began. Yet he has never been seen
in the company of any known law-breakers. Many mysterious visitors are
said to come to his house over the Wilderness Road, and to go as
mysteriously as they come. But no one claims to know who or what they
are, where they come from, or where they go. It is said that these men
who carry out his orders hardly know him by sight, that he sees only the
leaders, and that they never dare go to his house unless they are sent
for. It is believed that he rarely goes into detail, and does not wish
to know what they do in carrying out his wishes. It is said that he is
sickened by the slightest mention of bloodshed or cruelty, like any
delicate, sensitive woman, but is perfectly indifferent to all sorts of
atrocity that go on out of his sight and knowledge. There is, indeed, a
general opinion that he actually does not know half of the time what
his tools are guilty of; that he purposely avoids knowing. I have heard
it said that the boldest of the band would no more venture to tell him
of the crimes they commit while executing orders, than he would put his
head in a lion's mouth. It is understood that Alston simply points to a
thing when he wants it done, leaving all shocking details to his tools.
But this is mere hearsay. No one really knows anything about him; that
is to say, no one outside his band--if he actually has one. It is very
generally believed, however, that he has only to blow a single blast on
a horn at any hour of the day or night, and that from fifty to a hundred
armed men will instantly appear, as if they had sprung out of the earth.
It is also generally believed that he makes all the fine counterfeit
money with which this country is flooded, and that he does the work with
his own delicate, white hands. Yet not a dollar has ever been traced to
him, although its regular sale goes steadily on at a fixed rate of
sixteen bad dollars for one good dollar. It is generally believed, too,
that he keeps his money, both the good and the bad, buried somewhere in
the forest near his house, presumably for the double purpose of guarding
against robbery by his tools and against surprise by the officers of the
law. This, of course, is also mere speculation; nobody really knows
anything about what he does. I only know that his house is a bare log
hut, which is singular enough, seeing what a fine gentleman he is, and
what luxury he has surrounded the girl with. But I know that to be true,
because accide