The Delta independent., 1896-03-11
piled Calicot. "The ride will do me
good. Let me off at the rotunda.

piled Calicot. "The ride will do me
good. Let me off at the rotunda.
want to get a drink"
Once there he slipped off in the shad-
ows, and the car went off. In five min
utcs it backed up and Calicot got on
again. "Arc you going straight back?"
he asked. Yes, replied the man, last
trip but one. l wait for the COVER
nors. Some of them are going to the
bayou tonight"
1t could not have been more than ten
minutes when Calicot was back at his
quarters, and had resumed his place in
the corridor, and was listening.
The consultation was still going on.
Hendricks was speaking.
you have seem" he said, show
every event has justified my plans. Let
us have no mistake now and we are
masters of the situation. This is the
stage of anarchy. We 20 through it
to victory. have, think, calculated
for'every contingency"
At that moment Calicot pushed the
door open and stood white but calm
before the assembled group.
"You have overlooked one factor"
he said, deliberately.
The astonished circle started into at
titudes of alarm. Hendricks and Fem
ming alone preserved their coplness.
"My prisoner" said the former.
"You were listening"
YES replied Calicot, sit is my duty
to tell you that in your plans you for
, got one important element"
They looked at him with suspicion
of danger in their faces. lie appeared
in his almost ghastly calmness to be
some kind of incalculable force.
"What do you r1ean?" asked Hen
bricks.
Calicot put his hand upon his breast
and bowed slightly. "You forgot me-"
he said, 'tand your work comes to
naught. 1t was just like you to un-
derestimate the qualities that would
destroy you. / have never heard that
in your diabolism there was any pro-
vision for self-sacrifce. Fortunately
in my scheme there was. In three
minutes we shall all die together"
In the confusion that followed Hen
bricks shouted: 'sBe calm; the man has
been crazed by his confinement"
mo" said Calicot, 81 am neither
crazy nor desperate. / have lit the
slow match to your magazine. The
in the Laran. You will be found
here with your secrets divulged. 1
have saved the country. Providence,
which is on the side of history, sent
me to you, and you accepted the in
strumcnt of your own destruction
CHAPTER X2siv.
Lieut.. Stocking, the moment he was
in the Wash bayou and felt the citation
<,f I,
81 cannot go to Memphis with ray
that cannot tell you now. We must
get boat, cross the Mississippi and
disappear.
1t was in vain that Stocking pleaded
and argued. "You do not know ALL"
she said, "and must save my fathers
life. There is slsiff in the woods two
miles above the bayou. Take us to
that, get us across and leave MS to fad
our way in Texas to the coast. You
must go back to your friend, and will
write you when we are all safe, if you
give me an address,"
Vainly Lieut.. Stocking pleaded with
her. On this point she was firm. The
guard took them two or three miles up
the Mississippi and there the party
companying them two or three miles
into the interior, until he believed
they were safc from pursuit, when he
bade them farewell and returned.
The journey had consumed day, and
when he reached the eastern shore of
the Mississippi he encountered the
pickets of government force, was
promptly arrested and taken to the
camp about n mile from the Laran
portal, where he found two regiments
of troops. 1t was not difficult for him
to establish his identity, as he found
several acquaintanccs among the OIL
GERS, and to them he told the whole
story of his capture and incarcera tion.
1t was an incredible and startling rev.
elation, and led the commanding Off
Ger at once to move his camp to q new
elevation at some distance from the
Laran and to take every precaution
against an attack in the rear. On the
morning ofthe third day Stocking set
out with picked guard and several of
the officers to inspect the entrance of
the cave.
1t was not difficult to find the por-
tai, for to their astonishmcnt the
whole of the iron lift was discovered
lying on the ruins of the sanitariun
adjacent to the uncovered shaft, from
which issued wavering thin blue
smoke.
Suspecting some kind of trcachery
Stocking proposed to go down alone,
and after some delay in getting ropes
he was lowered into the hole. Finding
everything enveloped in darkness and