"Thirteen," said Waco, grinning.

"Well, we may be able to use you. We want cooks at Sterling."

"All right. Nothin' doin' here, anyway."

The boss smiled to himself. He knew that Waco had never belonged to the
I.W.W., but if the impending strike at the Sterling smelter became a
reality a good cook would do much to hold the I.W.W. camp together. Any
tool that could be used was not overlooked by the boss. He was paid to
hire men for a purpose.

In groups of from ten to thirty the scattered aggregation made its way
to Sterling and mingled with the workmen after hours. A sinister
restlessness grew and spread insidiously among the smelter hands. Men
laid off before pay-day and were seen drunk in the streets. Others
appeared at the smelter in a like condition. They seemed to have money
with which to pay for drinks and cigars. The heads of the different
departments of the smelter became worried. Local papers began to make
mention of an impending strike when no such word had as yet come to the
smelter operators. Outside papers took it up. Surmises were many and
various. Few of the papers dared charge the origin of the disturbances
to the I.W.W. The law had not been infringed upon, yet lawlessness was
everywhere, conniving in dark corners, boasting openly on the street,
setting men's brains afire with whiskey, playing upon the ignorance of
the foreign element, and defying the intelligence of Americans who
strove to forfend the threatened calamity.

The straight union workmen were divided in sentiment. Some of them voted
to work; others voted loudly to throw in with the I.W.W., and among
these were many foreigners--Swedes, Hungarians, Germans, Poles,
Italians; the usual and undesirable agglomeration to be found in a
smelter town.

Left to themselves, they would have continued to work. They were in
reality the cheaper tools of the trouble-makers. There were fewer and
keener tools to be used, and these were selected and turned against
their employers by that irresistible potency, gold; gold that came from
no one knew where, and came in abundance. Finally open threats of a
strike were made. Circulars were distributed throughout town
over-night, cleverly misstating conditions. A grain of truth was
dissolved in the slaver of anarchy into a hundred lies.

Waco, installed in the main I.W.W. camp just outside the town, cooked
early and late, and received a good wage for his services. More men
appeared, coming casually from now