ify Towers by acquitting him later.

Kinnard knew that Sam Carlyle had gone to Oklahoma, and that without
him any prosecution must fail--but he did not know that the prosecution
had already located him there and taken steps to extradite him.

Then one day, Bear Cat received a summons by mail to meet George Sidney
in Frankfort, and since secrecy was the essence of the plan they had
already discussed in embryo, he went in a roundabout way through
Virginia and came back into Kentucky at Hagen. He was absent for a week
and toward its end he found himself, under the escort of the Louisville
lawyer, standing in the private office of the chief executive himself.
Turner had never seen a city before. He had never met a man of such
consequence, but the governor himself brought to the interview a
dignity no more unabashed.

"This is the young man of whom I spoke, governor," said Sidney. "He has
given his community the nearest approach it has known to placing
sobriety and humanity above lawlessness. There are two men down there
who run things. Towers owns the courts and--maintains feudalism. This
young man heads an organization of night-riders--and challenges Towers.
It's the young against the old: the modern spirit against the ancient
habit."

The governor subjected Bear Cat Stacy to an inquisitorial
scrutiny--which was met with a glance as undeviating.

"I am told that it has been impossible in your country," he began, "to
enforce the attendance of witnesses and even of defendants at court. I
am also told that you believe you can alter this."

Turner nodded gravely. "I kin fetch 'em in--dead or alive," he said
with bold directness. "All I needs air ter be told who ter git."

"Dead witnesses," remarked the chief executive, "are very little use to
any tribunal. If these men are your avowed enemies and in your power,
why have you held your hand?"

Bear Cat flushed and though he spoke quietly there was the bell-like
ring of ardor in his voice. "My power hain't ther law," he said. "I
aims fer sich betterment as kain't come save by law: a betterment that
kin last when I'm dead an' gone."

"This is the case, governor," interposed the lawyer. "The courts there
are a bitter jest. Kinnard Towers operates a stronghold which is a
pest-spot and breeding-nest of crime and debauchery. There is one
agency only that can drag him out of it. That agency this man
represents--and heads."

"Then if you are sent out, during this session of