She spent some time at the phone, and the people she
talked with must have phoned to others, because for the next hour or
two there was a constant stream of visitors coming in, and Peter had
to tell his story over and over again.
The first to come was a giant of a man with tight-set mouth and so
powerful a voice that it frightened Peter. He was not surprised to
learn that this man was the leader of one of the most radical of the
city's big labor unions, the seamen's. Yes, he was a "Red," all
right; he corresponded to Peter's imaginings--a grim, dangerous man,
to be pictured like Samson, seizing the pillars of society and
pulling them down upon his head. "They've got you scared, my boy,"
he said, noting Peter's hesitating answers to his questions. "Well,
they've had me scared for forty-five years, but I've never let them
know it yet." Then, in order to cheer Peter up and strengthen his
nerves, he told how he, a runaway seaman, had been hunted thru the
Everglades of Florida with bloodhounds, and tied to a tree and
beaten into insensibility.
Then came David Andrews, whom Peter had heard of as one of the
lawyers in the Goober case, a tall, distinguished-looking man with
keen, alert features.
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