The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-05-21
II hey ran be saved

depend on YOU. Ii they can be sawed
It will be you!n
Curran looked about. Some notion
thai Harlan was doggedly suffering
under the covert gibes of the specta-
LOTS at the safe distance-the moi who
case-came to him. Some Idea thai
the day would be crucial for the
younger man, il he flinched under the
responsibility.
I'll 60" he answered, n for the
first time since his w tragedy began.
to his lips. AT the fence he called
back: And If he does not conner
The law will have % take its course
] promise n%othingls
Curran drew a white handkerchief
from his pocket as he crossed the field.
He was vaguely aware that Arne
Vance's machine had turned down the
creek oad back to town. But keener
still was h impression that the thous
sands OF eyes We're watching him.
Presently he heard a murmur among
tn deputies, taken up. growing, spread
ing to the masses of people away be-
You'd. He did not look back. They
the recreant, the fallen man OF the
county who would have been their
leader. Even when a struggling shout
went up, he did not turn; it a with
a. wild hysterical note, primal with hos
til1ty 1t seemed to Curran. Then the
watchers saw him reach the house,
pause at the door, and be admitted.
The throng began to murder again,
and shift. But many stared silently at
the house in h bleak field. John had
not fired at "Curran of the News
They began to mutter and argue ex-
planations. The correspondents went
off to put more stuff on the wire
about this turn OF affairs. And after
10 minutes, that seemed an hour, they
saw Wiley Curran come out Of the
house. He seemed pleading; and they
saw a boys tow head in the door.
And presently, Curran came on. He
crossed the field in a great silence.
UP to listen when he reached Harlan
sitting on his horse on the creek road.
Curran spoke quietly, yet it seemed his
voice reached them all, so acute the
stiffness.
He will not surrender. / pleaded
every point. Told him that LATE Mason
offered to defend him. That he'd have
a fair trial. That our people were peo-
pie of the law-they would give him
justice. l begged for his wife n chill
dren. But he told his old story. The
land was his. No man could put foot
on it .ntil he was paid. He told his
old grievance. The law sent him to
jail-it made him what he was. Never
/ again would he face mans Justice
God was the supreme judge-and not
Van Hart"
a Harris son was pale. There
seemed challenge and Indictment in the
others tone. He gathered his reins
tighter. We'll, we'll take him.
"Harlan-in Gods name-those chill
dren!'
He had his choice
wait Curran stepped nearer,
then faced as if to the others.
Harlan turned in the saddle. He
There is your answer-there Is the law!
The people! Ask them, Wiley!"
Curran glanced back, an impulse to
make a last passionate outcry to some
thing. he knew not what. But the peo-
ple-the Midlanders, indomitable, con-
tanned, u%nfearing the ina issues Of
nothing. Their land, their law-their
through bloody centuries. h man
standing alone seemed to read their
will. He checked his cry. What would
it be but the cry Of a broken man., a
discredited leader himself without
place among them? They had not
spoken now at the crisis-they had
approved by this silence. Curran
bowed his head in a sorrow that only
the light Of heart may know.
Then, with a swift remembrance, he
stretched his hands to Harlan.
Fol Gods sake, boy! Wait
Aurelie is coming! And you love her,
Harlan"
But the other man had galloped
down the road, speaking to a group
here and there. The deputies sprang
up in a struggling line. Some one up
in the quarry face fired a shot, and a
shout rang from the father woods. The
man by the fence watched them SILENT
ly. He turned to look at the people,
They, too, were still, ~steadfast; abb
sorbed as if, from a mighty arena.
under the gray stare Of the sky. they.
the rulers, the arbiters, watched a
dramatic conflict Of eternal forces
which would destroy what they or
dained to destroy, and a v what they
ordained to be saved. That was the
communal law, the social compact. He
who set himself against 1t would per-
tsh. Curran felt it's inexorableness-he
too, had defied it-and it had bided its
time to destroy him.
CHAPTER XXVI.