The Traitor (Dixon, 1907)/Book 3/Chapter 4
STEVE HOYLE was confined to his room with a bullet hole through the flesh of his right arm the day following the meeting at Inwood. He wrote Stella a letter informing her that John Graharr had hired a gang of thugs to attempt his assassination on the night he was to meet her, that he had been desperately wounded in her service, and begged that she call at once.
Stella sent him a reply that cut deeper than the bullet from John's revolver. It was very brief. Steve read it with muttered curses:
Steve paced his room in a speechless rage for an hour, dressed to call on her and demand an interview, and suddenly changed his mind at the sight of a squad of troops hurrying past his door.
The arrest of John Graham had brought him to the verge of collapse. He trembled at the thought that his turn might come next, and feared to put his head out the door.
When ten minutes later the soldiers who had passed suddenly appeared at every exit of his house and loudly knocked for entrance, he dropped into a chair shivering with abject terror.
When arrested he turned his heavy white face toward the sergeant piteously.
"I beg of you, officer, allow me to stay here under guard. I am desperately wounded, by an accident."
"You'll have to go to jail," the trooper snapped.
"But, my dear man, I can't. I can't walk," he gasped with laboured breath. "Just let me stay here under arrest until I can arrange with the authorities to give bail."
"Ye'll have ter fix that at headquarters—come on," he answered gruffly, seizing Steve and lifting him to his feet.
The heavy form collapsed and he sank in a heap on the floor.
The sergeant looked at him a moment with contempt, turned to his men and said:
"Keep him under guard till I report."
The moment he had gone, Steve revived and crawled in bed, his teeth chattering with a nervous chill. The soldiers sat down and laughed in his face, and cracked jokes about the bravery of men who could ride well at night but sometimes fainted in the daylight.
The Attorney General had ordered Steve's arrest on a shrewd guess which Ackerman had made on hearing of the strange fight between two groups of horsemen in the country at dusk the night before. The detective had seen the doctor leaving Hoyle's house and learned at once that Steve was wounded.
In attempting to serve the warrant on John Graham he had found that he had ridden into the country alone in the direction taken by Steve Hoyle. Ackerman had long suspected Steve of complicity in the movements of the Klan, and knowing the deadly enmity between the two men had at once reached the conclusion that a feud within the ranks of its members could alone account for the situation.
"Arrest Hoyle," he urged on Champion; "threaten him with immediate conviction for conspiracy and murder and see what happens."
The Attorney General had taken his advice, and on receiving the report of Steve's "illness" from the sergeant, went immediately to see him.
Steve was profuse in his expressions of cordiality.
"I'm sorry, General Champion," he said, with loud friendliness, "that my father and mother are in the North at present. They spend a great deal of their time up there among you good Yankees. The fact is they are specially fond of you. My father, you know, was a secret Union man during the war and has always voted your ticket since, though for social reasons he don't say much about it down here."
Steve winked and laughed feebly.
"Is it so?" asked the General.
"Yes, of course," Steve hurried on, "and I want to ask you as a personal favour to my father, if not to me, to accept my bail for $10,000. The whole thing, I assure you, is an absurd mistake. My father and I can convince you of this on his return."
The General pursed his lips and watched Steve shrewdly for a moment.
"I'm sorry I can't accommodate you, Mr. Hoyle. We cannot accept bail in cases of this kind. You must realise at once that you are in a very dangerous position. Beyond a doubt your life is in peril."
Steve attempted to laugh but choked with terror, saying feebly:
"Oh, not so bad as that, General. I'm a lawyer myself you know. I can only be tried on a charge of murder before a state judge and jury. You have no right to put a man on trial for his life here."
"Right or no right, young man, we are going to do it under the Act of Congress. We've got the power. The army is here. The Supreme Court may decide the Act unconstitutional later."
"I assure you, General, the charge against me is a monstrous falsehood," Steve protested vigorously.
"And yet, my boy, the men have found in the search of this house a full Ku Klux regalia for man and horse. Sergeant, bring that thing in!"
The trooper stepped in the door and held up before Steve's astonished gaze the costume which he had taken under his saddle the night before on his trip to meet Stella.
Steve sat up in bed trembling and perspiring.
"Why, yes, of course," he stammered. "That has been here for some time. I've made no attempt to conceal it. It was given me by a client of mine who was a member. I'm keeping it as a curiosity."
"A dangerous curiosity to keep about your house in these times, sir," said the General sternly. "Let's come to the point. Do you wish to keep out of jail or do you wish to test the power of the United States Government to put you on trial for your life?"
"I want to keep out of jail," was the quick answer.
"That's sensible. Then face the facts. My detective has watched you for three months. I can convict you of murder."
Steve fumbled his hands nervously while the General paused and gazed steadily at his wavering eyes.
"Now, I've a generous proposition to make you."
"Yes?—yes?" Steve gasped.
"One that will give you an opportunity to prove yourself a patriot and a hero—a patriot because you will render your country a great service—a hero because you must brave the scorn of every white man and woman whose opinion is worth anything to you. Will you consider it?"
"Yes," Steve answered.
"Give me the information needed to destroy the Invisible Empire and I will not only release you from custody; I will make you my assistant and ultimately secure your promotion to a judgeship. Your answer?"
"I'll do it, General, I'll do it!" Steve cried, while the maudlin tears of a coward's relief from mortal fear coursed down his fat cheeks. I'll stand by you and help save our country by restoring law and order."
The General thanked and congratulated him, again called him a patriot and hero and sent for his stenographer. For four hours he was closeted with Steve.
At dusk the soldiers moved with sure tread in every county in Piedmont Carolina, and before the sun rose the blow had fallen swift, relentless, terrible!
The Klan leaders in every county were behind the bars.
More than five hundred arrests were made in the county of Independence. Around the jail, and half a dozen improvised prisons, throngs of sadfaced wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts stood silently weeping.
The next morning Champion wired the President asking that the Honourable Stephen Hoyle be appointed acting Assistant United States District Attorney, and his request was granted.