zen men and women occupied the two benches. At the table a man
sat writing. He held a lighted cigar in one hand; a red silk
handkerchief trailed from his coat pocket.

* * * * *

As Ilse and Palla seated themselves on an empty bench and Shotwell
found a place beside them, somebody on the next bench beyond leaned
over and bade them good evening in a low voice.

"Mr. Brisson!" exclaimed Palla, giving him her hand in unfeigned
pleasure.

Brisson shook hands, also, with Ilse, cordially, and then was
introduced to Jim.

"What are you doing here?" he inquired humorously of Palla. "And, by
the way,"--dropping his voice--"these Reds don't exactly love me, so
don't use my name."

Palla nodded and whispered to Jim: "He secured all that damning
evidence at the Smolny for our Government."

Brisson and Ilse were engaged in low-voiced conversation: Palla
ventured to look about her.

The character of the gathering was foreign. There were few American
features among the faces, but those few were immeasurably superior
in type--here and there the intellectual, spectacled visage of
some educated visionary, lured into the red tide and left there
drifting;--here and there some pale girl, carelessly dressed, seated
with folded hands, and intense gaze fixed on space.

But the majority of these people, men and women, were foreign in
aspect--round, bushy heads with no backs to them were everywhere;
muddy skins, unhealthy skins, loose mouths, shifty eyes!--everywhere
around her Palla saw the stigma of degeneracy.

She said in a low voice to Jim: "These poor things need to be properly
housed and fed before they're taught. Education doesn't interest empty
stomachs. And when they're given only poison to stop the pangs--what
does civilisation expect?"

He said: "They're a lot of bums. The only education they require is
with a night-stick."

"That's cruel, Jim."

"It's law."

"One of your laws which does not appeal to me," she remarked, turning
to Brisson, who was leaning over to speak to her.

"There are half a dozen plain-clothes men in the audience," he said.
"There are Government detectives here, too. I rather expect they'll
stop the proceedings before the programme calls for it."

Jim turned to look back. A file of policemen entered and carelessly
took up posts in the rear of the hall. Hundreds of flat-backed heads
turned, too; hundreds of faces darkened; a low muttering arose from