possible
to recognize him. Jurgis stood stricken dumb, and his heart gave a leap
like a mad thing. The man was Connor!

Connor, the boss of the loading gang! The man who had seduced his
wife--who had sent him to prison, and wrecked his home, ruined his life!
He stood there, staring, with the light shining full upon him.

Jurgis had often thought of Connor since coming back to Packingtown, but
it had been as of something far off, that no longer concerned him.
Now, however, when he saw him, alive and in the flesh, the same thing
happened to him that had happened before--a flood of rage boiled up in
him, a blind frenzy seized him. And he flung himself at the man, and
smote him between the eyes--and then, as he fell, seized him by the
throat and began to pound his head upon the stones.

The woman began screaming, and people came rushing in. The lantern had
been upset and extinguished, and it was so dark they could not see a
thing; but they could hear Jurgis panting, and hear the thumping of
his victim's skull, and they rushed there and tried to pull him off.
Precisely as before, Jurgis came away with a piece of his enemy's flesh
between his teeth; and, as before, he went on fighting with those who
had interfered with him, until a policeman had come and beaten him into
insensibility.

And so Jurgis spent the balance of the night in the stockyards station
house. This time, however, he had money in his pocket, and when he came
to his senses he could get something to drink, and also a messenger
to take word of his plight to "Bush" Harper. Harper did not appear,
however, until after the prisoner, feeling very weak and ill, had been
hailed into court and remanded at five hundred dollars' bail to await
the result of his victim's injuries. Jurgis was wild about this, because
a different magistrate had chanced to be on the bench, and he had
stated that he had never been arrested before, and also that he had been
attacked first--and if only someone had been there to speak a good word
for him, he could have been let off at once.

But Harper explained that he had been downtown, and had not got the
message. "What's happened to you?" he asked.

"I've been doing a fellow up," said Jurgis, "and I've got to get five
hundred dollars' bail."

"I can arrange that all right," said the other--"though it may cost you
a few dollars, of course. But what was the trouble?"

"It was a man that did me a mean trick once," answered Jurgis.