Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1898-10-20
CHAPTER XX-CoNTINUED.
TCoPYR1GHr, 1894 ]


She hesitated a momcnt-thcn she
said:
'Send cipher dispatch at once 10
G. G. at St. LOUIS, to NJ. NJ. at Chicago
and c. c. at Davenport. -Four thou
sand guns at Leavenworth leftunpro-
tected by a withdrawal of troops; |
Kansas City on the first at nine o'clock
a. m; impress G. G. with swiftness;
twelve hundred men here now; can
hold everything; get answer from G. &.
at once; watch Memphis papers for
movements of gunboat."
Here the young woman made another
pause. In his impatience, Calicot got
up impulsively and strobe about the
little room. He was shut up helplessly
in living tomb and events, in what
now seemed like another world, were
hurrying-on to some kind of disaster
He calmed himself by powerful men
tai effort. "Well," he said, what do
you see now?"
"They are close together at the in
strument They are sending a dis
patch"
AIJbT bOllG uClhy9 buNAC W. ~ W
an answer received from Hendricks,
for the girl began again, slowly
reading from the written page what
appeared to be instructions. Very lit
tie OF it was ineligible to Calicot, but
blind as it was he tried to impress 1t
upon his memory for after reflection
He heard her saying: "Will take gun
boat and seize arms; council here on
the 25th; make all instructions con-
form to that date.9
Day after day, as the girl revealed in
broken sentences the communications
that were made from the cave to the
cottage, the bulk of the information
began to arrange itself in his mind
around certain well-defned points.
The conspiracy, he now saw, EXTENDED
over the whole United States! 1t had
taken in men in official positions. Its
agents were in the government employ
in the railway service and in the tel
egraph offices. 1t must have vast forces
all ready to mass and the brain of the
movement was hidden away safely un
derground. AS the magnitude ant
method of the plan were slowly com
pretended, he asked himself: What Il
the government doing? Can 1T be pos
siblc that the world has not yet dis
covered the two exits to this strong
hold?-and then he tried to forecas
the result when the exits were discoy
cred. Hendricks cannot be dislodged
he said, even by engineers, who woul
A,,-~,,1 mountain lie ca
only be sealed up and starved to death
and in any such attempt what unknow
exits NAV he not have. He recalle
the mysterious magazine in the soutf
western wall of the rotunda with II
wooden doors and its sign of danger
Vas this n magazine? Might not tina
impression have been created TO kee
secret an unknown exit until an eme
gencv occurred? lie had heard II
port speak of the magazine. lie wouI
talk to the old man about It,
His imagination pictured Ion
chasm leading TO some unsuspecte
region of country with its exit hidde
in the mountains. He foresaw
his fancy q besieging army encampr
over a mine or fallen upon by a suddt
force that sprang up as if by magic
its rear-and then disappeared and
began to ask himself if this conspira'
had not gathered into its ranks mo
OF the malign forces Of civilizati'
which under the names of nihilism al
anarchy seek mainly to destroy.
Intolerable as these reflections we
toa man compelled to see the progre
Of all this diabolism and prevent
from raising q warning cry or MIN
a finger, there were other consider
tions that were even more pclgnal
Here was an innocent and intellige
Girl who. with her father, would be
volved in the inevitable eatastrop