have kept this wonderful secret to
+himself over night. He made excuses to the girls, and dodged thru
+the chicken-yard as before, and made his way to the American House.
+As he walked, Peter's mind was working busily. He had really got his
+grip on the ladder of prosperity now; he must not fail to tighten
+it.
+
+McGivney saw right away from Peter's face that something had
+happened. "Well?" he inquired.
+
+"I've got it!" exclaimed Peter.
+
+"Got what?"
+
+"The name of the spy in the jail."
+
+"Christ! You don't mean it!" cried the other.
+
+"No doubt about it," answered Peter.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+Peter clenched his hands and summoned his resolution. "First," he
+said, "you and me got to have an understanding. Mr. Guffey said I
+was to be paid, but he didn't say how much, or when."
+
+"Oh, hell!" said McGivney. "If you've got the name of that spy, you
+don't need to worry about your reward."
+
+"Well, that's all right," said Peter, "but I'd like to know what I'm
+to get and how I'm to get it."
+
+"How much do you want?" demanded the man with the face of a rat.
+Rat-like, he was retreating into a corner, his sharp black eyes
+watching his enemy. "How much?" he repeated.
+
+Peter had tried his best to rise to this occasion. Was he not
+working for the greatest and richest concern in American City, the
+Traction Trust? Tens and hundreds of millions of dollars they were
+worth--he had no idea how much, but he knew they could afford to pay
+for his secret. "I think it ought to be worth two hundred dollars,"
+he said.
+
+"Sure," said McGivney, "that's all right. We'll pay you that."
+
+And straightway Peter's heart sank. What a fool he had been! Why
+hadn't he had more courage, and asked for five hundred dollars? He
+might even have asked a thousand, and made himself independent for
+life!
+
+"Well," said McGivney, "who's the spy?"
+
+Peter made an agonizing, effort, and summoned yet more nerve.
+"First, I got to know, when do I get that money?"
+
+"Oh, good God!" said McGivney. "You give us the information, and
+you'll get your money all right. What kind of cheap skates do you
+take us for?"
+
+"Well, that's all right," said Peter. "But you know, Mr. Guffey
+didn't give me any reason to think he loved me. I still can hardly
+use this wrist like I used to."
+
+"Well, he was trying to get some information out of you," said
+McGivney. "He thought you were one of them dynamiters--how could you
+blame him? You give me the name of that spy, and I'll see you get
+your money."
+
+But still Peter wouldn't yield. He was afraid of the rat-faced
+McGivney, and his heart was thumping fast, but he stood his ground.
+"I think I ought to see that money," he said, doggedly.
+
+"Say, what the hell do you take me for?" demanded the detective.
+"D'you suppose I'm going to give you two hundred dollars and then
+have you give me some fake name and skip?"
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't do that!" cried Peter.
+
+"How do I know you wouldn't?"
+
+"Well, I want to go on working for you."
+
+"Sure, and we want you to go on working for us. This ain't the last
+secret we'll get from you, and you'll find we play straight with our
+people--how'd we ever get anywheres otherwise? There's a million
+dollars been put up to hang that Goober crowd, and if you deliver
+the goods, you'll get your share, and get it right on time."
+
+He spoke with conviction, and Peter was partly persuaded. But most
+of Peter's lifetime had been spent in watching people bargaining
+with one another--watching scoundrels trying to outwit one
+another--and when it was a question of some money to be got, Peter
+was like a bulldog that has got his teeth fixed tight in another
+dog's nose; he doesn't consider the other dog's feelings, nor does
+he consider whether the other dog admires him or not.
+
+"On time?" said Peter. "What do you mean by `on time'?"
+
+"Oh, my God!" said McGivney, in disgust.
+
+"Well, but I want to know," said Peter. "D'you mean when I give the
+name, or d'you mean after you've gone and found out whether he
+really is the spy or not?"
+
+So they worried back and forth, these snarling bulldogs, growing
+more and more angry. But Peter was the one who had got his teeth in,
+and Peter hung on. Once McGivney hinted quite plainly that the great
+Traction Trust had had power enough to shut Peter in the "hole" on
+two occasions and keep him there, and it might have power enough to
+do it a third time. Peter's heart failed with terror, but all the
+same, he hung on to McGivney's nose.
+
+"All right," said the rat-faced man, at last. He said it in a tone
+of wearied scorn; but that didn't worry Peter a particle. "All
+right, I'll take a chance with you." And he reached into his pocket
+and pulled out a roll of bills--twenty dollar bills they were, and
+he counted out ten of them. Peter saw that there was still a lot
+left to the roll, and knew that he hadn't asked as much money as
+McGivney had been prepared to have him ask; so his heart was sick
+within him. At the same time his heart was leaping with
+exultation--such a strange thing is the human heart!
+
+
+
+
+Section 21
+
+
+McGivney laid the money on the bed. "There it is," he said, "and if
+you give me the name of the spy you can take it. But you'd better
+take my advice and not spend it, because if it turns out that you
+haven't got the spy, by God, I believe Ed Guffey'd twist the arms
+out of you!"
+
+Peter was easy about that. "I know he's the spy all right."
+
+"Well, who is he?"
+
+"He's Jack Ibbetts."
+
+"The devil you say!" cried McGivney, incredulously.
+
+"Jack Ibbetts, one of the night keepers in the jail."
+
+"I know him," said the other. "But what put that notion into your
+head?"
+
+"He's a cousin of the Todd sisters."
+
+"Who are the Todd sisters?"
+
+"Jennie Todd is my girl," said Peter.
+
+"Girl!" echoed the other; he stared at Peter, and a grin spread over
+his face. "You got a girl in two weeks? I didn't know you had it in
+you!"
+
+It was a doubtful compliment, but Peter's smile was no less
+expansive, and showed all his crooked teeth. "I got her all right,"
+he said, "and she blabbed it out the first thing--that Ibbetts was
+her cousin. And then she was scared, because Andrews, the lawyer,
+had made her and her sister swear they wouldn't mention his name to
+a soul. So you see, they're using him for a spy--there ain't a
+particle of doubt about it."
+
+"Good God!" said McGivney, and there was genuine dismay in his tone.
+"Who'd think it possible? Why, Ibbetts is as decent a fellow as ever
+you talked to--and him a Red, and a traitor at that! You know,
+that's what makes it the devil trying to handle these Reds--you
+never can tell who they'll get; you never know who to trust. How,
+d'you suppose they manage it?"
+
+"I dunno," said Peter. "There's a sucker born every minute, you
+know!"
+
+"Well, anyhow, I see you ain't one of 'em," said the rat-faced man,
+as he watched Peter take the roll of bills from the bed and tuck
+them away in an inside pocket.
+
+
+
+
+Section 22
+
+
+Peter was warned by the rat-faced man that he must be careful how he
+spent any of that money. Nothing would be more certain to bring
+suspicion on him than to have it whispered about that he was "in
+funds." He must be able to show how he had come honestly by
+everything he had. And Peter agreed to that; he would hide the money
+away in a safe place until he was thru with his job.
+
+Then he in turn proceeded to warn McGivney. If they were to fire
+Ibbetts from his job, it would certainly cause talk, and might
+direct suspicion against Peter. McGivney answered with a smile that
+he wasn't born yesterday. They would "promote" Jack Ibbetts, giving
+him some job where he couldn't get any news about the Goober case;
+then, after a bit, they would catch him up on some mistake, or get
+him into some trouble, and fire him.
+
+At this meeting, and at later meetings, Peter and the rat-faced man
+talked out every aspect of the Goober case, which was becoming more
+and more complicated, and bigger as a public issue. New people were
+continually being involved, and new problems continually arising; it
+was more fascinating than a game of chess. McGivney had spoken the
+literal truth when he said that the big business interests of
+American City had put up a million dollars to hang Goober and his
+crowd. At the very beginning there had been offered seventeen
+thousand dollars in rewards for information, and these rewards
+naturally had many claimants. The trouble was that people who wanted
+this money generally had records that wouldn't go well before a
+jury; the women nearly always turned out to be prostitutes, and the
+men to be ex-convicts, forgers, gamblers, or what not. Sometimes
+they didn't tell their past records until the other side unearthed
+them, and then it was necessary to doctor court records, and pull
+wires all over the country.
+
+There were a dozen such witnesses as this in the Goober case. They
+had told their stories before the grand jury, and innumerable flaws
+and discrepancies had been discovered, which made more work and
+trouble for Guffey and his lieutenants. Thru a miserable mischance
+it happened that Jim Goober and his wife had been watching the
+parade from the roof of a building a couple of miles away, at the
+very hour when they were accused of having planted the suit-case
+with the bomb in it. Somebody had taken a photograph of the parade
+from this roof, which showed both Goober and his wife looking over,
+and also a big clock in front of a jewelry store, plainly indicating
+the very minute. Fortunately the prosecution got hold of this
+photograph first; but now the defense had learned of its existence,
+and was trying to get a look at it. The prosecution didn't dare
+destroy it, because its existence could be proven; but they had
+photographed the photograph, and re-photographed that, until they
+had the face of the clock so dim that the time could not be seen.
+Now the defense was trying to get evidence that this trick had been
+worked.
+
+Then there were all the witnesses for the defense. Thru another
+mischance it had happened that half a dozen different people had
+seen the bomb thrown from the roof of Guggenheim's Department Store;
+which entirely contradicted the suit-case theory upon which the
+prosecution was based. So now it was necessary to "reach" these
+various witnesses. One perhaps had a mortgage on his home which
+could be bought and foreclosed; another perhaps had a wife who
+wanted to divorce him, and could be persuaded to help get him into
+trouble. Or perhaps he was engaged in an intrigue with some other
+man's wife; or perhaps some woman could be sent to draw him into an
+intrigue.
+
+Then again, it appeared that very soon after the explosion some of
+Guffey's men had taken a sledge hammer and smashed the sidewalk,
+also the wall of the building where the explosion had taken place.
+This was to fit in with the theory of the suit-case bomb, and they
+had taken a number of photographs of the damage. But now it
+transpired that somebody had taken a photograph of the spot before
+this extra damage had been done, and that the defense was in
+possession of this photograph. Who had taken this photograph, and
+how could he be "fixed"? If Peter could help in such matters, he
+would come out of the Goober case a rich man.
+
+Peter would go away from these meetings with McGivney with his head
+full of visions, and would concentrate all his faculties upon the
+collecting of information. He and Jennie and Sadie talked about the
+case incessantly, and Jennie and Sadie would tell freely everything
+they had heard outside. Others would come in--young McCormick, and
+Miriam Yankovitch, and Miss Nebbins, the secretary to Andrews, and
+they would tell what they had learned and what they suspected, and
+what the defense was hoping to find out. They got hold of a cousin
+of the man who had taken the photograph on the roof; they were
+working on him, to get him to persuade the photographer to tell the
+truth. Next day Donald Gordon would come in, cast down with despair,
+because it had been learned that one of the most valuable witnesses
+of the defense, a groceryman, had once pleaded guilty to selling
+spoilt cheese! Thus every evening, before he went to sleep, Peter
+would jot down notes, and sew them up inside his jacket, and once a
+week he would go to the meeting with McGivney, and the two would
+argue and bargain over the value of Peter's news.
+
+
+
+
+Section 23
+
+
+It had become a fascinating game, and Peter would never have tired
+of it, but for the fact that he had to stay all day in the house
+with little Jennie. A honeymoon is all right for a few weeks, but no
+man can stand it forever. Little Jennie apparently never tired of
+being kissed, and never seemed satisfied that Peter thoroughly loved
+her. A man got thru with his love-making after awhile, but a woman,
+it appeared, never knew how to drop the subject; she was always
+looking before and after, and figuring consequences and
+responsibilities, her duty and her reputation and all the rest of
+it. Which, of course, was a bore.
+
+Jennie was unhappy because she was deceiving Sadie; she wanted to
+tell Sadie, and yet somehow it was easier to go on concealing than
+admit that one had concealed. Peter didn't see why Sadie had to be
+told at all; he didn't see why things couldn't stay just as they
+were, and why he and his sweetheart couldn't have some fun now and
+then, instead of always being sentimental, always having agonies
+over the class war, to say nothing of the world war, and the
+prospects of America becoming involved in it.
+
+This did not mean that Peter was hard and feelingless. No, when
+Peter clasped trembling little Jennie in his arms he was very deeply
+moved; he had a real sense of what a gentle and good little soul she
+was. He would have been glad to help her--but what could he do about
+it? The situation was such that he could not plead with her, he
+could not try to change her; he had to give himself up to all her
+crazy whims and pretend to agree with her. Little Jennie was by her
+weakness marked for destruction, and what good would it do for him
+to go to destruction along with her?
+
+Peter understood clearly that there are two kinds of people in the
+world, those who eat, and those who are eaten; and it was his
+intention to stay among the former, group. Peter had come in his
+twenty years of life to a definite understanding of the things
+called "ideas" and "causes" and "religions." They were bait to catch
+suckers; and there is a continual competition between the suckers,
+who of course don't want to be caught, and those people of superior
+wits who want to catch them, and therefore are continually inventing
+new and more plausible and alluring kinds of bait. Peter had by now
+heard enough of the jargon of the "comrades" to realize that theirs
+was an especially effective kind; and here was poor little Jennie,
+stuck fast on the hook, and what could Peter do about it?
+
+Yet, this was Peter's first love, and when he was deeply thrilled,
+he understood the truth of Guffey's saying that a man in love wants
+to tell the truth. Peter would have the impulse to say to her: "Oh,
+drop all that preaching, and give yourself a rest! Let's you and me
+enjoy life a bit."
+
+Yes, it would be all he could do to keep from saying this--despite
+the fact that he knew it would ruin everything. Once little Jennie
+appeared in a new silk dress, brought to her by one of the rich
+ladies whose heart was touched by her dowdy appearance. It was of
+soft grey silk--cheap silk, but fresh and new, and Peter had never
+had anything so fine in his arms before. It matched Jennie's grey
+eyes, and its freshness gave her a pink glow; or was it that Peter
+admired her, and loved her more, and so brought the blood to her
+cheeks? Peter had an impulse to take her out and show her off, and
+he pressed his face into the soft folds of the dress and whispered,
+"Say kid, some day you an me got to cut all this hard luck business
+for a bit!"
+
+He felt little Jennie stiffen, and draw away from him; so quickly he
+had to set to work to patch up the damage. "I want you to get well,"
+he pleaded. "You're so good to everybody--you treat everybody well
+but yourself!"
+
+It had been something in his tone rather than his actual words that
+had frightened the girl. "Oh Peter!" she cried. "What does it matter
+about me, or about any other one person, when millions of young men
+are being shot to fragments, and millions of women and children are
+starving to death!"
+
+So there they were, fighting the war again; Peter had to take up her
+burden, be a hero, and a martyr, and a "Red." That same afternoon,
+as fate willed it, three "wobblies" out of a job came to call; and
+oh, how tired Peter was of these wandering agitators--insufferable
+"grouches!" Peter would want to say: "Oh, cut it out! What you call
+your `cause' is nothing but your scheme to work with your tongues
+instead of with a pick and a shovel." And this would start an
+imaginary quarrel in Peter's mind. He would hear one of the fellows
+demanding, "How much pick and shovel work you ever done?" Another
+saying, "Looks to me like you been finding the easy jobs wherever
+you go!" The fact that this was true did not make Peter's irritation
+any less, did not make it easier for him to meet with Comrade Smith,
+and Brother Jones, and Fellow-worker Brown just out of jail, and
+listen to their hard-luck stories, and watch them take from the
+table food that Peter wanted, and--the bitterest pill of all--let
+them think that they were fooling him with their patter!
+
+The time came when Peter wasn't able to stand it any longer. Shut up
+in the house all day, he was becoming as irritable as a chained dog.
+Unless he could get out in the world again, he would surely give
+himself away. He pleaded that the doctors had warned him that his
+health would not stand indoor life; he must get some fresh air. So
+he got away by himself, and after that he found things much easier.
+He could spend a little of his money; he could find a quiet corner
+in a restaurant and get himself a beefsteak, and eat all he wanted
+of it, without feeling the eyes of any "comrades" resting upon him
+reprovingly. Peter had lived in a jail, and in an orphan asylum, and
+in the home of Shoemaker Smithers, but nowhere had he fared so
+meagerly as in the home of the Todd sisters, who were contributing
+nearly everything they owned to the Goober defense, and to the
+"Clarion," the Socialist paper of American City.
+
+
+
+
+Section 24
+
+
+Peter went to see Andrews, the lawyer, and asked for a job; he
+wanted to be active in the case, he said, so he was set to work in
+the offices of the Defense Committee, where he heard people talking
+about the case all day, and he could pick up no end of valuable
+tips. He made himself agreeable and gained friends; before long he
+was intimate with one of the best witnesses of the defense, and
+discovered that this man had once been named as co-respondent in a
+divorce case. Peter found out the name of the woman, and Guffey set
+to work to bring her to American City. The job was to be done
+cleverly, without the woman's even knowing that she was being used.
+She would have a little holiday, and the spell of old love would
+reassert itself, and Guffey would have a half dozen men to spring
+the trap--and there would be a star witness of the Goober defense
+clean down and out! "There's always something you can get them on!"
+said McGivney, and cheerfully paid Peter Gudge five hundred dollars
+for the information he had brought.
+
+Peter would have been wildly happy, but just at this moment a
+dreadful calamity befell him. Jennie had been talking about marriage
+more and more, and now she revealed to him a reason which made
+marriage imperative. She revealed it with downcast eyes, with
+blushes and trembling; and Peter was so overcome with consternation
+that he could not play the part that was expected of him. Hitherto
+in these love crises he had caught Jennie in his arms and comforted
+her; but now for a moment he let her see his real emotions.
+
+Jennie promptly had a fit. What was the matter with him? Didn't he
+mean to marry her, as he had promised? Surely he must realize now
+that they could no longer delay! And Peter, who was not familiar
+with the symptoms of hysterics, lost his head completely and could
+think of nothing to do but rush out of the house and slam the door.
+
+The more he considered it, the more clearly he realized that he was
+in the devil of a predicament. As a servant of the Traction Trust,
+he had taken it for granted that he was immune to all legal
+penalties and obligations; but here, he had a feeling, was a trouble
+from which the powerful ones of the city would be unable to shield
+their agent. Were they able to arrange it so that one could marry a
+girl, and then get out of it when one's job was done?
+
+Peter was so uneasy that he had to call up the office of Guffey and
+get hold of McGivney. This was dangerous, because the prosecution
+was tapping telephone wires, and they feared the defense might be
+doing the same. But Peter took a chance; he told McGivney to come
+and meet him at the usual place; and there they argued the matter
+out, and Peter's worst fears were confirmed. When he put the
+proposition up to McGivney, the rat-faced man guffawed in his face.
+He found it so funny that he did not stop laughing until he saw that
+he was putting his spy into a rage.
+
+"What's the joke?" demanded Peter. "If I'm ruined, where'll you get
+any more information?"
+
+"But, my God!" said McGivney. "What did you have to go and get that
+kind of a girl for?"
+
+"I had to take what I could," answered Peter. "Besides, they're all
+alike--they get into trouble, and you can't help it."
+
+"Sure, you can help it!" said McGivney. "Why didn't you ask long
+ago? Now if you've got yourself tied up with a marrying proposition,
+it's your own lookout; you can't put it off on me."
+
+They argued back and forth. The rat-faced man was positive that
+there was no way Peter could pretend to marry Jennie and not have
+the marriage count. He might get himself into no end of trouble and
+certainly he would be ruined as a spy. What he must do was to pay
+the girl some money and send her somewhere to get fixed up. McGivney
+would find out the name of a doctor to do the job.
+
+"Yes, but what excuse can I give her?" cried Peter. "I mean, why I
+don't marry her!"
+
+"Make something up," said McGivney. "Why not have a wife already?"
+Then, seeing Peter's look of dismay: "Sure, you can fix that. I'll
+get you one, if you need her. But you won't have to take that
+trouble--just tell your girl a hard luck story. You've got a wife,
+you thought you could get free from her, but now you find you can't;
+your wife's got wind of what you're doing here, and she's trying to
+blackmail you. Fix it up so your girl can't do anything on account
+of hurting the Goober defense. If she's really sincere about it, she
+won't disgrace you; maybe she won't even tell her sister."
+
+Peter hated to do anything like that. He had a vision of little
+Jennie lying on the sofa in hysterics as he had left her, and he
+dreaded the long emotional scene that would be necessary. However,
+it seemed that he must go thru with it; there was no better way that
+he could think of. Also, he must be quick, because in a couple of
+hours Sadie would be coming home from work, and it might be too
+late.
+
+
+
+
+Section 25
+
+
+Peter hurried back to the Todd home, and there was white-faced
+little Jennie lying on the bed, still sobbing. One would think she
+might have used up her surplus stock of emotions; but no, there is
+never any limit to the emotions a woman can pour out. As soon as
+Peter had got fairly started on the humiliating confession that he
+had a wife, little Jennie sprang up from the bed with a terrified
+shriek, and confronted him with a face like the ghost of an escaped
+lunatic. Peter tried to explain that it wasn't his fault, he had
+really expected to be free any day. But Jennie only clasped her
+hands to her forehead and screamed: "You have deceived me! You have
+betrayed me!" It was just like a scene in the movies, the bored
+little devil inside Peter was whispering.
+
+He tried to take her hand and reason with her, but she sprang away
+from him, she rushed to the other side of the room and stood there,
+staring at him as if she were some wild thing that he had in a
+corner and was threatening to kill. She made so much noise that he
+was afraid that she would bring the neighbors in; he had to point
+out to her that if this matter became public he would be ruined
+forever as a witness, and thus she might be the means of sending Jim
+Goober to the gallows.
+
+Thereupon Jennie fell silent, and it was possible for Peter to get
+in a word. He told her of the intrigues against him; the other side
+had sent somebody to him and offered him ten thousand dollars if he
+would sell out the Goober defense. Now, since he had refused, they
+were trying to blackmail him, using his wife. They had somehow come
+to suspect that he was involved in a love affair, and this was to be
+the means of ruining him.
+
+Jennie still would not let Peter touch, her, but she consented to
+sit down quietly in a chair, and figure out what they were going to
+do. Whatever happened, she said, they must do no harm to the Goober
+case. Peter had done her a monstrous wrong in keeping the truth from
+her, but she would suffer the penalty, whatever it might be; she
+would never involve him.
+
+Peter started to explain; perhaps it wasn't so serious as she
+feared. He had been thinking things over; he knew where Pericles
+Priam, his old employer, was living, and Pericles was rich now, and
+Peter felt sure that he could borrow two hundred dollars, and there
+were places where little Jennie could go--there were ways to get out
+of this trouble--
+
+But little Jennie stopped him. She was only a child in some ways,
+but in others she was a mature woman. She had strange fixed ideas,
+and when you ran into them it was like running into a stone wall.
+She would not hear of the idea Peter suggested; it would be murder.
+
+"Nonsense," said Peter, echoing McGivney. "It's nothing; everybody
+does it." But Jennie was apparently not listening. She sat staring
+with her wild, terrified eyes, and pulling at her dress with her
+fingers. Peter got to watching these fingers, and they got on his
+nerves. They behaved like insane fingers; they manifested all the
+emotions which the rest of little Jennie was choking back and
+repressing.
+
+"If you would only not take it so seriously!" Peter pleaded. "It's a
+miserable accident, but it's happened, and now we've got to make the
+best of it. Some day I'll get free; some day I'll marry you."
+
+"Stop, Peter!" the girl whispered, in her tense voice. "I don't want
+to talk to you any more, if that's all you have to say. I don't know
+that I'd be willing to marry you--now that I know you could deceive
+me--that you could go on deceiving me day after day for months."
+
+Peter thought she was going to break out into hysterics again, and
+he was frightened. He tried to plead with her, but suddenly she
+sprang up. "Go away!" she exclaimed. "Please go away and let me
+alone. I'll think it over and decide what to do myself. Whatever I
+do, I won't disgrace you, so leave me alone, go quickly!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 26
+
+
+She drove him out of the house, and Peter went, though with many
+misgivings. He wandered about the streets, not knowing what to do
+with himself, looking back over the blunders he had made and
+tormenting himself with that most tormenting of all thoughts: how
+different my life might have been, if only I had had sense enough to
+do this, or not to do that! Dinner time came, and Peter blew himself
+to a square meal, but even that did not comfort him entirely. He
+pictured Sadie coming home at this hour. Was Jennie telling her or
+not?
+
+There was a big mass meeting called by the Goober Defense Committee
+that evening, and Peter attended, and it proved to be the worst
+thing he could have done. His mind was in no condition to encounter
+the fierce passions of this crowded assemblage. Peter had the
+picture of himself being exposed and denounced; he wasn't sure yet
+that it mightn't happen to him. And here was this meeting--thousands
+of workingmen, horny handed blacksmiths, longshoremen with shoulders
+like barns and truckmen with fists like battering rams, long-haired
+radicals of a hundred dangerous varieties, women who waved red
+handkerchiefs and shrieked until to Peter they seemed like gorgons
+with snakes instead of hair.
+
+Such were the mob-frenzies engendered by the Goober case; and Peter
+knew, of course, that to all these people he was a traitor, a
+poisonous worm, a snake in the grass. If ever they were to find out
+what he was doing--if for instance, someone were to rise up and
+expose him to this crowd--they would seize him and tear him to
+pieces. And maybe, right now, little Jennie was telling Sadie; and
+Sadie would tell Andrews, and Andrews would become suspicious, and
+set spies on Peter Gudge! Maybe they had spies on him already, and
+knew of his meetings with McGivney!
+
+Haunted by such terrors, Peter had to listen to the tirades of
+Donald Gordon, of John Durand, and of Sorensen, the longshoremen's
+leader. He had to listen to exposure after exposure of the tricks
+which Guffey had played; he had to hear the district attorney of the
+county denounced as a suborner of perjury, and his agents as
+blackmailers and forgers. Peter couldn't understand why such things
+should be permitted--why these speakers were not all clapped into
+jail. But instead, he had to sit there and listen; he even had to
+applaud and pretend to approve! All the other secret operatives of
+the Traction Trust and of the district attorney's office had to
+listen and pretend to approve! In the hall Peter had met Miriam
+Yankovich, and was sitting next to her. "Look," she said, "there's a
+couple of dicks over there. Look at the mugs on them!"
+
+"Which?" said Peter.
+
+And she answered: "That fellow that looks like a bruiser, and that
+one next to him, with the face of a rat." Peter looked, and saw that
+it was McGivney; and McGivney looked at Peter, but gave no sign.
+
+The meeting lasted until nearly midnight. It subscribed several
+thousand dollars to the Goober defense fund, and adopted ferocious
+resolutions which it ordered printed and sent to every local of
+every labor union in the country. Peter got out before it was over,
+because he could no longer stand the strain of his own fears and
+anxieties. He pushed his way thru the crowd, and in the lobby he ran
+into Pat McCormick, the I. W. W. leader.
+
+There was more excitement in this boy's grim face than Peter had
+ever seen there before. Peter thought it was the meeting, but the
+other rushed up to him, exclaiming: "Have you heard the news?"
+
+"What news?"
+
+"Little Jennie Todd has killed herself!"
+
+"My God!" gasped Peter, starting back.
+
+"Ada Ruth just told me. Sadie found a note when she got home. Jennie
+had left--she was going to drown herself."
+
+"But what--why?" cried Peter, in horror.
+
+"She was suffering so, her health was so wretched, she begs Sadie
+not to look for her body, not to make a fuss--they'll never find
+her."
+
+And horrified and stunned as Peter was, there was something inside
+him that drew a deep breath of relief. Little Jennie had kept her
+promise! Peter was, safe!
+
+
+
+
+Section 27
+
+
+Yes, Peter was safe, but it had been a close call, and he still had
+painful scenes to play his part in. He had to go back to the Todd
+home and meet the frantic Sadie, and weep and be horrified with the
+rest of them. It would have been suspicious if he had not done this;
+the "comrades" would never have forgiven him. Then to his dismay, he
+found that Sadie had somehow come to a positive conviction as to
+Jennie's trouble. She penned Peter up in a corner and accused him of
+being responsible; and there was poor Peter, protesting vehemently
+that he was innocent, and wishing that the floor would open up and
+swallow him.
+
+In the midst of his protestations a clever scheme occurred to him.
+He lowered his voice in shame. There was a man, a young man, who
+used to come to see Jennie off and on. "Jennie asked me not to
+tell." Peter hesitated a moment, and added his master-stroke.
+"Jennie explained to me that she was a free-lover; she told me all
+about free love. I told her I didn't believe in it, but you know,
+Sadie, when Jennie believed in anything, she would stand by it and
+act on it. So I felt certain it wouldn't do any good for me to butt
+in."
+
+Sadie almost went out of her mind at this. She glared at Peter.
+"Slanderer! Devil!" she cried. "Who was this man?"
+
+Peter answered, "He went by the name of Ned. That's what Jennie
+called him. It wasn't my business to pin her down about him."
+
+"It wasn't your business to look out for an innocent child?"
+
+"Jennie herself said she wasn't an innocent child, she knew exactly
+what she was doing--all Socialists did it." And to this parting shot
+he added that he hadn't thought it was decent, when he was a guest
+in a home, to spy on the morals of the people in it. When Sadie
+persisted in doubting him, and even in calling him names, he took
+the easiest way out of the difficulty--fell into a rage and stormed
+out of the house.
+
+Peter felt pretty certain that Sadie would not spread the story very
+far; it was too disgraceful to her sister and to herself; and maybe
+when she had thought it over she might come to believe Peter's
+story; maybe she herself was a "free lover." McGivney had certainly
+said that all Socialists were, and he had been studying them a lot.
+Anyhow, Sadie would have to think first of the Goober case, just as
+little Jennie had done. Peter had them there all right, and realized
+that he could afford to be forgiving, so he went to the telephone
+and called up Sadie and said: "I want you to know that I'm not going
+to say anything about this story; it won't become known except thru
+you."
+
+There were half a dozen people whom Sadie must have told. Miss
+Nebbins was icy-cold to Peter the next time he came in to see Mr.
+Andrews; also Miriam Yankovich lost her former cordiality, and
+several other women treated him with studied reserve. But the only
+person who spoke about the matter was Pat McCormick, the I. W. W.
+boy who had given Peter the news of little Jennie's suicide. Perhaps
+Peter hadn't been able to act satisfactorily on that occasion; or
+perhaps the young fellow had observed something for himself, some
+love-glances between Peter and Jennie. Peter had never felt
+comfortable in the presence of this silent Irish boy, whose dark
+eyes would roam from one person to another in the room, and seemed
+to be probing your most secret thoughts.
+
+Now Peter's worst fears were justified. "Mac" got him off in a
+corner, and put his fist under his nose, and told him that he was "a
+dirty hound," and if it hadn't been for the Goober case, he, "Mac,"
+would kill him without a moment's concern.
+
+And Peter did not dare open his mouth; the look on the Irishman's
+face was so fierce that he was really afraid for his life. God, what
+a hateful lot these Reds were! And now here was Peter with the worst
+one of all against him! From now on his life would be in danger from
+this maniac Irishman! Peter hated him--so heartily and genuinely
+that it served to divert his thoughts from little Jennie, and to
+make him regard himself as a victim.
+
+Yes, in the midnight hours when Jennie's gentle little face haunted
+him and his conscience attacked him, Peter looked back upon the
+tangled web of events, and saw quite clearly how inevitable this
+tragedy had been, how naturally it had grown out of circumstances
+beyond his control. The fearful labor struggle in American City was
+surely not Peter's fault; nor was it his fault that he had been
+drawn into it, and forced to act first as an unwilling witness, and
+then as a secret agent. Peter read the American City "Times" every
+morning, and knew that the cause of Goober was the cause of anarchy
+and riot, while the cause of the district attorney and of Guffey's
+secret service was the cause of law and order. Peter was doing his
+best in this great cause, he was following the instructions of those
+above him, and how could he be blamed because one poor weakling of a
+girl had got in the way of the great chariot of the law?
+
+Peter knew that it wasn't his fault; and yet grief and terror gnawed
+at him. For one thing, he missed little Jennie, he missed her by day
+and he missed her by night. He missed her gentle voice, her fluffy
+soft hair, her body in his empty arms. She was his first love, and
+she was gone, and it is human weakness to appreciate things most
+when they have been lost.
+
+Peter aspired to be a strong man, a "he-man," according to the slang
+that was coming into fashion; he now tried to live up to that role.
+He didn't want to go mooning about over this accident; yet Jennie's
+face stayed with him--sometimes wild, as he had seen it at their
+last meeting, sometimes gentle and reproachful. Peter would remember
+how good she had been, how tender, how never-failing in instant
+response to an advance of love on his part. Where would he ever find
+another girl like that?
+
+Another thing troubled him especially--a strange, inexplicable
+thing, for which Peter had no words, and about which he found
+himself frequently thinking. This weak, frail slip of a girl had
+deliberately given her life for her convictions; she had died, in
+order that he might be saved as a witness for the Goobers! Of course
+Peter had known all along that little Jennie was doomed, that she
+was throwing herself away, that nothing could save her. But somehow,
+it does frighten the strongest heart when people are so fanatical as
+to throw away their very lives for a cause. Peter found himself
+regarding the ideas of these Reds from a new angle; before this they
+had been just a bunch of "nuts," but now they seemed to him
+creatures of monstrous deformity, products of the devil, or of a God
+gone insane.
+
+
+
+
+Section 28
+
+
+There was only one person whom Peter could take into his confidence,
+and that was McGivney. Peter could not conceal from McGivney the
+fact that he was troubled over his bereavement; and so McGivney took
+him in hand and gave him a "jacking up." It was dangerous work, this
+of holding down the Reds; dangerous, because their doctrines were so
+insidious, they were so devilishly cunning in their working upon
+people's minds. McGivney had seen more than one fellow start fooling
+with their ideas and turn into one himself. Peter must guard against
+that danger.
+
+"It ain't that," Peter explained. "It ain't their ideas. It's just
+that I was soft on that kid."
+
+"Well, it comes to the same thing," said McGivney. "You get sorry
+for them, and the first thing you know, you're listening to their
+arguments. Now, Peter, you're one of the best men I've got on this
+case--and that's saying a good deal, because I've got charge of
+seventeen." The rat-faced man was watching Peter, and saw Peter
+flush with pleasure. Yes, he continued, Peter had a future before
+him, he would make all kinds of money, he would be given
+responsibility, a permanent position. But he might throw it all away
+if he got to fooling with these Red doctrines. And also, he ought to
+understand, he could never fool McGivney; because McGivney had spies
+on him!
+
+So Peter clenched his hands and braced himself up. Peter was a real
+"he-man," and wasn't going to waste himself. "It's just that I can't
+help missing the girl!" he explained; to which the other answered:
+"Well, that's only natural. What you want to do is to get yourself
+another one."
+
+Peter went on with his work in the office of the Goober Defense
+Committee. The time for the trial had come, and the struggle between
+the two giants had reached its climax. The district attorney, who
+was prosecuting the case, and who was expecting to become governor
+of the state on the strength of it, had the backing of half a dozen
+of the shrewdest lawyers in the city, their expenses being paid by
+the big business men. A small army of detectives were at work, and
+the court where the trial took place was swarming with spies and
+agents. Every one of the hundreds of prospective jurors had been
+investigated and card-cataloged, his every weakness and every
+prejudice recorded; not merely had his psychology been studied, but
+his financial status, and that of his relatives and friends. Peter
+had met half a dozen other agents beside McGivney, men who had come
+to question him about this or that detail; and from the conversation
+of these men he got glimpses of the endless ramifications of the
+case. It seemed to him that the whole of American City had been
+hired to help send Jim Goober to the gallows.
+
+Peter was now getting fifty dollars a week and expenses, in addition
+to special tips for valuable bits of news. Hardly a day passed that
+he didn't get wind of some important development, and every night he
+would have to communicate with McGivney. The prosecution had a
+secret office, where there was a telephone operator on duty, and
+couriers traveling to the district attorney's office and to Guffey's
+office--all this to forestall telephone tapping. Peter would go
+from the headquarters of the Goober Defense Committee to a
+telephone-booth in some hotel, and there he would give the secret
+number, and then his own number, which was six forty-two. Everybody
+concerned was known by numbers, the principal people, both of the
+prosecution and of the defense; the name "Goober" was never spoken
+over the phone.
+
+After the trial had got started it was hard to get anybody to work
+in the office of the Defense Committee--everybody wanted to be in
+court! Someone would come in every few minutes, with the latest
+reports of sensational developments. The prosecution had succeeded
+in making away with the police court records, proving the conviction
+of its star witness of having kept a brothel for negroes. The
+prosecution had introduced various articles alleged to have been
+found on the street by the police after the explosion; one was a
+spring, supposed to have been part of a bomb--but it turned out to
+be a part of a telephone! Also they had introduced parts of a
+clock--but it appeared that in their super-zeal they had introduced
+the parts of _two_ clocks! There was some excitement like this every
+day.
+
+
+
+
+Section 29
+
+
+The time came when the prosecution closed its case, and Peter was
+summoned to the office of Andrews, to be coached in his part as a
+witness. He would be wanted in two or three days, the lawyers told
+him.
+
+Now Peter had never intended to appear as a witness; he had been
+fooling the defense all this time--"stringing them along," as he
+phrased it, so as to keep in favor with them to the end. Meantime he
+had been figuring out how to justify his final refusal. Peter was
+eating his lunch when this plan occurred to him, and he was so much
+excited that he swallowed a piece of pie the wrong way, and had to
+jump up and run out of the lunch-room. It was his first stroke of
+genius; hitherto it was McGivney who had thought these things out,
+but now Peter was on the way to becoming his own boss! Why should he
+go on taking orders, when he had such brains of his own? He took the
+plan to McGivney, and McGivney called it a "peach," and Peter was so
+proud he asked for a raise, and got it.
+
+This plan had the double advantage that not merely would it save
+Peter's prestige and reputation, among the Reds, it would ruin
+McCormick, who was one of the hardest workers for the defense, and
+one of the most dangerous Reds in American City, as well as being a
+personal enemy of Peter's. McGivney pulled some of his secret wires,
+and the American City "Times," in the course of its accounts of the
+case, mentioned a rumor that the defense proposed to put on the
+stand a man who claimed to have been tortured in the city jail, in
+an effort to make him give false testimony against Goober; the
+prosecution had investigated this man's record and discovered that
+only recently he had seduced a young girl, and she had killed
+herself because of his refusal to marry her. Peter took this copy of
+the American City "Times" to the office of David Andrews, and
+insisted upon seeing the lawyer before he went to court; he laid the
+item on the desk, and declared that there was his finish as a
+witness in the Goober case. "It's a cowardly, dirty lie!" he
+declared. "And the man responsible for circulating it is Pat
+McCormick."
+
+Such are the burdens that fall upon the shoulders of lawyers in
+hard-fought criminal trials! Poor Andrews did his best to patch
+things up; he pleaded with Peter--if the story was false, Peter
+ought to be glad of a chance to answer his slanderers. The defense
+would put witnesses on the stand to deny it. They would produce
+Sadie Todd to deny it.
+
+"But Sadie told me she suspected me!"
+
+"Yes," said Andrews, "but she told me recently she wasn't sure."
+
+"Much good that'll do me!" retorted Peter. "They'll ask me if
+anybody ever accused me, and who, and I'll have to say McCormick,
+and if they put him on the stand, will he deny that he accused me?"
+
+Peter flew into a rage against McCormick; a fine sort of radical he
+was, pretending to be devoted to the cause, and having no better
+sense than to repeat a cruel slander against a comrade! Here Peter
+had been working on this case for nearly six months, working for
+barely enough to keep body and soul together, and now they expected
+him to go on the and have a story like that brought out in the
+papers, and have the prosecution hiring witnesses to prove him a
+villain. "No, sir!" said Peter. "I'm thru with this case right now.
+You put McCormick on the witness stand and let him save Goober's
+life. You can't use me, I'm out!" And shutting his ears to the
+lawyer's pleading, he stormed out of the office, and over to the
+office of the Goober Defense Committee, where he repeated the same
+scene.
+
+
+
+
+Section 30
+
+
+Thus Peter was done with the Goober case, and mighty glad of it he
+was. He was tired of the strain, he needed a rest and a little
+pleasure. He had his pockets stuffed with money, and a good fat bank
+account, and proposed to take things easy for the first time in his
+hard and lonely life.
+
+The opportunity was at hand: for he had taken McGivney's advise and
+got himself another girl. It was a little romance, very worldly and
+delightful. To understand it, you must know that in the judicial
+procedure of American City they used both men and women jurors; and
+because busy men of affairs did not want to waste their time in the
+jury-box, nor to have the time of their clerks and workingmen
+wasted, there had gradually grown up a class of men and women who
+made their living by working as jurors. They hung around the
+courthouse and were summoned on panel after panel, being paid six
+dollars a day, with numerous opportunities to make money on the side
+if they were clever.
+
+Among this group of professional jurors, there was the keenest
+competition to get into the jury-box of the Goober case. It was to
+be a long and hard-fought case, there would be a good deal of
+prestige attached to it, and also there were numerous sums of money
+floating round. Anybody who got in, and who voted right, might be
+sure of an income for life, to say nothing of a life-job as a juror
+if he wanted it.
+
+Peter happened to be in court while the talesmen were being
+questioned. A very charming and petite brunette--what Peter
+described as a "swell dresser"--was on the stand, and was cleverly
+trying to satisfy both sides. She knew nothing about the case, she
+had never read anything about it, she knew nothing and cared nothing
+about social problems; so she was accepted by the prosecution. But
+then the defense took her in hand, and it appeared that once upon a
+time she had been so indiscreet as to declare to somebody her
+conviction that all labor leaders ought to be stood up against the
+wall and filled with lead; so she was challenged by the defense, and
+very much chagrined she came down from the stand, and took a seat in
+the courtroom next to Peter. He saw a trace of tears in her eyes,
+and realizing her disappointment, ventured a word of sympathy. The
+acquaintance grew, and they went out to lunch together.
+
+Mrs. James was her name, and she was a widow, a grass widow as she
+archly mentioned. She was quick and lively, with brilliant white
+teeth, and cheeks with the glow of health in them; this glow came
+out of a little bottle, but Peter never guessed it. Peter had got
+himself a good suit of clothes now, and made bold to spend some
+money on the lunch. As it happened, both he and Mrs. James were thru
+with the Goober case; both were tired and wanted a change, and
+Peter, blushing shyly, suggested that a sojourn at the beach might
+be fun. Mrs. James agreed immediately, and the matter was arranged.
+
+Peter had seen enough of the detective business by this time to know
+what you can safely do, and what you had better not do. He didn't
+travel with his grass widow, he didn't pay her car-fare, nor do
+anything else to constitute her a "white slave." He simply went to
+the beach and engaged himself a comfortable apartment; and next day,
+strolling on the board walk, he happened to meet the widow.
+
+So for a couple of months Peter and Mrs. James set up housekeeping
+together. It was a wonderful experience for the former, because Mrs.
+James was what is called a "lady," she had rich relatives, and took
+pains to let Peter know that she had lived in luxury before her
+husband had run away to Paris with a tight-rope walker. She taught
+Peter all those worldly arts which one misses when one is brought up
+in an orphan asylum, and on the road with a patent medicine vender.
+Tactfully, and without hurting his feelings, she taught him how to
+hold a knife and fork, and what color tie to select. At the same
+time she managed to conduct a propaganda which caused him to regard
+himself as the most favored of mankind; he was overwhelmed with
+gratitude for every single kiss from the lips of his grass widow. Of
+course he could not expect such extraordinary favors of fortune
+without paying for them; he had learned by now that there was no
+such thing as "free love." So he paid, hand over fist; he not only
+paid all the expenses of the unregistered honeymoon, he bought
+numerous expensive presents at the lady's tactful suggestion. She
+was always so vivacious and affectionate when Peter had given her a
+present! Peter lived in a kind of dream, his money seemed to go out
+of his pockets without his having to touch it.
+
+Meantime great events were rolling by, unheeded by Peter and his
+grass widow who never read the newspapers. For one thing Jim Goober
+was convicted and sentenced to die on the gallows, and Jim Goober's
+associate, Biddle, was found guilty, and sentenced to prison for
+life. Also, America entered the war, and a wave of patriotic
+excitement swept like a prairie fire over the country. Peter could
+not help hearing about this; his attention was attracted to one
+aspect of the matter--Congress was about to pass a conscription act.
+And Peter was within the age limit; Peter would almost certainly be
+drafted into the army!
+
+No terror that he had ever felt in his life was equal to this
+terror. He had tried to forget the horrible pictures of battle and
+slaughter, of machine-guns and hand-grenades and torpedoes and
+poison gas, with which little Jennie had filled his imagination; but
+now these imaginings came crowding back upon him, now for the first
+time they concerned him. From that time on his honeymoon was
+spoiled. Peter and his grass widow were like a party of picnickers
+who are far away in the wilderness, and see a black thunder-storm
+come rolling up the sky!
+
+Also, Peter's bank account was running low. Peter had had no
+conception how much money you could spend on a grass widow who is a
+"swell dresser" and understands what is "proper." He was overwhelmed
+with embarrassment; he put off telling Mrs. James until the last
+moment--in fact, until he wasn't quite sure whether he had enough
+money in bank to meet the last check he had given to the landlady.
+Then, realizing that the game was up, he told.
+
+He was surprised to see how charmingly a grass widow of "good
+breeding" could take bad tidings. Evidently it wasn't the first time
+that Mrs. James had been to the beach. She smiled cheerfully, and
+said that it was the jury-box for her once more. She gave Peter her
+card, and told him she would be glad to have him call upon her
+again--when he had restored his fortunes. She packed up her
+suit-case and her new trunk full of Peter's presents, and departed
+with the most perfect sweetness and good taste.
+
+
+
+
+Section 31
+
+
+So there was Peter, down and out once more. But fate was kind to
+him. That very day came a letter signed "Two forty-three," which
+meant McGivney. "Two forty-three" had some important work for Peter,
+so would he please call at once? Peter pawned his last bit of
+jewelry for his fare to American City, and met McGivney at the usual
+rendezvous.
+
+
+The purpose of the meeting was quickly explained. America was now at
+war, and the time had come when the mouths of these Reds were to be
+stopped for good. You could do things in war-time that you couldn't
+do in peace-time, and one of the things you were going to do was to
+put an end to the agitation against property. Peter licked his lips,
+metaphorically speaking. It was something he had many times told
+McGivney ought to be done. Pat McCormick especially ought to be put
+away for good. These were a dangerous bunch, these Reds, and Mac was
+the worst of all. It was every man's duty to help, and what could
+Peter do?
+
+McGivney answered that the authorities were making a complete list
+of all the radical organizations and their members, getting evidence
+preliminary to arrests. Guffey was in charge of the job; as in the
+Goober case, the big business interests of the city were going ahead
+while the government was still wiping the sleep out of its eyes.
+Would Peter take a job spying upon the Reds in American City?
+
+"I can't!" exclaimed Peter. "They're all sore at me because I didn't
+testify in the Goober case."
+
+"We can easily fix that up," answered the rat-faced man. "It may
+mean a little inconvenience for you. You may have to go to jail for
+a few days."
+
+"To jail!" cried Peter, in dismay.
+
+"Yes," said the other, "you'll have to get arrested, and made into a
+martyr. Then, you see, they'll all be sure you're straight, and
+they'll take you back again and welcome you."
+
+Peter didn't like the idea of going to jail; his memories of the
+jail in American City were especially painful. But McGivney
+explained that this was a time when men couldn't consider their own
+feelings; the country was in danger, public safety must be
+protected, and it was up to everybody to make some patriotic
+sacrifice. The rich men were all subscribing to liberty bonds; the
+poor men were going to give their lives; and what was Peter Gudge
+going to give? "Maybe I'll be drafted into the army," Peter
+remarked.
+
+"No, you won't--not if you take this job," said McGivney. "We can
+fix that. A man like you, who has special abilities, is too precious
+to be wasted." Peter decided forthwith that he would accept the
+proposition. It was much more sensible to spend a few days in jail
+than to spend a few years in the trenches, and maybe the balance of
+eternity under the sod of France.
+
+Matters were quickly arranged. Peter took off his good clothes, and
+dressed himself as became a workingman, and went into the
+eating-room where Donald Gordon, the Quaker boy, always got his
+lunch. Peter was quite sure that Donald would be one of the leading
+agitators against the draft, and in this he was not mistaken.
+
+Donald was decidedly uncordial in his welcoming of Peter; without
+saying a word the young Quaker made Peter aware that he was a
+renegade, a coward who had "thrown down" the Goober defense. But
+Peter was patient and tactful; he did not try to defend himself, nor
+did he ask any questions about Donald and Donald's activities. He
+simply announced that he had been studying the subject of
+militarism, and had come to a definite point of view. He was a
+Socialist and an Internationalist; he considered America's entry
+into the war a crime, and he was willing to do his part in agitating
+against it. He was going to take his stand as a conscientious
+objector; they might send him to jail if they pleased, or even stand
+him against a wall and shoot him, but they would never get him to
+put on a uniform.
+
+It was impossible for Donald Gordon to hold out against a man who
+talked like that; a man who looked him in the eye and expressed his
+convictions so simply and honestly. And that evening Peter went to a
+meeting of Local American City of the Socialist Party, and renewed
+his acquaintance with all the comrades. He didn't make a speech or
+do anything conspicuous, but simply got into the spirit of things;
+and next day he managed to meet some of the members, and whenever
+and wherever he was asked, he expressed his convictions as a
+conscientious objector. So before a week had passed Peter found that
+he was being tolerated, that nobody was going to denounce him as a
+traitor, or kick him out of the room.
+
+At the next weekly meeting of Local American City, Peter ventured to
+say a few words. It was a red-hot meeting, at which the war and the
+draft were the sole subjects of discussion. There were some Germans
+in the local, some Irishmen, and one or two Hindoos; they,
+naturally, were all ardent pacifists. Also there were agitators of
+what was coming to be called the "left wing"; the group within the
+party who considered it too conservative, and were always clamoring
+for more radical declarations, for "mass action" and general strikes
+and appeals to the proletariat to rise forthwith and break their
+chains. These were days of great events; the Russian revolution had
+electrified the world, and these comrades of the "left wing" felt
+themselves lifted upon pinions of hope.
+
+Peter spoke as one who had been out on the road, meeting the rank
+and file; he could speak for the men on the job. What was the use of
+opposing the draft here in a hall, where nobody but party members
+were present? What was wanted was for them to lift up their voices
+on the street, to awaken the people before it was too late! Was
+there anybody in this gathering bold enough to organize a street
+meeting?
+
+There were some who could not resist this challenge, and in a few
+minutes Peter had secured the pledges of half a dozen young
+hot-heads, Donald Gordon among them. Before the evening was past it
+had been arranged that these would-be-martyrs should hire a truck,
+and make their debut on Main Street the very next evening. Old hands
+in the movement warned them that they would only get their heads
+cracked by the police. But the answer to that was obvious--they
+might as well get their heads cracked by the police as get them
+blown to pieces by German artillery.
+
+
+
+
+Section 32
+
+
+Peter reported to McGivney what was planned, and McGivney promised
+that the police would be on hand. Peter warned him to be careful and
+have the police be gentle; at which McGivney grinned, and answered
+that he would see to that.
+
+It was all very simple, and took less than ten minutes of time. The
+truck drew up on Main Street, and a young orator stepped forward and
+announced to his fellow citizens that the time had come for the
+workers to make known their true feelings about the draft. Never
+would free Americans permit themselves to be herded into armies and
+shipped over seas and be slaughtered for the benefit of
+international bankers. Thus far the orator had got, when a policeman
+stepped forward and ordered him to shut up. When he refused, the
+policeman tapped on the sidewalk with his stick, and a squad of
+eight or ten came round the corner, and the orator was informed that
+he was under arrest. Another orator stepped forward and took up the
+harangue, and when he also had been put under arrest, another, and
+another, until the whole six of them, including Peter, were in hand.
+
+The crowd had had no time to work up any interest one way or the
+other, A patrol-wagon was waiting, and the orators were bundled in
+and driven to the station-house, and next morning they were haled
+before a magistrate and sentenced each to fifteen days. As they had
+been expecting to get six months, they were a happy bunch of "left
+wingers."
+
+And they were still happier when they saw how they were to be
+treated in jail. Ordinarily it was the custom of the police to
+inflict all possible pain and humiliation upon the Reds. They would
+put them in the revolving tank, a huge steel structure of many cells
+which was turned round and round by a crank. In order to get into
+any cell, the whole tank had to be turned until that particular cell
+was opposite the entrance, which meant that everybody in the tank
+got a free ride, accompanied by endless groaning and scraping of
+rusty machinery; also it meant that nobody got any consecutive
+sleep. The tank was dark, too dark to read, even if they had had
+books or papers. There was nothing to do save to smoke cigarettes
+and shoot craps, and listen to the smutty stories of the criminals,
+and plot revenge against society when they got out again. But up in
+the new wing of the jail were some cells which were clean and bright
+and airy, being only three or four feet from a row of windows. In
+these cells they generally put the higher class of criminals--women
+who had cut the throats of their sweethearts, and burglars who had
+got I away with the swag, and bankers who had plundered whole
+communities. But now, to the great surprise of five out of the six
+anti-militarists, the entire party was put in one of these big
+cells, and allowed the privilege of having reading matter and of
+paying for their own food. Under these circumstances martyrdom
+became a joke, and the little party settled down to enjoy life. It
+never once occurred to them to think of Peter Gudge as the source of
+this bounty. They attributed it, as the French say, "to their
+beautiful eyes."
+
+There was Donald Gordon, who was the son of a well-to-do business
+man, and had been to college, until he was expelled for taking the
+doctrines of Christianity too literally and expounding them too
+persistently on the college campus. There was a big, brawny
+lumber-jack from the North, Jim Henderson by name, who had been
+driven out of the camps for the same reason, and had appalling
+stories to tell of the cruelties and hardships of the life of a
+logger. There was a Swedish sailor by the name of Gus, who had
+visited every port in the world, and a young Jewish cigar-worker who
+had never been outside of American City, but had travelled even more
+widely in his mind.
+
+The sixth man was the strangest character of all to Peter; a shy,
+dreamy fellow with eyes so full of pain and a face so altogether
+mournful that it hurt to look at him. Duggan was his name, and he
+was known in the movement as the "hobo poet." He wrote verses,
+endless verses about the lives of society's outcasts; he would get
+himself a pencil and paper and sit off in the corner of the cell by
+the hour, and the rest of the fellows, respecting his work, would
+talk in whispers so as not to disturb him. He wrote all the time
+while the others slept, it seemed to Peter. He wrote verses about
+the adventures of his fellow-prisoners, and presently he was writing
+verses about the jailers, and about other prisoners in this part of
+the jail. He would have moods of inspiration, and would make up
+topical verses as he went along; then again he would sink back into
+his despair, and say that life was hell, and making rhymes about it
+was childishness.
+
+There was no part of America that Tom Duggan hadn't visited, no
+tragedy of the life of outcasts that he hadn't seen. He was so
+saturated with it that he couldn't think of anything else. He would
+tell about men who had perished of thirst in the desert, about
+miners sealed up for weeks in an exploded mine, about matchmakers
+poisoned until their teeth fell out, and their finger nails and even
+their eyes. Peter could see no excuse for such morbidness, such
+endless harping upon the horrible things of life. It spoiled all his
+happiness in the jail--it was worse than little Jennie's talking
+about the war!
+
+
+
+
+Section 33
+
+
+One of Duggan's poems had to do with a poor devil named Slim, who
+was a "snow-eater," that is to say, a cocaine victim. This Slim
+wandered about the streets of New York in the winter-time without
+any shelter, and would get into an office building late in the
+afternoon, and hide in one of the lavatories to spend the night. If
+he lay down, he would be seen and thrown out, so his only chance was
+to sit up; but when he fell asleep, he would fall off the
+seat--therefore he carried a rope in his pocket, and would tie
+himself in a sitting position.
+
+Now what was the use of a story like that? Peter didn't want to hear
+about such people! He wanted to express his disgust; but he knew, of
+course, that he must hide it. He laughed as he exclaimed, "Christ
+Almighty, Duggan, can't you give us something with a smile? You
+don't think it's the job of Socialists to find a cure for the dope
+habit, do you? That's sure one thing that ain't caused by the profit
+system."
+
+Duggan smiled his bitterest smile. "If there's any misery in the
+world today that ain't kept alive by the profit system, I'd like to
+see it! D'you think dope sells itself? If there wasn't a profit in
+it, would it be sold to any one but doctors? Where'd you get your
+Socialism, anyhow?"
+
+So Peter beat a hasty retreat. "Oh, sure, I know all that. But here
+you're shut up in jail because you want to change things. Ain't you
+got a right to give yourself a rest while you're in?"
+
+The poet looked at him, as solemn as an owl. He shook his head.
+"No," he said. "Just because we're fixed up nice and comfortable in
+jail, have we got the right to forget the misery of those outside?"
+
+The others laughed; but Duggan did not mean to be funny at all. He
+rose slowly to his feet and with his arms outstretched, in the
+manner of one offering himself as a sacrifice, he proclaimed:
+
+"While there is a lower class, I am in it.
+
+"While there is a criminal element, I am of it.
+
+"While there is a soul in jail, I am not free."
+
+Then he sat down and buried his face in his hands. The group of
+rough fellows sat in solemn silence. Presently Gus, the Swedish
+sailor, feeling perhaps that the rebuke to Peter had been too
+severe, spoke timidly: "Comrade Gudge, he ban in jail twice
+already."
+
+So the poet looked up again. He held out his hand to Peter. "Sure, I
+know that!" he said, clasping Peter in the grip of comradeship. And
+then he added: "I'll tell you a story with a smile!"
+
+Once upon a time, it appeared, Duggan had been working in a moving
+picture studio, where they needed tramps and outcasts and all sorts
+of people for crowds. They had been making a "Preparedness" picture,
+and wanted to show the agitators and trouble-makers, mobbing the
+palace of a banker. They got two hundred bums and hoboes, and took
+them in trucks to the palace of a real banker, and on the front lawn
+the director made a speech to the crowd, explaining his ideas.
+"Now," said he, "remember, the guy that owns this house is the guy
+that's got all the wealth that you fellows have produced. You are
+down and out, and you know that he's robbed you, so you hate him.
+You gather on his lawn and you're going to mob his home; if you can
+get hold of him, you're going to tear him to bits for what he's done
+to you." So the director went on, until finally Duggan interrupted:
+"Say, boss, you don't have to teach us. This is a real palace, and
+we're real bums!"
+
+Apparently the others saw the "smile" in this story, for they
+chuckled for some time over it. But it only added to Peter's hatred
+of these Reds; it made him realize more than ever that they were a
+bunch of "sore heads," they were green and yellow with jealousy.
+Everybody that had succeeded in the world they hated--just because
+they had succeeded! Well, _they_ would never succeed; they could go
+on forever with their grouching, but the mass of the workers in
+America had a normal attitude toward the big man, who could do
+things. They did not want to wreck his palace; they admired him for
+having it, and they followed his leadership gladly.
+
+It seemed as if Henderson, the lumber-jack, had read Peter's
+thought. "My God!" he said. "What a job it is to make the workers
+class-conscious!" He sat on the edge of his cot, with his broad
+shoulders bowed and his heavy brows knit in thought over the problem
+of how to increase the world's discontent. He told of one camp where
+he had worked--so hard and dangerous was the toil that seven men had
+given up their lives in the course of one winter. The man who owned
+this tract, and was exploiting it, had gotten the land by the
+rankest kind of public frauds; there were filthy bunk-houses,
+vermin, rotten food, poor wages and incessant abuse. And yet, in the
+spring-time, here came the young son of this owner, on a honeymoon
+trip with his bride. "And Jesus," said Henderson, "if you could have
+seen those stiffs turn out and cheer to split their throats! They
+really meant it, you know; they just loved that pair of idle,
+good-for-nothing kids!"
+
+Gus, the sailor, spoke up, his broad, good-natured face wearing a
+grin which showed where three of his front teeth had been knocked
+out with a belaying pin. It was exactly the same with the seamen, he
+declared. They never saw the ship-owners, they didn't know even the
+names of the people who were getting the profit of their toil, but
+they had a crazy loyalty to their ship, Some old tanker would be
+sent out to sea on purpose to be sunk, so that the owners might get
+the insurance. But the poor A. Bs. would love that old tub so that
+they would go down to the bottom with her--or perhaps they would
+save her, to the owners great disgust!
+
+Thus, for hours on end, Peter had to sit listening to this ding
+donging about the wrongs of the poor and the crimes of the rich.
+Here he had been sentenced for fifteen days and nights to listen to
+Socialist wrangles! Every one of these fellows had a different idea
+of how he wanted the world to be run, and every one had a different
+idea of how to bring about the change. Life was an endless struggle
+between the haves and the have-nots, and the question of how the
+have-nots were to turn out the haves was called "tactics." When you
+talked about "tactics" you used long technical terms which made your
+conversation unintelligible to a plain, ordinary mortal. It seemed
+to Peter that every time he fell asleep it was to the music of
+proletariat and surplus value and unearned increment, possibilism
+and impossibilism, political action, direct action, mass action, and
+the perpetual circle of Syndicalist-Anarchist, Anarchist-Communist,
+Communist-Socialist and Socialist-Syndicalist.
+
+
+
+
+Section 34
+
+
+In company such as this Peter's education for the role of detective
+was completed by force, as it were. He listened to everything, and
+while he did not dare make any notes, he stored away treasures in
+his mind, and when he came out of the jail he was able to give
+McGivney a pretty complete picture of the various radical
+organizations in American City, and the attitude of each one toward
+the war.
+
+Peter found that McGivney's device had worked perfectly. Peter was
+now a martyr and a hero; his position as one of the "left wingers"
+was definitely established, and anyone who ventured to say a word
+against him would be indignantly rebuked. As a matter of fact, no
+one desired to say much. Pat McCormick, Peter's enemy, was out on an
+organizing trip among the oil workers.
+
+Duggan had apparently taken a fancy to Peter, and took him to meet
+some of his friends, who lived in an old, deserted warehouse, which
+happened to have skylights in the roof; this constituted each room a
+"studio," and various radicals rented the rooms, and lived here a
+sort of picnic existence which Peter learned was called "Bohemian."
+They were young people, most of them, with one or two old fellows,
+derelicts; they wore flannel shirts, and soft ties, or no ties at
+all, and their fingers were always smeared with paint. Their life
+requirements were simple; all they wanted was an unlimited quantity
+of canvas and paint, some cigarettes, and at long intervals a pickle
+or some sauer-kraut and a bottle of beer. They would sit all day in
+front of an easel, painting the most inconceivable pictures--pink
+skies and green-faced women and purple grass and fantastic splurges
+of color which they would call anything from "The Woman with a
+Mustard Pot" to "A Nude Coming Downstairs." And there would be
+others, like Duggan, writing verses all day; pounding away on a
+typewriter, if they could manage to rent or borrow one. There were
+several who sang, and one who played the flute and caused all the
+others to tear their hair. There was a boy fresh from the country,
+who declared that he had run away from home because the family sang
+hymns all day Sunday, and never sang in tune.
+
+From people such as these you would hear the most revolutionary
+utterances; but Peter soon realized that it was mostly just talk
+with them. They would work off their frenzies with a few dashes of
+paint or some ferocious chords on the piano. The really dangerous
+ones were not here; they were hidden away in offices or dens of
+their own, where they were prompting strikes and labor agitations,
+and preparing incendiary literature to be circulated among the poor.
+
+You met such people in the Socialist local, and in the I. W. W.
+headquarters, and in numerous clubs and propaganda societies which
+Peter investigated, and to which he was welcomed as a member. In the
+Socialist local there was a fierce struggle going on over the war.
+What should be the attitude of the party? There was a group, a
+comparatively small group, which believed that the interests of
+Socialism would best be served by helping the Allies to the
+overthrow of the Kaiser. There was another group, larger and still
+more determined, which believed that the war was a conspiracy of
+allied capitalism to rivet its power upon the world, and this group
+wanted the party to stake its existence upon a struggle against
+American participation. These two groups contested for the minds of
+the rank and file of the members, who seemed to be bewildered by the
+magnitude of the issue and the complexity of the arguments. Peter's
+orders were to go with the extreme anti-militarists; they were the
+ones whose confidence he wished to gain, also they were the
+trouble-makers of the movement, and McGivney's instructions were to
+make all the trouble possible.
+
+Over at the I. W. W. headquarters was another group whose members
+were debating their attitude to the war. Should they call strikes
+and try to cripple the leading industries of the country? Or should
+they go quietly on with their organization work, certain that in the
+end the workers would sicken of the military adventure into which
+they were being snared? Some of these "wobblies" were Socialist
+party members also, and were active in both gatherings; two of them,
+Henderson, the lumber-jack, and Gus Lindstrom, the sailor, had been
+in jail with Peter, and had been among his intimates ever since.
+
+Also Peter met the Pacifists; the "Peoples' Council," as they called
+themselves. Many of these were religious people, two or three
+clergymen, and Donald Gordon, the Quaker, and a varied assortment of
+women--sentimental young girls who shrunk from the thought of
+bloodshed, and mothers with tear-stained cheeks who did not want
+their darlings to be drafted. Peter saw right away that these
+mothers had no "conscientious objections." Each mother was thinking
+about her own son and about nothing else. Peter was irritated at
+this, and took it for his special job to see that those mother's
+darlings did their duty.
+
+He attended a gathering of Pacifists in the home of a
+school-teacher. They made heart-breaking speeches, and finally
+little Ada Ruth, the poetess, got up and wanted to know, was it all
+to end in talk, or would they organize and prepare to take some
+action against the draft? Would they not at least go out on the
+street, get up a parade with banners of protest, and go to jail as
+Comrade Peter Gudge had so nobly done?
+
+Comrade Peter was called on for "a few words." Comrade Peter
+explained that he was no speaker; after all, actions spoke louder
+than words, and he had tried to show what he believed. The others
+were made ashamed by this, and decided for a bold stand at once. Ada
+Ruth became president and Donald Gordon secretary of the
+"Anti-conscription League"--a list of whose charter members was
+turned over to McGivney the same evening.
+
+
+
+
+Section 35
+
+
+All this time the country had been going to war. The huge military
+machine was getting under way, the storm of public feeling was
+rising. Congress had voted a huge loan, a country-wide machine of
+propaganda was being organized, and the oratory of Four Minute Men
+was echoing from Maine to California. Peter read the American City
+"Times" every morning, and here were speeches of statesmen and
+sermons of clergymen, here were cartoons and editorials, all burning
+with the fervor's of patriotism. Peter absorbed these, and his soul
+became transfigured. Hitherto Peter had been living for himself; but
+there comes a time in the life of every man who can use his brain at
+all when he realizes that he is not the one thing of importance in
+the universe, the one end to be served. Peter very often suffered
+from qualms of conscience, waves of doubt as to his own
+righteousness. Peter, like every other soul that ever lived, needed
+a religion, an ideal.
+
+The Reds had a religion, as you might call it; but this religion had
+failed to attract Peter. In the first place it was low; its devotees
+were wholly lacking in the graces of life, in prestige, and that
+ease which comes with assurance of power. They were noisy in their
+fervors, and repelled Peter as much as the Holy Rollers. Also, they
+were always harping upon the sordid and painful facts of life; who
+but a pervert would listen to "sob stories," when he might have all
+the things that are glorious and shining and splendid in the world?
+
+But now here was the religion Peter wanted. These clergymen in their
+robes of snow white linen, preaching in churches with golden altars
+and stained-glass windows; these statesmen who wore the halo of
+fame, and went about with the cheering of thousands in their ears;
+these mighty captains of industry whose very names were magic--with
+power, when written on pieces of paper, to cause cities to rise in
+the desert, and then to fall again beneath a rain of shells and
+poison gas; these editors and cartoonists of the American City
+"Times," with all their wit and learning--these people all combined
+to construct for Peter a religion and an ideal, and to hand it out
+to him, ready-made and precisely fitted to his understanding. Peter
+would go right on doing the things he had been doing before; but he
+would no longer do them in the name of Peter Gudge, the ant, he
+would do them in the name of a mighty nation of a hundred and ten
+million people, with all its priceless memories of the past and its
+infinite hopes for the future; he would do them in the sacred name
+of patriotism, and the still more sacred name of democracy.
+And--most convenient of circumstances--the big business men of
+American City, who had established a secret service bureau with
+Guffey in charge of it, would go right on putting up their funds,
+and paying Peter fifty dollars a week and expenses while he served
+the holy cause!
+
+It was the fashion these days for orators and public men to vie with
+one another in expressing the extremes of patriotism, and Peter
+would read these phrases, and cherish them; they came to seem a part
+of him, he felt as if he had invented them. He became greedy for
+more and yet more of this soul-food; and there was always more to be
+had--until Peter's soul was become swollen, puffed up as with a
+bellows. Peter became a patriot of patriots, a super-patriot; Peter
+was a red-blooded American and no mollycoddle; Peter was a
+"he-American," a 100% American--and if there could have been such a
+thing as a 101% American, Peter would have been that. Peter was so
+much of an American that the very sight of a foreigner filled him
+with a fighting impulse. As for the Reds--well, Peter groped for
+quite a time before he finally came upon a formula which expressed
+his feelings. It was a famous clergyman who achieved it for
+him--saying that if he could have his way he would take all the
+Reds, and put them in a ship of stone with sails of lead, and send
+them forth with hell for their destination.
+
+So Peter chafed more and more at his inability to get action. How
+much more evidence did the secret service of the Traction Trust
+require? Peter would ask this question of McGivney again and again,
+and McGivney would answer: "Keep your shirt on. You're getting your
+pay every week. What's the matter with you?"
+
+"The matter is, I'm tired of listening to these fellows ranting,"
+Peter would say. "I want to stop their mouths."
+
+Yes, Peter had come to take it as a personal affront that these
+radicals should go on denouncing the cause which Peter had espoused.
+They all thought of Peter as a comrade, they were most friendly to
+him; but Peter had the knowledge of how they would regard him when
+they knew the real truth, and this imagined contempt burned him like
+an acid. Sometimes there would be talk about spies and informers,
+and then these people would exhaust their vocabulary of abuse, and
+Peter, of course, would apply every word of it to himself and become
+wild with anger. He would long to answer back; he was waiting for
+the day when he might vindicate himself and his cause by smashing
+these Reds in the mouth.
+
+
+
+
+Section 36
+
+
+"Well," said McGivney one day, "I've got something interesting for
+you now. You're going into high society for a while!"
+
+And the rat-faced man explained that there was a young man in a
+neighboring city, reputed to be a multi-millionaire, who had written
+a book against the war, and was the financial source of much
+pacificism and sedition. "These people are spending lots of money
+for printing," said McGivney, "and we hear this fellow Lackman is
+putting it up. We've learned that he is to be in town tomorrow, and
+we want you to find out all about his affairs."
+
+So Peter was to meet a millionaire! Peter had never known one of
+these fortunate beings, but he was for them--he had always been for
+them. Ever since he had learned to read, he had liked to find
+stories about them in the newspapers, with pictures of them and
+their palaces. He had read these stories as a child reads fairy
+tales. They were his creatures of dreams, belonging to a world above
+reality, above pain and inconvenience.
+
+And then in the days when Peter had been a servant in the Temple of
+Jimjambo, devoted to the cult of Eleutherinian Exoticism, he had
+found hanging in the main assembly room a picture labelled, "Mount
+Olympus," showing a dozen gods and goddesses reclining at ease on
+silken couches, sipping nectar from golden goblets and gazing down
+upon the far-off troubles of the world. Peter would peer from behind
+the curtains and see the Chief Magistrian emerging from behind the
+seven mystic veils, lifting his rolling voice and in a kind of chant
+expounding life to his flock of adoring society ladies. He would
+point to the picture and explain those golden, Olympian days when
+the Eleutherinian cult had originated. The world had changed much
+since then, and for the worse; those who had power must take it as
+their task to restore beauty and splendor to the world, and to
+develop the gracious possibilities of being.
+
+Peter, of course, hadn't really believed in anything that went on in
+the Temple of Jimjambo; and yet he had been awed by its richness,
+and by the undoubtedly exclusive character of its worshippers; he
+had got the idea definitely fixed in his head that there really had
+been a Mount Olympus, and when he tried to imagine the millionaires
+and their ways, it was these gods and goddesses, reclining on silken
+couches and sipping nectar, that came to his mind!
+
+Now since Peter had come to know the Reds, who wanted to blow up the
+palaces of the millionaires, he was more than ever on the side of
+his gods and goddesses. His fervors for them increased every time he
+heard them assailed; he wanted to meet some of them, and
+passionately, yet respectfully, pour out to them his allegiance. A
+glow of satisfaction came over him as he pictured himself in some
+palace, lounging upon a silken conch and explaining to a millionaire
+his understanding of the value of beauty and splendor in the world.
+
+And now he was to meet one; it was to be a part of his job to
+cultivate one! True, there was something wrong with this particular
+millionaire--he was one of those freaks who for some reason beyond
+imagining gave their sympathy to the dynamiters and assassins. Peter
+had met "Parlor Reds" at the home of the Todd sisters; the large
+shining ladies who came in large shining cars to hear him tell of
+his jail experiences. But he hadn't been sure as to whether they
+were really millionaires or not, and Sadie, when he had inquired
+particularly, had answered vaguely that every one in the radical
+movement who could afford an automobile or a dress-suit was called a
+millionaire by the newspapers.
+
+But young Lackman was a real millionaire, McGivney positively
+assured him; and so Peter was free to admire him in spite of all his
+freak ideas, which the rat-faced man explained with intense
+amusement. Young Lackman conducted a school for boys, and when one
+of the boys did wrong, the teacher would punish himself instead of
+the boy! Peter must pretend to be interested in this kind of
+"education," said McGivney, and he must learn at least the names of
+Lackman's books.
+
+"But will he pay any attention to me?" demanded Peter.
+
+"Sure, he will," said McGivney. "That's the point--you've been in
+jail, you've really done something as a pacifist. What you want to
+do is to try to interest him in your Anti-conscription League. Tell
+him you want to make it into a national organization, you want to
+get something done besides talking."
+
+The address of young Lackman was the Hotel de Soto; and as he heard
+this, Peter's heart gave a leap. The Hotel de Soto was the Mount
+Olympus of American City! Peter had walked by the vast white
+structure, and seen the bronze doors swing outward, and the favored
+ones of the earth emerging to their magic chariots; but never had it
+occurred to him that he might pass thru those bronze doors, and gaze
+upon those hidden mysteries!
+
+"Will they let me in?" he asked McGivney, and the other laughed.
+"Just walk in as if you owned the place," he said. "Hold up your
+head, and pretend you've lived there all your life."
+
+That was easy for McGivney to say, but not so easy for Peter to
+imagine. However, he would try it; McGivney must be right, for it
+was the same thing Mrs. James had impressed upon him many times. You
+must watch what other people did, and practice by yourself, and then
+go in and do it as if you had never done anything else. All life was
+a gigantic bluff, and you encouraged yourself in your bluffing by
+the certainty that everybody else was bluffing just as hard.
+
+At seven o'clock that evening Peter strolled up to the magic bronze
+doors, and touched them; and sure enough, the blue-uniformed
+guardians drew them back without a word, and the tiny brass-button
+imps never even glanced at Peter as he strode up to the desk and
+asked for Mr. Lackman.
+
+The haughty clerk passed him on to a still more haughty telephone
+operator, who condescended to speak into her trumpet, and then
+informed him that Mr. Lackman was out; he had left word that he
+would return at eight. Peter was about to go out and wander about
+the streets for an hour, when he suddenly remembered that everybody
+else was bluffing; so he marched across the lobby and seated himself
+in one of the huge leather arm-chairs, big enough to hold three of
+him. There he sat, and continued to sit--and nobody said a word!
+
+
+
+
+Section 37
+
+
+Yes, this was Mount Olympus, and here were the gods: the female ones
+in a state of divine semi-nudity, the male ones mostly clad in black
+coats with pleated shirt-fronts puffing out. Every time one of them
+moved up to the desk Peter would watch and wonder, was this Mr.
+Lackman? He might have been able to pick out a millionaire from an
+ordinary crowd; but here every male god was got up for the precise
+purpose of looking like a millionaire, so Peter's job was an
+impossible one.
+
+In front of him across the lobby floor there arose a ten-foot pillar
+to a far-distant roof. This pillar was of pale, green-streaked
+marble, and Peter's eyes followed it to the top, where it exploded
+in a snow-white cloud-burst, full of fascination. There were four
+cornucopias, one at each corner, and out of each cornucopia came
+tangled ropes of roses, and out of these roses came other ropes,
+with what appeared to be apples and leaves, and still more roses,
+and still more emerging ropes, spreading in a tangle over the
+ceiling. Here and there, in the midst of all this splendor, was the
+large, placidly smiling face of a boy angel; four of these placidly
+smiling boy angels gazed from the four sides of the snow-white
+cloud-burst, and Peter's eye roamed from one to another, fascinated
+by the mathematics of this architectural marvel. There were fourteen
+columns in a row, and four such rows in the lobby. That made
+fifty-six columns in all, or two hundred and twenty-four boy angels'
+heads. How many cornucopias and how many roses and how many apples
+it meant, defied all calculation. The boy angels' heads were exactly
+alike, every head with the same size and quality of smile; and Peter
+marvelled--how many days would it take a sculptor to carve the
+details of two hundred and twenty-four boy angel smiles?
+
+All over the Hotel de Soto was this same kind of sumptuous
+magnificence; and Peter experienced the mental effect which it was
+contrived to produce upon him--a sense of bedazzlement and awe, a
+realization that those who dwelt in the midst of this splendor were
+people to whom money was nothing, who could pour out treasures in a
+never-ceasing flood. And everything else about the place was of the
+same character, contrived for the same effect--even the gods and the
+goddesses! One would sweep by with a tiara of jewels in her hair;
+you might amuse yourself by figuring out the number of the jewels,
+as you had figured out the number of the boy angels' heads. Or you
+might take her gown of black lace, embroidered with golden
+butterflies, every one patiently done by hand; you might figure--so
+many yards of material, and so many golden butterflies to the yard!
+You might count the number of sparkling points upon her jet
+slippers, or trace the intricate designs upon her almost transparent
+stockings--only there was an inch or two of the stockings which you
+could not see.
+
+Peter watched these gorgeous divinities emerge from the elevators,
+and sweep their way into the dining-room beyond. Some people might
+have been shocked by their costumes; but to Peter, who had the
+picture of Mount Olympus in mind, they seemed most proper. It all
+depended on the point of view: whether you thought of a goddess as
+fully clothed from chin to toes, and proceeded with a pair of shears
+to cut away so much of her costume, or whether you imagined the
+goddess in a state of nature, and proceeded to put veils of gauze
+about her, and a ribbon over each shoulder to hold the veils in
+place.
+
+Twice Peter went to the desk, to inquire if Mr. Lackman had come in
+yet; but still he had not come; and Peter--growing bolder, like the
+fox who spoke to the lion--strolled about the lobby, gazing at the
+groups of gods at ease. He had noticed a great balcony around all
+four sides of this lobby, the "mezzanine floor," as it was called;
+he decided he would see what was up there, and climbed the white
+marble stairs, and beheld more rows of chairs and couches, done in
+dark grey velvet. Here, evidently, was where the female gods came to
+linger, and Peter seated himself as unobtrusively as possible, and
+watched.
+
+Directly in front of him sat a divinity, lolling on a velvet couch
+with one bare white arm stretched out. It was a large stout arm, and
+the possessor was large and stout, with pale golden hair and many
+sparkling jewels. Her glance roamed lazily from place to place. It
+rested for an instant on Peter, and then moved on, and Peter felt
+the comment upon his own insignificance.
+
+Nevertheless, he continued to steal glances now and then, and
+presently saw an interesting sight. In her lap this Juno had a
+gold-embroidered bag, and she opened it, disclosing a collection of
+mysterious apparatus of which she proceeded to make use: first a
+little gold hand-mirror, in which she studied her charms; then a
+little white powder-puff with which she deftly tapped her nose and
+cheeks; then some kind of red pencil with which she proceeded to rub
+her lips; then a golden pencil with which she lightly touched her
+eyebrows. Then it seemed as if she must have discovered a little
+hair which had grown since she left her dressing-room. Peter
+couldn't be sure, but she had a little pair of tweezers, and seemed
+to pull something out of her chin. She went on with quite an
+elaborate and complicated toilet, paying meantime not the slightest
+attention to the people passing by.
+
+Peter looked farther, and saw that just as when one person sneezes
+or yawns everybody else in the room is irresistibly impelled to
+sneeze or yawn, so all these Dianas and Junos and Hebes on the
+"mezzanine floor" had suddenly remembered their little gold or
+silver hand-mirrors, their powder-puffs and red or golden or black
+pencils. One after another, the little vanity-bags came forth, and
+Peter, gazing in wonder, thought that Mount Olympus had turned into
+a beauty parlor.
+
+Peter rose again and strolled and watched the goddesses, big and
+little, old and young, fat and thin, pretty and ugly--and it seemed
+to him the fatter and older and uglier they were, the more intently
+they gazed into the little hand-mirrors. He watched them with hungry
+eyes, for he knew that here he was in the midst of high life, the
+real thing, the utmost glory to which man could ever hope to attain,
+and he wanted to know all there was to know about it. He strolled
+on, innocent and unsuspecting, and the two hundred and twenty-four
+white boy angels in the ceiling smiled their bland and placid smiles
+at him, and Peter knew no more than they what complications fate had
+prepared for him on that mezzanine floor!
+
+On one of the big lounges there sat a girl, a radiant creature from
+the Emerald Isles, with hair like sunrise and cheeks like apples.
+Peter took one glance at her, and his heart missed three successive
+beats, and then, to make up for lost time, began leaping like a
+runaway race-horse. He could hardly believe what his eyes told him;
+but his eyes insisted, his eyes knew; yes, his eyes had gazed for
+hours and hours on end upon that hair like sunrise and those cheeks
+like apples. The girl was Nell, the chambermaid of the Temple of
+Jimjambo!
+
+She had not looked Peter's way, so there was time for him to start
+back and hide himself behind a pillar; there he stood, peering out
+and watching her profile, still arguing with his eyes. It couldn't
+be Nell; and yet it was! Nell transfigured, Nell translated to
+Olympus, turned into a goddess with a pale grey band about her
+middle, and a pale grey ribbon over each shoulder to hold it in
+place! Nell reclining at ease and chatting vivaciously to a young
+man with the face of a bulldog and the dinner-jacket of a magazine
+advertisement!
+
+Peter gazed and waited, while his heart went on misbehaving. Peter
+learned in those few fearful minutes what real love is, a most
+devastating force. Little Jennie was forgotten, Mrs. James, the
+grass widow was forgotten, and Peter knew that he had never really
+admired but one woman in the world, and that was Nell, the Irish
+chambermaid of the Temple of Jimjambo. The poets have seen fit to
+represent young love as a mischievous little archer with a sharp and
+penetrating arrow, and now Peter understood what they had meant;
+that arrow had pierced him thru, and he had to hold on to the column
+to keep himself from falling.
+
+
+
+
+Section 38
+
+
+Presently the couple rose and strolled away to the elevator, and
+Peter followed. He did not dare get into the elevator with them, for
+he had suddenly become accutely aware of the costume he was wearing
+in his role of proletarian anti-militarist! But Peter was certain
+that Nell and her escort were not going out of the building, for
+they had no hats or wraps; so he went downstairs and hunted thru the
+lobby and the dining-room, and then thru the basement, from which he
+heard strains of music. Here was another vast room, got up in mystic
+oriental fashion, with electric lights hidden in bunches of
+imitation flowers on each table. This room was called the "grill,"
+and part of it was bare for dancing, and on a little platform sat a
+band playing music.
+
+The strangest music that ever assailed human ears! If Peter had
+heard it before seeing Nell, he would not have understood it, but
+now its weird rhythms fitted exactly to the moods which were
+tormenting him. This music would groan, it would rattle and squeak;
+it would make noises like swiftly torn canvas, or like a steam siren
+in a hurry. It would climb up to the heavens and come banging down
+to hell. And every thing with queer, tormenting motions, gliding and
+writhing, wriggling, jerking, jumping. Peter would never have known
+what to make of such music, if he had not had it here made visible
+before his eyes, in the behavior of the half-naked goddesses and the
+black-coated gods on this dancing floor. These celestial ones came
+sliding across the floor like skaters, they came writhing like
+serpents, they came strutting like turkeys, jumping like rabbits,
+stalking solemnly like giraffes. They came clamped in one another's
+arms like bears trying to hug each other to death; they came
+contorting themselves as if they were boa-constrictors trying to
+swallow each other. And Peter, watching them and listening to their
+music, made a curious discovery about himself. Deeply buried in
+Peter's soul were the ghosts of all sorts of animals; Peter had once
+been a boa-constrictor, Peter had once been a bear, Peter had once
+been a rabbit and a giraffe, a turkey and a fox; and now under the
+spell of this weird music these dead creatures came to life in his
+soul. So Peter discovered the meaning of "jazz," in all its weirdly
+named and incredible varieties.
+
+Also Peter discovered that he had once been a caveman, and had hit
+his rival over the head with a stone axe and carried off his girl by
+the hair. All this he discovered while he stood in the doorway of
+the Hotel de Soto grill, and watched Nell, the ex-chambermaid of the
+Temple of Jimjambo, doing the turkey-trot and the fox-trot and the
+grizzly-bear and the bunny-hug in the arms of a young man with the
+face of a bulldog.
+
+Peter stood for a long while in a daze. Nell and the young man sat
+down at one of the tables to have a meal, but still Peter stood
+watching and trying to figure out what to do. He knew that he must
+not speak to her in his present costume; there would be no way to
+make her understand that he was only playing a role--that he who
+looked like a "dead one" was really a prosperous man of important
+affairs, a 100% red-blooded patriot disguised as a proletarian
+pacifist. No, he must wait, he must get into his best before he
+spoke to her. But meantime, she might go away, and he might not be
+able to find her again in this huge city!
+
+After an hour or two he succeeded in figuring out a way, and hurried
+upstairs to the writing-room and penned a note:
+
+"Nell: This is your old friend Peter Gudge. I have struck it rich
+and have important news for you. Be sure to send word to me. Peter."
+To this he added his address, and sealed it in an envelope to "Miss
+Nell Doolin."
+
+Then he went out into the lobby, and signalled to one of the
+brass-button imps who went about the place calling names in shrill
+sing-song; he got this youngster off in a corner and pressed a
+dollar bill into his hand. There was a young lady in the grill who
+was to have this note at once. It was very important. Would the
+brass-button imp do it?
+
+The imp said sure, and Peter stood in the doorway and watched him
+walk back and forth thru the aisles of the grill, calling in his
+shrill sing-song, "Miss Nell Doolin! Miss Nell Doolin!" He walked
+right by the table where Nell sat eating; he sang right into her
+face, it seemed to Peter; but she never gave a sign.
+
+Peter did not know what to make of it, but he was bound to get that
+note to Nell. So when the imp returned, he pointed her out, and the
+imp went again and handed the note to her. Peter saw her take
+it--then he darted away; and remembering suddenly that he was
+supposed to be on duty, be rushed back to the office and inquired
+for Mr. Lackman. To his horror he learned that Mr. Lackman had
+returned, paid his bill, and departed with his suitcase to a
+destination unknown!
+
+
+
+
+Section 39
+
+
+Peter had a midnight appointment with McGivney, and now had to go
+and admit this humiliating failure. He had done his best, he
+declared; he had inquired at the desk, and waited and waited, but
+the hotel people had failed to notify him of Lackman's arrival. All
+this was strictly true; but it did not pacify McGivney, who was in a
+black fury. "It might have been worth thousands of dollars to you!"
+he declared. "He's the biggest fish we'll ever get on our hook."
+
+"Won't he come again?" asked grief-stricken Peter.
+
+"No," declared the other. "They'll get him at his home city."
+
+"But won't that do?" asked Peter, naively.
+
+"You damned fool!" was McGivney's response. "We wanted to get him
+here, where we could pluck him ourselves."
+
+The rat-faced man hadn't intended to tell Peter so much, but in his
+rage he let it out. He and a couple of his friends had planned to
+"get something" on this young millionaire, and scare the wits out of
+him, with the idea that he would put up a good many thousand dollars
+to be let off. Peter might have had his share of this--only he had
+been fool enough to let the bird get out of his net!
+
+Peter offered to follow the young man to his home city, and find
+some way to lure him back into McGivney's power. After McGivney had
+stormed for a while, he decided that this might be possible. He
+would talk it over with the others, and let Peter know. But alas,
+when Peter picked up an afternoon newspaper next day, he read on the
+front page how young Lackman, stepping off the train in his home
+city that morning, had been placed under arrest; his school had been
+raided, and half a dozen of the teachers were in jail, and a ton of
+Red literature had been confiscated, and a swarm of dire
+conspiracies against the safety of the country had been laid bare!
+
+Peter read this news, and knew that he was in for another stormy
+hour with his boss. But he hardly gave a thought to it, because of
+something which had happened a few minutes before, something of so
+much greater importance. A messenger had brought him a special
+delivery letter, and with thumping heart he had torn it open and
+read:
+
+"All right. Meet me in the waiting-room of Guggenheim's Department
+Store at two o'clock this afternoon. But for God's sake forget Nell
+Doolin. Yours, Edythe Eustace."
+
+So here was Peter dressed in his best clothes, as for his temporary
+honeymoon with the grass widow, and on the way to the rendezvous an
+hour ahead of time. And here came Nell, also dressed, every garment
+so contrived that a single glance would tell the beholder that their
+owner was moving in the highest circles, and regardless of expense.
+Nell glanced over her shoulder now and then as she talked, and
+explained that Ted Crothers, the man with the bulldog face, was a
+terror, and it was hard to get away from him, because he had nothing
+to do all day.
+
+The waiting-room of a big department-store was not the place Peter
+would have selected for the pouring out of his heart; but he had to
+make the best of it, so he told Nell that he loved her, that he
+would never be able to love anybody else, and that he had made piles
+of money now, he was high up on the ladder of prosperity. Nell did
+not laugh at him, as she had laughed in the Temple of Jimjambo, for
+it was easily to be seen that Peter Gudge was no longer a scullion,
+but a man of the world with a fascinating air of mystery. Nell
+wanted to know forthwith what was he doing; he answered that he
+could not tell, it was a secret of the most desperate import; he was
+under oath. These were the days of German spies and bomb-plots, when
+kings and kaisers and emperors and tsars were pouring treasures into
+America for all kinds of melodramatic purposes; also the days of
+government contracts and secret deals, when in the lobbies and
+private meeting-places of hotels like the de Soto there were
+fortunes made and unmade every hour. So it was easy for Nell to
+believe in a real secret, and being a woman, she put all her
+faculties upon the job of guessing it.
+
+She did not again ask Peter to tell her; but she let him talk, and
+tactfully guided the conversation, and before long she knew that
+Peter was intimate with a great many of the most desperate Reds, and
+likewise that he knew all about the insides of the Goober case, and
+about the great men of American City who had put up a million
+dollars for the purpose of hanging Goober, and about the various
+ways in which this money had been spent and wires had been pulled to
+secure a conviction. Nell put two and two together, and before long
+she figured out that the total was four; she suddenly confronted
+Peter with this total, and Peter was dumb with consternation, and
+broke down and confessed everything, and told Nell all about his
+schemes and his achievements and his adventures--omitting only
+little Jennie and the grass widow.
+
+He told about the sums he had been making and was expecting to make;
+he told about Lackman, and showed Nell the newspaper with pictures
+of the young millionaire and his school. "What a handsome fellow!"
+said Nell. "It's a shame!"
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Peter, a little puzzled. Could it be that
+Nell had any sympathy for these Reds?
+
+"I mean," she answered, "that he'd have been worth more to you than
+all the rest put together."
+
+Nell was a woman, and her mind ran to the practical aspect of
+things. "Look here, Peter," she said, "you've been letting those
+`dicks' work you. They're getting the swag, and just giving you
+tips. What you need is somebody to take care of you."
+
+Peter's heart leaped. "Will you do it?" he cried.
+
+"I've got Ted on my hands," said the girl. "He'd cut my throat, and
+yours too, if he knew I was here. But I'll try to get myself free,
+and then maybe--I won't promise, but I'll think over your problem,
+Peter, and I'll certainly try to help, so that McGivney and Guffey
+and those fellows can't play you for a sucker any longer."
+
+She must have time to think it over, she said, and to make inquiries
+about the people involved--some of whom apparently she knew. She
+would meet Peter again the next day, and in a more private place
+than here. She named a spot in the city park which would be easy to
+find, and yet sufficiently remote for a quiet conference.
+
+
+
+
+Section 40
+
+
+Peter had been made so bold by Nell's flattery and what she had said
+about his importance, that he did not go back to McGivney to take
+his second scolding about the Lackman case. He was getting tired of
+McGivney's scoldings; if McGivney didn't like his work, let McGivney
+go and be a Red for a while himself. Peter walked the streets all
+day and a part of the night, thinking about Nell, and thrilling over
+the half promises she had made him.
+
+They met next day in the park. No one was following them, and they
+found a solitary place, and Nell let him kiss her several times, and
+in between the kisses she unfolded to him a terrifying plan. Peter
+had thought that he was something of an intriguer, but his
+self-esteem shriveled to nothingness in the presence of the superb
+conception which had come to ripeness in the space of twenty-four
+hours in the brain of Nell Doolin, alias Edythe Eustace.
+
+Peter had been doing the hard work, and these big fellows had been
+using him, handing him a tip now and then, and making fortunes out
+of the information he brought them. McGivney had let the cat out of
+the bag in this case of Lackman; you might be sure they had been
+making money, big money, out of all the other cases. What Peter must
+do was to work up something of his own, and get the real money, and
+make himself one of the big fellows. Peter had the facts, he knew
+the people; he had watched in the Goober case exactly how a
+"frame-up" was made, and now he must make one for himself, and one
+that would pay. It was a matter of duty to rid the country of all
+these Reds; but why should he not have the money as well?
+
+Nell had spent the night figuring over it, trying to pick out the
+right person. She had hit on old "Nelse" Ackerman, the banker.
+Ackerman was enormously and incredibly wealthy; he was called the
+financial king of American City. Also he was old, and Nell happened
+to know he was a coward; he was sick in bed just now, and when a man
+is sick he is still more of a coward. What Peter must do was to
+discover some kind of a bomb-plot against old "Nelse" Ackerman.
+Peter might talk up the idea among some of his Reds and get them
+interested in it, or he might frame up some letters to be found upon
+them, and hide some dynamite in their rooms. When the plot was
+discovered, it would make a frightful uproar, needless to say; the
+king would hear of it, and of Peter's part as the discoverer of it,
+and he would unquestionably reward Peter. Perhaps Peter might
+arrange to be retained as a secret agent to protect the king from
+the Reds. Thus Peter would be in touch with real money, and might
+hire Guffey and McGivney, instead of their hiring him.
+
+If Peter had stood alone, would he have dared so perilous a dream as
+this? Or was he a "piker"; a little fellow, the victim of his own
+fears and vanities? Anyhow, Peter was not alone; he had Nell, and it
+was necessary that he should pose before Nell as a bold and
+desperate blade. Just as in the old days in the Temple, it was
+necessary that Peter should get plenty of money, in order to take
+Nell away from another man. So he said all right, he would go in on
+that plan; and proceeded to discuss with Nell the various
+personalities he might use.
+
+The most likely was Pat McCormick. "Mac," with his grim, set face
+and his silent, secretive habits, fitted perfectly to Peter's
+conception of a dynamiter. Also "Mac" was Peter's personal enemy;
+"Mac" had just returned from his organizing trip in the oil fields,
+and had been denouncing Peter and gossiping about him in the various
+radical groups. "Mac" was the most dangerous Red of them all! He
+must surely be one of the dynamiters!
+
+Another likely one was Joe Angell, whom Peter had met at a recent
+gathering of Ada Ruth's "Anti-conscription League." People made
+jokes about this chap's name because he looked the part, with his
+bright blue eyes that seemed to have come out of heaven, and his
+bright golden hair, and even the memory of dimples in his cheeks.
+But when Joe opened his lips, you discovered that he was an angel
+from the nether regions. He was the boldest and most defiant of all
+the Reds that Peter had yet come upon. He had laughed at Ada Ruth
+and her sentimental literary attitude toward the subject of the
+draft. It wasn't writing poems and passing resolutions that was
+wanted; it wasn't even men who would refuse to put on the uniform,
+but men who would take the guns that were offered to them, and drill
+themselves, and at the proper time face about and use the guns in
+the other direction. Agitating and organizing were all right in
+their place, but now, when the government dared challenge the
+workers and force them into the army, it was men of action that were
+needed in the radical movement.
+
+Joe Angell had been up in the lumber country, and could tell what
+was the mood of the real workers, the "huskies" of the timberlands.
+Those fellows weren't doing any more talking; they had their secret
+committees that were ready to take charge of things as soon as they
+had put the capitalists and their governments out of business.
+Meantime, if there was a sheriff or prosecuting attorney that got
+too gay, they would "bump him off." This was a favorite phrase of
+"Blue-eyed Angell." He would use it every half hour or so as he told
+about his adventures. "Yes," he would say; "he got gay, but we
+bumped him off all right."
+
+
+
+
+Section 41
+
+
+So Nell and Peter settled down to work out the details of their
+"frame-up" on Joe Angell and Pat McCormick. Peter must get a bunch
+of them together and get them to talking about bombs and killing
+people; and then he must slip a note into the pockets of all who
+showed interest, calling them to meet for a real conspiracy. Nell
+would write the notes, so that no one could fasten the job onto
+Peter. She pulled out a pencil and a little pad from her handbag,
+and began: "If you really believe in a bold stroke for the workers'
+rights, meet me--" And then she stopped. "Where?"
+
+"In the studios," put in Peter.
+
+And Nell wrote, "In the studios. Is that enough?"
+
+"Room 17." Peter knew that this was the room of Nikitin, a Russian
+painter who called himself an Anarchist.
+
+So Nell wrote "Room 17," and after further discussion she added:
+"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. No names and no talk. Action!"
+This time was set because Peter recollected that there was to be a
+gathering of the "wobblies" in their headquarters this very evening.
+It was to be a business meeting, but of course these fellows never
+got together very long without starting the subject of "tactics."
+There was a considerable element among them who were dissatisfied
+with what they called the "supine attitude" of the organization, and
+were always arguing for action. Peter was sure he would be able to
+get some of them interested in the idea of a dynamite conspiracy.
+
+As it turned out, Peter had no trouble at all; the subject was
+started without his having to put in a word. Were the workers to be
+driven like sheep to the slaughter, and the "wobblies" not to make
+one move? So asked the "Blue-eyed Angell," vehemently, and added
+that if they were going to move, American City was as good a place
+as any. He had talked with enough of the rank and file to realize
+that they were ready for action; all they needed was a battle-cry
+and an organization to guide them.
+
+Henderson, the big lumber-jack, spoke up. That was just the trouble;
+you couldn't get an organization for such a purpose. The authorities
+would get spies among you, they would find out what you were doing,
+and drive you underground.
+
+"Well," cried Joe, "we'll go underground!"
+
+"Yes," agreed the other, "but then your organization goes bust.
+Nobody knows who to trust, everybody's accusing the rest of being a
+spy."
+
+"Hell!" said Joe Angell. "I've been in jail for the movement, I'll
+take my chances of anybody's calling me a spy. What I'm not going to
+do is to sit down and see the workers driven to hell, because I'm so
+damn careful about my precious organization."
+
+When others objected, Angell rushed on still more vehemently.
+Suppose they did fail in a mass-uprising, suppose they were driven
+to assassination and terrorism? At least they would teach the
+exploiters a lesson, and take a little of the joy out of their
+lives.
+
+Peter thought it would be a good idea for him to pose as a
+conservative just now. "Do you really think the capitalists would
+give up from fear?" he asked.
+
+And the other answered: "You bet I do! I tell you if we'd made it
+understood that every congressman who voted this country into war
+would be sent to the front trenches, our country would still be at
+peace."
+
+"But," put in Peter, deftly, "it ain't the congressmen. It's people
+higher up than them."
+
+"You bet," put in Gus, the Swedish sailor. "You bet you! I name you
+one dozen big fellows in dis country--you make it clear if we don't
+get peace dey all get killed--we get peace all right!"
+
+So Peter had things where he wanted them. "Who are those fellows?"
+he asked, and got the crowd arguing over names. Of course they
+didn't argue very long before somebody mentioned "Nelse" Ackerman,
+who was venomously hated by the Reds because he had put up a hundred
+thousand dollars of the Anti-Goober fund. Peter pretended not to
+know about Nelse; and Jerry Rudd, a "blanket-stiff" whose head was
+still sore from being cracked open in a recent harvesters' strike,
+remarked that by Jesus, if they'd put a few fellows like that in the
+trenches, there'd be some pacifists in Ameriky sure enough all
+right.
+
+
+It seemed almost as if Joe Angell had come there to back up Peter's
+purpose. "What we want," said he, "is a few fellows to fight as hard
+for themselves as they fight for the capitalists."
+
+"Yes," assented Henderson, grimly. "We're all so good--we wait till
+our masters tell us we can kill."
+
+That was the end of the discussion; but it seemed quite enough to
+Peter. He watched his chance, and one by one he managed to slip his
+little notes into the coat-pockets of Joe Angell, Jerry Rudd,
+Henderson, and Gus, the sailor. And then Peter made his escape,
+trembling with excitement. The great dynamite conspiracy was on!
+"They must be got rid of!" he was whispering to himself. "They must
+be got rid of by any means! It's my duty I'm doing."
+
+
+
+
+Section 42
+
+
+Peter had an appointment to meet Nell on a street corner at eleven
+o'clock that same night, and when she stepped off the street-car,
+Peter saw that she was carrying a suit-case. "Did you get your job
+done?" she asked quickly, and when Peter answered in the
+affirmative, she added: "Here's your bomb!"
+
+Peter's jaw fell. He looked so frightened that she hastened to
+reassure him. It wouldn't go off; it was only the makings of a bomb,
+three sticks of dynamite and some fuses and part of a clock. The
+dynamite was wrapped carefully, and there was no chance of its
+exploding--if he didn't drop it! But Peter wasn't much consoled. He
+had had no idea that Nell would go so far, or that he would actually
+have to handle dynamite. He wondered where and how she had got it,
+and wished to God he was out of this thing.
+
+But it was too late now, of course. Said Nell: "You've got to get
+this suit-case into the headquarters, and you've got to get it there
+without anybody seeing you. They'll be shut up pretty soon, won't
+they?"
+
+"We locked up when we left," said Peter.
+
+"And who has the key?"
+
+"Grady, the secretary."
+
+"There's no way you can get it?"
+
+"I can get into the room," said Peter, quickly. "There's a fire
+escape, and the window isn't tight. Some of us that know about it
+have got in that way when the place was locked."
+
+"All right," said Nell. "We'll wait a bit; we mustn't take chances
+of anyone coming back."
+
+They started to stroll along the street, Nell still carrying the
+suit-case, as if distrusting the state of Peter's nerves, Meantime
+she explained, "I've got two pieces of paper that we've got to plant
+in the room. One's to be torn up and thrown into the trash-basket.
+It's supposed to be part of a letter about some big plan that's to
+be pulled off, and it's signed `Mac.' That's for McCormick, of
+course. I had to type it, not having any sample of his handwriting.
+The other piece is a drawing; there's no marks to show what it is,
+but of course the police'll soon find out. It's a plan of
+old Ackerman's home, and there's a cross mark showing his
+sleeping-porch. Now, what we want to do is to fix this on McCormick.
+Is there anything in the room that belongs to him?"
+
+Peter thought, and at last remembered that in the bookshelves were
+some books which had been donated by McCormick, and which had his
+name written in. That was the trick! exclaimed Nell. They would hide
+the paper in one of these books, and when the police made a thorough
+search they would find it. Nell asked what was in these books, and
+Peter thought, and remembered that one was a book on sabotage. "Put
+the paper in that," said Nell. "When the police find it, the
+newspapers'll print the whole book."
+
+Peter's knees were trembling so that he could hardly walk, but he
+kept reminding himself that he was a "he-man," a 100% American, and
+that in these times of war every patriot must do his part. His part
+was to help rid the country of these Reds, and he must not flinch.
+They made their way to the old building in which the I. W. W.
+headquarters were located, and Peter climbed up on the fence and
+swung over to the fire-escape, and Nell very carefully handed the
+suit-case to him, and Peter opened the damaged window and slipped
+into the room.
+
+He knew just where the cupboard was, and quickly stored the
+suit-case in the corner, and piled some odds and ends of stuff in
+front of it, and threw an old piece of canvas over it. He took out
+of his right-hand pocket a typewritten letter, and tore it into
+small pieces and threw them into the trash-basket. Then he took out
+of his left-hand pocket the other paper, with the drawing of
+Ackerman's house. He went to the bookcase and with shaking fingers
+struck a match, picked out the little redbound book entitled
+"Sabotage," and stuck the paper inside, and put the book back in
+place. Then he climbed out on the fire-escape and dropped to the
+ground, jumped over the fence, and hurried down the alley to where
+Nell was waiting for him.
+
+"It's for my country!" he was whispering to himself.
+
+
+
+
+Section 43
+
+
+The job was now complete, except for getting McCormick to the
+rendezvous next morning. Nell had prepared and would mail in the
+postoffice a special delivery letter addressed to McCormick's home.
+This would be delivered about seven o'clock in the morning, and
+inside was a typewritten note, as follows:
+
+"Mac: Come to Room 17 of the studios at eight in the morning. Very
+important. Our plan is all ready, my part is done. Joe."
+
+Nell figured that McCormick would take this to be a message from
+Angell. He wouldn't know what it was about, but he'd be all the more
+certain to come and find out. The essential thing was that the raid
+by the detectives must occur the very minute the conspirators got
+together, for as soon as they compared notes they would become
+suspicious, and might scatter at once. McGivney must have his men
+ready; he must be notified and have plenty of time to get them
+ready.
+
+But there was a serious objection to this--if McGivney had time, he
+would demand a talk with Peter, and Nell was sure that Peter
+couldn't stand a cross-questioning at McGivney's hands. Peter,
+needless to say, agreed with her; his heart threatened to collapse
+at the thought of such an ordeal. What Peter really wanted to do was
+to quit the whole thing right there and then; but he dared not say
+so, he dared not face the withering scorn of his confederate. Peter
+clenched his hands and set his teeth, and when he passed a street
+light he turned his face away, so that Nell might not read the
+humiliating terror written there. But Nell read it all the same;
+Nell believed that she was dealing with a quivering, pasty-faced
+coward, and proceeded on that basis; she worked out the plans, she
+gave Peter his orders, and she stuck by him to see that he carried
+them out.
+
+Peter had McGivney's home telephone number, which he was only
+supposed to use in the most desperate emergency. He was to use it
+now, and tell McGivney that he had just caught some members of the
+I. W. W., with Pat McCormick as their leader, preparing to blow up
+some people with dynamite bombs. They had some bombs in a suit-case
+in their headquarters, and were just starting out with other bombs
+in their pockets. Peter must follow them, otherwise he would lose
+them, and some crime might be committed before he could interfere.
+McGivney must have his agents ready with automobiles to swoop down
+upon any place that Peter indicated. Peter would follow up the
+conspirators, and phone McGivney again at the first opportunity he
+could find.
+
+Nell was especially insistent that when Peter spoke to McGivney he
+must have only a moment to spare, no time for questions, and he must
+not stop to answer any. He must be in a state of trembling
+excitement; and Peter was sure that would be very easy! He rehearsed
+over to Nell every word he must say, and just how he was to cut
+short the conversation and hang up the receiver. Then he went into
+an all night drug-store just around the corner from the
+headquarters, and from a telephone booth called McGivney's home.
+
+It was an apartment house, and after some delay Peter heard the
+voice of his employer, surly with sleep. But Peter waked him up
+quickly. "Mr. McGivney, there's a dynamite plot!"
+
+"_What_?"
+
+"I. W. W. They've got bombs in a suit-case! They're starting off to
+blow somebody up tonight."
+
+"By God! What do you mean? Who?"
+
+"I dunno yet. I only heard part of it, and I've got to go. They're
+starting, I've got to follow them. I may lose them and it'll be too
+late. You hear me, I've got to follow them!"
+
+"I hear you. What do you want me to do?"
+
+"I'll phone you again the first chance I get. You have your men
+ready, a dozen of them! Have automobiles, so you can come quick. You
+get me?"
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+"I can't talk any more, I may lose them, I haven't a second! You be
+at your phone, and have your men ready--everything ready. You get
+me?"
+
+"Yes, but listen, man! You sure you're not mistaken?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I'm sure!" cried Peter, his voice mounting in excitement.
+"They've got the dynamite, I tell you--everything! It's a man named
+Nelse."
+
+"Nelse what?"
+
+"The man they're going to kill. I've got to go now, you get ready.
+Good-bye!" And Peter hung up the receiver. He had got so excited
+over the part he was playing that he sprang up and ran out of the
+drug-store, as if he really had to catch up with some I. W. W.
+conspirators carrying a dynamite bomb!
+
+But there was Nell, and they strolled down the street again. They
+came to a small park, and sat on one of the benches, because Peter's
+legs would no longer hold him up. Nell walked about to make sure
+there was no one on any of the other benches; then she came back and
+rehearsed the next scene with Peter. They must go over it most
+carefully, because before long the time was coming when Peter
+wouldn't have Nell to coach him, and must be prepared to stand on
+his own legs. Peter knew that, and his legs failed him. He wanted to
+back down, and declare that he couldn't go ahead with it; he wanted
+to go to McGivney and confess everything. Nell divined what was
+going on in his soul, and wished to save him the humiliation of
+having it known. She sat close to him on the bench, and put her hand
+on his as she talked to him, and presently Peter felt a magic thrill
+stealing over him. He ventured to put his arm about Nell, to get
+still more of this delicious sensation; and Nell permitted the
+embraces, for the first time she even encouraged them. Peter was a
+hero now, he was undertaking a bold and desperate venture; he was
+going to put it thru like a man, and win Nell's real admiration.
+"Our country's at war!" she exclaimed. "And these devils are
+stopping it!"
+
+So pretty soon Peter was ready to face the whole world; Peter was
+ready to go himself and blow up the king of American City with a
+dynamite bomb! In that mood he stayed thru the small hours of the
+morning, sitting on the bench clasping his girl in his arms, and
+wishing she would give a little more time to heeding his
+love-making, and less to making him recite his lessons.
+
+
+
+
+Section 44
+
+
+So the day began to break and the birds to sing. The sun rose on
+Peter's face gray with exhaustion and the Irish apples in Nell's
+cheeks badly faded. But the time for action had come, and Peter went
+off to watch McCormick's home until seven o'clock, when the special
+delivery letter was due to arrive.
+
+It came on time, and Peter saw McCormick come out of the house and
+set forth in the direction of the studios. It was too early for the
+meeting, so Peter figured that he would stop to get his breakfast;
+and sure enough "Mac" turned into, a little dairy lunch, and Peter
+hastened to the nearest telephone and called his boss.
+
+"Mr. McGivney," he said, "I lost those fellows last night, but now I
+got them again. They decided not to do anything till today. They're
+having a meeting this morning and we've a chance to nab them all."
+
+"Where?" demanded McGivney.
+
+"Room seventeen in the studios; but don't let any of your men go
+near there, till I make sure the right fellows are in."
+
+"Listen here, Peter Gudge!" cried McGivney. "Is this straight goods?"
+
+"My God!" cried Peter. "What do you take me for? I tell you they've
+got loads of dynamite."
+
+"What have they done with it?"
+
+"They've got some in their headquarters. About the rest I dunno.
+They carried it off and I lost them last night. But then I found a
+note in my pocket--they were inviting me to come in."
+
+"By God!" exclaimed the rat-faced man.
+
+"We've got the whole thing, I tell you! Have you got your men ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well then, have them come to the corner of Seventh and Washington
+Streets, and you come to Eighth and Washington. Meet me there just
+as quick as you can."
+
+"I get you," was the answer, and Peter hung up, and rushed off to
+the appointed rendezvous. He was so nervous that he had to sit on
+the steps of a building. As time passed and McGivney didn't appear,
+wild imaginings began to torment him. Maybe McGivney hadn't
+understood him correctly! Or maybe his automobile might break down!
+Or his telephone might have got out of order at precisely the
+critical moment! He and his men would arrive too late, they would
+find the trap sprung, and the prey escaped.
+
+Ten minutes passed, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes. At last an
+automobile rushed up the street, and McGivney stepped out, and the
+automobile sped on. Peter got McGivney's eye, and then stepped back
+into the shelter of a doorway. McGivney followed. "Have you got
+them?" he cried.
+
+"I d-d-dunno!" chattered Peter. "They s-s-said they were c-coming at
+eight!"
+
+"Let me see that note!" commanded McGivney; so Peter pulled out one
+of Nell's notes which he had saved for himself:
+
+"If you really believe in a bold stroke for the workers' rights,
+meet me in the studios, Room 17, tomorrow morning at eight o'clock.
+No names and no talk. Action!"
+
+"You found that in your pocket?" demanded the other.
+
+"Y-yes, sir."
+
+"And you've no idea who put it there."
+
+"N-no, but I think Joe Angell--"
+
+McGivney looked at his watch. "You've got twenty minutes yet," be
+said.
+
+"You got the dicks?" asked Peter.
+
+"A dozen of them. What's your idea now?"
+
+Peter stammered out his suggestions. There was a little grocery
+store just across the street from the entrance to the studio
+building. Peter would go in there, and pretend to get something to
+eat, and would watch thru the window, and the moment he saw the
+right men come in, he would hurry out and signal to McGivney, who
+would be in a drugstore at the next corner. McGivney must keep out
+of sight himself, because the "Reds" knew him as one of Guffey's
+agents.
+
+It wasn't necessary to repeat anything twice. McGivney was keyed up
+and ready for business, and Peter hurried down the street, and
+stepped into the little grocery store without being observed by
+anyone. He ordered some crackers and cheese, and seated himself on a
+box by the window and pretended to eat. But his hands were trembling
+so that he could hardly get the food into his mouth; and this was
+just as well, because his mouth was dry with fright, and crackers
+and cheese are articles of diet not adapted to such a condition.
+
+He kept his eyes glued on the dingy doorway of the old studio
+building, and presently--hurrah!--he saw McCormick coming down the
+street! The Irish boy turned into the building, and a couple of
+minutes later came Gus the sailor, and before another five minutes
+had passed here came Joe Angell and Henderson. They were walking
+quickly, absorbed in conversation, and Peter could imagine he heard
+them talking about those mysterious notes, and who could be the
+writer, and what the devil could they mean?
+
+Peter was now wild with nervousness; he was afraid somebody in the
+grocery store would notice him, and he made desperate efforts to eat
+the crackers and cheese, and scattered the crumbs all over himself
+and over the floor. Should he wait for Jerry Rudd, or should he take
+those he had already? He had got up and started for the door, when
+he saw the last of his victims coming down the street. Jerry was
+walking slowly, and Peter couldn't wait until he got inside. A car
+was passing, and Peter took the chance to slip out and bolt for the
+drug store. Before he had got half way there McGivney had seen him,
+and was on the run to the next corner.
+
+Peter waited only long enough to see a couple of automobiles come
+whirling down the street, packed solid with husky detectives. Then
+he turned off and hurried down a side street. He managed to get a
+couple of blocks away, and then his nerves gave way entirely, and he
+sat down on the curbstone and began to cry--just the way little
+Jennie had cried when he told her he couldn't marry her! People
+stopped to stare at him, and one benevolent old gentleman came up
+and tapped him on the shoulder and asked what was the trouble.
+Peter, between his tear-stained fingers, gasped: "My m-m-mother
+died!" And so they let him alone, and after a while he got up and
+hurried off again.
+
+
+
+
+Section 45
+
+
+Peter was now in a state of utter funk. He knew that he would have
+to face McGivney, and he just couldn't do it. All he wanted was
+Nell; and Nell, knowing that he would want her, had agreed to be in
+the park at half past eight. She had warned him not to talk to a
+soul until he had talked to her. Meantime she had gone home and
+renewed her Irish roses with French rouge, and restored her energy
+with coffee and cigarettes, and now she was waiting for him, smiling
+serenely, as fresh as any bird or flower in the park that summer
+morning. She asked him in even tones how things had gone, and when
+Peter began to stammer that he didn't think he could face McGivney,
+she proceeded to build up his courage once more. She let him put his
+arms about her, even there in broad daylight; she whispered to him
+to get himself together, to be a man, and worthy of her.
+
+What had he to be afraid of, anyway? They hadn't a single thing on
+him, and there was no possible way they could get anything. His
+hands were clean all the way thru, and all he had to do was to stick
+it out; he must make up his mind in advance, that no matter what
+happened, he would never break down, he would never vary from the
+story he had rehearsed with her. She made him go over the story
+again; how on the previous evening, at the gathering in the I. W. W.
+headquarters, they had talked about killing Nelse Ackerman as a
+means of bringing the war to an end. And after the talk he had heard
+Joe Angell whisper to Jerry Rudd that he had the makings of a bomb
+already; he had a suit-case full of dynamite stored there in the
+closet, and he and Pat McCormick had been planning to pull off
+something that very night. Peter had gone out, but had watched
+outside, and had seen Angell, Henderson, Rudd and Gus come out.
+Peter had noticed that Angell's pockets were stuffed, and had
+assumed that they were going to do their dynamiting, so he had
+phoned to McGivney from the drug-store. By this phoning he had
+missed the crowd, and then he had been ashamed and afraid to tell
+McGivney, and had spent the night wandering in the park. But early
+in the morning he had found the note, and had understood that it
+must have been slipped into his pocket, and that the conspirators
+wanted him to come in on their scheme. That was all, except for
+three or four sentences or fragments of sentences which Peter had
+overheard between Joe Angell and Jerry Rudd. Nell made him learn
+these sentences by heart, and she insisted that he must not under
+any circumstances try to remember or be persuaded to remember
+anything further.
+
+At last Peter was adjudged ready for the ordeal, and went to Room
+427 in the American House, and threw himself on the bed. He was so
+exhausted that once or twice he dozed; but then he would think of
+some new question that McGivney might ask him, and would start into
+wakefulness. At last he heard a key turn, and started up. There
+entered one of the detectives, a man named Hammett. "Hello, Gudge,"
+said he. "The boss wants you to get arrested."
+
+"Arrested!" exclaimed Peter. "Good Lord!" He had a sudden swift
+vision of himself shut up in a cell with those Reds, and forced to
+listen to "hard luck stories."
+
+"Well," said Hammett, "we're arresting all the Reds, and if we skip
+you, they'll be suspicious. You better go somewhere right away and
+get caught."
+
+Peter saw the wisdom of this, and after a little thought he chose
+the home of Miriam Yankovitch. She was a real Red, and didn't like
+him; but if he was arrested in her home, she would have to like him,
+and it would tend to make him "solid" with the "left wingers." He
+gave the address to Hammett, and added, "You better come as soon as
+you can, because she may kick me out of the house."
+
+"That's all right," replied the other, with a laugh. "Tell her the
+police are after you, and ask her to hide you."
+
+So Peter hurried over to the Jewish quarter of the city, and knocked
+on a door in the top story of a tenement house. The door was opened
+by a stout woman with her sleeves rolled up and her arms covered
+with soap-suds. Yes, Miriam was in. She was out of a job just now,
+said Mrs. Yankovitch. They had fired her because she talked
+Socialism. Miriam entered the room, giving the unexpected visitor a
+cold stare that said as plain as words: "Jennie Todd!"
+
+But this changed at once when Peter told her that he had been to I.
+W. W. headquarters and found the police in charge. They had made a
+raid, and claimed to have discovered some kind of plot; fortunately
+Peter had seen the crowd outside, and had got away. Miriam took him
+into an inside room and asked him a hundred questions which he could
+not answer. He knew nothing, except that he had been to a meeting at
+headquarters the night before, and this morning he had gone there to
+get a book, and had seen the crowd and run.
+
+Half an hour later came a bang on the door, and Peter dived under
+the bed. The door was burst open, and he heard angry voices
+commanding, and vehement protests from Miriam and her mother. To
+judge from the sounds, the men began throwing the furniture this way
+and that; suddenly a hand came under the bed, and Peter was grabbed
+by the ankle, and hauled forth to confront four policemen in
+uniform.
+
+It was an awkward situation, because apparently these policemen
+hadn't been told that Peter was a spy; the boobs thought they were
+getting a real dynamiter! One grabbed each of Peter's wrists, and
+another kept him and Miriam covered with a revolver, while the
+fourth proceeded to go thru his pockets, looking for bombs. When
+they didn't find any, they seemed vexed, and shook him and hustled
+him about, and made clear they would be glad of some pretext to
+batter in his head. Peter was careful not to give them such a
+pretext; he was frightened and humble, and kept declaring that he
+didn't know anything, he hadn't done any harm.
+
+"We'll see about that, young fellow!" said the officer, as he
+snapped the handcuffs on Peter's wrists. Then, while one of them
+remained on guard with the revolver, the other three proceeded to
+ransack the place, pulling out the bureau-drawers and kicking the
+contents this way and that, grabbing every scrap of writing they
+could find and jamming it into a couple of suit-cases. There were
+books with red bindings and terrifying titles, but no bombs, and no
+weapons more dangerous than a carving knife and Miriam's tongue. The
+girl stood there with her black eyes flashing lightnings, and told
+the police exactly what she thought of them. She didn't know what
+had happened in the I. W. W. headquarters, but she knew that
+whatever it was, it was a frame-up, and she dared them to arrest
+her, and almost succeeded in her fierce purpose. However, the police
+contented themselves with kicking over the washtub and its contents,
+and took their departure, leaving Mrs. Yankovitch screaming in the
+midst of a flood.
+
+
+
+
+Section 46
+
+
+They dragged Peter out thru a swarming tenement crowd, and clapped
+him into an automobile, and whirled him away to police headquarters,
+where they entered him in due form and put him in a cell. He was
+uneasy right away, because he had failed to arrange with Hammett how
+long he was to stay locked up. But barely an hour had passed before
+a jailer came, and took him to a private room, where he found
+himself confronted by McGivney and Hammett, also the Chief of Police
+of the city, a deputy district attorney, and last but most important
+of all--Guffey. It was the head detective of the Traction Trust who
+took Peter in charge.
+
+"Now, Gudge," said he, "what's this job you've been putting up on
+us?"
+
+It struck Peter like a blow in the face. His heart went down, his
+jaw dropped, he stared like an idiot. Good God!
+
+But he remembered Nell's last solemn words: "Stick it out, Peter;
+stick it out!" So he cried: "What do you mean, Mr. Guffey?"
+
+"Sit down in that chair there," said Guffey. "Now, tell us what you
+know about this whole business. Begin at the beginning and tell us
+everything--every word." So Peter began. He had been at a meeting at
+the I. W. W. headquarters the previous evening. There had been a
+long talk about the inactivity of the organization, and what could
+be done to oppose the draft. Peter detailed the arguments, the
+discussion of violence, of dynamite and killing, the mention of
+Nelse Ackerman and the other capitalists who were to be put out of
+the way. He embellished all this, and exaggerated it greatly--it
+being the one place where Nell had said he could do no harm by
+exaggerating.
+
+Then he told how after the meeting had broken up he had noticed
+several of the men whispering among themselves. By pretending to be
+getting a book from the bookcase he had got close to Joe Angell and
+Jerry Rudd; he had heard various words and fragments of sentences,
+"dynamite," "suit-case in the cupboard," "Nelse," and so on. And
+when the crowd went out he noticed that Angell's pockets were
+bulging, and assumed that he had the bombs, and that they were going
+to do the job. He rushed to the drug-store and phoned McGivney. It
+took a long time to get McGivney, and when he had given his message
+and run out again, the crowd was out of sight. Peter was in despair,
+he was ashamed to confront McGivney, he wandered about the streets
+for hours looking for the crowd. He spent the rest of the night in
+the park. But then in the morning he discovered the piece of paper
+in his pocket, and understood that somebody had slipped it to him,
+intending to invite him to the conspiracy; so he had notified
+McGivney, and that was all he knew.
+
+McGivney began to cross-question him. He had heard Joe Angell
+talking to Jerry Rudd; had he heard him talking to anybody else? Had
+he heard any of the others talking? Just what had he heard Joe
+Angell say? Peter must repeat every word all over. This time, as
+instructed by Nell, he remembered one sentence more, and repeated
+this sentence: "Mac put it in the `sab-cat.'" He saw the others
+exchange glances. "That's just what I heard," said Peter--"just those
+words. I couldn't figure out what they meant?"
+
+"Sab-cat?" said the Chief of Police, a burly figure with a brown
+moustache and a quid of tobacco tucked in the corner of his mouth.
+"That means `sabotage,' don't it?"
+
+"Yes," said the rat-faced man.
+
+"Do you know anything in the office that has to do with sabotage?"
+demanded Guffey of Peter.
+
+And Peter thought. "No, I don't," he said.
+
+They talked among themselves for a minute or two. The Chief said
+they had got all McCormick's things out of his room, and might find
+some clue to the mystery in these. Guffey went to the telephone, and
+gave a number with which Peter was familiar--that of I. W. W.
+headquarters. "That you, Al?" he said. "We're trying to find if
+there's something in those rooms that has to do with sabotage. Have
+you found anything--any apparatus or pictures, or writing--anything?"
+Evidently the answer was in the negative, for Guffey said: "Go
+ahead, look farther; if you get anything, call me at the chief's
+office quick. It may give us a lead."
+
+Then Guffey hung up the receiver and turned to Peter. "Now Gudge,"
+he said, "that's all your story, is it; that's all you got to tell
+us?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well then, you might as well quit your fooling right away. We
+understand that you framed this thing up, and we're not going to be
+taken in."
+
+Peter stared at Guffey, speechless; and Guffey, for his part, took a
+couple of steps toward Peter, his brows gathering into a terrible
+frown, and his fists clenched. In a wave of sickening horror Peter
+remembered the scenes after the Preparedness Day explosion. Were
+they going to put him thru that again?
+
+"We'll have a show-down, Gudge, right here," the head detective
+continued. "You tell us all this stuff about Angell--his talk with
+Jerry Rudd, and his pockets stuffed with bombs and all the rest of
+it--and he denies every word of it."
+
+"But, m-m-my God! Mr. Guffey," gasped Peter. "Of _course_ he'll deny
+it!" Peter could hardly believe his ears--that they were taking
+seriously the denial of a dynamiter, and quoting it to him!
+
+"Yes, Gudge," responded Guffey, "but you might as well know the
+truth now as later--Angell is one of our men; we've had him planted
+on these `wobblies' for the last year."
+
+The bottom fell out of Peter's world; Peter went tumbling heels over
+head--down, down into infinite abysses of horror and despair. Joe
+Angell was a secret agent like himself! The Blue-eyed Angell, who
+talked dynamite and assassination at a hundred radical gatherings,
+who shocked the boldest revolutionists by his reckless
+language--Angell a spy, and Peter had proceeded to plant a
+"frame-up" on him!
+
+
+
+
+Section 47
+
+
+It was all up with Peter. He would go back into the hole! He would
+be tortured for the balance of his days! In his ears rang the
+shrieks of ten thousand lost souls and the clang of ten thousand
+trumpets of doom; and yet, in the midst of all the noise and
+confusion, Peter managed somehow to hear the voice of Nell,
+whispering over and over again: "Stick it out, Peter; stick it out!"
+
+He flung out his hands and started toward his accuser. "Mr. Guffey,
+as God is my witness, I don't know a thing about it but what I've
+told you. That's what happened, and if Joe Angell tells you anything
+different he's lying."
+
+"But why should he lie?"
+
+"I don't know why; I don't know anything about it!"
+
+Here was where Peter reaped the advantage of his lifelong training
+as an intriguer. In the midst of all his fright and his despair,
+Peter's subconscious mind was working, thinking of schemes. "Maybe
+Angell was framing something up on you! Maybe he was fixing some
+plan of his own, and I come along and spoiled it; I sprung it too
+soon. But I tell you it's straight goods I've given you." And
+Peter's very anguish gave him the vehemence to check Guffey's
+certainty. As he rushed on, Peter could read in the eyes of the
+detective that he wasn't really as sure as he talked.
+
+"Did you see that suit-case?" he demanded.
+
+"No, I didn't see no suit-case!" answered Peter. "I don't even know
+if there was a suit-case. I only know I heard Joe Angell say
+`suit-case,' and I heard him say `dynamite.'"
+
+"Did you see anybody writing anything in the place?"
+
+"No, I didn't," said Peter. "But I seen Henderson sitting at the
+table working at some papers he had in his pocket, and I seen him
+tear something up and throw it into the trash-basket." Peter saw the
+others look at one another, and he knew that he was beginning to
+make headway.
+
+A moment later came a diversion that helped to save him. The
+telephone rang, and the Chief of Police answered and nodded to
+Guffey, who came and took the receiver. "A book?" he cried, with
+excitement in his tone. "What sort of a plan? Well, tell one of your
+men to take the car and bring that book and the plan here to the
+chief's office as quick as he can move; don't lose a moment,
+everything may depend on it."
+
+And then Guffey turned to the others. "He says they found a book on
+sabotage in the book-case, and in it there's some kind of a drawing
+of a house. The book has McCormick's name in it."
+
+There were many exclamations over this, and Peter had time to think
+before the company turned upon him again. The Chief of Police now
+questioned him, and then the deputy of the district attorney
+questioned him; still he stuck to his story. "My God!" he cried.
+"Would you think I'd be mad enough to frame up a job like this?
+Where'd I get all that stuff? Where'd I get that dynamite?"--Peter
+almost bit off his tongue as he realized the dreadful slip he had
+made. No one had ever told him that the suit-case actually contained
+dynamite! How had he known there was dynamite in it? He was
+desperately trying to think of some way he could have heard; but, as
+it happened, no one of the five men caught him up. They all knew
+that there was dynamite in the suit-case; they knew it with
+overwhelming and tremendous certainty, and they overlooked entirely
+the fact that Peter wasn't supposed to know it. So close to the edge
+of ruin can a man come and yet escape!
+
+Peter made haste to get away from that danger-spot. "Does Joe Angell
+deny that he was whispering to Jerry Rudd?"
+
+"He doesn't remember that," said Guffey. "He may have talked with
+him apart, but nothing special, there wasn't any conspiracy."
+
+"Does he deny that he talked about dynamite?"
+
+"They may have talked about it in the general discussion, but he
+didn't whisper anything."
+
+"But I heard him!" cried Peter, whose quick wits had thought up a
+way of escape, "I know what I heard! It was just before they were
+leaving, and somebody had turned out some of the lights. He was
+standing with his back to me, and I went over to the book-case right
+behind him."
+
+Here the deputy district attorney put in. He was a young man, a
+trifle easier to fool than the others. "Are you sure it was Joe
+Angell?" he demanded.
+
+"My God! Of course it was!" said Peter. "I couldn't have been
+mistaken." But he let his voice die away, and a note of bewilderment
+be heard in it.
+
+"You say he was whispering?"
+
+"Yes, he was whispering."
+
+"But mightn't it have been somebody else?"
+
+"Why, I don't know what to say," said Peter. "I thought for sure it
+was Joe Angell; but I had my back turned, I'd been talking to Grady,
+the secretary, and then I turned around and moved over to the
+book-case."
+
+"How many men were there in the room?"
+
+"About twenty, I guess."
+
+"Were the lights turned off before you turned around, or after?"
+
+"I don't remember that; it might have been after." And suddenly poor
+bewildered Peter cried: "It makes me feel like a fool. Of course I
+ought to have talked to the fellow, and made sure it was Joe Angell
+before I turned away again; but I thought sure it was him. The idea
+it could be anybody else never crossed my mind."
+
+"But you're sure it was Jerry Rudd that was talking to him?"
+
+"Yes, it was Jerry Rudd, because his face was toward me."
+
+"Was it Rudd or was it the other fellow that made the reply about
+the `sab-cat'?" And then Peter was bewildered and tied himself up,
+and led them into a long process of cross-questioning; and in the
+middle of it came the detective, bringing the book on sabotage with
+McCormick's name written in the fly-leaf, and with the ground plan
+of a house between the pages.
+
+They all crowded around to look at the plan, and the idea occurred
+to several of them at once: Could it be Nelse Ackerman's house? The
+Chief of Police turned to his phone, and called up the great
+banker's secretary. Would he please describe Mr. Ackerman's house;
+and the chief listened to the description. "There's a cross mark on
+this plan--the north side of the house, a little to the west of the
+center. What could that be?" Then, "My God!" And then, "Will you
+come down here to my office right away and bring the architect's
+plan of the house so we can compare them?" The Chief turned to the
+others, and said, "That cross mark in the house is the sleeping
+porch on the second floor where Mr. Ackerman sleeps!"
+
+So then they forgot for a while their doubts about Peter. It was
+fascinating, this work of tracing out the details of the conspiracy,
+and fitting them together like a picture puzzle. It seemed quite
+certain to all of them that this insignificant and scared little man
+whom they had been examining could never have prepared so ingenious
+and intricate a design. No, it must really be that some master mind,
+some devilish intriguer was at work to spread red ruin in American
+City!
+
+
+
+
+Section 48
+
+
+They dismissed Peter for the present, sending him back to his cell.
+He stayed there for two days with no one to advise him, and no hint
+as to his fate. They did not allow newspapers in the jail, but they
+had left Peter his money, and so on the second day he succeeded in
+bribing one of his keepers and obtaining a copy of the American City
+"Times," with all the details of the amazing sensation spread out on
+the front page.
+
+For thirty years the "Times" had been standing for law and order
+against all the forces of red riot and revolution; for thirty years
+the "Times" had been declaring that labor leaders and walking
+delegates and Socialists and Anarchists were all one and the same
+thing, and all placed their reliance fundamentally upon one
+instrument, the dynamite bomb. Here at last the "Times" was
+vindicated, this was the "Times" great day! They had made the most
+of it, not merely on the front page, but on two other pages, with
+pictures of all the conspicuous conspirators, including Peter, and
+pictures of the I. W. W. headquarters, and the suit-case, and the
+sticks of dynamite and the fuses and the clock; also of the "studio"
+in which the Reds had been trapped, and of Nikitin, the Russian
+anarchist who owned this den. Also there were columns of speculation
+about the case, signed statements and interviews with leading
+clergymen and bankers, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and
+the secretary of the Real Estate Exchange. Also there was a
+two-column, double-leaded editorial, pointing out how the "Times"
+had been saying this for thirty years, and not failing to connect up
+the case with the Goober case, and the Lackman case, and the case of
+three pacifist clergymen who had been arrested several days before
+for attempting to read the Sermon on the Mount at a public meeting.
+
+And Peter knew that he, Peter Gudge, had done all this! The forces
+of law and order owed it all to one obscure little secret service
+agent! Peter would get no credit, of course; the Chief of Police and
+the district attorney were issuing solemn statements, taking the
+honors to themselves, and with never one hint that they owed
+anything to the secret service department of the Traction Trust.
+That was necessary, of course; for the sake of appearances it had to
+be pretended that the public authorities were doing the work,
+exercising their legal functions in due and regular form. It would
+never do to have the mob suspect that these activities were being
+financed and directed by the big business interests of the city. But
+all the same, it made Peter sore! He and McGivney and the rest of
+Guffey's men had a contempt for the public officials, whom they
+regarded as "pikers"; the officials had very little money to spend,
+and very little power. If you really wanted to get anything done in
+America, you didn't go to any public official, you went to the big
+men of affairs, the ones who had the "stuff," and were used to doing
+things quickly and efficiently. It was the same in this business of
+spying as in everything else.
+
+Now and then Peter would realize how close he had come to ghastly
+ruin. He would have qualms of terror, picturing himself shut up in
+the hole, and Guffey proceeding to torture the truth out of him. But
+he was able to calm these fears. He was sure this dynamite
+conspiracy would prove too big a temptation for the authorities; it
+would sweep them away in spite of themselves. They would have to go
+thru with it, they would have to stand by Peter.
+
+And sure enough, on the evening of the second day a jailer came and
+said: "You're to be let out." And Peter was ushered thru the barred
+doors and turned loose without another word.
+
+
+
+
+Section 49
+
+
+Peter went to Room 427 of the American House and there was McGivney
+waiting for him. McGivney said nothing about any suspicion of Peter,
+nor did Peter say anything--he understood that by-gones were to be
+by-gones. The authorities were going to take this gift which the
+fates had handed to them on a silver platter. For years they had
+been wanting to get these Reds, and now magically and incredibly,
+they had got them!
+
+"Now, Gudge," said McGivney, "here's your story. You've been
+arrested on suspicion, you've been cross-questioned and put thru the
+third degree, but you succeeded in satisfying the police that you
+didn't know anything about it, and they've released you. We've
+released a couple of others at the same time, so's to cover you all
+right; and now you're to go back and find out all you can about the
+Reds, and what they're doing, and what they're planning. They're
+shouting, of course, that this is a `frame-up.' You must find out
+what they know. You must be careful, of course--watch every step you
+take, because they'll be suspicious for a while. We've been to your
+room and turned things upside down a bit, so that will help to make
+it look all right."
+
+Peter sallied forth; but he did not go to see the Reds immediately.
+He spent an hour dodging about the city to make sure no one was
+shadowing him; then he called up Nell at a telephone number she had
+given him, and an hour later they met in the park, and she flew to
+his arms and kissed him with rapturous delight. He had to tell her
+everything, of course; and when she learned that Joe Angell was a
+secret agent, she first stared at him in horror, and then she
+laughed until she almost cried. When Peter told how he had met that
+situation and got away with it, for the first time he was sure that
+he had won her love.
+
+"Now, Peter," she said, when they were calm again, we've got to get
+action at once. The papers are full of it, and old Nelse Ackerman
+must be scared out of his life. Here's a letter I'm going to mail
+tonight--you notice I've used a different typewriter from the one I
+used last time. I went into a typewriter store, and paid them to let
+me use one for a few minutes, so they can never trace this letter to
+me.
+
+The letter was addressed to Nelson Ackerman at his home, and marked
+"Personal." Peter read:
+
+"This is a message from a friend. The Reds had an agent in your
+home. They drew a plan of your house. The police are hiding things
+from you, because they can't get the truth, and don't want you to
+know they are incompetent. There is a man who discovered all this
+plot, and you should see him. They won't let you see him if they can
+help it. You should demand to see him. But do not mention this
+letter. If you do not get to the right man, I will write you again.
+If you keep this a secret, you may trust me to help you to the end.
+If you tell anybody, I will be unable to help you."
+
+"Now," said Nell, "when he gets that letter he'll get busy, and
+you've got to know what to do, because of course everything depends
+on that." So Nell proceeded to drill Peter for his meeting with the
+King of American City. Peter now stood in such awe of her judgment
+that he learned his lessons quite patiently, and promised solemnly
+that he would do exactly what she said and nothing else. He reaped
+his reward of kisses, and went home to sleep the sleep of the just.
+
+Next morning Peter set out to do some of his work for McGivney, so
+that McGivney would have no ground for complaint. He went to see
+Miriam Yankovich, and this time Miriam caught him by his two hands
+and wrung them, and Peter knew that he had atoned for his crime
+against little Jennie. Peter was a martyr once more. He told how he
+had been put thru the third degree; and she told how the water from
+the washtub had leaked thru the ceiling, and the plaster had fallen,
+and ruined the dinner of a poor workingman's family.
+
+Also, she told him all about the frame-up as the Reds saw it.
+Andrews, the lawyer, was demanding the right to see the prisoners,
+but this was refused, and they were all being held without bail. On
+the previous evening Miriam had attended a gathering at Andrews'
+home, at which the case was talked out. All the I. W. W.'s declared
+that the thing was the rankest kind of frame-up; the notes were
+obviously fake, and the dynamite had undoubtedly been planted by the
+police. They had used it as a pretext to shut up the I. W. W.
+headquarters, and to arrest a score of radicals. Worst of all, of
+course, was the propaganda; the hideous stories with which they were
+filling the papers. Had Peter seen this morning's "Times?" A
+perfectly unmistakable incitement to mobs to gather and lynch the
+Reds!
+
+
+
+
+Section 50
+
+
+From Miriam's, Peter went back to Room 427. It was Nell's idea that
+Nelse Ackerman would not lose a minute next morning; and sure
+enough, Peter found a note on the dressing-table: "Wait for me, I
+want to see you."
+
+Peter waited, and before long McGivney came in and sat down in front
+of him, and began very solemnly: "Now Peter Gudge, you know I'm your
+friend."
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"I've stood by you," said McGivney. "If it hadn't been for me, the
+boss would have had you in the hole right now, trying to sweat you
+into confessing you planted that dynamite. I want you to know that,
+and I want you to know that I'm going to stand by you, and I expect
+you to stand by me and give me a square deal."
+
+"Why, sure!" said Peter. "What is it?" Then McGivney proceeded to
+explain: Old Nelse Ackerman had got the idea that the police were
+holding back something from him. He was scared out of his wits about
+this case, of course. He had himself shut up in a cupboard at night,
+and made his wife pull down the curtains of her limousine when she
+went driving. And now he was insisting that he must have a talk with
+the man who had discovered this plot against him. McGivney hated to
+take the risk of having Peter become acquainted with anybody, but
+Nelse Ackerman was a man whose word was law. Really, he was Peter's
+employer; he had put up a lot of the money for the secret service
+work which Guffey was conducting, and neither Guffey or any of the
+city authorities dared try to fool him.
+
+"Well, that's all right," said Peter; "it won't hurt for me to see
+him."
+
+"He's going to question you about this case," said McGivney. "He's
+going to try to find out everything he can. So you got to protect
+us; you got to make him understand that we've done everything
+possible. You got to put us right with him."
+
+Peter promised solemnly he would do so; but McGivney wasn't
+satisfied. He was in a state of trepidation, and proceeded to hammer
+and hammer at Peter, impressing upon him the importance of
+solidarity, of keeping faith with his fellows. It sounded exactly
+like some of the I. W. W.'s talking among themselves!
+
+"You may think, here's a chance to jump on us and climb out on top,
+but don't you forget it, Peter Gudge, we've got a machine, and in
+the long run it's the machine that wins. We've broken many a fellow
+that's tried to play tricks on us, and we'll break you. Old Nelse
+will get what he wants out of you; he'll offer you a big price, no
+doubt--but before long he'll be thru with you, and then you'll come
+back to us, and I give you fair warning, by God, if you play us
+dirty, Guffey will have you in the hole in a month or two, and
+you'll come out on a stretcher."
+
+So Peter pledged his faith again; but, seeing his chance, he added:
+"Don't you think Mr. Guffey ought to do something for me, because of
+that plot I discovered?"
+
+"Yes, I think that," said McGivney; "that's only fair."
+
+And so they proceeded to bargain. Peter pointed out all the dangers
+he had run, and all the credit which the others had got. Guffey
+hadn't got credit in the papers, but he had got it with his
+employers, all right, and he would get still more if Peter stood by
+him with the king of American City. Peter said it ought to be worth
+a thousand dollars, and he said he ought to have it right away,
+before he went to see the king. At which Guffey scowled ferociously.
+"Look here, Gudge! you got the nerve to charge us such a price for
+standing by your frame-up?"
+
+McGivney generally treated Peter as a coward and a feeble bluffer;
+but he had learned also that there was one time when the little man
+completely changed his nature, and that was when it was a question
+of getting hold of some cash. That was the question now; and Peter
+met McGivney scowl for scowl. "If you don't like my frame-up," he
+snarled, "you go kick to the newspapers about it!"
+
+Peter was the bulldog again, and had got his teeth in the other
+bulldog's nose, and he hung right there. He had seen the rat-faced
+man pull money out of his clothes before this, and he knew that this
+time, above all other times, McGivney would come prepared. So he
+insisted--a thousand or nothing; and as before, his heart went down
+into his boots when McGivney produced his wad, and revealed that
+there was more in the wad than Peter had demanded!
+
+However, Peter consoled himself with the reflection that a thousand
+dollars was a tidy sum of money, and he set out for the home of
+Nelse Ackerman in a jovial frame of mind. Incidentally he decided
+that it might be the part of wisdom not to say anything to Nell
+about this extra thousand. When women found out that you had money,
+they'd never rest till they had got every cent of it, or at least
+had made you spend it on them!
+
+
+
+
+Section 51
+
+
+Nelse Ackerman's home was far out in the suburbs of the city, upon a
+knoll surrounded by forest. It was a couple of miles from the
+nearest trolley line, which forced Peter to take a hot walk in the
+sun. Apparently the great banker, in selecting the site of his
+residence, had never once thought that anybody might want to get to
+it without an automobile. Peter reflected as he walked that if he
+continued to move in these higher circles, he too would have to join
+the motor-driving class.
+
+About the estate there ran a great bronze fence, ten feet high, with
+sharp, inhospitable spikes pointing outwards. Peter had read about
+this fence a long time ago in the American City "Times"; it was so
+and so many thousand yards long, and had so and so many spikes, and
+had cost so and so many tens of thousands of dollars. There were big
+bronze gates locked tight, and a sign that said: "Beware the dogs!"
+Inside the gates were three guards carrying rifles and walking up
+and down; they were a consequence of the recent dynamite conspiracy,
+but Peter did not realize this, he took them for a regular
+institution, and a symbol of the importance of the man he was to
+visit.
+
+He pressed a button by the side of the gate, and a lodgekeeper came
+out, and Peter, according to orders, gave the name "Arthur G.
+McGillicuddy." The lodge-keeper went inside and telephoned, and then
+came back and opened the gate, just enough to admit Peter. "You're
+to be searched," said the lodge-keeper; and Peter, who had been
+arrested many times, took no offense at this procedure, but found it
+one more evidence of the importance of Nelse Ackerman. The guards
+went thru his pockets, and felt him all over, and then one of them
+marched him up the long gravel avenue thru the forest, climbed a
+flight of marble steps to the palace on the knoll, and turned him
+over to a Chinese butler who walked on padded slippers.
+
+If Peter had not known that this was a private home he would have
+thought it was an art gallery. There were great marble columns, and
+paintings bigger than Peter, and tapestries with life-size horses;
+there were men in armor, and battle axes and Japanese dancing
+devils, and many other strange sights. Ordinarily Peter would have
+been interested in learning how a great millionaire decorated his
+house, and would have drunk deep of the joy of being amid such
+luxury. But now all his thoughts were taken up with his dangerous
+business. Nell had told him what to look for, and he looked.
+Mounting the velvet-carpeted staircase, he noted a curtain behind
+which a man might hide, and a painting of a Spanish cavalier on the
+wall just opposite. He would make use of these two sights.
+
+They went down a hall, like a corridor in the Hotel de Soto, and at
+the end of it the butler tapped softly upon a door, and Peter was
+ushered into a big apartment in semi-darkness. The butler retired
+without a sound, closing the door behind him and Peter stood
+hesitating, looking about to get his bearings. From the other side
+of the room he heard three faint coughs, suggesting a sick man.
+There was a four-poster bed of some dark wood, with a canopy over it
+and draperies at the side, and a man in the bed, sitting propped up
+with pillows. There were more coughs, and then a faint whisper,
+"This way." So Peter crossed over and stood about ten feet from the
+bed, holding his hat in his hands; he was not able to see very much
+of the occupant of the bed, nor was he sure it would be respectful
+for him to try to see.
+
+"So you're--(cough) what's your name?"
+
+"Gudge," said Peter.
+
+"You are the man--(cough) that knows about the Reds?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The occupant of the bed coughed every two or three minutes thru the
+conversation that followed, and each time Peter noticed that he put
+his hand up to his mouth as if he were ashamed of the noise.
+Gradually Peter got used to the twilight, and could see that Nelse
+Ackerman was an old man with puffy, droopy cheeks and chin, and dark
+puffy crescents under his eyes. He was quite bald, and had on his
+head a skull cap of embroidered black silk, and a short, embroidered
+jacket over his night shirt. Beside the bed stood a table covered
+with glasses and bottles and pill-boxes, and also a telephone. Every
+few minutes this telephone would ring, and Peter would wait
+patiently while Mr. Ackerman settled some complex problem of
+business. "I've told them my terms," he would say with irritation,
+and then he would cough; and Peter, who was sharply watching every
+detail of the conduct of the rich, noted that he was too polite even
+to cough into the telephone. "If they will pay a hundred and
+twenty-five thousand dollars on account, I will wait, but not a cent
+less," Nelse Ackerman would say. And Peter, awe-stricken, realized
+that he had now reached the very top of Mount Olympus, he was at the
+highest point he could hope to reach until he went to heaven.
+
+The old man fixed his dark eyes on his visitor. "Who wrote me that
+letter?" whispered the husky voice.
+
+Peter had been expecting this. "What letter, sir?"
+
+"A letter telling me to see you."
+
+"I don't know anything about it, sir."
+
+"You mean--(cough) you didn't write me an anonynious letter?"
+
+"No, sir, I didn't."
+
+"Then some friend of yours must have written it."
+
+"I dunno that. It might have been some enemy of the police."
+
+"Well, now, what's this about the Reds having an agent in my home?"
+
+"Did the letter say that?"
+
+"It did."
+
+"Well, sir, that's putting it too strong. I ain't sure, it's just an
+idea I've had. It'll need a lot of explaining."
+
+"You're the man who discovered this plot, I understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, take a chair, there," said the banker. There was a chair near
+the bedside, but it seemed to Peter too close to be respectful, so
+he pulled it a little farther away, and sat down on the front six
+inches of it, still holding his hat in his hands and twisting it
+nervously. "Put down that hat," said the old man, irritably. So
+Peter stuck the hat under his chair, and said: "I beg pardon, sir."
+
+
+
+
+Section 52
+
+
+The old plutocrat was feeble and sick, but his mind was all there,
+and his eyes seemed to be boring Peter through. Peter realized that
+he would have to be very careful--the least little slip would be
+fatal here.
+
+"Now, Gudge," the old man began, "I want you to tell me all about
+it. To begin with, how did you come to be among these Reds? Begin at
+the beginning."
+
+So Peter told how he had happened to get interested in the radical
+movement, laying particular stress upon the dangerousness of these
+Reds, and his own loyalty to the class which stood for order and
+progress and culture in the country. "It ought to be stopped, Mr.
+Ackerman!" he exclaimed, with a fine show of feeling; and the old
+banker nodded. Yes, yes, it ought to be stopped!
+
+"Well," said Peter, "I said to myself, `I'm going to find out about
+them fellows.' I went to their meetings, and little by little I
+pretended to get converted, and I tell you, Mr. Ackerman, our police
+are asleep; they don't know what these agitators are doing, what
+they're preaching. They don't know what a hold they've got on the
+mobs of the discontented!"
+
+Peter went on to tell in detail about the propaganda of social
+revolution, and about conspiracies against law and order, and the
+property and even the lives of the rich. Peter noticed that when the
+old man took a sip of water his hand trembled so that he could
+hardly keep the water from spilling; and presently, when the phone
+rang again, his voice became shrill and imperious. "I understand
+they're applying for bail for those men. Now Angus, that's an
+outrage! We'll not hear to anything like that! I want you to see the
+judge at once, and make absolutely certain that those men are held
+in jail."
+
+Then again the old banker had a coughing fit. "Now, Gudge," he said,
+"I know more or less about all that. What I want to know is about
+this conspiracy against me. Tell me how you came to find out about
+it."
+
+And Peter told; but of course he embellished it, in so far as it
+related to Mr. Ackerman--these fellows were talking about Mr.
+Ackerman all the time, they had a special grudge against him.
+
+"But why?" cried the old man. "Why?"
+
+"They think you're fighting them, Mr. Ackerman."
+
+"But I'm not! That's not true!"
+
+"Well, they say you put up money to hang Goober. They call
+you--you'll excuse me?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course."
+
+"They call you the `head money devil.' They call you the financial
+king of American City."
+
+"King!" cried the banker. "What rubbish! Why, Gudge, that's fool
+newspaper talk! I'm a poor man today. There are two dozen men in
+this city richer than I am, and who have more power. Why--" But the
+old man fell to coughing and became so exhausted that he sank back
+into his pillows until he recovered his breath. Peter waited
+respectfully; but of course he wasn't fooled. Peter had carried on
+bargaining many times in his life, and had heard people proclaim
+their poverty and impotence.
+
+"Now, Gudge," the old man resumed. "I don't want to be killed; I
+tell you I don't want to be killed."
+
+"No, of course not," said Peter. It was perfectly comprehensible to
+him that Mr. Ackerman didn't want to be killed. But Mr. Ackerman
+seemed to think it necessary to impress the idea upon him; in the
+course of the conversation he came back to it a number of times, and
+each time he said it with the same solemn assurance, as if it were a
+brand new idea, and a very unusual and startling idea. "I don't want
+to be killed, Gudge; I tell you I don't want to let those fellows
+get me. No, no; we've got to circumvent them, we've got to take
+precautions--every precaution--I tell you every possible
+precaution."
+
+"I'm here for that purpose, Mr. Ackerman," said Peter, solemnly.
+"I'll do everything. We'll do everything, I'm sure."
+
+"What's this about the police?" demanded the banker. "What's this
+about Guffey's bureau? You say they're not competent?"
+
+"Well now, I'll tell you, Mr. Ackerman," said Peter, "It's a little
+embarrassing. You see, they employ me--"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed the other. "_I_ employ you! I'm putting up the
+money for this work, and I want the facts!--I want them all."
+
+"Well," said Peter, "they've been very decent to me--"
+
+"I say tell me everything!" exclaimed the old man. He was a most
+irritable old man, and couldn't stand for a minute not having what
+he asked for. "What's the matter with them?"
+
+Peter answered, as humbly as he could: "I could tell you a great
+deal that'd be of use to you, Mr. Ackerman, but you got to keep it
+between you and me."
+
+"All right!" said the other, quickly. "What is it?"
+
+"If you give a hint of it to anybody else," persisted Peter, "then
+I'll get fired."
+
+"You'll not get fired, I'll see to that. If necessary I'll hire you
+direct."
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand, Mr. Ackerman. It's a machine, and you
+can't run against it; you gotta understand it, you gotta handle it
+right. I'd like to help you, and I know I can help you, but you
+gotta let me explain it, and you gotta understand some things."
+
+"All right," said the old man. "Go ahead, what is it?"
+
+"Now," said Peter, "it's like this. These police and all these
+fellows mean well, but they don't understand; it's too complicated,
+they ain't been in this movement long enough. They're used to
+dealing with criminals; but these Reds, you see, are cranks.
+Criminals ain't organized, at least they don't stand together; but
+these Reds do, and if you fight 'em, they fight back, and they make
+what they call `propaganda.' And that propaganda is dangerous--if
+you make a wrong move, you may find you've made 'em stronger than
+they were before."
+
+"Yes, I see that," said the old man. "Well?"
+
+"Then again, the police dunno how dangerous they are. You try to
+tell them things, they won't really believe you. I've known for a
+long time there was a group of these people getting together to kill
+off all the rich men, the big men all over the country. They've been
+spying on these rich men, getting ready to kill them. They know a
+lot about them that you can't explain their knowing. That's how I
+got the idea they had somebody in your house, Mr. Ackerman."
+
+"Tell me what you mean. Tell me at once."
+
+"Well, sir, every once in a while I pick up scraps of conversation.
+One day I heard Mac--"
+
+"Mac?"
+
+"That's McCormick, the one who's in jail. He's an I. W. W. leader,
+and I think the most dangerous of all. I heard him whispering to
+another fellow, and it scared me, because it had to do with killing
+a rich man. He'd been watching this rich man, and said he was going
+to shoot him down right in his own house! I didn't hear the name of
+the man--I walked away, because I didn't want him to think I was
+trying to listen in. They're awful suspicious, these fellows; if you
+watch Mac you see him looking around over his shoulder every minute
+or two. So I strolled off, and then I strolled back again, and he
+was laughing about something, and I heard him say these words; I
+heard him say, `I was hiding behind the curtain, and there was a
+Spanish fellow painted on the wall, and every time I peeked out that
+bugger was looking at me, and I wondered if he wasn't going to give
+me away.'"
+
+And Peter stopped. His eyes had got used to the twilight now, and he
+could see the old banker's eyes starting out from the crescents of
+dark, puffy flesh underneath. "My God!" whispered Nelse Ackerman.
+
+"Now, that was all I heard," said Peter. "And I didn't know what it
+meant. But when I learned about that drawing that Mac had made of
+your house, I thought to myself, Jesus, I bet that was Mr. Ackerman
+he was waiting to shoot!"
+
+"Good God! Good God!" whispered the old man; and his trembling
+fingers pulled at the embroidery on the coverlet. The telephone
+rang, and he took up the receiver, and told somebody he was too busy
+now to talk; they would have to call him later. He had another
+coughing spell, so that Peter thought he was going to choke, and had
+to help him get some medicine down his throat. Peter was a little
+bit shocked to see such obvious and abject fear in one of the gods.
+After all, they were just men, these Olympians, as much subject to
+pain and death as Peter Gudge himself!
+
+Also Peter was surprised to find how "easy" Mr. Ackerman was. He
+made no lofty pretence of being indifferent to the Reds. He put
+himself at Peter's mercy, to be milked at Peter's convenience. And
+Peter would make the most of this opportunity.
+
+"Now, Mr. Ackerman," he began, "You can see it wouldn't be any use
+to tell things like that to the police. They dunno how to handle
+such a situation; the honest truth is, they don't take these Reds
+serious. They'll spend ten times as much money to catch a plain
+burglar as they will to watch a whole gang like this."
+
+"How can they have got into my home?" cried the old man.
+
+"They get in by ways you'd never dream of, Mr. Ackerman. They have
+people who agree with them. Why, you got no idea, there's some
+preachers that are Reds, and some college teachers, and some rich
+men like yourself."
+
+"I know, I know," said Ackerman. "But surely--"
+
+"How can you tell? You may have a traitor right in your own family."
+
+So Peter went on, spreading the Red Terror in the soul of this old
+millionaire who did not want to be killed. He said again that he did
+not want to be killed, and explained his reluctance in some detail.
+So many people were dependent upon him for their livings, Peter
+could have no conception of it! There were probably a hundred
+thousand men with their families right here in American City, whose
+jobs depended upon plans which Ackerman was carrying, and which
+nobody but Ackerman could possibly carry. Widows and orphans looked
+to him for protection of their funds; a vast net-work of
+responsibilities required his daily, even his hourly decisions. And
+sure enough, the telephone rang, and Peter heard Nelse Ackerman
+declare that the Amalgamated Securities Company would have to put
+off a decision about its dividends until tomorrow, because he was
+too busy to sign certain papers just then. He hung up the receiver
+and said: "You see, you see! I tell you, Gudge, we must not let them
+get me!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 53
+
+
+They came down to the question of practical plans, and Peter was
+ready with suggestions. In the first place, Mr. Ackerman must give
+no hint either to the police authorities or to Guffey that he was
+dissatisfied with their efforts. He must simply provide for an
+interview with Peter now and then, and he and Peter, quite
+privately, must take certain steps to get Mr. Ackerman that
+protection which his importance to the community made necessary. The
+first thing was to find out whether or not there was a traitor in
+Mr. Ackerman's home, and for that purpose there must be a spy, a
+first-class detective working in some capacity or other. The only
+trouble was, there were so few detectives you could trust; they were
+nearly all scoundrels, and if they weren't scoundrels, it was
+because they didn't have sense enough to be--they were boobs, and
+any Red could see thru them in five minutes.
+
+"But I tell you," said Peter, "what I've thought. I've got a wife
+that's a wonder, and just now while we were talking about it, I
+thought, if I could only get Edythe in here for a few days, I'd find
+out everything about all the people in your home, your relatives as
+well as your servants."
+
+"Is she a professional detective?" asked the banker.
+
+"Why no, sir," said Peter. "She was an actress, her name was Edythe
+Eustace; perhaps you might have heard of her on the stage."
+
+"No, I'm too busy for the theatre," said Mr. Ackerman.
+
+"Of course," said Peter. "Well, I dunno whether she'd be willing to
+do it; she don't like having me mix up with these Reds, and she's
+been begging me to quit for a long time, and I'd just about promised
+her I would. But if I tell her about your trouble maybe she might,
+just as a favor."
+
+But how could Peter's wife be introduced into the Ackerman household
+without attracting suspicion? Peter raised this question, pointing
+out that his wife was a person of too high a social class to come as
+a servant. Mr. Ackerman added that he had nothing to do with
+engaging his servants, any more than with engaging the bookkeepers
+in his bank. It would look suspicious for him to make a suggestion
+to his housekeeper. But finally he remarked that he had a niece who
+sometimes came to visit him, and would come at once if requested,
+and would bring Edythe Eustace as her maid. Peter was sure that
+Edythe would be able to learn this part quickly, she had acted it
+many times on the stage, in fact, it had been her favorite role. Mr.
+Ackerman promised to get word to his niece, and have her meet Edythe
+at the Hotel de Soto that same afternoon.
+
+Then the old banker pledged his word most solemnly that he would not
+whisper a hint about this matter except to his niece. Peter was most
+urgent and emphatic; he specified that the police were not to be
+told, that no member of the household was to be told, not even Mr.
+Ackerman's private secretary. After Mr. Ackerman had had this duly
+impressed upon him, he proceeded in turn to impress upon Peter the
+idea which he considered of most importance in the world: "I don't
+want to be killed, Gudge, I tell you I don't want to be killed!" And
+Peter solemnly promised to make it his business to listen to all
+conversations of the Reds in so far as they might bear upon Mr.
+Ackerman.
+
+When he rose to take his departure, Mr. Ackerman slipped his
+trembling fingers into the pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a
+crisp and shiny note. He unfolded it, and Peter saw that it was a
+five hundred dollar bill, fresh from the First National Bank of
+American City, of which Mr. Ackerman was chairman of the board of
+directors. "Here's a little present for you, Gudge," he said. "I
+want you to understand that if you protect me from these villains,
+I'll see that you are well taken care of. From now on I want you to
+be my man."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Peter, "I'll be it, sir. I thank you very much,
+sir." And he thrust the bill into his pocket, and bowed himself step
+by step backwards toward the door. "You're forgetting your hat,"
+said the banker.
+
+"Why, yes," said the trembling Peter, and he came forward again, and
+got his hat from under the chair, and bowed himself backward again.
+
+"And remember, Gudge," said the old man, "I don't want to be killed!
+I don't want them to get me!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 54
+
+
+Peter's first care when he got back into the city was to go to Mr.
+Ackerman's bank and change that five hundred dollar bill. The
+cashier gazed at him sternly, and scrutinized the bill carefully,
+but he gave Peter five one hundred dollar bills without comment.
+Peter tucked three of them away in a safe hiding-place, and put the
+other two in his pocketbook, and went to keep his appointment with
+Nell.
+
+He told her all that had happened, and where she was to meet Mr.
+Ackerman's niece. "What did he give you?" Nell demanded, at once,
+and when Peter produced the two bills, she exclaimed, "My God! the
+old skint-flint!" "He said there'd be more," remarked Peter.
+
+"It didn't cost him anything to say that," was Nell's answer. "We'll
+have to put the screws on him." Then she added, "You'd better let me
+take care of this money for you, Peter."
+
+"Well," said Peter, "I have to have some for my own expenses, you
+know."
+
+"You've got your salary, haven't you?"
+
+"Yes, that's true, but--"
+
+"I can keep it safe for you," said Nell, "and some day when you need
+it you'll be glad to have it. You've never saved anything yourself;
+that's a woman's job."
+
+Peter tried to haggle with her, but it wasn't the same as haggling
+with McGivney; she looked at him with her melting glances, and it
+made Peter's head swim, and automatically he put out his hand and
+let her take the two bills. Then she smiled, so tenderly that he
+made bold to remind her, "You know, Nell, you're my wife now!"
+
+"Yes, yes," she answered, "of course. But we've got to get rid of
+Ted Crothers somehow. He watches me all the time, and I have no end
+of trouble making excuses and getting away."
+
+"How're you're going to get rid of him?" asked Peter, hungrily.
+
+"We'll have to skip," she answered; "just as soon as we have pulled
+off our new frame-up--"
+
+"Another one?" gasped Peter, in dismay.
+
+And the girl laughed. "You wait!" she said. "I'm going to pull some
+real money out of Nelse Ackerman this time! Then when we've made our
+killing, we'll skip, and be fixed for life. You wait--and don't talk
+love to me now, because my mind is all taken up with my plans, and I
+can't think about anything else."
+
+So they parted, and Peter went to see McGivney in the American
+House. "Stand up to him!" Nell had said. But it was not easy to do,
+for McGivney pulled and hauled him and turned him about, upside down
+and inside outwards, to know every single thing that had happened
+between him and Nelse Ackerman. Lord, how these fellows did hang on
+to their sources of graft! Peter repeated and insisted that he
+really had played entirely fair--he hadn't told Nelse Ackerman a
+thing except just the truth as he had told it to Guffey and
+McGivney. He had said that the police were all right, and that
+Guffey's bureau was stepping right on the tail of the Reds all the
+time.
+
+"And what does he want you to do?" demanded the rat-faced man.
+
+Peter answered, "He just wanted to make sure that he was learning
+everything of importance, and he wanted me to promise him that he
+would get every scrap of information that I collected about the plot
+against him; and of course I promised him that we'd bring it all to
+him."
+
+"You going to see him any more?" demanded McGivney.
+
+"He didn't say anything about that."
+
+"Did he get your address?"
+
+"No, I suppose if he wants me he'll let you know, the same as
+before."
+
+"All right," said McGivney. "Did he give you any money?"
+
+"Yes," said Peter, "he gave me two hundred dollars, and he said
+there was plenty more where that came from, so that we'd work hard
+to help him. He said he didn't want to get killed; he said that a
+couple of dozen times, I guess. He spent more time saying that than
+anything else. He's sick, and he's scared out of his wits."
+
+So at last McGivney condescended to thank Peter for his
+faithfulness, and went on to give him further orders.
+
+The Reds were raising an awful howl. Andrews, the lawyer, had
+succeeded in getting a court order to see the arrested men, and of
+course the prisoners had all declared that the case was a put-up
+job. Now the Reds were preparing to send out a circular to their
+fellow Reds all over the country, appealing for publicity, and for
+funds to fight the "frame-up."
+
+They were very secret about it, and McGivney wanted to know where
+they were getting their money. He wanted a copy of the circular they
+were printing, and to know where and when the circulars were to be
+mailed. Guffey had been to see the post office authorities, and they
+were going to confiscate the circulars and destroy them all without
+letting the Reds know it.
+
+Peter rubbed his hands with glee. That was the real business! That
+was going after these criminals in the way Peter had been urging!
+The rat-faced man answered that it was nothing to what they were
+going to do in a few days. Let Peter keep on his job, and he would
+see! Now, when the public was wrought up over this dynamite
+conspiracy, was the time to get things done.
+
+
+
+
+Section 55
+
+
+Peter took a street car to the home of Miriam Yankovitch, and on the
+way he read the afternoon edition of the American City "Times." The
+editors of this paper were certainly after the Reds, and no mistake!
+They had taken McCormick's book on Sabotage, just as Nell had
+predicted, and printed whole chapters from it, with the most
+menacing sentences in big type, and some boxed up in little frames
+and scattered here and there over the page so that no one could
+possibly miss them. They had a picture of McCormick taken in the
+jail; he hadn't had a chance to shave for several days, and probably
+hadn't felt pleasant about having his picture taken--anyhow, he
+looked ferocious enough to frighten the most skeptical, and Peter
+was confirmed in his opinion that Mac was the most dangerous Red of
+them all.
+
+Columns and columns of material this paper published about the case,
+subtly linking it up with all the other dynamitings and
+assassinations in American history, and with German spy plots and
+bomb plots. There was a nation-wide organization of these assassins,
+so the paper said; they published hundreds of papers, with millions
+of readers, all financed by German gold. Also, there was a
+double-leaded editorial calling on the citizens to arise and save
+the republic, and put an end to the Red menace once for all. Peter
+read this, and like every other good American, he believed every
+word that he read in his newspaper, and boiled with hatred of the
+Reds.
+
+He found Miriam Yankovitch away from home. Her mother was in a state
+of excitement, because Miriam had got word that the police were
+giving the prisoners the "third degree," and she had gone to the
+offices of the Peoples' Council to get the radicals together and try
+to take some immediate action. So Peter hurried over to these
+offices, where he found some twenty-five Reds and Pacifists
+assembled, all in the same state of excitement. Miriam was walking
+up and down the room, clasping and unclasping her hands, and her
+eyes looked as if she had been crying all day. Peter remembered his
+suspicion that Miriam and Mac were lovers. He questioned her. They
+had put Mac in the "hole," and Henderson, the lumber-jack, was laid
+up in the hospital as a result of the ordeal he had undergone.
+
+The Jewish girl went into details, and Peter found himself
+shuddering--he had such a vivid memory of the third degree himself!
+He did not try to stop his shuddering, but took to pacing up and
+down the room like Miriam, and told them how it felt to have your
+wrists twisted and your fingers bent backward, and how damp and
+horrible it was in the "hole." So he helped to work them into a
+state of hysteria, hoping that they would commit some overt action,
+as McGivney wanted. Why not storm the jail and set free the
+prisoners?
+
+Little Ada Ruth said that was nonsense; but might they not get
+banners, and parade up and down in front of the jail, protesting
+against this torturing of men who had not been convicted of any
+crime? The police would fall on them, of course, the crowds would
+mob them and probably tear them to pieces, but they must do
+something. Donald Gordon answered that this would only make them
+impotent to keep up the agitation. What they must try to get was a
+strike of labor. They must send telegrams to the radical press, and
+go out and raise money, and call a mass-meeting three days from
+date. Also, they must appeal to all the labor unions, and see if it
+was possible to work up sentiment for a general strike.
+
+Peter, somewhat disappointed, went back and reported to McGivney
+this rather tame outcome. But McGivney said that was all right, he
+had something that would fix them; and he revealed to Peter a
+startling bit of news. Peter had been reading in the papers about
+German spies, but he had only half taken it seriously; the war was a
+long way off, and Peter had never seen any of that German gold that
+they talked so much about--in fact, the Reds were in a state of
+perpetual poverty, one and all of them stinting himself eternally to
+put up some portion of his scant earnings to pay for pamphlets and
+circulars and postage and defence funds, and all the expenses of an
+active propaganda organization. But now, McGivney declared, there
+was a real, sure-enough agent of the Kaiser in American City! The
+government had pretty nearly got him in his nets, and one of the
+things McGivney wanted to do before the fellow was arrested was to
+get him to contribute some money to the radical cause.
+
+It wasn't necessary to point out to Peter the importance of this. If
+the authorities could show that the agitation on behalf of McCormick
+and the rest had been financed by German money, the public would
+justify any measures taken to bring it to an end. Could Peter
+suggest to McGivney the name of a German Socialist who might be
+persuaded to approach this agent of the Kaiser, and get him to
+contribute money for the purpose of having a general strike called
+in American City? Several of the city's big manufacturing plants
+were being made over for war purposes, and obviously the enemy had
+much to gain by strikes and labor discontent. Guffey's men had been
+trying for a long time to get Germans to contribute to the Goober
+Defense fund, but here was an even better opportunity.
+
+Peter thought of Comrade Apfel, who was one of the extreme
+Socialists, and a temporary Pacifist like most Germans. Apfel worked
+in a bakery, and his face was as pasty as the dough he kneaded, but
+it would show a tinge of color when he rose in the local to denounce
+the "social patriots," those party members who were lending their
+aid to British plans for world domination. McGivney said he would
+send somebody to Apfel at once, and give him the name of the
+Kaiser's agent as one who might be induced to contribute to the
+radical defense fund. Apfel would, of course, have no idea that the
+man was a German agent; he would go to see him, and ask him for
+money, and McGivney and his fellow-sleuths would do the rest. Peter
+said that was fine, and offered to go to Apfel himself; but the
+rat-faced man answered no, Peter was too precious, and no chance
+must be taken of directing Apfel's suspicions against him.
+
+
+
+
+Section 56
+
+
+Peter had received a brief scrawl from Nell, telling him that it was
+all right, she had gone to her new job, and would soon have results.
+So Peter went cheerfully about his own duties of trying to hold down
+the protest campaign of the radicals. It was really quite
+terrifying, the success they were having, in spite of all the best
+efforts of the authorities. Bundles of circulars appeared at their
+gatherings as if by magic, and were carried away and distributed
+before the authorities could make any move. Every night at the Labor
+Temple, where the workers gathered, there were agitators howling
+their heads off about the McCormick case. To make matters worse,
+there was an obscure one cent evening paper in American City which
+catered to working-class readers, and persisted in publishing
+evidence tending to prove that the case was a "frame-up." The Reds
+had found out that their mail was being interfered with, and were
+raising a terrific howl about that--pretending, of course, that it
+was "free speech" they cared about!
+
+The mass meeting was due for that evening, and Peter read an
+indignant editorial in the American City "Times," calling upon the
+authorities to suppress it. "Down with the Red Flag!" the editorial
+was headed; and Peter couldn't see how any red-blooded, 100%
+American could read it, and not be moved to do something.
+
+Peter said that to McGivney, who answered: "We're going to do
+something; you wait!" And sure enough, that afternoon the papers
+carried the news that the mayor of American City had notified the
+owners of the Auditorium that they would be held strictly
+responsible under the law for all incendiary and seditious
+utterances at this meeting; thereupon, the owners of the Auditorium
+had cancelled the contract. Furthermore, the mayor declared that no
+crowds should be gathered on the street, and that the police would
+be there to see to it, and to protect law and order. Peter hurried
+to the rooms of the Peoples' Council, and found the radicals
+scurrying about, trying to find some other hall; every now and then
+Peter would go to the telephone, and let McGivney know what hall
+they were trying to get, and McGivney would communicate with Guffey,
+and Guffey would communicate with the secretary of the Chamber of
+Commerce, and the owner of this hall would be called up and warned
+by the president of the bank which held a mortgage on the hall, or
+by the chairman of the board of directors of the Philharmonic
+Orchestra which gave concerts there.
+
+So there was no Red mass meeting that night--and none for many a
+night thereafter in American City! Guffey's office had got its
+German spy story ready, and next morning, here was the entire front
+page of the American City "Times" given up to the amazing revelation
+that Karl von Stroeme, agent of the German government, and reputed
+to be a nephew of the German Vice-chancellor, had been arrested in
+American City, posing as a Swedish sewing-machine agent, but in
+reality having been occupied in financing the planting of dynamite
+bombs in the buildings of the Pioneer Foundry Company, now being
+equipped for the manufacture of machine-guns. Three of von Stroeme's
+confederates had been nabbed at the same time, and a mass of papers
+full of important revelations--not the least important among them
+being the fact that only yesterday von Stroeme had been caught
+dealing with a German Socialist of the ultra-Red variety, an
+official of the Bread and Cake-Makers' Union Number 479, by the name
+of Ernst Apfel. The government had a dictagraph record of
+conversations in which von Stroeme had contributed one hundred
+dollars to the Liberty Defense League, an organization which the
+Reds had got up for the purpose of carrying on agitation for the
+release of the I. W. W.s arrested in the dynamite plot against the
+life of Nelse Ackerman. Moreover it was proven that Apfel had taken
+this money and distributed it among several German Reds, who had
+turned it in to the defense fund, or used it in paying for circulars
+calling for a general strike.
+
+Peter's heart was leaping with excitement; and it leaped even faster
+when he had got his breakfast and was walking down Main Street. He
+saw crowds gathered, and American flags flying from all the
+buildings, just as on the day of the Preparedness parade. It caused
+Peter to feet queer spasms of fright; he imagined another bomb, but
+he couldn't resist the crowds with their eager faces and contagious
+enthusiasm. Presently here came a band, with magnificent martial
+music, and here came soldiers marching--tramp, tramp, tramp--line
+after line of khaki-clad boys with heavy packs upon their backs and
+shiny new rifles. Our boys! Our boys! God bless them!
+
+It was three regiments of the 223rd Division, coming from Camp
+Lincoln to be entrained for the war. They might better have been
+entrained at the camp, of course, but everyone had been clamoring
+for some glimpse of the soldiers, and here they were with their
+music and their flags, and their crowds of flushed, excited
+admirers--two endless lines of people, wild with patriotic fervor,
+shouting, singing, waving hats and handkerchiefs, until the whole
+street became a blur, a mad delirium. Peter saw these closely
+pressed lines, straight and true, and the legs that moved like
+clock-work, and the feet that shook the ground like thunder. He saw
+the fresh, boyish faces, grimly set and proud, with eyes fixed
+ahead, never turning, even tho they realized that this might be
+their last glimpse of their home city, that they might never come
+back from this journey. Our boys! Our boys! God bless them! Peter
+felt a choking in his throat, and a thrill of gratitude to the boys
+who were protecting him and his country; he clenched his hands and
+set his teeth, with fresh determination to punish the evil men and
+women--draft-dodgers, slackers, pacifists and seditionists--who were
+failing to take their part in this glorious emprise.
+
+
+
+
+Section 57
+
+
+Peter went to the American House and met McGivney, and was put to
+work on a job that precisely suited his mood. The time had come for
+action, said the rat-faced man. The executive committee of the I. W.
+W. local had been drafting an appeal to the main organization for
+help, and the executive committee was to meet that evening; Peter
+was to get in touch with the secretary, Grady, and find out where
+this meeting was to be, and make the suggestion that all the
+membership be gathered, and other Reds also. The business men of the
+city were going to pull off their big stroke that night, said
+McGivney; the younger members of the Chamber of Commerce and the
+Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association had got together and
+worked out a secret plan, and all they wanted was to have the Reds
+collected in one place.
+
+So Peter set out and found Shawn Grady, the young Irish boy who kept
+the membership lists and other papers of the organization, in a
+place so secret that not even Peter had been able to find them.
+Peter brought the latest news about the sufferings of Mac in the
+"hole," and how Gus, the sailor, had joined Henderson in the
+hospital. He was so eloquent in his indignation that presently Grady
+told him about the meeting for that evening, and about the place,
+and Peter said they really ought to get some of their friends
+together, and work out some way to get their protest literature
+distributed quickly, because it was evident they could no longer use
+the mails. What was the use of resolutions of executive committees,
+when what was wanted was action by the entire membership? Grady said
+all right, they would notify the active members and sympathizers,
+and he gave Peter the job of telephoning and travelling about town
+getting word to a dozen people.
+
+At six o'clock that evening Peter reported the results to McGivney,
+and then he got a shock. "You must go to that meeting yourself,"
+said the rat-faced man. "You mustn't take any chance of their
+suspecting you."
+
+"But, my God!" cried Peter. "What's going to happen there?"
+
+"You don't need to worry about that," answered the other. "I'll see
+that you're protected."
+
+The gathering was to take place at the home of Ada Ruth, the
+poetess, and McGivney had Peter describe this home to him. Beyond
+the living-room was a hallway, and in this hallway was a big clothes
+closet. At the first alarm Peter must make for this place. He must
+get into the closet, and McGivney would be on hand, and they would
+pen Peter up and pretend to club him, but in reality would protect
+him from whatever happened to the rest. Peter's knees began to
+tremble, and he denounced the idea indignantly; what would happen to
+him if anything were to happen to McGivney, or to his automobile,
+and were to fail to get there in time? McGivney declared that Peter
+need not worry--he was too valuable a man for them to take any
+chances with. McGivney would be there, and all Peter would have to
+do was to scream and raise a rumpus, and finally fall unconscious,
+and McGivney and Hammett and Cummings would carry him out to their
+automobile and take him away!
+
+Peter was so frightened that he couldn't eat any dinner, but
+wandered about the street talking to himself and screwing up his
+courage. He had to stop and look at the American flags, still waving
+from the buildings, and read the evening edition of the American
+City "Times," in order to work up his patriotic fervor again. As he
+set out for the home of the little cripple who wrote pacifist
+poetry, he really felt like the soldier boys marching away to war.
+
+Ada Ruth was there, and her mother, a dried-up old lady who knew
+nothing about all these dreadful world movements, but whose
+pleadings had no effect upon her inspired daughter; also Ada's
+cousin, a lean old-maid school teacher, secretary of the Peoples'
+Council; also Miriam Yankovitch, and Sadie Todd, and Donald Gordon.
+On the way Peter had met Tom Duggan, and the mournful poet revealed
+that he had composed a new poem about Mac in the "hole." Immediately
+afterwards came Grady, the secretary, his pockets stuffed with his
+papers. Grady, a tall, dark-eyed, impulsive-tempered Irish boy, was
+what the Socialists called a "Jimmie Higgins," that is, one of the
+fellows who did the hard and dreary work of the movement, who were
+always on hand no matter what happened, always ready to have some
+new responsibility put upon their shoulders. Grady had no use for
+the Socialists, being only interested in "industrial action," but he
+was willing to be called a "Jimmie Higgins"; he had said that Peter
+was one too, and Peter had smiled to himself, thinking that a
+"Jimmie Higgins" was about the last thing in the world he ever would
+be. Peter was on the way to independence and prosperity, and it did
+not occur to him to reflect that he might be a "Jimmie Higgins" to
+the "Whites" instead of to the Reds!
+
+Grady now pulled out his papers, and began to talk over with Donald
+Gordon the proceedings of the evening. He had had a telegram from
+the national headquarters of the I. W. W., promising support, and
+his thin, hungry face lighted up with pride as he showed this. Then
+he announced that "Bud" Connor was to be present--a well-known
+organizer, who had been up in the oil country with McCormick, and
+brought news that the workers there were on the verge of a big
+strike. Then came Mrs. Jennings, a poor, tormented little woman who
+was slowly dying of a cancer, and whose husband was suing her for
+divorce because she had given money to the I. W. W. With her, and
+helping her along, came "Andy" Adams, a big machinist, who had been
+kicked out of his lodge for talking too much "direct action." He
+pulled from his pocket a copy of the "Evening Telegraph," and read a
+few lines from an editorial, denouncing "direct action" as meaning
+dynamiting, which it didn't, of course, and asking how long it would
+be before the friends of law and order in American City would use a
+little "direct action" of their own.
+
+
+
+
+Section 58
+
+
+So they gathered, until about thirty were present, and then the
+meeting speedily got down to business. It was evident, said Grady,
+that the authorities had deliberately framed-up the dynamite
+conspiracy, in order to have an excuse for wiping out the I. W. W.
+organization; they had closed the hall, and confiscated everything,
+typewriters and office furniture and books--including a book on
+Sabotage which they had turned over to the editor of the "Evening
+Times"! There was a hiss of anger at this. Also, they had taken to
+interfering with the mail of the organization; the I. W. W. were
+having to get out their literature by express. They were fighting
+for their existence, and they must find some way of getting the
+truth to people. If anybody had any suggestions to make, now was the
+time.
+
+There came one suggestion after another; and meantime Peter sat as
+if his chair were full of pins. Why didn't they come--the younger
+members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' and
+Manufacturers' Association--and do what they were going to do
+without any further delay? Did they expect Peter to sit there all
+night, trembling with alarm--and he not having any dinner besides?
+
+Suddenly Peter gave a jump. Outside came a yell, and Donald Gordon,
+who was making a speech, stopped suddenly, and the members of the
+company stared at one another, and some sprang to their feet. There
+were more yells, rising to screams, and some of the company made for
+the front doors, and some for the back doors, and yet others for the
+windows and the staircase. Peter wasted no time, but dived into the
+clothes closet in the hallway back of the living-room, and got into
+the farthest corner of this closet, and pulled some of the clothes
+on top of him; and then, to make him safer yet, came several other
+people piling on top of him.
+
+From his place of refuge he listened to the confusion that reigned.
+The place was a bedlam of women's shrieks, and the curses of
+fighting men, and the crash of overturning furniture, and of clubs
+and monkey-wrenches on human heads. The younger members of the
+Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers'
+Association had come in sufficient force to make sure of their
+purpose. There were enough to crowd the room full, and to pack all
+the doorways, and two or three to guard each window, and a flying
+squadron to keep watch for anybody who jumped from the roof or tried
+to hide in the trees of the garden.
+
+Peter cowered, and listened to the furious uproar, and presently he
+heard the cries of those on top of him, and realized that they were
+being pulled off and clubbed; he felt hands reach down and grab him,
+and he cringed and cried in terror; but nothing happened to him, and
+presently he glanced up and he saw a man wearing a black mask, but
+easily to be recognized as McGivney. Never in all his life had Peter
+been gladder to see a human face than he was to see that masked face
+of a rat! McGivney had a club in his hand, and was dealing ferocious
+blows to the clothes heaped around Peter. Behind McGivney were
+Hammett and Cummings, covering the proceedings, and now and then
+carefully putting in a blow of their own.
+
+Most of the fighting inside the house and outside came quickly to an
+end, because everybody who fought was laid out or overpowered. Then
+several of the agents of Guffey, who had been studying these Reds
+for a year or two and knew them all, went about picking out the ones
+who were especially wanted, and searching them for arms, and then
+handcuffing them. One of these men approached Peter, who instantly
+fell unconscious, and closed his eyes; then Hammett caught him under
+the armpits and Cummings by the feet, and McGivney walked alongside
+as a bodyguard, remarking now and then, "We want this fellow, we'll
+take care of him."
+
+They carried Peter outside, and in the darkness he opened his eyes
+just enough to see that the street was lined with automobiles, and
+that the Reds were being loaded aboard. Peter's friends carried him
+to one car and drove him away, and then Peter returned to
+consciousness, and the four of them sat up and laughed to split
+their sides, and slapped one another on the back, and mentioned the
+satisfactory things they had seen. Had Hammett noticed that slice
+Grady had got over the eyes, and the way the blood had run all over
+him? Well, he wanted to be a Red--they had helped him be one--inside
+and out! Had McGivney noticed how "Buck" Ellis, one of their men,
+had put the nose of the hobo poet out of joint? And young Ogden, son
+of the president of the Chamber of Commerce, had certainly managed
+to show how he felt about these cattle, the female ones as well as
+the males; when that Yankovich slut had slapped his face, he had
+caught her by the breasts and nearly twisted them off, and she had
+screamed and fainted!
+
+Yes, they had cleaned them out. But that wasn't all of it, they were
+going to finish the job tonight, by God! They were going to give
+these pacifists a taste of the war, they were going to put an end to
+the Red Terror in American City! Peter might go along if he liked
+and see the good work; they were going into the country, and it
+would be dark, and if he kept a mask on he would be quite safe. And
+Peter said yes; his blood was up, he was full of the spirit of the
+hunt, he wanted to be in at the death, regardless of everything.
+
+
+
+
+Section 59
+
+
+The motor purred softly, and the car sped as if upon wings thru the
+suburbs of American City, and to the country beyond. There were cars
+in front, and other cars behind, a long stream of white lights
+flying out into the country. They came to a grove of big pine trees,
+which rose two or three feet thick, like church arches, and covered
+the ground beneath them with a soft, brown carpet. It was a
+well-known picnic place, and here all the cars were gathering by
+appointment. Evidently it had all been pre-arranged, with that
+efficiency which is the pride of 100% Americans. A man with a black
+mask over his face stood in the center of the grove, and shouted his
+directions thru a megaphone, and each car as it swept in ranged
+itself alongside the next car in a broad circle, more than a hundred
+feet across. These cars of the younger members of the Chamber of
+Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association were well
+behaved--they were accustomed to sliding precisely into place
+according to orders of a megaphone man, when receptions were being
+given, or when the younger members and their wives and
+fiancees, clad in soft silks and satins, came rolling up to
+their dinner-parties and dances.
+
+The cars came and came, until there was just room enough for the
+last one to slide in. Then at a shouted command, "Number one!" a
+group of men stepped out of one of the cars, dragging a handcuffed
+prisoner. It was Michael Dubin, the young Jewish tailor who had
+spent fifteen days in jail with Peter. Michael was a student and
+dreamer, and not used to scenes of violence; also, he belonged to a
+race which expresses its emotions, and consequently is offensive to
+100% Americans. He screamed and moaned while the masked men
+un-handcuffed him, and took off his coat and tore his shirt in the
+back. They dragged him to a tree in the center of the ring, a
+somewhat smaller tree, just right for his wrists to meet around and
+be handcuffed again. There he stood in the blinding glare of thirty
+or forty cars, writhing and moaning, while one of the black-masked
+men stripped off his coat and got ready for action. He produced a
+long black-snake whip, and stood poised for a moment; then in a
+booming voice the man with the megaphone shouted, "Go!" and the whip
+whistled thru the air and was laid across the back of Michael, and
+tore into the flesh so that the blood leaped into sight. There was a
+scream of anguish, and the victim began to twist and turn and kick
+about as if in his death-throes. Again the whip whistled, and again
+you heard the thud as it tore into the flesh, and another red stripe
+leaped to view.
+
+Now the younger members of the Chamber of Commerce and the
+Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association were in excellent
+condition for this evening's labor. They were not pale and thin,
+underfed and overworked, as were their prisoners; they were sleek
+and rosy, and ashine with health. It was as if long years ago their
+fathers had foreseen the Red menace, and the steps that would have
+to be taken to preserve 100% Americanism; the fathers had imported a
+game which consisted of knocking little white balls around a field
+with various styles and sizes of clubs. They had built magnificent
+club-houses out here in the suburbs, and had many hundreds of acres
+of ground laid out for this game, and would leave their occupations
+of merchanting and manufacturing early in the afternoon, in order to
+repair to these fields and keep their muscles in condition. They
+would hold tournaments, and vie with one another, and tell over the
+stories of the mighty strokes which they had made with their clubs,
+and of the hundreds of strokes they had made in a single afternoon.
+So the man with the black-snake whip was "fit," and didn't need to
+stop for breath. Stroke after stroke he laid on, with a splendid
+rhythmic motion; he kept it up easily, on and on. Had he forgotten?
+
+Did he think this was a little white ball he was swinging down upon?
+He kept on and on, until you could no longer count the welts, until
+the whole back of Michael Dubin was a mass of raw and bleeding
+flesh. The screams of Michael Dubin died away, and his convulsive
+struggling ceased, and his head hung limp, and he sunk lower and
+lower upon the tree.
+
+At last the master of ceremonies stepped forward and ordered a halt,
+and the man with the whip wiped the sweat from his forehead with his
+shirt-sleeve, and the other men unchained the body of Michael Dubin,
+and dragged it a few feet to one side and dumped it face downward in
+the pine-leaves.
+
+"Number two!" called the master of ceremonies, in a clear,
+compelling voice, as if he were calling the figures of a quadrille;
+and from another car another set of men emerged, dragging another
+prisoner. It was Bert Glikas, a "blanket-stiff" who was a member of
+the I. W. W.'s executive committee, and had had two teeth knocked
+out in a harvest-strike only a couple of weeks previously. While
+they were getting off his coat, he managed to get one hand free, and
+he shook it at the spectators behind the white lights of the
+automobiles. "God damn you!" he yelled; and so they tied him up, and
+a fresh man stepped forward and picked up the whip, and spit on his
+hands for good luck, and laid on with a double will; and at every
+stroke Glikas yelled a fresh curse; first in English, and then, as
+if he were delirious, in some foreign language. But at last his
+curses died away, and he too sank insensible, and was unhitched and
+dragged away and dumped down beside the first man. "Number three!"
+called the master of ceremonies.
+
+
+
+
+Section 60
+
+
+Now Peter was sitting in the back seat of his car, wearing the mask
+which McGivney had given him, a piece of cloth with two holes for
+his eyes and another hole for him to breathe thru. Peter hated these
+Reds, and wanted them punished, but he was not used to bloody
+sights, and was finding this endless thud, thud of the whip on human
+flesh rather more than he could stand. Why had he come? This wasn't
+his part of the job of saving his country from the Red menace. He
+had done his share in pointing out the dangerous ones; he was a man
+of brains, not a man of violence. Peter saw that the next victim was
+Tom Duggan with his broken and bloody nose, and in spite of himself,
+Peter started with dismay. He realized that without intending it he
+had become a little fond of Tom Duggan. For all his queerness,
+Duggan was loyal, he was a good fellow when you had got underneath
+his surly manners. He had never done anything except just to
+grumble, and to put his grumbles into verses; they were making a
+mistake in whipping him, and for a moment Peter had a crazy impulse
+to interfere and tell them so.
+
+The poet never made a sound. Peter got one glimpse of his face in
+the blazing white light, and in spite of the fact that it was
+smashed and bloody, Peter read Tom Duggan's resolve--he would die
+before they would get a moan out of him. Each time the lash fell you
+could see a quiver all over his form; but there was never a sound,
+and he stood, hugging the tree in a convulsive grip. They lashed him
+until the whip was spattering blood all over them, until blood was
+running to the ground. They had taken the precaution to bring along
+a doctor with a little black case, and he now stepped up and
+whispered to the master of ceremonies. They unfastened Duggan, and
+broke the grip of his arms about the tree, and dumped him down
+beside Glikas.
+
+Next came the turn of Donald Gordon, the Socialist Quaker, which
+brought a bit of cheap drama. Donald took his religion seriously; he
+was always shouting his anti-war sentiments in the name of Jesus,
+which made him especially obnoxious. Now he saw a chance to get off
+one of his theatrical stunts; he raised his two manacled hands into
+the air as if he were praying, and shouted in piercing tones:
+"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
+
+A murmur started in the crowd; you could hear it mounting to a roar.
+"Blasphemy!" they cried. "Stop his dirty mouth!" It was the same
+mouth that had been heard on a hundred platforms, denouncing the war
+and those who made money out of the war. They were here now, the men
+who had been denounced, the younger members of the Chamber of
+Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, the best
+people of the city, those who were saving the country, and charging
+no more than the service was worth. So they roared with fury at this
+sacreligious upstart. A man whose mask was a joke, because he was so
+burly and hearty that everybody in the crowd knew him, took up the
+bloody whip. It was Billy Nash, secretary of the "Improve America
+League," and the crowd shouted, "Go to it, Billy! Good eye, old
+boy!" Donald Gordon might tell God that Billy Nash didn't know what
+he was doing, but Billy thought that he knew, and he meant before he
+got thru to convince Donald that he knew. It didn't take very long,
+because there was nothing much to the young Quaker but voice, and he
+fainted at the fourth or fifth stroke, and after the twentieth
+stroke the doctor interfered.
+
+Then came the turn of Grady, secretary of the I. W. W., and here a
+terrible thing happened. Grady, watching this scene from one of the
+cars, had grown desperate, and when they loosed the handcuffs to get
+off his coat, he gave a sudden wrench and broke free, striking down
+one man after another. He had been brought up in the lumber country,
+and his strength was amazing, and before the crowd quite realized
+it, he was leaping between two of the cars. A dozen men sprang upon
+him from a dozen directions, and he went down in the midst of a wild
+melee. They pinned him with his face mashed into the dirt, and from
+the crowd there rose a roar as from wild beasts in the night-time,
+
+"String him up! String him up!" One man came running with a rope,
+shouting, "Hang him!"
+
+The master of ceremonies tried to protest thru his megaphone, but
+the instrument was knocked out of his hands, and he was hauled to
+one side, and presently there was a man climbing up the pine tree
+and hanging the rope over a limb. You could not see Grady for the
+jostling throng about him, but suddenly there was a yell from the
+crowd, and you saw him quite plainly--he shot high up into the air,
+with the rope about his neck and his feet kicking wildly.
+Underneath, men danced about and yelled and waved their hats in the
+air, and one man leaped up and caught one of the kicking feet and
+hung onto it.
+
+Then, above all the din, a voice was heard thru the megaphone, "Let
+him down a bit! Let me get at him!" And those who held the rope gave
+way, and the body came down toward the ground, still kicking, and a
+man took out a clasp-knife, and cut the clothing away from the body,
+and cut off something from the body; there was another yell from the
+crowd, and the men in the automobiles slapped their knees and
+shrieked with satisfaction. Those in the car with Peter whispered
+that it was Ogden, son of the president of the Chamber of Commerce;
+and all over town next day and for weeks thereafter men would nudge
+one another, and whisper about what Bob Ogden had done to the body
+of Shawn Grady, secretary of the "damned wobblies." And every one
+who nudged and whispered about it felt certain that by this means
+the Red Terror had been forever suppressed, and 100% Americanism
+vindicated, and a peaceful solution of the problem of capital and
+labor made certain.
+
+Strange as it might seem, there was one member of the I. W. W. who
+agreed with them. One of the victims of that night had learned his
+lesson! When Tom Duggan was able to sit up again, which was six
+weeks later, he wrote an article about his experience, which was
+published in an I. W. W. paper, and afterwards in pamphlet form was
+read by many hundreds of thousands of workingmen. In it the poet
+said:
+
+"The preamble of the I. W. W. opens with the statement that the
+employing class and the working class have nothing in common; but on
+this occasion I learned that the preamble is mistaken. On this
+occasion I saw one thing in common between the employing class and
+the working class, and that thing was a black-snake whip. The butt
+end of the whip was in the hands of the employing class, and the
+lash of the whip was on the backs of the working class, and thus to
+all eternity was symbolized the truth about the relationship of the
+classes!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 61
+
+
+Peter awoke next morning with a vivid sense of the pain and terror
+of life. He had been clamoring to have those Reds punished; but
+somehow or other he had thought of this punishment in an abstract
+way, a thing you could attend to by a wave of the hand. He hadn't
+quite realized the physical side of it, what a messy and bloody job
+it would prove. Two hours and more he had listened to the thud of a
+whip on human flesh, and each separate stroke had been a blow upon
+his own nerves. Peter had an overdose of vengeance; and now, the
+morning after, his conscience was gnawing at him. He had known every
+one of those boys, and their faces rose up to haunt him. What had
+any of them done to deserve such treatment? Could he say that he had
+ever known a single one of them to do anything as violent as the
+thing they had all suffered?
+
+But more than anything else Peter was troubled by fear. Peter, the
+ant, perceived the conflict of the giants becoming more ferocious,
+and realized the precariousness of his position under the giants'
+feet. The passions of both sides were mounting, and the fiercer
+their hate became, the greater the chance of Peter's being
+discovered, the more dreadful his fate if he were discovered. It was
+all very well for McGivney to assure him that only four of Guffey's
+men knew the truth, and that all these might be trusted to the
+death. Peter remembered a remark he had heard Shawn Grady make, and
+which had caused him to lose his appetite for more than one meal.
+"They've got spies among us," the young Irishman had said. "Well,
+sooner or later we'll do a bit of spying of our own!"
+
+And now these words came back to Peter like a voice from the grave.
+Suppose one of the Reds who had money were to hire somebody to get a
+job in Guffey's office! Suppose some Red girl were to try Peter's
+device, and seduce one of Guffey's men--by no means a difficult
+task! The man mightn't even mean to reveal that Peter Gudge was a
+secret agent; he might just let it slip, as little Jennie had let
+slip the truth about Jack Ibbetts! Thus Mac would know who had
+framed him up; and what would Mac do to Peter when he got out on
+bail? When Peter thought of things like that he realized what it
+meant to go to war; he saw that he had gained nothing by staying at
+home, he might as well have been in the front-line trenches! After
+all, this was war, class-war; and in all war the penalty for spying
+is death.
+
+Also Peter was worried about Nell. She had been in her new position
+for nearly a week, and he hadn't heard a word from her. She had
+forbidden him to write, for fear he might write something
+injudicious. Let him just wait, Edythe Eustace would know how to
+take care of herself. And that was all right, Peter had no doubt
+about the ability of Edythe Eustace to take care of herself. What
+troubled him was the knowledge that she was working on another
+"frame-up," and he stood in fear of the exuberance of her
+imagination. The last time that imagination had been pregnant, it
+had presented him with a suit-case full of dynamite. What it might
+bring forth next time he did not know, and was afraid to think. Nell
+might cause him to be found out by Guffey; and that would be nearly
+as horrible as to be found out by Mac!
+
+Peter got his morning "Times," and found a whole page about the
+whipping of the Reds, portraying the job as a patriotic duty
+heroically performed; and that naturally cheered Peter up
+considerably. He turned to the editorial page, and read a two column
+"leader" that was one whoop of exultation. It served still more to
+cure Peter's ache of conscience; and when he read on and found a
+series of interviews with leading citizens, giving cordial
+endorsement to the acts of the "vigilantes," Peter became ashamed of
+his weakness, and glad that he had not revealed it to anyone. Peter
+was trying his best to become a real "he-man," a 100% red-blooded
+American, and he had the "Times" twice each day, morning and
+evening, to guide, sustain and inspire him.
+
+Peter had been told by McGivney to fix himself up and pose as one of
+the martyrs of the night's affair, and this appealed to his sense of
+humor. He cut off the hair from a part of his head, and stuck some
+raw cotton on top, and plastered it over with surgical tape. He
+stuck another big wad of surgical tape across his forehead, and a
+criss-cross of it on his cheek, and tied up his wrist in an
+excellent imitation of a sprain. Thus rigged out he repaired to the
+American House, and McGivney rewarded him with a hearty laugh, and
+then proceeded to give some instructions which, entirely restored
+Peter's usual freshness of soul. Peter was going up on Mount Olympus
+again!
+
+The rat-faced man explained in detail. There was a lady of great
+wealth--indeed, she was said to be several times a millionaire--who
+was an openly avowed Red, a pacifist of the most malignant variety.
+Since the arrest of young Lackman she had come forward and put up
+funds to finance the "People's Council," and the "Anti-Conscription
+League," and all the other activities which for the sake of
+convenience were described by the term "pro-German." The only
+trouble was this lady was so extremely wealthy it was hard to do
+anything to her. Her husband was a director in a couple of Nelse
+Ackerman's banks, and had other powerful connections. The husband
+was a violent, anti-Socialist, and a buyer of liberty bonds; he
+quarrelled with his wife, but nevertheless he did not want to see
+her in jail, and this made an embarrassing situation for the police
+and the district attorney's office, and even for the Federal
+authorities, who naturally did not want to trouble one of the
+courtiers of the king of American City. "But something's got to be
+done," said McGivney. "This camouflaged German propaganda can't go
+on." So Peter was to try to draw Mrs. Godd into some kind of "overt
+action."
+
+"Mrs. Godd?" said Peter. It seemed to him a singular coincidence
+that one of the dwellers on Mount Olympus should bear that name. The
+great lady lived on a hilltop out in the suburbs, not so far from
+the hilltop of Nelse Ackerman. One of the adventures looked forward
+to by Reds and pacifists in distress was to make a pilgrimage to
+this palace and obtain some long, green plasters to put over their
+wounds. Now was the time at all times for Peter to go, said
+McGivney. Peter had many wounds to be plastered, and Mrs. Godd would
+be indignant at the proceedings of last night, and would no doubt
+express herself without restraint.
+
+
+
+
+Section 62
+
+
+Peter hadn't been so excited since the time when he had waited to
+meet young Lackman. He had never quite forgiven himself for this
+costly failure, and now he was to have another chance. He took a
+trolley ride out into the country, and walked a couple of miles to
+the palace on the hilltop, and mounted thru a grove of trees and
+magnificent Italian gardens. According to McGivney's injunctions, he
+summoned his courage, and went to the front door of the stately
+mansion and rang the bell.
+
+Peter was hot and dusty from his long walk, the sweat had made
+streaks down his face and marred the pristine whiteness of his
+plasters. He was never a distinguished-looking person at best, and
+now, holding his damaged straw hat in his hands, he looked not so
+far from a hobo. However, the French maid who came to the door was
+evidently accustomed to strange-looking visitors. She didn't order
+Peter to the servant's entrance, nor threaten him with the dogs; she
+merely said, "Be seated, please. I will tell madame"--putting the
+accent on the second syllable, where Peter had never heard it
+before.
+
+And presently here came Mrs. Godd in her cloud of Olympian
+beneficence; a large and ample lady, especially built for the role
+of divinity. Peter felt suddenly awe-stricken. How had he dared come
+here? Neither in the Hotel de Soto, with its many divinities, nor in
+the palace of Nelse Ackerman, the king, had he felt such a sense of
+his own lowliness as the sight of this calm, slow-moving great lady
+inspired. She was the embodiment of opulence, she was "the real
+thing." Despite the look of kindliness in her wide-open blue eyes,
+she impressed him with a feeling of her overwhelming superiority. He
+did not know it was his duty as a gentleman to rise from his chair
+when a lady entered, but some instinct brought him to his feet and
+caused him to stand blinking as she crossed to him from the opposite
+end of the big room.
+
+"How do you do?" she said in a low, full voice, gazing at him
+steadily out of the kind, wide-open blue eyes. Peter stammered, "How
+d-dy do, M--Mrs. Godd."
+
+In truth, Peter was almost dumb with bewilderment. Could it really,
+possibly be that this grand personage was a Red? One of the things
+that had most offended him about all radicals was their noisiness,
+their aggressiveness; but here was a grand serenity of looks and
+manner, a soft, slow voice--here was beauty, too, a skin unlined,
+despite middle years, and glowing with health and a fine cleanness.
+Nell Doolin had had a glowing complexion, but there was always a lot
+of powder stuck on, and when you investigated closely, as Peter had
+done, you discovered muddy spots in the edges of her hair and on her
+throat. But Mrs. Godd's skin shone just as the skin of a goddess
+would be expected to shine, and everything about her was of a divine
+and compelling opulence. Peter could not have explained just what it
+was that gave this last impression so overwhelmingly. It was not
+that she wore many jewels, or large ones, for Mrs. James had beaten
+her at that; it was not her delicate perfume, for Nell Doolin
+scattered more sweetness on the air; yet somehow even poor, ignorant
+Peter felt the difference--it seemed to him that none of Mrs. Godd's
+costly garments had ever been worn before, that the costly rugs on
+the floor had never been stepped on before, the very chair on which
+he sat had never been sat on before!
+
+Little Ada Ruth had called Mrs. Godd "the mother of all the world;"
+and now suddenly she became the mother of Peter Gudge. She had read
+the papers that morning, she had received a half dozen telephone
+calls from horrified and indignant Reds, and so a few words sufficed
+to explain to her the meaning of Peter's bandages and plasters. She
+held out to him a beautiful cool hand, and quite without warning,
+tears sprang into the great blue eyes.
+
+"Oh, you are one of those poor boys! Thank God they did not kill
+you!" And she led him to a soft couch and made him lie down amid
+silken pillows. Peter's dream of Mount Olympus had come literally
+true! It occurred to him that if Mrs. Godd were willing to play
+permanently the role of mother to Peter Gudge, he would be willing
+to give up his role of anti-Red agent with its perils and its
+nervous strains; he would forget duty, forget the world's strife and
+care; he would join the lotus-eaters, the sippers of nectar on Mount
+Olympus!
+
+She sat and talked to him in the soft, gentle voice, and the kind
+blue eyes watched him, and Peter thought that never in all his life
+had he encountered such heavenly emotions. To be sure, when he had
+gone to see Miriam Yankovich, old Mrs. Yankovich had been just as
+kind, and tears of sympathy had come into her eyes just the same.
+But then, Mrs. Yankovich was nothing but a fat old Jewess, who lived
+in a tenement and smelt of laundry soap and partly completed
+washing; her hands had been hot and slimy, and so Peter had not been
+in the least grateful for her kindness. But to encounter tender
+emotions in these celestial regions, to be talked to maternally and
+confidentially by this wonderful Mrs. Godd in soft white chiffons
+just out of a band-box _this _was quite another matter!
+
+
+
+
+Section 63
+
+
+Peter did not want to set traps for this mother of Mount Olympus, he
+didn't want to worm any secrets from her. And as it happened, he
+found that he did not have to, because she told him everything right
+away, and without the slightest hesitation. She talked just as the
+"wobblies" had talked in their headquarters; and Peter, when he
+thought it over, realized that there are two kinds of people who can
+afford to be frank in their utterance--those who have nothing to
+lose, and those who have so much to lose that they cannot possibly
+lose it.
+
+Mrs. Godd said that what had been done to those men last night was a
+crime, and it ought to be punished if ever a crime was punished, and
+that she would like to engage detectives and get evidence against
+the guilty ones. She said furthermore that she sympathized with the
+Reds of the very reddest shade, and if there were any color redder
+than Red she would be of that color. She said all this in her quiet,
+soft voice. Tears came into her eyes now and then, but they were
+well-behaved tears, they disappeared of their own accord, and
+without any injury to Mrs. Godd's complexion, or any apparent effect
+upon her self-possession.
+
+Mrs. Godd said that she didn't see how anybody could fail to be a
+Red who thought about the injustices of present-day society. Only a
+few days before she had been in to see the district attorney, and
+had tried to make a Red out of him! Then she told Peter how there
+had come to see her a man who had pretended to be a radical, but she
+had realized that he didn't know anything about radicalism, and had
+told him she was sure he was a government agent. The man had finally
+admitted it, and showed her his gold star--and then Mrs. Godd had
+set to work to convert him! She had argued with him for an hour or
+two, and then had invited him to go to the opera with her. "And do
+you know," said Mrs. Godd, in an injured tone, "he wouldn't go! They
+don't want to be converted, those men; they don't want to listen to
+reason. I believe the man was actually afraid I might influence
+him."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," put in Peter, sympathetically; for he was a
+tiny bit afraid himself.
+
+"I said to him, `Here I live in this palace, and back in the
+industrial quarter of the city are several thousand men and women
+who slave at machines for me all day, and now, since the war, all
+night too. I get the profits of these peoples' toil--and what have I
+done to earn it? Absolutely nothing! I never did a stroke of useful
+work in my life.' And he said to me, `Suppose the dividends were to
+stop, what would you do?' 'I don't know what I'd do,' I answered,
+`I'd be miserable, of course, because I hate poverty, I couldn't
+stand it, it's terrible to think of--not to have comfort and
+cleanliness and security. I don't see how the working-class stand
+it--that's exactly why I'm a Red, I know it's wrong for anyone to be
+poor, and there's no excuse for it. So I shall help to overthrow the
+capitalist system, even if it means I have to take in washing for my
+living!"
+
+Peter sat watching her in the crisp freshness of her snowy chiffons.
+The words brought a horrible image to his mind; he suddenly found
+himself back in the tenement kitchen, where fat and steaming Mrs.
+Yankovich was laboring elbow deep in soap-suds. It was on the tip of
+Peter's tongue to say: "If you really had done a day's washing, Mrs.
+Godd, you wouldn't talk like that!"
+
+But he remembered that he must play the game, so he said, "They're
+terrible fellows, them Federal agents. It was two of them pounded me
+over the head last night." And then he looked faint and pitiful, and
+Mrs. Godd was sympathetic again, and moved to more recklessness of
+utterance.
+
+"It's because of this hideous war!" she declared. "We've gone to war
+to make the world safe for democracy, and meantime we have to
+sacrifice every bit of democracy at home. They tell you that you
+must hold your peace while they murder one another, but they may try
+all they please, they'll never be able to silence me! I know that
+the Allies are just as much to blame as the Germans, I know that
+this is a war of profiteers and bankers; they may take my sons and
+force them into the army, but they cannot take my convictions and
+force them into their army. I am a pacifist, and I am an
+internationalist; I want to see the workers arise and turn out of
+office these capitalist governments, and put an end to this hideous
+slaughter of human beings. I intend to go on saying that so long as
+I live." There sat Mrs. Godd, with her lovely firm white hands
+clasped as if in prayer, one large diamond ring on the left fourth
+finger shining defiance, and a look of calm, child-like conviction
+upon her face, confronting in her imagination all the federal agents
+and district attorneys and capitalist judges and statesmen and
+generals and drill sergeants in the civilized world.
+
+She went on to tell how she had attended the trial of three pacifist
+clergymen a week or two previously. How atrocious that Christians in
+a Christian country should be sent to prison for trying to repeat
+the words of Christ! "I was so indignant," declared Mrs. Godd, "that
+I wrote a letter to the judge. My husband said I would be committing
+contempt of court by writing to a judge during the trial, but I
+answered that my contempt for that court was beyond anything I could
+put into writing. Wait--"
+
+And Mrs. Godd rose gravely from her chair and went over to a desk by
+the wall, and got a copy of the letter. "I'll read it to you," she
+said, and Peter listened to a manifesto of Olympian Bolshevism--
+
+To His Honor:
+
+As I entered the sanctuary, I gazed upward to the stained glass
+dome, upon which were inscribed four words: Peace. Justice. Truth.
+Law--and I felt hopeful. Before me were men who had violated no
+constitutional right, who had not the slightest criminal tendency,
+who, were opposed to violence of every kind.
+
+The trial proceeded. I looked again at the beautiful stained glass
+dome, and whispered to myself those majestic-sounding words: "Peace.
+Justice. Truth. Law." I listened to the prosecutors; the Law in
+their hands was a hard, sharp, cruel blade, seeking insistently,
+relentlessly for a weak spot in the armor of its victims. I listened
+to their Truth, and it was Falsehood. Their Peace was a cruel and
+bloody War. Their justice was a net to catch the victims at any
+cost--at the cost of all things but the glory of the Prosecutor's
+office.
+
+I grew sick at heart. I can only ask myself the old, old question:
+What can we, the people do? How can we bring Peace, justice, Truth
+and Law to the world? Must we go on bended knees and ask our public
+servants to see that justice is done to the defenceless, rather than
+this eternal prosecuting of the world's noblest souls! You will find
+these men guilty, and sentence them to be shut behind iron
+bars--which should never be for human beings, no matter what their
+crime, unless you want to make beasts of them. Is that your object,
+sir? It would seem so; and so I say that we must overturn the system
+that is brutalizing, rather than helping and uplifting mankind.
+
+Yours for Peace..Justice..Truth..Law--
+
+Mary Angelica Godd.
+
+What were you going to do with such a woman? Peter could understand
+the bewilderment of His Honor, and of the district attorney's
+office, and of the secret service department of the Traction
+Trust--as well as of Mrs. Godd's husband! Peter was bewildered
+himself; what was the use of his coming out here to get more
+information, when Mrs. Godd had already committed contempt of court
+in writing, and had given all the information there was to give to a
+Federal agent? She had told this man that she had contributed
+several thousand dollars to the Peoples' Council, and that she
+intended to contribute more. She had put up bail for a whole bunch
+of Reds and Pacifists, and she intended to put up bail for McCormick
+and his friends, just as soon as the corrupt capitalist courts had
+been forced to admit them to bail. "I know McCormick well, and he's
+a lovely boy," she said. "I don't believe he had anything more to do
+with dynamite bombs than I have."
+
+Now all this time Peter had sat there, entirely under the spell of
+Mrs. Godd's opulence. Peter was dwelling among the lotus-eaters, and
+forgetting the world's strife and care; he was reclining on a silken
+couch, sipping nectar with the shining ones of Mount Olympus. But
+now suddenly, Peter was brought back to duty, as one wakes from a
+dream to the sound of an alarm-clock. Mrs. Godd was a friend of
+Mac's, Mrs. Godd proposed to get Mac out on bail! Mac, the most
+dangerous Red of them all! Peter saw that he must get something on
+this woman at once!
+
+
+
+
+Section 64
+
+
+Peter sat up suddenly among his silken cushions, and began to tell
+Mrs. Godd about the new plan of the Anti-conscription League, to
+prepare a set of instructions for young conscientious objectors.
+Peter represented the purpose of these instructions to be the
+advising of young men as to their legal and constitutional rights.
+But it was McGivney's idea that Peter should slip into the
+instructions some phrase advising the young men to refuse military
+duty; if this were printed and circulated, it would render every
+member of the Anti-conscription League liable to a sentence of ten
+or twenty years in jail. McGivney had warned Peter to be very
+cautious about this, but again Peter found that there was no need of
+caution. Mrs. Godd was perfectly willing to advise young men to
+refuse military service. She had advised many such, she said,
+including her own sons, who unfortunately agreed with their father
+in being blood-thirsty.
+
+It came to be lunch-time, and Mrs. Godd asked if Peter could sit at
+table--and Peter's curiosity got the better of all caution. He
+wanted to see the Godd family sipping their nectar out of golden
+cups. He wondered, would the disapproving husband and the
+blood-thirsty sons be present?
+
+There was nobody present but an elderly woman companion, and Peter
+did not see any golden cups. But he saw some fine china, so fragile
+that he was afraid to touch it, and he saw a row of silver
+implements, so heavy that it gave him a surprise each time he picked
+one up. Also, he saw foods prepared in strange and complicated ways,
+so chopped up and covered with sauces that it was literally true he
+couldn't give the name of a single thing he had eaten, except the
+buttered toast.
+
+He was inwardly quaking with embarrassment during this meal, but he
+saved himself by Mrs. James's formula, to watch and see what the
+others were doing and then do likewise. Each time a new course was
+brought, Peter would wait, and when he saw Mrs. Godd pick up a
+certain fork or a certain spoon, he would pick up the same one, or
+as near to it as he could guess. He could put his whole mind on
+this, because he didn't have to do any talking; Mrs. Godd poured out
+a steady stream of sedition and high treason, and all Peter had to
+do was to listen and nod. Mrs. Godd would understand that his mouth
+was too full for utterance.
+
+After the luncheon they went out on the broad veranda which
+overlooked a magnificent landscape. The hostess got Peter settled in
+a soft porch chair with many cushions, and then waved her hand
+toward the view of the city with its haze of thick black smoke.
+
+"That's where my wage slaves toil to earn my dividends," said she.
+"They're supposed to stay there--in their `place,' as it's called,
+and I stay here in my place. If they want to change places, it's
+called `revolution,' and that is `violence.' What I marvel at is
+that they use so little violence, and feel so little. Look at those
+men being tortured in jail! Could anyone blame them if they used
+violence? Or if they made an effort to escape?"
+
+That suggested a swift, stabbing idea to Peter. Suppose Mrs. Godd
+could be induced to help in a jail delivery!
+
+"It might be possible to help them to escape," he suggested.
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Mrs. Godd, showing excitement for the
+first time during that interview.
+
+"It might be," said Peter. "Those jailors are not above taking
+bribes, you know. I met nearly all of them while I was in that jail,
+and I think I might get in touch with one or two that could be paid.
+Would you like me to try it?"
+
+"Well, I don't know--" began the lady, hesitatingly. "Do you really
+think--"
+
+"You know they never ought to have been put in at all!" Peter
+interjected.
+
+"That's certainly true!" declared Mrs. Godd.
+
+"And if they could escape without hurting anyone, if they didn't
+have to fight the jailors, it wouldn't do any real harm--"
+
+That was as far as Peter got with his impromptu conspiracy. Suddenly
+he heard a voice behind him: "What does this mean?" It was a male
+voice, fierce and trembling with anger; and Peter started from his
+silken cushions, and glanced around, thrusting up one arm with the
+defensive gesture of a person who has been beaten since earliest
+childhood.
+
+Bearing down on him was a man; possibly he was not an abnormally big
+man, but certainly he looked so to Peter. His smooth-shaven face was
+pink with anger, his brows gathered in a terrible frown, and his
+hands clenched with deadly significance. "You dirty little skunk!"
+he hissed. "You infernal young sneak!"
+
+"John!" cried Mrs. Godd, imperiously; but she might as well have
+cried to an advancing thunder-storm. The man made a leap upon Peter,
+and Peter, who had dodged many hundreds of blows in his lifetime,
+rolled off the lounging chair, and leaped to his feet, and started
+for the stairs of the veranda. The man was right behind him, and as
+Peter reached the first stair the man's foot shot out, and caught
+Peter fairly in the seat of his trousers, and the first stair was
+the only one of the ten or twelve stairs of the veranda that Peter
+touched in his descent.
+
+Landing at the bottom, he did not stop even for a glance; he could
+hear the snorting of Mr. Godd, it seemed right behind his ear, and
+Peter ran down the driveway as he had seldom run in his life before.
+Every now and then Mr. Godd would shoot out another kick, but he had
+to stop slightly to do this, and Peter gained just enough to keep
+the kicks from reaching him. So at last the pursuer gave up, and
+Peter dashed thru the gates of the Godd estate and onto the main
+highway.
+
+Then he looked over his shoulder, and seeing that Mr. Godd was a
+safe distance away, he stopped and turned and shook his clenched
+fist with the menace of a street-rat, shrieking, "Damn you! Damn
+you!" A whirlwind of impotent rage laid hold upon him. He shouted
+more curses and menaces, and among them some strange, some almost
+incredible words. "Yes, I'm a Red, damn your soul, and I'll stay a
+Red!"
+
+Yes, Peter Gudge, the friend of law and order, Peter Gudge, the
+little brother to the rich, shouted, "I'm a Red, and what's more,
+we'll blow you up some day for this--Mac and me'll put a bomb under
+you!" Mr. Godd turned and stalked with contemptuous dignity back to
+his own private domestic controversy.
+
+Peter walked off down the road, rubbing his sore trousers and
+sobbing to himself. Yes, Peter understood now exactly how the Reds
+felt. Here were these rich parasites, exploiting the labor of
+working men and living off in palaces by themselves--and what had
+they done to earn it? What would they ever do for the poor man,
+except to despise him, and to kick him in the seat of his trousers?
+They were a set of wilful brutes! Peter suddenly saw the happenings
+of last night from a new angle, and wished he had all the younger
+members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' and
+Manufacturers' Association right there along with Mr. Godd, so that
+he could bundle them all off to the devil at once.
+
+And that was no passing mood either. The seat of Peter's trousers
+hurt so that he could hardly endure the trolley ride home, and all
+the way Peter was plotting how he could punish Mr. Godd. He
+remembered suddenly that Mr. Godd was an associate of Nelse
+Ackerman; and Peter now had a spy in Nelse Ackerman's home, and was
+preparing some kind of a "frame-up!" Peter would see if he couldn't
+find some way to start a dynamite conspiracy against Mr. Godd! He
+would start a campaign against Mr. Godd in the radical movement, and
+maybe he could find some way to get a bunch of the "wobblies" to
+carry him off and tie him up and beat him with a black-snake whip!
+
+
+
+
+Section 65
+
+
+With these reflections Peter went back to the American House, where
+McGivney had promised to meet him that evening. Peter went to Room
+427, and being tired after the previous night's excitement, he lay
+down and fell fast asleep. And when again he opened his eyes, he
+wasn't sure whether it was a nightmare, or whether he had died in
+his sleep and gone to hell with Mr. Godd. Somebody was shaking him,
+and bidding him in a gruff voice, "Wake up!" Peter opened his eyes,
+and saw that it was McGivney; and that was all right, it was natural
+that McGivney should be waking him up. But what was this? McGivney's
+voice was angry, McGivney's face was dark and glowering, and--most
+incredible circumstance of all--McGivney had a revolver in his hand,
+and was pointing it into Peter's face!
+
+It really made it much harder for Peter to get awake, because he
+couldn't believe that he was awake; also it made it harder for
+McGivney to get any sense out of him, because his jaw hung down, and
+he stared with terrified eyes into the muzzle of the revolver.
+
+"M-m-my God, Mr. McGivney! w-w-what's the matter?"
+
+"Get up here!" hissed the rat-faced man, and he added a vile name.
+He gripped Peter by the lapel of his coat and half jerked him to his
+feet, still keeping the muzzle of the revolver in Peter's face. And
+poor Peter, trying desperately to get his wits together, thought of
+half a dozen wild guesses one after another. Could it be that
+McGivney had heard him denouncing Mr. Godd and proclaiming himself a
+Red? Could it be that some of the Reds had framed up something on
+Peter? Could it be that McGivney had gone just plain crazy; that
+Peter was in the room with a maniac armed with a revolver?
+
+"Where did you put that money I gave you the other day;" demanded
+McGivney, and added some more vile names.
+
+Instantly, of course, Peter was on the defensive. No matter how
+frightened he might be, Peter would never fail to hang on to his
+money.
+
+"I-I s-s-spent it, Mr. McGivney."
+
+"You're lying to me!"
+
+"N-n-no."
+
+"Tell me where you put that money!" insisted the man, and his face
+was ugly with anger, and the muzzle of the revolver seemed to be
+trembling with anger. Peter started to insist that he had spent
+every cent. "Make him cough up, Hammett!" said McGivney; and Peter
+for the first time realized that there was another man in the room.
+His eyes had been so fascinated by the muzzle of the revolver that
+he hadn't taken a glance about.
+
+Hammett was a big fellow, and he strode up to Peter and grabbed one
+of Peter's arms, and twisted it around behind Peter's back and up
+between Peter's shoulders. When Peter started to scream, Hammett
+clapped his other hand over his mouth, and so Peter knew that it was
+all up. He could not hold on to money at that cost. When McGivney
+asked him, "Will you tell me where it is?" Peter nodded, and tried
+to answer thru his nose.
+
+So Hammett took his hand from his mouth. "Where is it?" And Peter
+replied, "In my right shoe."
+
+Hammett unlaced the shoe and took it off, and pulled out the inside
+sole, and underneath was a little flat package wrapped in tissue
+paper, and inside the tissue paper was the thousand dollars that
+McGivney had given Peter, and also the three hundred dollars which
+Peter had saved from Nelse Ackerman's present, and two hundred
+dollars which he had saved from his salary. Hammett counted the
+money, and McGivney stuck it into his pocket, and then he commanded
+Peter to put on his shoe again. Peter obeyed with his trembling
+fingers, meantime keeping his eye in part on the revolver and in
+part on the face of the rat.
+
+"W-w-what's the matter, Mr. McGivney?"
+
+"You'll find out in time," was the answer. "Now, you march
+downstairs, and remember, I've got this gun on you, and there's
+eight bullets in it, and if you move a finger I'll put them all into
+you."
+
+So Peter and McGivney and Hammett went down in the elevator of the
+hotel, and out of doors, and into an automobile. Hammett drove, and
+Peter sat in the rear seat with McGivney, who had the revolver in
+his coat pocket, his finger always on the trigger and the muzzle
+always pointed into Peter's middle. So Peter obeyed all orders
+promptly, and stopped asking questions because he found he could get
+no answers.
+
+Meantime he was using his terrified wits on the problem. The best
+guess he could make was that Guffey had decided to believe Joe
+Angell's story instead of Peter's. But then, why all this gun-play,
+this movie stuff? Peter gave up in despair; and it was just as well,
+for what had happened lay entirely beyond the guessing power of
+Peter's mind or any other mind.
+
+
+
+
+Section 66
+
+
+They went to the office of the secret service department of the
+Traction Trust, a place where Peter had never been allowed to come
+hitherto. It was on the fourteenth floor of the Merchant's Trust
+Building, and the sign on the door read: "The American City Land &
+Investment Company. Walk In." When you walked in, you saw a
+conventional real estate office, and it was only when you had
+penetrated several doors that you came to the secret rooms where
+Guffey and his staff conducted the espionage work of the big
+business interests of the city.
+
+Peter was hustled into one of these rooms, and there stood Guffey;
+and the instant Guffey saw him, he bore down upon him, shaking his
+fist. "You stinking puppy!" he exclaimed. "You miserable little
+whelp! You dirty, sneaking hound!" He added a number of other
+descriptive phrases taken from the vocabulary of the kennel.
+
+Peter's knees were shaking, his teeth were chattering, and he
+watched every motion of Guffey's angry fingers, and every grimace of
+Guffey's angry features. Peter had been fully prepared for the most
+horrible torture he had experienced yet; but gradually he realized
+that he wasn't going to be tortured, he was only going to be scolded
+and raged at, and no words could describe the wave of relief in his
+soul. In the course of his street-rat's life Peter had been called
+more names than Guffey could think of if he spent the next month
+trying. If all Guffey was going to do was to pace up and down the
+room, and shake his fist under Peter's nose every time he passed
+him, and compare him with every kind of a domestic animal, Peter
+could stand it all night without a murmur.
+
+He stopped trying to find out what it was that had happened, because
+he saw that this only drove Guffey to fresh fits of exasperation.
+Guffey didn't want to talk to Peter, he didn't want to hear the
+sound of Peter's whining gutter-pup's voice. All he wanted was to
+pour out his rage, and have Peter listen in abject abasement, and
+this Peter did. But meantime, of course, Peter's wits were working
+at high speed, he was trying to pick up hints as to what the devil
+it could mean. One thing was quite clear--the damage, whatever it
+was, was done; the jig was up, it was all over but the funeral. They
+had taken Peter's money to pay for the funeral, and that was all
+they hoped to get out of him.
+
+Gradually came other hints. "So you thought you were going into
+business on your own!" snarled Guffey, and his fist, which was under
+Peter's nose, gave an upward poke that almost dislocated Peter's
+neck.
+
+"Aha!" thought Peter. "Nelse Ackerman has given me away!"
+
+"You thought you were going to make your fortune and retire for life
+on your income!"
+
+Yes, that was it, surely! But what could Nelse Ackerman have told
+that was so very bad?
+
+"You were going to have a spy of your own, set up your own bureau,
+and kick me out, perhaps!"
+
+"My God!" thought Peter. "Who told that?"
+
+Then suddenly Guffey stopped in front of him. "Was that what you
+thought?" he demanded. He repeated the question, and it appeared
+that he really wanted an answer, and so Peter stammered, "N-n-no,
+sir." But evidently the answer didn't suit Guffey, for he grabbed
+Peter's nose and gave it a tweak that brought the tears into his
+eyes.
+
+"What was it then?" A nasty sneer came on the head detective's
+face, and he laughed at Peter with a laugh of venomous contempt. "I
+suppose you thought she really loved you! Was it that? You thought
+she really loved you?" And McGivney and Hammett and Guffey ha-ha-ed
+together, and to Peter it seemed like the mockery of demons in the
+undermost pit of hell. Those words brought every pillar of Peter's
+dream castle tumbling in ruins about his ears. Guffey had found out
+about Nell!
+
+Again and again on the automobile ride to Guffey's office Peter had
+reminded himself of Nell's command, "Stick it out, Peter! Stick it
+out!" He had meant to stick it out in spite of everything; but now
+in a flash he saw that all was lost. How could he stick it out when
+they knew about Nell, and when Nell, herself, was no longer sticking
+it out?
+
+Guffey saw these thoughts plainly written in Peter's face, and his
+sneer turned into a snarl. "So you think you'll tell me the truth
+now, do you? Well, it happens there's nothing left to tell!"
+
+Again he turned and began pacing up and down the room. The pressure
+of rage inside him was so great that it took still more time to work
+it off. But finally the head detective sat down at his desk, and
+opened the drawer and took out a paper. "I see you're sitting there,
+trying to think up some new lie to tell me," said he. And Peter did
+not try to deny it, because any kind of denial only caused a fresh
+access of rage. "All right," Guffey said, "I'll read you this, and
+you can see just where you stand, and just how many kinds of a boob
+you are."
+
+So he started to read the letter; and before Peter had heard one
+sentence, he knew this was a letter from Nell, and he knew that the
+castle of his dreams was flat in the dust forever. The ruins of
+Sargon and Nineveh were not more hopelessly flat!
+
+"Dear Mr. Guffey," read the letter, "I am sorry to throw you down,
+but fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money, and we all get tired
+of work and need a rest. This is to tell you that Ted Crothers has
+just broke into Nelse Ackerman's safe in his home, and we have got
+some liberty bonds and some jewels which we guess to be worth fifty
+thousand dollars, and you know Ted is a good judge of jewels.
+
+"Now of course you will find out that I was working in Mr.
+Ackerman's home and you will be after me hot-foot, so I might as
+well tell you about it, and tell you it won't do you any good to
+catch us, because we have got all the inside dope on the Goober
+frame-up, and everything else your bureau has been pulling off in
+American City for the last year. You can ask Peter Gudge and he'll
+tell you. It was Peter and me that fixed up that dynamite
+conspiracy, but you mustn't blame Peter, because he only did what I
+told him to do. He hasn't got sense enough to be really dangerous,
+and he will make you a perfectly good agent if you treat him kind
+and keep him away from the women. You can do that easy enough if you
+don't let him get any money, because of course he's nothing much on
+looks, and the women would never bother with him if you didn't pay
+him too much.
+
+"Now Peter will tell you how we framed up that dynamite job, and of
+course you wouldn't want that to get known to the Reds, and you may
+be sure that if Ted and me get pinched, we'll find some way to let
+the Reds know all about it. If you keep quiet we'll never say a
+word, and you've got a perfectly good dynamite conspiracy, with all
+the evidence you need to put the Reds out of business, and you can
+just figure it cost you fifty thousand dollars, and it was cheap at
+the price, because Nelse Ackerman has paid a whole lot more for your
+work, and you never got anything half as big as this. I know you'll
+be mad when you read this, but think it over and keep your shirt on.
+I send it to you by messenger so you can get hold of Nelse Ackerman
+right quick, and have him not say anything to the police; because
+you know how it is--if those babies find it out, it will get to the
+Reds and the newspapers, and it'll be all over town and do a lot of
+harm to your frame-up. And you know after those Reds have got beaten
+up and Shawn Grady lynched, you wouldn't like to have any rumor get
+out that that dynamite was planted by your own people. Ted and me
+will keep out of sight, and we won't sell the jewels for a while,
+and everything will be all right.
+
+"Yours respectfully,
+
+"Edythe.
+
+"P. S. It really ain't Peter's fault that he's silly about women,
+and he would have worked for you all right if it hadn't been for my
+good looks!"
+
+
+
+
+Section 67
+
+
+So there it was. When Peter had heard this letter, he understood
+that there was no more to be said, and he said it. His own weight
+had suddenly become more than he could support, and he saw a chair
+nearby and slipped into it, and sat with eyes of abject misery
+roaming from Guffey to McGivney, and from McGivney to Hammett, and
+then back to Guffey again.
+
+The head detective, for all his anger, was a practical man; he could
+not have managed the very important and confidential work of the
+Traction Trust if he had not been. So now he proceeded to get down
+to business. Peter would please tell him everything about that
+dynamite frame-up; just how they had managed it and just who knew
+about it. And Peter, being also a practical man, knew that there was
+no use trying to hide anything. He told the story from beginning to
+end, taking particular pains to make clear that he and Nell alone
+were in the secret---except that beyond doubt Nell had told her
+lover, Ted Crothers. It was probably Crothers that got the dynamite.
+From the conversation that ensued Peter gathered that this young man
+with the face of a bull-dog was one of the very fanciest
+safecrackers in the country, and no doubt he was the real brains of
+the conspiracy; he had put Nell up to it, and managed every step.
+Suddenly Peter remembered all the kisses which Nell had given him in
+the park, and he found a blush of shame stealing over him. Yes,
+there was no doubt about it, he was a boob where women were
+concerned!
+
+Peter began to plead for himself, Really it wasn't his fault because
+Nell had got a hold on him. In the Temple of Jimjambo, when he was
+only a kid, he had been desperately in love with her. She was not
+only beautiful, she was so smart; she was the smartest woman he had
+ever known. McGivney remarked that she had been playing with Peter
+even then--she had been in Guffey's pay at that time, collecting
+evidence to put Pashtian el Kalandra in jail and break up the cult
+of Eleutherinian Exoticism. She had done many such jobs for the
+secret service of the Traction Trust, while Peter was still
+traveling around with Pericles Priam selling patent medicine. Nell
+had been used by Guffey to seduce a prominent labor leader in
+American City; she had got him caught in a hotel room with her, and
+thus had broken the back of the biggest labor strike ever known in
+the city's history.
+
+Peter felt suddenly that he had a good defense. Of course a woman
+like that had been too much for him! It was Guffey's own fault if he
+hired people like that and turned them loose! It suddenly dawned on
+Peter--Nell must have found out that he, Peter, was going to meet
+young Lackman in the Hotel de Soto, and she must have gone there
+deliberately to ensnare him. When McGivney admitted that that was
+possibly true, Peter felt that he had a case, and proceeded to urge
+it with eloquence. He had been a fool, of course, every kind of fool
+there was, and he hadn't a word to say for himself; but he had
+learned his lesson and learned it thoroughly. No more women for him,
+and no more high life, and if Mr. Guffey would give him another
+chance--
+
+Guffey, of course, snorted at him. He wouldn't have a pudding-head
+like Peter Gudge within ten miles of his office! But Peter only
+pleaded the more abjectly. He really did know the Reds thoroughly,
+and where could Mr. Guffey find anybody that knew them as well? The
+Reds all trusted him; he was a real martyr--look at the plasters all
+over him now! And he had just added another Red laurel to his
+brow--he had been to see Mrs. Godd, and had had the seat of his
+trousers kicked by Mr. Godd, and of course he could tell that story,
+and maybe he could catch some Reds in a conspiracy against Mr. Godd.
+Anyhow, they had that perfectly good case against McCormick and the
+rest of the I. W. Ws. And now that things had gone so far, surely
+they couldn't back down on that case! All that was necessary was to
+explain matters to Mr. Ackerman--
+
+Peter realized that this was an unfortunate remark. Guffey was on
+his feet again, pacing up and down the room, calling Peter the names
+of all the barnyard animals, and incidentally revealing that he had
+already had an interview with Mr. Ackerman, and that Mr. Ackerman
+was not disposed to receive amicably the news that the secret
+service bureau which he had been financing, and which was supposed
+to be protecting him, had been the means of introducing into his
+home a couple of high-class criminals who had cracked his safe and
+made off with jewels that they guessed were worth fifty thousand
+dollars, but that Mr. Ackerman claimed were worth eighty-five
+thousand dollars. Peter was informed that he might thank his lucky
+stars that Guffey didn't shut him in the hole for the balance of his
+life, or take him into a dungeon and pull him to pieces inch by
+inch. As it was, all he had to do was to get himself out of Guffey's
+office, and take himself to hell by the quickest route he could
+find. "Go on!" said Guffey. "I mean it, get out!"
+
+And so Peter got to his feet and started unsteadily toward the door.
+He was thinking to himself: "Shall I threaten them? Shall I say I'll
+go over to the Reds and tell what I know?" No, he had better not do
+that; the least hint of that might cause Guffey to put him in the
+hole! But then, how was it possible for Guffey to let him go, to
+take a chance of his telling? Right now, Guffey must be thinking to
+himself that Peter might go away, and in a fit of rage or of despair
+might let out the truth to one of the Reds, and then everything
+would be ruined forever. No, surely Guffey would not take such a
+chance! Peter walked very slowly to the door, he opened the door
+reluctantly, he stood there, holding on as if he were too weak to
+keep his balance; he waited--waited--
+
+And sure enough, Guffey spoke. "Come back here, you mut!" And Peter
+turned and started towards the head detective, stretching out his
+hands in a gesture of submission; if it had been in an Eastern
+country, he would have fallen on his knees and struck his forehead
+three times in the dust. "Please, please, Mr. Guffey!" he wailed.
+"Give me another chance!"
+
+"If I put you to work again," snarled Guffey, "will you do what I
+tell you, and not what you want to do yourself?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Mr. Guffey."
+
+"You'll do no more frame-ups but my frame-ups?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Mr. Guffey."
+
+"All right, then, I'll give you one more chance. But by God, if I
+find you so much as winking at another girl, I'll pull your eye
+teeth out!"
+
+And Peter's heart leaped with relief. "Oh, thank you, thank you, Mr.
+Guffey!"
+
+"I'll pay you twenty dollars a week, and no more," said Guffey.
+"You're worth more, but I can't trust you with money, and you can
+take it or leave it."
+
+"That'll be perfectly satisfactory, Mr. Guffey," said Peter.
+
+
+
+
+Section 68
+
+
+So there was the end of high life for Peter Gudge. He moved no more
+in the celestial circles of Mount Olympus. He never again saw the
+Chinese butler of Mr. Ackerman, nor the French parlor-maid of Mrs.
+Godd. He would no more be smiled at by the two hundred and
+twenty-four boy angels of the ceiling of the Hotel de Soto lobby.
+Peter would eat his meals now seated on a stool in front of a lunch
+counter, he would really be the humble proletarian, the "Jimmie
+Higgins" of his role. He put behind him bright dreams of an
+accumulated competence, and settled down to the hard day's work of
+cultivating the acquaintance of agitators, visiting their homes and
+watching their activities, getting samples of the literature they
+were circulating, stealing their letters and address-books and
+note-books, and taking all these to Room 427 of the American House.
+
+These were busy times just now. In spite of the whippings and the
+lynchings and the jailings--or perhaps because of these very
+things--the radical movement was seething. The I. W. Ws. had
+reorganized secretly, and were accumulating a defense fund for their
+prisoners; also, the Socialists of all shades of red and pink were
+busy, and the labor men had never ceased their agitation over the
+Goober case. Just now they were redoubling their activities, because
+Mrs. Goober was being tried for her life. Over in Russia a mob of
+Anarchists had made a demonstration in front of the American
+Legation, because of the mistreatment of a man they called "Guba."
+At any rate, that was the way the news came over the cables, and the
+news-distributing associations of the country had been so successful
+in keeping the Goober case from becoming known that the editors of
+the New York papers really did not know any better, and printed the
+name as it came, "Guba!" which of course gave the radicals a fine
+chance to laugh at them, and say, how much they cared about labor!
+
+The extreme Reds seemed to have everything their own way in Russia.
+Late in the fall they overthrew the Russian government, and took
+control of the country, and proceeded to make peace with Germany;
+which put the Allies in a frightful predicament, and introduced a
+new word into the popular vocabulary, the dread word "Bolshevik."
+After that, if a man suggested municipal ownership of ice-wagons,
+all you had to do was to call him a "Bolshevik" and he was done for.
+
+However, the extremists replied to this campaign of abuse by taking
+up the name and wearing it as a badge. The Socialist local of
+American City adopted amid a storm of applause a resolution to call
+itself the "Bolshevik local," and the "left-wingers" had everything
+their own way for a time. The leader in this wing was a man named
+Herbert Ashton, editor of the American City "Clarion," the party's
+paper. A newspaper-man, lean, sallow, and incredibly bitter, Ashton
+apparently had spent all his life studying the intrigues of
+international capital, and one never heard an argument advanced that
+he was not ready with an answer. He saw the war as a struggle
+between the old established commercialism of Great Britain, whose
+government he described as "a gigantic trading corporation," and the
+newly arisen and more aggressive commercialism of Germany.
+
+Ashton would take the formulas of the war propagandists and treat
+them as a terrier treats a rat. So this was a war for democracy! The
+bankers of Paris had for the last twenty years been subsidizing the
+Russian Tsars, who had shipped a hundred thousand exiles to Siberia
+to make the world safe for democracy! The British Empire also had
+gone to war for democracy--first in Ireland, then in India and
+Egypt, then in the Whitechapel slums! No, said Ashton, the workers
+were not to be fooled with such bunk. Wall Street had loaned some
+billions of dollars to the Allied bankers, and now the American
+people were asked to shed their blood to make the world safe for
+those loans!
+
+Peter had been urging McGivney to put an end to this sort of
+agitation, and now the rat-faced man told him that the time for
+action had come. There was to be a big mass meeting to celebrate the
+Bolshevik revolution, and McGivney warned Peter to keep out of sight
+at that meeting, because there might be some clubbing. Peter left
+off his red badge, and the button with the clasped hands and went up
+into the gallery and lost himself in the crowd. He saw a great many
+"bulls" whom he knew scattered thru the audience, and also he saw
+the Chief of Police and the head of the city's detective bureau.
+When Herbert Ashton was half way thru his tirade, the Chief strode
+up to the platform and ordered him under arrest, and a score of
+policemen put themselves between the prisoner and the howling
+audience.
+
+Altogether they arrested seven people; and next morning, when they
+saw how much enthusiasm their action had awakened in the newspapers,
+they decided to go farther yet. A dozen of Guffey's men, with
+another dozen from the District Attorney's office, raided the office
+of Ashton's paper, the "Clarion," kicked the editorial staff
+downstairs or threw them out of the windows, and proceeded to smash
+the typewriters and the printing presses, and to carry off the
+subscription lists and burn a ton or two of "literature" in the back
+yard. Also they raided the headquarters of the "Bolshevik local,"
+and placed the seven members of the executive committee under
+arrest, and the judge fixed the bail of each of them at twenty-five
+thousand dollars, and every day for a week or two the American City
+"Times" would send a man around to Guffey's office, and Guffey would
+furnish him with a mass of material which Peter had prepared,
+showing that the Socialist program was one of terrorism and murder.
+
+Almost every day now Peter rendered some such service to his
+country. He discovered where the I. W. W. had hidden a printing
+press with which they were getting out circulars and leaflets, and
+this place was raided, and the press confiscated, and half a dozen
+more agitators thrown into jail. These men declared a hunger strike,
+and tried to starve themselves to death as a protest against the
+beatings they got; and then some hysterical women met in the home of
+Ada Ruth, and drew up a circular of protest, and Peter kept track of
+the mailing of this circular, and all the copies were confiscated in
+the post-office, and so one more conspiracy was foiled. They now had
+several men at work in the post-office, secretly opening the mail of
+the agitators; and every now and then they would issue an order
+forbidding mail to be delivered to persons whose ideas were not
+sound.
+
+Also the post-office department cancelled the second class mailing
+privileges of the "Clarion," and later it barred the paper from the
+mails entirely. A couple of "comrades" with automobiles then took up
+the work of delivering the paper in the nearby towns; so Peter was
+sent to get acquainted with these fellows, and in the night time
+some of Guffey's men entered the garage, and fixed one of the cars
+so that its steering gear went wrong and very nearly broke the
+driver's neck. So yet another conspiracy was foiled!
+
+
+
+
+Section 69
+
+
+Peter was really happy now, because the authorities were thoroughly
+roused, and when he brought them new facts, he had the satisfaction
+of seeing something done about it. Ostensibly the action was taken
+by the Federal agents, or by the District Attorney's office, or by
+the city police and detectives; but Peter knew that it was always
+himself and the rest of Guffey's agents, pulling the wires behind
+the scenes. Guffey had the money, he was working for the men who
+really counted in American City; Guffey was the real boss. And all
+over the country it was the same; the Reds were being put out of
+business by the secret agents of the Chambers of Commerce and the
+Merchants' and Manufacturers' Associations, and the "Improve America
+League," and such like camouflaged organizations.
+
+They had everything their own way, because the country was at war,
+the war excitement was blazing like a prairie fire all over the
+land, and all you had to do was to call a man a pro-German or a
+Bolshevik, and to be sufficiently excited about it, and you could
+get a mob together and go to his home and horsewhip him or tar and
+feather him or lynch him. For years the big business men had been
+hating the agitators, and now at last they had their chance, and in
+every town, in every shop and mill and mine they had some Peter
+Gudge at work, a "Jimmie Higgins" of the "Whites," engaged in spying
+and "snooping" upon the "Jimmie Higgins" of the "Reds." Everywhere
+they had Guffeys and McGivneys to direct these activities, and they
+had "strong arm men," with guns on their hips and deputy sheriffs'
+and other badges inside their coats, giving them unlimited right to
+protect the country from traitors.
+
+There were three or four million men in the training camps, and
+every week great convoys were sent out from the Eastern ports,
+loaded with troops for "over there." Billions of dollars worth of
+munitions and supplies were going, and all the yearnings and
+patriotic fervors of the country were likewise going "over there."
+Peter read more speeches and sermons and editorials, and was proud
+and glad, knowing that he was taking his humble part in the great
+adventure. When he read that the biggest captains of industry and
+finance were selling their services to the government for the sum of
+one dollar a year, how could he complain, who was getting twenty
+dollars every week? When some of the Reds in their meetings or in
+their "literature" declared that these captains of industry and
+finance were the heads of companies which were charging the
+government enormous prices and making anywhere from three to ten
+times the profits they had made before the war--then Peter would
+know that he was listening to an extremely dangerous Bolshevik; he
+would take the name of the man to McGivney, and McGivney would pull
+his secret wires, and the man would suddenly find himself out of a
+job--or maybe being prosecuted by the health department of the city
+for having set out a garbage can without a cover.
+
+After persistent agitation, the radicals had succeeded in persuading
+a judge to let out McCormick and the rest of the conspirators on
+fifty thousand dollars bail apiece. That was most exasperating to
+Peter, because it was obvious that when you put a Red into jail, you
+made him a martyr to the rest of the Reds you made him conspicuous
+to the whole community, and then if you let him out again, his
+speaking and agitating were ten times as effective as before. Either
+you ought to keep an agitator in jail for good, or else you ought
+not put him in at all. But the judges didn't see that--their heads
+were full of a lot of legal bunk, and they let David Andrews and the
+other Red lawyers hood-wink them. Herbert Ashton and his Socialist
+crowd also got out on bail, and the "Clarion" was still published
+and openly sold on the news-stands. While it didn't dare oppose the
+war any more, it printed every impolite thing it could possibly
+collect about the "gigantic trading corporation" known as the
+British Government, and also about the "French bankers" and the
+"Italian imperialists." It clamored for democracy for Ireland and
+Egypt and India, and shamelessly defended the Bolsheviki, those
+pro-German conspirators and nationalizers of women.
+
+So Peter proceeded to collect more evidence against the "Clarion"
+staff, and against the I. W. Ws. Presently he read the good news
+that the government had arrested a couple of hundred of the I. W. W.
+leaders all over the country, and also the national leaders of the
+Socialists, and was going to try them all for conspiracy. Then came
+the trial of McCormick and Henderson and Gus and the rest; and Peter
+picked up his "Times" one morning, and read on the front page some
+news that caused him to gasp. Joe Angell, one of the leaders in the
+dynamite conspiracy, had turned state's evidence! He had revealed to
+the District Attorney, not only the part which he himself had played
+in the plan to dynamite Nelse Ackerman's home, but he had told
+everything that the others had done--just how the dynamite had been
+got and prepared, and the names of all the leading citizens of the
+community who were to share Nelse Ackerman's fate! Peter read, on
+and on, breathless with wonder, and when he got thru with the story
+he rolled back on his bed and laughed out loud. By heck, that was
+the limit! Peter had framed a frame-up on Guffey's man, and of
+course Guffey couldn't send this man to prison; so he had had him
+turn state's evidence, and was letting him go free, as his reward
+for telling on the others!
+
+The court calendars were now crowded with "espionage" cases;
+pacifist clergymen who had tried to preach sermons, and
+labor leaders who had tried to call strikes; members of the
+Anti-conscription League and their pupils, the draft-dodgers and
+slackers; Anarchists and Communists and Quakers, I. W. Ws., and
+Socialists and "Russellites." There were several trials going on all
+the time, and in almost every case Peter had a finger, Peter was
+called on to get this bit of evidence, or to investigate that juror,
+or to prepare some little job against a witness for the defense.
+Peter was wrapped up in the fate of each case, and each conviction
+was a personal triumph. As there was always a conviction, Peter
+began to swell up again with patriotic fervor, and the memory of
+Nell Doolin and Ted Crothers slipped far into the background. When
+"Mac" and his fellow dynamiters were sentenced to twenty years
+apiece, Peter felt that he had atoned for all his sins, and he
+ventured timidly to point out to McGivney that the cost of living
+was going up all the time, and that he had kept his promise not to
+wink at a woman for six months. McGivney said all right, they would
+raise him to thirty dollars a week.
+
+
+
+
+Section 70
+
+
+Of course Peter's statement to McGivney had not been literally true.
+He had winked at a number of women, but the trouble was none had
+returned his wink. First he had made friendly advances toward Miriam
+Yankovich, who was buxom and not bad looking; but Miriam's thoughts
+were evidently all with McCormick in jail; and then, after her
+experience with Bob Ogden, Miriam had to go to a hospital, and of
+course Peter didn't want to fool with an invalid. He made himself
+agreeable to others of the Red girls, and they seemed to like him;
+they treated him as a good comrade, but somehow they did not seem to
+act up to McGivney's theories of "free love." So Peter made up his
+mind that he would find him a girl who was not a Red. It would give
+him a little relief now and then, a little fun. The Reds seldom had
+any fun--their idea of an adventure was to get off in a room by
+themselves and sing the International or the Red Flag in whispers,
+so the police couldn't hear them.
+
+It was Saturday afternoon, and Peter went to a clothing store kept
+by a Socialist, and bought himself a new hat and a new suit of
+clothes on credit. Then he went out on the street, and saw a neat
+little girl going into a picture-show, and followed her, and they
+struck up an acquaintance and had supper together. She was what
+Peter called a "swell dresser," and it transpired that she worked in
+a manicure parlor. Her idea of fun corresponded to Peter's, and
+Peter spent all the money he had that Saturday evening, and made up
+his mind that if he could get something new on the Reds in the
+course of the week, he would strike McGivney for forty dollars.
+
+Next morning was Easter Sunday, and Peter met his manicurist by
+appointment, and they went for a stroll on Park Avenue, which was
+the aristocratic street of American City and the scene of the
+"Easter parade." It was war time, and many of the houses had flags
+out, and many of the men were in uniform, and all of the sermons
+dealt with martial themes. Christ, it appeared, was risen
+again to make the world safe for democracy, and to establish
+self-determination for all people; and Peter and Miss Frisbie both
+had on their best clothes, and watched the crowds in the "Easter
+parade," and Miss Frisbie studied the costumes and make-up of the
+ladies, and picked up scraps of their conversation and whispered
+them to Peter, and made Peter feel that he was back on Mount Olympus
+again.
+
+They turned into one of the swell Park Avenue churches; the Church
+of the Divine Compassion it was called, and it was very "high," with
+candles and incense--althogh you could hardly smell the incense on
+this occasion for the scent of the Easter lilies and the ladies.
+Peter and his friend were escorted to one of the leather covered
+pews, and they heard the Rev. de Willoughby Stotterbridge, a famous
+pulpit orator, deliver one of those patriotic sermons which were
+quoted in the "Times" almost every Monday morning. The Rev. de
+Willoughby Stotterbridge quoted some Old Testament text about
+exterminating the enemies of the Lord, and he sang the triumph of
+American arms, and the overwhelming superiority of American
+munitions. He denounced the Bolsheviks and all other traitors, and
+called for their instant suppression; he didn't say that he had
+actually been among the crowd which had horse-whipped the I. W. Ws.
+and smashed the printing presses and typewriters of the Socialists,
+but he made it unmistakably clear that that was what he wanted, and
+Peter's bosom swelled with happy pride. It was something to a man to
+know that he was serving his country and keeping the old flag
+waving; but it was still more to know that he was enlisted in the
+service of the Almighty, that Heaven and all its hosts were on his
+side, and that everything he had done had the sanction of the
+Almighty's divinely ordained minister, speaking in the Almighty's
+holy temple, in the midst of stained-glass windows and brightly
+burning candles and the ravishing odor of incense, and of Easter
+lilies and of mignonette and lavender in the handkerchiefs of
+delicately gowned and exquisite ladies from Mount Olympus. This, to
+be sure, was mixing mythologies, but Peter's education had been
+neglected in his youth, and Peter could not be blamed for taking the
+great ones of the earth as they were, and believing what they taught
+him.
+
+The white robed choir marched out, and the music of "Onward
+Christian Soldiers" faded away, and Peter and his lady went out from
+the Church of the Divine Compassion, and strolled on the avenue
+again, and when they had sufficiently filled their nostrils with the
+sweet odors of snobbery, they turned into the park, where there were
+places of seclusion for young couples interested in each other. But
+alas, the fates which dogged Peter in his love-making had prepared
+an especially cruel prank that morning. At the entrance to the park,
+whom should Peter meet but Comrade Schnitzelmann, a fat little
+butcher who belonged to the "Bolshevik local" of American City.
+Peter tried to look the other way and hurry by, but Comrade
+Schnitzelmann would not have it so. He came rushing up with one
+pudgy hand stretched out, and a beaming smile on his rosy Teutonic
+countenance. "Ach, Comrade Gudge!" cried he. "Wie geht's mit you dis
+morning?"
+
+"Very well, thank you," said Peter, coldly, and tried to hurry on.
+
+But Comrade Schnitzelmann held onto his hand. "So! You been seeing
+dot Easter barade!" said he. "Vot you tink, hey? If we could get all
+de wage slaves to come und see dot barade, we make dem all
+Bolsheviks pretty quick! Hey, Comrade Gudge?"
+
+"Yes, I guess so," said Peter, still more coldly.
+
+"We show dem vot de money goes for--hey, Comrade Gudge!" And Comrade
+Schnitzelmann chuckled, and Peter said, quickly, "Well, good-bye,"
+and without introducing his lady-love took her by the arm and
+hurried away.
+
+But alas, the damage had been done! They walked for a minute or two
+amid ominous silence. Then suddenly the manicurist stood still and
+confronted Peter. "Mr. Gudge," she demanded, "what does that mean?"
+
+And Peter of course could not answer. He did not dare to meet her
+flashing eyes, but stood digging the toe of his shoe into the path.
+"I want to know what it means," persisted the girl. "Are you one of
+those Reds?"
+
+And what could poor Peter say? How could he explain his acquaintance
+with that Teutonic face and that Teutonic accent?
+
+The girl stamped her foot with impatient anger. "So you're one of
+those Reds! You're one of those pro-German traitors! You're an
+imposter, a spy!"
+
+Peter was helpless with embarrassment and dismay. "Miss Frisbie," he
+began, "I can't explain--"
+
+"_Why_ can't you explain? Why can't any honest man explain?"
+
+"But--but--I'm not what you think--it isn't true! I--I--" It was on
+the tip of Peter's tongue to say, "I'm a patriot! I'm a 100%
+American, protecting my country against these traitors!" But
+professional honor sealed his tongue, and the little manicurist
+stamped her foot again, and her eyes flashed with indignation.
+
+"You dare to seek my acquaintance! You dare to take me to church!
+Why--if there was a policeman in sight, I'd report you, I'd send you
+to jail!" And actually she looked around for a policeman! But it is
+well known that there never is a policeman in sight when you look
+for one; so Miss Frisbie stamped her foot again and snorted in
+Peter's face. "Goodbye, _Comrade_ Gudge!" The emphasis she put upon
+that word "comrade" would have frozen the fieriest Red soul; and she
+turned with a swish of her skirts and strode off, and Peter stood
+looking mournfully at her little French heels going crunch, crunch,
+crunch on the gravel path. When the heels were clean gone out of
+sight, Peter sought out the nearest bench and sat down and buried
+his face in his hands, a picture of woe. Was there ever in the world
+a man who had such persistent ill luck with women?
+
+
+
+
+Section 71
+
+
+These were days of world-agony, when people bought the newspapers
+several times every day, and when crowds gathered in front of
+bulletin boards, looking at the big maps with little flags, and
+speculating, were the Germans going to get to Paris, were they going
+to get to the Channel and put France out of the war? And then
+suddenly the Americans struck their first blow, and hurled the
+Germans back at Chateau-Thierry, and all America rose up with one
+shout of triumph!
+
+You would think that was a poor time for pacifist agitation; but the
+members of the Anti-conscription League had so little discretion
+that they chose this precise moment to publish a pamphlet,
+describing the torturing of conscientious objectors in military
+prisons and training camps! Peter had been active in this
+organization from the beginning, and he had helped to write into the
+pamphlet a certain crucial phrase which McGivney had suggested. So
+now here were the pamphlets seized by the Federal government, and
+all the members of the Anti-conscription League under arrest,
+including Sadie Todd and little Ada Ruth and Donald Gordon! Peter
+was sorry about Sadie Todd, in spite of the fact that she had called
+him names. He couldn't be very sorry about Ada Ruth, because she was
+obviously a fanatic, bent on getting herself into trouble. As for
+Donald Gordon, if he hadn't learned his lesson from that whipping,
+he surely had nobody to blame but himself.
+
+Peter was a member of this Anti-conscription League, so he pretended
+to be in hiding, and carried on a little comedy with Ada Ruth's
+cousin, an Englishwoman, who hid him out in her place in the
+country. Peter had an uncomfortable quarter of an hour when Donald
+Gordon was released on bail, because the Quaker boy insisted that
+the crucial phrase which had got them all into trouble had been
+stricken out of the manuscript before he handed it to Peter Gudge to
+take to the printer. But Peter insisted that Donald was mistaken,
+and apparently he succeeded in satisfying the others, and after they
+were all out on bail, he made bold to come out of his hiding place
+and to attend one or two protest meetings in private homes.
+
+Then began a new adventure, in some ways the most startling of all.
+It had to do with another girl, and the beginning was in the home of
+Ada Ruth, where a few of the most uncompromising of the pacifists
+gathered to discuss the question of raising money to pay for their
+legal defense. To this meeting came Miriam Yankovich, pale from an
+operation for cancer of the breast, but with a heart and mind as Red
+as ever. Miriam had brought along a friend to help her, because she
+wasn't strong enough to walk; and it was this friend who started
+Peter on his new adventure.
+
+Rosie Stern was her name, and she was a solid little Jewish working
+girl, with bold black eyes, and a mass of shining black hair, and
+flaming cheeks and a flashing smile. She was dressed as if she knew
+about her beauty, and really appreciated it; so Peter wasn't
+surprised when Miriam, introducing her, remarked that Rosie wasn't a
+Red and didn't like the Reds, but had just come to help her, and to
+see what a pacifist meeting was like. Perhaps Peter might help to
+make a Red out of her! And Peter was very glad indeed, for he was
+never more bored with the whining of pacifists than now when our
+boys were hurling the Germans back from the Marne and writing their
+names upon history's most imperishable pages.
+
+Rosie was something new and unforeseen, and Peter went right after
+her, and presently he realized with delight that she was interested
+in him. Peter knew, of course, that he was superior to all this
+crowd, but he wasn't used to having the fact recognized, and as
+usual when a woman smiled upon him, the pressure of his self-esteem
+rose beyond the safety point. Rosie was one of those people who take
+the world as it is and get some fun out of it, so while the pacifist
+meeting went on, Peter sat over in the corner and told her in
+whispers his funny adventures with Pericles Priam and in the Temple
+of Jimjambo. Rosie could hardly repress her laughter, and her black
+eyes flashed, and before the evening was over their hands had
+touched several times. Then Peter offered to escort her and Miriam,
+and needless to say they took Miriam home first. The tenement
+streets were deserted at this late hour, so they found a chance for
+swift embraces, and Peter went home with his feet hardly touching
+the ground.
+
+Rosie worked in a paper-box factory, and next evening Peter took her
+out to dinner, and their eager flirtation went on. But Rosie showed
+a tendency to retreat, and when Peter pressed her, she told him the
+reason. She had no use for Reds; she was sick of the jargon of the
+Reds, she would never love a Red. Look at Miriam Yankovich--what a
+wreck she had made of her life! She had been a handsome girl, she
+might have got a rich husband, but now she had had to be cut to
+pieces! And look at Sadie Todd, slaving herself to death, and Ada
+Ruth with her poems that made you tired. Rosie jeered at them all,
+and riddled them with the arrows of her wit, and of course Peter in
+his heart agreed with everything she said; yet Peter had to pretend
+to disagree, and that made Rosie cross and spoiled their fun, and
+they almost quarreled.
+
+Under these circumstances, naturally it was hard for Peter not to
+give some hint of his true feeling. After he had spent all of his
+money on Rosie and a lot of his time and hadn't got anywhere, he
+decided to make some concession to her--he told her he would give up
+trying to make a Red out of her. Whereupon Rosie made a face at him.
+"Very kind indeed of you, Mr. Gudge! But how about my making a
+`White' out of you?" And she went on to inform him that she wanted
+a fellow that could make money and take care of a girl. Peter
+answered that he was making money all right. Well, how was he making
+money, asked Rosie. Peter wouldn't tell, but he was making it, and
+he would prove it by taking her to the theater every night.
+
+So the little duel went on, evening after evening. Peter got more
+and more crazy about this black-eyed beauty, and she got more and
+more coquettish, and more and more impatient with his radical
+leanings. Rosie's father had brought her as a baby from Kisheneff,
+but she was 100% American all the same, so she told him; those boys
+in khaki who were over there walloping the Huns were the boys for
+her, and she was waiting for one of them to come back. What was the
+matter with Peter that he wasn't doing his part? Was he a
+draft-dodger? Rosie had never had anything to do with slackers, and
+wasn't keen for the company of a man who couldn't give an account of
+himself. Only that day she had been reading in the paper about the
+atrocities committed by the Huns. How could any man with red blood
+in his veins sympathize with these pacifists and traitors? And if
+Peter didn't sympathize with them, why did he travel round with them
+and give them his moral support? When Peter made a feeble effort at
+repeating some of the pacifists' arguments, Rosie just said, "Oh,
+fudge! You've got too much sense to talk that kind of stuff to me."
+And Peter knew, of course, that he _had_ too much sense, and it was
+hard to keep from letting Rosie see it. He had just lost one girl
+because of his Red entanglements. Was it up to him to lose another?
+
+For a couple of weeks they sparred and fought. Rosie would let Peter
+kiss her, and Peter's head would be quite turned with desire. He
+decided that she was the most wonderful girl he had ever known; even
+Nell Doolin had nothing on her. But then once more she would pin
+Peter down on this business of his Redness, and would spurn him, and
+refuse to see him any more. At last Peter admitted to her that he
+had lost his sympathy with the Reds, she had converted him, and he
+despised them. So Rosie replied that she was delighted; they would
+go at once to see Miriam Yankovich, and Peter would tell her, and
+try to convert her also. Peter was then in a bad dilemma; he had to
+insist that Rosie should keep his conversion a secret. But Rosie
+became indignant, she set her lips and declared that a conversion
+that had to be kept secret was no conversion at all, it was simply a
+low sham, and Peter Gudge was a coward, and she was sick of him! So
+poor Peter went away, heartbroken and bewildered.
+
+
+
+
+Section 72
+
+
+There was only one way out of this plight for Peter, and that was
+for him to tell Rosie the truth. And why should he not do it? He was
+wild about her, and he knew that she was wild about him, and only
+one thing--his great secret--stood in the way of their perfect
+bliss. If he told her that great secret, he would be a hero of
+heroes in her eyes; he would be more wonderful even than the men who
+were driving back the Germans from the Marne and writing their names
+upon history's most imperishable pages! So why should he not tell?
+
+He was in her room one evening, and his arms were about her, and she
+had almost but not quite yielded. "Please, please, Peter," she
+pleaded, "stop being one of those horrid Reds!" And Peter could
+stand it no longer. He told her that he really wasn't a Red, but a
+secret agent employed by the very biggest business men of American
+City to keep track of the Reds and bring their activities to naught.
+And when he told this, Rosie stared at him in consternation. She
+refused to believe him; when he insisted, she laughed at him, and
+finally became angry. It was a silly yarn, and did he imagine he
+could string her along like that?
+
+So Peter, irritated, set out to convince her. He told her about
+Guffey and the American City Land & Investment Company; he told her
+about McGivney, and how he met McGivney regularly at Room 427 of the
+American House. He told her about his thirty dollars a week, and how
+it was soon to be increased to forty, and he would spend it all on
+her. And perhaps she might pretend to be converted by him, and
+become a Red also, and if she could satisfy McGivney that she was
+straight, he would pay her too, and it would be a lot better than
+working ten and a half hours a day in Isaac & Goldstein's paper box
+factory.
+
+At last Peter succeeded in convincing the girl. She was subdued and
+frightened; she hadn't been prepared for anything like that, she
+said, and would have to have a little time to think it over. Peter
+then became worried in turn. He hoped she wouldn't mind, he said,
+and set to work to explain to her how important his work was, how it
+had the sanction of all the very best people in the city--not merely
+the great bankers and business men, but mayors and public officials
+and newspaper editors and college presidents, and great Park Avenue
+clergymen like the Rev. de Willoughby Stotterbridge of the Church of
+the Divine Compassion. And Rosie said that was all right, of course,
+but she was a little scared and would have to think it over. She
+brought the evening to an abrupt end, and Peter went home much
+disconcerted.
+
+Perhaps an hour later there came a sharp tap on the door of his
+lodging-house room, and he went to the door, and found himself
+confronted by David Andrews, the lawyer, Donald Gordon, and John
+Durand, the labor giant, president of the Seamen's Union. They never
+even said, "Howdy do," but stalked into the room, and Durand shut
+the door behind him, and stood with his back to it, folded his arms
+and glared at Peter like the stone image of an Aztec chieftain. So
+before they said a word Peter knew what had happened. He knew that
+the jig was up for good this time; his career as savior of the
+nation was at an end. And again it was all on account of a
+woman--all because he hadn't taken Guffey's advice about winking!
+
+But all other thoughts were driven from Peter's mind by one emotion,
+which was terror. His teeth began giving their imitation of an angry
+woodchuck, and his knees refused to hold him; he sat down on the
+edge of the bed, staring from one to another of these three stone
+Aztec faces. "Well, Gudge," said Andrews, at last, "so you're the
+spy we've been looking for all this time!"
+
+Peter remembered Nell's injunction, "Stick it out, Peter! Stick it
+out!"
+
+"Wh-wh-what do you mean, Mr. Andrews?"
+
+"Forget it, Gudge," said Andrews. "We've just been talking with
+Rosie, and Rosie was our spy."
+
+"She's been lying to you!" Peter cried.
+
+But Andrews said: "Oh rubbish! We're not that easy! Miriam Yankovich
+was listening behind the door, and heard your talk."
+
+So then Peter knew that the case was hopeless, and there was nothing
+left but to ascertain his fate. Had they come just to scold him and
+appeal to his conscience? Or did they plan to carry him away and
+strangle him and torture him to death? The latter was the terror
+that had been haunting Peter from the beginning of his career, and
+when gradually be made out that the three Aztecs did not intend
+violence, and that all they hoped for was to get him to admit how
+much he had told to his employers--then there was laughter inside
+Peter, and he broke down and wept tears of scalding shame, and said
+that it had all been because McCormick had told that cruel lie about
+him and little Jennie Todd. He had resisted the temptation for a
+year, but then he had been out of a job, and the Goober Defense
+Committee had refused him any work; he had actually been starving,
+and so at last he had accepted McGivney's offer to let him know
+about the seditious activities of the extreme Reds. But he had never
+reported anybody who hadn't really broken the law, and he had never
+told McGivney anything but the truth.
+
+Then Andrews proceeded to examine him. Peter denied that he had ever
+reported anything about the Goober case. He denied most strenuously
+that he had ever had anything to do with the McCormick "frame-up."
+When they tried to pin him down on this case and that, he suddenly
+summoned his dignity and declared that Andrews had no right to
+cross-question him, he was a 100%, red-blooded American patriot, and
+had been saving his country and his God from German agents and
+Bolshevik traitors.
+
+Donald Gordon almost went wild at that. "What you've been doing was
+to slip stuff into our pamphlet about conscientious objectors, so as
+to get us all indicted!"
+
+"That's a lie!" cried Peter. "I never done nothing of the kind!"
+
+"You know perfectly well you rubbed out those pencil marks that I
+drew through that sentence in the pamphlet."
+
+"I never done it!" cried Peter, again and again.
+
+And suddenly big John Durand clenched his hands, and his face became
+terrible with his pent-up rage. "You white-livered little sneak!" he
+hissed. "What we ought to do with you is to pull the lying tongue
+out of you!" He took a step forward, as if he really meant to do it.
+
+But David Andrews interfered. He was a lawyer, and knew the
+difference between what he could do and what Guffey's men could do.
+"No, no, John," he said, "nothing like that. I guess we've got all
+we can get out of this fellow. We'll leave him to his own conscience
+and his Jingo God. Come on, Donald." And he took the white-faced
+Quaker boy with one hand, and the big labor giant with the other,
+and walked them out of the room, and Peter heard them tramping down
+the stairs of his lodging house, and he lay on his bed and buried
+his face in the pillows, and felt utterly wretched, because once
+more he had been made a fool of, and as usual it was a woman that
+had done it.
+
+
+
+
+Section 73
+
+
+Peter could see it all very clearly when he came to figure over the
+thing; he could see what a whooping jackass he had been. He might
+have known that it was up to him to be careful, at this time of all
+times, when he was suspected of having rubbed out Donald Gordon's
+pencil marks. They had picked out a girl whom Peter had never seen
+before, and she had come and posed as Miriam's friend, and had
+proceeded to take Peter by the nose and lead him to the edge of the
+precipice and shove him over. And now she would be laughing at him,
+telling all her friends about her triumph, and about Peter's thirty
+dollars a week that he would never see again.
+
+Peter spent a good part of the night getting up the story that he
+was to tell McGivney next morning. He wouldn't mention Rosie Stern,
+of course; he would say that the Reds had trailed him to Room 427,
+and it must be they had a spy in Guffey's office. Peter repeated
+this story quite solemnly, and again realized too late that he had
+made a fool of himself. It wasn't twenty-four hours before every Red
+in American City knew the true, inside history of the unveiling of
+Peter Gudge as a spy of the Traction Trust. The story occupied a
+couple of pages in that week's issue of the "Clarion," and included
+Peter's picture, and an account of the part that Peter had played in
+various frame-ups. It was nearly all true, and the fact that it was
+guess-work on Donald Gordon's part did not make it any the better
+for Peter. Of course McGivney and Guffey and all his men read the
+story, and knew Peter for the whooping jackass that Peter knew
+himself.
+
+"You go and get yourself a job with a pick and shovel," said
+McGivney, and Peter sorrowfully took his departure. He had only a
+few dollars in his pocket, and these did not last very long, and he
+had got down to his last nickel, and was confronting the wolf of
+starvation again, when McGivney came to his lodging house room with
+a new proposition. There was one job left, and Peter might take it
+if he thought he could stand the gaff.
+
+It was the job of state's witness. Peter had been all thru the Red
+movement, he knew all these pacifists and Socialists and
+Syndicalists and I. W. Ws. who were now in jail. In some cases the
+evidence of the government was far from satisfactory; so Peter might
+have his salary back again, if he were willing to take the witness
+stand and tell what he was told to tell, and if he could manage to
+sit in a courtroom without falling in love with some of the lady
+jurors, or some of the lady spies of the defense. These deadly
+shafts of sarcasm Peter did not even feel, because he was so
+frightened by the proposition which McGivney put up to him. To come
+out into the open and face the blinding glare of the Red hate! To
+place himself, the ant, between the smashing fists of the battling
+giants!
+
+Yes, it might seem dangerous, said McGivney, for a cowardly little
+whelp like himself; but then a good many men had had the nerve to do
+it, and none of them had died yet. McGivney himself did not pretend
+to care very much whether Peter did it or not; he put the matter up
+to him on Guffey's orders. The job was worth forty dollars a week,
+and he might take it or leave it.
+
+And there sat Peter, with only a nickel and a couple of pennies in
+his pocket, and the rent for his room two weeks over-due, and his
+landlady lying in wait in the hallway like an Indian with a
+tomahawk. Peter objected, what about all those bad things in his
+early record, Pericles Priam and the Temple of Jimjambo, which had
+ruined him as a witness in the Goober case. McGivney answered dryly
+that he couldn't let himself out with that excuse; he was invited to
+pose as a reformed "wobbly," and the more crimes and rascalities he
+had in his record, the more convinced the jury would be that he had
+been a real "wobbly."
+
+Peter asked, just when would he be expected to appear? And McGivney
+answered, the very next week. They were trying seventeen of the
+"wobblies" on a conspiracy charge, and Peter would be expected to
+take the stand and tell how he had heard them advocate violence, and
+heard them boast of having set fire to barns and wheat fields, and
+how they had put phosphorus bombs into haystacks, and copper nails
+into fruit trees, and spikes into sawmill logs, and emery powder
+into engine bearings. Peter needn't worry about what he would have
+to say, McGivney would tell him everything, and would see him
+thoroughly posted, and he would find himself a hero in the
+newspapers, which would make clear that he had done everything from
+the very highest possible motives of 100% Americanism, and that no
+soldier in the war had been performing a more dangerous service.
+
+To Peter it seemed they might say that without troubling their
+conscience very much. But McGivney went on to declare that he
+needn't be afraid; it was no part of Guffey's program to give the
+Reds the satisfaction of putting his star witness out of business.
+Peter would be kept in a safe place, and would always have a
+body-guard. While he was in the city, giving his testimony, they
+would put him up at the Hotel de Soto.
+
+And that of course settled it. Here was poor Peter, with only a
+nickel and two coppers in his pocket, and before him stood a chariot
+of fire with magic steeds, and all he had to do was to step in, and
+be whirled away to Mount Olympus. Peter stepped in!
+
+
+
+
+Section 74
+
+
+McGivney took him to Guffey's office, and Guffey wasted no time upon
+preliminaries, but turned to his desk, and took out a long
+typewritten document, a complete account of what the prosecution
+meant to prove against the seventeen I. W. Ws. First, Peter told
+what he himself had seen and heard--not very much, but a beginning,
+a hook to hang his story upon. The I. W. W. hall was the meeting
+place for the casual and homeless labor of the country, the
+"bindle-stiffs" who took the hardest of the world's hard knocks, and
+sometimes returned them. There was no kind of injustice these
+fellows hadn't experienced, and now and then they had given blow for
+blow. Also there were loose talkers among them, who worked off their
+feelings by threats of vengeance upon their enemies. Now and then a
+real criminal came along, and now and then a paid inciter, a Peter
+Gudge or a Joe Angell. Peter told the worst that he had heard, and
+all he knew about the arrested men, and Guffey wrote it all down,
+and then proceeded to build upon it. This fellow Alf Guinness had
+had a row with a farmer in Wheatland County; there had been a barn
+burned nearby, and Guffey would furnish an automobile and a couple
+of detectives to travel with Peter, and they would visit the scene
+of that fire and the nearby village, and familiarize themselves with
+the locality, and Peter would testify how he had been with Guinness
+when he and a half dozen of the defendants had set fire to that
+barn.
+
+Peter hadn't intended anything quite so serious as that, but Guffey
+was so business-like, and took it all so much as a matter of course,
+that Peter was afraid to show the white feather. After all, this was
+war-time; hundreds of men were giving up their lives every day in
+the Argonne, and why shouldn't Peter take a little risk in order to
+put out of business his country's most dangerous enemies?
+
+So Peter and his two detectives blew themselves to a joy ride in the
+country. And then Peter was brought back and made comfortable in a
+room on the twelfth floor of the Hotel de Soto, where he diligently
+studied the typewritten documents which McGivney brought him, and
+thoroughly learned the story he was to tell. There was always one of
+Guffey's men walking up and down in the hallway outside with a gun
+on his hip, and they brought Peter three meals a day, not forgetting
+a bottle of beer and a package of cigarettes. Twice a day Peter read
+in the newspapers about the heroic deeds of our boys over there, and
+also about the latest bomb plots which had been discovered all over
+the country, and about various trials under the espionage act.
+
+Also, Peter had the thrill of reading about himself in a real
+newspaper. Hitherto he had been featured in labor papers, and
+Socialist papers like the "Clarion," which did not count; but now
+the American City "Times" came out with a long story of how the
+district attorney's office had "planted" a secret agent with the I.
+W. W., and how this man, whose name was Peter Gudge, had been
+working as one of them for the past two years, and was going to
+reveal the whole story of I. W. W. infamy on the witness stand.
+
+Two days before the trial Peter was escorted by McGivney and another
+detective to the district attorney's office, and spent the best part
+of the day in conference with Mr. Burchard and his deputy, Mr.
+Stannard, who were to try the case. McGivney had told Peter that the
+district attorney was not in the secret, he really believed that
+Peter's story was all true; but Peter suspected that this was
+camouflage, to save Mr. Burchard's face, and to protect him in case
+Peter ever tried to "throw him down." Peter noticed that whenever he
+left any gap in his story, the district attorney and the deputy told
+him to fill it, and he managed to guess what to fill it with.
+
+Henry Clay Burchard came from the far South, and followed a style of
+oratory long since gone out of date. He wore his heavy black hair a
+little long, and when he mounted the platform he would pull out the
+tremulo stop, stretching out his hands and saying in tones of
+quivering emotion: "The ladies, God bless them!" Also he would say:
+"I am a friend of the common man. My heart beats with sympathy for
+those who constitute the real backbone of America, the toilers of
+the shop and farm." And then all the banqueters of the Chamber of
+Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association would
+applaud, and would send their checks to the campaign fund of this
+friend of the common man. Mr. Burchard's deputy, Mr. Stannard, was a
+legal fox who told his chief what to do and how to do it; a dried-up
+little man who looked like a bookworm, and sat boring you thru with
+his keen eyes, watching for your weak points and preparing to pierce
+you thru with one of his legal rapiers. He would be quite friendly
+about it--he would joke with you in the noon hour, assuming that you
+would of course understand it was all in the line of business, and
+no harm meant.
+
+
+
+
+Section 75
+
+
+The two men heard Peter's story and changed it a little, and then
+heard him over again and pronounced him all right, and Peter went
+back to his hotel room and waited in trepidation for his hour in the
+limelight. When they took him to court his knees were shaking, but
+also he had a thrill of real importance, for they had provided him
+with a body-guard of four big huskies; also he saw two "bulls" whom
+he recognized in the hallway outside the court-room, and many others
+scattered thru the audience. The place was packed with Red
+sympathizers, but they had all been searched before they were
+allowed to enter, and were being watched every moment during the
+trial.
+
+When Peter stepped into the witness box he felt as Tom Duggan and
+Donald Gordon must have felt that night when the white glare from
+thirty or forty automobiles was beating upon them. Peter felt the
+concentrated Red hate of two or three hundred spectators, and now
+and then their pent-up fury would break restraint; there would be a
+murmur of protest, or perhaps a wave of sneering laughter, and the
+bailiff would bang on the table with his wooden mallet, and the
+judge would half rise from his seat, and declare that if that
+happened again he would order the court-room cleared.
+
+Not far in front of Peter at a long table sat the seventeen
+defendants, looking like trapped rats, and every one of their
+thirty-four rat eyes were fixed upon Peter's face, and never moved
+from it. Peter only glanced that way once; they bared their rats'
+teeth at him, and he quickly looked in another direction. But there
+also he saw a face that brought him no comfort; there sat Mrs. Godd,
+in her immaculate white chiffons, her wide-open blue eyes fixed upon
+his face, her expression full of grief and reproach. "Oh, Mr.
+Gudge!" she seemed to be saying. "How can you? Mr. Gudge, is this
+Peace. . . justice. . . Truth. . . Law?" And Peter realized with a
+pang that he had cut himself off forever from Mount Olympus, and
+from the porch chair with the soft silken pillows! He turned away
+toward the box where sat the twelve jurymen and women. One old lady
+gave him a benevolent smile, and a young farmer gave him a sly wink,
+so Peter knew that he had friends in that quarter--and after all,
+they were the ones who really counted in this trial. Mrs. Godd was
+as helpless as any "wobbly," in the presence of this august court.
+
+Peter told his story, and then came his cross-questioning, and who
+should rise and start the job but David Andrews, suave and humorous
+and deadly. Peter had always been afraid of Andrews, and now he
+winced. Nobody had told him he was to face an ordeal like this!
+Nobody had told him that Andrews would be allowed to question him
+about every detail of these crimes which he said he had witnessed,
+and about all the conversations that had taken place, and who else
+was present, and what else had been said, and how he had come to be
+there, and what he had done afterwards, and what he had had to eat
+for breakfast that morning. Only two things saved Peter, first the
+constant rapid-fire of objections which Stannard kept making, to
+give Peter time to think; and second, the cyclone-cellar which
+Stannard had provided for him in advance. "You can always fail to
+remember," the deputy had said; "nobody can punish you for
+forgetting something." So Peter would repeat the minute details of a
+conversation in which Alf Guinness had told of burning down the
+barn, but he didn't remember who else had heard the conversation,
+and he didn't remember what else had been said, nor what was the
+date of the conversation.
+
+Then came the blessed hour of noon, with a chance for Peter to get
+fixed up again before the court resumed at two. He was questioned
+again by Stannard, who patched up all the gaps in his testimony, and
+then again he failed to remember things, and so avoided the traps
+which Andrews set for his feet. He was told that he had "done fine,"
+and was escorted back to the Hotel de Soto in triumph, and there for
+a week he stayed while the defense made a feeble effort to answer
+his testimony. Peter read in the papers the long speeches in which
+the district attorney and the deputy acclaimed him as a patriot,
+protecting his country from its "enemies within;" also he read a
+brief reference to the "tirade" of David Andrews, who had called him
+a "rat" and a "slinking Judas." Peter didn't mind that, of
+course--it was all part of the game, and the calling of names is a
+pretty sure sign of impotence.
+
+Less easy to accept placidly, however, was something which came to
+Peter that same day--a letter from Mrs. Godd! It wasn't written to
+him, but he saw Hammett and another of the "bulls" chuckling
+together, and he asked what was the joke, and they told him that
+Mrs. Godd had somehow found out about Guffey, and had written him a
+letter full of insults, and Guffey was furious. Peter asked what was
+in it, and they told him, and later on when he insisted, they
+brought it and showed it to him, and Peter was furious too. On very
+expensive stationery with a stately crest at the top, the mother of
+Mount Olympus had written in a large, bland, girlish hand her
+opinion of "under cover" men and those who hired them:
+
+"You sit like a big spider and weave a net to catch men and destroy
+them. You destroy alike your victims and your tools. The poor boy,
+Peter Gudge, whom you sent to my home--my heart bleeds when I think
+of him, and what you have put him up to! A wretched, feeble-minded
+victim of greed, who ought to be sent to a hospital for deformed
+souls, you have taken him and taught him a piece of villainy to
+recite, so that he may send a group of sincere idealists to prison."
+
+That was enough! Peter put down the letter--he would not dignify
+such stuff by reading it. He realized that he would have to put his
+mind on the problem of Mrs. Godd once more. One woman like that, in
+her position of power, was more dangerous than all the seventeen
+"wobblies" who had been haled before the court. Peter inquired, and
+learned that Guffey had already been to see Nelse Ackerman about it,
+and Mr. Ackerman had been to see Mr. Godd, and Mr. Godd had been to
+see Mrs. Godd. Also the "Times" had an editorial referring to the
+"nest of Bolshevism" upon Mount Olympus, and all Mrs. Godd's friends
+were staying away from her luncheon-parties--so she was being made
+to suffer for her insolence to Peter Gudge!
+
+"A hospital for deformed souls," indeed! Peter was so upset that his
+joy in life was not restored even by the news that the jury had
+found the defendants guilty on the first ballot. He told McGivney
+that the strain of this trial had been too much for his nerves, and
+they must take care of him; so an automobile was provided, and Peter
+was taken to a secret hiding place in the country to recuperate.
+
+Hammett went with him, and Hammett was a first-class gunman, and
+Peter stayed close by him; in the evening he stayed up in the second
+story of the farm-house, lest perchance one of the "wobblies" should
+take too literally the testimony Peter had given concerning their
+habit of shooting at their enemies out of the darkness. Peter knew
+how they all must hate him; he read in the paper how the judge
+summoned the guilty men before him and sentenced them, incidentally
+forcing them to listen to a scathing address, which was published in
+full in the "Times." The law provided a penalty of from one to
+fourteen years, and the judge sentenced sixteen of them to fourteen
+years, and one to ten years, thus tempering justice with mercy.
+
+Then one day McGivney sent an automobile, and Peter was brought to
+Guffey's office, and a new plan was unfolded to him. They had
+arrested another bunch of "wobblies" in the neighboring city of
+Eldorado, and Peter was wanted there to repeat his testimony. It
+happened that he knew one of the accused men, and that would be
+sufficient to get his testimony in--his prize stuff about the
+burning barns and the phosphorus bombs. He would be taken care of
+just as thoroughly by the district attorney's office of Eldorado
+County; or better yet, Guffey would write to his friend Steve
+Ellman, who did the detective work for the Home and Fireside
+Association, the big business organization of that city.
+
+Peter hemmed and hawed. This was a pretty hard and dangerous kind of
+work, it really played the devil with a man's nerves, sitting up
+there in the hotel room all day, with nothing to do but smoke
+cigarettes and imagine the "wobblies" throwing bombs at you. Also,
+it wouldn't last very long; it ought to be better paid. Guffey
+answered that Peter needn't worry about the job's lasting; if he
+cared to give this testimony, he might have a joy ride from one end
+of the country to the other, and everywhere he would live on the fat
+of the land, and be a hero in the newspapers.
+
+But still Peter hemmed and hawed. He had learned from the American
+City "Times" how valuable a witness he was, and he ventured to
+demand his price, even from the terrible Guffey; he stuck it out, in
+spite of Guffey's frowns, and the upshot was that Guffey said, All
+right, if Peter would take the trip he might have seventy-five
+dollars a week and expenses, and Guffey would guarantee to keep him
+busy for not less than six months.
+
+
+
+
+Section 76
+
+
+So Peter went to Eldorado, and helped to send eleven men to the
+penitentiary for periods varying from three to fourteen years. Then
+he went to Flagland, and testified in three different trials, and
+added seven more scalps to his belt. By this time he got to realize
+that the worst the Reds could do was to make faces at him and show
+the teeth of trapped rats. He learned to take his profession more
+easily, and would sometimes venture to go out for an evening's
+pleasure without his guards. When he was hidden in the country he
+would take long walks regardless of the thousands of blood-thirsty
+Reds on his trail.
+
+It was while Peter was testifying in Flagland that a magic word was
+flashed from Europe, and the whole city went mad with joy. Everyone,
+from babies to old men, turned out on the streets and waved flags
+and banged tin cans and shouted for peace with victory. When it was
+learned that the newspapers had fooled them, they waited three days,
+and then turned out and went thru the same performance again. Peter
+was a bit worried at first, for fear the coming of peace might end
+his job of saving the country; but presently he realized that there
+was no need for concern, the smashing of the Reds was going on just
+the same.
+
+They had some raids on the Socialists while Peter was in Flagland,
+and the detectives told him he might come along for the fun of it.
+So Peter armed himself with a black-jack and a revolver, and helped
+to rush the Socialist headquarters. The war was over, but Peter felt
+just as military as if it were still going on; when he got the
+little Jewish organizer of the local pent up in a corner behind his
+desk and proceeded to crack him over the head, Peter understood
+exactly how our boys had felt in the Argonne. When he discovered the
+thrill of dancing on typewriter keys with his boots, he even
+understood how the Huns had felt.
+
+The detectives were joined by a bunch of college boys, who took to
+that kind of thing with glee. Having got their blood up, they
+decided they might as well clean out the Red movement entirely, so
+they rushed a place called the "International Book-Shop," kept by a
+Hawaiian. The proprietor dodged into the kitchen of a Chinese
+restaurant next door, and put on an apron; but no one had ever seen
+a Chinaman with a black mustache, so they fell on him and broke
+several of the Chinaman's sauce-pans over his head. They took the
+contents of the "International Book-Shop" into the back yard and
+started a bon-fire with it, and detectives and college boys on a
+lark joined hands and danced an imitation of the Hawaiian hula-hula
+around the blaze.
+
+So Peter lived a merry life for several months. He had one or two
+journeys for nothing, because an obstinate judge refused to admit
+that anything that any I. W. W. had ever said or done anywhere
+within the last ten years was proper testimony to be introduced
+against a particular I. W. W. on trial. But most judges were willing
+to co-operate with the big business men in ridding the country of
+the Red menace, and Peter's total of scalps amounted to over a
+hundred before his time was up, and Guffey sent him his last cheek
+and turned him loose.
+
+That was in the city of Richport, and Peter having in an inside
+pocket something over a thousand dollars in savings, felt that he
+had earned a good time. He went for a stroll on the Gay White Way of
+the city, and in front of a moving picture palace a golden-haired
+girl smiled at him. This was still in the days of two and
+three-fourths per cent beer, and Peter invited her into a saloon to
+have a glass, and when he opened his eyes again it was dark, and he
+had a splitting headache, and he groped around and discovered that
+he was lying in a dark corner of an alleyway. Terror gripped his
+heart, and he clapped his hand to the inside pocket where his wallet
+had been, and there was nothing but horrible emptiness. So Peter was
+ruined once again, and as usual it was a woman that had done it!
+
+Peter went to the police-station, but they never found the woman, or
+if they did, they divided with her and not with Peter. He threw
+himself on the mercy of the sergeant at the desk, and succeeded in
+convincing the sergeant that he, Peter, was a part of the machinery
+of his country's defense, and the sergeant agreed to stand sponsor
+for ten words to Guffey. So Peter sat himself down with a pencil and
+paper, and figured over it, and managed to get it into ten words, as
+follows: "Woman again broke any old job any pay wire fare." And it
+appeared that Guffey must have sat himself down with a pencil and
+paper and figured over it also, for the answer came back in ten
+words, as follows: "Idiot have wired secretary chamber commerce will
+give you ticket."
+
+So Peter repaired forthwith to the stately offices of the Chamber of
+Commerce, and the hustling, efficient young business-man secretary
+sent his clerk to buy Peter a ticket and put him on the train. In a
+time of need like that Peter realized what it meant to have the
+backing of a great and powerful organization, with stately offices
+and money on hand for all emergencies, even when they arose by
+telegraph. He took a new vow of sobriety and decency, so that he
+might always have these forces of law and order on his side.
+
+
+
+
+Section 77
+
+
+Peter was duly scolded, and put to work as an "office man" at his
+old salary of twenty dollars a week. It was his duty to consult with
+Guffey's many "operatives," to tell them everything he knew about
+this individual Red or that organization of Reds. He would use his
+inside knowledge of personalities and doctrines and movements to
+help in framing up testimony, and in setting traps for too ardent
+agitators. He could no longer pose as a Red himself, but sometimes
+there were cases where he could do detective work without being
+recognized; when, for example, there was a question of fixing a
+juror, or of investigating the members of a panel.
+
+The I. W. Ws. had been put out of business in American City, but the
+Socialists were still active, in spite of prosecutions and
+convictions. Also there was a new peril looming up; the returned
+soldiers were coming back, and a lot of them were dissatisfied,
+presuming to complain of their treatment in the army, and of the
+lack of good jobs at home, and even of the peace treaty which the
+President was arranging in Paris. They had fought to make the world
+safe for democracy, and here, they said, it had been made safe for
+the profiteers. This was plain Bolshevism, and in its most dangerous
+form, because these fellows had learned to use guns, and couldn't
+very well be expected to become pacifists right off the bat.
+
+There had been a great labor shortage during the war, and some of
+the more powerful unions had taken the general rise in prices as an
+excuse for demanding higher wages. This naturally had made the
+members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' and
+Manufacturers' Association indignant, and now they saw their chance
+to use these returned soldiers to smash strikes and to break the
+organizations of the labor men. They proceeded to organize the
+soldiers for this purpose; in American City the Chamber of Commerce
+contributed twenty-five thousand dollars to furnish the club-rooms
+for them, and when the trolley men went on strike the cars were run
+by returned soldiers in uniform.
+
+There was one veteran, a fellow by the name of Sydney, who objected
+to this program. He was publishing a paper, the "Veteran's Friend,"
+and began to use the paper to protest against his comrades acting as
+what he called "scabs." The secretary of the Merchants' and
+Manufacturers' Association sent for him and gave him a straight
+talking to, but he went right ahead with his campaign, and so
+Guffey's office was assigned the task of shutting him up. Peter,
+while he could not take an active part in the job, was the one who
+guided it behind the scenes. They proceeded to plant spies in
+Sydney's office, and they had so many that it was really a joke;
+they used to laugh and say that they trod on one another's toes.
+Sydney was poor, and had not enough money to run his paper, so he
+accepted any volunteer labor that came along. And Guffey sent him
+plenty of volunteers--no less than seven operatives--one keeping
+Sydney's books, another helping with his mailing, two more helping
+to raise funds among the labor unions, others dropping in every day
+or two to advise him. Nevertheless Sydney went right ahead with his
+program of denouncing the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association,
+and denouncing the government for its failure to provide farms and
+jobs for the veterans.
+
+One of Guffey's "under cover operatives"--that was the technical
+term for the Peter Gudges and Joe Angells--was a man by the name of
+Jonas. This Jonas called himself a "philosophic anarchist," and
+posed as the reddest Red in American City; it was his habit to rise
+up in radical meetings and question the speaker, and try to tempt
+him to justify violence and insurrection and "mass-action." If he
+repudiated these ideas, then Jonas would denounce him as a
+"mollycoddle," a "pink tea Socialist," a "labor faker." Other people
+in the audience would applaud, and so Guffey's men would find out
+who were the real Red sympathizers.
+
+Peter had long suspected Jonas, and now he was sent to meet him in
+Room 427 of the American House, and together they framed up a job on
+Sydney. Jonas wrote a letter, supposed to come from a German
+"comrade," giving the names of some papers in Europe to which the
+editor should send sample copies of his magazine. This letter was
+mailed to Sydney, and next morning Jonas wandered into the office,
+and Sydney showed him the letter, and Jonas told him that these were
+labor papers, and the editors would no doubt be interested to know
+of the feelings of American soldiers since the war. Sydney sat down
+to write a letter, and Jonas stood by his side and told him what to
+write: "To my erstwhile enemies in arms I send fraternal greetings,
+and welcome you as brothers in the new co-operative commonwealth
+which is to be"--and so on, the usual Internationalist patter, which
+all these agitators were spouting day and night, and which ran off
+the ends of their pens automatically. Sydney mailed these letters,
+and the sample copies of the magazine, and Guffey's office tipped
+off the postoffice authorities, who held up the letters. The
+book-keeper, one of Guffey's operatives, went to the Federal
+attorney and made affidavit that Sydney had been carrying on a
+conspiracy with the enemy in war-time, and a warrant was issued, and
+the offices of the magazine were raided, the subscription-lists
+confiscated, and everything in the rooms dumped out into the middle
+of the floor.
+
+So there was a little job all Peter's own; except that Jonas, the
+scoundrel, claimed it for his, and tried to deprive Peter of the
+credit! So Peter was glad when the Federal authorities looked the
+case over and said it was a bum job, and they wouldn't monkey with
+it. However, the evidence was turned over to District-attorney
+Burchard, who wasn't quite so fastidious, and his agents made
+another raid, and smashed up the office again, and threw the
+returned soldier into jail. The judge fixed the bail at fifteen
+thousand dollars, and the American City "Times" published the story
+with scare-headlines all the way across the front page--how the
+editor of the "Veteran's Friend" had been caught conspiring with the
+enemy, and here was a photographic copy of his treasonable letter,
+and a copy of the letter of the mysterious German conspirator with
+whom he had been in relations! They spent more than a year trying
+that editor, and although he was out on bail, Guffey saw to it that
+he could not get a job anywhere in American City; his paper was
+smashed and his family near to starvation.
+
+
+
+
+Section 78
+
+
+Peter had now been working faithfully for six or eight months, and
+all that time he religiously carried out his promise to Guffey and
+did not wink at a woman. But that is an unnatural life for a man,
+and Peter was lonely, his dreams were haunted by the faces of Nell
+Doolin and Rosie Stern, and even of little Jennie Todd. One day
+another face came back to him, the face of Miss Frisbie, the little
+manicurist who had spurned him because he was a Red. Now suddenly
+Peter realized that he was no longer a Red! On the contrary, he was
+a hero, his picture had been published in the American City "Times,"
+and no doubt Miss Frisbie had seen it. Miss Frisbie was a good girl,
+a straight girl, and surely all right for him to know!
+
+So Peter went to the manicure parlor, and sure enough, there was the
+little golden-haired lady; and sure enough, she had read all about
+him, she had been dreaming that some day she might meet him
+again--and so Peter invited her to go to a picture show. On the way
+home they became very chummy, and before a week went by it was as if
+they had been friends for life. When Peter asked Miss Frisbie if he
+might kiss her, she answered coyly that he might, but after he had
+kissed her a few times she explained to him that she was a
+self-supporting woman, alone and defenseless in the world, and she
+had nobody to speak for her but herself; she must tell him that she
+had always been a respectable woman, and that she wanted him to know
+that before he kissed her any more. And Peter thought it over and
+decided that he had sowed his full share of wild oats in this life;
+he was ready to settle down, and the next time he saw Miss Frisbie
+he told her so, and before the evening was by they were engaged.
+
+Then Peter went to see Guffey, and seated himself on the edge of the
+chair alongside Guffey's desk, and twisted his hat in his hands, and
+flushed very red, and began to stammer out his confession. He
+expected to be received with a gale of ridicule; he was immensely
+relieved when Guffey said that if Peter had really found a good girl
+and wanted to marry her, he, Guffey, was for it. There was nothing
+like the influence of a good woman, and Guffey much preferred his
+operatives should be married men, living a settled and respectable
+life. They could be trusted then, and sometimes when a woman
+operative was needed, they had a partner ready to hand. If Peter had
+got married long ago, he might have had a good sum of money in the
+bank by now.
+
+Peter ventured to point out that twenty dollars a week was not
+exactly a marrying salary, in the face of the present high cost of
+living. Guffey answered that that was true, and he would raise Peter
+to thirty dollars right away--only first he demanded the right to
+talk to Peter's fiancee, and judge for himself whether she
+was worthy. Peter was delighted, and Miss Frisbie had a private and
+confidential interview with Peter's boss. But afterwards Peter
+wasn't quite so delighted, for he realized what Guffey had done.
+Peter's future wife had been told all about Peter's weakness, and
+how Peter's boss looked to her to take care of her husband and make
+him walk the chalkline. So a week after Peter had entered the holy
+bonds of matrimony, when he and Mrs. Gudge had their first little
+family tiff, Peter suddenly discovered who was going to be top dog
+in that family. He was shown his place once for all, and he took
+it,--alongside that husband who described his domestic arrangements
+by saying that he and his wife got along beautifully together, they
+had come to an arrangement by which he was to have his way on all
+major issues, and she was to have her way on all minor issues, and
+so far no major issues had arisen.
+
+But really it was a very good thing; for Gladys Frisbie Gudge was an
+excellent manager, and set to work making herself a nest as busily
+as any female beaver. She still hung on to her manicurist job, for
+she had figured it out that the Red movement must be just about
+destroyed by now, and pretty soon Peter might find himself without
+work. In the evenings she took to house-hunting, and during her noon
+hour, without consulting Peter she selected the furniture and the
+wall-paper, and pretty nearly bought out the stock of a
+five-and-ten-cent store to equip the beaver's nest.
+
+Gladys Frisbie Gudge was a diligent reader of the fashion magazines,
+and kept herself right up to the minute with the styles; also she
+had got herself a book on etiquette, and learned it by heart from
+cover to cover, and now she took Peter in hand and taught it to him.
+Why must he always be a "Jimmie Higgins" of the "Whites?" Why
+should he not acquire the vocabulary of an educated man, the arts
+and graces of the well-to-do? Gladys knew that it is these
+subtleties which determine your salary in the long run; so every
+Sunday morning she would dress him up with a new brown derby and a
+new pair of brown kid gloves, and take him to the Church of the
+Divine Compassion, and they would listen to the patriotic sermon of
+the Rev. de Willoughby Stotterbridge, and Gladys would bow her head
+in prayer, and out of the corner of her eye would get points on
+costumes from the lady in the next pew. And afterwards they would
+join the Sunday parade, and Gladys would point out to Peter the
+marks of what she called "gentility." In the evenings they would go
+walking, and she would stop in front of the big shop-windows, or
+take him into the hotel lobbies where the rich could be seen free of
+charge. Peter would be hungry, and would want to go to a cheap
+restaurant and fill himself up with honest grub; but Gladys, who had
+the appetite of a bird, would insist on marching him into the
+dining-room of the Hotel de Soto and making a meal upon a cup of
+broth and some bread and butter--just in order that they might gaze
+upon a scene of elegance and see bow "genteel" people ate their
+food.
+
+
+
+
+Section 79
+
+
+And just as ardently as Gladys Frisbie Gudge adored the rich, so
+ardently did she object to the poor. If you pinned her down to it,
+she would admit that there had to be poor; there could not be
+gentility, except on the basis of a large class of ungentility. The
+poor were all right in their place; what Gladys objected to was
+their presuming to try to get out of their place, or to criticise
+their betters. She had a word by which she summed up everything that
+she despised in the world, and that word was "common;" she used it
+to describe the sort of people she declined to meet, and she used it
+in correcting Peter's manners and his taste in hats. To be "common"
+was to be damned; and when Gladys saw people who were indubitably
+and inescapably "common," presuming to set themselves up and form
+standards of their own, she took it as a personal affront, she
+became vindictive and implacable towards them. Each and every one of
+them became to her a personal enemy, an enemy to something far more
+precious than her person, an enemy to the thing she aspired to
+become, to her ideal.
+
+Peter had once been like that himself, but now he was so
+comfortable, he had a tendency to become lazy and easy-going. It was
+well, therefore, that he had Gladys to jack him up, and keep him on
+his job. Gladys at first did not meet any Reds face to face, she
+knew them only by the stories that Peter brought home to her when
+his day's work was done. But each new group that he was hounding
+became to Gladys an assemblage of incarnate fiends, and while she
+sat polishing the finger-nails of stout society ladies who were too
+sleepy to talk, Gladys' busy mind would be working over schemes to
+foil these fiends.
+
+Sometimes her ideas were quite wonderful. She had a woman's
+intuition, the knowledge of human foibles, all the intricate
+subtleties of the emotional life; she would bring to Peter a program
+for the undoing of some young radical, as complete as if she had
+known the man or woman all her life. Peter took her ideas to
+McGivney, and then to Guffey, and the result was that her talents
+were recognized, and by the lever of a generous salary she was pried
+loose from the manicure parlor. Guffey sent her to make the
+acquaintance of the servants in the household of a certain rich man
+who was continually making contributions to the Direct Primary
+Association and other semi-Red organizations, and who was believed
+to have a scandal in his private life. So successful was Gladys at
+this job that presently Guffey set her at the still more delicate
+task of visiting rich ladies, and impressing upon them the
+seriousness of the Red peril, and persuading them to meet the
+continually increasing expenses of Guffey's office.
+
+Just now was a busy time in the anti-Red campaign. For nearly two
+years, ever since the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, there had been
+gradually developing a split in the Socialist movement, and the
+"under-cover" operatives of the Traction Trust, as well as those of
+the district attorney's office and of the Federal government, had
+been working diligently to widen this split and develop dissensions
+in the organization. There were some Socialists who believed in
+politics, and were prepared to devote their lives to the slow and
+tedious job of building up a party. There were others who were
+impatient, looking for a short cut, a general strike or a mass
+insurrection of the workers which would put an end to the slavery of
+capitalism. The whole game of politics was rotten, these would
+argue; a politician could find more ways to fool the workers in a
+minute than the workers could thwart in a year. They pointed to the
+German Socialists, those betrayers of internationalism. There were
+people who called themselves Socialists right here in American City
+who wanted to draw the movement into the same kind of trap!
+
+This debate was not conducted in the realm of abstractions; the two
+wings of the movement would attack one another with bitterness. The
+"politicians" would denounce the "impossibilists," calling them
+"anarchists;" and the other side, thus goaded, would accuse their
+enemies of being in the hire of the government. Peter would supply
+McGivney with bits of scandal which the "under cover" men would
+start going among the "left-wingers;" and in the course of the long
+wrangles in the local these accusations would come out. Herbert
+Ashton would mention them with his biting sarcasm, or "Shorty"
+Gunton would shout them in one of his tirades--"hurling them into
+his opponents teeth," as he phrased it.
+
+"Shorty" Gunton was a tramp printer, a wandering agitator who was
+all for direct action, and didn't care a hang who knew it.
+"Violence?" he would say. "How many thousand years shall we submit
+to the violence of capitalist governments, and never have the right
+to reply?" And then again he would say, "Violence? Yes, of course
+we must repudiate violence--until we get enough of it!" Peter had
+listened to "Shorty's" railings at the "compromisers" and the
+"political traders," and had thought him one of the most dangerous
+men in American City. But later on, after the episode of Joe Angell
+had opened Peter's eyes, he decided that "Shorty" must also be a
+secret agent like himself.
+
+Peter was never told definitely, but he picked up a fact here and
+there, and fitted them together, and before long his suspicion had
+become certainty. The "left wing" Socialists split off from the
+party, and called a convention of their own, and this convention in
+turn split up, one part forming the Communist Party, and another
+part forming the Communist Labor Party. While these two conventions
+were in session, McGivney came to Peter, and said that the Federal
+government had a man on the platform committee of the Communist
+Party, and they wanted to write in some phrases that would make
+membership in that party in itself a crime, so that everybody who
+held a membership card could be sent to prison without further
+evidence. These phrases must be in the orthodox Communist lingo, and
+this was where Peter's specialized knowledge was needed.
+
+So Peter wrote the phrases, and a couple of days later he read in
+the newspapers an account of the convention proceedings. The
+platform committee had reported, and "Shorty" Gunton had submitted a
+minority report, and had made a fiery speech in the convention, with
+the result that his minority report was carried by a narrow margin.
+This minority report contained all the phrases that Peter had
+written. A couple of months later, when the government had its case
+ready, and the wholesale raids upon the Communists took place,
+"Shorty" Gunton was arrested, but a few days later he made a
+dramatic escape by sawing his way thru the roof of the jail!
+
+
+
+
+Section 80
+
+
+The I. W. W. had bobbed up again in American City, and had ventured
+to open another headquarters. Peter did not dare go to the place
+himself, but he coached a couple of young fellows whom McGivney
+brought to him, teaching them the Red lingo, and how to worm their
+way into the movement. Before long one of them was secretary of the
+local; and Peter, directing their activities, received reports twice
+a week of everything the "wobblies" were planning and doing. Peter
+and Gladys were figuring out another bomb conspiracy to direct
+attention to these dangerous men, when one day Peter picked up the
+morning paper and discovered that a kind Providence had delivered
+the enemy into his hands.
+
+Up in the lumber country of the far Northwest, in a little town
+called Centralia, the "wobblies" had had their headquarters raided
+and smashed, just as in American City. They had got themselves
+another meeting-place, and again the members of the Chamber of
+Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association had held
+a secret meeting and resolved to wipe them out. The "wobblies" had
+appealed to the authorities for protection, and when protection was
+refused, they had printed a leaflet appealing to the public. But the
+business men went ahead with their plans. They arranged for a parade
+of returned soldiers on the anniversary of Armistice Day, and they
+diverted this parade out of its path so that it would pass in front
+of the I. W. W. headquarters. Some of the more ardent members
+carried ropes, symbolic of what they meant to do; and they brought
+the parade to a halt in front of the headquarters, and set up a yell
+and started to rush the hall. They battered in the door, and had
+pushed their way half thru it when the "wobblies" opened fire from
+inside, killing several of the paraders.
+
+Then, of course, the mob flew into a frenzy of fury. They beat the
+men in the hall, some of them into insensibility; they flung them
+into jail, and battered and tortured them, and took one of them out
+of jail and carried him away in an automobile, and after they had
+mutilated him as Shawn Grady had been mutilated, they hanged him
+from a bridge. Of course they saw to it that the newspaper stories
+which went out from Centralia that night were the right kind of
+stories; and next morning all America read how a group of "wobblies"
+had armed themselves with rifles, and concealed themselves on the
+roof of the I. W. W. headquarters, and deliberately and in cold
+blood had opened fire upon a peaceful parade of unarmed war
+veterans.
+
+Of course the country went wild, and the Guffeys and McGivneys and
+Gudges all over the United States realized that their chance had
+come. Peter instructed the secretary of the I. W. W. local of
+American City to call a meeting for that evening, to adopt a
+resolution declaring the press stories from Centralia to be lies. At
+the same time another of Guffey's men, an ex-army officer still
+wearing his, uniform, caused a meeting of the American Legion to be
+summoned; he made a furious address to the boys, and at nine o'clock
+that night some two-score of them set out, armed with big
+monkey-wrenches from their automobiles, and raided the I. W. W.
+headquarters, and battered the members over the head with the
+monkey-wrenches, causing several to leap from the window and break
+their legs. Next morning the incident was reported in the American
+City "Times" with shouts of glee, and District-attorney Burchard
+issued a public statement to the effect that no effort would be made
+to punish the soldier boys; the "wobblies" had wanted "direct
+action," and they had got it, and it would be assumed that they were
+satisfied.
+
+Then the members of the American Legion, encouraged by this
+applause, and instigated by Guffey's ex-army officer, proceeded to
+invade and wreck every radical meeting-place in the city. They
+smashed the "Clarion" office and the Socialist Party headquarters
+again, and confiscated more tons of literature. They wrecked a
+couple of book-stores, and then, breaking up into small groups, they
+inspected all the news-stands in the city, and wherever they found
+Red magazines like the Nation or the New Republic, they tore up the
+copies and threatened the agents with arrest. They invaded the rooms
+of a literary society called the Ruskin Club, frequented mostly by
+amiable old ladies, and sent some of these elderly dames into
+hysterics. They discovered the "Russian Peoples' Club," which had
+hitherto been overlooked because it was an educational organization.
+But of course no Russian could be trusted these days--all of them
+were Bolsheviks, or on the way to becoming Bolsheviks, which was the
+same thing; so Guffey organized a raid on this building, and some
+two hundred Russians were clubbed and thrown downstairs or out of
+windows, and an elderly teacher of mathematics had his skull
+cracked, and a teacher of music had some teeth knocked out.
+
+There were several million young Americans who had been put into
+military uniform, and had guns put into their hands, and been put
+thru target practice and bayonet drill, and then had not seen any
+fighting. These fellows were, as the phrase has it, "spoiling for a
+fight;" and here was their chance. It was just as much fun as trench
+warfare, and had the advantage of not being dangerous. When the
+raiding parties came back, there were no missing members, and no
+casualties to be telegraphed to heartbroken parents. Some fool women
+got together and tried to organize a procession to protest against
+the blockade of Russia; the raiders fell upon these women, and
+wrecked their banners, and tore their clothing to bits, and the
+police hustled what was left of them off to jail. It happened that a
+well-known "sporting man," that is to say a race-track frequenter,
+came along wearing a red necktie, and the raiders, taking him for a
+Bolshevik, fell upon him and pretty nearly mauled the life out of
+him. After that there was protest from people who thought it unwise
+to break too many laws while defending law and order, so the
+district attorney's office arranged to take on the young soldier
+boys as deputy sheriffs, and give them all badges, legal and proper.
+
+
+
+
+Section 81
+
+
+Peter Gudge often went along on these hunting parties. Peter,
+curiously enough, discovered in himself the same "complex" as the
+balked soldier boys. Peter had been reading war news for five years,
+but had missed the fighting; and now he discovered that he liked to
+fight. What had kept him from liking to fight in the past was the
+danger of getting hurt; but now that there was no such danger, he
+could enjoy it. In past times people had called him a coward, and he
+had heard it so often that he had come to believe it; but now he
+realized that it was not true, he was just as brave as anybody else
+in the crowd.
+
+The truth was that Peter had not had a happy time in his youth, he
+had never learned, like the younger members of the Chamber of
+Commerce and the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, to knock
+a little white ball about a field with various shapes and sizes of
+clubs. Peter was like a business man who has missed his boyhood, and
+then in later years finds the need of recreation, and takes up some
+form of sport by the orders of his physician. It became Peter's,
+form of sport to stick an automatic revolver in his hip-pocket, and
+take a blackjack in his hand, and rush into a room where thirty or
+forty Russians or "Sheenies" of all ages and lengths of beard were
+struggling to learn the intricacies of English spelling. Peter would
+give a yell, and see this crowd leap and scurry hither and thither,
+and chase them about and take a whack at a head wherever he saw one,
+and jump into a crowd who were bunched together like sheep, trying
+to hide their heads, and pound them over the exposed parts of their
+anatomy until they scattered into the open again. He liked to get a
+lot of them started downstairs and send them tumbling heels over
+head; or if he could get them going out a window, that was more
+exhilarating yet, and he would yell and whoop at them. He learned
+some of their cries--outlandish gibberish it was--and he would curse
+them in their own language. He had a streak of the monkey in him,
+and as he got to know these people better he would imitate their
+antics and their gestures of horror, and set a whole room full of
+the "bulls" laughing to split their sides. There was a famous
+"movie" comedian with big feet, and Peter would imitate this man,
+and waddle up to some wretched sweat-shop worker and boot him in the
+trousers' seat, or step on his toes, or maybe spit in his eye. So he
+became extremely popular among the "bulls," and they would insist on
+his going everywhere with them.
+
+Later on, when the government set to work to break up the Communist
+Party and the Communist Labor Party, Peter's popularity and prestige
+increased still more. For now, instead of just raiding and smashing,
+the police and detectives would round up the prisoners and
+arrest them by hundreds, and carry them off and put them thru
+"examinations." And Peter was always needed for this; his special
+knowledge made him indispensable, and he became practically the boss
+of the proceedings. It had been arranged thru "Shorty" Gunton and
+the other "under cover" men that the meetings of the Communist and
+Communist Labor parties should be held on the same night; and all
+over the country this same thing was done, and next morning the
+world was electrified by the news that all these meetings had been
+raided at the same hour, and thousands of Reds placed under arrest.
+In American City the Federal government had hired a suite of about a
+dozen rooms adjoining the offices of Guffey, and all night and next
+morning batches of prisoners were brought in, until there were about
+four hundred in all. They were crowded into these rooms with barely
+space to sit down; of course there was an awful uproar, moaning and
+screaming of people who had been battered, and a smell that beat the
+monkey cage at the zoological gardens.
+
+The prisoners were kept penned up in this place for several weeks,
+and all the time more were being brought in; there were so many that
+the women had to be stored in the toilets. Many of the prisoners
+fell ill, or pretended to fall ill, and several of them went insane,
+or pretended to go insane, and several of them died, or pretended to
+die. And of course the parlor Reds and sympathizers were busy
+outside making a terrible fuss about it. They had no more papers,
+and could not hold any more meetings, and when they tried to
+circulate literature the post-office authorities tied them up; but
+still somehow they managed to get publicity, and Peter's "under
+cover" men would report to him who was doing this work, and Peter
+would arrange to have more raids and more batches of prisoners
+brought in. In one of the "bomb-plots" which had been unveiled in
+the East they had discovered some pink paper, used either for
+printing leaflets, or for wrapping explosives, one could not be
+sure. Anyhow, the secret agencies with which Guffey was connected
+had distributed samples of this paper over the country, and any time
+the police wanted to finish some poor devil, they would find this
+deadly "pink paper" in his possession, and the newspapers would
+brand him as one of the group of conspirators who were sending
+infernal machines thru the mails.
+
+
+
+
+Section 82
+
+
+Peter was so busy these days that he missed several nights' sleep,
+and hardly even stopped to eat. He had his own private room, where
+the prisoners were brought for examination, and he had half a dozen
+men under his orders to do the "strong arm" work. It was his task to
+extract from these prisoners admissions which would justify their
+being sent to prison if they were citizens, or being deported if
+they were aliens. There was of course seldom any way to distinguish
+between citizens and aliens; you just had to take a chance on it,
+proceeding on the certainty that all were dangerous. Many years ago,
+when Peter had been working for Pericles Priam, they had spent
+several months in a boarding house, and you could tell when there
+was going to be beef-steak for dinner, because you heard the cook
+pounding it with the potato-masher to "tender it up;" and Peter
+learned this phrase, and now used the process upon his alien Reds.
+When they came into the room, Peter's men would fall upon them and
+beat them and cuff them, knocking them about from one fist to
+another. If they were stubborn and would not "come across," Peter
+would take them in hand himself, remembering how successful Guffey
+had been in getting things out of him by the twisting of wrists and
+the bending back of fingers.
+
+It was amazing how clever and subtle some of these fellows were.
+They were just lousy foreign laborers, but they spent all their
+spare time reading; you would find large collections of books in
+their rooms when you made your raids, and they knew exactly what you
+wanted, and would parry your questions. Peter would say: "You're an
+Anarchist, aren't you?" And the answer would be: "I'm not an
+Anarchist in the sense of the word you mean"--as if there could be
+two meanings of the word "Anarchist!" Peter would say, "You believe
+in violence, do you not?" And then the fellow would become
+impertinent: "It is you who believe in violence, look at my face
+that you have smashed." Or Peter would say, "You don't like this
+government, do you?" And the answer would be, "I always liked it
+until it treated me so badly"--all kinds of evasions like that, and
+there would be a stenographer taking it down, and unless Peter could
+get something into the record that was a confession, it would not be
+possible to deport that Red. So Peter would fall upon him and
+"tender him up" until he would answer what he was told to answer; or
+maybe Peter would prepare an interview as he wanted it to be, and
+the detectives would grab the man's hand and make him sign it; or
+maybe Peter would just sign it himself.
+
+These were harsh methods, but there was no way to help it, the Reds
+were so cunning. They were secretly undermining the government, and
+was the government to lie down and admit its helplessness? The
+answer of 100% Americanism was thundered from every wood and templed
+hill in the country; also from every newspaper office. The answer
+was "No!" 100% Americanism would find a way to preserve itself from
+the sophistries of European Bolshevism; 100% Americanism had worked
+out its formula: "If they don't like this country, let them go back
+where they come from." But of course, knowing in their hearts that
+America was the best country in the world, they didn't want to go
+back, and it was necessary to make them go.
+
+Peter was there for that purpose, and his devoted wife was by his
+side, egging him on with her feminine implacability. Gladys had
+always been accustomed to refer to these people as "cattle," and
+now, when she smelled them herded together in these office rooms for
+several weeks, she knew that she was right, and that no fate could
+be too stern for them. Presently with Peter's help she discovered
+another bomb-plot, this time against the Attorney-General of the
+country, who was directing these wholesale raids. They grabbed four
+Italian Anarchists in American City, and kept them apart in special
+rooms, and for a couple of months Peter labored with them to get
+what he wanted out of them. Just as Peter thought he had succeeded,
+his efforts were balked by one of them jumping out of the window.
+The room being on the fourteenth story, this Italian Anarchist was
+no longer available as a witness against himself. The incident set
+the parlor Bolsheviks all over the country to raging, and caused
+David Andrews to get some kind of court injunction, and make a lot
+of inconvenience to Guffey's office.
+
+However, the work went on; the Reds were gradually sorted out, and
+some who proved not to be Reds were let go again, and others were
+loaded onto special Red trains and taken to the nearest ports. Some
+of them went in grim silence, others went with furious cursings, and
+yet others with wailings and shriekings; for many of them had
+families, and they had the nerve to demand that the government
+should undertake to ship their families also, or else to take care
+of their families for them! The government, naturally, admitted no
+such responsibility. The Reds had no end of money for printing
+seditious literature, so let them use it to take care of their own!
+
+In these various raids and examinations Peter of course met a great
+many of the Reds whom he had once known as friends and intimates.
+Peter had been wont to imagine himself meeting them, and to tremble
+at the bare idea; but now he found that he rather enjoyed it. He was
+entirely delivered from that fear of them, which had formerly
+spoiled his appetite and disturbed his sleep. He had learned that
+the Reds were poor creatures who did not fight back; they had no
+weapons, and many of them did not even have muscles; there was
+really nothing to them but talk. And Peter knew that he had the
+power of organized society behind him, the police and the courts and
+the jails, if necessary the army with its machine guns and airplanes
+and poison gas. Not merely was it safe to pound these people, to
+tread on their toes and spit in their eyes; it was safe also to
+frame up anything on them, because the newspapers would always back
+you up, and the public would of course believe whatever it read in
+its newspapers.
+
+No, Peter was no longer afraid of the Reds! He made up his mind that
+he was not even afraid of Mac, the most dangerous Red of them all.
+Mac was safely put away in jail for twenty years, and although his
+case had been appealed, the court had refused to grant a stay of
+sentence or to let him out on bail. As it happened, Peter got a
+glimpse into Mac's soul in jail, and knew that even that proud, grim
+spirit was breaking. Mac in jail had written a letter to one of his
+fellow-Reds in American City, and the post-office authorities had
+intercepted the letter, and Guffey had shown it to Peter. "Write to
+us!" Mac had pleaded. "For God's sake, write to us! The worst horror
+of being in jail is that you are forgotten. Do at least let us know
+that somebody is thinking about us!"
+
+So Peter knew that he was the victor, he was "top dog." And when he
+met these Reds whom he had been so afraid of, he took pleasure in
+letting them feel the weight of his authority, and sometimes of his
+fist. It was amusing to see the various ways in which they behaved
+toward him. Some would try to plead with him, for the sake of old
+times; some would cringe and whine to him; some would try to reason
+with him, to touch his conscience. But mostly they would be haughty,
+they would glare at him with hate, or put a sneer of contempt on
+their faces. So Peter would set his "bulls" to work to improve their
+manners, and a little thumb-bending and wrist-twisting would soon do
+the work.
+
+
+
+
+Section 83
+
+
+Among the first load to be brought in was Miriam Yankovich. Miriam
+had joined the Communist Party, and she had been born in Russia, so
+that was all there was to her case. Peter, knew, of course that it
+was Miriam who had set Rosie Stern after him and brought about his
+downfall. Still, he could not help but be moved by her appearance.
+She looked haggard and old, and she had a cough, and her eyes were
+wild and crazy. Peter remembered her as proud and hot-tempered, but
+now her pride was all gone--she flung herself on her knees before
+him, and caught hold of his coat, sobbing hysterically. It appeared
+that she had a mother and five young brothers and sisters who were
+dependent upon her earnings; all her money had been consumed by
+hospital expenses, and now she was to be deported to Russia, and
+what would become of her loved ones?
+
+Peter answered, what could he do? She had violated the law, they had
+her membership card in the Communist Party, and she had admitted
+that she was alien born. He tried to draw away, but she clung to
+him, and went on sobbing and pleading. At least she ought to have a
+chance to talk with her old mother, to tell her what to do, where to
+go for help, how to communicate with Miriam in future. They were
+sending her away without allowing her to have a word with her loved
+ones, without even a chance to get her clothing!
+
+Peter, as we know, had always been soft-hearted towards women, so
+now he was embarrassed. In the handling of these cattle he was
+carrying out the orders of his superiors; he had no power to grant
+favors to any one, and he told Miriam this again and again. But she
+would not listen to him. "Please, Peter, please! For God's sake,
+Peter! You know you were once a little in love with me, Peter--you
+told me so--"
+
+Yes, that was true, but it hadn't done Peter much good. Miriam had
+been interested in Mac--in Mac, that most dangerous devil, who had
+given Peter so many anxious hours! She had brushed Peter to one
+side, she had hardly been willing to listen to what he said; and now
+she was trying to use that love she had spurned!
+
+She had got hold of his hand, and he could not get it away from her
+without violence. "If you ever felt a spark of love for a woman,"
+she cried, "surely you cannot deny such a favor--such a little
+favor! Please, Peter, for the sake of old times!"
+
+Suddenly Peter started, and Miriam too. There came a voice from the
+doorway. "So this is one of your lady friends, is it?" And there
+stood Gladys, staring, rigid with anger, her little hands clenched.
+"So this is one of your Red sweethearts, one of your nationalized
+women?" And she stamped her foot. "Get up, you hussy! Get up, you
+slut!" And as Miriam continued to kneel, motionless with surprise,
+Gladys rushed at her, and clutched two handfuls of her heavy black
+hair, and pulled so that Miriam fell prone on the floor. "I'll teach
+you, you free lover!" she screamed. "I'll teach you to make love to
+my husband!" And she dragged Miriam about by that mop of black hair,
+kicking her and clawing her, until finally several of the bulls had
+to interfere to save the girl's life.
+
+As a matter of fact Gladys had been told about Peter's shameful past
+before she married him; Guffey had told her, and she had told Peter
+that Guffey had told her, she had reminded Peter of it many, many
+times. But the actual sight of one of these "nationalized women" had
+driven her into a frenzy, and it was a week before peace was
+restored in the Gudge family. Meantime poor Peter was buffeted by
+storms of emotion, both at home and in his office. They were getting
+ready the first Red train, and it seemed as if every foreign Red
+that Peter had ever known was besieging him, trying to get at him
+and harrow his soul and his conscience. Sadie Todd's cousin, who had
+been born in England, was shipped out on this first train, and also
+a Finnish lumberman whom Peter had known in the I. W. W., and a
+Bohemian cigar worker at whose home he had several times eaten, and
+finally Michael Dubin, the Jewish boy with whom he had spent fifteen
+days in jail, and who had been one of the victims of the black-snake
+whippings.
+
+Michael made no end of wailing, because he had a wife and three
+babies, and he set up the claim that when the "bulls" had raided his
+home they had stolen all his savings, two or three hundred dollars.
+Peter, of course, insisted that he could do nothing; Dubin was a Red
+and an alien, and he must go. When they were loading them on the
+train, there was Dubin's wife and half a hundred other women,
+shrieking and wringing their hands, and trying to break thru the
+guards to get near their loved ones. The police had to punch them in
+the stomachs with their clubs to hold them back, and in spite of all
+these blows, the hysterical Mrs. Dubin succeeded in breaking thru
+the guards, and she threw herself under the wheels of the train, and
+they were barely able to drag her away in time to save her life.
+Scenes like this would, of course, have a bad effect upon the
+public, and so Guffey called up the editors of all the newspapers,
+and obtained a gentleman's agreement that none of them would print
+any details.
+
+
+
+
+Section 84
+
+
+All over the country the Red trains were moving eastward, loaded
+with "wobblies" and communists, pacifists and anarchists, and a
+hundred other varieties of Bolsheviks. They got a shipload together
+and started them off for Russia--the "Red Ark" it was called, and
+the Red soap-boxers set tip a terrific uproar, and one Red clergyman
+compared the "Red Ark" to the Mayflower! Also there was some Red
+official in Washington, who made a fuss and cancelled a whole block
+of deportation orders, including some of Peter's own cases. This,
+naturally, was exasperating to Peter and his wife; and on top of it
+came another incident that was still more humiliating.
+
+There was a "pink" mass meeting held in American City, to protest
+against the deportations. Guffey said they would quite probably raid
+the meeting, and Peter must go along, so as to point out the Reds to
+the bulls. The work was in charge of a police detective by the name
+of Garrity, head of what was called the "Bomb Squad"; but this man
+didn't know very much, so he had the habit of coming to Peter for
+advice. Now he had the whole responsibility of this meeting, and he
+asked Peter to come up on the platform with him, and Peter went.
+Here was a vast audience--all the Red fury which had been pent up
+for many months, breaking loose in a whirlwind of excitement. Here
+were orators, well dressed and apparently respectable men, not in
+any way to be distinguished from the born rulers of the country,
+coming forward on the platform and uttering the most treasonable
+sentences, denouncing the government, denouncing the blockade
+against Russia, praising the Bolshevik government of Russia,
+declaring that the people who went away in the "Soviet Ark" were
+fortunate, because they were escaping from a land of tyranny into a
+land of freedom. At every few sentences the orator would be stopped
+by a storm of applause that broke from the audience.
+
+And what was a poor Irish Catholic police detective to make of a
+proposition like that? Here stood an orator declaring: "Whenever any
+form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the
+right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
+government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing
+its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
+their safety and happiness." And Garrity turned to Peter. "What do
+you think of that?" he said, his good-natured Irish face blank with
+dismay.
+
+Peter thought it was the limit. Peter knew that thousands of men all
+over America had been sent to prison for saying things less
+dangerous than that. Peter had read many sets of instructions from
+the office of the Attorney-General of the United States, and knew
+officially that that was precisely the thing you were never under
+any circumstances permitted to say, or to write, or even to think.
+So Peter said to Garrity: "That fellow's gone far enough. You better
+arrest him." Garrity spoke to his men, and they sprang forward on
+the platform, and stopped the orator and placed him and all his
+fellow-orators under arrest, and ordered the audience out of the
+building. There were a couple of hundred policemen and detectives on
+hand to carry out Garrity's commands, and they formed a line with
+their clubs, and drove the crowd before them, and carted the
+speakers off in a patrol wagon. Then Peter went back to Guffey's
+office, and told what he had done--and got a reception that reminded
+him of the time Guffey had confronted him with the letter from Nell
+Doolin! "Who do you think that was you pinched?" cried Guffey.
+"He's the brother of a United States senator! And what do you think
+he was saying? That was a sentence from the Declaration of
+Independence!"
+
+
+Peter couldn't "get it"; Peter was utterly lost. Could a man go
+ahead and break the law, just because he happened to be a brother of
+a United States senator? And what difference did it make whether a
+thing was in the Declaration of Independence, if it was seditious,
+if it wasn't allowed to be said? This incident brought Guffey and
+the police authorities of the city so much ridicule that Guffey got
+all his men together and read them a lecture, explaining to them
+just what were the limits of the anti-Red activities, just who it
+was they mustn't arrest, and just what it was they couldn't keep
+people from saying. For example, a man couldn't be arrested for
+quoting the Bible.
+
+"But Jesus Christ, Guffey," broke in one of the men, "have all of us
+got to know the Bible by heart?"
+
+There was a laugh all round. "No," Guffey admitted, "but at least be
+careful, and don't arrest anybody for saying anything that sounds as
+if it came from the Bible."
+
+"But hell!" put in another of the men, who happened to be an
+ex-preacher. "That'll tie us up tighter than a jail-sentence! Look
+what's in the Bible!"
+
+And he proceeded to quote some of the things, and Peter knew that he
+had never heard any Bolshevik talk more outrageous than that. It
+made one realize more than ever how complicated was this Red
+problem; for Guffey insisted, in spite of everything, that every
+word out of the Bible was immune. "Up in Winnipeg," said he, "they
+indicted a clergyman for quoting two passages from the prophet
+Isaiah, but they couldn't face it, they had to let the fellow go."
+And the same thing was true of the Declaration of Independence;
+anybody might read it, no matter how seditious it was. And the same
+thing was true of the Constitution, even tho the part called the
+Bill of Rights declared that everybody in America might do all the
+things that Guffey's office was sending them to jail for doing!
+
+This seemed a plain crazy proposition; but Guffey explained it as a
+matter of politics. If they went too far, these fellows would go out
+and capture the votes from them, and maybe take away the government
+from them, and where would they be then? Peter had never paid any
+attention to politics before this, but both he and Gladys realized
+after this lecture that they must broaden their view-point. It was
+not enough to put the Reds in jail and crack their skulls, you had
+to keep public sympathy for what you were doing, you had to make the
+public understand that it was necessary, you had to carry on what
+was called "propaganda," to keep the public aware of the odiousness
+of these cattle, and the desperate nature of their purposes.
+
+The man who perceived that most clearly was the Attorney-General of
+the country, and Guffey in his lecture pointed out the double nature
+of his activities. Not merely was the Attorney-General breaking up
+the Communist and the Communist Labor parties and sending their
+members to jail; he was using the funds of his office to send out an
+endless stream of propaganda, to keep the country frightened about
+these Red plots. Right now he had men in American City working over
+the data which Guffey had collected, and every week or two he would
+make a speech somewhere, or would issue a statement to the
+newspapers, telling of new bomb plots and new conspiracies to
+overthrow the government. And how clever he was about it! He would
+get the pictures of the very worst-looking of the Reds, pictures
+taken after they had been kept in jail for weeks without a shave,
+and with the third degree to spoil their tempers; and these pictures
+would be spread on a sheet with the caption: "MEN LIKE THESE WOULD
+RULE YOU." This would be sent to ten thousand country newspapers all
+over the nation, and ninety-nine hundred would publish it, and
+ninety-nine million Americans would want to murder the Reds
+next morning. So successful had this plan proven that the
+Attorney-General was expecting to be nominated for President by
+means of it, and all the agencies of his department were working to
+that end.
+
+The same thing was being done by all the other agencies of big
+business all over the country. The "Improve America League" of
+American City was publishing full-page advertisements in the
+"Times," and the "Home and Fireside Association" of Eldorado was
+doing the same thing in the Eldorado "Times," and the "Patriot's
+Defense Legion" was doing the same thing in the Flagland "Banner."
+They were investigating the records of all political candidates, and
+if any of them showed the faintest tinge of pink, Guffey's office
+would set to work to rake up their records and get up scandals on
+them, and the business men would contribute a big campaign fund, and
+these candidates would be snowed under at the polls. That was the
+kind of work they were doing, and all Guffey's operatives must bear
+in mind the importance of it, and must never take any step that
+would hamper this political campaign, this propaganda on behalf of
+law and order.
+
+
+
+
+Section 85
+
+
+Peter went out from this conference a sober man, realizing for the
+first time his responsibilities as a voter, and a shepherd to other
+voters. Peter agreed with Gladys that his views had been too narrow;
+his conception of the duties of a secret agent had been of the
+pre-war order. Now he must realize that the world was changed; now,
+in this new world made safe for democracy, the secret agent was the
+real ruler of society, the real master of affairs, the trustee, as
+it were, for civilization. Peter and his wife must take up this new
+role and make themselves fit for it. They ought of course not be
+moved by personal considerations, but at the same time they must
+recognize the fact that this higher role would be of great advantage
+to them; it would enable them to move up in the world, to meet the
+best people. Thru five or six years of her young life Gladys had sat
+polishing the fingernails and fondling the soft white hands of the
+genteel; and always a fire of determination had burnt in her breast,
+that some day she would belong to this world of gentility, she would
+meet these people, not as an employee, but as an equal, she would
+not merely hold their hands, but would have them hold hers.
+
+Now the chance had come. She had a little talk with Guffey, and
+Guffey said it would be a good idea, and he would speak to Billy
+Nash, the secretary of the "Improve America League"; and he did so,
+and next week the American City "Times" announced that on the
+following Sunday evening the Men's Bible Class of the Bethlehem
+Church would have an interesting meeting. It would be addressed by
+an "under cover" operative of the government, a former Red who had
+been for many years a most dangerous agitator, but had seen the
+error of his ways, and had made amends by giving his services to the
+government in the recent I. W. W. trials.
+
+The Bethlehem Church didn't amount to very much, it was an obscure
+sect like the Holy Rollers; but Gladys had been shrewd, and had
+insisted that you mustn't try to climb to the top of the mountain in
+one step. Peter must first "try it on the dog," and if he failed,
+there would be no great harm done.
+
+But Gladys worked just as hard to make a success of this lecture as
+if they had been going into real society. She spent several days
+getting up her costume and Peter's, and she spent a whole day
+getting her toilet ready, and before they set out she spent at least
+an hour putting the finishing touches upon herself in front of a
+mirror, and seeing that Peter was proper in every detail. When Mr.
+Nash introduced her personally to the Rev. Zebediah Muggins, and
+when this apostle of the second advent came out upon the platform
+and introduced her husband to the crowded working-class audience,
+Gladys was so a-quiver with delight that it was more a pain than a
+pleasure.
+
+Peter did not do perfectly, of course. He lost himself a few times,
+and stammered and floundered about; but he remembered Glady's
+advice--if he got stuck, to smile and explain that he had never
+spoken in public before. So everything went along nicely, and
+everybody in the Men's Bible Class was aghast at the incredible
+revelations of this ex-Red and secret agent of law and order. So
+next week Peter was invited again--this time by the Young Saints'
+League; and when he had made good there, he was drafted by the Ad.
+Men's Association, and then by the Crackers and Cheese Club. By this
+time he had acquired what Gladys called "savwaa fair"; his fame
+spread rapidly, and at last came the supreme hour--he was summoned
+to Park Avenue to address the members of the Friendly Society, a
+parish organization of the Church of the Divine Compassion!
+
+This was the goal upon which the eyes of Gladys had been fixed. This
+was the time that really counted, and Peter was groomed and
+rehearsed all over again. Their home was only a few blocks from the
+church, but Gladys insisted that they must positively arrive in a
+taxi-cab, and when they entered the Parish Hall and the Rev. de
+Willoughby Stotterbridge, that exquisite almost-English gentleman,
+came up and shook hands with them, Gladys knew that she had at last
+arrived. The clergyman himself escorted her to the platform, and
+after he had introduced Peter, he seated himself beside her, thus
+definitely putting a seal upon her social position.
+
+Peter, having learned his lecture by heart, having found out just
+what brought laughter and what brought tears and what brought
+patriotic applause, was now an assured success. After the lecture he
+answered questions, and two clerks in the employ of Billy Nash
+passed around membership cards of the "Improve America League,"
+membership dues five dollars a year, sustaining membership
+twenty-five dollars a year, life membership two hundred dollars
+cash. Peter was shaken hands with by members of the most exclusive
+social set in American City, and told by them all to keep it up--his
+country needed him. Next morning there was an account of his lecture
+in the "Times," and the morning after there was an editorial about
+his revelations, with the moral: "Join the Improve America League."
+
+
+
+
+Section 86
+
+
+That second morning, when Peter got to his office, he found a letter
+waiting for him, a letter written on very conspicuous and expensive
+stationery, and addressed in a woman's tall and sharp-pointed
+handwriting. Peter opened it and got a start, for at the top of the
+letter was some kind of crest, and a Latin inscription, and the
+words: "Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution." The
+letter informed him by the hand of a secretary that Mrs. Warring
+Sammye requested that Mr. Peter Gudge would be so good as to call
+upon her that afternoon at three o'clock. Peter studied the letter,
+and tried to figure out what kind of Red this was. He was impressed
+by the stationery and the regal tone, but that word "Revolution" was
+one of the forbidden words. Mrs. Warren Sammye must be one of the
+"Parlor Reds," like Mrs. Godd.
+
+So Peter took the letter to McGivney, and said suspiciously, "What
+kind of a Red plot is this?"
+
+McGivney read the letter, and said, "Red plot? How do you mean?"
+
+"Why," explained Peter, "it says `Daughters of the American
+Revolution.'"
+
+And McGivney looked at him; at first he thought that Peter was
+joking, but when he saw that the fellow was really in earnest, he
+guffawed in his face. "You boob!" he said. "Didn't you ever hear of
+the American Revolution? Don't you know anything about the Fourth of
+July?"
+
+Just then the telephone rang and interrupted them, and McGivney
+shoved the letter to him saying, "Ask your wife about it!" So when
+Gladys came in, Peter gave her the letter, and she was much excited.
+It appeared that Mrs. Warring Sammye was a very tip-top society lady
+in American City, and this American Revolution of which she was a
+daughter was a perfectly respectable revolution that had happened a
+long time ago; the very best people belonged to it, and it was legal
+and proper to write about, and even to put on your letterheads.
+Peter must go home and get himself into his best clothes at once,
+and telephone to the secretary that he would be pleased to call upon
+Mrs. Warring Sammye at the hour indicated. Incidentally, there were
+a few more things for Peter to study. He must get a copy of the
+social register, "Who's Who in American City," and he must get a
+history of his country, and learn about the Declaration of
+Independence, and what was the difference between a revolution that
+had happened a long time ago and one that was happening now.
+
+So Peter went to call on the great society lady in her grey stone
+mansion, and found her every bit as opulent as Mrs. Godd, with the
+addition that she respected her own social position; she did not
+make the mistake of treating Peter as an equal, and so it did not
+occur to Peter that he might settle down permanently in her home.
+Her purpose was to tell Peter that she had heard of his lecture
+about the Red menace, and that she was chairman of the Board of
+Directors of the Lady Patronesses of the Home for Disabled War
+Veterans in American City, and she wanted to arrange to have Peter
+deliver this lecture to the veterans. And Peter, instructed in
+advance by Gladys, said that he would be very glad to donate this
+lecture as a patriotic contribution. Mrs. Warring Sammye thanked him
+gravely in the name of his country, and said she would let him know
+the date.
+
+Peter went home, and Gladys made a wry face, because the lecture was
+to be delivered before a lot of good-for-nothing soldiers in some
+hall, when it had been her hope that it was to be delivered to the
+Daughters themselves, and in Mrs. Warring Sammye's home. However, to
+have attracted Mrs. Warring Sammye's attention for anything was in
+itself a triumph. So Gladys was soon cheerful again, and she told
+Peter about Mrs. Warring Sammye's life; one picked up such valuable
+knowledge in the gossip at the manicure parlors, it appeared.
+
+Then, being in a friendly mood, Gladys talked to Peter about
+himself. They had mounted to a height from which they could look
+back upon the past and see it as a whole, and in the intimacy and
+confidence of their domestic partnership they could draw lessons
+from their mistakes and plan their future wisely. Peter had made
+many blunders--he must surely admit that. Did Peter admit that? Yes,
+Peter did. But, continued Gladys, he had struggled bravely, and he
+had the supreme good fortune to have secured for himself that
+greatest of life's blessings, the cooperation of a good and capable
+woman. Gladys was very emphatic about this latter, and Peter agreed
+with her. He agreed also when she stated that it is the duty of a
+good and capable wife to protect her husband for the balance of
+their life's journey, so that he would be able to avoid the traps
+which his enemies set for his feet. Peter, having learned by bitter
+experience, would never again go chasing after a pretty face, and
+wake up next morning to find his pockets empty. Peter admitted this
+too. As this conversation progressed, he realized that the tour of
+triumph his life had become was a thing entirely of his wife's
+creation; at least, he realized that there would be no use in trying
+to change his wife's conviction on the subject. Likewise he meekly
+accepted her prophecies as to his future conduct; he would bring
+home his salary at the end of each week, and his wife would use it,
+together with her own salary, to improve the appearance and tone of
+both of them, and to aid them to climb to a higher social position.
+
+Peter, following his wife's careful instructions, has already become
+more dignified in his speech, more grave in his movements. She tells
+him that the future of society depends on his knowledge and his
+skill, and he agrees to this also. He has learned what you can do
+and what you had better not do; he will never again cross the
+dead-line into crime, or take chances with experiments in blackmail.
+He will try no more free lance work under the evil influence of low
+creatures like Nell Doolin, but will stand in with the "machine,"
+and bear in mind that honesty is the best policy. So he will
+steadily progress; he will meet the big men of the country, and will
+go to them, not cringing and twisting his hat in his hands, but
+with quiet self-possession. He will meet the agents of the
+Attorney-General aspiring to become President, and will furnish them
+with material for their weekly Red scares. He will meet legislators
+who want to unseat elected Socialists, and governors who wish to
+jail the leaders of "outlaw" strikes. He will meet magazine writers
+getting up articles, and popular novelists looking for local Red
+color.
+
+But Peter's best bid of all will be as a lecturer. He will be able
+to travel all over the country, making a sensation. Did he know why?
+No, Peter answered, he was not sure he did. Well, Gladys could tell
+him; it was because he was romantic. Peter didn't know just what
+this word meant, but it sounded flattering, so he smiled sheepishly,
+showing his crooked teeth, and asked how Gladys found out that he
+was romantic. The reply was a sudden order for him to stand up and
+turn around slowly.
+
+Peter didn't like to get up from his comfortable Morris chair, but
+he did what his wife asked him. She inspected him on all sides and
+exclaimed, "Peter, you must go on a diet; you're getting
+ombongpoing!" She said this in horrified tones, and Peter was
+frightened, because it sounded like a disease. But Gladys added:
+"You can not be a romantic figure on a lecture platform if you've
+got a bay-window!"
+
+Peter found it interesting to be talked about, so he asked again why
+Gladys thought he was romantic. There were several reasons, she
+said, but the main one was that he had been a dangerous criminal,
+and had reformed, which pleased the church people; he had made a
+happy ending by marriage, which pleased those who read novels.
+
+"Is that so?" said Peter, guilelessly, and she assured him that it
+was. "And what else?" he asked, and she explained that he had known
+intimately and at first hand those dreadful and dangerous people,
+those ogres of the modern world, the Bolsheviks, about whom the
+average man and woman learned only thru the newspapers. And not
+merely did he tell a sensational story, but he ended it with a
+money-making lesson. The lesson was "Contribute to the Improve
+America League. Make out your checks to the Home and Fireside
+Association. The existence of your country depends upon your
+sustaining the Patriot's Defense Legion." So the fame of Peter's
+lecture would spread, and the Guffeys and Billy Nashes of every city
+and town in America would clamor for him to come, and when he came,
+the newspapers would publish his picture, and he and his wife would
+be welcomed by leaders of the best society. They would become social
+lions, and would see the homes of the rich, and gradually become one
+of the rich.
+
+Gladys looked her spouse over again, as they started to
+their sleeping apartment. Yes, he was undoubtedly putting on
+"ombongpoing"; he would have to take up golf. He was wearing a
+little American flag dangling from his watch chain, and she wondered
+if that wasn't a trifle crude. Gladys herself now wore a real
+diamond ring, and had learned to say "vahse" and "baahth." She
+yawned prettily as she took off her lovely brown "tailor-made," and
+reflected that such things come with ease and security.
+
+Both she and Peter now had these in full measure. They had lost all
+fear of ever finding themselves out of a job. They had come to
+understand that the Red menace is not to be so easily exterminated;
+it is a distemper that lurks in the blood of society, and breaks out
+every now and then in a new rash. Gladys had come to agree with the
+Reds to this extent, that so long as there is a class of the rich
+and prosperous, so long will there be social discontent, so long
+will there be some that make their living by agitating, denouncing
+and crying out for change. Society is like a garden; each year when
+you plant your vegetables there springs up also a crop of weeds, and
+you have to go down the rows and chop off the heads of these weeds.
+Gladys' husband is an expert gardener, he knows how to chop weeds,
+and he knows that society will never be able to dispense with his
+services. So long as gardening continues, Peter will be a head
+weedchopper, and a teacher of classes of young weedchoppers.
+
+Ah, it was fine to have married such a man! It was the reward a good
+woman received for helping her husband, making him into a good
+citizen, a patriot and an upholder of law and order: For always, of
+course, those who own the garden would see that their head
+weedchopper was taken care of, and had his share of the best that
+the garden produced. Gladys stood before her looking-glass, braiding
+her hair for the night, and thinking of the things she would ask
+from this garden. She and Peter had earned, and they would demand,
+the sweetest flowers, the most luscious fruits. Suddenly Gladys
+stretched wide her arms in an ecstasy of realization. "We're a
+Success, Peter! We're a Success! We'll have money and all the lovely
+things it will buy! Do you realize, Peter, what a hit you've made?"
+
+Peter saw her face of joy, but he was a tiny bit frightened and
+uncertain, because of this unusual sharing of the honors. So Gladys
+was impelled to affection, mingled with pity. She held out her arms
+to him. "Poor, dear Peter! He's had such a hard life! It was cruel
+he didn't have me sooner to help him!"
+
+And then Gladys reflected for a moment, and was moved to another
+outburst. "Just think, Peter, how wonderful it is to be an American!
+In America you can always rise if you do your duty! America is the
+land of the free! Your example of a poor boy's success ought to
+convince even the fool Reds that they're wrong--that any boy can
+rise if he works hard! Why, I've heard it said that in America the
+poorest boy can rise to be President! How would you like to be
+President, Peter?"
+
+Peter hesitated. He doubted if he was equal to that big a job, but
+he knew that it would not please Gladys for him to say so. He
+murmured, "Perhaps--some day--"
+
+"Anyhow, Peter," his wife continued, "I'm for this country! I'm an
+American!"
+
+And this time Peter didn't have to hesitate. "You bet!" he said, and
+added his favorite formula--"100%!"
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+A little experimenting with the manuscript of "100%" has revealed to
+the writer that everybody has a series of questions they wish
+immediately to ask: How much of it is true? To what extent have the
+business men of America been compelled to take over the detection
+and prevention of radicalism? Have they, in putting down the Reds,
+been driven to such extreme measures as you have here shown?
+
+A few of the incidents in "100%" are fictional, for example the
+story of Nell Doolin and Nelse Ackerman; but everything that has
+social significance is truth, and has been made to conform to facts
+personally known to the writer or to his friends. Practically all
+the characters in "100%" are real persons. Peter Gudge is a real
+person, and has several times been to call upon the writer in the
+course of his professional activities; Guffey and McGivney are real
+persons, and so is Billy Nash, and so is Gladys Frisbie.
+
+To begin at the beginning: the "Goober case" parallels in its main
+outlines the case of Tom Mooney. If you wish to know about this
+case, send fifteen cents to the Mooney Defense Committee, Post
+Office Box 894, San Francisco, for the pamphlet, "Shall Mooney
+Hang," by Robert Minor. The business men of San Francisco raised a
+million dollars to save the city from union labor, and the Mooney
+case was the way they did it. It happened, however, that the judge
+before whom Mooney was convicted weakened, and wrote to the
+Attorney-General of the State to the effect that he had become
+convinced that Mooney was convicted by perjured testimony. But
+meantime Mooney was in jail, and is there still. Fremont Older,
+editor of the San Francisco "Call," who has been conducting an
+investigation into this case, has recently written to the author:
+"Altogether, it is the most amazing story I have ever had anything
+to do with. When all is known that I think can be known, it will be
+shown clearly that the State before an open-eyed community was able
+to murder a man with the instruments that the people have provided
+for bringing about justice. There isn't a scrap of testimony in
+either of the Mooney or Billings cases that wasn't perjured, except
+that of the man who drew the blue prints of Market Street."
+
+To what extent has the detection and punishment of radicalism in
+America passed out of the hands of public authorities and into the
+hands of "Big Business?" Any business man will of course agree that
+when "Big Business" has interests to protect, it must and will
+protect them. So far as possible it will make use of the public
+authorities; but when thru corruption or fear of politics these
+fail, "Big Business" has to act for itself. In the Colorado coal
+strike the coal companies raised the money to pay the state militia,
+and recruited new companies of militia from their private
+detectives. The Reds called this "Government by Gunmen," and the
+writer in his muckraking days wrote a novel about it, "King Coal."
+The man who directed the militia during this coal strike was A. C.
+Felts of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, who was killed just the
+other day while governing several coal counties in West Virginia.
+
+You will find this condition in the lumber country of Washington and
+Oregon, in the oil country of Oklahoma and Kansas, in the copper
+country of Michigan, Montana and Arizona, and in all the big coal
+districts. In the steel country of Western Pennsylvania you will
+find that all the local authorities are officials of the steel
+companies. If you go to Bristol, R. I., you will find that the
+National India Rubber Company has agreed to pay the salaries of
+two-thirds of the town's police force.
+
+In every large city in America the employers' associations have
+raised funds to hold down the unions and smash the Reds, and these
+funds are being expended in the way portrayed in "100%." In Los
+Angeles the employers' association raised a million dollars, and the
+result was the case of Sydney R. Flowers, briefly sketched in this
+story under the name of "Sydney." The reader who wishes the details
+of this case is referred to Chapter LXVI of "The Brass Cheek."
+Flowers has been twice tried, and is about to be tried a third time,
+and our District-Attorney is quoted as saying that he will be tried
+half a dozen times if necessary. At the last trial there were
+produced a total of twenty-five witnesses against Flowers, and out
+of these nineteen were either Peter Gudges and McGivneys, or else
+police detectives, or else employees of the local political machine.
+A deputy United States attorney, talking to me about the case, told
+me that he had refused to prosecute it because he realized that the
+"Paul letter," upon which the arrest had been based, was a frame-up,
+and that he was quite sure he knew who had written it. He also told
+me that there had been formed in Los Angeles a secret committee of
+fifty of the most active rich men of the town; that he could not
+find out what they were doing, but they came to his offices and
+demanded the secret records of the government; and that when he
+refused to prosecute Flowers they had influence enough to have the
+governor of California telegraph to Washington in protest.
+Questioned on the witness stand, I repeated these statements, and
+the deputy United States attorney was called to the stand and
+attributed them to my "literary imagination."
+
+In the old Russian and Austrian empires the technique of trapping
+agitators was well developed, and the use of spies and "under cover"
+men for the purpose of luring the Reds into crime was completely
+worked out. We have no English equivalent for the phrase "agent
+provocateur," but in the last four years we have put thousands of
+them at work in America. In the case against Flowers three witnesses
+were produced who had been active among the I. W. Ws., trying to
+incite crime, and were being paid to give testimony for the state.
+One of these men admitted that he had himself burned some forty
+barns, and was now receiving three hundred dollars a month and
+expenses. At the trial of William Bross Lloyd in Chicago, charged
+with membership in the Communist party, a similar witness was
+produced. Santeri Nourteva, of, the Soviet Bureau in New York, has
+charged that Louis C. Fraina, editor of the "Revolutionary Age," was
+a government agent, and Fraina wrote into the platform of the
+Communist party the planks which were used in prosecuting and
+deporting its members. On December 27, 1919, the chief of the Bureau
+of Investigation of the Department of Justice in Washington sent to
+the head of his local bureau in Boston a telegram containing the
+following sentences: "You should arrange with your under cover
+informants to have meetings of the Communist Party and Communist
+Labor Party held on the night set. I have been informed by some of
+the bureau officers that such arrangements will be made." So much
+evidence of the activity of the provocateur was produced before
+Federal Judge G. W. Anderson that he declared as follows: "What does
+appear beyond reasonable dispute is that the Government owns and
+operates some part of the Communist Party."
+
+It appears that Judge Anderson does not share the high opinion of
+the "under cover" operative set forth by the writer of "100%." Says
+Judge Anderson: "I cannot adopt the contention that Government spies
+are any more trustworthy, or less disposed to make trouble in order
+to profit therefrom, than are spies in private industry. Except in
+time of war, when a Nathan Hale may be a spy, spies are always
+necessarily drawn from the unwholesome and untrustworthy classes. A
+right-minded man refuses such a job. The evil wrought by the spy
+system in industry has, for decades, been incalculable. Until it is
+eliminated, decent human relations cannot exist between employers
+and employees, or even among employees. It destroys trust and
+confidence; it kills human kindliness; it propagates hate."
+
+To what extent have the governmental authorities of America been
+forced to deny to the Reds the civil rights guaranteed to good
+Americans by the laws and the constitution? The reader who is
+curious on this point may send the sum of twenty-five cents to the
+American Civil Liberties Union, 138 West 13th Street, New York, for
+the pamphlet entitled, "Report upon the Illegal Practices of the
+United States Department of Justice," signed by twelve eminent
+lawyers in the country, including a dean of the Harvard Law school,
+and a United States attorney who resigned because of his
+old-fashioned ideas of law. This pamphlet contains sixty-seven
+pages, with numerous exhibits and photographs. The practices set
+forth are listed under six heads: Cruel and unusual punishments;
+arrests without warrant; unreasonable searches and seizures;
+provocative agents; compelling persons to be witnesses against
+themselves; propaganda by the Department of Justice. The reader may
+also ask for the pamphlet entitled "Memorandum Regarding the
+Persecution of the Radical Labor Movement in the United States;"
+also for the pamphlet entitled "War Time Prosecution and Mob
+Violence," dated March, 1919, giving a list of cases which occupies
+forty pages of closely printed type. Also he might read "The Case of
+the Rand School," published by the Rand School of Social Science, 7
+East Fifteenth Street, New York, and the pamphlets published by the
+National Office of the Socialist Party, 220 South Ashland Blvd.,
+Chicago, dealing with the prosecutions of that organization.
+
+To what extent has it been necessary to torture the Reds in prison
+in America? Those who are interested are advised to write to Harry
+Weinberger, 32 Union Square, New York, for the pamphlet entitled
+"Twenty Years Prison," dealing with the case of Mollie Steimer, and
+three others who were sentenced for distributing a leaflet
+protesting against the war on Russia; also to the American Civil
+Liberties Union for the pamphlet entitled "Political Prisoners in
+Federal Military Prisons," also the pamphlet, "Uncle Sam: Jailer,"
+by Winthrop D. Lane, reprinted from the "Survey;" also the pamphlet
+entitled "The Soviet of Deer Island, Boston Harbor," published by
+the Boston Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union; also for
+the publications of the American Industrial Company, and the
+American Freedom Foundation, 166 West Washington St., Chicago.
+
+There may be some reader with a sense of humor who asks about the
+brother of a United States senator being arrested for reading a
+paragraph from the Declaration of Independence. This gentleman was
+the brother of United States Senator France of Maryland, and
+curiously enough, the arrest took place in the city of Philadelphia,
+where the Declaration of Independence was adopted. There may be some
+reader who is curious about a clergyman being indicted and arrested
+in Winnipeg for having quoted the prophet Isaiah. The paragraph from
+the indictment in question reads as follows: "That J. S. Woodsworth,
+on or about the month of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+nine hundred and nineteen, at the City of Winnipeg, in the Province
+of Manitoba, unlawfully and seditiously published seditious libels
+in the words and figures following: `Woe unto them that decree
+unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have
+prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away
+their right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey
+and that they may rob the fatherless. . . . And they shall build
+houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the
+fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall
+not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of
+my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.'"
+
+There has been reference in this book to the Centralia case. No one
+can consider that he understands the technique of holding down the
+Reds until he has studied this case, and therefore every friend of
+"Big Business" should send fifty cents, either to the I. W. W.
+Headquarters, 1001 West Madison Street, Chicago, or to the
+"Liberator," New York, or to the "Appeal to Reason," Girard, Kansas,
+for the booklet, "The Centralia Conspiracy," by Ralph Chaplin, who
+attended the Centralia trial, and has collected all the details and
+presents them with photographs and documents. Many other stories
+about the I. W. W. have been told in the course of "100%." The
+reader will wish to know, are these men really so dangerous, and
+have the business men of America been driven to treat them as here
+described. The reader may again address the I. W. W. National
+Headquarters for a four-page leaflet with the quaint title, "With
+Drops of Blood the History of the Industrial Workers of the World
+has Been Written." Despite the fact that it is a bare record of
+cases, there are many men serving long terms in prison in the United
+States for the offense of having in their possession a copy of this
+leaflet, "With Drops of Blood." But the readers of this book, being
+all of them 100% Americans engaged in learning the technique of
+smashing the Reds, will, I feel sure, not be interfered with by the
+business men. Also I trust that the business men will not object to
+my reprinting a few paragraphs from the leaflet, in order to make
+the public realize how dangerously these Reds can write. I will, of
+course, not follow their incendiary example and spatter my page with
+big drops of imitation blood. I quote:
+
+"We charge that I. W. W. members have been murdered, and mention
+here a few of those who have lost their lives:
+
+"Joseph Michalish was shot to death by a mob of so-called citizens.
+Michael Hoey was beaten to death in San Diego. Samuel Chinn was so
+brutally beaten in the county jail at Spokane, Washington, that he
+died from the injuries. Joseph Hillstrom was judicially murdered
+within the walls of the penitentiary at Salt Lake City, Utah. Anna
+Lopeza, a textile worker, was shot and killed, and two other Fellow
+Workers were murdered during the strike at Lawrence, Massachusetts.
+Frank Little, a cripple, was lynched by hirelings of the Copper
+Trust at Butte, Montana. John Looney, A. Robinowitz, Hugo Gerlot,
+Gustav Johnson, Felix Baron, and others were killed by a mob of
+Lumber Trust gunmen on the Steamer Verona at the dock at Everett,
+Washington. J. A. Kelly was arrested and re-arrested at Seattle,
+Washington; finally died from the effects of the frightful treatment
+he received. Four members of the I. W. W. were killed at Grabow,
+Louisiana, where thirty were shot and seriously wounded. Two members
+were dragged to death behind an automobile at Ketchikan, Alaska.
+
+"These are but a few of the many who have given up their lives on
+the altar of Greed, sacrificed in the ages-long struggle for
+Industrial Freedom.
+
+"We charge that many thousands of members of this organization have
+been imprisoned, on most occasions arrested without warrant and held
+without charge. To verify this statement it is but necessary that
+you read the report of the Commission on Industrial Relations
+wherein is given testimony of those who know of conditions at
+Lawrence, Massachusetts, where nearly 900 men and women were thrown
+into prison during the Textile Workers' Strike at that place. This
+same report recites the fact that during the Silk Workers' Strike at
+Paterson, New Jersey, nearly 1,900 men and women were cast into jail
+without charge or reason. Throughout the northwest these kinds of
+outrages have been continually perpetrated against members of the I.
+W. W. County jails and city prisons in nearly every state in the
+Union have held or are holding members of this organization.
+
+"We charge that members of the I. W. W. have been tarred and
+feathered. Frank H. Meyers was tarred and feathered by a gang of
+prominent citizens at North Yakima, Washington. D. S. Dietz was
+tarred and feathered by a mob led by representatives of the Lumber
+Trust at Sedro, Wooley, Washington. John L. Metzen, attorney for the
+Industrial Workers of the World, was tarred and feathered and
+severely beaten by a mob of citizens of Staunton, Illinois. At
+Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mob of bankers and other business men gathered up
+seventeen members of the I. W. W., loaded them in automobiles,
+carried them out of town to a patch of woods, and there tarred and
+feathered and beat them with rope.
+
+"We charge that members of the Industrial Workers of the World have
+been deported, and cite the cases of Bisbee, Arizona, where 1,164
+miners, many of them members of the I. W. W., and their friends,
+were dragged out of their homes, loaded upon box cars, and sent out
+of the camp. They were confined for months at Columbus, New Mexico.
+Many cases are now pending against the copper companies and business
+men of Bisbee. A large number of members were deported from Jerome,
+Arizona. Seven members of the I. W. W. were deported from Florence,
+Oregon, and were lost for days in the woods, Tom Lassiter, a
+crippled news vender, was taken out in the middle of the night and
+badly beaten by a mob for selling the Liberator and other radical
+papers.
+
+"We charge that members of the I. W. W. have been cruelly and
+inhumanly beaten. Hundreds of members can show scars upon their
+lacerated bodies that were inflicted upon them when they were
+compelled to run the gauntlet. Joe Marko and many others were
+treated in this fashion at San Diego, California. James Rowan was
+nearly beaten to death at Everett, Washington. At Lawrence,
+Massachusetts, the thugs of the Textile Trust beat men and women who
+had been forced to go on strike to get a little more of the good
+things of life. The shock and cruel whipping which they gave one
+little Italian woman caused her to give premature birth to a child.
+At Red Lodge, Montana, a member's home was invaded and he was hung
+by the neck before his screaming wife and children. At Franklin, New
+Jersey, August 29, 1917, John Avila, an I. W. W., was taken in broad
+daylight by the chief of police and an auto-load of business men to
+a woods near the town and there hung to a tree. He was cut down
+before death ensued, and badly beaten. It was five hours before
+Avila regained consciousness, after which the town 'judge' sentenced
+him to three months at hard labor.
+
+"We charge that members of the I. W. W. have been starved. This
+statement can be verified by the conditions existing in most any
+county jail where members of the I. W. W. are confined. A very
+recent instance is at Topeka, Kansas, where members were compelled
+to go on a hunger strike as a means of securing food for themselves
+that would sustain life. Members have been forced to resort to the
+hunger strike as a means of getting better food in many places. You
+are requested to read the story written by Winthrop D. Lane, which
+appears in the Sept. 6, 1919, number of `The Survey.' This story is
+a graphic description of the county jails in Kansas.
+
+"We charge that I. W. W. members have been denied the right of
+citizenship, and in each instance the judge frankly told the
+applicants that they were refused on account of membership in the
+Industrial Workers of the World, accompanying this with abusive
+remarks; members were denied their citizenship papers by judge
+Hanford at Seattle, Washington, and judge Paul O'Boyle at Scranton,
+Pennsylvania.
+
+"We charge that members of the I. W. W. have been denied the
+privilege of defense. This being an organization of working men who
+had little or no funds of their own, it was necessary to appeal to
+the membership and the working class generally for funds to provide
+a proper defense. The postal authorities, acting under orders from
+the Postmaster-General at Washington, D. C., have deliberately
+prevented the transportation of our appeals, our subscription lists,
+our newspapers. These have been piled up in the postoffices and we
+have never received a return of the stamps affixed for mailing.
+
+"We charge that the members of the I. W. W. have been held in
+exorbitant bail. As an instance there is the case of Pietro Pierre
+held in the county jail at Topeka, Kansas. His bond was fixed at
+$5,000, and when the amount was tendered it was immediately raised
+to $10,000. This is only one of the many instances that could be
+recorded.
+
+"We charge that members of the I. W. W. have been compelled to
+submit to involuntary servitude. This does not refer to members
+confined in the penitentiaries, but would recall the reader's
+attention to an I. W. W. member under arrest in Birmingham, Alabama,
+taken from the prison and placed on exhibition at a fair given in
+that city where admission of twenty-five cents was charged to see
+the I. W. W."
+
+Finally, for the benefit of the reader who asks how it happens that
+such incidents are not more generally known to the public, I will
+reprint the following, from pages 382-383 of "The Brass Check,"
+dealing with the "New York Times," and its treatment of the writer's
+novel, "Jimmie Higgins":
+
+"In the last chapters of this story an American soldier is
+represented as being tortured in an American military prison. Says
+the `Times':
+
+"`Mr. Sinclair should produce the evidence upon which he bases his
+astounding accusations, if he has any. If he has simply written on
+hearsay evidence, or, worse still, let himself be guided by his
+craving to be sensational, he has laid himself open not only to
+censure but to punishment.'
+
+"In reply to this, I send to the `Times' a perfectly respectful
+letter, citing scores of cases, and telling the `Times' where
+hundreds of other cases may be found. The `Times' returns this
+letter without comment. A couple of months pass, and as a result of
+the ceaseless agitation of the radicals, there is a congressional
+investigation, and evidence of atrocious cruelties is forced into
+the newspapers. The `Times' publishes an editorial entitled, `Prison
+Camp Cruelties,' the first sentence of which reads: `The fact that
+American soldiers confined in prison-camps have been treated with
+extreme brutality may now be regarded as established.' So again I
+write a polite letter to the `Times,' pointing out that I think they
+owe me an apology. And how does the `Times' treat that? It alters my
+letter without my permission. It cuts out my request for an apology,
+and also my quotation of its own words calling for my punishment!
+The `Times,' caught in a hole, refuses to let me remind its readers
+that it wanted me `punished' for telling the truth! `All the News
+that's Fit to Print!'"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's 100%: The Story of a Patriot, by Upton Sinclair
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