rman came back.

Herman had been a difficult proposition for Rudolph to handle. His
innate caution, his respect for law and, under his bullying exterior,
a certain physical cowardice, made him slow to move in the direction
Rudolph was urging. He was controversial. He liked to argue over the
beer and schnitzel Rudolph bought. And Rudolph was growing impatient.

Rudolph himself was all eagerness and zeal. It was his very zeal that
was his danger, although it brought him slavish followers. He was
contemptuous, ill-tempered, and impatient, but, of limited intelligence
himself, he understood for that very reason the mental processes of
those he would lead. There was a certain simplicity even in his cunning.
With Herman he was a ferret driving out of their hiding-places every
evil instinct that lay dormant. Under his goading, Herman was becoming
savage, sullen, and potentially violent.

He was confused, too. Rudolph's arguments always confused him.

He was confused that night, heavy with fatigue and with Rudolph's steady
talk in his ear. He was tired of pondering great questions, tired of
hearing about the Spencers and the money they were making.

Anna's clothing was scattered about the room, and he frowned at it. She
spent too much money on her clothes. Always sewing at something--

He stooped down to gather up his shoes, and his ear thus brought close
to the table was conscious in the silence of a faint rhythmical sound.
He stood up and looked about. Then he moved the newspaper on the table.
Underneath it, forgotten in her anxiety and trouble, lay the little gold
watch.

He picked it up, still following his train of thought. It fitted into
the evening's inflammable proceedings. So, with such trinkets as
this, capital would silence the cry of labor for its just share in the
products of its skill and strength! It would bribe, and cheaply. Ten
dollars, perhaps, that ticking insult. For ten dollars--

He held it close to his spectacles. Ah, but it was not so cheap. It came
from the best shop in the city. He weighed it carefully in his hand, and
in so doing saw the monogram. A doubt crept into his mind, a cold and
chilling fear. Since when had the Spencer plant taken to giving watches
for Christmas? The hill girls who worked as stenographers in the plant;
they came in often enough and he did not remember any watches, or any
mention of watches. His mind, working slowly, recalled that never before
had he seen the watch nea