"Sheriff! What do we need of a _sheriff,_ if we get down to the bottom of this devilment? We have got to put it _down_, and that's all there is to it, as you know very well. There's no two ways about it. These disturbances, most of them due to politics, have upset our whole country. Now, it is for us to set it right again. We've got to cut politics out, and get down to common sense, down to business. The South can't wait for ever on politics, Northern or Southern. This country's _bigger_ than politics, and bigger than politicians. You know we can count on every white man in my part of the Delta. Can we count on you?" Eddring hesitated, but finally looked his friend in the face. "I'm a white man," said he. Blount went on. "What you tell me is not altogether news. We're going after these people, and we're going to put an end to this thing once for all. We're going to have a _country._ Now, we want as large a number of white gentlemen as possible. We will want you. "Now, no matter what you are doing, or where you are, will you come when I send for you!" Eddring repeated simply, "I am a white man, too." "It's for the law, Eddring--for the country." "Yes. I think it's for the law." CHAPTER III REGARDING LOUISE LOISSON "Come out and eat with me, Cal," said Eddring. "I've some other matters to put before you. A great many things have been so confused in my mind that I have hardly known where to begin to straighten them out." "I reckon you've got some new lawsuit or other on your hands," said Blount. "You're right. At least it may be a lawsuit, and it certainly bids fair to be a puzzling study, lawsuit or not." After they were seated at table in an adjoining cafe, Eddring tossed over to his friend a late copy of a New Orleans newspaper. "You see that headline?" said he. "It's all about a dancer, Miss Louise Loisson. You ever hear that name before?" "Why, no, I don't seem to remember it, if I ever did." "Well, that name is bothering me mightily just now. You know something of the history of those old Y. V. damage judgments, after I left the road?" "Yes, I reckon I heard something about it. Some one seems to have got hold of the list of claims, and pushed them for all they were worth. Of course, I know you hadn't anything to do with that."