xt7xgx44rh7s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7xgx44rh7s/data/mets.xml Wood, Henry Cleveland, 1855- 1908  books b92-152-29698798 English Laird & Lee, : Chicago : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. McComb, M. L. Night riders  : a thrilling story of love, hate and adventure, graphically depicting the tobacco uprising in Kentucky / by Henry C. Wood. text Night riders  : a thrilling story of love, hate and adventure, graphically depicting the tobacco uprising in Kentucky / by Henry C. Wood. 1908 2002 true xt7xgx44rh7s section xt7xgx44rh7s 



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LAIRD    LEE, Publishers, WabaaZ enue, CHICAGO



 I
   I
 1, I
I4 I
   I


 






































































DRESSED IN HER HUSBAND'S CLOTHES, SHE LED THEM TO THE

                    TOBACCO BARN.

 


-A fence between makes love more keen."'



              THEE


NIGHT RIDERS

       A Thrilling Story of Love,
Hate and Adventure, graphically depicting the
      Tobacco Uprising in Kentucky

                 BY
         HENRY C. WOOD



"Who warms



in his bosom the eggs of
  a nest of snakes."



hatred hatches



        CHICAGO
LAIRD  LE.E, PUBLISHERS

 

























Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1908,
              BY WILLIAM H. LEE,
   in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at
                Washington, D. C.


   DRAMATIC RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR.

 










              Preface

   The author has cleverly interwoven a tale
of absorbing heart interest with a graphically
depicted view of the present Tobacco Troubles
in Kentucky and the exciting times when the
people formed into bands known as THE
NIGHT RIDERS, to protest against what they
considered the unjust tax of the Toll Gale
System.  These protests were of a strenuous
nature, not unlike those of the tobacco-growing
section today, and as the characters in the
story are real, live beings, who did things,
the reader's interest never flags.
                       THE PUBLISHERS.

 






p eA

 This page in the original text is blank.


 




























































BRACING HIMSELF IN HIS STIRRUPS, MILT CRIED HURRIEDLY
    TO JUDSON: "LEAP UP BEHIND ME ! "-Page 130.


 













CHAPTER I.



  The early morning sunlight entered boldly
through the small panes of glass into the
kitchen of the toll-house and fell in a check-
ered band across the breakfast table set against
the sill of the one long, low window.
  The meal was a simple one, plainly served,
but a touch of gold and purple-royal colors of
the season-was given it by a bunch of autumn
flowers, golden-rod and wild aster, stuck in a
glass jar set on the window sill.
  A glance at the two seated at each end of the
narrow table would have enabled one to decide
quickly to whom was due this desire for orna-
mentation, for the mother was a sharp-fea-
tured, rather untidy-looking woman, on whom
the burden of hard work and poverty had laid
                     7

 


The Night Riders



certain harsh lines not easily eradicated, while
the daughter's youth and comeliness had over-
come them as a fine jewel may assert its beauty
despite a cheap setting.
  The sun's lambent rays, falling across the
girl's shapely head and shoulders, touched to
deeper richness the auburn hair, gathered in a
large, loose coil, that rested low upon her neck,
and also accentuated the clear, delicately-
tinted complexion like a semi-transparency
that is given rare old china when the light il-
lumines it.
  The meal was eaten almost in silence, but to-
ward the end of the breakfast Mrs. Brown
looked up suddenly, her cup of coffee raised
partly to her lips, and said, in her querulous
treble:
  "Sally, Foster Crain says aigs air fetchin'
fo'hteen an' a half cents in town.  Count
what's stored away in the big gourd, when you
git through eatin', an' take 'em in this
mornin'."
  "How am I to go" asked her daughter,
looking up from her plate. "Joe's limping
from that nail he picked up yesterday."
  "Likely somebody'll be passin' the gate



8

 



The Night Riders



that'll give you a seat. The Squire may be
along soon." A certain inflection crept into
the speaker's voice.
  "I'll walk," announced Sally, with sudden
determination. "It's cool and pleasant, and
I'd as soon walk as ride."
  The mother looked across furtively to where
her daughter sat.
  "I don't see what makes you so set ag'in the
Squire," she said, plaintively, a few moments
later, as if she had divined her daughter's un-
uttered thoughts.
  "He's an old fool !" declared Sally, prompt-
ly.
  "An' it strikes me that you're somethin' of a
young one I" retorted her mother sharply.
  The girl made no answer, save a perceptible
shrug of her pretty shoulders, and soon after-
ward got up and began to clear away the break-
fast dishes. Mrs. Brown sighed deeply.
  "Most girls would be powerful vain to have
the Squire even notice 'em," the mother contin-
ued, in a more persuasive tone, as a sort of balm
offering to the girl's wounded feelings. She
placed her cup and saucer in her plate and put
back a small piece of unused butter on the side



9

 


The Night Riders



of the butter dish, then slowly arose from the
table.
  "It's seldom a po' gyurl has such a good
chance to better her condition, if she was only
willin' to do so," she continued argumenta-
tively, for the subject was a favorite theme with
her, and she had rung its changes for the listen-
er's benefit on more than one occasion. She
gave her daughter a sidelong glance-partly of
inquiry, partly of reproach-and turned to her
work.
  Sally, with something like an impatient jerk,
lifted from the stove the .steaming kettle and
poured a part of the hot contents into the dish-
pan on the table, but she made no answer,
though soon the clatter of tins and dishes-per-
haps they rattled a little louder than usual-
mingled as a sort of accompaniment to the
reminiscent monologue that Mrs. Brown car-
ried on at intervals during her work.
  "It's all owin' to the Squire's kindness an'
interest in us that we're fixed this comfortable,
for, dear knows I'd never got the tollgate in the
first place if it hadn't been for his influence, an'
now, if you'd only give him any encouragement
at all, you might be a grand sight better off.



so

 


The Night Riders



Such chances don't grow as thick as black-
berries in sumnmer, I can tell you."
  The dishes and tins rattled angrily, but Sally
said not a word.
  "About the only good showin' a poor gyurl
has in this world is to marry as well as she can,
an' when she neglects to do this, she's got no-
body to blame but herself-not a soul."
  Sally had the dishes all washed and laid in
a row on the table to drain, and now she caught
them up, one by one, and began to polish away
vigorously, as if the effort afforded a certain re-
lief to her feelings, since she had chosen to take
refuge in silence.
  "S'posin' he is old an' ugly," soliloquized
Mrs. Brown, abruptly breaking into speech
again, and seemingly addressing her remarks
to the skillet she was then cleaning, and which
she held up before her and gazed into intently,
as a lady of fashion might do a hand glass at
her toilet. "What o' that Beauty's only skin
deep, an' old age is likely to come to us all
sooner or later. It's all the better if he is along
in years," she added, with a sudden chuckle
and a second furtive glance over the top of the
skillet toward the girl, to see if she was listen-



I I

 


The Night Riders



ing. "Then he ain't so likely to live forever,
an' a trim young widow, with property of her
own an' money in bank, can mighty soon find a
chance to marry ag'in, if she's a mind to."
  A cloud of anger swept over the listener's
face, which the mother failed to see, as the
skillet again intervened.
  "There ain't nothin' like havin' a home of
your own, an' knowin' you've got a shelter for
your old age-no, indeed, they ain'tl The
Squire's mighty well fixed; he's got a real good
farm, an' turnpike stock, an' cash, an' a nice,
comfortable house besides."
  "Comfortable I" exclaimed Sally, with a toss
of her head, and breaking her resolve to keep
silent. "It looks like a ha'nted barn stuck back
amongst them cedar trees down in the hollow.
No wonder his first wife went crazy an' hung
herself up in the attic, poor thing! They say
he treated her shameful mean."
  Sally had looked upon this house many times
and with conflicting thoughts as she passed it
now and then. An air of neglect and loneliness
hung about the spot. The house, hopelessly
ugly and angular, was set far back from the
road in the midst of a large yard given over to



12

 


The Night Riders



weeds and untrimmed shrubbery, while a
clump of gloomy-looking cedars defied even
the brightness of sun and sky.
  "You. can't put credit into everything you
hear," admonished Mrs. Brown, breaking
ruthlessly into her daughter's musings. "Be-
sides, a spry young girl can pretty much have
her own way when she marries a man so much
older than herself.
  "There's Serena Lowe, that use' to be," she
continued, reminiscently. "She an' her fam'ly
was about as poor as Job's turkey when we went
to school together, an' many's the time I've di-
vided my dinner with her because she didn't
seem to have any too much of her own.
  "But she had a downright pretty face-all
white an' pink, like a doll's-an' it helped her
to ketch old Bartholomew Rice, an' now she
rides around in her own kerridge an' pair,
mind you, an' no prouder woman ever lived
this minute. You'd think from the airs she
gives herself that she was born in the best front
room on a Sunday.
  "The Squire's as good as hinted to me that if
he could marry the one he wants, he wouldn't
in the least mind goin' to the expense of



13

 


The Night Riders



paintin' an' fixin' up the place till you
wouldn't know it," insinuated Mrs. Brown,
dropping her voice to a more confidential tone.
  "He'd have to paint an' fix hisself up, too, till
you wouldn't know him, either, before I'd even
so much as look at him," tartly asserted Sally.
  "A tidy young wife could change his looks
an' the looks of the house in a mighty little
while, if she only had a mind to do so," sug-
gested Mrs. Brown, in subtly persuasive tones.
"It must be dreadful lonesome livin' as he does,
with nobody to look after things."
  "He might have kept his nephew for com-
pany," insisted Sally, with a sudden ring of re-
sentment in her voice. "He drove him away."
  "Which likely he wouldn't have done if
Milt hadn't been so headstrong an' wild. You
know the Squire's goin' to have his own way
about things."
  "About some things," corrected Sally.
  "Mebbe about all, sooner or later," said
Mrs. Brown, in hopeful prediction. "He
ain't a man to give up easy when he sets his
mind in a certain direction."
  "Perhaps his nephew isn't, either," sug-



14

 


             The Night Riders

gested her daughter, with a little tinge of color
deepening in each cheek.
  "No, an' that's just the cause an' upshot of
the whole trouble 1" cried the mother, in a sud-
den flash of vehemence, dropping the persua-
sive tones she had heretofore employed for re-
sentful chiding. "His nephew's at the bottom
of it all, an' you seem ready an' willin' to throw
away a good chance of a nice, comfortable
home an' deprive me of a shelter in my old age
just for the sake of that no-account Milt Derr,
who happens to have smooth ways an' a nimble
tongue. It looks like he's fairly bewitched
you."


 






CHAPTER II.



  A little later in the morning Sally tied on her
sunbonnet, whose pale blue lining made a
charming framing for. her fresh complexion
and pretty face, concealing it just sufficiently
to make one keenly inquisitive to take a second
longer glance beneath the ruffled rim.
  With the basket of eggs swung coquettishly
on her plump arm, and a stray wisp or two of
wavy hair escaping from its confines down her
shapely, curving neck and throat, in protest at
imprisonment, the girl set out walking toward
the town, a mile away.
  Mrs. Brown had ingeniously delayed her
daughter's going by finding several little duties
for her to perform, hoping the while that be-
fore the girl should be ready to start the Squire
would make his appearance and leave her no
alternative but to accept a ride with him.
  The, morning grew apace, however, and fin-
ally Sally set out alone, quite grateful for the
                     i6

 


The Night Riders



Squire's tardiness, and partly amused, partly
vexed, by her mother's thinly-veiled excuses
for delay.
  As the girl walked along the road with the
springing, elastic step of youth and perfect
health, and the freedom of the far-stretching
fields as a heritage, the fresh morning air cares-
sing her cheeks brought forth a bloom as soft
and delicate as the rose of a summer dawn,
while her spirits, which had become somewhat
dampened under her mother's recent bicker-
ings, gradually grew soothed and calmed un-
der the tranquil charm of the new-born day.
  Now and then a bird, startled at her ap-
proach, flew from hedge to hedge across the
road, piping loudly in affected alarm as it
went, while in a softer strain came the gentle
lowing of cattle from a pasture near at hand,
and in the tall grass and dusty weeds along the
way the autumnal chorus of insects had begun,
conducted by the shrill-toned cricket.
  At the top of the first hill that arose between
the gate and town Sally paused a moment-not
that she was tired, or even spent of breath-and
looked back. The picture that she saw was
one of serene beauty, with wide stretches of fal-



17

 


The Night Riders



low fields, bathed in the golden tranquility of
a perfect October day, and dumb with the spell
of restfulness and mystic brooding that this
season brings.
  In the far distance a long, ragged line of
hills melted into the soft blue sky-line, and over
these shadowy sentinels, standing a-row, the
purplish haze of autumn hung like a diapha-
nous curtain stretching between the lowlands
and the hill country.
  From her elevated vantage ground the girl
could see the tollhouse very distinctly, though
she herself was partly hidden by a small clump
of young locusts under which she had paused.
As she looked toward her home the Squire's
old buggy came in sight around a curve of the
road and stopped at the gate. Her mother came
out and presently pointed in the direction of
town, while the Squire gave his horse a cut of
the whip and started up the road at a much
brisker pace, it seemed to Sally, than before the
gate was reached.
  "Mother's told him that he might overtake
me," she muttered, grimly smiling at the
thought. "I'll see that he don't," She added,
resolutely.



I 8

 


The Night Riders



  She stood for a few moments debating the
situation, then looked toward the town. The
distance was but half traveled, and the Squire
must certainly overtake her before her destina-
tion was reached. There was a smaller hill
beyond, and toward this she now set out
briskly, fully determined to cover as much of
the way as possible, so that, if finally overtaken,
the ride would prove but a short one at best.
  When she reached the brow of the second
hill the Squire was lost to sight behind the
first one, and just then a plan of escape happily
suggested itself as she reached a low stone wall
running for some distance along one side of the
road.- She lightly climbed the moss-covered
stones and crouched down behind them in a
clump of golden-rod, waiting in covert until
the Squire should pass.
  Soon she heard an approaching vehicle,
which she knew to be the Squire's from the fa-
miliar joggle of loose bolts, and close upon its
coming another sound fell on her alert ear, as
if a horseman were riding from the direction
of the town. The person on horseback and
Squire BixIer met and came to a halt in the
middle of the road, almost in front of that por-



I9

 


The Night Riders



tion of the stone wall behind which the girl
had taken refuge.
  After the exchange of a brief greeting, the
Squire said, abruptly:
  "Well, what progress have you made
Any"
  "Well, Squire, I think he's goin' to jine,"
answered the horseman, in the peculiar draw-
ling tones suggestive of the hill country, whose
boundary lay purple and hazy along the dis-
tant horizon.
  "You think he is" cried the Squire impa-
tiently, with a ripping oath. "What do you
know about it"
  "That when I see him again he is to tell me
if he's made up his mind to come to the next
meetin' place. If he does, of course, he'll jine
the band."
  "And what does the band propose doing"
asked the Squire.
  "To git free roads."
  "How"
  "Not by waitin' on the courts; the people
have tried that long enough. They're goin' to
take things into their own hands a bit. They
mean business."



20

 


The Night Riders



  "Yes, and damn 'em, they'll find that others
mean business, tool" retorted the Squire, im-
petuously. "However, keep your eyes and ears
open, and you'll soon hear the jingle of money
in your pockets."
  "I'll try to keep you posted, but it's risky
business for me."
  "You're all safe," insisted the Squire, "and
you're sure of good pay. I'd like to get the
young rascal in the clutches of the law," added
the speaker, with sudden vindictiveness, "and
if ever I do, I'll promise to make it hot for
him."
  "You can trap him before a great while,
I think, or at least get him in so tight a place
that it will be safer for him to leave this part
of the country."
  "Well, if I can't run him to ground, I'd
at least like to run him away," admitted the
Squire, frankly.
  "It's your best chance for winnin' the
gal," said the horseman, with a meaning
laugh.
  "You keep an eye on his movements, and
I'll attend to winning the girl," answered the
other with a touch of resentment manifest in



2 I

 


The Night Riders



his tone. "Did you meet anybody between
here and town"
  "No. Was you expectin' to overtake some
one" questioned the horseman.
  "Well, nobody in particular," answered the
Squire, evasively. "I was just thinking that
there wasn't much travel over the road this
morning."
  "Not as much as there will be when there's
no toll to pay," said the other, with a meaning
laugh, as he rode away.
  The girl, crouching amid the tall weeds,
waited until the rattling vehicle was well over
the intervening hill before she ventured from
her hiding place. When she gained the road
once more her face wore a grave and thought-
ful look.
  It was evident that mischief was brewing in
this quarter for somebody. Who was it the
Squire was so eager to get into the clutches of
the law, and what band was this person about
to join It seemed to be some secret and ille-
gal organization. No names had been called,
yet a sudden subtle intuition warned Sally that
she was, in point of fact, one of the interested
parties to the conversation just overheard, and



22

 



            The Night Riders          23

that the other person who had gained the
Squire's avowed enmity, and for whose speedy
undoing he was even now planning, was none
other than his own nephew and her sweetheart
-Milton Derr.


 







CHAPTER III.



  When the pretty toll-taker reached town she
disposed of her basket of eggs at even a higher
price than Foster Crain, the poultry vendor,
had quoted-she was a famous hand at bar-
gaining and a shrewd trader-then set about
making some purchases.
  She saw the Squire's horse and buggy stand-
ing at a hitching post near the courthouse, and
determined that she would wait until the vehi-
cle had disappeared before she started back
home. Therefore she dallied over her shopping
in a truly feminine way, and dropped in to
have a friendly chat with an acquaintance or
two; then, noting the horse and buggy had
gone, she finally started homeward.
  The day was now hastening toward noon,
the sun had grown oppressive, and, with sev-
eral bundles to carry, Sally felt that the re-
turn would not be so pleasant as the coming
had been. She looked about her, hoping to
                     24

 



The Night Riders



find some one-that is, some one besides the
Squire-who might be going in the direction
of the new pike gate, and with a seat to offer,
but no one seemed to be in town from her
neighborhood on this morning, and so she set
out alone.
  Just as Sally reached the edge of the town,
where two streets intersected, who should drive
up the other street but the Squire The meet-
ing was wholly an accidental one, but after her
persistent efforts to avoid him all the morning,
the encounter seemed like the especial work-
ings of a perverse fate. The Squire was close
upon her before she even saw him. There was
no chance for escape or subterfuge.
  "Ah, Miss Sally! Good morning to you!"
he cried, with one of his amatory ogles that al-
ways sent a cold chill over her and strongly
aroused within her bosom a spirit of deter-
mined opposition. "I have been looking for
you all the morning. Where have you been
hiding yourself" he asked, as he drove up to
where she had reluctantly stopped on hearing
her name called.
  "Behind the stone wall," Sally was half
tempted to answer, wishing, at the moment,



25

 


The Night Riders



that she could have availed herself of its pro-
tection in the present instance; but she only
nodded gravely, and said that she had been
making a few purchases for her mother.
  "I tried to overtake you early this morn-
ing," continued the Squire, glibly. "Your
mother said you had been gone but a little
while when I passed the gate. You must have
walked pretty fast."
  "I did," acknowledged Sally, with a covert
smile. "It was cool and pleasant walking."
  "Well, come! Put your bundles down in
front and jump in," said her companion. "Rid-
ing's better than walking any day, and good
company's better than either," he added, with
a tender leer at her, which Sally pretended not
to see.
  There was nothing for it but to accept the
proffered seat. She did not dare openly to of-
fend the Squire by a refusal to ride with him,
though she would-willingly have chosen the
long, warm walk, even with the additional bur-
den of her bundles, in preference to his com-
pany. As her mother had said only that morn-
ing, it was through his influence that she had
been appointed keeper of the New Pike Gate,



26

 



The Night Riders



and it was due to him she now kept it, so Sally
civilly thanked him and got into the buggy.
  "If I had counted on such good company,
I would have had this old rattletrap cleaned
up a bit," said the Squire, apologetically, as
they drove off. "But, never mind!" he added,
jocosely. "When we start out on our wedding
trip, I'll buy a brand-new, shiny rig, out an'
out."
  "We" echoed Sally, with a certain sharp-
ness of tone.
  "You don't suppose I'd care to go on a bri-
dal trip alone, do you" inquired the Squire,
laconically, and with a wink of one watery eye.
  "I'm afraid you will, if you depend on me
to go along with you," answered Sally, dryly.
  "Now, my dear, you surely wouldn't be that
cruel " said the Squire, edging a little closer
to Sally, who as promptly moved away.
"Haven't I been depending on your going all
the while, and haven't I said that I wouldn't
have any other girl but you, though there's
plenty would be only too glad to go for the ask-
ing"
  "An' there's one that wouldn't," announced
Sally, coolly.



27


 





















































"WHEN WE START ON OUR WEDDING TRIP I'LL BUY A
           BRAND NEW, SHINY RIG."

 



The Night Riders



  "Then I can show her where she stands
mightily in her own light," said the Squire,
suddenly dropping into a more serious tone.
  "How so"
  "By giving her some very good reasons why
she should act differently."
  "What reasons" asked Sally, arousing to
some slight show of interest.
  "Well, now, we'll suppose, for instance, the
girl to be you," began the Squire, argumenta-
tively. "You and your mother are depending
on the toll-gate for a living, and it makes you a
comfortable one, at any rate. Did you know
the toll-gate raiders were at work" asked the
Squire, abruptly.
  The girl caught her breath with a quick
start.
  "No," she answered, quickly. "Where"
  "Right here in this very county. They
burned a toll-house just on the boundary line
only the other night, and cut down the pole of
one gate in the edge of this county last night,
so I was told today," said the Squire, impres-
sively.
  "I'm afraid we're going to have a deal of
trouble over the matter before it's ended," he



:29

 


30          The Night Riders

continued, thoughtfully, shrewdly following
the impression he had evidently made on the
mind of his hearer. "The spirit of lawlessness
seems to be widely spreading."
  "Do you think there's any danger of the
raiders payin' a visit to the New Pike Gate"
questioned Sally, anxiously.
  "I shouldn't be the least surprised," an-
swered her companion, with a dubious shake
of the head. "The night-riders seem deter-
mined to make way with all the toll-gates in
this part of the country if they can."
  "I can't think they would harm us," insisted
Sally, "two poor, helpless women."
  "Likely not, but if the raiders have made up
their minds to have free roads, as they appear
to have done, they would not hesitate to burn
the toll-house over your heads, which would
leave you and your mother without a shelter,
don't you see"
  The Squire paused, and the girl sat buried
in deep thought for some moments.
  "In that case, what could you do or where
could you go" asked the Squire, at last break-
ing the silence that had fallen between them.

 


The Night Aiders



  "Heaven only knows!" cried the girl, earn-
estly.
  "Now, affairs stand just in this way," con-
tinued the Squire, craftily. "If the raiders
should burn the toll-house-and it is a most
probable thing, I fear-it would leave you two
women in rather a bad plight. But if you'll
only agree to marry me, why, there's a nice
home waiting for you, and your mother will
also have a comfortable shelter in her old age,
and neither of you will have cause to worry
about the future."
  The Squire paused, but Sally made no an-
swer. She knew full well that his words were
quite true concerning the dependence of her
mother and herself on the toll-gate for a living.
She also knew that as long as the Squire enter-
tained the faintest hope of ultimately winning
her the gate was secured to her mother, and
therefore she had not felt troubled on this
score; but now that a new and unlooked-for
danger threatened in the unusual and unex-
pected presence of the raiders, she tremulously
asked herself, "What, indeed, if the toll-houses
were destroyed, would become of her and her
mother"



3 I

 

32          The Night Riders

  The girl felt no fears for herself regarding
the future-she was energetic and had been fa-
miliar with work all her life; it held no terrors
for her; she could hire out-wash, cook, sew
-perhaps some day marry the man of her
choice when he should be in a position to take
unto himself a wife; but, with her mother's
welfare also to be considered, the matter grew
far more complex.
  "Don't you see just how matters stand"'
asked the Squire, persuasively, almost ten-
derly, breaking the long silence.
  Sally gravely nodded her head.
  "I see," she answered, in a low tone.


 






             CHAPTER IV.
  It was close upon io o'clock at night-a late
hour for a lonely traveler in this remote local-
ity amid the hills-and Milton Derr was
homeward bound. As he neared the vicinity
of Alder Creek meeting-house, up in the hill
country, another horseman came out of a lane
into the public road just as he was passing.
  Hailing a fellow voyager, as was the custom
of the neighborhood, Derr recognized an ac-
quaintance and promptly checked his horse
until the other came alongside.
  "Hello, Steve! Isn't it a little late for an
honest man to be abroad" Milton asked, after
friendly greeting from his companion.
  "Well, yes, and it seems I'm not the only one
in that plight," retorted the other, with the
quick repartee belonging to these people.
  His companion laughed good-naturedly at
the thrust, and the two rode on together for
some little distance, when Milton Derr, sud-
denly changing the drift of the talk said:



33

 

The Night Riders



  "Well, I've been thinking over that matter
we were speaking about the other day."
  "To what purpose" asked the other.
  "I'm in half a notion to become a member of
the band."
  "The other half's needed before you can get
in, you know," answered Steve, laconically.
  "Well, I'm nearing that point now," admit-
ted Derr, after a thoughtful pause. "I think
I should like to have some voice in this ques-
tion of free roads myself, as it promises to be
an important one."
  "In that case I can easily arrange it for you.
There'll be but few men around here who
won't belong to the band before toll-gate raid-
ing is over," said the other, impressively.
"Folks have been bled by fat corporations long
enough."
  "When could I join" asked Derr, after
some moments of meditative silence.
  "When" echoed his companion. "Tonight,
if your mind's made up."
  "Well, then, it is,' said Derr, decisively.
"How am I to go about it"
  "Just follow me. If you really mean busi-



34

 


The Night Riders



ness, I can take you straight to where the band
is holding a meeting this very night."
  "All right," answered the prospective can-
didate. "Lead the way!"
  The two turned into a dirt lane beyond the
meeting-house, Derr keeping close by the side
of his guide, while the hoofbeats of the two
horses suddenly grew muffled by the softer bed
of the lane in exchange for the macadamized
pike.
  There was no moon to light the way, and the
faint starlight that had made easily traceable
the white, dust-covered surface of the highway
was now absorbed and lost in the dull clay of
the lane. Where the trees and bushes over-
hung the path a dense obscurity prevailed.
Both man and beast were familiar with night
riding along country byways, however, so the
two travelers rode rapidly on, unmindful of
the darkness or the twisting road.
  A mile farther on they quitted the lane, pass-
ing through a gate into a fallow field adjoin-
ing, which they crossed, and finally came to
the outer fringe of a dense thicket.
  Here they halted, while Steve, placing his
fingers to his lips in a certain manner, blew a



35

 


The Night Riders



low, peculiar whistle, like the call of some som-
bre night bird, which was answered later from
somewhere amid the bushes. Close upon the
answering call a dark form emerged from the
shadowy copse near at hand, and a voice asked
gruffly:
  "Who goes there"
  "Friends."
  "What are you seeking"
  "Free roads."
  "Dismount !"
  Steve dropped from his horse and went for-
ward to where the dark form stood, while
Derr, with his ears alert and lively interest
aroused, heard him announce that he had
brought one who craved membership with the
band.
  After learning the name of the candidate for
initiation, the figure seemed to melt into dark-
ness again, while Steve came back to his horse
and companion to await the return of the mes-
senger.
  "It's all right; come along!" said Steve at
another signal from amidst the bushes. The
two men quickly hitched their horses to some
saplings growing near, and found a narrow



36

 


The Night Riders



path leading down between the underbrush.
Steve led the way, Milton following close upon
his footsteps, while the mysterious messenger,
who wore a half-mask over the upper part of
his face, brought up the rear. There was a
tinge of romantic adventure about the whole
affair that strongly appealed to the new candi-
date.
  The path led down to a secluded hollow in
the midst of the thicket-a remote and lonely
spot, far removed from human habitation, it
seemed, and little liable to intrusion-a spot
well chosen for a secret midnight rendezvous.
  In the midst of the copse lay a small clear-