The guns of the second-class movement were thus silenced, and as a sectional agitation the movement itself soon afterwards fell through. But it was not to die in the ordinary sense that sectional movements usually do die. It simply transferred its energies and its resources into a wider field. The conviction had been growing among all grades of the sorting force that they all had grievances in common, and the one that demanded their united action was the manner in which certain benefits of the Fawcett scheme had been persistently withheld. It was therefore decided to combine forces and unite in common action, the juniors and the seniors alike in one camp. This wider fraternal feeling between the first and the second class of sorters was principally brought about by the discovery by Williams—a sorter who had diligently been investigating the matter—of a copy of the full and original text of the much-disputed scheme itself. It seemed to have escaped observation that the text of this document had been printed in the public press at the time of its introduction, and that it had also been printed as a Parliamentary paper, which might have been procured in the ordinary way with very little trouble had they only thought of it. It is, however, a somewhat curious fact to be remembered that for some reason or other it was thought printed Parliamentary and official papers relating to the Post-Office were unobtainable, and that postal officials, to get a glimpse of them at all, must do so secretly and surreptitiously. There was a feeling that one might only purchase them by proxy, while they waited out of sight with fear and trembling lest their criminal intention should be suspected by some prowling Post-Office spy dogging their footsteps. This was the kind of feeling which indeed had governed most of the actions of postal servants for the previous ten years or so, and doubtless this timid reluctance to be seen reading or seeking to obtain printed official documents by the light of day was a survival and a result of the long serfdom to which they had been reduced.