become a free man. He
would do it by getting more money, if not from the bank, from somebody
else. In all imperfectly Christianized democracies a man must
capitalize his freedom or cease to be free.

He returned to the bank. He was worth thousands to it. This could be
seen in his walk. And yet when the cashier saw Hendrik's face he
instantly rose from his chair, held up a hand to check unnecessary
speech, and said:

"Come on, Rutgers. You are a damned fool, but I have no time to convince
you of it. You understand, of course, that you'll never work for us
again!"

"I shall tell the president."

"Yes, yes. He'll fire you."

"Not if he is intelligent, he won't," said Rutgers, with assurance.

The cashier looked at him pityingly and retorted: "A long catalogue of
your virtues and manifold efficiency will weigh with him as much as two
cubic inches of hydrogen. But I warned you."

"I know you did," said Hendrik, pleasantly.

Whereupon Coster frowned and said: "You are in class B--eight hundred
dollars a year. In due time you will be promoted to class C--one
thousand dollars. You knew our system and what the prospects were when
you came to us. Other men are ahead of you; they have been here longer
than you. We want to be fair to all. If you were going to be
dissatisfied you should not have kept somebody else out of a job."

Hendrik did not know how fair the bank was to clerks in class C. He knew
they were not fair to one man in class B. Facts are facts. Arguments are
sea-foam.

"You say I kept somebody out of a job?" he asked.

"Yes, you did!"

The cashier's tone was so accusing that Hendrik said:

"Don't call a policeman, Mr. Coster."

"And don't you get fresh, Rutgers. Now see here; you go back and let the
rise come in the usual course. I'll give you a friendly tip: once you
are in class C you will be more directly under my own eye!"

Instead of feeling grateful for the implied promise, Hendrik could think
only that they classified men like cattle. All steers weighing one
thousand pounds went into pen B, and so on. This saved time to the
butchers, who, not having to stop in order to weigh and classify, were
enabled to slit many more throats per day.

He did not know it, but he thought all this because he wished to go
fishing. Therefore he said: "I've got to have more money!" His fists
clenched and his face flushed. He thought of cattle, of the ox-making
bank, of being driven from pen A into pen B, and, i