Preface 
when Coaly-Bay broke the leg of one of them, I- 
laughed. That day when they were going to 
crush his spirit with a bullet, I hated them! And 
when he escaped down those endless labyrinths, 
which we had threaded together so often, how I 
gloated! But later I wept, for he had left me to 
be an outlaw alone. 
“Yes, always I shall love the memory of Coaly- 
Bay. He was a symbol of the eternal spirit of 
Revolt against the Spur of Oppression. My desire 
is to be as true to that spirit as he was, to fight 
the lash and spur, to bleed or starve rather than 
submit.” 
I gladly quote this letter because it interprets 
some others of my friends as well as Coaly-Bay. 
New York, 
February 27, 1916. 
