Aleck sprang from his stool, caught his wife in his arms, and drew her out of the flames upon the floor. She never spoke from that instant, and, amid the screams of the terrified children, Aleck found himself in the gripe of two or three disguised ruffians, who entered in advance of half a dozen others of the Klan, who quickly pinioned him, and informed him that "his time had come." His wife, whom he tenderly loved, lay dead before his startled and dumfounded gaze, and he could not command himself to speak for a moment. Then he commenced to struggle with the brutes, the screams of his little ones bringing him back to himself. "What is this for," he exclaimed. "Come along!" was the sharp reply of the leader of the gang, "You're played out, and now you're _our_ meat!" And they swiftly bore the wretched father out of the hut, and away from his slaughtered wife and horrified crying babes. Aleck was taken to the woods, half a mile distant, where the gang tore and cut his clothes off of him, and then proceeded to flay him, in accordance with the decision of the Camp in that county; the members of which had first been put upon his track by members of the Moore County Klan. Upon this second visitation, the edict was to "whip the nigger to death." And they did the bidding of their leader, as the sequel proved, to the letter. He was cut and slashed, and beaten until the breath of life was almost gone out of his poor defenceless body, and then their victim was hurled into the chapparal, and left to the night wolves of the forest to devour. It sometimes occurs that our strength increases in proportion to the strain that is imposed upon it. Wounds and rough hardship enure the sturdy, and provoke their courage, oftentimes, and there is a natural instinct in the heart of man, which, under the severest trials and abuses, steels his very nerves _not_ to yield to the heaviest blows of calamity or adversity--mental or physical. Aleck was brave-hearted to a fault. He was likewise physically courageous, and could bear the worst kind of punishment, ordinarily, without flinching. He was now vanquished, for hours he lay like one who had "given up the ghost," beyond conjecture. Still he did not die until the following night. He was providentially discovered by some negroes, in the woods, taken to his cabin, and brought to consciousness. Before he expired he told his dreadful story to four witnesses, who gave it in substance to the United States authorities, as we have now stated the details; but unfortunately--on account of the disguises of his heartless tormenters and murderers--he could give no description that pointed to the personal identity of the offenders.