Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1921-09-22

hlllmen looked dOubly dark and doubly
wicked. Then the judge begged
chew Of tobacco and deliberately kept
the whole twist, and told the jury to
90 out and bring back a verdict with
out losing time.
The twelve mOuntaineers rose I'M
steadily and went TO the creek, and
there one OF them uncovered another
jug of fiery new whisky that was alien
to a revenue stamp. They drank
heavily and returned TO the walnut
tree court without mentioning the
trial.
The foreman was a TOrreys and q
particularly bad one His swarthy
face, with its high Cherokee cheek
bones and it's thin-lipped mouth, was
ultra-cruel, ultra-vlcious. He entered
the circle of red and pickering freight
slowly, smiling evilly, and the other
eleven crowded up close behind him.
He cleared his throat, spat between
two fingers at the fire. and turned to
the judge.
Gentlemen o. the jury" growled
the ruling Ball, shave We reached a
verdictY
"We have yore honor" very prompt
ly answered the Torrey who was fore
man. "And we ha' found the pris'ner
guilty o. the wust kind o. cOldblooded,
premeditated mudder in the fust de-
gree, yOre honor"
Old Ball leveled knotty forefnger
toward Bill Dale.
$50 the KILN O my son Adam"
he pronounced sentence, "you sh'll
hang by the neck ontel dead, from a
limb O. this here warnut tree, by gon-
MES, at sunrise in the mornin'."
Although he had well known what
the sentence would be, Dale went sud-
denly ashen Then he took a iirm
grip on himself and began to reason.
He could not hope, he decided, that
the Morelands and the Littlef0rdS
would find him before the sun rose.
They would miss him, of course. and
they would suspect foul play and look
for him; but finding him in that wild
was impossible. 1t became
plain to him that he would have to
save himself If he were saved. He
believed his best chance lay In his
that he was anything but a
coward; the worst mountaineer,> ne
knew, admired brave man.
So he turned slightly toward the
judge and asked calm
ly:
as there anything really game
about your"
ashore, by gonnies" quickly. I'm
all game. I'm the Teller at showed
wildcats how to fight. What about
it,"
sT'lI see if you're all game" Dale
said, and he smiled when he spoke.
"IIl make you this proposition: I'll
fight any ten of you, two at q time,
with five minutes rest between fights;
If / whip them all | go free, and IL
I don't whip them all hang immedl-
ately. All parties to be barehanded,
no guns and no knives. Are you that
gamer
Ordinarily, 1t would have been a
thing well nigh impossible to do, much
as Dale knew of the pugilistic- art,
great as was his strength and endur-
ance. But now most of those about
Dale were drunk and therefore weak
aned, and he believed he had chance
f old Ball accepted.
But Judge Ball didn't accept. Doubt
ess he remembered his son Adams
light with Dale.
"The' CANT be no fightin' In cote"
ne said. "You sh1l hang by the neck
intel dead, at sunrise in the mornin'."
There was a humble of approval
rom the others. Doubtless they, too,
remembered that the young man whom
hey held a captive had once whipped
Black Adam Ball, the mountaineer
Goliath, with his bare hands. They
lid not have the one good trait that
Dale had hoped they possessed; while
hey must have admired him for his
they were afraid to fight him
Without weapons. Dale recalled tho
act that the Balls were not originally
lillfoIk, but lowlanders who had taken
o the mountains in order to avoid
,eing forced to fight during the Civil
war, a people without a principle.
rhe Cherokee Torreys, Of course. were
wen worse.
"Kitty, kitty, kitty" Walt Turner
.alled tauntingly again. "He walked
nto the trap like a pore little kittyl"
A plowline of half-inch cotton ropo
vas produced, and the condemned
nan was securely bound, standing on
lis feet and facing outward, to the
Dig walnut. Desperate as was his
ase Dale couldn't help being trifie
unused at that part Of 1t. 1t wasl