Baxter flushed the least trifle at Driscoll's words, but he did not retort. His eyes ran over the faces of the four with barely perceptible hesitancy. He felt this to be his opening, but the plan of his business sense was a subject difficult and delicate to handle. "I have a better use for Mr. Foley," he said steadily. "Yes?" cried the others, and leaned toward him. When Baxter said this much, they knew he had a vast deal more to say. "If we could convict him I'd be in favor of his arrest. But if we try, we'll fail; and that will be a triumph for the union. So to arrest him is bad policy." "Go on," said Murphy. "Whatever we may say to the public, we know among ourselves this strike is nowhere near its end. It may last all summer--the entire building season." The four men nodded. Baxter now spoke with apparent effort. "Why not make use of Foley and win it in three weeks?" "How?" asked Driscoll suspiciously. "How?" asked the others eagerly. "I suppose most of you have been held up by Foley?" There were four affirmative answers. "You know he's for sale?" "I've been forced to buy him!" said Driscoll. Baxter went on more easily, and with the smoothness of a book. "We have all found ourselves, I suppose, compelled to take measures in the interests of peace or the uninterrupted continuance of business that were repugnant to us. What I am going to suggest is a thing I would rather not have to do; but we are face to face with two evils, and this is the lesser. "You will bear me out, of course, when I say the demands of the union are without the bounds of reason. We can't afford to grant the demands; and yet the fight against the union may use up the whole building season. We'll lose a year's profits, and the men will lose a year's wages, and in the end we'll win. Since we are certain to win, anyhow, it seems to me that any plan that will enable us to win at once, and save our profits and the men's wages, is justifiable." "Of course," said three of the men. "What do you mean?" Driscoll asked guardedly. "Many a rebellion has been quelled by satisfying the leader." "Oh, come right out with what you mean," demanded Driscoll. "The quickest way of settling the strike, and the cheapest, for both us and the union, is to--well, see that Foley is satisfied." Driscoll sprang to his feet, his chair tumbling on its back, and his fist came down upon the table. "I thought you were driving at that! By God, I'm getting sick of this whole dirty underhand way of doing business. I'd get out if I had a half-way decent offer. The union is in the wrong. Of course it is! But I want to fight 'em on the square--in the open. I don't want to win by bribing a traitor!"