de. "By grapples, the old
swine!" he was muttering to himself as he made a slow circuit of the
plant enclosure. "Somebody ought to tell them two young ducks what
they're up against. For a picayune, I'd do it, myself. Huh!--and the
little black-eyed girl playin' fast an' loose with both of 'em at once
while the old money-octippus eats 'em alive!"

Thus Broffin, circling the Raymer works by way of the four enclosing
streets; and when his back was turned the man called Clancy pointed him
out to the group of discontents.

"D'ye see that felly doublin' the fence corner? Ye're a fine lot of jays
up here in th' backwoods! Do I know him? Full well I do! An' that shows,
ye what honest workin'men has got to come to, these days. Didn't ye see
him sittin' there on that castin'? Th' bosses put him there to keep
tricks on ye. If ye have the nerve of a bunch of hoboes, ye'll watch yer
chances and step on him like a cockroach. He's a Pinkerton!"

XXXII

THE LION'S SHARE

Wahaska, microcosmic and village-conscious in spite of its city charter,
was duly thrilled and excited when, on the day following the storm and
shipwreck, it found itself the scene of an angry conflict between
capital and labor.

Reports varied as to the origin of the trouble. Among the retired
farmers, who still called Raymer "Eddie" and spoke of him as "John
Raymer's boy," it was the generally expressed opinion that he was both
too young and too easy-going to be a successful industry captain in the
larger field he had lately entered. In the workingmen's quarter, which
lay principally beyond the railroad tracks, public opinion was less
lenient and the young ironmaster, figuring hitherto only as a good boss
with a few unnecessary college ideas, was denounced as a "kid-glove"
reformer who made his profit-sharing fad an excuse for advancing his
favorites, and who was accordingly to be "brought to time" by the strong
hand of the organization.

It was a crude surprise, both to the West Side and to "Pottery Flat," to
find the new book-writing partner not only taking an active part in the
fight, but apparently directing the capitalistic hostilities with a
high hand. Quite early in the forenoon it was known on the street that
Griswold had taken the field with Raymer; that the lock-out was his
reply to the strike notice; and that it was at his suggestion that a
dozen deputies had been sworn in to guard the Raymer plant--the iron
works lying just outside of the