XX
"What do you think of that, comrade Judson?" Mrs. Hernandez asked, pushing the morning paper over, and watching his expression closely.
The first sheet of the Times-Dispatch held a page-wide display headline, concerning a dynamiting conspiracy unearthed among the leaders of the strike. With furious amazement Pelham read of the finding of a bundle of the explosive sticks on the tracks just before a trainload of workers was to arrive, and of a heavy charge, its fuse lit, in an upper opening of the second ramp. Company guards, he read, had testified to seeing four strikers sneak down the gap, away from the entry. Wilson, Jensen, and two other active agitators were already in jail; other arrests were to follow. A two column editorial bitterly assailed the "un-American" laborers, and demanded the militia to end the reign of terror.
"It's a plant, I'm sure. They're aching for an excuse to bring on the soldiers."
"They got four of the boys," she reminded him.
"It's outrageous."
He hurried around to the strike headquarters. Ben Spence, Dawson, McGue, and four others broke off their tense discussion as he entered.
"Why didn't you phone me about this?"
Spence answered, his tone not too friendly. "Couldn't find you."