David Baldwin was rarely known, where the decision lay with himself alone, to refuse any reasonable request of a workingman. While his public gifts were not as large, nor trumpeted as loudly as his brother’s, still, the unfortunate employee or neighbor who needed help, knew where to get it. But David was absent much of the time, either in Washington, performing his official duties as Congressman, or attending to large financial interests outside of Papyrus. Hence it happened that Zechariah Baldwin was usually the boss of Papyrus and political independence was not tolerated among the workmen. Few workingmen had ever remained long in Papyrus after showing in any way their independence of the Baldwins. Zechariah Baldwin defended the position of the paper manufacturers in this way: “We have built up the town; we own it and we claim the moral right to drive out of it any man who is offensive to us. That one-eyed Wycliff is a mischief-maker and trouble-breeder and he has got to get out.” But Wycliff did not get out. He did not even promise to get out. He seemed to have no intention of getting out. The methods which usually succeeded in driving a workingman out of town--blacklisting him in all the Baldwin industries and warning other employers not to hire him--these methods had failed utterly in the case of John Wycliff. “We cannot tolerate him much longer,” said Zack Baldwin. Certainly not. Where one workingman dares to do his own thinking and to express his own opinions there is danger that others will catch the distemper. What if they should form a union and demand the same wages paid elsewhere for the same work? Such a thing was not to be thought of for an instant. “We must fight the devil with fire,” said Zack Baldwin. Accordingly he offered a few Papyrus roughs a large sum if they would drive Wycliff out of town. He was not particular as to the means employed, so long as they avoided publicity and arrest. Zack Baldwin’s own son, Jehu, might be classed with other Papyrus roughs, in spite of a thin veneer of polished manners, which high society and the schools had given him. It is highly probable that the means employed to rid the town of Wycliff might have been violent but for an unexpected incident. Zechariah Baldwin met an old acquaintance from the West at the Taconic House, the only hotel in Papyrus, and, of course, the property of the Baldwins. “How do you do, Colonel Lathrop?” exclaimed the Lord of Papyrus, effusively. “That you, Baldwin?” replied the Westerner; “you have a delightful town here.” “So we think;” and the little millionaire paper-maker rubbed his hands in self-congratulation; “but we have a few evil-minded cranks among us who think they could improve matters. However, I think the boys will drive out the worst one within a week.” “Who is he? Who would think of finding fault with such a paradise as this?” pursued the Colonel.