The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-10-27

lie cleared his throat, spst betwee
two fingers at the fire. and turned 3
the judge. A
"GeDtlemen o. the jury trowle'
the ruling Ball, "have ye reached
yerdlctY
I'VE have. yore honor" very prompt
] y answered the Torrey who was fore
man. And we ha' found the pris'nel
| guilty O. the wust kind o. coldblooded
premeditated mudder In the fust de
gree, yore honor"
Old Ball ieveled a knotty foreHngeI
toward Bill Dale. 1
"Fo' the KILN o. my son Adam
he pronounced sentence. you sh'll
hang by the neck ontel dead, from q
limb O. this here warnut tree. by gon.
MES, at sunrise In the mornln'."
Although he had well known what
the sentence would be, Dale went sud
denly ashen. Then he TOOK firm
grip on himself and began 10 reason.
He could not hope, be decided. that
THE Moreiands and the. Littiefords
would find him before the sun rose.
They would miss hita, of course. and
they would suspect foul play and look
Tor him; but finding him In that wild
erness--it was impossible. II 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
know. admired 2 brave man.
SO he turned slightly toward the
self-appointed judge and asked calm
ly:
"Is there anything reallyr game
about your
"Shore, by gonnies," quickly. I'm
all game. I'm the feller at showed
Wildcats how to fight. What about
ltT
"lll see II 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 a time.
with five minutes rest between fights;
II j whip them all | go free. and II
don't whip them all hang immedf-
ately. All parties to be barehanded.
no guns and no knives. Are you that
yame?'
Ordinarily, It would have been a
hing well nigh impossible to do. much
as Dale knew Of the pugilistic art,
great as was his strength and endur- !
ince. But now most of those about
Dale we're drunk and therefore weak
med, and he believed he had chance
( cid Ball accepted.
But Judge Ball didn't accept. Doubt
ess he remembered his son Adams
light with Dale.
The CANT be no fightin' In ce'te,"
le said. "You sh'fl hang by the neck
intel dead, at sunrise In the mornin'."
There was a humble of approval
rom the Others. Doubtless they. too.
emembered that the young man whom
hey held captive had once whipped
'lack Adam Ball, the mountaineer
ioiiath, with his bare hands. They
ID not have the one good trait that
'ale had hoped they possessed; while
hey must have admired him for his
ourase, they were afraid to fight him
'lthout weapons. Dale recalled the
act that the Balls were not originally
illfolk. but lowlanders who had taken
the mountains In order to avoid
eing forced TO fight during the Civil
var, q people without a principle.
he Cherokee Torreys, of course, were
ven worse.
Kitty. kitty. kittyl" Walt Turner
illed tauntingly again. "He walked
ito the trap like pore little kittym
A plowline of half-lnch cotton rope
as produced. and the condemned
an was securely bound, standing on
IS feet and facing outward to the
Ig walnut, Desperate as was his
Use, Dale couldn't help being trifie
nused at that part Of 1t. II wa,