The night that Ezra Perkins and Haley got back from Washington, where they had gone summoned by Legree and Hogg, to testify to the death of Tim Shelby, they saw a sight that made their souls quake. At ten o’clock, the Ku Klux Klan held a formal parade through the streets of Hambright. How the news was circulated nobody knew, but it seemed everybody in the county knew of it. The streets were lined with thousands of people who had poured in town that afternoon. At exactly ten o’clock, a bugle call was heard on the hill to the west of the town, and the muffled tread of soft shod horses came faintly on their ears. Women stood on the sidewalks, holding their babies and smiling, and children were laughing and playing in the streets. They rode four abreast in perfect order slowly through the town. It was utterly impossibly to recognise a man or a horse, so complete was the simple disguise of the white sheet which blanketed the horse fitting closely over his head and ears and falling gracefully over his form toward the ground. No citizen of Hambright was in the procession. They were all in the streets watching it pass. There were fifteen hundred men in line. But the reports next day all agreed in fixing the number at over five thousand. Perkins and Haley had watched it from a darkened room. “Brother Haley, that’s the end! Lord I wish I was back in Michigan, jail er no jail,” said Perkins mopping the perspiration from his brow. “We’ll have ter dig out purty quick, I reckon,” answered Haley. “And to think them fools at Washington laughed at us!” cried Perkins clinching his fists. And that night, mothers and fathers gathered their children to bed with a sense of grateful security they had not felt through years of war and turmoil. CHAPTER XX--HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED THE success of the Ku Klux Klan was so complete, its organisers were dazed. Its appeal to the ignorance and superstition of the Negro at once reduced the race to obedience and order. Its threat against the scalawag and carpet-bagger struck terror to their craven souls, and the “Union League,” “Red Strings,” and “Heroes of America” went to pieces with incredible rapidity. Major Stuart Dameron, the chief of the Klan in Campbell county was holding a conference with the Rev. John Durham in his study. “Doctor, our work has succeeded beyond our wildest dream.” “Yes, and I thank God we can breathe freely if only for a moment, Major. The danger now lies in our success. We are necessarily playing with fire.” “I know it, and it requires my time day and night to prevent reckless men from disgracing us.” “It will not be necessary to enforce the death penalty against any other man in this county, Major. The execution of Tim Shelby was absolutely necessary at the time and it has been sufficient.” “I agree with you. I’ve impressed this on the master of every lodge, but some of them are growing reckless.” “Who are they?”