"Frisk him!"
"To hell with your dollar," said the man, defiantly clapping one hand to his pocket. "I knew it was a plant!"
"This way," politely said the plain-clothes men, leading away the pauper who didn't wish to be searched.
The colloquy had not been overheard by the other hungry guests. The man was led into a storeroom, where he was kept so that he might not empty his pockets and come in again from the street for the dollar he did not really want.
"You see how we will eliminate those who have money and—"
But the reporters were not listening to H. R. They were too busy writing. This man was no philanthropist. He was intelligent.
There were some guests who said they objected to the indignity of being searched, though they had no money. They joined the first man in the storeroom.
"No taxpayers' subterfuges tolerated," H. R. said.
But most of the hungry were perfectly willing to be searched and prove they had no money. They were told by H. R. to pass on. To those who asked for the money H. R. said, sternly:
"Do you wish to swallow a quarter or do you want to eat food?"