safe from the Ku Klux!"

"Yes, dearest, let us thank him with all our hearts."




Chapter Fourteenth.

"The more the bold, the bustling, and the bad,
Press to usurp the reins of power, the more
Behooves it virtue, with indignant zeal,
To check their combination."
--THOMSON


The spirit of resistance was now fully aroused within the breasts of
our friends of Ion and the Oaks. Mr. Travilla's was a type of the
American character; he would bear long with his injuries, vexations,
encroachments upon his rights, but when once the end of his forbearance
was reached, woe to the aggressor; for he would find himself opposed by
a man of great resources, unconquerable determination and undaunted
courage.

His measures were taken quietly, but with promptness and energy. He had
been seeking proofs of the identity of the raiders, and found them in
the case of one of the party; whose gait had been recognized by several,
his voice by one or two, while the mark of his bloody hand laid upon the
clothing of one of the women as he roughly pushed her out of his way,
seemed to furnish the strongest circumstantial evidence against him.