On receiving this the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might fly from the country.

If he braved the matter out, death would unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and unforeseen manner.

So perfect was the organisation of the society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the perpetrators.

For some years the organisation flourished in spite of the efforts of the United States government and of the better classes of the community in the South.

Eventually, in the year 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers.