r that seemed to carry a shudder with it, a sound as of the rush of
a thousand feet, and presently men came darting under or scrambling upon
the cars, and gazing eagerly through or over the high picket-fence that
separated them from the shop enclosure. Catching sight of the gathering
at the main entrance, and recognizing some familiar form, many among
them began to gesticulate, and cries were heard of "There he is!"
"Traitor!" "Scab!" "Scoundrel!" And fists were clinched, and clubs were
brandished, and more men clambered to the car roofs, and boys beat upon
the fence with stones, and shouted shrill taunt and insult.

"You hear?" said the stranger. "They're talking about you now, and the
traitor work you've done this day. Will you go to your home and stay
there, and see to it that Fred makes no attempt to join his regiment?
Will you promise--promise to pull no throttle, handle no tool, until
this trouble's ended?"

"Will I deal or dicker with such as you, do you dare to think?" burst in
old Wallace, mad with indignation. "Out of my way, or I'll handle a tool
to some purpose. Stand aside and let me go where I belong," he ordered,
for the man stood at the doorway as though to oppose his passage, but
the fire and fury in the Scotchman's eye appalled him, and instinctively
he drew aside. Then with something like the snort of a Highland stag, in
sheer contempt the foreman strode by and into the gloomy, unlighted
shops, just as Jim, with alarm and misery in his face, came panting to
the spot.

"For goodness sake, don't let them touch the old man, fellows! Think how
he's worked for the road for years before we were born. It's like home
to him. You'd feel as he does if you'd worked for it so long. Stoltz has
been making a speech inciting them to mob him. They're coming now. Speak
to them, Mr. Steinman," he implored the stranger. "Speak to them, and
stand them off."

"It's his own folly," said Steinman, waving Jim aside, and starting to
get out of the road. "I've pleaded with him--warned him to no purpose.
He insulted me--threatened to split my skull. Ask these men here," he
continued, and the nodding heads and murmured words of the by-standers
gave quick assent. "I promised him protection if he'd simply agree to go
home and stay there, and keep that fool of a brother of yours from
joining his regiment."

"He couldn't promise that," protested Jim, all breathless with anxiety
and grief. Already a crowd of rioters were surging