There was news in the morning paper which gave material for controversy—a “confession” by Dinardo, the Italian who was accused of having shot Pete Hanun. Here was the whole conspiracy revealed—an elaborate account of the shooting, how Rovetta had got him the gun, how Minetti and Hartman had paid him for the deed. These were Hal’s friends from North Valley—the very people he had tried to persuade his brother to meet! A bunch of conspirators and assassins! “It’s an obvious frame-up,” declared Hal; but how far would that get him with Edward? How far would it get him with any of the friends he hoped to influence? The statement of Dinardo was published in full all over the state, and did its intended work of alienating sympathy from the strikers. When Dinardo came out of prison at the end of a couple of months, a broken man, he repudiated the so-called “confession”, declaring that when he had signed it he had been so nearly insane from lack of sleep that he had had no idea of what he was doing.
