"Ah!" said his uncle, "but you forget that their organization was in
existence before the robberies of the state began: also that they do not
trouble corruptionists: and why? because they are men of both parties;
some of them men who direct and control, and might easily suppress the
Klan. No, no, Cal, judged out of their own mouths, by their words to
their victims, with some of whom I have conversed, their ruling motives
are hostility to the Government, to the enjoyment of the negro of the
rights given him by the amendments to the Constitution, and by the laws
which they are organized to oppose.[E] Their real object is the
overthrow of the State governments and the return of the negro to
bondage. And tell me, Cal, do you look upon these midnight attacks of
overpowering numbers of disguised men upon the weak and helpless, some
of them women, as manly deeds? Is it a noble act for white men to steal
from the poor ignorant black his mule, his arms, his crops, the fruit of
his hard labor?"

[Footnote E: See Reports of Congressional Committee of Investigation.]

"No, sir," returned Calhoun half-reluctantly, his face flushing hotly.

"No, emphatically no, say I!" cried Horace, Jr., "what could be more
base, mean, or cowardly?"

"You don't belong, do you, Cal?" asked Rosie, suddenly.

He dropped his knife and fork, his face fairly ablaze, "What--what could
make you think that, Rosie? No, no, I--don't belong to any organization
that acknowledges that name."

A suspicion for the first time flashed upon Mr. Dinsmore, a suspicion of