Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1921-10-28
Continued from last week.

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 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 men,
her of the Jury" and announced:
well, dammit, co'te's open now"
Kitty, kitty, kitty!" tainted Walt
Turner "POre little kittyw
The mOckeIy began. 1t was ridcu-
lous, ana 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 T0rreys felt that by hold
ing it they were insulting the majesty
Of the law and making their ven
geance sWeeter. 1t became worse than
q traveSty.
Night fell during the wOrdy and
prOfane harangue of the Bah leader,
and it was ordered that fire be built
at once. At once 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 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 @ 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 eyilly, 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.
the ruling Ball, shave We reached
verdictW
I'VE 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 a knotty forefinger
toward Bill Dale.
TO 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 TSen he took a firm
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
erness-it 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
proving that he was anything but a
coward; the worst mountaineer, he
knew, admired brave man.
So he turned slightly toward the
self-appointed judge and asked calm
ly:
us there anything really game
about you?"
"Shore, by comics !" quickly. 'Tm
all game. I'm the Teller at showed
wildcats how to fight. What about
it?"
"I'l see If you're all game" Dale
said, and he smiled when he spoke.
"I'll make you this proposition: I'll
fight any ten Of you, two at time,
with five minutes rest between fights :
il l whip them all go free, and II
don't whip them all l hang immedi-
ately. All parties to be barehanded,
no guns and no knives. Are you that
gamer
Ordinarily, II would have been a
thing we'll 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
ened, and he believed he had chance