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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 2809.S53H6 
 
 His brother's keeper, or, Christian stew, 
 
 3 1924 022 163 632 
 
 All books are subject to recall after two weeks 
 Olin/Kroch Library 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --^iprr 
 
 rm 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022163632 
 
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HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER 
 
 Christian Stewardsliip 
 
 CHARLES M. SHELDON 
 
 Author of "Richard Bruce;' "Robert Hardy's Seven Days," 
 " The Twentieth Door," etc. 
 
 BOSTON Airo CHICAGO: 
 
 Congrtgattonal SuntiassScljoal ana |9ubltsl)tng Societs 
 
 -^y 
 
 H 
 
Copyright, i8g6, 
 BY Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 
 
 
I DEDICATE 
 
 THIS STORY, WITH VERY MUCH AFFECTION, 
 
 TO MY 
 
 goung ^3eopIe'« SocietB o£ (Cfjttgtian ffinBeabor, 
 
 in the hope that many of the members may in years to come have a 
 
 share in solving some of the great human problems that 
 
 wait for heroes and heroines who love the 
 
 Kingdom of Heaven on earth 
 
 more than anything 
 
 else. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " His Brother's Keeper " was written during the win- 
 ter of 1895 and first read, one chapter at a time, on 
 successive Sunday evenings to my congregation in the 
 Central Church. 
 
 The scenes in the mining region are based upon 
 events which occurred during the great strike among 
 the iron miners in the summer of 1895, and which were 
 witnessed by the author. 
 
 The Salvation Army songs are exact copies of songs 
 actually sung by the army. 
 
 Charles M. Sheldon. 
 
 TopEKA, Kan., Central Church, 1896. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chap. Pagb 
 
 I. The Great Strike 5 
 
 II. Large Responsibilities 42 
 
 III. The Rescue 74 
 
 IV. A Change 102 
 
 V. An Exciting Time 131 
 
 VI. A Memorable Night 162 
 
 VII. Plans Good and Rad 195 
 
 VIII. Complications 222 
 
 IX. Disappointment 256 
 
 X. The Conference 285 
 
 XI. An Orator 315 
 
 XII. Stewardship 345 
 
HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE. 
 
 "" I ""HEY say five thousand men have gone out 
 ■■- of the Champion and De Mott mines this 
 morning," said one of the passengers in the train 
 to the young man in the seat by him as they 
 slowly drew up to the station. 
 
 " I wonder if that is so .' " replied his companion. 
 " There seems to be something unusual going on. 
 Well, good-by. This is my home. I shall soon 
 know all about it." 
 
 The young man caught up his traveling bag 
 and hurried out upon the platform. 
 
 The station was entirely deserted, except by 
 a few of the railroad employees. The young man 
 looked around a moment as if expecting some 
 one, and then walked hastily across the platform 
 and around the corner of the station. From that 
 side of the building the town and the public 
 square were in full view. And as they came 
 
6 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 in sight the passenger gave an exclamation of 
 wonder. 
 
 The public square was a small park with a 
 band stand in the middle of it. It was situated 
 at the meeting point of several streets, each of 
 which seemed to wander down the hills from the 
 different mining districts ; starting first as a foot- 
 path trod by the miners, then developing into a piece 
 of country road, adding on fragments of wooden 
 sidewalks as it approached the town, and finally 
 growing into a street with paving and cement 
 walks, and stores and office buildings on either 
 side. Directly in front of the band stand, facing 
 the park, stood a large church, which with its 
 lot occupied the entire space between two 
 streets. The railway station formed one side of 
 the heptagon made by the converging of the seven 
 streets. Another church building, two streets 
 from the other, formed another side. The rest 
 of the buildings fronting the park were stores, 
 offices of various mining companies, and a large 
 hotel. 
 
 Into this center of the heart of the mining 
 town of Champion on this particular morning, in 
 the year of our Lord 1895, was gathered the 
 largest crowd Stuart Duncan ever saw there. 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 7 
 
 This young man was the son of Ross Duncan, 
 owner of the largest mines in Champion. He 
 was thirty years old, had finished his college 
 education, and was just home this morning 
 from a year's trip in Europe. As he came 
 down from the railway station platform and 
 pushed his way into the crowd, he said to him- 
 self that in all his travels abroad he had not seen 
 anything to compare with the remarkable gath- 
 ering in this mining town where he had been 
 reared previous to his college life in the East. 
 
 The minute he stepped into the crowd several 
 voices called out, " Stuart, lad, give us your hand ! 
 Glad to see you back ! " The voices were in dif- 
 ferent tones and various degrees of brogue, Cor- 
 nish, Finn, English, Irish, Scotch. He noticed the 
 subdued action of the men. They were excited, 
 but under control. The band stand was crowded 
 with familiar faces, but Stuart Duncan looked at 
 only one. That was the face of a short but mus- 
 cular young man who was standing with head 
 uncovered upon the bench which ran around the 
 inside of the stand. He had thick black hair, deep- 
 set black eyes, heavy eyebrows, large features, 
 smooth face, and short, round neck. He stood 
 leaning forward a little, his left hand around one of 
 
8 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the supports to the roof of the stand, his right 
 holding an old hat which he moved gently up and 
 down. 
 
 Stuart moved up nearer the stand until he was 
 within easy speaking distance. As he crowded in 
 closer he was finally stopped by the great pressure 
 of the men. Several voices greeted him, but all of 
 them quietly, and the interest of the gathering 
 seemed centered in the figure that stood leaning 
 out a little over the crowd. 
 
 " What 's it all about .' What 's the trouble } " 
 asked Stuart of the men around him. " What 's 
 Eric doing up there .' " 
 
 Before any one could reply, the young man 
 standing on the bench began to speak. His words 
 came very slowly, as if every one of them was 
 being thought out carefully. He stopped every 
 motion of his body and stood perfectly still. The 
 great crowd in the square was so quiet that Stuart 
 thought for a second of a scene he once witnessed 
 in an English cathedral when four thousand people 
 were kneeling just before a special service began. 
 
 " Brothers," said the speaker, whom Stuart had 
 called " Eric," " this is no ordinary movement in 
 the history of labor. What we have done and 
 what we are about to do is of t^ie most serious 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 9 
 
 consequence. We have made a demand for wages 
 such as will sustain us and our families this winter 
 in comfort. It has been refused, and we have come 
 out of the mines determined to make a peaceful 
 but resistless protest for the rights of our man- 
 hood." The speaker paused just a moment, and 
 Stuart noticed the hand around the post tighten 
 its grip. Then he continued. The quiet of the 
 crowd was, if possible, more deep than before. 
 
 " Brothers, we need more than human wisdom- 
 at such a time as this. It is fitting that we bow 
 our heads and implore divine aid." Every head in 
 the square was uncovered as the speaker's voice 
 rang out clear and strong over the crowd : — 
 
 " Lord, we need thy help to-day. We ask for 
 wisdom. Grant us to know thy will. O Lord ! 
 keep us from committing any lawless act. Keep 
 every man here from drunkenness and violence to 
 property or life. We want simply our rights as 
 men. We want wages sufficient to live in comfort. 
 Show us what to do. Keep us to-day from evil. 
 Bless all men who work with their hands. Bless 
 our families. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen." * 
 
 * This incideut is based on fact. The writer of this story was witness to a 
 gathering of iron miners in the great strike of July, 1895, where one of the 
 miners offered just such a prayer as the above, at Negaunee,*Mich., July 24, 
 1895. 
 
lO HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 The speaker lifted his head and the miners put 
 on their hats. Stuart looked out over the heads 
 of the crowd and up at the man who had just 
 prayed and then out beyond him to the pine- 
 covered hills dotted over with the engine houses 
 and stock piles of ore. He noticed the smoke 
 curling up from the furnace stacks and said to 
 himself, " The pumps are going yet." The whole 
 scene was very vivid to him. The crowd, the 
 churches, the park, the stand, that familiar face and 
 figure up there, the hills, the mines, the whole 
 with its strong setting of human interest smote 
 him almost with a shock. And at the very nerve 
 center of the shock was that brief prayer. It was 
 so strange, so unusual, so like a story, so unlike 
 real life. 
 
 Eric was speaking again. He was making an 
 appea! to the miners to commend their cause to 
 the world by their conduct. He spoke, as before 
 he had prayed, very slowly and carefully. Toward 
 the end of his speech he caught sight of Stuart. 
 
 His face flushed for an instant. The eyes of 
 the two men met. The look on each man's 
 face seemed to say, " I wonder if he is still the 
 same .' ' ' 
 
 A clock in the steeple of the larger of the two 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. II 
 
 churches struck eight. Eric jumped down from 
 the bench and another miner took his place and 
 spoke in a more impassioned manner to the men. 
 There were cheers and swinging of hats. Stuart 
 gradually worked his way out of the crowd, 
 stopped frequently by acquaintances. At last he 
 had come out in front of the church with the clock 
 in the tower, looking about him eagerly for some 
 one from his own home, when a strong voice from 
 a man standing on the church steps above him 
 exclaimed : — 
 
 " Say, Stuart, when did you join the strike .' " 
 
 " Doctor ! " cried Stuart eagerly, with a smile 
 of welcome that lighted up his thoughtful face 
 wonderfully, " next to father and Louise, you are 
 the very person I wanted to see most. Where are 
 they } They were to meet me at the train this 
 morning. Is n't this a most astonishing affair >. 
 Tell me all about it." 
 
 The doctor shrugged his shoulders. " You know 
 as much about it as I do. The men went out 
 this morning without notice. The Freeport, Vas- 
 plaine, and De Mott miners are all here with the 
 Champion men. They walked over from the lower 
 range early this morning." 
 
 " What do the men want .' " Stuart asked 
 
12 HTS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 vaguely. He had so many questions to put he 
 asked the first that occurred. 
 
 The doctor shrugged his shoulders again. 
 
 " The contract miners want two dollars a day, 
 the trammers one seventy-five, and the men at the 
 top one fifty." 
 
 " Who is the leader of the men .' " 
 
 " You see for yourself ; Eric Vassal!. And it 
 seems only yesterday that you two men were young 
 kids in knickerbockers tumbling down the mines 
 and worrying the life out of the companies be- 
 cause of your pranks. And now Eric is the leader 
 of the biggest strike on record among miners, 
 playing the r61e of prophet and priest and I don't 
 know what all, and you " — 
 
 " And I," interrupted Stuart with another smile 
 as he pulled the doctor down off the step above 
 him, " I am — so far — nobody, until I have had 
 my breakfast. I can't understand where father 
 and Louise can be. Have n't you seen them this 
 morning V 
 
 " No. Get into my buggy. I will take you up 
 to the house." 
 
 The doctor's office fronted on the square and his 
 horse stood near by. Stuart gave one glance back 
 at the crowd as he and the doctor started up the 
 street. 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 1 3 
 
 " It is a remarkable scene. I have not witnessed 
 anything like it abroad. I have seen several 
 strikes in England and Germany and France since 
 I have been away. But I never knew a strike to 
 be opened with prayer, did you, doctor .' " 
 
 " No," replied the doctor dryly. 
 
 Stuart looked at him. He was driving, as 
 always, with one foot outside of the buggy, the 
 lines gathered up in a careless way in one hand 
 and the horse tearing along like mad up the sandy, 
 red, iron-ore street, for they were off the paving 
 now and going up a sharp grade cut through one 
 of the numerous hills that surrounded the town. 
 The doctor always drove that way, and a ride 
 with him was as exciting, Stuart used to say, as 
 working in a powder mill during a thunderstorm. 
 
 " Why .■• Don't you think the prayer was sin- 
 cere .' " Stuart asked. 
 
 " Sincere enough. But pshaw ! What 's the 
 use } We all know how the strike will end, 
 prayer or no prayer." 
 
 "What 's happened to Eric, doctor .' He never 
 used to be religious. Not that way." 
 
 " Salvation Army," replied the doctor briefly. 
 
 " Oh ! " Stuart look puzzled ; but he thought he 
 would have it all out with Eric. There was so 
 
14 ffIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 much to talk over since they had parted a year 
 ago. So many grave questions had arisen in their 
 lives that needed to be discussed. He was grow- 
 ing anxious, as they drove along, concerning his 
 father and sister. It was very strange that they 
 had not met him at the station. But the strike 
 and all might have kept his father ; it was a 
 different home-coming from that of his antici- 
 pation. 
 
 The house stood back from the road on the side 
 of the hill. It was a handsome brick mansion, 
 surrounded by a dozen immense pines. Stuart 
 loved the place. It was dear to his memories. 
 He had no recollection of any other , home, 
 although he had been born in one of the Eastern 
 States. It was in this house that his mother had 
 died when he was ten years old. He owed his 
 thoughtful, romantic, truthful nature to her. From 
 his father, on the other hand, he had inherited 
 his slow, stubborn, occasional fierce bursting out 
 of passionate feelings. He thought of all the 
 happy times in the old house where as boy, and 
 later as college man, he had enjoyed all the 
 luxuries of wealth and leisure and companion- 
 ship. 
 
 Suddenly a man drove out of the roadway into 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 15 
 
 which he and the doctor were just turning to go 
 up to the house. Both men pulled up just in time 
 to avoid running into each other. 
 
 " Is that you, Dr. Saxon ">. " shouted the man. 
 "I was just going for you. Mr. iDuncan has 
 been hurt. The horses ran away this morn- 
 ing and" — 
 
 Stuart did not wait to hear more. He jumped 
 out of the buggy and at the top of his speed cut 
 through the grounds in front of the house. The 
 doctor uttered an exclamation, gave his horse 
 one short stroke with the whip, and dashed up the 
 driveway like a whirlwind. At the end of the 
 long veranda he stopped long enough to jump out 
 and let the horse go on to the barn. He was so 
 quick that, as he reached the large front door, he 
 met Stuart just leaping up the veranda steps. 
 
 " Now then, my boy," said the doctor quietly, 
 filling up the doorway with his large frame, and 
 getting directly in front of Stuart, " don't get 
 excited. This is my case, not yours." 
 
 " Let me by ! " cried Stuart, his face almost 
 black with passion. " He is my father ! Perhaps 
 he is dying ! What right have you to keep in the 
 way.?" 
 
 " Very well ! " The doctor spoke softly, almost 
 
1 6 HIS B ROTHES'S KEEPER. 
 
 like a child. He stepped aside and began to walk 
 slowly down the veranda steps. " You have in- 
 herited the Duncan passion to perfection ; but 
 if your father dies through your nonsensical 
 exercise of it just now, don't blame me." 
 
 Stuart made one stride and caught the doctor's 
 arm. " Come back ! " he said. All his black 
 passion was gone in an instant. " I will be a man 
 like you. Come ! You will perhaps need my 
 help." 
 
 The doctor looked keenly at him and at once 
 turned around and entered the house with him. 
 The incident would not mean anything without a 
 knowledge of what was at stake on this occasion. 
 But Dr. Saxon had good reason to believe that 
 the life of the son in this instance was imperiled 
 by the fearful excitement which at rare intervals 
 broke out in him like a torrent. To confront the 
 father with him under those conditions might 
 prove serious to them both. 
 
 Within the house servants were running about 
 in confusion. The doctor stopped one of them 
 and said roughly, " Now, then, are you all crazy 
 here > Where is Mr. Duncan .? " 
 
 "They carried him into the north room," was 
 the answer. 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 
 
 17 
 
 " North room ! Why did n't you carry him to 
 the North Pole and be done with it ! Here, 
 Stuart ! Send one of the men down for my black 
 case at the office, and then come to your father." 
 
 The doctor went down the long hall, turned to 
 the right into another corridor, and entered a large 
 room at the end. 
 
 Lying over the bed in the middle of the room 
 was a young woman. Her arms were clasped over 
 the face of the man who lay there, and she had 
 fainted in that position. 
 
 The doctor lifted her up just as Stuart entered. 
 
 " O God ! Louise too ! " he cried. 
 
 The doctor gave him a look that calmed him 
 and replied : " No, she is in a faint. Now, then, 
 use all the sense you have and it won't be too 
 much. You look after your sister while I see to 
 your father." 
 
 He put Louise into Stuart's arms, who with the 
 servants' help soon restored her to consciousness, 
 while the doctor turned to the man on the bed, 
 and in a masterly manner proceeded to do all that 
 his great skill and keenness of practice could do. 
 
 Ross Duncan lay like a dead man. He was of 
 powerful build and looked very stern and hard 
 even as he lay there helpless. There was a 
 
1 8 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 terrible gash over one of his eyes. He was 
 covered with blood and dust, bruised from head 
 to foot, with clothes torn and disfigured ; but he 
 had not lost consciousness, and with the iron will 
 which had always characterized him he managed 
 to let the doctor know his wishes. 
 
 "All right, all right, Mr. Duncan," said the 
 doctor in reply to a whisper from the wounded 
 man. " I won't give you any anaesthetic if you 
 don't want it. I shall have to sew up this little 
 place over your eye, though. Has that tortoise 
 got around with that case yet .' " he asked Stuart, 
 who had left Louise a minute to come over to the 
 bed. 
 
 " He has n't had time yet, doctor." 
 
 " Why did n't he take my horse ? " growled the 
 doctor. " How is Louise .■• '! 
 
 " Better. But what a terrible fall father must 
 have had ! " 
 
 Stuart felt for his father's hand, and Ross Dun- 
 can's fingers closed over those of his son. Stuart 
 kneeled by the bed and kissed his father's cheek as 
 he used to do when a boy. The older man was 
 evidently moved by the caress. A tear rolled over 
 his face. 
 
 " Come now," broke in the doctor, apparently 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 19 
 
 gruffer than ever. "One would think you two 
 had n't seen each other for a year at least ! We 
 must get him ready for the operation. Stuart, 
 you promised to help me. Give me your attention 
 now." 
 
 The doctor soon had his patient as comfortable 
 as the nature of the injuries would allow. The 
 case arrived, the gash was sewed up quickly, and 
 at the end of the hour Ross Duncan was resting 
 under the influence of a draught, while the doctor, 
 Stuart, and Louise were in another room talking 
 over the accident. 
 
 The sister of Stuart Duncan was very pretty, 
 very proud, and very selfish. She was six years 
 younger than her brother. She, had been two 
 years to a finishing school in New York, but had 
 not finished any particular branch of study. She 
 could play the piano a little and the harp a little, 
 and do other things, except housework, a little. 
 She lay on a lounge now, with Stuart near by 
 stroking her head, and told the story of the 
 accident. 
 
 "Father and I started to drive down to the 
 station this morning to meet you, Stuart. When 
 we reached the crossroad leading up to the Forge 
 mine we were early for the train, and father 
 
20 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 drove up to the engine house on some business. 
 When we got up there, the miners were gathering 
 to march down to the square. It was the first 
 news of the strike we had had. Father was very 
 much excited and talked to the men to persuade 
 them to go back to work. Some of them talked 
 back in the most insulting way ; said they were 
 free men and did not have to work for a corpora- 
 tion, and all that. You know how they talk, 
 Stuart ; nothing makes father so angry, and I 
 don't blame him. I think the men are simply 
 horrid to make all this trouble just now as I was 
 getting ready to go East for that yachting cruise 
 with the Vasplaines ; and this strike will probably 
 stop their going. Then father jumped out of the 
 carriage and was going to give one of the men 
 who insulted him a good thrashing, and serve him 
 right, when the rest came around and made him 
 get into the . carriage again. I never saw father 
 so angry, and I was scared almost to death, the 
 men were so rough. We drove back to the cross- 
 road, and at that steep turn by that old Beury shaft 
 we came upon a crowd of miners marching into 
 town from the lower range. They were carrying a 
 large white banner with some horrid picture on 
 it. The horses were frightened and turned and 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 21 
 
 ran right towards the old shaft. I don't know 
 what happened then, only we were thrown out ; 
 and it is a miracle that I was not killed. Jem 
 the coachman was driving, and he fell on a pile 
 of shaft ore. He ran up to the house and got 
 the other horses and brought father and me home. 
 I fainted away several times, and when I saw 
 father laid on the bed with that awful gash on his 
 head, I thought he^was killed. If he dies, the 
 miners will be to blame. If it had n't been for 
 their going out on this strike, this horrible acci- 
 dent would not have happened. It 's all as horrid 
 as it can be ! " 
 
 At this point Louise burst into a great fit of 
 hysterical crying. 
 
 " Dear, you must have been hurt by the fall ! " 
 cried Stuart as he soothed and comforted her. 
 
 " No ! no ! I was not even bruised ! " replied 
 Louise. She stopped crying and sat up on the 
 lounge and began to arrange her hair. 
 
 Dr. Saxon walked towards the other end of 
 the room with a peculiar look on his face. 
 Then he wheeled around and said with his char- 
 acteristic bluntness: "I must go back to the 
 office. I 've left directions for your father's treat- 
 ment. He is not dangerously hurt. Send for me 
 
22 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 if I am needed. Miss Louise, you had better 
 take those powders and keep as quiet as possible 
 to-day." 
 
 He laid the medicine down on a table and 
 went out. A minute later his horse was heard 
 rushing by the veranda and down the road. 
 
 So this was the home-coming of Stuart Duncan 
 after his year's absence abroad. He had visited 
 with interest many of the famous capitals of 
 Europe. He had sauntered through museums 
 and picture galleries ; he had studied, not* very 
 profoundly but with genuine interest, the people 
 he had met and the customs he had observed that 
 were new. The year had been very largely a 
 holiday for him. He had used all the money he 
 wished, drawing on his letter of credit without 
 any thought of economy. His father was several 
 times a millionaire and never stinted the money. 
 What he wanted was that his son and daughter 
 should have the best of everything, from clothes 
 and food to education and travel. And Stuart 
 had gone through college and through Europe 
 with about the same easy feeling of having a 
 comfortable time. He was perfectly healthy, had 
 no vices (he did not even like a cigar), unusu- 
 ally thoughtful on some questions, with no par- 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 23 
 
 ticular ambitions and no special enthusiasms. 
 If he gave his future any thought while abroad, 
 it was simply to picture a life of business in 
 connection with his father's mining interests. 
 That was his father's desire, and Stuart did not 
 have any other. 
 
 He had come home from the picture galleries 
 and cathedrals of the Old World to face, first of all, 
 this rough incident of his father's injury. In con- 
 nection with it was the strike, which was specially 
 personal, not only because it involved the Duncan 
 interests, but because the leader of it was Eric 
 Vassall, Stuart's old playfellow and friend. The 
 more he thought of Eric the more he felt the 
 strike to be a serious matter. So much might be 
 involved in it for him and Eric. 
 
 Nearly a week went by before Ross Duncan was 
 able to sit up and talk much. During that time 
 Stuart faithfully remained at home. He had not 
 seen Eric, and Eric, as he supposed, had not been 
 to see him. His father and Louise needed his con- 
 stant care. But he anticipated meeting his old 
 playfellow with a curious feeling of excitement 
 whenever he thought of that scene in the public 
 square and recalled the prayer and its effect. 
 
 At the end of the week, father and son were 
 
24 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 talking together over the situation. The miners 
 were still out and the strike was still on, with no 
 prospect of settlement. 
 
 "I tell you, Stuart," said Ross Duncan, while 
 his great square chin grew hard and tense, " the 
 companies will never concede the demands of the 
 men ! I will never go an inch to meet them while 
 they are in their present attitude." 
 
 "Do you think the men ask too much, father.?" 
 
 " Too much ! With ore at the present price ! 
 It is outrageous just when we were beginning to 
 get on our feet again. It has been a very dull 
 winter and things were just beginning to turn our 
 way again." 
 
 " But I thought ore had gone up. Is n't that 
 what the men claim as the reason for their demand 
 for an increase 1 They say the wages ought to go 
 up with the rise in ore." 
 
 " They are fools ! " Ross Duncan struck the 
 pillow beside him passionately. " The companies 
 were under contract for large quantities of ore at 
 the old price before this rise came. The rise will 
 not benefit us any until we have disposed of our old 
 contracts." 
 
 " Why don't the companies tell the men so } " 
 "Pshaw! Stuart, you are" — Ross Duncan 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 25 
 
 controlled himself violently. Stuart was alarmed 
 for him. He rose and went over nearer the bed. 
 
 " Father, you must not get excited. Remember 
 what Dr. Saxon said yesterday. You must not 
 talk any more on this subject." 
 
 " I shall ! There, I can control myself." 
 
 It was wonderful to see the change that came 
 over the man. He stiffened his muscles, then re- 
 laxed them and let his hand, which had been 
 clinched, open easily and lie open on the bed- 
 clothes. Then he spoke without a quiver of pas- 
 sion, slowly and coldly. 
 
 " The companies do not tell the men so because 
 the men would n't believe a word the companies say. 
 Yet there is n't a man in our mines who can say 
 Ross Duncan ever cheated a man out of a penny or 
 ever told him an untruth. I tell you, Stuart, the 
 men are the most stubborn, ungrateful, ignorant lot 
 of animals that ever lived. Why, all last winter 
 I kept more than a dozen families going with food 
 and fuel because they had been sick or shiftless, 
 and I '11 warrant you those very families are in the 
 front row of the parades every morning ! The 
 men are cutting their own throats. The com- 
 panies will never give in." 
 
 Stuart did not say anything for a while. Then : 
 
26 HIS BROTHERS KEEPER. 
 
 " Don't you think, father, that the men have been 
 very quiet and law-abiding ? There has been no 
 disturbance thus far." 
 
 " Wait till we get new men in from Chicago and 
 then see." 
 
 " Will the companies try to do that } " 
 
 " They certainly will if the strike continues 
 another week. We lose our contracts unless we 
 can deliver the ore as specified." 
 
 " Is n't it a little remarkable, father," said 
 Stuart after another pause, " that the men have 
 opened their meetings in the square every morn- 
 ing with prayer .■• " 
 
 Ross Duncan uttered a sound that represented 
 more scorn than a hundred words. 
 
 " Who do they pray to ? The devil .?" 
 
 " The prayer I heard the first morning I came 
 home was as good a prayer as I ever heard in 
 church." 
 
 " Who offered it .? " 
 
 " Eric," replied Stuart, flushing up a little. 
 
 " He is the leader of the whole strike ; the 
 most dangerous man on the range to-day. I 
 advise you to break with him." 
 
 Stuart leanedforward a little. "You remember, 
 father, Eric saved my life when the skip broke in 
 the shaft ? " 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 27 
 
 " Well, it was only what any man would do. 
 You are not under any great debt to him." 
 
 Stuart did not reply. He felt the strange pas- 
 sion he inherited from his father rising in him, 
 and after a few questions as to his father's condi- 
 tion he went out of the room. 
 
 That afternoon he went up on the hills for the 
 first time since his return. He sat down near one 
 of the mines and thought over his talk with his 
 father. Then he grew restless and walked down 
 into the town. As he passed the office he went 
 in and found a letter in the box addressed to him. 
 He put it in his pocket and walked on through 
 the square past the band stand, crossed the rail- 
 road tracks and went up the street, which nar- 
 rowed, as all the streets did, into the miners' 
 paths, until he reached the building belonging to 
 another of his father's mines. 
 
 The pumps were still going, although some of 
 the men had threatened to pull them out. There 
 were only six men still at work in the engine 
 house. Stuart walked up to a favorite seat on a 
 great stone which cropped out on the hill. One 
 of the few old pines still left on the slope grew 
 close by. 
 
 He sat down and took out the letter. It was 
 from Eric. As he read, his face darkened. 
 
28 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Dear Stuart," — the letter began with the old 
 familiar sound, — "I write to you because I have 
 been refused admission to. the house. I called 
 twice this week to inquire for you and the serv- 
 ants would not let me in. I don't blame you. 
 The times are bringing many questions before 
 us, and the rights of men as men are not to be 
 ignored. I don't know as you care to keep up the 
 old acquaintance. It rests with you to say. I 
 don't know what a year may have done for you. 
 The new situation may also make a change in 
 your attitude towards me. I am doing what I 
 believe is right. It may seem all wrong from 
 your standpoint. If you will be at the old stone 
 by the big tree this afternoon, I will meet you 
 there. Your old friend, Eric." 
 
 This was a most unsatisfactory letter to Stuart. 
 The refusal to let Eric into the house angered 
 him to a white heat. He could not understand it, 
 unless the servants were acting under his father's 
 orders. He flushed red and then turned white 
 at the thought. It was not like Ross Duncan to 
 do such a thing. And yet, he might do it. And 
 then, the rest of the letter; it was not like the 
 old Eric he had known ; and yet, the one great 
 love of Stuart had been and still was his love for 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 29 
 
 Eric. It was not because Eric had once saved his 
 Hfe ; he would have loved him in any case ; but the 
 years had brought changes, the past year partic- 
 ularly. 
 
 He had been reading and brooding with head 
 bent down, and now, as he raised it, he saw Eric 
 coming up the hill. 
 
 The two men met with the commonplace salu- 
 tations : " How are you, Eric ? " " How are you, 
 Stuart .' " They shook hands stiffly and then sat 
 down on the rock. Each seemed a little shy of 
 the other. 
 
 Stuart was the first to speak. He knew from ex- 
 perience that Eric would never say the first word. 
 
 "I have just been reading your letter. There 
 is some mistake about your being refused admis- 
 sion to the house. Father would never do such 
 a thing, Eric." 
 
 , "I'm not so sure of that. But I don't feel hurt 
 on that account, even if he would. Is he better } " 
 
 " Yes." Stuart paused. He did not seem to 
 know what to say. It was harder to break over 
 the gap of a year's growth in manhood than he 
 had thought. Then he burst out with a short 
 laugh : — 
 
 "Oh, I say, Eric, what nonsense for us to be 
 
30 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 sitting here like fools on this rock as if we were 
 afraid of each other ! In memory of the old days, 
 will you put your hand on my shoulder and look 
 me in the face ? 
 
 " It is not the same, Eric," said Stuart with a 
 sigh at last, letting his hand slip from the other's 
 shoulder. 
 
 " A better one, I hope. The times have made 
 me sober and gray." 
 
 " How is itj Eric .' Is there any difference in 
 your feeling towards me .' " 
 
 "No." Eric was pushing the gravel with his 
 foot and looking out over the valley. Then he 
 looked Stuart frankly in the face and repeated 
 his " No. But you are the one to change." 
 
 " I ! What change has there been in me "i " 
 Stuart put the question almost indignantly. 
 
 " You have seen the world. What can I be to 
 you now ? More and more, as the time goes on, 
 the difference must widen. You are a gentleman 
 of wealth and leisure, and I am a workingman." 
 
 " You don't need to be, Eric. You could get 
 ahead ; you could command any place in time 
 with your intelligence and — and" — 
 
 Stuart hesitated for just the word, but Eric 
 said quietly : — 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 
 
 31 
 
 "I have chosen my place. A workingman I 
 am, and a workingman I shall be as long as there 
 are wrongs to right and rights to maintain." 
 
 " But what has all this to do with us, Eric } 
 We have been over all this ground before. Do 
 you not love me.'" 
 
 " Indeed, truly I do ! " Eric turned his large 
 dark eyes affectionately towards his friend. 
 
 "And do I not love you "i " 
 
 "Yes," replied Eric simply. "But our lives 
 are of necessity widening out farther apart. 
 What can prevent that ? In the very n'ature of 
 the situation it could not be otherwise. Here I 
 am advising thousands of men to a course which 
 is directly opposed by your father, and would be 
 by you if you were in his place. The time is 
 coming when the clash between your interests 
 and mine will be so fierce that " — 
 
 Stuart jumped to his feet. "Do you mean to 
 say, Eric, that friendship true and loving cannot 
 exist between you and me simply because of the 
 accident of birth, or the circumstance of wealth, 
 or difference in surroundings ? Have we not 
 already proved that it can exist ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Eric slowly. " It can exist ; 
 but it is, in one sense, an unnatural existence. 
 
32 tils BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 You represent Capital ; I represent Labor. Take 
 the present situation of this strike. I believe as 
 much as I believe anything that it is right and 
 even religious that we do as we do. Deep in your 
 heart you condemn us for the movement. If you 
 were in your father's place, you would feel exactly 
 as he does about it. How, then, can we expect 
 the old relation between us to be continued .? " 
 
 Stuart sat silent, looking out over the beautiful 
 valley. The town looked very pretty in its setting 
 of hills and pines. His father's house was the 
 most conspicuous residence to be seen. From 
 where the two men sat it looked palatial. Down 
 at the other end of the town among the miners' 
 houses Stuart could distinguish Eric's home, a 
 little two-story cottage, not different from a hun- 
 dred others. He did a good deal of hard thinking 
 in a few minutes ; then he said : — 
 
 " Eric, you began the talk about the difference 
 between us. Do you want to break off anything .■■ 
 Is that your intention .■• " 
 
 Eric for the first time grew flushed beneath his 
 dark bronzed face. "No," he said. "I simply 
 wished to state the conditions under which we 
 now live. There is no change in my feelings 
 towards you, and cannot be." 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 
 
 33 
 
 "Neither is there in mine towards you, Eric. 
 Why do you place the responsibility so wholly on 
 me, as if I would be the one to change, or as if it 
 rested with me to say that our friendship was pos- 
 sible or not ? " 
 
 " Because it does rest with you. Are you not 
 representative of riches, power, intelligence, all 
 the great machinery which sets things in motion, 
 society, that world by itself, leisure, culture, ad- 
 vantages 'i And is it not for you as representative 
 of all these things to bear the responsibility which 
 must always rest on the strong and the educated 
 and the wealthy .' " Eric paused on the crest of a 
 wave of speech that seemed about to break over 
 all his self-control. 
 
 Stuart after a while said doggedly : " It comes 
 back to the question, Is our friendship to continue 
 on the old basis } I can be no other than I am. 
 If I have been born to wealth and leisure and edu- 
 cation and society and travel and all that, I am 
 ■powerless to change it. And you are what you 
 are because you have been born into it and choose 
 to continue there, though you know, Eric, you 
 could rise out of it if you only would." 
 
 " It is useless to discuss that point," replied 
 Eric quietly. "But tell me, Stuart, in answer 
 
34 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 to the main question, do you believe in this 
 strike?" 
 
 " No, I can't say I do," said Stuart with his 
 usual frankness. 
 
 " There ! You see where the difficulty lies," 
 replied Eric sadly. " The very nature of the situ- 
 ation compels a breach in our old relations with 
 each other. Of course I believe in the strike or I 
 would n't be the leader of it." 
 
 " It seems like a bad way to get at what you 
 want," said Stuart. 
 
 " Have you studied into the details of the situa- 
 tion .' Do you know all the facts which have led 
 up to this movement ? " 
 
 " I know what my father has told me. He says 
 the men did not consult with the companies and 
 went out without warning or notice of any kind." 
 
 Eric rose to his feet. " It 's a lie ! " he ex- 
 claimed with a sudden passion that no one would 
 suspect existed. It was like an explosion that 
 transformed the man into another being. 
 
 Stuart also rose. " Do you mean to say that my 
 father lied to me about the facts ">. " 
 
 " I do ! " retorted Eric. " He lied and he knows 
 he lied ! " 
 
 Stuart took one step towards Eric and the two 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 35 
 
 young men confronted each other. Suddenly 
 Eric turned on his heel and without a word walked 
 down the hill. For a moment Stuart seemed on 
 the point of going after him or calling out for him 
 to stop. But the next moment he stepped back to 
 the stone and sat down. When Eric had disap- 
 peared behind a clump of trees, Stuart rose and 
 went towards home by another path. 
 
 When he reached the house Louise met him and 
 told him his father wanted to see him at once. He 
 went in and stood by the bed, his whole being 
 stirred by the interview with Eric. It was the 
 first real passion to speak of that had roused his 
 self-controlled nature. His father spoke with the 
 bluntness that always marked his speech. 
 
 " Stuart, I want you to go to Cleveland for the 
 company. This strike has caused complications 
 with our local agents. There is important busi- 
 ness that I ought to see to in person. Can you go 
 at once .? The Eastern express is due at six 
 o'clock." 
 
 " I am at your service, father," replied Stuart. 
 He was still going over his recent interview with 
 Eric. 
 
 " Here are the papers. I can explain the busi- 
 ness to you in a few minutes." 
 
36 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart drew up a chair and his father gave him 
 instructions. Then as Stuart put the papers in his 
 pocket, Ross Duncan said, his face and manner 
 softening a little as he fell back on his pillows : — 
 
 " Stuart, lad, in case anything happens to me, 
 of course you know I have left everything to you 
 and Louise. The mines with other property and 
 invested funds, besides New York property, and 
 bonds not connected with the mines, are worth 
 over four millions. I have left Louise a million in 
 property. You will be left in the sole charge of 
 everything in case I die. Of course you under- 
 stand that I am the company. This strike is 
 against me. If I die, it will be against you. I 
 believe I can depend on you to defend the millions 
 I have worked so hard all my life to get together," 
 said Ross Duncan. Then in his old manner he 
 said, " You will have to hurry to get that train." 
 
 Stuart rose, and a conflict of feelings rose with 
 him. What his father had just said moved him 
 one way, the afternoon with Eric moved him an- 
 other. He wanted to ask his father one question 
 before he went away. 
 
 "Father," he asked almost timidly, "did you 
 tell me that the strikers went out without giving 
 the companies any notice or warning.^" 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 37 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Do you mean that they gave absolutely no 
 hint of their intentions to any one ? " 
 
 Ross Duncan rose up a little and his face 
 changed. 
 
 " They sent their representative, as they called 
 him, to me, about two weeks before the morning 
 of the strike, to confer about wages, but I 
 would n't recognize any such representative with 
 any right to interfere with my business and tell 
 me what wages I ought to pay." 
 
 " Who was the representative .' " Stuart asked 
 the question, well knowing the answer. 
 
 " Who was it .■' Who but that praying, pious 
 friend of yours, Eric Vassall ! " Ross Duncan 
 sat up, and the wound on his forehead grew purple. 
 Stuart was frightened at the sight. He could not 
 say anything. His father sank down again, ex- 
 hausted with his anger. Stuart went away with- 
 out even a word of farewell. There was a bitter- 
 ness in his heart that was new to it. Eric had 
 been right then, according to his view. The com- 
 pany had received notice. There had been an 
 attempt at consultation. As the train whirled 
 him on, he cursed in his heart the whole social 
 perplexity. 
 
38 HIS BROTHEK'S KEEPER. 
 
 He reached the city, attended to the business, 
 and started back the next day to Champion. It 
 was just dusk when he stepped out on the station 
 platform. He thought a crowd of curious-looking 
 people was there. Something had happened. 
 Dr. Saxon came up, seized his bag and grasped 
 his hand in a strong but nervous manner. Solemn, 
 strangely set faces looked out of the dusk at him. 
 
 "What's the matter, doctor.?" asked Stuart, 
 trembling at something, he could not think what. 
 
 " Your father, my boy " — 
 
 " Is he worse .'' " 
 
 "Come this way; my buggy is right here. I 
 will drive you out to the house. Get right in." 
 
 Stuart got into the buggy mechanically. The 
 doctor threw himself in and the horse made a 
 plunge into the dark. 
 
 "Tell me the truth, doctor." Stuart's voice 
 was steady but faint. 
 
 The answer came after a moment. "Your 
 father died, Stuart, an hour ago. He had a stroke 
 of apoplexy. There was some heart trouble. He 
 did not suffer." 
 
 For a moment everything in the universe reeled 
 about Stuart Duncan. Then he found he was 
 asking questions and Dr. Saxon was answering 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 39 
 
 them. When they reached the house, Stuart met 
 Louise first. She came to the front door and 
 threw herself into his arms, crying hysterically. 
 Stuart had not shed a tear yet. They led him 
 into the room where Ross Duncan lay. The son 
 stood and looked down at the cold face with that 
 newly made scar on the forehead. There was no 
 thought in his mind that he was now the owner 
 of several millions of wealth. He was thinking 
 of the last interview he had with that father and 
 his parting without a word of affectionate farewell. 
 And still the tears would not come to his relief. 
 
 At last he went out, and the sight of his sister's 
 grief and fear brought the tears to his own eyes. 
 He wept with her. They talked together. The 
 doctor remained an hour and then took his leave. 
 The night wore on. Louise, exhausted with the 
 shock, had gone to her room. Stuart was finally 
 left alone. He sent the servants all away. He 
 could not sleep. He paced the long hallway until 
 daylight. Just as the sun rose, he went in where 
 his father lay and looked at him again. Ross 
 Duncan's millions were of no use to him now. 
 Of what use were they to the son .■' What load 
 of responsibility had come to him now ! These 
 mines, these labor troubles, this strike, these 
 
40 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 wages — what difference if he let them all go? 
 He had a right to do as he chose with his own. 
 He would dispose of it all and live abroad. He 
 would — what ! he was planning all this and his 
 father dead less than twenty-four hours ! And 
 then, what responsibility did rest upon him .' 
 What difference did it make to him what wages 
 the men received .-' Was he his brother's keeper.? 
 Were they his brothers .' The whole thing was 
 complex, irritating. His father's death had thrown 
 a burden on him that he did not want to carry. 
 
 He was disturbed by a noise in the street before 
 the house. He went to the window and drew 
 aside the curtain. The measured tramp of heavy 
 feet was heard coming down the road. A column 
 of men four abreast came into sight, with one 
 man a little in advante of the others carrying a 
 banner. It contained a very rude drawing of 
 a rich man and a poor man. The rich man was 
 saying, " What do you want .' " The poor man was 
 saying, " Crums from the rich mans table." It 
 was all very crude and one-sided in every way. 
 The column of men swung by, nearly five hun- 
 dred miners on their way from the upper range to 
 join the strikers in Champion in their regular 
 morning gathering at the park. Every man as he 
 
THE GREAT STRIKE. 
 
 41 
 
 went by turned his head and looked up at the 
 house vvhere the dead mine owner lay. It is 
 possible that they saw the son standing there. 
 He watched the column tramp through the dust 
 and disappear down the road. And as he turned 
 back towards all that remained of the mortal 
 flesh of the man who had been worth so many 
 millions, he was conscious that he was face to 
 face with the great problem of his own existence 
 with which was involved the problem of thou- 
 sands of other men. How will he answer that 
 problem ? 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 A WEEK after the death and burial of Ross 
 ■^*- Duncan, Stuart and Louise were talking 
 together of their future plans. Louise lay on a 
 lounge, looking very pretty, dressed in mourning 
 of a fashionable pattern. She appeared vexed at 
 something Stuart had just said, and tapped her 
 foot smartly against the end of the lounge. 
 
 " I have no patience with you, Stuart. Why 
 don't you talk sense .-' " 
 
 " I thought I was talking sense," replied Stuart, 
 who was standing up by one of the windows of 
 the room looking out on the front lawn. He 
 turned and walked back to the end of the room 
 and continued to pace up and down. He was very 
 thoughtful, and part of the time seemed not to 
 hear all that Louise said. 
 
 " Well, you lose all your sense the minute the 
 subject of these horrid miners comes up," con- 
 tinued Louise. " If I was the governor of this 
 State, I would order out the militia at once." 
 
 42 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 43 
 
 "Why?" asked Stuart with a slight smile. 
 " The men are not doing anything. What would 
 you order out the troops for .' " 
 
 " I would get new men in to take the men's 
 places and then order the militia. And you know, 
 Stuart, it will have to come to that at last." 
 
 Stuart answered nothing. He was thinking 
 hard of that very thing. 
 
 Louise went on talking while he stood still by 
 the window for a minute looking out at the hills. 
 " I regard father's death as caused directly by the 
 miners. They frightened the horses and caused 
 the accident that killed him. I don't see how you 
 can side with the men in this strike." 
 
 " I don't," said Stuart without turning around. 
 
 " Then why don't you do something to start up 
 the mines ? Have n't we a right to manage our 
 own business and hire other men .? If the miners 
 threaten to interfere, we have a right to call for 
 State troops." 
 
 " I hope it will not come to that," replied Stuart 
 gravely, as he walked up by the lounge and sat 
 down by his sister. " Louise, I want to talk 
 plainly with you about this matter. I do not feel 
 just as father did about it." 
 
 " You just said you did n't side with the men." 
 
44 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Louse sat up and arranged her dress. Some 
 ribbons at her throat kept her fingers busy for a 
 minute. 
 
 " I don't side with them in the sense that I be- 
 lieve they are doing the right thing to strike this 
 way. But I believe they ought to have more 
 wages, and that the companies ought to pay them 
 the scale they have drawn up." Stuart was talk- 
 ing out aloud to his sister, for the first time really 
 expressing his convictions as they had grown on 
 him every day since his father's death had thrown 
 the burden of ownership upon him. 
 
 Louise heard his statement with a frown. For 
 a while she was silent, then she rose and walked 
 out of the room, angrily saying as she went, " Ross 
 Duncan's son is not much like his father. That 's 
 true, if you did say it." 
 
 Stuart rose and went over by the window again. 
 He was vexed, not with Louise, but with the whole 
 situation. Since his father's death he had gone 
 through a great many struggles, and each one had 
 left him with the feeling of his responsibility 
 heavier upon him. The strike was in the same 
 condition as when it began. The different mine 
 owners at Cleveland had conferred together and 
 were united in their determination not to yield to 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 45 
 
 the demand for higher wages. Stuart had been 
 asked to come down to a conference to be held in 
 the city that week. He expected to leave the next 
 day. As he stood looking out at the stock-covered 
 hills- he knew that a crisis was rapidly approaching, 
 and that within the next few days events would be 
 precipitated that would leave their mark on his 
 whole life. He was not a coward, and that was 
 the reason he could not run away from the situa- 
 tion. The interests of the mines at Champion 
 were all in his hands, but the other mines on the 
 upper and lower ranges were involved with his in 
 the general strike. He was not at full liberty to 
 act alone. Besides, the men had within a week 
 formed a Union and would not treat with the sepa- 
 rate mine owners, insisting that the companies 
 must recognize the Union as a whole. 
 
 Meanwhile matters were coming to a crisis very 
 fast. Stuart clinched his hands tightly and bit his 
 lips nervously as he turned again from the win- 
 dow and paced the room. He was worth more 
 than two million dollars in his own right, and yet 
 the possession of the money caused him little real 
 pleasure. With ^11 the rest he was having an 
 inward revolution of education toward the entire 
 problem. And he could not avoid the feeling that 
 
46 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 before the week was gone he might come face to 
 face with the greatest fact of his life." 
 
 As he stood there thinking it all over, the bell 
 rang, and one of the servants came and said that 
 Eric was at the door. Stuart went himself out into 
 the hall. 
 
 " Come in, Eric," he said quietly. 
 
 Eric came in and the two young men shook 
 hands silently. Since Ross Duncan's death these 
 two had met several times, and it seemed as if the 
 old familiar relation between them might be possi- 
 ble again. There was, however, still a serious 
 barrier caused by the conditions that surrounded 
 the two men. 
 
 " I came up this morning," began Eric with his 
 usual directness, "to tell you that the men want 
 you to speak to them at the park to-day at noon." 
 
 Stuart was surprised. " I thought the men 
 would -not admit any one to the speaking stand 
 except those of their own number." 
 
 "They haven't so far. You are the only one; 
 or you will be, if you come to the meeting to-day." 
 
 " What do the men want } " Stuart asked the 
 question not feeling just sure that he cared to go. 
 
 Eric did not reply immediately. He seemed 
 to be waiting for Stuart to say something more. 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 47 
 
 Stuart sat looking at Eric with that quiet gaze 
 peculiar to him. " Do the men want me to make 
 a speech on the situation ? " 
 
 " I do not know just what they expect. They 
 simply voted to ask you to come this noon. It 
 may be an opportunity for a settlement." 
 
 Eric spoke slowly. Stuart suddenly rose and 
 went over and put a hand on his old acquaintance's 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Eric," he said, while a sad smile crossed his 
 face and died out in its usual thoughtful quiet ; 
 " does n't it seem strange to you that we should 
 be making so much out of such an affair as a differ- 
 ence of a few cents more for a day's work.-' Is 
 life worth having if it must be spent in serious 
 quarrels over such little matters .' " 
 
 " Do you call this a little matter .' " Eric spoke 
 almost bitterly. And then he added bluntly : " A 
 few cents a day may be a little to a man who has 
 plenty of money, but it may mean the difference 
 between comfort and suffering to the man who has 
 almost nothing." 
 
 Stuart colored, but answered quietly : " No, 
 Eric, you do not just understand me. I am ready 
 to pay this difference in the men's wages. I think 
 their demand is just." 
 
48 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Come to the park this noon and tell them so." 
 
 "Well, I will. I am going to Cleveland to- 
 morrow, Eric." 
 
 "If all the owners were like you, the strike 
 would not hold out long," said Eric as he rose to 
 go. He had a great deal to do to prepare for the 
 noon meeting, and in spite of Stuart's urging 
 him to remain longer he went away. There was 
 still a gap between the two. They did not feel 
 easy in each other's presence. Eric had not 
 spoken of the first meeting they had, and Stuart, 
 while feeling differently about it, had not ap- 
 proached the subject. 
 
 He told Louise of his invitation to speak to the 
 men at the park and went out after a little while, 
 intending to go up on one of the hills and think 
 by himself. But as he drove out into the road he 
 changed his mind and went down into the town 
 and up into Dr. Saxon's office. He thought he 
 would ask his advice in the matter. 
 
 The doctor was alone, which was a rare circum- 
 stance with him. He greeted Stuart with the fa- 
 miliarity which came from a lifelong acquaintance. 
 
 " Well, you aristocrat ! are you going to trample 
 on the feelings of the poor downtrodden masses 
 much longer.' Are you going to withhold from 
 them their rightful dues .' " 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 49 
 
 " Doctor, I am going to speak to the men at the 
 park this noon." 
 
 " Are you ? Well, give 'em a dose that '11 put 
 'em on the sick list for a month. They 're the most 
 ungrateful, obstinate, pig-headed, senseless crowd 
 of human animals I ever saw. I 've made up my 
 mind, Stuart, not to do another thing for 'em. 
 I 'm not on the pay of the companies any more, 
 am I, since this strike set in .? " 
 
 " No, I suppose not. That is, the contract the 
 mines made with you is good only while the mines 
 are in operation." 
 
 "Just so. Well, here these wild Cornish men 
 expect me to doctor 'em just the same whether I 
 am getting anything for it or not. I have made 
 up my mind that I won't do it any longer." 
 
 Just then there was a sound of steps outside, 
 and a shuffled noise, followed by a thump on the 
 door that might have been made by the thick end 
 of a club. 
 
 " Come in ! " shouted the doctor. " Here 's one 
 of 'em now," he said to Stuart in a low tone. 
 " Watch me deal with him." 
 
 The door opened and in shambled a man of 
 enormous build. He had a great mass of tangled 
 yellow hair on his head, and his beard was of the 
 
50 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 same color. He was fully six feet four inches in 
 height and had astonishingly long arms and large 
 feet. Stuart sat back in the window seat looking 
 on, and although he was running over in his mind 
 what he would say to the men, he could not help 
 smiling at the scene that followed. 
 
 " I come to fill the bottle, doctor," was the quiet 
 remark of the big miner. 
 
 The doctor made no motion to take the bottle 
 which the man pulled out of his vest pocket and 
 stood holding awkwardly between his two hands. 
 
 "You can move out of here with your bottle, 
 Sanders. I 'm not filling any bottles any more." 
 
 " Since when .' " asked Sanders slowly. 
 
 " Since this strike, this nonsensical, foolish busi- 
 ness of yours and the rest of you. Do you think 
 I 'm going to go to all the expense of keeping up 
 my drugs and medicines, and sew you fellows up 
 and fill you up with costly preparations, while I 'm 
 not getting, anything from the companies.'' So 
 get out with your bottle ! " 
 
 Sanders without a word backed towards the doOr. 
 The doctor wheeled around toward his desk and 
 began to hum a tune. Just as the miner laid his 
 hand on the doorknob the doctor turned his head 
 and shouted, " What was in the bottle, anyway >. " 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 51 
 
 " Cod-liver oil," replied Sanders, scratching his 
 head and slowly turning the doorknob. 
 
 " When did you get it filled ? " 
 
 " Last week, sir." 
 
 " Last week ! It was three days ago, or I 'm a 
 striker. What on earth did you do with half a pint 
 of cod-liver oil in that time .' " 
 
 Sanders shook his head and smiled faintly, but 
 did not venture to say anything. 
 
 " Have you been greasing your boots with it } 
 I 'd be willing to swear that you have, only half a 
 pint would n't oil more than one of 'em. Well, 
 bring it here ! I '11 fill it this once and that 's all. 
 What did I give it to you for.' Do you re- 
 member .' " 
 
 Sanders kept discreet silence, and the doctor 
 said to Stuart : " It is n't cod-liver oil exactly, it 's 
 a new preparation that I have just had sent up 
 from- Chicago, and it has been of some use in lung 
 troubles. I think perhaps I '11 let him have an- 
 other bottle. He has a bad cough." As if to 
 second the doctor's statement, Sanders gave utter- 
 ance to a hoarse rumble that was on the same large 
 scale as himself and shook the bottles on the doc- 
 tor's dispensary shelves. The doctor measured 
 out a quantity of the medicine, picked out a new 
 
52 HIS BR or HE'S' S KEEPER. 
 
 cork, and as he handed the bottle over, said cheer- 
 fully : " Now, Sanders, of course you will forget 
 everything I tell you, but I want you to remember 
 that if you don't follow the directions on the bottle 
 you are liable to fall down dead any minute. Well, 
 is there anything more ? " 
 
 The miner was shuffling his hand down in his 
 pocket among a lot of loose change. 
 
 " How much is it .' " he finally asked. 
 
 " Oh, well, that 's all right," said the doctor, turn- 
 ing red. " Keep it to remember me by. I '11 make 
 you a birthday present of it. But mind you, no 
 more medicine from this office till the strike is 
 over. I can't afford to doctor a thousand men for 
 nothing." 
 
 Sanders went out and the doctor turned to 
 Stuart and said : "I thought I might as well let 
 him have it. Pshaw ! I 'm too easy. But Sanders 
 has got consumption. Awful queer how these big 
 fellows catch it." 
 
 Just then there was a tap on the door, and be- 
 fore the doctor could call out the door opened and 
 a little old woman came in. She had a very sad 
 face, and looked like one of those persons who 
 know life mainly through its troubles. 
 
 " Doctor," she said, after bowing to Stuart, "me 
 
Large responsibilities. 53 
 
 old man is sufferin' terrible this mornin'. I want 
 ye to send him somethin' to ease the pain a bit." 
 
 " Where is his pain ? " 
 
 " Eh ? " 
 
 " I say where is his pain ? In his head or feet ? " 
 
 " In his back, doctor ; an' he is howlin' like 
 murder for somethin' to ease him. I come right 
 down here. The doctor, he said, would give me 
 anything I needed." ' 
 
 " Yes, that 's it. The beggars don't care if I go 
 into bankruptcy and ruin through giving them 
 anything they need." 
 
 The doctor rose and went over to his dispensary 
 shelves. After a very careful search he selected 
 a bottle and poured from it into a small one, wrote 
 directions, pasted them on, and gave the medicine 
 to the woman. 
 
 " Here, now, Mrs. Binney, I know just what 
 your husband's trouble is. He strained the 
 muscles of his back that time he got caught be- 
 tween the timbers in the De Mott mine." 
 
 "Yes." The woman's face lighted up with 
 some pride. " Jim held up the timbers until the 
 other men crawled out." 
 
 "That's so. Well, I don't mind helping him. 
 Use this as I have directed and it will give him 
 some relief." 
 
54 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 The woman thanked the doctor, and as she 
 turned to go she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. 
 The doctor followed her out into the hall, and 
 Stuart could not help hearing him say to her, 
 " I '11 be out to see Jim this afternoon, tell him, 
 Mrs. Binney." 
 
 He came back, and sitting down at his desk 
 thumped it hard with his fist. 
 
 " That 's the last case I '11 take till the strike 
 ends ! The only way to bring these people to 
 terms is to treat them sternly. I tell you, Stuart, 
 I can't afford to go on giving medicine and service 
 this way. It will ruin me, and besides, it is n't 
 professional " — 
 
 There was a timid knock at the door, and the 
 doctor caught up a medical magazine, opened it 
 bottom side up, and turned his back on the door. 
 There was another rap, and then as the doctor 
 made no sound the door opened, and a boy about 
 twelve years old came in timidly and stood with 
 his cap in his hand, looking first at Stuart and 
 then at the doctor's back. 
 
 " Father 's been hurt. He is pump man at 
 Davis mine. He wants you to come right up." 
 
 " Up where ? " asked the doctor without turning 
 around. 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 55 
 
 " Up where we live." 
 
 " Where 's that ? " 
 
 " The same place." 
 
 " What 's his name \ " 
 . "Why, you know his name, doctor. You have 
 seen him before." 
 
 The doctor wheeled around and roared : " Well ! 
 Do I know the names of a thousand different men 
 like that .' Who is your father ? " 
 
 " Pump man in the Davis mine." 
 
 "Well, there are six different pump men up 
 there. Which one is he .' " 
 
 The boy began to get scared and backed towards 
 the door. 
 
 " What 's the matter with your father ? " asked 
 the doctor more gently, rising and reaching out 
 for his black case and putting on his hat. 
 
 The boy began to sob. " I don't know ; he 's 
 hurt." 
 
 " Well, you run down and get into my buggy 
 and sit there till I come. Hurry now." The boy 
 backed out of the door and tumbled down the 
 ■stairs. The doctor gathered up his things and 
 shouting to Stuart, " This case seems to call for 
 my help," he dashed out of the room. 
 
 There was a drug store directly under the 
 
56 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 doctor's office, where a case of candy was kept. 
 Stuart, leaning out of the window, saw the doctor 
 come out of the store with a bag of something 
 which he gave to the boy, then getting into 
 the buggy he started off at his usual express 
 rate and disappeared in a great whirlwind of red 
 iron-ore dust. 
 
 Stuart smiled and said to himself: "Dear old 
 Doc ! I was going to say that his bark was worse 
 than his bite ; only it 's all bark." His face grew 
 stern again as he saw from the window a sight 
 that was growing familiar to the people of 
 Champion. 
 
 It was now about eleven o'clock, and into the 
 open space around the band stand in the center of 
 the town square the miners were beginning to 
 come in groups of twos and fours, and by little 
 companies. They came in from their homes out 
 on the hills, each miner carrying a stick, the uses 
 of which became more apparent as the men 
 formed afterwards in marching order. 
 
 The different miners' bands had already gathered 
 near the stand. They united in the playing of 
 several stirring pieces while the crowd was gather- 
 ing. Very fast the square filled up. At last, as 
 the clock on the tower pointed its hands at a 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 57 
 
 quarter after eleven, four thousand men were 
 packed into the open space surrounded by the 
 town buildings. Stuart remained looking out 
 from the doctor's office window. The whole 
 scene was before him. He could hear as well. 
 Since that first day when he had come home from 
 his European trip he had seen the miners together 
 in this way several times, but to-day he was 
 impressed more than ever with the appearance of 
 the m.en, with their rude misspelled banners, with 
 their music made entirely by men out of the 
 mines who had trained themselves with great 
 patience to play march tunes ; more than all, he 
 was struck with the faces of the men, the stolid, 
 dull, but determined look that most of them 
 wore ; he was impressed with their general ap- 
 pearance as human beings making a fight for a 
 few more cents a day. And with all the rest he 
 could not help feeling that the men regarded him 
 as an aristocrat, removed from them by his whole 
 life, so different from theirs, and unable from their 
 point of view to sympathize with or understand 
 them. 
 
 " And yet," Stuart said to himself with a sigh, 
 " I would almost exchange places with nearly any 
 one of them. I mean, that I am not where I can 
 
58 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 use what I was born into as I would like to 
 use it." 
 
 The bands stopped playing and a miner went 
 up into the stand. This time it was not Eric. 
 The men all uncovered their heads. It was very 
 quiet. The people of Champion stood looking on 
 from the sidewalks, the church steps, the railroad 
 depot platform, and the store and office windows. 
 The man in the stand lifted up his face and offered 
 a short prayer. 
 
 " O God, grant us a blessing to-day as we go to 
 our place of meeting. Be with us there in our 
 council together. Grant that we may be led to do 
 the right. Keep us all from trespass, or sin, or 
 drunkenness. And when we have ended our 
 strife here below, may we all, master and men, 
 meet in heaven. We ask it for Jesus' sake. 
 Amen." 
 
 Stuart heard every word of the prayer from 
 where he sat. There was something indescribably 
 sad to him in the whole scene. The miners put 
 on their hats and the bands at once struck up a 
 lively tune. The men began to move out into the 
 main street, forming a double line or column four 
 abreast. The bands marched each one in front of 
 a section or division of the line of march. The 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 59 
 
 men at a signal shouldered their sticks, and accus- 
 tomed by this time to the marching, they pre- 
 sented a military appearance as they swung past 
 the church and into the road leading ov<er to the 
 park where they now held a daily meeting at 
 noon. 
 
 Stuart watched for Eric and, as he came by, 
 called to him from the window : — 
 
 " I '11 drive over. My horse and buggy are here." 
 
 Eric waved his hand and went by without reply- 
 ing. Stuart came down and after the columns of 
 men had passed, he drove along at a little distance 
 behind them. 
 
 All the wa^over he was debating with himself 
 what he should say. It was the first time he had 
 really met the men. A great many of them did 
 not know what the feeling of the new mine owner 
 was. They supposed that Ross Duncan's son was 
 like the father. Others among them had known 
 him as a child and boy and liked him. He was a 
 favorite in the town. Many a rough, reckless, 
 stolid Dane and Cornish man had admired the lad 
 who had been so fearless in going up and down 
 the shafts. There was a good deal of favorable 
 comment among the men in line over his coming 
 out to-day. 
 
6o HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 So when he finally came into the park and was 
 met by a committee there and escorted up into the 
 pavilion where the speakers went, he faced a 
 great crowd that was in the humor to give him 
 fair play at least. A thousand more men had 
 come in from the other ranges, and an audience of 
 over five thousand was packed deep all about the 
 pavilion. 
 
 Stuart could not remember afterwards all that 
 was said that day by himself or the men. Eric 
 had spoken briefly, and then in behalf of the 
 Union so recently formed he said that he had the 
 pleasure of introducing the owner of the Cham- 
 pion mines, who would address the riieeting. 
 
 Stuart had never spoken in public except on a 
 few occasions in college rhetoricals. He was no 
 orator and he knew it. And yet as he rose to 
 speak to this outdoor gathering in a position that 
 might have tried many experienced speakers, he 
 felt a sense of relief and a certain pleasure. 
 
 He began at once with a statement of his will- 
 ingness to grant the men their scale of wages. 
 
 " If I understand the situation," he said, " the 
 demand made by the contract miners is for two 
 dollars a day on account of the danger of the 
 work and because the companies have been paying 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 6 1 
 
 only one dollar and ninety cents for more than a 
 year now. I believe the companies ought to pay 
 that price. I might as well say that I do not 
 believe you have taken the right course to get 
 what you want. I cannot sympathize with this 
 strike. I do sympathize with your demand for 
 two dollars a day." 
 
 " How about the rest of the companies .■• " asked 
 a voice. 
 
 " Ay, that 's it. How about the lower range .' 
 What 's the mind on that point .'' " said another. 
 
 " I cannot answer for them. I am here to-day 
 to speak for myself. If the men who are em- 
 ployed in the Champion mines will come back at 
 any time now I will give them what they ask for." 
 
 This statement was greeted with cheers, but at 
 once there followed a storm of cries from all over 
 the park. 
 
 " All or none ! " 
 
 " Union rules first." 
 
 "The owners must treat with the Union." 
 
 " We '11 never go back on terms that shut out 
 part." 
 
 " Stand together, men ! That 's what the 
 owners does." 
 
 '.' Yes, they fixes wages ; we fix they, if " — 
 
62 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Eric stood up and waved his hat. There was a 
 gradual settling down of the confusion, and as h.e 
 stood there, evidently waiting to be heard, the men 
 soon became quiet again. Stuart admired his 
 control of the crowd. Eric had great influence 
 with it. 
 
 " Brothers," he said slowly, " I believe we have 
 reached a critical point in this movement. Here 
 is one of the owners who has expressed his will- 
 ingness to grant our demands. The question now 
 is, shall the Champion men go back to their mines 
 while the rest continue to deal with the other 
 owners .' This is a question for the Union to 
 settle." 
 
 " Eric," spoke Stuart in a low tone as he stood 
 close by him, "let me say a word or two more, 
 will you .'' I believe the decision of the men to- 
 day will be a serious one, and I want to do all I 
 can to make it right." 
 
 Eric at once raised his voice. " Men, Mr. Dun- 
 can wants to say a word again. I am sure you 
 will give him a careful hearing." 
 
 " Ay, that we will." 
 
 "He's no bad for a millionaire." 
 
 "Give him a chance. He doesn't often have 
 it ! " shouted a voice with a touch of irony in it. 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 63 
 
 Stuart took advantage of the lull that followed 
 these and other shouts to speak as he had never 
 thought of doing when he came to the park. He 
 believed that the result of the men's action would 
 be exceedingly important for themselves and him- 
 self. He had never had such a great desire to 
 explain his own attitude towards the whole prob- 
 lem of labor and capital, as it affected him. 
 
 It is not possible to describe his speech. Eric 
 thought at the time that it was the best speech he 
 had ever heard from a moneyed man. At times it 
 was impassioned, then quiet and conversational. 
 It is doubtful if very many of the miners under- 
 stood it as Stuart meant. He was, in reality, 
 voicing a policy for the men of money which he 
 afterwards followed out with some changes. 
 
 This much he made clear to the men. He 
 sympathized with their demands for larger wages, 
 while he could not agree with their methods. 
 And he would do all in his power to give them 
 their just demands, as far as he was at liberty to 
 act independently. He told them he was going to 
 Cleveland the next day to confer with the other 
 mine owners and would use all his influence to get 
 the owners to agree to the rise in wages. He re- 
 peated his offer to treat with the thousand or more 
 
64 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 men employed in the Champion mines at any time 
 they chose to return. As he closed, he made an 
 appeal to the men to use reason, and spoke of the 
 religious influence that so far had prevailed for the 
 good of the community. 
 
 There ran through the whole of Stuart's speech 
 this second time a passionate desire to be under- 
 stood as a man before men. He had never before 
 had such a longing to be understood. Neither 
 had he ever felt the gap between himself and the 
 men to be so wide and deep. As has been said, it 
 is doubtful if parts of his speech were understood 
 at all by the men. 
 
 As soon as he finished there was a great uproar 
 of applause and shouts. Eric himself could not 
 restore quiet. The committee politely asked 
 Stuart to leave the park while the Union went 
 into a conference oVer his proposals. Stuart was 
 glad to get away. He felt exhausted with his 
 unusual effort. 
 
 It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Eric 
 came to the house with the news of the decision 
 reached by the miners' Union. Stuart at once 
 saw by his face that the situation was serious. 
 
 "The men voted by a large majority not to go 
 back to work till all could go back on the same 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 65 
 
 terms. That is, they demanded that all the mine 
 owners recognize the Union and make terms with 
 it for all the men." 
 
 " Do you mean that the men who work in the 
 Champion mines refuse to accept my offer of the 
 wages they demand .■' " 
 
 " Yes ; that is, the Champion miners will not go 
 back until the other owners make the same terms 
 you make and make them to the Union." 
 
 " Which means simply that this strike is a dead- 
 lock," replied Stuart decidedly ; " for I know the 
 men at Cleveland and they will never agree to any 
 such terms." 
 
 " The miners will not agree to any other." Eric 
 spoke quietly but sadly. 
 
 " Eric," said Stuart suddenly, after ci pause ; 
 "tell me frankly, as brother to brother: Is this a 
 reasonable step for the men to take .■■ Do you be- 
 lieve the Union will make anything by such 
 action.' Is it just or fair.'" 
 
 Eric's face worked under a passionate feeling. 
 Then he said : " The men have a right to combine 
 for mutual support. In this instance they feel 
 driven to it by their condition. Why should not 
 labor seek to defend itself as capital does ? You, 
 that is, I mean the mine owners generally, get 
 
66 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 together in a combine and fix wages. Why should 
 not the miners get together and have a say about 
 it ? We have been working for years at the price 
 set by men at a distance, who never saw a mine or 
 a miner, far less ever went down into the ground 
 to see what the labor is. These men sit in nice, 
 upholstered offices in elegant buildings and make 
 it their business to get just as much out of the 
 iron ore as they can. The wages of the men are 
 cut every time ore falls in price. Instead of tak- 
 ing it out of their own large dividends in the 
 years when they have made enormous profits, 
 every time there is a depression in the market 
 they cut this end instead of theirs. You know 
 this is the case, Stuart. Three years ago a dozen 
 men in the iron industry grew to be millionaires 
 from the profits of this metal which God put in 
 the ground for the common use of man. During 
 that year the miners received only fair wages. 
 Since then financial depression and a drop in the 
 price of ore have followed. What do those men 
 do who have in prosperous years made their for- 
 tunes ? Do they say, ' We will draw on this re- 
 serve, and in order that the miners may not suf- 
 fer we will declare smaller dividends and lose 
 something'.' No; they say at once, 'Cut down 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 67 
 
 wages because ore is cheaper and we cannot afford 
 to lose.' And who suffers ? Not the mine owner. 
 He eats just as good food, goes to Europe in his 
 steam palace, drives his elegant carriage, keeps up 
 his amusements. But the poor man, to whom 
 every cent means something, goes without the 
 common necessaries of life, and his wife and chil- 
 dren suffer because the millionaire who made his 
 fortune on his business is not willing to share a 
 part of it during hard times with the men who 
 made possible his wealth with their labor. I tell 
 you, Stuart, my heart is on fire with these condi- 
 tions, and no man knows how the workingmen in 
 this country feel unless he has been one himself. 
 As to the Union, it is an organization that has 
 sprung up out of wrongs that are simply devilish 
 in their human selfishness." 
 
 Stuart sat with his head bowed during this 
 speech. Then he said gently, " What if the 
 Union develops the same kind of selfishness in 
 the workingmen } What then ? " 
 
 " Then the workingmen will suffer ; that is in- 
 evitable." 
 
 " What if the mine owners decide to put new 
 men into the mines .■' " 
 
 " Then there will be trouble." 
 
68 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Do you mean that you will incite the men to 
 violence ? " 
 
 " Good God ! Stuart, you know I will not. I 
 shall use my utmost power to prevent anything 
 of the kind." 
 
 " But what if it cannot be prevented .■• " 
 
 Eric said nothing. His face changed with a 
 torrent of feeling and passion. 
 
 " If^ it comes to that, let God be judge if the 
 owners and not the men are really the ones most 
 to blame. I shall use all my influence to prevent 
 violence or lawlessness. The Union has a right 
 to combine for such wages as it thinks are just. 
 It has no right to prevent other men from work- 
 ing at any wages they choose to take. Since I 
 joined the Salvation Army I have become con- 
 vinced that the only permanent basis for any true 
 settlement of labor and capital differences must 
 be a religious basis ; that is, Christian." 
 
 Stuart listened with an interest he felt to be 
 genuine. " How did you happen to join the Sal- 
 vation Army, Eric .? " 
 
 " It 's a long story. I '11 tell you some time, 
 not now." ^ 
 
 " I 've heard part of it, but I want you to tell 
 me all of it." 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 69 
 
 "I can't now. I must go. I have hardly had a 
 minute's time to myself since this movement 
 came on. I must be going now. You leave for 
 Cleveland " — 
 
 "To-night. I want to be there to-morrow. I 
 can tell beforehand what the companies will say. 
 Is there no other way out of it .' " 
 
 " I don't see any," replied Eric. 
 
 The two men shook hands silently, and Eric 
 went out. 
 
 Stuart went down on the night express, and 
 next day at Cleveland was in conference with the 
 other owners. The result of the conference was 
 what he had anticipated. The terms of the Union 
 were rejected. It was decided by the other own- 
 ers that a force of men should be at once placed 
 at work with steam shovels on the stock piles so 
 as to move the ore, and in case there was trouble 
 the troops would be called out. Stuart refused to 
 take action on his own mines. He would not yet 
 precipitate matters by getting new men either for 
 the stock piles or the mines. He came back home 
 the next day with the feeling that he was at pres- 
 ent in a condition of indecision and waiting. He 
 could not sympathize with the strike ; he did not 
 believe the Union was wise in refusing to let the 
 
70 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Champion miners go to work, and he could not 
 help feeling that a great calamity of some kind 
 was impending. 
 
 It was two days after his return that the event 
 occurred which really shaped and moulded his 
 whole after-life. The mines were still manned 
 by pump men. They had not been called out by 
 the Union, for the reason that if once the water in 
 the mines rose above the different levels and 
 flowed in among the timbers the mines would 
 become ruined, and the loss would be as heavy for 
 the miners as the owners, in case the strike' ended 
 and work was again resumed. From six to eight 
 men remained at each mine. There was an engi- 
 neer, an assistant, two firemen, and three or four 
 pump men, according to the size and number of 
 pumps. These were kept going day and night, as 
 the water rose very rapidly if left to flow. 
 
 Stuart had gone up to the Davis mine, one of 
 the newer ventures of his father, and recently 
 developed. Its greatest depth was nine hundred 
 feet. It had a manhole with ladders and a shaft at 
 some distance from it for the. " skip " or iron car- 
 riage used for hauling ore to the surface. There 
 were six men at this mine in charge at this time. 
 
 Stuart had come to the engine house and was 
 talking with the engineer when Eric came in. 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 71 
 
 Stuart called him over to the dry room where 
 the miners changed their clothing for miner's 
 dress. 
 
 " Eric, I want to go down into the mine. Won't 
 you go with me.' I want to see again for my- 
 self what the work is, and, besides, there is a new 
 pump at the bottom that I want to look at." 
 
 Eric consented, and the two soon had on the 
 miner's dress and were going down the ladders. 
 It was getting late in the afternoon, and they left 
 orders with the engineer that when they gave the 
 signal from the bottom, he might let down the 
 skip and they would come up in that. 
 
 For an hour they explored different levels. 
 Stuart was restless and seemed intent on realizing 
 as fully as possible just how the miners worked. 
 He climbed up into difficult places and even fired off 
 a blast in one chamber, using one of the powder 
 sticks left by the men when they came out. 
 
 At last he and Eric stood at the bottom of the 
 mine. This was an excavation about fourteen 
 feet across, and the water ran in very much as if it 
 had been a cistern. By leaning back against the 
 ladders the light from nine hundred feet above 
 could be seen. Eric was sitting thus with his 
 back to the ladder rounds and his feet in the 
 
72 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 water, which ran over the floor of the mine about 
 four inches deep, and Stuart was examining the 
 pump at the other side of the shaft when a terrible 
 thing happened. A noise like the roar of a tor- 
 rent grew about these two men, and before Eric 
 could get out from his position against the ladders, 
 a mass of iron ore came rushing down the man- 
 hole, breaking out rounds of the ladders as it 
 fell, and, bounding from side to side, struck Eric 
 on the shoulders with terrific force and threw him 
 face downwards in the water. 
 
 Stuart was at his side in a moment. He raised 
 him, and by the light of the candle in his hat saw 
 the nature of the accident. He could not think 
 whether the mass had fallen or been thrown pur- 
 posely into the shaft. He dragged Eric away 
 from the foot of the ladder. He was seriously 
 injured. With the one thought of getting him to 
 the top as soon as possible Stuart seized the lever 
 at the bottom of the ore shaft and pulled it back 
 as a signal to the engineer to let down the skip. 
 There was no answering signal and Stuart pulled 
 the wire rope again. Still no answer. He looked 
 up through the main shaft. What was that .' The 
 pump had suddenly stopped below. But what was 
 that great light at the top 1 It must be nearly 
 
LARGE RESPONSIBILITIES. 73 
 
 sundown now. Something was on fire ! The 
 truth flashed upon him that the engine house over 
 the main shaft was on fire ! The ladders afforded 
 escape for a man, possibly, but not encumbered 
 with a body, and a dead body perhaps at that. 
 Stuart dashed water in Eric's face, and he groaned. 
 He was not dead but unconscious. And then the 
 whole situation forced itself into Stuart's mind. 
 He was a prisoner with a helpless wounded man, 
 at the bottom of a mine nine hundred feet deep ; 
 the engine house was on fire or some accident had 
 happened to prevent the lowering of the skip, the 
 pumps had stopped and the water in the mine was 
 rising rapidly. It was halfway to his knees now. 
 He pulled the lever again and again, and in his 
 excitement shouted like a madman. There was 
 no answer from above. The manhole ladders were 
 still clear. Even as they were, with the broken 
 places, he was strong and vigorous and could climb 
 out. But not with the burden of Eric. At that 
 moment a charred fragment of wood floated down 
 the ore shaft and dropped hissing in the water. 
 He realized that he stood in the presence of 
 death. He offered a prayer for help. He sup- 
 ported Eric as best he could. The water was now 
 above his knees and rapidly rising. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE RESCUE. 
 
 AS the facts of his position forced themselves 
 more clearly upon him, the first excitement 
 over, Stuart grew calmer. The candle in his hat 
 was nearly burned out, but he had another one, 
 that, after the fashion of the miners, he had thrust 
 into his boot when he changed his dress in the 
 dry room. He pulled this out and lighted it, put- 
 ting it in the candle holder in place of the piece 
 so nearly gone. 
 
 Then he looked at the ladders carefully. The 
 mass of ore which had fallen down the manhole 
 had broken out a dozen rounds at the very foot of 
 the ladder. By stretching up to his full height 
 Stuart could just reach an unbroken round. 
 
 But what could he do with the dead weight of 
 Eric .' He could never lift him up that distance. 
 For one and only one swift second Stuart consid- 
 ered the thought of leaving Eric. It was simply 
 the love of life asserting itself. Why should both 
 men die ? His death would not save Eric. It 
 was only a second, and then he felt the shock of a 
 
THE RESCUE. 75 
 
 statement he made to himself, that life was not 
 worth having if certain memories had always to 
 be carried with one. He could never abandon the 
 man who had once risked his life to save him, 
 when the danger was fully as great as now. " But 
 O God ! " Stuart cried out, " to die drowned like 
 a rat in a hole ! " The love of life was strong in 
 him. He felt the water rising more and more 
 rapidly. It was nearly to his waist now. He 
 was supporting Eric as comfortably as he could. 
 He felt the blood from the wound in his shoulder 
 warming his own side as he held up the uncon- 
 scious body. Once in a while Eric stirred. Once 
 he opened his eyes and Stuart thought he was 
 recovering. If only he could regain enough 
 strength to help himself even a little ! Stuart's 
 mind went into a whirl as he thought of all pos- 
 sible ways to pull himself and Eric up even a 
 short distance. But the bottom of the mine was 
 of such a shape that there were no projections or 
 slopes which afforded even a foothold. 
 
 The fire at the top was evidently blazing 
 fiercely. Fragments of charred wood dropped 
 down the ore shaft. Leaning over and looking 
 up, Stuart could see a great flaming mass of 
 twisted beams and iron rods curling over the 
 
76 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 mouth of the shaft. He moved over under the/ 
 manhole dragging Eric with him and looked up 
 that. The flames and smoke were sweeping over 
 it like mist over a ridge. He thought that even 
 at that distance he could see that the ladders at 
 the top had caught and were blazing fantastically. 
 
 He gave up all hope. Still, with the instinct of 
 life strong in him, he dragged Eric over to the 
 pump which stood just out of the water now; 
 and by the exercise of all his strength he managed 
 to place the body upon it in such a way that it 
 was two or three feet above himself as he stood 
 on the bottom of the floor of the mine. The 
 water had risen now to his armpits and was whirl- 
 ing around him in a great red pool. He shud- 
 dered, it looked so like blood in the light of the 
 candle. The movement he had made with Eric, 
 together with the contact with the cold water, had 
 roused him. He stirred and even spoke feebly. 
 
 " Where are we .? " he muttered. 
 
 "You have been hurt, Eric." 
 
 Eric groaned and closed his eyes. Then he 
 opened them again, and the sight of Stuart's pale 
 face seemed to tell him a part of the truth, The 
 water was running over the hand of his right arm, 
 which hung down helpless from his wounded 
 
THE RESCUE. 77 
 
 shoulder. He roused himself, evidently with the 
 greatest difficulty. 
 
 " You will drown. Leave me. I am dying any- 
 way." 
 
 " No, no, Eric ! I will not leave you here 
 ilone ! " Stuart spoke calmly, almost cheerfully. 
 Eric's face was drooping over close to Stuart's 
 shoulder. Stuart kissed his cheek, and at that 
 s^ery moment he heard a man's voice, the sweetest 
 sound he ever heard, echoing down the ladder shaft. 
 
 He shouted back in reply and waited. Again 
 the cry came in response. Some one was coming 
 down the ladders to the rescue. Whoever he was, 
 lie was evidently coming as fast as the nature of 
 the passage would allow; foi: the next time the 
 :ry was uttered Stuart could hear words of en- 
 couragement and then a voice speaking from 
 the point where the last round of the ladder 
 remained, saying very distinctly and in even 
 precise English, " Who is there .' " 
 
 " It is I, Stuart Duncan. I am here with Eric, and 
 lie is hurt and helpless. I can't lift him up alone." 
 
 "I always believed in being on time," replied 
 the voice. " If you can move up under the foot 
 of the shaft, I will throw you this rope." 
 
 Stuart lifted Eric from his position and plunged 
 
yS HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 over towards the ladder hole. The water was 
 above his shoulders. A rope was thrown and he 
 secured it under Eric, who had again fainted from 
 the pain and shock. Then with an exercise of 
 strength and skill such as men possess in times of 
 facing death, the two men, one above and one be- 
 low, succeeded in drawing Eric up, and the man 
 above secured him somehow, while Stuart, using 
 the sides of the ladder for support, pulled himself 
 out of that watery grave. 
 
 He was not a minute too soon, for the water 
 was flowing in more rapidly now, and the large 
 cavity at the bottom being almost filled, the tor- 
 rent began to rise in the shafts very fast. He had 
 no time to ask any questions of his rescuer. All 
 three were in great peril. The ladders were blaz- 
 ing above them, and the water rising below them. 
 With superhuman exertions they lifted Eric up. 
 When they came to places where the ladders were 
 badly broken they were obliged to use their utmost 
 skill to move the body in safety. Once they were 
 so long about starting up again that the water 
 caught up with them, and Stuart, who was the last 
 one, felt the torrent swirling around his feet. 
 
 At last, after a struggle that left them com- 
 pletely exhausted, they reached the first drift from 
 
THE RESCUE. 
 
 79 
 
 the bottom. There was a wooden platform here 
 and the drift ran out into the side of the hill 
 several hundred feet. Stuart and his unknown 
 rescuer leaned a moment panting against the side 
 of the wall, while Eric lay on the platform, to all 
 appearance lifeless. 
 
 "We can't stay here long," gasped Stuart. 
 " See the water coming up ! " 
 
 He pointed down the black well from which 
 they had climbed so painfully. The rushing water 
 and the falling in of ore banks made a terrifying 
 uproar about them. 
 
 " We can get.out on this level," replied his com- 
 panion. 
 
 " What ! How 's that .' We are eight hundred 
 feet below ground here." 
 
 " The old Beury shaft opens into this drift. I 
 walked in here this afternoon myself. Here is 
 where I heard you shout for help. There ! Don't 
 you feel that breeze blowing through the drift .' " 
 
 Stuart turned his face and felt the passing of a 
 cool wave of air. And then it flashed across his 
 memory that several years before, when a boy, he 
 had himself climbed down into the old Beury shaft, 
 which opened up on the side of the hill, and made 
 his way to the level of the Davis mine where he 
 
8o HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 now Stood. The mines were sometimes connected 
 in this way, though the abandoned passage would 
 often become choked and blocked up by falling 
 masses of ore. 
 
 But there was no time to lose, even with this 
 unexpected avenue of escape. The two men 
 caught up Eric and hurried, as fast as their burden 
 would allow, up the passage connecting the main 
 with the deserted shaft. After walking with their 
 burden about two hundred feet the drift turned 
 abruptly to the right and began to ascend sharply. 
 It grew more difificult to carry Eric, but the danger 
 from the water was now over. The old passage 
 was really a tunnel let into the side of the hill at a 
 sharp incline instead of a shaft sunk down verti- 
 cally from above. When they had reached a point 
 above the immediate reach of the water they sank 
 down exhausted again, and by the flickering light 
 Stuart first noticed who his rescuer was. 
 
 " I have n't any cards with me, but I '11 intro- 
 duce myself," he said in a tone that made Stuart 
 smile, and yet there was nothing flippant or lack- 
 ing in seriousness about the man. "I am the 
 new minister at the church with the clock in the 
 tower — ^ St. John's. I arrived in Champion two 
 days ago. My name is Andrew Burke. You are 
 
THE RESCUE. gj 
 
 Mr. Duncan, the mine owner ? I am glad to meet 
 you." 
 
 He reached out his hand and Stuart took it, 
 clasping it oyer the body of Eric. He felt a 
 strange thrill as he did so. Somehow the peculiar 
 formality of the man's speech struck him as a 
 token of a special kind of strength. He seemed 
 to feel that here was a man who, whatever his 
 oddities, was possessed of qualities that were 
 really very rare and valuable. 
 
 " I owe you my life, and that of my friend 
 here," he said. " It all seems very strange to me, 
 your appearance. I had given myself up for lost. 
 I should certainly have drowned if you had not 
 appeared." 
 
 " Yes, I think you would ; that is, unless you 
 had left the body of your friend here, and you 
 don't look like the kind of a man to do that. But 
 we ought to move on. We need to get him to 
 the doctor as soon as possible. My appearance 
 here is very simple and I can tell that afterwards. 
 Shall we move on .■' " 
 
 Stuart eagerly assented and they stumbled on 
 up the tunnel. Their progress was very slow, for 
 Eric was entirely like a dead weight, and neither 
 Stuart nor his companion were powerful men 
 
82 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 physically. They had gone but a short distance, 
 however, when lights appeared farther up the 
 shaft, and soon they were surrounded by a group 
 of miners, accompanied by Dr. Saxon. 
 
 There was no time for more than the briefest 
 explanations. The party took Eric from Stuart 
 and the minister, and soon they were standing out 
 on the side of the hill in the starlight. The cool 
 night air blew about Stuart and he thanked God 
 for life. Farther up on the hill a heap of blazing 
 ruins marked the place where the engine house 
 had stood, while at a distance the ladder hole 
 smoked and flamed like a small volcano, showing 
 that the timbers were blazing fiercely below. 
 
 " Take Eric to my house ; we are not far from 
 it," said Stuart. 
 
 "Yes, and hurry up, men," added the doctor. 
 " I '11 go on ahead with them, Stuart. Eric needs 
 attention as soon as possible." 
 
 The doctor and the miners with Eric hurried 
 down the hill, while Stuart followed with the 
 minister as fast as he could. But now that the 
 strain was over he felt weak and faint. 
 
 "You must come in and stop with me to-night, 
 Mr. Burke. I want to know the story of your 
 appearance in the mine. And, besides, I have not 
 had time to thank you." 
 
THE RESCUE. 83 
 
 " I shall be glad to accept your invitation. In 
 fact I feel the need of washing up before I go 
 back to the town. I am stopping at the hotel," 
 replied Burke. 
 
 As the two walked along, picking their way 
 slowly down the narrow path, a peculiar noise 
 came wafted up to them from the town. Stuart 
 paused and listened. 
 
 "What's that.? " he asked. 
 
 "Troops. They arrived this afternoon. That 
 must be the drumbeat to quarters." 
 
 " I supposed the troops would not start until 
 the last of the week. I had information to that 
 effect from Cleveland." 
 
 " They came in this afternoon, and that is one 
 reason for your friend's injury, I imagine. We 
 will talk it over and see." There was a pause, 
 and the Rev. Andrew Burke suddenly exclaimed 
 in a tone of relief, as if he had been searching for 
 something, " Ah ! here they are ! I thought per- 
 haps I had lost them ! " 
 
 "What 's that t " asked Stuart, peering through 
 the darkness toward something his companion was 
 holding out in his hand. 
 
 "Black ore crystals. Very rare specimens. If 
 you have a match about you, I will show you." 
 
84 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart could not help laughing. After all, was 
 he not alive and safe after that experience of 
 terror ? 
 
 " I am afraid," he said, " that any matches I 
 might have about me would hardly go off after the 
 soaking I had. You see I was in the water up to 
 my neck a part of the time." 
 
 " I beg pardon," replied Andrew Burke. He 
 seemed to be ashamed, and then as they were 
 going up the avenue to the house he said gently ; 
 " You see I was out on a little geologizing walk 
 this afternoon, and that is how I came to explore 
 the old Beury tunnel. I found these crystals, and 
 was just putting them into my pocket when I 
 heard your cry for help. I was kneeling on the 
 floor of the tunnel and had my head near the sides 
 of the wall at the time, else I doubt if I had heard 
 you. So perhaps you will not think I am altogether 
 a crank on specimens if in this instance the hunt 
 for them led to something better." 
 
 " It was a fortunate find for us," replied Stuart. 
 " Eric and I shall always bless you for your 
 search. I am anxious about him. Come right in, 
 and I will have one of the servants show you a 
 room where you can be at home for the night." 
 
 They hurried in, only a little after the doctor 
 
THE RESCUE. 85 
 
 and the miners, and Stuart, after directing one of 
 the servants to see to Mr. Burke, went to Eric. 
 The doctor was examining and dressing the 
 wound. 
 
 " He has had a hard blow. Nothing fatal. We 
 will pull him through. You had better get off 
 those wet duda and look out for yourself. Thank 
 God, Stuart, you are alive ! This is the beginning 
 of troubles herfe, I 'm afraid. There has been 
 crooked work to-day up on the hill, or I 'm mis- 
 taken. That rock never fell down the ladder hole 
 by accident, and the engine house did n't burn 
 without some one's help." 
 
 Stuart looked thoughtful. He was still in the 
 miner's dress, and if the occasion had not been 
 serious the doctor might have been excused for 
 smiling at his young friend's appearance. He was 
 covered with the greasy red iron-ore mud, great 
 streaks of it were over his face and hands ; but the 
 gravity of events that were evidently poising for a 
 crisis left little room for anything but sober feel- 
 ing. Stuart stood over Eric. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! This comes at a bad time for 
 him." 
 
 " Yes, and for us, too ! " said the doctor sharply. 
 " There 's no telling what the men will do without 
 
86 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Eric's influence to keep them quiet. And it will be 
 a question of weeks before he gets up from this." 
 
 " I had n't thought of that ! " Stuart put his 
 hand on Eric's forehead. At that moment Eric 
 opened his eyes. He was conscious and spoke 
 feebly. 
 
 " Stuart, you saved my life. You have paid up 
 old debts. You are quits with me now." 
 
 " Eric, we understand each other npw, don't 
 we .' " Stuart spoke almost like a lover. " But 
 we owe our lives to another man." 
 
 " How 's that } " Eric was too faint to say 
 more. 
 
 " I '11 tell you when you are able to bear it. 
 Rest now." 
 
 Eric closed his eyes, and Stuart went away to 
 change his clothes, and all the while he felt con- 
 scious of the conviction that he stood close to 
 the crisis of events which the evening's strange 
 adventure had begun. 
 
 Louise had gone out somewhere to spend the 
 evening with her friends the Vasplaines, so Stuart 
 and the doctor and the new minister sat down to 
 a late dinner by themselves, and it was while eat- 
 ing that Stuart learned the details of his rescue. 
 
 There was little more for Mr. Burke to tell. 
 
THE RESCUE. 87 
 
 He was a stranger to the place, but in the two 
 days of his residence in Champion he had evi- 
 dently made the most of his time. He had in- 
 quired of a passing miner about the Beury tunnel 
 just before entering it on his search for crystals. 
 The. miner had volunteered the statement about 
 the connection with the Davis lower level. Burke 
 had not thought of that again until he heard 
 Stuart's cry for help. 
 
 " Do you always carry a rope with you on your 
 afternoon walks .' " asked Stuart. 
 
 " No, I have not been in the habit of doing so, 
 but I think it might be a very useful custom in 
 this mining country," replied Burke. " The rope 
 was lying on the platform at the head of the last 
 row of ladders, and I naturally carried it down 
 with me, not knowing what might be needed at 
 the bottom. I suppose the men left it there when 
 the strike was declared. I noticed their tools 
 lying around in various places as I came through 
 'the drift." 
 
 The doctor looked at the new minister with 
 gruff approval. A man who could note details 
 like that was worth knowing. The Rev. Andrew 
 Burke was evidently on the way to the doctor's 
 friendship. 
 
88 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " But how did jou happen to come after us ? " 
 asked Stuart, turning to the doctor. 
 
 " I was up at Rollins', the pump man who was 
 hurt, you remember, when the boy, the same one 
 who came to the office the other day, came in and 
 said the engine house was on fire ; and after what 
 seemed like a year's time we managed to pry out 
 of him that he had seen you and Eric go down 
 the ladders a little while before. I rushed over to 
 the shaft, and here is the mystery of it to me. 
 Not a soul was in sight. The engineer, firemen, 
 and pump men were all gone. The ladders were 
 blazing, so that there was no hope of descent by 
 them. Some of the other men ran up from down 
 town. Then we thought of the Beury tunnel and 
 made a run for that. You know, Stuart, it 's over 
 a quarter of a mile from the shaft, but we made it 
 in a few minutes. I fell over on a rock and 
 smashed a lot of valuable bottles in my case. 
 You 've cost me a good sum, Stuart, counting all 
 the days since you were born — you and Eric. I 
 don't know as I believe in stubbing my toe very 
 much for that hot-headed young socialist and 
 agitator. He will make a peck of trouble in the 
 world, and I don't know but in the interest of 
 humanity I ought to give him a little dose of 
 something to finish him up," 
 
THE RESCUE. 
 
 89 
 
 Just then Eric, in the room across the hall, 
 stirred and groaned. The doctor heard him and, 
 dropping his napkin absent-mindedly into his soup, 
 he hurried in to see his socialistic patient. 
 
 Before he came back, Stuart and Burke dis- 
 cussed the fact of the engine-house fire. There 
 was something to be cleared up about that. It 
 seemed also to Stuart that the mass of iron ore 
 which fell upon Eric was something more than a 
 loosened fragment of the mine. The doctor was 
 right about it. The absence of the men from the 
 spot when the fire broke out also needed explana- 
 tion. ~~~~-- 
 
 The doctor had come back and the meal was 
 progressing while the three men were trying to 
 solve the facts of the burning and the injury to 
 Eric, when a tramp of marching men was heard 
 coming up the avenue. 
 
 The three men rose from the table together. 
 There was a menace in the sound that was not 
 easily mistaken. Stuart went directly into the 
 hall and opened the great front door. By the light 
 of the porch lamp could be seen a crowd, at least 
 two hundred men, each one carrying his stick, 
 which in most cases approached more nearly the 
 dimensions of a club. They were a formidable 
 
90 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 appearing mob of men, their sullen, heavy faces 
 brought into distinct relief in the light of the 
 electric lamp. 
 
 "Well, men," called out Stuart clearly, "what 
 is this?" 
 
 The men meanwhile crowded up close about the 
 veranda. One of them, acting as spokesman, 
 came up on the steps and said in a loud voice, 
 "We wants to see Eric." 
 
 " You can't see him. He 's hurt. He is n't fit 
 to see any one ! " shouted the doctor, who stood 
 just behind Stuart in the doorway. 
 
 " What do you want to see him for .' " asked 
 Stuart calmly. 
 
 The spokesman appeared confused and did not 
 answer at once. Then here and there through the 
 crowd rose cries from the men. 
 
 " There 's been foul play ! " 
 
 " We '11 string up the men that did it ! " 
 
 "Yes, hang 'em!" 
 
 "Show us Eric. We want him with us to- 
 night ! " 
 
 " Men," Stuart raised his voice, " Gordon here 
 can come in and see for you that Eric is not able 
 to move. Come in, Gordon, and see," continued 
 Stuart, speaking to the miner who was standing 
 upon the steps. 
 
THE RESCUE. 91 
 
 The miner, after a moment's hesitation, went 
 into the house and the doctor went with him 
 into the room at the right of the hall where Eric 
 lay. 
 
 While they were gone Stuart told the men how 
 Eric was hurt. There was breathless attention 
 while Stuart was speaking. Just as he finished, 
 Gordon came out. 
 
 " Boys," he said as he appeared on the veranda, 
 " Eric 's out of it to-night. We '11 make it hot for 
 the cowards that's done this." 
 
 " Ay, that we will ! " cried a dozen voices. 
 
 " Three cheers for Mr. Duncan ! " suddenly 
 cried a voice. The men could not help knowing 
 from their experiences in the mines that Stuart 
 had stayed by Eric during the danger, although 
 he had said very little of himself in his narrative. 
 
 The cheers were given heartily, and Stuart felt 
 for the first time in his life that perhaps the day 
 would come when these men would understand 
 him. He stepped out of the doorway, however, 
 and pointing in to where Andrew Burke was 
 standing said, " Thank you, men. But if it had n't 
 been for Mr. Burke here, Eric would not be safe. 
 We owe our lives to him." 
 
 " Who 's he ? " rudely asked some one. 
 
92 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 "The new minister at St. John's. I knows 
 him," replied another. 
 
 " A minister, eh } Well, three cheers for him 
 anyway ! " cried another. 
 
 The cheers were given and the men began to 
 move away. Stuart felt anxious, and exhausted as 
 he was by the evening's adventure he could not 
 help feeling that rough work would mark the night 
 before it was over. He felt as if here was an 
 opportunity to say a word while he was in favor 
 with the men. 
 
 " Men, I want to say a word. I understand 
 troops are in the town to-night. I hope you will 
 all be law abiding and " — 
 
 " Ay, we 's heard that till we 's sick of it ! " 
 The voice was evidently that of a drunken man. 
 
 Stuart for the first time realized that the ele- 
 ment of the saloon had entered into the problem. 
 Heretofore the men had kept away from the drink. 
 
 " Shut up ! " exclaimed Gordon and others. 
 " Give Mr. Duncan fair hearing." 
 
 "I say,'' continued Stuart, "that I hope you 
 will not commit any violence. I am talking to 
 you as I know Eric would if he was here." 
 
 "But how about men brought in to take the 
 bread out of our mouths.'" 
 
THE RESCUE. g^ 
 
 "Ay, that's the stuff! We'll make it hot for 
 them, troops or no troops." 
 
 "These are not my orders, you understand," 
 said Stuart, feeling every minute more conscious 
 of the nature of a restless mob of men who were 
 deprived of their regular leader. " I advise you 
 to go to your homes in quiet. To-morrow we will 
 investigate the burning of the engine house and 
 the injury to Eric." 
 
 " What 's the matter with to-night .? " called out 
 another man. The voice was calm and clear. 
 
 "Very well," replied Stuart with energy, think- 
 ing in a moment that the restlessness of the men 
 might be safely diverted into another channel. 
 " It is my opinion that the men who burned the 
 engine house overpowered the men at the top and 
 have them somewhere in hiding at this moment. 
 Are any of the Davis mine men here .-' " 
 
 The miners, familiar with every face in the 
 Champion mines, answered in many places : — 
 
 "Not a man." 
 
 " Nobody 's seen Davis men since the shaft was 
 fired." 
 
 " Mr. Duncan 's hit it ! He 's a bright one." 
 
 " Now then, men, if I 'm right about it, the men 
 are in hiding with the Davis crew. They can't be 
 far off." 
 
94 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " We 's find 'em ! " yelled more than one voice. 
 
 " Hold ! Wait a minute ! " cried Stuart as the 
 men began to move again. " I want you to give 
 me your word that if the men are found you will 
 not attempt to punish them yourselves. They 
 have been guilty of breaking the law. Let the 
 law deal with them. You have commended your 
 cause to the world so far by your conduct. The 
 minute you resort to violence of any kind, public 
 sympathy will vanish. Give me your word now 
 that you will hand these men over to the author- 
 ities if they are found." 
 
 There was a pause, and then from different ones 
 came the response, " We promise. Ay, we's give 
 the word." 
 
 Stuart felt satisfied, although there were several 
 lawless men under the influence of drink who had 
 not responded. The men moved off the lawn, and 
 Stuart and the doctor and Mr. Burke saw the 
 larger part of them go directly up the hill towards 
 the smouldering ruins of the engine house. The 
 rest straggled off down into town. 
 
 " There will be trouble in this town to-night," 
 said the doctor. He went in to see Eric again, 
 and Stuart and the minister remained in the hall. 
 They talked together a little while, and Stuart was 
 
THE RESCUE. 
 
 95 
 
 expressing his fears of the outcome when his 
 telephone rang. 
 
 He went to it and conversed a moment. Then 
 turning to Mr. Burke, he said, " Do you feel able 
 to go out this evening .^ " 
 
 " Yes, I am lame a little and I do not look very 
 presentable, but I feel able as far as that goes." 
 
 Stuart went to the hall closet and brought out 
 an overcoat for Mr. Burke. He then put on his 
 own, saying as he did so, " I 've just had a message 
 from the Iron ClifiEs Company that the miners are 
 gathering in a great mob down in the square, and 
 they think I had better come down and use my in- 
 fluence to prevent an outbreak." 
 
 " Do you feel able .? " 
 
 " Yes, I guess so ; I 'm sore and lame, that 's a 
 fact, but no bones broken, and it seems a case of 
 duty. The doctor will stay with Eric." 
 
 " He will, eh ! " said the doctor, who just then 
 came out of the room behind Stuart. " You 're as 
 much in need of watching as Eric. Take off that 
 overcoat and go upstairs to bed ! " 
 
 " Now, doctor," replied Stuart with a sad smile, 
 " I don't like to say I won't, but I shall say it 
 this time. I feel as if I ought to go down to the 
 square. There is going to be a bad night's work. 
 
96 mS^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 I 'm afraid, but not without a protest from Mr. 
 Burke and myself." 
 
 " All right, go your ways ! And if you get your 
 heads broken don't send for me to glue the pieces 
 together again." 
 
 The doctor went back to Eric, and Stuart, after 
 sending word that he and Mr. Burke would be 
 right down, and after ordering the servants to 
 bring around a horse and buggy, drove hurriedly 
 away. 
 
 As they sped down the hill they passed several 
 groups of miners swinging along the road at a 
 smart foot pace. But when they reached the 
 square there was so large a crowd gathered, over- 
 flowing into the streets, that Stuart drove around 
 into one of the alleys and hitched his horse near 
 the church at the rear. He arid Burke then came 
 out into the space bounded by the church and the 
 railroad depot platform. 
 
 The miners had not been in the habit of assem- 
 bling at night. All their meetings up to this time 
 had been at noon. Their present gathering was a 
 new development of the strike ; and as Stuart and 
 the minister crowded in at the corner by the 
 church they both said to themselves that there 
 were elements of a very dangerous character com- 
 
THE RESCUE. 97 
 
 pressed into that spot, the commercial and social 
 center of the town. 
 
 In the first place there was an unusually large 
 number of drunken men in the mob. It was grow- 
 "^g noisier every minute. The band stand was 
 crowded with miners. Two of them were trying 
 to speak at the same time on opposite sides of the 
 stand, and the confusion was doubled by their at- 
 tempt. The mob of men swayed restlessly about 
 the stand, which was lighted by an electric hanging 
 lamp. The square was almost as light as in the 
 daytime. Out on a side track of the railroad which 
 skirted one side of the square the troops who had 
 come in that afternoon were quartered in the 
 coaches which brought them. There were two com- 
 panies, and they had been ordered for some reason 
 to remain over at Champion that night. Every 
 allusion to the troops seemed to excite the miners 
 to anger. The speakers in the stand mentioned 
 them often and pointed towards their quarters. 
 A good deal had happened that day to rouse even 
 the sluggish, stolid men of the North. Eric's in- 
 jury, while lamented by very many, was really cause 
 for rejoicing by another large and rough element 
 who were glad to have his leadership displaced by 
 that of more radical but less capable men. 
 
98 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart could not help saying, " If Eric were 
 only here ! " For the first time he realized what 
 great power Eric had possessed. It was no small 
 generalship to hold this rough, turbulent mass of 
 uneducated men in check. There was no one to 
 take Eric's place. 
 
 Stuart had no definite plan to pursue in coming 
 down to the square. The miners as they saw him 
 spoke respectfully and asked after Eric. He and 
 Burke were finally, in the progress of their walk, 
 crowded up on the church steps, which were 
 covered with men. 
 
 It was now about half-past eight o'clock, and 
 the scene was of such a character that, worn as 
 they were by the day's events, the two men stood 
 looking out at the faces beneath them with a cer- 
 tain excitement that grew upon them with every 
 second. The noise and confusion were increasing. 
 A fight of some kind was already in progress in 
 the band stand. Figures swayed back and forth 
 there. The police force of Champion was meager 
 at any time, and it was as powerless to manage 
 such a crowd as this as if it had been composed 
 of little children. 
 
 Suddenly, across all the other sounds in the 
 square, rising over them, was heard the beat of a 
 
THE RESCUE. 99 
 
 drum. It was no feeble little rattle of sticks, but 
 a determined, vigorous, muscular onslaught on a 
 bass drum by a strong right arm. And around 
 the corner by the Iron Cliffs Company's office 
 came a squad of men and women, not more than 
 a dozen in all, bearing a flag and shouting as they 
 came : — 
 
 " Our bark is sailing o'er life's sea, to a land beyond the 
 
 blue, 
 We 're going to the promised land 'long with the chosen few ; 
 Aboard the bark there still is room for many, many more. 
 So come aboard and with us go to yonder happy shore. 
 Our bark is laden down with wealth, with pleasures rich and 
 
 rare: 
 There 's nought like them upon the earth, and we all may 
 
 have a share. 
 Just leave behind all worldly dross and come to God's own 
 
 store. 
 Receive your gifts and with them cross to yonder happy 
 
 shore." 
 
 Straight across the street the Salvation Army 
 marched, singing this hymn to the tune of " O' 
 a' the airts the winds can blaw," and as they 
 reached the side of the square a peculiar thing 
 happened. 
 
 The miners on that side opened up a passage 
 
lOO HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 for the little squad so that it could pass into the 
 square. Acting on the impulse given by mobs at 
 times, the miners began to crowd back on both 
 sides and the army kept advancing, singing its 
 song and marching in what seemed almost like a 
 triumphal procession right down through the 
 center of the square directly towards the church 
 steps. The great heavy crowd seemed to part 
 like magic, and down the avenue thus voluntarily 
 provided the squad marched, beating its drum. 
 The, leader was a young woman, whose pale face 
 possessed a prematurely aged look, but there was 
 not a particle of self-consciousness to be seen 
 upon it, and she marched at the front as proudly 
 and with as queenly a bearing as if her following 
 was composed of the picked archangels of heaven's 
 hosts. High above the shrill treble and the hoarse 
 bass of the others her voice went out as sweet as 
 any that Stuart had ever heard, and he wondered 
 where such a voice had been concealed in Cham- 
 pion that he had never heard it before. It sang 
 as if the words were sacred to the heart : — 
 
 "Just leave behind all worldly dross and come to God's own 
 
 store ; 
 Receive your gifts and with them cross to yonder happy 
 
 shore." 
 
THE RESCUE. lOI 
 
 Close at the foot of the church steps the band 
 halted. Here the crowd was very dense. It 
 seemed a natural vantage ground for testimony 
 and appeal. The miners for the time appeared to 
 yield to the influence of this attraction. Stuart 
 said to himself, " Perhaps Eric will not be needed, 
 after all." The scene had an intense interest for 
 him now. He forgot all about Burke and the 
 strike and his relation to it as the woman raised 
 her hand as a signal for the drum to cease and 
 then made another signal for the little company 
 to kneel. Right down on the bottom steps of 
 the church she kneeled, just below Stuart, and 
 with the others kneeling about her, almost swal- 
 lowed up in the mass of men who surged around, 
 she offered a prayer, the memory of which 
 lingered in Stuart's heart all his life. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A CHANGE. 
 
 T ORD JESUS," — the pale face in the Salva- 
 ■' — ' tion Army bonnet was raised, wholly un- 
 mindful of all the people in that great multitude, — 
 " our hearts are longing to-night for lost souls, who 
 have wandered far away from home. And we 
 know that thou art sorrowing over them now, 
 because thou art the Good Shepherd. O Lord 
 Jesus, we want you to come down here to-night 
 and lead some of these sheep into the fold. Some 
 of them are so bruised and torn with sin that they 
 will have to be carried, but, O Lamb of God, that 
 takest away the sin of the world, we know you are 
 strong and can bear them in the arms of infinite 
 love over rough places, beside the chasms of 
 Satan and through the wild torrents of death. 
 Oh, for the cross of Calvary to be stretched out 
 like a great arm to save to-night ! Oh, for the 
 sweet forgiveness of sin to touch these human 
 hearts right now ! O Son of Mary, our hearts are 
 bleeding; we are weary to death of the long- 
 
A CHANGE. 103 
 
 delayed coming of the miracle of redemption in 
 these souls of men. Oh, bless us with the blood 
 of the dying Saviour ! Oh, raise us into new life 
 with him who defied hell and death, although they 
 were two to one ! Jesus, I want you to come 
 to-night. These men, these women, how precious 
 they are ! Who can tell what will be their fate if 
 they should be called out of the world to-night } 
 Their mothers, Lord Jesus — these strong young 
 men, some of them, have mothers praying for 
 them. Oh, I have dreamed of the terror of the 
 judgment for those who reject the Saviour! We 
 are so in need of the power here and now. Open 
 our eyes like those of the young man to see the 
 horses and chariots of fire around about to-night. 
 Save with the blood that was shed for all. Come 
 now. Lord Jesus. We have followed. Make good 
 the promise. Yes, we want some souls. We are 
 hungry for some to cry out, ' Saved ! saved ! ' We 
 want to go triumphant into the judgment. We 
 want to sing hallelujah before the great white 
 throne with some of these poor lost sinners here 
 by the side of us joining in the chorus with us. 
 Oh, wash their sins' away in the precious blood ! 
 Save them, save them, Lord Jesus ! " 
 
 It was not so much the words of the prayer as 
 
I04 fflS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 its intense self-forgetful spirit that impressed 
 Stuart as never in all his life before. He was not 
 a Christian in the sense that he had ever con- 
 fessed or joined a church. He had a reverent 
 nature, and he had always lived by a code of 
 morality that was for him sufficient. He was too 
 well educated, or he thought he was, to be moved 
 by anything purely emotional or coarse like the 
 Salvation Army and its drums and shouts. But 
 this was different somehow. The self-forgetful- 
 ness, the self-surrender, the agonizing longing for 
 souls to be saved, all this was a part of the prayer 
 as it swept up past him from the slight womanly 
 form kneeling there. And never in all his experi- 
 ence, never in all his saunterings through great 
 cathedrals and listening to chanted services, had 
 he felt nearer to a true knowledge of what God is 
 in his great compelling love for sinful men. 
 
 All this took very little time, and he had 
 no thought of acting in any way on his feel- 
 ings. But while the woman was still on her knees 
 a thing happened that in the end deepened his 
 conviction and changed the course of possible 
 events among the miners themselves. 
 
 The crowd was so large that only a very few 
 could hear or see what was going on about the 
 
A CHANGE. 105 
 
 little band then at the foot of the church steps. 
 It was true, at least it had been up to this time, 
 that the Salvation Army in Champion had great 
 influence over the miners. It was true still, but 
 the demon of drink was abroad this night, and 
 there is always a large and unsettling factor to 
 reckon on when that is the case. The men near- 
 est the little squad were pressed hard by those on 
 the outside who wanted to see and hear what was 
 going on. To prevent being shoved bodily upon 
 the little company the miners, all the while the 
 prayer was being offered, were silently exerting 
 their great strength to keep the mob back. Before 
 the kneeling figure could rise, however, a knot of 
 drunken men burst through the circle which had 
 been formed around her, and one of them with a 
 kick sent his heavy boot through the drum, and 
 another staggered with a drunken oath close up 
 to the woman and raised his fist. Stuart, as he saw 
 the face, thought that the rum-crazed man imagined 
 the kneeling figure to be that of his own wife, who 
 had more than once begged him on her knees to 
 spare her and her children. 
 
 It was a flash of time, and Stuart gave the 
 man a blow with his fist that knocked him swear- 
 ing against a man behind him. Before any one 
 
I06 ffIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 could raise his arm again or strike a blow, the 
 miners had seized on every one of the assailants 
 of the army, and a roar went up from the entire 
 mass of excited and angered men. The influence 
 of the army still was so strong with the great 
 majority that it resented with the deepest indig- 
 nation any^ndignity offered its little band of offi- 
 cers and men. 
 
 " Duck 'em in the fountain ! " yelled some one 
 with more than a touch of grim humor. 
 
 The "fountain " was a huge, cast-iron basin in 
 the center of the square, which for several years 
 had been used for a watering trough. It had 
 about four feet of water in it, supplied from the 
 pumping of the mines. 
 
 The suggestion was just suited to the coarse, 
 rough spirit of the crowd. Struggling in the 
 clutch of a number of brawny hands, the offend- 
 ers were dragged up to the basin and flung into it. 
 As fast as they floundered out, dripping and curs- 
 ing, they were thrown in again. A great roar of 
 laughter and shouts rose from the mob. In the 
 midst of it all the army marched out of the square 
 singing : — 
 
 " Come, sinners, to the Saviour now; 
 He wore tlie thorn-crown on his brow ; 
 
A CHANGE. 107 
 
 He shed his blood that you might be 
 Redeemed to all eternity. 
 
 "~' CHORUS. 
 
 No more delay, for pardon cry ; 
 Jesus, .your Saviour, is passing by." 
 
 There was the same dauntless look on the 
 leader's face. No one could say that she was dis- 
 appointed or disheartened by the seeming lack of 
 answer to her prayer, or by the wild confusion all 
 about her. The squad halted out in the street, 
 and there another group gathered about them 
 listening to testimony and prayer and song. 
 
 Stuart and the minister hesitated where they 
 were for a moment, not knowing what to do now, 
 when the crowd farthest away, over by the rail- 
 road tracks, began to run all together towards a 
 smaller crowd coming down the hill from the 
 Davis mine. 
 
 " I believe the men that did the burning are 
 caught t " cried Stuart to Burke. The two strug- 
 gled, over in the direction of the hill and were met 
 by the same company that had come out to the 
 house demanding Eric. 
 
 The newcomers marched into the square, and 
 one of them going up into the stand, told the 
 news. TJiey had found the engineer, firemen, and 
 
I08 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 pump men locked into an old dry room belonging 
 to a recently abandoned mine about a mile up the 
 hills, tied securely, but uninjured. There was no 
 trace of the men who had done all this for the 
 evident purpose of firing the engine house and 
 getting rid of Eric and Stuart, as two men who 
 would be likely to insist upon law and order as 
 long as they had any influence. To the credit of 
 the thousands of miners in all the ranges about 
 Champion, the attempt was regarded by the vast 
 majority as a cowardly and murderous act, a dis- 
 grace to the name of workingmen and a setback 
 to the cause. There was special indignation ex- 
 pressed against the attempt to kill or injure Eric 
 by throwing the mass of ore down the ladder hole. 
 For that had been done, according to the story of 
 the men who were overpowered at the shaft's 
 mouth. One or two of them had been unwilling 
 witnesses of the outrage. 
 
 The telling of this story and the appearance of 
 the Davis men had the effect of sobering the 
 crowd and causing it to disperse. The troops were 
 forgotten for a while. The new men sent over 
 the road jjy the owners of the upper ranges would 
 not pass through Champion anyway until the 
 morrow. Groups of miners began to go off in 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 109 
 
 companies towards their homes. Stuart saw that 
 the danger for the evening was passed. The Sal- 
 vation Army had marched off to its hall, and a 
 large crowd had gone in after it. The square was 
 now rapidly being cleared. He felt completely 
 exhausted, now that the strain was over. 
 
 "You will spend the night with me, Mr. 
 Burke .? " he asked as the two walked out of the 
 square over to where the horse had been left. 
 
 " No, Mr. Duncan ; I believe I will remain 
 down here, now I am so near my hotel quarters. 
 Just as much under obligations to you. This has 
 been a great day of experience for you. I hope 
 you will not be the worse for it. The danger from 
 the men seems over for to-night." 
 
 " Yes ; I think so. Sorry you are not going out 
 with me. It has been a day of experiences. I 
 can't forget my indebtedness to you. We shall 
 know each other better, I am sure. I need to 
 know all the good men possible these days." 
 
 " I 'm at your service, Mr. Duncan. Good 
 night ! " 
 
 "Good night." Stuart shook hands strongly 
 and drove up the street tingling again from the 
 pressure of that grasp. Andrew Burke's hand- 
 shake suggested as much as some men's orations. 
 
no HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart was so tired and ready for rest when he 
 reached home that, after seeing Eric and being 
 assured that he would get through the night with 
 the watching of the nurse, sent for by the doctor, 
 he went up to his room. 
 
 He slept hard, but wakened early and could not 
 go to sleep again. He had dreamed of his experi- 
 ence in the mine and awoke at the point where he 
 had heard Burke's voice. He went over the whole 
 adventure again, and then irresistibly was drawn 
 in thought down to the town square and in mem- 
 ory stood on the church steps a little above the 
 kneeling figure that prayed. He found himself 
 saying over the words of the prayer. To his sur- 
 prise he could remember almost every sentence. 
 Then he began to analyze his feelings, provoked 
 by the expressions of the prayer. But his mind 
 soon refused to criticise anything and, without any 
 special reason for it, he began to ask if the saving 
 of men was any more the Salvation Army's busi- 
 ness than his own. He began to dwell on the 
 word "saved" as it was used so often in the 
 prayer. Then, by a logical step which he did not 
 attempt to argue about as he might once have 
 done, he was confronted with his own condition, 
 and although he thought he tried to avoid answering 
 
A CHANGE. I I I 
 
 the question, it persisted in being put : " Am I 
 saved ? What is Jesus to me ? " 
 
 The whole matter was foreign to his moral code. 
 Besides, how could a man in his present posi- 
 tion, with all this labor trouble confronting him, 
 attend to religious questions ? Nevertheless he 
 was forced to come back to the simple question, 
 "Am I saved? What is Jesus to me?" All 
 through the strange debate now going on within 
 him he seemed to feel that he was being driven 
 irresistibly to a point where he must answer or 
 decide the matter of his own personal salvation. 
 
 He dressed, and in a growing excitement walked 
 the room in the twilight. How are men converted ? 
 Was Saul of Tarsus expecting to be met by the 
 vision on the road to Damascus ? Was it not as 
 sudden and astonishing to him as a lightning bolt 
 out of a cloudless evening ? Does the Lord have 
 any feeble limitations in his way of reaching men's 
 souls or in the time he chooses ? Stuart tried 
 again and again to stop the persistent question 
 that rose repeatedly to his lips, but to no purpose. 
 He said : " I will go down and inquire about Eric." 
 But he turned in his walk every time he faced his 
 door and again paced back to the windows which 
 opened on the front of the house. Gradually, as 
 
112 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the light of the world grew stronger outside, an- 
 other and an inward light grew in Stuart's soul. 
 He watched it grow in awe of its strange reveal- 
 ing power. He saw himself as a child of God, 
 with opportunities, powers, values, all of them 
 hitherto used selfishly, and in and through all the 
 rest he saw illumined a radiant cross. " What was 
 Jesus to him .' " The question grew with mean- 
 ing. Why was the Jesus of history a figure to be 
 respected simply .' Of what value and meaning 
 was the cross unless it became a personal redemp- 
 tion .? The sunrise of the outer world was red- 
 dening the pines out on the hills. In a little while 
 the sun would be looking out over the ranges and a 
 new day would be born. But a new man was being 
 born in the room of the Champion iron mine owner. 
 The Sun of righteousness was rising in him and 
 soon it would be daylight. Stuart trembled. 
 He was alone. No man had spoken to him of 
 salvation or of Christianity. But the divine pres- 
 ence had come at an unexpected moment, at what 
 might have seemed at a most inopportune time, and 
 his whole nature was in the hand of a power that 
 he dared not resist. He almost feared to breathe 
 lest he should drive the heavenly presence away. 
 He sat down and with his head bowed waited, it 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 113 
 
 seemed to him, for something more to happen. 
 And then he seemed to hear a voice say, " My son, 
 give me thine heart." He clasped his hands to- 
 gether and replied, " God, be merciful to me a sin- 
 ner ! " and with the words a flood of light poured 
 in. He at once kneeled down. It was an unusual 
 habit with him. Now it seemed as necessary as 
 breathing, and as full of joy as loving. 
 
 How long he had been in that deep communion 
 with his Saviour, so newly found, he could not 
 have told. It must have been some time. He was 
 roused by one of the servants knocking at the door 
 and announcing breakfast. He went downstairs, 
 and the first person to meet him in the hallway 
 was Louise. It was a new world that Stuart was 
 henceforth to know, and his heart went out to his 
 sister this morning with a new tenderness. She 
 put her arm about his neck as he stooped to kiss 
 her. 
 
 "What a dreadful time you must have had, 
 Stuart ! It is a great blessing you were not killed 
 in that awful mine. The doctor has been telling 
 me about it." 
 
 " Yes, I feel as if my life had been spared for 
 some great reason," replied Stuart. " How is 
 Eric this morning.'" He put his arm about 
 
1 14 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Louise and moved with her towards the door of 
 Eric's room, which was near by. Louise slipped 
 away from him and answered, " Oh, he is getting 
 on all right. I don't want to see him. Don't wait 
 breakfast long, Stuart." 
 
 She crossed over into the dining room and 
 Stuart went in to see Eric, who still lay in the 
 downstairs bedroom which remained a feature of 
 Ross Duncan's house as he had first designed and 
 built it. 
 
 The doctor was there by the bed. He had 
 come up early. He had attended to the wound, 
 and Eric was resting comfortably. He lay there 
 looking very pale and almost stern. Stuart felt 
 an added tenderness for the man who had been his 
 companion in that hour of peril. Somehow the 
 experience of the morning deepened and enlarged 
 all his thought of friendship and love. 
 
 He kneeled down by the bed and smiled as Eric 
 turned his dark eyes towards him. 
 
 "What sort of a night did you have, dear 
 fellow .' " he asked as he laid his hand in Eric's. 
 
 " Oh, I rested well. I 'm able to get up this 
 morning, but the doctor here won't let me move." 
 
 "You can get up if you want to," replied Dr. 
 Saxon gruffly. " Stuart, please order my horse 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 115 
 
 around so I can get around to the undertaker's in 
 time to make arrangements witli him for Eric's 
 funeral. Do you want the hearse with the black 
 plumes all around the top, or the other one with 
 the weeping urn arrangement in the middle ? " 
 
 " Nonsense ! I 'm not so bad off as that ' " 
 replied Eric with a feeble attempt at a smile. 
 
 " You will be if you get out of that bed for two 
 weeks," replied the doctor as he gathered up his 
 things to go. " Besides, you can't get up if you 
 want to. Stuart, I leave him in your care. The 
 nurse will be able to attend him all right. She 
 has full instructions." And with a word or two 
 more the doctor was out of the house and whirl- 
 ing down the hill. 
 
 Stuart remained a few minutes with Eric and 
 then went in to breakfast. There was a good deal 
 to talk over. Louise asked questions about the 
 accident. Stuart answered, feeling all the time 
 that everything about him had changed since that 
 Light had dawned upon him. Even Louise could 
 see and feel a difference, although she could not 
 tell what it was. Finally she stopped in- her ques- 
 tions about the mines and said : — 
 
 " What is the matter with you, Stuart .? What 
 has .happened .? Are you ill from the effects of 
 your exposure yesterday .-• " 
 
Il6 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart looked across the table at her and it was 
 several moments before he replied. Then he 
 said : " I will tell you, dear, when we are alone. I 
 want time to think. No, I am not ill. I feel 
 better than I have in a long time." 
 
 Louise looked surprised, but she asked nothing 
 more and went on to tell about the gathering 
 at the Vasplaines' the evening before. Stuart 
 listened thoughtfully, now and then putting a 
 question, and at last Louise came back to the 
 subject of the miners. 
 
 " Now that troops have been ordered, I suppose 
 the strike will end, won't it } " 
 
 " I don't know. Maybe it will just begin." 
 
 " But don't you intend to get new men in .■" All 
 the other mines in the lower range are bringing in 
 new men to-day. It is an outrage for the men to 
 prevent others from working ! " 
 
 " There will be trouble, I am afraid, before the 
 day is over," replied Stuart. He faced a most 
 serious problem, and he found his heart crying out 
 for wisdom from the diviner source he was begin- 
 ning to know. 
 
 "Well, I don't understand you, Stuart. If 
 father was alive, he would have a thousand men 
 herein Champion ready to go to work this morning, 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 117 
 
 instead of waiting for the other men to accept 
 terms he had made, only to have them foolishly 
 rejected. If they won't work on their own terms, 
 which you say you offered them, how can they 
 blame you if you get new men in and protect 
 them by law ? If I were a man, I would teach 
 those men a lesson ! Look at the way they have 
 treated you and Eric. They " — 
 
 Louise looked prettier than ever as she stamped 
 her foot under the table. Stuart sat silent and 
 sober. Just then the telephone rang. He went 
 over and after a few moments came in to tell 
 Louise he would have to go down to the Iron 
 Cliff's office. Word had been sent up that he was 
 needed. 
 
 " Aunt Royal is coming in on the noon train, 
 Stuart, you remember. Shall I drive down and 
 get her .' " 
 
 "Yes, dear; I don't know how the morning's 
 business will occupy me. I wish you would see 
 to her." Stuart leaned over Louise, as she sat at 
 the table and kissed her again. 
 
 " And do have some sense about this strike 
 business. Get new men in. What can you do if 
 all the other owners start up again .? " 
 
 " I '11 do the best thing," replied Stuart gently. 
 He went into Eric's room a minute. 
 
Il8 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " I 'm sorry to leave you, Eric," he said 
 affectionately. 
 
 Eric groaned. " To think of my lying here, of 
 all times in my life ! Stuart, I must get up and 
 go with you. The men " — 
 
 Eric tried to raise himself, but fell back with a 
 cry of pain. The sweat stood out on his forehead 
 in large drops. He clinched his hands and his 
 teeth in a sort of rage that was not only terrible 
 to see but pitiful. 
 
 As Stuart stood by him there was a great feel- 
 ing of compassion in his heart for him. " Eric, you 
 will have to be patient. After all, the men have 
 not broken over the law yet. With the exception 
 of the men who fired the engine house, I believe 
 the most of them are minded to be law-abiding." 
 
 " Not if they get to drinking," replied Eric with 
 a spasm of pain crossing his face. "They are 
 devils when they drink. Curse the saloons ! 
 They will be the ruin of our cause yet. You will 
 do all you can, Stuart, to hold the men in check .' 
 The troops are coming in to-day and the new men. 
 O God ! if I was only with my men to-day, I 
 believe I could control them ! " 
 
 " Yes, yes, Eric, I '11 do my best. After all, are 
 we not in the hands of One who knows the end 
 from the beginning i " 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 119 
 
 Eric stared at Stuart in astonishment. 
 
 Stuart continued as he leaned over the bed : 
 " Eric, the Light has shone upon me. God has 
 spoken to me. I am a Christian. It has all come 
 to me suddenly." 
 
 Eric was too bewildered to understand all that 
 was meant, by Stuart's confession. He feebly re- 
 turned Stuart's hand grasp. 
 
 Stuart added simply, " I will tell you more when 
 I get back." Then, after a pause, " God bless 
 you, Eric ! God help us all to solve these ques- 
 tions with his wisdom, for ours is weakness and 
 foolishness." 
 
 Eric's eyes were shut. Then^^a tear stole out 
 from the closed lids and rolled over the pale cheek, 
 and Stuart left him so. 
 
 He hurried down into the town and drove first 
 out to Eric's cottage, which was on a side street 
 three blocks from the square. Eric's father and 
 mother were dead, and he was not married ; he 
 was living with his grandmother and two cousins, 
 young boys who expected in time to enter the 
 mines. Eric's home life was strange and had its 
 influence on his life to shape it as it was. Stuart 
 left word with the grandmother that Eric would 
 be with him for a while, and then drove back' into 
 the square and went into the office. 
 
I20 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 It was the old office room of his father, but 
 since Ross Duncan's death it had become a sort of 
 headquarters for several mine owners who had 
 railroad interests in Champion and mining prop- 
 erty in the other ranges. Three or four of these 
 men greeted Stuart as he came in and at once 
 began to argue with him about his course in the 
 strike and its probable results on the outcome 
 of it. 
 
 " Now, Duncan," said one of the men, a large 
 florid man who wore a big seal on a heavy watch 
 chain and looked "important," "it is necessary 
 for us all to move together in this matter ; things 
 have got to a point now where it is a question 
 whether we are running our own business or hav- 
 ing it run for us by a lot of wild, ignorant fanatics 
 engineered by Salvation Army cranks and other 
 fools of the sort." 
 
 Stuart had all he could do to keep from striking 
 the man in the mouth as he spoke of the Salvation 
 Army. That delicate face in the army bonnet, 
 that kneeling figure in the midst of the mob, that 
 prayer, the sweet, clear, refined voice, all smote 
 his imagination and memory as his eyes looked 
 past the big man, out of the window which opened 
 on the scenes of the past evening. It was good 
 
A CHANGE. 121 
 
 proof, perhaps, of the genuine nature of Stuart's 
 new manhood that he calmly listened until the 
 speaker was through and then said quietly : " I do 
 not regard the Salvation Army as you do, Mr. 
 Wyman. My dearest friend, Eric Vassall, is a 
 member of it ; and I believe we owe our freedom 
 so far from lawlessness to the religious influence 
 exerted by the army." 
 
 Stuart's reply surprised all the other men. The 
 big man reddened and was about to say something 
 when one of the others spoke up : — 
 
 "That aside, Mr. Duncan, we do not see your 
 reason for refusing to get new men in and starting 
 up again. Your refusal gives the strikers encour- 
 agement." 
 
 "I believe they ought to have the scale they 
 demand," replied Stuart quietly. 
 
 " We don't ! " exclaimed the first speaker 
 viciously. " I 'II see every striker starve before 
 I '11 grant anything like the terms they ask. The 
 price of ore at present would n't allow it." 
 
 " But," said another of the men, speaking to 
 Stuart, who remained standing in the middle of the 
 room, "the Cleveland men are determined to set 
 new men at work to-day. The first load will come 
 in on the noon train. Troops are coming with 
 
122 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 them. The two companies that were here last 
 night have gone on down to the lower range early 
 this morning. We have the game in our own 
 hands if we act together. You are the largest 
 owner here. A good deal depends on your 
 action." 
 
 Stuart pondered. The men all looked at him 
 anxiously. At last he looked straight at them and 
 his face lighted up. 
 
 "I have given the men my word that I would 
 take them back at their terms. They have refused 
 to come back unless all the other owners make the 
 same terms. I still think I am right in the matter, 
 and the rest of you ought to grant their demands. 
 I do not see how in honesty to my own convic- 
 tions I can do otherwise. My present refusal to 
 get in new men is certainly not adding to the danger 
 of the situation here in Champion. Gentlemen," — 
 Stuart paused a moment, then went on firmly, — "I 
 cannot see my way clear to hire the men at smaller 
 wages than two dollars a day. I do not agree with 
 the statement that the price of ore does not warrant 
 the increase in wages. I firmly believe it does. 
 The plain fact is that the work of the men is such 
 dangerous, difficult work that two dollars a day is 
 little enough for the labor. There is n't a man of 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 123 
 
 US here or in Cleveland who would do the work 
 these men do for ten times two dollars a day. I 
 cannot look at it as you do. I shall do my utmost 
 to prevent trouble, but if at any time during the 
 strike my men come back, I will open up with two 
 dollars a day for the underground men." 
 
 The other men looked at Stuart in added aston- 
 ishment. There was silence in the office, broken 
 finally by the big man who had spoken first : — 
 
 " Well, that beats me ! If I ever expected to 
 hear a son of Ross Duncan make a socialistic 
 labor speech ! You ought to go on the platform, 
 sir ! " 
 
 The manner of the remark was so offensive that 
 Stuart grew pale and trembled. But he controlled 
 his passion and turned to the other men. For 
 half an hour more they talked animatedly, while 
 the big man sulked and smoked a bad cigar in the 
 corner. At last Stuart saw that he was not and 
 could not be understood. He could not give his 
 best reasons for his position to these men. They 
 lay too deep at the foundations of his newly found 
 life to be explained to men whose spiritual 
 natures were buried under cash values of ex- 
 istence. 
 
 When he was convinced that all the talk would 
 
124 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 result in nothing satisfactory, Stuart went out. 
 He felt the need of something better to touch and 
 feel, something that responded to his own life. 
 He felt choked and "poisoned" (he could not 
 think of a less strong word) as he realized how 
 firm a hold the love of money had on the business 
 world. All the time he cried out in his heart, 
 " God help me ! I want to do the right thing, 
 and I will do it as fast as the light comes." He 
 examined his position towards the strike so far in 
 the light of his Christian discipleship and heard 
 no accusing voice in his heart over the judgment 
 that he had declared to be just, and as he went out 
 into the street he felt at peace, as far as that was 
 concerned. 
 
 As he walked across the street thinking it all 
 over, he had a great desire to have a talk with some 
 one he could trust who would sympathize with 
 him. At once he thought of the new minister. 
 " I ought to go and inquire about him, anyway." 
 He quickened his pace across the street, entered 
 the square, and took one of the diagonal paths to 
 the hotel where Burke was staying. 
 
 He found Andrew Burke going through the 
 hotel office with a large box. He saw Stuart 
 coming in, and exclaimed : — 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 125 
 
 "Come up! come up, Mr. Duncan! I've got 
 some beauties here ; I want you to see them." 
 
 Stuart followed up one flight of stairs, and 
 entered a large room in the corner of the hotel, 
 and Andrew Burke set down his burden, shook 
 hands strongly, and asked Stuart to excuse him 
 while he opened his box. Stuart looked on won- 
 deringly. 
 
 It was a box full of potted plants, young roses, 
 most of them. As fast as Burke took them out 
 he arranged them on a temporary shelf by the 
 window. 
 
 " There 's a Nyphetis, one of the most deli- 
 cate roses going. And here is my Keizerine ; 
 that's a new variety just out this year. This 
 Catherine Mermet is a beauty. Very hard to get 
 a bloom in this climate, I fear. The Safrano is 
 better. And just see here ! I raised this Meteor 
 myself and had six magnificent blooms from it last 
 winter ! You see, my wife was visiting some rela- 
 tives in the East when my call came to come up 
 here, and I try to amuse myself until she arrives 
 with rocks and roses. Those are my pets. Let 
 me show you some of my friends since I got here." 
 
 The Rev. Andrew Burke brought out a tray 
 from another room and set it down on the table 
 
126 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 near Stuart. Then he noticed the look onStu- 
 art's face, and his whole manner underwent a 
 swift and remarkable change. He looked and 
 spoke like the strong, deep, true man that he 
 really was in spite of his " rocks and roses." 
 
 " Mr. Duncan, you did not come here to talk 
 botany or geology, did you ? " 
 
 " To tell the truth, I did not, Mr. Burke." 
 
 "What is it.?" asked Andrew Burke, leaning 
 forward and putting a hand on Stuart's arm. 
 
 It was a simple question, simply. put. But it 
 revealed so strong and genuine a desire to know 
 and sympathize with him that before Stuart knew 
 it he was telling his experience of the morning. 
 The tea-rose odor of the plants in the window and 
 on the table filled the room, and Andrew Burke 
 listened with kindling eye and long-drawn breath; 
 " Thank God ! Thank God ! " he was saying as 
 Stuart went on. When Stuart finally paused, 
 Andrew said, " Can't we -have a little prayer of 
 thanksgiving over this, right here as we sit ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," replied Stuart gladly. 
 
 Before Andrew Burke was through with his 
 prayer, Stuart was sobbing. It was the first real 
 touch of Christian sympathy he had ever known. 
 It was wonderful to him, though, to think that he 
 
A CHANCE. 127 
 
 was now linked in sympathetic knowledge with 
 every other disciple. In the next few moments of 
 question and answer he experienced one of the 
 rarest and sweetest joys of his life. 
 
 It was not a shock to anything to find himself 
 at last talking over the strike and its problem with 
 Burke. After all, was that not a part of life, and 
 was not all of it henceforth to be lived to the glory 
 of God .' 
 
 He was relieved to have Burke agree with his 
 decision as to wages. 
 
 "My sympathies are with the workmen, Mr. 
 Duncan. In fact, I was born on a farm and raised 
 in a factory. I'll tell you about it some time." 
 
 " I am going to make a request," said Stuart 
 with. a smile. "Do you think a man who saves 
 another man's life ought to call him ' Mister ' very 
 long?" 
 
 "What shall I say.?" 
 
 " ' Stuart ' is not a hard name to pronounce, 
 is it ? " 
 
 "No harder than 'Andrew.' " 
 
 " It's a bargain then. No more ' Misters.' " 
 
 " Eh ! but this is sudden, young man," replied 
 Andrew Burke, rising and coming over nearer 
 Stuart. " I 'ni ten years your senior and you need 
 my advice. It 's a bargain, yes." 
 
128 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 The two men shook hands again and thoroughly 
 understood each other. It was the Christian fel- 
 lowship that made such swift friendship possible. 
 On any other basis these two men would have 
 saved each the life of the other every day and 
 " mistered " each other to a gray old age. 
 
 But events in the outer world were hurrying on 
 fast, and Stuart could not avoid a feeling of anx- 
 iety concerning the train due at noon with the 
 new men and the troops. Already the miners 
 were gathering in the square. Looking out of the 
 hotel window, the two men could see that the 
 miners were excited and that the gathering was 
 massing about the depot, rather than around the 
 band stand. 
 
 " I believe I will go down and if there is any 
 trouble I will do all in my power to prevent vio- 
 lence," said Stuart. 
 
 " Let me go with you," replied Andrew Burke. 
 
 So it happened that these two stood close by the 
 depot when the noon train came in and saw the 
 whole scene, which no man present that day ever 
 forgot. 
 
 The train came in slowly and the miners 
 watched it in sullen silence. The first two 
 coaches were filled with troops. The rest of the 
 cars, six in all, contained the new men. 
 
A CHANGE. 
 
 129 
 
 It was not known until long afterwards just 
 how the events of that day were planned and 
 carried out, but before the engineer or firemen 
 could offer any resistance, even if they had 
 thought of such a thing, they were pulled down 
 out of the cab and in a twinkling the tender 
 was uncoupled from the coaches and two of the 
 miners who understood the working of the engine 
 started it forward and switched it off the main 
 track upon one of the tracks built by the side of 
 the ore chutes. 
 
 Meanwhile the miners at the rear of the train 
 began to call out to the men in the coaches to get 
 out and show themselves. 
 
 "We wants to see the brave men who have come 
 up to take bread out of us mouths ! " " Show 
 yourselves ! Come out and have a taste of a 
 club ! " 
 
 While this was going on at the rear, the officer 
 of the troops, seeing what had happened to the 
 engine, promptly ordered his men out of the 
 coaches and formed across the track and by the 
 side of the rear coaches to defend the men 
 within. 
 
 The commanding officer was a young man of 
 handsome appearance, and he seemed cool and 
 
I30 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 determined. As the troops took their position 
 the crowd gave back a little, leaving a space of 
 perhaps twenty feet between the line and the 
 crowd. 
 
 It was a critical moment and needed only one 
 act of violence to precipitate a crisis. And that 
 one act was forthcoming. As the officer turned 
 to give command, a drunken n;ian threw a mass of 
 ore with murderous strength right into his face, 
 and he fell to the ground with the blood spatter- 
 ing the uniform of the man nearest him. 
 
 Stuart from his position on the platform tried 
 to make himself heard. The officer next in com- 
 mand stepped out and in a voice that rose over 
 the roar of the wild beast rising in the mob, 
 shouted, " Make ready ! " But before he could 
 add the words "aim," or "fire," a woman sud- 
 denly flung herself, as it seemed, right out of the 
 mob and ran up directly in front of the leveled 
 guns. She stood alone in the little space between 
 the troops and the miners. Stuart recognized the 
 Salvation Army leader of the night before. Her 
 face was pale, but she was calm, and without any 
 appearance of playing a part or doing anything 
 unusual or unexpected she stood there, with the 
 muzzles of the guns almost touching her. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 I "OR a moment the woman stood confronting 
 -*- the soldiers. Then she turned and spoke, 
 in the midst of a deathly silence that was almost 
 as terrifying as the howl of the mob a few seconds 
 before. 
 
 " My brothers, in the name of God and his dear 
 Son, our Saviour, remember what you are, and as 
 you value heaven do no wrong to-day." 
 
 The miners heard and for a moment the silence 
 was unbroken. It was one of those moments 
 which prove men to be equal or wanting to an 
 emergency. And Stuart in that brief time grew 
 in strength and experience. He was in the open 
 space before Andrew or any one else moved, and 
 standing by the woman, the leveled guns now 
 touching them both. The minute Stuart leaped 
 into the space between the troops and the miners, 
 the woman turned and kneeled by the side of the 
 wounded officer. Stuart was conscious of the 
 fact that men were carrying the body out of the 
 tanks, and that the young woman was behind 
 
132 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 them, following. All that he felt rather than saw 
 as he stood there. 
 
 " Men," he said, praying in his heart for wis- 
 dom to say just the right word, "listen to me a 
 moment ! Every man who strikes a lawless blow 
 here to-day, strikes at the cause of labor. If you 
 want to set it back and destroy your own best 
 good, now is your opportunity. It will be the act 
 of madmen to do it. In God's name, in the name 
 of the law and of your best interests, I beg of you 
 use reason. For the sake of Eric, who loves you 
 if ever man did, let these men go their ways 
 and abide the results as law-fearing. God-fearing 
 men ! " 
 
 There was a stir all through the crowd while 
 Stuart spoke. Then the silence was broken by 
 cries here and there by men who had helped Eric 
 in the organization of the Union. 
 
 " He 's right ! Mr. Duncan tells truth." 
 
 " Let 's keep law. We be fools otherwise ! " 
 
 " Ay, we 's fools a'ready ! " 
 
 " Better for us to get men to go back ! " 
 
 This last cry was caught up by large numbers, 
 and the mob fairly swarmed around the coaches 
 containing the new men. During the events just 
 described they had remained inside, but the win- 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 1 33 
 
 dows were alive with heads thrust out excitedly to 
 see what was going on. 
 
 Stuart felt that the immediate danger of collision 
 was over. There was, however, still any number 
 of chances for an outbreak. The troops lowered 
 their guns but remained on guard. 
 
 The scene around the coaches now assumed an 
 intensely pathetic character. With it all there 
 was an element of danger and the stirring of the 
 fickle wild beast in the mob. 
 
 "Now, boys," pleaded an old miner, standing 
 close up by one of the coaches, "you doesn't 
 want to take bread out of us mouths up here, does 
 you } Come ! Say ye '11 go back and leave us to 
 fight it out with the masters. We make to win if 
 let alone." 
 
 " Ay, that we will," said another eagerly. "The 
 owners is losing on contracts every day now. 
 Give us a chance. What have we done to you 
 that you should come up here to take away our 
 wages .'' " 
 
 " We 've got families too," replied a gruff voice 
 from one of the windows. " And no work for 
 over a month, and women and babies crying at 
 home. What would you have us do .' " 
 
 This was a hard question to answer, and no one 
 
134 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 tried it ; but hundreds of voices were beseeching 
 the newcomers to go back and Ifeave the mine 
 owners to struggle with their old men. 
 
 At last one of the miners, a middle-aged man - 
 who had helped to organize the Union, and next 
 to Eric was as influential as any one in Champion, 
 secured a hearing. He mounted one of the 
 switch blocks, and the men anxiously listened. 
 
 " Tell you what the Union will do. We agree 
 to pay the fares of every man here back to his 
 home and something over if you go back on next 
 train." 
 
 " Ay, that 's the thing ! " yelled a hundred 
 voices. As a matter of fact the Union,, number- 
 ing now nearly five thousand men, was in a posi- 
 tion to do this, and in the desperate fight it was 
 making it could afford to wring every possible 
 cent from its members rather than give way to the 
 influx of new hands. Once the mines opened up 
 their chances of bringing the owners to terms 
 would be gone forever. Besides, there was no 
 telling what events might occur if once public 
 sympathy was large enough to enlist other work- 
 ingmen with them. 
 
 The appeals now made to the men in the 
 coaches were frantic. Miners climbed up on the 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 1 35 
 
 platforms and squeezed inside the cars to argue 
 with the men. It was a scene of peculiar interest. 
 One great swarm of hard-fisted and hard-faced 
 men begging another crowd of the same kind to 
 keep from exercising the natural desire to work 
 for home and children. Surely what was first 
 pronounced as a curse on our first parents has now 
 become a double curse when work is the object 
 of such a strange contest. 
 
 It would perhaps be difficult to tell how far the 
 strangers were influenced by their sympathy for 
 the miners, or whether the sight of a thousand 
 men carrying walking-sticks the size of a man's 
 arm had its weight in bringing them to a decision. 
 There were about five hundred men in all. At 
 last about four hundred of them said they would 
 go back on the condition that the Union do as it 
 agreed. 
 
 They came out of the coaches and were re- 
 ceived with a tremendous burst of cheers and 
 shouts. The remaining men, who for one reason 
 and another refused to go back, were saluted with 
 hisses, jeers, threats, and abuse ; but no violence 
 was offered. The miners felt jubilant over the 
 result of their appeal, and were disposed to ridi- 
 cule the handful of men now left. 
 
136 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Let 'em go on, boys ! What can the miners 
 do with such a handful of greenies ? " 
 
 " Ay, let 'em go ! They don't know enough to 
 get out of the way of a blast, nohow ! " 
 
 " Let the men at De Mott treat with 'em. 
 They 's two to our one down there ! " 
 
 Meanwhile, at the other end of the train, mat- 
 ters were in the hands of Stuart and the local 
 police of Champion. It is not too much to say 
 that Stuart within the last twenty-four hours had 
 grown immensely popular with the miners. The 
 conference at the Iron Cliffs office that morning 
 and Stuart's speech had leaked out somehow, and 
 that accounted in part for his influence at this 
 particularly critical time. At any rate, he suc- 
 cessfully appealed to the men to stand by the 
 officers of the law when they came up and arrested 
 the man who had thrown the ore and wounded the 
 officer. The arrest was made without any resist- 
 ance on the part of the miners who were at the end 
 of the train. While that was going on, Stuart 
 prevailed on the men to bring back the engine 
 and couple it on to the train again. 
 
 The wounded officer had been taken to the 
 hotel and Dr. Saxon had been summoned. Stuart 
 assured the officer in command that he would be 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 137 
 
 personally responsible for his well-being. The 
 miners with their four hundred new recruits began 
 to march into the square with the strangers 
 massed in the middle. The agent of the mine 
 owners, who had been in mortal terror during all 
 the excitement and was actually hiding behind one 
 of the seats in the coach that brought the troops, 
 now came out on the platform, cursing the entire 
 situation. The officer in command grimly wanted 
 to know what he was going to do about it. 
 
 In reality there was nothing to be done but to 
 go on with the handful of men left. The idea of 
 trying to get the men back, now that they were 
 practically surrounded by the mob, was not a 
 pleasant idea to entertain. The agent satisfied 
 himself of that fact very speedily. The officers 
 and troops climbed into the coaches again and the 
 train started off down the range. A mighty cheer 
 from the miners went up as the train disappeared. 
 The whole event had taken less than twenty 
 minutes. To Stuart it seemed like an hour. He 
 was growing old very fast since his father died and 
 left him in possession of his millions. 
 
 But he thought to himself that he was at the 
 very beginning of his problem, and every event 
 complicated the entire situation. He could not 
 
138 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 see the outcome. The only thing his heart rested 
 back upon was his newly found life, which even in 
 this excitement proved to be the most triumphant 
 part of his consciousness. In thinking it over 
 afterwards he recalled with particular pleasure the 
 fact that at the very moment of his leaping in 
 between the miners and the leveled guns he said 
 to himself, " I am a disciple of Christ. If I die, I 
 shall be with him in Paradise." 
 
 He made his way through the different groups 
 of miners now crowding into the square and went 
 on into the hotel. He wanted to inquire about 
 the ofl&cer. Andrew had already gone on before. 
 
 The landlord ushered Stuart into the room 
 where the man had been carried. The doctor had 
 just arrive«l. 
 
 Stuart went in and the first person to meet him 
 was Andrew. He had been one of the men to 
 help carry the unconscious ofi&cer out of the ranks. 
 Kneeling by the side of the wounded man was 
 the leader of the Salvation Army. She had at 
 once done the right thing in her care of the case, 
 and the minute the doctor saw it he growled out 
 something about that being the proper treatment. 
 
 He quickly went to work and accepted the help 
 of the young woman as a matter of course. 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 139 
 
 Stuart and Andrew stood silently by, assisting a 
 little as the doctor asked for things. " He '11 
 never want to sit for his photograph again," 
 remarked the doctor grimly, as he finally paused 
 and rose to his feet after doing all in his power. 
 " This strike is bringing me in a lot of unsolicited 
 practice. I suppose I can send my bill in to the 
 State for this case. But if the troops begin to 
 fire into the miners I shall go bankrupt sewing 
 them up and sawing off their heads .and legs for 
 nothing. Thank you, madam ;" the doctor turned 
 to the figure in the Salvation Army costume as 
 she stood calmly looking down at the still uncon- 
 scious officer. " You 're a good one to help. You 
 have been a nurse or I 'm mistaken." 
 
 " Yes, sir, I served a full term in Bellevue." 
 
 The doctor looked at her with added respect. 
 " You have the touch of a lady," he said politely. 
 That was the height of compliment from him. 
 
 " I am one," replied the young woman demurely. 
 Stuart thought she smiled faintly. She had a 
 naturally serious face, but at times it could be 
 remarkably winning in its sudden lighting up of 
 the personality. 
 
 The doctor coughed to hide his embarrassment 
 at the reply, and then 'said : "I should be glad to 
 
140 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 introduce you to these gentlemen here, lady," he 
 added with a ludicrous hesitation, " if I knew 
 your name." 
 
 " I am Miss Dwight. I am with the army here 
 for the present," she answered with perfect self- 
 possession. 
 
 " This is Mr. Duncan, the owner of Champion 
 mines ; and this is Mr. Burke, the minister of St. 
 John's," said the doctor, turning to Stuart and 
 Andrew. 
 
 She turned and bowed quietly while the doctor 
 busied himself with his patient again. 
 
 " You are Miss Dwight, the daughter of Allen 
 Dwight } " asked Stuart eagerly. The minute he 
 spoke he wished he could recall his words. 
 
 But the exclamation seemed to affect the young 
 woman only for a moment. Then she answered, 
 " Yes, Allen Dwight is my father." She added, 
 while a slight color swept over her pale face : " You 
 played the part of a brave man to-day, Mr. Duncan. 
 I want to thank you in behalf of the poor fellows 
 who seemed to me so like sheep without a shep- 
 herd. How Christ would have looked on them 
 with compassion ! " 
 
 Her gaze was out of the window past Stuart, 
 who was standing near it. The square was crowded 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 14 1 
 
 with the men. Some one had gone up into the 
 stand and was speaking. Stuart felt as never 
 before what a sad and thrilling sight a great un- 
 guided multitude was. For the first time in his 
 life he felt able to look at it through Christ's eyes. 
 But he was also agitated over his meeting with 
 Rhena Dwight. She had turned to the doctor and 
 in a low tone asked a question. The doctor 
 nodded his head and she went out. She did not 
 return, and Stuart, after seeing that everything 
 possible was being done for the sufferer, started 
 for home. 
 
 On the way he had leisure to recall the facts 
 which the excitement of the past days had crowded 
 out of his mind ; that Allen Dwight's daughter 
 had, some three years before, while Stuart was in 
 college, surprised and astounded the society circle 
 in New York, of which she had been the leader, 
 by suddenly leaving her home and all her fashion- 
 able surroundings to enter the Salvation Army. 
 He remembered what sensational accounts ap- 
 peared in the papers. Above all, he recalled 
 vividly the effect the news had on her brother, who 
 at the time was a classmate of Stuart. He could 
 also remember talking it over with Louise when 
 he came home for his Chrisfmas vacation. 
 
142 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Louise was shocked as deeply as it was in her 
 capacity to be shocked to think that a girl who had 
 such a career before her, gifted with such talents, 
 musical and social, should give them all up to fling 
 her life away in the slums over horrid, dirty, drunken, 
 miserable people. " She must be crazy," said 
 Louise. " Her father was right in saying, if the 
 report was true, that Rhena never should come 
 into his home again as his daughter." His aristo- 
 cratic family connections were very deeply dis- 
 graced by the event. His own standing in society 
 was under a cloud. He felt the shame of it with 
 great bitterness and never alluded to it. 
 
 All this Stuart called up as he neared home. 
 He had never met Miss Dwight before, and knew 
 nothing of her reasons for the complete change in 
 her life. He wondered thoughtfully if it had not 
 been something like the experience that had come 
 to himself that morning. 
 
 Louise met him with the news that his Aunt 
 Royal, who had been expected on the noon train, 
 had telegraphed that she had waited over a day 
 on account of the troubles liable to follow the 
 bringing of the troops. Ross Duncan's sister 
 had planned for some time to come and make 
 Louise a visit and be with her through the winter 
 if Louise wished. 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 143 
 
 " Eric has been calling for you. He is very 
 nervous. Life is n't worth living with all this 
 excitement aver these labor troubles ! " said 
 Louise sharply. "When Aunt Royal comes, I 
 mean to plan for something besides all this." 
 
 Stuart did not reply and went in to see Eric, 
 while Louise walked into the parlor and began to 
 thump the piano as hard as she could. She was 
 angry with Stuart, and vexed with everything in 
 general. 
 
 " Well, old fellow," said Stuart cheerfully, 
 "we had an exciting time, but no one killed yet, 
 and I think the worst is over." 
 
 "Tell me about it." Eric tried to sit up a little 
 and nervously moved his fingers over the bed- 
 clothes. 
 
 Stuart briefly described the scene at the train, 
 and Eric listened with frowning brow and strained 
 muscles. 
 
 "That Salvation Army lass must be a brave 
 one. Who did you say she was .' " 
 
 " Miss Dwight. She has just come up here, I 
 understand, within a day or two." And Stuart 
 went on to tell Eric her story as he knew it. Eric 
 listened with great eagerness. Then he inquired 
 about the men ; how they had behaved, what they 
 
144 
 
 HIS BROTHEK'S KEEPER. 
 
 were planning to do, what the next move would 
 be, whether the men who had gone on down to the 
 lower range would probably go into the mines or 
 whether they would be prevented by the miners. 
 
 " I tell you, Stuart," said Eric after question 
 and answer had been going for several minutes 
 in this way, " I must get up out of this, and very 
 soon too. The doctor can't keep me here two 
 weeks, because I mean to be carried down to the 
 square if I can't walk. Now is just the time 
 when I ought to be with the men. If they once 
 begin to break over the law, the cause of labor 
 will suffer a setback that it cannot recover from 
 for years." 
 
 " That 's true. But there is a lawless element 
 already roused that is growing worse every day. 
 If a gun had gone off this noon, I doubt if a 
 soldier of the entire number of troops would have 
 left the spot alive. The men would have climbed 
 over a hundred dead bodies to tear the soldiers in 
 pieces. I think I never came so near to seeing 
 the claws of the wild beast in the mob in all my 
 life." 
 
 " Ah ! " replied Eric, sadly, " I have seen them 
 more than once. Heaven grant you don't see 
 what I have." He referred to scenes which had 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 145 
 
 occurred when he was a boy in the coal regions of 
 England. Stuart had often talked them over with 
 Eric. 
 
 " Amen," answered Stuart. He remained silent 
 then, his thoughts busy with the events of the 
 morning. He was casting about for a good oppor- 
 tunity to tell Eric his experience at the beginning 
 of the day. In the midst of all the ■ perplexing 
 and complicated situation in which he was now 
 placed, Stuart went back repeatedly to his change 
 of attitude towards all the facts of his own life. 
 That must have been a tremendous event to hold 
 so supreme a place in his mind as it did. 
 
 Just then Louise went by the door and called 
 out, as she went on into the dining room, " Lunch 
 is ready ! " Stuart had forgotten all about eating, 
 but he left Eric to go in and keep Louise com- 
 pany. 
 
 All the time he was eating he felt that he must 
 tell his sister the facts about his — what did he 
 call it .' The word "conversion" had always been 
 distasteful to him, but what had happened to him 1 
 Something very remarkable, and so remarkable 
 that it seized on him and held him in a loving and 
 joyful grasp, making him feel that all other mat- 
 ters were as nothing compared with this. He was 
 
146 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 not of an emotional nature. His whole education 
 and training were of such a nature that he had 
 always prided himself on being a refined, self- 
 possessed man of the world, telling the truth, liv- 
 ing purely, being strictly honest and brave, but 
 without exhibition of passion or feeling, except at 
 rare intervals when a strange, hereditary outburst 
 would sweep away all traditions as if he were mad. 
 
 But now he felt as if a new passion had caught 
 him up and held him ; a new life swayed his whole 
 being ; he was calm, and yet he felt thrilled with 
 this new existence. There were no yesterdays 
 any more. Everything was to-day and to-morrow. 
 Jesus was the one great central, throbbing, puls- 
 ing, moving impulse with him. He was a new 
 man. And yet men say, superficially, sometimes 
 in these days, that the times of miracles are gone 
 by. Is there a greater miracle in all the earth 
 than when a human being like Stuart Duncan is 
 born again, made a new man in Christ Jesus .■• 
 
 As soon as lunch was ended, Stuart had resolved 
 what to do. He must tell Louise. There must 
 be the truest and frankest understanding between 
 them on this matter. It was too vital to be neg- 
 lected or passed over or postponed. 
 
 " Louise," he said as they went into the drawing 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 147 
 
 room together, " I want to tell you something, 
 now we are alone." 
 
 Louise did not reply, and Stuart went on, feeling 
 the gap between his sister and this new life of his 
 to be wider and deeper with every word he uttered. 
 
 "Early this morning I had a very remarkable 
 experience," Stuart continued. " I had what 
 seemed like a vision of my real life, and it was 
 very distinct to me that all these years I had been 
 neglecting the one most important part of my 
 life." Stuart hesitated 'a moment as Louise sat 
 looking at him in silent astonishment. " I have 
 decided, Louise, that I must be a Christian." 
 
 There was an embarrassing silence. Louise 
 colored and looked away from Stuart. At last 
 she said in a low voice, "What do you mean.?" 
 
 Stuart did not know what to say at first. He 
 felt that Louise would not understand him, but 
 he spoke with the directness and simplicity that 
 seemed demanded by the occasion. 
 
 " I mean, dear, that I am going to live a new 
 life, with God's help. I look at everything dif- 
 ferently. I never used to think of Christ as any- 
 thing more than a historical figure. Now he 
 seems to me like a personal friend. More than 
 that, he seems to be my own personal Saviour. I 
 
148 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 never knew before what the words ' saved ' and ' sal- 
 vation ' meant to me. Now they are real. They 
 apply to my own condition. I seem to look at all 
 the events of life, my own and others, in the light 
 of eternity. It is difiScult for me to make all this 
 clear to you, Louise. Would you understand it 
 any better if I should use the old word ' conver- 
 sion,' and say I had an experience this morning 
 that has converted me to a Christian life .' " 
 
 " No ; I don't know as I would," Louise replied 
 coldly. She had gone over to the piano and sat 
 down on the stool, facing Stuart, but not looking 
 into his face. 
 
 "Can't you understand me, Louise.?" cried 
 Stuart. His disappointment was very great, 
 although he had been prepared for something of 
 this kind before he spoke. 
 
 "No, I don't understand, Stuart. It is very 
 strange. You seem to think you haven't been a 
 Christian all this time. You speak as if / was n't 
 one." 
 
 "Are you, Louise .? " asked Stuart gently. But 
 the question provoked her as he had not foreseen. 
 He wished strongly afterwards that he had hot put 
 it. It seemed as if he was judging her from his own 
 Christian experience, not yet a day old. 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 149 
 
 " Yes, I am ! What am I ? A heathen ? " 
 Louise stamped her foot, as she always did when 
 angry. Stuart saw that her thought of the word 
 was not his. He remained silent, and Louise turned 
 about on the piano stool and struck a few chords 
 fitfully. Then she wheeled back and said bluntly, 
 " What are you going to do .■' Join the Salvation 
 Army ? " 
 
 Stuart shrunk back as if from a blow. It was 
 all so contrary to his experience that he was entirely 
 unable to shape his speech as usual. He was 
 silent until Louise repeated her question. 
 
 " I shall join the St. John's church. And I may 
 join the army too. I understand people can do that, 
 without belonging to the ranks, in one way." 
 
 Louise rose to her feet with a look of scorn 
 that Stuart could not endure. "Well, father 
 ought to be here to see all this ! He would want 
 to know if this is Stuart Duncan, his son." 
 
 " It is true he would not see the old Stuart Dun- 
 can," replied Stuart with a noble dignity that even 
 Louise could not help noticing, " but he would find 
 a better one, I hope. Louise, dear, I wish you could 
 understand just what I have felt. It is impossible 
 for me to look on very many things as I did once. 
 I want to say this to you now, so that you will not 
 
150 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 be surprised at certain events Which may take 
 place in the future." 
 
 "To what do you refer? To your joining the 
 army? I suppose the leader is an attraction just 
 now. I hear Miss Dwight has been sent up to 
 take charge." 
 
 It was as cruel and harmful a fling as Louise 
 could be guilty of. But she was stung into bitter- 
 ness by many events of the past few days, and 
 her selfish, narrow nature had more than once 
 delighted to make Stuart suffer. 
 
 Stuart was pale to his lips. His Christian ex- 
 perience, his " conversion," as he could call it, was 
 riot more sacred to his thoughts than the memory 
 of the army leader and the thought of her sacrifice 
 and surrender of all that most young women count 
 dear. 
 
 " Louise ! " he cried, and if he had not been in 
 the grasp of a better strength, here he would have 
 been swept into one of his old-time bursts of pas- 
 sion, — " Louise ! You do not know what you 
 wound. You must not harm my conception of 
 Christ, or cast any dishonor on his work in my 
 forgiven soul ! You have no right ! " 
 
 He spoke so sternly, and yet with so much evi- 
 dent right defense of his inner motives, that Louise 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 1 5 I 
 
 was frightened. She might perhaps have asked 
 Stuart's pardon ; but he, fearing to prolong the 
 conversation, went out of the room and in to see 
 Eric. Louise, after standing idly by the piano a 
 few minutes, at last went upstairs to her own 
 room. 
 
 Stuart sat down by Eric, and asked the nurse to 
 leave them alone a little while. He was suffering 
 from his interview with Louise, but he wanted to 
 tell Eric his experience. It seemed to him neces- 
 sary before he went on with his life another day. 
 
 In a few sentences he told Eric his experience 
 of the morning. Eric listened in wonder. He 
 was very weak. He grasped Stuart's hand and 
 pressed it feebly when he paused in his narrative. 
 
 "T never had any such 'leading,' as our men 
 call it. I joined the army because I believed it 
 was the only kind of Christianity that can really 
 help things much." 
 
 " But how is it, Eric 1 Do you feel a personal 
 relationship to Christ as a Saviour t " 
 
 "Yes, I think I do. But it is not so plain to 
 me as I would like." 
 
 "That is the most astonishing thing to me," 
 replied Stuart thoughtfully. "You know I never 
 had any idea of ever talking about salvation or a 
 
152 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Saviour. You don't remember, do you, that wc 
 ever talked on this subject before ? " 
 
 Eric shook his head. 
 
 " And yet, now," continued Stuart reverently, 
 " I seem to feel as I never felt or expected to feel less 
 than a day ago. I can't explain it, Eric, but Christ 
 seems the most real of all realities in my life. I 
 can put it in this way : henceforth I do not feel 
 able or willing to do anything without first asking, 
 ' Would Christ approve this .' ' Would he say, 
 'Do it ' .? " 
 
 " Does that apply to your use of property and 
 money and the present mine troubles .' " asked 
 Eric bluntly. 
 
 "Yes." The answer came with a positive con- 
 viction that thrilled the pale face on the pillow. 
 " Yes ! My whole life is changed. All my rela- 
 tions to my fellow men, all my possessions and 
 their use, all that belongs to my powers of any 
 kind, seem under the law of this new indwelling. 
 Eric, do you believe in the fact of God actually 
 dwelling in a man .? " 
 
 Eric did not reply at once. There was a thought- 
 ful silence. 
 
 " Yes, I believe it. I don't see it very plain. 
 But if you feel as you say you do, it will change 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 153 
 
 matters in the relations you bear to the men and 
 all around." 
 
 " Of course. I don't see details yet, but I feel 
 willing to walk where the light shines. Eric, old 
 friend, life even under our present troublous con- 
 ditions seems like a very great, grand thing to me 
 now." 
 
 " I am glad for you," replied Eric simply. 
 
 Stuart saw that he was not able to endure 
 much, and he called the nurse back soon after that 
 and went out. But that brief communion did the 
 two men much good. 
 
 It was now nearly three o'clock. Word came 
 up to Stuart that the men who had been persuaded 
 to leave had gone back on the first train east. 
 There had been a great demonstration and then 
 the miners had disappeared, many of them going 
 on down to the lower range to help the men there 
 in their dealings with the remaining strangers. 
 
 Matters were quiet in Champion as the day 
 wore on, and there was no news of an exciting 
 character from below. The owners there had not 
 tried to set the new men to work, but were evi- 
 dently waiting for a large addition of the force to 
 come in from the south and west. These would 
 not pass through Champion. 
 
154 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Affairs were in this waiting condition the next 
 day at noon when Stuart's Aunt Royal came. 
 
 She was a large, showy woman, a slave to so- 
 ciety, and a thorough woman of the world ; a 
 born diplomat and financier. She had very deter- 
 mined views of life, and among them was the 
 conviction that one might as well be dead as out 
 of the fashion or out of society. She spoke of 
 the people who were not in society as " the 
 masses," the " common people, you know," when- 
 ever she mentioned them at all. She had in- 
 herited a large amount of money, a great deal of 
 which was invested in tenement and saloon 
 property in New York. This is a very plain and 
 perhaps shocking revelation of Aunt Royal's 
 main means of support, but it is a historical fact arid 
 goes with a biography of her person. Besides, 
 who does own most of the saloon and tenement 
 property of New York and get the rentals from it } 
 To sum up briefly. Aunt Royal was very much 
 like her brother, the late Ross Duncan, with the 
 exception of his gruff and hard manner of speech. 
 Aunt Royal spoke very sweetly and gently alvfrays. 
 A French Revolution in New York would not 
 have provoked a rough or elevated tone of voice 
 from Aunt Royal. She had little education, as 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 1 55 
 
 her father had been a market gardener in one of 
 the city ■suburbs. It was there he had begun to 
 make his money. And Aunt Royal as a girl had 
 helped him, more than once driving a wagon load 
 of vegetables and fruits into the city. She never 
 spoke of that now. 
 
 The first word Louise said was, "Aunt, you 
 have come to stay all winter, I hope ? " 
 
 "I think so. Yes, I would be glad to escape 
 from the whirl this winter for a change." 
 
 " We 're having a little ' whirl ' up ' here, 
 madam," remarked the doctor, who had come up 
 to see Eric that afternoon and was standing in the 
 hall where Louise greeted her aunt. 
 
 " Ah, Dr. Saxon ! " said Aunt Royal. " I am 
 delighted to see you again." In reality she hated 
 the doctor vigorously, and the doctor returned her 
 feeling with interest. "You are having trouble 
 up here, you mean .? I suppose it will soon be 
 quiet. These pebple will soon be driven to work 
 again. They never make anything by these 
 uprisings." 
 
 " No, ma'am, only work for the doctors," replied 
 Saxon. He went into Eric's room and Aunt 
 Royal and Louise went upstairs, 
 
 " So you have one of these people in the house .-• 
 
156 HIS BROTHER'S K£EPF.R. 
 
 Don't you consider that rather dangerous ?" Aunt 
 Royal said in her sweet, clear voice as she was 
 going up the broad staircase with her niece. 
 
 Eric from where he lay heard every syllable 
 distinctly. He had met Aunt Royal once, and 
 the meeting was not a pleasant memory. He had 
 never been able to keep from choking when he 
 thought of the condescending air with which this 
 woman had expressed herself to him on the occa- 
 sion of his saving Stuart's life. It was very much 
 as if he had been a Newfoundland dog and she 
 had patted him on the head for pulling Stuart out 
 of the water by the teeth. 
 
 "When do you think I can get out of here, 
 doctor .' " he asked almost roughly. 
 
 " Not for a week anyway. You 're getting on 
 well. Don't mind her. I 'd hate to have the job 
 of being her family physician. I don't believe 
 she has any real heart. It 's a piece of leather 
 with valves, warranted to let just so much blood 
 through, and only so much, every beat. She has n't 
 any more real circulating system than a frog." 
 
 Eric stared at the doctor. He had never heard 
 the doctor at his very gruffest say anything so 
 harsh. The doctor seemed ashamed immediately 
 and tried to apologize by saying : — ■ 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 
 
 157 
 
 " I ought not to have said that, but I feel better 
 for it." 
 
 Two days went by, and still the situation be- 
 tween the mine owners and the strikers remained 
 nearly the same. The owners at the lower range 
 had not yet succeeded in getting enough men in 
 to go to work. Several of thetti who had gone on 
 from Champion had been persuaded to leave. The 
 troops were still at De Mott, and the speeches of 
 the miners in their daily meetings at the park 
 were growing more bitter against them. The 
 wounded officer at the hotel was recovering. His 
 friends had come up to take care of him, and the 
 doctor thought he could go home at the end of 
 the week. Andrew Burke had proved a delightful 
 companion to the officer. He had moved some of 
 his choicest roses down into the room and had 
 himself proved the truth of the proverb, "A 
 merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 
 
 It was Friday night that the Vasplaines had 
 invited Aunt Royal, Louise, and Stuart to a quiet 
 dinner at their house. Stuart did not want to go. 
 He knew what the company would be, and he had 
 no liking for the young Vasplaine, who for a year 
 or two now was evidently trying to win the favor of 
 . Louise. Stuart, even before the experience which 
 
158 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 made life a new thing for him, never had any 
 fellowship except that of an acquaintance with 
 Vasplaine, but he knew enough about him to 
 dislike his immoral character and his general 
 make-up as a man. 
 
 The family was exceedingly wealthy, and next 
 to the Duncans', their house was the finest in 
 Champion. It was built at the other end of the 
 valley towards the park. The elder Vasplaine had 
 retired some years before. His brother and his 
 son carried on certain lumber and copper indus- 
 tries north of Champion. They were not directly 
 interested in the iron mines, except as they were 
 involved in the general condition of business, all 
 of which, of course, felt the effect of the strike. 
 There was also in the family a daughter. Miss 
 Una Vasplaine, a young woman about Louise's 
 age. The girls had been playmates together. 
 
 Stuart was sitting by Miss Vasplaine at this 
 dinner, and the conversation was general, all about 
 him. He was just replying to a question put by 
 his companion, and she had rallied him on his 
 serious appearance. Miss .Una was vivacious, a 
 striking looking girl, and Stuart in the old days 
 had always found her an agreeable talker. He 
 smiled in reply to her question, and was on the 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. 159 
 
 point of answering, when the whole company re- 
 ceived a shock that set the ladies screaming and 
 the gentlemen starting to their feet in alarm. 
 
 The large dining room fronted on the veranda, 
 and a magnificent plate-glass window extended 
 from the floor almost to the ceiling, looking out 
 on the pine-tree lawn. The night was clear and 
 frosty. It was growing late in the season, and 
 winter would soon set in ; the ground was bare 
 now and dry. The moon was just coming up over 
 the Davis hill range. 
 
 Suddenly through this window a chunk of iron 
 ore came crashing right over the table. It 
 scattered the glass in every direction, crashed 
 through the pendants of the electric chandelier, 
 and smashed into the mirror over the sideboard, 
 knocking it into splinters, and then, falling down 
 on the sideboard itself, broke the glassware and 
 dishes right and left. 
 
 The affair was so unexpected, it came so with- 
 out warning, that the company was terrified and 
 altogether shocked. Aunt Royal was the first to 
 speak. 
 
 " That 's the work of some of your precious 
 strikers." 
 
 " I don't believe it I " Stuart shouted. In his 
 
l6o HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 heart he cursed the saloon and all its great wicked- 
 ness. He believed the hand that flung the ore 
 was rum-crazed. 
 
 The men all rushed out on the veranda, and the 
 elder Vasplaine, thoroughly incensed at the out- 
 rage, ordered his horses out, and as soon as they 
 were ready he and his brother started off down 
 the road in pursuit. Word was sent to the police 
 force in Champion of the affair. Stuart remained 
 with the ladies for a while, and then, as young 
 Vasplaine volunteered to escort them home, be 
 hurried down into the town to investigate the 
 matter, He did not believe any of the miners 
 would do such a thing. They bad done enough 
 that had prejudiced the owners against them, but 
 only when under the influence of drink. Besides, 
 Vasplaine was not an owner now, although be had 
 been years before. 
 
 Stuart found everything quiet in the town. 
 Most of the miners were still in De Mott. It was 
 murmured that a large load of men was coming in 
 that night. He remained at the office a little 
 while and then started out for home. 
 
 As he came out on the street he saw the Salva- 
 tion Army. It was kneeling at the corner for its 
 outdoor meeting, jUst before going to its hall to 
 
^^ijf AW ■, 
 
 THE STRIKERS' PARADE. 
 
AN EXCITING TIME. i6l 
 
 hold its regular service. Rhena Dwight was 
 kneeling right on the hard stones of the pavement 
 offering a prayer. Stuart could not hear the 
 words, but he could see the pale, earnest face. 
 He hesitated where he was. He thought he 
 would go on home. Then he thought he would 
 go into the hall and see what kind of a meeting 
 the army had. At last, as the army rose and went 
 by up the street beating its drum, he turned 
 slowly and walked in the same direction. Just as 
 he entered the hall he might have heard, if he had 
 not been too absorbed in where he was going, a 
 sound borne over the frosty ground and through 
 the clear mountain air from the direction of De 
 Mott. It was the sound of thousands of feet 
 striking the earth and coming towards Champion. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 
 
 npHE Salvation Army Hall was an old storage 
 -^ room 'Which had once been used for miners' 
 supplies. It seated about four hundred people. 
 There was very little furniture in it except the 
 wooden chairs, and two box stoves, one at either 
 end. A flag was draped across one corner. 
 There was a platform about two feet above the 
 floor where the army was taking up its position 
 for the meeting as Stuart entered. 
 
 Although many of the miners had gone over to 
 De Mott that day in anticipation of the excitement 
 when the new men came in, there was still a large 
 number of men in Champion. The hall was 
 crowded. Not a place was left for standing room 
 except a!t the rear, near the door, and the aisle, 
 which by common practice was left open for con- 
 verts to march down'and kneel at the altar. The 
 man with the big drum was stationed out at the 
 end of the platform and had difficulty to find room 
 enough to swing his arm as hard as he wanted to, 
 and once during the evening as he flung his drum- 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 163 
 
 stick back to bang his instrument on a hallelujah 
 chorus, he struck one of the interested spectators, 
 who was leaning eagerly forward, a good, smart 
 blow on the nose. This incident created a little 
 confusion, but it was soon quieted. 
 
 Stuart was intensely interested in the meeting 
 as it progressed. He was familiar with the out- 
 door meetings, and he had seen the army in its 
 great gatherings in London, but he was in a condi- 
 tion himself at this particular time, in his own 
 personal history and experience, to feel a peculiar 
 and special interest in this particular meeting. 
 
 He was sitting about six rows from the front 
 and next to the aisle, where he could see every- 
 thing distinctly. The audience was mostly men, 
 though several of the miners' wives and some of 
 the younger women were scattered about in the 
 crowd. The service started with a vigorous solo 
 and chorus. The major, a large, fine-faced Eng- 
 lishman, with a voice that shook the windows, 
 started in with the song, 
 
 " I was a deep-dyed sinner, 
 Just as deep as I could be," 
 
 and the army came in with a rattling chorus to 
 the Bowery tune of " Swim out, O Grady ! " The 
 verse and chorus ran like this : — 
 
164 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " I was a deep-dyed sinner, 
 Just as deep as I could be ; 
 But, praise God for salvation. 
 To-day I know I 'm free ! 
 I have God's smile upon me now, 
 Of hell I have no fears ; 
 When the devil comes and tempts me 
 Why, I whisper in his ears : 
 
 " Get out, Mephisto ! 
 I have no use for you ; 
 I 'm a soldier in the Army, 
 And to Jesus I '11 be true ; 
 I 'm fighting 'neath the colors. 
 The yellow, red, and blue. 
 Get out, old devil, get out ! " 
 
 There were five verses, the last one concluding 
 the second or final chorus as follows : — 
 
 " A word about the collection, 
 For we want a good one, sure ; 
 The devil often tells me 
 That to give I am too poor ; 
 Which makes me go down deeper 
 When the timbrel comes my way. 
 And my action brings a blessing sure. 
 And helps me when I say : 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 165 
 
 SECOND CHORUS. 
 
 " Gel out, old devil ! 
 I 've lost my love for you ; 
 I 'm a soldier in the Army, 
 And to Jesus I '11 be true ; 
 I 'm fighting 'neath the colors. 
 The yellow, red, and blue. 
 Get out, old devil, get out ! " 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the effect of 
 this song on the audience. The Cornish people 
 were great lovers of music. Before the stalwart 
 soloist had finished two verses of the song, nearly 
 every foot in the audience, and there was not a 
 light foot in it, was beating time on the hard board 
 floor, and at the conclusion of the third verse nearly 
 every person in the hall was roaring out the words 
 of the chorus with the army, although they had 
 not been invited to sing on this particular 
 selection. 
 
 The army did not seem in the least disturbed 
 however. It would take more than a slight inci- 
 dent like that to disturb the Salvation Army of 
 Champion. At the conclusion of the song every- 
 body on the platform kneeled down. 
 
 Rhena Dwight was in the center of the little 
 group. The audience was as quiet now as it had 
 
1 66 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 been noisy before. There was a smoky kerosene 
 lamp just over her head, and as she kneeled there 
 in the midst of those rough surroundings, Stuart 
 could not crowd back the thought of what this 
 girl had been and what she was now. The refine- 
 ment of her face was remarkable. It had seen a 
 great trouble, but withal it was a face that had 
 seen a great victory. She prayed very much as 
 she had the first time Stuart heard her. The army 
 broke in frequently with " Amen ! " and " Hallelu- 
 jah ! " but not noisily or in a way really to interrupt. 
 Stuart glanced through the crowd, and saw here and 
 there tears running over rough cheeks of men and 
 women. Then he bowed his own head, and when 
 the prayer was finished and he lifted up his face 
 again, something like tears wet his own eyelashes. 
 Immediately after Rhena's prayer, half a dozen 
 short prayers were offered by different members 
 of the army. Then they rose to their feet again 
 and one of the Hallelujah lasses came forward to 
 the front of the platform and sang with a tambourine 
 accompaniment, while two other members went 
 down into the aisle with their instruments, which 
 they passed around as collection boxes. A meager 
 contribution of pennies rattled on the parchment 
 covers of the tambourines while the song and 
 chorus rose loud and determined : — 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. iQ-j 
 
 " Oh ! I 'm glad I am converted 
 In the Army of the Lord ; 
 Oh ! I 'm glad I am converted 
 In the Army. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 " Reign, oh, reign! my Saviour I 
 Reign, oh, reign ! my Lord ! 
 Send the sanctifying power. 
 In the Army of the Lord, 
 Send the sanctifying power, 
 In the Army. 
 
 " He will give you grace to conquer 
 In the Army of the Lord ; 
 He will give you grace to conquer 
 In the Army. 
 
 " He will fill you with his spirit 
 In the Army of the Lord : 
 He will fill you with his spirit 
 In the Army. 
 
 " Oh ! I feel the power is coming 
 In the Army of the Lord : 
 Oh ! I feel the power is coming 
 ' In the Army." 
 
 It was at the close of the collection that Rhena 
 spoke. As long as he lives Stuart will never for- 
 get the feeling with which he listened, nor the im- 
 pression made upon the rough, uncultured audience. 
 Where had this young woman, reared in the hot- 
 
X68 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 house atmosphere of society, trained to its artifi- 
 cial politeness and refinement, caught the spirit 
 which knows how to speak to the people of the 
 street and the mine and the coarse toil of humble 
 homes ? Certain it was she had caught it, and 
 the old storage room, with its audience of stolid, 
 hardened, rough men and women, was the scene 
 of a strange victory of spirit over spirit. Rhena's 
 voice was a wonderful help. It was very clear and 
 strong for such a little body. It penetrated into 
 the souls of the people. But it was what she 
 said that held them bound like captives to her 
 will. She spoke simply, lovingly, with true en- 
 thusiasm of the great love of God in sending his 
 Son into the world. It was not preaching, it was 
 a mes-sage of one saved soul to others who were 
 still in peril. She spoke only a few minutes, and 
 as she closed she asked those who were under 
 conviction to come forward and kneel by the plat- 
 form. 
 
 At once an old man stumbled out into the aisle. 
 He was partly under the influence of liquor, and if 
 it had not been for the friendly pushes of the 
 people on either side of the aisle, as he tumbled 
 up first against one, then against another, it is 
 doubtful if he would have succeeded in getting as 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 1 69 
 
 far as the platform. He did reach it, however, 
 and kneeled down after a fashion, resting his head 
 and arms on the platform at Rhena's feet. In- 
 stantly, in a voice that thrilled every ear in the 
 room, Rhena started the song : — 
 
 " Return, O wanderer! return, 
 And seek your Father's face : 
 Those new desires that in you burn 
 Were kindled by his grace. 
 
 " Return, O wanderer ! return ; 
 He hears your humble sigh : 
 He sees your softened spirit mourn, 
 When no one else is nigh. 
 
 "Return, O wanderer! return; 
 Your Saviour bids you live ; 
 Come to His Cross and you will learn 
 How freely He 'II forgive." 
 
 Each time the army came in with the chorus : — 
 
 "Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, 
 Or you can't go to heaven when you die." 
 
 The contrast between the absolutely cultivated 
 tone of the singing in the verses and the noisy, 
 drum-accompanied rattle of the chorus was start- 
 ling to Stuart. He winced at it every time. 
 Rhena did not seem in the least disturbed. She 
 smiled at the enthusiastic swing of the arm that 
 
I/O 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 beat the big drum and nodded her head in time to 
 the rush of the chorus as it was also caught up by 
 the audience. 
 
 Several persons went forward and knelt during 
 this song. At its conclusion the major, who 
 seemed in command this evening, called for testi- 
 monies. They came, brief and simple, from 
 nearly every member of the army on the plat- 
 form, and were listened to in perfect silence, 
 which was sometimes followed by a clapping of 
 hands in the audience or by the rest of the army. 
 The testimonies generally consisted of a brief 
 statement, something like this : " Two months ago 
 I found Jesus right here in this room, praise be to 
 his name ! he is very precious to my soul." 
 
 "The Lord spoke to me from the cross just 
 three weeks ago to-night and I gave him my 
 heart, hallelujah ! " 
 
 " I was a drunken, worthless sinner a year ago ; 
 now I am redeemed, washed in the blood of the 
 Lamb, and I am not ashamed to testify of his sal- 
 vation." 
 
 "Before I was converted and joined the army 
 I was known as ' Scaly Joe, the whiskey soak.' 
 Now I 'm a new man ; have n't had a nip for 
 more 'n a month, and my name is Joseph now, and 
 don't you forget it ! Amen ! " 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. I 71 
 
 One of the late converts among the women 
 came forward and in a trembling voice, with tears 
 running down her cheeks, she said, while the 
 laughter raised by " Scaly Joe's " testimony sud- 
 denly ceased : — 
 
 " I was an outcast on God's earth only a short 
 time ago. The army found me and told me of 
 the love of Jesus. I 'm redeemed and my sins all 
 washed away in the precious blood, glory be to 
 his name ! " 
 
 Now to Stuart, as he sat there listening to all 
 this, a great torrent of feeling came. It rose in 
 him like a swelling tide and he did not try to 
 repress it. There was something very wonderful 
 to him in the rude, rough, simple manner in which 
 these men and women of^ the common people 
 spoke of sins forgiven and a personal Saviour. It 
 all coincided with his own experience of only a 
 few days before. It was the last thing in the 
 world he had expected to do when he came into 
 the hall, but now it seemed the most natural and 
 necessary thing, and acting under what he believed 
 to be a leading of the divine impulse he rose, and 
 with all the people in the audience and on the 
 platform looking at him, and in the midst of 
 silence that was painful, he said : " My friends, I 
 
172 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 want to say with these other saved souls that I 
 have also lately felt God's hand, and acknowledge 
 Jesus Christ to be my personal Saviour, and by his 
 help I mean to live as becomes his disciple." 
 
 It was a very simple, unaffected statement, 
 entirely free from anything like cant or parade of 
 one's conversion. But it produced a very marked 
 effect upon every one in the hall. Rhena Dwight 
 flushed, then paled again, and her lips parted as if 
 she were offering a prayer. The members of the 
 army remained motionless. The old miners who 
 had known him as a boy stared at Stuart as if he 
 were another person, as indeed he was now. 
 
 He was still standing where he had risen and 
 all eyes were upon him, when through the silence 
 of the room came the sound of a host of march- 
 ing feet. It was a measured, heavy sound, and 
 instantly every man in the room had risen. Some 
 one near the door shouted into the room, " There 's 
 been a fight down at De Mott ! They 's bringing 
 soldiers up here." 
 
 The next instant every man in the room was 
 struggling for the door. Stuart was near the 
 platform, and it seemed like the most natural 
 thing in the world that in the confusion that 
 attended the sudden and unceremonious exit of 
 
A MEM Ok ABLE NIGHT. I 73 
 
 the audience he should be talking with Rhena 
 D wight. 
 
 And in the midst of all the noise of overturn- 
 ing chairs and the growing tumult just outside the 
 door of the hall Stuart told her his experience of 
 the morning, when he had for the first time felt , 
 the personal touch of the divine power and heard 
 the call to his soul, " Follow me," as the living 
 and risen Christ had spoken to him. Somehow it 
 seemed altogether the most natural thing in the 
 world that this part of his inner life should be- 
 come known to this slight, earnest-faced figure in 
 the Salvation costume. Rhena clasped her hands 
 together and her eyes glistened with tears. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Duncan, for telling me," she 
 said simply. 
 
 It all took a few minutes only, and Stuart, after 
 speaking to some of the other members of the 
 army and receiving a hearty " God bless you, sir," 
 from all of them, started to go out. When half- 
 way down the aisle he turned and went hurriedly 
 back and said : — 
 
 " Miss Dwight, I hope you will not risk your life 
 in the crowd to-night. I don't know what the 
 men are going to do, but you have dared enough 
 already. I beg you will not venture out among 
 the miners to-night." 
 
174 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 He did not wait to hear her reply. She looked 
 surprised, and as he went out he wondered if he 
 had spoken more like commanding than beseech- 
 ing. But once out in the street he was absorbed 
 in the sight that met him in the square which had 
 lately been the scene of so much excitement. 
 
 As the facts grew upon him Stuart asked him- 
 self if the events of the strike were about to come 
 to a climax with a tragedy that night. During the^ 
 evening, while he had been at the Vasplaines' and 
 in the Salvation Army Hall, the miners at De 
 Mott had come in conflict with the troops, and in 
 the fight that took place the troops had fired, 
 killing two of the men and wounding several others. 
 Before another volley was fired, however, the 
 miners had fairly swarmed over the handful of 
 troops, disarmed them, and after a brief but fiery 
 debate they had resolved on a vengeance that to 
 the mind of the North men was in keeping with 
 the occasion. They had secured the officers and 
 men of the two troops and, placing them in the 
 center of the crowd, marched them over the range 
 to Champion, there determined to give them a 
 short trial by the public mob and then shoot the 
 officers. They had marched over to Champion 
 because the two miners who had been killed had 
 
A MEMOkABLE NIGHT. 
 
 175 
 
 lived there. The bodies were brought over with 
 the crowd, carried into the square, and placed at 
 the foot of the band stand. The captured men 
 and officers were massed directly in front of the 
 dead bodies. The great crowd of miners filled 
 the entire space outside and around the stand. 
 
 All this Stuart learned as he came out into the 
 street. He was sick at heart as the truth grew 
 on him. Never in all his life had he seen the 
 Cornish men, the Danes, the few Italians, the 
 Norwegians, all so united and so possessed with 
 the one thought of vengeance. The moon was 
 fully up now and it flooded the square with its 
 mellow light. It was frosty and not a breath of 
 air was stirring. Never had Stuart imagined such 
 a scene possible in the town of Champion. A 
 dozen men had gone up into the band stand. The 
 tragedy was about to begin by the public trial of 
 the troops, to be followed by the predetermined 
 shooting of at least half a dozen of them. 
 
 For a moment Stuart remained motionless, 
 smitten with dumb hopelessness. The whole 
 town was in the grasp of the mob. The handful 
 of police was powerless. What could possibly re- 
 sist the torrent that was about to be let loose, 
 and where would it end "i There was no hope of 
 
176 His BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 assistance from other troops nearer than Hancock, 
 a hundred miles away. Before they could arrive 
 the tragedy would be acted out. Stuart groaned 
 as he thought of Eric and his influence. Never- 
 theless he had himself just begun to spring into 
 the crowd and raise his voice alone against the 
 impending horror, when some one pulled him over 
 backward, nearly throwing him off his feet, and 
 the voice of Dr. Saxon said : — 
 
 "Two of the biggest fools on earth are out here 
 to-night, and if you will be another we '11 make a 
 combination hard to beat ! " 
 
 " What ! How 's that .' " cried Stuart in amaze- 
 ment. And his surprise was doubled when the 
 doctor, who had reached out from his buggy 
 and caught Stuart, threw back the robe and dis- 
 closed Eric's deathly face as he reclined on the 
 seat beside him. 
 
 " Eric ! You here ! " Stuart was like one 
 seeing things in a dream. 
 
 " Quick ! If anything is going to be done, do 
 it with a streak of lightning under it to help it 
 along ! " cried the doctor. He spoke to Stuart 
 rapidly : " I was at De Mott to-night when the 
 trouble occurred. I drove back here and came 
 around by the Beury road past the house. I 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. J 77 
 
 stopped a minute to see Eric, and when I told him 
 the men were marching into Champion with the 
 troops he swore by all his old Anglo-Saxon gods 
 that he must come down here and talk to the 
 men. And here he is. It '11 probably end him 
 up, but he said if I did n't bring him down with me 
 he'd get up and try to walk it anyway. If he 
 dies, it 's suicide and not a case of malpractice ; 
 but he may pull through all right, for it beats the 
 Dutch what a lot of doctoring it takes to kill off 
 one of these labor agitators. Here ! Help him out, 
 Stuart. Confound him, if he does n't want to get 
 up there in the midst of the high priests of this 
 strike till the last armed foe expires ! Gently 
 now ! I '11 wager two dollars a day he '11 faint 
 away before he can open his mouth to say his 
 little oration ! " 
 
 All this from the doctor as with the utmost 
 skill and tenderness he assisted Stuart to lift Eric 
 out of the buggy, and then helped bear him right 
 into the crowd, where Eric, who was suffering the 
 most awful pain, motioned the two to carry him. 
 
 After all, it was not surprising that Eric was 
 here this night. Stuart realized what it might 
 mean as he shouted to the miners around him to 
 make room for Eric. 
 
1/8 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 The men exclaimed at sight of these two men 
 carrying the fainting form of their young leader, 
 and they fell back, opening a path for their pas- 
 sage up to the band stand. When they reached 
 that, Eric cried in a voice that gave Stuart more 
 hope than he had yet dared to feel, " Right up the 
 stairs ! Quick ! I 'm able to speak to the men. 
 Please God, they shall not do this great wrong 
 to-night." 
 
 Some of the men in the stand came part way 
 down the rude steps and helped Stuart and the 
 doctor. After all, they did not know Eric's mo- 
 tive' in coming out this way. And they were 
 under his influence still, and probably had no 
 thought of resisting any attempt he might make 
 to address the crowd. 
 
 So Eric was carried up, and the doctor and 
 Stuart brought him forward and partly held him 
 on his feet, looking out over a scene that became 
 a part of the life memory of them all. 
 
 The moon was at the full, and there was no 
 need of torches or lamps. The two dead men 
 had been placed upon a rude platform of boards 
 at the foot of the band stand and elevated so that 
 their forms were visible to the miners, even those 
 who were at a distance. Their faces, uncovered, 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 179 
 
 stared straight upward in the cold midnight. The 
 captured soldiers were ranged directly in front of 
 the bodies, and the force of the great mob, indeed, 
 crowded them up to the very edge of the ghastly 
 platform so that some of them stood touching it. 
 The square itself all about the soldiers was black 
 with the mob. All the faces were set and stern. 
 All were lifted towards the stand as Eric stood 
 there confronting them. 
 
 He is a great man who knows the way to the 
 heart of a -mob. Probably there was not a soul 
 in all Champion that night who knew how to place 
 his hands on the strings of emotion and impulse 
 as Eric Vassall knew, when it was a question of 
 dealing with the men whom he loved and in 
 whose cause he had voluntarily given up all ambi- 
 tions that most men allow to grow when they are 
 conscious of their ability to rise above their 
 fellows. Eric assumed the right to speak at this 
 crisis as the right of one who sacrificed more than 
 any man present for the sacred cause of labor. 
 And no man in the stand dared deny him that 
 privilege or interrupt his purpose. 
 
 What do men say on such occasions .■' It is 
 doubtful if Stuart or the doctor, who heard every 
 word, could have told afterwards what Eric said. 
 
l8o a IS BROtHEIi'S KEEPER. 
 
 Every word burned like fire in the air, but it did 
 not belong to the catalogue of speeches easily 
 repeated. The doctor was amazed at the power 
 of Eric's voice. It rang out like a trumpet and 
 reached the farthest point. It meant, of course, 
 that the collapse would come after the strain, and 
 Saxon watched him narrowly to see the first sign 
 of it. The main current of Eric's appeal flowed 
 through the one channel of preserving unstained 
 the sacred cause for which the men had sacrificed 
 all they had and were. The pleasure of tasting 
 vengeance would last but a little while. The 
 cause of labor would be killed, so far as they were 
 concerned, once and for all, if law was broken or 
 vengeance taken this night. He appealed to the 
 religious element, which he knew was strong in 
 hundreds of the men before him. He reminded 
 them of the prayers that had been offered from 
 the very place where he now stood. How could 
 a just God or a merciful Saviour look with any- 
 thing but horror upon men who had vowed to love 
 and obey him, plunging into such a crime ? And, 
 oh, for the cause they represented ! Was it not 
 dearer to them than the killing of a few men in 
 revenge .' Would that bring to life again their 
 brothers ? Who was there who* did not feel for 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. l8l 
 
 the wrongs and injustices of the workingmen if 
 he did not ? Yet in his vision of events he clearly 
 saw that never in his lifetime, or that of their 
 children's children, would they lessen those wrongs 
 or obtain just rights as men, if by an act of pas- 
 sion they broke the already too slender bond of 
 sympathy that united the great public with them 
 now. 
 
 Eric had never put so -much of himself into an 
 appeal before. It had never cost so much. It 
 would be a wonderful triumph for him if he could 
 prevail to-night. And he believed he could see 
 signs of a yielding on the part of the men. If 
 only he could hold out a little longer ! He reeled 
 in the arms of Stuart and the doctor. All his 
 senses throbbed with agony. The panorama of 
 the square floated before him in a mist of moon- 
 light, and the dull murmur of the mob broke on 
 his ears like a far-off surf on an ocean coast. He 
 felt his voice failing him, his tongue seemed like 
 ashes in his mouth, and still it seemed to him he 
 must go on. 
 
 It was now, as Eric began to feel earth and 
 heaven slipping away from him before he had com- 
 pleted his heart's desire, or before his words had 
 wrought their work in the men's minds or acted 
 
1 82 'tllS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 on conscience and reason, although they had 
 listened in a wonderful silence, — it was now that 
 a voice rose from the steps of the Salvation Army 
 Hall, which was close by the railway depot and, 
 indeed, made one corner of the square of Cham- 
 pion. It was the voice of Rhena Dwight, and she 
 was not speaking but singing. 
 
 We have said that the Cornish man is a great 
 lover of music and very susceptible to its influence. 
 Rhena had found that out from her contact with 
 the miners and their families since coming to 
 Champion. It was not a remarkable thing, there- 
 fore, that as she stood and listened to Eric that 
 night she was led to use the gift which God had 
 given her. More than once she had seen angry 
 passions calmed and brute impulses shamed at the 
 sound of her voice, and as Eric began to faint 
 away, Rhena, moved by one of those true inspira- 
 tions of life which would God more of us might 
 follow, broke into a song which swept like an 
 angel's over that hushed and wondering audience. 
 The clear, frosty air bore every word and note 
 to the ear of the thousands of men who stood 
 packed into the square. The distance was not 
 very great, and the voice was cultivated, the 
 enunciation distinct and exact. But the pathos, 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 1 83 
 
 the entreaty, the warning, how did Rhena sing all 
 that except by the help of the divine Power who 
 takes and uses poor, weak human powers to his 
 glory when they submit themselves to his will in 
 the consecration of his gifts ? She sang while the 
 mob listened : — 
 
 " It 's true there 's a beautiful city, 
 That its streets are paved with gold : 
 No earthly tongue can describe it ; 
 Its glories can never be told. 
 But I know, I know ! 
 I know I shall be there. 
 
 " Your loved ones dwell in that city, 
 Whom you placed beneath the sod. 
 When your heart felt nigh to breaking 
 And you promised you 'd serve your God. 
 Will you ? will you ? 
 Say, will you meet me there? 
 
 " There none but the pure and the holy 
 Can ever enter in ; 
 You have no hope of its glory 
 If still you 're the servant of sin. 
 Bless God ! bless God ! 
 Bless God, you may be there ! 
 
 " Yes, you can go there, my brother. 
 For Jesus has died on the tree ; 
 And that same precious blood is flowing 
 That washed a poor sinner like me. 
 
184 HI^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Will you? will you? 
 
 Will you now wash and be clean? 
 
 " All who enter that glorious city 
 Have made their garments white, 
 Have trod in the Saviour's footsteps ; 
 They 've battled for God and for right. 
 I long, I long ! 
 I long to meet you there." 
 
 Had ever singer such an audience, such an occa- 
 sion, or such a purpose in using the divine passion 
 of song 1 Long before she had finished, Eric had 
 fainted dead away, and Stuart and the doctor were 
 caring for him as he lay on the floor of the band 
 stand, his upturned face as ghastly white as those 
 two below. But Stuart's senses throbbed to that 
 song as they never had to any triumphant aria 
 that ever swept through the gilded, perfumed 
 opera houses of Europe. What were all those 
 singers there to this one who was using her gift to 
 help save life and prevent crime .' It is probable 
 that Stuart Duncan laid his heart at the feet of 
 Rhena Dwight that evening. He had already 
 surrendered his soul to God. It was no less a 
 sacred mingling of that with all the rest of his 
 recent experience that he lifted up his heart to the 
 height of loving this woman. 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 185 
 
 The song ceased. The men breathed deeper, as 
 if they had been holding their breaths during the 
 singing, and a murmur swelled over the square. 
 It grew every second, but the mob was not the 
 same. The better purposes in hundreds of the 
 men had been stirred. They were not brutal or 
 cruel or lawless men, for the most part, but, on the 
 contrary, very many of them were deeply religious, 
 and above all else they desired to see the cause of 
 labor triumph. The facts so clearly presented by 
 Eric were undeniable. One of the older men 
 began to speak now from the stand. They had 
 come up to Champion to take the law into their 
 own hands. The question waSi in the light of 
 sober reason, what would the results be if they 
 should do this thing in hot blood .? Eric was right 
 about it. There arose a storm of cries from the 
 crowd at this point for a division on the question. 
 " What did the Union decide ? Bide by the 
 Union in the matter ! Ay, ay, that 's reason ! 
 Vote ! Decision ! " 
 
 The vote was accordingly taken. Should the 
 soldiers and officers be dealt with by the miners 
 for the death of the two men, or should they be 
 handed over to the authorities to await due process 
 of law .'' The vote was taken by hands. Less 
 
l86 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 than a fourth of the men thrust up their hands, 
 with clubs in them, on the vote to deal with the 
 soldiers as they pleased. On the negative an 
 overwhelming majority carried the day to submit 
 the entire affair to the law. 
 
 Instantly every man in the band stand came 
 down. Stuart and the doctor assisted in bearing 
 Eric back to the doctor's buggy. Eric revived a 
 little as he was being carried, and asked to be 
 taken to his own house. The doctor thought that 
 would be wiser than to take him back to Stuart's, 
 and Stuart reluctantly consented to the transfer. 
 He went himself with Eric, saw him comfortable, 
 and then returned to the square. 
 
 The decision of the Union was being faithfully 
 carried out. The troops and their officers were 
 placed under guard in the engine house, and the 
 police of Champion were assisted by the miners, 
 who claimed that the firing of the troops had been 
 without excuse and that the placing of them under 
 arrest was called for by every dictate of justice 
 and fair play. 
 
 As we pass this incident in the course of this 
 narrative which is connected with the story of our 
 lives in Champion, it is sufficient to say that next 
 day the troops were taken back to De Mott by the 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 187 
 
 authorities, and in the trial which came off after- 
 wards the case was dismissed on the ground of 
 insufficient evidence to convict. As a matter of 
 fact, there had been great provocation on both 
 sides, but the firing of the troops was always con- 
 sidered by the miners as not warranted by the 
 facts. They always spoke of the killing of the 
 two men as "murder," and looked upon the ac- 
 quittal of the officer who gave the command 
 to fire as an outrage and a clear miscarriage of 
 justice. 
 
 So ended that memorable night. Stuart went 
 home at last, feeling that the problem was no 
 nearer solution, so far as the strike was concerned, 
 and agitated as never before by the great rising 
 within him of emotions and thoughts heretofore 
 entirely unknown to him. The sight of the con- 
 flict these men were making for a few cents more 
 a day for labor, which meant the risk of life every 
 twenty-four hours, was a sight that grew more and 
 more significant to him as he watched the struggle 
 unfold. He could not see the end. He dared 
 not anticipate the final result. 
 
 As the days went by, the situation remained 
 practically the same. The effect of sending 
 troops down the range had so far shown the mine 
 
1 88 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 owners that they- had really a very ugly chance to 
 take in forcing new labor into the mines. The 
 few men who had gone on from Champion to De 
 Mott had gradually been persuaded to go back, or 
 they drifted away in search of work elsewhere, as 
 the owners put off getting more men. In reality 
 the owners dreaded more than anything else the 
 flooding and ruining of the mines in case the 
 attempt to put new men in was successful. Be- 
 sides all this, the price of ore was rapidly rising, 
 and many of the owners had great quantities of 
 ore in the stock piles, and it was believed by many 
 that there was no great desire on the part of the 
 owners to start in again so long as such large 
 quantities of ore were already at the top. It was 
 thought that, even if the strike continued until 
 spring, the owners would be able to realize large 
 profits on lapsed contracts, and on this account 
 would really be the gainers by not operating the 
 mines. Meanwhile winter was fast coming on and 
 the miners were finding it more and more difficult 
 to get credit at the stores. Many of the mer- 
 chants refused to trust the men any longer. 
 There was a prospect of some ugly scenes of 
 suffering in Champion, unless matters changed 
 decidedly in a fortnight. 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 189 
 
 It was at this time that Stuart first really 
 thought of his great wealth with reference to its 
 use in improving the condition of affairs in Cham- 
 pion. He had gone down to see Eric, who was 
 able to be about the house now, and while there 
 Andrew had come in. The three had drifted into 
 a discussion of ways and means to relieve the dis- 
 tress that was apparent already among the families 
 of the miners. 
 
 " I cannot help feeling that this strike is all 
 wrong, Eric," said Stuart, continuing the conversa- 
 tion as it had started from the standpoint of the 
 miners. " I am in receipt of letters every day 
 from my agents in Cleveland, beseeching me to 
 come in with the other owners on their refusal to 
 grant the men their demand of two dollars a day. 
 They say in every letter they do not see, in case 
 of a break in the Union, how I am going to man- 
 age affairs if the . men hold me to my original 
 decision of giving two dollars a day." 
 
 " What will you do ? " asked Eric. 
 
 " Time enough when that time comes. Does 
 the Union show signs of weakening 1 " 
 
 "Not yet. But there is no telling." Eric 
 sighed. " I am changing my opinion of the strike 
 and all. Somehow I have seen a different vision 
 
190 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 of the future of labor since my injury and espe- 
 cially since the night in the square." 
 
 " Do you mean that you are more hopeful or 
 less so over the final result ? " asked Andrew. 
 
 Eric was silent and very thoughtful before he 
 replied. 
 
 " I don't expect to see it in my lifetime ; I 
 mean the triumph of right and brotherhood ; and 
 I will tell you why. The love of money is as old 
 as civilization. I do not know of a stronger or 
 more enduring passion. It reaches down into the 
 very basis of all human struggle and is the main- 
 spring of every civilized man's life. Why, even 
 the church is honeycombed with the love of money ! 
 And the more I study the problem the more I be- 
 lieve that nothing short of a very convulsion of 
 nature will ever tear away the clinging, grasping 
 hand of civilization on its eternal clutch of gold, 
 the love of wealth, the cause of all the selfishness 
 of the modern world as we know it." 
 
 "There is no question about money being* at 
 the bottom of most of the world's selfishness," 
 replied Andrew. "But its use has sometimes 
 proved a great blessing. I very often think I 
 could be a better man if I could pay off all my 
 debts and buy all the roses I want." 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 19I 
 
 " Yes, you would then get to be as selfish 
 as the rest of us," smiled Stuart. He came 
 back to the topic first started. " How can we 
 do anything in the present emergency } Here 
 is a practical condition. I don't know as it 
 helps very much to discuss how the men got 
 into it ; I understand that women and children 
 are beginning to suffer. I don't know as we 
 need to push our investigations into causes 
 further than that." 
 
 " Well, you 've got plenty of money," broke in 
 Eric bluntly. 
 
 " So I have ! " Stuart spoke quietly, but almost 
 as if for the first time a consciousness of his great 
 power had flashed across his mind. The other 
 two men watched him curiously ; Eric from the 
 standpoint of the workingman, Andrew from the 
 point of view of the church. 
 
 " I 'm ready to consecrate every cent I possess 
 to the good of humanity ! " cried Stuart with 
 enthusiasm. " And I want you two men to show 
 me how to do it wisely." 
 
 Eric rose and shuffled over towards the window. 
 Then he came back to where he had been sitting 
 and remarked, "You must be converted sure if 
 it 's gone in as deep as all that ! " 
 
192 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Andrew looked over at Stuart and said smil- 
 ingly, " If you mean all that, we need time to 
 think it over and formulate wise plans." 
 
 Stuart rose and paced the little room. " I mean 
 every word. When I became a Christian, I said 
 in my heart, ' I will dedicate all I have and all I 
 am to the cause of my Saviour.' I understand 
 fully all that means. I do not believe a man can 
 be a Christian at all and make money his great 
 object in life, or regard money in any way except 
 as a steward or trustee to use all that has honestly 
 come into his hands as God would have him use 
 it. I don't know just the exact amount of money 
 I have at my disposal," he added simply. " Can't 
 we three get together and arrange some kind of a 
 three-cornered, three-sided society that shall have 
 for its object the discussion of ways and means, 
 and the questions of men in relation to others in 
 society ">. How does that idea strike you two ? " 
 
 So for the first time Stuart suggested the plan 
 which he afterwards elaborated. The three men 
 agreed to meet the next day with Andrew and 
 make a definite and practical organization. Eric 
 was now able to get out again, although he was 
 far from strong and had the prospect of a lame 
 shoulder for an indefinite time. 
 
A MEMORABLE NIGHT. 
 
 193 
 
 At home that afternoon Louise and her Aunt 
 Royal were discussing a proposed party to be 
 given for the Vasplaines and three or four other 
 families. Not anything elaborate. Just a quiet 
 affair ; it was too near the time of her brother's 
 death to entertain any great party. Aunt Royal 
 was very particular about observing society eti- 
 quette, especially when the observance did not 
 interfere with her selfishness. When it did, she 
 found that the rules of polite society allowed her 
 to have about what she wanted if she gave it the 
 right name. So she and Louise had planned a 
 quiet " affair," not a " reception " or a " party," at 
 which they had decided to invite about twenty-five 
 or thirty persons representing the old and aristo- 
 cratic families of Champion. 
 
 " Aunt," said Louise after they had discussed 
 what they would have to wear and to eat ; " what 
 do you think of inviting Rhena Dwight ? " 
 
 " What! " exclaimed Aunt Royal. "The leader 
 of the Salvation Army t What are you thinking 
 of, child >. " 
 
 "She is a beautiful singer," replied Louise. 
 She seemed to be thinking hard of something. 
 
 "Do you mean to invite her in a professional 
 capacity to help entertain the company ? " asked 
 Aunt Royal placidly. 
 
194 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " She would n't come in that capacity," replied 
 Louise with a dry laugh. 
 
 " What makes you think of inviting her, then ? " 
 askeif Aunt Royal with a searching look. 
 
 " Oh, never mind. I had an id^a," replied Louise. 
 
 Later in the afternoon she went out, walking 
 down into the town, as she frequently did in 
 winter. She loved the exercise, and finding that 
 it helped to keep her well and good looking she 
 persevered in it, even in stormy weather. 
 
 Rhena Dwight lodged with an elderly widow 
 who kept two or three other boarders in a house 
 just below the Army Hall. Louise, after walking 
 around the square, went down past the Hall and 
 knocked at this lodging house. Rhena was in, 
 and Louise was directed to her room. She 
 knocked, and Rhena herself opened the door. 
 She did not know Louise at first, as the light in the 
 passageway was dim. When she did fully recog- 
 nize the face and figure with its rich setting of 
 costly furs, she at first colored slightly. Then she 
 asked her to come in. Louise entered and Rhena 
 closed the door after her. Outside the snow was 
 beginning to fall very fast, and the short winter 
 day was deepening its twilight about the town of 
 Champion. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 "\/0U are surprised to see me, Miss Dwight," 
 
 -* said Louise, taking the seat Rhena had 
 placed for her. " I am Miss Duncan, Stuart Dun- 
 can's sister." 
 
 " Yes, I know you are. I have seen you walk 
 past the hall several times," said Rhena quietly. 
 She had not the remotest idea of the purpose of 
 Louise's call. 
 
 "We are going to have a little company at the 
 house next week, and we would be glad to have 
 you come," said Louise boldly, looking straight at 
 Rhena. _^ "I thought it would be less formal to call 
 and invite you personally than to send a note." 
 
 Rhena looked over at her caller in the utmost 
 astonishment. She did not know Louise at all. 
 She had never met her in society in the old days 
 before leaving everything for the army, and she 
 thought Louise, knowing her history, might sup- 
 pose she would possibly enjoy a taste of the old 
 life again. The face in the fur-trimmed hat looked 
 very pretty, and Rhena felt kindly towards it, 
 
 195 
 
196 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Thank you," she answered gently. " I appre- 
 ciate your kindness, but it is impossible ; I cannot 
 go. I have shut the door upon my old life. I do 
 not wish to open it again." She was silent as if 
 memory claimed her thought. Then she added, 
 with a smile that Louise could just see through the 
 unlighted room : " Besides, I have my regular army 
 duties to perform every night. I cannot leave my 
 people, and there is a great deal of visiting to be 
 done now. The distress and suffering in miners' 
 families are increasing very fast." 
 
 " I 'm sorry yon cannot come," said Louise. She 
 rose slowly to go. "Stuart speaks of you occasion- 
 ally, and I thought perhaps it would please him to 
 invite you." The girl watched Rhena carefully. 
 Rhena did not change color; she stood like a 
 statue, pale and still. Louise continued : " And I 
 thought probably you might feel like coming to the 
 informal affair we have planned. We have asked 
 the Waltons and the Wymans and the Vasplaines, 
 and Una and I will do the honors of the music 
 room, where we hoped we might have your voice to 
 assist. Una plays beautifully." 
 
 " Una ? " asked Rhena. 
 
 " Yes, Miss Vasplaine. It comes natural for me 
 to call her ' Una ' of course. We were girls to- 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 1 97 
 
 gether, and besides," added Louise with a short 
 laugh, "since her recent engagement to my 
 brother Stuart it seems more natural than ever. 
 Well, I 'm sorry you cannot come. We would 
 have enjoyed hearing you sing." 
 
 " You are kind to think of me and I am grate- 
 ful for it," replied Rhena. The closest observer 
 could not have detected any special emotion in her 
 voice or manner. She impressed even Louise, with 
 that lie about Stuart warm on her lips, as possessed, 
 even in those dingy surroundings and in the army 
 garb, of a grace and refinement that very few per- 
 sons could equal. Louise felt like making some 
 commonplace remark about the hardship of Rhena's 
 life work, but something in Rhena's manner forbade 
 it, and she went out of the room with a conven- 
 tional "Good evening. Miss Dwight. So sorry 
 to think you cannot favor us." 
 
 Out on the street Louise murmured to herself : 
 " I was pretty sure she would refuse to come ; 
 and I don't think she is the person to lead Stuart 
 on after that little bit of previous information 
 about Una." She smiled and set her face for 
 home, walking briskly through the now fast-falling 
 snow. 
 
 To any one familiar with the character of Louise 
 
1 98 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Duncan her call on Rhena Dwight and her false- 
 hood as to Stuart's engagement were perfectly 
 easy to understand. It measured the extent of 
 Louise's petty, narrow ideas of life and all its 
 meaning. She had observed enough of Stuart's 
 manner of late to feel sure that his feeling for 
 Rhena had become more'than a sentiment ; and 
 it was the last thing in the world that she wanted. 
 If she could prevent any attachment with a Salva- 
 tion Army leader, she would do it in any way short 
 of being found out in deceit. Hence her lie to 
 Rhena. How would she ever know .' To be sure, 
 Rhena was an experienced woman in the way of 
 society, and she might have been on her guard if 
 she had known Louise. But the sister of Stuart 
 had left an iippression of kind-heartedness with 
 the former society leader, and Rhena felt, as she 
 said, grateful for the apparent sincerity which 
 would recognize her present position in Champion 
 as entitling her to a place still in polite society. 
 
 Rhena did not light her lamp after Louise went 
 out. She sat by the window, looking out on the 
 falling snow. When the time came to go out for 
 the meeting, which was held regularly in the hall 
 instead of the street, now that the nights had be- 
 come stormy, she shivered with the cold. Her 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 1 99 
 
 lips moved in an audible prayer that some one go- 
 ing by the passage heard : " O Lamb of God that 
 takest away the sins of the world, pardon me and 
 help me ! " There were very few out that evening. 
 A great storm grew with the night, and in the 
 morning all Champion, with its setting of pine- 
 covered hills, was deep in the snow that swept past 
 Rhena's windows in drifted billows high up against 
 'the old storage room door. 
 
 That afternoon Stuart came down through the 
 drifts to meet with Andrew and Eric as the three 
 had agreed, to talk over the matter of relief for 
 the miners, and also to arrange for something 
 more permanent than a plan of local relief for the 
 immediate distress of Champion. Eric managed 
 to get through the snow, and insisted that the 
 struggle did him good. Andrew welcomed them 
 in his hearty fashion and began to talk roses the 
 first thing. 
 
 " Look at that ! If that is n't a beauty, I don't 
 know what is. Just let me cut that for you, Mr. 
 Duncan .' " 
 
 " I won't take it ! — not with the ' Mister.' 
 You have forgotten the bargain," replied Stuart, 
 smiling. 
 
 Andrew looked a little confused ; then he said. 
 
200 ffIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " I did not know how Vassall here might take it. 
 He is a prior attachment." 
 
 "Eric," said Stuart, laying a hand on his old 
 friend's shoulder, "do you object if Burke here 
 calls me Stuart and I call him Andrew .' It 
 seems absurd that when a man saves another 
 man's life he should continue on such terms of 
 formality as are used by ordinary acquaintances." 
 
 "My name is Eric then," replied Eric frankly. 
 He was a man of many faults, but littleness of 
 soul and petty jealousy were not among them. 
 
 " That settles it then ; it 's to be Andrew, 
 Eric, and Stuart to the end of the chapter," 
 assented Stuart eagerly. He was enthusiastic 
 this afternoon. He had begun to be caught up in 
 the passion of a great idea, and he felt able to do 
 almost anything. It is true that, woven into all 
 his thought of consecrated money and its wonder- 
 ful power, there was in Stuart the glowing image 
 of Rhena Dwight, and his love for her was grow- 
 ing in strength and meaning every moment. He 
 had not seen her to speak to since that night in 
 the Army Hall. But he did not know how strong 
 a hold his feeling had upon his whole being until 
 now, as he began to face a great opportunity, per- 
 haps the greatest in his life, the slight form and 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. - 20I 
 
 pale face of the Salvation Army leader seemed to 
 occupy a very prominent place there. 
 
 Andrew was cutting off two of his choicest 
 roses. He gave one to Stuart and one to Eric. 
 
 " Say, it seems too bad to cut 'em off the plants 
 that way," said Eric as he took the blossom and 
 stuck it awkwardly into a buttonhole. 
 
 " That 's what I grow them for," replied An- 
 drew. 
 
 " How 's your church work getting on } " asked 
 Stuart, pulling himself out of his brown study 
 after thanking Andrew for the rose. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know yet. I 'm slow to get ac- 
 quainted, and this is a new field to me. If I can 
 succeed in making the people believe they like me, 
 I think we shall have a good time together. I 
 never saw so many characters as there are up here." 
 
 " Do you count us in .' " asked Eric. 
 
 " You 're the very first ones. If I knew how, 
 I 'd put you two into a book." 
 
 "Anybody else.'" asked Stuart. 
 
 " Dr. Saxon. That is, if he would stand still 
 long enough to be put." 
 
 " Yes, the doctor would have to go in sure," 
 replied Eric. " Is that all ? " 
 
 " The Salvation Army would have to come in, 
 
202 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 led by Miss Dwight," replied Andrew. " Then I 
 would throw in some specimen miners and mix 
 them up in various situations, and my book would 
 be very interesting ; that is, it would if I did n't 
 mix them up so that they never could get un- 
 mixed," added Andrew frankly. " I never wrote 
 a book in my life, but I believe Champion is full 
 of material for it." 
 
 "Perhaps some one will put us into a story 
 sometime," said Stuart contemplatively. "Mean- 
 while, my dear friends, to the realities of our 
 present conditions. Every man could probably 
 write one good story if he had to. At any rate 
 we live a story in our own lives, and I am begin- 
 ning to learn that every human being is a tragedy, 
 a possible one, I mean. Since I became a Chris- 
 tian," — Stuart spoke with a dignity that could be 
 called nothing less than reverential, — "I see a new 
 world. I understand Paul's statement, ' If any 
 man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things 
 have passed away ; behold, all things at-e become 
 new.' And among them all nothing is so new to 
 me as human beings." 
 
 " They seem pretty old and commonplace to me 
 sometimes," said Eric. "But I believe I know 
 what you mean." 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 2O3 
 
 " I don't believe you do wholly. But I '11 let 
 you think you do. Now, we are going to see if 
 three men of brains and willingness, with an 
 interest in humanity, can do anything to help solve 
 some of the questions that have been thrust into 
 some of our own lives. First, say, there is the 
 money part of it." 
 
 Stuart paused, and Andrew looked thoughtfully 
 over at him. All three men were now at a point 
 where the conversation and their object in con- 
 ferring together had shut out everything but the 
 most intense and absorbing interest. 
 
 "Well," said Eric at last, with his usual blunt- 
 ness, " you 're the only one that has any money. 
 It 's for you to say what can be done on that 
 line." 
 
 " As near as I can figure out," continued Stuart 
 as if he had not heard Eric, " the property left by 
 father is worth in the neighborhood of four million 
 dollars. Half of it is in the mines and their 
 equipment. Father had full control of the prop- 
 erty at his death, and practically operated the 
 mines as - the company. You know, Eric, how 
 father managed. While the other ranges went 
 into the hands of stockholders, leaving a few men 
 in control with a surplus of stock, father worked 
 
204 ^I^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 along from the time he was a captain in the Beury 
 mine, running all the business by himself. It is 
 practically in the same shape now. I could sell 
 out in ordinary times for two millions. The mines 
 turned out under father's management wonderfully 
 remunerative. Then there is nearly a million that 
 I hold in trust for Louise. That, of course, is hers 
 t6 do with as she chooses. The remaining million 
 is in such shape that it could be converted into 
 cash at any time, and is entirely under my control." 
 
 " Then you have a million dollars to spend .' " 
 asked Andrew simply. 
 
 "Yes, it amounts to that. Of course the mines 
 pay for themselves while they 're running. This 
 million represents savings, accumulations in the 
 business, profits ; most of it was made in less than 
 five years." 
 
 The men were all silent again. There was a 
 good deal of hard thinking going on. Stuart 
 spoke first : — 
 
 " The question now is, how can this money best 
 be used to the glory of God } How would you use 
 it if it was yours, Andrew ? " He asked the ques- 
 tion suddenly, turning to the minister, who sat close 
 by the table with one arm resting on it, close by 
 one of his favorite rose plants. 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 2O5 
 
 Andrew stared at Stuart and did not know what 
 to say. At last he exclaimed : " That 's a very 
 hard question to answer ! In my wildest dreams 
 I^never approached the edge of a thought of a mil- 
 lion dollars to spend. I never had over one thou- 
 sand dollars a year in my life. I should think a 
 million dollars would buy up all the hothouses in 
 the Tjnited States, and as for rare specimens, well, 
 it takes my breath away to imagine what a million 
 dollars would do. But I 'm off the track. Yes, I 
 know what you mean. It is n't a question of what 
 I could get for myself, but what I could get for other 
 people, and I am inclined to believe it is harder to 
 spend money for others than for yourself." 
 
 "I don't know about that," broke in Efic. "I 
 have always believed if I had a million dollars to 
 spend in Champion, I could make good use of it." 
 
 "Go on, Eric, tell what you would do," said 
 Stuart, turning to him. 
 
 "Well, for one thing," spoke Eric, his' dark eye 
 glowing under the impulse of his idea, " I would 
 build a house or hall dedicated to the cause of, 
 labor. I would have it in the center of every 
 useful and inspiring idea that could elevate and en- 
 large a man's mind, sensibilities, and affections. I 
 would have a platform there on which the best 
 
2o6 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 speakers, singers, and preachers could bring their 
 messages to the people. I would put two of the 
 greatest joys of the world within easy reaching 
 distance of every workingman in Champion ; I 
 mean music and flowers. They would be under 
 the roof of this building dedicated to the common 
 people. Oh, I have lain awake many a night plan- 
 ning out the spending of other people's money for 
 my people!" said Eric, with a smile that was sad- 
 der than tears. "The heartache, oh, the heart- 
 ache I have felt at the wasted music and perfume 
 of God's rich earth ! And if I had money to use, 
 I could bring some of these things close to the 
 lives of these men and brothers whose lives are 
 spent underground, who live like animals, as if 
 God had never made the birds to sing and the 
 violets to bloom. I almost hesitate to say to you 
 two what I have felt as I have known of the rich 
 and petted men and women of society wasting 
 their money by the millions on their own narrow, 
 selfish pleasure, while thousands of the children 
 of the street and the mine never heard any sound 
 sweeter than a coarse note from an untrained voice, 
 or felt the beauty and perfume of anything better 
 than a dusty weed by the roadside. These wants, 
 these differences between the rich and the poor. 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 207 
 
 and the knowledge that money could work miracles 
 of pleasure for my brethren, and my own conscious- 
 ness of helplessness in the matter, have almost 
 made me at times a hater of men, a blasphemer 
 against God and all the universe Money ! " cried 
 Eric, as he clinched his hand on his knee, while 
 the face, pale and worn from the recent injury, 
 glowed with the fire of its inward spiritual agony, 
 "if I had just what will be wasted in this town 
 this winter in wicked display and foolishness, I 
 could make a thousand children happy for a lifetime 
 and save hundreds of souls from cursing God for 
 ever having Been born into a world of such in- 
 equality. I have thought sometimes I already 
 lived in hell instead of earth. But — well, ex- 
 cuse me ; I did n't mean to get started this way. 
 I 'm mistaken and narrow and one-sided and un- 
 reasonable and all that, and no one knows it better 
 than I do. All the same, I am sure that, as there 
 is a God who rules and judges, there will come a 
 day of reckoning for the men and women who 
 have spent his money on their selfish pleasures, 
 regardless of God's children who have gone 
 through life starved and parched for the lack of 
 the beautiful gifts of their Father which he in- 
 tended all should enjoy." 
 
208 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 There was a silence in the room. Andrew went 
 over to the window and looked out. He came 
 back to the table at once, and without a word cut 
 half a dozen of the choicest roses from his plants, 
 hastily rolled them up in a paper and, without a 
 word of explanation, rushed out of the room. Eric 
 and Stuart could hear him tearing down the stairs 
 three steps at a time. They looked at each other 
 in silence, and then rose and went over to the 
 window. 
 
 Crossing the square by one of the diagonal 
 paths cut through by the snowplow was Mrs. 
 Blnney, the wife of the injured miner, the woman 
 who had come in to see Dr. Saxon the day before 
 Stuart and Eric had been caught in the mine. 
 She was carrying a basket on one arm, and was on 
 her way home after having been down to Champion 
 from her house up on the hill. Andrew had been 
 up to see Jim several times. 
 
 Eric and Stuart, looking out, saw Andrew wade 
 through a snowdrift that reached almost to his 
 neck and stop the astonished Mrs. Binney just as 
 she was turning off to go up across the railroad 
 tracks. He gave her the roses in the paper ; she 
 put them in her basket and bowed her curiously 
 shawled and bonneted head. Andrew rushed 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 209 
 
 back, darted upstairs, pulled a broom out of the 
 closet, retired to the hall, brushed himself off, and 
 doming back said, panting, " Excuse me ; I am 
 sometimes taken that way. It is not dangerous." 
 
 " It would be a good thing if it was ; that is, if 
 it was catching," said Eric significantly. 
 
 As for Stuart, he had gone back to his seat and 
 was very thoughtful, in a great study over many 
 things. 
 
 " I am wrestling with a problem greater than 
 any that ever challenged me," he said at last as 
 the others remained quiet. " I need more wisdom 
 and more knowledge. I believe, as Eric says, that 
 money can create miracles of a certain sort in 
 Champion ; but shall I say, ' Go to, now ! Behold 
 me! I am Stuart Duncan, the mine owner. I 
 have a million dollars. I am going to spend this 
 money for your benefit. My friends, how will you 
 have it 1 In libraries, soup houses, music, flowers, 
 lectures, preaching, art, or what not .■' I am ready 
 to Christianize, elevate, improve, and lift up, to 
 bridge over the chasms that lie between rich and 
 poor and educated and ignorant. You just keep 
 quiet and the million dollars will do the rest ! ' Is 
 that the idea .'' Given, a million dollars, to bring 
 in the millennium. Is that the relation between a 
 
2IO HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 million dollars and a million years of paradise ? 
 It is not so easy. I can see the hall dedicated to 
 labor. That is a possibility. And the music and 
 the flowers and all that. Good. But there is a 
 good deal more behind and within. One thing I 
 know very certainly : I must see for myself what 
 the needs are in Champion. I know in a general 
 way, but I want to know in detail." 
 
 " There 's one person can tell you all about it," 
 said Andrew. 
 
 " Who 's that t " 
 
 " Miss Dwight." 
 
 Stuart flushed. From where he sat he could see 
 the front of the Salvation Army Hall. Rhena was 
 just going in with one of the women belonging to 
 the army. 
 
 " I 'm told that she is familiar already with 
 nearly every case of suffering in Champion," con- 
 tinued Andrew. " She has even been out on the 
 hills as far as Cornish town. It's a pokerish place 
 in winter, full of pit-holes and abandoned prospect- 
 ing shafts. I would n't want to get caught out 
 there and lose my way after dark with this snow 
 covering up bad places." 
 
 Stuart did not answer. He was looking from 
 the window and saw Rhena and the woman come 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 2 I I 
 
 out of the hall with bundles. They crossed the 
 street and disappeared behind the engine house, 
 going in the direction of the Cornish town path. 
 
 "What did you say.? " asked Stuart suddenly, as 
 he came back from his little journey with Rhena. 
 Andrew and Eric were sitting where they did not 
 see what Stuart had seen. 
 
 " I said that in case you ever fall into a hole in 
 Cornish town it might be just as well to leave the 
 spending of that money to Eric and me," replied 
 Andrew, nodding at Eric. "That is, leave it be- 
 fore you fell in. For the chances are that no one 
 will be prospecting around at this time of the year 
 with a rope to pull you out." 
 
 "I beg pardon," said Stuart. "Let us get at 
 the subject again. It's very evident we cannot 
 settle this matter offhand or in a hurry. But I 'm 
 sure the Lord will lead us to do something right. 
 He has n't given us brains and hearts and then left 
 us to make fools of ourselves, especially when we 
 don't want to." 
 
 We do not need to give in detail the afternoon's 
 discussion. The plan for using the money was not 
 fully shaped in any definite way. It could not be. 
 
 Even Eric was obliged to confess that the ele- 
 ment of time was necessary to help in the solution. 
 
212 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 They were not planning for a day or a month or 
 one winter, but for a good many years to come. 
 
 So Stuart finally went home, after running into 
 the office and leaving word there with a clerk to 
 supply certain families that were known to be in 
 want with fuel and food for the immediate time, 
 and also leaving word to send for him in case any 
 special demand came in later on in the evening. 
 The miners had recently made several personal re- 
 quests for help, and Stuart, in his growing eager- 
 ness to know as much as possible of the facts in 
 the town, had determined to go himself at the next 
 pressing call and satisfy his desire for the truth. 
 
 After supper that evening, Louise and Aunt 
 Royal were discussing the coming party or " affair," 
 which had been fixed for the following week. 
 Stuart was sitting with them in the drawing room. 
 There was a beautiful open fire in the grate. 
 The mantel and tiling were handsome pieces of 
 imported marble. The lights had not been turned 
 on yet. It was not quite seven o'clock. 
 
 "What have you decided to decorate with.?" 
 asked Louise. She had great respect for Aunt 
 Royal as an authority in all matters of society or 
 entertainment, and deferred to her opinion without 
 debate or dispute. 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 213 
 
 " I think we had better have Nyphetis roses in 
 the front room, and small ferns with pearl roses 
 in the dining room. Smilax and carnations will be 
 the proper trimming for the library, and lilies of 
 the valley for the music room. The last reception 
 I attended in New York, the Dupreys decorated 
 the entire house with lilies of the valley. The 
 effect was lovely." 
 
 " What did you say it cost .' " asked Stuart, 
 rousing himself to take part in the conversation. 
 He had heard only a part of what Aunt Royal had 
 said. She looked over at her nephew in surprise. 
 
 " I did n't say. I heard that it cost about a thou- 
 sand dollars. That is a small item for flowers in 
 the Duprey receptions." 
 
 " It must have been lovely," said Louise, clasp- 
 ing her hands so that her diamond rings were the 
 most conspicuous part of her in the light of the fire. 
 
 " I think it must have been horrible," said 
 Stuart quietly. 
 
 " Horrible .' " Aunt Royal spoke as if she had 
 not understood her nephew. 
 
 " Yes ; not the flowers, but the use of that much 
 money to decorate for pleasure any man's private 
 residence for the enjoyment of people who could 
 see lilies of the valley any time they wanted to. " 
 
214 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Well ! well ! " Aunt Royal could not get any 
 further. Louise broke in with a laugh. 
 
 " Oh, Stuart 's been converted lately to some of 
 the communistic socialistic ideas. Didn't you 
 know that, aunt } The next we know he will be- 
 gin to object to our using roses for decoration next 
 week here in the house." 
 
 Stuart did not say anything. He was thinking 
 of Eric's speech that afternoon, and his heart beat 
 heavily as he thought of all the wasted music and 
 flowers of the earth. Who was getting the best 
 of these two great and beautiful gifts of God ? 
 
 Was it not the very people who were able to 
 pay the highest prices for them ? Where was the 
 right in squandering a thousand dollars of God's 
 own money to enjoy the beauty of flowers, when 
 people were dying of hunger and misery in the 
 nearest tenement ? If it was God's money, and if 
 men were only trustees of the funds, would God 
 probably consider that a right use of the money .■• 
 It was only one phase of the doctrine of steward- 
 ship which Stuart had lately begun to believe in. 
 
 But Aunt Royal was not the person to remain 
 silent after Stuart's use of the word " horrible " in 
 connection with her decorative ideas as they were 
 connected with social functions. She asked, 
 sharply for her : — 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 215 
 
 " Do you mean to say, Stuart, that you think we 
 have no right to use flowers in giving pleasure to 
 our invited guests ? " 
 
 " No ; I did not say that," replied Stuart dryly. 
 
 " What do you mean then ?" 
 
 " I can't make you or Louise understand me," 
 said Stuart after a pause. 
 
 " No ; Stuart talks in riddles of late. He 
 thinks we are too aristocratic and unchristian," 
 said Louise. There was a sneer in her voice 
 which hurt Stuart keenly. 
 
 " Why do you say that, Louise .' You know I 
 am thinking of the poor families who are begin- 
 ning to suffer at this time. Surely we ought to do 
 as much for them as for ourselves. If we spend a 
 hundred dollars to decorate the rooms with flowers 
 for a party, we ought to give twice as much to 
 help feed the hungry. The better way would be 
 to take the money spent on the flowers and spend 
 it on food." 
 
 " What ! " cried Louise angrily. " On the 
 people who have brought their condition on 
 themselves by their own foolishness ! Who is to 
 blame for their being hungry and cold, if not 
 themselves ? " 
 
 " The women and babies are not to blame, and 
 
2l6 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 they are the ones to feel the suffering most," said 
 Stuart quietly. 
 
 " Well, you can use your money that way if you 
 want to, but I don't waste mine on people who 
 don't know when they 're well off." 
 
 Stuart rose and stood with his back to the fire. 
 He was agitated with all the new ideas that had 
 crowded into his life since the day God had spoken 
 to him. He felt that the revolution in him would 
 cut square across all the traditions and usages of 
 polite society, especially in the matter of money 
 and its personal expenditure. 
 
 Finally Louise and Aunt Royal took up the 
 subject of the coming party and began discussing 
 the families who were invited. 
 
 Stuart still stood silently engrossed in his own 
 thoughts, and hearing only now and then a word. 
 At last he was roused by Louise. 
 
 " Stuart, will you sing with Una next week .' 
 You remember that duo you sang before you went 
 abroad 1 " 
 
 " Yes, I '11 sing if I am here that evening," 
 replied Stuart, with a feeling that he was fast 
 losing all his interest in the things that once 
 amused him. He had a splendid baritone voice, 
 and was a favorite singer with all his friends. 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 217 
 
 " Why, are you planning to be away ? " 
 
 " No ; I did not know what might happen, under 
 the condition of the strike and all." 
 
 " We 've invited the Meltons and the Vas- 
 plaines. They would be very much disappointed 
 if you were not here," said Aunt Royal. 
 
 " I shall probably be here," said Stuart briefly. 
 
 Louise rose suddenly and went up to her 
 brother. 
 
 "And I "invited Miss Dwight, Stuart. She re- 
 fused to come ; but don't you think I am too 
 aristocratic for anything to invite her .' " 
 
 Stuart looked at Louise in astonishment. The 
 words sent the color to his cheek and set his 
 pulses beating. 
 
 " You knew she would not come," he said in a 
 low voice. 
 
 Louise started as if she had been caught in her 
 lie to Rhena. She went back to her seat and was 
 silent. It was at times a mad freak with Louise 
 to say or do the unexpected thing. She was not 
 original, but she sometimes took a. malicious 
 pleasure in startling people. 
 
 " I am glad she refused," said Aunt Royal, who 
 sometimes forgot her diplomacy in her gratifica- 
 tion at things. " She certainly would have felt 
 very much out of place among us." 
 
2l8 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Yes, that 's so," said Stuart, provoked into a 
 statement he could easily have made before his 
 conversion. " She would have been out 6£ place 
 among your other guests, because most of them 
 are uneducated boors and clowns in comparison 
 with a lady like Miss Dwight ! " 
 
 Aunt Royal was speechless. She could not 
 find anything to say at first. Finally she began, 
 in her usual gentle voice : — 
 
 " I am surprised, Stuart, to hear you speak that 
 way of a common Salvation Army " — 
 
 That was as far as Aunt Royal could get. 
 Stuart interrupted with an emphasis that petrified 
 both the women : — 
 
 " I will not allow you or any one to speak a dis- 
 respectful word of the woman I love, and who, if 
 God is good enough to me, will some time become 
 my wife ! " 
 
 With the words Stuart walked out of the room, 
 leaving his aunt and Louise gasping as if a pail of 
 ice water had been thrown over them. And what 
 they said when they recovered, history saith not, 
 and Stuart never knew nor cared. 
 
 He went away to his own room and sat there 
 without turning on the lights. He knew that he 
 had precipitated matters in the home by his brief 
 
PLANS GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 219 
 
 but outright declaration of his purpose. He did 
 not regret it, but he was a little afraid he had 
 shown the unchristian spirit in his words or 
 manner. The old Adam had a place in him yet } 
 No, he said to himself, he was a new man ; the 
 very best evidence of it was his present action. 
 He kneeled and prayed to be forgiven if he had 
 spoken wrongly. He was still praying when a 
 servant brought word that he was wanted at the 
 telephone. 
 
 He went down and was informed by the clerk 
 in the office, that two of the miners had come in, 
 and acting under instructions the clerk had called 
 up Stuart to come and see them. Stuart told the 
 clerk to hold the men until he could get down. 
 He went out at once and drove into the town. 
 
 The men who had come to the office were resi- 
 dents of Cornish town. They had come for help, 
 in a case not their own but that of a miner who 
 lay sick and in need at the farthest limits of the 
 settlement. 
 
 Stuart hastily loaded his cutter with necessaries, 
 and with one of the men to direct the way he 
 started out. The night was dark and a fine snow 
 was falling. The drifts were piled high on either 
 side of the road. Stuart knew he could drive only 
 
220 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 part of the way. As he went by the Salvation 
 Army Hall he stopped a minute to speak to one 
 of the men who was standing on the steps. 
 The hall was lighted, but there was no meeting 
 going on. 
 
 " Miss Dwight went up to Cornish town this 
 afternoon with some clothes to distribute, and is 
 not yet back," the man said in answer to a ques- 
 tion of Stuart's. 
 
 He drove on with a great feeling of uneasiness 
 at his heart. He recalled Andrew's words about 
 the abandoned pits and prospecting holes all 
 about Cornish town and on the sidehills. The 
 thought that Rhena might be in peril there 
 quickened the stir of his blood. He drove his 
 horse with a reckless disregard of the speed or the 
 danger. The miner who was with him, in speak- 
 ing of it afterwards, said : " Tell you, boys, I 
 thought most time I was with the doctor, and I 
 kept saying my little prayer, as everybody does 
 who rides with him." 
 
 When they reached the limit of the road Stuart 
 left the horse and cutter in a shed behind one of 
 the cottages. The people in the cottage there 
 had seen Miss Dwight come up that afternoon. 
 She had stopped a minute to warm herself and 
 then gone on. 
 
PLANS GOOD And Bad. 221 
 
 When Stuart reached the house at the end of 
 the miners' path it was snowing furiously. Rhena 
 had been there before him. She had left her bundle 
 of clothing, and that was the last that any one 
 had seen of her. Stuart rushed out of the misera- 
 ble cabin and down the path to the next cottage 
 of the settlement. Nothing had been seen of 
 Rhena on her supposed return to town. She 
 could not have passed the two men on their way up. 
 Stuart stood in the little path listening, with his 
 heart trembling. The great pines sobbed under 
 the rising wind. Far below the lights of Cham- 
 pion gleamed here and there through the falling 
 snow. And never had Stuart Duncan loved 
 Rhena Dwight as at this moment, when the terror 
 of the fear possessed and choked him that she had 
 wandered out into the treacherous pits, and was 
 perhaps even now lying at the bottom of one of 
 them, dead or dying. He prayed as he stood there : 
 " My God ! my God ! save her, for I love her 
 more than my life ! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COMPLICATIONS. 
 
 OTUART had known every foot of Cornish town 
 *~— ^ as a boy, and was familiar even now with 
 most of the curious little lanes and paths that cut 
 it across and tracked up and down the side of the 
 great hill like the ' markings of some gigantic 
 game. There was probably no other place just 
 like it in America. The prospecting holes were 
 of various depths. Some of them had caved in 
 at the sides and were shaped like old cellars or 
 cisterns with masses of rubbish at the bottom. 
 Others were wells, anywhere from fifty to one 
 hundred feet deep, and especially dangerous in 
 winter, when the snow, lodging on bushes grow- 
 ing about the shaft's mouth, artfully concealed 
 the locality of danger. 
 
 It was Stuart's first thought, when he calmed 
 himself to think and act, that Rhena had at- 
 tempted to make a short cut by one of the miners' 
 paths from the upper part of the settlement of 
 Cornish town to Champion, and in the dark, 
 and confusion caused by the change which snow 
 
COM PLICA TIONS. 223 
 
 makes in the appearances of old landmarks, had 
 stumbled into one of the shafts. Under this 
 conviction he ran back to the house where Rhena 
 had been and from which he had just come him- 
 self, and begging a lantern he started out on a 
 path which at first, in his terror, he had for- 
 gotten. He had followed it but a little ways 
 when the lantern revealed a small black object 
 right in the center of the path. He stooped 
 eagerly and picked it up. It was a lady's winter 
 glove trimmed with fur at the wrist. He recog- 
 nized it as Rhena's. He had seen her wearing 
 that kind of a glove a few days before. He 
 placed it in his pocket and went on as fast as 
 he dared, eager, and yet dreading, with a horror 
 he never felt before, the possible discoveries he 
 might make. The miner who had come up with 
 him had gone down to the settlement at Stuart's 
 suggestion to rouse others to come out and join 
 in the search. So he was alone up there in the 
 mysterious shadows of the pine covered slope. 
 Every step he took over the small, barely defined 
 trail was like a step into an unknown land, and 
 yet he was conscious, even as he dwelt with 
 terror upon the strange adventure so suddenly 
 thrust upon him, of going over that very path 
 
224 ^^^ BROTitEWS KEEPER. 
 
 one warm summer day when a boy only ten years 
 old, and the smell of the balsams as they gave 
 out their peculiar pungent odor in the warmth 
 of the sun seemed to be in his senses now. 
 Several persons had evidently been over the path 
 that very day, for the snow was trodden down, 
 and the marks of feet were not yet wholly cov- 
 ered by new snow. 
 
 Quite a long distance from the place where the 
 glove was found, Stuart came to an old stump 
 which marked a giant pine of many years 
 before. The path turned about the foot of this 
 stump, and on the other side of it, as he strode 
 on, praying in his heart for mercy and safety to 
 be shown this woman, he saw her, lying so still 
 and white that he dared not think what it might 
 mean. She had fallen over a mass of ore that 
 had rolled down into the path, and one hand and 
 arm lay. stretched out directly over one of the 
 most dangerous pits on the hill. So near had 
 she been to instant death ! 
 
 With a cry Stuart caught her up. Still, he 
 dared not question whether what he held was 
 alive or dead. He said to himself he would not 
 ask. He knew she was not conscious. He 
 moved now with more of instinct than by sight 
 
COMPLlCA TlOMS. 525 
 
 or reason, feeling his way down the hill. He 
 seemed to feel confident that he would not fall 
 into any of the shafts with this burden ; and 
 with a strength and purpose that moved him with 
 even more than his usual determination he went 
 on down, keeping before him the glimmering 
 light of the nearest cottage. Finally he had 
 reached a cross path to the one he had first 
 entered, and in which Rhena had met with her 
 accident. The light from the cottage had dis- 
 appeared. He was now in a hollow or depression 
 of the slope which had sometimes been used by 
 the miners for a rough roadway to one part of 
 the Davis mine, and as he entered it he thought 
 that he could feel rather than see that tracks had 
 recently been made through the hollow. He 
 went on down very cautiously. Rhena was still 
 unconscious. 
 
 Suddenly a sound came to Stuart from above. 
 He stopped and listened. It was the sound of 
 sleigh bells. He could not trust his hearing, and 
 listened more intently. Yes, that was too common 
 a sound in Champion every winter to be mistaken. 
 As he listened, and looked up into the opaque 
 space filled with snow which fell straight down 
 in the hollow where the wind was cut off, a horse 
 
2 26 If IS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 emerged like a great shadow and a vague rough 
 outline of something behind. 
 
 Stuart shouted ; and the next instant he knew 
 that there was only one man in all Champion or 
 De Mott, or for that matter in the entire range, 
 who would dare drive up or down Cornish town 
 hollow to Davis hill at night and in winter. It 
 was Dr. Saxon, and he had been out to see Jim 
 Binney and, taken the old road up the hollow to 
 save time. It was a common saying in Cham- 
 pion that the doctor would calmly have taken a 
 short cut through the infernal regions rather than 
 go around, especially if there was a patient in 
 great danger on the other side. 
 
 The horse was like his master, and could pick 
 his way over the hills and through the rough 
 trails like a mountain goat. He had a great gift 
 for getting through snowdrifts, and one of the 
 miners said that he once saw the doctor's horse 
 help his master right the cutter when it tipped 
 over, by sitting down on the shaft that was upper- 
 most, while the doctor pushed on the other side. 
 Certain it is that never did a lighthouse gleam 
 on a lost mariner with its saving light more joy- 
 fully than did the familiar horse and cutter appear 
 to Stuart, as they plunged right out of a great 
 
COMPLICATIONS. 227 
 
 hole, and tumbled down almost over him as he 
 stood there holding his precious burden. 
 
 " Whoa ! Steady there, Ajax ! " cried the voice 
 of the doctor from the cutter, which bounded out 
 of the hole all right and came to sight again, like 
 a snowplow on an engine just after plunging out 
 of a drift. 
 
 " Doctor !" cried Stuart. " Thank God ! Quick! 
 Miss Dwight ! She is dead or dying ! I found 
 her unconscious on the upper trail ! " 
 
 He crowded through the snow up to the side of 
 the cutter, and placed Rhena on the seat beside 
 the astonished doctor. 
 
 " Well ! well ! if this does n't beat the Salvation 
 Army drum all to pieces ! I can't escape from 
 practice even in Cornish town hollow. You take 
 the prize for furnishing material on the spot. 
 Are there any more of the army dead or wounded 
 or dying around here } " 
 
 " Hurry, doctor ! Save her ! Say, is she dy- 
 ing ? Is she seriously hurt .■" " 
 
 " Humph ! Well, I tell you, Stuart, she 's a 
 plucky lass, and it 's ten to one that she 's dan- 
 gerously hurt. No, she 's not dead." All this 
 time the doctor, who never wasted any breath 
 talking and doing nothing, had been examining 
 
2 28 ti^S SROTtfMR'S HEEPEk. 
 
 the condition of Rhena. " We '11 get her right 
 down to the town as fast as possible. Come, 
 jump in and hold her. I can't drive and tend to 
 her, too." 
 
 Stuart did as directed, and the horse lunged 
 forward at the doctor's word. It seemed to Stuart 
 that the doctor was mad to drive so in such a 
 place. 
 
 " Do be careful, doctor ! You '11 kill us all ! 
 Go slower ! " Stuart gasped, as he held Rhena and 
 breathlessly braced himself against the back of 
 the cutter. 
 
 " You 've got your hands full without driving," 
 was all the satisfaction Stuart could get ; and 
 before he could utter much more remonstrance 
 they were out of the dangerous part of the hollow 
 and had struck into the beginnings of the road 
 that led down to Champion. From that point 
 the two men did not speak until the doctor 
 reined Ajax up in front of Rhena's lodging. 
 He had chosen to go right on instead of stopping 
 at any of the cottages, where the accommodations 
 for help were so meager. The doctor carried 
 Rhena into her room and left Stuart outside with 
 the cutter. When Saxon finally came out he was 
 able to bring Stuart good news. It was a case of 
 
COM PLICA TIONS. 229 
 
 unconsciousness from a bad fall, but he did not 
 fear any serious consequences. 
 
 They were standing by the cutter talking to- 
 gether, when one of the women looked out from 
 the door and called the doctor. 
 
 " O doctor, will you see if Miss Dwight's glove 
 is out there anywhere 1 She 's lost one of 
 them." 
 
 "Shake that robe, Stuart," said the doctor as 
 he flashed the lantern around on the sidewalk and 
 about the cutter. " Like as not it 's down in the 
 bottom there somewhere. Don't you find it ?" he 
 asked, not noticing what Stuart was doing. Get- 
 ting no answer, he shouted back, " It 's not here, 
 ma'am ! Must have dropped out on the way 
 down." The woman shut the door and the doctor 
 said, " Get in, Stuart, and I '11 take you home." 
 
 Stuart climbed into the cutter without a word. 
 As the doctor seated himself, and Ajax was about 
 to make his usual wild plunge up the street, Stuart 
 said, " I have Miss Dwight's glove in my pocket, 
 doctor, and I am going to keep it." 
 
 " What 's that ! " exclaimed the doctor. He was 
 nearly twice Stuart's age and had known him all his 
 life. Stuart did not know any one to whom he felt 
 like telling his secret more than to the doctor. 
 
230 ^IS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " But what 's the good of one glove, Stuart ? " 
 The doctor was not quite sure that Stuart wanted 
 to tell him all. 
 
 " I mean to have them both," replied Stuart 
 frankly, looking right into the doctor's face. 
 " Old friend, can't you see that I am in love with 
 her, and at the very highest point of my life 
 already because of it ? " 
 
 Stuart spoke louder than he had meant to, for- 
 getting that persons were passing along the side- 
 walk. Several of the Salvation Army people had 
 gone up to Rhena's lodgings to inquire about her. 
 It is not probable that any one heard Stuart, but 
 the doctor suddenly struck Ajax, and the cutter 
 whirled into the square and darted across one of 
 the diagonals. Close by the band stand the doctor 
 pulled up as suddenly as he had started, and said 
 abruptly, " I '11 wait for you." 
 
 " Wait for what ! " exclaimed Stuart, astonished. 
 
 *' Why, I thought maybe you might want to go 
 up into the stand and tell all Champion that you 
 were in love with Miss Dwight." 
 
 Stuart laughed softly. " I am not ashamed of 
 it. Indeed, doctor, I do feel like shouting it 
 out at times.' No, no ! " he added as the doctor 
 started Ajax on again and they came out into the 
 
COM PLICA TIONS. 2 3 I 
 
 main street. " It is a matter of great pride with 
 me. And at the same time I shrink from making 
 it too common. There is no danger. Doctor, 
 will you say, ' God bless you, Stuart,' as you used 
 to sometimes when other events in my life came 
 
 on .■■ 
 
 "God bless you, Stuart! Ay, ay, 'that belongs 
 to be,' as my Cornish men say when they mean it 
 ought to be so. You 've chosen the best, pluck- 
 iest, and most character-endowed woman in all 
 Champion or the State for that matter. Well, 
 well, I knew it all the time ! You and Eric think 
 I 'm so busy that I don't have time to notice any- 
 thing. But that 's because I see so much more 
 than you do in a given time." There was a short 
 pause. " If I were you, Stuart, I would n't keep 
 that glove very long. It is n't just fair this cold 
 weather." 
 
 "Thank you, doctor, I have been thinking of 
 that," replied Stuart. 
 
 He had grown very thoughtful suddenly. His 
 life had opened out into another possibility with 
 this new experience. He was conscious of its 
 bearing upon all the rest of the problems that 
 knocked at his heart and mind for answers, and 
 when he bade the doctor good night he went into 
 
232 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the house thrilled through with the most profound 
 conviction and persuasion that his life would shape 
 this way or that according to the response of 
 Rhena Dwight's soul to his. He was startled as 
 for the first time he realized how strong his feel- 
 ing was and how little he knew of hers. What 
 could she be to him with all the social difference 
 between them 1 It is true he had come to a place 
 where social differences counted for very little 
 with him, but how could he tell what she might 
 think now that her life moved on the plane of 
 Salvation Army methods .' And then, there was 
 his money and all. She had deliberately moved 
 out from' the world of wealth and fashion in 
 which he still remained, of which he was yet 
 a part. They were separated in this way by a 
 great gulf of difference. On the other hand, he 
 reflected, they had one great and common bond 
 of sympathy in their Christian faith. After all, 
 was not that stronger than anything else.' What 
 were conditions or artificial social distinctions by 
 the side of the all-powerful oneness of spirit 
 which disciples of the Master possessed in com- 
 mon .' It was with that last thought on his heart 
 that he finally went to rest. 
 
 He did not speak to Louise or his aunt of the 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 
 
 233 
 
 evening's adventure when he saw them in the 
 n^orning. His statement of the evening before 
 concerning his feeling towards Rhena had driven 
 the two women into a position of hostility to him 
 that did not find immediate expression in words, 
 but was very apparent none the less. Louise was 
 angry to think that her attempts to deceive Rhena 
 might and probably would result in nothing. 
 Aunt Royal ignored the subject definitely, but 
 there was no mistaking her entire opposition to 
 Stuart's present attitude. It was true she did not 
 understand him. Stuart was too engrossed in his 
 perplexities and plans, and too much absorbed in 
 the new life to feel all this very deeply, and yet it 
 showed him how squarely his new life was hence- 
 forth to conflict with the old. 
 
 It was two days after this that Stuart, Eric, 
 and Andrew met again to talk ovf r matters, this 
 time at Eric's cottage. Rhena had recovered. 
 She was up and doing part of her work. Stuart 
 had called to inquire after her, but had not seen 
 her. He could not help feeling that when he did 
 have an opportunity to speak, it would be an 
 eventful meeting for him. He had inherited a 
 large portion of his father's abrupt determination 
 of conSuct and action. All this faculty,intensified 
 
234 •^•'^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 in another direction, under the influence of his 
 spiritual awakening, burned as strong as in the 
 old Stuart, only for another purpose. Paul was 
 Saul Christianized. And the new Stuart was as 
 likely to act in matters that required decision with 
 as much quickness as the old Stuart, only with a 
 larger and truer vision of the meaning of the 
 action. 
 
 The three men met with a more serious and 
 thoughtful bearing than at the other meeting. 
 Every day in Champion now intensiiied the situa- 
 tion and increased the sum total of suffering. 
 There was no outward sign of the Union weaken- 
 ing. The winter had set in definitely, and it looked 
 very much as if the mines had closed down for 
 the season. Stuart remembered one winter when 
 the mines had closed for a month through action 
 of the owners in order to force up the price of 
 ore. That was when he was a boy. He could 
 still remember something of the suffering at 
 that time. Now it promised to be infinitely 
 worse. 
 
 " Eric, you have more influence with the men 
 than any one on the ranges. Can't you persuade 
 the Union to do something to arrive at a deci- 
 sion } " asked Stuart a little vaguely. Me was 
 
COMPLICATIONS. 235 
 
 feeling around after answers to a thousand ques- 
 tions, and he started the talk aimlessly because 
 he was preoccupied. 
 
 " Well, what can I do ? The owners are the 
 ones to arrive at a decision. Can't you persuade 
 them to agree to our demands and your own 
 promise of two dollars a day .' " replied Eric, who 
 never hesitated to say what he felt, no matter 
 how abrupt it might seem. 
 
 " No, I have no influence that way \frith the 
 other owners. You ought to see some of the 
 letters I get from Cleveland. I tell you the 
 owners will not give in. The whole situation is 
 horrible. Sometimes, Eric, Andrew, I feel as if the 
 men were destitute of all sense. What right have 
 a third or a fourth of them to keep the rest from 
 work because all cannot get the same wages .' " 
 
 "They don't look at it that way. The prin- 
 ciple is, with them, all based on the right or wrong 
 of the demand for the two dollars. At the same 
 time, as I said the other day, I look at the strike 
 from another point of view. I am ready to ac- 
 knowledge it is a miserable way to try to get jus- 
 tice done. The men can never make up what 
 they hsLve lost by this idleness. But, good God, 
 Stuart ! " ejaculated Eric, hobbling to the window 
 
236 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 and looking out on the snow-covered hills just 
 back of the cottage, " what other way is there, if 
 the owners refuse to listen to appeals and arbitra- 
 tion ? Are we to submit indefinitely to starvation 
 wages because we can't help ourselves? Of 
 course I look at it from a workingman's stand- 
 point. Boiled down to its simplest terms, the 
 men don't see anything but reason in asking that 
 a business like the ore industry, that has made a 
 few men princely rich, ought to divide up its 
 profits more fairly and make a good many persons 
 more comfortable instead of making a select few 
 uncomfortably wealthy." 
 
 "Do you believe a man can be uncomfortably 
 wealthy.'" asked Andrew with a smile as if he 
 believed it himself. 
 
 " You don't need to go outside this room to 
 find one," answered Stuart soberly. " What good 
 can I do with all my money in a case like this ? 
 I seem to be as helpless as either of you." 
 
 " No, you 're not. You can relieve a great deal 
 of distress. Money is a great power in that way." 
 
 " But look here, Eric. Is n't this the situation .? 
 Here are five thousand men out on a strike. 
 A thousand of them have been offered their 
 demands. They have refused out of sympathy for 
 
z 
 
 H 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 237 
 
 the rest, who will never get what they ask, for 
 I can't compel the other companies to do what 
 I think is the right thing. Now, then, these men 
 are faced with starvation, or, at the least, with 
 great suffering this winter. Shall I say to them, 
 practically, ' Never mind, I have money ; I will 
 take care of you indefinitely, or until the money 
 is gone ' .' It seems to me that the thousand men 
 ought to go to work if they have an offer at their 
 own terms. What do you think, Andrew .' " 
 
 " I think as you do. I regard the strike ' as 
 a disaster. At the same time, the men are doing 
 as thousands of men have done and will continue 
 to do, until we have a better system than we 
 have at present of settling the differences be- 
 tween men who labor with the brain and those who 
 labor with the hand. Would it be possible to 
 provide the men with work of any kind, so that 
 they would not be fed in idleness.'" 
 
 "Why, what can miners do except their own 
 kind of work .' Who can manufacture work in 
 a country like this, where the whole industry 
 revolves about one thing .? Besides — well, go 
 on, Eric, if you want to speak," said Stuart, who 
 saw Eric impatiently biting his lips and ner- 
 vously clinching his hands. 
 
238 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 "I don't know what to say!" burst out Eric. 
 "The whole situation is maddening. The men 
 are right, and the men are wrong. If their 
 methods of getting justice are at fault, the de- 
 mand itself for justice I believe is right. But 
 what can you expect } Who, for all these years, 
 has paid any attention to the human end of this 
 ore-producing business } What care do the men 
 at Cleveland have for the souls, or the develop- 
 ment of the souls of these men, who dig the 
 stuff out of the ground that helps buy other men 
 costly luxuries, and fine clothes and houses, travel, 
 education, pleasures, and beauties of all sorts.' 
 What are we reaping now but the fruits of a 
 great sowing of selfishness in the one great 
 passion for money, and what it will bring .■■ 
 I ask you two men, who have been reared in a 
 finer atmosphere than mine, if it is not true that 
 the wage workers of the world, ignorant or mis- 
 taken or wrong and even vicious though at times 
 they may have been, and are, still have sinned 
 according to their light less deeply or less 
 wholly than the men of great wealth and education 
 and social power. I am not saying that we are 
 perfect, or never make mistakes, or that the self- 
 ishness is all on one side; but I do say that 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 239 
 
 this present condition would not now be on us 
 here if the men who have made their fortunes 
 by the toil of the miners had acted like Christian 
 men. How many of the mine owners have got to- 
 gether and prayed for wisdom to settle this matter 
 right ? Not one of them, except Stuart here. 
 And yet — well, when I get started, I feel- as if 
 I could break all bounds. There is a fire in my 
 bones over this problem. I don't believe there 
 is a man living who can devise a thorough remedy. 
 If he can, he stands guilty before God for keep- 
 ing silent. And this much is certain : no man 
 or nation or form of government known to civili- 
 zation is free from these differences between the 
 men of muscle and the men of money. Why, 
 only this morning the papers had telegraphic de- 
 spatches announcing tremendous strikes in five 
 different countries, — England, PVance, Germany, 
 Australia, and the United States. There are 
 more than a hundred thousand men out on strikes 
 this very minute. I know there is great discon- 
 tent, and men say great foolishness, on the part 
 of the men of labor. Grant it. The fact is we 
 live in an age of unrest. But at the bottom the 
 whole secret of the trouble lies in a disregard of 
 humanity in a passion for getting wealth first 
 
240 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 of all. The love of money has wrecked empires, 
 and- it will smash our civilization, unless " — 
 Eric stopped abruptly and buried his face in his 
 ■hands. 
 
 Stuart stepped up to him and laid his hand on 
 Eric's shoulder. "Well, Eric," he said simply, 
 " God will triumph in the end. Let 's hold fast 
 to the great truths that have always been true." 
 
 " There is no solution of these difficulties, I 
 am sure," said Andrew after a moment of quiet 
 in the room, " except as it comes along the 
 religious line. I believe the next great factor 
 in what is called the labor question will be the 
 religious factor. I see no possible hope for a 
 better condition unless it is brought about by 
 the appeal to and a belief in Christianity as 
 the real source of final adjustment of men's rela- 
 tions with one another in the social compact. In 
 reality the problem consists in getting men on 
 both sides to act like Christians. There could be 
 no possible clash, for instance, between you two 
 men, if either ohe worked for the other, because 
 you love each other. Love for one another, there- 
 fore, is, after all, the greatest thing in the world, 
 because it is the great and final adjuster of all 
 social problems and differences." 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 
 
 241 
 
 " I believe that, too," said Stuart, pacing up and 
 down the little room. " I don't question the 
 final triumph of love and right. But we don't live 
 in the millennium yet. And we have our own 
 questions local to us right here and now." 
 
 " There can't be any doubt about our duty to 
 the suffering women and children," said Andrew. 
 " And I can tell you there 's a lot of it beginning. 
 One of the worst -things about it all is the way the 
 men are beginning to drink. What little savings 
 many of them had are going this way." 
 
 " Curse the saloon ! Oh, curse that hell on 
 earth ! " cried Eric suddenly. Stuart and Andrew 
 started at the vehemence of his tone. " We go 
 into our churches on Sunday and pray and preach 
 for peace and purity and forgiveness and love, 
 and blessing on little children and all that, and 
 then on election day we go and vote with all the 
 rum fiends on earth to perpetuate a system by 
 local option that damns with its infernal breath 
 every pure desire and every upward reach of 
 humanity, and the prayers of the nation ought 
 to come back into its homes and down upon its 
 religious altars as curses, as they are coming, 
 until we learn how horribly foolish and wicked 
 we have been not to act our prayers out in our 
 
242 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 votes against this devil. The saloon has done my 
 people more harm than any one thing in our 
 civilization." 
 
 Stuart was silent. For the first time he felt 
 the force of Eric's passion in the matter. He 
 remembered that the last time he and his father 
 voted they voted for license. So did nearly every 
 church member in Champion. So did every one 
 of the forty saloon keepers there at present. 
 
 "Well, we can't drive the saloon out this 
 winter. It 's a legalized institution so far as it 
 has a right to sell to those who want to buy," at 
 last Stuart said sadly. " It 's one more factor in 
 the problem. Let 's face it like men and hope 
 for better things to come. Of course Andrew is 
 right about the relief of suffering women and 
 children. I have a plan, too, that I believe can 
 be carried out to a certain extent in getting the 
 men to work instead of receiving aid in idleness. 
 I need more time to work it out. Meanwhile we 
 ought to consult with the doctor and the city 
 officers as to the best and most effective way 
 of" — 
 
 There was a knock at the door and Dr. 
 Saxon came in, " I have n't but a minute to 
 stay. Heard you were here. Wanted to tell you 
 
COM PLICA TIONS. 243 
 
 that the typhoid has started in and looks like a 
 bad job. Never knew typhoid to come this way 
 in winter before, but all the streams are poisoned. 
 Jim Binney is going with it. Sanders' two girls 
 are down with it. Cornish town is likely to be 
 swept with it. I can't make these people obey 
 my directions about the drainage. I find they 've 
 been drinking poisoned water all the fall. The 
 mines ought to furnish the doctor with a com- 
 pany of militia with orders to stand guard over 
 these obstinate, stupid old " — 
 
 The doctor choked off the next word, and went 
 on : " And if they did n't obey, shoot 'em on the 
 spot and save expenses of medical attendance. 
 Tell you, Stuart, I '11 run up a bill against the 
 company for all this work I 've put in lately with- 
 out pay. I 'm tired of it. Been out on Davis hill 
 every day now for a month. Tipped over this 
 afternoon coming down the Iron Cliff road and 
 got two bushels of snow up my sleeves. If there 
 is anything I hate, it 's snow up my sleeves. I 'm 
 going to quit running my head into avalanches for 
 these ungrateful, thankless " — 
 
 Just then a loud knock at the door interrupted 
 the doctor, who all the time he was speaking was 
 shaking the snow off his coat upon the stove. 
 
244 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 which hissed and sputtered with the doctor's 
 vigorous growl. 
 
 " Is the doctor here ? " said a voice as Eric went 
 to the door and opened it. 
 
 " Yes ; what do you want .■• " 
 
 " Lew Trethven has broken his leg. Fell into 
 prospecting hole near upper trail of Cornish town. 
 He wants doctor to come right up." 
 
 " Yes ; hear that, will you ! " said the doctor, 
 who was listening hard to catch every word. 
 " Trethven has broken every leg of his body three 
 separate times since I 've been here. If he had 
 six legs, he'd break every one of 'em. He always 
 falls into a hole at the close of day, when I 'm the 
 farthest off and feel the least like going to see 
 him. I 've mended him so often that he looks 
 like a bamboo fish rod." 
 
 " Say, doctor, can you come right up .' " asked 
 the man outside as he caught a glimpse of him 
 through the opening. 
 
 " No ; I have n't had anything 'to eat all day 
 since breakfast. Tell Trethven to wait until 
 morning. He 's used to breaking his legs by this 
 time. Tell him to set the fracture himself. Tell 
 him I 'm sick. Tell him " — 
 
 Eric shut the door, and the man outside walked 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 245 
 
 slowly away. The doctor saw him go by the 
 window. 
 
 " Excuse me," he muttered, " I forgot to blanket 
 Ajax." He darted out of the room, and Stuart 
 saw him go around the corner and overtake the 
 man. Ajax was standing out near the street 
 where the doctor had left him. Stuart saw Saxon 
 rush the messenger from Trethven into the cutter, 
 climb in himself, leaving one foot out as usual, 
 turn Ajax around with such haste that for a 
 moment it was a matter of doubt whether the 
 miner would remain inside or outside the reeling, 
 swaying cutter, and then they disappeared behind 
 a great drift by the side of the street. 
 
 When Stuart went home that afternoon he car- 
 ried with him a burden that grew heavier as the 
 twilight deepened. There were more questions to 
 settle than a few about the expenditure of a mil- 
 lion dollars. Humanity was full of refusals to be 
 helped. It was the same cry that Jesus made, 
 "They will not come unto me that they might 
 have eternal life." And these saloons ! He 
 walked past a dozen on the main street. They 
 never had thrust themselves so conspicuously into 
 his senses before. As he was going by one of 
 them, a crowd of miners noisily burst out and 
 
246 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 scattered over the sidewalk. One or two of them 
 noticed Stuart and seemed ashamed as they slunk 
 by. He went on past the Salvation Hall and 
 could not help thinking of Rhena, living her daily 
 life in such surroundings, working with this rough, 
 turbulent element, although the large part of the 
 miners had so far kept away from the saloon. 
 
 He lingered a little as he walked by, hoping to 
 get a glimpse of Rhena, but did not see her and 
 went on home. 
 
 The next few days were days of great anxiety to 
 Stuart. The doctor's predictions as to the ty- 
 phoid fever proved correct. It broke out and 
 swept over Cornish town with great furj'. No 
 one could remember when such an epidemic had 
 raged there. Stuart sent down to Chicago and 
 had several trained nurses come up and begin 
 duty at his expense. He blessed God for the 
 things that money could do in cases like this. 
 He also relieved Dr. Saxon by hiring two as- 
 sistants, and of course made the doctor himself 
 understand that all the work he did while the 
 mines were shut down would be reckoned the 
 same as if the men were being paid. 
 
 But all this was nothing to what he longed to 
 do. He went himself into the miners' cabins and 
 
COM PLICA TIONS. 
 
 247 
 
 acquainted himself with all their rough and meager 
 surroundings. Several times during these visits 
 he met Rhena, but she was always busy with her 
 duties and hardly exchanged a word. Stuart 
 fancied she tried to avoid meeting him. Her 
 manner was different. He wondered vaguely if 
 she knew, if she had been told that he had found 
 her that night and carried her down through the 
 upper trail. 
 
 All this time he was also working at the prob- 
 lem of the men in idleness, and the more he 
 thought it over the less confident he grew of his 
 ability to solve the difficulty. Champion was a 
 mining town, with nothing else of an industrial 
 character to occupy labor of any kind. There 
 had once been an attempt to put in smelting fur- 
 naces, but it had failed owing to the expense of 
 fuel. Stuart confronted a condition of practical 
 ignorance on the part of the miners concerning 
 any kind of manual toil except that to which they 
 had been born. It is, of course, hardly necessary 
 to say that he daily used his influence with the 
 men to persuade them to agree to his terms, and 
 yet even while talking and urging he could not 
 avoid a feeling of great unrest, and with it all 
 went a certain admiration for the men who gave 
 
248 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 as their reason for not coming back to the Cham- 
 pion mines on Stuart's terms, "It don't belong 
 to be for us to take the dollars, while all the rest of 
 De Mott men be shut out at the old wages by 
 other companies." The whole situation was a 
 deadlock so far as the Union was concerned, and 
 the whole problem was a complication of events 
 and conditions in the commercial world, which 
 Stuart faced as a new thing, especially when he 
 found himself attempting to apply the teachings 
 of Jesus to his part of it. He was willing to act 
 on those teachings as fast as he discovered them, 
 but other men connected with the strike on both 
 sides were not willing. And he was, willingly or 
 unwillingly, a part of the commercial system, and 
 as far as he had gone yet he saw little relief for 
 the Champion men, or little opportunity for the 
 use of the money he was ready to give or use, 
 except to help lessen the immediate sufferings, 
 regardless of what other people might calLits 
 cause. He had not been enough in the habit of 
 using money for other people to know how to do 
 it, either wisely or in a way to produce permanent 
 results. 
 
 So the week went by and it was the night of 
 Aunt Royal's and Louise's party. Stuart dreaded 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 
 
 249 
 
 the occasion, because his heart was not in it 
 at all. It seemed to him like a cruel thins, 
 somehow, to be having a gay, expensive, dressy 
 gathering, as he knew this affair would be, at a 
 time when little children were dying, and rugged 
 men and women in those wretched miners' cabins 
 were tossing in the fever of that scourge which 
 laid its bony knuckles of death against nearly 
 every door in Cornish town, and grimly called one 
 by one out of the burning heat within to the cold 
 embrace of the messenger outside. Stuart spent 
 the day in a round of visits. At different places 
 he found Andrew and Rhena and Eric. All of 
 them were worn and sad with the burden of all 
 they had done and carried. Rhena, especially, 
 seemed to show the strain of her great sacrifices. 
 Stuart came very near speaking to her once about 
 her overwork. If he had, it is doubtful if he 
 could have kept from telling his love in the same 
 breath. Somehow he did not say it. And late 
 in the evening he went home with a feeling as 
 near the heartache as he ever knew. He seemed 
 to have thought he must spend the day in as 
 sacrificial and helpful a manner as possible, in 
 atonement for the evening he was to spend. But 
 certainly, if ever man was in a poor frame of mind 
 
25 o 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 to enjoy festivity of the fashionable sort, Stuart 
 was that man. Jim Binney had died that after- 
 noon, and Stuart had been there just in time to 
 see Rhena kneel by the bed and pray as the 
 spirit went back from the rough tabernacle to God 
 who gave it. The words of the prayer and the 
 great sobs of the miserable wife and mother, the 
 cries of the children, the wretched hut with its 
 few broken pieces of furniture, the snow patches 
 on the floor, the dirty windows, the august dying 
 of humanity in so commonplace and for-granted 
 a manner, — all this filled Stuart's heart as he 
 came down into the brilliant rooms, decorated 
 with their garlands and bouquets of expensive 
 flowers, and perfumed with that refinement which 
 wealth cunningly spent knows so well how to 
 produce. 
 
 The guests came, dressed in the latest and best 
 that money can afford. The conversation was 
 charming and agreeable. To hear these men and 
 women talk, a stranger never could have guessed 
 that there was such a thing as suffering in all the 
 world. The music was about love and flowers and 
 beauty and sentimental phrases that had no mean- 
 ing, or a double one. The whole thing filled 
 Stuart, for the first time in his life, with unspeak- 
 
COMPLICA TJ ONS. 2 5 I 
 
 able loathing. It seemed to him lilce a dance in 
 a x;emetery, where the dancers might imagine 
 they were waltzing over fragrant meadows dotted 
 with white blossoms, when in reality it was on 
 human graves they danced, black with the freshly 
 laid earth of new-made burials. He never knew 
 how he passed the evening. He sang with Miss 
 Vasplaine when Louise requested it. He heard 
 a great applause when they had finished. Una 
 was dressed beautifully. She was handsome, with 
 great black eyes and much color, of the type of 
 English girls. So different from Rhena, Stuart 
 remembered thinking at one time during the 
 evening. He found great difficulty in conver- 
 sation. He had never been very apt at the 
 slight nothings society knows so well how to 
 exchange. To-night he wondered if the world 
 was so happy and satisfied everywhere that men 
 and women, made in the image of God, had no 
 better way to spend their time than to meet for 
 hours every week dressed in their best clothes, 
 eating expensive and indigestible food, singing 
 songs that did not contain one noble aspiration 
 higher than a sickly sentiment, exchanging idiotic 
 words thrown into sentences that had no throb of 
 sacrifice or heroism or humanity in them, sitting at ' 
 
252 
 
 mS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 little tables and playing cards by the hour with a 
 persistence and repetition never shown for any 
 enduring needs of human suffering, and then 
 going home, to sleep late next day, and get up to 
 prepare for another evening of the same sort, 
 with a few variations in the way of new ways of 
 arranging flowers, card tables, menus, and decora- 
 tions ad infinitum ad nauseam, after the manner 
 of what pleased to call itself the " best society." 
 Yes, the world must be getting on very smoothly; 
 there is no real suffering, no inequality, no need . 
 of heroism or sacrifice, no call for using human 
 speech in any better way than to exchange com- 
 pliments, no use in trying to use time except to 
 make money and enjoy spending it, where women 
 smile and sing, and flowers give out their perfume, 
 and dancing feet strike the polished floor to the 
 music of the strings behind the palms in the 
 alcove. For the world is society. What other 
 world is there that calls for tears and groans, and 
 sacrifices and crosses, and bloody sweat and 
 agony 1 Strike up the music faster ! faster ! 
 " Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to- 
 morrow we die." Surely society must be right. 
 The Aunt Royals and the Louises are certainly 
 very proper and correct in their estimates of what 
 
COMPLICA TIONS. 253 
 
 constitutes the right thing to do. It cannot be 
 that they are mistaken in this matter. Yet, if 
 they are, it is possible the great judgment day 
 will reveal it to them. After all, death and the 
 judgment are two disagreeable facts. We beg 
 society's pardon for mentioning them. Strike up 
 the music faster ! faster ! Let us not think too 
 much. Thinking leads to action, and action leads 
 to sacrifice, and sacrifice is not agreeable. 
 
 At eleven o'clock most of the guests had gone. 
 The hour had been fixed at eleven by Aunt Royal 
 out of deference to the recent death in the family. 
 The Vasplaines had frequently, when at the 
 Duncans', sent their coachman home and walked 
 back themselves. They had been trained to the 
 English constitutional habit of walking. 
 
 " It 's an elegant night ; won't you walk over 
 with us .' " asked young Vasplaine as they stood 
 in the hall looking out at the snow-covered hills, 
 a vision of loveliness in the moonlight. 
 
 " Yes, let 's go, Stuart ! " cried Louise. 
 
 Aunt Royal gave her consent, so before Stuart 
 knew it he was serving as escort to Una, as he 
 could not very well have refused to do without mak- 
 ing more of the refusal than it was worth. And 
 Vasplaine went with Louise a little way behind. 
 
254 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 As they reached the town square and began to 
 cross it they heard the Salvation Army singing 
 a hymn. The hall was lighted up and the meet- 
 ing was still going on. 
 
 " Yes, Jesus left his home on high, 
 
 Out of love, out of love ; 
 To suffer death for you and I, 
 
 Out of love, out of love ; 
 Our awful sins were on him rolled. 
 Oh, look, poor sinner, and behold! 
 He shed this precious blood we're told, 
 
 Out of love, out of love. 
 
 " He had nowhere his head to lay, 
 
 Out of love, out of love ; 
 He walked the streets by night and day. 
 
 Out of love, out of love ; 
 Oh, sinner will jou now begin, 
 Take up your cross and follow him? 
 He 's promised he will take you in. 
 
 Out of love, out of love ! 
 
 " Oh, sinner, will you stop and think 
 
 Of his love, of his love ; 
 To have his hands and feet so torn. 
 
 Out of love, out of love ; 
 Oh, will you come to him to-day, 
 And get your sins all washed away. 
 And walk with us the narrow way. 
 
 Filled with love, filled with love?" 
 
COMPLICATIONS. 255 
 
 The hymn was sung to the tune " What 's the 
 news ? " It gave abundant opportunity for criti- 
 cism as to its grammar, meter, and literary char- 
 acter, but it struck into Stuart's heart like a 
 blazing contrast with the whole evening spent 
 with society in its selfishness. 
 
 Just as he and Una reached the end of the 
 diagonal in front of the hall, the door opened and 
 some people came out. And as he stepped his 
 foot on the curb with Una by his side, resplendent 
 in all her healthful beauty, Rheng. appeared on the 
 threshold. They were but a few feet apart, and 
 Rhena's eyes caught Stuart's for one brief glance 
 and then rested on Una. Then the door was shut 
 and Stuart and Una went on. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 TT was nearly half a mile from the Salvation 
 ^ Army Hall to the Vasplaines', and Stuart 
 never knew what he said to Una as they walked 
 on. Rhena's look as the door had opened revealed 
 a part of the truth to Stuart. If Rhena had been 
 in Una's place during that half mile, there would 
 have been no question of his determination to 
 decide his destiny at once. As it was, Una was 
 at first very gay in her rallying questions and 
 remarks, and then as she neared her home she 
 grew quiet, and finally haughty and chilling in 
 her whole attitude towards Stuart. She did not 
 know all, but she guessed the state of Stuart's 
 mind towards Rhena and she was piqued, if indeed 
 a deeper feeling did not enter into her thought, 
 at the sight of the indifference of her old play- 
 mate to the beauty and attractiveness he had once 
 seemed to enjoy. She bade him good night 
 abruptly and went in at once, leaving him stand- 
 ing somewhat awkwardly by the door waiting for 
 Louise. 
 
 256 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 257 
 
 When Louise and Vasplaine finally appeared, 
 Stuart moved down the steps and without waiting 
 for Vasplaine to say good night he said, " Louise, 
 we had better be going right back. Good night, 
 Vasplaine." 
 
 " Good night ! Good night, Louise," cried the 
 young man ; and he went up the steps at once and 
 into the house. 
 
 For a few- minutes, as the two walked back, 
 neither said anything. Finally Stuart asked 
 abruptly : — 
 
 " How long has Vasplaine been calling you 
 •Louise'.?" 
 
 " Ever since we were children," replied Louise 
 in a mocking tone. But she was very much ex- 
 cited and never looked so pretty in all her life. 
 
 "But not in that tone of voice," replied Stuart. 
 He looked at the face in the fur-trimmed hat. 
 
 Louise looked back at him with just the faintest 
 indication of a sneer on her lips. " Hal asked me 
 to marry him," she said at last. 
 
 "And what did you tell him.'" asked Stuart 
 quietly. 
 
 " I told him I would." 
 
 The two walked on in silence, broken only by 
 the crisp sound of the dry snow under their feet. 
 
258 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Do you love him, Louise ? " Stuart asked 
 gently. 
 
 " Oh, I like him well enough. He is " — 
 
 "Stop, Louise ! I can't bear to hear you speak 
 that way of such a serious matter. Do you know 
 what sort of a man Vasplaine is ? " 
 
 Louise was at anger heat in a moment. She 
 wrenched her arm from Stuart's and spoke with a 
 passion she really felt. " No ! no ! ' Do you think 
 I spy out his habits ? He 's as fast as most of 
 the young men, I suppose. What difference does 
 it make ? What right have you to pass judgment 
 on him .' " 
 
 Stuart was staggered at first. Then he recov- 
 ered himself and replied: "Louise, I love you. 
 You are my sister. I speak as I do because of 
 my knowledge, and I say to you that if you marry 
 Hal Vasplaine you will be a miserable woman. 
 Louise, listen to me ! " Stuart went on, his love 
 for his sister for the moment causing him to for- 
 get his own condition. "This man who has asked 
 you to marry him is — O Louise, he will wreck 
 your life ! He is " — 
 
 " You need not say any more," interrupted 
 Louise coldly. " I have promised to marry him. 
 I like him. I believe I love him even, since your 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 259 
 
 brutal attack on him behind his back. You claim 
 the privilege of marrying beneath you. Let me 
 do the same, if that is what you call it." 
 
 Stuart reeled almost as if he had been struck. 
 He had been standing facing Louise since she 
 took her arm from hi^. He passed his hand 
 across his eyes, and then in a low tone he said : — 
 
 "Let us go on. We shall never understand 
 each other." 
 
 Louise without a word took his arm again and 
 they went on in silence. By the time they 
 reached the town square most of the lights were 
 out, except in the houses where the sick and dying 
 lay. Everything was wrapped in the quiet of a 
 still winter night. The Salvation Army Hall 
 looked cold and bleak, its unpainted siding 
 black with age. There was a light shining from 
 Rhena's room. Their way led right past the 
 house. Stuart trembled as he went by. He 
 feared Louise might say something. 
 
 She did not, however, and neither spoke a 
 word until they reached home. 
 
 Aunt Royal was still up and waiting for them. 
 " You must have walked fast," she said, looking 
 keenly at them both. 
 
 "We did," replied Stuart; "it is a very cold 
 night." 
 
26o triS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 He went into the library where there was an 
 open fire burning in the grate. The rooms were 
 still heavj' with the perfume of roses and carna- 
 tions. 
 
 Aunt Royal and Louise followed him, after 
 Louise had said a few wprds to her aunt. Aunt 
 Royal was as excited as she ever allowed herself 
 to be. 
 
 "Louise tells me you object to her marrying 
 young Vasplaine," .she said, confronting Stuart 
 abruptly. 
 
 Stuart was surprised. He did not think Louise 
 would mention the matter to her aunt. But 
 Louise was thoroughly angry, and small natures 
 like hers are never satisfied to wait long before 
 expressing resentment. It was a very natural 
 thing for her to confide at once in her aunt, being 
 sure in this instance of her perfect sympathy. 
 
 "Yes, I do object," replied Stuart firmly; he 
 looked straight into his aunt's face. 
 
 " On what grounds .■' " 
 
 " The character of the man," answered Stuart 
 quietly. 
 
 " His character ! Do you know that the Vas- 
 plaines have held the very highest position in the 
 best society for several generations .' Has not 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 2 6 1 
 
 young Vasplaine been received everywhere in 
 society where you or Louise have been ? " 
 
 " It is possible that society may have more 
 regard for wealth and a family name than for the 
 little consideration of character and morals. I 
 have heard sometimes that that is the case," said 
 Stuart with a sad smile. 
 
 "Why have you allowed the Vasplaines to 
 come into the house then, if they are such dread- 
 ful people } " asked Louise as she sat in one of 
 the deep easy-chairs, with her feet out towards the 
 fire. 
 
 Stuart did not reply. He was distracted by the 
 events of the evening. He realized that his home 
 life was disturbed by the conflicting factors which 
 necessarily entered it with all his newer ideas and 
 definitions of life. Nothing could be more certain 
 than the fact that henceforth the lives of his 
 sister and Aunt Royal lay in directly opposite 
 ways from his. He felt the needless irritation 
 of the, present discussion and longed to escape 
 from it. 
 
 Louise, however, had no intention of letting 
 Stuart go without suffering from a blow she knew 
 so well how to inflict. " Aunt, I told Stuart he 
 ought not to object to my choice if I did n't 
 
262 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 object to his. I don't think, though, that we 
 shall be disgraced by a Salvation Army alliance 
 in the family. Miss Dwight was presented to 
 Una and her escort this evening, and by the 
 appearance of her face it was easy to see she 
 thought them a very handsome couple." 
 
 Stuart clinched his hands tightly as he stood 
 with his back to the fire. The old passion rose in 
 him to its highest point, 'and nothing but the grace 
 of God kept it from bursting out into a torrent 
 such as in the other days had more than once ter- 
 rified Louise, reckless as she was in provoking it. 
 
 There was a deep silence in the heavily per- 
 fumed room. Stuart drew a long breath. Then 
 he looked fearlessly into Aunt Royal's eyes, and 
 with a sudden movement he stood close by his 
 sister. 
 
 "Louise," he said, and at first his voice was 
 calm, even loving, " you do not know how you 
 hurt me. I expect to ask Miss Dwight to be my 
 wife, but I will never subject her to the humilia- 
 tion of living under the roof of a house where " — 
 
 He broke off abruptly and went out of the 
 room. He felt unable to finish calmly. Aunt 
 Royal and Louise sat up quite late talking over 
 the whole matter. It is not necessary to enter 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 263 
 
 into it. The whole situation was becoming un- 
 bearable so far as Stuart was concerned, so the 
 two women agreed. 
 
 " What if Stuart marries her, and brings her 
 home here.'" Aunt Royal would say. 
 
 "Then I shall leave the house; but I don't be- 
 lieve Rhena Dwight will ever marry him," Louise 
 would reply. And there the matter rested for the 
 time being, in the thought of the women. 
 
 The next morning Stuart did not appear at 
 breakfast. He left word that he had very impor- 
 tant business at the office and could not wait for 
 the late meal to which Aunt Royal and Louise 
 were in the habit of sitting down. 
 
 He had reached a point in his feelings where he 
 felt the necessity of telling Rhena all. What 
 Louise had said about that chance meeting at the 
 hall disturbed him seriously. But the great ques- 
 tion with him now was to know the truth from 
 Rhena herself. 
 
 He spent the forenoon at the office. There was 
 plenty to do. The fever and the want on the part 
 of the miners' families were grim factors now in 
 all Champion. The other ranges were fast feeling 
 the effects of the double scourge of sickness and 
 suffering. Scores of the miners' children were 
 
264 HIS BROTHERS KEEPER. 
 
 dying daily. To meet the emergency Stuart lised 
 his money lavishly. Everything in the way of 
 medicines and nurses' supplies went out of the 
 office in large quantities. He took a melancholy 
 pleasure in spending his money this way. He 
 could at least relieve some pain, lessen some an- 
 guish. It was a drop only in the great ocean of 
 misery, but he had some satisfaction in contribut- 
 ing that much. 
 
 A little after noon word" came to him that the 
 child in the cabin at the end of Cornish town was 
 dying. Stuart had no particular reason for going 
 up there more than to any other cabin where other 
 children were dying, but somehow he felt drawn 
 in that direction, and about two o'clock he drove 
 up the narrow wagon road and left his horse and 
 cutter at the same place where he had stopped the 
 night he had found Rhena. 
 
 He walked on up the path over the trodden 
 snow thinking of that night. The air was crisp 
 and the sky clear. The whole town behind him 
 lay in its setting of snow-dressed hills, beautiful 
 as a picture painted by a master, giving no out- 
 ward sign of the anguish and sorrow that beat 
 within the homes of the miners below. 
 
 He knocked gently at the cabin door, and 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 265 
 
 Rhena opened it. She colored faintly at sight of 
 him, but without a word beckoned him to enter. 
 
 The doctor was kneeling by the bed. It was 
 a child, a little girl, only ten years old, who was 
 dying. Stuart went and stood at the end of the 
 rude bed. Rhena seated herself close by the 
 doctor. The father of the child was helpless from 
 an accident. He lay in the next room. The 
 mothSr was kneeling by the side of the doctor. 
 
 "Is she- — ^is she going — now — doctor.' Don't 
 say so. She be young to go ! " cried the mother 
 as she leaned over the bed and looked into the 
 wasted face there. 
 
 " Yes, she 's going. She will soon be out of 
 suffering," replied the doctor very, very gently. 
 No one was ever more gentle than Dr. Saxon 
 in the presence of the last enemy. He never 
 relaxed his efforts until the last second of life. 
 He looked death in the face with a frown ; that 
 was a part of his rough, abrupt character. But he 
 looked the dying and the mourning in the face 
 with the look of a compassionate angel. 
 
 Very fast the last great change grew now. 
 The father cried out from the other room that 
 he wanted to see his little girl once more. Stuart 
 offered to bring him in. The doctor nodded, and 
 
266 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Stuart went in where the man lay, and with 
 Rhena's help succeeded in getting him into the 
 other room and propped up in a chair where he 
 could see the child. Great tears rolled over his 
 rough, coarse face as he sat there. It was not 
 very long. The doctor made a movement as he 
 held the slender wrist. The eyes opened full on 
 the father as he looked. There was a faint 
 smile. It <;rossed the face as the sunlight, on 
 a day of low lying clouds when the wind is blow- 
 ing hard, crosses a meadow. It was gone, and 
 the gray shadow followed fast after. The form 
 stiffened, there was a sigh, another, and that 
 was all. The doctor laid the little hand down 
 and said, " She is gone." He turned his face 
 away from the mother, and Stuart was startled 
 at the look. It was as if Saxon had seen the 
 death he was continually fighting, and was en- 
 raged at the victory won against his human skill. 
 But he turned again to the mother, who had, after 
 the manner of women among the miners, flung 
 herself over the bed with great shrieks and cries, 
 and lifting her up he half led, half carried her 
 into the other room and laid her down sobbing 
 and groaning on an old couch there. And Stuart 
 could have sworn the doctor's face was as beauti- 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 267 
 
 ful as mercy, and as full of blessing as mortal 
 man's can ever be. When he came back, after 
 performing his office for the dead, the doctor went 
 away. Those were days when sleep and rest were 
 strangers to him. He never fully recovered from 
 the terrible strain of that winter. 
 
 Rhena remained a little while to do what she 
 could, and Stuart sent a boy, who had come up 
 from a neighbor's, down for the undertaker, and 
 promised all in his power. When Rhena went 
 out, he went with her, and they were soon walk- 
 ing together over the very trail where Stuart 
 had started out the night of Rhena's fall. She 
 had other houses in Cornish town to visit, and 
 needed to save time by the short cut which the 
 upper trail afforded. 
 
 Stuart had not asked if he might go with her, 
 and she had neither assented to his company nor 
 rejected it. He had forgotten all about his horse 
 and cutter down the other path. She seemed 
 passive and thoughtful. The scene they had just 
 witnessed affected them both deeply. It was 
 not an unusual sight these days with either, but 
 death never lost its majesty to Stuart, and Rhena 
 was never more exalted in her feeling than in the 
 presence of the great enemy. 
 
268 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 There was hardly room in the trail most of the 
 way for two persons. Stuart walked behind her. 
 They were silent for the most part, except a 
 question or two about different sick, people, until 
 they reached the big stump in the middle of the 
 trail, the other side of which Stuart had found 
 Rhena lying. 
 
 She turned her face a little as she was about to 
 walk around the old landmark, and Stuart spoke 
 to her. He was very pale and trembled. It 
 seemed to him that a great crisis had come for 
 him. When he had spoken the first word he at 
 once became more master of himself. 
 
 " Miss Dwight, I wish to tell you something. 
 Will you allow me to say what I have felt I must 
 say for a long time .■• " 
 
 Rhena looked startled. Her lip trembled. She 
 seemed unable to answer. 
 
 Stuart went on. Now that he had made up 
 his mind, he was like his father in the deter- 
 mination that drove him to his purpose with an 
 iron energy that possessed his whole positive 
 nature. 
 
 " I have been loving you almost from the first 
 moment I saw you. You must have known it 
 from my manner. I am a poor actor. I have 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 269 
 
 not been able to conceal much, even if I had 
 wished to. But my life has been transformed by 
 all this. I have reached the place where I can 
 no longer be silent. I know that I -love you as 
 a man should love the woman whom he asks 
 with all the reverence and joy possible to him 
 to be his wife." 
 
 He had spoken, and it was not what he had 
 once thought he might have said. But he was 
 not prepared for the effect of his declaration upon 
 Rhena. 
 
 She was dressed as usual in her Salvation 
 Army costume. The face in the army bonnet of 
 blue, with its plain ribbons, was typical of the 
 army faces seen everywhere. And yet, while 
 Stuart was speaking, and all through the rest of 
 the interview between them, he thought, with a 
 certain bewilderment, that it was no longer the 
 Salvation Army girl who stood facing him, but 
 the society woman, Miss Rhena Dwight, daughter 
 of Allan Dwight, the millionaire of New York. 
 And yet she was, in still another way, removed 
 from him by the very circumstances of her army 
 connections. Rhena was very pale as she spoke. 
 
 " Mr. Duncan," she said as she leaned back 
 with one hand on the stump as if for support, 
 
270 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " can you speak to me — tell me — this — after 
 what I saw last night — after " — 
 
 " What ! " cried Stuart, the color rushing to his 
 face, " do you mean your seeing me with Miss 
 Vasplaine ? We have been old friends. We were 
 boy and girl together. I was simply going home 
 with her from a social gathering at my house. 
 She is nothing to me but an acquaintance." 
 
 " I have been told that you were engaged," said 
 Rhena after a slight pause. 
 
 " Who told you that .' " cried Stuart impulsively. 
 He stepped near Rhena. 
 
 " Your sister ! " Rhena spoke calmly, looking 
 straight at Stuart ; but she was still very pale. 
 
 " Louise } She deceived you. It is not true. 
 I never had a thought of Miss Vasplaine except 
 that of a friend, an old acquaintance. Do you 
 believe me when I say so .' " Stuart spoke straight 
 on and waited her answer steadily. 
 
 " Yes, I believe you," said Rhena quietly. 
 
 Stuart's heart leaped at the answer. 
 
 " Then you believe me when I say I love you .' 
 You " — 
 
 " Yes ; I believe — I think you are a true man, 
 but what you ask is impossible." 
 
 Stuart controlled himself. He felt that what- 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 271 
 
 ever the crisis might be which now faced him, he 
 must be master of himself. It began to grow 
 upon him that perhaps he had not yet won the 
 love of this rarely strong and beautiful woman, as 
 it should be his. 
 
 " Why impossible .' " he asked with a gentleness 
 and calmness that surprised himself. 
 
 "We live in separate worlds," replied Rhena 
 with an answering calmness that was possibly as 
 surprising to her. " I have cut myself purposely 
 and for always from the life I once lived. I have 
 no wish to re-enter it. I have chosen my life 
 work. It is a work so different from that of soci- 
 ety and the world of which you are a part that to 
 go back to your world would be to turn traitor to 
 all my deepest and best convictions. It is impos- 
 sible that I should be again as I once was." 
 
 Stuart did not reply at once. He looked off 
 over the valley beyond the town to his own house 
 as it stood there on the slope of the hill, palatial 
 in its form and size. 
 
 " But I am not really in that world any more. 
 The cause of humanity is my cause now. Do you 
 condemn me to separation from you because I am 
 what I am outwardly .■■ I loathe the forms and 
 selfishness and heartlessness of society as deeply 
 
272 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 as you do. I would give anything to be other 
 than I am at this moment. If it is simply thgt 
 which keeps you from " — 
 
 He could not finish. It was significant to her 
 that he had not yentured to ask her if she loved 
 him. Neither had he yet spoken her first name. 
 He was a man of rare purpose and power in the 
 emergency that he now faced. He would not ex- 
 pect what was perhaps not yet in her power to 
 give. She was moved deeply. When she spoke 
 again, Stuart had at first a gleam of hope. 
 
 " I believe you see the cause of humanity as I 
 see it, Mr. Duncan. I have believed it since that 
 night in the hall when you told me the story of 
 your conversion. It was so like my own experi- 
 ence that I was startled by it. I went home from 
 a gay party a few years ago. I was awakened by 
 a voice. I saw and heard the divine messenger. 
 I went out from my father's house next day, ^n 
 outcast from kin and friends ; and I have never 
 regretted it. But the gulf between you and me is 
 a deep one, even with this common experience. 
 If I were to become your wife," — Rhena spoke 
 the word with difficulty, — " it would be at the ex- 
 pense of the life of service I have chosen. It 
 would be " — 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 273 
 
 She broke off as if afraid to trust her voice. 
 Stuart would not even then take advantage of her 
 emotion to look at her. His gaze was still down 
 the valley. 
 
 " Is our Christian faith nothing as a common 
 basis for a common work together } Can we not 
 do more thus than to go our own ways alone .' " 
 he asked ; and his heart was hungry for the love of 
 her, and still he would not take what she did not 
 yet have to give. 
 
 Rhena answered quietly : " I cannot. It is not 
 for me to thank you for the greatest honor a good 
 man can give a woman. I am unworthy of it." 
 
 " No ! no ! " Stuart cried at last, turning to her. 
 " I Ipve you. Let me say it even if it may be for 
 the last time." And then he did what he had not 
 thought of doing when he began. But he faced 
 the possibility of an answering love in this woman, 
 and he longed for her too much to leave the mat- 
 ter without fully showing her his heart. 
 
 He took Rhena's glove from his pocket, the 
 glove he had picked up on the trail that night. 
 "See!" he cried, as he showed it to her. "I 
 passed along this path one night, and it was a 
 ni^t of great beauty to me. I found you lying 
 over there close by the moiith of that pit. I 
 
2 74 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 caught you up and carried you down to safety. 
 And for a little while you were mine in my heart's 
 thought, and you could not say me nay." His 
 voice broke in a sob. A man can sob only 
 under certain emotions. Stuart had never felt 
 that before. 
 
 As for Rhena, she caught her breath and 
 then stood pale and still. "They told me Dr. 
 Saxon brought me in. Why did they not tell jne 
 the truth "i Why did he not tell me .' I owe you 
 my life ? " 
 
 It was both a question and a statement. Stuart 
 would not even now anticipate the love that might 
 yet be his. He stood there facing her, silent after 
 that one outburst. At last he said gently, " I 
 would like to keep the glove, may I .' " 
 
 She did not answer him. He put the glove 
 back in his pocket. She was very, very pale. 
 
 He said one more word: "You believe I love 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes, I believe it," she answered, in a very low 
 voice. 
 
 " I shall always love you," he said. He took 
 off his hat. The act was one of reverence. 
 " Some time, when I have won your love, as I 
 know I have not yet, I shall speak again," he 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 275 
 
 added slowly. And then he turned and went 
 back over the trail, never once looking behind. 
 If he had — 
 
 When he disappeared behind a clump of firs, 
 Rhena kneeled down by the old stump and laid 
 . her head upon it, and her prayer was very much 
 like the prayer of that night when Louise had 
 called upon her. After a while she rose and went 
 down the trail. But she was not the same woman. 
 Her heart was shaken for the first time in her 
 life by the love of a great and good man. Ah ! it 
 is possible if he had said to her, " Rhena ! " she 
 might have said, " Stuart ! " and given him all. It 
 was dangerous for her to think of him. She felt 
 as never before. And then the glove, the knowl- 
 edge of her safety due to him, — she trembled. 
 There were times in her feeling when if Stuart 
 had come back she would have said to him, " I 
 love you. Let us go on our way through life 
 together!" And she went on into the next 
 cottage, a look in her eyes that was new to them, 
 and an emotion in her heart that she could not 
 suppress. 
 
 As for Stuart, he went down into Champion 
 with a feeling that was not that of defeat or dis- 
 couragement. It had been a crisis with him. He 
 
276 ffIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 had at last spoken. He had nothing to regret in 
 all he had said. And in spite of the fact that his 
 answer had been No, something told him it was 
 not final. He was the last man in the world to 
 try to argue the woman he loved into loving him. 
 He was not and could not be a pleading suitor for 
 the heart of this woman of all persons in the 
 world. He said to himself the time would come, 
 although he did not attempt to picture when or 
 how, when she would be his as he wanted her to 
 be. With that great thought burning in him, he 
 entered upon one of the busiest and most signifi- 
 cant weeks of his life. 
 
 In the first place, when Sunday came he joined 
 the church. He had already, two weeks before, 
 gone into the preparatory meeting with Andrew 
 and there recited his experience. It seemed the 
 most necessary act in the world that he should 
 identify himself openly and boldly with other 
 Christians, in the organization which Christ 
 loved. There was not a moment's hesitation in 
 Stuart's mind about the duty and privilege of 
 church membership. That was a notable day in 
 his life when Andrew asked him to rise and give 
 assent to the church covenant. 
 
 The news that Stuart Duncan was going to 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 277 
 
 join the church was interesting enough to call out 
 a large part of the population of Champion. 
 Andrew had never seen such a congregation. St. 
 John's was crowded, very largely with the miners 
 and their families. Stuart was the only person 
 received at this communion. When he rose at 
 Andrew's invitation, his face was calm and even 
 beautiful. It was a splendid sight to see these two 
 men facing each other at the communion service. 
 When Stuart kneeled to Receive the baptism, An- 
 drew's voice trembled for a second over the words, 
 " I baptize thee, Stuart, my brother, disciple of 
 Jesus," and many an eye in the audience mois- 
 tened. When the bread was passed, Stuart re- 
 ceived it from one of the miners who had worked 
 in Champion mines ever since Stuart was a boy. 
 He was deacon in St. John's, and Stuart never for- 
 got the look on the old man's face as he handed 
 the plate in at the end of the pew. More than 
 half Andrew's membership were Cornish men. 
 It was a day long remembered by them. 
 
 And to Stuart there came also, as he partook 
 for the first time of the elements, a new and 
 serious thought of the fellowship he had begun 
 with these men, nearly all of whom had been in 
 his father's employ. It was true, they were of 
 
278 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the rudest, most uneducated sort. Their type of 
 Christianity as church members was not very ex- 
 alted. They were at this very moment engaged 
 in a method of struggle against capital which was 
 contrary to all Stuart's real conyictions, but he had 
 reached a point where he looked upon the struggle 
 from a different basis. The men in the church 
 were for the most part prayerful, honest, and, above 
 all, generous with what th^ possessed. Stuart did 
 not know it, but Deacon Sam Penryck, who passed 
 the bread and wine, had that very morning given 
 one of the suffering families in Cornish town a third 
 of his own savings which he had stored up for the 
 winter to take him through the strike. But it 
 was not about the type of Christianity that Stuart 
 was thinking as he sat there. It was about his 
 relations with these men with whom he was now 
 associated as a member of the body of Christ. 
 If he had been growing more and more to believe 
 that he was his brother's keeper ever since the 
 death of his father, much more now, especially 
 since his conversion and this day's communion. 
 Andrew's prayer touched on that. The service 
 was very impressive. 
 
 At its close Stuart asked Andrew if he might 
 say a word, and very simply but strongly he 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 279 
 
 stated his Christian faith and asked for the prayers 
 of the church that strength and wisdom might be 
 given him to live the true life of a disciple. His 
 words, as he stood there in all the strength and 
 glory of his young manhood, touched the men 
 deeply. They did not show it much, but they felt 
 it and talked of it on their way home. Such a 
 scene had not been known in Champion in their 
 lifetime. 
 
 In spite of all this, and the tremendous hold 
 that Stuart was obtaining over the men, the 
 Union held out for its original terms, and showed 
 no signs of weakening. The Salvation Army 
 still continued to exercise its restraining influence 
 over the majority, although the drinking was 
 increasing. Almost the only hope Stuart had 
 now was that the Cleveland owners would be 
 compelled to yield before the winter was over, 
 owing to the demand for ore which for the last 
 weeks had been increasing. He had little ex- 
 pectation that the full demand of the miners 
 would be granted, for he remembered that in the 
 history of strikes very few large strike* had ever 
 been successful. But he hoped the owners might 
 make such concessions that the Union would agree 
 to go back on a large rise in previous wages. 
 
28o HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 So the week following communion Sunday 
 opened with special meaning to Stuart. It was 
 a memorable week for Champion. The fever 
 epidemic had reached its height. Most of its 
 victims were children. The number of daily 
 deaths was appalling. Andrew, Eric, the doctor, 
 the nurses, Rhena and Stuart, with all the avail- 
 able help from the Christian people in the town, 
 were battling the enemy with all the might of 
 skill and the exercise of all that money and 
 watchfulness could accomplish. 
 
 Stuart and Rhena met several times that week. 
 Nearly always it was by the side of some dead or 
 dying child. They said little. Each seemed to 
 be waiting for something. Rhena was worn and 
 thin, but there had come into her eyes a look she 
 dared not let Stuart see. The winter had its 
 influence in addition to all this to repress and 
 bear down the hearts of the people. Never had 
 such snowdrifts been known in Champion, or 
 such severe cold. The nights set in with bitter 
 winds sweeping down the hills, and after the even- 
 ing train had plowed its way out of the station on 
 its dreary trip westward, Champion seemed to be 
 abandoned by God and man ; all connection with 
 the outer world seemed cut off, the iron hills shut 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 2 8 1 
 
 down hard and close about the town, and the 
 long, terrible night began — a night of agony to 
 those who lived and those who died. The date 
 of the great strike and the great fever and the 
 great winter will never be forgotten by the chil- 
 dren who were left untouched by the grim Death. 
 
 One night that week Stuart had come home 
 very late, thoroughly exhausted with the frost 
 chill in his bones, the benumbing sense of his 
 responsibility weighing him down, and his heart 
 crying out, "O Lord, how long! how long!" 
 He had gone up to his room and had sunk into a 
 heavy sleep. He wakened between two and three 
 o'clock with a feeling of something wrong. It 
 was so pressing that he rose and dressed and 
 went to the window that looked out on the town. 
 The night was one of the bitterest ever known. 
 The wind was blowing an icy gale through the 
 valley. Even the Duncan mansion, warmed as it 
 was with the best and most expensive apparatus, 
 felt the shock of the almost solid cold that struck 
 through everything. 
 
 Suddenly Stuart saw a light in the lower end 
 of Cornish town. The miners' houses or cabins 
 there were built for the most part of logs or slabs 
 from the mill. They were crowded very close 
 
282 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 together at the lower part of the town. As he 
 looked, the light flamed up higher, and his heart 
 bounded as he realized that one of the cabins was 
 on fire. The horror of it as he considered what 
 such an accident meant on such a night stupefied 
 him, but only for a second. The next instant he 
 was downstairs, had flung himself into his over- 
 coat, was out of the house and speeding down the 
 road. 
 
 When he reached the square, lights were 
 springing up in the windows all about. The 
 alarm had reached the people and they were ris- 
 ing. By the time he reached Cornish town half 
 a dozen houses were blazing. The miners had 
 turned out in a body and were fighting the fire 
 like fiends, but the intense cold, the high wind, 
 and the nearness of the cabins to one another at 
 this part of the settlement made the fight a most 
 hopeless one. 
 
 Stuart ordered all the sick and aged to be 
 carried out of the houses nearest to the fire, and 
 he himself worked like ten men. There was no 
 water available. The engine and hose companies 
 had made a desperate effort to reach the settle- 
 ment, but the tremendous drifts and the condition 
 of the roads made it impossible. The snow itself 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 283 
 
 vas the only weapon within reach. It was piled 
 iver the low-roofed cabins by the excited miners, 
 vho saved some houses on the edges by this 
 lovel method. . But the wind swept everything 
 )efore it in the center of the fire, and at last all 
 hat the men tried to do was to rescue the 
 nmates. 
 
 Stuart was helping some one carry a dying 
 ;hild out of a cabin, when a great blazing timber 
 vas caught up by the hurricane, and flung, as if 
 jy some giant hand, right over the couch on which 
 :he child was lying, and struck Stuart, knocking 
 lim off his feet and causing the man who was 
 ;arrying the other end of the burden to stagger 
 md fall. Stuart did not rise. At that moment 
 Dr. Saxon was coming out of the adjoining cabin. 
 The man who had been helping Stuart rose and 
 i^elled for the doctor. He came over and picked 
 jp Stuart as if he had been a little boy, and 
 ;arried him clear down the path to Eric's cottage. 
 The miners said afterwards that Saxon's face, as 
 t blazed in the light of that horrible fire, was the 
 ace of one who looked both death and hell in 
 he countenance, and defied them to steal away 
 lis beloved. 
 
 Eric's cottage was out of the line of the wind 
 
284 HIS BROTHERS KEEPER. 
 
 and fire that night. The doctor laid Stuart down. 
 As he did so, a woman rushed into the cottage 
 and flung herself down by the side of the body. 
 It was Rhena, and she cried as she kneeled there: 
 " Stuart ! Stuart ! Do you know me ! I love 
 you ! O doctor, he is not dead ! He is not, is 
 he .'' Oh, how I love him ! I love him ! " 
 
 "At this rate," quoth Dr. Saxon grimly, "we 
 shall have to put up another band stand in the 
 square ! " But he looked at Stuart as he lay 
 there, deaf to all those words of love from the 
 woman whose heart was now his, and the doctor's 
 look was very stern and grave. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 TT was two weeks after the fire and the acci- 
 -^ dent to Stuart. Eric was sitting by the bed, 
 for Stuart was still in Eric's cottage. His acci- 
 dent had been so serious that there had been no 
 thought of his removal. During the anxious days 
 and nights Eric had hardly left Stuart's side. 
 Andrew had begged to be allowed to watch, but 
 Eric had insisted upon his prior right and had 
 refused to give way to any one else. 
 
 There was another watcher, who, more than 
 Andrew, regarded Eric jealously, and that was 
 a woman who stole into the cottage often with 
 the doctor's coming, and remained, dry-eyed and 
 pale, with the heart's hunger of love staring out 
 of great eyes that burned over Stuart, as if by 
 very force of compelling affection they would 
 rouse him into knowledge and life again. Rhena 
 did not try to hide the feeling she now had. The 
 doctor came in quietly that day while Eric was 
 sitting asleep at the side of Stuart, exhausted by 
 his great vigil, and found Rhena on her knees 
 
 "8s 
 
286 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 praying. The intensity of her desire for Stuart's 
 life broke out into an audible petition. 
 
 " O Lord, my God, save him ! What has he 
 done to die ? Oh, how can I say, ' Thy will be 
 done ' .' I never loved' before. Spare him, God 
 of all goodness ! He is so needed in thy world ! 
 Surely there are others who would be less — 
 God ! what am I saying .' But he is my lover ! 
 And he does not know that I love him ! " 
 
 " Beg pardon ! " interrupted the doctor ; " but 
 you .'re mistaken about that. He knows it per- 
 fectly well. Just tell him four or five times more, 
 if you think it is necessary." 
 
 Rhena turned her head towards Stuart. He lay 
 there with his eyes open, for the first time in days, 
 really conscious, and with a smile on his face 
 which was heaven to her. She simply turned on 
 her knees and bowed her head over Stuart's hand 
 and put her lips to it, and then, to the doctor's 
 surprise, she fell over and fainted. 
 
 " It beats all creation what these women can 
 spring in the way of surprises on a man ! " said the 
 doctor as he picked Rhena up and carried her 
 over to a couch at the other end of the room. 
 
 Eric had started out of his doze and Stuart had 
 shut his eyes again, lapsing into his former stupor. 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 287 
 
 but still with a smile on his lips. "But if any 
 lass has a right to faint, this one has. Are you 
 going to tumble off again, ma'am .' " he asked as 
 Rhena began to come to. " You can, if you want 
 to. Do you want to cry .' Come ! that 's a good 
 girl ! Cry a little. It '11 do us all good. Want 
 a handkerchief .' Here 's mine." 
 
 Rhena sat up suddenly and seized Saxon's hand. 
 "O doctor, he will get well, won't he.' He is 
 better .' There is hope } He knew me for a 
 moment ! You do believe my prayer will be 
 answered ? " 
 
 Rhena was crying softly. She was broken and 
 nervous with the great strain of the last two 
 weeks. 
 
 " I 've heard worse prayers get attended to," 
 replied the doctor shortly. 
 
 " But do you think — oh, doctor, it is death to 
 me to think of — tell me, what do you fear.' Is 
 he — will he live.' " 
 
 The doctor shut his lips tight. Rhena watched 
 him with her hands clinched hard over his. She 
 did not know it, but her slim fingers hurt even the 
 doctor's rugged, knotty fists. Finally he answered 
 her. " I think, yes, I am quite sure, now that he 
 knows that you care for him a little, there is a 
 fighting chance." 
 
288 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Care for him a little ! " replied Rhena with a 
 smile that melted the doctor completely. " Doc- 
 tor, were you ever in love ? " 
 
 " No," replied the doctor ; " but if I was, I 'd 
 have to put up still another band stand in the 
 square. One apiece would n't be too much for 
 three such fools as you and Stuart and me." 
 
 " What 's that nonsense he 's talking .' " asked 
 Eric, coming over to the end of the room where 
 they were. 
 
 " It was not nonsense," said Rhena with more 
 color in her face than it had seen since the day 
 Stuart had first spoken to her. She went over to 
 the side of Stuart and sat down there watching 
 him. She had a great hope now. The doctor 
 always told the truth. And indeed he afterwards 
 said, nothing but love brought Stuart out alive. 
 
 " I 've heard that people who were in love could 
 live on nothing," the doctor said, " but I do be- 
 lieve if Stuart had n't come to himself long enough 
 that day to hear that little prayer, I 'd 'a' had two 
 funerals on my hands pretty quick. Well, I never 
 understood these women. There she was one 
 minute as limp as a dead fish, and the next she 
 was as lively as a Salvation Army tambourine. 
 If I could get this article they call love fixed up 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 289 
 
 in a prescription and deal it out in severe cases, I 
 believe it would do more good than all the microbe 
 killers on earth." 
 
 Those were wonderful days when Stuart was 
 declared out of danger. Andrew celebrated by 
 bringing over his choicest blossoms. He ranged 
 two pots of roses on a table where Stuart could 
 see them, and laid a beautiful white carnation on 
 the bed within reach of Stuart's fingers. 
 
 " It 's the only one I 've been able to get this 
 winter,. Stuart. Is n't it a beauty } It 's a new 
 variety. Do you know what I have called it .' I 
 took the liberty to call it the ' Rhena Dwight.' " 
 
 When Rhena came in a few minutes after, 
 Andrew and Eric pretended to be busy talking at 
 the other end of the room. 
 
 Stuart picked up the carnation and spoke feebly, 
 but the light of life was in his eyes. " This 
 blossom is called the Rhena Dwight, so Andrew 
 says. Will you take it because of the love I bear 
 you.?" 
 
 Rhena took the flower and kissed it. Thtn she 
 shyly placed the blossom against Stuart's lips. 
 Tl^en she laid it down again in his hand. 
 
 "No," she said, "you keep the Rhena Dwight 
 for the love I have for you. " 
 
290 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Is it any wonder Stuart grew well with great 
 rapidity after that ? 
 
 In a week he was almost well. He was able to 
 take part in the discussions which forced them- 
 selves into that little room in spite of all Eric 
 could do. There had been three weeks almost a 
 blank to Stuart, but full of horror and misery for 
 the miners on all the ranges. The fire that dread- 
 ful night had made three or four hundred people 
 homeless. The deaths from fever had lessened 
 some in Champion, but at De Mott the daily mor- 
 tality had increased. But most of the suffering 
 came from lack of clothing and fuel and food. 
 The winter had continued with terrible severity. 
 And still the Union held out with remarkable 
 stubbornness, although the week of Stuart's con- 
 valescence there was a rumor that a break would 
 come very soon. The Union had reached its limit 
 of ability to help in a financial way long before 
 this. 
 
 Stuart came back to strength and new vitality 
 
 a 
 
 with all the force of the old problem intensified as 
 he realized what the three weeks had added to it. 
 He was glorified with the love of Rhena, now 
 wholly his, but he knew that for nothing did "she 
 love him more than for his desire to try to solve 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 291 
 
 the human problem, as it touched both their lives 
 in Champion. With all the added warmth and 
 enthusiasm of her great-hearted wisdom he now 
 set himself to the duty before him. It was not 
 alone his desire that Rhena should be one of the 
 company when Eric and Andrew came in to talk 
 over matters. The other men had learned that 
 woman's wit very often supplies the necessary fac- 
 tor in a solution of practical relief, and Rhena 
 took her place with them as indispensable to their 
 councils henceforth. 
 
 "Something has got to be done soon for the 
 people who lost everything in the fire," said An- 
 drew. The little group of four were in Eric's 
 room, Stuart on the couch, Rhena sitting near the 
 end of it, Eric pacing the room, his dark eyes 
 restless and burning. 
 
 " I understand they have all been comfortably 
 cared for. But I don't see, myself, what Cham- 
 pion people have been able to do for them in the 
 way of housing them," said Stuart, looking at 
 Andrew, upon whom a large share of the work of 
 relief had fallen during Stuart's unconscious con- 
 dition. 
 
 " Heaven knows how all of them have been 
 cared for. The Salvation Army Hall has been 
 
292 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 turned into barracks, and Miss Rhena here knows 
 how much the army has done." 
 
 "It has done very little in comparison with what 
 it would like to do," said Rhena sadly. 
 
 " Do you know what it would like to do .' " asked 
 Stuart, who was only just beginning to compre- 
 hend how great and pressing was the need since 
 the fire and three weeks more of the strike. 
 
 " I 'm afraid it 's not much use for me to say," 
 answered Rhena with added sadness. 
 
 "You forget," answered Stuart. "What is all 
 my money for } Why have you not been spending 
 it all this time } " he asked almost fiercely, turning 
 to Eric, who still paced the room and who had not 
 yet spoken. 
 
 " I 've spent plenty of other people's money, in 
 my mind," answered Eric as bitterly as he ever 
 spoke. " But I never spent it in reality ; and when 
 it comes to the suffering we face now, I would n't 
 know where to stop. What right have people to 
 go on wasting God's property so wickedly while 
 there is so much suffering .' " 
 
 He looked at Andrew as he spoke ; and Andrew, 
 who seldom made a retort of any kind, replied : — 
 
 " Ask the devil ; he knows more about it than 
 I do." 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 293 
 
 "And then there is the Church," continued Eric, 
 who was irritable and nervous on this occasion, 
 for his long watching with Stuart had been a 
 great strain on him ; " what is it doing in com- 
 parison with what it ought to do ? Stuart, you 
 asked me quite awhile ago why I joined the Sal- 
 vation Army. I '11 tell you why. There was no- 
 where else I could go for the religious expression 
 of my life. St. John's Church is a curious mixture 
 of workingmen and tradesmen, and I 'm not- saying 
 anything of its aristocracy, for it has n't any, but 
 if I do say it (and I am sorry to have to say it) the 
 whole object of the church, before Andrew came 
 here to it, seemed to be to meet together for meet- 
 ings which gave occasion for a good deal of feel- 
 ing and emotion, but never realized anything of a 
 practical nature in helping to relieve the pressure 
 of the physical needs of men. The whole thing 
 evaporated in feeling and psalm-singing and 
 prayers that never really got much outside the 
 walls of the vestry. I 'm not crying down the 
 Christian lives of the church members. There are 
 hundreds of them better than I am. But the ex- 
 pression of their Christianity through the struc- 
 ture (A the Church seemed to me almost nothing. 
 One man may be just as strong as another, but if 
 
294 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 one of them is u.sing a dull axe and the other one a 
 sharp axe to cut down a tree, the strength of the 
 two men is not being equally spent so far as get- 
 ting results goes, and the man with the sharp tool 
 will do the best work, not because he has more 
 muscle, but a better axe. It came upon me with 
 the force of a conversion that I never could do 
 much through the church as an instrument. 
 That 's the reason I went into the Salvation 
 Army. It represented the sacrificial spirit of 
 Christianity to me a hundred limes where the 
 church did not represent it at all. Take the 
 church of St. Peter here in Champion. It is 
 always spoken of in the papers as the most fash- 
 ionable church in town. Think of that ! So The 
 News Crier stated in giving the account of its- 
 annual meeting. What do those people know of 
 sacrifice, or of the spirit of Christ, who gave up 
 all his riches to become poor for the sake of dying 
 humanity? I'm sitting in judgment on them and 
 I shall some time be called to account for doing it ; 
 but if I was a Catholic, I 'd be willing to sit on the 
 hottest fire in purgatory to say what I think about 
 an 'aristocratic church.' And this one here in 
 Champion is only one out of thousands all over 
 the country. What is the Church as an institution 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 295 
 
 doing to obey the command of Christ, to deny 
 itself, take up its cross, forsake its ease and pleas- 
 ure, and follow him ? " 
 
 Again Eric turned in his walk and confronted 
 Andrew. Stuart and Rhena watched him, almost 
 sorrowfully, after listening to Eric's outburst. 
 Over Andrew's usually jolly, good-natured face 
 had crept a gray shadow of seriousness that 
 showed how deeply Eric's sharp condemnation 
 had pierced. 
 
 "Your question is larger than any answer I 
 can make without taking up hours of discussion," 
 he said at last, speaking calmly, but with evident 
 self-control over a possible fury of feeling. " The 
 Church to-day contains some of the noblest and 
 some of the meanest men and women. There is 
 in the Church the highest, purest, most saintly 
 devotion to Christ and his teaching, and at the 
 same time there is alongside of it the most 
 awful selfishness and love of ceremony, show, and 
 hypocrisy. The scribes and Pharisees are just as 
 much in evidence now as when they cried to 
 Pilate, ' Crucify him ! crucify him ! ' Long ago 
 I came to the conclusion that the same people 
 would nail Jesus to the cross again if he appeared 
 in this generation and denounced their hypocrisy 
 
296 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 and selfishness as he did before. At the same 
 time, he would have a great army of disciples who 
 would suffer martyrdom for his sake. I regard- 
 the Church of to-day as occupying a peculiar 
 position in the world of struggle between differ- 
 ent groups of men. There is a growing feeling 
 on the part' of many churches that a great revo- 
 lution in methods and purpose is at hand, and 
 that nothing will be so radically changed in 
 spirit and purpose as the Church of Christ. The 
 amount of relief for suffering that flows out of 
 the organization we now have is no doubt enor- 
 mous. Propose to any civilized community in 
 this country that it wipe out its churches alto- 
 gether, and the proposition would meet with in- 
 stant objection even on the part of those who 
 are most ready to denounce the Church for its 
 uselessness. I am not attempting to answer your 
 question in full, Eric. Of course if I did not 
 believe in the Church, — I mean in its possibilities 
 of sacrifice, — I would not work from it as a cen- 
 ter. I would get out and work from some other 
 basis. But this is my best reason for believing in 
 the Church as a power for the world's redemptive 
 uplift after all else has been said." Andrew 
 paused, and the rest listened thoughtfully. " The 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 297 
 
 Church is the only organization Jesus ever men- 
 tioned. He especially loved it. It was not any 
 particular form or name that he loved, but the 
 discipleship organized in love to one another and 
 a common Master, going forward to conquer the 
 world for God. And after the trials and false 
 representations of Christ in the Church have had 
 their day, after the aristocratic churches have 
 died and the memory of their pomps and fashion 
 is no more, after the coldness and carelessness 
 and superficial worldliness of -the Church have 
 had their time lived out, the true Church will 
 survive the wreck of r this agonizing death in 
 life, and be a univer .i representation of the cru- 
 cified Lamb of God, giving its life for the needs 
 of a suffering and dying race. ' I believe in the 
 holy, catholic Church ' ^ in the sense that I 
 believe it contains the leaven that is necessary 
 to leaven the whole lump. Why, even the Sal- 
 vation Army never would have had an existence 
 if it had not been for the Church." 
 
 " Do you mean that the Church had grown so 
 mean and useless that the army had to be organ- 
 ized to do what the Church ought to have 
 done ? " asked Eric with a smile. 
 
 ^ Meaning the Church universal. 
 
298 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " No ; I mean, of course, that the Christian 
 men and women who organized the army had 
 their nurture and training in the. Church. She 
 was their mother. They went out from her home 
 to do a work they never could have done if they 
 had not been trained and taught at her feet." 
 
 " Is not the Salvation, Army as much the 
 Church as any other form of organization where 
 Christian disciples get together in Christ's name } " 
 asked Rhena. 
 
 " Yes, I think so," replied Andrew. 
 
 "I mean to prove it by joining both," said 
 Stuart, looking at Rhena. 
 
 " You can't join the army without giving up 
 your own wishes and obeying the orders of your 
 superior officer," said Rhena slyly. 
 
 " It"'s one of the rules of the army also, I 
 understand," added Andrew with a twinkle, " that 
 a private cannot even marry without asking the 
 consent of the commanding officer. Isn't that 
 so. Miss Rhena ? " 
 
 " I 've asked it and obtained it," said Stuart. 
 " The commanding officer says, ' Get married as 
 soon as you recover from your present illness.' " 
 
 " She does n't either," said Rhena hastily. 
 Then as Andrew and Eric began to laugh, she 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 299 
 
 blushed and said, to hide the confusion, " We are 
 getting away from our original question. Stuart 
 wants to know how to spend his money. It 
 seems too bad if we can't any of us tell him 
 how." 
 
 " I can tell him how to use several thousands," 
 said Eric, who, after expressing his own mind on 
 the church question, was once more the calm, 
 thoughtful, even attractive man he really was. 
 Eric had great powers, but they were not devel- 
 oped. 
 
 " Well, go on ! " cried Stuart. 
 
 " The miners need new houses in Cornish town. 
 What could be a better way to inyest ten or 
 twenty thousand dollars than to put up a hundred 
 substantial houses that would really be homes } " 
 
 " What do you think of that .? " asked Stuart, 
 turning naturally to Rhena. 
 
 " It ought to be done," she answered softly, 
 " and a good deal more. I am not thinking of the 
 hpuses alone, but of the men, women, and children 
 who live in them. There is no doubt they have 
 had all these years the most miserable quarters. 
 What can be expected of a family living in a cabin 
 of only three rooms at most ? How much reiine- 
 ment and civilization can come out of such 
 
300 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 surroundings ? Stuart, you must drain the settle- 
 ment and " — 
 
 " I '11 drain the whole neighborhood ! " cried 
 Stuart. " And the houses shall be built at once. 
 Why have you let me lie here all this time like a 
 useless thing when so much needed to be done ? " 
 
 Just then Dr. Saxon came in. He entered as 
 usual, the minute he had rapped a peculiar knock 
 known by every one in Champion, stopping out- 
 side only long enough to say, " It 's the doctor." 
 
 The minute he appeared, Stuart began to abuse 
 him for not getting him well quicker. 
 
 " I '11 never pay you. Doc, unless you give me 
 something that will let me out of this in a day or 
 two. Or else I 'll'sue you for malpractice ! " 
 
 " If you do, I '11 sue the company for half a 
 million dollars' worth of practice done on the 
 miners since the strike and the fire. I 'm going 
 to retire after this winter if I can law the com- 
 pany out of what they owe me. But you can get 
 out again in a day or two. The only thing that 
 ails you now is heart trouble, and I can't cure that. 
 You are in a very dangerous condition." 
 
 The doctor looked at Rhena and so did Stuart, 
 and then after a moment of sober thoughtfulness 
 the doctor smiled. It was a rare smile and made 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 30 1 
 
 his rugged, storm-beaten face almost handsome. 
 He was alreatly moving towards the door to go 
 out. He was in a great hurry that morning, for 
 a wonder, he said, and simply stepped in on his 
 way up the hill to see how Stuart was 
 
 "Stop him!" cried Stuart to Eric. "Say, 
 doctor, don't go yet. We need your advice. We 
 want your help in making plans for the relief " — 
 
 "Oh, get out for plans for relief! I have no 
 sympathy with them ! The more you give these 
 ungrateful, obstinate old — I tell you, Stuart, you 'd 
 better keep your money. You '11 need it when 
 you begin housekeeping. Every time when you 
 go down town your wife will want you to bring 
 home a mouse trap and a lemon squeezer, or a 
 barrel of pepper or something. Eric, if you try 
 to stop me, I '11 throw you through the window." 
 
 The doctor rushed out of the door and slammed 
 it shut. The next minute he opened it, and 
 looking in, he said gravely, " If you mean to do 
 anything worth while about the draining, or build- 
 ing new houses, I '11 give you a hint or two when 
 I get time." 
 
 The next minute he was gone, and Stuart could 
 see from the little window a vision of Ajax and 
 the cutter as they tore up the hill. 
 
302 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " I wonder if the doctor will ever get time ? " 
 said Andrew. " I wonder what he Vill do when 
 he gets to the other country, where there is to be 
 no more pain nor crying nor death ! " 
 
 " I declare, it puzzles me to guess what he '11 do. 
 I can't imagine him sitting on the edge of a rose- 
 colored cloud taking it easy," replied Stuart. " I 
 have no doubt there will be some arrangements 
 made for his special benefit." 
 
 " Don't you think we shall all be as busy there 
 as we are here .' " asked Rhena. 
 
 "Of course," Andrew answered. "Only we 
 shall have plenty of time to do things as we want. 
 I love to believe that I can raise roses of all sorts 
 and have, say, a thousand years to experiment on 
 new varieties, without feeling all the time that I 
 ought to be making that parish call or writing 
 that sermon or getting ready for that committee 
 meeting." 
 
 "You don't believe there will be roses in the 
 other world, do you.'" inquired Eric quizzically. 
 
 "I don't?" exclaimed Andrew. "What would 
 heaven be without roses and little children .' " 
 
 " I 'm not quarreling with your idea. I like it," 
 replied Eric. " I hope there will be roses there 
 without the thorns. Meanwhile we are living in 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 303 
 
 the town of Champion, where the thorns outnum- 
 ber the roses two to one. If we can make this 
 Httle spot of earth more like heaven, perhaps we '11 
 be in a condition to enjoy the other place better 
 when our turn comes to go to it." 
 
 "There's no doubt of it!" Stuart spoke with 
 an emphasis that meant a world of action. " As 
 certain as the Lord raises me up from this weak- 
 ness of body, I will render him an account of my 
 stewardship. Eric, you and Andrew can arrange 
 the details of this work. Our duty is imperative. 
 It is as clear as light to me. Those houses shall 
 be built as fast as money can do it. And the 
 other cabins shall be torn down and new ones be 
 put up in their places." 
 
 " How about that hall dedicated to the interests 
 of labor .' " asked Eric, smiling. 
 
 " Up it goes, as soon as we can get at it. I 
 don't like the idea of calling it a hall for labor 
 interests. I tell you, Eric, the rich need preach- 
 ing to more than the poor. They need to be 
 taught their duties and privileges. The hall will 
 be built, but it shall be called The Hall of Hu- 
 manity. It shall be dedicated to the entire 
 community, and whatever is said or preached or 
 sung in it shall be for the union of men, for their 
 
304 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 good as members of the human family. Every 
 unselfish, Christlike word and deed we can think 
 of shall be given a place within its walls. Oh, 
 I 've done some thinking since I began to get 
 well ! But first to the house building. Rhena, 
 you can help us in the details of this important 
 work." 
 
 Stuart never spoke a truer word. Rhena 
 entered into the plans for building with all her 
 enthusiasm. She outlined the most satisfactory 
 and sensible arrangement for the structure of the 
 new houses ; and during the next few weeks she 
 was the life of the project, her great common 
 sense and practical knowledge of the needs of the 
 occasion assisting Eric and Andrew wonderfully, 
 as the entire work grew under their hands. 
 
 Two days after this conference in Eric's cot- 
 tage Stuart was able to go home. The evening 
 of the day he returned was the scene of a 
 conversation between him and Aunt Royal and 
 Louise that is necessary to relate. Both his aunt 
 and Louise had been several times to see him 
 while he was at Eric's. It was clear to Stuart 
 that no course he could take on the lines now 
 laid out by his new definition of life could possibly 
 meet with the approval of these women. 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 305 
 
 The conversation started with a statement 
 Stuart made concerning his coming marriage. 
 
 " We shall be married as soon as Miss Dwight 
 can get ready." Stuart had reference to her 
 Salvation Army duties, and the work necessary to 
 the building of the houses. 
 
 " I suppose she is ordering her trousseau from 
 Paris } I should love to see a Salvation Army 
 gown made after the latest European style," said 
 Louise with a sneer. 
 
 " Do you expect to be married in the Army 
 Hall } " asked Aunt Royal with a frigid look at 
 her nephew. 
 
 " My wife," said Stuart with a distinctness that 
 ignored all this, but made one point very plain, 
 " will be the undisputed mistress of this house. 
 She is the peer of any woman living in education, 
 accomplishment, and grace ; and she is the supe- 
 rior of most of them in her spiritual refinement 
 and self-sacrifice." 
 
 " Are you going to bring her here ? " asked 
 Louise with a curious look. 
 
 "Where else should I bring the woman I 
 marry ? " asked Stuart, turning to Louise. 
 
 " I did n't know but that Miss Dwight would 
 prefer to live in a humbler fashion after all her 
 
306 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 talk and prayers about giving up this and that 
 and the other. But of course if she decides to 
 enjoy the sinful luxuries of life after her roughing 
 it in army halls, you know what I shall do ? " 
 
 Stuart did not answer. Aunt Royal watched 
 him closely. 
 
 " I shall simply leave, that is all," continued 
 Louise. " I don't live under the same roof with 
 Rhena Dwight as dictator over me." 
 
 Stuart was about to say something,-btrt- Loylse 
 interrupted him. " I shall be abLa to care for 
 myself. You need n't plan for anything different, 
 for I have made up my mind.^^T'Ctipt'^jal will let 
 me stay with her until I am married. I "shall be 
 glad to go to New York, anyway. I 'm getting 
 tired of the winter up here, with all this gloom 
 and sacrifice and suffering so prominent. So don't 
 put off the happy wedding day on my account, 
 Stuart." 
 
 " Louise, I want to speak to you alone a few 
 minutes. Aunt," continued Stuart politely, but 
 plainly, "will you kindly excuse me if I take 
 Louise into the library } " 
 
 " Oh, by all means," replied Aunt Royal, who 
 was outwardly cool and placid, but inwardly a 
 raging fire. 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 307 
 
 So Louise went with Stuart, although she said 
 at first she would not go. She was under his 
 dominion when he exerted his will. 
 
 " Louise," — Stuart stood facing the pretty coun- 
 tenance, and a look of pity and love crept over 
 his own, — "I cannot bear to think that we are 
 going to have this misunderstanding to separate 
 us. Cannot you and Miss Dwight be friends } " 
 
 "No, it is out of the question," replied Louise 
 shortly. She was thinking of the lie she told 
 Rhena, and she knew that no matter if Rhena 
 was ready to forgive it, now that she was going 
 to be Stuart's wife, there was a gulf of difference 
 between them. And, besides, she was entirely 
 out of sympathy with all of Stuart's present plans 
 of life. 
 
 "Then if that is out of the question, Louise, 
 there is another matter I must speak of again. 
 I refer to your promise to marry Vasplaine. Be 
 patient with me when I tell you, Louise dear, that, 
 out of the love I have for you, I would almost 
 rather see you dead than married to that " — 
 
 " Is this what you called me in here for ? " cried 
 Louise furiously, raising her voice. " I will not 
 listen to it. You are a coward to attack him so, 
 behind his back." 
 
308 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " Louise," interrupted Stuart, who was deathly 
 pale, " it is out of love for you that I speak. I 
 forgive your misunderstanding of my motive," 
 he added hastily, as he heard Aunt Royal nearing 
 the door. " If the time should ever come, dear, 
 when you feel the need of my love, my heart and 
 home will always be open to you." 
 
 How little, as he spoke, Stuart thought of the 
 meaning of those words, even if he did look with 
 some certainty into the future. Louise turned 
 from him, and their interview ended. It was only 
 one more part of the evidence, daily growing 
 stronger in Stuart's mind, of the great difference 
 between his old life and the new. He realized 
 now, as he never had thought to know, the mean- 
 ing of those words, " A man's foes shall be those 
 of his own household." The division line had 
 been drawn the minute he chose to follow Jesus 
 Christ, and the separation of necessity had gone 
 on widening between him and the old life, still 
 represented by Louise and his aunt. He did not 
 blind himself in the least as to the cause. It was 
 very plain. He could not be a Christian and 
 walk hand in hand with them, nor they with him ; 
 the two ways led in exactly opposite directions. 
 
 But all this was only a part of the testing of 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 309 
 
 his manhood. He had a far more severe choice 
 to make at the end of the week. 
 
 Matters were in this condition. The building 
 of the new houses was going on with as much 
 rapidity as circumstances would permit. A big 
 storm had interrupted the workmen. The im- 
 mense snows were a serious hindrance. Added to 
 all the rest was the difficulty of getting workmen 
 during the cold weather. The miners who had 
 been burned out were quartered all over town. 
 The hotel had arranged for accommodation, 
 Stuart providing all the expenses there. The 
 Salvation Army did its share, and more too. But 
 the discomfort and crowding and suffering were 
 of such a nature, that even money, lavishly as 
 Stuart was willing to use it, could not much 
 more than provide a temporary and partial relief. 
 He was down at the Salvation Army Hall one 
 afternoon at the close of the week, trying to 
 make some arrangements for better accommoda- 
 tions. Rhena was at work with some of the 
 women at the other end of the hall, when Eric 
 came in hastily. He was followed in a few min- 
 utes by Andrew. 
 
 "News from De Mott is serious," said Eric. 
 "The men down there are threatening to pull 
 
3IO 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 up the pumps again. They are at the end of their 
 provisions and starving." 
 
 " I can't feed the entire mining country, Eric!" 
 said Stuart a little sharply. 
 
 " I know it." Eric sat down on a bench and 
 put his face between his hands. At once Stuart 
 repented him of the sharp word. 
 
 " Forgive me, Eric. I spoke angrily. I will 
 do all in my power." 
 
 " It isn't that," replied Eric in a muffled voice. 
 " The men have refused to listen to me any longer 
 and say they mean to act on their own account ! 
 My authority is all over ! " 
 
 " Nonsense ! " but Stuart saw that Eric spoke 
 truth. 
 
 " It 's so." Eric spoke with bitterness. " No 
 one is quite so ungrateful as a mob of working- 
 men when it turns on its leaders. My day is 
 over." 
 
 It was just at that moment that Andrew came 
 in. " Have you heard the news .' " he asked. 
 " They say the De Mott men are going in a body 
 to the Queen mine to pull up the pumps and then 
 to the Royal and so on, until they have ruined 
 every mine on the range. They have given the 
 companies two hours to give in." 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 311 
 
 Stuart was very thoughtful. " If they do so 
 serious a thing as that, it will lead to an appalling 
 loss of life. The troops at Hancock have been 
 kept in readiness by the Cleveland owners, who 
 have been anticipating some such move. It is 
 folly for the men to think the owners will yield 
 at this late day to their demands." 
 
 "It will be the deathblow to labor and the 
 workingman's cause for all time if they do as they 
 say," said Eric with a groan. " And I am as help- 
 less as a child. I " — Eric completely broke 
 down and actually cried. He felt that his reign 
 was over. 
 
 Andrew looked gravely at Stuart. The short 
 winter day was fast drawing to an end. Stuart 
 still stood there, thoughtfully looking at the bowed 
 form of Eric. 
 
 " There is one man who still has great influence 
 over all the miners in Champion and De Mott," 
 said Andrew gently. 
 
 Stuart started. Over at the other end of the 
 hall he could see Rhena. She had just left her 
 task and was coming towards him. Life was very 
 sweet to him now. Why should he risk it in a 
 possible, yes, probable danger by going over to the 
 scene of this new difficulty .? Was he his brother's 
 keeper ? 
 
312 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " That one man is yourself," continued Andrew. 
 
 " You think I ought to go ? " asked Stuart 
 calmly. 
 
 " I cannot answer for you," Andrew made re- 
 ply slowly. 
 
 "What are you talking about?" asked Rhena 
 as she came up. 
 
 " Rhena," said Stuart, "it may be necessary for 
 me to go to De Mott to-night. It looks now as 
 if the strike had reached a crisis, and before 
 morning something will probably occur to change 
 the situation that has held all winter." 
 
 Rhena looked steadily at the three men. 
 
 " You are keeping back something," she said at 
 last. 
 
 " Yes ! " exclaimed Eric, lifting his head. " The 
 men at De Mott are going to pull up the Queen 
 mine pumps. I 've lost my influence over them. 
 If Stuart goes over there to prevent the men, he 
 will risk his life. I know the men when they are 
 drunk are devils. They would kill any one, even 
 Christ himself, if he went over there to-night. Don't 
 let him go. Miss Dwight. It 's almost sure death. 
 He will only lose his life and do no good by it." 
 
 Rhena did not say a word. Stuart looked 
 over at Andrew as if half hoping he would second 
 
THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 %n 
 
 ■ Eric's request. But Andrew was silent. Then 
 he turned towards Rhena again. He had never 
 loved her so much as at that moment. 
 
 " Rhena," he said in a low tone, " I feel as if I 
 ought to go over to De Mott. I am sure Eric 
 exaggerates the danger. If I am the only man 
 with enough influence to prevent an outbreak, I 
 am in duty bound to exert it." 
 
 " No ; don't go ! " cried Rhena, and then she 
 stopped. She had taken one step towards Stuart. 
 He was not looking at her, but seemed to be hes- 
 itating for something. 
 
 She spoke again. " I would not have you a 
 coward to please me. If you must go " — 
 
 " I must," replied Stuart. " God bless and 
 keep you." He leaned over her and kissed- her, 
 and without another word to either Andrew or 
 Eric he stepped to the door and threw it open. 
 
 " I '11 send over to the hotel barn for a horse ! " 
 cried Andrew. Just at that moment Dr. Saxon 
 drove up. 
 
 "He is just in time," said Stuart calmly, as if 
 he had been expecting him. 
 
 He told the doctor in a few words that he must 
 go to De Mott at once. The doctor understood. 
 
 " Get in, then ! This means more gunshot 
 
3H 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 wound practice for me maybe." He whispered to 
 Rhena, who had come out to the side of the cutter, 
 pale and trembling. " Don't you fear, lass. The 
 Lord protects drunkards and fools when they 
 don't know enough to stay at home nights. 
 Whoa now, Ajax!" he yelled at his horse, just 
 long enough to allow Stuart to say good-by to 
 Rhena. 
 
 The next instant Stuart had leaped into the 
 cutter, and Ajax was flying over the road to De 
 Mott. Andrew and Eric and Rhena stood at the 
 door of the hall watching. 
 
 Finally Rhena said, " Let us go inside and 
 pray." 
 
 Andrew and Eric followed her, and Andrew 
 comforted her as they went. But Eric sat down 
 moodily and was silent ; while Rhena and some 
 of the other women and Andrew were praying 
 together, he went softly out of the hall, and 
 after looking around in the gathering dusk he 
 finally started in a brisk walk and gradually in- 
 creased it to a run. He followed the track of the 
 doctor's cutter, and was soon running with all his 
 speed over the De Mott road. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AN ORATOR. 
 
 "\T 7HEN Stuart and the doctor swept into 
 * *^ De Mott after a fierce ride behind the 
 foaming Ajax, they found almost the entire pop- 
 ulation gathered around the postoffice block, in 
 which was a large hall used during the winter 
 mostly for traveling show companies. 
 
 It was packed to-night with the miners. The 
 Union was in session, and every man who could 
 find a foothold inside was there. The rest were 
 waiting outside to hear a final decision. Not a 
 man of them but believed the result had already 
 been determined, and that before morning every 
 pump on the range would be pulled out and the 
 companies would lose millions of dollars' worth 
 of property in a few hours. It would be a grim 
 revenge of labor over capital. It would strike 
 capital at its most sensitive spot. It would be 
 a real satisfaction for the great suffering and 
 want of the winter. And many and many a 
 hollow-faced miner in the crowd around the hall 
 was thinking of a little child lying dead under 
 
 3"5 
 
3l6 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the snow in the great burial place on the slope 
 of the range, and he grasped his stick tighter 
 and cursed the rich in his palace of comfort that 
 bitter night. 
 
 Stuart never felt more helpless. He looked 
 at the faces around him, and his heart sank as he 
 realized how great was the force of a mob bent 
 on doing its own pleasure. He felt as if any 
 influence he might possess in Champion was an 
 empty breath in De Mott. Surely Andrew had 
 been mistaken when he said Stuart could in- 
 fluence such men as these at such a time as this. 
 
 He was roused from all this by the doctor, 
 who spoke short and sharp. 
 
 " Now then ! Let 's make a break for the hall ! 
 We '11 leave Ajax right here." 
 
 Stuart was astonished. 
 
 " They won't let us into the hall ! " 
 
 " We '11 see about that," replied the doctor. 
 
 He drove Ajax up in front of one of the drug 
 stores where he was in the habit of stopping 
 when he came to De Mott, and getting out of 
 the cutter, with Stuart following in much wonder, 
 he began to force his way to the hall door. As 
 Stuart went on, he began to realize that there 
 had been a mistake made by Andrew. If there 
 
AN ORATOR. 317 
 
 was one man left who had real influence over 
 the miners, it was not Stuart Duncan, but Dr. 
 Saxon. 
 
 It was almost comical to see the changes that 
 went over the miners' faces as the doctor shoved 
 men this way and that in order to get near the 
 hall. At first they swore, and threatened to do 
 unspeakable damage for the rough treatment some 
 one was giving them, but the minute they caught 
 sight of the rugged, kindly face they were as 
 polite and ready to make room as if he had been 
 some high and mighty potentate, and they his 
 royal subjects. 
 
 " Get out of the way there ! Doctor, he be 
 needed in the hall. Some one be hurt in there 
 likely ! " And a big Dane reached out and caught 
 a miner, who was standing in front of the doctor, 
 by the collar and pulled him off his feet, as if he 
 had been a dummy in a clothing store. 
 
 In this way the doctor, Stuart struggling in 
 his wake, fought and had fought for him a way 
 up to the hall door. Thirty years' absolute devo- 
 tion to the great needs of the miners in De Mott 
 as well as in Champion had endeared the doctor 
 to every stolid, obstinate, dull, heavy-brained but 
 warm-hearted man out of the five thousand, and 
 
3l8 HJS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 even to-night he was privileged to go where he 
 wanted and no questions asked. 
 
 He was in the hall and Stuart behind him. It 
 was contrary to Union rules, but to-night there 
 was no such strict enforcement of regulations. 
 The men had reached or were n earing a desperate 
 resolve, and did not care much who knew it. 
 
 So the doctor, still silent as he had been from 
 the time he started to make his way into the hall, 
 went on through the dense crowd that blocked 
 the aisles, and Stuart still crowded after him, his 
 mind in a dream, his amazement at the doctor's 
 action not yet relieved by a real inkling of his 
 purpose. 
 
 They were on the platform, and the speaker had 
 stopped to shake hands with the doctor, and then 
 the doctor had asked in a low voice if he might 
 say a word to the men. 
 
 The chairman of the Union happened to be one 
 of the Champion men. It was only two weeks 
 before that Dr. Saxon had gone out into one of 
 the fiercest storms of the winter, waded through 
 drifts over his head, where even Ajax had refused 
 to go, and at a critical time in the illness of this 
 man's baby had dragged it, as if by sheer force 
 of defiance against death, out of the very shadow 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 319 
 
 of the valley back into the warmth of life. The 
 chairman was a hard-faced, hard-fisted, but big- 
 hearted Cornish man, who loved his babies as 
 much as any man on e'krth, and if Dr. Saxon had 
 asked for his last crust of bread or a share of his 
 pasty, he would have said, " Take it all." 
 
 " Boys, doctor, he be wanting to say a word or 
 two. It don't belong to be by the rules, but I 
 say, let doctor say his say ! " 
 
 " Ay ! ay ! Let 's hear doctor ! " shouted a 
 hundred voices ; and the man who had been 
 speaking at- once sat down. 
 
 The doctor turned around and faced the men. 
 Stuart never forgot the scene. It flashed into 
 him like light that the doctor was taking all this 
 upon himself to save him, Stuart, from danger of 
 collision with the men. He almost forgot Rhena 
 in his love for his old friend to-night. 
 
 And it was a scene for painters, only painters 
 never could catch the full meaning of it all. The 
 doctor looked into the faces of men by whose side 
 he had stood in the little cabins where life was 
 going out, or at the bottom of the mines after 
 some horrible accident, and he was always the 
 same in his unflinching devotion to duty, and his 
 ^nspoken love for the suffering, and his great 
 
320 HIS BROTHEK'S KEEPER. 
 
 skill to beat death back and look hell in the face 
 without a tremor of a nerve or the quiver of an 
 eyelid. 
 
 " Now then," began the doctor in his usual 
 abrupt manner, " there is n't a man here ever 
 heard me try to make a speech in public, is 
 there ? " 
 
 It was very quiet in the hall, so quiet that the 
 noise of the crowd outdoors could plainly be 
 heard. No one replied to the doctor's question. 
 The men were all waiting to hear the next word. 
 They were not easily surprised, but the sight of 
 the doctor up there, and the sound of his voice 
 in this new revelation of him, were almost like 
 seeing or hearing a man who had been dead for 
 thirty years come suddenly to life. 
 
 " And I 'm not going to try it now. But I 
 want to tell you that if you do what you are 
 threatening to do to-night, you '11 be bigger fools 
 than I 've been calling you for thirty years or 
 more. Why, you must be insane idiots, every 
 mother's son of ye, to think you can gain any- 
 thing by pulling up pumps ! Who '11 suffer .' The 
 mine owners .' What if they do lose a little 
 property up here >. Have n't you got sense 
 enough to know that it is only one item out of 
 
AN ORATOR. 32 I 
 
 thousands for them ? But it 's the whole thing 
 for you. And if you were n't such a lot of block- 
 headed dummies, you would know that the result 
 of pulling up the pumps will be simply to give me 
 more work to do in mending your cracked skulls 
 and sewing up a lot of gunshot wounds in your 
 useless bodies ; and I tell you I 've got my hands 
 full now without having a lot of extra work piled 
 on me, just because you want to have a little 
 picnic with those pumps. And after you've 
 pulled 'em up and about a hundred of you are 
 killed, or get what few brains you have left 
 knocked out, what will you gain besides that .■■ 
 How much chance will there be for mining in the 
 spring with all the shafts flooded .■• Do you want 
 to kill me with all this preparation for bloodshed 1 
 Tell you what I '11 do. Any man here that wants 
 me to amputate an arm or leg, or fix his brains 
 back into his empty head after he 's gone and got 
 himself mixed up in a fight with the militia, can 
 just take my word for it here and now, that I will 
 turn him over to the job work of these stranger 
 doctors that have been practicing on you since the 
 fever struck in this winter. Hear that .? I simply 
 won't do a thing for you ! I 'm as mad as you 
 are at the mine owners. I think that, with the 
 
322 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 exception of Mr. Duncan here, they will have a 
 heavy account to settle at the day of judgment. 
 But, sure as death, you won't gain anything by 
 trying to improve on God's punishment for 'em. 
 You know what '11 happen if the mines close down 
 for good in the spring. The owners will have to 
 open, if you let the pumps alone ; and you can 
 go back at a rise over old wages. The pressure 
 for ore will force the companies to resume. But 
 once ruin the mines, and what will you do .' The 
 babies cry for food in the cabins now, you say; 
 but it will be worse than that if " — The doctor 
 softened his voice for a minute. The effect of it 
 was magical. Stuart could not believe, and will 
 not as long as he lives, that Dr. Saxon was talking 
 for the next few sentences. He has never heard 
 him with that voice since. " The babies that lie 
 out there on the great slope will never hunger 
 again. I have watched hundreds of them leave 
 this unsatisfactory world this winter, and not one 
 of them that did not pull my heartstrings with 
 his little fingers as death won him from me. But 
 God is merciful. There is no doubt of his jus- 
 tice. There is n't a man here who doesn't know 
 I love him and would never counsel an act that I 
 was not sure would be for your good and the good 
 
AN ORATOR. 323 
 
 of the wives and children in the long run. Why, 
 every one of you knows " — here the doctor resumed 
 his voice that the miners knew so well, and every 
 one started and came back again, staring at the 
 great rough-coated figure — "that even Ajax has 
 more sense than to go and kick over the measure 
 that contains his oats. But that 's what you plan 
 to do. I always said that the stupidest numskulls 
 that ever lived could be found in De Mott, where 
 I 've looked into more cracked craniums than any- 
 thing else, and I 've made up my mind that after 
 this, when I have broken heads to fix up, I '11 use 
 cotton or wool, or something like that, to stuff 
 into the vacant places I find" — 
 
 Just then there was a disturbance down by the 
 door, and next moment a voice broke the silence 
 of the crowd, " Is the doctor here .■" He 's wanted 
 at once outside. Been a row and Pat Penryck 
 has got a broken head. Tell doctor to come right 
 out." 
 
 " Hear that ! " roared the doctor. " If you pull 
 up pumps, I '11 go right up and get killed with the 
 rest of you when the militia fires. And after I 've 
 gone who '11 come and pump life into you when 
 death has you by the throat "> And if I don't get 
 shot I '11 leave you and go down to Chicago, where 
 
324 fJIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 I won't have to furnish the brains for the whole 
 community ! " 
 
 Without another word the doctor jumped down 
 off the platform and worked his way outside, 
 where he cared for the wounded man as skillfully 
 and tenderly as if his patient had been the Presi- 
 dent of the Republic. 
 
 At first Stuart had started to go out with the 
 doctor. Then he suddenly changed his mind and 
 decided to remain. The doctor had made a 
 decided impression on the men. They were used 
 to his rough, uncomplimentary invective, and they 
 loved him as perhaps they never loved any one 
 else ; and he had put the matter so plainly, even 
 if it had been flung at them so roughly, that they 
 were compelled to think. 
 
 The next half-hour in that old hall that night 
 witnessed the closing chapter in the great strike. 
 Man after man rose and declared that it would be 
 madness to pull up the pumps. The doctor's 
 words had struck into the heart of things, and 
 men who had sworn when they entered the hall 
 to destroy every cent's worth of mine owners' 
 property they could lay hands on, now urged cau- 
 tion and waiting. There was, however, one ele- 
 ment they had not reckoned on.- 
 
AN ORATOR. 325 
 
 The Union had been for several weeks in a 
 cSndition bordering on dissolution. Eric had 
 found that out some time before he was con- 
 fronted with the fact of his own loss of power. 
 He knew that the end was very near. The entire 
 effect of the evening's event so far tended to 
 break down what remained of the Union. Stuart 
 could see the end coming. He sat back against 
 the wall, forgotten by the leaders and their men 
 as the talk went on. There were several fiery 
 appeals for carrying out the original plan of 
 destroying the mines. The crowd swayed all 
 over the room as one and another from the floor 
 as well as from the platform spoke. Finally the 
 end came in a rush. A great shambling figure, 
 no less than our old friend Sanders, who had 
 been charged by the doctor with getting cod-liver 
 oil from the dispensary wherewith to grease his 
 boots, rose, and in a voice that, in spite of its 
 being perforated with spasmodic coughs, was easily 
 heard, made a motion that the strike be declared 
 off. ■ 
 
 A pandemonium started in with the debate on 
 this motion. The crowd outside caught the news 
 and it maddened the mob. There was a great 
 rush for the hall entrance. The chairman finally 
 
326 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 put the motion as yells of " Question ! " " Ques- 
 tion ! " rose on every side, and it carried by a two- 
 thirds vote. 
 
 Instantly the men in the hall started to rush out 
 into the street, and were met at ±he hall entrance 
 by the yelling crowd trying to get in. For several 
 minutes there was a tremendous struggle, but 
 gradually the crowd outside, as it learned of the 
 action of the Union leaders, gave way, and when 
 one of the most prominent men in the De Mott 
 range put the question, standing on the steps of 
 the courthouse at the corner, the majority of the 
 voices yelled " Ay ! " to the question declaring the 
 strike off. There was no accounting for this to 
 Stuart's mind, except by the fact that all along the 
 men had grown more and more tired of the strike 
 and had really been waiting for some one to make 
 the break. Then they fallowed like sheep, and in 
 less than ten minutes the Union was past history. 
 
 A few of che disaffected men that night, in- 
 flamed with drink and mad at the close of the 
 strike, went up to the Queen mine determined to 
 pull up the pumps and destroy as much as pos- 
 sible ; but the troops had already anticipated such 
 an attempt, and, in a skirmish with the miners, 
 drove them back, no one, however, being killed. 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 327 
 
 and only a few heads broken with clubs and ore 
 missiles. Stuart did not know of this until the 
 next day, and the doctor helped mend the broken 
 heads, grumbling as he did so, and declaring with 
 each new case that it was positively the very last 
 one he would attend. 
 
 Stuart came out into the street feeling that his 
 part of the evening's work had been very insig- 
 nificant. He had, in fact, been almost ignored in 
 the excitement, and had sat a silent spectator of 
 the affair. He was calm enough to realize that 
 the doctor's abrupt statement, combined with the 
 great love the miners had for him, had a great deal 
 to do with the way matters were being shaped. 
 The crowd still remained in the streets, but it was 
 broken up into groups discussing the situation and 
 wondering what the owners would do now. 
 
 Stuart was standing by the doctor's cutter, wait- 
 ing for him to return, when a man touched him on 
 the arm. He turned, and there stood Eric. He 
 had run nearly all the way from Champion, but 
 Stuart did not know that. 
 
 " Eric ! " cried Stuart. 
 
 " I got here just in time to be of no use," said 
 Eric gloomily. Then he added with more feeling, 
 "You are not hurt.?" 
 
328 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " No. There has been no disturbance. You 've 
 heard that the strike is declared off? How did 
 you come over?" 
 
 " Yes ; I heard the news quick enough. I came 
 on foot. I will never trust a crowd again. I 
 thought I knew these men. I would have sworn 
 nothing could prevent their pulling up the pumps 
 to-night. That shows how little I have really 
 known them." 
 
 " We can thank the doctor for the way things 
 have turned. You never heard such a talk as he 
 gave the men." 
 
 "No, and you never will again," said the doctor 
 as he came up and began to untie Ajax. " It was 
 my first and will be my last appearance on the 
 stage. I would n't have gone up this time only I 
 wanted to tell the good-for-nothing lot of them 
 what fools they are. I seldom have such a chance 
 to s'ay so to as large a number of 'em at once. 
 Come on. Going back to Champion with me, 
 Stuart ? " 
 
 " Wait a minute, doctor ! " cried Stuart. He 
 drew Eric off one side. " Eric, you came over on 
 purpose to share the danger with me. I know 
 what it means." Eric did not answer. "You are 
 feeling the ^injustice of the men towards you. 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 329 
 
 Don't let it make you bitter. The cause is the 
 same." Still Eric was silent. " Won't you go 
 back with us 1 The doctor can make room." 
 
 " No ; I '11 stay over here with some friends. 
 I'll be back to-morirow," Eric replied as if with 
 an effort. 
 
 Stuart laid a hand on his shoulder. "Eric," he 
 said simply, " I love you." 
 
 Eric choked. In the darkness a tear rolled 
 down over his cheek. He turned away and walked 
 into the street, and Stuart went back to Champion 
 with the doctor. 
 
 " Eric takes it hard ; his loss of influence over 
 the men," said Stuart with a sigh. 
 
 "Put not your trust in the mob," replied the 
 doctor shortly. 
 
 When they drove back into the square at 
 Champion the lights in the Salvation Arrfly Hall 
 were shining out a welcome. To Stuart it seemed 
 as if the old weather-beaten building was glorified. 
 Whatever the outcome of that night's action on 
 the part of the miners, he felt that he had a place 
 in the love of one person, who, believing in him 
 and his desire to be true to his brother, would 
 share with him the burden and' responsibility and 
 privilege that awaited them under this new turn 
 
330 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 of affairs. Between this man and woman had now 
 sprung up a mutual faith, each in the other, which 
 made possible for them much of the great work 
 that lay before them. Rhena dated from that 
 night when her lover risked his life, as they both 
 thought, at the call of duty, a new and sacred 
 respect and attachment for him. 
 
 The next few days in Champion and De Mott 
 were full of excitement. The men flocked back to 
 the mines and gathered about the little offices of 
 the mine captains up on the hills by the engine 
 houses. The Cleveland owners had as yet made 
 no movement to open up again. The captains on 
 the De Mott ranges were waiting every hour for 
 orders. Stuart was independent so far as his own 
 action was concerned, and, true to his promise, 
 made so long ago, he at once posted notices that 
 he would give all the men yet on the pay roll of 
 the Champion mines two dollars a day. In a 
 week he had more applicants than he could em- 
 ploy. He at once took steps to open up some 
 new shafts which had been begun by his father. 
 This enlarged his force of men by five hundred, 
 but the men from De Mott came over in crowds, 
 and he was not able to employ a fifth part of 
 them. He knew that he had made enemies of 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 331 
 
 the other owners, and he anticipated a move on 
 their part to ruin him commercially ; but the longer 
 they held out and refused to open up or grant the 
 two dollars a day, Stuart was practically in a posi- 
 tion to gain many markets once closed to him. 
 The demand for ore was growing more imperative. 
 As it happened also, the Champion mines were 
 producing a very superior grade of ore, and Stuart 
 could afford to pay the two dollars in any case, 
 whether the other mines were worked or not. 
 
 As a matter of history the whole outcome of 
 the matter was as follows. The De Mott range 
 did not open up in full for two weeks. The 
 Cleveland owners, after doing all in their power to 
 coerce Stuart, finding that every day only placed 
 him, owing to the peculiar condition of the trade, 
 in a better position, finally opened up a few 
 mines at a ten per cent, rise on previous wages. 
 This almost led to another strike and a formation 
 of the Union again. But the long winter, the 
 long idleness, so unusual to the men, the great 
 loss they had sustained, had their effect, and the 
 De Mott men began to go back a few at a time. 
 This led to a singular condition of affairs in the 
 iron region, never before known. Nearly fifteen 
 hundred men were receiving two dollars a day at 
 
332 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Champion, while on the lower range twice as many 
 men were working for one dollar and ninety cents. 
 At the end of two months, however, with the open- 
 ing up of the lake navigation, ore went up with 
 such a bound that De Mott ranges advanced 
 wages to two dollars, and the men at last actually 
 received, largely through Stuart's firmness in 
 holding out, the amount they had originally de- 
 manded. But there was no great demonstration 
 over the fact. The strike had been too costly. 
 The suffering had left its mark on every home, 
 and the men were not in a condition, when the 
 rise in wages finally came, to spend much enthu- 
 siasm over it. 
 
 Long before this had come about, Stuart and 
 Rhena had planned for their new life together. ' 
 
 One day, very soon after Champion mines had 
 opened, the two were out looking at the new cot- 
 tages going up in Cornish town. The work had 
 been pushed hard, and at last satisfactory results 
 were being seen. Most of the houses would be 
 ready for use in a fortnight. After looking on 
 and directing some special part of the settlement, 
 Stuart asked Rhena to go up the trail with him to 
 the old stump where he had first told her he loved 
 her. 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 lil 
 
 When they reached the place they turned to 
 look down at the town. It was winter still. The 
 snow lay deep in all the valley. The sound of the 
 workmen came up to them from Cornish town. 
 The engine stacks were smoking all over the 
 range. All the ore or stock piles were dotted 
 over with busy moving figures. 
 
 Stuart said something about the site being a 
 good one for a house. 
 
 " I don't know but I shall put up a little cottage 
 on this stump, and we could begin housekeeping 
 on a modest scale like the rest of the people 
 down there. What do you think of that ">. " 
 
 " But would n't we be putting ourselves above 
 them to come way up here ? " asked Rhena slyly. 
 
 " No, we would simply be in a position to see all 
 of them and be better able to help them in case of 
 need." 
 
 " I don't think the stump is quite large enough 
 for a foundation," said Rhena very soberly, though 
 she was very happy. " After I had opened the 
 front door I would have to go outside to shut it 
 again." 
 
 " You are very hard to suit, madani," replied 
 Stuart. " What will you have ? a palace ? a- 
 marble pile ? I thought a Salvation Army lass 
 
334 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 would be ready to put up with almost any- 
 thing ! " 
 
 " Stuart," — Rhena spoke with real seriousness, 
 — "I could be happy with you in one of the cot- 
 tages down there, and you and I know that to- 
 gether. The army is very dear to me. I cannot 
 leave it." 
 
 " I do not ask you to," replied Stuart, smiling. 
 " I first fell in love with your bonnet, and I hope 
 you will wear it at the wedding." 
 
 " I am thinking of the poor men and women I 
 have been living with so long," continued Rhena. 
 Her great eyes filled with tears. " I can't bear to 
 have them think that because I am going to be the 
 wife. of the mine owner and live in his house I am 
 going to be lifted so far away from them that they 
 will — Stuart, you know what I mean. If I did n't 
 believe so completely in you and your thought of 
 stewardship of God's property, I would never dare 
 marry you, a man with all this money, and master 
 of such a house. I cannot even think of the selfish 
 surroundings of my old life without a shudder. 
 
 " We need great wisdom to use God's blessings. 
 It will be a joy to us to work out the problem 
 •together, won't it .'' " 
 
 Stuart said something so softly that, with the 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 335 
 
 exception of Rhena, only a snowbird on a fir tree 
 near by heard it, and the snowbird never told. 
 
 They talked for a while about their approaching 
 marriage. It was to be the following week. 
 
 " Louise and Aunt Royal are going to New 
 York the first of the week. My only regret, 
 Rhena, is in being unable to reconcile them to us. 
 We move in a different world from theirs." 
 
 "You have done all you could, I am sure, 
 Stuart," replied Rhena gently. She was think- 
 ing of another matter. Finally she asked, almost 
 timidly, "The army has asked me if I expected 
 to be married in the church. Would you mind, 
 Stuart, if we were married in the old hall } " 
 
 "No," said Stuart. He was, and always had 
 been, indifferent to the particular forms and cere- 
 monies of life, even the old life from which he 
 was now emancipated, and he understood Rhena's 
 reason for this request. She belonged to the 
 army, and the little squad of officers and privates 
 was very dear to her. She longed to assure them 
 in every way possible that her marriage had not 
 in any way removed them from her in sympathy. 
 
 So, one evening about a week after the depar- 
 ture of Louise and Aunt Royal, Stuart went down 
 to Eric's cottage, and met Andrew and the doctor 
 
336 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 there. Together they went over to Rhena's 
 lodging, and presently she came out dressed in - 
 the army costume, that Stuart said was the best 
 and most becoming for her to wear. She took his 
 arm, and with Eric and the doctor and Andrew 
 marching behind, they stepped over to the hall. 
 
 The army was in great excitement. It had 
 paraded the streets, held its outdoor meeting and 
 was back at the hall to welcome the bride and 
 groom. The little band stood just outside, and 
 what it lacked in numbers it made up in muscle. 
 The big drum had never received such a vigorous 
 beating as it received that night. The tambour- 
 ines would certainly have been knocked into 
 small pieces if they had not been made of very 
 tough material. And " Scaly Joe," now known 
 as "Witnessing Joseph," would surely have blown 
 himself through the holes of his flute if he 
 had not been possessed of a pair of lungs that 
 could be almost indefinitely expanded. 
 
 Outside the hall, standing about in a great 
 crowd, were the miners of Champion. They 
 greeted the little bridal party with hearty cheers 
 as it came up, and as soon as the band had fin- 
 ished, and Stuart and Rhena, Andrew and Eric 
 and the doctor had gone in, they crowded after, 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 337 
 
 filling up the old room until it could not hold 
 another person. 
 
 There were a good many brief prayers and 
 several rousing songs sung as the army took its 
 place on the platform. The major, also, carried 
 away by the greatness of the occasion, made a 
 rattling speech, punctured with frequent amens 
 and hallelujahs from the rest of the army. The 
 collection was not forgotten, and as it was an 
 occasion out of a lifetime, and the men were get- 
 ting wages again, the tambourines were heavy 
 with silver, and the major began to think of put- 
 ting up suitable headquarters at once. 
 
 Finally the noise ceased and Andrew read the 
 marriage service, Rhena and Stuart standing in 
 the middle of the platform, Eric and the doc- 
 tor a little one side and behind Stuart. This part 
 of the ceremony was not strictly according to 
 Salvation Army rules, but "everything goes 
 to-night," as " Witnessing Joseph " said in a few 
 remarks after the collection. Andrew's prayer 
 was full of beauty and power. " That was almost 
 as good a prayer as some we have here in the 
 hall confession nights," said the major after- 
 wards. The whole ceremony was very impressive 
 to Stuart, in spite of the surroundings and the 
 
338 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 army exercises that accompanied them. For he 
 felt in it all that this woman standing by his side 
 in this costume, which had become dear to a sin- 
 sick and body-suffering humanity, was the woman 
 who was to walk hand in hand with him through 
 life with all these people now crowded into the 
 hall, the largest factor in both their experiences. 
 And it seemed to him specially appropriate that 
 they should solemnize the most sacred event of 
 their lives in the presence of those whom they 
 had begun to help and regard as truly belonging 
 to the great brotherhood in the family which is 
 one in God the Father. 
 
 They had planned to remain some time after the 
 service was ov6r to shake hands with the men. 
 But the crowd outside was clamoring to get in, 
 and finally, at the major's suggestion, the men 
 filed up to the platform, shook hands, offered their 
 greetings, and went down the other side of the 
 aisle and out of the hall. The men outside soon 
 learned of this arrangement and formed a line 
 that reached out into the square past the band 
 stand, and before Stuart and Rhena knew what 
 the major had arranged they were facing a stream 
 of miners that bade fair to keep them standing 
 there two or three hours. 
 
AN ORATOR. 
 
 339 
 
 " Can you stand it, Mrs. Duncan ? " asked 
 Stuart, looking into the blushing face which 
 never looked so beautiful in its army bonnet as 
 to-night. 
 
 "You forget, sir, that I have stood in this hall 
 a good many long hours this winter. I feel quite 
 confident of tiring you out. Is n't it beautiful 
 of them } This is worth more, Stuart, than all 
 the fashion and parade of society ; for these 
 people love us and we know it." 
 
 " Ay, ay," replied Stuart proudly, happy of his 
 wife's health and strength and Christian beauty. 
 '"That belongs to be.' It is worth a million 
 times more to us than all the gingerbread trim- 
 mings of society fashionable weddings." 
 
 Meanwhile the doctor, Andrew, and Eric dis- 
 appeared. When Stuart and Rhena finally came 
 out after receiving the men, and after a closing 
 volley of shouts and drumbeats from the army, 
 they found the three men by the side of a two- 
 seated cutter trimmed with spruce boughs. The 
 doctor motioned them to take the back seat. 
 
 "What!" cried Stuart, "you here yet, doctor.? 
 I thought sure you had been called away." 
 
 "It's a wonder I wasn't," replied the doctor. 
 "All through the ceremony I thought I could 
 
340 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 hear a yoice saying, ' Is doctor in there ? He 's 
 wanted at once. Lew Trethven's broke his leg 
 and wants doctor to come right up.' Now, then, 
 are you ready .' Eric and Andrew are going with 
 me to escort you home. We were afraid you 
 might lose your way." 
 
 "Do you dare ride with the doctor?" asked 
 Stuart of Rhena. 
 
 " I dare go anywhere with you," she replied ; 
 and Stuart was excusable for kissing her as he 
 lifted her into the cutter. 
 
 The doctor had hitched Ajax up with the 
 fastest horse he could find in the hotel stables, 
 and after they had started he had his hands full. 
 The miners sent up a cheer as they dashed into 
 the square and out into the road leading up to 
 the Duncan house. And so, with the love of the 
 men whose lives and happiness were to be hence- 
 forth so deeply mingled with theirs, in the com- 
 pany of the friends who had shared so largely of 
 their experiences and were to be even more to 
 them in coming days, this man and woman began 
 the life that not even death can part, for they are 
 one in Christ Jesus. 
 
 A week from that same evening, in a large 
 mansion on a fashionable avenue in New York, 
 
AN ORATOR. 341 
 
 Louise Duncan and Hal Vasplaine were married. 
 A card announcing the event was sent to Stuart 
 by Aunt Royal, at whose house the event took 
 place. No notice of the marriage was sent to 
 Rhena as Stuart's wife. It was the first intima- 
 tion Stuart had had of the fact, the card reaching 
 him two days after. He grieved over the event 
 deeply, and felt that the gulf between his sister 
 and himself was impassable, but his life was 
 crowded with great objects, and Rhena was all 
 in all to him, and as time went on he found the 
 sharpness of this pang lessened, though he never 
 for a moment ceased his prayers and love for 
 Louise. 
 
 The demands on both Stuart and Rhena were 
 certainly no less now that the mines were opened 
 again. The cottages were completed, but Stuart 
 contemplated a general tearing down of all the 
 old cabins on the . range. In this he was met 
 by an unexpected and irritating obstinacy on the 
 part of the miners, who did not want to be 
 disturbed. 
 
 " They 're the most ungrateful lot on earth," 
 said the doctor, to whom Stuart was talking about 
 it ; " if I was you, I 'd hire some one to touch off 
 every last cabin some windy night and burn up 
 
342 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 every last one of 'em — I mean the cabins. They, 
 I mean the men, have n't got brains enough 
 among them all to start a home for feeble-minded 
 old women ! " 
 
 Stuart was wrestling with this problem, and 
 at the same time adding to his plans for The 
 Hall of Humanity. Many and many a long con- 
 ference was held in Eric's cottage, at Andrew's 
 and in his own house over the project. Rhena 
 had also proposed another plan, at first stoutly 
 opposed by Eric, and even Andrew, but after- 
 wards heartily seconded by them. It was, in 
 brief, the shaping of the Duncan mansion into 
 a modern hospital to be in charge of Dr. Saxon. 
 The house was too large for a living house. 
 Stuart and Rhena wanted to be nearer the town, 
 and Stuart had made his plans to build at once 
 a house that would represent their ideas of what 
 a home should be, and enable them to be of more 
 use in very many ways. They were too far away 
 from the people. Rhena still continued her army 
 work to a large extent, and the people all knew 
 that her marriage had not lessened her love for 
 them or her desire and willingness to save them. 
 It was simply a question of using to the very 
 best advantage the wealth which was in their 
 
AN ORATOR. 343 
 
 power to use. In many respects the old mansion 
 was admirably adapted for a hospital ; and the 
 doctor was certainly entitled now to a position 
 where he could spend the remainder of his life in 
 usefulness and peace. 
 
 Stuart and Rhena were talking this all over 
 one evening in early spring. The foundation for 
 The Hall of Humanity was going up very fast, 
 and they were also running over their plans for 
 the great number of things they hoped the build- 
 ing would represent. The lights had been turned 
 on and it was getting on in the evening. A soft 
 rain was falling outside, and the big pines were 
 sobbing the approach of a heavy storm. Stuart 
 was sitting at the big table in the dining room 
 with plans scattered about, and Rhena was walk- 
 ing up and down, her face alive with enthusiasm 
 over some great idea, when the bell rang. 
 
 Something about the sound of it caused Stuart 
 to rise and go to the door himself. As he flung 
 it open, the wind blew a fine mist of rain into 
 the hall, along with the fragrant odor of the drip- 
 ping pines. But he was conscious of only one 
 thing. 
 
 There on the stone steps lay a woman's form, 
 and he knew as he stooped and lifted her that 
 
344 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 his sister had remembered what he said such a 
 cruelly brief time before. He carried her into 
 the chamber where his father had died and laid 
 her on the same bed. As he did so, and as 
 Rhena gently threw back the wet fold of a cloak 
 which lay across the face, Louise moved, and 
 then opened her eyes and looked up at Stuart 
 and Rhena. They will never forget that look. 
 It told them as plainly as words that Louise had 
 come home to die. 
 
 Ah ! the Nemesis of the world is very bitter 
 when it does come, — and it always comes, — in 
 God's time. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 "P"OR a moment Louise looked at Stuart and 
 ^ Rhena as if she knew them. Then she sat 
 up, partly supporting herself by one hand, and 
 with the other seeming to grope after something. 
 There was a look of madness in her eyes. 
 
 " Father ! He 's hurt ! Don't you know, 
 Stuart ? The horses ran away. We were thrown 
 out ! Why does n't some one send for the doc- 
 tor.?" 
 
 Rhena slipped out of the room and telephoned 
 for Dr. Saxon. Stuart fell on his knees by the 
 bed, and the next half-hour was one of the most 
 agonizing he ever knew. Louise raved and wept. 
 She kept going over the old times, repeating word 
 after word exactly, many conversations between 
 herself and Stuart at the time he had begun to 
 decide on a new life. Everything dated from Ross 
 Duncan's death. There were also, mingled with 
 all that was so painful in Stuart's memory, a great 
 many expressions and exclamations which made 
 him shudder and put his hands over his ears, 
 
346 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 words which revealed experiences of the life 
 Louise had known since leaving Champion. 
 Stuart did not dare yet to imagine all that these 
 words meant. 
 
 When Dr. Saxon finally reached the house and 
 entered the room, Louise was lying down moan- 
 ing. The doctor went right up to her and spoke 
 her name. She opened her eyes and looked him 
 full in the face ; she shrieked out hysterically, 
 " Doctor ! doctor ! Save me ! I 'm going mad ! 
 I am mad ! " 
 
 " You poor child ! " And that was all he said. 
 
 Then Louise began to cry terribly. She spoke 
 her Aunt Royal's name in a voice that made even 
 the doctor quiver a little. And after that, as sud- 
 denly as if she had been struck dumb, she fell 
 back like one dead, and lay so still that Stuart 
 thought at first the end had come already. 
 
 He and Rhena stood pale and stricken. It had 
 all come upon them so suddenly. The doctor did 
 all in his power. There was not much he could 
 do. At the end of half an hour Louise came out 
 of the condition of exhaustion into which she had 
 fallen, and cried again, this time calling out the 
 name of Vasplaine with such terror that Stuart 
 could not endure the sound and went into the 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 347 
 
 Other room across the hall. Rhena followed 
 him. 
 
 " This is awful ! " said Stuart with a groan. 
 " What do you suppose this all means .' What has 
 that villain done \ " 
 
 " It means that he has left her, and that " — 
 Rhena had guessed so much. It had come like a 
 sudden blow to them. She stepped up to Stuart 
 and comforted him. 
 
 " Please God we '11 save her life ! " he cried. 
 
 "And her reason," added Rhena gravely. 
 " Pray God we may ! " 
 
 They went back together into that chamber, 
 and with the doctor watched through the night, 
 fearing, at the doctor's suggestion, lest she should 
 suddenly rise and go out into the storm, which 
 before morning beat on the mansion in great fury, 
 while the big pines sobbed like a requiem over 
 dead hopes and buried loves. 
 
 With the gray light of morning a change came. 
 The doctor noticed it first. He had not closed his 
 eyes once. Now he rose and went into the 
 library, signing to Stuart to follow him. 
 
 " She is out of immediate danger," he said, as 
 Stuart stood there by him, nervous with the strain. 
 " She has had some terrible mental shock. It is 
 
348 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 doubtful if she can recover. But she has the 
 Duncan constitution. All things are possible. I 
 think she will be quiet through the day. If she 
 isn't, send for me at once." 
 
 He wrung Stuart's hand and went down into 
 the town through the storm, and an hour later 
 Stuart saw him dashing up the hill and past the 
 house over the Beury road to attend some desper- 
 ate case out on the hills. How the doctor lived 
 without sleep was always a wonder to all Cham- 
 pion. 
 
 As for Louise, she lay in a condition of stupor 
 through the day and the following night. When 
 occasionally she roused at Stuart's calling her 
 name she seemed to know him, but did not express 
 surprise at being back in her old home. Gradu- 
 ally the truth grew upon Stuart and Rhena that 
 nearly the entire period of Louise's life since her 
 marriage was a blank to her. She would lie for 
 hours silent and without expression in her great 
 eyes, which were still beautiful, although her once 
 lovely face had grown old and haggard. When 
 she spoke, it was with the fretful, complaining 
 voice she had used when Stuart had angered her. 
 To his great surprise and relief, she did not 
 appear to dislike Rhena. She accepted her gentle, 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 349 
 
 loving nursing as a matter of course, neither show- 
 ing gratitude nor expressing resentment. She 
 grew feebler and more exacting in her demands, 
 so that Rhena had her powers taxed to the utmost 
 in providing for her many wants. She asked con- 
 stantly for the most expensive and difficult articles 
 of food to be prepared, demanded costly flowers 
 for the decoration of the room, and was contin- 
 ually begging Stuart to buy her jewels to wear. 
 He went down town and took out of the office 
 safe, where they had been lying ever since his 
 mother's death, a necklace of pearls and another 
 of diamonds, together with a ruby bracelet and 
 several turquoise rings. Ross Duncan had bought 
 these for his wife when he had been able to say 
 that he was worth a million dollars, and the entire 
 value of them would have kept a dozen families in 
 comfort all their lives. Mrs. Duncan had not 
 cared much for these playthings and had seldom 
 worn them. Ross Duncan had willed them to 
 Stuart instead of Louise, because of a whim he 
 took one day. He said they were family jewels 
 and ought to remain with the son of the house. 
 
 Louise seized on these baubles of light with an 
 eagerness and a love of display that were terrible 
 to Stuart. She wore first the diamonds and then 
 
350 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the pearls around her small white neck, and finally- 
 put them both on, wearing them together with the 
 bracelet and the rings. She cried continually for 
 new dresses, and at last Rhena, at Stuart's sug- 
 gestion, brought out some of Stuart's mother's silk 
 gowns which had been packed away in a chest in 
 the attic, and with a little changing they were 
 made to fit Louise, who, although she was able 
 to sit up only a few hours, took the most pitiably 
 childish delight in putting on all this finery, with 
 Rhena's help, and then, with a hand mirror con- 
 stantly within reach, commenting on her appear- 
 ance with the greatest eagerness. 
 
 One day Rhena slipped away from her while 
 she was busy in this manner, and as she was 
 going into the library, Stuart came in from the 
 drawing room. He had been down superintending 
 the new building. 
 
 "O Stuart, Stuart!" Rhena almost sobbed as 
 she closed the door so that Louise could not hear, 
 "it is so horrible! It seems so like — so like 
 clothing Death itself in tinsel and glitter. Oh, 
 the mockery of it makes my heart ache ! If we 
 only knew more of the real cause of Louise's 
 trouble, we might know how to bring her back to 
 reason ! Only " — 
 
STE WARDSHIP. 351 
 
 " Only what, dear ? " Stuart asked, taking her in 
 his arms to comfort her, as he remembered how 
 faithful she had been to her great trust in caring 
 for his sister. 
 
 " Only — the end is not far off, I fear. She is 
 wasting away like the snow on the hills in spring." 
 
 Stuart groaned. " I have seen it, dear ; the 
 doctor has done all he can. He gives no hope." 
 He was silent. Then he spoke with calm strength. 
 " I am going down to New York, and I am going 
 to see Aunt Royal and probe the thing to the end. 
 I have written her, but had no reply. And all our 
 efforts to find Vasplaine have failed. The family 
 knows nothing of him. I must go down, anyway, 
 to see after some necessary materials for the 
 building. I will be back inside of a week." 
 
 So that was the way Stuart came to be in New 
 York just before Aunt Royal had planned to pack 
 her trunks and go abroad for the summer. 
 
 He was ushered into the great drawing room of 
 the mansion on the avenue and remained standing 
 by one of the windows waiting for Aunt Royal to 
 come down. His heart was heavy as he thought 
 of Louise. He tried to compose himself for the 
 interview, remembering his Christian faith and all 
 that it required of him in all circumstances. 
 
352 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 Her entrance was hardly noticed by him when 
 she finally appeared. Velvet carpets are made to 
 deaden the footsteps of market gardeners' daugh- 
 ters who have made their money by investing in 
 tenement and saloon property. 
 
 "This is an unexpected pleasure, Stuart, I am 
 sure," said Aunt Royal in her usual polite, gentle 
 voice. 
 
 " You know what I am here for, aunt .' " Stuart 
 asked, coming to the point at once. 
 
 "No, I don't know as I do. I suppose some 
 business in connection with your philanthropic 
 schemes in Champion. I hear the strike is all 
 over. I suppose the miners have learned sense 
 by their folly." 
 
 "Aunt," said Stuart firmly, ignoring all she 
 said, " I have come down here to learn the truth 
 about Louise. Tell me all you know about it. It 
 may help to restore her reason before she dies. 
 For God's sake, aunt, if you know what I ought 
 to know, let me have it." 
 
 Aunt Royal's face paled just a trifle. "Restore ■ 
 her reason .'" 
 
 "Yes," replied Stuart with some sternness of 
 tone, " her reason. She is out of her mind. Her 
 memory of events since her marriage is a blank. 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 353 
 
 She must have received some great shock. Of 
 course we know Vasplaine has deserted her. 
 And she is dying. After all — if " — Stuart 
 paused and his heart almost stood still as he 
 caught the expression on Aunt Royal's face. 
 He was not looking at her, but at her reflection 
 in the large cheval glass. And it was the reflec- 
 tion of an absolutely selfish and heartless enjoy- 
 ment of social standing, unruffled by the coarse 
 sins and miseries and aches of a dying humanity. 
 
 Aunt Royal's voice came to his ears with its 
 usual placid smoothness. 
 
 " Louise left me on her wedding tour imme- 
 diately after her marriage. They went South and 
 then took a trip out West. When they returned 
 they took rooms in the Avenue Hotel. I saw 
 them often but not intimately. Vasplaine had 
 begun to drink. There was trouble, of course. 
 But when he finally left her I was as much 
 surprised as any one." 
 
 She paused suddenly, and Stuart was silent. 
 The great gilt clock on the marble mantel 
 dropped a silver ball into a bowl, and Aunt Royal 
 turned her head slightly towards it. Stuart still 
 looked at her reflection in "the mirror. 
 
 "When did Louise leave New York for Cham- 
 pion ? " he finally asked. 
 
354 ^^^ BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 " I don't know anything about it," replied Aunt 
 Royal with the first mark of irritation she had 
 shown. 
 
 " Do you mean to say, aunt, that after Vas- 
 plaine's desertion of her, Louise never came near 
 you ? " asked Stuart, turning full upon her and 
 looking into her face almost as resolutely as if he 
 really knew the facts. 
 
 Again Aunt Royal's face paled. She could not 
 control her blood, even after so many years of arti- 
 ficial repose in the exercise of society manners. 
 
 " I tell you I did not see her after Vasplaine's 
 disgraceful desertion of her. He turned out to 
 be a gambler and a dissipated fool of the worst 
 sort, and flung Louise's property and money away 
 like a madman. I don't know where he is now." 
 
 " I have not asked about him," said Stuart 
 dryly ; " I am anxious for Louise." 
 
 He remained a moment more in silent thought. 
 He could not help believing that this woman 
 had not told the truth, but he was powerless to 
 prove his belief. At last he found his heart 
 so sick at the thought that he longed to escape 
 from the house. 
 
 " You will stay to lunch ? " Aunt Royal asked 
 politely, as he rose and moved to go. 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 355 
 
 " No, I thank you," replied Stuart quietly. " I 
 must start back to Champion this afternoon." 
 
 " I hope poor Louise will recover," she said, 
 and was about to add something more, when one 
 of the servants came into the hall and announced 
 an important message at the telephone from some 
 one connected with Aunt Royal's proposed sum- 
 mer tour. 
 
 "Excuse me while I answer this. I will let 
 you see yourself out ! " she exclaimed with her 
 conventional politeness, and was gone. 
 
 Stuart was just going out when the servant, 
 who had opened the door for him when he came 
 in, spoke to him. 
 
 " I can tell you something about your sister, 
 sir, if you will wait a minute." 
 
 " Of course I want to know all I can." Stuart 
 was surprised, and reflected that this man might 
 be simply a talebearer, or trying to earn a fee; 
 but the thought that Louise might possibly be the 
 gainer by knowledge he might learn of her quieted 
 Stuart to listen. 
 
 " I have n't time to tell it all out," whispered 
 the man hurriedly. "But Mrs. Vasplaine, she 
 came here one night about a week ago, and I 
 could n't help hearing what went on in the draw- 
 
356 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 ing room. She begged her aunt to take her in 
 and shelter her till she could find a place. Her 
 husband had run off with another man's wife and 
 gambled away all the money, as near as I could 
 make out, and the poor lady was almost crazy 
 over the shame and ruin of it. She begged and 
 begged, but her aunt would n't listen to taking 
 her back, with all the scandal. You understand, 
 sir, how people in society looks at those things, 
 and so at last Mrs. Vasplaine went away. She 
 looked as if she would drown herself, sir. I felt 
 so sure of it I slipped out back way and followed 
 her, and saw her take a depot 'bus, and then I lost 
 her. I don't mind telling you, sir ; this is truth. 
 I leave here this week, anyway. I 'd as soon live 
 with the devil's wife as with her, and no mistake, 
 begging pardon if she is your relative." 
 
 Stuart clinched his hands tight, and in his heart 
 he uttered a groan. 
 
 There stood Aunt Royal, her face flaming. 
 She had come into the hall through a side door 
 right behind the servant. How much of the 
 man's story she had heard, Stuart could not tell 
 but it was enough to let her know that Stuart at 
 last knew. 
 
 " It 's a lie, a miserable lie ! " she screamed. It 
 
STE WARDSHIP. 357 
 
 was the only time Stuart ever saw her in a passion. 
 He had his back to the door, and for a moment 
 he looked her in the face, and then without a word 
 he turned around, opened it, and walked out. 
 The warm sunshine seemed like something almost 
 human as he closed that door behind him and 
 walked away. He knew the truth now. At last 
 there was no doubt in his mind that Louise had 
 been denied a shelter in her greatest need by this 
 society woman, who would risk hell itself rather 
 than the possible loss of society standing and her 
 own selfish ease and pleasure. And that he was 
 right in believing the servant's story was shown by 
 after events, as well as by items of news which 
 came to him from various sources through New 
 York acquaintances. 
 
 Putting all he could gather into a connected 
 series, he managed, before returning to Champion, 
 to learn in general what must have been Louise's 
 experience after Vasplaine had ruined her finan- 
 cially and then brutally abandoned her. 
 
 She had found herself practically without 
 friends in New York. The only relative there was 
 Aunt Royal. She naturally turned to her in the 
 hour of her trouble. She was probably at that 
 time well-nigh crazed with the succession of 
 
358 m^ BKOTHEK'S KEEPER. 
 
 blows that had fallen upon her. It seemed to 
 Stuart almost incredible at first that Vasplaine in 
 so short a time could get possession of Louise's 
 money and squander it. But the more he learned 
 of his career the less he wondered. Louise had 
 trusted him, fascinated by a certain attractiveness 
 such men often possess. And when he finally 
 left her she found herself alone in a great city, 
 ruined. 
 
 Her aunt's refusal to receive her added the final 
 stroke to the weight of her shame and misery. 
 Stuart never knew just what Louise had done 
 after leaving her aunt's house before she appeared 
 so unexpectedly in Champion. There were at 
 least two days when he supposed she must have 
 wandered about or taken the wrong train to get 
 home, all that time fast losing her reason, and yet 
 with enough left to shape her way back to the old 
 home. The shock of her experiences told the 
 story of her condition as Stuart found her when 
 he lifted her up from the doorstep that rainy 
 night. 
 
 All this gave Stuart bitter thoughts as he hur- 
 ried back to Champion. He almost dreaded to 
 get off the train, for fear the doctor would meet him 
 as he did before when his father had died. But 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 359 
 
 no one was there with any news, and when he 
 reached the house he was surprised to find Louise 
 sitting up and looking no worse than when he 
 went away. He tried to take courage for her. 
 The doctor said she might Unger on through the 
 summer, but gave no hope of mental recovery. 
 With this constant shadow of death in their home, 
 therefore, Stuart and Rhena with thoughtful and 
 serious hearts, their love for each other refined 
 and strengthened by this affliction, went forward 
 with their great plans for the brotherhood of 
 Champion. 
 
 The Hall of Humanity was going up rapidly 
 now. Stuart had determined to have it ready for 
 dedication before winter set in if possible. He 
 had employed a very large force of the best work- 
 men he could find. All this, of course, meant that 
 he and Andrew, Eric and Rhena and the doctor, 
 together with other good people in the town, had 
 given a vast amount of thought to the plans and 
 purposes of the building. At the same time 
 Stuart was beginning the foundations of his own 
 home down in the town. The Hall of Humanity 
 stood on one side of the square nearly opposite St. 
 John's Church. Stuart had owned several small 
 buildings there and had torn them down to make 
 
360 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 room for the new building. His own house was 
 to be near by. 
 
 A few days after Stuart's return, Eric and An- 
 drew had come up at Stuart's request, and with 
 him and Rhena were sitting in the library at the 
 Duncan mansion, discussing the plans that were 
 now beginning to take visible shape. Eric had 
 gone back into the mines with the other men, and 
 seemed to be passing through an experience of 
 some bitterness. He had not yet recovered from 
 his humiliation at the loss of his influence over 
 the men. He was able to be present at the con- 
 ference on this occasion, owing to a half holiday 
 which the miners were celebrating in one of the 
 numerous lodges. 
 
 " I don't just understand -this arrangement here," 
 said Andrew, who was examining the plans of the 
 hall which lay spread out on the table. 
 
 Stuart explained the particular point, and then 
 they all began to talk about the building. 
 
 " What is your exact idea about the use of the 
 big hall .■" " asked Eric as he pointed at the diagram 
 marking the place of an immense auditorium. 
 
 " I don't know as I have very many ' exact ' 
 ideas about any of the future uses of the building, 
 except that I want it to represeht, in general, the 
 
STEWARDSHIP. . 36 1 
 
 great word Helpfulness. I have thought of great 
 singers and players and lecturers who could be in- 
 duced to come up here at moderate prices, under- 
 standing our object, and then pack the hall full of 
 men and women and children at a small sum 
 within their reach to pay. I believe we could at- 
 tract up here some of the best talent in music and 
 speech in all the world, and give the miners of 
 Champion a taste of some of the world's best 
 beauty. Then I would have a week or two of fine 
 picture exhibitions or fine art exhibits and so on, 
 with, say four times a year, a great flower exhibit. 
 I am a convert to your idea, Eric, of music and, 
 flowers for everybody. We could let Andrew here 
 have charge of the flower show, if he would 
 promise not to ruin us with hothouse extrava- 
 gances." 
 
 Andrew was so excited over the thought that he 
 got up and began to pace the room. 
 
 " My ! " he exclaimed ; " just think of a hall the 
 size of that lined all the way around with chrysan- 
 themums or callas or orchids ! You '11 allow me a 
 few orchids, won't you, Stuart .^ " 
 
 " But, look here ! " cried Rhena. " Don't let 
 Andrew spend all our money on orchids first 
 thing, the extravagant fellow ! Think of all the 
 
362 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 dollars it will take to run these other depart- 
 ments, Stuart. I have questioned some the prac- 
 ticability of all these rooms leading out from the 
 main hall." 
 
 " Why, you did the planning for them yourself, 
 little woman. What 's the matter with them ? " 
 
 " The question I raise is, how much all these 
 different things will really help the people. Now, 
 here, for instance, is the space we have left for the 
 new Salvation Army Hall. I admit it looks beau- 
 tiful on paper, and it will no doubt look fine when 
 it is done in wood and stone, but will the army 
 feel at home in it .' Will they be able, in there, 
 to reach the very people who now come into the 
 old hall .? " 
 
 " Why, you critical soul, what do you want us 
 to do .'' Make a specimen army hall like the old 
 shanty we have already, and knock out a dozen 
 panes of glass and stuff miners' hats and the 
 defunct remnants of old clothes into the holes to 
 make the place appear homelike and attractive } " 
 
 " There 's a good deal of sense in what your wife 
 says, just the same," said Andrew. " If the Sal- 
 vation Army gets to be too refined, it won't be the 
 Salvation Army any more, and it won't do the 
 army's work." 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 363 
 
 " Christ wore good clothes, did n't he ? " asked 
 Eric bluntly. 
 
 Everybody was silent a minute. They all knew 
 what he meant. And still, if the army stood for 
 a distinct way of reaching humanity, who could 
 tell what the result might be if that special way 
 was to be disturbed .' 
 
 " Don't worry about that," Stuart finally said, 
 with much homely sense in his thought of the 
 future. " If going into a decent, well-lighted, 
 warmed, and seated room is going to destroy the 
 army's usefulness, we'll turn it out into the old bar- 
 racks again. Rhena and I have discussed that a 
 good deal. It 's the only thing we ever disagreed 
 over, and we don't really disagree over that." 
 
 "These kindergarten rooms on this side of the 
 building are going to be models!" cried Andrew 
 with entliusiasm. He had suggested these rooms 
 and had superintended the plans and specifica- 
 tions. 
 
 " That 's the right idea ! " cried Eric. " I 'm like 
 the doctor in thinking a good many of the older 
 folks among us are fools or numskulls. But in 
 the children lies the hope of the entire labor ques- 
 tion if they have the right start." 
 
 They were all bending over the table now, dis- 
 
364 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 cussing the numerous features of the hall with its 
 almost bewildering multitude of appliances. There 
 was to 6e a model reading room and library ; sev- 
 eral rooms for social gatherings, and various 
 amusements ; ba;throoms and gymnasium ; a pic- 
 ture gallery ; a room fitted up expressly for 
 the use of a lantern and photography ; and other 
 rooms where classes could be gathered if the time 
 ever came when it seemed wise to reach out with 
 the helping hand farther than they saw the way 
 clear yet. 
 
 " There 's one thing we have n't reckoned upon 
 much," said Eric almost moodily at last. "What 
 use can all these people make of the various 
 new things that you are going to give them, 
 if, after all, they have to spend the bigger part 
 of their lives in the daytime, at least, under- 
 ground .'' And who is going to say that all these 
 fine things thrust into the men's minds will not 
 produce a discontent that will result in time in 
 greater misery than the condition they are now 
 in .? " 
 
 " Why, you old pessimist ! would you say to 
 the human race, ' Don't smell that pretty flower 
 to-day, because you know you may not have any 
 to-morrow and that will make you discontented ' } 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 365 
 
 Because a man's life is devoid of all pleasant 
 things, shall we keep him in that condition, for 
 fear he may grow discontented by knowing some- 
 thing better ? " 
 
 " That 's right ! " exclaimed Rhena, her eyes 
 flashing. " Eric knows better than to talk that 
 way. Think what these men have missed all 
 their lives ! Surely it will be very little for some 
 of them to enjoy, the best we can do. And 
 as to the time they are underground, Stuart, 
 put your brains to work to bring about a condi- 
 tion of labor so that the men can have more 
 leisure, and see more of God's earth when the 
 sun shines on it." 
 
 " Hear ! hear ! " cried Andrew. " ' Bring me,' 
 says Aladdin to the slave of the lamp, 'thirty 
 golden dishes full of pearls, and as many more 
 full of diamonds.' " 
 
 " What she asks is apparently impossible now," 
 responded Stuart, ," but why should it always be so } 
 Why should so many thousands of human beings 
 dig in the ground, in the dark, in constant and 
 deadly peril, shut out from most of the pleasures 
 of the earth, in order that other men like me may 
 have a more comfortable time ? " 
 
 " Because they don't know how to do anything 
 
366 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 else, and would not if they could," said Eric 
 bluntly. 
 
 " You don't know that, Eric ; you only think so 
 because they never have done anything else." 
 
 "Well, some one must do mining. Humanity 
 needs iron for its civilization, and how is it going 
 to get it if some of us don't go down into the 
 earth and dig it out 1 Shall we take turns 
 around } Suppose we try that. I '11 go down this 
 week, and next Andrew will take my place while 
 I preach, for him, and the next week Stuart can " — 
 
 " Yes, that would be a fine plan," said Rhena. 
 " Next you would be wanting me to go into the 
 mines and serve my week. And I would be will- 
 ing," Rhena added in a deep sadness, which 
 sometimes fell upon her, " if I thought it would 
 help to solve any problem, and make life a greater 
 and more blessed reality to thousands of souls 
 than it is now. How little we seem to be doing 
 to answer the question, after all. We need more 
 wisdom, and, dear friends, we have not gone to 
 the eternal source of all strength and truth as we 
 should. Before we talk over our plans any longer, 
 don't you think we ought to pray awhile .'' " 
 
 The request was so simply and naturally put 
 that the rest at once, as they sat about the table. 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 367 
 
 bowed their heads while Rhena prayed. Andrew 
 followed, then Eric, and lastly Stuart. They were 
 straightforward petitions for wisdom, and a larger 
 knowledge of God's will. The somewhat foggy 
 atmosphere of the discussion seemed to clear up 
 after that little pause, while they talked with their 
 Father, and the rest of the afternoon they seemed 
 to feel that whatever mistakes they might make, 
 and however short they might fall of answering 
 any real problems, their hearts and wills were 
 asking for divine wisdom, and their great purpose 
 was to use all talents and all property for the 
 uplift of humanity. 
 
 About four o'clock, as Eric and Andrew were 
 getting up to go, the doctor came in to see 
 Louise. He had come into the house without 
 being noticed, and had entered the library just 
 as Stuart was saying, " It will be a splendid thing 
 for the doctor. It will keep him busy, but he 
 won't be exposed any longer to these terrible 
 rides over the range in winter." 
 
 " If you are talking about that plan of turning 
 this house into a hospital and shutting me up in 
 it the rest of my life, you 're wasting time and 
 breath," said the doctor gruffly. " I simply won't 
 do anything of the kind. I can't live without 
 fresh air." 
 
368 tilS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 The doctor looked grimly at the little group 
 about the table. It was raining hard and he had 
 come in dripping. He was going to lay off his 
 wet coat in the hall before going to see Louise, 
 but as he stood there he looked as if he ought 
 to be very uncomfortable. The water had run 
 from the brim of his old hat down upon his right 
 ear, and what semblance of a collar he had on 
 when he started out had melted away down his 
 neck under the folds of his greatcoat. 
 
 " But, doctor, why don't you have more sense, 
 as you say to the rest of us.'" remonstrated 
 Stuart. " Here you are to-day wet through, and 
 like as not you won't have a dry thread on you 
 again until to-morrow or next week, for all that 
 I know. You '11 take your death cold this way." 
 
 " Did you ever know me to take my death 
 cold .? " 
 
 " And this place we are arranging for you," 
 continued Stuart, " will be a comfortable berth 
 for you the rest of your life. You 're getting 
 too old, doctor, to expose yourself through another 
 winter." 
 
 " I 'm not such an old fool as to be cooped up 
 in a hospital yet. Who will look after the men 
 outside if I have to stay here all the time } " the 
 doctor asked stubbornly. 
 
, STEWARDSHIP. 369 
 
 " Why, we can get a man all right. There are 
 plenty of young doctors who are eager to begin 
 practice here." 
 
 " Yes ! " burst out the doctor, " young upstarts 
 who have a lot of new-fangled surgical instru- 
 ments and are eager to try every one of 'em' on 
 every case they get ; anything from rheumatism 
 to liver complaint. I was talking with one of 
 'em last winter, and he wanted me to swallow 
 his latest contraption for operating on the throat 
 with an electric searchlight and battery combined, 
 and I don't know what all ! What '11 become of 
 my people if these fellows are turned loose 
 on 'em with their inventions .' No, sir ! I don't 
 intend to turn 'em over to any such risks. Mines 
 and Providence are dangerous enough, but a new 
 doctor with a lot of brand-new instruments is too 
 much even for Champion men." 
 
 " But you 're all the time grumbling about the 
 hard work, and when we arrange a good, easy 
 place for you, you won't take it," said Stuart, 
 firing a parting shot as the doctor started towards 
 the hall. 
 
 " Good, easy place ! Stuart, you know I 'd 
 rather die from tumbling, Ajax and all, into an 
 old shaft on my way to set Lew Trethven's leg 
 
370 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the nineteenth time than petrify dead in the best 
 hospital on earth ! " retorted the doctor. 
 
 It is possible he will die that way some time, 
 for under no persuasions would he consent to 
 abandon his outdoor work on the ranges. For 
 after all, was it not out there that the doctor felt 
 the love of humanity and its hunger for love .' 
 And nothing could ever satisfy him except that. 
 The thought of turning over the people of his 
 " parish," as he sometimes called it, to strangers, 
 was a thought he could not endure. He had 
 cared for them too long, and please God, he said 
 to himself often, as he tumbled through drifts and 
 waded through the flooded gorges, he would still 
 claim the privilege of calling them names and 
 loving them. 
 
 So the short summer went swiftly by, and 
 Stuart's plans matured so far as the building was 
 concerned, but he confronted some new problem 
 every day. It required all his growing steadiness 
 of purpose, together with all of Rhena's great love 
 for him, to keep him calm and hopeful. It was 
 not such an easy matter to use God's money for 
 the good of the people who were most in need of 
 it. He had talked over a plan of profit sharing 
 with Eric and some of the other miners, and it 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 371 
 
 was one of many plans he determined to try 
 in the near future. He was being hindered in his 
 efforts to exercise what he had come to call his 
 stewardship by the very men he was most eager 
 to help. Many of the miners would not consent 
 to any improvement in their cabins, and did 
 not take kindly to Stuart's attempt at drainage. 
 Added to all the rest was the ever-present factor 
 of the saloon, which never paused in its work of 
 destruction, and stood as a constant force to tear 
 down any and every good work. 
 
 But as the fall .came on and the great building 
 began to take form, and the possibilities of the 
 future for Champion grew upon him, Stuart 
 settled one fact very firmly and without vague- 
 ness. Whatever his plans might be, and however 
 much he might stumble and make mistakes in the 
 days to come, he knew that his use of money or 
 brains or property, or whatever he possessed, was 
 a use the account of which he owed to God. He 
 was fully persuaded that his stewardship was a 
 sacred thing, and a very vital part of his Chris- 
 tian faith, and he finally had a feeling of great 
 peace as he rested on the conviction that he had 
 dedicated all possessions to unselfish purposes, for 
 the good of humanity, as far as God gave him 
 
372 
 
 ms BROTHEfi'S KEEPER. 
 
 strength and wisdom to work out the details. 
 The special ways and means by which he was to 
 dispense God's money was a matter which must 
 be left to experiment and trial. The way in which 
 the money should be used was not an important 
 thing at all in comparison with his entire willing- 
 ness to use it as his brother's keeper. He argued, 
 and rightfully, that if men of capital once ac- 
 knowledged that they were God's stewards, and 
 once were willing and eager to use money and 
 talents to the glory of God's kingdom in the 
 earth, it would not be a very difficult thing to 
 find how best to do it. If a man wants to do 
 God's will, the way to do it will very soon be 
 found. The great need is that the man should 
 first be eager to do the will. 
 
 The home he was building for Rhena and him- 
 self was built with the same idea which now per- 
 vaded his entire life. It was built for a home, 
 but in such a way that its use would bless all 
 Champion. If you visit Champion some day very 
 soon, you will understand this better. No one 
 can ever charge Stuart and Rhena with selfish 
 or needless luxury. But every cent used in the 
 building of their home was spent as if they were 
 planning to receive as their most honored guest 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 373 
 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and offer him a restful 
 hospitality after a weary day spent in the world. 
 
 That was a memorable day in the history of 
 Champion when The Hall of Humanity was com- 
 pleted. The miners had a .holiday, and all day 
 long the building was thronged in all its parts by 
 the men and their families. In the evening 
 Stuart had planned, with the help of Andrew and 
 Eric, to have some exercises 'in the nature of 
 dedicatory services in the great hall. He had 
 gone down early, leaving Rhena with Louise, who 
 had been more restless than usual that day. She 
 had, as the doctor thought she might, lingered on 
 through the summer, gradually failing. No one 
 had noted her condition more carefully than 
 Rhena. She stayed with her until she became 
 quiet, and at last left her in charge of a nurse and 
 went down to join Stuart at the hall. 
 
 The miners' bands had been preparing for some 
 time, at Stuart's request, to take part on this 
 occasion. They marched into the hall early and 
 took up a position on the platform. The Sal- 
 vation Army also proudly beat its way up the 
 broad aisle, headed by the major, who, while in 
 some doubt as to the expediency of moving into 
 his new quarters without first breaking some of 
 
374 
 
 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 the furniture to make things look just right, had 
 finally consented to try it as it was, and if it' was 
 too good, Stuart had arranged for the lease of the 
 old Army Hall again. 
 
 The doctor had been caught after a long chase 
 up into the hills, and Stuart had insisted on his 
 being on the platform, but could not prevail on 
 him to offer any remarks. 
 
 " I 'm no speaker. Don't ask me, Stuart. If 
 any of the audience are sick or feel bad after you 
 and Eric and Andrew have talked to 'em, I '11 do 
 my best for 'em ; but I would only perform an 
 operation on their skulls without using an anaes- 
 thetic if I tried to talk. It would be too painful 
 for us all. I '11 agree to yell at any good points 
 the rest of you make, if I can see 'em without 
 a microscope." 
 
 Andrew spoke briefly on the value of the 
 building and its opportunities for Christian serv- 
 ice, dwelling on the fact that it was not money 
 that would make the plan successful, but live 
 Christian men and women, who put their hearts 
 into the work that the hall was to represent. 
 
 Eric followed with a very strong speech. He 
 was coming out of his disappointment and bitter- 
 ness, and was almost as popular with the men as 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 375 
 
 before. If he develops, he will be a stronger 
 leader than he once ever thought of being. He 
 declared his intention of still remaining where he 
 was in the mines. At the close he took advan- 
 tage of his opportunity to say some beautiful 
 things of Stuart. 
 
 Stuart was the last speaker, and it was an occa- 
 sion of a lifetime for any man. He was pro- 
 foundly moved as he faced that audience. It was 
 the same audience he had seen at the meetings 
 in the square, at the railroad station, at the park, 
 and in the hall at De Mott. The same rough, 
 stolid, impassive crowd, with here and there a 
 face that lighted up at some human touch as 
 Andrew or Eric had moved it. It was the same, 
 and yet it was different. To Stuart it spoke of 
 opportunities. He saw humanity so differently 
 now. 
 
 He spoke well ; very simply and in manly 
 fashion. Rhena, proud and happy, felt that admi- 
 ration for this strong, handsome man, her hus- 
 band, which always adds to the depth and beauty 
 of the love of man and wife. More than once 
 the tears came as she listened to the way Stuart 
 talked, voicing in a very plain fashion his great 
 desire for the common brotherhood. The men 
 
376 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 listened with the most breathless interest. When 
 he finished there was a hearty cheer, which was 
 caught up again and again, while Stuart, overcome 
 by his feelings, sat back and covered his face with 
 his hands. 
 
 It seemed a very natural thing then for Rhena 
 to ask all to bow their heads during a prayer. It 
 seemed to the people that nothing could more 
 fitly close such a day and such an occasion than 
 Rhena herself kneeling there, with all the Salva- 
 tion Army kneeling, as they used to do, around 
 her. She had never prayed so earnestly and truly 
 for the life abundantly to be given to them all. 
 Even while Rhena was still upon her knees, the 
 audience, without knowing all the reason for it, 
 felt that this building was consecrated in a very 
 solemn and profound sense to the humanity in 
 honor of which it was named. And Andrew, see- 
 ing that the time had come to close the services, 
 pronounced the benediction. 
 
 At the same hour in which Rhena had knelt 
 down before that great silent crowd of miners, the 
 doors of the drawing room in Aunt Royal's man- 
 sion in New York were being thrown open to one 
 of the first events of society's season. There 
 were gathered the butterflies of the world, dia- 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 377 
 
 monds and silks, sweet music and laughter; 
 vanity of vanity, adorned with the impressive 
 power always apparent in a display of rich leisure, 
 danced and ate and drank and gossiped, as if the 
 world was all play and the main business of every 
 man and woman was to be as free from trouble 
 and sacrifice as possible. Aunt Royal was at her 
 best ; the trip abroad had given her jaded nerves a 
 needed repose, and she was ready now for another 
 season of gayety. 
 
 " By the way," asked a young man during the 
 evening, who had been abroad several months, 
 "where is that charming niece of yours, Louise 
 Duncan, who used to visit you occasionally ? " 
 
 Aunt Royal paled a little. " You did not know 
 she is quite an invalid 1 Yes ; she is living with 
 her brother in Champion. It is doubtful if she 
 survives the winter. The winters in Champion 
 are horrible. I spent one there and it nearly 
 killed me." 
 
 " Ah ! we are thankful it was only one winter ! 
 How could we have spared you here in New 
 York .' " was the gallant reply. 
 
 Aunt Royal smiled at the compliment, and the 
 gay company, its elegance, its flowers, its perfume, 
 its happy carelessness of the world's woe, almost 
 
378 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 shut out the picture of that agonizing figure that 
 kneeled one night over there close by that beauti- 
 ful woman at the piano and begged for — But 
 strike up the music faster, faster ; let us eat, drink, 
 and be merry, for to-morrow we die. 
 
 The musicians at Aunt Royal's had begun the 
 soft, dreamy waltzes just as Stuart and Rhena 
 came into the library of the Duncan house at 
 Champion. They had been sent for in haste by 
 the nurse, who had noted a serious change in 
 Louise as the evening drew on. They went at 
 once into the bedroom. 
 
 It did not need the doctor's presence already 
 there, nor the stern look on his face, to tell them 
 that the end was near. Louise was partly raised 
 on the pillows, and her eyes glowed with the fever 
 of madness that had all along been consuming her. 
 
 "Come!" she cried peevishly, "we shall be 
 late. Don't you hear the clock striking .■' " It 
 made every one in the room start to hear the great 
 clock in the hall just at that moment strike eleven. 
 
 "Come! give me my gloves and fan, and tell 
 Jem to drive around at once. Be careful of my 
 dress ! Do I look right } The dances will be 
 started. We shall miss the first. How slow you 
 are ! I wanted lilies of the valley, and you sent 
 
STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 379 
 
 up the frisias. I don't think they are a bit pretty. 
 Doctor, you said not to leave off my cloak when 
 I went out to the carriage. It seems cold ! What 
 is the matter .' Hark ! I hear the music ! Why 
 don't they play faster? It is not fast enough." 
 
 She stopped talking, and her eyes opened wider. 
 She seemed to see what the rest did not. Then 
 she cried in a terrible voice : " Aunt Royal ! Hal ! 
 I am going mad ! I am mad ! Doctor ! doctor ! 
 save me ! " 
 
 She fell back, and the doctor shuddered and for 
 a second buried his face in his hands. Stuart 
 never saw him do that before. When he lifted 
 his head, no one asked what the end would be, for 
 it had already come. She had died, as the doctor 
 had really supposed she would, suddenly and pain- 
 lessly. Her life had gone out like a candle flame 
 in a winter night, when the great door of the man- 
 sion is swiftly opened and the belated owner of 
 the house is met by the servant in the hall. 
 
 " Tell the musicians to play a little faster," said 
 Aunt Royal, a few minutes later, and they did so. 
 
 When morning began to come in gray and cold, 
 Stuart was standing by the window of the bed- 
 room as he had stood about a year before when his 
 father died, Louise lay there, now that the life 
 
380 HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER. 
 
 had gone, her face almost as beautiful as when 
 Stuart saw her on his return from Europe. The 
 jewels were still about her neck, and the bracelets 
 on her wrists, while the frisias of which she had 
 complained lay across her bosom. 
 
 Stuart was looking out of the window. A 
 crowd of miners had come down the road and was 
 standing silently in front of the mansion. He 
 saw them there, and even in his grief he respected 
 their purpose in coming thus early to show their 
 sympathy before they went on down to their day's 
 work. 
 
 He went out to the hall. 
 
 " Tell the men to come up ; I shall be glad to 
 thank them," he said to a servant. 
 
 Rhena came in. "God has given you to me," 
 he said, " else this would be more than I could 
 bear ; " and he stood thus with his arm about her, 
 and the tears of his humanity fell fast at the sight 
 of that pale clay on the bed. 
 
 Then he turned towards the hall with his wife. 
 
 " God is merciful," she said. " He has given 
 us something to live for. We will spend our all 
 in doing his will." 
 
 " Yes," replied Stuart, " humanity, after all, is 
 worth saving ; it is worth living for. We are our 
 
STE WARDSHIP. 3 8 1 
 
 brothers' keepers. There is nothing better in all 
 the world than the love of God for his children, 
 and the love of his cbildren for one another." 
 And with the words he went out and shut the 
 door upon the dead and its past ; and with the 
 woman of his love by his side faced the living and 
 its future. 
 
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