Produced by Fox in the Stars, Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has been maintained.] THE STORY OF A DARK PLOT; OR, TYRANNY ON THE FRONTIER. By A. L. O. C. BOSTON: THE WARREN PRESS, 160 WARREN STREET, 1903. Entered according to Act of Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, by W. W. SMITH in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics at Ottawa. [Illustration: W. W. Smith, Sutton, P. Q.] PREFACE. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.--(Isa. xxviii. 10.) This is a divinely appointed rule to which we will do well if we take heed, as it will save from many disappointments and discouragements. The writer of "The Story of a Dark Plot" has no hope by this work of revolutionizing society or even working any very marked reforms. Books and essays on temperance topics are numerous, and this is but one among many. However, it is hoped that this may prove one of the lines and precepts that are of some service to the cause. There is always need for those who are on the right side of any important question to unfurl their banners and show their colors bravely, but just now, in connection with the temperance movement in our Dominion, there is a very special call for action presented by the Plebiscite. We sometimes read on the pages of fiction exciting and blood-curdling tales of deep laid plots for murder and other crimes, but just when our feelings are being aroused to the highest pitch, we pause and comfort ourselves with the thought that after all this is only imaginary. Or perchance, we may read the truthful details of a more or less successful attempt to end the life of a fellow being, but if we are unacquainted with the persons concerned in the affair and the circumstances which led to it, and especially if it happened some distance from us, we feel but little interest in it. Again we find in the records of the past that thousands have suffered and many died in a really good cause,--the victims of depraved and brutish persecutors who hated what was good. We cannot doubt the truth of the statements nor the innocence of the sufferers, but we may be tempted to complacently remark "the martyr age is past." But if we look about us with unprejudiced eyes, we must see that the sufferers for conscience sake are still not a few.