ook dubious for the people. On
August thirteenth the Committee of Forty determined to take the step for
re-emancipation. The time to strike the telling blow at monopoly is
approaching. The men all know what the work outlined will entail, and
they have brought themselves to look at the matter in much the same
light as the originator of the unparalleled expedient.

"We have been forced into adopting the plan of annihilation," Professor
Talbort declares to Henry Neilson, a fellow committeeman with whom he is
traveling to the Pacific coast.

"I agree with you," replies Neilson, "it is the only course open to us;
we have given every other proposal careful consideration. They would
only temporarily avert a conflict."

"I have pondered on the question of how our acts will be accepted by the
people," the Professor resumes. "I believe they will hail our acts as
those of deliverance."

"They will appreciate that we gave our lives for them," Neilson declares
unhesitatingly.

All of the Forty act with similar coolness.

Men of action are not as a usual thing great talkers; so it is with the
members of this committee. They waive much that would be deemed
essential by less resolute and active men. How the several annihilations
are to be effected is a matter left for each man to decide for himself.
He will have to carry out any plan he devises, and it is considered as
the best policy to let his method be known to no one else. This is the
surest way of avoiding a possible miscarriage of the plan.

The failure of one of the forty men will not then involve the remaining
thirty-nine. Every contingency is weighed. The chance of one or more of
the men going insane because of the frightful secret, is taken into
account and the idea that each man shall decide the details of the
course he is to pursue is adopted.

"I am glad that we parted without formality," Nettinger declares to the
group of committeemen who are his companions on a train that leaves
Chicago for the South.

"It would have unnerved us to speak of our meeting as '_the last_'" says
another of the group. "I have faced danger in my life, but I regard this
as the most astounding departure that has ever been made in the
interests of humanity."

"The future of the Republic is at stake," observes a third. "How will it
all end?"

This is the question that is uppermost in the minds of all.

"There is no time left to weigh the effects of defeat," Nettinger
asserts. "Each