.W.W. organization.
You're to keep mum now, mind you. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce in
Spokane. Somebody got hold of these by-laws of this so-called labor
union. We've had copies made, an' every honest farmer in the Northwest
is goin' to read them. But carryin' one around is dangerous, I reckon,
these days. Here."

Anderson hesitated a moment, peered cautiously around, and then,
slipping folded sheets of paper from his inside coat pocket, he
evidently made ready to hand them to Kurt.

"Lenore, where's the driver?" he asked.

"He's under the car," replied the girl

Kurt thrilled at the soft sound of her voice. It was something to have
been haunted by a girl's face for a year and then suddenly hear her
voice.

"He's new to me--that driver--an' I ain't trustin' any new men these
days," went on Anderson. "Here now, Dorn. Read that. An' if you don't
get red-headed--"

Without finishing his last muttered remark, he opened the sheets of
manuscript and spread them out to the young man.

Curiously, and with a little rush of excitement, Kurt began to read. The
very first rule of the I.W.W. aimed to abolish capital. Kurt read on
with slowly growing amaze, consternation, and anger. When he had
finished, his look, without speech, was a question Anderson hastened to
answer.

"It's straight goods," he declared. "Them's the sure-enough rules of
that gang. We made certain before we acted. Now how do they strike you?"

"Why, that's no labor union!" replied Kurt, hotly. "They're outlaws,
thieves, blackmailers, pirates. I--I don't know what!"

"Dorn, we're up against a bad outfit an' the Northwest will see hell
this summer. There's trouble in Montana and Idaho. Strangers are
driftin' into Washington from all over. We must organize to meet
them--to prevent them gettin' a hold out here. It's a labor union,
mostly aliens, with dishonest an' unscrupulous leaders, some of them
Americans. They aim to take advantage of the war situation. In the
newspapers they rave about shorter hours, more pay, acknowledgment of
the union. But any fool would see, if he read them laws I showed you,
that this I.W.W. is not straight."

"Mr. Anderson, what steps have you taken down in your country?" queried
Kurt.

"So far all I've done was to hire my hands for a year, give them high
wages, an' caution them when strangers come round to feed them an' be
civil an' send them on."

"But we can't do that up here in the Bend," said Dorn, seriously.