men.

"Good-morning, Colonel," said one. "You are prompt."

"What is the trouble?"

"The Central has decided to make a general reduction. They put it in
force at noon to-day, and are so certain that the men will go out, that
they've six hundred new hands ready somewhere to put right in."

"Byrnes tells me he has all he can do."

"Yes. We've obtained the governor's consent to embody eight regiments.
It isn't only the strike that's serious, but this parade of the
unemployed to-morrow, and the meeting which the Anarchists have called
in the City Hall. Byrnes reports a very ugly feeling, and buying of
arms."

"It's rather rough on you, Stirling," spoke up a man, "to have it come
while you are a nominee."

Peter smiled, and passed into the room beyond. "Good-morning, General
Canfield," he said. "I have taken the necessary steps to embody my
regiment. Are there any further orders?"

"If we need you, we shall put you at the Central Station," the officer
replied; "so, if you do not know the lay of the land, you had better
familiarize yourself at once."

"General Canfield," said Peter, "my regiment has probably more
sympathizers with the strikers than has any other in the city. It could
not be put in a worse place."

"Are you objecting to orders?" said the man, in a sharp decisive voice.

"No," replied Peter. "I am stating a fact, in hopes that it may prevent
trouble."

The man and Peter looked each other in the eye.

"You have your orders," said the man, but he didn't look pleased or
proud.

Peter turned and left the room, looking very grave. He look his cab and
went to his quarters. He ate a hurried breakfast, and then went down
into the streets. They seemed peaceably active as he walked through
them. A small boy was calling an extra, but it was in reference to the
arrival of a much-expected racing-yacht. There was nothing to show that
a great business depression rested with crushing weight on the city, and
especially on the poor; that anarchy was lifting its head, and from
hungering for bread was coming to hunger for blood and blaze; that
capital and labor were preparing to lock arms in a struggle which
perhaps meant death and destruction.

The armory door was opened only wide enough to let a man squeeze
through, and was guarded by a keeper. Peter passed in, however, without
question, and heard a hum of voices which showed that if anarchy was
gathering, so too was order. Peter called his officers together