'Then I suppose that little shed yonder fell down by itself?' said De
Forest. We could see the bare and still smoking ruins, and hear the
slag-pools crackle as they hardened and set.

'Oh, that's only amusement. 'Tell you later. As I was saying, our
Serviles held the meeting, and pretty soon we had to ground-circuit the
platform to save 'em from being killed. And that didn't make our people
any more pacific.'

'How d'you mean?' I ventured to ask.

'If you've ever been ground-circuited,' said the Mayor, 'you'll know it
don't improve any man's temper to be held up straining against nothing.
No, sir! Eight or nine hundred folk kept pawing and buzzing like flies
in treacle for two hours, while a pack of perfectly safe Serviles
invades their mental and spiritual privacy, may be amusing to watch, but
they are not pleasant to handle afterwards.'

Pirolo chuckled.

'Our folk own themselves. They were of opinion things were going too far
and too fiery. I warned the Serviles; but they're born house-dwellers.
Unless a fact hits 'em on the head they cannot see it. Would you believe
me, they went on to talk of what they called "popular government"? They
did! They wanted us to go back to the old Voodoo-business of voting with
papers and wooden boxes, and word-drunk people and printed formulas, and
news-sheets! They said they practised it among themselves about what
they'd have to eat in their flats and hotels. Yes, sir! They stood up
behind Bluthner's doubled ground-circuits, and they said that, in this
present year of grace, _to_ self-owning men and women, _on_ that very