out two heavy sacks. As he placed the
bags on the table, the men all rose to their feet. "There it is
just as you give it to me," said Jim. "But before you go any
farther, men, I've got something to say."

The company stirred uneasily, and all eyes turned from Jim to
their big leader, while Sammy noticed for the first time that the
table had been moved from its usual place, and that her father had
taken such a position that the corner of the cabin was directly
behind him, with the table in front. For her life the girl could
not have moved.

Slowly Jim swept the group of scowling, wondering faces on the
other side of the table. Then, in his slow drawling speech, he
said, "Most of you here was in the old organization. Tom and Ed
and me knows how it started away back, for we was in it at the
beginnin'. Wash, here, was the last man to join, 'fore we was
busted, and he was the youngest member, too; bein' only a boy, but
big for his age. You remember how he was taken in on account of
his daddy's bein' killed by the gov'ment.

"Didn't ary one of us fellers that started it ever think the Bald
Knobber's would get to be what they did. We began it as a kind of
protection, times bein' wild then. But first we knowed some was a
usin' the order to protect themselves in all kinds of devilment,
and things went on that way, 'cause nobody didn't dare say
anything; for if they did they was tried as traitors, and
sentenced to the death.

"I ain't a sayin', boys, that I was any better than lots of
others, for I reckon I done my share. But when my girl's mother
died, away down there in Texas, I promised her that I'd be a good
daddy to my little one, and since then I done the best I know.

"After things quieted down, and I come back with my girl, Wash
here got the old crowd, what was left of us, together, and wanted
to reorganize again. I told you then that I'd go in with you and
stand by the old oath, so long as it was necessary to protect
ourselves from them that might be tryin' to get even for what had
been done, but that I wouldn't go no farther. I don't mind tellin'
you now, boys--though I reckon you know it--that I went in because
I knowed what you'd do for me if I didn't. And I didn't dare risk
leaving my girl all alone then. I've 'tended every meetin', and
done everything I agreed, and there ain't a man here can say I
ain't."

Some of the men nodded, and "That's so," and "You're right, Jim"
came from two or three.

Jim wen