The heavy face of the visitor lost a little of its gloom. There was even a light of eagerness in the somber eyes as he said: “May I ask one question? When Garland arrived here from New York a week ago, did he consult you professionally in the matter of his warning?” “He did.” The answer seemed a little reluctant. “Sought your help and advice?” “Ye-es.” “Sought the help you couldn’t give?” The words were almost a sneer. “But no doubt you were able to offer advice that he was not in a position to follow.” Wygram laughed softly. “That is so, Mr. Hartz. But if you hold these _a priori_ ideas in regard to my abilities why do you come to me yourself?” “It doesn’t follow that I’ve come to consult you. Howbeit, there is no harm in saying that I have. But one hardly goes so far as to look for material assistance from you.” “In your dealings with the Society?” The uncompromising question rather took Saul Hartz aback. “I didn’t say so,” he fenced. “We were discussing Garland. You say that Garland came to you for advice. May I ask what advice you gave him?” The answer did not come at once. Wygram drew solemnly at his tchibouk. After a silence of several moments he said with a cool picking of words, “Since Garland didn’t choose to follow the advice I gave, it may not be very profitable to disclose it--particularly as I was out of sympathy with the man himself.” “You offered advice all the same.” “I did. Out of no regard for Garland, with no desire to save his life, but merely in the interests of the community as a whole.” “Allow me to put this question.” Hartz’s senses were now strung to the point of intensity. “Had Garland followed the course you suggested to him, do you suppose he would have been alive to-day?” “I think it highly probable.” “Yet in your view he was a bad man?” “Had he taken the advice I gave him, he would have been impotent to do further mischief. But who does take advice?” “Then why give it?” “He came to me and sought it. I was enormously interested in his case. He was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. A creature of rare courage, energy, force of will, he aspired to the kind of dictatorship over his fellow men which seems to have such a fascination for half educated minds.” “You would rate such a man as Garland among the half educated?” “Among the rather less than half educated. At best his power lay among the turbulent, seething proletariats of the western world which enjoy political power without having to pay for it, among the shiftless herds which are out to grab the goods and chattels of their more fortunate or more deserving neighbors.” “In other words, his aim was to set class against class, so that he might ride to power on the storm he had raised.” “_Vide_ the _Planet_ newspaper.” A soft laugh floated up from the ground. “Just so!” The owner of the _Planet_ newspaper folded his arms with a fine gesture. “We take credit to ourselves for revealing Garlandism in its true colors.”