Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-06-16

Of upheaval, and with It not a growI.
but a leonine roar and a vast tumult
little confused and narrowing space men
struggled with each other.
What are they doing? o, what are
they doing?" Lizzy cries, in a spasm Of
horror.
by gum! they're a go-un to boss up
the Teller, right h-yur en- the court house
yard! There goes the judge un the
shurf! But they'd w well keep outen
thar. No! by gum! they've gut UNI kline
uh quieted down. Coonrod un Uncle
Jim bikes w knocked down bout fifteen
ur twenty a than Reelfoot Pom fellers.
Ats the only way you kin git any saince
ento than fellers' heads-is to knock ut
ento UNI. You git Coonrod un Uncle
Jim bikes un the Sparks boys tog-yuth-
er, un hitll take a purity good crowd to
pile tham."
There was an indefinite and indie
terminate period of the widest uproar
and confusion all about and in the court
house yards. Everywhere the judge, the
sheriff and Coonrod Redden could be seen
~gesticulating wildly, Selling men by the
arms or collars. and shouting at the tops
OF the highest voices in all the Sand
town district. Finally they seemed to
succeed in restoring order, to some ex-
tent; and Immediately the selling wal
begun by the sheriff, in the loud, official
monotone of the public auctioneer. .
Sale after sale was made in the very
shortest time Of the mere formal and
foregone official net. But as each sale
was announced with the name of the pur-
chaser, there was, noticeably, an air of
surprise and wonder over the whole as
sembly. Men whispered to each other in
little groups, and there was a visible
settling back of the heretofore aggressive
and depressing tendency of the throng,
with even a slight tendency to cheer some
results.
"Ry gum! Of thattair Teller Huntley
haint-"
But here a demonstration below cut off
the young Docs remark, and Coonrod
Redden is calling for 'tOdder; odder,
men! Odder, for jist a minute!'
And having secured order for Just a
minute, he went on:
All these h-yur sales ats ben made
h-yur-the lan's ben bought en- by Mr..
Huntley, NV the Santown an South
western Railroad fur the benefit NV the
farmers. They kin have thur own time
to pay off the notes. I'm they wont be
no lntrust tell after a yur from the date
a this sale. You fellers kin go to pillow.
un fur wheat, soon's you've a mine tuhp'
What a roar of whoops and yells and
cheers for Huntley. Then somebody sug-
gested groans for Mason; and they were
given with a heartiness that created an
ineXplicable amount of merriment imme-
diately about Mr.. Mason. What could
he lind to laugh at in the hearty execra-
ton of the crowd about him?
One more sale was announced by the
sheriff. And now there was a hitching
forward OF the chairs occupied by the
gentlemen in the doorway. Mr.. Biler
was regarding Mr.. Mason over the heads
of a part of the audience with an oud
smile of cunning, wonder, amusement
and admiration. Lizzy could see this
look; for Mr.. Biler had stepped out be-
side the sheriff with a paper in his hand,
upon which something was scrawled that
looked like figures. What did that look
mean? Was there still another surprise
and menace for Mr.. Mason?
She hardly heard the rapid call of the
sheriff. In fact, thinking about the i'm
minent peril in which Mr.. Mason had
just been; and then of the great execra-
ton in which this %impulsive assemblage
evidently held him, she could only burden
her mind with d~evising ways for his es-
cape. o, that he had remained away!
o, that he had never come!
And so she had failed to hear anything
of the usual description of the land to be
sold, and of the rapid opening bids that
kept the sheriff turning this way and
that, from Congressman Billy Biler to
the carriage in which Mr.. Mason was
bidding for Mr.. Huntley, his principal.
But a great and a~ll-powerful excite
ment had seized upon the young Doc,
communicated from the squeezing, crush
ing, pushing crowd below.
"This sale will hat to stop eff you don't
git back" the sheriff urged again and
again. hen she heard his cry for the
first time distinctly: Eight hundred
thousand! Eight hun! Eight twenty
five! Eight fifty! Nine! Nine twenty
five! Fifty! Seventy-ive! Nine hundred
and seventy-five thousand! One million!
One million! One million!"
Ito be continued