Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-29

ed. AS her father assembled the steps
Evelyn caught both his hands in hers.
what did they do, father?" she asked.
The old soldier laughed.
"Do?" he exclaimed, enthusiastical-
ly, as he rubbed his hands together,
why, they did nothing. Jade Fanshaws
son rode into their ranks and made the
grandest speech 1 ever listened to in
my life. He turned the very marrow
in my bones to ice. / was cold one
minute and as hot as old Nick the
next believe we were all hypnotized.
From the minute he began to show up
the horror of lynch law and the risk
they were running of hanging an inno-
cent man, 1 believe I'd added rather
than let the mob harm the fellow. He
stood there with more ropes on him
than he could carry and didn't look
big enough to harm fly. After Fan
shaw got their attention the first thing
he demanded was that they let the
prisoner tell his story. He gained his
point and the little chap began to talk.
You could hardly hear what he said,
he was so fatigued and hoarse. In
the name of God and Christianity he
said, let me have chance to prove
I'm not guilty.
"Syd Hart, Thad Williams and their
faction were too full of whisky and
hatred to be moved by mere eloquence;
they were there for blood, and they
We're going to have it; SO they tried
to drown out what the prisoner was
saying. But Fanshaw, towering above
them all on his horse, finally succeeded
in getting him heard and the boys
story satisfied me of his innocence. He
said the money he had was his saw
ings from two years hard work in an
iron foundry in Chattanooga and that
he was taking it home to his widowed
mother, who depends on him for her
support. He said he was tramping
home on foot to save the expense of a
railroad ticket. Somebody asked him
why he had tried to escape from the
sheriff, and he said he was afraid of
being lynched-that he had heard of
the treatment men accused of crime re-
ceived in these mountains.
NThen some one asked him about the
blood on his hands and shirt, and he
showed them cut on his leg which
had been bound up and was bleeding.
about that time sgd Hart became
obstreperous again. Captain, saw
you talking to him just then. ] won
dered if you had said anything to in
fame
Il thought might reason with him."
broke in Wrinkle, with start. "I saw
he was clear out of his head, wholly
unreasonable, you know"
SWELL. you seemed to have struck
stony ground for your good seed"
laughed Hasbrooke, "for he got wilder
than ever
"Oh, do go on!" cried Mrs. Lancas-
ter What became of Mr.. Fanshaw?"
Il was coming to him." said the old
man. "As soon as he appeared on the
scene, the sheriff, who had hardly
opened his mouth in any sort of remon-
STRANGE, picked up his courage and be-
gan to try to get possession of the pris-
oner; but nobody paid any attention to
him. Hart and Williams had their ears.
However, young Fanshaw saw how the
thing was going and brought it to TO-
Gus by the most unexpected and
risky move ever saw. Pretending that
he wanted the people in the edge of the
crowd to see how small the prisoner
was, he lifted the little fellow onto his
horse in front of him, and, before any
one suspected what he was up to, he
had wheeled his horse and was off like
the wind. sgd Hart pulled his revolver
and aimed it at Fanshaw's back, but
Dave Fanshaw knocked the weapon up,
and it went off without harming any
one. Then Dave held Q pistol at HaEt's