of the violent rupture which will follow Lincoln's inauguration.

Fifty or sixty in number, these brave and desperate souls are ready
to cast all in jeopardy. Life, fortune, and fame. They represent
every city and county of California.

Hardin, high priest of this awful propaganda, opens the business
of the session with a cool statement of facts. Every man is now
sworn and under obligation to the work. Hardin's eye kindles as
he sees these brothers of the Southern Cross. Each of them has a
dozen friends or subordinates under him. To them these tidings will
be only divulged under the awful seal of the death penalty. There
are scores of army and navy officers with high civil officials on
the coast whose finely drawn scruples will keep them out until the
first gun is fired, Then these powerful allies, freed by resignation,
can come in. They are holding places of power and immense importance
to the last. The Knights are wealthy, powerful, and desperate.

As Valois hears Hardin's address, he appreciates the labor of years,
in weaving the network which is to hold California, Arizona, and
New Mexico for the South. Utah and Nevada are untenanted deserts.
The Mormon regions are neutral and only useful as a geographical
barrier to Eastern forces. Oregon and Washington are to be ignored.
There the hardy woodsmen and rugged settlers represent the ingrained
"freedom worship" of the Northwest. They are farmers and lumbermen.
All acknowledge it useless to tempt them out of the fold. Oregon's
star gleams now firmly fixed in the banner of Columbia. And the
great Sierras fence them off.

The speaker announces that each member of the present circle will