ternly upon them. Then he went on--

"But the Federation does not seek a punishment of revenge, but of
justice; nor shall its first act of government be the shedding of
blood, however guilty. Therefore, as President I override the
sentence of death, and instead condemn you, who have been proved
guilty of this unspeakable crime, to confiscation of the wealth that
you have acquired so unscrupulously and used so mercilessly, and to
perpetual banishment with your wives and families, who have shared
the profits of your infamous traffic.

"You will be at once conveyed to Kodiak Island, off the south coast
of Alaska, and landed there. Once every six months you will be
visited by a steamer, which will supply you with the necessaries of
life, and the original penalty of death will be the immediate
punishment of any one of you who attempts to return to a world of
which you from this moment cease to be citizens."

The sentence was carried out without an hour's delay. The exiles,
with their wives and families, were placed under a strong guard in a
special train, which conveyed them from Washington _via_ St. Louis to
San Francisco, where they were transferred to a steamer which took
them to the lonely and desolate island in the frozen North which was
to be their home for the rest of their lives. They were followed by
the execrations of a whole people and the regrets of none save the
money-worshippers who had respected them, not as men, but as
incarnations of the purchasing power of wealth.

The huge fortunes which they had amassed, amounting in the aggregate
to more than three hundred millions in English money, were placed in
the public treasury for the immediate purposes of the war which the
Federation was about to wage for the empire of the world. All their
real estate property was transferred to the various municipalities in
which it was situated, and their rents devoted to the relief of
taxation, while the railways and other enterprises which they had
controlled were declared public property, and placed in the hands of
boards of management composed of their own officials.

Within a week everything was working as smoothly as though no
Revolution had ever taken place. All officials whose honesty there
was no reason to suspect were retained in their offices, while those
who were dismissed were replaced without any friction. All the
affairs of government were conducted upon purely business principles,
just as though the countr