the tie-up would be only partial.
Volunteers from all walks of life were in line at the temporary
headquarters of the Vigilance Committee and were being detailed, for
police duty, to bring in the trains with the morning milk, to move
street cars and trucks. The water plant and the reservoirs were
protected. Willy Cameron, abandoning his car after the homeward rush of
the evening, found a line before the Committee Building which extended
for blocks down the street.

Troops had been sent for, but it took time to mobilize and move them.
It would be morning before they arrived. And the governor, over the long
distance wire to the mayor, was inclined to be querulous.

"We'll send them, of course," he said. "But if the strikers are keeping
quiet--I don't know what the country's coming to. We're holding a
conference here now. There's rioting breaking out all over the state."

* * * * *

There was a conference held in the Mayor's office that night: Cameron
and Cardew and one or two others of the Vigilance Committee, two agents
of the government secret service, the captains of the companies of state
troops and constabulary, the Chief of Police, the Mayor himself, and
some representatives of the conservative element of organized labor.
Quiet men, these last, uneasy and anxious, as ignorant as the others of
which way the black cat, the symbol of sabotage and destruction, would
jump. The majority of their men would stand for order, they declared,
but there were some who would go over. They urged, to offset that
reflection on their organization that the proletariat of the city might
go over, too.

But, by midnight, it seemed as though the situation was solving itself.
In the segregated district there had been a small riot, and another
along the river front, disturbances quickly ended by the police and
the volunteer deputies. The city had not gone dark. The bombs had not
exploded. Word came in that by back roads and devious paths the most
rabid of the agitators were leaving town. And before two o'clock Howard
Cardew and some of the others went home to bed.

At three o'clock the Cardew doorbell rang, and Howard, not asleep,
flung on his dressing gown and went out into the hall. Lily was in her
doorway, intent and anxious.

"Don't answer it, father," she begged. "You don't know what it may be."

Howard smiled, but went back and got his revolver. The visitor was Willy
Cameron.

"