The white people of Piedmont read this notice with a thrill of exultant joy. Men walked the streets with an erect bearing which said without words:
"Stand out of the way."
For the first time since the dawn of Black Rule negroes began to yield to white men and women the right of way on the streets.
On the day following, the old Commoner sent for Phil.
"What is the latest news?" he asked.
"The town is in a fever of excitement—not over the discovery in Lynch's yard—but over the blacker rumour that Marion and her mother committed suicide to conceal an assault by this fiend."
"A trumped-up lie," said the old man emphatically.
"It's true, sir. I'll take Doctor Cameron's word for it."
"You have just come from the Camerons?"
"Yes."
"Let it be your last visit. The Camerons are on the road to the gallows, father and son. Lynch informs me that the murder committed last night, and the insolent notice nailed on the court-house door, could have come only from their brain. They are the hereditary leaders of these people. They alone would have had the audacity to fling this crime into the teeth of the world and threaten worse. We are face to face with Southern barbarism. Every man now to his own standard! The house of Stoneman can have no part with midnight assassins."
