speedy settlement.

Day by day the members of the committee met to discuss the phases of the
all absorbing question.

The managers of some of the largest corporations are warned of these
secret deliberations and institute a vigorous investigation. The aid of
the police is secured, and the officers of a dozen of the shrewdest
private detective bureaus are put in possession of the few facts that
have been ascertained. In a hundred directions public and private
sleuths are set in motion. But their untiring efforts are unavailing.
They have to combat a more adroit, more nervy and more intelligent force
than they have ever before been brought in contact with.

The Committee of Forty has its ever watchful sentinels on guard, and
every move of the detectives is anticipated and provided against.

Thus matters progress until on the night of June tenth a startling
climax is brought about by the report of the secretary of the committee.

At this memorable meeting there is a full attendance. The chairman, in
his call for the meeting, has intimated that very important business
will be transacted. He has in mind the discussion of a plan for
awakening the interest of the wage-earners in the effete Eastern States,
and the reading of a report.

What actually transpires is a surprise to him, as it is to all but three
of the committee.

When the routine of business has been gone through with, the chairman
announces that the meeting will proceed to the consideration of new
business, if there is any.

William Nevins, the man who had carried the Stars and Stripes at
Hazleton, now a committeeman who has always taken a subordinate part in
the work, asks to be heard.

Supposing that he is to speak on the one subject uppermost in the minds
of the committee, the chair recognizes him. Rising from his seat in the
back of the room Nevins walks to the front of the hall, and standing
before the chairman, half turns so as to face the men in the assembly.

From his first words it is apparent that he has a matter of grave
concern to impart. The attention of all is engaged.

"Mr. Chairman," he begins, "I am unaccustomed to speech-making; yet on
this occasion I feel that I am capable of expressing myself in a manner
that will be clear and forceful. I am to tell you a few truths, and in
uttering the truth there is no need of depending on rhetoric or oratory.

"As you all know, I am a poor man. How I came to be reduced to a
position little bett