the fire. If they arrested a man, he became forthwith a hero and was given an ovation. They sent bands of music and played at the jail doors, and the ladies filled the jail with every delicacy that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the senses.

Hogg and Legree were in a panic of fear with the certainty of defeat, exposure and a felon's cell yawning before them.

Two days before the election, the prayer meeting was held at eight o'clock in the Baptist church at Hambright. It was the usual mid-week service, but the attendance was unusually large.

After the meeting, the Preacher, Major Dameron, and eleven men quietly walked back to the church and assembled in the pastor's study. The door opened at the rear of the church and could be approached by a side

street.

66

Gentlemen," said Major Dameron, "I've asked you here to-night to deliver to you the most important order I have ever given, and to have Dr. Durham as our chaplain to aid me in impressing on you its great urgency." "We're ready for orders, Chief," said young Ambrose Kline, the deacon's son.

"You are to call out every troop of the Klan in full force the night before the election. You are to visit every negro in the county, and warn every one as he values his life not to approach the polls at this election. Those who come, will be allowed to vote without molestation. All cowards will stay at home. Any man, black or white, who can be scared out of his ballot is not fit to have one. Back of every ballot is the red blood of the man that votes. The ballot is force. This is simply a test of manhood. It will be enough to show who is fit to rule the state. As the masters of the eleven township lodges of the Klan, you are the sole guardians of society to-day.

When a civilised government has been restored, your work will be done.

"We will do it, sir," cried Kline.

"Let me say, men," said the Preacher, "that I heartily endorse the plan of your chief. See that the work is done thoroughly and it will be done for all time. In a sense this is fraud. But it is the fraud of war. The spy

is a fraud, but we must use him when we fight. Is war justifiable?

"It is too late now for us to discuss that question. We are in a war, the most ghastly and hellish ever waged, a war on women and children, the starving and the wounded, and that with sharpened swords. The Turk and Saracen once waged such a war. We must face it and fight it out. Shall we flinch?"

"No! no!" came the passionate answer from every

man.

"You are asked to violate for the moment a statutory law. There is a higher law. You are the sworn officers of that higher law."

لن

essence of Klan The group of leaders left the church with enthusiasm and on the following night they carried out their instructions to the letter.

The election was remarkably quiet. Thousands of soldiers were used at the polls by Hogg's orders. But they seemed to make no impression on the determined men who marched up between their files and put the ballots in the box.

Legree's ticket was buried beneath an avalanche. The new "Conservative" party carried every county in the state save twelve and elected one hundred and six members of the new Legislature out of a total of one hundred and twenty.

The next day hundreds of carpet-bagger thieves fled to the North, and Legree led the procession.

Legree had on deposit in New York two millions of dollars, and the total amount of his part of the thefts he had engineered reached five millions. He opened an office on Wall Street, bought a seat in the Stock Exchange, and became one of the most daring and successful of a group of robbers who preyed on the industries of the nation.

The new Legislature appointed a Fraud Commission which uncovered the infamies of the Legree régime, but every thief had escaped. They promptly impeached the Governor and removed him from office, and the old commonwealth once more lifted up her head and took her place in the ranks of civilised communities.

N

CHAPTER XXI

THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO

ELSE was elated over the defeat and dissolution of the Leagues that had persecuted him with such malignant hatred. When the news of the election came he was still in bed suffering from his wounds. He had received an internal injury that threatened to prove fatal.

"Dar now!" he cried, sitting up in bed, "Ain't I done tole you no kinky-headed niggers gwine ter run dis gov'ment!"

"Keep still dar, ole man, you'll be faintin' ergin," worried Aunt Eve.

"Na honey, I'se feelin' better. Gwine ter git up and meander down town en ax dem niggers how's de Ku Kluxes comin' on dese days.

In spite of all Eve could say he crawled out of bed, fumbled into his clothes and started down town, leaning heavily on his cane. He had gone about a block, when he suddenly reeled and fell. Eve was watching him from the door, and was quickly by his side. He died that afternoon at three o'clock. He regained consciousness before the end, and asked Eve for his banjo.

He put it lovingly into the hands of Charlie Gaston who stood by the bed crying.

"You keep 'er, honey. You lub 'er talk better'n any body in de worl', en 'member Nelse when you hear 'er moan en sigh. En when she talk short en sassy en make

'em all gin ter shuffle, dat's me too. Dat's me got back

Charlie Gaston rode with Aunt Eve to the cemetery. He walked back home through the fields with Dick.

"I wouldn' cry 'bout er ole nigger!" said Dick looking into his reddened eyes.

"Can't help it. He was my best friend." "Haint I wid you?".

"Yes, but you ain't Nelse."

"Well, I stan' by you des de same."