men are known. The
organization is patent and public. How long are we to endure it? Can we
forever live--

"Sure, I've read enough of the slush!" cried the chairman, tossing the
paper down upon the table. "That's what he says of us. The question I'm
asking you is what shall we say to him?"

"Kill him!" cried a dozen fierce voices.

"I protest against that," said Brother Morris, the man of the good brow
and shaved face. "I tell you, Brethren, that our hand is too heavy in
this valley, and that there will come a point where in self-defense
every man will unite to crush us out. James Stanger is an old man. He
is respected in the township and the district. His paper stands for all
that is solid in the valley. If that man is struck down, there will be a
stir through this state that will only end with our destruction."

"And how would they bring about our destruction, Mr. Standback?" cried
McGinty. "Is it by the police? Sure, half of them are in our pay and
half of them afraid of us. Or is it by the law courts and the judge?
Haven't we tried that before now, and what ever came of it?"

"There is a Judge Lynch that might try the case," said Brother Morris.

A general shout of anger greeted the suggestion.

"I have but to raise my finger," cried McGinty, "and I could put two
hundred men into this town that would clear it out from end to end."
Then suddenly raising his voice and bending his huge black brows into
a terrible frown, "See here, Brother Morris, I have my eye on you, and
have had for some time! You've no heart yourself, and you try to take
the heart out of others. It will be an ill day for you, Brother Morris,
when your own name comes on our agenda paper, and I'm thinking that it's
just there that I ought to place it."

Morris had turned deadly pale, and his knees seemed to give way under
him as he fell back into his chair. He raised his glass in his trembling
hand and drank before he could answer. "I apologize, Eminent Bodymaster,
to you and to every brother in this lodge if I have said more than I
should. I am a faithful member--you all know that--and it is my fear
lest evil come to the lodge which makes me speak in anxious words. But I
have greater trust in your judgment than in my own, Eminent Bodymaster,
and I promise you that I will not offend again."

The Bodymaster's scowl relaxed as he listened to the humble words. "Very
good, Brother Morris. It's myself that would be sorry if it were needful
to giv