Ike reached over to a chair and picked up something that jangled. Ralph regarded the trap-like apparatus disclosed with some interest.
Bemis took it from the hand of his associate.
"Do you know what this is?" he inquired of Ralph.
"I don't."
"It's a nutcracker, see?"
Ike grinned as if that was a big joke.
"You're the funniest fellow in the world, Mort!" he chuckled gleesomely.
The instrument Bemis displayed somewhat resembled a nutcracker. It opened and was operated by hand pressure. It had fine grooves. These tallied to the fingers on a human hand.
"They used that on the scabs, the time of the big railroad strike," exclaimed Bemis grimly. "The strikers did."
Ralph started. He recognized the "nutcracker" now. It was one of the brutal instruments of torture that had been used to terrify and cripple the men who had taken the places of the strikers, during the labor troubles on the Great Northern about a year back.