Show YOUTH aj ad IM M T T RID M W S J s U 0 sasa iSh SaSsey AJ IL 67 ILM a by WILL IR WN WV orf copyright copy ty toy y will clr iret ln CHAPTER XI continued 15 ah these proceedings are legal theol exclaimed the stranger with what appeared to be an air of genuine relief edlef in MILE at case law best law that in 1 rut but git et a trial cut cot in shorty and the captives eyelid flickered that will be all from you just now tle tie jils its arms firms toys JOYS and bring him along ruck toward the clearing we ore started led by the group convoying the cap live lire he had an easy athletic walk about him in fact the ac rent the precise speech the cool tor for mill iaal manner suggested the gentlemen perhaps almost too much the gentleman we were well out in the clearing before I 1 looked ahead so much did fill man whom I 1 had captured for death hold my insane attention out of the woods roods came the cowboy leading that little black blackhorse horse on which the posse had mounted the gagged and helpless charlie meek the saddle was empty I 1 taw raw then that a figure lay shrunken and dd huddled across our path tile the leading group stopped beside it the whole frame of the raptly gave a jerk and then settled back as by effort of the will into a pose of easy nonchalance I 1 hurried forward Cli arile arlie meek ne ile was bleeding from a hole in the chest the side of hip hl head bead was all aenmear WWI with another annd wound the gag t still fill stretched ills his jaws over it ron NID a bloody foam but his wounded torso hamed and there wits a pleading intelligence in his ats etes better git that thing out of ills his mouth said shorty with a touch of ott nesi taint Tal nt needed no more some one untied the gag his eyes rolled until they showed only the whites the muscles of his big tace drew his jaws moved as though the last instinct in him the talkative was for speech then his throat rattled and lies hes gonel gone I 1 said shorty I 1 looked tp tip at the captive and other eyes now jiow that the curtain had fallen on charlies tragedy followed mine lie ile was perhaps a trifle pale but so I 1 suppose appose up pose were we all would one of you gentlemen mind slipping lipping that rope a little farther up aily right arm he asked it will hold bold roe just as securely and wont chafe so much thank you they led him on seated him by the clump of trees but shorty looking flown at the hie body vouchsafed unasked it word of explanation darn thoughtless of me he said ought to tied him to a tree up by the borses for ses had some loony idea of keeping henf where we could all watch him ahen those road agents come out by i the cabin the boys there on the ridge showed a little exIt excitement ement I 1 guess anyhow matt blatt that fool cowboy from hie slaughter house lost his head and let go the bridle and this shorty dropped hla his contemptuous pronoun not tn tenderly took his chance and dug lila big heels into his hois bobs matt got him lere he pointed to charlies breast and and somebody in the posse got urn MID here then the boys down below had bad to shoot hey here comes the Ril killer lerl 1 over the ilage marj marched another captive tall rangy bearded vaguely I 1 bad been trying to account for the lie wilt bandit tills this evidently was lie he led toward the clump of trees he glassed me ile he had a pair of strange et range mating hiring lightbrown light brown eyes which deemed to took look through and over the I 1 told roii bere libers of the posse crowding round fir r following like little hoyi shorty tin forward barking an order left lone alone I 1 followed the tall man and lay illy captive were facing each other and id their eyes showed no recognition illy taint faint then they were lid away made to pit ME down under f parate trees shorty nil all executive force again sent ore one squad ui up for tile the another flown down for the bodies A half score of if us unoccupied withdrew beyond earshot of tile w tongues began to wag they questioned nie me about my feat tw foot 1 I wilo who had gone on oil tills this bunt a eted person was now dow a bero I 1 had ad taken aken my man with my lay naked i rands i evaded answer then the fell again into boasting and reni rem and to lo roe me us as reporter for ahe ie courier all addressed their narra ittes never did journalist hear any story lory less curiously for my own me ino of exultation in tragedy was biting rut put I 1 heard ne nevertheless erthe lessi mad M absorbed halt half consciously tile lie background to tile nights events I 1 ire t heard it many times since ance front from 61 et authority it hority have put it together in I 1 logical detail and because I 1 have leluth h more to tell lell let uie life here fininis ill eien een before the robbery or of tile the cot ot ottwood Oti wood stage the bank and express tol Pany had taken serious barlous thought nine the raids on their treasure 6 amenta 1411 rm enta lents profit from their own funds r hii if appeal to the county wits was boise worm I 1 B usel ss they hall had hired mike 1 bibi and two other filc tee 11 ell who lollo never then or thereafter owed wed their hands or repealed aled their uI titles the criminals and ext extor of our camp were all roughly lati one group croup knew the gog gos 0 of 1140 ih moreover ahey bad grown crown careless with immunity every night mike the bartender plucked gerns gems from drunken lips suspicion fastened on the five men who worked occasional occasionally ly that remote unpromising claim above forty rod one of them had bad followed the futile chases of marshal mcgrath after the latest stage robbery and the holdup hold up of the stonewall jackson pay roll and matching notes with ills his fellow who watched wat clied the claim had learned sonic some ones code of signals by gunshot the place of marshal mcgrath in this criminal scheme of things long remained a matter of doubt finally the detectives and their employers rated him for what he be was an anachronism achron ism a back number representative of an era from which cottonwood camp had emerged meantime mike had plucked another gem of information from the tipsy gossip of the silver dollar the killer that member of the he gang who hall had wanted to torture the stonewall jackson paymaster had grown dangerous on any big job he was likely to shoot prematurely recklessly the rest resit of the bandits had quarreled with him what pressure they could put upon a wild man like him unless it was knowledge of his manifold crimes I 1 know not at any rate they subdued him to their policy the next time they went out they would leave him film behind to guard the cabin and watch the approaches on the night of action a band of eight men picked from the vigilance committee for nerve and marksmanship bid in the bushes above the claim after supper they saw four of the inmates start through the moonlight to the little horse corral on the hillside above A candle still burned in the cabin by which they knew that things were going as expected two expert plainsmen plainsman plains men stalked the claim this it seems to me yet was the most valorous deed of that night luck served them the killer went out presently for a pall pail of water when lie he returned his right hand occupied they rose up behind him poked two muzzles into his ribs having satisfied themselves that lie he would not talk the squad bound and gagged him and disposing themselves in the cabin or in the woodpile waited for dawn when the bank robbers having received the double signal for all safe gate should return to the cabin the vigilantes intended to let them enter to get the drop and to capture them allie alle by prearrangement charlie Cli arlle meek was not arrested with the marshal marcus wanted to see what he would do As marcus expected he turned on the marshal announced his own virtue asked to lead the posse letting him fire the signal thereby put aln tins in our hands the last piece of convincing evidence was an afterthought a final detail arranged between marcus marcue and shorty before we started so tar far the elaborate program had gone through with machinelike machine like smoothness not a break or slip I 1 marvel yet that in taking poi possession session of the town and arresting so many dangerous characters the vigilantes never had to fire a shot before charlie meek was killed ol 01 0 0 0 0 0 0 the horses had come up from the alie hollow men had borne the three corpses all by virtue of good marksmanship had mercifully died in their tracks they rolled Cliar charlies lles body titer 0 er roughly composed it laid out the hie others beside it the first was that roan man with a short black beard whom I 1 had seen giving orders to my aati capthi e in the black jack the night before last night every time my mind formed that phrase rase I 1 had a kind of vague wonder to think that years and ages had not passed since the lie setting of yesterdays sun ile he hall had been struck squarely in the forehead by two henvy heavy bullets at once find and mutilated most horribly shorty was bellowing orders git tl alloe loe bodies onto horses tle tie up tho th prisoners and mount deml cm you blatt rustle ruttie back to camp and tell mr air handy were comin ride dont anybody else go ahead this job aint over glad for anything that would break my III tumbling in tiling fluttering thoughts ats I 1 hurried to my horse CHAPTER XII tile bun bad fully risen oer the pyrites was wag dancing even on tile westward slopes when from a grove of dwarf pine our shoddily solemn procession emerged into the straggling litter litte r of cabins bordering cottonwood horsemen Hoje emen were swinging now round th fit line fine of shacks which marked tile the read re approaches of main street be WA them ran rail pedestrians one man had recognized charlie meek wits wag ls his flat nt at the dead bandits lie he would know better presently before and behind rider of the posse were viere slipping bits of news from the corners of their mouths months to friends in our fringe of climp fol lowers myown my own name men alen were pointing we me out 1 an and neel eien een went to ills his gun gim I 1 1 heard d i my capthi ahead rode with hj his back alx k straight his liend lead up it if lie would only mig or or droop his spirit defied mine this was main street how t the he vigilance committee had bad grown 1 A cordon of 0 armied armed guards stretched on both sides of the way A woman looked from a cabin door raised et a hand to a pale forehead crossed herself I 1 must not look at the crowds again I 1 might light see what cihat matter if I 1 did see sec I 1 lien alen crowding about me congratulations on my nerve marcus repeating its great boy buck reassuring me that lie ie always bald I 1 ought to have been in the game gains from the first others the touch of their hands were loathsome would they ever let me alone ah now the committee had gone into conference lashes flushes of light on their intentions he wont take long iong I 1 beard from shorty mayor brown was to be judge well come ont on I 1 lets get it over with I 1 marcus commanded then his sharp strained countenance turned my way and he seemed again aware of me coming along to the proceedings boy and that inquiry jerked me out ut hf at the haze into the light I 1 would not I 1 could not attend that trial because of what I 1 knew and would not tell but mostly because that softening picture rose again the blue eyes of constance deane guilty she might be ot 6 j my captive rode with his HI back straight his hl head up if he would only sag or droop his spirit de da tied fled mine guilty of course she was nevertheless I 1 could not face her reproach and marcus peering into my face must lime we guessed something of this this for his expression softened and all ali right 1 he be said then as though finding for me a logical way out he added spose you stay here on guard others were listening noy now and for their benefit he went on with a joc jocularity I 1 knew to be assum assumed ej YO you U brought him in and you keep him hey mcneill Mc Nelll cowles bowles youre to stay here oh guard mr air Gil gillons sons in command the door booi had opened again the killer emerged between two guards his hands h now flow unbound there was a welt above ills wrist where the rope had cut but lie walked straight some one had glien glen me the key some one had commanded that I 1 was to open the door only on signed order arder or personal demand of the e central en tr III committee down tile the street walked d tile the captive find his guards the boellke swarm about the courthouse became active moved shifted heretofore it had been silent or nearly so merely buzzing with subdued conversation now its members broke into audible speech even into vociferation A large squad of guards had detached itself mar marched clied an away afy it disappeared into that alley which led to the pioneer corral ten minutes later it emerged augmented between the alie ranks I 1 discerned the tall form of chris mcgrath framed by an un I 1 ed crowd at ali there were the prisoners of the pioneer corral they who were vere held for deportation there was was Colliver there was red ned nell the squad aligned itself and its captives before tile the log issay assay office beside the courthouse from tile the peak of its gable extended a new nev t timber I 1 it had not been there before A horse was being led into the crowd a bay horse the guards were beating men away from him find and the babble had stopped the only sound was wag the shuffle or thump of feet on the board i sidewalks men had come through the courthouse door above then them emerged a form bareheaded blindfolded hatless they were lifting him on to the horse they were leading the horse toward the beam the killers head was wagging as though lie was talking there seemed no benefit of clergy and marcus had summoned a clergyman tor for the gambler who lost his nerve I 1 knew then that hla his speech was but blasphemy that the killer on whose departing soul lay the blood of twenty macii men was lying flying as lie he had lived there was a man on the heart beam tying a rope some one standing on a chair had dropped the loop over the killers neck ills head bead wagged was still the horse gave a violent leap out from under him A murmur that was a wall wait from the crowd A man ill on the outskirts pit pitched clied over on to ills his face the heaving shoulders the blinded head visible above the spectators were ere spinning and a voice walled and clicked choked in my ear oh 0 d oh G d the prisoner stood at the window his hands clutched the bars ills eyes stated stared his loose mouth had fallen open ills his head was wobbling on his shoulders and his despairing glance clutched at mine let me go I 1 I 1 he be pleaded let iet in me e goll go I 1 I 1 shook my head illi then send for my wife the words came out of him in spurts in jerks shell she might get me out of this for G ds sake send for my wifel who Is your wifel it was as though some one else spoke sirs mrs deane mrs constance deane mrs barnabys barnabas Barn abys place h he was sagging from the bars now she came to get me out of this all the way to make me stop this my god if id listened to her fier id have been a decent man 11 and then as though the sense back of its his emotion warned him that he was making a fatal admission ills his mouth snapped shut something like intelligence returned to his eyes and he finished weakly send for my wife mechanically I 1 repeated I 1 do not know why i get back from the window for I 1 was robert gilson again like a i naked linked soul at the judgment seat I 1 saw what insane jea jealousy loiry had made of me what I 1 had done to the woman I 1 loved what fl a thing I 1 had bad been and I 1 turned as though the alio mollon loll would relieve me of my thoughts and saw tier her lind and thought for an instant I 1 was seeing a vision she ghe st stood 8 at the jail door inq on hand |