The daily Alaskan., 1920-11-09

! open ground west of the Mud Hen and laII him down upon the grass.
 For the second time that day the village emptIed its houses to meet them. Women came this time-old women with scared faces; girls with I blooming cheeks; and children. Hard men that had drunk to the Pearlhunt- CT barely two hours ago came out of 1 inc Mud Hen and stood staring at him in sullen silence. Men from the stores 1 and shOps came running. Men that had neither stores nor shops fstrag- gled In from every quarter of the Vil- lage and jostled about In the ever growing, omlnously muttering circle.
 Suddenly, and unexpectedly, two of 1 the henchmen caught the Pearlhuuter l and held him while the third tied the 1 red mask over his eyes. Bound as he was he had flung them loose in an in- stant and raked the mask off against his shoulder. But that one brief mo ment was enough. The mischief was done. Women screamed; men nut tered and swore; but all shrank back, widening the circle.
 Who started It, who said 1t first, will never be known. Nobody knows how the mob forms-a low humble; a quick flare into frenzy; mild eyes grown wild; stolId faces Hfire; a rab- bic; q clamOr; reason down, blood lust up.
 Hang i'm! Hang Iml"
 Even the women took up the cry, so great was the terror of his name-the Red MaSk--a name that might have stampeded the village. The mob charged him. Bound as he was, he dashed at them. A butt of his shoul- der caught the foremost man, a burly blacksmith, on the Jaw. He went down like beef under the mallet. drive of his head to the pit of the stomach crrrmpled up another. A we'll 1 directed kick laid out third.
 He fought as the men of his blood had always fought. But what can one man, with his hands tied, do against many? They had his blouse ripped of. his shirt In shreds, and hundred hands still itching to get at him. They beat his face; his body wherever fist or a club could reach him. A stick of stove wood In the hands of a lanky wOodchopper laid open m ugly gash across hls head.
 Half-dazed he was trying to wink the blood and mist out of his eyes ! when roar was heard on the out skirts of the crowd, and the stocky form of the old Boss was seen fight ing his way into the circle. He had probably gone up to Fallen Rock, as he had promised the night before, 1 missed the Pearlhunter, and come on to the village He fought well, and | opened q narrow swath, halfway through the circle to his friend. But just there somebody struck him above the ear with the flat of a barrel slave. The ripple subsided; the swath closed. The Pearlhunter's last friend was down and out.
 The rope was flung over limb. Half a hundred hands, some Of them ! women's hands, stretched up ready to l pull. Half a hundred hands did pull. The rope tightened-slowly. A hush fell on the mob; a hush so deep that the creak of the tightening rope could be distinctly heard That last final scene, the last stroke that stops a life 1 1t is q solemn moment; even to a 1 mob. The Pearlhunter was lifted; the last light tips of his toes left the grass: flames ran up and down his spine; the world turned black.
 There came a sudden dash of hOofs, and a man rode straight at the mob. It takes a hardy person to withstand the charge of a horse. The crowd parted. The horseman reached the dangling man, and with one slash of l a huge iackknife, cut the rope.
 The stroke came barely In time. The Pcarlhunter, only saved from crumpling down to the grass by the arm of the hOrSeman, dropped limp ! and gasping against the side of the horse. Slowly the world quit reeling; the light came back; he raised: his eyes caught the glitter of Sherifgs star upon the vest of his rescuer. It Is marvellous how one brave man, with inc law behind him, can awe mob.
 "WEo is this han?" yelled the sheriff.
 A man, whose mouth had been mashed by butt of the Pearlhunter's head, clawed the red mask up from 1 the ground, trampled and sOlled, but still unmIstakablc, and held 1t high. | The sheriff started; glared hard at the Pearlhunter.
 An so It's you they've roped" he growled. Damned If haln't mo- ton to let 'em finish the job."
 A snarl ran through the mob. They surged forward. The sheriff drew his revolver again, and cursed them back.
 "Red Mask or red devll" he stormed, "he's entitled to trial un- der the law; ana a trial hel! git"
 Continued on Thursday | win tho fuO cOoI- hod raDIora tha