saddle, stiff-limbed from a long ride. "I'm trying to effect the
punishment of your son-in-law's murder, and I've come to your house."

"Ye're welcome," said the evangelist simply, and there was no riffle of
visible misgiving in his eyes. "Come right in an' set ye a cheer."

Two days later Mr. Sidney rode away again, but in an altered frame of
mind. He had met Bear Cat Stacy and was disposed to talk less
slightingly of outlaws. He had even seen a thing that had made the
flesh creep on his scalp and given to his pulses such a wild thrill as
they had not known since boyhood. He had watched a long line of black
horsemen, masked and riding single-file with flambeaux along a narrow
road between encompassing shadows. He had heard the next day of a
"blind tiger" raided, and of an undesirable citizen who had been
sentenced to exile--though related by blood ties to the leader of the
vigilance committee.

It was sitting in the lounging-room of his Louisville Club a week later
that he unfolded his morning paper and read the following item--and the
paper dropped from his hand which had become suddenly nerveless.

"Joel Fulkerson," he read, after the first shock of the head-lines, "a
mountain evangelist, whose work had brought him into prominence even
beyond the hills of Marlin County, was shot to death yesterday while
riding on a mission of mercy through a thickly wooded territory. Since,
even in the bitterest feud days, Fulkerson was regarded as the friend
of all men and all factions, it is presumed that the unknown assassin
mistook him for some one other than himself."

George Sidney took an early train to Frankfort, and that same day sat
in conference with the governor.

"It's a strange story," said the chief executive at length, "and the
remedy you suggest is even stranger--but this far I will go. If you
swear Renshaw off the bench, I will name a temporary judge and set a
special term of court, to convene at once. The rest comes later, and we
will take it up as we reach it."

* * * * *

Once more, just after that, Bear Cat Stacy stood again with Blossom by
a new-made grave, but this time he came openly. Those kinsmen who saw
him there were of one mind, and had he spoken the word, they would have
followed him through blood to vengeance. But Stacy, with the hardest
effort of his life, held them in check. It would mar the peaceful sleep
of that gentle soul whom they were laying to r