Category: Historical Novels
He had scarcely touched the ground when a fair girl of eighteen, dressed in spotless white, reached the gate, running breathlessly, darted inside, seized his arm and helped him to his feet.
He had scarcely touched the ground when a fair girl of eighteen, dressed in spotless white, reached the gate, running breathlessly, darted inside, seized his arm and helped him...
6. CHAPTER VI--SCALAWAG AND CARPETBAGGERJOHN GRAHAM, as leader of the opposition, as well as for personal reasons, was early on the grounds with half a dozen trusted lieutenants to watch the action of the Republican C...
3. CHAPTER III--A BLOW IS STRUCKHe turned to his chair beside a quaint old mahogany desk and wrote an official order to each of the eight district chiefs of the Invisible Empire who were under his command in t...
18. CHAPTER VII--THE DAUGHTER OF EVEShe had determined to treat John Graham’s first visit as a purely business one, and make her approach to him by the more subtle way of child-like dependence on his help and advice.
25. CHAPTER XIV--THE JUDGMENT HALL OF FATESTELLA made excuses to John Graham for not being able to see him before their appointment to meet at Inwood, and on the afternoon of the day fixed rode out of town at four o’clo...
32. CHAPTER VII--THE PRISONER AT THE BARWHEN the day of trial dawned, Stella had succeeded in securing the services of two of the greatest lawyers in America, Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, Attorney General in the Cabin...
11. CHAPTER XI--THROUGH THE SECRET PANELAS THE hour approached for the masqueraders to appear at the Judge’s John Graham was drawn to the spot by an irresistible impulse. He stood in the shadows of the trees on the si...
5. CHAPTER V--GRAHAM VS. BUTLERWHEN Dan Wiley closed the door John turned to his desk and drew from a pigeon hole the mass of legal papers containing the evidence he had gathered of Butler’s theft of his estate.
26. CHAPTER I--THE ARRESTTHE news of the arrival of the regiment of cavalry, and the swift silent way in which they had struck their first blow, brought to John Graham at once a sharp realisation of the...
23. CHAPTER XII--THE TRAP IS SPRUNG_“I have just learned,” Ackerman wrote, “that a number of men of notoriously desperate character from the foot of the mountains were in Independence on the day before the traged...
14. CHAPTER III--THE TRAP IS SETTHE next morning Steve Hoyle left town and Stella began at once to put into execution her plan to entrap John Graham in the meshes of her beauty and deliver him to justice. She...
10. CHAPTER X--THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAKSTEVE HOYLE had cut down his men and hustled them out of town before eight o’clock, but the news rapidly spread and had thrown the people into a tremor of wonder as to the meani...
20. CHAPTER IX--A TEST OF STRENGTHA feeling of reaction depressed her. The passionate warmth and tenderness of his love remained a haunting memory. A sense of loneliness crept into her heart. She began to see th...
31. CHAPTER VI--THROUGH DEEP WATERSSTELLA had hurried to the jail with a bouquet of flowers earlier than usual, accompanied by Maggie who carried a dainty breakfast. She wished to be the first to tell John Graham...
2. CHAPTER II--MR. HOYLE RECEIVES A SHOCKSTEVE HOYLE had called early at the Judge’s to see Stella the morning after John’s encounter in the hall. As he paced restlessly back and forth waiting the return of Stella’s ma...
22. CHAPTER XI--A VOICE IN WARNINGTWO days passed without a word of hope for John. On the third morning after his dismissal by Stella he sat pale and listless at breakfast, scarcely tasting his food, while Susie...
28. CHAPTER III--A WOMAN’S WAYIT WAS one o’clock before Stella recovered from the first collapse of terror for the fate of her lover. And then the imperious will summoned every energy to the struggle for his...
21. CHAPTER X--BEHIND BOLTED DOORSJOHN GRAHAM fought his way home heedless of the storm’s blinding fury. The hurricane without was but a zephyr to the one which raged within his own soul. Again and again he aske...
27. CHAPTER II--THROUGH PRISON BARSWithout turning to the right or left, or answering a look of recognition, he marched between two soldiers through the mass of men and boys in the office and climbed the stairs t...
12. CHAPTER I--STELLA’S RESOLUTIONTHE 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 questio...
16. CHAPTER V--IN THE TOILSShe wrote half a dozen letters and tore them up. They lacked simplicity. The only effective appeal to this man must disarm all suspicion of subtlety. It must be natural, sincere...
13. CHAPTER II--WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTINGSTELLA was putting the last touches to a perfect toilet before meeting Steve Hoyle who was waiting impatiently below. She had given him the sign for which he had long prayed, he...
29. CHAPTER IV--THE HON. STEPHEN HOYLEHe wrote Stella a letter informing her that John Graham had hired a gang of thugs to attempt his assassination on the night he was to meet her, that he had been desperately woun...
33. CHAPTER VIII--THE MINISTRY OF ANGELSEVERY delicacy which love could devise and her money buy Stella lavished on John and his friends. Each day added to the list of men who returned to jail condemned to the infamy...
8. CHAPTER VIII--THE MASQUERADERSIMMEDIATELY following the interview with Steve the character of the raids of the new Klan changed to harmless pranks and practical jokes on impudent Negroes, scalawags and carpe...
9. CHAPTER IX--A COUNTER STROKE“Steve’s gang from up in the hills in my township is on the way ter Independence. They’re goin’ ter raid old Sam Nickaroshinski, the Jew storekeeper, and rob ’im ter-night.”
30. CHAPTER V--ACKERMAN CORNERED“I appreciate the honour you pay me, Mr. Ackerman, but I’m not in love with you. I hope we shall always be friends. If your love endures it may win mine in the end--if you persi...
34. CHAPTER IX--THE DAY OF ATONEMENTWHEN Steve Hoyle discovered next morning that the suit of stripes which he had secured at enormous expense in bribery and hush money had been lost he was furious. The jailor lau...
24. CHAPTER XIII--FOR LOVE’S SAKE“But from the woman’s point of view! yes--and judged by her standard, cowards who hedge and lie and fear to do such things don’t measure very high beside him--do they? I’m afrai...
7. CHAPTER VII--THE REIGN OF FOLLYJohn Graham saw that his defeat was a certainty and gave up the political fight in disgust. But he determined to prevent at all hazards the degradation of the Klan into an engin...
4. CHAPTER IV--THE OLD CODEThe lank mountaineer merely nodded, followed the young lawyer into the office, and stood in silence watching him as he opened a case of duelling pistols which had been handed do...
19. CHAPTER VIII--THE TRACKS AT THE DOORWITHIN thirty minutes after Ackerman had received Stella’s message that she had found the secret entrance to the house he was waiting for her at the door of the vault as she had...
17. CHAPTER VI--THE TRAIN FOR THE NORTHONE by one the boys engaged in the masquerade at the Judge’s the night of his death slipped out of Independence from various nearby stations and left for the West. An hour befor...
15. CHAPTER IV--ACKERMAN SECURES A PLEDGEGeneral Champion’s letter had raised the highest hopes by the declaration that the young detective had developed a well defined and intelligent theory on which to conduct the pr...
35. CHAPTER X--UNDER BRIGHT SKIES--AN EPILOGUETIME slowly healed the poisoned wounds left by the fierce struggles of Reconstruction. John Graham’s case was never decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. Before the...