, "we can strike--that's one thing we can do. Why,"
he continued, full of emotion, "I could no more hold those men down
there against a strike when they hear this than I could fly. They'll
have to fight for this right, gentlemen!"

"Be calm now, Grant," piped the Doctor; "don't go off half cocked."

Grant's eyes flared--his nose dilated and the muscles of his heavy jaw
worked and knotted. He answered in a harsh voice:

"Oh, I'll be calm all right, Doctor. I'm going down in the morning and
plead for peace. But I know my people. I can't hold 'em."

Those in the room stood for a moment in dazed silence; then the Doctor
and Brotherton, realizing the importance of further discussion that
night, soon withdrew from the room, leaving Dick voluble in his grief
and Lida, his wife, stony and speechless beside him. She shook no
sympathizing hand, not even Grant's, as the Bowmans left for home. But
she climbed out of the chair and down the stairs on tired, heavy feet.

In the morning there was turmoil in the Valley. In the _Times_
Jared Thurston, with the fatuous blundering which characterizes all
editors of papers like his, printed the news that little Ben Bowman
would be denied his rights, as a glorious victory over the reformers. In
an editorial, written in old Joe Calvin's best style, the community was
congratulated upon having one judge at last who would put an end to the
socialistic foolishness that had been written by demagogues on the state
statute books, and hinting rather broadly that the social labor program
adopted by the people at the last election through the direct vote would
go the way of the fool statute under which the Bowman lad hoped to cheat
the courts of due process of law.

In vain did Grant Adams try to rally carpenters to the trocha. He
pleaded with the men to raise a special fund to take little Ben's case
through the federal courts; but he failed.

The Wahoo Valley saw in the case of little Ben Bowman the drama of greed
throttling poverty, all set forth in stark, grim terms that no one could
question. The story appealed directly to the passions of the Valley and
the Valley's voice rose in the demand to resort to its last weapon of
defense. The workers felt that they must strike or forfeit their
self-respect. And day by day the _Times_, gloating at the coming
downfall in Van Dorn's program of labor-repression, threw oil on the
flaming passions of the Valley, so labor raged and went white hot. The
coun