Then the room itself began to shake.CHAPTER I. THE DEACON PROVIDES
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ONE:The next evening the Orderly-Sergeant handed Shorty a badly-thumb-marked and blotted yellow envelope, on which was scrawled in a very schoolish hand:
It was planned that they should sleep until near morning, when the spies of the Knights of the Golden Circle were not alert, enter a freight-car, which they would keep tightly shut, to escape observation, while the train ran all day toward a point within easy reach of their quarry. It would arrive there after dark, and so they hoped to catch the Knights entirely unawares, and in the full bloom of their audacity and pride.Cadnan thought for a minute. "Important is what a master needs for life," he said at last. "The masters need a slave for life, because a slave must push the buttons. Without this work the masters do not live.""I hope it is all right," said the Deacon, a little abashed; "but I never had any use for a hoss that went back more'n he did forrard.""Now, Russell, stand next to Humphreys; Baker, stand behind Russell; Skidmore, stand next to Russell."