}

It is unfortunate. The people are restless and excited as it
is. They are being constantly prodded on by the mouthings of
the radical press, of the muck-raking magazines and of the
demagogues. The people are like powder awaiting the spark.

{Starkweather}

This man Knox is no fool, if he _is_ a dreamer. He is a shrewd
knave. He is a fighter. He comes from the West--the old pioneer
stock. His father drove an ox-team across the Plains to Oregon.
He knows how to play his cards, and never could circumstances
have placed more advantageous cards in his hands.

{Chalmers}

And nothing like this has ever touched you before.

{Starkweather}

I have always stood above the muck and ruck--clear and clean and
unassailable. But this--this is too much! It is the spark. There
is no forecasting what it may develop into.

{Chalmers}

A political turnover.

{Starkweather}

(_Nodding savagely._) A new party, a party of demagogues, in power.
Government ownership of the railways and telegraphs. A graduated
income tax that will mean no less than the confiscation of
private capital.

{Chalmers}

And all that mass of radical legislation--the Child Labor Bill,
the new Employers' Liability Act, the government control of the
Alaskan coal fields, that interference with Mexico. And that big
power corporation you have worked so hard to form.

{Starkweather}

It must not be. It is an unthinkable calamity. It means that the
very process of capitalistic development is hindered, stopped.
It means a setback of ten years in the process. It means work,
endless work, to overcome the setback. It means not alone the
passage of all this radical legislation with the consequent
disadvantages, but it means the fingers of the mob clutching at
our grip of control. It means anarchy. It means ruin and misery
for all the blind fools and led-cattle of the mass who will
strike at the very sources of their own existence and comfort.

(_Tommy enters from left, evidently playing a game, in the course
of which he is running away. By his actions he shows that he is
pursued. He intends to cross stage, but is stopped by sight of
the men. Unobserved by them, he retraces his steps and crawls
under the tea-table._)

{Chalmers}

Without doubt, Knox is in possession of the letters right now.

{Starkweather}

There is but one thing to do, and that is--get them back.

(_He looks questioningly at the two men._)

(_Margaret enters from left, in flush