rights; this is one of
my rights, and I intend to use it."

"It's your business. If you are fool enough to kill a golden goose,
it's no affair of mine. But I shall rescind your permit, however. I
believe it to be my duty."

"Call your Council together, Mr. Donnelly. You can not get a quorum
together earlier than to-morrow night; and by that time I shall have
the work done. You say you will not afford me protection. Very well;
if the men become violent and burn the shops, I shall be relieved of
the expense of tearing them down. Good afternoon."

Donnelly sat in his chair for a quarter of an hour, silent and
thoughtful. Suddenly he slapped his thigh.

"I don't know what McQuade has against that man, but, by the Lord! he
IS a man!"

That night the strikers received several bottles of whisky and a keg
of beer. The source of these gifts was unknown. Some of the more
thoughtful were for smashing the stuff, but the turbulent majority
overruled them. They began to drink and jest. They did so with
impunity. For some reason the police had been withdrawn. The hammering
inside the shops puzzled them, but they still clung to the idea that
all this clamor was only a ruse to frighten them into surrendering.
From the interior the pounding gradually approached as far as the
walls of the courtyard. At midnight one of these walls went thundering
to the ground. A few minutes later another fell. The strikers grouped
together, dismayed.

"By God, boys," one of them yelled, "he's tearing it down!"

In that moment, and only then, did they realize that they had been
dealing with a man whose will and word were immutable. They saw all
their dreams of triumph vanish in the dust that rose from the
crumbling brick and plaster. And dismay gave way to insensate rage. It
would only be helping Bennington to riot and burn the shops, so now to
maim and kill the men who, at hire, were tearing down these walls.

"Come on, boys! We'll help the scabs finish the work! Come on!"

There was now a great breach in the wall. Men moving to and fro could
be seen. The strikers snatched up bricks and clubs and dashed toward
this. But ere they had set foot on the rubbish they stopped. Half a
dozen resolute men faced them. They were armed.

"That's far enough, boys," warned a powerful voice. "I told you we
have all been sworn in as deputy police, with all the laws of the
state back of us. The first man that steps across that pile of bricks
will go to the ho