ast surrender of perfect love.

"How did you escape so soon?" she asked quietly, while Elsie's head still
lay on his breast.

"Phil shot the brute, and I rushed him out of town. He heard the news,
returned on the special, took my place, and sent me for his father. The
guard has been changed and it's impossible to see him, or communicate with
the new Commandant----"

Elsie started and turned pale.

"And father has hidden to avoid me--merciful God--if Phil is
executed----"

"He isn't dead yet, either," said Ben, slipping his arm around her. "But
we must save him without a clash or a drop of bloodshed, if possible. The
fate of our people may hang on this. A battle with United States troops
now might mean ruin for the South----"

"But you will save him?" Elsie pleaded, looking into his face.

"Yes--or I'll go down with him," was the steady answer.

"Where is Margaret?" he asked.

"Gone to McAllister's with a message from your father," Mrs. Cameron
replied,

"Tell her when she returns to keep a steady nerve. I'll save Phil. Send
her to find her father. Tell him to hold five hundred men ready for action
in the woods by the river and the rest in reserve two miles out of
town----"

"May I go with her?" Elsie asked eagerly.

"No. I may need you," he said. "I am going to find the old statesman now,
if I have to drag the bottomless pit. Wait here until I return."

Ben reached the telegraph office unobserved, called the operator at
Columbia, and got the Grand Giant of the county into the office. Within an
hour he learned that the death warrant had been received and approved. It
would be returned by a messenger to Piedmont on the morning train. He
learned also that any appeal for a stay must be made through the
Honourable Austin Stoneman, the secret representative of the Government
clothed with this special power. The execution had been ordered the day of
the election, to prevent the concentration of any large force bent on
rescue.

"The old fox!" Ben muttered.

From the Grand Giant at Spartanburg he learned, after a delay of three
hours, that Stoneman had left with a boy in a buggy, which he had hired
for three days, and refused to tell his destination. He promised to follow
and locate him as quickly as possible.

It was the afternoon on the day following, during the progress of the
election, before Ben received the message from Spartanburg that Stoneman
had been found at the Old Red Tavern where the roads cros