The white man was a receiver of stolen goods and instigator of barn-burnings; had been tried for some one of his offenses and committed to the penitentiary, only to be pardoned out by the State Executive. In a North Carolina case of which I heard, a negro firebug who could not be brought to justice through law, though the burning of two barns and a full stable were traced to him, disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him up after a night in which all the darkeys around smelled brimstone and saw fiery-eyed and long-tailed devils at large. People were hard put to it for protection against fire-fiends. In a South Carolina newspaper a notice appeared from a man who gave warning that he would take vengeance into his own hands if incendiaries fired his property again. The Ku Klux ruled its members with iron rod. Mr. M., of the order in Tazewell, N. C., was building a cabin on his place for a negro who had come under ban because of evil influence over other negroes; word had been passed that he was to be crowded out. A message reached Mr. M.: "Do not let this negro come on your place. K. K. K.", with due skull and cross-bones accompaniment. To close friends of the order Mr. M. said: "My rights shall not be abridged by the Klan." The cabin was finished on Saturday. Sunday he asked a visitor: "Let's take a stroll in the woods and a look at Henry's cabin." When they came to where the cabin had stood, Mr. M. exclaimed: "Why, what does this mean? Lo and behold, the cabin and everything is torn down and the logs scattered every which-a-way!" "And what's this?" his friend asked, pointing to three new-made graves with pine head-boards, inscribed respectively in epitaph to Mr. M., Henry, and Henry's wife, Mr. M.'s death dated the ensuing Sabbath. On a tiny hillock was a small gallows with grapevine attachment. As one of the order, Mr. M. knew enough to make him ill at ease. Friends begged him to leave the country for a time, and he went. "This may look like tyranny," said my informant, "but Mr. M. ought to have heeded the first message. The order could only do effective work through unfailing execution of sentence." Between a young lady and the son of a house in which she was a guest, a tender passion arose. He had mysterious absences lasting half or all night, after which his horse would be found in the stables, lathered with foam. The family rallied him on his devotion to a fair demoiselle in an adjoining county. Though under cold treatment from the guest, he gave no other explanation until one day he conducted her and his sister into his room, locked the door, swore them to secrecy, drew from its hiding-place up the chimney a Ku Klux outfit and asked them to make duplicates for a new Klan he was forming. The lovers came to understanding; the girl reproached him: "Why did you not tell me before?" "I did not know if you could keep a secret. I have a public duty to perform; the liberty of my men can be imperiled by a careless word."