nomize," she mused, nodding her appreciation. "How much
is in bank?"

"Just about thirty dollars. You see, I had to pay Martha Skelton an' for
the... a few other little things. An' the union took time by the neck
and levied a four dollar emergency assessment on every member just to be
ready if the strike was pulled off. But Doc Hentley can wait. He said as
much. He's the goods, if anybody should ask you. How'd you like'm?"

"I liked him. But I don't know about doctors. He's the first I ever
had--except when I was vaccinated once, and then the city did that."

"Looks like the street car men are goin' out, too. Dan Fallon's come to
town. Came all the way from New York. Tried to sneak in on the quiet,
but the fellows knew when he left New York, an' kept track of him all
the way acrost. They have to. He's Johnny-on-the-Spot whenever street
car men are licked into shape. He's won lots of street car strikes for
the bosses. Keeps an army of strike breakers an' ships them all over the
country on special trains wherever they're needed. Oakland's never seen
labor troubles like she's got and is goin' to get. All hell's goin' to
break loose from the looks of it."

"Watch out for yourself, then, Billy. I don't want to lose you either."

"Aw, that's all right. I can take care of myself. An' besides, it ain't
as though we was licked. We got a good chance."

"But you'll lose if there is any killing."

"Yep; we gotta keep an eye out against that."

"No violence."

"No gun-fighting or dynamite," he assented. "But a heap of scabs'll get
their heads broke. That has to be."

"But you won't do any of that, Billy."

"Not so as any slob can testify before a court to havin' seen me." Then,
with a quick shift, he changed the subject. "Old Barry Higgins is dead.
I didn't want to tell you till you was outa bed. Buried'm a week ago.
An' the old woman's movin' to Frisco. She told me she'd be in to say
good-bye. She stuck by you pretty well them first couple of days,
an' she showed Martha Shelton a few that made her hair curl. She got
Martha's goat from the jump."

CHAPTER XI

With Billy on strike and away doing picket duty, and with the departure
of Mercedes and the death of Bert, Saxon was left much to herself in a
loneliness that even in one as healthy-minded as she could not fail to
produce morbidness. Mary, too, had left, having spoken vaguely of taking
a job at housework in Piedmont.

Billy could help Saxon little in her tr