The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-10-21

I'd
He tiesrso sss throat. spat betwecs
TIVE Hngerr vt the FRA and turned %
the Judge.
.GentIemen O tho jury" growied
the ruling Ball. 'navs ye reached
verdict"
eve have, yors honor, very prcmps
" answered the Torrey who was fore
man. .And we ha' found the pris'nex
guilty o. the wust kind o. coldblooded
premeditated mudder in the fust de-
gree, yore honor"
Old Bali leveled knotty forefnges
toward Bill Dale.
$50, the KILN o. my son Adam
he pronounced sSptence, you sh'h
hang by the neck ontel dead, from
limb o. this here wasnut tree, by gon-
MES, at sunrise In the mornin'.n
Although he had wSll known what
the sentence would be, Dale went sud-
denly ashen. TAen he took firm
grip on himself and began to reason.
He could not hope. he decided, that
the Morelands and the kttlefords
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
coward; the worst mountaineer, he
knew, admired brave man.
SO he turned slightly toward the
self-appointed judge and asked calm
ly:
sis there anything really game
about your
ashore, by gonniesl" quickly. Sim
all game. I'm the Teller at showed
wildcats how to fight. What about
itY'
'Tn see If you're all game" Dale
said, and he smiled when he spoke.
"Tll make you this proposition: I'll
fight any ten of you, two at time,
with five minutes rest between fights;
If / whip them all I go free, and IL
don't whip them all I hang immedt~
ately. All parties to be barehanded,
no guns and no knives. Are you that
gamer
Ordinarily, 1t would have been
thing well nigh impossible to do, much
as Dale knew of the pugilistic art,
great az was his strength and endurS
ance. But now most of those about
Dale were drunk and therefore weak.
ened, and he believed he had a chance
IL cid Ball accepted.
But Judge Ball didn't accept. Doubt.
less he remembered his son Adams
fight with Dale.
1.-THE CANT be no flghtin' In co'te,~
he said. ''You sh'll hang by the neck
ontel dead, at sunrise in the mornin'."
There was a humble Of approval
from the others. Doubtless they, too,
remembered that the young man whoIn
they held captive had once whipped
Black Adam Ball, the mountaineeF
Goliath, with his bare hands. They
did not have the one good trait that
Dale had hoped they possessed; willis
they must have admired him for his
without weapons. Dale recalled the
fact that the Balls were not originally
hillfolk, but lowlanders who had taken
to the mountains in order to avoid
being forced to fight during the Civil
war, people without a principle.
The Cherokee Torreys, Of course, vera
even worse.
kitty, kitty, kittyl" Walt Turner
called tauntingly again. "He walked
into the trap like pore little kitty 7"
A plowline of half-inch cotton rope
was produced, and the condemned
man was securely bound, standing On
his feet and facing outward, to tho
big walnut. Desperate as was his
case, Dale couldn't help being trifis
amused at that part Of 1t. 1t was
''s~'1'. "~'s@sT oo6MgW