The Traitor (Dixon, 1907)/Book 2/Chapter 1
THE murder of Judge Butler created a profound sensation both in the state and the nation. The Northern press held the Ku Klux Klan guilty of this atrocious crime without question, and it was the last straw needed to start an avalanche of hostile legislation in Congress against the entire South.
The famous Conspiracy Act was rushed through both houses of the National Legislature and signed by the President. It made membership in the secret order known as the Ku Klux Klan, or Invisible Empire, a felony, and provided for the trial of its members on the charge of treason, conspiracy and murder. The President was authorised to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and proclaim martial law in any county of the Southern States, and use the army and navy to enforce his authority.
The Attorney General promptly placed the county of Independence under military government, stationed two regiments of troops within its borders, and set to work with scores of detectives to find the guilty man.
Two months passed without the slightest progress. Five thousand dollars reward was offered by the national authorities and a similar sum by the state. Not a trace of the man responsible for the deed could be found, though a price of ten thousand dollars was set thus on his head. A number of arrests had been made, but the evidence produced was of so flimsy a character that in each instance the prisoner could not be held.
The longer the case was probed, the deeper became its insoluble aspects. The "Butler Murder Mystery," as it was popularly known, provoked the widest public discussion, both in the state and national press, yet no explanation from any quarter could be found.
The effects of the crime on the Ku Klux raiders was immediate. Not a trace of their existence was left. The enormity of the tragedy had evidently sobered the dare-devils who had found amusement or personal profit in its activities. It now became the fashion to denounce the Klan and demand its extermination.
As the order had never had a spokesman, it had no defender. The demand for its suppression was universal. Yet no traitor had appeared among its ranks. The deepest curses of a race were reserved for the white lip that should betray its members. Whatever the leaders of public opinion might say, the masses of the people knew the necessity which had called this dreaded order into existence—the black threat of Negro dominion. Thousands of women and children knew its secrets and held them inviolate.
On Stella Butler the death of her father had wrought a deep and remarkable change. The fun-loving, imperious, self-willed, spoiled child had suddenly become a serious woman. She had given every hour of her time assisting the authorities in their search for the murderer and had followed every possible clue with breathless hope.
Two forces had driven her into a morbid interest in the crime, pride and remorse. In mere laughing banter she had promised her father if a single insult should be offered him, or a hair of his head harmed, she would give her life to avenge the deed. She had not dreamed of such a possibility. But now that the impossible had happened, she would make good her word to the dead. And she would make it good, not only because she had promised and her heart was sick with remorse for the part she had unconsciously played in the tragedy, but for a deeper personal reason—the consciousness of the insult to her pride which the crime had offered. The assassin had dared to strike her father dead in her home, in her very presence.
Had the knife sought her own heart she would have felt less deeply the wound. Somewhere even by her side there stood amid the shadows of life a being who could thus insult her by ignoring her very existence! She resolved to make that man feel her power by paying the penalty with his own life. An element of pitiless cruelty in her character found for the first time its expression in a passionate thirst for the blood of this criminal.
She had seen every effort to penetrate the mystery fail with increasing inward rage. Larkin, who had charge of the Judge's campaign, had been aggressive and untiring for two weeks and then had given up and returned to his duties as Chairman of the State Executive Committee.
The Attorney General announced his departure for Washington and ordered the withdrawal of the troops and detectives.
Stella hastened to send her burning protest against his action. General Champion, who had been deeply moved by her beauty and evident suffering, called personally at the old Graham mansion for an interview. He received her indignant protests with the gravest courtesy.
"Please don't tell me, General," she began bitterly, "that my father's death is an apparently insoluble mystery. I am sick, sick, sick of hearing such rubbish! Eight weeks ago he was murdered in cold blood in this hall on the very spot where you are now sitting. It was not done by ghosts, it was not an accident, it was done by a living man. I refuse to recognise in it an act of Providence. I will not wear an emblem of mourning as long as this man breathes on earth. I have sworn it My father was in the service of his country attempting to enforce its laws. I have the right to demand that a rich and powerful government avenge his death. It is incredible that the coward who did this crime can not be caught and punished."
"Upon the other hand, my dear child," said the General, "I assure you that the apprehension of this criminal is one of the most difficult tasks ever assigned the Department of Justice."
"And why, pray?"
"Because in this climate the Invisible Empire is yet stronger than the visible"
"You believe then that the Klan committed the deed?" she asked
"As sure of it as that I live. If we were dealing with the ordinary criminal, it would be easy. We are dealing with larger problems. Every clue we have found has proven false for this reason. The man really responsible stands at our elbow did we but know the truth."
"What do you mean?" Stella asked with sudden interest.
"That your father's death was ordered by an inner circle of the Invisible Empire. He was probably executed by an individual who did not even know his name. The occasion of the masquerade ball was simply utilised for the purpose. Unless we know the name of the Chief of the Klan in this state no progress can be made. This man has the power of life and death over his men. No such deed could have been committed without his order."
"And you are going to give up the search?" was the eager question.
"For the present yes. It is a waste of time."
"And you have formed no idea as to who this Chief may be?" asked the big brown eyes, flashing with a new purpose.
"I haven't a scrap of evidence that can be used in an English-speaking court of justice—but I am morally certain that I know the man."
"And if you knew him by his own confession?"
"I could send him to the gallows within thirty days."
"The man you suspect?"
"John Graham!"
Stella sprang to her feet, her face white with an emotion which stopped for a moment her very heart-beat.
"Within a month I'll tell you the truth"—she said with laboured breath.
"Can you do it?"
"Beyond the shadow of a doubt!" was her firm answer.
The General seized her hand as he took his leave.
"If you do, my child, you will destroy an empire mightier than the law of the land. I'll place the entire resources of the Department of Justice at your command."
Stella's brown eyes rested on her own beautiful reflection in the mirror as she slowly said:
"Thank you, General, I have at present all the weapons I shall need."