Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/259

 "You are sure they are members of the Klan?"

"Certainly."

"They will come to arrest and try him, dressed in the same costumes the men wore the night my father was killed?"

"Yes."

"Have you hired these men to assassinate him?" she suddenly asked, piercing Steve with her great eyes.

"My God, no!" he protested.

"What will they do?"

"Why, try him by his own laws, of course," Steve answered vaguely.

"What laws?"

"The law of the Order which forbids an officer to abuse his power by using it for personal ends as he did in the murder of the Judge."

"Why have they not tried him before?"

"The feeling against him was not strong enough."

"And now?"

"If he has betrayed the Klan, by his own laws he can be torn limb from limb, so long as a shred of its power remains."

"He could not be put to death for telling the secrets of the Klan to the woman he loves?"

"Yes."

"And he knows this?"