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diff --git a/26240-8.txt b/26240-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f65fa9c --- /dev/null +++ b/26240-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12067 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Clansman, by Thomas Dixon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Clansman + An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan + +Author: Thomas Dixon + +Release Date: August 9, 2008 [EBook #26240] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLANSMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE CLANSMAN + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The Illustrations Shown in This Edition Are Reproductions of Scenes +from the Photo-Play of "The Birth of a Nation" Produced and +Copyrighted by The Epoch Producing Corporation, to Whom the Publishers +Desire to Express Their Thanks and Appreciation for Permission to Use +the Pictures. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +[Illustration: THE REIGN OF THE KLAN] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE CLANSMAN + +An Historical Romance +of the Ku Klux Klan + +By +THOMAS DIXON + +Author Of +The Leopard's Spots, Comrades, Etc. + +Illustrated With Scenes From The Photo-Play +THE BIRTH OF A NATION +Produced And Copyrighted By +Epoch Producing Corporation + +GROSSET & DUNLAP +Publishers :: New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, 1905 +BY THOMAS DIXON, JR. + +The Country Life Press, Garden City, N. Y. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO THE MEMORY OF +A SCOTCH-IRISH LEADER OF THE SOUTH + +MY UNCLE, COLONEL LEROY MCAFEE + +GRAND TITAN OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE +KU KLUX KLAN + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO THE READER + +"The Clansman" is the second book of a series of historical novels planned +on the Race Conflict. "The Leopard's Spots" was the statement in +historical outline of the conditions from the enfranchisement of the negro +to his disfranchisement. + +"The Clansman" develops the true story of the "Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy," +which overturned the Reconstruction régime. + +The organization was governed by the Grand Wizard Commander-in-Chief, who +lived at Memphis, Tennessee. The Grand Dragon commanded a State, the Grand +Titan a Congressional District, the Grand Giant a County, and the Grand +Cyclops a Township Den. The twelve volumes of Government reports on the +famous Klan refer chiefly to events which occurred after 1870, the date of +its dissolution. + +The chaos of blind passion that followed Lincoln's assassination is +inconceivable to-day. The revolution it produced in our Government, and +the bold attempt of Thaddeus Stevens to Africanize ten great States of the +American Union, read now like tales from "The Arabian Nights." + +I have sought to preserve in this romance both the letter and the spirit +of this remarkable period. The men who enact the drama of fierce revenge +into which I have woven a double love story are historical figures. I have +merely changed their names without taking a liberty with any essential +historic fact. + +In the darkest hour of the life of the South, when her wounded people lay +helpless amid rags and ashes under the beak and talon of the Vulture, +suddenly from the mists of the mountains appeared a white cloud the size +of a man's hand. It grew until its mantle of mystery enfolded the stricken +earth and sky. An "Invisible Empire" had risen from the field of Death and +challenged the Visible to mortal combat. + +How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old +Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, +daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon's death, and saved the life of a +people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the +Aryan race. + + Thomas Dixon, Jr. + + Dixondale, Va. + December 14, 1904. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +BOOK I + +THE ASSASSINATION + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. The Bruised Reed 3 + II. The Great Heart 19 + III. The Man of War 33 + IV. A Clash of Giants 38 + IV. The Battle of Love 56 + VI. The Assassination 61 + VII. The Frenzy of a Nation 80 + +BOOK II + +THE REVOLUTION + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. The First Lady of the Land 90 + II. Sweethearts 101 + III. The Joy of Living 112 + IV. Hidden Treasure 115 + V. Across the Chasm 120 + VI. The Gauge of Battle 131 + VII. A Woman Laughs 136 + VIII. A Dream 148 + IX. The King Amuses Himself 152 + X. Tossed by the Storm 162 + XI. The Supreme Test 165 + XII. Triumph in Defeat 179 + +BOOK III + +THE REIGN OF TERROR + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. A Fallen Slaveholder's Mansion 187 + II. The Eyes of the Jungle 204 + III. Augustus Cćsar 209 + IV. At the Point of the Bayonet 218 + V. Forty Acres and a Mule 235 + VI. A Whisper in the Crowd 244 + VII. By the Light of a Torch 254 + VIII. The Riot in the Master's Hall 263 + IX. At Lover's Leap 276 + X. A Night Hawk 284 + XI. The Beat of a Sparrow's Wing 297 + XII. At the Dawn of Day 305 + +BOOK IV + +THE KU KLUX KLAN + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. The Hunt for the Animal 309 + II. The Fiery Cross 318 + III. The Parting of the Ways 327 + IV. The Banner of the Dragon 337 + V. The Reign of the Klan 341 + VI. The Counter Stroke 351 + VII. The Snare of the Fowler 358 + VIII. A Ride for a Life 362 + IX. "Vengeance Is Mine" 369 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY + +Scene: Washington and the Foothills of the Carolinas. + +Time: 1865 to 1870. + +Ben Cameron Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan +Margaret His Sister +Mrs. Cameron His Mother +Dr. Richard Cameron His Father +Hon. Austin Stoneman Radical Leader of Congress +Phil His Son +Elsie His Daughter +Marion Lenoir Ben's First Love +Mrs. Lenoir Her Mother +Jake A Faithful Man +Silas Lynch A Negro Missionary +Uncle Aleck The Member from Ulster +Cindy His Wife +Colonel Howle A Carpet-bagger +Augustus Cćsar Of the Black Guard +Charles Sumner Of Massachusetts +Gen. Benjamin F. Butler Of Fort Fisher +Andrew Johnson The President +U. S. Grant The Commanding General +Abraham Lincoln The Friend of the South + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +THE CLANSMAN + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +Book I--The Assassination + +CHAPTER I + +THE BRUISED REED + + +The fair girl who was playing a banjo and singing to the wounded soldiers +suddenly stopped, and, turning to the surgeon, whispered: + +"What's that?" + +"It sounds like a mob----" + +With a common impulse they moved to the open window of the hospital and +listened. + +On the soft spring air came the roar of excited thousands sweeping down +the avenue from the Capitol toward the White House. Above all rang the +cries of struggling newsboys screaming an "Extra." One of them darted +around the corner, his shrill voice quivering with excitement: + +"_Extra! Extra! Peace! Victory!_" + +Windows were suddenly raised, women thrust their heads out, and others +rushed into the street and crowded around the boy, struggling to get his +papers. He threw them right and left and snatched the money--no one asked +for change. Without ceasing rose his cry: + +"_Extra! Peace! Victory! Lee has surrendered!_" + +At last the end had come. + +The great North, with its millions of sturdy people and their exhaustless +resources, had greeted the first shot on Sumter with contempt and +incredulity. A few regiments went forward for a month's outing to settle +the trouble. The Thirteenth Brooklyn marched gayly Southward on a thirty +days' jaunt, with pieces of rope conspicuously tied to their muskets with +which to bring back each man a Southern prisoner to be led in a noose +through the streets on their early triumphant return! It would be unkind +to tell what became of those ropes when they suddenly started back home +ahead of the scheduled time from the first battle of Bull Run. + +People from the South, equally wise, marched gayly North, to whip five +Yankees each before breakfast, and encountered unforeseen difficulties. + +Both sides had things to learn, and learned them in a school whose logic +is final--a four years' course in the University of Hell--the scream of +eagles, the howl of wolves, the bay of tigers, the roar of lions--all +locked in Death's embrace, and each mad scene lit by the glare of +volcanoes of savage passions! + +But the long agony was over. + +The city bells began to ring. The guns of the forts joined the chorus, and +their deep steel throats roared until the earth trembled. + +Just across the street a mother who was reading the fateful news turned +and suddenly clasped a boy to her heart, crying for joy. The last draft of +half a million had called for him. + +The Capital of the Nation was shaking off the long nightmare of horror and +suspense. More than once the city had shivered at the mercy of those +daring men in gray, and the reveille of their drums had startled even the +President at his desk. + +Again and again had the destiny of the Republic hung on the turning of a +hair, and in every crisis, Luck, Fate, God, had tipped the scale for the +Union. + +A procession of more than five hundred Confederate deserters, who had +crossed the lines in groups, swung into view, marching past the hospital, +indifferent to the tumult. Only a nominal guard flanked them as they +shuffled along, tired, ragged, and dirty. The gray in their uniforms was +now the colour of clay. Some had on blue pantaloons, some, blue vests, +others blue coats captured on the field of blood. Some had pieces of +carpet, and others old bags around their shoulders. They had been passing +thus for weeks. Nobody paid any attention to them. + +"One of the secrets of the surrender!" exclaimed Doctor Barnes. "Mr. +Lincoln has been at the front for the past weeks with offers of peace and +mercy, if they would lay down their arms. The great soul of the President, +even the genius of Lee could not resist. His smile began to melt those +gray ranks as the sun is warming the earth to-day." + +"You are a great admirer of the President," said the girl, with a curious +smile. + +"Yes, Miss Elsie, and so are all who know him." + +She turned from the window without reply. A shadow crossed her face as she +looked past the long rows of cots, on which rested the men in blue, until +her eyes found one on which lay, alone among his enemies, a young +Confederate officer. + +The surgeon turned with her toward the man. + +"Will he live?" she asked. + +"Yes, only to be hung." + +"For what?" she cried. + +"Sentenced by court-martial as a guerilla. It's a lie, but there's some +powerful hand back of it--some mysterious influence in high authority. The +boy wasn't fully conscious at the trial." + +"We must appeal to Mr. Stanton." + +"As well appeal to the devil. They say the order came from his office." + +"A boy of nineteen!" she exclaimed. "It's a shame. I'm looking for his +mother. You told me to telegraph to Richmond for her." + +"Yes, I'll never forget his cries that night, so utterly pitiful and +childlike. I've heard many a cry of pain, but in all my life nothing so +heartbreaking as that boy in fevered delirium talking to his mother. His +voice is one of peculiar tenderness, penetrating and musical. It goes +quivering into your soul, and compels you to listen until you swear it's +your brother or sweetheart or sister or mother calling you. You should +have seen him the day he fell. God of mercies, the pity and the glory of +it!" + +[Illustration: "YOUR BROTHER SPRANG FORWARD AND CAUGHT HIM IN HIS ARMS."] + +"Phil wrote me that he was a hero and asked me to look after him. Were you +there?" + +"Yes, with the battery your brother was supporting. He was the colonel of +a shattered rebel regiment lying just in front of us before Petersburg. +Richmond was doomed, resistance was madness, but there they were, ragged +and half starved, a handful of men, not more than four hundred, but their +bayonets gleamed and flashed in the sunlight. In the face of a murderous +fire he charged and actually drove our men out of an entrenchment. We +concentrated our guns on him as he crouched behind this earthwork. Our own +men lay outside in scores, dead, dying, and wounded. When the fire +slacked, we could hear their cries for water. + +"Suddenly this boy sprang on the breastwork. He was dressed in a new gray +colonel's uniform that mother of his, in the pride of her soul, had sent +him. + +"He was a handsome figure--tall, slender, straight, a gorgeous yellow sash +tasselled with gold around his waist, his sword flashing in the sun, his +slouch hat cocked on one side and an eagle's feather in it. + +"We thought he was going to lead another charge, but just as the battery +was making ready to fire he deliberately walked down the embankment in a +hail of musketry and began to give water to our wounded men. + +"Every gun ceased firing, and we watched him. He walked back to the +trench, his naked sword flashed suddenly above that eagle's feather, and +his grizzled ragamuffins sprang forward and charged us like so many +demons. + +"There were not more than three hundred of them now, but on they came, +giving that hellish rebel yell at every jump--the cry of the hunter from +the hilltop at the sight of his game! All Southern men are hunters, and +that cry was transformed in war into something unearthly when it came from +a hundred throats in chorus and the game was human. + +"Of course, it was madness. We blew them down that hill like chaff before +a hurricane. When the last man had staggered back or fallen, on came this +boy alone, carrying the colours he had snatched from a falling soldier, as +if he were leading a million men to victory. + +"A bullet had blown his hat from his head, and we could see the blood +streaming down the side of his face. He charged straight into the jaws of +one of our guns. And then, with a smile on his lips and a dare to death in +his big brown eyes, he rammed that flag into the cannon's mouth, reeled, +and fell! A cheer broke from our men. + +"Your brother sprang forward and caught him in his arms, and as we bent +over the unconscious form, he exclaimed: 'My God, doctor, look at him! He +is so much like me I feel as if I had been shot myself!' They were as much +alike as twins--only his hair was darker. I tell you, Miss Elsie, it's a +sin to kill men like that. One such man is worth more to this nation than +every negro that ever set his flat foot on this continent!" + +The girl's eyes had grown dim as she listened to the story. + +"I will appeal to the President," she said firmly. + +"It's the only chance. And just now he is under tremendous pressure. His +friendly order to the Virginia Legislature to return to Richmond, Stanton +forced him to cancel. A master hand has organized a conspiracy in Congress +to crush the President. They curse his policy of mercy as imbecility, and +swear to make the South a second Poland. Their watchwords are vengeance +and confiscation. Four fifths of his party in Congress are in this plot. +The President has less than a dozen real friends in either House on whom +he can depend. They say that Stanton is to be given a free hand, and that +the gallows will be busy. This cancelled order of the President looks like +it." + +"I'll try my hand with Mr. Stanton," she said with slow emphasis. + +"Good luck, Little Sister--let me know if I can help," the surgeon +answered cheerily as he passed on his round of work. + +Elsie Stoneman took her seat beside the cot of the wounded Confederate and +began softly to sing and play. + +A little farther along the same row a soldier was dying, a faint choking +just audible in his throat. An attendant sat beside him and would not +leave till the last. The ordinary chat and hum of the ward went on +indifferent to peace, victory, life, or death. Before the finality of the +hospital all other events of earth fade. Some were playing cards or +checkers, some laughing and joking, and others reading. + +At the first soft note from the singer the games ceased, and the reader +put down his book. + +The banjo had come to Washington with the negroes following the wake of +the army. She had laid aside her guitar and learned to play all the +stirring camp songs of the South. Her voice was low, soothing, and tender. +It held every silent listener in a spell. + +As she played and sang the songs the wounded man loved, her eyes lingered +in pity on his sun-bronzed face, pinched and drawn with fever. He was +sleeping the stupid sleep that gives no rest. She could count the +irregular pounding of his heart in the throb of the big vein on his neck. +His lips were dry and burnt, and the little boyish moustache curled upward +from the row of white teeth as if scorched by the fiery breath. + +He began to talk in flighty sentences, and she listened--his mother--his +sister--and yes, she was sure as she bent nearer--a little sweetheart who +lived next door. They all had sweethearts--these Southern boys. Again he +was teasing his dog--and then back in battle. + +At length he opened his eyes, great dark-brown eyes, unnaturally bright, +with a strange yearning look in their depths as they rested on Elsie. He +tried to smile and feebly said: + +"Here's--a--fly--on--my--left--ear--my--guns--can't--somehow-- +reach--him--won't--you--" + +She sprang forward and brushed the fly away. + +Again he opened his eyes. + +"Excuse--me--for--asking--but am I alive?" + +"Yes, indeed," was the cheerful answer. + +"Well, now, then, is this me, or is it not me, or has a cannon shot me, or +has the devil got me?" + +"It's you. The cannon didn't shoot you, but three muskets did. The devil +hasn't got you yet, but he will unless you're good." + +"I'll be good if you won't leave me----" + +Elsie turned her head away smiling, and he went on slowly: + +"But I'm dead, I know. I'm sleeping on a cot with a canopy over it. I +ain't hungry any more, and an angel has been hovering over me playing on a +harp of gold----" + +"Only a little Yankee girl playing the banjo." + +"Can't fool me--I'm in heaven." + +"You're in the hospital." + +"Funny hospital--look at that harp and that big trumpet hanging close by +it--that's Gabriel's trumpet----" + +"No," she laughed. "This is the Patent Office building, that covers two +blocks, now a temporary hospital. There are seventy thousand wounded +soldiers in town, and more coming on every train. The thirty-five +hospitals are overcrowded." + +He closed his eyes a moment in silence, and then spoke with a feeble +tremor: + +"I'm afraid you don't know who I am--I can't impose on you--I'm a +rebel----" + +"Yes, I know. You are Colonel Ben Cameron. It makes no difference to me +now which side you fought on." + +"Well, I'm in heaven--been dead a long time. I can prove it, if you'll +play again." + +"What shall I play?" + +"First, '_O Jonny Booker Help dis Nigger_.'" + +She played and sang it beautifully. + +"Now, '_Wake Up in the Morning_.'" + +Again he listened with wide, staring eyes that saw nothing except visions +within. + +"Now, then, '_The Ole Gray Hoss_.'" + +As the last notes died away he tried to smile again: + +"One more--'_Hard Times an' Wuss er Comin'_.'" + +With deft, sure touch and soft negro dialect she sang it through. + +"Now, didn't I tell you that you couldn't fool me? No Yankee girl could +play and sing these songs, I'm in heaven, and you're an angel." + +"Aren't you ashamed of yourself to flirt with me, with one foot in the +grave?" + +"That's the time to get on good terms with the angels--but I'm done +dead----" + +Elsie laughed in spite of herself. + +"I know it," he went on, "because you have shining golden hair and amber +eyes instead of blue ones. I never saw a girl in my life before with such +eyes and hair." + +"But you're young yet." + +"Never--was--such--a--girl--on--earth--you're--an----" + +She lifted her finger in warning, and his eyelids drooped In exhausted +stupor. + +"You musn't talk any more," she whispered, shaking her head. + +A commotion at the door caused Elsie to turn from the cot. A sweet +motherly woman of fifty, in an old faded black dress, was pleading with +the guard to be allowed to pass. + +"Can't do it, m'um. It's agin the rules." + +"But I must go in. I've tramped for four days through a wilderness of +hospitals, and I know he must be here." + +"Special orders, m'um--wounded rebels in here that belong in prison." + +"Very well, young man," said the pleading voice. "My baby boy's in this +place, wounded and about to die. I'm going in there. You can shoot me if +you like, or you can turn your head the other way." + +She stepped quickly past the soldier, who merely stared with dim eyes out +the door and saw nothing. + +She stood for a moment with a look of helpless bewilderment. The vast area +of the second story of the great monolithic pile was crowded with rows of +sick, wounded, and dying men--a strange, solemn, and curious sight. +Against the walls were ponderous glass cases, filled with models of every +kind of invention the genius of man had dreamed. Between these cases were +deep lateral openings, eight feet wide, crowded with the sick, and long +rows of them were stretched through the centre of the hall. A gallery ran +around above the cases, and this was filled with cots. The clatter of the +feet of passing surgeons and nurses over the marble floor added to the +weird impression. + +Elsie saw the look of helpless appeal in the mother's face and hurried +forward to meet her: + +"Is this Mrs. Cameron, of South Carolina?" + +The trembling figure in black grasped her hand eagerly: + +"Yes, yes, my dear, and I'm looking for my boy, who is wounded unto death. +Can you help me?" + +"I thought I recognized you from a miniature I've seen," she answered +softly. "I'll lead you direct to his cot." + +"Thank you, thank you!" came the low reply. + +In a moment she was beside him, and Elsie walked away to the open window +through which came the chirp of sparrows from the lilac bushes in full +bloom below. + +The mother threw one look of infinite tenderness on the drawn face, and +her hands suddenly clasped in prayer: + +"I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for this hour! Thou hast heard the cry of my +soul and led my feet!" She gently knelt, kissed the hot lips, smoothed the +dark tangled hair back from his forehead, and her hand rested over his +eyes. + +A faint flush tinged his face. + +"It's you, +Mamma--I--know--you--that's--your--hand--or--else--it's--God's!" + +She slipped her arms about him. + +"My hero, my darling, my baby!" + +"I'll get well now, Mamma, never fear. You see, I had whipped them +that day as I had many a time before. I don't know how it happened--my +men seemed all to go down at once. You know--I couldn't surrender in +that new uniform of a colonel you sent me--we made a gallant fight, +and--now--I'm--just--a--little--tired--but you are here, and it's all +right." + +"Yes, yes, dear. It's all over now. General Lee has surrendered, and when +you are better I'll take you home, where the sunshine and flowers will +give you strength again." + +"How's my little sis?" + +"Hunting in another part of the city for you. She's grown so tall and +stately you'll hardly know her. Your papa is at home, and don't know yet +that you are wounded." + +"And my sweetheart, Marion Lenoir?" + +"The most beautiful little girl in Piedmont--as sweet and mischievous as +ever. Mr. Lenoir is very ill, but he has written a glorious poem about one +of your charges. I'll show it to you to-morrow. He is our greatest poet. +The South worships him. Marion sent her love to you and a kiss for the +young hero of Piedmont. I'll give it to you now." + +She bent again and kissed him. + +"And my dogs?" + +"General Sherman left them, at least." + +"Well, I'm glad of that--my mare all right?" + +"Yes, but we had a time to save her--Jake hid her in the woods till the +army passed." + +"Bully for Jake." + +"I don't know what we should have done without him." + +"Old Aleck still at home and getting drunk as usual?" + +"No, he ran away with the army and persuaded every negro on the Lenoir +place to go, except his wife, Aunt Cindy." + +"The old rascal, when Mrs. Lenoir's mother saved him from burning to death +when he was a boy!" + +"Yes, and he told the Yankees those fire scars were made with the lash, +and led a squad to the house one night to burn the barns. Jake headed them +off and told on him. The soldiers were so mad they strung him up and +thrashed him nearly to death. We haven't seen him since." + +"Well, I'll take care of you, Mamma, when I get home. Of course I'll get +well. It's absurd to die at nineteen. You know I never believed the bullet +had been moulded that could hit me. In three years of battle I lived a +charmed life and never got a scratch." + +His voice had grown feeble and laboured, and his face flushed. His mother +placed her hand on his lips. + +"Just one more," he pleaded feebly. "Did you see the little angel who has +been playing and singing for me? You must thank her." + +"Yes, I see her coming now. I must go and tell Margaret, and we will get a +pass and come every day." + +She kissed him, and went to meet Elsie. + +"And you are the dear girl who has been playing and singing for my boy, a +wounded stranger here alone among his foes?" + +"Yes, and for all the others, too." + +Mrs. Cameron seized both of her hands and looked at her tenderly. + +"You will let me kiss you? I shall always love you." + +She pressed Elsie to her heart. In spite of the girl's reserve, a sob +caught her breath at the touch of the warm lips. Her own mother had died +when she was a baby, and a shy, hungry heart, long hidden from the world, +leaped in tenderness and pain to meet that embrace. + +Elsie walked with her to the door, wondering how the terrible truth of her +boy's doom could be told. + +She tried to speak, looked into Mrs. Cameron's face, radiant with grateful +joy, and the words froze on her lips. She decided to walk a little way +with her. But the task became all the harder. + +At the corner she stopped abruptly and bade her good-bye: + +"I must leave you now, Mrs. Cameron. I will call for you in the morning +and help you secure the passes to enter the hospital." + +The mother stroked the girl's hand and held it lingeringly. + +"How good you are," she said softly. "And you have not told me your +name?" + +Elsie hesitated and said: + +"That's a little secret. They call me Sister Elsie, the Banjo Maid, in the +hospitals. My father is a man of distinction. I should be annoyed if my +full name were known. I'm Elsie Stoneman. My father is the leader of the +House. I live with my aunt." + +"Thank you," she whispered, pressing her hand. + +Elsie watched the dark figure disappear in the crowd with a strange tumult +of feeling. + +The mention of her father had revived the suspicion that he was the +mysterious power threatening the policy of the President and planning a +reign of terror for the South. Next to the President, he was the most +powerful man in Washington, and the unrelenting foe of Mr. Lincoln, +although the leader of his party in Congress, which he ruled with a rod of +iron. He was a man of fierce and terrible resentments. And yet, in his +personal life, to those he knew, he was generous and considerate. "Old +Austin Stoneman, the Great Commoner," he was called, and his name was one +to conjure with in the world of deeds. To this fair girl he was the +noblest Roman of them all, her ideal of greatness. He was an indulgent +father, and while not demonstrative, loved his children with passionate +devotion. + +She paused and looked up at the huge marble columns that seemed each a +sentinel beckoning her to return within to the cot that held a wounded +foe. The twilight had deepened, and the soft light of the rising moon had +clothed the solemn majesty of the building with shimmering tenderness and +beauty. + +"Why should I be distressed for one, an enemy, among these thousands who +have fallen?" she asked herself. Every detail of the scene she had passed +through with him and his mother stood out in her soul with startling +distinctness--and the horror of his doom cut with the deep sense of +personal anguish. + +"He shall not die," she said, with sudden resolution. "I'll take his +mother to the President. He can't resist her. I'll send for Phil to help +me." + +She hurried to the telegraph office and summoned her brother. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE GREAT HEART + + +The next morning, when Elsie reached the obscure boarding-house at which +Mrs. Cameron stopped, the mother had gone to the market to buy a bunch of +roses to place beside her boy's cot. + +As Elsie awaited her return, the practical little Yankee maid thought with +a pang of the tenderness and folly of such people. She knew this mother +had scarcely enough to eat, but to her bread was of small importance, +flowers necessary to life. After all, it was very sweet, this foolishness +of these Southern people, and it somehow made her homesick. + +"How can I tell her!" she sighed. "And yet I must." + +She had only waited a moment when Mrs. Cameron suddenly entered with her +daughter. She threw her flowers on the table, sprang forward to meet +Elsie, seized her hands and called to Margaret. + +"How good of you to come so soon! This, Margaret, is our dear little +friend who has been so good to Ben and to me." + +Margaret took Elsie's hand and longed to throw her arms around her neck, +but something in the quiet dignity of the Northern girl's manner held her +back. She only smiled tenderly through her big dark eyes, and softly +said: + +"We love you! Ben was my last brother. We were playmates and chums. My +heart broke when he ran away to the front. How can we thank you and your +brother!" + +"I'm sure we've done nothing more than you would have done for us," said +Elsie, as Mrs. Cameron left the room. + +"Yes, I know, but we can never tell you how grateful we are to you. We +feel that you have saved Ben's life and ours. The war has been one long +horror to us since my first brother was killed. But now it's over, and we +have Ben left, and our hearts have been crying for joy all night." + +"I hoped my brother, Captain Phil Stoneman, would be here to-day to meet +you and help me, but he can't reach Washington before Friday." + +"He caught Ben in his arms!" cried Margaret. "I know he's brave, and you +must be proud of him." + +"Doctor Barnes says they are as much alike as twins--only Phil is not +quite so tall and has blond hair like mine." + +"You will let me see him and thank him the moment he comes?" + +"Hurry, Margaret!" cheerily cried Mrs. Cameron, reëntering the parlour. +"Get ready; we must go at once to the hospital." + +Margaret turned and with stately grace hurried from the room. The old +dress she wore as unconscious of its shabbiness as though it were a royal +robe. + +"And now, my dear, what must I do to get the passes?" asked the mother +eagerly. + +Elsie's warm amber eyes grew misty for a moment, and the fair skin with +its gorgeous rose tints of the North paled. She hesitated, tried to speak, +and was silent. + +The sensitive soul of the Southern woman read the message of sorrow words +had not framed. + +"Tell me, quickly! The +doctor--has--not--concealed--his--true--condition--from--me?" + +"No, he is certain to recover." + +"What then?" + +"Worse--he is condemned to death by court-martial." + +"Condemned to death--a--wounded--prisoner--of--war!" she whispered slowly, +with blanched face. + +"Yes, he was accused of violating the rules of war as a guerilla raider in +the invasion of Pennsylvania." + +"Absurd and monstrous! He was on General Jeb Stuart's staff and could have +acted only under his orders. He joined the infantry after Stuart's death, +and rose to be a colonel, though but a boy. There's some terrible +mistake!" + +"Unless we can obtain his pardon," Elsie went on in even, restrained +tones, "there is no hope. We must appeal to the President." + +The mother's lips trembled, and she seemed about to faint. + +"Could I see the President?" she asked, recovering herself with an +effort. + +"He has just reached Washington from the front, and is thronged by +thousands. It will be difficult." + +The mother's lips were moving in silent prayer, and her eyes were tightly +closed to keep back the tears. + +"Can you help me, dear?" she asked piteously. + +"Yes," was the quick response. + +"You see," she went on, "I feel so helpless. I have never been to the +White House or seen the President, and I don't know how to go about seeing +him or how to ask him--and--I am afraid of Mr. Lincoln! I have heard so +many harsh things said of him." + +"I'll do my best, Mrs. Cameron. We must go at once to the White House and +try to see him." + +The mother lifted the girl's hand and stroked it gently. + +"We will not tell Margaret. Poor child! she could not endure this. When we +return, we may have better news. It can't be worse. I'll send her on an +errand." + +She took up the bouquet of gorgeous roses with a sigh, buried her face in +the fresh perfume, as if to gain strength in their beauty and fragrance, +and left the room. + +In a few moments she had returned and was on her way with Elsie to the +White House. + +It was a beautiful spring morning, this eleventh day of April, 1865. The +glorious sunshine, the shimmering green of the grass, the warm breezes, +and the shouts of victory mocked the mother's anguish. + +At the White House gates they passed the blue sentry pacing silently back +and forth, who merely glanced at them with keen eyes and said nothing. In +the steady beat of his feet the mother could hear the tramp of soldiers +leading her boy to the place of death! + +A great lump rose in her throat as she caught the first view of the +Executive Mansion gleaming white and silent and ghostlike among the +budding trees. The tall columns of the great facade, spotless as snow, the +spray of the fountain, the marble walls, pure, dazzling, and cold, seemed +to her the gateway to some great tomb in which her own dead and the dead +of all the people lay! To her the fair white palace, basking there in the +sunlight and budding grass, shrub, and tree, was the Judgment House of +Fate. She thought of all the weary feet that had climbed its fateful steps +in hope to return in despair, of its fierce dramas on which the lives of +millions had hung, and her heart grew sick. + +A long line of people already stretched from the entrance under the +portico far out across the park, awaiting their turn to see the +President. + +Mrs. Cameron placed her hand falteringly on Elsie's shoulder. + +"Look, my dear, what a crowd already! Must we wait in line?" + +"No, I can get you past the throng with my father's name." + +"Will it be very difficult to reach the President?" + +"No, it's very easy. Guards and sentinels annoy him. He frets until they +are removed. An assassin or maniac could kill him almost any hour of the +day or night. The doors are open at all hours, very late at night. I have +often walked up to the rooms of his secretaries as late as nine o'clock +without being challenged by a soul." + +"What must I call him? Must I say 'Your Excellency?'" + +"By no means--he hates titles and forms. You should say 'Mr. President' in +addressing him. But you will please him best if, in your sweet, homelike +way, you will just call him by his name. You can rely on his sympathy. +Read this letter of his to a widow. I brought it to show you." + +She handed Mrs. Cameron a newspaper clipping on which was printed Mr. +Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston, who had lost five sons in the +war. + +Over and over she read its sentences until they echoed as solemn music in +her soul: + +"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should +attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I +cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the +thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father +may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the +cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be +yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. + +"Yours very sincerely and respectfully, + +"ABRAHAM LINCOLN." + +"And the President paused amid a thousand cares to write that letter to a +broken-hearted woman?" the mother asked. + +"Yes." + +"Then he is good down to the last secret depths of a great heart! Only a +Christian father could have written that letter. I shall not be afraid to +speak to him. And they told me he was an infidel!" + +Elsie led her by a private way past the crowd and into the office of Major +Hay, the President's private secretary. A word from the Great Commoner's +daughter admitted them at once to the President's room. + +"Just take a seat on one side, Miss Elsie," said Major Hay; "watch your +first opportunity and introduce your friend." + +On entering the room, Mrs. Cameron could not see the President, who was +seated at his desk surrounded by three men in deep consultation over a +mass of official documents. + +She looked about the room nervously and felt reassured by its plain +aspect. It was a medium-sized, officelike place, with no signs of elegance +or ceremony. Mr. Lincoln was seated in an armchair beside a high +writing-desk and table combined. She noticed that his feet were large and +that they rested on a piece of simple straw matting. Around the room were +sofas and chairs covered with green worsted. + +When the group about the chair parted a moment, she caught the first +glimpse of the man who held her life in the hollow of his hand. She +studied him with breathless interest. His back was still turned. Even +while seated, she saw that he was a man of enormous stature, fully six +feet four inches tall, legs and arms abnormally long, and huge broad +shoulders slightly stooped. His head was powerful and crowned with a mass +of heavy brown hair, tinged with silver. + +He turned his head slightly and she saw his profile set in its short dark +beard--the broad intellectual brow, half covered by unmanageable hair, his +face marked with deep-cut lines of life and death, with great hollows in +the cheeks and under the eyes. In the lines which marked the corners of +his mouth she could see firmness, and his beetling brows and unusually +heavy eyelids looked stern and formidable. Her heart sank. She looked +again and saw goodness, tenderness, sorrow, canny shrewdness, and a +strange lurking smile all haunting his mouth and eye. + +Suddenly he threw himself forward in his chair, wheeled and faced one of +his tormentors with a curious and comical expression. With one hand +patting the other, and a funny look overspreading his face, he said: + +"My friend, let me tell you something----" + +The man again stepped before him, and she could hear nothing. When the +story was finished, the man tried to laugh. It died in a feeble effort. +But the President laughed heartily, laughed all over, and laughed his +visitors out of the room. + +Mrs. Cameron turned toward Elsie with a mute look of appeal to give her +this moment of good-humour in which to plead her cause, but before she +could move a man of military bearing suddenly stepped before the +President. + +He began to speak, but seeing the look of stern decision in Mr. Lincoln's +face, turned abruptly and said: + +"Mr. President, I see you are fully determined not to do me justice!" + +Mr. Lincoln slightly compressed his lips, rose quietly, seized the +intruder by the arm, and led him toward the door. + +"This is the third time you have forced your presence on me, sir, asking +that I reverse the just sentence of a court-martial, dismissing you from +the service. I told you my decision was carefully made and was final. Now +I give you fair warning never to show yourself in this room again. I can +bear censure, but I will not endure insult!" + +In whining tones the man begged for his papers he had dropped. + +"Begone, sir," said the President, as he thrust him through the door. +"Your papers will be sent to you." + +The poor mother trembled at this startling act and sank back limp in her +seat. + +With quick, swinging stride the President walked back to his desk, +accompanied by Major Hay and a young German girl, whose simple dress told +that she was from the Western plains. + +He handed the secretary an official paper. + +"Give this pardon to the boy's mother when she comes this morning," he +said kindly to the secretary, his eyes suddenly full of gentleness. + +"How could I consent to shoot a boy raised on a farm, in the habit of +going to bed at dark, for falling asleep at his post when required to +watch all night? I'll never go into eternity with the blood of such a boy +on my skirts." + +Again the mother's heart rose. + +"You remember the young man I pardoned for a similar offence in '62, about +which Stanton made such a fuss?" he went on in softly reminiscent tones. +"Well, here is that pardon." + +He drew from the lining of his silk hat a photograph, around which was +wrapped an executive pardon. Through the lower end of it was a bullet-hole +stained with blood. + +"I got this in Richmond. They found him dead on the field. He fell in the +front ranks with my photograph in his pocket next to his heart, this +pardon wrapped around it, and on the back of it in his boy's scrawl, '_God +bless Abraham Lincoln_.' I love to invest in bonds like that." + +The secretary returned to his room, the girl who was waiting stepped +forward, and the President rose to receive her. + +The mother's quick eye noted, with surprise, the simple dignity and +chivalry of manner with which he received this humble woman of the +people. + +With straightforward eloquence the girl poured out her story, begging for +the pardon of her young brother who had been sentenced to death as a +deserter. He listened in silence. + +How pathetic the deep melancholy of his sad face! Yes, she was sure, the +saddest face that God ever made in all the world! Her own stricken heart +for a moment went out to him in sympathy. + +The President took off his spectacles, wiped his forehead with the large +red silk handkerchief he carried, and his eyes twinkled kindly down into +the good German face. + +"You seem an honest, truthful, sweet girl," he said, "and"--he +smiled--"you don't wear hoop skirts! I may be whipped for this, but I'll +trust you and your brother, too. He shall be pardoned." Elsie rose to +introduce Mrs. Cameron, when a Congressman from Massachusetts suddenly +stepped before her and pressed for the pardon of a slave trader whose ship +had been confiscated. He had spent five years in prison, but could not pay +the heavy fine in money imposed. + +The President had taken his seat again, and read the eloquent appeal for +mercy. He looked up over his spectacles, fixed his eyes piercingly on the +Congressman and said: + +"This is a moving appeal, sir, expressed with great eloquence. I might +pardon a murderer under the spell of such words, but a man who can make a +business of going to Africa and robbing her of her helpless children and +selling them into bondage--no, sir--he may rot in jail before he shall +have liberty by any act of mine!" + +Again the mother's heart sank. + +Her hour had come. She must put the issue of life or death to the test, +and as Elsie rose and stepped quickly forward, she followed; nerving +herself for the ordeal. + +The President took Elsie's hand familiarly and smiled without rising. +Evidently she was well known to him. + +"Will you hear the prayer of a broken-hearted mother of the South, who has +lost four sons in General Lee's army?" she asked. + +Looking quietly past the girl, he caught sight, for the first time, of the +faded dress and the sorrow-shadowed face. + +He was on his feet in a moment, extended his hand and led her to a chair. + +"Take this seat, Madam, and then tell me in your own way what I can do for +you." In simple words, mighty with the eloquence of a mother's heart, she +told her story and asked for the pardon of her boy, promising his word of +honour and her own that he would never again take up arms against the +Union. + +"The war is over now, Mr. Lincoln," she said, "and we have lost all. Can +you conceive the desolation of _my_ heart? My four boys were noble men. +They may have been wrong, but they fought for what they believed to be +right. You, too, have lost a boy." + +The President's eyes grew dim. + +"Yes, a beautiful boy----" he said simply. + +"Well, mine are all gone but this baby. One of them sleeps in an unmarked +grave at Gettysburg. One died in a Northern prison. One fell at +Chancellorsville, one in the Wilderness, and this, my baby, before +Petersburg. Perhaps I've loved him too much, this last one--he's only a +child yet----" + +"You shall have your boy, my dear Madam," the President said simply, +seating himself and writing a brief order to the Secretary of War. + +The mother drew near his desk, softly crying. Through her tears she said: + +"My heart is heavy, Mr. Lincoln, when I think of all the hard and bitter +things we have heard of you." + +"Well, give my love to the people of South Carolina when you go home, and +tell them that I am their President, and that I have never forgotten this +fact in the darkest hours of this awful war; and I am going to do +everything in my power to help them." "You will never regret this generous +act," the mother cried with gratitude. + +"I reckon not," he answered. "I'll tell you something, Madam, if you won't +tell anybody. It's a secret of my administration. I'm only too glad of an +excuse to save a life when I can. Every drop of blood shed in this war +North and South has been as if it were wrung out of my heart. A strange +fate decreed that the bloodiest war in human history should be fought +under my direction. And I--to whom the sight of blood is a sickening +horror--I have been compelled to look on in silent anguish because I could +not stop it! Now that the Union is saved, not another drop of blood shall +be spilled if I can prevent it." + +"May God bless you!" the mother cried, as she received from him the +order. + +She held his hand an instant as she took her leave, laughing and sobbing +in her great joy. + +"I must tell you, Mr. President," she said, "how surprised and how pleased +I am to find you are a Southern man." + +"Why, didn't you know that my parents were Virginians, and that I was born +in Kentucky?" + +"Very few people in the South know it. I am ashamed to say I did not." + +"Then, how did you know I am a Southerner?" + +"By your looks, your manner of speech, your easy, kindly ways, your +tenderness and humour, your firmness in the right as you see it, and, +above all, the way you rose and bowed to a woman in an old, faded black +dress, whom you knew to be an enemy." "No, Madam, not an enemy now," he +said softly. "That word is out of date." + +"If we had only known you in time----" + +The President accompanied her to the door with a deference of manner that +showed he had been deeply touched. + +"Take this letter to Mr. Stanton at once," he said. "Some folks complain +of my pardons, but it rests me after a hard day's work if I can save some +poor boy's life. I go to bed happy, thinking of the joy I have given to +those who love him." + +As the last words were spoken, a peculiar dreaminess of expression stole +over his careworn face, as if a throng of gracious memories had lifted for +a moment the burden of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN OF WAR + + +Elsie led Mrs. Cameron direct from the White House to the War Department. + +"Well, Mrs. Cameron, what did you think of the President?" she asked. + +"I hardly know," was the thoughtful answer. "He is the greatest man I ever +met. One feels this instinctively." + +When Mrs. Cameron was ushered into the Secretary's Office, Mr. Stanton was +seated at his desk writing. + +She handed the order of the President to a clerk, who gave it to the +Secretary. + +He was a man in the full prime of life, intellectual and physical, low and +heavy set, about five feet eight inches in height and inclined to fat. His +movements, however, were quick, and as he swung in his chair the keenest +vigour marked every movement of body and every change of his countenance. + +His face was swarthy and covered with a long, dark beard touched with +gray. He turned a pair of little black piercing eyes on her and without +rising said: + +"So you are the woman who has a wounded son under sentence of death as a +guerilla?" + +"I am so unfortunate," she answered. + +"Well, I have nothing to say to you," he went on in a louder and sterner +tone, "and no time to waste on you. If you have raised up men to rebel +against the best government under the sun, you can take the +consequences----" + +"But, my dear sir," broke in the mother, "he is a mere boy of nineteen, +who ran away three years ago and entered the service----" + +"I don't want to hear another word from you!" he yelled in rage. "I have +no time to waste--go at once. I'll do nothing for you." + +"But I bring you an order from the President," protested the mother. + +"Yes, I know it," he answered with a sneer, "and I'll do with it what I've +done with many others--see that it is not executed--now go." + +"But the President told me you would give me a pass to the hospital, and +that a full pardon would be issued to my boy!" + +"Yes, I see. But let me give you some information. The President is a +fool--a d---- fool! Now, will you go?" + +With a sinking sense of horror, Mrs. Cameron withdrew and reported to +Elsie the unexpected encounter. + +"The brute!" cried the girl. "We'll go back immediately and report this +insult to the President." + +"Why are such men intrusted with power?" the mother sighed. + +"It's a mystery to me, I'm sure. They say he is the greatest Secretary of +War in our history. I don't believe it. Phil hates the sight of him, and +so does every army officer I know, from General Grant down. I hope Mr. +Lincoln will expel him from the Cabinet for this insult." + +When, they were again ushered into the President's office, Elsie hastened +to inform him of the outrageous reply the Secretary of War had made to his +order. + +"Did Stanton say that I was a fool?" he asked, with a quizzical look out +of his kindly eyes. + +"Yes, he did," snapped Elsie. "And he repeated it with a blankety +prefix." + +The President looked good-humouredly out of the window toward the War +Office and musingly said: + +"Well, if Stanton says that I am a blankety fool, it must be so, for I +have found out that he is nearly always right, and generally means what he +says. I'll just step over and see Stanton." + +As he spoke the last sentence, the humour slowly faded from his face, and +the anxious mother saw back of those patient gray eyes the sudden gleam of +the courage and conscious power of a lion. + +He dismissed them with instructions to return the next day for his final +orders and walked over to the War Department alone. + +The Secretary of War was in one of his ugliest moods, and made no effort +to conceal it when asked his reasons for the refusal to execute the +order. + +"The grounds for my action are very simple," he said with bitter emphasis. +"The execution of this traitor is part of a carefully considered policy of +justice on which the future security of the Nation depends. If I am to +administer this office, I will not be hamstrung by constant Executive +interference. Besides, in this particular case, I was urged that justice +be promptly executed by the most powerful man in Congress. I advise you to +avoid a quarrel with old Stoneman at this crisis in our history." + +The President sat on a sofa with his legs crossed, relapsed into an +attitude of resignation, and listened in silence until the last sentence, +when suddenly he sat bolt upright, fixed his deep gray eyes intently on +Stanton and said: + +"Mr. Secretary, I reckon you will have to execute that order." + +"I cannot do it," came the firm answer. "It is an interference with +justice, and I will not execute it." + +Mr. Lincoln held his eyes steadily on Stanton and slowly said: + +"Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done." + +Stanton wheeled in his chair, seized a pen and wrote very rapidly a few +lines to which he fixed his signature. He rose with the paper in his hand, +walked to his chief, and with deep emotion said: + +"Mr. President, I wish to thank you for your constant friendship during +the trying years I have held this office. The war is ended, and my work is +done. I hand you my resignation." + +Mr. Lincoln's lips came suddenly together, he slowly rose, and looked down +with surprise into the flushed angry face. + +He took the paper, tore it into pieces, slipped one of his long arms +around the Secretary, and said in low accents: + +"Stanton, you have been a faithful public servant, and it is not for you +to say when you will no longer be needed. Go on with your work. I will +have my way in this matter; but I will attend to it personally." + +Stanton resumed his seat, and the President returned to the White House. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CLASH OF GIANTS + + +Elsie secured from the Surgeon-General temporary passes for the day, and +sent her friends to the hospital with the promise that she would not leave +the White House until she had secured the pardon. + +The President greeted her with unusual warmth. The smile that had only +haunted his sad face during four years of struggle, defeat, and +uncertainty had now burst into joy that made his powerful head radiate +light. Victory had lifted the veil from his soul, and he was girding +himself for the task of healing the Nation's wounds. + +"I'll have it ready for you in a moment, Miss Elsie," he said, touching +with his sinewy hand a paper which lay on his desk, bearing on its face +the red seal of the Republic. "I am only waiting to receive the passes." + +"I am very grateful to you, Mr. President," the girl said feelingly. + +"But tell me," he said, with quaint, fatherly humour, "why you, of all our +girls, the brightest, fiercest little Yankee in town, so take to heart a +rebel boy's sorrows?" + +Elsie blushed, and then looked at him frankly with a saucy smile. + +"I am fulfilling the Commandments." + +"Love your enemies?" + +"Certainly. How could one help loving the sweet, motherly face you saw +yesterday." + +The President laughed heartily. "I see--of course, of course!" + +"The Honourable Austin Stoneman," suddenly announced a clerk at his +elbow. + +Elsie started in surprise and whispered: + +"Do not let my father know I am here. I will wait in the next room. You'll +let nothing delay the pardon, will you, Mr. President?" + +Mr. Lincoln warmly pressed her hand as she disappeared through the door +leading into Major Hay's room, and turned to meet the Great Commoner who +hobbled slowly in, leaning on his crooked cane. + +At this moment he was a startling and portentous figure in the drama of +the Nation, the most powerful parliamentary leader in American history, +not excepting Henry Clay. + +No stranger ever passed this man without a second look. His clean-shaven +face, the massive chiselled features, his grim eagle look, and cold, +colourless eyes, with the frosts of his native Vermont sparkling in their +depths, compelled attention. + +His walk was a painful hobble. He was lame in both feet, and one of them +was deformed. The left leg ended in a mere bunch of flesh, resembling more +closely an elephant's hoof than the foot of a man. + +He was absolutely bald, and wore a heavy brown wig that seemed too small +to reach the edge of his enormous forehead. + +He rarely visited the White House. He was the able, bold, unscrupulous +leader of leaders, and men came to see him. He rarely smiled, and when he +did it was the smile of the cynic and misanthrope. His tongue had the lash +of a scorpion. He was a greater terror to the trimmers and time-servers of +his own party than to his political foes. He had hated the President with +sullen, consistent, and unyielding venom from his first nomination at +Chicago down to the last rumour of his new proclamation. + +In temperament a fanatic, in impulse a born revolutionist, the word +conservatism was to him as a red rag to a bull. The first clash of arms +was music to his soul. He laughed at the call for 75,000 volunteers, and +demanded the immediate equipment of an army of a million men. He saw it +grow to 2,000,000. From the first, his eagle eye had seen the end and all +the long, blood-marked way between. And from the first, he began to plot +the most cruel and awful vengeance in human history. + +And now his time had come. + +The giant figure in the White House alone had dared to brook his anger and +block the way; for old Stoneman was the Congress of the United States. The +opposition was too weak even for his contempt. Cool, deliberate, and +venomous alike in victory or defeat, the fascination of his positive faith +and revolutionary programme had drawn the rank and file of his party in +Congress to him as charmed satellites. + +The President greeted him cordially, and with his habitual deference to +age and physical infirmity hastened to place for him an easy chair near +his desk. + +He was breathing heavily and evidently labouring under great emotion. He +brought his cane to the floor with violence, placed both hands on its +crook, leaned his massive jaws on his hands for a moment, and then said: + +"Mr. President, I have not annoyed you with many requests during the past +four years, nor am I here to-day to ask any favours. I have come to warn +you that, in the course you have mapped out, the executive and legislative +branches have come to the parting of the ways, and that your encroachments +on the functions of Congress will be tolerated, now that the Rebellion is +crushed, not for a single moment!" + +Mr. Lincoln listened with dignity, and a ripple of fun played about his +eyes as he looked at his grim visitor. The two men were face to face at +last--the two men above all others who had built and were to build the +foundations of the New Nation--Lincoln's in love and wisdom to endure +forever, the Great Commoner's in hate and madness, to bear its harvest of +tragedy and death for generations yet unborn. + +"Well, now, Stoneman," began the good-humoured voice, "that puts me in +mind----" + +The old Commoner lifted his hand with a gesture of angry impatience: + +"Save your fables for fools. Is it true that you have prepared a +proclamation restoring the conquered province of North Carolina to its +place as a State in the Union with no provision for negro suffrage or the +exile and disfranchisement of its rebels?" + +The President rose and walked back and forth with his hands folded behind +him before answering. + +"I have. The Constitution grants to the National Government no power to +regulate suffrage, and makes no provision for the control of 'conquered +provinces.'" + +"Constitution!" thundered Stoneman. "I have a hundred constitutions in the +pigeonholes of my desk!" + +"I have sworn to support but one." + +"A worn-out rag----" + +"Rag or silk, I've sworn to execute it, and I'll do it, so help me God!" +said the quiet voice. + +"You've been doing it for the past four years, haven't you!" sneered the +Commoner. "What right had you under the Constitution to declare war +against a 'sovereign' State? To invade one for coercion? To blockade a +port? To declare slaves free? To suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_? To +create the State of West Virginia by the consent of two states, one of +which was dead, and the other one of which lived in Ohio? By what +authority have you appointed military governors in the 'sovereign' States +of Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana? Why trim the hedge and lie about +it? We, too, are revolutionists, and you are our executive. The +Constitution sustained and protected slavery. It _was_ 'a league with +death and a covenant with hell,' and our flag 'a polluted rag!'" + +"In the stress of war," said the President, with a far-away look, "it was +necessary that I do things as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy to +save the Union which I have no right to do now that the Union is saved and +its Constitution preserved. My first duty is to re-establish the +Constitution as our supreme law over every inch of our soil." + +"The Constitution be d----d!" hissed the old man. "It was the creation, +both in letter and spirit, of the slaveholders of the South." + +"Then the world is their debtor, and their work is a monument of +imperishable glory to them and to their children. I have sworn to preserve +it!" + +"We have outgrown the swaddling clothes of a babe. We will make new +constitutions!" + +"'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,'" softly spoke the tall, +self-contained man. + +For the first time the old leader winced. He had long ago exhausted the +vocabulary of contempt on the President, his character, ability, and +policy. He felt as a shock the first impression of supreme authority with +which he spoke. The man he had despised had grown into the great +constructive statesman who would dispute with him every inch of ground in +the attainment of his sinister life purpose. + +His hatred grew more intense as he realized the prestige and power with +which he was clothed by his mighty office. + +With an effort he restrained his anger, and assumed an argumentative +tone. + +"Can't you see that your so-called States are now but conquered provinces? +That North Carolina and other waste territories of the United States are +unfit to associate with civilized communities?" + +"We fought no war of conquest," quietly urged the President, "but one of +self-preservation as an indissoluble Union. No State ever got out of it, +by the grace of God and the power of our arms. Now that we have won, and +established for all time its unity, shall we stultify ourselves by +declaring we were wrong? These States must be immediately restored to +their rights, or we shall betray the blood we have shed. There are no +'conquered provinces' for us to spoil. A nation cannot make conquest of +its own territory." + +"But we are acting outside the Constitution," interrupted Stoneman. + +"Congress has no existence outside the Constitution," was the quick +answer. + +The old Commoner scowled, and his beetling brows hid for a moment his +eyes. His keen intellect was catching its first glimpse of the +intellectual grandeur of the man with whom he was grappling. The facility +with which he could see all sides of a question, and the vivid imagination +which lit his mental processes, were a revelation. We always underestimate +the men we despise. + +"Why not out with it?" cried Stoneman, suddenly changing his tack. "You +are determined to oppose negro suffrage?" + +"I have suggested to Governor Hahn of Louisiana to consider the policy of +admitting the more intelligent and those who served in the war. It is only +a suggestion. The State alone has the power to confer the ballot." + +"But the truth is this little 'suggestion' of yours is only a bone thrown +to radical dogs to satisfy our howlings for the moment! In your soul of +souls you don't believe in the equality of man if the man under comparison +be a negro?" + +"I believe that there is a physical difference between the white and black +races which will forever forbid their living together on terms of +political and social equality. If such be attempted, one must go to the +wall." + +"Very well, pin the Southern white man to the wall. Our party and the +Nation will then be safe." + +"That is to say, destroy African slavery and establish white slavery under +negro masters! That would be progress with a vengeance." + +A grim smile twitched the old man's lips as he said: + +"Yes, your prim conservative snobs and male waiting-maids in Congress went +into hysterics when I armed the negroes. Yet the heavens have not +fallen." + +"True. Yet no more insane blunder could now be made than any further +attempt to use these negro troops. There can be no such thing as restoring +this Union to its basis of fraternal peace with armed negroes, wearing the +uniform of this Nation, tramping over the South, and rousing the basest +passions of the freedmen and their former masters. General Butler, their +old commander, is now making plans for their removal, at my request. He +expects to dig the Panama Canal with these black troops." + +"Fine scheme that--on a par with your messages to Congress asking for the +colonization of the whole negro race!" + +"It will come to that ultimately," said the President firmly. "The negro +has cost us $5,000,000,000, the desolation of ten great States, and rivers +of blood. We can well afford a few million dollars more to effect a +permanent settlement of the issue. This is the only policy on which Seward +and I have differed----" + +"Then Seward was not an utterly hopeless fool. I'm glad to hear something +to his credit," growled the old Commoner. + +"I have urged the colonization of the negroes, and I shall continue until +it is accomplished. My emancipation proclamation was linked with this +plan. Thousands of them have lived in the North for a hundred years, yet +not one is the pastor of a white church, a judge, a governor, a mayor, or +a college president. There is no room for two distinct races of white men +in America, much less for two distinct races of whites and blacks. We can +have no inferior servile class, peon or peasant. We must assimilate or +expel. The American is a citizen king or nothing. I can conceive of no +greater calamity than the assimilation of the negro into our social and +political life as our equal. A mulatto citizenship would be too dear a +price to pay even for emancipation." + +"Words have no power to express my loathing for such twaddle!" cried +Stoneman, snapping his great jaws together and pursing his lips with +contempt. + +"If the negro were not here would we allow him to land?" the President +went on, as if talking to himself. "The duty to exclude carries the right +to expel. Within twenty years we can peacefully colonize the negro in the +tropics, and give him our language, literature, religion, and system of +government under conditions in which he can rise to the full measure of +manhood. This he can never do here. It was the fear of the black tragedy +behind emancipation that led the South into the insanity of secession. We +can never attain the ideal Union our fathers dreamed, with millions of an +alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor +desirable. The Nation cannot now exist half white and half black, any more +than it could exist half slave and half free." + +"Yet 'God hath made of one blood all races,'" quoted the cynic with a +sneer. + +"Yes--but finish the sentence--'and fixed the bounds of their habitation.' +God never meant that the negro should leave his habitat or the white man +invade his home. Our violation of this law is written in two centuries of +shame and blood. And the tragedy will not be closed until the black man is +restored to his home." + +"I marvel that the minions of slavery elected Jeff Davis their chief with +so much better material at hand!" + +"His election was a tragic and superfluous blunder. I am the President of +the United States, North and South," was the firm reply. + +"Particularly the South!" hissed Stoneman. "During all this hideous war +they have been your pets--these rebel savages who have been murdering our +sons. You have been the ever-ready champion of traitors. And you now dare +to bend this high office to their defence----" + +"My God, Stoneman, are you a man or a savage!" cried the President. "Is +not the North equally responsible for slavery? Has not the South lost all? +Have not the Southern people paid the full penalty of all the crimes of +war? Are our skirts free? Was Sherman's march a picnic? This war has been +a giant conflict of principles to decide whether we are a bundle of petty +sovereignties held by a rope of sand or a mighty nation of freemen. But +for the loyalty of four border Southern States--but for Farragut and +Thomas and their two hundred thousand heroic Southern brethren who fought +for the Union against their own flesh and blood, we should have lost. You +cannot indict a people----" + +"I do indict them!" muttered the old man. + +"Surely," went on the even, throbbing voice, "surely, the vastness of this +war, its titanic battles, its heroism, its sublime earnestness, should +sink into oblivion all low schemes of vengeance! Before the sheer grandeur +of its history our children will walk with silent lips and uncovered +heads." + +"And forget the prison pen at Andersonville!" + +"Yes. We refused, as a policy of war, to exchange those prisoners, +blockaded their ports, made medicine contraband, and brought the Southern +Army itself to starvation. The prison records, when made at last for +history, will show as many deaths on our side as on theirs." + +"The murderer on the gallows always wins more sympathy than his forgotten +victim," interrupted the cynic. + +"The sin of vengeance is an easy one under the subtle plea of justice," +said the sorrowful voice. "Have we not had enough bloodshed? Is not God's +vengeance enough? When Sherman's army swept to the sea, before him lay the +Garden of Eden, behind him stretched a desert! A hundred years cannot give +back to the wasted South her wealth, or two hundred years restore to her +the lost seed treasures of her young manhood----" + +"The imbecility of a policy of mercy in this crisis can only mean the +reign of treason and violence," persisted the old man, ignoring the +President's words. + +"I leave my policy before the judgment bar of time, content with its +verdict. In my place, radicalism would have driven the border States into +the Confederacy, every Southern man back to his kinsmen, and divided the +North itself into civil conflict. I have sought to guide and control +public opinion into the ways on which depended our life. This rational +flexibility of policy you and your fellow radicals have been pleased to +call my vacillating imbecility." + +"And what is your message for the South?" + +"Simply this: 'Abolish slavery, come back home, and behave yourself.' Lee +surrendered to our offers of peace and amnesty. In my last message to +Congress I told the Southern people they could have peace at any moment by +simply laying down their arms and submitting to National authority. Now +that they have taken me at my word, shall I betray them by an ignoble +revenge? Vengeance cannot heal and purify: it can only brutalize and +destroy." + +Stoneman shuffled to his feet with impatience. + +"I see it is useless to argue with you. I'll not waste my breath. I give +you an ultimatum. The South is conquered soil. I mean to blot it from the +map. Rather than admit one traitor to the halls of Congress from these +so-called States I will shatter the Union itself into ten thousand +fragments! I will not sit beside men whose clothes smell of the blood of +my kindred. At least dry them before they come in. Four years ago, with +yells and curses, these traitors left the halls of Congress to join the +armies of Catiline. Shall they return to rule?" + +"I repeat," said the President, "you cannot indict a people. Treason is an +easy word to speak. A traitor is one who fights and loses. Washington was +a traitor to George III. Treason won, and Washington is immortal. Treason +is a word that victors hurl at those who fail." + +"Listen to me," Stoneman interrupted with vehemence. "The life of our +party demands that the negro be given the ballot and made the ruler of the +South. This can be done only by the extermination of its landed +aristocracy, that their mothers shall not breed another race of traitors. +This is not vengeance. It is justice, it is patriotism, it is the highest +wisdom and humanity. Nature, at times, blots out whole communities and +races that obstruct progress. Such is the political genius of these people +that, unless you make the negro the ruler, the South will yet reconquer +the North and undo the work of this war." + +"If the South in poverty and ruin can do this, we deserve to be ruled! The +North is rich and powerful--the South a land of wreck and tomb. I greet +with wonder, shame, and scorn such ignoble fear! The Nation cannot be +healed until the South is healed. Let the gulf be closed in which we bury +slavery, sectional animosity, and all strifes and hatreds. The good sense +of our people will never consent to your scheme of insane vengeance." + +"The people have no sense. A new fool is born every second. They are ruled +by impulse and passion." + +"I have trusted them before, and they have not failed me. The day I left +for Gettysburg to dedicate the battlefield, you were so sure of my defeat +in the approaching convention that you shouted across the street to a +friend as I passed: 'Let the dead bury the dead!' It was a brilliant sally +of wit. I laughed at it myself. And yet the people unanimously called me +again to lead them to victory." + +"Yes, in the past," said Stoneman bitterly, "you have triumphed, but mark +my word: from this hour your star grows dim. The slumbering fires of +passion will be kindled. In the fight we join to-day I'll break your back +and wring the neck of every dastard and time-server who fawns at your +feet." + +The President broke into a laugh that only increased the old man's wrath. + +"I protest against the insult of your buffoonery!" + +"Excuse me, Stoneman; I have to laugh or die beneath the burdens I bear, +surrounded by such supporters!" + +"Mark my word," growled the old leader, "from the moment you publish that +North Carolina proclamation, your name will be a by-word in Congress." + +"There are higher powers." + +"You will need them." + +"I'll have help," was the calm reply, as the dreaminess of the poet and +mystic stole over the rugged face. "I would be a presumptuous fool, +indeed, if I thought that for a day I could discharge the duties of this +great office without the aid of One who is wiser and stronger than all +others." + +"You'll need the help of Almighty God in the course you've mapped out!" + +"Some ships come into port that are not steered," went on the dreamy +voice. "Suppose Pickett had charged one hour earlier at Gettysburg? +Suppose the _Monitor_ had arrived one hour later at Hampton Roads? I had a +dream last night that always presages great events. I saw a white ship +passing swiftly under full sail. I have often seen her before. I have +never known her port of entry, or her destination, but I have always known +her Pilot!" + +The cynic's lips curled with scorn. He leaned heavily on his cane, and +took a shambling step toward the door. + +"You refuse to heed the wishes of Congress?" + +"If your words voice them, yes. Force your scheme of revenge on the South, +and you sow the wind to reap the whirlwind." + +"Indeed! and from what secret cave will this whirlwind come?" + +"The despair of a mighty race of world-conquering men, even in defeat, is +still a force that statesmen reckon with." + +"I defy them," growled the old Commoner. + +Again the dreamy look returned to Lincoln's face, and he spoke as if +repeating a message of the soul caught in the clouds in an hour of +transfiguration: + +"And I'll trust the honour of Lee and his people. The mystic chords of +memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every +living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the +chorus of the Union, when touched again, as they surely will be, by the +better angels of our nature." + +"You'll be lucky to live to hear that chorus." + +"To dream it is enough. If I fall by the hand of an assassin now, he will +not come from the South. I was safer in Richmond, this week, than I am in +Washington, to-day." + +The cynic grunted and shuffled another step toward the door. + +The President came closer. + +"Look here, Stoneman; have you some deep personal motive in this vengeance +on the South? Come, now, I've never in my life known you to tell a lie." + +The answer was silence and a scowl. + +"Am I right?" + +"Yes and no. I hate the South because I hate the Satanic Institution of +Slavery with consuming fury. It has long ago rotted the heart out of the +Southern people. Humanity cannot live in its tainted air, and its children +are doomed. If my personal wrongs have ordained me for a mighty task, no +matter; I am simply the chosen instrument of Justice!" + +Again the mystic light clothed the rugged face, calm and patient as +Destiny, as the President slowly repeated: + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right, as God gives me to see the right, I shall strive to finish the work +we are in, and bind up the Nation's wounds." + +"I've given you fair warning," cried the old Commoner, trembling with +rage, as he hobbled nearer the door. "From this hour your administration +is doomed." + +"Stoneman," said the kindly voice, "I can't tell you how your venomous +philanthropy sickens me. You have misunderstood and abused me at every +step during the past four years. I bear you no ill will. If I have said +anything to-day to hurt your feelings, forgive me. The earnestness with +which you pressed the war was an invaluable service to me and to the +Nation. I'd rather work with you than fight you. But now that we have to +fight, I'd as well tell you I'm not afraid of you. I'll suffer my right +arm to be severed from my body before I'll sign one measure of ignoble +revenge on a brave, fallen foe, and I'll keep up this fight until I win, +die, or my country forsakes me." + +"I have always known you had a sneaking admiration for the South," came +the sullen sneer. + +"I love the South! It is a part of this Union. I love every foot of its +soil, every hill and valley, mountain, lake, and sea, and every man, +woman, and child that breathes beneath its skies. I am an American." + +As the burning words leaped from the heart of the President the broad +shoulders of his tall form lifted, and his massive head rose in +unconscious heroic pose. + +"I marvel that you ever made war upon your loved ones!" cried the cynic. + +"We fought the South because we loved her and would not let her go. Now +that she is crushed and lies bleeding at our feet--you shall not make war +on the wounded, dying, and the dead!" + +Again the lion gleamed in the calm gray eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BATTLE OF LOVE + + +Elsie carried Ben Cameron's pardon to the anxious mother and sister with +her mind in a tumult. The name on these fateful papers fascinated her. She +read it again and again with a curious personal joy that she had saved a +life! + +She had entered on her work among the hospitals a bitter partisan of her +father's school, with the simple idea that all Southerners were savage +brutes. Yet as she had seen the wounded boys from the South among the men +in blue, more and more she had forgotten the difference between them. They +were so young, these slender, dark-haired ones from Dixie--so pitifully +young! Some of them were only fifteen, and hundreds not over sixteen. A +lad of fourteen she had kissed one day in sheer agony of pity for his +loneliness. + +The part her father was playing in the drama on which Ben Cameron's life +had hung puzzled her. Was his the mysterious arm back of Stanton? Echoes +of the fierce struggle with the President had floated through the +half-open door. + +She had implicit faith in her father's patriotism and pride in his giant +intellect. She knew that he was a king among men by divine right of +inherent power. His sensitive spirit, brooding over a pitiful lameness, +had hidden from the world behind a frowning brow like a wounded animal. +Yet her hand in hours of love, when no eye save God's could see, had led +his great soul out of its dark lair. She loved him with brooding +tenderness, knowing that she had gotten closer to his inner life than any +other human being--closer than her own mother, who had died while she was +a babe. Her aunt, with whom she and Phil now lived, had told her the +mother's life was not a happy one. Their natures had not proved congenial, +and her gentle Quaker spirit had died of grief in the quiet home in +southern Pennsylvania. + +Yet there were times when he was a stranger even to her. Some secret, dark +and cold, stood between them. Once she had tenderly asked him what it +meant. He merely pressed her hand, smiled wearily, and said: + +"Nothing, my dear, only the Blue Devils after me again." + +He had always lived in Washington in a little house with black shutters, +near the Capitol, while the children had lived with his sister, near the +White House, where they had grown from babyhood. + +A curious fact about this place on the Capitol hill was that his +housekeeper, Lydia Brown, was a mulatto, a woman of extraordinary animal +beauty and the fiery temper of a leopardess. Elsie had ventured there once +and got such a welcome she would never return. All sorts of gossip could +be heard in Washington about this woman, her jewels, her dresses, her +airs, her assumption of the dignity of the presiding genius of National +legislation and her domination of the old Commoner and his life. It +gradually crept into the newspapers and magazines, but he never once +condescended to notice it. + +Elsie begged her father to close this house and live with them. + +His reply was short and emphatic: + +"Impossible, my child. This club foot must live next door to the Capitol. +My house is simply an executive office at which I sleep. Half the business +of the Nation is transacted there. Don't mention this subject again." + +Elsie choked back a sob at the cold menace in the tones of this command, +and never repeated her request. It was the only wish he had ever denied +her, and, somehow, her heart would come back to it with persistence and +brood and wonder over his motive. + +The nearer she drew, this morning, to the hospital door, the closer the +wounded boy's life and loved ones seemed to hers. She thought with anguish +of the storm about to break between her father and the President--the one +demanding the desolation of their land, wasted, harried, and unarmed!--the +President firm in his policy of mercy, generosity, and healing. + +Her father would not mince words. His scorpion tongue, set on fires of +hell, might start a conflagration that would light the Nation with its +glare. Would not his name be a terror for every man and woman born under +Southern skies? The sickening feeling stole over her that he was wrong, +and his policy cruel and unjust. + +She had never before admired the President. It was fashionable to speak +with contempt of him in Washington. He had little following in Congress. +Nine tenths of the politicians hated or feared him, and she knew her +father had been the soul of a conspiracy at the Capitol to prevent his +second nomination and create a dictatorship, under which to carry out an +iron policy of reconstruction in the South. And now she found herself +heart and soul the champion of the President. + +She was ashamed of her disloyalty, and felt a rush of impetuous anger +against Ben and his people for thrusting themselves between her and her +own. Yet how absurd to feel thus against the innocent victims of a great +tragedy! She put the thought from her. Still she must part from them now +before the brewing storm burst. It would be best for her and best for +them. This pardon delivered would end their relations. She would send the +papers by a messenger and not see them again. And then she thought with a +throb of girlish pride of the hour to come in the future when Ben's big +brown eyes would be softened with a tear when he would learn that she had +saved his life. They had concealed all from him as yet. + +She was afraid to question too closely in her own heart the shadowy motive +that lay back of her joy. She read again with a lingering smile the name +"Ben Cameron" on the paper with its big red Seal of Life. She had laughed +at boys who had made love to her, dreaming a wider, nobler life of heroic +service. And she felt that she was fulfilling her ideal in the generous +hand she had extended to these who were friendless. Were they not the +children of her soul in that larger, finer world of which she had dreamed +and sung? Why should she give them up now for brutal politics? Their +sorrow had been hers, their joy should be hers, too. She would take the +papers herself and then say good-bye. + +She found the mother and sister beside the cot. Ben was sleeping with +Margaret holding one of his hands. The mother was busy sewing for the +wounded Confederate boys she had found scattered through the hospital. + +At the sight of Elsie holding aloft the message of life she sprang to meet +her with a cry of joy. + +She clasped the girl to her breast, unable to speak. At last she released +her and said with a sob: + +"My child, through good report and through evil report my love will enfold +you!" + +Elsie stammered, looked away, and tried to hide her emotion. Margaret had +knelt and bowed her head on Ben's cot. She rose at length, threw her arms +around Elsie in a resistless impulse, kissed her and whispered: + +"My sweet sister!" + +Elsie's heart leaped at the words, as her eyes rested on the face of the +sleeping soldier. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ASSASSINATION + + +Elsie called in the afternoon at the Camerons' lodgings, radiant with +pride, accompanied by her brother. + +Captain Phil Stoneman, athletic, bronzed, a veteran of two years' service, +dressed in his full uniform, was the ideal soldier, and yet he had never +loved war. He was bubbling over with quiet joy that the end had come and +he could soon return to a rational life. Inheriting his mother's +temperament, he was generous, enterprising, quick, intelligent, modest, +and ambitious. War had seemed to him a horrible tragedy from the first. He +had early learned to respect a brave foe, and bitterness had long since +melted out of his heart. + +He had laughed at his father's harsh ideas of Southern life gained as a +politician, and, while loyal to him after a boy's fashion, he took no +stock in his Radical programme. + +The father, colossal egotist that he was, heard Phil's protests with mild +amusement and quiet pride in his independence, for he loved this boy with +deep tenderness. + +Phil had been touched by the story of Ben's narrow escape, and was anxious +to show his mother and sister every courtesy possible in part atonement +for the wrong he felt had been done them. He was timid with girls, and yet +he wished to give Margaret a cordial greeting for Elsie's sake. He was not +prepared for the shock the first appearance of the Southern girl gave +him. + +When the stately figure swept through the door to greet him, her black +eyes sparkling with welcome, her voice low and tender with genuine +feeling, he caught his breath in surprise. + +Elsie noted his confusion with amusement and said: + +"I must go to the hospital for a little work. Now, Phil, I'll meet you at +the door at eight o'clock." + +"I'll not forget," he answered abstractedly, watching Margaret intently as +she walked with Elsie to the door. + +He saw that her dress was of coarse, unbleached cotton, dyed with the +juice of walnut hulls and set with wooden hand-made buttons. The story +these things told of war and want was eloquent, yet she wore them with +unconscious dignity. She had not a pin or brooch or piece of jewellery. +Everything about her was plain and smooth, graceful and gracious. Her face +was large--the lovely oval type--and her luxuriant hair, parted in the +middle, fell downward in two great waves. Tall, stately, handsome, her +dark rare Southern beauty full of subtle languor and indolent grace, she +was to Phil a revelation. + +The coarse black dress that clung closely to her figure seemed alive when +she moved, vital with her beauty. The musical cadences of her voice were +vibrant with feeling, sweet, tender, and homelike. And the odour of the +rose she wore pinned low on her breast he could swear was the perfume of +her breath. + +Lingering in her eyes and echoing in the tones of her voice, he caught the +shadowy memory of tears for the loved and lost that gave a strange pathos +and haunting charm to her youth. + +She had returned quickly and was talking at ease with him. + +"I'm not going to tell you, Captain Stoneman, that I hope to be a sister +to you. You have already made yourself my brother in what you did for +Ben." + +"Nothing, I assure you, Miss Cameron, that any soldier wouldn't do for a +brave foe." + +"Perhaps; but when the foe happens to be an only brother, my chum and +playmate, brave and generous, whom I've worshipped as my beau-ideal +man--why, you know I must thank you for taking him in your arms that day. +May I, again?" + +Phil felt the soft warm hand clasp his, while the black eyes sparkled and +glowed their friendly message. + +He murmured something incoherently, looked at Margaret as if in a spell, +and forgot to let her hand go. + +She laughed at last, and he blushed and dropped it as though it were a +live coal. + +"I was about to forget, Miss Cameron. I wish to take you to the theatre +to-night, if you will go?" + +"To the theatre?" + +"Yes. It's to be an occasion, Elsie tells me. Laura Keene's last +appearance in 'Our American Cousin,' and her one-thousandth performance of +the play. She played it in Chicago at McVicker's, when the President was +first nominated, to hundreds of the delegates who voted for him. He is to +be present to-night, so the _Evening Star_ has announced, and General and +Mrs. Grant with him. It will be the opportunity of your life to see these +famous men--besides, I wish you to see the city illuminated on the way." + +Margaret hesitated. + +"I should like to go," she said with some confusion. "But you see we are +old-fashioned Scotch Presbyterians down in our village in South Carolina. +I never was in a theatre--and this is Good Friday----" + +"That's a fact, sure," said Phil thoughtfully. "It never occurred to me. +War is not exactly a spiritual stimulant, and it blurs the calendar. I +believe we fight on Sundays oftener than on any other day." + +"But I'm crazy to see the President since Ben's pardon. Mamma will be here +in a moment, and I'll ask her." + +"You see, it's really an occasion," Phil went on. "The people are all +going there to see President Lincoln in the hour of his triumph, and his +great General fresh from the field of victory. Grant has just arrived in +town." + +Mrs. Cameron entered and greeted Phil with motherly tenderness. + +"Captain, you're so much like my boy! Had you noticed it, Margaret?" + +"Of course, Mamma, but I was afraid I'd tire him with flattery if I tried +to tell him." + +"Only his hair is light and wavy, and Ben's straight and black, or you'd +call them twins. Ben's a little taller--excuse us, Captain Stoneman, but +we've fallen so in love with your little sister we feel we've known you +all our lives." + +"I assure you, Mrs. Cameron, your flattery is very sweet. Elsie and I do +not remember our mother, and all this friendly criticism is more than +welcome." + +"Mamma, Captain Stoneman asks me to go with him and his sister to-night to +see the President at the theatre. May I go?" + +"Will the President be there, Captain?" asked Mrs. Cameron. + +"Yes, Madam, with General and Mrs. Grant--it's really a great public +function in celebration of peace and victory. To-day the flag was raised +over Fort Sumter, the anniversary of its surrender four years ago. The +city will be illuminated." + +"Then, of course, you can go. I will sit with Ben. I wish you to see the +President." + +At seven o'clock Phil called for Margaret. They walked to the Capitol hill +and down Pennsylvania Avenue. + +The city was in a ferment. Vast crowds thronged the streets. In front of +the hotel where General Grant stopped the throng was so dense the streets +were completely blocked. Soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, at every turn, in +squads, in companies, in regimental crowds, shouting cries of victory. + +The display of lights was dazzling in its splendour. Every building in +every street, in every nook and corner of the city, was lighted from attic +to cellar. The public buildings and churches vied with each other in the +magnificence of their decorations and splendour of illuminations. + +They turned a corner, and suddenly the Capitol on the throne of its +imperial hill loomed a grand constellation in the heavens! Another look, +and it seemed a huge bonfire against the background of the dark skies. +Every window in its labyrinths of marble, from the massive base to its +crowning statue of Freedom, gleamed and flashed with light--more than ten +thousand jets poured their rays through its windows, besides the +innumerable lights that circled the mighty dome within and without. + +Margaret stopped, and Phil felt her soft hand grip his arm with sudden +emotion. + +"Isn't it sublime!" she whispered. + +"Glorious!" he echoed. + +But he was thinking of the pressure of her hand on his arm and the subtle +tones of her voice. Somehow he felt that the light came from her eyes. He +forgot the Capitol and the surging crowds before the sweeter creative +wonder silently growing in his soul. + +"And yet," she faltered, "when I think of what all this means for our +people at home--their sorrow and poverty and ruin--you know it makes me +faint." + +Phil's hand timidly sought the soft one resting on his arm and touched it +reverently. + +"Believe me, Miss Margaret, it will be all for the best in the end. The +South will yet rise to a nobler life than she has ever lived in the past. +This is her victory as well as ours." + +"I wish I could think so," she answered. + +They passed the City Hall and saw across its front, in giant letters of +fire thirty feet deep, the words: + +"UNION, SHERMAN, AND GRANT" + +On Pennsylvania Avenue the hotels and stores had hung every window, +awning, cornice, and swaying tree-top with lanterns. The grand avenue was +bridged by tri-coloured balloons floating and shimmering ghostlike far up +in the dark sky. Above these, in the blacker zone toward the stars, the +heavens were flashing sheets of chameleon flames from bursting rockets. + +Margaret had never dreamed such a spectacle. She walked in awed silence, +now and then suppressing a sob for the memory of those she had loved and +lost. A moment of bitterness would cloud her heart, and then with the +sense of Phil's nearness, his generous nature, the beauty and goodness of +his sister, and all they owed to her for Ben's life, the cloud would +pass. + +At every public building, and in front of every great hotel, bands were +playing. The wild war strains, floating skyward, seemed part of the +changing scheme of light. The odour of burnt powder and smouldering +rockets filled the warm spring air. + +The deep bay of the great fort guns now began to echo from every hilltop +commanding the city, while a thousand smaller guns barked and growled from +every square and park and crossing. + +Jay Cooke & Co's. banking-house had stretched across its front, in +enormous blazing letters, the words: + +"THE BUSY B'S--BALLS, BALLOTS, AND BONDS" + +Every telegraph and newspaper office was a roaring whirlpool of +excitement, for the same scenes were being enacted in every centre of the +North. The whole city was now a fairy dream, its dirt and sin, shame and +crime, all wrapped in glorious light. + +But above all other impressions was the contagion of the thunder shouts of +hosts of men surging through the streets--the human roar with its animal +and spiritual magnetism, wild, resistless, unlike any other force in the +universe! + +Margaret's hand again and again unconsciously tightened its hold on Phil's +arm, and he felt that the whole celebration had been gotten up for his +benefit. + +They passed through a little park on their way to Ford's Theatre on 10th +Street, and the eye of the Southern girl was quick to note the budding +flowers and full-blown lilacs. + +"See what an early spring!" she cried. "I know the flowers at home are +gorgeous now." + +"I shall hope to see you among them some day, when all the clouds have +lifted," he said. + +She smiled and replied with simple earnestness: + +"A warm welcome will await your coming." + +And Phil resolved to lose no time in testing it. + +They turned into 10th Street, and in the middle of the block stood the +plain three-story brick structure of Ford's Theatre, an enormous crowd +surging about its five doorways and spreading out on the sidewalk and half +across the driveway. + +"Is that the theatre?" asked Margaret. + +"Yes." + +"Why, it looks like a church without a steeple." + +"Exactly what it really is, Miss Margaret. It was a Baptist church. They +turned it into a playhouse, by remodelling its gallery into a dress-circle +and balcony and adding another gallery above. My grandmother Stoneman is a +devoted Baptist, and was an attendant at this church. My father never goes +to church, but he used to go here occasionally to please her. Elsie and I +frequently came." + +Phil pushed his way rapidly through the crowd with a peculiar sense of +pleasure in making a way for Margaret and in defending her from the +jostling throng. + +They found Elsie at the door, stamping her foot with impatience. + +"Well, I must say, Phil, this is prompt for a soldier who had positive +orders," she cried. "I've been here an hour." + +"Nonsense, Sis, I'm ahead of time," he protested. + +Elsie held up her watch. + +"It's a quarter past eight. Every seat is filled, and they've stopped +selling standing-room. I hope you have good seats." + +"The best in the house to-night, the first row in the balcony +dress-circle, opposite the President's box. We can see everything on the +stage, in the box, and every nook and corner of the house." + +"Then I'll forgive you for keeping me waiting." + +They ascended the stairs, pushed through the throng standing, and at last +reached the seats. + +What a crowd! The building was a mass of throbbing humanity, and, over +all, the hum of the thrilling wonder of peace and victory! + +The women in magnificent costumes, officers in uniforms flashing with +gold, the show of wealth and power, the perfume of flowers and the music +of violin and flutes gave Margaret the impression of a dream, so sharp was +the contrast with her own life and people in the South. + +The interior of the house was a billow of red, white, and blue. The +President's box was wrapped in two enormous silk flags with gold-fringed +edges gracefully draped and hanging in festoons. + +Withers, the leader of the orchestra, was in high feather. He raised his +baton with quick, inspired movement. It was for him a personal triumph, +too. He had composed the music of a song for the occasion. It was +dedicated to the President, and the programme announced that it would be +rendered during the evening between the acts by a famous quartet, assisted +by the whole company in chorus. The National flag would be draped about +each singer, worn as the togas of ancient Greece and Rome. + +It was already known by the crowd that General and Mrs. Grant had left the +city for the North and could not be present, but every eye was fixed on +the door through which the President and Mrs. Lincoln would enter. It was +the hour of his supreme triumph. + +[Illustration: THE ASSASSINATION.] + +What a romance his life! The thought of it thrilled the crowd as they +waited. A few years ago this tall, sad-faced man had floated down the +Sangamon River into a rough Illinois town, ragged, penniless, friendless, +alone, begging for work. Four years before he had entered Washington as +President of the United States--but he came under cover of the night with +a handful of personal friends, amid universal contempt for his ability and +the loud expressed conviction of his failure from within and without his +party. He faced a divided Nation and the most awful civil convulsion in +history. Through it all he had led the Nation in safety, growing each day +in power and fame, until to-night, amid the victorious shouts of millions +of a Union fixed in eternal granite, he stood forth the idol of the +people, the first great American, the foremost man of the world. + +There was a stir at the door, and the tall figure suddenly loomed in view +of the crowd. With one impulse they leaped to their feet, and shout after +shout shook the building. The orchestra was playing "Hail to the Chief!" +but nobody heard it. They saw the Chief! They were crying their own +welcome in music that came from the rhythmic beat of human hearts. + +As the President walked along the aisle with Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by +Senator Harris' daughter and Major Rathbone, cheer after cheer burst from +the crowd. He turned, his face beaming with pleasure, and bowed as he +passed. + +The answer of the crowd shook the building to its foundations, and the +President paused. His dark face flashed with emotion as he looked over the +sea of cheering humanity. It was a moment of supreme exaltation. The +people had grown to know and love and trust him, and it was sweet. His +face, lit with the responsive fires of emotion, was transfigured. The soul +seemed to separate itself from its dreamy, rugged dwelling-place and flash +its inspiration from the spirit world. + +As around this man's personality had gathered the agony and horror of war, +so now about his head glowed and gleamed in imagination the splendours of +victory. + +Margaret impulsively put her hand on Phil's arm: + +"Why, how Southern he looks! How tall and dark and typical his whole +figure!" + +"Yes, and his traits of character even more typical," said Phil. "On the +surface, easy friendly ways and the tenderness of a woman--beneath, an +iron will and lion heart. I like him. And what always amazes me is his +universality. A Southerner finds in him the South, the Western man the +West, even Charles Sumner, from Boston, almost loves him. You know I think +he is the first great all-round American who ever lived in the White +House." + +The President's party had now entered the box, and as Mr. Lincoln took the +armchair nearest the audience, in full view of every eye in the house, +again the cheers rent the air. In vain Withers' baton flew, and the +orchestra did its best. The music was drowned as in the roar of the sea. +Again he rose and bowed and smiled, his face radiant with pleasure. The +soul beneath those deep-cut lines had long pined for the sunlight. His +love of the theatre and the humorous story were the protest of his heart +against pain and tragedy. He stood there bowing to the people, the +grandest, gentlest figure of the fiercest war of human history--a man who +was always doing merciful things stealthily as others do crimes. Little +sunlight had come into his life, yet to-night he felt that the sun of a +new day in his history and the history of the people was already tingeing +the horizon with glory. + +Back of those smiles what a story! Many a night he had paced back and +forth in the telegraph office of the War Department, read its awful news +of defeat, and alone sat down and cried over the list of the dead. Many a +black hour his soul had seen when the honours of earth were forgotten and +his great heart throbbed on his sleeve. His character had grown so evenly +and silently with the burdens he had borne, working mighty deeds with such +little friction, he could not know, nor could the crowd to whom he bowed, +how deep into the core of the people's life the love of him had grown. + +As he looked again over the surging crowd his tall figure seemed to +straighten, erect and buoyant, with the new dignity of conscious +triumphant leadership. He knew that he had come unto his own at last, and +his brain was teeming with dreams of mercy and healing. + +The President resumed his seat, the tumult died away, and the play began +amid a low hum of whispered comment directed at the flag-draped box. The +actors struggled in vain to hold the attention of the audience, until +finally Hawk, the actor playing Dundreary, determined to catch their ear, +paused and said: + +"Now, that reminds me of a little story, as Mr. Lincoln says----" + +Instantly the crowd burst into a storm of applause, the President laughed, +leaned over and spoke to his wife, and the electric connection was made +between the stage, the box, and the people. + +After this the play ran its smooth course, and the audience settled into +its accustomed humour of sympathetic attention. + +In spite of the novelty of this, her first view of a theatre, the +President fascinated Margaret. She watched the changing lights and shadows +of his sensitive face with untiring interest, and the wonder of his life +grew upon her imagination. This man who was the idol of the North and yet +to her so purely Southern, who had come out of the West and yet was +greater than the West or the North, and yet always supremely human--this +man who sprang to his feet from the chair of State and bowed to a +sorrowing woman with the deference of a knight, every man's friend, +good-natured, sensible, masterful and clear in intellect, strong, yet +modest, kind and gentle--yes, he was more interesting than all the drama +and romance of the stage! + +He held her imagination in a spell. Elsie, divining her abstraction, +looked toward the President's box and saw approaching it along the balcony +aisle the figure of John Wilkes Booth. + +"Look," she cried, touching Margaret's arm. "There's John Wilkes Booth, +the actor! Isn't he handsome? They say he's in love with my chum, a +senator's daughter whose father hates Mr. Lincoln with perfect fury." + +"He is handsome," Margaret answered. "But I'd be afraid of him, with that +raven hair and eyes shining like something wild." + +"They say he is wild and dissipated, yet half the silly girls in town are +in love with him. He's as vain as a peacock." + +Booth, accustomed to free access to the theatre, paused near the entrance +to the box and looked deliberately over the great crowd, his magnetic face +flushed with deep emotion, while his fiery inspiring eyes glittered with +excitement. + +Dressed in a suit of black broadcloth of faultless fit, from the crown of +his head to the soles of his feet he was physically without blemish. A +figure of perfect symmetry and proportion, his dark eyes flashing, his +marble forehead crowned with curling black hair, agility and grace stamped +on every line of his being--beyond a doubt he was the handsomest man in +America. A flutter of feminine excitement rippled the surface of the crowd +in the balcony as his well-known figure caught the wandering eyes of the +women. + +He turned and entered the door leading to the President's box, and +Margaret once more gave her attention to the stage. + +Hawk, as Dundreary, was speaking his lines and looking directly at the +President instead of at the audience: + +"Society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old +woman, you darned old sockdologing man trap!" + +Margaret winced at the coarse words, but the galleries burst into shouts +of laughter that lingered in ripples and murmurs and the shuffling of +feet. + +The muffled crack of a pistol in the President's box hushed the laughter +for an instant. + +No one realized what had happened, and when the assassin suddenly leaped +from the box, with a blood-marked knife flashing in his right hand, caught +his foot in the flags and fell to his knees on the stage, many thought it +a part of the programme, and a boy, leaning over the gallery rail, +giggled. When Booth turned his face of statuesque beauty lit by eyes +flashing with insane desperation and cried, "_Sic semper tyrannis_," they +were only confirmed in this impression. + +A sudden, piercing scream from Mrs. Lincoln, quivering, soul harrowing! +Leaning far out of the box, from ashen cheeks and lips leaped the piteous +cry of appeal, her hand pointing to the retreating figure: + +"The President is shot! He has killed the President!" + +Every heart stood still for one awful moment. The brain refused to record +the message--and then the storm burst! + +A wild roar of helpless fury and despair! Men hurled themselves over the +footlights in vain pursuit of the assassin. Already the clatter of his +horse's feet could be heard in the distance. A surgeon threw himself +against the door of the box, but it had been barred within by the cunning +hand. Another leaped on the stage, and the people lifted him up in their +arms and over the fatal railing. + +Women began to faint, and strong men trampled down the weak in mad rushes +from side to side. + +The stage in a moment was a seething mass of crazed men, among them the +actors and actresses in costumes and painted faces, their mortal terror +shining through the rouge. They passed water up to the box, and some tried +to climb up and enter it. + +The two hundred soldiers of the President's guard suddenly burst in, and, +amid screams and groans of the weak and injured, stormed the house with +fixed bayonets, cursing, yelling, and shouting at the top of their +voices: + +"Clear out! Clear out! You sons of hell!" + +One of them suddenly bore down with fixed bayonet toward Phil. + +Margaret shrank in terror close to his side and tremblingly held his arm. + +Elsie sprang forward, her face aflame, her eyes flashing fire, her little +figure tense, erect, and quivering with rage: + +"How dare you, idiot, brute!" + +The soldier, brought to his senses, saw Phil in full captain's uniform +before him, and suddenly drew himself up, saluting. Phil ordered him to +guard Margaret and Elsie for a moment, drew his sword, leaped between the +crazed soldiers and their victims and stopped their insane rush. + +Within the box the great head lay in the surgeon's arms, the blood slowly +dripping down, and the tiny death bubbles forming on the kindly lips. They +carried him tenderly out, and another group bore after him the unconscious +wife. The people tore the seats from their fastenings and heaped them in +piles to make way for the precious burdens. + +As Phil pressed forward with Margaret and Elsie through the open door came +the roar of the mob without, shouting its cries: + +"The President is shot!" + +"Seward is murdered!" + +"Where is Grant?" + +"Where is Stanton?" + +"To arms! To arms!" + +The peal of signal guns could now be heard, the roll of drums and the +hurried tramp of soldiers' feet. They marched none too soon. The mob had +attacked the stockade holding ten thousand unarmed Confederate prisoners. + +At the corner of the block in which the theatre stood they seized a man +who looked like a Southerner and hung him to the lamp-post. Two heroic +policemen fought their way to his side and rescued him. + +If the temper of the people during the war had been convulsive, now it was +insane--with one mad impulse and one thought--vengeance! Horror, anger, +terror, uncertainty, each passion fanned the one animal instinct into +fury. + +Through this awful night, with the lights still gleaming as if to mock the +celebration of victory, the crowds swayed in impotent rage through the +streets, while the telegraph bore on the wings of lightning the +awe-inspiring news. Men caught it from the wires, and stood in silent +groups weeping, and their wrath against the fallen South began to rise as +the moaning of the sea under a coming storm. + +At dawn black clouds hung threatening on the eastern horizon. As the sun +rose, tingeing them for a moment with scarlet and purple glory, Abraham +Lincoln breathed his last. + +Even grim Stanton, the iron-hearted, stood by his bedside and through +blinding tears exclaimed: + +"Now he belongs to the ages!" + +The deed was done. The wheel of things had moved. Vice-President Johnson +took the oath of office, and men hailed him Chief; but the seat of Empire +had moved from the White House to a little dark house on the Capitol hill, +where dwelt an old club-footed man, alone, attended by a strange brown +woman of sinister animal beauty and the restless eyes of a leopardess. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FRENZY OF A NATION + + +Phil hurried through the excited crowds with Margaret and Elsie, left them +at the hospital door, and ran to the War Department to report for duty. +Already the tramp of regiments echoed down every great avenue. + +Even as he ran, his heart beat with a strange new stroke when he recalled +the look of appeal in Margaret's dark eyes as she nestled close to his +side and clung to his arm for protection. He remembered with a smile the +almost resistless impulse of the moment to slip his arm around her and +assure her of safety. If he had only dared! + +Elsie begged Mrs. Cameron and Margaret to go home with her until the city +was quiet. + +"No," said the mother. "I am not afraid. Death has no terrors for me any +longer. We will not leave Ben a moment now, day or night. My soul is sick +with dread for what this awful tragedy will mean for the South! I can't +think of my own safety. Can any one undo this pardon now?" she asked +anxiously. + +"I am sure they cannot. The name on that paper should be mightier dead +than living." + +"Ah, but will it be? Do you know Mr. Johnson? Can he control Stanton? He +seemed to be more powerful than the President himself. What will that man +do now with those who fall into his hands." + +"He can do nothing with your son, rest assured." + +"I wish I knew it," said the mother wistfully. + + * * * * * + +A few moments after the President died on Saturday morning, the rain began +to pour in torrents. The flags that flew from a thousand gilt-tipped peaks +in celebration of victory drooped to half-mast and hung weeping around +their staffs. The litter of burnt fireworks, limp and crumbling, strewed +the streets, and the tri-coloured lanterns and balloons, hanging +pathetically from their wires, began to fall to pieces. + +Never in all the history of man had such a conjunction of events befallen +a nation. From the heights of heaven's rejoicing to be suddenly hurled to +the depths of hell in piteous helpless grief! Noon to midnight without a +moment between. A pall of voiceless horror spread its shadows over the +land. Nothing short of an earthquake or the sound of the archangel's +trumpet could have produced the sense of helpless consternation, the black +and speechless despair. The people read their papers in tears. The morning +meal was untouched. By no other single feat could death have carried such +peculiar horror to every home. Around this giant figure the heartstrings +of the people had been unconsciously knit. Even his political enemies had +come to love him. + +Above all, in just this moment he was the incarnation of the Triumphant +Union on the altar of whose life every house had laid the offering of its +first-born. The tragedy was stupefying--it was unthinkable--it was the +mockery of Fate! + +Men walked the streets of the cities, dazed with the sense of blind grief. +Every note of music and rejoicing became a dirge. All business ceased. +Every wheel in every mill stopped. The roar of the great city was hushed, +and Greed for a moment forgot his cunning. + +The army only moved with swifter spring, tightening its mighty grip on the +throat of the bleeding prostrate South. + +As the day wore on its gloomy hours, and men began to find speech, they +spoke to each other at first in low tones of Fate, of Life, of Death, of +Immortality, of God--and then as grief found words the measureless rage of +baffled strength grew slowly to madness. + +On every breeze from the North came the deep-muttered curses. + +Easter Sunday dawned after the storm, clear and beautiful in a flood of +glorious sunshine. The churches were thronged as never in their history. +All had been decorated for the double celebration of Easter and the +triumph of the Union. The preachers had prepared sermons pitched in the +highest anthem key of victory--victory over death and the grave of +Calvary, and victory for the Nation opening a future of boundless glory. +The churches were labyrinths of flowers, and around every pulpit and from +every Gothic arch hung the red, white, and blue flags of the Republic. + +And now, as if to mock this gorgeous pageant, Death had in the night flung +a black mantle over every flag and wound a strangling web of crape round +every Easter flower. + +When the preachers faced the silent crowds before them, looking into the +faces of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and lovers whose dear ones +had been slain in battle or died in prison pens, the tide of grief and +rage rose and swept them from their feet! The Easter sermon was laid +aside. Fifty thousand Christian ministers, stunned and crazed by insane +passion, standing before the altars of God, hurled into the broken hearts +before them the wildest cries of vengeance--cries incoherent, chaotic, +unreasoning, blind in their awful fury! + +The pulpits of New York and Brooklyn led in the madness. + +Next morning old Stoneman read his paper with a cold smile playing about +his big stern mouth, while his furrowed brow flushed with triumph, as +again and again he exclaimed: "At last! At last!" + +Even Beecher, who had just spoken his generous words at Fort Sumter, +declared: + +"Never while time lasts, while heaven lasts, while hell rocks and groans, +will it be forgotten that Slavery, by its minions, slew him, and slaying +him made manifest its whole nature. A man cannot be bred in its tainted +air. I shall find saints in hell sooner than I shall find true manhood +under its accursed influences. The breeding-ground of such monsters must +be utterly and forever destroyed." + +Dr. Stephen Tyng said: + +"The leaders of this rebellion deserve no pity from any human being. Now +let them go. Some other land must be their home. Their property is justly +forfeited to the Nation they have attempted to destroy!" + +In big black-faced type stood Dr. Charles S. Robinson's bitter words: + +"This is the earliest reply which chivalry makes to our forbearance. Talk +to me no more of the same race, of the same blood. He is no brother of +mine and of no race of mine who crowns the barbarism of treason with the +murder of an unarmed husband in the sight of his wife. On the villains who +led this rebellion let justice fall swift and relentless. Death to every +traitor of the South! Pursue them one by one! Let every door be closed +upon them and judgment follow swift and implacable as death!" + +Dr. Theodore Cuyler exclaimed: + +"This is no time to talk of leniency and conciliation! I say before God, +make no terms with rebellion short of extinction. Booth wielding the +assassin's weapon is but the embodiment of the bowie-knife barbarism of a +slaveholding oligarchy." + +Dr. J. P. Thompson said: + +"Blot every Southern State from the map. Strip every rebel of property and +citizenship, and send them into exile beggared and infamous outcasts." + +Bishop Littlejohn, in his impassioned appeal, declared: + +"The deed is worthy of the Southern cause which was conceived in sin, +brought forth in iniquity, and consummated in crime. This murderous hand +is the same hand which lashed the slave's bared back, struck down New +England's senator for daring to speak, lifted the torch of rebellion, +slaughtered in cold blood its thousands, and starved our helpless +prisoners. Its end is not martyrdom, but dishonour." + +Bishop Simpson said: + +"Let every man who was a member of Congress and aided this rebellion be +brought to speedy punishment. Let every officer educated at public +expense, who turned his sword against his country, be doomed to a +traitor's death!" + +With the last note of this wild music lingering in the old Commoner's +soul, he sat as if dreaming, laughed cynically, turned to the brown woman +and said: + +"My speeches have not been lost after all. Prepare dinner for six. My +cabinet will meet here to-night." + +While the press was reëchoing these sermons, gathering strength as they +were caught and repeated in every town, village, and hamlet in the North, +the funeral procession started westward. It passed in grandeur through the +great cities on its journey of one thousand six hundred miles to the tomb. +By day, by night, by dawn, by sunlight, by twilight, and lit by solemn +torches, millions of silent men and women looked on his dead face. Around +the person of this tall, lonely man, rugged, yet full of sombre dignity +and spiritual beauty, the thoughts, hopes, dreams, and ideals of the +people had gathered in four years of agony and death, until they had come +to feel their own hearts beat in his breast and their own life throb in +his life. The assassin's bullet had crashed into their own brains, and +torn their souls and bodies asunder. + +The masses were swept from their moorings, and reason destroyed. All +historic perspective was lost. Our first assassination, there was no +precedent for comparison. It had been over two hundred years in the +world's history since the last murder of a great ruler, when William of +Orange fell. + +On the day set for the public funeral twenty million people bowed at the +same hour. + +When the procession reached New York the streets were lined with a million +people. Not a sound could be heard save the tramp of soldiers' feet and +the muffled cry of the dirge. Though on every foot of earth stood a human +being, the silence of the desert and of death! The Nation's living heroes +rode in that procession, and passed without a sign from the people. + +Four years ago he drove down Broadway as President-elect, unnoticed and +with soldiers in disguise attending him lest the mob should stone him. + +To-day, at the mention of his name in the churches, the preachers' voices +in prayer wavered and broke into silence while strong men among the crowd +burst into sobs. Flags flew at half-mast from their steeples, and their +bells tolled in grief. + +Every house that flew but yesterday its banner of victory was shrouded in +mourning. The flags and pennants of a thousand ships in the harbour +drooped at half-mast, and from every staff in the city streamed across the +sky the black mists of crape like strange meteors in the troubled +heavens. + +For three days every theatre, school, court, bank, shop, and mill was +closed. + +And with muttered curses men looked Southward. + +Across Broadway the cortčge passed under a huge transparency on which +appeared the words: + + "A Nation bowed in grief + Will rise in might to exterminate + The leaders of this accursed Rebellion." + +Farther along swung the black-draped banner: + + "Justice to Traitors + is + Mercy to the People." + +Another flapped its grim message: + + "The Barbarism of Slavery. + Can Barbarism go Further?" + +Across the Ninth Regiment Armoury, in gigantic letters, were the words: + + "Time for Weeping + But Vengeance is not Sleeping!" + +When the procession reached Buffalo, the house of Millard Fillmore was +mobbed because the ex-President, stricken on a bed of illness, had +neglected to drape his house in mourning. The procession passed to +Springfield through miles of bowed heads dumb with grief. The plough +stopped in the furrow, the smith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his +plane, the merchant closed his door, the clink of coin ceased, and over +all hung brooding silence with low-muttered curses, fierce and +incoherent. + +No man who walked the earth ever passed to his tomb through such a storm +of human tears. The pageants of Alexander, Cćsar, and Wellington were +tinsel to this. Nor did the spirit of Napoleon, the Corsican Lieutenant of +Artillery who once presided over a congress of kings whom he had +conquered, look down on its like even in France. + +And now that its pomp was done and its memory but bitterness and ashes, +but one man knew exactly what he wanted and what he meant to do. Others +were stunned by the blow. But the cold eyes of the Great Commoner, leader +of leaders, sparkled, and his grim lips smiled. From him not a word of +praise or fawning sorrow for the dead. Whatever he might be, he was not a +liar: when he hated, he hated. + +The drooping flags, the city's black shrouds, processions, torches, silent +seas of faces and bared heads, the dirges and the bells, the dim-lit +churches, wailing organs, fierce invectives from the altar, and the +perfume of flowers piled in heaps by silent hearts--to all these was he +heir. + +And more--the fierce unwritten, unspoken, and unspeakable horrors of the +war itself, its passions, its cruelties, its hideous crimes and +sufferings, the wailing of its women, the graves of its men--all these now +were his. + +The new President bowed to the storm. In one breath he promised to fulfil +the plans of Lincoln. In the next he, too, breathed threats of vengeance. + +The edict went forth for the arrest of General Lee. + +Would Grant, the Commanding General of the Army, dare protest? There were +those who said that if Lee were arrested and Grant's plighted word at +Appomattox smirched, the silent soldier would not only protest, but draw +his sword, if need be, to defend his honour and the honour of the Nation. +Yet--would he dare? It remained to be seen. + +The jails were now packed with Southern men, taken unarmed from their +homes. The old Capitol Prison was full, and every cell of every grated +building in the city, and they were filling the rooms of the Capitol +itself. + +Margaret, hurrying from the market in the early morning with her flowers, +was startled to find her mother bowed in anguish over a paragraph in the +morning paper. + +She rose and handed it to the daughter, who read: + + "Dr. Richard Cameron, of South Carolina, arrived in Washington and was + placed in jail last night, charged with complicity in the murder of + President Lincoln. It was discovered that Jeff Davis spent the night + at his home in Piedmont, under the pretence of needing medical + attention. Beyond all doubt, Booth, the assassin, merely acted under + orders from the Arch Traitor. May the gallows have a rich and early + harvest!" + +Margaret tremblingly wound her arms around her mother's neck. No words +broke the pitiful silence--only blinding tears and broken sobs. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Book II--The Revolution + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FIRST LADY OF THE LAND + + +The little house on the Capitol hill now became the centre of fevered +activity. This house, selected by its grim master to become the executive +mansion of the Nation, was perhaps the most modest structure ever chosen +for such high uses. + +It stood, a small, two-story brick building, in an unpretentious street. +Seven windows opened on the front with black solid-panelled shutters. The +front parlour was scantily furnished. A huge mirror covered one wall, and +on the other hung a life-size oil portrait of Stoneman, and between the +windows were a portrait of Washington Irving and a picture of a nun. Among +his many charities he had always given liberally to an orphanage conducted +by a Roman Catholic sisterhood. + +The back parlour, whose single window looked out on a small garden, he had +fitted up as a library, with leather-upholstered furniture, a large desk +and table, and scattered on the mantel and about its walls were the +photographs of his personal friends and a few costly prints. This room he +used as his executive office, and no person was allowed to enter it +without first stating his business or presenting a petition to the tawny +brown woman with restless eyes who sat in state in the front parlour and +received his visitors. The books in their cases gave evidence of little +use for many years, although their character indicated the tastes of a man +of culture. His Pliny, Cćsar, Cicero, Tacitus, Sophocles, and Homer had +evidently been read by a man who knew their beauties and loved them for +their own sake. + +This house was now the Mecca of the party in power and the storm-centre of +the forces destined to shape the Nation's life. Senators, representatives, +politicians of low and high degree, artists, correspondents, foreign +ministers, and cabinet officers hurried to acknowledge their fealty to the +uncrowned king, and hail the strange brown woman who held the keys of his +house as the first lady of the land. + +When Charles Sumner called, a curious thing happened. By a code agreed on +between them, Lydia Brown touched an electric signal which informed the +old Commoner of his appearance. Stoneman hobbled to the folding-doors and +watched through the slight opening the manner in which the icy senator +greeted the negress whom he was compelled to meet thus as his social +equal, though she was always particular to pose as the superior of all who +bowed the knee to the old man whose house she kept. + +Sumner at this time was supposed to be the most powerful man in Congress. +It was a harmless fiction which pleased him, and at which Stoneman loved +to laugh. + +The senator from Massachusetts had just made a speech in Boston expounding +the "Equality of Man," yet he could not endure personal contact with a +negro. He would go secretly miles out of the way to avoid it. + +Stoneman watched him slowly and daintily approach this negress and touch +her jewelled hand gingerly with the tips of his classic fingers as if she +were a toad. Convulsed, he scrambled back to his desk and hugged himself +while he listened to the flow of Lydia's condescending patronage in the +next room. + +"This world's too good a thing to lose!" he chuckled. "I think I'll live +always." + +When Sumner left, the hour for dinner had arrived, and by special +invitation two men dined with him. + +On his right sat an army officer who had been dismissed from the service, +a victim of the mania for gambling. His ruddy face, iron-gray hair, and +jovial mien indicated that he enjoyed life in spite of troubles. + +There were no clubs in Washington at this time except the regular +gambling-houses, of which there were more than one hundred in full blast. + +Stoneman was himself a gambler, and spent a part of almost every night at +Hall & Pemberton's Faro Palace on Pennsylvania Avenue, a place noted for +its famous restaurant. It was here that he met Colonel Howle and learned +to like him. He was a man of talent, cool and audacious, and a liar of +such singular fluency that he quite captivated the old Commoner's +imagination. + +"Upon my soul, Howle," he declared soon after they met, "you made the +mistake of your life going into the army. You're a born politician. You're +what I call a natural liar, just as a horse is a pacer, a dog a setter. +You lie without effort, with an ease and grace that excels all art. Had +you gone into politics, you could easily have been Secretary of State, to +say nothing of the vice-presidency. I would say President but for the fact +that men of the highest genius never attain it." + +From that moment Colonel Howle had become his charmed henchman. Stoneman +owned this man body and soul, not merely because he had befriended him +when he was in trouble and friendless, but because the colonel recognized +the power of the leader's daring spirit and revolutionary genius. + +On his left sat a negro of perhaps forty years, a man of charming features +for a mulatto, who had evidently inherited the full physical +characteristics of the Aryan race, while his dark yellowish eyes beneath +his heavy brows glowed with the brightness of the African jungle. It was +impossible to look at his superb face, with its large, finely chiselled +lips and massive nose, his big neck and broad shoulders, and watch his +eyes gleam beneath the projecting forehead, without seeing pictures of the +primeval forest. "The head of a Cćsar and the eyes of the jungle" was the +phrase coined by an artist who painted his portrait. + +His hair was black and glossy and stood in dishevelled profusion on his +head between a kink and a curl. He was an orator of great power, and +stirred a negro audience as by magic. + +Lydia Brown had called Stoneman's attention to this man, Silas Lynch, and +induced the statesman to send him to college. He had graduated with credit +and had entered the Methodist ministry. In his preaching to the freedmen +he had already become a marked man. No house could hold his audiences. + +As he stepped briskly into the dining-room and passed the brown woman, a +close observer might have seen him suddenly press her hand and caught her +sly answering smile, but the old man waiting at the head of the table saw +nothing. + +The woman took her seat opposite Stoneman and presided over this curious +group with the easy assurance of conscious power. Whatever her real +position, she knew how to play the role she had chosen to assume. + +No more curious or sinister figure ever cast a shadow across the history +of a great nation than did this mulatto woman in the most corrupt hour of +American life. The grim old man who looked into her sleek tawny face and +followed her catlike eyes was steadily gripping the Nation by the throat. +Did he aim to make this woman the arbiter of its social life, and her +ethics the limit of its moral laws? + +Even the white satellite who sat opposite Lynch flushed for a moment as +the thought flashed through his brain. + +The old cynic, who alone knew his real purpose, was in his most genial +mood to-night, and the grim lines of his powerful face relaxed into +something like a smile as they ate and chatted and told good stories. + +Lynch watched him with keen interest. He knew his history and character, +and had built on his genius a brilliant scheme of life. + +This man who meant to become the dictator of the Republic had come from +the humblest early conditions. His father was a worthless character, from +whom he had learned the trade of a shoemaker, but his mother, a woman of +vigorous intellect and indomitable will, had succeeded in giving her lame +boy a college education. He had early sworn to be a man of wealth, and to +this purpose he had throttled the dreams and ideals of a wayward +imagination. + +His hope of great wealth had not been realized. His iron mills in +Pennsylvania had been destroyed by Lee's army. He had developed the habit +of gambling, which brought its train of extravagant habits, tastes, and +inevitable debts. In his vigorous manhood, in spite of his lameness, he +had kept a pack of hounds and a stable of fine horses. He had used his +skill in shoemaking to construct a set of stirrups to fit his lame feet, +and had become an expert hunter to hounds. + +One thing he never neglected--to be in his seat in the House of +Representatives and wear its royal crown of leadership, sick or well, day +or night. The love of power was the breath of his nostrils, and his +ambitions had at one time been boundless. His enormous power to-day was +due to the fact that he had given up all hope of office beyond the robes +of the king of his party. He had been offered a cabinet position by the +elder Harrison and for some reason it had been withdrawn. He had been +promised a place in Lincoln's cabinet, but some mysterious power had +snatched it away. He was the one great man who had now no ambition for +which to trim and fawn and lie, and for the very reason that he had +abolished himself he was the most powerful leader who ever walked the +halls of Congress. + +His contempt for public opinion was boundless. Bold, original, scornful of +advice, of all the men who ever lived in our history he was the one man +born to rule in the chaos which followed the assassination of the chief +magistrate. + +Audacity was stamped in every line of his magnificent head. His choicest +curses were for the cowards of his own party before whose blanched faces +he shouted out the hidden things until they sank back in helpless silence +and dismay. His speech was curt, his humour sardonic, his wit biting, +cruel, and coarse. + +The incarnate soul of revolution, he despised convention and ridiculed +respectability. + +There was but one weak spot in his armour--and the world never suspected +it: the consuming passion with which he loved his two children. This was +the side of his nature he had hidden from the eyes of man. A refined +egotism, this passion, perhaps--for he meant to live his own life over in +them--yet it was the one utterly human and lovable thing about him. And if +his public policy was one of stupendous avarice, this dream of millions of +confiscated wealth he meant to seize, it was not for himself but for his +children. + +As he looked at Howle and Lynch seated in his library after dinner, with +his great plans seething in his brain, his eyes were flashing, intense, +and fiery, yet without colour--simply two centres of cold light. + +"Gentlemen," he said at length. "I am going to ask you to undertake for +the Government, the Nation, and yourselves a dangerous and important +mission. I say yourselves, because, in spite of all our beautiful lies, +self is the centre of all human action. Mr. Lincoln has fortunately gone +to his reward--fortunately for him and for his country. His death was +necessary to save his life. He was a useful man living, more useful dead. +Our party has lost its first President, but gained a god--why mourn?" + +"We will recover from our grief," said Howle. + +The old man went on, ignoring the interruption: + +"Things have somehow come my way. I am almost persuaded late in life that +the gods love me. The insane fury of the North against the South for a +crime which they were the last people on earth to dream of committing is, +of course, a power to be used--but with caution. The first execution of a +Southern leader on such an idiotic charge would produce a revolution of +sentiment. The people are an aggregation of hysterical fools." + +"I thought you favoured the execution of the leaders of the rebellion?" +said Lynch with surprise. + +"I did, but it is too late. Had they been tried by drum-head court-martial +and shot dead red-handed as they stood on the field in their uniforms, all +would have been well. Now sentiment is too strong. Grant showed his teeth +to Stanton and he backed down from Lee's arrest. Sherman refused to shake +hands with Stanton on the grandstand the day his army passed in review, +and it's a wonder he didn't knock him down. Sherman was denounced as a +renegade and traitor for giving Joseph E. Johnston the terms Lincoln +ordered him to give. Lincoln dead, his terms are treason! Yet had he +lived, we should have been called upon to applaud his mercy and +patriotism. How can a man live in this world and keep his face straight?" + +"I believe God permitted Mr. Lincoln's death to give the great Commoner, +the Leader of Leaders, the right of way," cried Lynch with enthusiasm. + +The old man smiled. With all his fierce spirit he was as susceptible to +flattery as a woman--far more so than the sleek brown woman who carried +the keys of his house. + +"The man at the other end of the avenue, who pretends to be President, in +reality an alien of the conquered province of Tennessee, is pressing +Lincoln's plan of 'restoring' the Union. He has organized State +governments in the South, and their senators and representatives will +appear at the Capitol in December for admission to Congress. He thinks +they will enter----" + +The old man broke into a low laugh and rubbed his hands. + +"My full plans are not for discussion at this juncture. Suffice it to say, +I mean to secure the future of our party and the safety of this nation. +The one thing on which the success of my plan absolutely depends is the +confiscation of the millions of acres of land owned by the white people of +the South and its division among the negroes and those who fought and +suffered in this war----" + +The old Commoner paused, pursed his lips, and fumbled his hands a moment, +the nostrils of his eagle-beaked nose breathing rapacity, sensuality +throbbing in his massive jaws, and despotism frowning from his heavy +brows. + +"Stanton will probably add to the hilarity of nations, and amuse himself +by hanging a few rebels," he went on, "but we will address ourselves to +serious work. All men have their price, including the present company, +with due apologies to the speaker----" + +Howle's eyes danced, and he licked his lips. + +"If I haven't suffered in this war, who has?" + +"Your reward will not be in accordance with your sufferings. It will be +based on the efficiency with which you obey my orders. Read that----" + +He handed to him a piece of paper on which he had scrawled his secret +instructions. + +Another he gave to Lynch. + +"Hand them back to me when you read them, and I will burn them. These +instructions are not to pass the lips of any man until the time is +ripe--four bare walls are not to hear them whispered." + +Both men handed to the leader the slips of paper simultaneously. + +"Are we agreed, gentlemen?" + +"Perfectly," answered Howle. + +"Your word is law to me, sir," said Lynch. + +"Then you will draw on me personally for your expenses, and leave for the +South within forty-eight hours. I wish your reports delivered to me two +weeks before the meeting of Congress." + +As Lynch passed through the hall on his way to the door, the brown woman +bade him good-night and pressed into his hand a letter. + +As his yellow fingers closed on the missive, his eyes flashed for a moment +with catlike humour. + +The woman's face wore the mask of a sphinx. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SWEETHEARTS + + +When the first shock of horror at her husband's peril passed, it left a +strange new light in Mrs. Cameron's eyes. + +The heritage of centuries of heroic blood from the martyrs of old Scotland +began to flash its inspiration from the past. Her heart beat with the +unconscious life of men and women who had stood in the stocks, and walked +in chains to the stake with songs on their lips. + +The threat against the life of Doctor Cameron had not only stirred her +martyr blood: it had roused the latent heroism of a beautiful girlhood. To +her he had ever been the lover and the undimmed hero of her girlish +dreams. She spent whole hours locked in her room alone. Margaret knew that +she was on her knees. She always came forth with shining face and with +soft words on her lips. + +She struggled for two months in vain efforts to obtain a single interview +with him, or to obtain a copy of the charges. Doctor Cameron had been +placed in the old Capitol Prison, already crowded to the utmost. He was in +delicate health, and so ill when she had left home he could not accompany +her to Richmond. + +Not a written or spoken word was allowed to pass those prison doors. She +could communicate with him only through the officers in charge. Every +message from him was the same. "I love you always. Do not worry. Go home +the moment you can leave Ben. I fear the worst at Piedmont." + +When he had sent this message, he would sit down and write the truth in a +little diary he kept: + +"Another day of anguish. How long, O Lord? Just one touch of her hand, one +last pressure of her lips, and I am content. I have no desire to live--I +am tired." + +The officers repeated the verbal messages, but they made no impression on +Mrs. Cameron. By a mental telepathy which had always linked her life with +his her soul had passed those prison bars. If he had written the pitiful +record with a dagger's point on her heart, she could not have felt it more +keenly. + +At times overwhelmed, she lay prostrate and sobbed in half-articulate +cries. And then from the silence and mystery of the spirit world in which +she felt the beat of the heart of Eternal Love would come again the +strange peace that passeth understanding. She would rise and go forth to +her task with a smile. + +In July she saw Mrs. Surratt taken from this old Capitol Prison to be hung +with Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt for complicity in the assassination. The +military commission before whom this farce of justice was enacted, +suspicious of the testimony of the perjured wretches who had sworn her +life away, had filed a memorandum with their verdict asking the President +for mercy. + +President Johnson never saw this memorandum. It was secretly removed in +the War Department, and only replaced after he had signed the death +warrant. + +In vain Annie Surratt, the weeping daughter, flung herself on the steps of +the White House on the fatal day, begging and praying to see the +President. She could not believe they would allow her mother to be +murdered in the face of a recommendation of mercy. The fatal hour struck +at last, and the girl left the White House with set eyes and blanched +face, muttering incoherent curses. + +The Chief Magistrate sat within, unconscious of the hideous tragedy that +was being enacted in his name. When he discovered the infamy by which he +had been made the executioner of an innocent woman, he made his first +demand that Edwin M. Stanton resign from his cabinet as Secretary of War. +And for the first time in the history of America, a cabinet officer waived +the question of honour and refused to resign. + +With a shudder and blush of shame, strong men saw that day the executioner +gather the ropes tightly three times around the dress of an innocent +American mother and bind her ankles with cords. She fainted and sank +backward upon the attendants, the poor limbs yielding at last to the +mortal terror of death. But they propped her up and sprung the fatal +trap. + +A feeling of uncertainty and horror crept over the city and the Nation, as +rumours of the strange doings of the "Bureau of Military Justice," with +its secret factory of testimony and powers of tampering with verdicts, +began to find their way in whispered stories among the people. + +Public opinion, however, had as yet no power of adjustment. It was an hour +of lapse to tribal insanity. Things had gone wrong. The demand for a +scapegoat, blind, savage, and unreasoning, had not spent itself. The +Government could do anything as yet, and the people would applaud. + +Mrs. Cameron had tried in vain to gain a hearing before the President. +Each time she was directed to apply to Mr. Stanton. She refused to attempt +to see him, and again turned to Elsie for help. She had learned that the +same witnesses who had testified against Mrs. Surratt were being used to +convict Doctor Cameron, and her heart was sick with fear. + +"Ask your father," she pleaded, "to write President Johnson a letter in my +behalf. Whatever his politics, he can't be _your_ father and not be good +at heart." + +Elsie paled for a moment. It was the one request she had dreaded. She +thought of her father and Stanton with dread. How far he was supporting +the Secretary of War she could only vaguely guess. He rarely spoke of +politics to her, much as he loved her. + +"I'll try, Mrs. Cameron," she faltered. "My father is in town to-day and +takes dinner with us before he leaves for Pennsylvania to-night. I'll go +at once." + +With fear, and yet boldly, she went straight home to present her request. +She knew he was a man who never cherished small resentments, however cruel +and implacable might be his public policies. And yet she dreaded to put it +to the test. + +"Father, I've a very important request to make of you," she said gravely. + +"Very well, my child, you need not be so solemn. What is it?" + +"I've some friends in great distress--Mrs. Cameron, of South Carolina, and +her daughter Margaret." + +"Friends of yours?" he asked with an incredulous smile. "Where on earth +did you find them?" + +"In the hospital, of course. Mrs. Cameron is not allowed to see her +husband, who has been here in jail for over two months. He cannot write to +her, nor can he receive a letter from her. He is on trial for his life, is +ill and helpless, and is not allowed to know the charges against him, +while hired witnesses and detectives have broken open his house, searched +his papers, and are ransacking heaven and earth to convict him of a crime +of which he never dreamed. It's a shame. You don't approve of such things, +I know?" + +"What's the use of my expressing an opinion when you have already settled +it?" he answered good-humouredly. + +"You _don't_ approve of such injustice?" + +"Certainly not, my child. Stanton's frantic efforts to hang a lot of +prominent Southern men for complicity in Booth's crime is sheer insanity. +Nobody who has any sense believes them guilty. As a politician I use +popular clamour for my purposes, but I am not an idiot. When I go gunning, +I never use a popgun or hunt small game." + +"Then you will write the President a letter asking that they be allowed to +see Doctor Cameron?" + +The old man frowned. + +"Think, father, if you were in jail and friendless, and I were trying to +see you----" + +"Tut, tut, my dear, it's not that I am unwilling--I was only thinking of +the unconscious humour of _my_ making a request of the man who at present +accidentally occupies the White House. Of all the men on earth, this alien +from the province of Tennessee! But I'll do it for you. When did you ever +know me to deny my help to a weak man or woman in distress?" + +"Never, father. I was sure you would do it," she answered warmly. + +He wrote the letter at once and handed it to her. + +She bent and kissed him. + +"I can't tell you how glad I am to know that you have no part in such +injustice." + +"You should not have believed me such a fool, but I'll forgive you for the +kiss. Run now with this letter to your rebel friends, you little traitor! +Wait a minute----" + +He shuffled to his feet, placed his hand tenderly on her head, and stooped +and kissed the shining hair. + +"I wonder if you know how I love you? How I've dreamed of your future? I +may not see you every day as I wish; I'm absorbed in great affairs. But +more and more I think of you and Phil. I'll have a big surprise for you +both some day." + +"Your love is all I ask," she answered simply. + +Within an hour, Mrs. Cameron found herself before the new President. The +letter had opened the door as by magic. She poured out her story with +impetuous eloquence while Mr. Johnson listened in uneasy silence. His +ruddy face, his hesitating manner, and restless eyes were in striking +contrast to the conscious power of the tall dark man who had listened so +tenderly and sympathetically to her story of Ben but a few weeks before. + +The President asked: + +"Have you seen Mr. Stanton?" + +"I have seen him once," she cried with sudden passion. "It is enough. If +that man were God on His throne, I would swear allegiance to the devil and +fight him!" + +The President lifted his eyebrows and his lips twitched with a smile: + +"I shouldn't say that your spirits are exactly drooping! I'd like to be +near and hear you make that remark to the distinguished Secretary of +War." + +"Will you grant my prayer?" she pleaded. + +"I will consider the matter," he promised evasively. + +Mrs. Cameron's heart sank. + +"Mr. President," she cried bitterly, "I have felt sure that I had but to +see you face to face and you could not deny me. Surely it is but justice +that he have the right to see his loved ones, to consult with counsel, to +know the charges against him, and defend his life when attacked in his +poverty and ruin by all the power of a mighty government? He is feeble and +broken in health and suffering from wounds received carrying the flag of +the Union to victory in Mexico. Whatever his errors of judgment in this +war, it is a shame that a Nation for which he once bared his breast in +battle should treat him as an outlaw without a trial." + +"You must remember, madam," interrupted the President, "that these are +extraordinary times, and that popular clamour, however unjust, will make +itself felt and must be heeded by those in power. I am sorry for you, and +I trust it may be possible for me to grant your request." + +"But I wish it now," she urged. "He sends me word I must go home. I can't +leave without seeing him. I will die first." + +She drew closer and continued in throbbing tones: + +"Mr. President, you are a native Carolinian--you are of Scotch Covenanter +blood. You are of my own people of the great past, whose tears and +sufferings are our common glory and birthright. Come, you must hear me--I +will take no denial. Give me now the order to see my husband!" + +The President hesitated, struggling with deep emotion, called his +secretary, and gave the order. + +As she hurried away with Elsie, who insisted on accompanying her to the +jail door, the girl said: + +"Mrs. Cameron, I fear you are without money. You must let me help you +until you can return it." + +"You are the dearest little heart I've met in all the world, I think +sometimes," said the older woman, looking at her tenderly. "I wonder how I +can ever pay you for half you've done already." + +"The doing of it has been its own reward," was the soft reply. "May I help +you?" + +"If I need it, yes. But I trust it will not be necessary. I still have a +little store of gold Doctor Cameron was wise enough to hoard during the +war. I brought half of it with me when I left home, and we buried the +rest. I hope to find it on my return. And if we can save the twenty bales +of cotton we have hidden we shall be relieved of want." + +"I'm ashamed of my country when I think of such ignoble methods as have +been used against Doctor Cameron. My father is indignant, too." + +The last sentence Elsie spoke with eager girlish pride. + +"I am very grateful to your father for his letter. I am sorry he has left +the city before I could meet and thank him personally. You must tell him +for me." + +At the jail the order of the President was not honoured for three hours, +and Mrs. Cameron paced the street in angry impatience at first and then in +dull despair. + +"Do you think that man Stanton would dare defy the President?" she asked +anxiously. + +"No," said Elsie, "but he is delaying as long as possible as an act of +petty tyranny." + +At last the messenger arrived from the War Department permitting an order +of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, the Commander-in-Chief of its Army +and Navy, to be executed. + +The grated door swung on its heavy hinges, and the wife and mother lay +sobbing in the arms of the lover of her youth. + +For two hours they poured into each other's hearts the story of their +sorrows and struggles during the six fateful months that had passed. When +she would return from every theme back to his danger, he would laugh her +fears to scorn. + +"Nonsense, my dear, I'm as innocent as a babe. Mr. Davis was suffering +from erysipelas, and I kept him in my house that night to relieve his +pain. It will all blow over. I'm happy now that I have seen you. Ben will +be up in a few days. You must return at once. You have no idea of the wild +chaos at home. I left Jake in charge. I have implicit faith in him, but +there's no telling what may happen. I will not spend another moment in +peace until you go." + +The proud old man spoke of his own danger with easy assurance. He was +absolutely certain, since the day of Mrs. Surratt's execution, that he +would be railroaded to the gallows by the same methods. He had long looked +on the end with indifference, and had ceased to desire to live except to +see his loved ones again. + +In vain she warned him of danger. + +"My peril is nothing, my love," he answered quietly. "At home, the horrors +of a servile reign of terror have become a reality. These prison walls do +not interest me. My heart is with our stricken people. You must go home. +Our neighbour, Mr. Lenoir, is slowly dying. His wife will always be a +child. Little Marion is older and more self-reliant. I feel as if they are +our own children. There are so many who need us. They have always looked +to me for guidance and help. You can do more for them than any one else. +My calling is to heal others. You have always helped me. Do now as I ask +you." + +At last she consented to leave for Piedmont on the following day, and he +smiled. + +"Kiss Ben and Margaret for me and tell them that I'll be with them soon," +he said cheerily. He meant in the spirit, not the flesh. Not the faintest +hope of life even flickered in his mind. + +In the last farewell embrace a faint tremor of the soul, half sigh, half +groan, escaped his lips, and he drew her again to his breast, whispering: + +"Always my sweetheart, good, beautiful, brave, and true!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE JOY OF LIVING + + +Within two weeks after the departure of Mrs. Cameron and Margaret, the +wounded soldier had left the hospital with Elsie's hand resting on his arm +and her keen eyes watching his faltering steps. She had promised Margaret +to take her place until he was strong again. She was afraid to ask herself +the meaning of the songs that were welling up from the depth of her own +soul. She told herself again and again that she was fulfilling her ideal +of unselfish human service. + +Ben's recovery was rapid, and he soon began to give evidence of his +boundless joy in the mere fact of life. + +He utterly refused to believe his father in danger. + +"What, my dad a conspirator, an assassin!" he cried, with a laugh. "Why, +he wouldn't kill a flea without apologising to it. And as for plots and +dark secrets, he never had a secret in his life and couldn't keep one if +he had it. My mother keeps all the family secrets. Crime couldn't stick to +him any more than dirty water to a duck's back!" + +"But we must secure his release on parole, that he may defend himself." + +"Of course. But we won't cross any bridges till we come to them. I never +saw things so bad they couldn't be worse. Just think what I've been +through. The war's over. Don't worry." + +He looked at her tenderly. + +"Get that banjo and play 'Get out of the Wilderness!'" + +His spirit was contagious and his good humour resistless. Elsie spent the +days of his convalescence in an unconscious glow of pleasure in his +companionship. His handsome boyish face, his bearing, his whole +personality, invited frankness and intimacy. It was a divine gift, this +magnetism, the subtle meeting of quick intelligence, tact, and sympathy. +His voice was tender and penetrating, with soft caresses in its tones. His +vision of life was large and generous, with a splendid carelessness about +little things that didn't count. Each day Elsie saw new and striking +traits of his character which drew her. + +"What will we do if Stanton arrests you one of these fine days?" she asked +him one day. + +"Afraid they'll nab me for something?" he exclaimed. "Well, that is a +joke. Don't you worry. The Yankees know who to fool with. I licked 'em too +many times for them to bother me any more." + +"I was under the impression that you got licked," Elsie observed. + +"Don't you believe it. We wore ourselves out whipping the other fellows." + +Elsie smiled, took up the banjo, and asked him to sing while she played. + +She had no idea that he could sing, yet to her surprise he sang his camp +songs boldly, tenderly, and with deep, expressive feeling. + +As the girl listened, the memory of the horrible hours of suspense she had +spent with his mother when his unconscious life hung on a thread came +trooping back into her heart and a tear dimmed her eyes. + +And he began to look at her with a new wonder and joy slowly growing in +his soul. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HIDDEN TREASURE + + +Ben had spent a month of vain effort to secure his father's release. He +had succeeded in obtaining for him a removal to more comfortable quarters, +books to read, and the privilege of a daily walk under guard and parole. +The doctor's genial temper, the wide range of his knowledge, the charm of +his personality, and his heroism in suffering had captivated the surgeons +who attended him and made friends of every jailer and guard. + +Elsie was now using all her woman's wit to secure a copy of the charges +against him as formulated by the Judge Advocate General, who, in defiance +of civil law, still claimed control of these cases. + +To the boy's sanguine temperament the whole proceeding had been a huge +farce from the beginning, and at the last interview with his father he had +literally laughed him into good humour. + +"Look here, pa," he cried. "I believe you're trying to slip off and leave +us in this mess. It's not fair. It's easy to die." + +"Who said I was going to die?" + +"I heard you were trying to crawl out that way." + +"Well, it's a mistake. I'm going to live just for the fun of disappointing +my enemies and to keep you company. But you'd better get hold of a copy of +these charges against me--if you don't want me to escape." + +"It's a funny world if a man can be condemned to death without any +information on the subject." + +"My son, we are now in the hands of the revolutionists, army sutlers, +contractors, and adventurers. The Nation will touch the lowest tide-mud of +its degradation within the next few years. No man can predict the end." + +"Oh, go 'long!" said Ben. "You've got jail cobwebs in your eyes." + +"I'm depending on you." + +"I'll pull you through if you don't lie down on me and die to get out of +trouble. You know you _can_ die if you try hard enough." + +"I promise you, my boy," he said with a laugh. + +"Then I'll let you read this letter from home," Ben said, suddenly +thrusting it before him. + +The doctor's hand trembled a little as he put on his glasses and read: + + _My Dear Boy_: I cannot tell you how much good your bright letters + have done us. It's like opening the window and letting in the sunlight + while fresh breezes blow through one's soul. + + Margaret and I have had stirring times. I send you enclosed an order + for the last dollar of money we have left. You must hoard it. Make it + last until your father is safe at home. I dare not leave it here. + Nothing is safe. Every piece of silver and everything that could be + carried has been stolen since we returned. + + Uncle Aleck betrayed the place Jake had hidden our twenty precious + bales of cotton. The war is long since over, but the "Treasury Agent" + declared them confiscated, and then offered to relieve us of his order + if we gave him five bales, each worth three hundred dollars in gold. I + agreed, and within a week another thief came and declared the other + fifteen bales confiscated. They steal it, and the Government never + gets a cent. We dared not try to sell it in open market, as every bale + exposed for sale is "confiscated" at once. + + No crop was planted this summer. The negroes are all drawing rations + at the Freedman's Bureau. + + We have turned our house into a hotel, and our table has become + famous. Margaret is a treasure. She has learned to do everything. We + tried to raise a crop on the farm when we came home, but the negroes + stopped work. The Agent of the Bureau came to us and said he could + send them back for a fee of $50. We paid it, and they worked a week. + We found it easier to run a hotel. We hope to start the farm next + year. + + Our new minister at the Presbyterian Church is young, handsome, and + eloquent--Rev. Hugh McAlpin. + + Mr. Lenoir died last week--but his end was so beautiful, our tears + were half joy. He talked incessantly of your father and how the + country missed him. He seemed much better the day before the end came, + and we took him for a little drive to Lovers' Leap. It was there, + sixteen years ago, he made love to Jeannie. When we propped him up on + the rustic seat, and he looked out over the cliff and the river below, + I have never seen a face so transfigured with peace and joy. + + "What a beautiful world it is, my dears!" he exclaimed, taking Jeannie + and Marion both by the hand. + + They began to cry, and he said with a smile: + + "Come now--do you love me?" + + And they covered his hands with kisses. + + "Well, then you must promise me two things faithfully here, with Mrs. + Cameron to witness!" + + "We promise," they both said in a breath. + + "That when I fall asleep, not one thread of black shall ever cloud the + sunlight of our little home, that you will never wear it, and that you + will show your love for me by making my flowers grow richer, that you + will keep my memory green by always being as beautiful as you are + to-day, and make this old world a sweeter place to live in. I wish + you, Jeannie, my mate, to keep on making the young people glad. Don't + let their joys be less even for a month because I have laid down to + rest. Let them sing and dance----" + + "Oh, Papa!" cried Marion. + + "Certainly, my little serious beauty--I'll not be far away, I'll be + near and breathe my songs into their hearts, and into yours--you both + promise?" + + "Yes, yes!" they both cried. + + As we drove back through the woods, he smiled tenderly and said to + me: + + "My neighbour, Doctor Cameron, pays taxes on these woods, but I own + them! Their sighing boughs, stirred by the breezes, have played for me + oratorios grander than all the scores of human genius. I'll hear the + Choir Invisible play them when I sleep." + + He died that night suddenly. With his last breath he sighed: + + "Draw the curtains and let me see again the moonlit woods!" + + They are trying to carry out his wishes. I found they had nothing to + eat, and that he had really died from insufficient nourishment--a + polite expression meaning starvation. I've divided half our little + store with them and send the rest to you. I think Marion more and more + the incarnate soul of her father. I feel as if they are both my + children. + + My little grandchick, Hugh, is the sweetest youngster alive. He was a + wee thing when you left. Mrs. Lenoir kept him when they arrested your + father. He is so much like your brother Hugh I feel as if he has come + to life again. You should hear him say grace, so solemnly and + tenderly, we can't help crying. He made it up himself. This is what he + says at every meal: + + "God, please give my grandpa something good to eat in jail, keep him + well, don't let the pains hurt him any more, and bring him home to me + quick, for Jesus' sake. Amen." + + I never knew before how the people loved the doctor, nor how dependent + they were on him for help and guidance. Men, both white and coloured, + come here every day to ask about him. Some of them come from far up in + the mountains. + + God alone knows how lonely our home and the world has seemed without + him. They say that those who love and live the close sweet home life + for years grow alike in soul and body, in tastes, ways, and habits. I + find it so. People have told me that your father and I are more alike + than brother and sister of the same blood. In spirit I'm sure it's + true. I know you love him and that you will leave nothing undone for + his health and safety. Tell him that my only cure for loneliness in + his absence is my fight to keep the wolf from the door, and save our + home against his coming. + + Lovingly, your Mother. + +When the doctor had finished the reading, he looked out the window of the +jail at the shining dome of the Capitol for a moment in silence. + +"Do you know, my boy, that you have the heritage of royal blood? You are +the child of a wonderful mother. I'm ashamed when I think of the helpless +stupor under which I have given up, and then remember the deathless +courage with which she has braved it all--the loss of her boys, her +property, your troubles and mine. She has faced the world alone like a +wounded lioness standing over her cubs. And now she turns her home into a +hotel, and begins life in a strange new world without one doubt of her +success. The South is yet rich even in its ruin." + +"Then you'll fight and go back to her with me?" + +"Yes, never fear." + +"Good! You see, we're so poor now, pa, you're lucky to be saving a board +bill here. I'd 'conspire' myself and come in with you but for the fact it +would hamper me a little in helping you." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ACROSS THE CHASM + + +When Ben had fully recovered and his father's case looked hopeful, Elsie +turned to her study of music, and the Southern boy suddenly waked to the +fact that the great mystery of life was upon him. He was in love at +last--genuinely, deeply, without one reservation. He had from habit +flirted in a harmless way with every girl he knew. He left home with +little Marion Lenoir's girlish kiss warm on his lips. He had made love to +many a pretty girl in old Virginia as the red tide of war had ebbed and +flowed around Stuart's magic camps. + +But now the great hour of the soul had struck. No sooner had he dropped +the first tender words that might have their double meaning, feeling his +way cautiously toward her, than she had placed a gulf of dignity between +them, and attempted to cut every tie that bound her life to his. + +It had been so sudden it took his breath away. Could he win her? The word +"fail" had never been in his vocabulary. It had never run in the speech of +his people. + +Yes, he would win if it was the only thing he did in this world. And +forthwith he set about it. Life took on new meaning and new glory. What +mattered war or wounds, pain or poverty, jails and revolutions--it was the +dawn of life! + +He sent her a flower every day and pinned one just like it on his coat. +And every night found him seated by her side. She greeted him cordially, +but the gulf yawned between them. His courtesy and self-control struck her +with surprise and admiration. In the face of her coldness he carried about +him an air of smiling deference and gallantry. + +She finally told him of her determination to go to New York to pursue her +studies until Phil had finished the term of his enlistment in his +regiment, which had been ordered on permanent duty in the West. + +He laughed with his eyes at this announcement, blinking the lashes rapidly +without moving his lips. It was a peculiar habit of his when deeply moved +by a sudden thought. It had flashed over him like lightning that she was +trying to get away from him. She would not do that unless she cared. + +"When are you going?" he asked quietly. + +"Day after to-morrow." + +"Then you will give me one afternoon for a sail on the river to say +good-bye and thank you for what you have done for me and mine?" + +She hesitated, laughed, and refused. + +"To-morrow at four o'clock I'll call for you," he said firmly. "If there's +no wind, we can drift with the tide." + +"I will not have time to go." + +"Promptly at four," he repeated as he left. + +Ben spent hours that night weighing the question of how far he should dare +to speak his love. It had been such an easy thing before. Now it seemed a +question of life and death. Twice the magic words had been on his lips, +and each time something in her manner chilled him into silence. + +Was she cold and incapable of love? No; this manner of the North was on +the surface. He knew that deep down within her nature lay banked and +smouldering fires of passion for the one man whose breath could stir it +into flame. He felt this all the keener now that the spell of her +companionship and the sweet intimacy of her daily ministry to him had been +broken. The memory of little movements of her petite figure, the glance of +her warm amber eyes, and the touch of her hand--all had their tongues of +revelation to his eager spirit. + +He found her ready at four o'clock. + +"You see I decided to go after all," she said. + +"Yes, I knew you would," he answered. + +She was dressed in a simple suit of navy-blue cloth cut V-shaped at the +throat, showing the graceful lines of her exquisite neck as it melted into +the plump shoulders. She had scorned hoop skirts. + +He admired her for this, and yet it made him uneasy. A woman who could +defy an edict of fashion was a new thing under the sun, and it scared +him. + +They were seated in the little sailboat now, drifting out with the tide. +It was a perfect day in October, one of those matchless days of Indian +summer in the Virginia climate when an infinite peace and vast brooding +silence fill the earth and sky until one feels that words are a +sacrilege. + +Neither of them spoke for minutes, and his heart grew bold in the +stillness. No girl could be still who was unmoved. + +She was seated just in front of him on the left, with her hand idly +rippling the surface of the silvery waters, gazing at the wooded cliff on +the river banks clothed now in their gorgeous robes of yellow, purple, +scarlet, and gold. + +The soft strains of distant music came from a band in the fort, and her +hand in the rippling water seemed its accompaniment. + +Ben was conscious only of her presence. Every sight and sound of nature +seemed to be blended in her presence. Never in all his life had he seen +anything so delicately beautiful as the ripe rose colour of her cheeks, +and all the tints of autumn's glory seemed to melt into the gold of her +hair. + +And those eyes he felt that God had never set in such a face before--rich +amber, warm and glowing, big and candid, courageous and truthful. + +"Are you dead again?" she asked demurely. + +"Well, as the Irishman said in answer to his mate's question when he fell +off the house, 'not dead--but spacheless.'" + +He was quick to see the opening her question with its memories had made, +and took advantage of it. + +"Look here, Miss Elsie, you're too honest, independent, and candid to play +hide-and-seek with me. I want to ask you a plain question. You've been +trying to pick a quarrel of late. What have I done?" + +"Nothing. It has simply come to me that our lives are far apart. The gulf +between us is real and very deep. Your father was but yesterday a +slaveholder----" + +Ben grinned: + +"Yes, your slave-trading grandfather sold them to us the day before." + +Elsie blushed and bristled for a fight. + +"You won't mind if I give you a few lessons in history, will you?" Ben +asked softly. + +"Not in the least. I didn't know that Southerners studied history," she +answered, with a toss of her head. + +"We made a specialty of the history of slavery, at least. I had a dear old +teacher at home who fairly blazed with light on this subject. He is one of +the best-read men in America. He happens to be in jail just now. But I +haven't forgotten--I know it by heart." + +"I am waiting for light," she interrupted cynically. + +"The South is no more to blame for negro slavery than the North. Our +slaves were stolen from Africa by Yankee skippers. When a slaver arrived +at Boston, your pious Puritan clergyman offered public prayer of thanks +that 'A gracious and overruling Providence had been pleased to bring to +this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen to enjoy the +blessings of a gospel dispensation----'" + +She looked at him with angry incredulity and cried: + +"Go on." + +"Twenty-three times the Legislature of Virginia passed acts against the +importation of slaves, which the king vetoed on petition of the +Massachusetts slave traders. Jefferson made these acts of the king one of +the grievances of the Declaration of Independence, but a Massachusetts +member succeeded in striking it out. The Southern men in the convention +which framed the Constitution put into it a clause abolishing the slave +trade, but the Massachusetts men succeeded in adding a clause extending +the trade twenty years----" + +He smiled and paused. + +"Go on," she said, with impatience. + +"In Colonial days a negro woman was publicly burned to death in Boston. +The first Abolition paper was published in Tennessee by Embree. Benjamin +Lundy, his successor, could not find a single Abolitionist in Boston. In +1828 over half the people of Tennessee favoured Abolition. At this time +there were one hundred and forty Abolition Societies in America--one +hundred and three in the South, and not one in Massachusetts. It was not +until 1836 that Massachusetts led in Abolition--not until all her own +slaves had been sold to us at a profit and the slave trade had been +destroyed----" + +She looked at Ben with anger for a moment and met his tantalizing look of +good humour. + +"Can you stand any more?" + +"Certainly, I enjoy it." + +"I'm just breaking down the barriers--so to speak," he said, with the +laughter still lurking in his eyes, as he looked steadily ahead. + +"By all means go on," she said soberly. "I thought at first you were +trying to tease me. I see that you are in earnest." + +"Never more so. This is about the only little path of history I'm at home +in--I love to show off in it. I heard a cheerful idiot say the other day +that your father meant to carry the civilization of Massachusetts to the +Rio Grande until we had a Democracy in America. I smiled. While +Massachusetts was enforcing laws about the dress of the rich and the poor, +founding a church with a whipping-post, jail, and gibbet, and limiting the +right to vote to a church membership fixed by pew rents, Carolina was the +home of freedom where first the equal rights of men were proclaimed. New +England people worth less than one thousand dollars were prohibited by law +from wearing the garb of a gentleman, gold or silver lace, buttons on the +knees, or to walk in great boots, or their women to wear silk or scarfs, +while the Quakers, Maryland Catholics, Baptists, and Scotch-Irish +Presbyterians were everywhere in the South the heralds of man's equality +before the law." + +"But barring our ancestors, I have some things against the men of this +generation." + +"Have I, too, sinned and come short?" he asked with mock gravity. + +"Our ideals of life are far apart," she firmly declared. + +"What ails my ideal?" + +"Your egotism, for one thing. The air with which you calmly select what +pleases your fancy. Northern men are bad enough--the insolence of a +Southerner is beyond words!" + +[Illustration: LILLIAN GISH AS ELSIE, AND THE SENTINEL.] + +"You don't say so!" cried Ben, bursting into a hearty laugh. "Isn't your +aunt, Mrs. Farnham, the president of a club?" + +"Yes, and she is a very brilliant woman." + +"Enlighten me further." + +"I deny your heaven-born male kingship. The lord of creation is after all +a very inferior animal--nearer the brute creation, weaker in infancy, +shorter lived, more imperfectly developed, given to fighting, and addicted +to idiocy. I never saw a female idiot in my life--did you?" + +"Come to think of it, I never did," acknowledged Ben with comic gravity. +"What else?" + +"Isn't that enough?" + +"It's nothing. I agree with everything you say, but it is irrelevant. I'm +studying law, you know." + +"I have a personality of my own. You and your kind assume the right to +absorb all lesser lights." + +"Certainly, I'm a man." + +"I don't care to be absorbed by a mere man." + +"Don't wish to be protected, sheltered, and cared for?" + +"I dream of a life that shall be larger than the four walls of a home. I +have never gone into hysterics over the idea of becoming a cook and +housekeeper without wages, and snuffing my life out while another grows, +expands, and claims the lordship of the world. I can sing. My voice is to +me what eloquence is to man. My ideal is an intellectual companion who +will inspire and lead me to develop all that I feel within to its highest +reach." + +She paused a moment and looked defiantly into Ben's brown eyes, about +which a smile was constantly playing. He looked away, and again the river +echoed with his contagious laughter. She had to join in spite of herself. +He laughed with boyish gayety. It danced in his eyes, and gave spring to +every movement of his slender wiry body. She felt its contagion enfold +her. + +His laughter melted into a song. In a voice vibrant with joy he sang, "If +you get there before I do, tell 'em I'm comin' too!" + +As Elsie listened, her anger grew as she recalled the amazing folly that +had induced her to tell the secret feelings of her inmost soul to this man +almost a stranger. Whence came this miracle of influence about him, this +gift of intimacy? She felt a shock as if she had been immodest. She was in +an agony of doubt as to what he was thinking of her, and dreaded to meet +his gaze. + +And yet, when he turned toward her, his whole being a smiling compound of +dark Southern blood and bone and fire, at the sound of his voice all doubt +and questioning melted. + +"Do you know," he said earnestly, "that you are the funniest, most +charming girl I ever met?" + +"Thanks. I've heard your experience has been large for one of your age." + +Ben's eyes danced. + +"Perhaps, yes. You appeal to things in me that I didn't know were +there--to all the senses of body and soul at once. Your strength of mind, +with its conceits, and your quick little temper seem so odd and out of +place, clothed in the gentleness of your beauty." + +"I was never more serious in my life. There are other things more personal +about you that I do not like." + +"What?" + +"Your cavalier habits." + +"Cavalier fiddlesticks. There are no Cavaliers in my country. We are all +Covenanter and Huguenot folks. The idea that Southern boys are lazy +loafing dreamers is a myth. I was raised on the catechism." + +"You love to fish and hunt and frolic--you flirt with every girl you meet, +and you drink sometimes. I often feel that you are cruel and that I do not +know you." + +Ben's face grew serious, and the red scar in the edge of his hair suddenly +became livid with the rush of blood. + +"Perhaps I don't mean that you shall know all yet," he said slowly. "My +ideal of a man is one that leads, charms, dominates, and yet eludes. I +confess that I'm close kin to an angel and a devil, and that I await a +woman's hand to lead me into the ways of peace and life." + +The spiritual earnestness of the girl was quick to catch the subtle appeal +of his last words. His broad, high forehead, straight, masterly nose, with +its mobile nostrils, seemed to her very manly at just that moment and very +appealing. A soft answer was on her lips. + +He saw it, and leaned toward her in impulsive tenderness. A timid look on +her face caused him to sink back in silence. + +They had now drifted near the city. The sun was slowly sinking in a +smother of fiery splendour that mirrored its changing hues in the still +water. The hush of the harvest fullness of autumn life was over all +nature. They passed a camp of soldiers and then a big hospital on the +banks above. A gun flashed from the hill, and the flag dropped from its +staff. + +The girl's eyes lingered on the flower in his coat a moment and then on +the red scar in the edge of his dark hair, and somehow the difference +between them seemed to melt into the falling twilight. Only his nearness +was real. Again a strange joy held her. + +He threw her a look of tenderness, and she began to tremble. A sea gull +poised a moment above them and broke into a laugh. + +Bending nearer, he gently took her hand, and said: + +"I love you!" + +A sob caught her breath and she buried her face on her arm. + +"I am for you, and you are for me. Why beat your wings against the thing +that is and must be? What else matters? With all my sins and faults my +land is yours--a land of sunshine, eternal harvests, and everlasting song, +old-fashioned and provincial perhaps, but kind and hospitable. Around its +humblest cottage song birds live and mate and nest and never leave. The +winged ones of your own cold fields have heard their call, and the sky +to-night will echo with their chatter as they hurry southward. Elsie, my +own, I too have called--come; I love you!" + +She lifted her face to him full of tender spiritual charm, her eyes +burning their passionate answer. + +He bent and kissed her. + +"Say it! Say it!" he whispered. + +"I love you!" she sighed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GAUGE OF BATTLE + + +The day of the first meeting of the National Congress after the war was +one of intense excitement. The galleries of the House were packed. Elsie +was there with Ben in a fever of secret anxiety lest the stirring drama +should cloud her own life. She watched her father limp to his seat with +every eye fixed on him. + +The President had pursued with persistence the plan of Lincoln for the +immediate restoration of the Union. Would Congress follow the lead of the +President or challenge him to mortal combat? + +Civil governments had been restored in all the Southern States, with men +of the highest ability chosen as governors and lawmakers. Their +legislatures had unanimously voted for the Thirteenth Amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery, and elected senators and representatives +to Congress. Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, had declared the new +amendment a part of the organic law of the Nation by the vote of these +States. + +General Grant went to the South to report its condition and boldly +declared: + +"I am satisfied that the mass of thinking people of the South accept the +situation in good faith. Slavery and secession they regard as settled +forever by the highest known tribunal, and consider this decision a +fortunate one for the whole country." + +Would the Southerners be allowed to enter? + +Amid breathless silence the clerk rose to call the roll of members-elect. +Every ear was bent to hear the name of the first Southern man. Not one was +called! The Master had spoken. His clerk knew how to play his part. + +The next business of the House was to receive the message of the Chief +Magistrate of the Nation. + +The message came, but not from the White House. It came from the seat of +the Great Commoner. + +As the first thrill of excitement over the challenge to the President +slowly subsided, Stoneman rose, planted his big club foot in the middle of +the aisle, and delivered to Congress the word of its new master. + +It was Ben's first view of the man of all the world just now of most +interest. From his position he could see his full face and figure. + +He began speaking in a careless, desultory way. His tone was loud yet not +declamatory, at first in a grumbling, grandfatherly, half-humorous, +querulous accent that riveted every ear instantly. A sort of drollery of a +contagious kind haunted it. Here and there a member tittered in +expectation of a flash of wit. + +His figure was taller than the average, slightly bent, with a dignity +which suggested reserve power and contempt for his audience. One knew +instinctively that back of the boldest word this man might say there was a +bolder unspoken word he had chosen not to speak. + +His limbs were long, and their movements slow, yet nervous as from some +internal fiery force. His hands were big and ugly, and always in +ungraceful fumbling motion as though a separate soul dwelt within them. + +The heaped-up curly profusion of his brown wig gave a weird impression to +the spread of his mobile features. His eagle-beaked nose had three +distinct lines and angles. His chin was broad and bold, and his brows +beetling and projecting. His mouth was wide, marked, and grim; when +opened, deep and cavernous; when closed, it seemed to snap so tightly that +the lower lip protruded. + +Of all his make-up, his eye was the most fascinating, and it held Ben +spellbound. It could thrill to the deepest fibre of the soul that looked +into it, yet it did not gleam. It could dominate, awe, and confound, yet +it seemed to have no colour or fire. He could easily see it across the +vast hall from the galleries, yet it was not large. Two bold, colourless +dagger-points of light they seemed. As he grew excited, they darkened as +if passing under a cloud. + +A sudden sweep of his huge apelike arm in an angular gesture, and the +drollery and carelessness of his voice were riven from it as by a bolt of +lightning. + +He was driving home his message now in brutal frankness. Yet in the height +of his fiercest invective he never seemed to strengthen himself or call on +his resources. In its climax he was careless, conscious of power, and +contemptuous of results, as though as a gambler he had staked and lost all +and in the moment of losing suddenly become the master of those who had +beaten him. + +His speech never once bent to persuade or convince. He meant to brain the +opposition with a single blow, and he did it. For he suddenly took the +breath from his foes by shouting in their faces the hidden motive of which +they were hoping to accuse him! + +"Admit these Southern Representatives," he cried, "and with the Democrats +elected from the North, within one term they will have a majority in +Congress and the Electoral College. The supremacy of our party's life is +at stake. The man who dares palter with such a measure is a rebel, a +traitor to his party and his people." + +A cheer burst from his henchmen, and his foes sat in dazed stupor at his +audacity. He moved the appointment of a "Committee on Reconstruction" to +whom the entire government of the "conquered provinces of the South" +should be committed, and to whom all credentials of their pretended +representatives should be referred. + +He sat down as the Speaker put his motion, declared it carried, and +quickly announced the names of this Imperial Committee with the Hon. +Austin Stoneman as its chairman. + +He then permitted the message of the President of the United States to be +read by his clerk. + +"Well, upon my soul," said Ben, taking a deep breath and looking at Elsie, +"he's the whole thing, isn't he?" + +The girl smiled with pride. + +"Yes; he is a genius. He was born to command and yet never could resist +the cry of a child or the plea of a woman. He hates, but he hates ideas +and systems. He makes threats, yet when he meets the man who stands for +all he hates he falls in love with his enemy." + +"Then there's hope for me?" + +"Yes, but I must be the judge of the time to speak." + +"Well, if he looks at me as he did once to-day, you may have to do the +speaking also." + +"You will like him when you know him. He is one of the greatest men in +America." + +"At least he's the father of the greatest girl in the world, which is far +more important." + +"I wonder if you know how important?" she asked seriously. "He is the +apple of my eye. His bitter words, his cynicism and sarcasm, are all on +the surface--masks that hide a great sensitive spirit. You can't know with +what brooding tenderness I have always loved and worshipped him. I will +never marry against his wishes." + +"I hope he and I will always be good friends," said Ben doubtfully. + +"You must," she replied, eagerly pressing his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A WOMAN LAUGHS + + +Each day the conflict waxed warmer between the President and the +Commoner. + +The first bill sent to the White House to Africanize the "conquered +provinces" the President vetoed in a message of such logic, dignity, and +power, the old leader found to his amazement it was impossible to rally +the two-thirds majority to pass it over his head. + +At first, all had gone as planned. Lynch and Howle brought to him a report +on "Southern Atrocities," secured through the councils of the secret +oath-bound Union League, which had destroyed the impression of General +Grant's words and prepared his followers for blind submission to his +Committee. + +Yet the rally of a group of men in defence of the Constitution had given +the President unexpected strength. + +Stoneman saw that he must hold his hand on the throat of the South and +fight another campaign. Howle and Lynch furnished the publication +committee of the Union League the matter, and they printed four million +five hundred thousand pamphlets on "Southern Atrocities." + +The Northern States were hostile to negro suffrage, the first step of his +revolutionary programme, and not a dozen men in Congress had yet dared to +favour it. Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Kansas had rejected it by +overwhelming majorities. But he could appeal to their passions and +prejudices against the "Barbarism" of the South. It would work like magic. +When he had the South where he wanted it, he would turn and ram negro +suffrage and negro equality down the throats of the reluctant North. + +His energies were now bent to prevent any effective legislation in +Congress until his strength should be omnipotent. + +A cloud disturbed the sky for a moment in the Senate. John Sherman, of +Ohio, began to loom on the horizon as a constructive statesman, and +without consulting him was quietly forcing over Sumner's classic oratory a +Reconstruction Bill restoring the Southern States to the Union on the +basis of Lincoln's plan, with no provision for interference with the +suffrage. It had gone to its last reading, and the final vote was +pending. + +The house was in session at 3 a. m., waiting in feverish anxiety the +outcome of this struggle in the Senate. + +Old Stoneman was in his seat, fast asleep from the exhaustion of an +unbroken session of forty hours. His meals he had sent to his desk from +the Capitol restaurant. He was seventy-four years old and not in good +health, yet his energy was tireless, his resources inexhaustible, and his +audacity matchless. + +Sunset Cox, the wag of the House, an opponent but personal friend of the +old Commoner, passing his seat and seeing the great head sunk on his +breast in sleep, laughed softly and said: + +"Mr. Speaker!" + +The presiding officer recognized the young Democrat with a nod of +answering humour and responded: + +"The gentleman from New York." + +"I move you, sir," said Cox, "that, in view of the advanced age and +eminent services of the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, the +Sergeant-at-Arms be instructed to furnish him with enough poker chips to +last till morning!" + +The scattered members who were awake roared with laughter, the Speaker +pounded furiously with his gavel, the sleepy little pages jumped up, +rubbing their eyes, and ran here and there answering imaginary calls, and +the whole House waked to its usual noise and confusion. + +The old man raised his massive head and looked to the door leading toward +the Senate just as Sumner rushed through. He had slept for a moment, but +his keen intellect had taken up the fight at precisely the point at which +he left it. + +Sumner approached his desk rapidly, leaned over, and reported his defeat +and Sherman's triumph. + +"For God's sake throttle this measure in the House or we are ruined!" he +exclaimed. + +"Don't be alarmed," replied the cynic. "I'll be here with stronger weapons +than articulated wind." + +"You have not a moment to lose. The bill is on its way to the Speaker's +desk, and Sherman's men are going to force its passage to-night." + +The Senator returned to the other end of the Capitol wrapped in the mantle +of his outraged dignity, and in thirty minutes the bill was defeated, and +the House adjourned. + +As the old Commoner hobbled through the door, his crooked cane thumping +the marble floor, Sumner seized and pressed his hand: + +"How did you do it?" + +Stoneman's huge jaws snapped together and his lower lip protruded: + +"I sent for Cox and summoned the leader of the Democrats. I told them if +they would join with me and defeat this bill, I'd give them a better one +the next session. And I will--negro suffrage! The gudgeons swallowed it +whole!" + +Sumner lifted his eyebrows and wrapped his cloak a little closer. + +The Great Commoner laughed as he departed: + +"He is yet too good for this world, but he'll forget it before we're done +this fight." + +On the steps a beggar asked him for a night's lodging, and he tossed him a +gold eagle. + + * * * * * + +The North, which had rejected negro suffrage for itself with scorn, +answered Stoneman's fierce appeal to their passions against the South, and +sent him a delegation of radicals eager to do his will. + +So fierce had waxed the combat between the President and Congress that the +very existence of Stanton's prisoners languishing in jail was forgotten, +and the Secretary of War himself became a football to be kicked back and +forth in this conflict of giants. The fact that Andrew Johnson was from +Tennessee, and had been an old-line Democrat before his election as a +Unionist with Lincoln, was now a fatal weakness in his position. Under +Stoneman's assaults he became at once an executive without a party, and +every word of amnesty and pardon he proclaimed for the South in accordance +with Lincoln's plan was denounced as the act of a renegade courting favour +of traitors and rebels. + +Stanton remained in his cabinet against his wishes to insult and defy him, +and Stoneman, quick to see the way by which the President of the Nation +could be degraded and made ridiculous, introduced a bill depriving him of +the power to remove his own cabinet officers. The act was not only meant +to degrade the President; it was a trap set for his ruin. The penalties +were so fixed that its violation would give specific ground for his trial, +impeachment, and removal from office. + +Again Stoneman passed his first act to reduce the "conquered provinces" of +the South to negro rule. + +President Johnson vetoed it with a message of such logic in defence of the +constitutional rights of the States that it failed by one vote to find the +two-thirds majority needed to become a law without his approval. + +The old Commoner's eyes froze into two dagger-points of icy light when +this vote was announced. + +With fury he cursed the President, but above all he cursed the men of his +own party who had faltered. + +As he fumbled his big hands nervously, he growled: + +"If I only had five men of genuine courage in Congress, I'd hang the man +at the other end of the avenue from the porch of the White House! But I +haven't got them--cowards, dastards, dolts, and snivelling fools----" + +His decision was instantly made. He would expel enough Democrats from the +Senate and the House to place his two-thirds majority beyond question. The +name of the President never passed his lips. He referred to him always, +even in public debate, as "the man at the other end of the avenue," or +"the former Governor of Tennessee who once threatened rebels--the late +lamented Andrew Johnson, of blessed memory." + +He ordered the expulsion of the new member of the House from Indiana, +Daniel W. Voorhees, and the new Senator from New Jersey, John P. Stockton. +This would give him a majority of two thirds composed of men who would +obey his word without a question. + +Voorhees heard of the edict with indignant wrath. He had met Stoneman in +the lobbies, where he was often the centre of admiring groups of friends. +His wit and audacity, and, above all, his brutal frankness, had won the +admiration of the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash." He could not believe such +a man would be a party to a palpable fraud. He appealed to him +personally: + +"Look here, Stoneman," the young orator cried with wrath, "I appeal to +your sense of honour and decency. My credentials have been accepted by +your own committee, and my seat been awarded me. My majority is +unquestioned. This is a high-handed outrage. You cannot permit this +crime." + +The old man thrust his deformed foot out before him, struck it +meditatively with his cane, and looking Voorhees straight in the eye, +boldly said: + +"There's nothing the matter with your majority, young man. I've no doubt +it's all right. Unfortunately, you are a Democrat, and happen to be the +odd man in the way of the two-thirds majority on which the supremacy of my +party depends. You will have to go. Come back some other time." And he +did. + +In the Senate there was a hitch. When the vote was taken on the expulsion +of Stockton, to the amazement of the leader it was a tie. + +He hobbled into the Senate Chamber, with the steel point of his cane +ringing on the marble flags as though he were thrusting it through the +vitals of the weakling who had sneaked and hedged and trimmed at the +crucial moment. + +He met Howle at the door. + +"What's the matter in there?" he asked. + +"They're trying to compromise." + +"Compromise--the Devil of American politics," he muttered. "But how did +the vote fail--it was all fixed before the roll-call?" + +"Roman, of Maine, has trouble with his conscience! He is paired not to +vote on this question with Stockton's colleague, who is sick in Trenton. +His 'honour' is involved, and he refuses to break his word." + +"I see," said Stoneman, pulling his bristling brows down until his eyes +were two beads of white gleaming through them. "Tell Wade to summon every +member of the party in his room immediately and hold the Senate in +session." + +When the group of Senators crowded into the Vice-president's room the old +man faced them leaning on his cane and delivered an address of five +minutes they never forgot. + +His speech had a nameless fascination. The man himself with his elemental +passions was a wonder. He left on public record no speech worth reading, +and yet these powerful men shrank under his glance. As the nostrils of his +big three-angled nose dilated, the scream of an eagle rang in his voice, +his huge ugly hand held the crook of his cane with the clutch of a tiger, +his tongue flew with the hiss of an adder, and his big deformed foot +seemed to grip the floor as the claw of a beast. + +"The life of a political party, gentlemen," he growled in conclusion, "is +maintained by a scheme of subterfuges in which the moral law cuts no +figure. As your leader, I know but one law--success. The world is full of +fools who must have toys with which to play. A belief in politics is the +favourite delusion of shallow American minds. But you and I have no +delusions. Your life depends on this vote. If any man thinks the +abstraction called 'honour' is involved, let him choose between his honour +and his life! I call no names. This issue must be settled now before the +Senate adjourns. There can be no to-morrow. It is life or death. Let the +roll be called again immediately." + +The grave Senators resumed their seats, and Wade, the acting +Vice-president, again put the question to Stockton's expulsion. + +The member from New England sat pale and trembling, in his soul the +anguish of the mortal combat between his Puritan conscience, the iron +heritage of centuries, and the order of his captain. + +When the Clerk of the Senate called his name, still the battle raged. He +sat in silence, the whiteness of death about his lips, while the clerk at +a signal from the Chair paused. + +And then a scene the like of which was never known in American history! +August Senators crowded around his desk, begging, shouting, imploring, and +demanding that a fellow Senator break his solemn word of honour! + +For a moment pandemonium reigned. + +"Vote! Vote! Call his name again!" they shouted. + +High above all rang the voice of Charles Sumner, leading the wild chorus, +crying: + +"Vote! Vote! Vote!" + +The galleries hissed and cheered--the cheers at last drowning every hiss. + +Stoneman pushed his way among the mob which surrounded the badgered +Puritan as he attempted to retreat into the cloakroom. + +"Will you vote?" he hissed, his eyes flashing poison. + +"My conscience will not permit it," he faltered. + +"To hell with your conscience!" the old leader thundered. "Go back to your +seat, ask the clerk to call your name, and vote, or by the living God I'll +read you out of the party to-night and brand you a snivelling coward, a +copperhead, a renegade, and traitor!" + +Trembling from head to foot, he staggered back to his seat, the cold sweat +standing in beads on his forehead, and gasped: + +"Call my name!" + +The shrill voice of the clerk rang out in the stillness like the peal of a +trumpet: + +"Mr. Roman!" + +And the deed was done. + +A cheer burst from his colleagues, and the roll-call proceeded. + +When Stockton's name was reached he sprang to his feet, voted for himself, +and made a second tie! + +With blank faces they turned to the leader, who ordered Charles Sumner to +move that the Senator from New Jersey be not allowed to answer his name on +an issue involving his own seat. + +It was carried. Again the roll was called, and Stockton expelled by a +majority of one. + +In the moment of ominous silence which followed, a yellow woman of sleek +animal beauty leaned far over the gallery rail and laughed aloud. + +The passage of each act of the Revolutionary programme over the veto of +the President was now but a matter of form. The act to degrade his office +by forcing him to keep a cabinet officer who daily insulted him, the Civil +Rights Bill, and the Freedman's Bureau Bill followed in rapid succession. + +Stoneman's crowning Reconstruction Act was passed, two years after the war +had closed, shattering the Union again into fragments, blotting the names +of ten great Southern States from its roll, and dividing their territory +into five Military Districts under the control of belted satraps. + +When this measure was vetoed by the President, it came accompanied by a +message whose words will be forever etched in fire on the darkest page of +the Nation's life. + +Amid hisses, curses, jeers, and cat-calls, the Clerk of the House read its +burning words: + +"_The power thus given to the commanding officer over the people of each +district is that of an absolute monarch. His mere will is to take the +place of law. He may make a criminal code of his own; he can make it as +bloody as any recorded in history, or he can reserve the privilege of +acting on the impulse of his private passions in each case that arises._ + +"_Here is a bill of attainer against nine millions of people at once. It +is based upon an accusation so vague as to be scarcely intelligible, and +found to be true upon no credible evidence. Not one of the nine millions +was heard in his own defence. The representatives even of the doomed +parties were excluded from all participation in the trial. The conviction +is to be followed by the most ignominious punishment ever inflicted on +large masses of men. It disfranchises them by hundreds of thousands and +degrades them all--even those who are admitted to be guiltless--from the +rank of freemen to the condition of slaves._ + +"_Such power has not been wielded by any monarch in England for more than +five hundred years, and in all that time no people who speak the English +tongue have borne such servitude._" + +When the last jeering cat-call which greeted this message of the Chief +Magistrate had died away on the floor and in the galleries, old Stoneman +rose, with a smile playing about his grim mouth, and introduced his bill +to impeach the President of the United States and remove him from office. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A DREAM + + +Elsie spent weeks of happiness in an abandonment of joy to the spell of +her lover. His charm was resistless. His gift of delicate intimacy, the +eloquence with which he expressed his love, and yet the manly dignity with +which he did it, threw a spell no woman could resist. + +Each day's working hours were given to his father's case and to the study +of law. If there was work to do, he did it, and then struck the word care +from his life, giving himself body and soul to his love. Great events were +moving. The shock of the battle between Congress and the President began +to shake the Republic to its foundations. He heard nothing, felt nothing, +save the music of Elsie's voice. + +And she knew it. She had only played with lovers before. She had never +seen one of Ben's kind, and he took her by storm. His creed was simple. +The chief end of life is to glorify the girl you love. Other things could +wait. And he let them wait. He ignored their existence. + +But one cloud cast its shadow over the girl's heart during these +red-letter days of life--the fear of what her father would do to her +lover's people. Ben had asked her whether he must speak to him. When she +said "No, not yet," he forgot that such a man lived. As for his politics, +he knew nothing and cared less. + +But the girl knew and thought with sickening dread, until she forgot her +fears in the joy of his laughter. Ben laughed so heartily, so +insinuatingly, the contagion of his fun could not be resisted. + +He would sit for hours and confess to her the secrets of his boyish dreams +of glory in war, recount his thrilling adventures and daring deeds with +such enthusiasm that his cause seemed her own, and the pity and the +anguish of the ruin of his people hurt her with the keen sense of personal +pain. His love for his native State was so genuine, his pride in the +bravery and goodness of its people so chivalrous, she began to see for the +first time how the cords which bound the Southerner to his soil were of +the heart's red blood. + +She began to understand why the war, which had seemed to her a wicked, +cruel, and causeless rebellion, was the one inevitable thing in our growth +from a loose group of sovereign States to a United Nation. Love had given +her his point of view. + +Secret grief over her father's course began to grow into conscious fear. +With unerring instinct she felt the fatal day drawing nearer when these +two men, now of her inmost life, must clash in mortal enmity. + +She saw little of her father. He was absorbed with fevered activity and +deadly hate in his struggle with the President. + +Brooding over her fears one night, she had tried to interest Ben in +politics. To her surprise she found that he knew nothing of her father's +real position or power as leader of his party. The stunning tragedy of the +war had for the time crushed out of his consciousness all political ideas, +as it had for most young Southerners. He took her hand while a dreamy look +overspread his swarthy face: + +"Don't cross a bridge till you come to it. I learned that in the war. +Politics are a mess. Let me tell you something that counts----" + +He felt her hand's soft pressure and reverently kissed it. "Listen," he +whispered. "I was dreaming last night after I left you of the home we'll +build. Just back of our place, on the hill overlooking the river, my +father and mother planted trees in exact duplicate of the ones they placed +around our house when they were married. They set these trees in honour of +the first-born of their love, that he should make his nest there when +grown. But it was not for him. He had pitched his tent on higher ground, +and the others with him. This place will be mine. There are forty +varieties of trees, all grown--elm, maple, oak, holly, pine, cedar, +magnolia, and every fruit and flowering stem that grows in our friendly +soil. A little house, built near the vacant space reserved for the +homestead, is nicely kept by a farmer, and birds have learned to build in +every shrub and tree. All the year their music rings its chorus--one long +overture awaiting the coming of my bride----" + +Elsie sighed. + +"Listen, dear," he went on eagerly. "Last night I dreamed the South had +risen from her ruins. I saw you there. I saw our home standing amid a +bower of roses your hands had planted. The full moon wrapped it in soft +light, while you and I walked hand in hand in silence beneath our trees. +But fairer and brighter than the moon was the face of her I loved, and +sweeter than all the songs of birds the music of her voice!" + +A tear dimmed the girl's warm eyes, and a deeper flush mantled her cheeks, +as she lifted her face and whispered: + +"Kiss me." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE KING AMUSES HIMSELF + + +With savage energy the Great Commoner pressed to trial the first +impeachment of a President of the United States for high crimes and +misdemeanours. + +His bill to confiscate the property of the Southern people was already +pending on the calendar of the House. This bill was the most remarkable +ever written in the English language or introduced into a legislative body +of the Aryan race. It provided for the confiscation of ninety per cent. of +the land of ten great States of the American Union. To each negro in the +South was allotted forty acres from the estate of his former master, and +the remaining millions of acres were to be divided among the "loyal who +had suffered by reason of the Rebellion." + +The execution of this, the most stupendous crime ever conceived by an +English lawmaker, involving the exile and ruin of millions of innocent +men, women, and children, could not be intrusted to Andrew Johnson. + +No such measure could be enforced so long as any man was President and +Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy who claimed his title under the +Constitution. Hence the absolute necessity of his removal. + +The conditions of society were ripe for this daring enterprise. + +Not only was the Ship of State in the hands of revolutionists who had +boarded her in the storm stress of a civic convulsion, but among them +swarmed the pirate captains of the boldest criminals who ever figured in +the story of a nation. + +The first great Railroad Lobby, with continental empires at stake, +thronged the Capitol with its lawyers, agents, barkers, and hired +courtesans. + +The Cotton Thieves, who operated through a ring of Treasury agents, had +confiscated unlawfully three million bales of cotton hidden in the South +during the war and at its close, the last resource of a ruined people. The +Treasury had received a paltry twenty thousand bales for the use of its +name with which to seize alleged "property of the Confederate Government." +The value of this cotton, stolen from the widows and orphans, the maimed +and crippled, of the South was over $700,000,000 in gold--a capital +sufficient to have started an impoverished people again on the road to +prosperity. The agents of this ring surrounded the halls of legislation, +guarding their booty from envious eyes, and demanding the enactment of +vaster schemes of legal confiscation. + +The Whiskey Ring had just been formed, and began its system of gigantic +frauds by which it scuttled the Treasury. + +Above them all towered the figure of Oakes Ames, whose master mind had +organized the _Crédit Mobilier_ steal. This vast infamy had already eaten +its way into the heart of Congress and dug the graves of many illustrious +men. + +So open had become the shame that Stoneman was compelled to increase his +committees in the morning, when a corrupt majority had been bought the +night before. + +He arose one day, and looking at the distinguished Speaker, who was +himself the secret associate of Oakes Ames, said: + +"Mr. Speaker: while the House slept, the enemy has sown tares among our +wheat. The corporations of this country, having neither bodies to be +kicked nor souls to be lost, have, _perhaps_ by the power of argument +alone, beguiled from the majority of my Committee the member from +Connecticut. The enemy have now a majority of one. I move to increase the +Committee to twelve." + +Speaker Colfax, soon to be hurled from the Vice-president's chair for his +part with those thieves, increased his Committee. + +Everybody knew that "the power of argument alone" meant ten thousand +dollars cash for the gentleman from Connecticut, who did not appear on the +floor for a week, fearing the scorpion tongue of the old Commoner. + +A Congress which found it could make and unmake laws in defiance of the +Executive went mad. Taxation soared to undreamed heights, while the +currency was depreciated and subject to the wildest fluctuations. + +The statute books were loaded with laws that shackled chains of monopoly +on generations yet unborn. Public lands wide as the reach of empires were +voted as gifts to private corporations, and subsidies of untold millions +fixed as a charge upon the people and their children's children. + +The demoralization incident to a great war, the waste of unheard-of sums +of money, the giving of contracts involving millions by which fortunes +were made in a night, the riot of speculation and debauchery by those who +tried to get rich suddenly without labour, had created a new Capital of +the Nation. The vulture army of the base, venal, unpatriotic, and corrupt, +which had swept down, a black cloud, in wartime to take advantage of the +misfortunes of the Nation, had settled in Washington and gave new tone to +its life. + +Prior to the Civil War the Capital was ruled, and the standards of its +social and political life fixed, by an aristocracy founded on brains, +culture, and blood. Power was with few exceptions intrusted to an +honourable body of high-spirited public officials. Now a negro electorate +controlled the city government, and gangs of drunken negroes, its +sovereign citizens, paraded the streets at night firing their muskets +unchallenged and unmolested. + +A new mob of onion-laden breath, mixed with perspiring African odour, +became the symbol of American Democracy. + +A new order of society sprouted in this corruption. The old high-bred +ways, tastes, and enthusiasms were driven into the hiding-places of a few +families and cherished as relics of the past. + +Washington, choked with scrofulous wealth, bowed the knee to the Almighty +Dollar. The new altar was covered with a black mould of human blood--but +no questions were asked. + +A mulatto woman kept the house of the foremost man of the Nation and +received his guests with condescension. + +In this atmosphere of festering vice and gangrene passions, the struggle +between the Great Commoner and the President on which hung the fate of the +South approached its climax. + +The whole Nation was swept into the whirlpool, and business was paralyzed. +Two years after the close of a victorious war the credit of the Republic +dropped until its six per cent. bonds sold in the open market for +seventy-three cents on the dollar. + +The revolutionary junta in control of the Capital was within a single step +of the subversion of the Government and the establishment of a Dictator in +the White House. + +A convention was called in Philadelphia to restore fraternal feeling, heal +the wounds of war, preserve the Constitution, and restore the Union of the +fathers. It was a grand assemblage representing the heart and brain of the +Nation. Members of Lincoln's first Cabinet, protesting Senators and +Congressmen, editors of great Republican and Democratic newspapers, heroes +of both armies, long estranged, met for a common purpose. When a group of +famous negro worshippers from Boston suddenly entered the hall, arm in arm +with ex-slaveholders from South Carolina, the great meeting rose and walls +and roof rang with thunder peals of applause. + +Their committee, headed by a famous editor, journeyed to Washington to +appeal to the Master at the Capitol. They sought him not in the White +House, but in the little Black House in an obscure street on the hill. + +The brown woman received them with haughty dignity, and said: + +"Mr. Stoneman cannot be seen at this hour. It is after nine o'clock. I +will submit to him your request for an audience to-morrow morning." + +"We must see him to-night," replied the editor, with rising anger. + +"The king is amusing himself," said the yellow woman, with a touch of +malice. + +"Where is he?" + +Her catlike eyes rolled from side to side, and a smile played about her +full lips as she said: + +"You will find him at Hall & Pemberton's gambling hell--you've lived in +Washington. You know the way." + +With a muttered oath the editor turned on his heel and led his two +companions to the old Commoner's favourite haunt. There could be no better +time or place to approach him than seated at one of its tables laden with +rare wines and savoury dishes. + +On reaching the well-known number of Hall & Pemberton's place, the editor +entered the unlocked door, passed with his friends along the soft-carpeted +hall, and ascended the stairs. Here the door was locked. A sudden pull of +the bell, and a pair of bright eyes peeped through a small grating in the +centre of the door revealed by the sliding of its panel. + +The keen eyes glanced at the proffered card, the door flew open, and a +well-dressed mulatto invited them with cordial welcome to enter. + +Passing along another hall, they were ushered into a palatial suite of +rooms furnished in princely state. The floors were covered with the +richest and softest carpets--so soft and yielding that the tramp of a +thousand feet could not make the faintest echo. The walls and ceilings +were frescoed by the brush of a great master, and hung with works of art +worth a king's ransom. Heavy curtains, in colours of exquisite taste, +masked each window, excluding all sound from within or without. + +The rooms blazed with light from gorgeous chandeliers of trembling +crystals, shimmering and flashing from the ceilings like bouquets of +diamonds. + +Negro servants, faultlessly dressed, attended the slightest want of every +guest with the quiet grace and courtesy of the lost splendours of the old +South. + +The proprietor, with courtly manners, extended his hand: + +"Welcome, gentlemen; you are my guests. The tables and the wines are at +your service without price. Eat, drink, and be merry--play or not, as you +please." + +A smile lighted his dark eyes, but faded out near his mouth--cold and +rigid. + +At the farther end of the last room hung the huge painting of a leopard, +so vivid and real its black and tawny colours, so furtive and wild its +restless eyes, it seemed alive and moving behind invisible bars. + +Just under it, gorgeously set in its jewel-studded frame, stood the magic +green table on which men staked their gold and lost their souls. + +The rooms were crowded with Congressmen, Government officials, officers of +the Army and Navy, clerks, contractors, paymasters, lobbyists, and +professional gamblers. + +The centre of an admiring group was a Congressman who had during the last +session of the House broken the "bank" in a single night, winning more +than a hundred thousand dollars. He had lost it all and more in two weeks, +and the courteous proprietor now held orders for the lion's share of the +total pay and mileage of nearly every member of the House of +Representatives. + +Over that table thousands of dollars of the people's money had been staked +and lost during the war by quartermasters, paymasters, and agents in +charge of public funds. Many a man had approached that green table with a +stainless name and left it a perjured thief. Some had been carried out by +those handsomely dressed waiters, and the man with the cold mouth could +point out, if he would, more than one stain on the soft carpet which +marked the end of a tragedy deeper than the pen of romancer has ever +sounded. + +Stoneman at the moment was playing. He was rarely a heavy player, but he +had just staked a twenty-dollar gold piece and won fourteen hundred +dollars. + +Howle, always at his elbow ready for a "sleeper" or a stake, said: + +"Put a stack on the ace." + +He did so, lost, and repeated it twice. + +"Do it again," urged Howle. "I'll stake my reputation that the ace wins +this time." + +With a doubting glance at Howle, old Stoneman shoved a stack of blue +chips, worth fifty dollars, over the ace, playing it to win on Howle's +judgment and reputation. It lost. + +Without the ghost of a smile, the old statesman said: "Howle, you owe me +five cents." + +As he turned abruptly on his club foot from the table, he encountered the +editor and his friends, a Western manufacturer and a Wall Street banker. +They were soon seated at a table in a private room, over a dinner of +choice oysters, diamond-back terrapin, canvas-back duck, and champagne. + +They presented their plea for a truce in his fight until popular passion +had subsided. + +He heard them in silence. His answer was characteristic: + +"The will of the people, gentlemen, is supreme," he said with a sneer. "We +are the people. 'The man at the other end of the avenue' has dared to defy +the will of Congress. He must go. If the Supreme Court lifts a finger in +this fight, it will reduce that tribunal to one man or increase it to +twenty at our pleasure." + +"But the Constitution----" broke in the chairman. + +"There are higher laws than paper compacts. We are conquerors treading +conquered soil. Our will alone is the source of law. The drunken boor who +claims to be President is in reality an alien of a conquered province." + +"We protest," exclaimed the man of money, "against the use of such +epithets in referring to the Chief Magistrate of the Republic!" + +"And why, pray?" sneered the Commoner. + +"In the name of common decency, law, and order. The President is a man of +inherent power, even if he did learn to read after his marriage. Like many +other Americans, he is a self-made man----" + +"Glad to hear it," snapped Stoneman. "It relieves Almighty God of a +fearful responsibility." + +They left him in disgust and dismay. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TOSSED BY THE STORM + + +As the storm of passion raised by the clash between her father and the +President rose steadily to the sweep of a cyclone, Elsie felt her own life +but a leaf driven before its fury. + +Her only comfort she found in Phil, whose letters to her were full of love +for Margaret. He asked Elsie a thousand foolish questions about what she +thought of his chances. + +To her own confessions he was all sympathy. + +"Of father's wild scheme of vengeance against the South," he wrote, "I am +heartsick. I hate it on principle, to say nothing of a girl I know. I am +with General Grant for peace and reconciliation. What does your lover +think of it all? I can feel your anguish. The bill to rob the Southern +people of their land, which I hear is pending, would send your sweetheart +and mine, our enemies, into beggared exile. What will happen in the South? +Riot and bloodshed, of course--perhaps a guerilla war of such fierce and +terrible cruelty humanity sickens at the thought. I fear the Rebellion +unhinged our father's reason on some things. He was too old to go to the +front; the cannon's breath would have cleared the air and sweetened his +temper. But its healing was denied. I believe the tawny leopardess who +keeps his house influences him in this cruel madness. I could wring her +neck with exquisite pleasure. Why he allows her to stay and cloud his life +with her she-devil temper and fog his name with vulgar gossip is beyond +me." + +Seated in the park on the Capitol hill the day after her father had +introduced his Confiscation Bill in the House, pending the impeachment of +the President, she again attempted to draw Ben out as to his feelings on +politics. + +She waited in sickening fear and bristling pride for the first burst of +his anger which would mean their separation. + +"How do I feel?" he asked. "Don't feel at all. The surrender of General +Lee was an event so stunning, my mind has not yet staggered past it. +Nothing much can happen after that, so it don't matter." + +"Negro suffrage don't matter?" + +"No. We can manage the negro," he said calmly. + +"With thousands of your own people disfranchised?" + +"The negroes will vote with us, as they worked for us during the war. If +they give them the ballot, they'll wish they hadn't." + +Ben looked at her tenderly, bent near, and whispered: + +"Don't waste your sweet breath talking about such things. My politics is +bounded on the North by a pair of amber eyes, on the South by a dimpled +little chin, on the East and West by a rosy cheek. Words do not frame its +speech. Its language is a mere sign, a pressure of the lips--yet it +thrills body and soul beyond all words." + +Elsie leaned closer, and looking at the Capitol, said wistfully: + +"I don't believe you know anything that goes on in that big marble +building." + +"Yes, I do." + +"What happened there yesterday?" + +"You honoured it by putting your beautiful feet on its steps. I saw the +whole huge pile of cold marble suddenly glow with warm sunlight and flash +with beauty as you entered it." + +The girl nestled still closer to his side, feeling her utter helplessness +in the rapids of the Niagara through which they were being whirled by +blind and merciless forces. For the moment she forgot all fears in his +nearness and the sweet pressure of his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SUPREME TEST + + +It is the glory of the American Republic that every man who has filled the +office of President has grown in stature when clothed with its power and +has proved himself worthy of its solemn trust. It is our highest claim to +the respect of the world and the vindication of man's capacity to govern +himself. + +The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson would mark either the lowest +tide-mud of degradation to which the Republic could sink, or its end. In +this trial our system would be put to its severest strain. If a partisan +majority in Congress could remove the Executive and defy the Supreme +Court, stability to civic institutions was at an end, and the breath of a +mob would become the sole standard of law. + +Congress had thrown to the winds the last shreds of decency in its +treatment of the Chief Magistrate. Stoneman led this campaign of insult, +not merely from feelings of personal hate, but because he saw that thus +the President's conviction before the Senate would become all but +inevitable. + +When his messages arrived from the White House they were thrown into the +waste-basket without being read, amid jeers, hisses, curses, and ribald +laughter. + +In lieu of their reading, Stoneman would send to the Clerk's desk an +obscene tirade from a party newspaper, and the Clerk of the House would +read it amid the mocking groans, laughter, and applause of the floor and +galleries. + +A favourite clipping described the President as "an insolent drunken +brute, in comparison with whom Caligula's horse was respectable." + +In the Senate, whose members were to sit as sworn judges to decide the +question of impeachment, Charles Sumner used language so vulgar that he +was called to order. Sustained by the Chair and the Senate, he repeated it +with increased violence, concluding with cold venom: + +"Andrew Johnson has become the successor of Jefferson Davis. In holding +him up to judgment I do not dwell on his beastly intoxication the day he +took the oath as Vice-president, nor do I dwell on his maudlin speeches by +which he has degraded the country, nor hearken to the reports of pardons +sold, or of personal corruption. These things are bad. But he has usurped +the powers of Congress." + +Conover, the perjured wretch, in prison for his crimes as a professional +witness in the assassination trial, now circulated the rumour that he +could give evidence that President Johnson was the assassin of Lincoln. +Without a moment's hesitation, Stoneman's henchmen sent a petition to the +President for the pardon of this villain that he might turn against the +man who had pardoned him and swear his life away! This scoundrel was borne +in triumph from prison to the Capitol and placed before the Impeachment +Committee, to whom he poured out his wondrous tale. + +The sewers and prisons were dragged for every scrap of testimony to be +found, and the day for the trial approached. + +As it drew nearer, excitement grew intense. Swarms of adventurers +expecting the overthrow of the Government crowded into Washington. Dreams +of honours, profits, and division of spoils held riot. Gamblers thronged +the saloons and gaming-houses, betting their gold on the President's +head. + +Stoneman found the business more serious than even his daring spirit had +dreamed. His health suddenly gave way under the strain, and he was put to +bed by his physician with the warning that the least excitement would be +instantly fatal. + +Elsie entered the little Black House on the hill for the first time since +her trip at the age of twelve, some eight years before. She installed an +army nurse, took charge of the place, and ignored the existence of the +brown woman, refusing to speak to her or permit her to enter her father's +room. + +His illness made it necessary to choose an assistant to conduct the case +before the High Court. There was but one member of the House whose +character and ability fitted him for the place--General Benj. F. Butler, +of Massachusetts, whose name was enough to start a riot in any assembly in +America. + +His selection precipitated a storm at the Capitol. A member leaped to his +feet on the floor of the House and shouted: + +"If I were to characterize all that is pusillanimous in war, inhuman in +peace, forbidden in morals, and corrupt in politics, I could name it in +one word--Butlerism!" + +For this speech he was ordered to apologize, and when he refused with +scorn they voted that the Speaker publicly censure him. The Speaker did +so, but winked at the offender while uttering the censure. + +John A. Bingham, of Ohio, who had been chosen for his powers of oratory to +make the principal speech against the President, rose in the House and +indignantly refused to serve on the Board of Impeachment with such a man. + +General Butler replied with crushing insolence: + +"It is true, Mr. Speaker, that I may have made an error of judgment in +trying to blow up Fort Fisher with a powder ship at sea. I did the best I +could with the talents God gave me. An angel could have done no more. At +least I bared my own breast in my country's defence--a thing the +distinguished gentleman who insults me has not ventured to do--his only +claim to greatness being that, behind prison walls, on perjured testimony, +his fervid eloquence sent an innocent American mother screaming to the +gallows." + +The fight was ended only by an order from the old Commoner's bed to +Bingham to shut his mouth and work with Butler. When the President had +been crushed, then they could settle Kilkenny-cat issues. Bingham obeyed. + +When the august tribunal assembled in the Senate Chamber, fifty-five +Senators, presided over by Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court, constituted the tribunal. They took their seats in a semicircle in +front of the Vice-president's desk at which the Chief Justice sat. Behind +them crowded the one hundred and ninety members of the House of +Representatives, the accusers of the ruler of the mightiest Republic in +human history. Every inch of space in the galleries was crowded with +brilliantly dressed men and women, army officers in gorgeous uniforms, and +the pomp and splendour of the ministers of every foreign court of the +world. In spectacular grandeur no such scene was ever before witnessed in +the annals of justice. + +The peculiar personal appearance of General Butler, whose bald head shone +with insolence while his eye seemed to be winking over his record as a +warrior and making fun of his fellow-manager Bingham, added a touch of +humour to the solemn scene. + +The magnificent head of the Chief Justice suggested strange thoughts to +the beholder. He had been summoned but the day before to try Jefferson +Davis for the treason of declaring the Southern States out of the Union. +To-day he sat down to try the President of the United States for declaring +them to be in the Union! He had protested with warmth that he could not +conduct both these trials at once. + +The Chief Justice took oath to "do impartial justice according to the +Constitution and the laws," and to the chagrin of Sumner administered this +oath to each Senator in turn. When Benjamin F. Wade's name was called, +Hendricks, of Indiana, objected to his sitting as judge. He could succeed +temporarily to the Presidency, as the presiding officer of the Senate, and +his own vote might decide the fate of the accused and determine his own +succession. The law forbids the Vice-president to sit on such trials. It +should apply with more vigour in his case. Besides, he had without a +hearing already pronounced the President guilty. + +Sumner, forgetting his motion to prevent Stockton's voting against his own +expulsion, flew to the defence of Wade. Hendricks smilingly withdrew his +objection, and "Bluff Ben Wade" took the oath and sat down to judge his +own cause with unruffled front. + +When the case was complete, the whole bill of indictment stood forth a +tissue of stupid malignity without a shred of evidence to support its +charges. + +On the last day of the trial, when the closing speeches were being made, +there was a stir at the door. The throng of men, packing every inch of +floor space, were pushed rudely aside. The crowd craned their necks, +Senators turned and looked behind them to see what the disturbance meant, +and the Chief Justice rapped for order. + +Suddenly through the dense mass appeared the forms of two gigantic negroes +carrying an old man. His grim face, white and rigid, and his big club foot +hanging pathetically from those black arms, could not be mistaken. A +thrill of excitement swept the floor and galleries, and a faint cheer +rippled the surface, quickly suppressed by the gavel. + +The negroes placed him in an armchair facing the semicircle of Senators, +and crouched down on their haunches beside him. Their kinky heads, black +skin, thick lips, white teeth, and flat noses made for the moment a +curious symbolic frame for the chalk-white passion of the old Commoner's +face. + +No sculptor ever dreamed a more sinister emblem of the corruption of a +race of empire builders than this group. Its black figures, wrapped in the +night of four thousand years of barbarism, squatted there the "equal" of +their master, grinning at his forms of justice, the evolution of forty +centuries of Aryan genius. To their brute strength the white fanatic in +the madness of his hate had appealed, and for their hire he had bartered +the birthright of a mighty race of freemen. + +The speaker hurried to his conclusion that the half-fainting master might +deliver his message. In the meanwhile his eyes, cold and thrilling, sought +the secrets of the souls of the judges before him. + +He had not come to plead or persuade. He had eluded the vigilance of his +daughter and nurse, escaped with the aid of the brown woman and her black +allies, and at the peril of his life had come to command. Every energy of +his indomitable will he was using now to keep from fainting. He felt that +if he could but look those men in the face they would not dare to defy his +word. + +He shambled painfully to his feet amid a silence that was awful. Again the +sheer wonder of the man's personality held the imagination of the +audience. His audacity, his fanaticism, and the strange contradictions of +his character stirred the mind of friend and foe alike--this man who +tottered there before them, holding off Death with his big ugly left hand, +while with his right he clutched at the throat of his foe! Honest and +dishonest, cruel and tender, great and mean, a party leader who scorned +public opinion, a man of conviction, yet the most unscrupulous politician, +a philosopher who preached the equality of man, yet a tyrant who hated the +world and despised all men! + +His very presence before them an open defiance of love and life and death, +would not his word ring omnipotent when the verdict was rendered? Every +man in the great courtroom believed it as he looked on the rows of +Senators hanging on his lips. + +He spoke at first with unnatural vigour, a faint flush of fever lighting +his white face, his voice quivering yet penetrating. + +"Upon that man among you who shall dare to acquit the President," he +boldly threatened, "I hurl the everlasting curse of a Nation--an infamy +that shall rive and blast his children's children until they shrink from +their own name as from the touch of pollution!" + +He gasped for breath, his restless hands fumbled at his throat, he +staggered and would have fallen had not his black guards caught him. He +revived, pushed them back on their haunches, and sat down. And then, with +his big club foot thrust straight in front of him, his gnarled hands +gripping the arms of his chair, the massive head shaking back and forth +like a wounded lion, he continued his speech, which grew in fierce +intensity with each laboured breath. + +The effect was electrical. Every Senator leaned forward to catch the +lowest whisper, and so awful was the suspense in the galleries the +listeners grew faint. + +When this last mad challenge was hurled into the teeth of the judges, the +dazed crowd paused for breath and the galleries burst into a storm of +applause. + +In vain the Chief Justice rose, his lionlike face livid with anger, +pounded for order, and commanded the galleries to be cleared. + +They laughed at him. Roar after roar was the answer. The Chief Justice in +loud angry tones ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to clear the galleries. + +Men leaned over the rail and shouted in his face: + +"He can't do it!" + +"He hasn't got men enough!" + +"Let him try if he dares!" + +The doorkeepers attempted to enforce order by announcing it in the name of +the peace and dignity and sovereign power of the Senate over its sacred +chamber. The crowd had now become a howling mob which jeered them. + +Senator Grimes, of Iowa, rose and demanded the reason why the Senate was +thus insulted and the order had not been enforced. + +A volley of hisses greeted his question. + +The Chief Justice, evidently quite nervous, declared the order would be +enforced. + +Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, moved that the offenders be arrested. + +In reply the crowd yelled: + +"We'd like to see you do it!" + +At length the mob began to slowly leave the galleries under the impression +that the High Court had adjourned. + +Suddenly a man cried out: + +"Hold on! They ain't going to adjourn. Let's see it out!" + +Hundreds took their seats again. In the corridors a crowd began to sing in +wild chorus: + +"Old Grimes is dead, that poor old man." The women joined with glee. +Between the verses the leader would curse the Iowa Senator as a traitor +and copperhead. The singing could be distinctly heard by the Court as its +roar floated through the open doors. + +When the Senate Chamber had been cleared and the most disgraceful scene +that ever occurred within its portals had closed, the High Court +Impeachment went into secret session to consider the evidence and its +verdict. + +Within an hour from its adjournment it was known to the Managers that +seven Republican Senators were doubtful, and that they formed a group +under the leadership of two great constitutional lawyers who still +believed in the sanctity of a judge's oath--Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, +and William Pitt Fessenden, of Maine. Around them had gathered Senators +Grimes, of Iowa, Van Winkle, of West Virginia, Fowler, of Tennessee, +Henderson, of Missouri, and Ross, of Kansas. The Managers were in a panic. +If these men dared to hold together with the twelve Democrats, the +President would be acquitted by one vote--they could count thirty-four +certain for conviction. + +The Revolutionists threw to the winds the last scruple of decency, went +into caucus and organized a conspiracy for forcing, within the few days +which must pass before the verdict, these judges to submit to their +decree. + +Fessenden and Trumbull were threatened with impeachment and expulsion from +the Senate and bombarded by the most furious assaults from the press, +which denounced them as infamous traitors, "as mean, repulsive, and +noxious as hedgehogs in the cages of a travelling menagerie." + +A mass meeting was held in Washington which said: + +"Resolved, that we impeach Fessenden, Trumbull, and Grimes at the bar of +justice and humanity, as traitors before whose guilt the infamy of +Benedict Arnold becomes respectability and decency." + +The Managers sent out a circular telegram to every State from which came a +doubtful judge: + +"Great danger to the peace of the country if impeachment fails. Send your +Senators public opinion by resolutions, letters, and delegates." + +The man who excited most wrath was Ross, of Kansas. That Kansas of all +States should send a "traitor" was more than the spirits of the +Revolutionists could bear. + +A mass meeting in Leavenworth accordingly sent him the telegram: + +"Kansas has heard the evidence and demands the conviction of the +President. + +"D. R. Anthony and 1,000 others." + +To this Ross replied: + +"I have taken an oath to do impartial justice. I trust I shall have the +courage and honesty to vote according to the dictates of my judgment and +for the highest good of my country." + +He got his answer: + +"Your motives are Indian contracts and greenbacks. Kansas repudiates you +as she does all perjurers and skunks." + +The Managers organized an inquisition for the purpose of torturing and +badgering Ross into submission. His one vote was all they lacked. + +They laid siege to little Vinnie Ream, the sculptress, to whom Congress +had awarded a contract for the statue of Lincoln. Her studio was in the +crypt of the Capitol. They threatened her with the wrath of Congress, the +loss of her contract, and ruin of her career unless she found a way to +induce Senator Ross, whom she knew, to vote against the President. + +Such an attempt to gain by fraud the verdict of a common court of law +would have sent its promoters to prison for felony. Yet the Managers of +this case, before the highest tribunal of the world, not only did it +without a blush of shame, but cursed as a traitor every man who dared to +question their motives. + +As the day approached for the Court to vote, Senator Ross remained to +friend and foe a sealed mystery. Reporters swarmed about him, the target +of a thousand eyes. His rooms were besieged by his radical constituents +who had been imported from Kansas in droves to browbeat him into a promise +to convict. His movements day and night, his breakfast, his dinner, his +supper, the clothes he wore, the colour of his cravat, his friends and +companions, were chronicled in hourly bulletins and flashed over the wires +from the delirious Capital. + +Chief Justice Chase called the High Court of Impeachment to order, to +render its verdict. Old Stoneman had again been carried to his chair in +the arms of two negroes, and sat with his cold eyes searching the faces of +the judges. + +The excitement had reached the highest pitch of intensity. A sense of +choking solemnity brooded over the scene. The feeling grew that the hour +had struck which would test the capacity of man to establish an enduring +Republic. + +The Clerk read the Eleventh Article, drawn by the Great Commoner as the +supreme test. + +As its last words died away the Chief Justice rose amid a silence that was +agony, placed his hands on the sides of the desk as if to steady himself, +and said: + +"Call the roll." + +Each Senator answered "Guilty" or "Not Guilty," exactly as they had been +counted by the Managers, until Fessenden's name was called. + +A moment of stillness and the great lawyer's voice rang high, cold, clear, +and resonant as a Puritan church bell on Sunday morning: + +"Not Guilty!" + +A murmur, half groan and sigh, half cheer and cry, rippled the great +hall. + +The other votes were discounted now save that of Edmund G. Ross, of +Kansas. No human being on earth knew what this man would do save the +silent invisible man within his soul. + +Over the solemn trembling silence the voice of the Chief Justice rang: + +"Senator Ross, how say you? Is the respondent, Andrew Johnson, guilty or +not guilty of a high misdemeanor as charged in this article?" + +The great Judge bent forward; his brow furrowed as Ross arose. + +His fellow Senators watched him spellbound. A thousand men and women, +hanging from the galleries, focused their eyes on him. Old Stoneman drew +his bristling brows down, watching him like an adder ready to strike, his +lower lip protruding, his jaws clinched as a vise, his hands fumbling the +arms of his chair. + +Every breath is held, every ear strained, as the answer falls from the +sturdy Scotchman like the peal of a trumpet: + +"Not Guilty!" + +The crowd breathes--a pause, a murmur, the shuffle of a thousand feet---- + +The President is acquitted, and the Republic lives! + +The House assembled and received the report of the verdict. Old Stoneman +pulled himself half erect, holding to his desk, addressed the Speaker, +introduced his second bill for the impeachment of the President, and fell +fainting in the arms of his black attendants. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TRIUMPH IN DEFEAT + + +Upon the failure to convict the President, Edwin M. Stanton resigned, sank +into despair and died, and a soldier Secretary of War opened the prison +doors. + +Ben Cameron and his father hurried Southward to a home and land passing +under a cloud darker than the dust and smoke of blood-soaked +battlefields--the Black Plague of Reconstruction. + +For two weeks the old Commoner wrestled in silence with Death. When at +last he spoke, it was to the stalwart negroes who had called to see him +and were standing by his bedside. + +Turning his deep-sunken eyes on them a moment, he said slowly: + +"I wonder whom I'll get to carry me when you boys die!" + +Elsie hurried to his side and kissed him tenderly. For a week his mind +hovered in the twilight that lies between time and eternity. He seemed to +forget the passions and fury of his fierce career and live over the +memories of his youth, recalling pathetically its bitter poverty and its +fair dreams. He would lie for hours and hold Elsie's hand, pressing it +gently. + +In one of his lucid moments he said: + +"How beautiful you are, my child! You shall be a queen. I've dreamed of +boundless wealth for you and my boy. My plans are Napoleonic--and I shall +not fail--never fear--aye, beyond the dreams of avarice!" + +"I wish no wealth save the heart treasure of those I love, father," was +the soft answer. + +"Of course, little day-dreamer. But the old cynic who has outlived himself +and knows the mockery of time and things will be wisdom for your +foolishness. You shall keep your toys. What pleases you shall please me. +Yet I will be wise for us both." + +She laid her hand upon his lips, and he kissed the warm little fingers. + +In these days of soul-nearness the iron heart softened as never before in +love toward his children. Phil had hurried home from the West and secured +his release from the remaining weeks of his term of service. + +As the father lay watching them move about the room, the cold light in his +deep-set wonderful eyes would melt into a soft glow. + +As he grew stronger, the old fierce spirit of the unconquered leader began +to assert itself. He would take up the fight where he left it off and +carry it to victory. + +Elsie and Phil sent the doctor to tell him the truth and beg him to quit +politics. + +"Your work is done; you have but three months to live unless you go South +and find new life," was the verdict. + +"In either event I go to a warmer climate, eh, doctor?" said the cynic. + +"Perhaps," was the laughing reply. + +"Good. It suits me better. I've had the move in mind. I can do more +effective work in the South for the next two years. Your decision is fate. +I'll go at once." + +The doctor was taken aback. + +"Come now," he said persuasively. "Let a disinterested Englishman give you +some advice. You've never taken any before. I give it as medicine, and I +won't put it on your bill. Slow down on politics. Your recent defeat +should teach you a lesson in conservatism." + +The old Commoner's powerful mouth became rigid, and the lower lip bulged: + +"Conservatism--fossil putrefaction!" + +"But defeat?" + +"Defeat?" cried the old man. "Who said I was defeated? The South lies in +ashes at my feet--the very names of her proud States blotted from history. +The Supreme Court awaits my nod. True, there's a man boarding in the White +House, and I vote to pay his bills; but the page who answers my beck and +call has more power. Every measure on which I've set my heart is law, save +one--my Confiscation Act--and this but waits the fulness of time." + +The doctor, who was walking back and forth with his hands folded behind +him, paused and said: + +"I marvel that a man of your personal integrity could conceive such a +measure; you, who refused to accept the legal release of your debts until +the last farthing was paid--you, whose cruelty of the lip is hideous, and +yet beneath it so gentle a personality, I've seen the pages in the House +stand at your back and mimic you while speaking, secure in the smile with +which you turned to greet their fun. And yet you press this crime upon a +brave and generous foe?" + +"A wrong can have no rights," said Stoneman calmly. "Slavery will not be +dead until the landed aristocracy on which it rested is destroyed. I am +not cruel or unjust. I am but fulfilling the largest vision of universal +democracy that ever stirred the soul of man--a democracy that shall know +neither rich nor poor, bond nor free, white nor black. If I use the wild +pulse-beat of the rage of millions, it is only a means to an end--this +grander vision of the soul." + +"Then why not begin at home this vision, and give the stricken South a +moment to rise?" + +"No. The North is impervious to change, rich, proud, and unscathed by war. +The South is in chaos and cannot resist. It is but the justice and wisdom +of Heaven that the negro shall rule the land of his bondage. It is the +only solution of the race problem. Lincoln's contention that we could not +live half white and half black is sound at the core. When we proclaim +equality, social, political, and economic for the negro, we mean always to +enforce it in the South. The negro will never be treated as an equal in +the North. We are simply a set of cold-blooded liars on that subject, and +always have been. To the Yankee the very physical touch of a negro is +pollution." + +"Then you don't believe this twaddle about equality?" asked the doctor. + +"Yes and no. Mankind in the large is a herd of mercenary gudgeons or +fools. As a lawyer in Pennsylvania I have defended fifty murderers on +trial for their lives. Forty-nine of them were guilty. All these I +succeeded in acquitting. One of them was innocent. This one they hung. Can +a man keep his face straight in such a world? Could negro blood degrade +such stock? Might not an ape improve it? I preach equality as a poet and +seer who sees a vision beyond the rim of the horizon of to-day." + +The old man's eyes shone with the set stare of a fanatic. + +"And you think the South is ready for this wild vision?" + +"Not ready, but helpless to resist. As a cold-blooded, scientific +experiment, I mean to give the Black Man one turn at the Wheel of Life. It +is an act of just retribution. Besides, in my plans I need his vote; and +that settles it." + +"But will your plans work? Your own reports show serious trouble in the +South already." + +Stoneman laughed. + +"I never read my own reports. They are printed in molasses to catch flies. +The Southern legislatures played into my hands by copying the laws of New +England relating to Servants, Masters, Apprentices, and Vagrants. But even +these were repealed at the first breath of criticism. Neither the +Freedman's Bureau nor the army has ever loosed its grip on the throat of +the South for a moment. These disturbances and 'atrocities' are dangerous +only when printed on campaign fly-paper." + +"And how will you master and control these ten great Southern States?" + +"Through my Reconstruction Acts by means of the Union League. As a secret +between us, I am the soul of this order. I organized it in 1863 to secure +my plan of confiscation. We pressed it on Lincoln. He repudiated it. We +nominated Frémont at Cleveland against Lincoln in '64, and tried to split +the party or force Lincoln to retire. Frémont, a conceited ass, went back +on this plank in our platform, and we dropped him and helped elect Lincoln +again." + +"I thought the Union League a patriotic and social organization?" said the +doctor in surprise. + +"It has these features, but its sole aim as a secret order is to +confiscate the property of the South. I will perfect this mighty +organization until every negro stands drilled in serried line beneath its +banners, send a solid delegation here to do my bidding, and return at the +end of two years with a majority so overwhelming that my word will be law. +I will pass my Confiscation Bill. If Ulysses S. Grant, the coming idol, +falters, my second bill of Impeachment will only need the change of a +name." + +The doctor shook his head. + +"Give up this madness. Your life is hanging by a thread. The Southern +people even in their despair will never drink this black broth you are +pressing to their lips." + +"They've got to drink it." + +"Your decision is unalterable?" + +"Absolutely. It's the breath I breathe. As my physician you may select the +place to which I shall be banished. It must be reached by rail and wire. I +care not its name or size. I'll make it the capital of the Nation. +There'll be poetic justice in setting up my establishment in a fallen +slaveholder's mansion." + +The doctor looked intently at the old man: + +"The study of men has become a sort of passion with me, but you are the +deepest mystery I've yet encountered in this land of surprises." + +"And why?" asked the cynic. + +"Because the secret of personality resides in motives, and I can't find +yours either in your actions or words." + +Stoneman glanced at him sharply from beneath his wrinkled brows and +snapped. + +"Keep on guessing." + +"I will. In the meantime I'm going to send you to the village of Piedmont, +South Carolina. Your son and daughter both seem enthusiastic over this +spot." + +"Good; that settles it. And now that mine own have been conspiring against +me," said Stoneman confidentially, "a little guile on my part. Not a word +of what has passed between us to my children. Tell them I agree with your +plans and give up my work. I'll give the same story to the press--I wish +nothing to mar their happiness while in the South. My secret burdens need +not cloud their young lives." + +Dr. Barnes took the old man by the hand: + +"I promise. My assistant has agreed to go with you. I'll say good-bye. +It's an inspiration to look into a face like yours, lit by the splendour +of an unconquerable will! But I want to say something to you before you +set out on this journey." + +"Out with it," said the Commoner. + +"The breed to which the Southern white man belongs has conquered every +foot of soil on this earth their feet have pressed for a thousand years. A +handful of them hold in subjection three hundred millions in India. Place +a dozen of them in the heart of Africa, and they will rule the continent +unless you kill them----" + +"Wait," cried Stoneman, "until I put a ballot in the hand of every negro +and a bayonet at the breast of every white man from the James to the Rio +Grande!" + +"I'll tell you a little story," said the doctor with a smile. "I once had +a half-grown eagle in a cage in my yard. The door was left open one day, +and a meddlesome rooster hopped in to pick a fight. The eagle had been +sick a week and seemed an easy mark. I watched. The rooster jumped and +wheeled and spurred and picked pieces out of his topknot. The young eagle +didn't know at first what he meant. He walked around dazed, with a hurt +expression. When at last it dawned on him what the chicken was about, he +simply reached out one claw, took the rooster by the neck, planted the +other claw in his breast, and snatched his head off." + +The old man snapped his massive jaws together and grunted contemptuously. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Book III--The Reign of Terror + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FALLEN SLAVEHOLDER'S MANSION + + +Piedmont, South Carolina, which Elsie and Phil had selected for reasons +best known to themselves as the place of retreat for their father, was a +favourite summer resort of Charleston people before the war. + +Ulster county, of which this village was the capital, bordered on the +North Carolina line, lying alongside the ancient shore of York. It was +settled by the Scotch folk who came from the North of Ireland in the great +migrations which gave America three hundred thousand people of Covenanter +martyr blood, the largest and most important addition to our population, +larger in number than either the Puritans of New England or the so-called +Cavaliers of Virginia and Eastern Carolina; and far more important than +either, in the growth of American nationality. + +To a man they had hated Great Britain. Not a Tory was found among them. +The cries of their martyred dead were still ringing in their souls when +George III started on his career of oppression. The fiery words of Patrick +Henry, their spokesman in the valley of Virginia, had swept the +aristocracy of the Old Dominion into rebellion against the King and on +into triumphant Democracy. They had made North Carolina the first home of +freedom in the New World, issued the first Declaration of Independence in +Mecklenburg, and lifted the first banner of rebellion against the tyranny +of the Crown. + +They grew to the soil wherever they stopped, always home lovers and home +builders, loyal to their own people, instinctive clan leaders and clan +followers. A sturdy, honest, covenant-keeping, God-fearing, fighting +people, above all things they hated sham and pretence. They never boasted +of their families, though some of them might have quartered the royal arms +of Scotland on their shields. + +To these sturdy qualities had been added a strain of Huguenot tenderness +and vivacity. + +The culture of cotton as the sole industry had fixed African slavery as +their economic system. With the heritage of the Old World had been blended +forces inherent in the earth and air of the new Southland, something of +the breath of its unbroken forests, the freedom of its untrod mountains, +the temper of its sun, and the sweetness of its tropic perfumes. + +When Mrs. Cameron received Elsie's letter, asking her to secure for them +six good rooms at the "Palmetto" hotel, she laughed. The big rambling +hostelry had been burned by roving negroes, pigs were wallowing in the +sulphur springs, and along its walks, where lovers of olden days had +strolled, the cows were browsing on the shrubbery. + +But she laughed for a more important reason. They had asked for a six-room +cottage if accommodations could not be had in the hotel. + +She could put them in the Lenoir place. The cotton crop from their farm +had been stolen from the gin--the cotton tax of $200 could not be paid, +and a mortgage was about to be foreclosed on both their farm and home. She +had been brooding over their troubles in despair. The Stonemans' coming +was a godsend. + +Mrs. Cameron was helping them set the house in order to receive the new +tenants. + +"I declare," said Mrs. Lenoir gratefully. "It seems too good to be true. +Just as I was about to give up--the first time in my life--here came those +rich Yankees and with enough rent to pay the interest on the mortgages and +our board at the hotel. I'll teach Margaret to paint, and she can give +Marion lessons on the piano. The darkest hour's just before day. And last +week I cried when they told me I must lose the farm." + +"I was heartsick over it for you." + +"You know, the farm was my dowry with the dozen slaves Papa gave us on our +wedding-day. The negroes did as they pleased, yet we managed to live and +were very happy." + +Marion entered and placed a bouquet of roses on the table, touching them +daintily until she stood each flower apart in careless splendour. Their +perfume, the girl's wistful dreamy blue eyes and shy elusive beauty, all +seemed a part of the warm sweet air of the June morning. Mrs. Lenoir +watched her lovingly. + +"Mamma, I'm going to put flowers in every room. I'm sure they haven't such +lovely ones in Washington," said Marion eagerly, as she skipped out. + +The two women moved to the open window, through which came the drone of +bees and the distant music of the river falls. + +"Marion's greatest charm," whispered her mother, "is in her way of doing +things easily and gently without a trace of effort. Watch her bend over to +get that rose. Did you ever see anything like the grace and symmetry of +her figure--she seems a living flower!" + +"Jeannie, you're making an idol of her----" + +"Why not? With all our troubles and poverty, I'm rich in her! She's +fifteen years old, her head teeming with romance. You know, I was married +at fifteen. There'll be a half dozen boys to see her to-night in our new +home--all of them head over heels in love with her." + +"Oh, Jeannie, you must not be so silly! We should worship God only." + +"Isn't she God's message to me and to the world?" + +"But if anything should happen to her----" + +The young mother laughed. "I never think of it. Some things are fixed. Her +happiness and beauty are to me the sign of God's presence." + +"Well, I'm glad you're coming to live with us in the heart of town. This +place is a cosey nest, just such a one as a poet lover would build here in +the edge of these deep woods, but it is too far out for you to be alone. +Dr. Cameron has been worrying about you ever since he came home." + +"I'm not afraid of the negroes. I don't know one of them who wouldn't go +out of his way to do me a favour. Old Aleck is the only rascal I know +among them, and he's too busy with politics now even to steal a chicken." + +"And Gus, the young scamp we used to own; you haven't forgotten him? He is +back here, a member of the company of negro troops, and parades before the +house every day to show off his uniform. Dr. Cameron told him yesterday +he'd thrash him if he caught him hanging around the place again. He +frightened Margaret nearly to death when she went to the barn to feed her +horse." + +"I've never known the meaning of fear. We used to roam the woods and +fields together all hours of the day and night: my lover, Marion, and I. +This panic seems absurd to me." + +"Well, I'll be glad to get you two children under my wing. I was afraid +I'd find you in tears over moving from your nest." + +"No, where Marion is I'm at home, and I'll feel I've a mother when I get +with you." + +"Will you come to the hotel before they arrive?" + +"No; I'll welcome and tell them how glad I am they have brought me good +luck." + +"I'm delighted, Jeannie. I wished you to do this, but I couldn't ask it. I +can never do enough for this old man's daughter. We must make their stay +happy. They say he's a terrible old Radical politician, but I suppose he's +no meaner than the others. He's very ill, and she loves him devotedly. He +is coming here to find health, and not to insult us. Besides, he was kind +to me. He wrote a letter to the President. Nothing that I have will be too +good for him or for his. It's very brave and sweet of you to stay and meet +them." + +"I'm doing it to please Marion. She suggested it last night, sitting out +on the porch in the twilight. She slipped her arm around me and said: + +"'Mamma, we must welcome them and make them feel at home. He is very ill. +They will be tired and homesick. Suppose it were you and I, and we were +taking my Papa to a strange place.'" + + * * * * * + +When the Stonemans arrived, the old man was too ill and nervous from the +fatigue of the long journey to notice his surroundings or to be conscious +of the restful beauty of the cottage into which they carried him. His room +looked out over the valley of the river for miles, and the glimpse he got +of its broad fertile acres only confirmed his ideas of the "slaveholding +oligarchy" it was his life-purpose to crush. Over the mantel hung a steel +engraving of Calhoun. He fell asleep with his deep, sunken eyes resting on +it and a cynical smile playing about his grim mouth. + +Margaret and Mrs. Cameron had met the Stonemans and their physician at the +train, and taken Elsie and her father in the old weather-beaten family +carriage to the Lenoir cottage, apologising for Ben's absence. + +"He has gone to Nashville on some important legal business, and the doctor +is ailing, but as the head of the clan Cameron he told me to welcome your +father to the hospitality of the county, and beg him to let us know if he +could be of help." + +The old man, who sat in a stupor of exhaustion, made no response, and +Elsie hastened to say: + +"We appreciate your kindness more than I can tell you, Mrs. Cameron. I +trust father will be better in a day or two, when he will thank you. The +trip has been more than he could bear." + +"I am expecting Ben home this week," the mother whispered. "I need not +tell you that he will be delighted at your coming." + +Elsie smiled and blushed. + +"And I'll expect Captain Stoneman to see me very soon," said Margaret +softly. "You will not forget to tell him for me?" + +"He's a very retiring young man," said Elsie, "and pretends to be busy +about our baggage just now. I'm sure he will find the way." + +Elsie fell in love at sight with Marion and her mother. Their easy genial +manners, the genuineness of their welcome, and the simple kindness with +which they sought to make her feel at home put her heart into a warm +glow. + +Mrs. Lenoir explained the conveniences of the place and apologized for its +defects, the results of the war. + +"I am sorry about the window curtains--we have used them all for dresses. +Marion is a genius with a needle, and we took the last pair out of the +parlour to make a dress for a birthday party. The year before, we used the +ones in my room for a costume at a starvation party in a benefit for our +rector--you know we're Episcopalians--strayed up here for our health from +Charleston among these good Scotch Presbyterians." + +"We will soon place curtains at the windows," said Elsie cheerfully. + +"The carpets were sent to the soldiers for blankets during the war. It was +all we could do for our poor boys, except to cut my hair and sell it. You +see my hair hasn't grown out yet. I sent it to Richmond the last year of +the war. I felt I must do something when my neighbours were giving so +much. You know Mrs. Cameron lost four boys." + +"I prefer the floors bare," Elsie replied. "We will get a few rugs." + +She looked at the girlish hair hanging in ringlets about Mrs. Lenoir's +handsome face, smiled pathetically, and asked: + +"Did you really make such sacrifices for your cause?" + +"Yes, indeed. I was glad when the war was ended for some things. We +certainly needed a few pins, needles, and buttons, to say nothing of a cup +of coffee or tea." + +"I trust you will never lack for anything again," said Elsie kindly. + +"You will bring us good luck," Mrs. Lenoir responded. "Your coming is so +fortunate. The cotton tax Congress levied was so heavy this year we were +going to lose everything. Such a tax when we are all about to starve! Dr. +Cameron says it was an act of stupid vengeance on the South, and that no +other farmers in America have their crops taxed by the National +Government. I am so glad your father has come. He is not hunting for an +office. He can help us, maybe." + +"I am sure he will," answered Elsie thoughtfully. + +Marion ran up the steps lightly, her hair dishevelled and face flushed. + +"Now, Mamma, it's almost sundown; you get ready to go. I want her awhile +to show her about my things." + +She took Elsie shyly by the hand and led her into the lawn, while her +mother paid a visit to each room, and made up the last bundle of odds and +ends she meant to carry to the hotel. + +"I hope you will love the place as we do," said the girl simply. + +"I think it very beautiful and restful," Elsie replied. "This wilderness +of flowers looks like fairyland. You have roses running on the porch +around the whole length of the house." + +"Yes, Papa was crazy over the trailing roses, and kept planting them until +the house seems just a frame built to hold them, with a roof on it. But +you can see the river through the arches from three sides. Ben Cameron +helped me set that big beauty on the south corner the day he ran away to +the war----" + +"The view is glorious!" Elsie exclaimed, looking in rapture over the river +valley. + +The village of Piedmont crowned an immense hill on the banks of the Broad +River, just where it dashes over the last stone barrier in a series of +beautiful falls and spreads out in peaceful glory through the plains +toward Columbia and the distant sea. The muffled roar of these falls, +rising softly through the trees on its wooded cliff, held the daily life +of the people in the spell of distant music. In fair weather it soothed +and charmed, and in storm and freshet rose to the deep solemn growl of +thunder. + +The river made a sharp bend as it emerged from the hills and flowed +westward for six miles before it turned south again. Beyond this six-mile +sweep of its broad channel loomed the three ranges of the Blue Ridge +Mountains, the first one dark, rich, distinct, clothed in eternal green, +the last one melting in dim lines into the clouds and soft azure of the +sky. + +As the sun began to sink now behind these distant peaks, each cloud that +hung about them burst into a blazing riot of colour. The silver mirror of +the river caught their shadows, and the water glowed in sympathy. + +As Elsie drank the beauty of the scene, the music of the falls ringing its +soft accompaniment, her heart went out in a throb of love and pity for the +land and its people. + +"Can you blame us for loving such a spot?" said Marion. "It's far more +beautiful from the cliff at Lover's Leap. I'll take you there some day. My +father used to tell me that this world was Heaven, and that the spirits +would all come back to live here when sin and shame and strife were +gone." + +"Are your father's poems published?" asked Elsie. + +"Only in the papers. We have them clipped and pasted in a scrapbook. I'll +show you the one about Ben Cameron some day. You met him in Washington, +didn't you?" + +"Yes," said Elsie quietly. + +"Then I know he made love to you." + +"Why?" + +"You're so pretty. He couldn't help it." + +"Does he make love to every pretty girl?" + +"Always. It's his religion. But he does it so beautifully you can't help +believing it, until you compare notes with the other girls." + +"Did he make love to you?" + +"He broke my heart when he ran away. I cried a whole week. But I got over +it. He seemed so big and grown when he came home this last time. I was +afraid to let him kiss me." + +"Did he dare to try?" + +"No, and it hurt my feelings. You see, I'm not quite old enough to be +serious with the big boys, and he looked so brave and handsome with that +ugly scar on the edge of his forehead, and everybody was so proud of him. +I was just dying to kiss him, and I thought it downright mean in him not +to offer it." + +"Would you have let him?" + +"I expected him to try." + +"He is very popular in Piedmont?" + +"Every girl in town is in love with him." + +"And he in love with all?" + +"He pretends to be--but between us, he's a great flirt. He's gone to +Nashville now on some pretended business. Goodness only knows where he got +the money to go. I believe there's a girl there." + +"Why?" + +"Because he was so mysterious about his trip. I'll keep an eye on him at +the hotel. You know Margaret, too, don't you?" + +"Yes; we met her in Washington." + +"Well, she's the slyest flirt in town--it runs in the blood--has a +half-dozen beaux to see her every day. She plays the organ in the +Presbyterian Sunday school, and the young minister is dead in love with +her. They say they are engaged. I don't believe it. I think it's another +one. But I must hurry, I've so much to show and tell you. Come here to the +honeysuckle----" + +Marion drew the vines apart from the top of the fence and revealed a +mocking-bird on her nest. + +"She's setting. Don't let anything hurt her. I'd push her off and show you +her speckled eggs, but it's so late." + +"Oh, I wouldn't hurt her for the world!" cried Elsie with delight. + +"And right here," said Marion, bending gracefully over a tall bunch of +grass, "is a pee-wee's nest, four darling little eggs; look out for +that." + +Elsie bent and saw the pretty nest perched on stems of grass, and over it +the taller leaves drawn to a point. + +"Isn't it cute!" she murmured. + +"Yes; I've six of these and three mocking-bird nests. I'll show them to +you. But the most particular one of all is the wren's nest in the fork of +the cedar, close to the house." + +She led Elsie to the tree, and about two feet from the ground, in the +forks of the trunk, was a tiny hole from which peeped the eyes of a wren. + +"Whatever you do, don't let anything hurt her. Her mate sings +'_Free-nigger! Free-nigger! Free-nigger!_' every morning in this cedar." + +"And you think we will specially enjoy that?" asked Elsie, laughing. + +"Now, really," cried Marion, taking Elsie's hand, "you know I couldn't +think of such a mean joke. I forgot you were from the North. You seem so +sweet and homelike. He really does sing that way. You will hear him in the +morning, bright and early, '_Free-nigger! Free-nigger! Free-nigger!_' just +as plain as I'm saying it." + +"And did you learn to find all these birds' nests by yourself?" + +"Papa taught me. I've got some jay-birds and some cat-birds so gentle they +hop right down at my feet. Some people hate jay-birds. But I like them, +they seem to be having such a fine time and enjoy life so. You don't mind +jay-birds, do you?" + +"I love every bird that flies." + +"Except hawks and owls and buzzards----" + +"Well, I've seen so few I can't say I've anything particular against +them." + +"Yes, they eat chickens--except the buzzards, and they're so ugly and +filthy. Now, I've a chicken to show you--please don't let Aunt +Cindy--she's to be your cook--please don't let her kill him--he's +crippled--has something the matter with his foot. He was born that way. +Everybody wanted to kill him, but I wouldn't let them. I've had an awful +time raising him, but he's all right now." + +Marion lifted a box and showed her the lame pet, softly clucking his +protest against the disturbance of his rest. + +"I'll take good care of _him_, never fear," said Elsie, with a tremor in +her voice. + +"And I have a queer little black cat I wanted to show you, but he's gone +off somewhere. I'd take him with me--only it's bad luck to move cats. He's +awful wild--won't let anybody pet him but me. Mamma says he's an imp of +Satan--but I love him. He runs up a tree when anybody else tries to get +him. But he climbs right up on my shoulder. I never loved any cat quite as +well as this silly, half-wild one. You don't mind black cats, do you?" + +"No, dear; I like cats." + +"Then I know you'll be good to him." + +"Is that all?" asked Elsie, with amused interest. + +"No, I've the funniest yellow dog that comes here at night to pick up the +scraps and things. He isn't my dog--just a little personal friend of +mine--but I like him very much, and always give him something. He's very +cute. I think he's a nigger dog." + +"A nigger dog? What's that?" + +"He belongs to some coloured people, who don't give turn enough to eat. I +love him because he's so faithful to his own folks. He comes to see me at +night and pretends to love me, but as soon as I feed him he trots back +home. When he first came, I laughed till I cried at his antics over a +carpet--we had a carpet then. He never saw one before, and barked at the +colours and the figures in the pattern. Then he'd lie down and rub his +back on it and growl. You won't let anybody hurt him?" + +"No. Are there any others?" + +"Yes, I 'most forgot. If Sam Ross comes--Sam's an idiot who lives at the +poorhouse--if he comes, he'll expect a dinner--my, my, I'm afraid he'll +cry when he finds we're not here! But you can send him to the hotel to me. +Don't let Aunt Cindy speak rough to him. Aunt Cindy's awfully good to me, +but she can't bear Sam. She thinks he brings bad luck." + +"How on earth did you meet him?" + +"His father was rich. He was a good friend of my Papa's. We came near +losing our farm once, because a bank failed. Mr. Ross sent Papa a signed +check on his own bank, and told him to write the amount he needed on it, +and pay him when he was able. Papa cried over it, and wouldn't use it, and +wrote a poem on the back of the check--one of the sweetest of all, I +think. In the war Mr. Ross lost his two younger sons, both killed at +Gettysburg. His wife died heartbroken, and he only lived a year afterward. +He sold his farm for Confederate money and everything was lost. Sam was +sent to the poorhouse. He found out somehow that we loved him and comes to +see us. He's as harmless as a kitten, and works in the garden +beautifully." + +"I'll remember," Elsie promised. + +"And one thing more," she said hesitatingly. "Mamma asked me to speak to +you of this--that's why she slipped away. There one little room we have +locked. It was Papa's study just as he left it, with his papers scattered +on the desk, the books and pictures that he loved--you won't mind?" + +Elsie slipped her arm about Marion, looked into the blue eyes, dim with +tears, drew her close and said: + +"It shall be sacred, my child. You must come every day if possible, and +help me." + +"I will. I've so many beautiful places to show you in the woods--places he +loved, and taught us to see and love. They won't let me go in the woods +any more alone. But you have a big brother. That must be very sweet." + +Mrs. Lenoir hurried to Elsie. + +"Come, Marion, we must be going now." + +"I am very sorry to see you leave the home you love so dearly, Mrs. +Lenoir," said the Northern girl, taking her extended hand. "I hope you can +soon find a way to have it back." + +"Thank you," replied the mother cheerily. "The longer you stay, the better +for us. You don't know how happy I am over your coming. It has lifted a +load from our hearts. In the liberal rent you pay us you are our +benefactors. We are very grateful and happy." + +Elsie watched them walk across the lawn to the street, the daughter +leaning on the mother's arm. She followed slowly and stopped behind one of +the arbor-vitć bushes beside the gate. The full moon had risen as the +twilight fell and flooded the scene with soft white light. A whippoorwill +struck his first plaintive note, his weird song seeming to come from all +directions and yet to be under her feet. She heard the rustle of dresses +returning along the walk, and Marion and her mother stood at the gate. +They looked long and tenderly at the house. Mrs. Lenoir uttered a broken +sob, Marion slipped an arm around her, brushed the short curling hair back +from her forehead, and softly said: + +"Mamma, dear, you know it's best. I don't mind. Everybody in town loves +us. Every boy and girl in Piedmont worships you. We will be just as happy +at the hotel." + +In the pauses between the strange bird's cry, Elsie caught the sound of +another sob, and then a soothing murmur as of a mother bending over a +cradle, and they were gone. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE EYES OF THE JUNGLE + + +Elsie stood dreaming for a moment in the shadow of the arbor-vitć, +breathing the sensuous perfumed air and listening to the distant music of +the falls, her heart quivering in pity for the anguish of which she had +been a witness. Again the spectral cry of the whippoorwill rang near-by, +and she noted for the first time the curious cluck with which the bird +punctuated each call. A sense of dim foreboding oppressed her. + +She wondered if the chatter of Marion about the girl in Nashville were +only a child's guess or more. She laughed softly at the absurdity of the +idea. Never since she had first looked into Ben Cameron's face did she +feel surer of the honesty and earnestness of his love than to-day in this +quiet home of his native village. It must be the queer call of the bird +which appealed to superstitions she did not know were hidden within her +being. + +Still dreaming under its spell, she was startled at the tread of two men +approaching the gate. + +The taller, more powerful-looking man put his hand on the latch and +paused. + +"Allow no white man to order you around. Remember you are a freeman and as +good as any pale-face who walks this earth." + +She recognized the voice of Silas Lynch. + +"Ben Cameron dare me to come about de house," said the other voice. + +"What did he say?" + +"He say, wid his eyes batten' des like lightnen', 'Ef I ketch you hangin' +'roun' dis place agin', Gus, I'll jump on you en stomp de life outen +ye.'" + +"Well, you tell him that your name is Augustus, not 'Gus,' and that the +United States troops quartered in this town will be with him soon after +the stomping begins. You wear its uniform. Give the white trash in this +town to understand that they are not even citizens of the nation. As a +sovereign voter, you, once their slave, are not only their equal--you are +their master." + +"Dat I will!" was the firm answer. + +The negro to whom Lynch spoke disappeared in the direction taken by Marion +and her mother, and the figure of the handsome mulatto passed rapidly up +the walk, ascended the steps and knocked at the door. + +Elsie followed him. + +"My father is too much fatigued with his journey to be seen now; you must +call to-morrow," she said. + +The negro lifted his hat and bowed: + +"Ah, we are delighted to welcome you, Miss Stoneman, to our land! Your +father asked me to call immediately on his arrival. I have but obeyed his +orders." + +Elsie shrank from the familiarity of his manner and the tones of authority +and patronage with which he spoke. + +"He cannot be seen at this hour," she answered shortly. + +"Perhaps you will present my card, then--say that I am at his service, and +let him appoint the time at which I shall return?" + +She did not invite him in, but with easy assurance he took his seat on the +joggle-board beside the door and awaited her return. + +Against her urgent protest, Stoneman ordered Lynch to be shown at once to +his bedroom. + +When the door was closed, the old Commoner, without turning to greet his +visitor or moving his position in bed, asked: + +"Are you following my instructions?" + +"To the letter, sir." + +"You are initiating the negroes into the League and teaching them the new +catechism?" + +"With remarkable success. Its secrecy and ritual appeal to them. Within +six months we shall have the whole race under our control almost to a +man." + +"_Almost_ to a man?" + +"We find some so attached to their former masters that reason is +impossible with them. Even threats and the promise of forty acres of land +have no influence." + +The old man snorted with contempt. + +"If anything could reconcile me to the Satanic Institution it is the +character of the wretches who submit to it and kiss the hand that strikes. +After all, a slave deserves to be a slave. The man who is mean enough to +wear chains ought to wear them. You must teach, _teach_, TEACH these black +hounds to know they are men, not brutes!" + +The old man paused a moment, and his restless hands fumbled the cover. + +"Your first task, as I told you in the beginning, is to teach every negro +to stand erect in the presence of his former master and assert his +manhood. Unless he does this, the South will bristle with bayonets in +vain. The man who believes he is a dog, is one. The man who believes +himself a king, may become one. Stop this snivelling and sneaking round +the back doors. I can do nothing, God Almighty can do nothing, for a +coward. Fix this as the first law of your own life. Lift up your head! The +world is yours. Take it. Beat this into the skulls of your people, if you +do it with an axe. Teach them the military drill at once. I'll see that +Washington sends the guns. The state, when under your control, can furnish +the powder." + +"It will surprise you to know the thoroughness with which this has been +done already by the League," said Lynch. "The white master believed he +could vote the negro as he worked him in the fields during the war. The +League, with its blue flaming altar, under the shadows of night, has +wrought a miracle. The negro is the enemy of his former master and will be +for all time." + +"For the present," said the old man meditatively, "not a word to a living +soul as to my connection with this work. When the time is ripe, I'll show +my hand." + +Elsie entered, protesting against her father's talking longer, and showed +Lynch to the door. + +He paused on the moonlit porch and tried to engage her in familiar talk. + +She cut him short, and he left reluctantly. + +As he bowed his thick neck in pompous courtesy, she caught with a shiver +the odour of pomade on his black half-kinked hair. He stopped on the lower +step, looked back with smiling insolence, and gazed intently at her +beauty. The girl shrank from the gleam of the jungle in his eyes and +hurried within. + +She found her father sunk in a stupor. Her cry brought the young surgeon +hurrying into the room, and at the end of an hour he said to Elsie and +Phil: + +"He has had a stroke of paralysis. He may lie in mental darkness for +months and then recover. His heart action is perfect. Patience, care, and +love will save him. There is no cause for immediate alarm." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AUGUSTUS CĆSAR + + +Phil early found the home of the Camerons the most charming spot in town. +As he sat in the old-fashioned parlour beside Margaret, his brain seethed +with plans for building a hotel on a large scale on the other side of the +Square and restoring her home intact. + +The Cameron homestead was a large brick building with an ample porch +looking out directly on the Court House Square, standing in the middle of +a lawn full of trees, flowers, shrubbery, and a wilderness of evergreen +boxwood planted fifty years before. It was located on the farm from which +it had always derived its support. The farm extended up into the village +itself, with the great barn easily seen from the street. + +Phil was charmed with the doctor's genial personality. He often found the +father a decidedly easier person to get along with than his handsome +daughter. The Rev. Hugh McAlpin was a daily caller, and Margaret had a +tantalizing way of showing her deference to his opinions. + +Phil hated this preacher from the moment he laid eyes on him. His +pugnacious piety he might have endured but for the fact that he was +good-looking and eloquent. When he rose in the pulpit in all his sacred +dignity, fixed his eyes on Margaret, and began in tenderly modulated voice +to tell about the love of God, Phil clinched his fist. He didn't care to +join the Presbyterian church, but he quietly made up his mind that, if it +came to the worst and she asked him, he would join anything. What made him +furious was the air of assurance with which the young divine carried +himself about Margaret, as if he had but to say the word and it would be +fixed as by a decree issued from before the foundations of the world. + +He was pleased and surprised to find that his being a Yankee made no +difference in his standing or welcome. The people seemed unconscious of +the part his father played at Washington. Stoneman's Confiscation Bill had +not yet been discussed in Congress, and the promise of land to the negroes +was universally regarded as a hoax of the League to win their followers. +The old Commoner was not an orator. Hence his name was scarcely known in +the South. The Southern people could not conceive of a great leader except +one who expressed his power through the megaphone of oratory. They held +Charles Sumner chiefly responsible for Reconstruction. + +The fact that Phil was a Yankee who had no axe to grind in the South +caused the people to appeal to him in a pathetic way that touched his +heart. He had not been in town two weeks before he was on good terms with +every youngster, had the entrée to every home, and Ben had taken him, +protesting vehemently, to see every pretty girl there. He found that, in +spite of war and poverty, troubles present and troubles to come, the young +Southern woman was the divinity that claimed and received the chief +worship of man. + +The tremendous earnestness with which these youngsters pursued the work of +courting, all of them so poor they scarcely had enough to eat, amazed and +alarmed him beyond measure. He found in several cases as many as four +making a dead set for one girl, as if heaven and earth depended on the +outcome, while the girl seemed to receive it all as a matter of +course--her just tribute. + +Every instinct of his quiet reserved nature revolted at any such attempt +to rush his cause with Margaret, and yet it made the cold chills run down +his spine to see that Presbyterian preacher drive his buggy up to the +hotel, take her to ride, and stay three hours. He knew where they had +gone--to Lover's Leap and along the beautiful road which led to the North +Carolina line. He knew the way--Margaret had showed him. This road was the +Way of Romance. Every farmhouse, cabin, and shady nook along its beaten +track could tell its tale of lovers fleeing from the North to find +happiness in the haven of matrimony across the line in South Carolina. +Everything seemed to favour marriage in this climate. The state required +no license. A legal marriage could be celebrated, anywhere, at any time, +by a minister in the presence of two witnesses, with or without the +consent of parent or guardian. Marriage was the easiest thing in the +state--divorce the one thing impossible. Death alone could grant divorce. + +He was now past all reason in love. He followed the movement of Margaret's +queenly figure with pathetic abandonment. Beneath her beautiful manners he +swore with a shiver that she was laughing at him. Now and then he caught a +funny expression about her eyes, as if she were consumed with a sly sense +of humour in her love affairs. + +What he felt to be his manliest traits, his reserve, dignity, and moral +earnestness, she must think cold and slow beside the dash, fire, and +assurance of these Southerners. He could tell by the way she encouraged +the preacher before his eyes that she was criticizing and daring him to +let go for once. Instead of doing it, he sank back appalled at the +prospect and let the preacher carry her off again. + +He sought solace in Dr. Cameron, who was utterly oblivious of his +daughter's love affairs. + +Phil was constantly amazed at the variety of his knowledge, the +genuineness of his culture, his modesty, and the note of youth and cheer +with which he still pursued the study of medicine. + +His company was refreshing for its own sake. The slender graceful figure, +ruddy face, with piercing, dark-brown eyes in startling contrast to his +snow-white hair and beard, had for Phil a perpetual charm. He never tired +listening to his talk, and noting the peculiar grace and dignity with +which he carried himself, unconscious of the commanding look of his +brilliant eyes. + +"I hear that you have used hypnotism in your practice, Doctor," Phil said +to him one day, as he watched with fascination the changing play of his +mobile features. + +"Oh, yes! used it for years. Southern doctors have always been pioneers in +the science of medicine. Dr. Crawford Long, of Georgia, you know, was the +first practitioner in America to apply anesthesia to surgery." + +"But where did you run up against hypnotism? I thought this a new thing +under the sun?" + +The doctor laughed. + +"It's not a home industry, exactly. I became interested in it in Edinburgh +while a medical student, and pursued it with increased interest in +Paris." + +"Did you study medicine abroad?" Phil asked in surprise. + +"Yes; I was poor, but I managed to raise and to borrow enough to take +three years on the other side. I put all I had and all my credit in it. +I've never regretted the sacrifice. The more I saw of the great world, the +better I liked my own world. I've given these farmers and their families +the best God gave to me." + +"Do you find much use for your powers of hypnosis?" Phil asked. + +"Only in an experimental way. Naturally I am endowed with this +gift--especially over certain classes who are easily the subjects of +extreme fear. I owned a rascally slave named Gus whom I used to watch +stealing. Suddenly confronting him, I've thrown him into unconsciousness +with a steady gaze of the eye, until he would drop on his face, trembling +like a leaf, unable to speak until I allowed him." + +"How do you account for such powers?" + +"I don't account for them at all. They belong to the world of spiritual +phenomena of which we know so little and yet which touch our material +lives at a thousand points every day. How do we account for sleep and +dreams, or second sight, or the day dreams which we call visions?" + +Phil was silent, and the doctor went on dreamily: + +"The day my boy Richard was killed at Gettysburg, I saw him lying dead in +a field near a house. I saw some soldiers bury him in the corner of that +field, and then an old man go to the grave, dig up his body, cart it away +into the woods, and throw it into a ditch. I saw it before I heard of the +battle or knew that he was in it. He was reported killed, and his body has +never been found. It is the one unspeakable horror of the war to me. I'll +never get over it." + +"How very strange!" exclaimed Phil. + +"And yet the war was nothing, my boy, to the horrors I feel clutching the +throat of the South to-day. I'm glad you and your father are down here. +Your disinterested view of things may help us at Washington when we need +it most. The South seems to have no friend at court." + +"Your younger men, I find, are hopeful, Doctor," said Phil. + +"Yes, the young never see danger until it's time to die. I'm not a +pessimist, but I was happier in jail. Scores of my old friends have given +up in despair and died. Delicate and cultured women are living on cowpeas, +corn bread, and molasses--and of such quality they would not have fed it +to a slave. Children go to bed hungry. Droves of brutal negroes roam at +large, stealing, murdering, and threatening blacker crimes. We are under +the heel of petty military tyrants, few of whom ever smelled gunpowder in +a battle. At the approaching election, not a decent white man in this +country can take the infamous test oath. I am disfranchised because I gave +a cup of water to the lips of one of my dying boys on the battlefield. My +slaves are all voters. There will be a negro majority of more than one +hundred thousand in this state. Desperadoes are here teaching these +negroes insolence and crime in their secret societies. The future is a +nightmare." + +[Illustration: HENRY WALTHALL AS BEN CAMERON.] + +"You have my sympathy, sir," said Phil warmly, extending his hand. "These +Reconstruction Acts, conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, can +bring only shame and disgrace until the last trace of them is wiped from +our laws. I hope it will not be necessary to do it in blood." + +The doctor was deeply touched. He could not be mistaken in the genuineness +of any man's feeling. He never dreamed this earnest straightforward Yankee +youngster was in love with Margaret, and it would have made no difference +in the accuracy of his judgment. + +"Your sentiments do you honour, sir," he said with grave courtesy. "And +you honour us and our town with your presence and friendship." + +As Phil hurried home in a warm glow of sympathy for the people whose +hospitality had made him their friend and champion, he encountered a negro +trooper standing on the corner, watching the Cameron house with furtive +glance. + +Instinctively he stopped, surveyed the man from head to foot and asked: + +"What's the trouble?" + +"None er yo' business," the negro answered, slouching across to the +opposite side of the street. + +Phil watched him with disgust. He had the short, heavy-set neck of the +lower order of animals. His skin was coal black, his lips so thick they +curled both ways up and down with crooked blood marks across them. His +nose was flat, and its enormous nostrils seemed in perpetual dilation. The +sinister bead eyes, with brown splotches in their whites, were set wide +apart and gleamed apelike under his scant brows. His enormous cheekbones +and jaws seemed to protrude beyond the ears and almost hide them. + +"That we should send such soldiers here to flaunt our uniform in the faces +of these people!" he exclaimed, with bitterness. + +He met Ben hurrying home from a visit to Elsie. The two young soldiers +whose prejudices had melted in the white heat of battle had become fast +friends. + +Phil laughed and winked: + +"I'll meet you to-night around the family altar!" + +When he reached home, Ben saw, slouching in front of the house, walking +back and forth and glancing furtively behind him, the negro trooper whom +his friend had passed. + +He walked quickly in front of him, and blinking his eyes rapidly, said: + +"Didn't I tell you, Gus, not to let me catch you hanging around this house +again?" + +The negro drew himself up, pulling his blue uniform into position as his +body stretched out of its habitual slouch, and answered: + +"My name ain't 'Gus.'" + +Ben gave a quick little chuckle and leaned back against the palings, his +hand resting on one that was loose. He glanced at the negro carelessly and +said: + +"Well, Augustus Cćsar, I give your majesty thirty seconds to move off the +block." + +Gus' first impulse was to run, but remembering himself he threw back his +shoulders and said: + +"I reckon de streets free----" + +"Yes, and so is kindling wood!" + +Quick as a flash of lightning the paling suddenly left the fence and broke +three times in such bewildering rapidity on the negro's head he forgot +everything he ever knew or thought he knew save one thing--the way to run. +He didn't fly, but he made remarkable use of the facilities with which he +had been endowed. + +Ben watched him disappear toward the camp. + +He picked up the pieces of paling, pulled a strand of black wool from a +splinter, looked at it curiously and said: + +"A sprig of his majesty's hair--I'll doubtless remember him without it!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE POINT OF THE BAYONET + + +Within an hour from Ben's encounter he was arrested without warrant by the +military commandant, handcuffed, and placed on the train for Columbia, +more than a hundred miles distant. The first purpose of sending him in +charge of a negro guard was abandoned for fear of a riot. A squad of white +troops accompanied him. + +Elsie was waiting at the gate, watching for his coming, her heart aglow +with happiness. + +When Marion and little Hugh ran to tell the exciting news, she thought it +a joke and refused to believe it. + +"Come, dear, don't tease me; you know it's not true!" + +"I wish I may die if 'tain't so!" Hugh solemnly declared. "He run Gus away +'cause he scared Aunt Margaret so. They come and put handcuffs on him and +took him to Columbia. I tell you Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Margaret are +mad!" + +Elsie called Phil and begged him to see what had happened. + +When Phil reported Ben's arrest without a warrant, and the indignity to +which he had been subjected on the amazing charge of resisting military +authority, Elsie hurried with Marion and Hugh to the hotel to express her +indignation, and sent Phil to Columbia on the next train to fight for his +release. + +By the use of a bribe Phil discovered that a special inquisition had been +hastily organized to procure perjured testimony against Ben on the charge +of complicity in the murder of a carpet-bag adventurer named Ashburn, who +had been killed at Columbia in a row in a disreputable resort. This murder +had occurred the week Ben Cameron was in Nashville. The enormous reward of +$25,000 had been offered for the conviction of any man who could be +implicated in the killing. Scores of venal wretches, eager for this blood +money, were using every device of military tyranny to secure evidence on +which to convict--no matter who the man might be. Within six hours of his +arrival they had pounced on Ben. + +They arrested as a witness an old negro named John Stapler, noted for his +loyalty to the Camerons. The doctor had saved his life once in a dangerous +illness. They were going to put him to torture and force him to swear that +Ben Cameron had tried to bribe him to kill Ashburn. General Howle, the +Commandant of the Columbia district, was in Charleston on a visit to +headquarters. + +Phil resorted to the ruse of pretending, as a Yankee, the deepest sympathy +for Ashburn, and by the payment of a fee of twenty dollars to the Captain, +was admitted to the fort to witness the torture. + +They led the old man trembling into the presence of the Captain, who sat +on an improvised throne in full uniform. + +"Have you ordered a barber to shave this man's head?" sternly asked the +judge. + +"Please, Marster, fer de Lawd's sake, I ain' done nuttin'--doan' shave my +head. Dat ha'r been wropped lak dat fur ten year! I die sho' ef I lose my +ha'r." + +"Bring the barber, and take him back until he comes," was the order. In an +hour they led him again into the room blindfolded, and placed him in a +chair. + +"Have you let him see a preacher before putting him through?" the Captain +asked. "I have an order from the General in Charleston to put him through +to-day." + +"For Gawd's sake, Marster, doan' put me froo--I ain't done nuttin' en I +doan' know nuttin'!" + +The old negro slipped to his knees, trembling from head to foot. + +The guards caught him by the shoulders and threw him back into the chair. +The bandage was removed, and just in front of him stood a brass cannon +pointed at his head, a soldier beside it holding the string ready to pull. +John threw himself backward, yelling: + +"Goddermighty!" + +When he scrambled to his feet and started to run, another cannon swung on +him from the rear. He dropped to his knees and began to pray. + +"Yas, Lawd, I'se er comin'. I hain't ready--but, Lawd, I got ter come! +Save me!" + +"Shave him!" the Captain ordered. + +While the old man sat moaning, they lathered his head with two +scrubbing-brushes and shaved it clean. + +"Now stand him up by the wall and measure him for his coffin," was the +order. + +They snatched him from the chair, pushed him against the wall, and +measured him. While they were taking his measure, the man next to him +whispered: + +"Now's the time to save your hide--tell all about Ben Cameron trying to +hire you to kill Ashburn." + +"Give him a few minutes," said the Captain, "and maybe we can hear what +Mr. Cameron said about Ashburn." + +"I doan' know nuttin', General," pleaded the old darkey. "I ain't heard +nuttin'--I ain't seed Marse Ben fer two monts." + +"You needn't lie to us. The rebels have been posting you. But it's no use. +We'll get it out of you." + +"'Fo' Gawd, Marster, I'se telling de truf!" + +"Put him in the dark cell and keep him there the balance of his life +unless he tells," was the order. + +At the end of four days, Phil was summoned again to witness the show. + +John was carried to another part of the fort and shown the sweat-box. + +"Now tell all you know or in you go!" said his tormentor. + +The negro looked at the engine of torture in abject terror--a closet in +the walls of the fort just big enough to admit the body, with an +adjustable top to press down too low for the head to be held erect. The +door closed tight against the breast of the victim. The only air admitted +was through an auger-hole in the door. + +The old man's lips moved in prayer. + +"Will you tell?" growled the Captain. + +"I cain't tell ye nuttin' 'cept'n' a lie!" he moaned. + +They thrust him in, slammed the door, and in a loud voice the Captain +said: + +"Keep him there for thirty days unless he tells." + +He was left in the agony of the sweat-box for thirty-three hours and taken +out. His limbs were swollen and when he attempted to walk he tottered and +fell. + +The guard jerked him to his feet, and the Captain said: + +"I'm afraid we've taken him out too soon, but if he don't tell he can go +back and finish the month out." + +The poor old negro dropped in a faint, and they carried him back to his +cell. + +Phil determined to spare no means, fair or foul, to secure Ben's release +from the clutches of these devils. He had as yet been unable to locate his +place of confinement. + +He continued his ruse of friendly curiosity, kept in touch with the +Captain, and the Captain in touch with his pocketbook. + +Summoned to witness another interesting ceremony, he hurried to the fort. + +The officer winked at him confidentially, and took him out to a row of +dungeons built of logs and ceiled inside with heavy boards. A single pane +of glass about eight inches square admitted light ten feet from the +ground. + +There was a commotion inside, curses, groans, and cries for mercy mingling +in rapid succession. + +"What is it?" asked Phil. + +"Hell's goin' on in there!" laughed the officer. + +"Evidently." + +A heavy crash, as though a ton weight had struck the floor, and then all +was still. + +"By George, it's too bad we can't see it all!" exclaimed the officer. + +"What does it mean?" urged Phil. + +Again the Captain laughed immoderately. + +"I've got a blue-blood in there taking the bluin' out of his system. He +gave me some impudence. I'm teaching him who's running this country!" + +"What are you doing to him?" Phil asked with a sudden suspicion. + +"Oh, just having a little fun! I put two big white drunks in there with +him--half-fighting drunks, you know--and told them to work on his teeth +and manicure his face a little to initiate him into the ranks of the +common people, so to speak!" + +Again he laughed. + +Phil, listening at the keyhole, held up his hand: + +"Hush, they're talking----" + +He could hear Ben Cameron's voice in the softest drawl: + +"Say it again." + +"Please, Marster!" + +"Now both together, and a little louder!" + +"_Please, Marster_," came the united chorus. + +"Now what kind of a dog did I say you are?" + +"The kind as comes when his marster calls." + +"Both together--the under dog seems to have too much cover, like his mouth +might be full of cotton." + +They repeated it louder. + +"A common--stump-tailed--cur-dog?" + +"Yessir." + +"Say it." + +"A common--stump-tailed--cur-dog--Marster!" + +"A pair of them." + +"A pair of 'em." + +"No, the whole thing--all together--'we--are--a--pair!'" + +"Yes--Marster." They repeated it in chorus. + +"With apologies to the dogs----" + +"Apologies to the dogs----" + +"And why does your master honour the kennel with his presence to-day?" + +"He hit a nigger on the head so hard that he strained the nigger's ankle, +and he's restin' from his labours." + +"That's right, Towser. If I had you and Tige a few hours every day I could +make good squirrel-dogs out of you." + +There was a pause. Phil looked up and smiled. + +"What does it sound like?" asked the Captain, with a shade of doubt in his +voice. + +"Sounds to me like a Sunday-school teacher taking his class through a new +catechism." + +The Captain fumbled hurriedly for his keys. + +"There's something wrong in there." + +He opened the door and sprang in. + +Ben Cameron was sitting on top of the two toughs, knocking their heads +together as they repeated each chorus. + +"Walk in, gentlemen. The show is going on now--the animals are doing +beautifully," said Ben. + +The Captain muttered an oath. Phil suddenly grasped him by the throat, +hurled him against the wall, and snatched the keys from his hand. + +"Now open your mouth, you white-livered cur, and inside of twenty-four +hours I'll have you behind the bars. I have all the evidence I need. I'm +an ex-officer of the United States Army, of the fighting corps--not the +vulture division. This is my friend. Accompany us to the street and strike +your charges from the record." + +The coward did as he was ordered, and Ben hurried back to Piedmont with a +friend toward whom he began to feel closer than a brother. + +When Elsie heard the full story of the outrage, she bore herself toward +Ben with unusual tenderness, and yet he knew that the event had driven +their lives farther apart. He felt instinctively the cold silent eye of +her father, and his pride stiffened under it. The girl had never +considered the possibility of a marriage without her father's blessing. +Ben Cameron was too proud to ask it. He began to fear that the differences +between her father and his people reached to the deepest sources of life. + +Phil found himself a hero at the Cameron House. Margaret said little, but +her bearing spoke in deeper language than words. He felt it would be mean +to take advantage of her gratitude. + +But he was quick to respond to the motherly tenderness of Mrs. Cameron. In +the groups of neighbours who gathered in the evenings to discuss with the +doctor the hopes, fears, and sorrows of the people, Phil was a charmed +listener to the most brilliant conversations he had ever heard. It seemed +the normal expression of their lives. He had never before seen people come +together to talk to one another after this fashion. More and more the +simplicity, dignity, patience, courtesy, and sympathy of these people in +their bearing toward one another impressed him. More and more he grew to +like them. + +Marion went out of her way to express her open admiration for Phil and +tease him about Margaret. The Rev. Hugh McAlpin was monopolizing her on +the Wednesday following his return from Columbia and Phil sought Marion +for sympathy. + +"What will you give me if I tease you about Margaret right before her?" +she asked. + +He blushed furiously. + +"Don't you dare such a thing on peril of your life!" + +"You know you like to be teased about her," she cried, her blue eyes +dancing with fun. + +"With such a pretty little friend to do the teasing all by ourselves, +perhaps----" + +"You'll never get her unless you have more spunk." + +"Then I'll find consolation with you." + +"No, I mean to marry young." + +"And your ideal of life?" + +"To fill the world with flowers, laughter, and music--especially my own +home--and never do a thing I can make my husband do for me! How do you +like it?" + +"I think it very sweet," Phil answered soberly. + +At noon on the following Friday, the Piedmont _Eagle_ appeared with an +editorial signed by Dr. Cameron, denouncing in the fine language of the +old school the arrest of Ben as "despotism and the usurpation of +authority." + +At three o'clock, Captain Gilbert, in command of the troops stationed in +the village, marched a squad of soldiers to the newspaper office. One of +them carried a sledge-hammer. In ten minutes he demolished the office, +heaped the type and their splintered cases on top of the battered press in +the middle of the street, and set fire to the pile. + +On the courthouse door he nailed this proclamation: + + _To the People of Ulster County_: + + The censures of the press, directed against the servants of the + people, may be endured; but the military force in command of this + district are not the servants of the people of South Carolina. WE ARE + YOUR MASTERS. The impertinence of newspaper comment on the military + will not be brooked UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHATEVER. + + G. C. Gilbert, + Captain in Command. + +Not content with this display of power, he determined to make an example +of Dr. Cameron, as the leader of public opinion in the county. + +He ordered a squad of his negro troops to arrest him immediately and take +him to Columbia for obstructing the execution of the Reconstruction Acts. +He placed the squad under command of Gus, whom he promoted to be a +corporal, with instructions to wait until the doctor was inside his house, +boldly enter it and arrest him. + +When Gus marched his black janizaries into the house, no one was in the +office. Margaret had gone for a ride with Phil, and Ben had strolled with +Elsie to Lover's Leap, unconscious of the excitement in town. + +Dr. Cameron himself had heard nothing of it, having just reached home from +a visit to a country patient. + +Gus stationed his men at each door, and with another trooper walked +straight into Mrs. Cameron's bedroom, where the doctor was resting on a +lounge. + +Had an imp of perdition suddenly sprung through the floor, the master of +the house of Cameron would not have been more enraged or surprised. + +A sudden leap, as the spring of a panther, and he stood before his former +slave, his slender frame erect, his face a livid spot in its snow-white +hair, his brilliant eyes flashing with fury. + +Gus suddenly lost control of his knees. + +His old master transfixed him with his eyes, and in a voice, whose tones +gripped him by the throat, said: + +"How dare you?" + +The gun fell from the negro's hand, and he dropped to the floor on his +face. + +His companion uttered a yell and sprang through the door, rallying the men +as he went: + +"Fall back! Fall back! He's killed Gus! Shot him dead wid his eye. He's +conjured him! Git de whole army quick." + +They fled to the Commandant. + +Gilbert ordered the negroes to their tents and led his whole company of +white regulars to the hotel, arrested Dr. Cameron, and rescued his +fainting trooper, who had been revived and placed under a tree on the +lawn. + +The little Captain had a wicked look on his face. He refused to allow the +doctor a moment's delay to leave instructions for his wife, who had gone +to visit a neighbour. He was placed in the guard-house, and a detail of +twenty soldiers stationed around it. + +The arrest was made so quickly, not a dozen people in town had heard of +it. As fast as it was known, people poured into the house, one by one, to +express their sympathy. But a greater surprise awaited them. + +Within thirty minutes after he had been placed in prison, a Lieutenant +entered, accompanied by a soldier and a negro blacksmith who carried in +his hand two big chains with shackles on each end. + +The doctor gazed at the intruders a moment with incredulity, and then, as +the enormity of the outrage dawned on him, he flushed and drew himself +erect, his face livid and rigid. + +He clutched his throat with his slender fingers, slowly recovered himself, +glanced at the shackles in the black hands and then at the young +Lieutenant's face, and said slowly, with heaving breast: + +"My God! Have you been sent to place these irons on me?" + +"Such are my orders, sir," replied the officer, motioning to the negro +smith to approach. He stepped forward, unlocked the padlock, and prepared +the fetters to be placed on his arms and legs. These fetters were of +enormous weight, made of iron rods three quarters of an inch thick and +connected together by chains of like weight. + +"This is monstrous!" groaned the doctor, with choking agony, glancing +helplessly about the bare cell for some weapon with which to defend +himself. + +Suddenly looking the Lieutenant in the face, he said: + +"I demand, sir, to see your commanding officer. He cannot pretend that +these shackles are needed to hold a weak unarmed man in prison, guarded by +two hundred soldiers?" + +"It is useless. I have his orders direct." + +"But I must see him. No such outrage has ever been recorded in the history +of the American people. I appeal to the Magna Charta rights of every man +who speaks the English tongue--no man shall be arrested or imprisoned or +deprived of his own household, or of his liberties, unless by the legal +judgment of his peers or by the law of the land!" + +"The bayonet is your only law. My orders admit of no delay. For your own +sake, I advise you to submit. As a soldier, Dr. Cameron, you know I must +execute orders." + +"These are not the orders of a soldier!" shouted the prisoner, enraged +beyond all control. "They are orders for a jailer, a hangman, a +scullion--no soldier who wears the sword of a civilized nation can take +such orders. The war is over; the South is conquered; I have no country +save America. For the honour of the flag, for which I once poured out my +blood on the heights of Buena Vista, I protest against this shame!" + +The Lieutenant fell back a moment before the burst of his anger. + +"Kill me! Kill me!" he went on passionately, throwing his arms wide open +and exposing his breast. "Kill--I am in your power. I have no desire to +live under such conditions. Kill, but you must not inflict on me and on my +people this insult worse than death!" + +"Do your duty, blacksmith," said the officer, turning his back and walking +toward the door. + +The negro advanced with the chains cautiously, and attempted to snap one +of the shackles on the doctor's right arm. + +With sudden maniac frenzy, Dr. Cameron seized the negro by the throat, +hurled him to the floor, and backed against the wall. + +The Lieutenant approached and remonstrated: + +"Why compel me to add the indignity of personal violence? You must +submit." + +"I am your prisoner," fiercely retorted the doctor. "I have been a soldier +in the armies of America, and I know how to die. Kill me, and my last +breath will be a blessing. But while I have life to resist, for myself and +for my people, this thing shall not be done!" + +The Lieutenant called a sergeant and a file of soldiers, and the sergeant +stepped forward to seize the prisoner. + +Dr. Cameron sprang on him with the ferocity of a tiger, seized his musket, +and attempted to wrench it from his grasp. + +The men closed in on him. A short passionate fight and the slender, proud, +gray-haired man lay panting on the floor. + +Four powerful assailants held his hands and feet, and the negro smith, +with a grin, secured the rivet on the right ankle and turned the key in +the padlock on the left. + +As he drove the rivet into the shackle on his left arm, a spurt of bruised +blood from the old Mexican War wound stained the iron. + +Dr. Cameron lay for a moment in a stupor. At length he slowly rose. The +clank of the heavy chains seemed to choke him with horror. He sank on the +floor, covering his face with his hands and groaned: + +"The shame! The shame! O God, that I might have died! My poor, poor +wife!" + +Captain Gilbert entered and said with a sneer: + +"I will take you now to see your wife and friends if you would like to +call before setting out for Columbia." + +The doctor paid no attention to him. + +"Will you follow me while I lead you through this town, to show them their +chief has fallen, or will you force me to drag you?" + +Receiving no answer, he roughly drew the doctor to his feet, held him by +the arm, and led him thus in half-unconscious stupor through the principal +street, followed by a drove of negroes. He ordered a squad of troops to +meet him at the depot. Not a white man appeared on the streets. When one +saw the sight and heard the clank of those chains, there was a sudden +tightening of the lip, a clinched fist, and an averted face. + +When they approached the hotel, Mrs. Cameron ran to meet him, her face +white as death. + +In silence she kissed his lips, kissed each shackle on his wrists, took +her handkerchief and wiped the bruised blood from the old wound on his arm +the iron had opened afresh, and then with a look, beneath which the +Captain shrank, she said in low tones: + +"Do your work quickly. You have but a few moments to get out of this town +with your prisoner. I have sent a friend to hold my son. If he comes +before you go, he will kill you on sight as he would a mad dog." + +With a sneer, the Captain passed the hotel and led the doctor, still in +half-unconscious stupor, toward the depot down past his old slave +quarters. He had given his negroes who remained faithful each a cabin and +a lot. + +They looked on in awed silence as the Captain proclaimed: + +"Fellow citizens, you are the equal of any white man who walks the ground. +The white man's day is done. Your turn has come." + +As he passed Jake's cabin, the doctor's faithful man stepped suddenly in +front of him, looking at the Captain out of the corners of his eyes, and +asked: + +"Is I yo' equal?" + +"Yes." + +"Des lak any white man?" + +"Exactly." + +The negro's fist suddenly shot into Gilbert's nose with the crack of a +sledge-hammer, laying him stunned on the pavement. + +"Den take dat f'um yo' equal, d--n you!" he cried, bending over his +prostrate figure. "I'll show you how to treat my ole marster, you low-down +slue-footed devil!" + +The stirring little drama roused the doctor and he turned to his servant +with his old-time courtesy, and said: + +"Thank you, Jake." + +"Come in here, Marse Richard; I knock dem things off'n you in er minute, +'en I get you outen dis town in er jiffy." + +"No, Jake, that is not my way; bring this gentleman some water, and then +my horse and buggy. You can take me to the depot. This officer can follow +with his men." And he did. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FORTY ACRES AND A MULE + + +When Phil returned with Margaret, he drove at Mrs. Cameron's request to +find Ben, brought him with all speed to the hotel, took him to his room, +and locked the door before he told him the news. After an hour's blind +rage, he agreed to obey his father's positive orders to keep away from the +Captain until his return, and to attempt no violence against the +authorities. + +Phil undertook to manage the case in Columbia, and spent three days +collecting his evidence before leaving. + +Swifter feet had anticipated him. Two days after the arrival of Dr. +Cameron at the fort in Colombia, a dust-stained, tired negro was ushered +into the presence of General Howle. + +He looked about timidly and laughed loudly. + +"Well, my man, what's the trouble? You seem to have walked all the way, +and laugh as if you were glad of it." + +"I 'spec' I is, sah," said Jake, sidling up confidentially. + +"Well?" said Howle good-humouredly. + +Jake's voice dropped to a whisper. + +"I hears you got my ole marster, Dr. Cameron, in dis place." + +"Yes. What do you know against him?" + +"Nuttin', sah. I des hurry 'long down ter take his place, so's you can +sen' him back home. He's erbleeged ter go. Dey's er pow'ful lot er sick +folks up dar in de country cain't git 'long widout him, an er pow'ful lot +er well ones gwiner be raisin' de debbel 'bout dis. You can hol' me, sah. +Des tell my ole marster when ter be yere, en he sho' come." + +Jake paused and bowed low. + +"Yessah, hit's des lak I tell you. Fuddermo', I 'spec' I'se de man what +done de damages. I 'spec' I bus' de Capt'n's nose so 'tain gwine be no mo' +good to 'im." + +Howle questioned Jake as to the whole affair, asked him a hundred +questions about the condition of the county, the position of Dr. Cameron, +and the possible effect of this event on the temper of the people. + +The affair had already given him a bad hour. The news of this shackling of +one of the most prominent men in the State had spread like wildfire, and +had caused the first deep growl of anger from the people. He saw that it +was a senseless piece of stupidity. The election was rapidly approaching. +He was master of the State, and the less friction the better. His mind was +made up instantly. He released Dr. Cameron with an apology, and returned +with him and Jake for a personal inspection of the affairs of Ulster +county. + +In a thirty-minutes' interview with Captain Gilbert, Howle gave him more +pain than his broken nose. + +"And why did you nail up the doors of that Presbyterian church?" he asked +suavely. + +"Because McAlpin, the young cub who preaches there, dared come to this +camp and insult me about the arrest of old Cameron." + +"I suppose you issued an order silencing him from the ministry?" + +"I did, and told him I'd shackle him if he opened his mouth again." + +"Good. The throne of Russia needn't worry about a worthy successor. Any +further ecclesiastical orders?" + +"None, except the oaths I've prescribed for them before they shall preach +again." + +"Fine! These Scotch Covenanters will feel at home with you." + +"Well, I've made them bite the dust--and they know who's runnin' this +town, and don't you forget it." + +"No doubt. Yet we may have too much of even a good thing. The League is +here to run this country. The business of the military is to keep still +and back them when they need it." + +"We've the strongest council here to be found in any county in this +section," said Gilbert with pride. + +"Just so. The League meets once a week. We have promised them the land of +their masters and equal social and political rights. Their members go +armed to these meetings and drill on Saturdays in the public square. The +white man is afraid to interfere lest his house or barn take fire. A negro +prisoner in the dock needs only to make the sign to be acquitted. Not a +negro will dare to vote against us. Their women are formed into societies, +sworn to leave their husbands and refuse to marry any man who dares our +anger. The negro churches have pledged themselves to expel him from their +membership. What more do you want?" + +"There's another side to it," protested the Captain. "Since the League has +taken in the negroes, every Union white man has dropped it like a hot +iron, except the lone scallawag or carpet-bagger who expects an office. In +the church, the social circle, in business or pleasure, these men are +lepers. How can a human being stand it? I've tried to grind this hellish +spirit in the dirt under my heel, and unless you can do it they'll beat +you in the long run! You've got to have some Southern white men or you're +lost." + +"I'll risk it with a hundred thousand negro majority," said Howle with a +sneer. "The fun will just begin then. In the meantime, I'll have you ease +up on this county's government. I've brought that man back who knocked you +down. Let him alone. I've pardoned him. The less said about this affair, +the better." + + * * * * * + +As the day of the election under the new régime of Reconstruction drew +near, the negroes were excited by rumours of the coming great events. +Every man was to receive forty acres of land for his vote, and the +enthusiastic speakers and teachers had made the dream a resistless one by +declaring that the Government would throw in a mule with the forty acres. +Some who had hesitated about the forty acres of land, remembering that it +must be worked, couldn't resist the idea of owning a mule. + +The Freedman's Bureau reaped a harvest in $2 marriage fees from negroes +who were urged thus to make their children heirs of landed estates stocked +with mules. + +Every stranger who appeared in the village was regarded with awe as a +possible surveyor sent from Washington to run the lines of these +forty-acre plots. + +And in due time the surveyors appeared. Uncle Aleck, who now devoted his +entire time to organizing the League, and drinking whiskey which the dues +he collected made easy, was walking back to Piedmont from a League meeting +in the country, dreaming of this promised land. + +He lifted his eyes from the dusty way and saw before him two surveyors +with their arms full of line stakes painted red, white, and blue. They +were well-dressed Yankees--he could not be mistaken. Not a doubt disturbed +his mind. The kingdom of heaven was at hand! + +He bowed low and cried: + +"Praise de Lawd! De messengers is come! I'se waited long, but I sees 'em +now wid my own eyes!" + +"You can bet your life on that, old pard," said the spokesman of the pair. +"We go two and two, just as the apostles did in the olden times. We have +only a few left. The boys are hurrying to get their homes. All you've got +to do is to drive one of these red, white, and blue stakes down at each +corner of the forty acres of land you want, and every rebel in the +infernal regions can't pull it up." + +"Hear dat now!" + +"Just like I tell you. When this stake goes into the ground, it's like +planting a thousand cannon at each corner." + +"En will the Lawd's messengers come wid me right now to de bend er de +creek whar I done pick out my forty acres?" + +"We will, if you have the needful for the ceremony. The fee for the +surveyor is small--only two dollars for each stake. We have no time to +linger with foolish virgins who have no oil in their lamps. The bridegroom +has come. They who have no oil must remain in outer darkness." The speaker +had evidently been a preacher in the North, and his sacred accent sealed +his authority with the old negro, who had been an exhorter himself. + +Aleck felt in his pocket the jingle of twenty gold dollars, the initiation +fees of the week's harvest of the League. He drew them, counted out eight, +and took his four stakes. The surveyors kindly showed him how to drive +them down firmly to the first stripe of blue. When they had stepped off a +square of about forty acres of the Lenoir farm, including the richest +piece of bottom land on the creek, which Aleck's children under his wife's +direction were working for Mrs. Lenoir, and the four stakes were planted, +old Aleck shouted: + +"Glory ter God!" + +"Now," said the foremost surveyor, "you want a deed--a deed in fee simple +with the big seal of the Government on it, and you're fixed for life. The +deed you can take to the courthouse and make the clerk record it." + +The man drew from his pocket an official-looking paper, with a red +circular seal pasted on its face. + +Uncle Aleck's eyes danced. + +"Is dat de deed?" + +"It will be if I write your name on it and describe the land." + +"En what's de fee fer dat?" + +"Only twelve dollars; you can take it now or wait until we come again. +There's no particular hurry about this. The wise man, though, leaves +nothing for to-morrow that he can carry with him to-day." + +"I takes de deed right now, gemmen," said Aleck, eagerly counting out the +remaining twelve dollars. "Fix 'im up for me." + +The surveyor squatted in the field and carefully wrote the document. + +They went on their way rejoicing, and old Aleck hurried into Piedmont with +the consciousness of lordship of the soil. He held himself so proudly that +it seemed to straighten some of the crook out of his bow legs. + +He marched up to the hotel where Margaret sat reading and Marion was on +the steps playing with a setter. + +"Why, Uncle Aleck!" Marion exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a long +time." + +Aleck drew himself to his full height--at least, as full as his bow legs +would permit, and said gruffly: + +"Miss Ma'ian, I axes you to stop callin' me 'uncle'; my name is Mr. +Alexander Lenoir----" + +"Until Aunt Cindy gets after you," laughed the girl. "Then it's much +shorter than that, Uncle Aleck." + +He shuffled his feet and looked out at the square unconcernedly. + +"Yaas'm, dat's what fetch me here now. I comes ter tell yer Ma ter tell +dat 'oman Cindy ter take her chillun off my farm. I gwine 'low no mo' +rent-payin' ter nobody off'n my lan'!" + +"Your land, Uncle Aleck? When did you get it?" asked Marion, placing her +cheek against the setter. + +"De Gubment gim it ter me to-day," he replied, fumbling in his pocket, and +pulling out the document. "You kin read it all dar yo'sef." + +He handed Marion the paper, and Margaret hurried down and read it over her +shoulder. + +Both girls broke into screams of laughter. + +Aleck looked up sharply. + +"Do you know what's written on this paper, Uncle Aleck?" Margaret asked. + +"Cose I do. Dat's de deed ter my farm er forty acres in de land er de +creek, whar I done stuck off wid de red, white, an' blue sticks de Gubment +gimme." + +"I'll read it to you," said Margaret. + +"Wait a minute," interrupted Marion. "I want Aunt Cindy to hear it--she's +here to see Mamma in the kitchen now." + +She ran for Uncle Aleck's spouse. Aunt Cindy walked around the house and +stood by the steps, eying her erstwhile lord with contempt. + +"Got yer deed, is yer, ter stop me payin' my missy her rent fum de lan' my +chillun wucks? Yu'se er smart boy, you is--let's hear de deed!" + +Aleck edged away a little, and said with a bow: + +"Dar's de paper wid de big mark er de Gubment." + +Aunt Cindy sniffed the air contemptuously. + +"What is it, honey?" she asked of Margaret. + +Margaret read in mock solemnity the mystic writing on the deed: + + _To Whom It May Concern_: + + As Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness for the + enlightenment of the people, even so have I lifted twenty shining + plunks out of this benighted nigger! Selah! + +As Uncle Aleck walked away with Aunt Cindy shouting in derision, "Dar, +now! Dar, now!" the bow in his legs seemed to have sprung a sharper +curve. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A WHISPER IN THE CROWD + + +The excitement which preceded the first Reconstruction election in the +South paralyzed the industries of the country. When demagogues poured down +from the North and began their raving before crowds of ignorant negroes, +the plow stopped in the furrow, the hoe was dropped, and the millennium +was at hand. + +Negro tenants, working under contracts issued by the Freedman's Bureau, +stopped work, and rode their landlords' mules and horses around the +county, following these orators. + +The loss to the cotton crop alone from the abandonment of the growing +plant was estimated at over $60,000,000. + +The one thing that saved the situation from despair was the large grain +and forage crops of the previous season which thrifty farmers had stored +in their barns. So important was the barn and its precious contents that +Dr. Cameron hired Jake to sleep in his. + +This immense barn, which was situated at the foot of the hill some two +hundred yards behind the house, had become a favourite haunt of Marion and +Hugh. She had made a pet of the beautiful thoroughbred mare which had +belonged to Ben during the war. Marion went every day to give her an apple +or lump of sugar, or carry her a bunch of clover. The mare would follow +her about like a cat. + +Another attraction at the barn for them was Becky Sharpe, Ben's setter. +She came to Marion one morning, wagging her tail, seized her dress and led +her into an empty stall, where beneath the trough lay sleeping snugly ten +little white-and-black spotted puppies. + +The girl had never seen such a sight before and went into ecstasies. Becky +wagged her tail with pride at her compliments. Every morning she would +pull her gently into the stall just to hear her talk and laugh and pet her +babies. + +Whatever election day meant to the men, to Marion it was one of unalloyed +happiness: she was to ride horseback alone and dance at her first ball. +Ben had taught her to ride, and told her she could take Queen to Lover's +Leap and back alone. Trembling with joy, her beautiful face wreathed in +smiles, she led the mare to the pond in the edge of the lot and watched +her drink its pure spring water. + +When he helped her to mount in front of the hotel under her mother's gaze, +and saw her ride out of the gate, with the exquisite lines of her little +figure melting into the graceful lines of the mare's glistening form, he +exclaimed: + +"I declare, I don't know which is the prettier, Marion or Queen!" + +"I know," was the mother's soft answer. + +"They are both thoroughbreds," said Ben, watching them admiringly. + +"Wait till you see her to-night in her first ball dress," whispered Mrs. +Lenoir. + +At noon Ben and Phil strolled to the polling-place to watch the progress +of the first election under negro rule. The Square was jammed with +shouting, jostling, perspiring negroes, men, women, and children. The day +was warm, and the African odour was supreme even in the open air. + +A crowd of two hundred were packed around a peddler's box. There were two +of them--one crying the wares, and the other wrapping and delivering the +goods. They were selling a new patent poison for rats. + +"I've only a few more bottles left now, gentlemen," he shouted, "and the +polls will close at sundown. A great day for our brother in black. Two +years of army rations from the Freedman's Bureau, with old army clothes +thrown in, and now the ballot--the priceless glory of American +citizenship. But better still the very land is to be taken from these +proud aristocrats and given to the poor down-trodden black man. Forty +acres and a mule--think of it! Provided, mind you--that you have a bottle +of my wonder-worker to kill the rats and save your corn for the mule. No +man can have the mule unless he has corn; and no man can have corn if he +has rats--and only a few bottles left----" + +"Gimme one," yelled a negro. + +"Forty acres and a mule, your old masters to work your land and pay his +rent in corn, while you sit back in the shade and see him sweat." + +"Gimme er bottle and two er dem pictures!" bawled another candidate for a +mule. + +The peddler handed him the bottle and the pictures and threw a handful of +his labels among the crowd. These labels happened to be just the size of +the ballots, having on them the picture of a dead rat lying on his back, +and above, the emblem of death, the crossbones and skull. + +"Forty acres and a mule for every black man--why was I ever born white? I +never had no luck, nohow!" + +Phil and Ben passed on nearer the polling-place, around which stood a +cordon of soldiers with a line of negro voters two hundred yards in length +extending back into the crowd. + +The negro Leagues came in armed battalions and voted in droves, carrying +their muskets in their hands. Less than a dozen white men were to be seen +about the place. + +The negroes, under the drill of the League and the Freedman's Bureau, +protected by the bayonet, were voting to enfranchise themselves, +disfranchise their former masters, ratify a new constitution, and elect a +legislature to do their will. Old Aleck was a candidate for the House, +chief poll-holder, and seemed to be in charge of the movements of the +voters outside the booth as well as inside. He appeared to be omnipresent, +and his self-importance was a sight Phil had never dreamed. He could not +keep his eyes off him. + +"By George, Cameron, he's a wonder!" he laughed. + +Aleck had suppressed as far as possible the story of the painted stakes +and the deed, after sending out warnings to the brethren to beware of two +enticing strangers. The surveyors had reaped a rich harvest and passed on. +Aleck made up his mind to go to Columbia, make the laws himself, and never +again trust a white man from the North or South. The agent of the +Freedman's Bureau at Piedmont tried to choke him off the ticket. The +League backed him to a man. He could neither read nor write, but before he +took to whiskey he had made a specialty of revival exhortation, and his +mouth was the most effective thing about him. In this campaign he was an +orator of no mean powers. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what his +people wanted, and he put the thing in words so plain that a wayfaring +man, though a fool, couldn't make any mistake about it. + +As he bustled past, forming a battalion of his brethren in line to march +to the polls, Phil followed his every movement with amused interest. + +Besides being so bow-legged that his walk was a moving joke he was so +striking a negro in his personal appearance, he seemed to the young +Northerner almost a distinct type of man. + +His head was small and seemed mashed on the sides until it bulged into a +double lobe behind. Even his ears, which he had pierced and hung with red +earbobs, seemed to have been crushed flat to the side of his head. His +kinked hair was wrapped in little hard rolls close to the skull and bound +tightly with dirty thread. His receding forehead was high and indicated a +cunning intelligence. His nose was broad and crushed flat against his +face. His jaws were strong and angular, mouth wide, and lips thick, +curling back from rows of solid teeth set obliquely in their blue gums. +The one perfect thing about him was the size and setting of his mouth--he +was a born African orator, undoubtedly descended from a long line of +savage spell-binders, whose eloquence in the palaver houses of the jungle +had made them native leaders. His thin spindle-shanks supported an oblong, +protruding stomach, resembling an elderly monkey's, which seemed so heavy +it swayed his back to carry it. + +The animal vivacity of his small eyes and the flexibility of his eyebrows, +which he worked up and down rapidly with every change of countenance, +expressed his eager desires. + +He had laid aside his new shoes, which hurt him, and went barefooted to +facilitate his movements on the great occasion. His heels projected and +his foot was so flat that what should have been the hollow of it made a +hole in the dirt where he left his track. + +He was already mellow with liquor, and was dressed in an old army uniform +and cap, with two horse pistols buckled around his waist. On a strap +hanging from his shoulder were strung a half-dozen tin canteens filled +with whiskey. + +A disturbance in the line of voters caused the young men to move forward +to see what it meant. + +Two negro troopers had pulled Jake out of the line, and were dragging him +toward old Aleck. + +The election judge straightened himself up with great dignity: + +"What wuz de rapscallion doin'?" + +"In de line, tryin' ter vote." + +"Fetch 'im befo' de judgment bar," said Aleck, taking a drink from one of +his canteens. + +The troopers brought Jake before the judge. + +"Tryin' ter vote, is yer?" + +"'Lowed I would." + +"You hear 'bout de great sassieties de Gubment's fomentin' in dis +country?" + +"Yas, I hear erbout 'em." + +"Is yer er member er de Union League?" + +"Na-sah. I'd rudder steal by myself. I doan' lak too many in de party!" + +"En yer ain't er No'f Ca'liny gemmen, is yer--yer ain't er member er de +'Red Strings?'" + +"Na-sah, I come when I'se called--dey doan' hatter put er string on +me--ner er block, ner er collar, ner er chain, ner er muzzle----" + +"Will yer 'splain ter dis cote----" railed Aleck. + +"What cote? Dat ole army cote?" Jake laughed in loud peals that rang over +the square. + +Aleck recovered his dignity and demanded angrily: + +"Does yer belong ter de Heroes ob Americky?" + +"Na-sah. I ain't burnt nobody's house ner barn yet, ner hamstrung no +stock, ner waylaid nobody atter night--honey, I ain't fit ter jine. Heroes +ob Americky! Is you er hero?" + +"Ef yer doan' b'long ter no s'iety," said Aleck with judicial +deliberation, "what is you?" + +"Des er ole-fashun all-wool-en-er-yard-wide nigger dat stan's by his ole +marster 'cause he's his bes' frien', stays at home, en tends ter his own +business." + +"En yer pay no 'tenshun ter de orders I sent yer ter jine de League?" + +"Na-sah. I ain't er takin' orders f'um er skeer-crow." + +Aleck ignored his insolence, secure in his power. + +"You doan b'long ter no s'iety, what yer git in dat line ter vote for?" + +"Ain't I er nigger?" + +"But yer ain't de right kin' er nigger. 'Res' dat man fer 'sturbin' de +peace." + +They put Jake in jail, persuaded his wife to leave him, and expelled him +from the Baptist church, all within the week. + +As the troopers led Jake to prison, a young negro apparently about fifteen +years old approached Aleck, holding in his hand one of the peddler's rat +labels, which had gotten well distributed among the crowd. A group of +negro boys followed him with these rat labels in their hands, studying +them intently. + +"Look at dis ticket, Uncle Aleck," said the leader. + +"Mr. Alexander Lenoir, sah--is I yo' uncle, nigger?" + +The youth walled his eyes angrily. + +"Den doan' you call me er nigger!" + +"Who' yer talkin to, sah? You kin fling yer sass at white folks, but, +honey, yuse er projeckin' wid death now!" + +"I ain't er nigger--I'se er gemman, I is," was the sullen answer. + +"How ole is you?" asked Aleck in milder tones. + +"Me mudder say sixteen--but de Buro man say I'se twenty-one yistiddy, de +day 'fo' 'lection." + +"Is you voted to-day?" + +"Yessah; vote in all de boxes 'cept'n dis one. Look at dat ticket. Is dat +de straight ticket?" + +Aleck, who couldn't read the twelve-inch letters of his favourite bar-room +sign, took the rat label and examined it critically. + +"What ail it?" he asked at length. + +The boy pointed at the picture of the rat. + +"What dat rat doin', lyin' dar on his back, wid his heels cocked up in de +air--'pear ter me lak a rat otter be standin' on his feet!" + +Aleck reëxamined it carefully, and then smiled benignly on the youth. + +"De ignance er dese folks. What ud yer do widout er man lak me enjued wid +de sperit en de power ter splain tings?" + +"You sho' got de sperits," said the boy impudently, touching a canteen. + +Aleck ignored the remark and looked at the rat label smilingly. + +"Ain't we er votin', ter-day, on de Constertooshun what's ter take de +ballot away f'um de white folks en gib all de power ter de cullud +gemmen--I axes yer dat?" + +The boy stuck his thumbs under his arms and walled his eyes. + +"Yessah!" + +"Den dat means de ratification ob de Constertooshun!" + +Phil laughed, followed, and watched them fold their tickets, get in line, +and vote the rat labels. + +Ben turned toward a white man with gray beard, who stood watching the +crowd. + +He was a pious member of the Presbyterian church but his face didn't have +a pious expression to-day. He had been refused the right to vote because +he had aided the Confederacy by nursing one of his wounded boys. + +He touched his hat politely to Ben. + +"What do you think of it, Colonel Cameron?" he asked with a touch of +scorn. + +"What's your opinion, Mr. McAllister?" + +"Well, Colonel, I've been a member of the church for over forty years. I'm +not a cussin' man--but there's a sight I never expected to live to see. +I've been a faithful citizen of this State for fifty years. I can't vote, +and a nigger is to be elected to-day to represent me in the Legislature. +Neither you, Colonel, nor your father are good enough to vote. Every +nigger in this county sixteen years old and up voted to-day--I ain't a +cussing man, and I don't say it as a cuss word, but all I've got to say +is, IF there BE such a thing as a d--d shame--that's it!" + +"Mr. McAllister, the recording angel wouldn't have made a mark had you +said it without the 'IF.'" + +"God knows what this country's coming to--I don't," said the old man +bitterly. "I'm afraid to let my wife and daughter go out of the house, or +stay in it, without somebody with them." + +Ben leaned closer and whispered, as Phil approached: + +"Come to my office to-night at ten o'clock; I want to see you on some +important business." + +The old man seized his hand eagerly. + +"Shall I bring the boys?" + +Ben smiled. + +"No. I've seen them some time ago." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BY THE LIGHT OF A TORCH + + +On the night of the election Mrs. Lenoir gave a ball at the hotel in +honour of Marion's entrance into society. She was only in her sixteenth +year, yet older than her mother when mistress of her own household. The +only ambition the mother cherished was that she might win the love of an +honest man and build for herself a beautiful home on the site of the +cottage covered with trailing roses. In this home dream for Marion she +found a great sustaining joy to which nothing in the life of man answers. + +The ball had its political significance which the military martinet who +commanded the post understood. It was the way the people of Piedmont +expressed to him and the world their contempt for the farce of an election +he had conducted, and their indifference as to the result he would +celebrate with many guns before midnight. + +The young people of the town were out in force. Marion was a universal +favourite. The grace, charm, and tender beauty of the Southern girl of +sixteen were combined in her with a gentle and unselfish disposition. Amid +poverty that was pitiful, unconscious of its limitations, her thoughts +were always of others, and she was the one human being everybody had +agreed to love. In the village in which she lived wealth counted for +naught. She belonged to the aristocracy of poetry, beauty, and intrinsic +worth, and her people knew no other. + +As she stood in the long dining-room, dressed in her first ball costume of +white organdy and lace, the little plump shoulders peeping through its +meshes, she was the picture of happiness. A half-dozen boys hung on every +word as the utterance of an oracle. She waved gently an old ivory fan with +white down on its edges in a way the charm of which is the secret +birthright of every Southern girl. + +Now and then she glanced at the door for some one who had not yet +appeared. + +Phil paid his tribute to her with genuine feeling, and Marion repaid him +by whispering: + +"Margaret's dressed to kill--all in soft azure blue--her rosy cheeks, +black hair, and eyes never shone as they do to-night. She doesn't dance on +account of her Sunday-school--it's all for you." + +Phil blushed and smiled. + +"The preacher won't be here?" + +"Our rector will." + +"He's a nice old gentleman. I'm fond of him. Miss Marion, your mother is a +genius. I hope she can plan these little affairs oftener." + +It was half-past ten o'clock when Ben Cameron entered the room with Elsie +a little ruffled at his delay over imaginary business at his office. Ben +answered her criticisms with a strange elation. She had felt a secret +between them and resented it. + +At Mrs. Lenoir's special request, he had put on his full uniform of a +Confederate Colonel in honour of Marion and the poem her father had +written of one of his gallant charges. He had not worn it since he fell +that day in Phil's arms. + +No one in the room had ever seen him in this Colonel's uniform. Its yellow +sash with the gold fringe and tassels was faded and there were two bullet +holes in the coat. A murmur of applause from the boys, sighs and +exclamations from the girls swept the room as he took Marion's hand, bowed +and kissed it. Her blue eyes danced and smiled on him with frank +admiration. + +"Ben, you're the handsomest thing I've ever seen!" she said softly. + +"Thanks. I thought you had a mirror. I'll send you one," he answered, +slipping his arm around her and gliding away to the strains of a waltz. +The girl's hand trembled as she placed it on his shoulder, her cheeks were +flushed, and her eyes had a wistful dreamy look in their depths. + +When Ben rejoined Elsie and they strolled on the lawn, the military +commandant suddenly confronted them with a squad of soldiers. + +"I'll trouble you for those buttons and shoulder straps," said the +Captain. + +Elsie's amber eyes began to spit fire. Ben stood still and smiled. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +"That I will not be insulted by the wearing of this uniform to-day." + +"I dare you to touch it, coward, poltroon!" cried the girl, her plump +little figure bristling in front of her lover. + +Ben laid his hand on her arm and gently drew her back to his side: "He has +the power to do this. It is a technical violation of law to wear them. I +have surrendered. I am a gentleman and I have been a soldier. He can have +his tribute. I've promised my father to offer no violence to the military +authority of the United States." + +He stepped forward, and the officer cut the buttons from his coat and +ripped the straps from his shoulders. + +While the performance was going on, Ben quietly said: + +"General Grant at Appomattox, with the instincts of a great soldier, gave +our men his spare horses and ordered that Confederate officers retain +their side-arms. The General is evidently not in touch with this force." + +"No: I'm in command in this county," said the Captain. + +"Evidently." + +When he had gone, Elsie's eyes were dim. They strolled under the shadow of +the great oak and stood in silence, listening to the music within and the +distant murmur of the falls. + +"Why is it, sweetheart, that a girl will persist in admiring brass +buttons?" Ben asked softly. + +She raised her lips to his for a kiss and answered: + +"Because a soldier's business is to die for his country." + +As Ben led her back into the ballroom and surrendered her to a friend for +a dance, the first gun pealed its note of victory from the square in the +celebration of the triumph of the African slave over his white master. + +Ben strolled out in the street to hear the news. + +The Constitution had been ratified by an enormous majority, and a +Legislature elected composed of 101 negroes and 23 white men. Silas Lynch +had been elected Lieutenant-Governor, a negro Secretary of State, a negro +Treasurer, and a negro Justice of the Supreme Court. + +When Bizzel, the wizzen-faced agent of the Freedman's Bureau, made this +announcement from the courthouse steps, pandemonium broke lose. An +incessant rattle of musketry began in which ball cartridges were used, the +missiles whistling over the town in every direction. Yet within half an +hour the square was deserted and a strange quiet followed the storm. + +Old Aleck staggered by the hotel, his drunkenness having reached the +religious stage. + +"Behold, a curiosity, gentlemen," cried Ben to a group of boys who had +gathered, "a voter is come among us--in fact, he is the people, the king, +our representative elect, the Honourable Alexander Lenoir, of the county +of Ulster!" + +"Gemmens, de Lawd's bin good ter me," said Aleck, weeping copiously. + +"They say the rat labels were in a majority in this precinct--how was +that?" asked Ben. + +"Yessah--dat what de scornful say--dem dat sets in de seat o' de scornful, +but de Lawd er Hosts He fetch 'em low. Mistah Bissel de Buro man count all +dem rat votes right, sah--dey couldn't fool him--he know what dey mean--he +count 'em all for me an' de ratification." + +"Sure-pop!" said Ben; "if you can't ratify with a rat, I'd like to know +why?" + +"Dat's what I tells 'em, sah." + +"Of course," said Ben good-humouredly. "The voice of the people is the +voice of God--rats or no rats--if you know how to count." + +As old Aleck staggered away, the sudden crash of a volley of musketry +echoed in the distance. + +"What's that?" asked Ben, listening intently. The sound was unmistakable +to a soldier's ear--that volley from a hundred rifles at a single word of +command. It was followed by a shot on a hill in the distance, and then by +a faint echo, farther still. Ben listened a few moments and turned into +the lawn of the hotel. The music suddenly stopped, the tramp of feet +echoed on the porch, a woman screamed, and from the rear of the house came +the cry: + +"Fire! Fire!" + +Almost at the same moment an immense sheet of flame shot skyward from the +big barn. + +"My God!" groaned Ben. "Jake's in jail to-night, and they've set the barn +on fire. It's worth more than the house." + +The crowd rushed down the hill to the blazing building, Marion's fleet +figure in its flying white dress leading the crowd. + +The lowing of the cows and the wild neighing of the horses rang above the +roar of the flames. + +Before Ben could reach the spot Marion had opened every stall. Two cows +leaped out to safety, but not a horse would move from its stall, and each +moment wilder and more pitiful grew their death cries. + +Marion rushed to Ben, her eyes dilated, her face as white as the dress she +wore. + +"Oh, Ben, Queen won't come out! What shall I do?" + +"You can do nothing, child. A horse won't come out of a burning stable +unless he's blindfolded. They'll all be burned to death." + +"Oh! no!" the girl cried in agony. + +"They'd trample you to death if you tried to get them out. It can't be +helped. It's too late." + +As Ben looked back at the gathering crowd, Marion suddenly snatched a +horse blanket, lying at the door, ran with the speed of a deer to the +pond, plunged in, sprang out, and sped back to the open door of Queen's +stall, through which her shrill cry could be heard above the others. + +As the girl ran toward the burning building, her thin white dress clinging +close to her exquisite form, she looked like the marble figure of a sylph +by the hand of some great master into which God had suddenly breathed the +breath of life. + +As they saw her purpose, a cry of horror rose from the crowd, her mother's +scream loud above the rest. + +Ben rushed to catch her, shouting: + +"Marion! Marion! She'll trample you to death!" + +He was too late. She leaped into the stall. The crowd held their breath. +There was a moment of awful suspense, and the mare sprang through the open +door with the little white figure clinging to her mane and holding the +blanket over her head. + +A cheer rang above the roar of the flames. The girl did not loose her hold +until her beautiful pet was led to a place of safety, while she clung to +her neck and laughed and cried for joy. First her mother, then Margaret, +Mrs. Cameron, and Elsie took her in their arms. + +As Ben approached the group, Elsie whispered to him: "Kiss her!" + +Ben took her hand, his eyes full of unshed tears, and said: + +"The bravest deed a woman ever did--you're a heroine, Marion!" + +Before she knew it he stooped and kissed her. + +She was very still for a moment, smiled, trembled from head to foot, +blushed scarlet, took her mother by the hand, and without a word hurried +to the house. + +Poor Becky was whining among the excited crowd and sought in vain for +Marion. At last she got Margaret's attention, caught her dress in her +teeth and led her to a corner of the lot, where she had laid side by side +her puppies, smothered to death. She stood and looked at them with her +tail drooping, the picture of despair. Margaret burst into tears and +called Ben. + +He bent and put his arm around the setter's neck and stroked her head with +his hand. Looking at up his sister, he said: + +"Don't tell Marion of this. She can't stand any more to-night." + +The crowd had all dispersed, and the flames had died down for want of +fuel. The odour of roasting flesh, pungent and acrid, still lingered a +sharp reminder of the tragedy. + +Ben stood on the back porch, talking in low tones to his father. + +"Will you join us now, sir? We need the name and influence of men of your +standing." + +"My boy, two wrongs never made a right. It's better to endure awhile. The +sober commonsense of the Nation will yet save us. We must appeal to it." + +"Eight more fires were seen from town to-night." + +"You only guess their origin." + +"I know their origin. It was done by the League at a signal as a +celebration of the election and a threat of terror to the county. One of +our men concealed a faithful negro under the floor of the school-house and +heard the plot hatched. We expected it a month ago--but hoped they had +given it up." + +"Even so, my boy, a secret society such as you have planned means a +conspiracy that may bring exile or death. I hate lawlessness and disorder. +We have had enough of it. Your clan means ultimately martial law. At least +we will get rid of these soldiers by this election. They have done their +worst to me, but we may save others by patience." + +"It's the only way, sir. The next step will be a black hand on a white +woman's throat!" + +The doctor frowned. "Let us hope for the best. Your clan is the last act +of desperation." + +"But if everything else fail, and this creeping horror becomes a +fact--then what?" + +"My boy, we will pray that God may never let us live to see the day!" + +[Illustration: THE BLACK MASTERS OF THE SOUTH DURING RECONSTRUCTION.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RIOT IN THE MASTER'S HALL + + +Alarmed at the possible growth of the secret clan into which Ben had urged +him to enter, Dr. Cameron determined to press for relief from oppression +by an open appeal to the conscience of the Nation. + +He called a meeting of conservative leaders in a Taxpayers' Convention at +Columbia. His position as leader had been made supreme by the indignities +he had suffered, and he felt sure of his ability to accomplish results. +Every county in the State was represented by its best men in this +gathering at the Capitol. + +The day he undertook to present his memorial to the Legislature was one he +never forgot. The streets were crowded with negroes who had come to town +to hear Lynch, the Lieutenant-Governor, speak in a mass-meeting. Negro +policemen swung their clubs in his face as he pressed through the insolent +throng up the street to the stately marble Capitol. At the door a black, +greasy trooper stopped him to parley. Every decently dressed white man was +regarded a spy. + +As he passed inside the doors of the House of Representatives the rush of +foul air staggered him. The reek of vile cigars and stale whiskey, mingled +with the odour of perspiring negroes, was overwhelming. He paused and +gasped for breath. + +The space behind the seats of the members was strewn with corks, broken +glass, stale crusts, greasy pieces of paper, and picked bones. The hall +was packed with negroes, smoking, chewing, jabbering, pushing, +perspiring. + +A carpet-bagger at his elbow was explaining to an old darkey from down +east why his forty acres and a mule hadn't come. + +On the other side of him a big negro bawled: + +"Dat's all right! De cullud man on top!" + +The doctor surveyed the hall in dismay. At first not a white member was +visible. The galleries were packed with negroes. The Speaker presiding was +a negro, the Clerk a negro, the doorkeepers negroes, the little pages all +coal-black negroes, the Chaplain a negro. The negro party consisted of one +hundred and one--ninety-four blacks and seven scallawags, who claimed to +be white. The remains of Aryan civilization were represented by +twenty-three white men from the Scotch-Irish hill counties. + +The doctor had served three terms as the member from Ulster in this hall +in the old days, and its appearance now was beyond any conceivable depth +of degradation. + +The ninety-four Africans, constituting almost its solid membership, were a +motley crew. Every negro type was there, from the genteel butler to the +clodhopper from the cotton and rice fields. Some had on second-hand seedy +frock-coats their old master had given them before the war, glossy and +threadbare. Old stovepipe hats, of every style in vogue since Noah came +out of the ark, were placed conspicuously on the desks or cocked on the +backs of the heads of the honourable members. Some wore the coarse clothes +of the field, stained with red mud. + +Old Aleck, he noted, had a red woollen comforter wound round his neck in +place of a shirt or collar. He had tried to go barefooted, but the Speaker +had issued a rule that members should come shod. He was easing his feet by +placing his brogans under the desk, wearing only his red socks. + +Each member had his name painted in enormous gold letters on his desk, and +had placed beside it a sixty-dollar French imported spittoon. Even the +Congress of the United States, under the inspiration of Oakes Ames and +Speaker Colfax, could only afford one of domestic make, which cost a +dollar. + +The uproar was deafening. From four to six negroes were trying to speak at +the same time. Aleck's majestic mouth with blue gums and projecting teeth +led the chorus as he ambled down the aisle, his bow-legs flying their +red-sock ensigns. + +The Speaker singled him out--his voice was something which simply could +not be ignored--rapped and yelled: + +"De gemman from Ulster set down!" + +Aleck turned crestfallen and resumed his seat, throwing his big flat feet +in their red woollens up on his desk and hiding his face behind their +enormous spread. + +He had barely settled in his chair before a new idea flashed through his +head and up he jumped again: + +"Mistah Speaker!" he bawled. + +"Orda da!" yelled another. + +"Knock 'im in de head!" + +"Seddown, nigger!" + +The Speaker pointed his gavel at Aleck and threatened him laughingly: + +"Ef de gemman from Ulster doan set down I gwine call 'im ter orda!" + +Uncle Aleck greeted this threat with a wild guffaw, which the whole House +about him joined in heartily. They laughed like so many hens +cackling--when one started the others would follow. + +The most of them were munching peanuts, and the crush of hulls under heavy +feet added a subnote to the confusion like the crackle of a prairie fire. + +The ambition of each negro seemed to be to speak at least a half-dozen +times on each question, saying the same thing every time. + +No man was allowed to talk five minutes without an interruption which +brought on another and another until the speaker was drowned in a storm of +contending yells. Their struggles to get the floor with bawlings, +bellowings, and contortions, and the senseless rap of the Speaker's gavel, +were something appalling. + +On this scene, through fetid smoke and animal roar, looked down from the +walls, in marble bas-relief, the still white faces of Robert Hayne and +George McDuffie, through whose veins flowed the blood of Scottish kings, +while over it brooded in solemn wonder the face of John Laurens, whose +diplomatic genius at the court of France won millions of gold for our +tottering cause, and sent a French fleet and army into the Chesapeake to +entrap Cornwallis at Yorktown. + +The little group of twenty-three white men, the descendants of these +spirits, to whom Dr. Cameron had brought his memorial, presented a +pathetic spectacle. Most of them were old men, who sat in grim silence +with nothing to do or say as they watched the rising black tide, their +dignity, reserve, and decorum at once the wonder and the shame of the +modern world. + +At least they knew that the minstrel farce being enacted on that floor was +a tragedy as deep and dark as was ever woven of the blood and tears of a +conquered people. Beneath those loud guffaws they could hear the death +rattle in the throat of their beloved State, barbarism strangling +civilization by brute force. + +For all the stupid uproar, the black leaders of this mob knew what they +wanted. One of them was speaking now, the leader of the House, the +Honourable Napoleon Whipper. + +Dr. Cameron had taken his seat in the little group of white members in one +corner of the chamber, beside an old friend from an adjoining county whom +he had known in better days. + +"Now listen," said his friend. "When Whipper talks he always says +something." + +"Mr. Speaker, I move you, sir, in view of the arduous duties which our +presiding officer has performed this week for the State, that he be +allowed one thousand dollars extra pay." + +The motion was put without debate and carried. + +The Speaker then called Whipper to the Chair and made the same motion, to +give the Leader of the House an extra thousand dollars for the performance +of his heavy duties. + +It was carried. + +"What does that mean?" asked the doctor. + +"Very simple; Whipper and the Speaker adjourned the House yesterday +afternoon to attend a horse race. They lost a thousand dollars each +betting on the wrong horse. They are recuperating after the strain. They +are booked for judges of the Supreme Court when they finish this job. The +negro mass-meeting to-night is to indorse their names for the Supreme +Bench." + +"Is it possible!" the doctor exclaimed. + +When Whipper resumed his place at his desk, the introduction of bills +began. One after another were sent to the Speaker's desk, a measure to +disarm the whites and equip with modern rifles a negro militia of 80,000 +men; to make the uniform of Confederate gray the garb of convicts in South +Carolina, with a sign of the rank to signify the degree of crime; to +prevent any person calling another a "nigger"; to require men to remove +their hats in the presence of all officers, civil or military, and all +disfranchised men to remove their hats in the presence of voters; to force +black and whites to attend the same schools and open the State University +to negroes; to permit the intermarriage of whites and blacks; and to +inforce social equality. + +Whipper made a brief speech on the last measure: + +"Before I am through, I mean that it shall be known that Napoleon Whipper +is as good as any man in South Carolina. Don't tell me that I am not on an +equality with any man God ever made." + +Dr. Cameron turned pale, and trembling with excitement, asked his friend: + +"Can that man pass such measures, and the Governor sign them?" + +"He can pass anything he wishes. The Governor is his creature--a dirty +little scallawag who tore the Union flag from Fort Sumter, trampled it in +the dust, and helped raise the flag of Confederacy over it. Now he is +backed by the Government at Washington. He won his election by dancing at +negro balls and the purchase of delegates. His salary as Governor is +$3,500 a year, and he spends over $40,000. Comment is unnecessary. This +Legislature has stolen millions of dollars, and already bankrupted the +treasury. The day Howle was elected to the Senate of the United States +every negro on the floor had his roll of bills and some of them counted it +out on their desks. In your day the annual cost of the State government +was $400,000. This year it is $2,000,000. These thieves steal daily. They +don't deny it. They simply dare you to prove it. The writing paper on the +desks cost $16,000. These clocks on the wall $600 each, and every little +Radical newspaper in the State has been subsidized in sums varying from +$1,000 to $7,000. Each member is allowed to draw for mileage, per diem, +and 'sundries.' God only knows what the bill for 'sundries' will aggregate +by the end of the session." + +"I couldn't conceive of this!" exclaimed the doctor. + +"I've only given you a hint. We are a conquered race. The iron hand of +Fate is on us. We can only wait for the shadows to deepen into night. +President Grant appears to be a babe in the woods. Schuyler Colfax, the +Vice-president, and Belknap, the Secretary of War, are in the saddle in +Washington. I hear things are happening there that are quite interesting. +Besides, Congress now can give little relief. The real lawmaking power in +America is the State Legislature. The State lawmaker enters into the holy +of holies of our daily life. Once more we are a sovereign State--a +sovereign negro State." + +"I fear my mission is futile," said the doctor. + +"It's ridiculous--I'll call for you to-night and take you to hear Lynch, +our Lieutenant-Governor. He is a remarkable man. Our negro Supreme Court +Judge will preside--" + +Uncle Aleck, who had suddenly spied Dr. Cameron, broke in with a laughing +welcome: + +"I 'clar ter goodness, Dr. Cammun, I didn't know you wuz here, sah. I sho' +glad ter see you. I axes yer ter come across de street ter my room; I got +sumfin' pow'ful pertickler ter say ter you." + +The doctor followed Aleck out of the hall and across the street to his +room in a little boarding-house. His door was locked, and the windows +darkened by blinds. Instead of opening the blinds he lighted a lamp. + +"Ob cose, Dr. Cammun, you say nuffin 'bout what I gwine tell you?" + +"Certainly not, Aleck." + +The room was full of drygoods boxes. The space under the bed was packed, +and they were piled to the ceiling around the walls. + +"Why, what's all this, Aleck?" + +The member from Ulster chuckled: + +"Dr. Cammun, yu'se been er pow'ful frien' ter me--gimme medicine lots er +times, en I hain't nebber paid you nuttin'. I'se sho' come inter de +kingdom now, en I wants ter pay my respects ter you, sah. Des look ober +dat paper, en mark what you wants, en I hab 'em sont home fur you." + +The member from Ulster handed his physician a printed list of more than +five hundred articles of merchandise. The doctor read it over with +amazement. + +"I don't understand it, Aleck. Do you own a store?" + +"Na-sah, but we git all we wants fum mos' eny ob 'em. Dem's 'sundries,' +sah, dat de Gubment gibs de members. We des orda what we needs. No trouble +'tall, sah. De men what got de goods come roun' en beg us ter take 'em." + +The doctor smiled in spite of the tragedy back of the joke. + +"Let's see some of the goods, Aleck--are they first class?" + +"Yessah; de bes' goin'. I show you." + +He pulled out a number of boxes and bundles, exhibiting carpets, door +mats, hassocks, dog collars, cow bells, oilcloths, velvets, mosquito nets, +damask, Irish linen, billiard outfits, towels, blankets, flannels, quilts, +women's hoods, hats, ribbons, pins, needles, scissors, dumb bells, skates, +crape skirt braids, tooth brushes, face powder, hooks and eyes, skirts, +bustles, chignons, garters, artificial busts, chemises, parasols, watches, +jewellery, diamond earrings, ivory-handled knives and forks, pistols and +guns, and a Webster's Dictionary. + +"Got lots mo' in dem boxes nailed up dar--yessah, hit's no use er lettin' +good tings go by yer when you kin des put out yer han' en stop 'em! Some +er de members ordered horses en carriages, but I tuk er par er fine mules +wid harness en two buggies an er wagin. Dey 'roun at de libry stable, +sah." + +The doctor thanked Aleck for his friendly feeling, but told him it was, of +course, impossible for him at this time, being only a taxpayer and neither +a voter nor a member of the Legislature, to share in his supply of +"sundries." + +He went to the warehouse that night with his friend to hear Lynch, +wondering if his mind were capable of receiving another shock. + +This meeting had been called to indorse the candidacy, for Justice of the +Supreme Court, of Napoleon Whipper, the Leader of the House, the notorious +negro thief and gambler, and of William Pitt Moses, an ex-convict, his +confederate in crime. They had been unanimously chosen for the positions +by a secret caucus of the ninety-four negro members of the House. This +addition to the Court, with the negro already a member, would give a +majority to the black man on the last Tribunal of Appeal. + +The few white men of the party who had any sense of decency were in open +revolt at this atrocity. But their influence was on the wane. The +carpet-bagger shaped the first Convention and got the first plums of +office. Now the negro was in the saddle, and he meant to stay. There were +not enough white men in the Legislature to force a roll-call on a division +of the House. This meeting was an open defiance of all pale-faces inside +or outside party lines. + +Every inch of space in the big cotton warehouse was jammed--a black living +cloud, pungent and piercing. + +The distinguished Lieutenant-Governor, Silas Lynch, had not yet arrived, +but the negro Justice of the Supreme Court, Pinchback, was in his seat as +the presiding officer. + +Dr. Cameron watched the movements of the black judge, already notorious +for the sale of his opinions, with a sense of sickening horror. This man +was but yesterday a slave, his father a medicine man in an African jungle +who decided the guilt or innocence of the accused by the test of +administering poison. If the poison killed the man, he was guilty; if he +survived, he was innocent. For four thousand years his land had stood a +solid bulwark of unbroken barbarism. Out of its darkness he had been +thrust upon the seat of judgment of the laws of the proudest and highest +type of man evolved in time. It seemed a hideous dream. + +His thoughts were interrupted by a shout. It came spontaneous and +tremendous in its genuine feeling. The magnificent figure of Lynch, their +idol, appeared walking down the aisle escorted by the little scallawag who +was the Governor. + +He took his seat on the platform with the easy assurance of conscious +power. His broad shoulders, superb head, and gleaming jungle eyes held +every man in the audience before he had spoken a word. + +In the first masterful tones of his voice the doctor's keen intelligence +caught the ring of his savage metal and felt the shock of his powerful +personality--a personality which had thrown to the winds every mask, whose +sole aim of life was sensual, whose only fears were of physical pain and +death, who could worship a snake and sacrifice a human being. + +His playful introduction showed him a child of Mystery, moved by Voices +and inspired by a Fetish. His face was full of good humour, and his whole +figure rippled with sleek animal vivacity. For the moment, life was a +comedy and a masquerade teeming with whims, fancies, ecstasies and +superstitions. + +He held the surging crowd in the hollow of his hand. They yelled, laughed, +howled, or wept as he willed. + +Now he painted in burning words the imaginary horrors of slavery until the +tears rolled down his cheeks and he wept at the sound of his own voice. +Every dusky hearer burst into tears and moans. + +He stopped, suddenly brushed the tears from his eyes, sprang to the edge +of the platform, threw both arms above his head and shouted: + +"Hosannah to the Lord God Almighty for Emancipation!" + +Instantly five thousand negroes, as one man, were on their feet, shouting +and screaming. Their shouts rose in unison, swelled into a thunder peal, +and died away as one voice. + +Dead silence followed, and every eye was again riveted on Lynch. For two +hours the doctor sat transfixed, listening and watching him sway the vast +audience with hypnotic power. + +There was not one note of hesitation or of doubt. It was the challenge of +race against race to mortal combat. His closing words again swept every +negro from his seat and melted every voice into a single frenzied shout: + +"Within five years," he cried, "the intelligence and the wealth of this +mighty State will be transferred to the negro race. Lift up your heads. +The world is yours. Take it. Here and now I serve notice on every white +man who breathes that I am as good as he is. I demand, and I am going to +have, the privilege of going to see him in his house or his hotel, eating +with him and sleeping with him, and when I see fit, to take his daughter +in marriage!" + +As the doctor emerged from the stifling crowd with his friend, he drew a +deep breath of fresh air, took from his pocket his conservative memorial, +picked it into little bits, and scattered them along the street as he +walked in silence back to his hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AT LOVER'S LEAP + + +In spite of the pitiful collapse of old Stoneman under his stroke of +paralysis, his children still saw the unconquered soul shining in his +colourless eyes. They had both been on the point of confessing their love +affairs to him and joining in the inevitable struggle when he was +stricken. They knew only too well that he would not consent to a dual +alliance with the Camerons under the conditions of fierce hatreds and +violence into which the State had drifted. They were too high-minded to +consider a violation of his wishes while thus helpless, with his strange +eyes following them about in childlike eagerness. His weakness was +mightier than his iron will. + +So, for eighteen months, while he slowly groped out of mental twilight, +each had waited--Elsie with a tender faith struggling with despair, and +Phil in a torture of uncertainty and fear. + +In the meantime, the young Northerner had become as radical in his +sympathies with the Southern people as his father had ever been against +them. This power of assimilation has always been a mark of Southern +genius. The sight of the Black Hand on their throats now roused his +righteous indignation. The patience with which they endured was to him +amazing. The Southerner he had found to be the last man on earth to become +a revolutionist. All his traits were against it. His genius for command, +the deep sense of duty and honour, his hospitality, his deathless love of +home, his supreme constancy and sense of civic unity, all combined to make +him ultraconservative. He began now to see that it was reverence for +authority as expressed in the Constitution under which slavery was +established which made Secession inevitable. + +Besides, the laziness and incapacity of the negro had been more than he +could endure. With no ties of tradition or habits of life to bind him, he +simply refused to tolerate them. In this feeling Elsie had grown early to +sympathize. She discharged Aunt Cindy for feeding her children from the +kitchen, and brought a cook and house girl from the North, while Phil +would employ only white men in any capacity. + +In the desolation of negro rule the Cameron farm had become worthless. The +taxes had more than absorbed the income, and the place was only kept from +execution by the indomitable energy of Mrs. Cameron, who made the hotel +pay enough to carry the interest on a mortgage which was increasing from +season to season. + +The doctor's practice was with him a divine calling. He never sent bills +to his patients. They paid something if they had it. Now they had +nothing. + +Ben's law practice was large for his age and experience, but his clients +had no money. + +While the Camerons were growing each day poorer, Phil was becoming rich. +His genius, skill, and enterprise had been quick to see the possibilities +of the waterpower. The old Eagle cotton mills had been burned during the +war. Phil organized the Eagle & Phoenix Company, interested Northern +capitalists, bought the falls, and erected two great mills, the dim hum of +whose spindles added a new note to the river's music. Eager, swift, +modest, his head full of ideas, his heart full of faith, he had pressed +forward to success. + +As the old Commoner's mind began to clear, and his recovery was sure, Phil +determined to press his suit for Margaret's hand to an issue. + +Ben had dropped a hint of an interview of the Rev. Hugh McAlpin with Dr. +Cameron, which had thrown Phil into a cold sweat. + +He hurried to the hotel to ask Margaret to drive with him that afternoon. +He would stop at Lover's Leap and settle the question. + +He met the preacher, just emerging from the door, calm, handsome, serious, +and Margaret by his side. The dark-haired beauty seemed strangely serene. +What could it mean? His heart was in his throat. Was he too late? Wreathed +in smiles when the preacher had gone, the girl's face was a riddle he +could not solve. + +To his joy, she consented to go. + +As he left in his trim little buggy for the hotel, he stooped and kissed +Elsie, whispering: + +"Make an offering on the altar of love for me, Sis!" + +"You're too slow. The prayers of all the saints will not save you!" she +replied with a laugh, throwing him a kiss as he disappeared in the dust. + +As they drove through the great forest on the cliffs overlooking the +river, the Southern world seemed lit with new splendours to-day for the +Northerner. His heart beat with a strange courage. The odour of the pines, +their sighing music, the subtone of the falls below, the subtle +life-giving perfume of the fullness of summer, the splendour of the sun +gleaming through the deep foliage, and the sweet sensuous air, all seemed +incarnate in the calm, lovely face and gracious figure beside him. + +They took their seat on the old rustic built against the beech, which was +the last tree on the brink of the cliff. A hundred feet below flowed the +river, rippling softly along a narrow strip of sand which its current had +thrown against the rocks. The ledge of towering granite formed a cave +eighty feet in depth at the water's edge. From this projecting wall, +tradition said a young Indian princess once leaped with her lover, fleeing +from the wrath of a cruel father who had separated them. The cave below +was inaccessible from above, being reached by a narrow footpath along the +river's edge when entered a mile downstream. + +The view from the seat, under the beech, was one of marvellous beauty. For +miles the broad river rolled in calm, shining glory seaward, its banks +fringed with cane and trees, while fields of corn and cotton spread in +waving green toward the distant hills and blue mountains of the west. + +Every tree on this cliff was cut with the initials of generations of +lovers from Piedmont. + +They sat in silence for awhile, Margaret idly playing with a flower she +had picked by the pathway, and Phil watching her devoutly. The Southern +sun had tinged her face the reddish warm hue of ripened fruit, doubly +radiant by contrast with her wealth of dark-brown hair. The lustrous +glance of her eyes, half veiled by their long lashes, and the graceful, +careless pose of her stately figure held him enraptured. Her dress of +airy, azure blue, so becoming to her dark beauty, gave Phil the impression +of eiderdown feathers of some rare bird of the tropics. He felt that if he +dared to touch her she might lift her wings and sail over the cliff into +the sky and forget to light again at his side. + +"I am going to ask a very bold and impertinent question, Miss Margaret," +Phil said with resolution. "May I?" + +Margaret smiled incredulously. + +"I'll risk your impertinence, and decide as to its boldness." + +"Tell me, please, what that preacher said to you to-day." + +Margaret looked away, unable to suppress the merriment that played about +her eyes and mouth. + +"Will you never breathe it to a soul if I do?" + +"Never." + +"Honest Injun, here on the sacred altar of the princess?" + +"On my honour." + +"Then I'll tell you," she said, biting her lips to keep back a laugh. "Mr. +McAlpin is very handsome and eloquent. I have always thought him the best +preacher we have ever had in Piedmont----" + +"Yes, I know," Phil interrupted with a frown. "He is very pious," she went +on evenly, "and seeks Divine guidance in prayer in everything he does. He +called this morning to see me, and I was playing for him in the little +music-room off the parlour, when he suddenly closed the door and said: + +"'Miss Margaret, I am going to take, this morning, the most important step +of my life----' + +"Of course I hadn't the remotest idea what he meant---- + +"'Will you join me in a word of prayer?' he asked, and knelt right down. I +was accustomed, of course, to kneel with him in family worship at his +pastoral calls, and so from habit I slipped to one knee by the piano +stool, wondering what on earth he was about. When he prayed with fervour +for the Lord to bless the great love with which he hoped to hallow my +life--I giggled. It broke up the meeting. He rose and asked me to marry +him. I told him the Lord hadn't revealed it to me----" + +Phil seized her hand and held it firmly. The smile died from the girl's +face, her hand trembled, and the rose tint on her cheeks flamed to +scarlet. + +"Margaret, my own, I love you," he cried with joy. "You could have told +that story only to the one man whom you love--is it not true?" + +"Yes. I've loved you always," said the low, sweet voice. + +"Always?" asked Phil through a tear. + +"Before I saw you, when they told me you were as Ben's twin brother, my +heart began to sing at the sound of your name----" + +"Call it," he whispered. + +"Phil, my sweetheart!" she said with a laugh. + +"How tender and homelike the music of your voice! The world has never seen +the match of your gracious Southern womanhood! Snowbound in the North, I +dreamed, as a child, of this world of eternal sunshine. And now every +memory and dream I've found in you." + +"And you won't be disappointed in my simple ideal that finds its all +within a home?" + +"No. I love the old-fashioned dream of the South. Maybe you have enchanted +me, but I love these green hills and mountains, these rivers musical with +cascade and fall, these solemn forests--but for the Black Curse, the South +would be to-day the garden of the world!" + +"And you will help our people lift this curse?" softly asked the girl, +nestling closer to his side. + +"Yes, dearest, thy people shall be mine! Had I a thousand wrongs to +cherish, I'd forgive them all for your sake. I'll help you build here a +new South on all that's good and noble in the old, until its dead fields +blossom again, its harbours bristle with ships, and the hum of a thousand +industries make music in every valley. I'd sing to you in burning verse if +I could, but it is not my way. I have been awkward and slow in love, +perhaps--but I'll be swift in your service. I dream to make dead stones +and wood live and breathe for you, of victories wrung from Nature that are +yours. My poems will be deeds, my flowers the hard-earned wealth that has +a soul, which I shall lay at your feet." + +"Who said my lover was dumb?" she sighed, with a twinkle in her shining +eyes. "You must introduce me to your father soon. He must like me as my +father does you, or our dream can never come true." + +A pain gripped Phil's heart, but he answered bravely: + +"I will. He can't help loving you." + +They stood on the rustic seat to carve their initials within a circle, +high on the old beechwood book of love. + +"May I write it out in full--Margaret Cameron--Philip Stoneman?" he +asked. + +"No--only the initials now--the full names when you've seen my father and +I've seen yours. Jeannie Campbell and Henry Lenoir were once written thus +in full, and many a lover has looked at that circle and prayed for +happiness like theirs. You can see there a new one cut over the old, the +bark has filled, and written on the fresh page is 'Marion Lenoir' with the +blank below for her lover's name." + +Phil looked at the freshly cut circle and laughed: + +"I wonder if Marion or her mother did that?" + +"Her mother, of course." + +"I wonder whose will be the lucky name some day within it?" said Phil +musingly as he finished his own. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A NIGHT HAWK + + +When the old Commoner's private physician had gone and his mind had fully +cleared, he would sit for hours in the sunshine of the vine-clad porch, +asking Elsie of the village, its life, and its people. He smiled +good-naturedly at her eager sympathy for their sufferings as at the +enthusiasm of a child who could not understand. He had come possessed by a +great idea--events must submit to it. Her assurance that the poverty and +losses of the people were far in excess of the worst they had known during +the war was too absurd even to secure his attention. + +He had refused to know any of the people, ignoring the existence of +Elsie's callers. But he had fallen in love with Marion from the moment he +had seen her. The cold eye of the old fox hunter kindled with the fire of +his forgotten youth at the sight of this beautiful girl seated on the +glistening back of the mare she had saved from death. + +As she rode through the village every boy lifted his hat as to passing +royalty, and no one, old or young, could allow her to pass without a cry +of admiration. Her exquisite figure had developed into the full tropic +splendour of Southern girlhood. + +She had rejected three proposals from ardent lovers, on one of whom her +mother had quite set her heart. A great fear had grown in Mrs. Lenoir's +mind lest she were in love with Ben Cameron. She slipped her arm around +her one day and timidly asked her. + +A faint flush tinged Marion's face up to the roots of her delicate blonde +hair, and she answered with a quick laugh: + +"Mamma, how silly you are! You know I've always been in love with +Ben--since I can first remember. I know he is in love with Elsie Stoneman. +I am too young, the world too beautiful, and life too sweet to grieve over +my first baby love. I expect to dance with him at his wedding, then meet +my fate and build my own nest." + +Old Stoneman begged that she come every day to see him. He never tired +praising her to Elsie. As she walked gracefully up to the house one +afternoon, holding Hugh by the hand, he said to Elsie: + +"Next to you, my dear, she is the most charming creature I ever saw. Her +tenderness for everything that needs help touches the heart of an old lame +man in a very soft spot." + +"I've never seen any one who could resist her," Elsie answered. "Her +gloves may be worn, her feet clad in old shoes, yet she is always neat, +graceful, dainty, and serene. No wonder her mother worships her." + +Sam Ross, her simple friend, had stopped at the gate, and looked over into +the lawn as if afraid to come in. + +When Marion saw Sam, she turned back to the gate to invite him in. The +keeper of the poor, a vicious-looking negro, suddenly confronted him, and +he shrank in terror close to the girl's side. + +"What you doin' here, sah?" the black keeper railed. "Ain't I done tole +you 'bout runnin' away?" + +"You let him alone," Marion cried. + +The negro pushed her roughly from his side and knocked Sam down. The girl +screamed for help, and old Stoneman hobbled down the steps, following +Elsie. + +When they reached the gate, Marion was bending over the prostrate form. + +"Oh, my, my, I believe he's killed him!" she wailed. + +"Run for the doctor, sonny, quick," Stoneman said to Hugh. The boy darted +away and brought Dr. Cameron. + +"How dare you strike that man, you devil?" thundered the old statesman. + +"'Case I tole 'im ter stay home en do de wuk I put 'im at, en he all de +time runnin' off here ter git somfin' ter eat. I gwine frail de life outen +'im, ef he doan min' me." + +"Well, you make tracks back to the Poorhouse. I'll attend to this man, and +I'll have you arrested for this before night," said Stoneman, with a +scowl. + +The black keeper laughed as he left. + +"Not 'less you'se er bigger man dan Gubner Silas Lynch, you won't!" + +When Dr. Cameron had restored Sam, and dressed the wound on his head where +he had struck a stone in falling, Stoneman insisted that the boy be put to +bed. + +Turning to Dr. Cameron, he asked: + +"Why should they put a brute like this in charge of the poor?" + +"That's a large question, sir, at this time," said the doctor politely, +"and now that you have asked it, I have some things I've been longing for +an opportunity to say to you." + +"Be seated, sir," the old Commoner answered, "I shall be glad to hear +them." + +Elsie's heart leaped with joy over the possible outcome of this appeal, +and she left the room with a smile for the doctor. + +"First, allow me," said the Southerner pleasantly, "to express my sorrow +at your long illness, and my pleasure at seeing you so well. Your children +have won the love of all our people and have had our deepest sympathy in +your illness." + +Stoneman muttered an inaudible reply, and the doctor went on: + +"Your question brings up, at once, the problem of the misery and +degradation into which our country has sunk under negro rule----" + +Stoneman smiled coldly and interrupted: + +"Of course, you understand my position in politics, Doctor Cameron--I am a +Radical Republican." + +"So much the better," was the response. "I have been longing for months to +get your ear. Your word will be all the more powerful if raised in our +behalf. The negro is the master of our State, county, city, and town +governments. Every school, college, hospital, asylum, and poorhouse is his +prey. What you have seen is but a sample. Negro insolence grows beyond +endurance. Their women are taught to insult their old mistresses and mock +their poverty as they pass in their old, faded dresses. Yesterday a black +driver struck a white child of six with his whip, and when the mother +protested, she was arrested by a negro policeman, taken before a negro +magistrate, and fined $10 for 'insulting a freedman.'" + +Stoneman frowned: "Such things must be very exceptional." + +"They are everyday occurrences and cease to excite comment. Lynch, the +Lieutenant-Governor, who has bought a summer home here, is urging this +campaign of insult with deliberate purpose----" + +The old man shook his head. "I can't think the Lieutenant-Governor guilty +of such petty villainy." + +"Our school commissioner," the doctor continued, "is a negro who can +neither read nor write. The black grand jury last week discharged a negro +for stealing cattle and indicted the owner for false imprisonment. No such +rate of taxation was ever imposed on a civilized people. A tithe of it +cost Great Britain her colonies. There are 5,000 homes in this +county--2,900 of them are advertised for sale by the sheriff to meet his +tax bills. This house will be sold next court day----" + +Stoneman looked up sharply. "Sold for taxes?" + +"Yes; with the farm which has always been Mrs. Lenoir's support. In part +her loss came from the cotton tax. Congress, in addition to the desolation +of war, and the ruin of black rule, has wrung from the cotton farmers of +the South a tax of $67,000,000. Every dollar of this money bears the stain +of the blood of starving people. They are ready to give up, or to spring +some desperate scheme of resistance----" + +The old man lifted his massive head and his great jaws came together with +a snap: + +"Resistance to the authority of the National Government?" + +"No; resistance to the travesty of government and the mockery of +civilization under which we are being throttled! The bayonet is now in the +hands of a brutal negro militia. The tyranny of military martinets was +child's play to this. As I answered your call this morning I was stopped +and turned back in the street by the drill of a company of negroes under +the command of a vicious scoundrel named Gus who was my former slave. He +is the captain of this company. Eighty thousand armed negro troops, +answerable to no authority save the savage instincts of their officers, +terrorize the State. Every white company has been disarmed and disbanded +by our scallawag Governor. I tell you, sir, we are walking on the crust of +a volcano----" + +Old Stoneman scowled as the doctor rose and walked nervously to the window +and back. + +"An appeal from you to the conscience of the North might save us," he went +on eagerly. "Black hordes of former slaves, with the intelligence of +children and the instincts of savages, armed with modern rifles, parade +daily in front of their unarmed former masters. A white man has no right a +negro need respect. The children of the breed of men who speak the tongue +of Burns and Shakespeare, Drake and Raleigh, have been disarmed and made +subject to the black spawn of an African jungle! Can human flesh endure +it? When Goth and Vandal barbarians overran Rome, the negro was the slave +of the Roman Empire. The savages of the North blew out the light of +Ancient Civilization, but in all the dark ages which followed they never +dreamed the leprous infamy of raising a black slave to rule over his +former master! No people in the history of the world have ever before been +so basely betrayed, so wantonly humiliated and degraded!" + +Stoneman lifted his head in amazement at the burst of passionate intensity +with which the Southerner poured out his protest. + +"For a Russian to rule a Pole," he went on, "a Turk to rule a Greek, or an +Austrian to dominate an Italian is hard enough, but for a thick-lipped, +flat-nosed, spindle-shanked negro, exuding his nauseating animal odour, to +shout in derision over the hearths and homes of white men and women is an +atrocity too monstrous for belief. Our people are yet dazed by its horror. +My God! when they realize its meaning, whose arm will be strong enough to +hold them?" + +"I should think the South was sufficiently amused with resistance to +authority," interrupted Stoneman. + +"Even so. Yet there is a moral force at the bottom of every living race of +men. The sense of right, the feeling of racial destiny--these are +unconquered and unconquerable forces. Every man in South Carolina to-day +is glad that slavery is dead. The war was not too great a price for us to +pay for the lifting of its curse. And now to ask a Southerner to be the +slave of a slave----" + +"And yet, Doctor," said Stoneman coolly, "manhood suffrage is the one +eternal thing fixed in the nature of Democracy. It is inevitable." + +"At the price of racial life? Never!" said the Southerner, with fiery +emphasis. "This Republic is great, not by reason of the amount of dirt we +possess, the size of our census roll, or our voting register--we are great +because of the genius of the race of pioneer white freemen who settled +this continent, dared the might of kings, and made a wilderness the home +of Freedom. Our future depends on the purity of this racial stock. The +grant of the ballot to these millions of semi-savages and the riot of +debauchery which has followed are crimes against human progress." + +"Yet may we not train him?" asked Stoneman. + +"To a point, yes, and then sink to his level if you walk as his equal in +physical contact with him. His race is not an infant; it is a +degenerate--older than yours in time. At last we are face to face with the +man whom slavery concealed with its rags. Suffrage is but the new paper +cloak with which the Demagogue has sought to hide the issue. Can we +assimilate the negro? The very question is pollution. In Hayti no white +man can own land. Black dukes and marquises drive over them and swear at +them for getting under their wheels. Is civilization a patent cloak with +which law-tinkers can wrap an animal and make him a king?" + +"But the negro must be protected by the ballot," protested the statesman. +"The humblest man must have the opportunity to rise. The real issue is +Democracy." + +"The issue, sir, is Civilization! Not whether a negro shall be protected, +but whether Society is worth saving from barbarism." + +"The statesman can educate," put in the Commoner. + +The doctor cleared his throat with a quick little nervous cough he was in +the habit of giving when deeply moved. + +"Education, sir, is the development of that which _is_. Since the dawn of +history the negro has owned the continent of Africa--rich beyond the dream +of poet's fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet. +Yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him +its glittering light. His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, +yet he never dreamed a harness, cart, or sled. A hunter by necessity, he +never made an axe, spear, or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment +of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour. In a land of +stone and timber he never sawed a foot of lumber, carved a block, or built +a house save of broken sticks and mud. With league on league of ocean +strand and miles of inland seas, for four thousand years he watched their +surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, +the howl of the storm over his head, gazed on the dim blue horizon calling +him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed a sail! He lived +as his fathers lived--stole his food, worked his wife, sold his children, +ate his brother, content to drink, sing, dance, and sport as the ape! + +"And this creature, half child, half animal, the sport of impulse, whim, +and conceit, 'pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw,' a being who, +left to his will, roams at night and sleeps in the day, whose speech knows +no word of love, whose passions, once aroused, are as the fury of the +tiger--they have set this thing to rule over the Southern people----" + +The doctor sprang to his feet, his face livid, his eyes blazing with +emotion. "Merciful God--it surpasses human belief!" + +He sank exhausted in his chair, and, extending his hand in an eloquent +gesture, continued: + +"Surely, surely, sir, the people of the North are not mad? We can yet +appeal to the conscience and the brain of our brethren of a common race?" + +Stoneman was silent as if stunned. Deep down in his strange soul he was +drunk with the joy of a triumphant vengeance he had carried locked in the +depths of his being, yet the intensity of this man's suffering for a +people's cause surprised and distressed him as all individual pain hurt +him. + +Dr. Cameron rose, stung by his silence and the consciousness of the +hostility with which Stoneman had wrapped himself. + +"Pardon my apparent rudeness, Doctor," he said at length, extending his +hand. "The violence of your feeling stunned me for the moment. I'm obliged +to you for speaking. I like a plain-spoken man. I am sorry to learn of the +stupidity of the former military commandant in this town----" + +"My personal wrongs, sir," the doctor broke in, "are nothing!" + +"I am sorry, too, about these individual cases of suffering. They are the +necessary incidents of a great upheaval. But may it not all come out right +in the end? After the Dark Ages, day broke at last. We have the printing +press, railroad, and telegraph--a revolution in human affairs. We may do +in years what it took ages to do in the past. May not the black man +speedily emerge? Who knows? An appeal to the North will be a waste of +breath. This experiment is going to be made. It is written in the book of +Fate. But I like you. Come to see me again." + +Dr. Cameron left with a heavy heart. He had grown a great hope in this +long-wished-for appeal to Stoneman. It had come to his ears that the old +man, who had dwelt as one dead in their village, was a power. + +It was ten o'clock before the doctor walked slowly back to the hotel. As +he passed the armoury of the black militia, they were still drilling under +the command of Gus. The windows were open, through which came the steady +tramp of heavy feet and the cry of "Hep! Hep! Hep!" from the Captain's +thick cracked lips. The full-dress officer's uniform, with its gold +epaulets, yellow stripes, and glistening sword, only accentuated the +coarse bestiality of Gus. His huge jaws seemed to hide completely the gold +braid on his collar. + +The doctor watched, with a shudder, his black bloated face covered with +perspiration and the huge hand gripping his sword. + +They suddenly halted in double ranks and Gus yelled: + +"Odah, arms!" + +The butts of their rifles crashed to the floor with precision, and they +were allowed to break ranks for a brief rest. + +They sang "John Brown's Body," and as its echoes died away a big negro +swung his rifle in a circle over his head, shouting: + +"Here's your regulator for white trash! En dey's nine hundred ob 'em in +dis county!" + +"Yas, Lawd!" howled another. + +"We got 'em down now en we keep 'em dar, chile!" bawled another. + +The doctor passed on slowly to the hotel. The night was dark, the streets +were without lights under their present rulers, and the stars were hidden +with swift-flying clouds which threatened a storm. As he passed under the +boughs of an oak in front of his house, a voice above him whispered: + +"A message for you, sir." + +Had the wings of a spirit suddenly brushed his cheek, he would not have +been more startled. + +"Who are you?" he asked, with a slight tremor. + +"A Night Hawk of the Invisible Empire, with a message from the Grand +Dragon of the Realm," was the low answer, as he thrust a note in the +doctor's hand. "I will wait for your answer." + +The doctor fumbled to his office on the corner of the lawn, struck a +match, and read: + +"A great Scotch-Irish leader of the South from Memphis is here to-night +and wishes to see you. If you will meet General Forrest, I will bring him +to the hotel in fifteen minutes. Burn this. Ben." + +The doctor walked quickly back to the spot where he had heard the voice, +and said: + +"I'll see him with pleasure." + +The invisible messenger wheeled his horse, and in a moment the echo of his +muffled hoofs had died away in the distance. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BEAT OF A SPARROW'S WING + + +Dr. Cameron's appeal had left the old Commoner unshaken in his idea. There +could be but one side to any question with such a man, and that was his +side. He would stand by his own men, too. He believed in his own forces. +The bayonet was essential to his revolutionary programme--hence the hand +which held it could do no wrong. Wrongs were accidents which might occur +under any system. + +Yet in no way did he display the strange contradictions of his character +so plainly as in his inability to hate the individual who stood for the +idea he was fighting with maniac fury. He liked Dr. Cameron instantly, +though he had come to do a crime that would send him into beggared exile. + +Individual suffering he could not endure. In this the doctor's appeal had +startling results. + +He sent for Mrs. Lenoir and Marion. + +"I understand, Madam," he said gravely, "that your house and farm are to +be sold for taxes." + +"Yes, sir; we've given it up this time. Nothing can be done," was the +hopeless answer. + +"Would you consider an offer of twenty dollars an acre?" + +"Nobody would be fool enough to offer it. You can buy all the land in the +county for a dollar an acre. It's not worth anything." + +"I disagree with you," said Stoneman cheerfully. "I am looking far ahead. +I would like to make an experiment here with Pennsylvania methods on this +land. I'll give you ten thousand dollars cash for your five hundred acres +if you will take it." + +"You don't mean it?" Mrs. Lenoir gasped, choking back the tears. + +"Certainly. You can at once return to your home. I'll take another house, +and invest your money for you in good Northern securities." + +The mother burst into sobs, unable to speak, while Marion threw her arms +impulsively around the old man's neck and kissed him. + +His cold eyes were warmed with the first tear they had shed in years. + +He moved the next day to the Ross estate, which he rented, had Sam brought +back to the home of his childhood in charge of a good-natured white +attendant, and installed in one of the little cottages on the lawn. He +ordered Lynch to arrest the keeper of the poor, and hold him on a charge +of assault with intent to kill, awaiting the action of the Grand Jury. The +Lieutenant-Governor received this order with sullen anger--yet he saw to +its execution. He was not quite ready for a break with the man who had +made him. + +Astonished at his new humour, Phil and Elsie hastened to confess to him +their love affairs and ask his approval of their choice. His reply was +cautious, yet he did not refuse his consent. He advised them to wait a few +months, allow him time to know the young people, and get his bearings on +the conditions of Southern society. His mood of tenderness was a startling +revelation to them of the depth and intensity of his love. + +When Mrs. Lenoir returned with Marion to her vine-clad home, she spent the +first day of perfect joy since the death of her lover husband. The deed +had not yet been made of the transfer of the farm, but it was only a +question of legal formality. She was to receive the money in the form of +interest-bearing securities and deliver the title on the following +morning. + +Arm in arm, mother and daughter visited again each hallowed spot, with the +sweet sense of ownership. The place was in perfect order. Its flowers were +in gorgeous bloom, its walks clean and neat, the fences painted, and the +gates swung on new hinges. + +They stood with their arms about one another, watching the sun sink behind +the mountains, with tears of gratitude and hope stirring their souls. + +Ben Cameron strode through the gate, and they hurried to meet him with +cries of joy. + +"Just dropped in a minute to see if you are snug for the night," he said. + +"Of course, snug and so happy we've been hugging one another for hours," +said the mother. "Oh, Ben, the clouds have lifted at last!" + +"Has Aunt Cindy come yet?" he asked. + +"No, but she'll be here in the morning to get breakfast. We don't want +anything to eat," she answered. + +"Then I'll come out when I'm through my business to-night, and sleep in +the house to keep you company." + +"Nonsense," said the mother, "we couldn't think of putting you to the +trouble. We've spent many a night here alone." + +"But not in the past two years," he said with a frown. + +"We're not afraid," Marion said with a smile. "Besides, we'd keep you +awake all night with our laughter and foolishness, rummaging through the +house." + +"You'd better let me," Ben protested. + +"No," said the mother, "we'll be happier to-night alone, with only God's +eye to see how perfectly silly we can be. Come and take supper with us +to-morrow night. Bring Elsie and her guitar--I don't like the banjo--and +we'll have a little love feast with music in the moonlight." + +"Yes, do that," cried Marion. "I know we owe this good luck to her. I want +to tell her how much I love her for it." + +"Well, if you insist on staying alone," said Ben reluctantly, "I'll bring +Miss Elsie to-morrow, but I don't like your being here without Aunt Cindy +to-night." + +"Oh, we're all right!" laughed Marion, "but what I want to know is what +you are doing out so late every night since you've come home, and where +you were gone for the past week?" + +"Important business," he answered soberly. + +"Business--I expect!" she cried. "Look here, Ben Cameron, have you another +girl somewhere you're flirting with?" + +"Yes," he answered slowly, coming closer and his voice dropping to a +whisper, "and her name is Death." + +"Why, Ben!" Marion gasped, placing her trembling hand unconsciously on his +arm, a faint flush mantling her cheek and leaving it white. + +"What do you mean?" asked the mother in low tones. + +"Nothing that I can explain. I only wish to warn you both never to ask me +such questions before any one." + +"Forgive me," said Marion, with a tremor. "I didn't think it serious." + +Ben pressed the little warm hand, watching her mouth quiver with a smile +that was half a sigh, as he answered: + +"You know I'd trust either of you with my life, but I can't be too +careful." + +"We'll remember, Sir Knight," said the mother. "Don't forget, then, +to-morrow--and spend the evening with us. I wish I had one of Marion's new +dresses done. Poor child, she has never had a decent dress in her life +before. You know I never look at my pretty baby grown to such a beautiful +womanhood without hearing Henry say over and over again--'Beauty is a sign +of the soul--the body is the soul!'" + +"Well, I've my doubts about your improving her with a fine dress," he +replied thoughtfully. "I don't believe that more beautifully dressed women +ever walked the earth than our girls of the South who came out of the war +clad in the pathos of poverty, smiling bravely through the shadows, +bearing themselves as queens though they wore the dress of the +shepherdess." + +"I'm almost tempted to kiss you for that, as you once took advantage of +me!" said Marion, with enthusiasm. + +The moon had risen and a whippoorwill was chanting his weird song on the +lawn as Ben left them leaning on the gate. + + * * * * * + +It was past midnight before they finished the last touches in restoring +their nest to its old homelike appearance and sat down happy and tired in +the room in which Marion was born, brooding and dreaming and talking over +the future. + +The mother was hanging on the words of her daughter, all the baffled love +of the dead poet husband, her griefs and poverty consumed in the glowing +joy of new hopes. Her love for this child was now a triumphant passion, +which had melted her own being into the object of worship, until the soul +of the daughter was superimposed on the mother's as the magnetized by the +magnetizer. + +"And you'll never keep a secret from me, dear?" she asked Marion. + +"Never." + +"You'll tell me all your love affairs?" she asked softly, as she drew the +shining blonde head down on her shoulder. + +"Faithfully." + +"You know I've been afraid sometimes you were keeping something back from +me, deep down in your heart--and I'm jealous. You didn't refuse Henry +Grier because you loved Ben Cameron--now, did you?" + +The little head lay still before she answered: + +[Illustration: MAE MARSH AS THE VICTIM OF RECONSTRUCTION.] + +"How many times must I tell you, Silly, that I've loved Ben since I can +remember, that I will always love him, and when I meet my fate, at last, I +shall boast to my children of my sweet girl romance with the Hero of +Piedmont, and they shall laugh and cry with me over----" + +"What's that?" whispered the mother, leaping to her feet. + +"I heard nothing," Marion answered, listening. + +"I thought I heard footsteps on the porch." + +"Maybe it's Ben, who decided to come anyhow," said the girl. + +"But he'd knock!" whispered the mother. + +The door flew open with a crash, and four black brutes leaped into the +room, Gus in the lead, with a revolver in his hand, his yellow teeth +grinning through his thick lips. + +"Scream now, an' I blow yer brains out," he growled. + +Blanched with horror, the mother sprang before Marion with a shivering +cry: + +"What do you want?" + +"Not you," said Gus, closing the blinds and handing a rope to another +brute. "Tie de ole one ter de bedpost." + +The mother screamed. A blow from a black fist in her mouth, and the rope +was tied. + +With the strength of despair she tore at the cords, half rising to her +feet, while with mortal anguish she gasped: + +"For God's sake, spare my baby! Do as you will with me, and kill me--do +not touch her!" + +Again the huge fist swept her to the floor. + +Marion staggered against the wall, her face white, her delicate lips +trembling with the chill of a fear colder than death. + +"We have no money--the deed has not been delivered," she pleaded, a sudden +glimmer of hope flashing in her blue eyes. + +Gus stepped closer, with an ugly leer, his flat nose dilated, his sinister +bead eyes wide apart, gleaming apelike, as he laughed: + +"We ain't atter money!" + +The girl uttered a cry, long, tremulous, heart-rending, piteous. + +A single tiger spring, and the black claws of the beast sank into the soft +white throat and she was still. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AT THE DAWN OF DAY + + +It was three o'clock before Marion regained consciousness, crawled to her +mother, and crouched in dumb convulsions in her arms. + +"What can we do, my darling?" the mother asked at last. + +"Die--thank God, we have the strength left!" + +"Yes, my love," was the faint answer. + +"No one must ever know. We will hide quickly every trace of crime. They +will think we strolled to Lover's Leap and fell over the cliff, and my +name will always be sweet and clean--you understand--come, we must +hurry----" + +With swift hands, her blue eyes shining with a strange light, the girl +removed the shreds of torn clothes, bathed, and put on the dress of +spotless white she wore the night Ben Cameron kissed her and called her a +heroine. + +The mother cleaned and swept the room, piled the torn clothes and cord in +the fireplace and burned them, dressed herself as if for a walk, softly +closed the doors, and hurried with her daughter along the old pathway +through the moonlit woods. + +At the edge of the forest she stopped and looked back tenderly at the +little home shining amid the roses, caught their faint perfume and +faltered: + +"Let's go back a minute--I want to see his room, and kiss Henry's picture +again." + +"No, we are going to him now--I hear him calling us in the mists above the +cliff," said the girl--"come, we must hurry. We might go mad and fail!" + +Down the dim cathedral aisles of the woods, hallowed by tender memories, +through which the poet lover and father had taught them to walk with +reverent feet and without fear, they fled to the old meeting-place of +Love. + +On the brink of the precipice, the mother trembled, paused, drew back, and +gasped: + +"Are you not afraid, my dear?" + +"No; death is sweet now," said the girl. "I fear only the pity of those we +love." + +"Is there no other way? We might go among strangers," pleaded the mother. + +"We could not escape ourselves! The thought of life is torture. Only those +who hate me could wish that I live. The grave will be soft and cool, the +light of day a burning shame." + +"Come back to the seat a moment--let me tell you my love again," urged the +mother. "Life still is dear while I hold your hand." + +As they sat in brooding anguish, floating up from the river valley came +the music of a banjo in a negro cabin, mingled with vulgar shout and song +and dance. A verse of the ribald senseless lay of the player echoed above +the banjo's pert refrain: + + "Chicken in de bread tray, pickin' up dough; + Granny, will your dog bite? No, chile, no!" + +The mother shivered and drew Marion closer. + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear! has it come to this--all my hopes of your beautiful +life!" + +The girl lifted her head and kissed the quivering lips. + +"With what loving wonder we saw you grow," she sighed, "from a tottering +babe on to the hour we watched the mystic light of maidenhood dawn in your +blue eyes--and all to end in this hideous, leprous shame. No--No! I will +not have it! It's only a horrible dream! God is not dead!" + +The young mother sank to her knees and buried her face in Marion's lap in +a hopeless paroxysm of grief. + +The girl bent, kissed the curling hair, and smoothed it with her soft +hand. + +A sparrow chirped in the tree above, a wren twittered in a bush, and down +on the river's bank a mocking-bird softly waked his mate with a note of +thrilling sweetness. "The morning is coming, dearest; we must go," said +Marion. "This shame I can never forget, nor will the world forget. Death +is the only way." + +They walked to the brink, and the mother's arms stole round the girl. + +"Oh, my baby, my beautiful darling, life of my life, heart of my heart, +soul of my soul!" + +They stood for a moment, as if listening to the music of the falls, +looking out over the valley faintly outlining itself in the dawn. The +first far-away streaks of blue light on the mountain ranges, defining +distance, slowly appeared. A fresh motionless day brooded over the world +as the amorous stir of the spirit of morning rose from the moist earth of +the fields below. + +A bright star still shone in the sky, and the face of the mother gazed on +it intently. Did the Woman-spirit, the burning focus of the fiercest +desire to live and will, catch in this supreme moment the star's Divine +speech before which all human passions sink into silence? Perhaps, for she +smiled. The daughter answered with a smile; and then, hand in hand, they +stepped from the cliff into the mists and on through the opal gates of +death. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Book IV--The Ku Klux Klan + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HUNT FOR THE ANIMAL + + +Aunt Cindy came at seven o'clock to get breakfast, and finding the house +closed and no one at home, supposed Mrs. Lenoir and Marion had remained at +the Cameron House for the night. She sat down on the steps, waited +grumblingly an hour, and then hurried to the hotel to scold her former +mistress for keeping her out so long. + +Accustomed to enter familiarly, she thrust her head into the dining-room, +where the family were at breakfast with a solitary guest, muttering the +speech she had been rehearsing on the way: + +"I lak ter know what sort er way dis--whar's Miss Jeannie?" + +Ben leaped to his feet. + +"Isn't she at home?" + +"Been waitin' dar two hours." + +"Great God!" he groaned, springing through the door and rushing to saddle +the mare. As he left he called to his father: "Let no one know till I +return." + +At the house he could find no trace of the crime he had suspected. Every +room was in perfect order. He searched the yard carefully and under the +cedar by the window he saw the barefoot tracks of a negro. The white man +was never born who could make that track. The enormous heel projected +backward, and in the hollow of the instep where the dirt would scarcely be +touched by an Aryan was the deep wide mark of the African's flat foot. He +carefully measured it, brought from an outhouse a box, and fastened it +over the spot. + +It might have been an ordinary chicken thief, of course. He could not +tell, but it was a fact of big import. A sudden hope flashed through his +mind that they might have risen with the sun and strolled to their +favourite haunt at Lover's Leap. + +In two minutes he was there, gazing with hard-set eyes at Marion's hat and +handkerchief lying on the shelving rock. + +The mare bent her glistening neck, touched the hat with her nose, lifted +her head, dilated her delicate nostrils, looked out over the cliff with +her great soft half-human eyes and whinnied gently. + +Ben leaped to the ground, picked up the handkerchief, and looked at the +initials, "M. L.," worked in the corner. He knew what lay on the river's +brink below as well as if he stood over the dead bodies. He kissed the +letters of her name, crushed the handkerchief in his locked hands, and +cried: + +"Now, Lord God, give me strength for the service of my people!" + +He hurriedly examined the ground, amazed to find no trace of a struggle or +crime. Could it be possible they had ventured too near the brink and +fallen over? + +He hurried to report to his father his discoveries, instructed his mother +and Margaret to keep the servants quiet until the truth was known, and the +two men returned along the river's brink to the foot of the cliff. + +They found the bodies close to the water's edge, Marion had been killed +instantly. Her fair blonde head lay in a crimson circle sharply defined in +the white sand. But the mother was still warm with life. She had scarcely +ceased to breathe. In one last desperate throb of love the trembling soul +had dragged the dying body to the girl's side, and she had died with her +head resting on the fair round neck as though she had kissed her and +fallen asleep. + +Father and son clasped hands and stood for a moment with uncovered heads. +The doctor said at length: + +"Go to the coroner at once and see that he summons the jury _you_ select +and hand to him. Bring them immediately. I will examine the bodies before +they arrive." + +Ben took the negro coroner into his office alone, turned the key, told him +of the discovery, and handed him the list of the jury. + +"I'll hatter see Mr. Lynch fust, sah," he answered. + +Ben placed his hand on his hip pocket and said coldly: + +"Put your cross-mark on those forms I've made out there for you, go with +me immediately, and summon these men. If you dare put a negro on this +jury, or open your mouth as to what has occurred in this room, I'll kill +you." + +The negro tremblingly did as he was commanded. + +The coroner's jury reported that the mother and daughter had been killed +by accidentally failing over the cliff. + +In all the throng of grief-stricken friends who came to the little cottage +that day, but two men knew the hell-lit secret beneath the tragedy. + +When the bodies reached the home, Doctor Cameron placed Mrs. Cameron and +Margaret outside to receive visitors and prevent any one from disturbing +him. He took Ben into the room and locked the doors. + +"My boy, I wish you to witness an experiment." + +He drew from its case a powerful microscope of French make. + +"What on earth are you going to do, sir?" + +The doctor's brilliant eyes flashed with a mystic light as he replied: + +"Find the fiend who did this crime--and then we will hang him on a gallows +so high that all men from the rivers to ends of the earth shall see and +feel and know the might of an unconquerable race of men." + +"But there's no trace of him here." + +"We shall see," said the doctor, adjusting his instrument. + +"I believe that a microscope of sufficient power will reveal on the retina +of these dead eyes the image of this devil as if etched there by fire. The +experiment has been made successfully in France. No word or deed of man is +lost. A German scholar has a memory so wonderful he can repeat whole +volumes of Latin, German, and French without an error. A Russian officer +has been known to repeat the roll-call of any regiment by reading it +twice. Psychologists hold that nothing is lost from the memory of man. +Impressions remain in the brain like words written on paper in invisible +ink. So I believe of images in the eye if we can trace them early enough. +If no impression were made subsequently on the mother's eye by the light +of day, I believe the fire-etched record of this crime can yet be +traced." + +Ben watched him with breathless interest. + +He first examined Marion's eyes. But in the cold azure blue of their pure +depths he could find nothing. + +"It's as I feared with the child," he said. "I can see nothing. It is on +the mother I rely. In the splendour of life, at thirty-seven she was the +full-blown perfection of womanhood, with every vital force at its highest +tension----" + +He looked long and patiently into the dead mother's eye, rose and wiped +the perspiration from his face. + +"What is it, sir?" asked Ben. + +Without reply, as if in a trance, he returned to the microscope and again +rose with the little, quick, nervous cough he gave only in the greatest +excitement, and whispered: + +"Look now and tell me what you see." + +Ben looked and said: + +"I can see nothing." + +"Your powers of vision are not trained as mine," replied the doctor, +resuming his place at the instrument. + +"What do you see?" asked the younger man, bending nervously. + +"The bestial figure of a negro--his huge black hand plainly defined--the +upper part of the face is dim, as if obscured by a gray mist of dawn--but +the massive jaws and lips are clear--merciful God--yes--it's Gus!" + +The doctor leaped to his feet livid with excitement. + +Ben bent again, looked long and eagerly, but could see nothing. + +"I'm afraid the image is in your eye, sir, not the mother's," said Ben +sadly. + +"That's possible, of course," said the doctor, "yet I don't believe it." + +"I've thought of the same scoundrel and tried blood hounds on that track, +but for some reason they couldn't follow it. I suspected him from the +first, and especially since learning that he left for Columbia on the +early morning train on pretended official business." + +"Then I'm not mistaken," insisted the doctor, trembling with excitement. +"Now do as I tell you. Find when he returns. Capture him, bind, gag, and +carry him to your meeting-place under the cliff, and let me know." + +On the afternoon of the funeral, two days later, Ben received a cypher +telegram from the conductor on the train telling him that Gus was on the +evening mail due at Piedmont at nine o'clock. + +The papers had been filled with accounts of the accident, and an enormous +crowd from the county and many admirers of the fiery lyrics of the poet +father had come from distant parts to honour his name. All business was +suspended, and the entire white population of the village followed the +bodies to their last resting-place. + +As the crowds returned to their homes, no notice was taken of a dozen men +on horseback who rode out of town by different ways about dusk. At eight +o'clock they met in the woods near the first little flag-station located +on McAllister's farm four miles from Piedmont, where a buggy awaited them. +Two men of powerful build, who were strangers in the county, alighted from +the buggy and walked along the track to board the train at the station +three miles beyond and confer with the conductor. + +The men, who gathered in the woods, dismounted, removed their saddles, and +from the folds of the blankets took a white disguise for horse and man. In +a moment it was fitted on each horse, with buckles at the throat, breast, +and tail, and the saddles replaced. The white robe for the man was made in +the form of an ulster overcoat with cape, the skirt extending to the top +of the shoes. From the red belt at the waist were swung two revolvers +which had been concealed in their pockets. On each man's breast was a +scarlet circle within which shone a white cross. The same scarlet circle +and cross appeared on the horse's breast, while on his flanks flamed the +three red mystic letters, K. K. K. Each man wore a white cap, from the +edges of which fell a piece of cloth extending to the shoulders. Beneath +the visor was an opening for the eyes and lower down one for the mouth. On +the front of the caps of two of the men appeared the red wings of a hawk +as the ensign of rank. From the top of each cap rose eighteen inches high +a single spike held erect by a twisted wire. The disguises for man and +horse were made of cheap unbleached domestic and weighed less than three +pounds. They were easily folded within a blanket and kept under the saddle +in a crowd without discovery. It required less than two minutes to remove +the saddles, place the disguises, and remount. + +At the signal of a whistle, the men and horses arrayed in white and +scarlet swung into double-file cavalry formation and stood awaiting +orders. The moon was now shining brightly, and its light shimmering on the +silent horses and men with their tall spiked caps made a picture such as +the world had not seen since the Knights of the Middle Ages rode on their +Holy Crusades. + +As the train neared the flag-station, which was dark and unattended, the +conductor approached Gus, leaned over, and said: "I've just gotten a +message from the sheriff telling me to warn you to get off at this station +and slip into town. There's a crowd at the depot there waiting for you and +they mean trouble." + +Gus trembled and whispered: + +"Den fur Gawd's sake lemme off here." + +The two men who got on at the station below stepped out before the negro, +and as he alighted from the car, seized, tripped, and threw him to the +ground. The engineer blew a sharp signal, and the train pulled on. + +In a minute Gus was bound and gagged. + +One of the men drew a whistle and blew twice. A single tremulous call like +the cry of an owl answered. The swift beat of horses' feet followed, and +four white-and-scarlet clansmen swept in a circle around the group. + +One of the strangers turned to the horseman with red-winged ensign on his +cap, saluted, and said: + +"Here's your man, Night Hawk." + +"Thanks, gentlemen," was the answer. "Let us know when we can be of +service to your county." + +The strangers sprang into their buggy and disappeared toward the North +Carolina line. + +The clansmen blindfolded the negro, placed him on a horse, tied his legs +securely, and his arms behind him to the ring in the saddle. + +The Night Hawk blew his whistle four sharp blasts, and his pickets +galloped from their positions and joined him. + +Again the signal rang, and his men wheeled with the precision of trained +cavalrymen into column formation three abreast, and rode toward Piedmont, +the single black figure tied and gagged in the centre of the +white-and-scarlet squadron. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FIERY CROSS + + +The clansmen with their prisoner skirted the village and halted in the +woods on the river bank. The Night Hawk signalled for single file, and in +a few minutes they stood against the cliff under Lover's Leap and saluted +their chief, who sat his horse, awaiting their arrival. + +Pickets were placed in each direction on the narrow path by which the spot +was approached, and one was sent to stand guard on the shelving rock +above. + +Through the narrow crooked entrance they led Gus into the cave which had +been the rendezvous of the Piedmont Den of the Clan since its formation. +The meeting-place was a grand hall eighty feet deep, fifty feet wide, and +more than forty feet in height, which had been carved out of the stone by +the swift current of the river in ages past when its waters stood at a +higher level. + +To-night it was lighted by candles placed on the ledges of the walls. In +the centre, on a fallen boulder, sat the Grand Cyclops of the Den, the +presiding officer of the township, his rank marked by scarlet stripes on +the white-cloth spike of his cap. Around him stood twenty or more clansmen +in their uniform, completely disguised. One among them wore a yellow sash, +trimmed in gold, about his waist, and on his breast two yellow circles +with red crosses interlapping, denoting his rank to be the Grand Dragon of +the Realm, or Commander-in-Chief of the State. + +The Cyclops rose from his seat: + +"Let the Grand Turk remove his prisoner for a moment and place him in +charge of the Grand Sentinel at the door, until summoned." + +The officer disappeared with Gus, and the Cyclops continued: + +"The Chaplain will open our Council with prayer." + +Solemnly every white-shrouded figure knelt on the ground, and the voice of +the Rev. Hugh McAlpin, trembling with feeling, echoed through the cave: + +"Lord God of our Fathers, as in times past thy children, fleeing from the +oppressor, found refuge beneath the earth until once more the sun of +righteousness rose, so are we met to-night. As we wrestle with the powers +of darkness now strangling our life, give to our souls to endure as seeing +the invisible, and to our right arms the strength of the martyred dead of +our people. Have mercy on the poor, the weak, the innocent and +defenceless, and deliver us from the body of the Black Death. In a land of +light and beauty and love our women are prisoners of danger and fear. +While the heathen walks his native heath unharmed and unafraid, in this +fair Christian Southland our sisters, wives, and daughters dare not stroll +at twilight through the streets or step beyond the highway at noon. The +terror of the twilight deepens with the darkness, and the stoutest heart +grows sick with fear for the red message the morning bringeth. Forgive our +sins--they are many--but hide not thy face from us, O God, for thou art +our refuge!" + +As the last echoes of the prayer lingered and died in the vaulted roof, +the clansmen rose and stood a moment in silence. + +Again the voice of the Cyclops broke the stillness: + +"Brethren, we are met to-night at the request of the Grand Dragon of the +Realm, who has honoured us with his presence, to constitute a High Court +for the trial of a case involving life. Are the Night Hawks ready to +submit their evidence?" + +"We are ready," came the answer. + +"Then let the Grand Scribe read the objects of the Order on which your +authority rests." + +The Scribe opened his Book of Record, "_The Prescript of the Order of the +Invisible Empire_," and solemnly read: + +"To the lovers of law and order, peace and justice, and to the shades of +the venerated dead, greeting: + +"This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism: +embodying in its genius and principles all that is chivalric in conduct, +noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose: its +particular objects being, + +"First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenceless from the +indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the +brutal; to relieve the injured and the oppressed: to succour the suffering +and unfortunate, and especially the widows and the orphans of Confederate +Soldiers. + +"Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and +all the laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and +the people thereof from all invasion from any source whatever. + +"Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all Constitutional laws, and +to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by +their peers in conformity to the laws of the land." + +"The Night Hawks will produce their evidence," said the Cyclops, "and the +Grand Monk will conduct the case of the people against the negro Augustus +Cćsar, the former slave of Dr. Richard Cameron." + +Dr. Cameron advanced and removed his cap. His snow-white hair and beard, +ruddy face and dark-brown brilliant eyes made a strange picture in its +weird surroundings, like an ancient alchemist ready to conduct some daring +experiment in the problem of life. + +"I am here, brethren," he said, "to accuse the black brute about to appear +of the crime of assault on a daughter of the South----" + +A murmur of thrilling surprise and horror swept the crowd of +white-and-scarlet figures as with one common impulse they moved closer. + +"His feet have been measured and they exactly tally with the negro tracks +found under the window of the Lenoir cottage. His flight to Columbia and +return on the publication of their deaths as an accident is a confirmation +of our case. I will not relate to you the scientific experiment which +first fixed my suspicion of this man's guilt. My witness could not confirm +it, and it might not be to you credible. But this negro is peculiarly +sensitive to hypnotic influence. I propose to put him under this power +to-night before you, and, if he is guilty, I can make him tell his +confederates, describe and rehearse the crime itself." + +The Night Hawks led Gus before Doctor Cameron, untied his hands, removed +the gag, and slipped the blindfold from his head. + +Under the doctor's rigid gaze the negro's knees struck together, and he +collapsed into complete hypnosis, merely lifting his huge paws lamely as +if to ward a blow. + +They seated him on the boulder from which the Cyclops rose, and Gus stared +about the cave and grinned as if in a dream seeing nothing. + +The doctor recalled to him the day of the crime, and he began to talk to +his three confederates, describing his plot in detail, now and then +pausing and breaking into a fiendish laugh. + +Old McAllister, who had three lovely daughters at home, threw off his cap, +sank to his knees, and buried his face in his hands, while a dozen of the +white figures crowded closer, nervously gripping the revolvers which hung +from their red belts. + +Doctor Cameron pushed them back and lifted his hand in warning. + +The negro began to live the crime with fearful realism--the journey past +the hotel to make sure the victims had gone to their home; the visit to +Aunt Cindy's cabin to find her there; lying in the field waiting for the +last light of the village to go out; gloating with vulgar exultation over +their plot, and planning other crimes to follow its success--how they +crept along the shadows of the hedgerow of the lawn to avoid the +moonlight, stood under the cedar, and through the open windows watched the +mother and daughter laughing and talking within---- + +"Min' what I tells you now--Tie de ole one, when I gib you de rope," said +Gus in a whisper. + +"My God!" cried the agonized voice of the figure with the double +cross--"that's what the piece of burnt rope in the fireplace meant!" + +Doctor Cameron again lifted his hand for silence. + +Now they burst into the room, and with the light of hell in his beady, +yellow-splotched eyes, Gus gripped his imaginary revolver and growled: + +"Scream, an' I blow yer brains out!" + +In spite of Doctor Cameron's warning, the white-robed figures jostled and +pressed closer---- + +Gus rose to his feet and started across the cave as if to spring on the +shivering figure of the girl, the clansmen with muttered groans, sobs, and +curses falling back as he advanced. He still wore his full Captain's +uniform, its heavy epaulets flashing their gold in the unearthly light, +his beastly jaws half covering the gold braid on the collar. His thick +lips were drawn upward in an ugly leer and his sinister bead eyes gleamed +like a gorilla's. A single fierce leap and the black claws clutched the +air slowly as if sinking into the soft white throat. + +Strong men began to cry like children. + +"Stop him! Stop him!" screamed a clansman, springing on the negro and +grinding his heel into his big thick neck. A dozen more were on him in a +moment, kicking, stamping, cursing, and crying like madmen. + +Doctor Cameron leaped forward and beat them off: + +"Men! Men! You must not kill him in this condition!" + +Some of the white figures had fallen prostrate on the ground, sobbing in a +frenzy of uncontrollable emotion. Some were leaning against the walls, +their faces buried in their arms. + +Again old McAllister was on his knees crying over and over again: + +"God have mercy on my people!" + +When at length quiet was restored, the negro was revived, and again bound, +blindfolded, gagged, and thrown to the ground before the Grand Cyclops. + +A sudden inspiration flashed in Doctor Cameron's eyes. Turning to the +figure with yellow sash and double cross he said: + +"Issue your orders and despatch your courier to-night with the old +Scottish rite of the Fiery Cross. It will send a thrill of inspiration to +every clansman in the hills." + +"Good--prepare it quickly!" was the answer. + +Doctor Cameron opened his medicine case, drew the silver drinking-cover +from a flask, and passed out of the cave to the dark circle of blood still +shining in the sand by the water's edge. He knelt and filled the cup half +full of the crimson grains, and dipped it into the river. From a saddle he +took the lightwood torch, returned within, and placed the cup on the +boulder on which the Grand Cyclops had sat. He loosed the bundle of +lightwood, took two pieces, tied them into the form of a cross, and laid +it beside a lighted candle near the silver cup. + +The silent figures watched his every movement. He lifted the cup and +said: + +"Brethren, I hold in my hand the water of your river bearing the red stain +of the life of a Southern woman, a priceless sacrifice on the altar of +outraged civilization. Hear the message of your chief." + +The tall figure with the yellow sash and double cross stepped before the +strange altar, while the white forms of the clansmen gathered about him in +a circle. He lifted his cap, and laid it on the boulder, and his men gazed +on the flushed face of Ben Cameron, the Grand Dragon of the Realm. + +He stood for a moment silent, erect, a smouldering fierceness in his eyes, +something cruel and yet magnetic in his alert bearing. + +He looked on the prostrate negro lying in his uniform at his feet, seized +the cross, lighted the three upper ends and held it blazing in his hand, +while, in a voice full of the fires of feeling, he said: + +"Men of the South, the time for words has passed, the hour for action has +struck. The Grand Turk will execute this negro to-night and fling his body +on the lawn of the black Lieutenant-Governor of the State." + +The Grand Turk bowed. + +"I ask for the swiftest messenger of this Den who can ride till dawn." + +The man whom Doctor Cameron had already chosen stepped forward: + +"Carry my summons to the Grand Titan of the adjoining province in North +Carolina whom you will find at Hambright. Tell him the story of this crime +and what you have seen and heard. Ask him to report to me here the second +night from this, at eleven o'clock, with six Grand Giants from his +adjoining counties, each accompanied by two hundred picked men. In olden +times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of +life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was +sent by swift courier from village to village. This call was never made in +vain, nor will it be to-night, in the new world. Here, on this spot made +holy ground by the blood of those we hold dearer than life, I raise the +ancient symbol of an unconquered race of men----" + +High above his head in the darkness of the cave he lifted the blazing +emblem---- + +"The Fiery Cross of old Scotland's hills! I quench its flames in the +sweetest blood that ever stained the sands of Time." + +He dipped its ends in the silver cup, extinguished the fire, and handed +the charred symbol to the courier, who quickly disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PARTING OF THE WAYS + + +The discovery of the Captain of the African Guards lying in his full +uniform in Lynch's yard send a thrill of terror to the triumphant leagues. +Across the breast of the body was pinned a scrap of paper on which was +written in red ink the letters K. K. K. It was the first actual evidence +of the existence of this dreaded order in Ulster county. + +The First Lieutenant of the Guards assumed command and held the full +company in their armoury under arms day and night. Beneath his door he had +found a notice which was also nailed on the courthouse. It appeared in the +Piedmont _Eagle_ and in rapid succession in every newspaper not under +negro influence in the State. It read as follows: + + "HEADQUARTERS OF REALM NO 4. + "DREADFUL ERA, BLACK EPOCH, + "HIDEOUS HOUR. + + "GENERAL ORDER NO. I. + + "The Negro Militia now organized in this State threatens the + extinction of civilization. They have avowed their purpose to make war + upon and exterminate the Ku Klux Klan, an organization which is now + the sole guardian of Society. All negroes are hereby given forty-eight + hours from the publication of this notice in their respective counties + to surrender their arms at the courthouse door. Those who refuse must + take the consequences. + + "By order of the G. D. of Realm No. 4. + + "By the Grand Scribe." + +The white people of Piedmont read this notice with a thrill of exultant +joy. Men walked the streets with an erect bearing which said without +words: + +"Stand out of the way." + +For the first time since the dawn of Black Rule negroes began to yield to +white men and women the right of way on the streets. + +On the day following, the old Commoner sent for Phil. + +"What is the latest news?" he asked. + +"The town is in a fever of excitement--not over the discovery in Lynch's +yard--but over the blacker rumour that Marion and her mother committed +suicide to conceal an assault by this fiend." + +"A trumped-up lie," said the old man emphatically. + +"It's true, sir. I'll take Doctor Cameron's word for it." + +"You have just come from the Camerons?" + +"Yes." + +"Let it be your last visit. The Camerons are on the road to the gallows, +father and son. Lynch informs me that the murder committed last night, and +the insolent notice nailed on the courthouse door, could have come only +from their brain. They are the hereditary leaders of these people. They +alone would have the audacity to fling this crime into the teeth of the +world and threaten worse. We are face to face with Southern barbarism. +Every man now to his own standard! The house of Stoneman can have no part +with midnight assassins." + +"Nor with black barbarians, father. It is a question of who possesses the +right of life and death over the citizen, the organized virtue of the +community, or its organized crime. You have mistaken for death the +patience of a generous people. We call ourselves the champions of liberty. +Yet for less than they have suffered, kings have lost their heads and +empires perished before the wrath of freemen." + +"My boy, this is not a question for argument between us," said the father +with stern emphasis. "This conspiracy of terror and assassination +threatens to shatter my work to atoms. The election on which turns the +destiny of Congress, and the success or failure of my life, is but a few +weeks away. Unless this foul conspiracy is crushed, I am ruined, and the +Nation falls again beneath the heel of a slaveholders' oligarchy." + +"Your nightmare of a slaveholders' oligarchy does not disturb me." + +"At least you will have the decency to break your affair with Margaret +Cameron pending the issue of my struggle of life and death with her father +and brother?" + +"Never." + +"Then I will do it for you." + +"I warn you, sir," Phil cried, with anger, "that if it comes to an issue +of race against race, I am a white man. The ghastly tragedy of the +condition of society here is something for which the people of the South +are no longer responsible----" + +"I'll take the responsibility!" growled the old cynic. + +"Don't ask me to share it," said the younger man emphatically. + +The father winced, his lips trembled, and he answered brokenly: + +"My boy, this is the bitterest hour of my life that has had little to make +it sweet. To hear such words from you is more than I can bear. I am an old +man now--my sands are nearly run. But two human beings love me, and I love +but two. On you and your sister I have lavished all the treasures of a +maimed and strangled soul--and it has come to this! Read the notice which +one of your friends thrust into the window of my bedroom last night." + +He handed Phil a piece of paper on which was written: + + "The old club-footed beast who has sneaked into our town, pretending + to search for health, in reality the leader of the infernal Union + League, will be given forty-eight hours to vacate the house and rid + this community of his presence. + + "K. K. K." + +"Are you an officer of the Union League?" Phil asked in surprise. + +"I am its soul." + +"How could a Southerner discover this, if your own children didn't know +it?" + +"By their spies who have joined the League." + +"And do the rank and file know the Black Pope at the head of the order?" + +"No, but high officials do." + +"Does Lynch?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then he is the scoundrel who placed that note in your room. It is a +clumsy attempt to forge an order of the Klan. The white man does not live +in this town capable of that act. I know these people." + +"My boy, you are bewitched by the smiles of a woman to deny your own flesh +and blood." + +"Nonsense, father--you are possessed by an idea which has become an insane +mania----" + +"Will you respect my wishes?" the old man broke in angrily. + +"I will not," was the clear answer. Phil turned and left the room, and the +old man's massive head sank on his breast in helpless baffled rage and +grief. + +He was more successful in his appeal to Elsie. He convinced her of the +genuineness of the threat against him. The brutal reference to his +lameness roused the girl's soul. When the old man, crushed by Phil's +desertion, broke down the last reserve of his strange cold nature, tore +his wounded heart open to her, cried in agony over his deformity, his +lameness, and the anguish with which he saw the threatened ruin of his +life-work, she threw her arms around his neck in a flood of tears and +cried: + +"Hush, father, I will not desert you. I will never leave you, or wed +without your blessing. If I find that my lover was in any way responsible +for this insult, I'll tear his image out of my heart and never speak his +name again!" + +She wrote a note to Ben, asking him to meet her at sundown on horseback at +Lover's Leap. + +Ben was elated at the unexpected request. He was hungry for an hour with +his sweetheart, whom he had not seen save for a moment since the storm of +excitement broke following the discovery of the crime. + +He hastened through his work of ordering the movement of the Klan for the +night, and determined to surprise Elsie by meeting her in his uniform of a +Grand Dragon. + +Secure in her loyalty, he would deliberately thus put his life in her +hands. Using the water of a brook in the woods for a mirror, he adjusted +his yellow sash and pushed the two revolvers back under the cape out of +sight, saying to himself with a laugh: + +"Betray me? Well, if she does, life would not be worth the living!" + +When Elsie had recovered from the first shock of surprise at the white +horse and rider waiting for her under the shadows of the old beech, her +surprise gave way to grief at the certainty of his guilt, and the +greatness of his love in thus placing his life without a question in her +hands. + +He tied the horses in the woods, and they sat down on the rustic. + +He removed his helmet cap, threw back the white cape showing the scarlet +lining, and the two golden circles with their flaming crosses on his +breast, with boyish pride. The costume was becoming to his slender +graceful figure, and he knew it. + +"You see, sweetheart, I hold high rank in the Empire," he whispered. + +From beneath his cape he drew a long bundle which he unrolled. It was a +triangular flag of brilliant yellow edged in scarlet. In the centre of the +yellow ground was the figure of a huge black dragon with fiery red eyes +and tongue. Around it was a Latin motto worked in scarlet: "_quod semper, +quod ubique, quod ab omnibus_"--what always, what everywhere, what by all +has been held to be true. "The battle-flag of the Klan," he said; "the +standard of the Grand Dragon." + +Elsie seized his hand and kissed it, unable to speak. + +"Why so serious to-night?" + +"Do you love me very much?" she answered. + +"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay his life at the feet of +his beloved," he responded tenderly. + +"Yes, yes; I know--and that is why you are breaking my heart. When first I +met you--it seems now ages and ages ago--I was a vain, self-willed, pert +little thing----" + +"It's not so. I took you for an angel--you were one. You are one +to-night." + +"Now," she went on slowly, "in what I have lived through you I have grown +into an impassioned, serious, self-disciplined, bewildered woman. Your +perfect trust to-night is the sweetest revelation that can come to a +woman's soul and yet it brings to me unspeakable pain----" + +"For what?" + +"You are guilty of murder." + +Ben's figure stiffened. + +"The judge who pronounces sentence of death on a criminal outlawed by +civilized society is not usually called a murderer, my dear." + +"And by whose authority are you a judge?" + +"By authority of the sovereign people who created the State of South +Carolina. The criminals who claim to be our officers are usurpers placed +there by the subversion of law." + +"Won't you give this all up for my sake?" she pleaded. "Believe me, you +are in great danger." + +"Not so great as is the danger of my sister and mother and my +sweetheart--it is a man's place to face danger," he gravely answered. + +"This violence can only lead to your ruin and shame----" + +"I am fighting the battle of a race on whose fate hangs the future of the +South and the Nation. My ruin and shame will be of small account if they +are saved," was the even answer. + +"Come, my dear," she pleaded tenderly, "you know that I have weighed the +treasures of music and art and given them all for one clasp of your hand, +one throb of your heart against mine. I should call you cruel did I not +know you are infinitely tender. This is the only thing I have ever asked +you to do for me----" + +"Desert my people! You must not ask of me this infamy, if you love me," he +cried. + +"But, listen; this is wrong--this wild vengeance is a crime you are doing, +however great the provocation. We cannot continue to love one another if +you do this. Listen: I love you better than father, mother, life, or +career--all my dreams I've lost in you. I've lived through eternity to-day +with my father----" + +"You know me guiltless of the vulgar threat against him----" + +"Yes, and yet you are the leader of desperate men who might have done it. +As I fought this battle to-day, I've lost you, lost myself, and sunk down +to the depths of despair, and at the end rang the one weak cry of a +woman's heart for her lover! Your frown can darken the brightest sky. For +your sake I can give up all save the sense of right. I'll walk by your +side in life--lead you gently and tenderly along the way of my dreams if I +can, but if you go your way, it shall be mine; and I shall still be glad +because you are there! See how humble I am--only you must not commit +crime!" + +"Come, sweetheart, you must not use that word," he protested, with a touch +of wounded pride. + +"You are a conspirator----" + +"I am a revolutionist." + +"You are committing murder!" + +"I am waging war." + +Elsie leaped to her feet in a sudden rush of anger and extended her hand: + +"Good-bye. I shall not see you again. I do not know you. You are still a +stranger to me." + +He held her hand firmly. + +"We must not part in anger," he said slowly. "I have grave work to do +before the day dawns. We may not see each other again." + +She led her horse to the seat quickly and without waiting for his +assistance sprang into the saddle. + +"Do you not fear my betrayal of your secret?" she asked. + +He rode to her side, bent close, and whispered: + +"It's as safe as if locked in the heart of God." + +A little sob caught her voice, yet she said slowly in firm tones: + +"If another crime is committed in this county by your Klan, we will never +see each other again." + +He escorted her to the edge of the town without a word, pressed her hand +in silence, wheeled his horse, and disappeared on the road to the North +Carolina line. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BANNER OF THE DRAGON + + +Ben Cameron rode rapidly to the rendezvous of the pickets who were to meet +the coming squadrons. + +He returned home and ate a hearty meal. As he emerged from the +dining-room, Phil seized him by the arm and led him under the big oak on +the lawn: + +"Cameron, old boy, I'm in a lot of trouble. I've had a quarrel with my +father, and your sister has broken me all up by returning my ring. I want +a little excitement to ease my nerves. From Elsie's incoherent talk I +judge you are in danger. If there's going to be a fight, let me in." + +Ben took his hand: + +"You're the kind of a man I'd like to have for a brother, and I'll help +you in love--but as for war--it's not your fight. We don't need help." + +At ten o'clock Ben met the local Den at their rendezvous under the cliff, +to prepare for the events of the night. + +The forty members present were drawn up before him in double rank of +twenty each. + +"Brethren," he said to them solemnly, "I have called you to-night to take +a step from which there can be no retreat. We are going to make a daring +experiment of the utmost importance. If there is a faint heart among you, +now is the time to retire----" + +"We are with you!" cried the men. + +"There are laws of our race, old before this Republic was born in the +souls of white freemen. The fiat of fools has repealed on paper these +laws. Your fathers who created this Nation were first Conspirators, then +Revolutionists, now Patriots and Saints. I need to-night ten volunteers to +lead the coming clansmen over this county and disarm every negro in it. +The men from North Carolina cannot be recognized. Each of you must run +this risk. Your absence from home to-night will be doubly dangerous for +what will be done here at this negro armoury under my command. I ask of +these ten men to ride their horses until dawn, even unto death, to ride +for their God, their native land, and the womanhood of the South! + +"To each man who accepts this dangerous mission I offer for your bed the +earth, for your canopy the sky, for your bread stones; and when the flash +of bayonets shall fling into your face from the Square the challenge of +martial law, the protection I promise you--is exile, imprisonment, and +death! Let the ten men who accept these terms step forward four paces." + +With a single impulse the whole double line of forty white-and-scarlet +figures moved quickly forward four steps! + +The leader shook hands with each man, his voice throbbing with emotion as +he said: + +"Stand together like this, men, and armies will march and countermarch +over the South in vain! We will save the life of our people." + +The ten guides selected by the Grand Dragon rode forward, and each led a +division of one hundred men through the ten townships of the county and +successfully disarmed every negro before day without the loss of a life. + +The remaining squadron of two hundred and fifty men from Hambright, +accompanied by the Grand Titan in command of the Province of Western Hill +Counties, were led by Ben Cameron into Piedmont as the waning moon rose +between twelve and one o'clock. + +They marched past Stoneman's place on the way to the negro armoury, which +stood on the opposite side of the street a block below. + +The wild music of the beat of a thousand hoofs on the cobblestones of the +street waked every sleeper. The old Commoner hobbled to his window and +watched them pass, his big hands fumbling nervously, and his soul stirred +to its depths. + +The ghostlike shadowy columns moved slowly with the deliberate +consciousness of power. The scarlet circles on their breasts could be +easily seen when one turned toward the house, as could the big red letters +K. K. K. on each horse's flank. + +In the centre of the line waved from a gold-tipped spear the battle-flag +of the Klan. As they passed the bright lights burning at his gate, old +Stoneman could see this standard plainly. The huge black dragon with +flaming eyes and tongue seemed a living thing crawling over a +scarlet-tipped yellow cloud. + +At the window above stood a little figure watching that banner of the +Dragon pass with aching heart. + +Phil stood at another, smiling with admiration for their daring: + +"By George, it stirs the blood to see it! You can't crush men of that +breed!" + +The watchers were not long in doubt as to what the raiders meant. + +They deployed quickly around the armoury. A whistle rang its shrill cry, +and a volley of two hundred and fifty carbines and revolvers smashed every +glass in the building. The sentinel had already given the alarm, and the +drum was calling the startled negroes to their arms. They returned the +volley twice, and for ten minutes were answered with the steady crack of +two hundred and fifty guns. A white flag appeared at the door, and the +firing ceased. The negroes laid down their arms and surrendered. All save +three were allowed to go to their homes for the night and carry their +wounded with them. + +The three confederates in the crime of their captain were bound and led +away. In a few minutes the crash of a volley told their end. + +The little white figure rapped at Phil's door and placed a trembling hand +on his arm: + +"Phil," she said softly, "please go to the hotel and stay until you know +all that has happened--until you know the full list of those killed and +wounded. I'll wait. You understand?" + +As he stooped and kissed her, he felt a hot tear roll down her cheek. + +"Yes, little Sis, I understand," he answered. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE REIGN OF THE KLAN + + +In quick succession every county followed the example of Ulster, and the +arms furnished the negroes by the State and National governments were in +the hands of the Klan. The League began to collapse in a panic of terror. + +A gale of chivalrous passion and high action, contagious and intoxicating, +swept the white race. The moral, mental, and physical earthquake which +followed the first assault on one of their daughters revealed the unity of +the racial life of the people. Within the span of a week they had lived a +century. + +The spirit of the South "like lightning had at last leaped forth, half +startled at itself, its feet upon the ashes and the rags," its hands +tight-gripped on the throat of tyrant, thug, and thief. + +It was the resistless movement of a race, not of any man or leader of men. +The secret weapon with which they struck was the most terrible and +efficient in human history--these pale hosts of white-and-scarlet +horsemen! They struck shrouded in a mantle of darkness and terror. They +struck where the power of resistance was weakest and the blow least +suspected. Discovery or retaliation was impossible. Not a single disguise +was ever penetrated. All was planned and ordered as by destiny. The +accused was tried by secret tribunal, sentenced without a hearing, +executed in the dead of night without warning, mercy, or appeal. The +movements of the Klan were like clockwork, without a word, save the +whistle of the Night Hawk, the crack of his revolver, and the hoofbeat of +swift horses moving like figures in a dream, and vanishing in mists and +shadows. + +The old club-footed Puritan, in his mad scheme of vengeance and party +power, had overlooked the Covenanter, the backbone of the South. This man +had just begun to fight! His race had defied the Crown of Great Britain a +hundred years from the caves and wilds of Scotland and Ireland, taught the +English people how to slay a king and build a commonwealth, and, driven +into exile into the wilderness of America, led our Revolution, peopled the +hills of the South, and conquered the West. + +As the young German patriots of 1812 had organized the great struggle for +their liberties under the noses of the garrisons of Napoleon, so Ben +Cameron had met the leaders of his race in Nashville, Tennessee, within +the picket lines of thirty-five thousand hostile troops, and in the ruins +of an old homestead discussed and adopted the ritual of the Invisible +Empire. + +Within a few months this Empire overspread a territory larger than modern +Europe. In the approaching election it was reaching out its daring white +hands to tear the fruits of victory from twenty million victorious +conquerors. + +The triumph at which they aimed was one of incredible grandeur. They had +risen to snatch power out of defeat and death. Under their clan leadership +the Southern people had suddenly developed the courage of the lion, the +cunning of the fox, and the deathless faith of religious enthusiasts. + +Society was fused in the white heat of one sublime thought and beat with +the pulse of the single will of the Grand Wizard of the Klan of Memphis. + +Women and children had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four +thousand disguises for men and horses were made by the women of the South, +and not one secret ever passed their lips! + +With magnificent audacity, infinite patience, and remorseless zeal, a +conquered people were struggling to turn his own weapon against their +conqueror, and beat his brains out with the bludgeon he had placed in the +hands of their former slaves. + +Behind the tragedy of Reconstruction stood the remarkable man whose iron +will alone had driven these terrible measures through the chaos of +passion, corruption, and bewilderment which followed the first +assassination of an American President. As he leaned on his window in this +village of the South and watched in speechless rage the struggle at that +negro armoury, he felt for the first time the foundations sinking beneath +his feet. As he saw the black cowards surrender in terror, noted the +indifference and cool defiance with which those white horsemen rode and +shot, he knew that he had collided with the ultimate force which his whole +scheme had overlooked. + +He turned on his big club foot from the window, clinched his fist and +muttered: + +"But I'll hang that man for this deed if it's the last act of my life!" + +The morning brought dismay to the negro, the carpet-bagger, and the +scallawag of Ulster. A peculiar freak of weather in the early morning +added to their terror. The sun rose clear and bright except for a slight +fog that floated from the river valley, increasing the roar of the falls. +About nine o'clock a huge black shadow suddenly rushed over Piedmont from +the west, and in a moment the town was shrouded in twilight. The cries of +birds were hushed and chickens went to roost as in a total eclipse of the +sun. Knots of people gathered on the streets and gazed uneasily at the +threatening skies. Hundreds of negroes began to sing and shout and pray, +while sensible people feared a cyclone or cloud-burst. A furious downpour +of rain was swiftly followed by sunshine, and the negroes rose from their +knees, shouting with joy to find the end of the world had after all been +postponed. + +But that the end of their brief reign in a white man's land had come, but +few of them doubted. The events of the night were sufficiently eloquent. +The movement of the clouds in sympathy was unnecessary. + +Old Stoneman sent for Lynch, and found he had fled to Columbia. He sent +for the only lawyer in town whom the Lieutenant-Governor had told him +could be trusted. + +The lawyer was polite, but his refusal to undertake the prosecution of any +alleged member of the Klan was emphatic. + +"I'm a sinful man, sir," he said with a smile. "Besides, I prefer to live, +on general principles." + +"I'll pay you well," urged the old man, "and if you secure the conviction +of Ben Cameron, the man we believe to be the head of this Klan, I'll give +you ten thousand dollars." + +The lawyer was whittling on a piece of pine meditatively. + +"That's a big lot of money in these hard times. I'd like to own it, but +I'm afraid it wouldn't be good at the bank on the other side. I prefer the +green fields of South Carolina to those of Eden. My harp isn't in tune." + +Stoneman snorted in disgust: + +"Will you ask the Mayor to call to see me at once?" + +"We ain't got none," was the laconic answer. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Haven't you heard what happened to his Honour last night?" + +"No." + +"The Klan called to see him," went on the lawyer with a quizzical look "at +3 A. M. Rather early for a visit of state. They gave him forty-nine lashes +on his bare back, and persuaded him that the climate of Piedmont didn't +agree with him. His Honour, Mayor Bizzel, left this morning with his negro +wife and brood of mulatto children for his home, the slums of Cleveland, +Ohio. We are deprived of his illustrious example, and he may not be a +wiser man than when he came, but he's a much sadder one." + +Stoneman dismissed the even-tempered member of the bar, and wired Lynch to +return immediately to Piedmont. He determined to conduct the prosecution +of Ben Cameron in person. With the aid of the Lieutenant-Governor he +succeeded in finding a man who would dare to swear out a warrant against +him. + +As a preliminary skirmish he was charged with a violation of the statutory +laws of the United States relating to Reconstruction and arraigned before +a Commissioner. + +Against Elsie's agonizing protest, old Stoneman appeared at the courthouse +to conduct the prosecution. + +In the absence of the United States Marshal, the warrant had been placed +in the hands of the sheriff, returnable at ten o'clock on the morning +fixed for the trial. The new sheriff of Ulster was no less a personage +than Uncle Aleck, who had resigned his seat in the House to accept the +more profitable one of High Sheriff of the County. + +There was a long delay in beginning the trial. At 10:30 not a single +witness summoned had appeared, nor had the prisoner seen fit to honour the +court with his presence. + +Old Stoneman sat fumbling his hands in nervous, sullen rage, while Phil +looked on with amusement. + +"Send for the sheriff," he growled to the Commissioner. + +In a moment Aleck appeared bowing humbly and politely to every white man +he passed. He bent halfway to the floor before the Commissioner and said: + +"Marse Ben be here in er minute, sah. He's er eatin' his breakfus'. I run +erlong erhead." + +Stoneman's face was a thundercloud as he scrambled to his feet and glared +at Aleck: + +"_Marse_ Ben? Did you say _Marse_ Ben? Who's he?" + +Aleck bowed low again. + +"De young Colonel, sah--Marse Ben Cameron." + +"And you the sheriff of this county trotted along in front to make the way +smooth for your prisoner?" + +"Yessah!" + +"Is that the way you escort prisoners before a court?" + +"Dem kin' er prisoners--yessah." + +"Why didn't you walk beside him?" + +Aleck grinned from ear to ear and bowed very low: + +"He say sumfin' to me, sah!" + +"And what did he say?" + +Aleck shook his head and laughed: + +"I hates ter insinuate ter de cote, sah!" + +"What did he say to you?" thundered Stoneman. + +"He say--he say--ef I walk 'longside er him--he knock hell outen me, +sah!" + +"Indeed." + +"Yessah, en I 'spec' he would," said Aleck insinuatingly. "La, he's a +gemman, sah, he is! He tell me he come right on. He be here sho'." + +Stoneman whispered to Lynch, turned with a look of contempt to Aleck, and +said: + +"Mr. Sheriff, you interest me. Will you be kind enough to explain to this +court what has happened to you lately to so miraculously change your +manners?" + +Aleck glanced around the room nervously. + +"I seed sumfin'--a vision, sah!" + +"A vision? Are you given to visions?" + +"Na-sah. Dis yere wuz er sho' 'nuff vision! I wuz er feelin' bad all day +yistiddy. Soon in de mawnin', ez I wuz gwine 'long de road, I see a big +black bird er settin' on de fence. He flop his wings, look right at me en +say, 'Corpse! Corpse! Corpse!'"--Aleck's voice dropped to a whisper--"'en +las' night de Ku Kluxes come ter see me, sah!" + +Stoneman lifted his beetling brows. + +"That's interesting. We are searching for information on that subject." + +"Yessah! Dey wuz Sperits, ridin' white hosses wid flowin' white robes, en +big blood-red eyes! De hosses wuz twenty feet high, en some er de Sperits +wuz higher dan dis cote-house! Dey wuz all bal' headed, 'cept right on de +top whar dere wuz er straight blaze er fire shot up in de air ten foot +high!" + +"What did they say to you?" + +"Dey say dat ef I didn't design de sheriff's office, go back ter farmin' +en behave myself, dey had er job waitin' fer me in hell, sah. En shos' you +born dey wuz right from dar!" + +"Of course!" sneered the old Commoner. + +"Yessah! Hit's des lak I tell yer. One ob 'em makes me fetch 'im er drink +er water. I carry two bucketsful ter 'im 'fo' I git done, en I swar ter +God he drink it all right dar 'fo' my eyes! He say hit wuz pow'ful dry +down below, sah! En den I feel sumfin' bus' loose inside er me, en I +disremember all dat come ter pass! I made er jump fer de ribber bank, en +de next I knowed I wuz er pullin' fur de odder sho'. I'se er pow'ful good +swimmer, sah, but I nebber git ercross er creek befo' ez quick ez I got +ober de ribber las' night." + +"And you think of going back to farming?" + +"I done begin plowin' dis mornin', marster!" + +"_Don't_ you call me marster!" yelled the old man. "Are you the sheriff of +this county?" + +Aleck laughed loudly. + +"Na-sah! Dat's er joke! I ain't nuttin' but er plain nigger--I wants +peace, judge." + +"Evidently we need a new sheriff." + +"Dat's what I tell 'em, sah, dis mornin'--en I des flings mysef on de +ignance er de cote!" + +Phil laughed aloud, and his father's colourless eyes began to spit cold +poison. + +"About what time do you think your master, Colonel Cameron, will honour us +with his presence?" he asked Aleck. + +Again the sheriff bowed. + +"He's er comin' right now, lak I tole yer--he's er gemman, sah." + +Ben walked briskly into the room and confronted the Commissioner. + +Without apparently noticing his presence, Stoneman said: + +"In the absence of witnesses we accept the discharge of this warrant, +pending developments." + +Ben turned on his heel, pressed Phil's hand as he passed through the +crowd, and disappeared. + +The old Commoner drove to the telegraph office and sent a message of more +than a thousand words to the White House, a copy of which the operator +delivered to Ben Cameron within an hour. + +President Grant next morning issued a proclamation declaring the nine +Scotch-Irish hill counties of South Carolina in a state of insurrection, +ordered an army corps of five thousand men to report there for duty, +pending the further necessity of martial law and the suspension of the +writ of _Habeas Corpus_. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE COUNTER STROKE + + +From the hour he had watched the capture of the armoury old Stoneman felt +in the air a current against him which was electric, as if the dead had +heard the cry of the clansmen's greeting, risen and rallied to their pale +ranks. + +The daring campaign these men were waging took his breath. They were going +not only to defeat his delegation to Congress, but send their own to take +their seats, reinforced by the enormous power of a suppressed negro vote. +The blow was so sublime in its audacity, he laughed in secret admiration +while he raved and cursed. + +The army corps took possession of the hill counties, quartering from five +to six hundred regulars at each courthouse; but the mischief was done. The +State was on fire. The eighty thousand rifles with which the negroes had +been armed were now in the hands of their foes. A white rifle-club was +organized in every town, village, and hamlet. They attended the public +meetings with their guns, drilled in front of the speakers' stands, +yelled, hooted, hissed, cursed, and jeered at the orators who dared to +champion or apologize for negro rule. At night the hoofbeat of squadrons +of pale horsemen and the crack of their revolvers struck terror to the +heart of every negro, carpet-bagger, and scallawag. + +There was a momentary lull in the excitement, which Stoneman mistook for +fear, at the appearance of the troops. He had the Governor appoint a white +sheriff, a young scallawag from the mountains who was a noted moonshiner +and desperado. He arrested over a hundred leading men in the county, +charged them with complicity in the killing of the three members of the +African Guard, and instructed the judge and clerk of the court to refuse +bail and commit them to jail under military guard. + +To his amazement the prisoners came into Piedmont armed and mounted. They +paid no attention to the deputy sheriffs who were supposed to have them in +charge. They deliberately formed in line under Ben Cameron's direction and +he led them in a parade through the streets. + +The five hundred United States regulars who were camped on the river bank +were Westerners. Ben led his squadron of armed prisoners in front of this +camp and took them through the evolutions of cavalry with the precision of +veterans. The soldiers dropped their games and gathered, laughing, to +watch them. The drill ended with a double-rank charge at the river +embankment. When they drew every horse on his haunches on the brink, +firing a volley with a single crash, a wild cheer broke from the soldiers, +and the officers rushed from their tents. + +Ben wheeled his men, galloped in front of the camp, drew them up at dress +parade, and saluted. A low word of command from a trooper, and the +Westerners quickly formed in ranks, returned the salute, and cheered. The +officers rushed up, cursing, and drove the men back to their tents. + +The horsemen laughed, fired a volley in the air, cheered, and galloped +back to the courthouse. The court was glad to get rid of them. There was +no question raised over technicalities in making out bail-bonds. The clerk +wrote the names of imaginary bondsmen as fast as his pen could fly, while +the perspiration stood in beads on his red forehead. + +Another telegram from old Stoneman to the White House, and the Writ of +_Habeas Corpus_ was suspended and Martial Law proclaimed. + +Enraged beyond measure at the salute from the troops, he had two companies +of negro regulars sent from Columbia, and they camped in the Courthouse +Square. + +He determined to make a desperate effort to crush the fierce spirit before +which his forces were being driven like chaff. He induced Bizzel to return +from Cleveland with his negro wife and children. He was escorted to the +City Hall and reinstalled as Mayor by the full force of seven hundred +troops, and a negro guard placed around his house. Stoneman had Lynch run +an excursion from the Black Belt, and brought a thousand negroes to attend +a final rally at Piedmont. He placarded the town with posters on which +were printed the Civil Rights Bill and the proclamation of the President +declaring Martial Law. + +Ben watched this day dawn with nervous dread. He had passed a sleepless +night, riding in person to every Den of the Klan and issuing positive +orders that no white man should come to Piedmont. + +A clash with the authority of the United States he had avoided from the +first as a matter of principle. It was essential to his success that his +men should commit no act of desperation which would imperil his plans. +Above all, he wished to avoid a clash with old Stoneman personally. + +The arrival of the big excursion was the signal for a revival of negro +insolence which had been planned. The men brought from the Eastern part of +the State were selected for the purpose. They marched over the town +yelling and singing. A crowd of them, half drunk, formed themselves three +abreast and rushed the sidewalks, pushing every white man, woman, and +child into the street. + +They met Phil on his way to the hotel and pushed him into the gutter. He +said nothing, crossed the street, bought a revolver, loaded it and put it +in his pocket. He was not popular with the negroes, and he had been shot +at twice on his way from the mills at night. The whole affair of this +rally, over which his father meant to preside, filled him with disgust, +and he was in an ugly mood. + +Lynch's speech was bold, bitter, and incendiary, and at its close the +drunken negro troopers from the local garrison began to slouch through the +streets, two and two, looking for trouble. + +At the close of the speaking Stoneman called the officer in command of +these troops, and said: + +"Major, I wish this rally to-day to be a proclamation of the supremacy of +law, and the enforcement of the equality of every man under law. Your +troops are entitled to the rights of white men. I understand the hotel +table has been free to-day to the soldiers from the camp on the river. +They are returning the courtesy extended to the criminals who drilled +before them. Send two of your black troops down for dinner and see that it +is served. I wish an example for the State." + +"It will be a dangerous performance, sir," the major protested. + +The old Commoner furrowed his brow. + +"Have you been instructed to act under my orders?" + +"I have, sir," said the officer, saluting. + +"Then do as I tell you," snapped Stoneman. + +Ben Cameron had kept indoors all day, and dined with fifty of the Western +troopers whom he had identified as leading in the friendly demonstration +to his men. Margaret, who had been busy with Mrs. Cameron entertaining +these soldiers, was seated in the dining-room alone, eating her dinner, +while Phil waited impatiently in the parlour. + +The guests had all gone when two big negro troopers, fighting drunk, +walked into the hotel. They went to the water-cooler and drank +ostentatiously, thrusting their thick lips coated with filth far into the +cocoanut dipper, while a dirty hand grasped its surface. + +They pushed the dining-room door open and suddenly flopped down beside +Margaret. + +She attempted to rise, and cried in rage: + +"How dare you, black brutes?" + +One of them threw his arm around her chair, thrust his face into hers, and +said with a laugh: + +"Don't hurry, my beauty; stay and take dinner wid us!" + +Margaret again attempted to rise, and screamed, as Phil rushed into the +room with drawn revolver. One of the negroes fired at him, missed, and the +next moment dropped dead with a bullet through his heart. + +The other leaped across the table and through the open window. + +Margaret turned, confronting both Phil and Ben with revolvers in their +hands, and fainted. + +Ben hurried Phil out the back door and persuaded him to fly. + +"Man, you must go! We must not have a riot here to-day. There's no telling +what will happen. A disturbance now, and my men will swarm into town +to-night. For God's sake go, until things are quiet!" + +"But I tell you I'll face it. I'm not afraid," said Phil quietly. + +"No, but I am," urged Ben. "These two hundred negroes are armed and drunk. +Their officers may not be able to control them, and they may lay their +hands on you--go--go!--go!--you must go! The train is due in fifteen +minutes." + +He half lifted him on a horse tied behind the hotel, leaped on another, +galloped to the flag-station two miles out of town, and put him on the +north-bound train. + +"Stay in Charlotte until I wire for you," was Ben's parting injunction. + +He turned his horse's head for McAllister's, sent the two boys with all +speed to the Cyclops of each of the ten township Dens with positive orders +to disregard all wild rumours from Piedmont and keep every man out of town +for two days. + +As he rode back he met a squad of mounted white regulars, who arrested +him. The trooper's companion had sworn positively that he was the man who +killed the negro. + +Within thirty minutes he was tried by drum-head court-martial and +sentenced to be shot. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER + + +Sweet was the secret joy of old Stoneman over the fate of Ben Cameron. His +death sentence would strike terror to his party, and his prompt execution, +on the morning of the election but two days off, would turn the tide, save +the State, and rescue his daughter from a hated alliance. + +He determined to bar the last way of escape. He knew the Klan would +attempt a rescue, and stop at no means fair or foul short of civil war. +Afraid of the loyalty of the white battalions quartered in Piedmont, he +determined to leave immediately for Spartanburg, order an exchange of +garrisons, and, when the death warrant was returned from headquarters, +place its execution in the hands of a stranger, to whom appeal would be +vain. He knew such an officer in the Spartanburg post, a man of fierce, +vindictive nature, once court-martialed for cruelty, who hated every +Southern white man with mortal venom. He would put him in command of the +death watch. + +He hired a fast team and drove across the county with all speed, doubly +anxious to get out of town before Elsie discovered the tragedy and +appealed to him for mercy. Her tears and agony would be more than he could +endure. She would stay indoors on account of the crowds, and he would not +be missed until evening, when safely beyond her reach. + +When Phil arrived at Charlotte he found an immense crowd at the bulletin +board in front of the _Observer_ office reading the account of the +Piedmont tragedy. To his horror he learned of the arrest, trial, and +sentence of Ben for the deed which he had done. + +He rushed to the office of the Division Superintendent of the Piedmont Air +Line Railroad, revealed his identity, told him the true story of the +tragedy, and begged for a special to carry him back. The Superintendent, +who was a clansman, not only agreed, but within an hour had the special +ready and two cars filled with stern-looking men to accompany him. Phil +asked no questions. He knew what it meant. The train stopped at Gastonia +and King's Mountain and took on a hundred more men. + +The special pulled into Piedmont at dusk. Phil ran to the Commandant and +asked for an interview with Ben alone. + +"For what purpose, sir?" the officer asked. + +Phil resorted to a ruse, knowing the Commandant to be unaware of any +difference of opinion between him and his father. + +"I hold a commission to obtain a confession from the prisoner which may +save his life by destroying the Ku Klux Klan." + +He was admitted at once and the guard ordered to withdraw until the +interview ended. + +Phil took Ben Cameron's place, exchanging hat and coat, and wrote a note +to his father, telling in detail the truth, and asked for his immediate +interference. + +"Deliver that, and I'll be out of here in two hours," he said, as he +placed the note in Ben's hand. + +"I'll go straight to the house," was the quick reply. + +The exchange of the Southerner's slouch hat and Prince Albert for Phil's +derby and short coat completely fooled the guard in the dim light. The men +were as much alike as twins except the shade of difference in the colour +of their hair. He passed the sentinel without a challenge, and walked +rapidly toward Stoneman's house. + +On the way he was astonished to meet five hundred soldiers just arrived on +a special from Spartanburg. Amazed at the unexpected movement, he turned +and followed them back to the jail. + +They halted in front of the building he had just vacated, and their +commander handed an official document to the officer in charge. The guard +was changed and a cordon of soldiers encircled the prison. + +The Piedmont garrison had received notice by wire to move to Spartanburg, +and Ben heard the beat of their drums already marching to board the +special. + +He pressed forward and asked an interview with the Captain in command. + +The answer came with a brutal oath: + +"I have been warned against all the tricks and lies this town can hatch. +The commander of the death watch will permit no interview, receive no +visitors, hear no appeal, and allow no communication with the prisoner +until after the execution. You can announce this to whom it may concern." + +"But you've got the wrong man. You have no right to execute him," said Ben +excitedly. + +"I'll risk it," he answered, with a sneer. + +"Great God!" Ben cried beneath his breath. "The old fool has entrapped his +son in the net he spread for me!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A RIDE FOR A LIFE + + +When Ben Cameron failed to find either Elsie or her father at home, he +hurried to the hotel, walking under the shadows of the trees to avoid +recognition, though his resemblance to Phil would have enabled him to pass +in his hat and coat unchallenged by any save the keenest observers. + +He found his mother's bedroom door ajar and saw Elsie within, sobbing in +her arms. He paused, watched, and listened. + +Never had he seen his mother so beautiful--her face calm, intelligent, and +vital, crowned with a halo of gray. She stood, flushed and dignified, +softly smoothing the golden hair of the sobbing girl whom she had learned +to love as her daughter. Her whole being reflected the years of homage she +had inspired in husband, children, and neighbours. What a woman! She had +made war inevitable, fought it to the bitter end; and in the despair of a +negro reign of terror, still the prophetess and high priestess of a +people, serene, undismayed, and defiant, she had fitted the uniform of a +Grand Dragon on her last son, and sewed in secret day and night to equip +his men. And through it all she was without affectation, her sweet +motherly ways, gentle manner and bearing always resistless to those who +came within her influence. + +"If he dies," cried the tearful voice, "I shall never forgive myself for +not surrendering without reserve and fighting his battles with him!" + +"He is not dead yet," was the mother's firm answer. "Doctor Cameron is on +Queen's back. Your lover's men will be riding to-night--these young +dare-devil Knights of the South, with their life in their hands, a song on +their lips, and the scorn of death in their souls!" + +"Then I'll ride with them," cried the girl, suddenly lifting her head. + +Ben stepped into the room, and with a cry of joy Elsie sprang into his +arms. The mother stood silent until their lips met in the long tender kiss +of the last surrender of perfect love. + +"How did you escape so soon?" she asked quietly, while Elsie's head still +lay on his breast. + +"Phil shot the brute, and I rushed him out of town. He heard the news, +returned on the special, took my place, and sent me for his father. The +guard has been changed and it's impossible to see him, or communicate with +the new Commandant----" + +Elsie started and turned pale. + +"And father has hidden to avoid me--merciful God--if Phil is +executed----" + +"He isn't dead yet, either," said Ben, slipping his arm around her. "But +we must save him without a clash or a drop of bloodshed, if possible. The +fate of our people may hang on this. A battle with United States troops +now might mean ruin for the South----" + +"But you will save him?" Elsie pleaded, looking into his face. + +"Yes--or I'll go down with him," was the steady answer. + +"Where is Margaret?" he asked. + +"Gone to McAllister's with a message from your father," Mrs. Cameron +replied, + +"Tell her when she returns to keep a steady nerve. I'll save Phil. Send +her to find her father. Tell him to hold five hundred men ready for action +in the woods by the river and the rest in reserve two miles out of +town----" + +"May I go with her?" Elsie asked eagerly. + +"No. I may need you," he said. "I am going to find the old statesman now, +if I have to drag the bottomless pit. Wait here until I return." + +Ben reached the telegraph office unobserved, called the operator at +Columbia, and got the Grand Giant of the county into the office. Within an +hour he learned that the death warrant had been received and approved. It +would be returned by a messenger to Piedmont on the morning train. He +learned also that any appeal for a stay must be made through the +Honourable Austin Stoneman, the secret representative of the Government +clothed with this special power. The execution had been ordered the day of +the election, to prevent the concentration of any large force bent on +rescue. + +"The old fox!" Ben muttered. + +From the Grand Giant at Spartanburg he learned, after a delay of three +hours, that Stoneman had left with a boy in a buggy, which he had hired +for three days, and refused to tell his destination. He promised to follow +and locate him as quickly as possible. + +It was the afternoon on the day following, during the progress of the +election, before Ben received the message from Spartanburg that Stoneman +had been found at the Old Red Tavern where the roads crossed from Piedmont +to Hambright. It was only twelve miles away, just over the line on the +North Carolina side. + +He walked with Margaret to the block where Queen stood saddled, watching +with pride the quiet air of self-control with which she bore herself. + +"Now, my sister, you know the way to the tavern. Ride for your +sweetheart's life. Bring the old man here by five o'clock, and we'll save +Phil without a fight. Keep your nerve. The Commandant knows a regiment of +mine is lying in the woods, and he's trying to slip out of town with his +prisoner. I'll stand by my men ready for a battle at a moment's notice, +but for God's sake get here in time to prevent it." + +She stooped from the saddle, pressed her brother's hand, kissed him, and +galloped swiftly over the old Way of Romance she knew so well. + +On reaching the tavern, the landlord rudely denied that any such man was +there, and left her standing dazed and struggling to keep back the tears. + +A boy of eight, with big wide friendly eyes, slipped into the room, looked +up into her face tenderly, and said: + +"He's the biggest liar in North Carolina. The old man's right upstairs in +the room over your head. Come on; I'll show you." + +Margaret snatched the child in her arms and kissed him. + +She knocked in vain for ten minutes. At last she heard his voice within: + +"Go away from that door!" + +"I'm from Piedmont, sir," cried Margaret, "with an important message from +the Commandant for you." + +"Yes; I saw you come. I will not see you. I know everything, and I will +hear no appeal." + +"But you cannot know of the exchange of men," pleaded the girl. + +"I tell you I know all about it. I will not interfere----" + +"But you could not be so cruel----" + +"The majesty of the law must be vindicated. The judge who consents to the +execution of a murderer is not cruel. He is showing mercy to Society. Go, +now; I will not hear you." + +In vain Margaret knocked, begged, pleaded, and sobbed. + +At last, in a fit of desperation, as she saw the sun sinking lower and the +precious minutes flying, she hurled her magnificent figure against the +door and smashed the cheap lock which held it. + +The old man sat at the other side of the room, looking out of the window, +with his massive jaws locked in rage. The girl staggered to his side, +knelt by his chair, placed her trembling hand on his arm, and begged: + +"For the love of Jesus, have mercy! Come with me quickly!" + +With a growl of anger, he said: + +"No!" + +[Illustration: MIRIAM COOPER AS MARGARET CAMERON.] + +"It was a mad impulse, in my defence as well as his own." + +"Impulse, yes! But back of it lay banked the fires of cruelty and race +hatred! The Nation cannot live with such barbarism rotting its heart +out." + +"But this is war, sir--a war of races, and this an accident of +war--besides, his life had been attempted by them twice before." + +"So I've heard, and yet the negro always happens to be the victim----" + +Margaret leaped to her feet and glared at the old man for a moment in +uncontrollable anger. + +"Are you a fiend?" she fairly shrieked. + +Old Stoneman merely pursed his lips. + +The girl came a step closer, and extended her hand again in mute appeal. + +"No, I was foolish. You are not cruel. I have heard of a hundred acts of +charity you have done among our poor. Come, this is horrible! It is +impossible! You cannot consent to the death of your son----" + +Stoneman looked up sharply: + +"Thank God, he hasn't married my daughter yet----" + +"Your daughter!" gasped Margaret. "I've told you it was Phil who killed +the negro! He took Ben's place just before the guards were exchanged----" + +"Phil!--Phil?" shrieked the old man, staggering to his club foot and +stumbling toward Margaret with dilated eyes and whitening face; "My +boy--Phil?--why--why, are you crazy?--Phil? Did you say--_Phil_?" + +"Yes. Ben persuaded him to go to Charlotte until the excitement passed to +avoid trouble. Come, come, sir, we must be quick! We may be too late!" + +She seized and pulled him toward the door. + +"Yes. Yes, we must hurry," he said in a laboured whisper, looking around +dazed. "You will show me the way, my child--you love him--yes, we will go +quickly--quickly! my boy--my boy!" + +Margaret called the landlord, and while they hitched Queen to the buggy, +the old man stood helplessly wringing and fumbling his big ugly hands, +muttering incoherently, and tugging at his collar as though about to +suffocate. + +As they dashed away, old Stoneman laid a trembling hand on Margaret's +arm. + +"Your horse is a good one, my child?" + +"Yes; the one Marion saved--the finest in the county." + +"And you know the way?" + +"Every foot of it. Phil and I have driven it often." + +"Yes, yes--you love him," he sighed, pressing her hand. + +Through the long reckless drive, as the mare flew over the rough hills, +every nerve and muscle of her fine body at its utmost tension, the father +sat silent. He braced his club foot against the iron bar of the dashboard +and gripped the sides of the buggy to steady his feeble body. Margaret +leaned forward intently watching the road to avoid an accident. The old +man's strange colourless eyes stared straight in front, wide open, and +seeing nothing, as if the soul had already fled through them into +eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"VENGEANCE IS MINE" + + +It was dark long before Margaret and Stoneman reached Piedmont. A mile out +of town a horse neighed in the woods, and, tired as she was, Queen threw +her head high and answered the call. + +The old man did not notice it, but Margaret knew a squadron of +white-and-scarlet horsemen stood in those woods, and her heart gave a +bound of joy. + +As they passed the Presbyterian church, she saw through the open window +her father standing at his Elder's seat leading in prayer. They were +holding a watch service, asking God for victory in the eventful struggle +of the day. + +Margaret attempted to drive straight to the jail, and a sentinel stopped +them. + +"I am Stoneman, sir--the real commander of these troops," said the old +man, with authority. + +"Orders is orders, and I don't take 'em from you," was the answer. + +"Then tell your commander that Mr. Stoneman has just arrived from +Spartanburg and asks to see him at the hotel immediately." + +He hobbled into the parlour and waited in agony while Margaret tied the +mare. Ben, her mother and father, and every servant were gone. + +In a few moments the second officer hurried to Stoneman, saluted, and +said: + +"We've pulled it off in good shape, sir. They've tried to fool us with a +dozen tricks, and a whole regiment has been lying in wait for us all day. +But at dark the Captain outwitted them, took his prisoner with a squad of +picked cavalry, and escaped their pickets. They've been gone an hour, and +ought to be back with the body----" + +Old Stoneman sprang on him with the sudden fury of a madman, clutching at +his throat. + +"If you've killed my son," he gasped--"go--go! Follow them with a swift +messenger and stop them! It's a mistake--you're killing the wrong +man--you're killing my boy--quick--my God, quick--don't stand there +staring at me!" + +The officer rushed to obey his order as Margaret entered. + +The old man seized her arm, and said with laboured breath: + +"Your father, my child, ask him to come to me quickly." + +Margaret hurried to the church, and an usher called the doctor to the +door. + +He read the question trembling on the girl's lips. + +"Nothing has happened yet, my daughter. Your brother has held a regiment +of his men in readiness every moment of the day." + +"Mr. Stoneman is at the hotel and asks to see you immediately," she +whispered. + +"God grant he may prevent bloodshed," said the father. "Go inside and stay +with your mother." + +When Doctor Cameron entered the parlour Stoneman hobbled painfully to meet +him, his face ashen, and his breath rattling in his throat as if his soul +were being strangled. + +"You are my enemy, Doctor," he said, taking his hand, "but you are a pious +man. I have been called an infidel--I am only a wilful sinner--I have +slain my own son, unless God Almighty, who can raise the dead, shall save +him! You are the man at whom I aimed the blow that has fallen on my head. +I wish to confess to you and set myself right before God. He may hear my +cry, and have mercy on me." + +He gasped for breath, sank into his seat, looked around, and said: + +"Will you close the door?" + +The doctor complied with his request and returned. + +"We all wear masks, Doctor," began the trembling voice. "Beneath lie the +secrets of love and hate from which actions move. My will alone forged the +chains of negro rule. Three forces moved me--party success, a vicious +woman, and the quenchless desire for personal vengeance. When I first fell +a victim to the wiles of the yellow vampire who kept my house, I dreamed +of lifting her to my level. And when I felt myself sinking into the black +abyss of animalism, I, whose soul had learned the pathway of the stars and +held high converse with the great spirits of the ages----" + +He paused, looked up in terror, and whispered: + +"What's that noise? Isn't it the distant beat of horses' hoofs?" + +"No," said the doctor, listening; "it's the roar of the falls we hear, +from a sudden change of the wind." + +"I'm done now," Stoneman went on, slowly fumbling his hands. "My life has +been a failure. The dice of God are always loaded." + +His great head drooped lower, and he continued: + +"Mightiest of all was my motive of revenge. Fierce business and political +feuds wrecked my iron mills. I shouldered their vast debts, and paid the +last mortgage of a hundred thousand dollars the week before Lee invaded my +State. I stood on the hill in the darkness, cried, raved, cursed, while I +watched the troops lay those mills in ashes. Then and there I swore that +I'd live until I ground the South beneath my heel! When I got back to my +house they had buried a Confederate soldier in the field. I dug his body +up, carted it to the woods, and threw it into a ditch----" + +The hand of the white-haired Southerner suddenly gripped old Stoneman's +throat--and then relaxed. His head sank on his breast, and he cried in +anguish: + +"God be merciful to me a sinner! Would I, too, seek revenge!" + +Stoneman looked at the doctor, dazed by his sudden onslaught and +collapse. + +"Yes, he was somebody's boy down here," he went on, "who was loved perhaps +even as I love--I don't blame you. See, in the inside pocket next to my +heart I carry the pictures of Phil and Elsie taken from babyhood up, all +set in a little book. They don't know this--nor does the world dream I've +been so soft-hearted----" + +He drew a miniature album from his pocket and fumbled it aimlessly: + +"You know Phil was my first-born----" + +His voice broke, and he looked at the doctor helplessly. + +The Southerner slipped his arm around the old man's shoulders and began a +tender and reverent prayer. + +The sudden thunder of a squad of cavalry with clanking sabres swept by the +hotel toward the jail. + +Stoneman scrambled to his feet, staggered, and caught a chair. + +"It's no use," he groaned, "--they've come with his body--I'm slipping +down--the lights are going out--I haven't a friend! It's dark and +cold--I'm alone, and lost--God--has--hidden--His--face--from--me!" + +Voices were heard without, and the tramp of heavy feet on the steps. + +Stoneman clutched the doctor's arm in agony: + +"Stop them!--Stop them! Don't let them bring him in here!" + +He sank limp into the chair and stared at the door as it swung open and +Phil walked in, with Ben and Elsie by his side, in full clansman +disguise. + +The old man leaped to his feet and gasped: + +"The Klan!--The Klan! No? Yes! It's true--glory to God, they've saved my +boy--Phil--Phil!" + +"How did you rescue him?" Doctor Cameron asked Ben. + +"Had a squadron lying in wait on every road that led from town. The +Captain thought a thousand men were on him, and surrendered without a +shot." + + * * * * * + +At twelve o'clock Ben stood at the gate with Elsie. + +"Your fate hangs in the balance of this election to-night," she said. +"I'll share it with you, success or failure, life or death." + +"Success, not failure," he answered firmly. "The Grand Dragons of six +States have already wired victory. Look at our lights on the mountains! +They are ablaze--range on range our signals gleam until the Fiery Cross is +lost among the stars!" + +"What does it mean?" she whispered. + +"That I am a successful revolutionist--that Civilization has been saved, +and the South redeemed from shame." + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Clansman, by Thomas Dixon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLANSMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 26240-8.txt or 26240-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/2/4/26240/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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