smiled and thanked God it had ended. Some shook their heads with puzzled indecision. Craig watched in silence with folded arms, a look of brooding tenderness in his eyes. He saw nothing of the puzzled crowd of his former followers. Only the smiling face of a girl. He heard no bitter comments. There were many. A girl's voice asking him to call again at his old home was ringing in his ears.

As the fire died, he turned to find his horse at his side with Logan at the bridle.

"I wish you'd go home now, Chief. I'll stamp out the embers."

Craig took the reins, nodded and led his horse to the clump of trees beneath which Wilkes and Anderson still lingered. He confronted Wilkes, who moved nearer his friend.

Craig's voice was coldly even as he said:

"I'll be at my office at ten o'clock to-morrow morning to get any word you may wish to send-"

Wilkes was silent and Craig added:

"You understand?"

"Yes" came the mumbled answer.

Anderson whispered to Wilkes to keep cool. There was no need of the warning. He was already shivering.

Craig deliberately mounted his horse and rode into the shadows alone.

W

CHAPTER XI

THE OLD WAY

HEN Craig rode past the Hawkins' gate he reined his horse beneath the friendly shelter of an oak and watched the glimmer of lights from the familiar windows.

The girl whose charm had thrown a spell over him and changed the current of life was somewhere behind the curtains in his mother's room. He was sure of this. Hawkins would give her the best. Of that he was sure. He had seen, in the brief moment when they had met, that the old rascal was putty in her deft fingers. The first thing that had softened his hate was the look of tenderness in her father's eyes. Up to that moment he had only seen them flash with anger or blink with deviltry. The love for his daughter had transfigured the rugged face.

Craig smiled as he thought of this mysterious force that could make anew the impulses of the soul. It had gotten him. He had been born again. It would take time to complete the transformation of the outer man to the new ideal. But it would be done.

And then he frowned at the thought of the challenge which he had thrown at his enemy and the tragic events that might grow out of it. Still, it had to be. He had come of that kind of men. The act was instinctive. couldn't regret it.

He

The thought of it brought him back to earth from his dreams. He hurried to the stable, put up his horse and

went to bed.

Exhausted from the long nerve strain he quickly fell asleep.

It was a quarter to ten the next morning when he hurried to his breakfast. Logan was standing at the door. "What's the matter?" Craig asked.

"Just a minute," Ben replied, pressing him back into the office and closing the door.

"What's happened?" Craig cried impatiently.

"Nothin' yit," was the slow answer. His eyes rested on a case of old-fashioned dueling pistols on the desk. He had never seen anything like them before. They had been handed down to the lawyer, through four generations. But the countryman knew what they were for.

"Don't do it-" he said crossly.

"I've got to."

"They ain't no sense in it”

"Maybe not," Craig replied after a pause. “But it's the only way I can see just now. And I'm going to ask you to be my second."

Logan put his rough hand on his friend's shoulder and looked at him steadily.

"Lemme be first-not second."

"It's not my way."

"That's why I've come early to ax ye. Say, boy, you're the biggest man in the state. I used to say that in the war when you'd get us out of a hole so deep we couldn't see the sky above us. But I seed it last night, as I never did before when ye wuz makin' that speech to the men. You'll be Governor shore ef ye don't do some fool thing like this that'll ruin ye—'

Craig shook his head and Logan went on eagerly:

"Hit's ez plain ez day, I tell ye. Ef ye fight 'im and he kills you you're a goner-ain't ye?"

"Yes."

"Ef you kill him, you're ruined, ain't ye?"

"Yes."

"What's the use?"

"It can't be helped."

The countryman threw up a hand in a gesture of impatience.

"Are ye goin' ter kill 'im?"

"Yes. The Klan was the only way to save our civilization. I've sowed the wind and now I begin to see that somebody must reap. I saw it all in a flash last night when that scoundrel called the men to reorganize."

"They won't follow him."

"The fools will, and there are thousands outside clamoring to get in. I've kept the young and reckless out as far as possible. Wilkes knows that he can beat me for Congress with this new wild-cat Klan at his back. He hasn't sense enough to see that, the spell of authority once broken, he wields a power no human hand can control. It will be faction against faction, neighbor against neighbor, man against man-the end martial law, prison bars and the gallows. I can save the lives of our men and my state from crime and disgrace by killing this fool as I'd kill a mad dog, and I'm going to do it."

"Hit'll ruin ye, boy!"

"Maybe. But I'm going to do it."

"Look here, do me a favor," Logan pleaded, “leave him to me. My wife's dead and I ain't got a chick or a child. You've defended me many a time without a cent and you're the best friend I've got in the world. It's my turn now. Nobody would miss me "

"I'd miss you."

The two men silently clasped hands.

"You're a damn fool to do this, boy-" The countryman's voice broke.

"Of course, Ben, many of our old-fashioned ways are foolish-but at least they hold the honor of man, and the virtue of woman, dearer than human life.”

A boy opened the door without knocking and handed Craig a note.

He read it aloud with a scowl:

"My friends have decided that I shall not play into your hands by an absurd appeal to the code of the Dark Ages. I'll fight you in my own way at a time and place of my own choosing and with weapons that will be effective. "GEORGE WILKES."

"Now, by gum, you'll have to leave 'im to me," laughed the countryman.

Craig tore the note into bits and turned to the boy. "No answer, you can go."

"He'll pick you off some night from behind a tree,” warned Logan.

"He's too big a coward even for that

99

The countryman's face was wreathed in smiles as he watched Craig's eyes brighten with a new light. He put on his hat and hurried to the door.

"When ye need me, let me knowThe lawyer nodded.

“And it'll be quicker than ye think-unless I miss my guess."

The warning was lost on Craig. His mind had quickly swung from trouble into the new world of his dreams.