on and
enlightenment, in order to have any effect in his generation, must be
reinforced by some positive legislative or executive action, or else
the untrammelled forces of graft and greed would override them; and he
was human enough, at this stage of his career to wish to see the
result of his labours, or at least a promise of result.

The colonel's papers were forwarded to the proper place, whence they
were referred from official to official, and from department to
department. That it might take some time to set in motion the
machinery necessary to reach the evil, the colonel knew very well, and
hence was not impatient at any reasonable delay. Had he known that his
presentation had created a sensation in the highest quarter, but that
owing to the exigencies of national politics it was not deemed wise,
at that time, to do anything which seemed like an invasion of State
rights or savoured of sectionalism, he might not have been so serenely
confident of the outcome. Nor had Fetters known as much, would he have
done the one thing which encouraged the colonel more than anything
else. Caxton received a message one day from Judge Bullard,
representing Fetters, in which Fetters made the offer that if Colonel
French would stop his agitation on the labour laws, and withdraw any
papers he had filed, and promise to drop the whole matter, he would
release Bud Johnson.

The colonel did not hesitate a moment. He had gone into this fight for
Johnson--or rather to please Miss Laura. He had risen now to higher
game; nothing less than the system would satisfy him.

"But, Colonel," said Caxton, "it's pretty hard on the nigger. They'll
kill him before his time's up. If you'll give me a free hand, I'll get
him anyway."

"How?"

"Perhaps it's just as well you shouldn't know. But I have friends at
Sycamore."

"You wouldn't break the law?" asked the colonel.

"Fetters is breaking the law," replied Caxton. "He's holding Johnson
for debt--and whether that is lawful or not, he certainly has no right
to kill him."

"You're right," replied the colonel. "Get Johnson away, I don't care
how. The end justifies the means--that's an argument that goes down
here. Get him away, and send him a long way off, and he can write for
his wife to join him. His escape need not interfere with our other
plans. We have plenty of other cases against Fetters."

Within a week, Johnson, with the connivance of a bribed guard, a
poor-white man from Clarendon,