"They’re nothing but a lot of boys," he said as, when they drew nearer, he looked at their young faces. "It’s a shame to send a lot of kids like that into—a mix-up of this kind." He received the Captain and the first-lieutenant in the main office. The Captain had taken off his broad-brimmed service hat and was mopping his face with a blue bandana handkerchief. "Phew!" he said. "This looks as if it was goin’ to be the real thing!" "It _is_ the real thing," said Luke. "You haven’t got a drink handy, have you?" asked the Captain. He was an olive-complexioned young man of twenty-two or -three with a girlish mouth and bright black eyes. Luke produced a bottle and glasses, and the Captain drank. He spoke in the high tone of excitement as he rattled on: "Somebody threw a brick at us just up here. Did you see ’em? It near cracked Sergeant Schmidt’s coco. Poor old Schmidt; he was scared yellow, wasn’t he, Terry?" Terry was the lieutenant, a raw Irish lad with the face of a fighter. "You bet," said he. Luke drew the Captain aside. "You may as well understand at once," said he, "that this isn’t any picnic. You’ve been sent here to protect our property, and you may have a hot time doing it. We have seventy-two strike-breakers here under Mr. Breil; the superintendent; one or two clerks; and five foremen who’ve remained loyal to the company. That, with me, makes up the inside force. There’s half a dozen police, too. What I want you to do is to draw a cordon of your men along the front of the building. Stand them on the pavement. Breil’s men’ll watch the back. Half your people had better go on duty now and be relieved by the other half at five o’clock. But from seven on, we’ll need your whole company on the job." The Captain looked serious and worried. "You think there’ll be real trouble to-night?" "I shouldn’t be a bit surprised, especially as I see the Governor’s sent us just enough of you fellows to excite a mob and yet be powerless against it. What were your instructions from up top?" "I was to use my own discretion." Luke looked at the young man and smiled at the idea of intrusting men’s lives to such discretion. "Well, the main thing is not to lose your head," said Luke. "They’ll outnumber us?" "If they attacked, yes—undoubtedly." The Captain returned to the whiskey bottle. "And we’d be powerless, unless——" He hesitated. "Unless you fired," Luke concluded for him. They looked at each other, the man and the boy. "You mustn’t fire," said Luke. "No," said the boy. "Unless you have to," said the man.... The afternoon dragged by. Luke gave up all hope of Forbes and spent most of the time in the upper office, looking at the soldiers stationed in front of the building and at the groups of men staring at the soldiers. It seemed to Luke that the numbers of the staring men were increasing....