an application for membership in that powerful order, the Knights of
Murder, and in due course was received as a member of the Ghost Rock
commandery. On the day that my probation ended I was for the first
time permitted to inspect the records of the order and learn who
belonged to it--all the rites of initiation having been conducted in
masks. Fancy my delight when, in looking over the roll of membership,
I found the third name to be that of my uncle, who indeed was junior
vice-chancellor of the order! Here was an opportunity exceeding my
wildest dreams--to murder I could add insubordination and treachery.
It was what my good mother would have called 'a special Providence.'

"At about this time something occurred which caused my cup of joy,
already full, to overflow on all sides, a circular cataract of bliss.
Three men, strangers in that locality, were arrested for the stage
robbery in which I had lost my money and watch. They were brought to
trial and, despite my efforts to clear them and fasten the guilt upon
three of the most respectable and worthy citizens of Ghost Rock,
convicted on the clearest proof. The murder would now be as wanton
and reasonless as I could wish.

"One morning I shouldered my Winchester rifle, and going over to my
uncle's house, near Nigger Head, asked my Aunt Mary, his wife, if he
were at home, adding that I had come to kill him. My aunt replied
with her peculiar smile that so many gentlemen called on that errand
and were afterward carried away without having performed it that I
must excuse her for doubting my good faith in the matter. She said I
did not look as if I would kill anybody, so, as a proof of good faith
I leveled my rifle and wounded a Chinaman who happened to be passing
the house. She said she knew whole families that could do a thing of
that kind, but Bill Ridley was a horse of another color. She said,