previous night, in mind
and body he was worn out; and now he was plunged into the thick of this
sensation. He must keep control of himself, for every word he said would
be remembered. In the present there was sympathy for him, but sooner or
later people would return to their sordid unemotional judgments.

He sought to forecast the happenings of the next few hours. Murrell's
friends would break jail for him, that was a foregone conclusion, but
the insurrection he had planned was at an end. Hues had dealt its death
blow. Moreover, though the law might be impotent to deal with Murrell,
he could not hope to escape the vengeance of the powerful class he had
plotted to destroy; he would have to quit the country. Ware gloated in
this idea of craven flight. Thank God, he had seen the last of him!

But as always his thoughts came back to Betty. Slosson would wait at
the Hicks' place for the man Murrell had promised him, and failing this
messenger, for the signal fire, but there would be neither; and Slosson
would be left to determine his own course of action. Ware felt certain
that he would wait through the night, but as sure as the morning broke,
if no word had reached him, he would send one of his men across the
bayou, who must learn of Murrell's arrest, escape, flight--for in Ware's
mind these three events were indissolubly associated. The planter's
teeth knocked together. He was having a terrible acquaintance with fear,
its very depths had swallowed him up; it was a black pit in which he
sank from horror to horror. He had lost all faith in the Clan which
had terrorized half a dozen states, which had robbed and murdered with
apparent impunity, which had marketed its hundreds of stolen slaves. He
had utterly collapsed at the first blow dealt the organization, but he
was still seeing Murrell, pallid and shaken.

A step sounded in the hall and an instant later Hicks entered the room
without the formality of knocking. Ware recognized his presence with
a glance of indifference, but did not speak. Hicks slouched to his
employer's side and handed him a note which proved to be from Fentress.
Ware read and tossed it aside.

"If he wants to see me why don't he come here?" he growled.

"I reckon that old fellow they call Judge Price has sprung something
sudden on the colonel," said Hicks.

"He was out here the first thing this morning; you'd have thought he
owned Belle Plain. There was a couple of strangers with him, and he had
m