eason of it, Bennington
perceived the deficiencies of _Aliris_, because he had promised to read
it to the girl. He saw it through her eyes.

The young man became absorbed in redescribing the heroine with violet
eyes. A sudden slamming of the door behind him brought him, startled,
to his feet. He laughed, and was about to sit down again, but noticed
that the door had remained open. He arose to shut it. Over the trunks
of the nearer pines played a strange flickering light, throwing them
now into relief, now into shadow. "Strange!" murmured Bennington to
himself, and stepped outside to investigate. As he crossed the sill he
was seized on either side.

He cried out and struggled blindly, but was held as in a vice. His
captors, whom he dimly perceived to be large men in masks, whirled him
sharply to the left, and he found himself face to face with a third
man, also masked. Beyond him were a score or so more, some of whom bore
pine torches, which, partly blazing and partly smoking, served to cast
the weird light he had seen flickering on the tree trunks. Perfect
silence reigned. The man with whom Bennington was fronted eyed him
gravely through the holes in his mask.

"I'd like to know what this means?" broke out the Easterner angrily.

The men did not reply. They stood motionless, as silent as the night.
In spite of his indignation, the young man was impressed. He twisted
his shoulders again. The men at either arm never tightened a muscle to
resist, and yet he was held beyond the possibility of escape.

"What's the matter? What're you trying to do? Take your hands off me!"
he cried.

Again the silence fell.

Then at the end of what seemed to the Easterner a full minute the
masked figure in front spoke.

"Thar is them that thinks as how it ain't noways needful thet ye
knows," it said in slow and solemn accents, "but by the mercy of th'
others we gives y' thet much satisfaction."

"You comes hyar from a great corp'ration thet in times gone by we
thinks is public spirited an' enterprisin', which is a mistake. You
pays th' debt of said corp'ration, so they sez, an' tharfore we
welcomes you to our bosom cordial. What happens? You insults us by
paying such low-down ornary cusses as Snowie. Th' camp is just. She
arises an' avenges said insult by stringin' of you up all right an'
proper. We gives you five minutes to get ready."

"What do you mean?"

"We hangs you in five minutes."

The slow, even voice ceased, and aga