Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1921-09-30

lie cleared his throat. slssi petween
two fingers at the fire. and turned Ia
the judge.
Gentlemen o.. the jury" growled
the ruling Ball, have We reached a
verdict?'
1--WE have, yore honor" very prompt
| Iy 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 forefinger
toward Bill Dale
$50 the KILN o. my son ADAM"
he pronounced sentence. you sh1l
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. Tsen he took firm
grip on himself and began to reason.
He could not hope, he decided, that
the Morelands and the Littlefords
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
erness-it was impossible. 1t became
plain to him that he would have to
save himself II he were saved. He
believed his best chance lay In his
proving that he was anything but a
coward; the worst mountaineer, he |
knew. admired brave man.
So he turned slightly toward the |
judge and asked calm
~:
as there anything really game
about your
"Shore, by gonnies!" quickly. "rm
Ill game I'm the Teller at showed
Wildcats how to fight What about
to-
"Ill see II you're all game" Dale
aid. and he smiled when he spoke.
TIL make you this proposition: III
light any ten of you, two at q time,
nth five minutes rest between fights;
whip them all go free, and If
don't whip them all hang immedi-
tely. All parties to be barehanded, :
o guns and no knives. Are you that !
amer"
Ordinarily. 1t would have been
hing well nigh impossible to do, much
8 Dale knew of the pugilistic art,
reat as was his strength and endur-
nee. But now most of those about
ale were drunk and therefore weak /
led, and he believed he had a chance I
cid Ball accepted
But Judge Ball didn't accept. Doubt
So he remembered his son Adams F
,ht with Dale.
The CANT be no fghtin' in cote" a
. said. You sh'll hang by the neck b
ltel dead, at sunrise in the mornln'."
There was humble of approval "
ON the others. Doubtless they, too,
membered that the young man whom y
ey held captive had once whipped
ack Adam Ball, the mountaineer =,
'liath, with his bare hands. They a.
i not have the one good trait that
lie had hoped they possessed; while .y
ey must have admired him for his R
urage, they were afraid to fight him
thout weapons. Dale recalled the ha
It that the Balls were not originally n
folk. but lOwlanders who had taken :.
the mountains In order to avoid Z;
ng forced to fight during the Civil "a,
r. a people without a principle. m.
e Cherokee Torreys, of course, were
N worse.
Kitty, kitty. kitty" Walt Turner
led tauntingly again. HE walked tr;
D the trap like pore little kitty !" GU
plowline of half-inch cotton rope ca
5 produced, and the condemned me
was securely bound, standing on -
feet and facing outward, to the
walnut. Desperate as was his
e, Dale couldn't help being srifie
used at that part Of it. 1t was
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