Page 52 (2/2)

"You simple sons of bitches," Luther said as he headed for the door "You brought this on yourselves" chapter eight After the flu had passed on, Danny returned to walking the beat by day and studying to iht In teres at his door at least once a week He'd unwrap theanda rags, as well as copies of Das Kapital and The Coiven by Jack Reed, E Bill Haywood, Jim Larkin, Joe Hill, and Pancho Villa He read thickets of propaganda so dense with rhetoric itine He came across certain words so often--tyranny, imperialism, capitalist oppression, brotherhood, insurrection--that he suspected a knee-jerk vocabulary had beco the workers of the world But as the words lost individuality, so they lost their power and gradually their one, Danny wondered, hoould these noodle heads--and a the Bolshie and anarchist literature, he had yet to find someone asn't a noodle head--as one unifi ed body, successfully cross a street, never mind overthrow a country?

When he wasn't reading speeches, he read missives from as commonly referred to as the "front line of the workers' revolution" He read about striking coal side their faanizers assassinated on the dark streets of smen jailed, beaten, and deported And always it was they ere painted as the enereat American Way

To his surprise, Danny felt occasional stirrings of eht anarchists werebut steel-eyed bloodlust, and little in his reading changed his opinion Co a utopia that failed to take into consideration the most elemental characteristic of the human animal: covetousness The Bolshies believed it could be cured like an illness, but Danny knew that greed was an organ, like the heart, and to remove it would kill the host The socialists were the se was constantly entwined with the Communists' and it was impossible, at least in this country, for it to be heard above the red din

But for the life of hieted unions deserved their fate Tiain as renounced as treasonous rhetoric washe be treated as a man

He ht and McKenna wagged a finger at him "It's not those e Ask yourself instead, 'Who's funding those men? And to what end?' "

Danny yawned, tired all the tiht's sleep "Let uess--Bolsheviks"

"You're goddaht From Mother Rus sia herself" He widened his eyes at Danny "You think this is , yeah? Lenin himself said that the people of Russia will not rest until all the peoples of the world join their revolution That's not idle talk, boyo That's a clear fucking threat against these shores" He thuer off the table "My shores"

Danny suppressed another yaith his fist "How's ?"

"Al they call a policemen's union yet?"

"Going to aTuesday"

"What took so long?"

"If Danny Coughlin, son of Captain Coughlin and no stranger himself to the selfi sh, politically motivated act, were to suddenly ask to join the Boston Social Club, people ht be a bit suspicious"

"You've a point Fair enough"

"My old partner, Steve Coyle?"

"The one who caught the grippe, yeah A shame"

"He was a vocal supporter of the union I' dark nights of the soul over hiht up, so I had to check out aLet them think I have a soft heart"