During a hurried and tremendous preparation by the government for war, any disorder such as menaced the country would be little short of a calamity.

It might turn out a fatality.

This so-called labor union intended to take advantage of a crisis to further its own ends.

Yet even so, that fact did not wholly explain Glidden and his subtlety.

Some nameless force loomed dark and sinister back of Glidden's meaning, and it was not peril to the wheatlands of the Northwest alone.
Like a huge dog Kurt shook himself and launched into action.