to her as the
one remaining avenue by which she might escape from her youth and its
recollections.

It is impossible for Trueman and Martha Densmore to ever again be
lovers; the inexorable ban of the church is between them. Yet they can
be friends. And Trueman feels that in Martha he has found his firmest
friend and advisor.

"You will hear from me from time to time," she says as they part. "I am
confident that you will do your duty; that you will awaken the finer
instincts in the delegates. With the scenes that have surrounded you in
Wilkes-Barre, you cannot be an advocate of violence as a means of
settling the struggle for the restoration of the rights of the people."

"It shall be my untiring labor to avert the adoption of any measure that
entails an appeal to force," Trueman assures her.

On his arrival at Chicago he finds the convention already in session. An
hour in the hall convinces him that the result will be nugatory. The
radicals are in the majority and the proposals they make are temporary
expedients that look only to appeasing the demand of the masses for
action against the usurpers of the public rights.

With a view to defeating the objects of the conference, the Magnates
have contrived to send a number of their hirelings as delegates. These
are among the loudest in demanding impossible remedies. It is not long
before Trueman discovers who these spies are, and he loses no time in
exposing them in open conference.

This action brings him into prominence.

"Who is this delegate from Pennsylvania?" asks Professor Talbot, a
venerable scholar sent by the Governor of Missouri to represent that
state, of Nevins, a neighboring delegate.

"He is a convert to the cause of the people," comes the quick reply.

"A tool of the Coal Barons, you mean," observes a New Yorker. "I knew
him three years ago when he was the attorney for the Paradise Coal
Company," he continues, "and a more relentless man to the miners never
was known in Pennsylvania."

"Yes, I know. He was once a counsel for the Paradise Company," assents
the champion of Trueman. "I know his record from A to Z. You can't find
a straighter man in this conference. He has come out for the people and
I believe he is sincere."

"Whoever he is, or whatever he has been," says the Professor, "it is
evident that he has the power of reading character. He was not here two
hours before he detected the presence of the goats in our fold."

"Would you like to m