The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-02-22
Continued from Last Sundays News.
CHAPTER y.
THE COURT HOUSE BELL.

fields Henry, no uncertain touch, was
on the rope A loud, Wild, hurried cla-
NOR pealing out to wake the country
side rapid clang, clang, clang! that
struck clear in to the spine.
The court house bell had tolled for
the death of Morton. of Garfield. of
Hendricks; had rung joy-peals of peace
after the war and after political cam
paigns; but it had rung as it was ring
ing now only three times: once when
Hibbards mill burned, once when
Webb Lands killed Sep Bardlock and
intrenched himself in the lumber yard
and would not be taken till he was
shot through and through. and once
when the Rouen accommodation was
wrecked within twenty yards of the
station.
Why was the bell ringing now? Men
and women, startled into wide wake
fulness, CROPPED to windows-no red
mist hung over town or country. What
was it? The bell rang on. Its loud
alarm beat increasingly into mems
hearts and quickened their throbbing
10 the rapid measure of it's own. Vague
forms doomed in the cleaning A
horse. wildly ridden splashed through
the town There were shouts; voices
called hoarsely. Lamps began to
CLEAN in the windows. Half-clad peo-
pie emerged from their houses. men
shaping their braces on their shout
ders as they ran out of doors. Cues
tions were shouted into the dimness.
Then the news went over the town
1t was cried from yard to yard, from
group to group, from gate to gate, and
reached the furthermost confines. Run
ners shouted it as they sped by boys
painted ii. breathlesS; women with
loosened hair stumbled into darkling
chambers and faltered it out to new
Weakened sleepers; pale girls clutching
wraps at their Threats whispered 1t
across fences, the sick, tossing on their
hard beds, heard it, The bell Clamor-
ed it far and near; it spread over the
COuntry-side it flew over the wires
to distant cities. The White-Caps had
got Mr.. Harkless,
Lige Wiletts had lost track of him
out near Briscoes it was said, and
had come in at midnight seeking him.
He had found Parker, the Herald"
foreman, and Ross Schofeld, the type
setter and Bud Tipworthy, the devil
at work in the printing room, but no
sign of Harkless, there or in the cot
tdge. Together these had sought for
him and had aroused others, who had
inquired at every house where he
might have gone for shelter and they
had heard nothing. They had watched
for his coming during the slackenng
storm and he had not come, and there
was nowhere he could have gone. He
was missing: only one thing could have
happened.
They had reused up Warren Smith,
the prosecutor. the missing editors
most intimate friend i'm Carlow. and
Horner, the sheriff, and Jared Wiley,
the deputy. William Todd had rung
the alarm. The first thing to do was
TO find him. After that there would
be trouble-if not before. 1t looked as
If there would be trouble before The
men tramping up to the muddy Square
in their shirt-sleeves were bulgy about
the right hips; and when Homer Tibbs
Joined Lum Lands at the hotel corner
and Lands saw that Horner was car
rying shotgun, Lands went back for
his. a hastily sworn posse galloped
out Main Street. Women and children
ran into neighbors' yards and began
TO cry Day was coming; and. as the
light grew, men swore and saVagely
kicked at the palings of fences that
they passed.
In the foreglow of daYn they gath
cred in the Square and listened to War
rem Smith. who made speech from
the court house fence and warned them
TO go slow. They answered him with
angry shouts and hootings. hut he
made his big bass voice heard. and
bade them do nothing rash: no facts
were known. he said il was far from
certain that harm had been done and
no one knew that the Six Cross Roads
people had done it-eVen if something
had happened to Mr.. Harkless. He de-
Clared that he spoke i'm Harkless' name.
NnrhinO could =.
as for them to defy the law, to take
II out of the proper hands Justice
would be done
Yes, it will" shouted man below
him, brandishing the butt of a raw
hide whip above his head. And while
you jaw on about it here, he may be
tied up like a dog i'm the woods shot
full of holes by the men you never
lifted finger to bender, because you
want their votes when YOU run for
circuit judge. What are we dom here?
What's the good of listening to you?"
There was a yell at this, and those
who heard the speaker would probably
have started for the Cross Roads with
out further parley, had not a rumor
sprung up, which passed so rapidly
from man to man that within five
minutes 1t was being turbulently dis
cussed in every portion of the crowd
The news came that the two she'll
SoiipiCiS ldu WTenCneQ par out or
a window under cover of the storm
had broken Jail, and were at large
Their threats of the day before were
remembered now, with convincing WV
1dness. They had sworn repeatedly to
Bardlock and to the sheriff. and in the
hearing of others, that they would do
for the man who took their money from
them and had them arrested The
prosecuting attorney, quickly perceiv-
ing the value of this complication in
holding back the mob that was already
forming, called Horner from the crowd
and made him get up on the fence and
confess that his prisoners had escaped
at what time he did not know, prob
ably toward the beginning of the
storm, when 1t was noisiest>
You see" cried the attorney, there
is nothing as yet of which we can ac-
cuse the Cross Roads. If our friend
has been hurt, il is much more likely
that these crooks did it. They escaped
in time to do it, and we all know they
were laying for him. You want to be
mighty careful. fellow-citizens Homer
is already in telegra phic communica-
ton with every town around here. and
well have those men before night All
you've got to do is to control YOUR
selves little and go home quietly
he could see that his words (eXceDt
those in reference to returning home
no one was going home) made an inn
preston. There rose "A babble of shout
ing and argument and swearing that
grew continually louder, and the faces
the lawyer looked down on were creas-
ca with perpleXity, and Swallowed with