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Chapter III

The Parting of the Ways

THE discovery of the Captain of the African Guards lying in his full uniform in Lynch's yard sent a thrill of terror to the triumphant leagues. Across the breast of the body was pinned a scrap of paper on which was written in red ink the letters K. K. K. It was the first actual evidence of the existence of this dreaded order in Ulster county.

The First Lieutenant of the Guards assumed command and held the full company in their armory under arms day and night. Beneath his door he had found a notice which was also nailed on the court-house. It appeared in the Piedmont Eagle and in rapid succession in every newspaper not under Negro influence in the state. It read as follows:

Headquarters of Realm No. 4.

Dreadful Era, Black Epoch,

Hideous Hour.

"General Order No. 1.

"The Negro Militia now organised in this State threatens the extinction of civilisation. They have avowed their purpose to make war upon and exterminate the Ku Klux Klan, an organisation which is now the sole guardian of Society. All negroes are hereby given forty-eight hours from the publication of this notice in their respective counties to surrender their