Kitty's Conquest

ty where there was even less of any apparent reason for stopping at all. All without was darkness. I pushed open the window, poked out my head, and took a survey. All was silence save the hissing

n no cause in reply to the natural quest

back to the door again. As he disappeared, I saw his hand working at the butt of the revolver swung at his hip. Something was wrong. I knew that the Ku-Klux had been up to mischief in that vicinity, and the thought flashed upon me that they were again at work. Looking around, I saw that three of our four fellow-passengers had disappeared. They were ill-favored specimens, f

bout the same number were searching along the fence, all talki

head and laid him out; but afore they could get into the safe, the baggage-master, Jim Dalton, came in, and he yelled and went for

did they go

through here, and Bill here says he seen three other fellers light out from the back

en in our car were of the same gang, if a

what's more, I believe they've got a ranch in hereabouts and belong to

y darkness beyond. Stumbling over logs and cracking sticks and leaves, squashing through mud-holes and marshy ground, we plunged ahead, until a minute or two brought us panting into a compar

rush, as we once more plunged into the thicket and on towards the shouts. All of us were armed in one way or another,-it is rare enough that any man goes otherwi

hless and used up, we were brought to a sudden stop on the steep bank of a bayou that stre

's faces, as one after another we gathered on the brink, when there came a sudden exclamatio

ng slowly up the bank,

, but they nigh onto finished me, an

was streaming from a cut on his forehead. A long pull at a flask tendered by

etty quick I came upon him and another cuss just more than going for one another in the bushes. The Yankee had him under, though, and had winged him on the run. When I came up he says to me, says he, 'You look out for this man now. He can't hurt you, but if he squirms, you put a hole in him. I'm going on after the others.' So on he went, and I took a look round. I'd sat down on the cuss to make sure I had him, and my pistol at his ear. He was lyin' right here a-glarin' up

but Hank was groaning and cussing so that I couldn't hear nothing but him. He swore by all that was holy that he'd have that

ce. My respect for Mars was rising every minute. He took a pull at the flask, looked revived, and as we all turned moodily back to the train, I asked him about his hurt. "Nothing but a clip on the hand," said he; "but I suppose it bled a good deal before I noticed it, and made me a little faint after the row was over. I suspected those fellows who were in our car; in fact, had b

dial expressions of sympathy for his hurt, and, in homely phrase, many a compliment on his plucky fight. Mars took it all in a laughing sort of way, but was evidently too disgusted at the escape of his bird to care to talk much abo

eard the judge speak of you, and am sorry I did

long in the S

tole up to the young fellow's cheek,-"I only graduated in this last class-

igure beside me; and wondered-my thoughts suddenly reverting to Miss Kitty-how a young

I told her briefly what had happened, taking rather a mischievous delight in dilating upon Mars's achievement, and affecting not to notice the expression of mingled contempt and incredulity that promptly appeared in her pretty face. Mars himself did not reappear: he had gone into the baggage-car to bathe his hand and accept the eager attentions of one or two Africans, native and to the manner born, who were

and at last when the war was over, and Harrod, who had gone forth with the enthusiasm and ardor of a boy, returned to his father's home, old Jake contentedly followed him, and settled down in one of the few log cabins that remained on the almost ruined estate of the Summers'. Jake was a "free nigger" now, but the world to him was wrapped up in old associations and "Mars' Harrod." No such soldier ever had lived as his "cunnel," no such statesman as the judge; no such belle as Missy Pauline. And Jake not only would not leave them, but in a vague and chivalric manner he stumbled about the premises, lording it over the young niggers and making mighty pretence at earning an independent livelihood for himself by "doin' chores" around the neighborhood, and in hauling loads from the depot to the different plantations within a few miles' radius of Sandb

I tell so long a rigmarole about him. He stood there, a little aloof from the "quality folks," grinning and bowing, a

ed on with a parting whoop; Mars appeared at the rear door and gave me a farewell wave of the hand; and then, leaving to Jake and Bob the responsible duty of transpo

dies, who were fondling, fluttering, cooing, and chattering on the back seat in the most absorbed manner imaginable

ccount of the adventure with the Ku-Klu

shot down in cold blood. A defenceless girl who had been sent down from the North as teacher of the freedmen's school, had been dragged from her bed at midnight and brutally whipped by some cowardly ruffians. The sheriff, who had arrested one of the suspected parties, was threatened in an anonymous letter with death if he failed to release his prisoner within t

until that very evening, nothing more had been heard of the dreaded Ku-Klux. Indeed, it was by some persons believed that their organization was broken up, and nothing but the positive testimony of one of their own neighbors, the man to who