htwood torch, returned within, and placed the cup on the
boulder on which the Grand Cyclops had sat. He loosed the bundle of
lightwood, took two pieces, tied them into the form of a cross, and laid
it beside a lighted candle near the silver cup.

The silent figures watched his every movement. He lifted the cup and
said:

"Brethren, I hold in my hand the water of your river bearing the red stain
of the life of a Southern woman, a priceless sacrifice on the altar of
outraged civilization. Hear the message of your chief."

The tall figure with the yellow sash and double cross stepped before the
strange altar, while the white forms of the clansmen gathered about him in
a circle. He lifted his cap, and laid it on the boulder, and his men gazed
on the flushed face of Ben Cameron, the Grand Dragon of the Realm.

He stood for a moment silent, erect, a smouldering fierceness in his eyes,
something cruel and yet magnetic in his alert bearing.

He looked on the prostrate negro lying in his uniform at his feet, seized
the cross, lighted the three upper ends and held it blazing in his hand,
while, in a voice full of the fires of feeling, he said:

"Men of the South, the time for words has passed, the hour for action has
struck. The Grand Turk will execute this negro to-night and fling his body
on the lawn of the black Lieutenant-Governor of the State."

The Grand Turk bowed.

"I ask for the swiftest messenger of this Den who can ride till dawn."

The man whom Doctor Cameron had already chosen stepped forward:

"Carry my summons to the Grand Titan of the adjoining province in North
Carolina whom you will find at Hambright. Tell him the story of this crime
and what you have seen and heard. Ask him to report to me here the second
night from this, at eleven o'clock, with six Grand Giants from his
adjoining counties, each accompanied by two hundred picked men. In olden
times when the Chieftain of our people summoned the clan on an errand of
life and death, the Fiery Cross, extinguished in sacrificial blood, was
sent by swift courier from village to village. This call was never made in
vain, nor will it be to-night, in the new world. Here, on this spot made
holy ground by the blood of those we hold dearer than life, I raise the
ancient symbol of an unconquered race of men----"

High above his head in the darkness of the cave he lifted the blazing
emblem----

"The Fiery Cross of old Scotland's hills! I quench its flames in the