mills. Never were more men on the pay-roll, and
all the machinery of the gigantic plant was crowded to its utmost night
and day. That business had improved was evident to everybody.

In love and war all things are fair, and the same principle, or lack of
it, seems to control most modern strikes. No doubt what young Alfonso
Harris told his mother on the steamer was true, that the labor agitators
were advised of Reuben Harris's plan to sell the steel plant to an
English syndicate. Souls of corporations decrease as the distance between
labor and capital increases, and naturally American employees oppose
foreign control of every kind.

For more than a year the employees had accepted reduced wages with the
understanding that the old scale should be restored by the company as
soon as times improved and the business warranted. That the employees had
timed their strike at an opportune moment was apparent even to stubborn
Reuben Harris. It was galling indeed to his sensitive nature and proud
spirit that his project of selling the steel plant for millions should
have failed.

As he kissed his wife good-bye on the steamer in New York, her last
words were, "Reuben, stand up for your rights." Her avaricious spirit
had always dominated him.

Before Reuben Harris left his city office for his home he had arranged,
in addition to the precaution taken by the mayor, to dispatch to the
mills and homes of his employees twenty-five special detectives in
citizens' clothes, who were to keep him fully advised as to the doings
of his employees about the mills and in their public and private
meetings. He had given his men no concessions in a previous strike which
lasted for months. He would neither recognize their unions nor their
demand for shorter hours.

It was true he had risen to be a millionaire from the humble position of
a blacksmith, but he was always severe in his own shop. Every horse must
be shod, and every tire set in his own way. He heated, hammered, and
tempered steel just as he liked, and if anybody objected he replied, "Go
elsewhere then." To have one's own way in life is often an expensive
luxury. In his first great mill strike Colonel Harris lost most of his
skilled labor and the profits of half a year. His own hands and those of
James Ingram became callous in breaking in new employees.

Gertrude had arrived on the evening of the third day of the strike, and
had busied herself in unpacking her trunk. She knew her father t