“Soldiers out! Horns of the devil! The soldiers have been attacked, they have discharged a volley into the crowd, killed two, and wounded nobody knows how many.” The Austrian looked in vain for any sign of alarm on the face of his master. To Tarsis it seemed a petty incident, indeed, by contrast with the revolt in his own soul and the deed upon which he had determined. “This has happened before,” he said, “and I have no doubt that order will be restored in a few hours. Now, let us consider the strike. That is more to our concern. What do they want this time?” “I confess that I do not know and am unable to ascertain,” Ulrich answered, quelled in a measure by the other’s belittlement of the situation, but not convinced. “Have they presented a demand?” “No, signore. It came about in this way at the Ticinese Gate mill: Every Tuesday I make a visit of inspection there. I arrived as usual at 8 o’clock this morning. In the weaving department I noted a strange, brazen-faced fellow going from loom to loom distributing leaflets. I guessed that he was up to some mischief. Quietly I got a look at one of the circulars and saw that the rascal was sowing socialism in our own ground--under our noses, in truth.” “What was in the circular?” “Oh, it was a seditious, scurrilous, shameful thing. The heading of it was ‘To the Golden Geese,’ and it asked them how much longer they were going to lay golden eggs for Tarsis and his gang of conspirators against the poor. Tarsis and his gang! Those were the words, signore! Anarchism, rank anarchism!” “And then?” Tarsis asked, glancing up while Ulrich paused for breath. “I had the fellow arrested, of course. But not a word of protest had I uttered before. Ha! They all thought I was afraid to speak. While he was distributing the papers I telephoned to the Questura of Police. Quickly two Civil Guards came and nabbed him. Then what happened? Red Errico, foreman of a group of the weavers, began to cry out against me. He called me a slave, a tyrant, a jackal, all in the same breath. Think of it, signore. What ingratitude! You yourself will remember that it was I who appeared before the Board of Directors and asked that the wages of the children be advanced from twelve to fifteen _soldi_ a day. And now they call me tyrant! The whole crew of them did it, and to my teeth, signore, to my teeth!” “And then?” asked Tarsis.