no great
violence done. Cars had been stopped, it is true, and the men argued
with. Some crews had been won over and led away, some windows broken,
some jeering and yelling done; but in no more than five or six instances
had men been seriously injured. These by crowds whose acts the leaders
disclaimed.

Idleness, however, and the sight of the company, backed by the police,
triumphing, angered the men. They saw that each day more cars were going
on, each day more declarations were being made by the company officials
that the effective opposition of the strikers was broken. This put
desperate thoughts in the minds of the men. Peaceful methods meant, they
saw, that the companies would soon run all their cars and those who
had complained would be forgotten. There was nothing so helpful to the
companies as peaceful methods. All at once they blazed forth, and for
a week there was storm and stress. Cars were assailed, men attacked,
policemen struggled with, tracks torn up, and shots fired, until at
last street fights and mob movements became frequent, and the city was
invested with militia.

Hurstwood knew nothing of the change of temper.

"Run your car out," called the foreman, waving a vigorous hand at him. A
green conductor jumped up behind and rang the bell twice as a signal to
start. Hurstwood turned the lever and ran the car out through the door
into the street in front of the barn. Here two brawny policemen got up
beside him on the platform--one on either hand.

At the sound of a gong near the barn door, two bells were given by the
conductor and Hurstwood opened his lever.

The two policemen looked about them calmly.

"'Tis cold, all right, this morning," said the one on the left, who
possessed a rich brogue.

"I had enough of it yesterday," said the other. "I wouldn't want a
steady job of this."

"Nor I."

Neither paid the slightest attention to Hurstwood, who stood facing
the cold wind, which was chilling him completely, and thinking of his
orders.

"Keep a steady gait," the foreman had said. "Don't stop for any one who
doesn't look like a real passenger. Whatever you do, don't stop for a
crowd."

The two officers kept silent for a few moments.

"The last man must have gone through all right," said the officer on the
left. "I don't see his car anywhere."

"Who's on there?" asked the second officer, referring, of course, to its
complement of policemen.

"Schaeffer and Ryan."

There was another sil