And yet, many and strange as were the phantoms which Peter's sick
imagination conjured up, there was no one of them as terrible as the
reality which prevailed just then in the life of American City, and
was determining the destiny of a poor little man by the name of
Peter Gudge. There lived in American City a group of men who had
taken possession of its industries and dominated the lives of its
population. This group, intrenched in power in the city's business
and also in its government, were facing the opposition of a new and
rapidly rising power, that of organized labor, determined to break
the oligarchy of business and take over its powers. The struggle of
these two groups was coming to its culmination. They were like two
mighty wrestlers, locked in a grip of death; two giants in combat,
who tear up trees by the roots and break off fragments of cliffs
from the mountains to smash in each other's skulls. And poor
Peter--what was he? An ant which happened to come blundering across
the ground where these combatants met. The earth was shaken with
their trampling, the dirt was kicked this way and that, and the
unhappy ant was knocked about, tumbled head over heels, buried in
the debris; and suddenly--Smash!--a giant foot came down upon the
place where he was struggling and gasping!






Section 6