Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-01-28

would be recti1ed. The others would
follow with a volley at random for
good measure.
1t was almost too easy. 1t seemed
a shame to snatch q full and red re-
venge with such scant effort.
Then. as the foremost figure, crouch
ing In easy range Of a window. braced
himself on one knee and peered for
ward under his upturned hat-orim.
there came the reports of several
| rifies-but they were not the rines
Of the McBriar squad, and they came
not from the hills in front, but from
the laurel at the back. They broke
from directly between the carefully
picked squad and its horses.
The man who had braced his knee
and cooked his rife gave out q brief.
gurgling sound as an oath was stided
OF in q hemorrhage of the throat. and
pitched forward on his face. After
that the figure lay without stirring. its
own blood reddening the rife whose
trigger-guard pressed against its fore
head.
The doors vomited men. There was
a trailing and ragged outburst Of fire
arms, and many dark figures plunged
here and there across the silvered
spaces where the shadows did not fall.
OF the six men who had crept down,
three had lain within mi hundred
yards Of the house when the shots
came from their rear. The other three
were OFF at the side, ready to bring
up the horses as close as might prove
safe when the moment came for flight.
But they, too, found themselves cut
off. Had the man who fired on the
one who was about to fire waited one
minute longer, there would have been
more deaths than the single one. His
colleagues would then have been, like
himself, covering their respective vic
tims-victims who confidently thought
themselves executioners. But as II
was, they had not quite yet worked
themselves into positions untram
meled by intervening rock and timber
The man who fred first knew this
for he had not heard the perfectly i'm
itated quaver of "scritch-owls" which
was to signify a common readiness
But as he had eyed his crouching vic
tim across his rifle-sights he had also
been able to look beyond him, and had
seen the figure Of Cal Douglas pause
at the lighted window. He knew thai
, to wait a moment would be to wait toe
long. So the others had to fire blindly
through the black underground Al
speeding shadows-and they missed.
The fleeing murder squad melted
back into the black timber, and some
of them, signaling with the call o.
frog and owl, came together in tenn
porary safety. They dared not go tt
their own horses, since they might bt
discovered in the effort. The roat
that led into the McBriar country
would be watched. If they were tt
carry away unpunctured skins they
must fee the other way-into the Ha
yey territory and astride stolen Havey
horses. 1t was every man for himself
and they had not paused to coun'
noses. They hurriedly swung them
selves into saddles at the remote enc
of the line of hitched mounts and gal
Hoped pell-mell down the road TOWARD
xho ooh;r ~ L1atoh MpNach
When the theft of the horses wal
discovered Anse Havey sent pursuing
parties to ride the roads in both direc
lions.
1t had seemed to Havey wiser t.
withhold his warning from all saw
those whom he needed to use. To al
the rest the affair had ONE withou
notice, and the hue and cry which fol
lowed the r%ife-shots was genuine l
its excitement.
But in a very few moments tn
pandemonium fell away and suller
| ness supplanted the shouting. Tn
J mountains behind, where several me
. were stealthily seeking escape an
many others we're stalking them. la
silent in the moonlight.
A hundred yards beyond the VIII
d dow q small and inQuisitive knot
men gathered around a figure ths
had hunched forward, sprawling on
q cooked rife. Someone turned the I'll
1t ure up and Strengthened its limbs 6
% that they should not stiffen in sue
~grotesque attitude. The face. wit
T. the yellow l%anternlight shining dow
a. on it, was the face Of a boy Of twent,
h Its thin lips were set in a grim smi.
Of of satisfaction, for death had owe
H. taken him without a suspicion Of 4
ID coming.
Perhaps, had q photograph Of h
W retina been taken, 1t would have di
le closed the portrait Of Cal Dougl'
a. pausing at the open window.
IS, Hits little Nash Watt!" exclaimt
a surprised voice. using the dimin
tive which In the mountains takes Il
to place of junior and stays with a ms
well on in life. The victim who hi
been designated to avenge the dea'
ee of Noah Watt had been Noah Watt
~ younger brother.
vn Meanwhile the pursuing horsem'
were gaining slowly on those that fe
to The murder squad had failed al
ut must bear back to Milt McBriar.