“When I work and where I work is my own business, so long as I don’t beg food at back doors.”

“Do we?”

They had crowded around him and menaced him with murmurings and glowering gaze.

“I should say so,” he replied, giving them an indifferent going-over with his cold eyes.  “You carry all the marks.”

Then he shouldered his way out from among them, displaying the air of one who found further discourse unprofitable.

He strolled leisurely in the direction of the big man in the car.  The crowd he had left stared after him without presuming to voice taunt or reply; there was something compelling about him.

As Farr approached the automobile its owner stopped talking and stared at the tall stranger with some apprehension.  Then the big man beckoned unobtrusively to a policeman.  It was evident that Farr was not of the same sort as the ruck of men from among whom he had just emerged, nevertheless he had come from among them.  The lordly man in the car had observed him moving in the group, for Farr had loomed above the heads of the others; what he had been saying to the malcontents the big man had not been able to hear, but he guessed.

“Some sort of sneak has been stirring up the fools in this city lately,” the aristocrat informed the officer who came promptly to the side of the car.  “Who is this fellow coming?”

“I never saw him before, Colonel Dodd.”

“Stand by!  He is going to tackle me and make a grand-stand play in front of his gang.  His clothes give him away—­a loafing demagogue!”

But the tall man did not pause at the car or even glance at the dignitary who occupied it.  He seemed to have lost all interest in the occasion.  He yawned as he passed the automobile and started away across the square.

“Here, you!  You big chap!” called Colonel Dodd, promptly emboldened.

Farr halted and turned, his countenance showing mild inquiry.

“What do you mean by coming into a peaceable city and stirring up labor troubles?”

“Have I done so?”

“You have just been mixing and mingling with those men, talking to them.  I know your kind.”

“Ah, a gentleman of keen discernment!”

“I have seen you before—­you fellows with long-tailed coats and short-horned ideas.  We don’t want your kind in this city!”

“I seem to have made a prompt sensation without trying to do so,” returned Farr, meekly.  “I have been in your city less than fifteen minutes, sir!”

“You’re a traveling labor-agitator, aren’t you?”

“No, sir.”

“But I just saw you circulating among those men.  Your rig-out shows your character!”

“You mean these garments I wear?”

“Certainly!  A frock-coat helps out your pose before an ignorant public.”

“He stole that coat from me,” squeaked a fat man, standing at a little distance, scrubbing a torn sleeve over his grimy, sweat-streaked face.  “He picked it fair off’n my back.  I have follered him to show him up as a robber and a fake.  That’s so help me!”