THE FATE OF ICIODORUM. 213 
away in his strong-box, and which shone out 
through his plate-glass windows and made itself 
felt in every smirk of his self-satisfied face. An- 
other speaker said that the thief of labor was the 
worst of all thieves, and for them to despoil him 
was but to seek restoration of stolen goods. And 
the schoolmaster said that he who takes for his 
own the value labor has given is worse than he 
who robs upon the public highway, — for he adds 
hypocrisy to theft. 
Some of them counselled an immediate attack 
upon the managers of the Confidence Society, but 
the voice of master-workman Jacques was for some 
compromise which would restore them to employ- 
ment. There had been a considerable fund col- 
lected by the Chevaliers of Industry in the way 
of dues and assessments. This fund he had dis- 
tributed among the unemployed laborers, freely at 
first, but of late more sparingly. There were many 
who hoped to live through the winter on this fund, 
and these spoke in no pleasant terms of the master- 
workman’s stinginess. The fund was nearly gone, 
and Jacques well knew that if work was not soon 
resumed, the order of Chevaliers of Industry would 
come to asudden end. Organized labor without 
cash or credit is very soon disorganized. 
A few heeded his words of counsel and followed 
his lead to their homes. But the bolder spirits 
stiffened their resolve with the red wines for which 
the café of the Lion d’Or is so justly famous, and 
started for the residence of the President of the 
Confidence Society. They roused him from his 
bed, killed one of the Jonas men whom they found 
