"You have heard me speak somewhere, maybe, heh?"
"No, it cannot be that. You have never been in Millsburgh before, have you?"
"No."
"It is strange," mused the old basket maker.
"It is the papers," returned Vodell with a shrug. "Many times the papers have my picture—you must have seen."
"Of course, that is it," exclaimed the Interpreter. "I remember now, distinctly. It was in connection with that terrible bomb outrage in—"
"Sir!" interrupted the other indignantly. "Outrage—what do you mean, outrage?"
"I was thinking of the innocent people who were killed or injured," returned the Interpreter, calmly. "I believe you were also prominent in those western strikes where so many women and children suffered, were you not?"
The labor agitator replied with the exact manner of a scientific lecturer. "It is unfortunate that innocent persons must sometimes be hurt in these affairs. But that is one of the penalties that society must pay for tolerating the conditions that make these industrial wars necessary."
"If I remember correctly, you were in the South, too, at the time that mill was destroyed."