"Don't ask me to share it," said the younger man: emphatically.
The father winced, his lips trembled, and he answered brokenly:
"My boy, this is the bitterest hour of my life that has had little to make it sweet. To hear such words from you is more than I can bear. I am an old man now—my sands are nearly run. But two human beings love me, and I love but two. On you and your sister I have lavished all the treasures of a maimed and strangled soul—and it has come to this! Read the notice which one of your friends thrust into the window of my bedroom last night."
He handed Phil a piece of paper on which was written:
"Are you an officer of the Union League?" Phil asked in surprise.
"I am its soul."
"How could a Southerner discover this, if your own children didn't know it?"
"By their spies who have joined the League."
"And do the rank and file know the Black Pope at the head of the order?"
"No, but high officials do."
"Does Lynch?"
"Certainly."
"Then he is the scoundrel who placed that note in your
