The grand-opera voice raised again its silver chant: “Give way, all mobs! Yield! Retire! Abdicate!—Bow down-n-n-n-n! Make way for the Mob of Mobs, the irresistible, imperial, superior super-mob! Hearken to the Lord High Chief Commanding Dragon of the Esoteric Cohorts, the Exalted Immortal Grand Imperial Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan!” Then the Grand Imperial Kleagle turned and addressed the white-robed throng in a voice of sharp command: “Klansmen! Remember your oath! The hour of Judgment is here! The guilty wretch cowers! The grand insuperable sentence has been spoken! Coelum animum imperiabilis senescat! Similia similibus per quantum imperator. Inexorabilis ingenium parasimilibua esperantur! Saeva itnparatus ignotum indignatio! Salvo! Suppositio! Indurato! Klansmen, kneel!”
As one man, the host fell upon its knees.
“Klansmen, swear! Si fractus illibatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae! You have heard the sentence. What is the penalty? Is it death?”
And a voice in the crowd cried “Death!” And the others took it up; there was a roar: “Death! Death!”
Said the Grand Imperial Kleagle: “Arma virumque cano, tou poluphlesboiou thalasses!” Then, facing the staring ex-servicemen: “Tetlathi mater erne kai anaskeo ko-omeneper!”
Finally the Grand Imperial Kleagle pointed her shrouded white arm at Carpenter, who stood, as pale as death, but unflinchingly. “Death to all traitors!” she cried. “Death to all agitators! Death to all enemies of the Ku Klux Klan! Condemnatus! Incomparabilis! Ingenientis exequatur! Let the Loyal High Inexorable Guardians and the Grand Holy Seneschals of the Klan advance!”
Six shrouded figures stepped out from the crowd. Said the Grand Imperial Kleagle: “Possess yourselves of the body of this guilty wretch!” And to the ex-servicemen: “Yield up this varlet to the High Secret Court-martial of the Klan, which alone has power to punish such as he.”
What the bewildered members of the Brigade mad............