Rising and holding between his fingers the card which had been brought to him, he faced the others: “A messenger from His Majesty, the King,” he said. CHAPTER VIII MR. KEARNS HAS A PREMONITION For some moments after the Colonel had left the room the three men sat in silence. Then General Mainwarren turned to the Professor. “You will forgive me if my words have been too blunt,” he said courteously; “but students of sociology agree that the conditions of the present epoch had their origin in your day; that such origin can be distinctly traced back; and that with the men of your time lies the responsibility for whatever exists to-day.” “And you, I trust, will pardon any undue warmth on my side,” replied the Professor, “but this I must say; however much you may be disposed to blame the people of my day, you, personally, if you will permit me to say so, seem disposed to carry out measures far more arbitrary and drastic than were ever adopted in our time.” “You refer to the measures I spoke of in relation to the coal supply?” asked General Mainwarren. “Yes. Certainly you don’t claim that God, or Nature--call it what you will--placed those deposits exclusively for your benefit and that you can deal with them absolutely as you will, regardless of the rights, interests or welfare of humanity in general?” “It was ill-advised,” retorted the General, slowly and with emphasis, “for you to raise that point. If you will remember, it was in your time that that very point was first set up.” “I fail to recall----” “Surely not! Wasn’t it in your day that the claim was for the first time advanced that these very coal deposits were vested in certain hands by divine appointment and that the right to manage such properties must be left solely and entirely to the discretion of those whom the Almighty had so selected? Wasn’t this question of divine right advanced, for the first time in the history of the Republic, in your day and--successfully maintained?” “How successfully maintained?” “Can you even question! I have studied carefully the history of the time and I at least know my facts. Wasn’t the situation then critical enough? The operators withheld the output. The people were perishing from cold. Death stalked abroad. Had not the State Government ample power to declare that the public health and safety required the seizure of those lands, with compensation, of course, to the owners? This sovereignty right of eminent domain was invoked when it was a question of putting through a new street, or creating a right of way for some quasi-public corporation. But when it came to exercising the right against a powerful corporation, it seems your suffering people feared to even whisperingly advocate the measure. So,” continued the General, “the people were permitted to languish and die and the theory of divine right took its birth and, as you perceive, has flourished apace since then.”