She laughed softly, stepped to the table, and chose a cigarette. “My friend, you promise impossibilities. I was not born to that incomparable company. To be frank, neither were you. Alice, grant you, belongs there. And that mad cousin of yours. But not we two earth creepers. We're neither of us star dwellers. In the meantime”--she lit her Egyptian and stopped to make sure of her light every moment escaping more definitely from the glamor of his passion--“you mentioned an engagement that was imperative. Don't let me keep you from it.” CHAPTER 12 From The New Catechism Question: What is the whole duty of man? Answer: To succeed. Q. What is success? A. Success is being a Captain of Industry. Q. How may one become a Captain of Industry? A. By stacking in his barns the hay made by others while the sun shines. Q. But is this not theft? A. Not if done legally and respectably on a large scale. It is high finance. THE REBEL AND THE UNDESIRABLE CITIZEN TALK TREASON. THE HERO HAS PRIVATE CONVERSE WITH A GREAT PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION Part 1 Jeff never for a day desisted from his fight to win back for the people the self rule that had been wrested from them for selfish purposes by corporate greed. “Government by the people” was the watchword he kept at the head of his editorial column. Better a bad government that is representative than a good one emanating from the privileged few, he maintained with conviction. To his office came one day Oscar Marchant, the little, half-educated Socialist poet, coughing from the exertion of the stairs he had just climbed. He had come begging, the consumptive presently explained. “Remember Sobieski, the Polish Jew?” Jeff smiled. “Of course. Philosophical anarchy used to be his remedy.” “Starvation is the one he's trying now,” returned Marchant grimly. “He's had typhoid and lost his job. The rent's due and they'll be turned out tomorrow. He's got a wife and two kids.” Farnum asked questions briefly and pulled out his check book. “Tell Sobieski not to worry,” he said as he handed over a check. “I'll send a reporter out there and we'll make an appeal through the _World_. Of course his own name won't be used. No one will know who it really is. We'll look out for him till he's on his feet again.” Marchant gave him the best he had. “You're a pretty good Socialist, even though you don't know it.” “Am I?” “But you're blind as a bat. The things you fight for in the _World_ don't get to the bottom of what ails us.” “We've got to forge the tools of freedom before we can use them, haven't we?” “You're all for patching up the rotten system we've got. It will never do.” “Great changes are most easily brought about under the old forms. Men's minds in the mass move slowly. They can see only a little truth at a time.” “Because they are blinded by ignorance and selfishness. Get at bottom facts, Farnum. What's the one great crime?”