"And now," said Mr. Curtis Fleming, "will some one kindly explain to
me what this Ross fiend had against our friend, Mr. Dorr?"

"Nothing," replied Average Jones.

"Nothing? Was he coursing with spiders merely for sport?"

"Oh, no. You see Mr. Dorr was interfering with the machinery of one
of our ruling institutions, the Canned Meat Trust. He possessed
information which would have indicted all the officials. Therefore
it was desirable--even essential--that he should be removed from the
pathway of progress."

"Nonsense! Socialistic nonsense!" snapped Mr. Curtis Fleming.
"Trusts may be unprincipled, but they don't commit individual
crimes."

"Don't they?" returned Average Jones, smiling amiably at his own
boot-tip. "Did you ever hear of Mr. Adel Meyer's little corset
steel which he invented to stick in the customs scales and rob the
government for the profit of his Syrup Trust? Or of the individual
oil refineries which mysteriously disappeared in fire and smoke at a
time when they became annoying to the Combination Oil Trust? Or of
the Traction Trust's two plots to murder Prosecutor Henry in San
Francisco? I'm just mentioning a few cases from memory. Why, when
a criminal trust faces only loss it will commit forgery, theft or
arson. When it faces jail, it will commit murder just as
determinedly. Self-defense, you know. As for the case of Mr.
Dorr--" and he proceeded to detail the various attempts on the young