other weakness. But that
don't make yo' no wuss than the rest of us, nor does robbery nor even
murder. So there's a chance for you yet, Jack--a mighty fine chance,
too, sence yo' heart is changed."

"Many a time, Jack, many a time when the paper 'ud be full of yo'
holdin' up a train or shootin' a shar'ff, or robbin' or killin', I'd
tell 'em what a good boy you had been, brave an' game but revengeful
when aroused. I'd tell 'em how you dared the bullets of our own men,
after the battle of Shiloh, to cut down an' carry off a measley
little Yankee they'd hung up as a spy 'cause he had onct saved yo'
father's life. You shot two of our boys then, Jack."

"They was a shootin' me, too," he said quietly. "I caught two bullets
savin' that Yankee. But he was no spy; he was caught in a Yankee
uniform an'--an' he saved my father, as you said--that settled it
with me."

"It turned our boys agin you, Jack."

"Yes, an' the Yankees were agin me already--that made all the worl'
agin me, an' it's been agin me ever since--they made me an outlaw."

The old man softened: "How was it, Jack? I knowed you was driven to
it."

"They shot my father--waylaid and killed him--some home-made Yankee
bush-whackers that infested these hills--as you know."

The Bishop nodded. "I know--I know--it was awful. 'But vengeance is
mine--I will repay'--saith the Lord."

"Well, I was young, an' my father--you know how I loved him. Befo' I
c'ud get home they had burned our house, killed my sick mother from
exposure and insulted my sisters."

"Jack," said the old man hotly--"a home-made Yankee is a 'bomination
to the Lord. He's a twin brother to the Copperhead up north."

"My little brother--they might have spared him," went on the
outlaw--"they might have spared him. He tried to defen' his mother
an' sisters an' they shot him down in col' blood."

"'Vengeance is mine,' saith the Lord," replied the old man sadly.

"Well, I acted as His agent that time,"--his eyes were hot with a
bright glitter. "I put on their uniform an' went after 'em. I j'ined
'em--the devils! An' they had a nigger sarjent an' ten of their
twenty-seven was niggers, wearin' a Yankee uniform. I j'ined
'em--yes,--for wasn't I the agent of the Lord?" He laughed bitterly.
"An' didn't He say: 'He that killeth with the sword must be killed
with the sword.' One by one they come up missin', till I had killed
all but seven. These got panicky--followed by an unknown doom an'
they c'udn't se