rder have got to stop in these
hills. We've had enough of it."

"Well," replied my uncle, "I am the last man in Virginia to interfere
with that. We have all had enough of it, and we are all determined that
it must cease. But how do you propose to end it?"

"With a rope," said Ward.

"It is a good way," replied Abner, "when it is done the right way."

"What do you mean by the right way?" said Ward.

"I mean," answered my uncle, "that we have all agreed to a way and we
ought to stick to our agreement. Now, I want to help you to put down
cattle stealing and murder, but I want also to keep my word."

"And how have you given your word?"

"In the same way that you have given yours," said Abner, "and as every
man here has given his. Our fathers found out that they could not manage
the assassin and the thief when every man undertook to act for himself,
so they got together and agreed upon a certain way to do these things.
Now, we have indorsed what they agreed to, and promised to obey it, and
I for one would like to keep my promise."

The big man's face was puzzled. Now it cleared.

"You mean the law?"

"Call it what you like," replied Abner; "it is merely the agreement of
everybody to do certain things in a certain way."

The man made a decisive gesture with a jerk of his head.

"Well," he said, "we're going to do this thing our own way."

My uncle's face became thoughtful.

"Then," he said, "you will injure some innocent people."

"You mean these two blacklegs?"

And Ward indicated the prisoners with a gesture of his thumb.

My uncle lifted his face and looked at the two men some distance away
beneath the great beech, as though he had but now observed them.

"I was not thinking of them," he answered. "I was thinking that if men
like you and Lemuel Arnold and Nicholas Vance violate the law, lesser
men will follow your example, and as you justify your act for security,
they will justify theirs for revenge and plunder. And so the law will go
to pieces and a lot of weak and innocent people who depend upon it for
security will be left unprotected."

These were words that I have remembered, because they put the danger of
lynch law in a light I had not thought of. But I saw that they would not
move these determined men. Their blood was up and they received them
coldly.

"Abner," said Ward, "we are not going to argue this thing with you.
There are times when men have to take the law into their own hands. We
l