ve determined shall be made the moment for his
dismissal from the council and for a change in his plan, if not a total
rejection of it.

Before the appointed hour of the meeting, these skeptics meet in secret
conclave.

"It will be our duty to-night to decide upon the means by which the plan
we have been considering may be carried into execution, or abandoned,"
states the chairman of this impromptu meeting in a perfunctory tone. "If
there is any preliminary matter to be discussed, I am ready to entertain
it."

This brings three of the men to their feet.

Coleman, the delegate from California, is recognized.

"Mr. Chairman, I am opposed to allowing any man to take part in this
work who is not in thorough sympathy with the rest of the committee. It
would be a manifest impossibility for this very dangerous and
unprecedented undertaking to be launched with the possible danger of
there being a spy in our company.

"I am not prepared to say that there is such a spy here, yet until it is
satisfactorily demonstrated that we are all of us true friends of the
laboring men of the country, I shall be against proceeding to the
further outlining of the plan.

"It is not enough that a man profess friendship. He must be able to show
by his acts that he has done something for his fellow-men besides
theorize."

These views are quickly seconded. Then follows a talk among the men as
to what each of them has done to establish a record as a friend of the
masses. From the statements and the corroborating testimony of
dissenters, all of the members, with the exception of Nevins, pass
satisfactorily. He has no acts to his credit. No one admits knowing of
him outside of his work as a committeeman. Not one of those in
attendance at this special meeting will speak a word in his behalf.

At this juncture, when it looks as though he is to be ruled out of the
committee and his plan repudiated, Hendrick Stahl asks to be heard.

As Stahl is a member of high standing and the leader of a strong labor
par