Omaha daily bee., 1897-08-29
CHAPTER XVIII.

! believe thu. u Is one thing to confront
with calmuess death that is known to be
Inevitable and quite another thing to aseume
the seme brow where hope and a chance re-
main. | am rot greatly ashamed, there
fore. tho; in a crisis which amply justified
all the horror and repugnance which mortals
feel at the prospect OF sudden and violent
dissolution / fell below the heroic standard,
and said and did things, miles Impair Archilli
Nevertheless IL Is with no good will |
dwell on the matter in writing as In life,
there sre decencies and indecencieS; things
TO be told and others to be implied. Let few
words then suffce, alike fOr the moment when
Charnock. holding back the others wrung
from me. half swoonng as | was, the ad-
mission that had been to Kensngton, and
that the sentry was not mistaken, and for
those minutes OF frenzied terror which fol-
lowed, when screaming and struggling in
their grasp. now trying to fling myself down
and now shrieking prayers for mercy. l was
dragged to spot below the hook and held
there by relentless fingers while a rope was
being fetched from the next room. l had no
vision, as | have read some have, Of the
things done in my life, but the set. dark
faces that hemmed me in under the light,
the grim looks OF one and the scared pdllOT
OF another. even Ferguson's hideous visage
as he hovered in the background biting his
rails between terror and eXultation-all these,
even enlarged aud multiplied. l saw with a
dreadful clearness and a keenness Of vision
that OF itself torture.
"Oh, God!' | cried. 80, Godn felt that
/ could leap out Of myself with terror-with
terror OF what was to come; yet from man
could see no help.
"Ay man. pay" SAID Charnock, mex.
orably. Pray, for you must die. We will
give you one minute. Here comes the rope
Who will fasten it?"
"a fool" cried a hard, gibing voice from
somewhere beyond the circle. mo other"
| started convusvely / had forgotten
conspirators, for at the sound they turned
quickly toward her: and the ring of men
opening out In the movement, she became
visible to me. She stood confronting all
daring all Her lirs red, her face white as
paper, her eyes gittering with strange wild
ferceness. Long afterward she told me
that the sound of my shreks and cries
ringing in her eans had been almost more
than she could bear; that scream arose
on scream she had driven the nails into
her palms until her hands bed and so. anC
so only had been able to restrain herself
knowing well that IL she would interven,
20 the purpose her time was not yet
Now that it had come, nothing could ex
ceed the moCkery and scorn that rang in hel
tone. "A fool" she cried stridently, "hat
fetched 1t. and fool will fasten 1t! And
let who hang they will hang. And two o
you, aye, you at the back there, will hans
them Why you are fools, you are al
fools, or you would take care that ever!
man among you put his hand to the job
and was deep as another. Or, ii you lilS'
precedence and 1t is a question Of fasten
ing-for the man who fetched, he is as gooC
as dead already-let the hand that wove tn,
moose tie 1t! Let that man tie it!' AnC
with pitiless finger she pointed to the ole
plotter, who, sneakng and cringing in tht
background, had already his eye on the doc
and his mind on retreat. Let him tie it,
she repeated.
You slut" he roared, his eyes squirting
his face, livid with fury. Your tongue
shall be slit. To your garnet, vixen.
But the others, as not unnatural saw
the matter in a different light. by -
the wench is right" cried Casse, anC
Keyes saying the same, and another backing
him, there was a general chorus of "Ay
the girl is right. The girl is right A
that the man who had brought the rop
threw 1t down. There's for me-" he SAT-
gloomily. and with an ugly CLEAN in hi
eyes Let the old devil take it up. 1t i
his job, not mine, and If swing he shal
swing, too"
Fair" cried all. THAT is fair! Ant