were held in Porto Rico, while Everhard and Merryweather were placed in Alcatraz, an island in San Francisco Bay that had already seen long service as a military prison.

As a revolutionist myself, as one on the inside who knew the hopes and fears and secret plans of the revolutionists, I am fitted to answer, as very few are, the charge that they were guilty of exploding the bomb in Congress.  And I can say flatly, without qualification or doubt of any sort, that the socialists, in Congress and out, had no hand in the affair.  Who threw the bomb we do not know, but the one thing we are absolutely sure of is that we did not throw it.

On the other hand, there is evidence to show that the Iron Heel was responsible for the act.  Of course, we cannot prove this.  Our conclusion is merely presumptive.  But here are such facts as we do know.  It had been reported to the Speaker of the House, by secret-service agents of the government, that the Socialist Congressmen were about to resort to terroristic tactics, and that they had decided upon the day when their tactics would go into effect.  This day was the very day of the explosion.  Wherefore the Capitol had been packed with troops in anticipation.  Since we knew nothing about the bomb, and since a bomb actually was exploded, and since the authorities had prepared in advance for the explosion, it is only fair to conclude that the Iron Heel did know.  Furthermore, we charge that the Iron Heel was guilty of the outrage, and that the Iron Heel planned and perpetrated the outrage for the purpose of foisting the guilt on our shoulders and so bringing about our destruction.

From the Speaker the warning leaked out to all the creatures in the House that wore the scarlet livery.  They knew, while Ernest was speaking, that some violent act was to be committed.  And to do them justice, they honestly believed that the act was to be committed by the socialists.  At the trial, and still with honest belief, several testified to having seen Ernest prepare to throw the bomb, and that it exploded prematurely.  Of course they saw nothing of the sort.  In the fevered imagination of fear they thought they saw, that was all.

As Ernest said at the trial:  “Does it stand to reason, if I were going to throw a bomb, that I should elect to throw a feeble little squib like the one that was thrown?  There wasn’t enough powder in it.  It made a lot of smoke, but hurt no one except me.  It exploded right at my feet, and yet it did not kill me.  Believe me, when I get to throwing bombs, I’ll do damage.  There’ll be more than smoke in my petards.”

In return it was argued by the prosecution that the weakness of the bomb was a blunder on the part of the socialists, just as its premature explosion, caused by Ernest’s losing his nerve and dropping it, was a blunder.  And to clinch the argument, there were the several Congressmen who testified to having seen Ernest fumble and drop the bomb.