Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-10-07

{; pris nerd his guards Will please set
right over thar" pointing to his left.
1.-THE hon'rable jedge, which same is
me, will please set right thar" tndi-
eating a spot at the base of the gnarled
walnut 'srhe rest he finished, twill
set anywhar they d-n pleases. Set
down, men,"
His orders were obeyed. Dale found
himself sitting on the ground between
two pairs of mountaineers and facing
a line of twelve mountaineers-the so
called jury. To his left was the self
appointed judge, and to his right
lounged a score or more of men whose
attention was then being turned to-
ward a jug of fiery new whisky that
had never been near to a revenue
stamp or anything else that was hon
est. The jug Travelled rapidly from
one hairy mouth to another.
Old Ball passed the jug to a mem
Der Of the Jury" and announced:
/ "Well, dammit, co'te's open now"
kitty, kitty, kitty" tainted Walt
Turner "Pore little kitty!"
/
lous, and yet it was grim. Adam
Balls father himself furnished most
of the evidence; also he acted as
prosecuting attorney OF course there
was no counsel for the defense, and
| it wouldn't have helped If Dale had
had a proverbial Philadelphia lawyer
on the grounds; all the proof and elo-
quence and pleading In the world never
would have changed, in the slightest de-
gree, the sentence that had been cut and
dried for Bill Dale. The mock trial
was being held solely because the
Balls and Torreys felt that by hold
ing it they were insulting the majesty
Of the law and making their ven
/ geance sweeter. 1t became worse than
| a traveSty. .'..
| Night fell during the wordy and
| profane harangue of the Ball leader,
and it was ordered that a fire be built
at once. At once a fire was built, dry
brushwood being used, and in its red
and Pickering glare the faces Of the
hillmen looked doubly dark and doubly
| wicked. Then the judge begged a
( chew of tobacco and deliberately kept
the whole twist, and told the jury to
go out and bring back verdict with
out losing time.
/ The twelve mountaineers rose UNI
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
i heavily and returned to the walnut
/ tree court without mentioning the
/ trial.
/ The foreman was a Torrey, and
/ particularly bad one. His swarthy
face, with its high Cherokee cheek
bones and its thin-lipped mouth was
ultra-cruel, ultra-vicious. 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, "haye We reached q
verdict?"
"We have, yore honor" very prompt
/ ~ 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 foreinger
toward Bill Dale.
"Fo' 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 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. It became
plain to him that he would have to
save himself if 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.