The Little River news., 1921-01-05

open ground west Of the Mud Hen and laid him down upon the grass.
 For the second time that day the
 village emptied its houses to meet l them. Women came this lime old women with scared faces; girls with blooming cheeks; and children. Hard men that had drunk to the Pearlhunt- CT barely two hours ago came out of the Mud Hen and stood staring at him in sullen silence. Men from the stores and shops came running. Men that had neither stores nor shops strag- =gled in from every QtlArter of the vil- lage and jostled about in. the ever- growing. ominously muttering circle. Suddenly. and unexpectedly, two of the henchmen caught the Pearlhunter and held him while the third tied the red mask over his eyes. Bound as he was, he had flung them loose in. an in- stant and raked the mask of against his shoulder. But that one brief mo-
 ment was enough. The mfschlef was done. Women screamed; men nut tered and swore; but all shrank back, widening the circle,
 Who started 1t, who said it first, will never be known. Nobody knows how the mob forms---a low humble; ; 6. quick flare into frenzy; mild eyes grown wild; stolid faces afre; rab- ble; a clamor; reason down, blood lust up. .-"'F' Y Hang i'm! Hang limp
 Even the women took up the cry, so great was the terror of his name-the Red Mask-a name that might have
 stampeded the village. The mob charged him. Bound as he was, he dashed at them. A butt of his shoul- der caught the foremost man, a burly
 blacksmith, on the jaw. He went down like beef under the mallet. A
 drive of his head to the pit of the stomach crumpled up another. A we'll
 directed kick laid out a third.
 | !; He fought as the men of his blood had always fought. But what can one man, with his hands tied, do against many7 They had his blouse ripped of, his shirt in shreds, and a hundred hands still itching to get at
 him. They beat his face; his body l wherever fist or club could reach
 him. A stick of stove wood in the
 hands of a lanky woodchopper laid
 open an ugly gash across his head. Ha1f-dazed, he was trying to wink
 the blood and mist out of his eyes 1 when a roar was heard on the out
 skirts of the crowd, and the stocky form of the old Boss was seen fight ing his way into the circle. He had probably gone up to Fallen Rock, as he had promised the night before. missed the Pearlhunter, and come on to the village. He fought we'll, and | opened a narrow swath, halfway through the circle to his friend. But just there somebody struck him above the ear with the flat of barrel stave. The ripple subsided; the swath closed.
 The Pearlhunters last friend was
 down and out.
 The rope was flung over limb. Half a hundred hands, some of them women's hands, stretched up ready to pull. Half hundred hands did pull. The rope tightened-slowly. A hush fell on the mob; hush so deep that the creak of the tightening rope could 1 be distinctly heard That last final
 scene, the last stroke that stops a life | 1t Is a solemn moment; even to a moA. The Pearlhunter was lifted i;
 the last light tips of his toes left the | grass; flames ran up and down his
 spine; the world turned black.
 There came a sudden dash of hoofs,
 and man rode straight at the mob. | It takes hardy person to withstand the charge of a horse. The crowd parted. The horseman reached the dangling man, and with one slash of | huge jackknife, cut the rope.
 The stroke came barely in time. The Pearlhunter. only saved from
 crumpling down to the grass by the
 arm of the horseman, dropped limp
 and sgasping against the side of the horse. Slowly the world quit reeling;
 the light came back; he raised his
 eyes; caught the glitter of sheriff's
 star upon the vest of his rescuer.
 It Is marvellous how one brave man.
 with the law behind him, can awe a mob.
 "who is this manr' yelled the sheriff. T F+'
 A man, whose mouth had been
 mashed by butt of the Pearlhunters
 head, clawed the red mask up from
 the kr6und frsamspied and soiled but
 still unmistakable, and held 1t high.
 The sheriff started; glared hard at | the Pearlhunter.
 "An' so'its you they've ropedw he | growled. Damned if hain't a no-
 ton to let 'em finish the job."
 | A snarl ran through the mob. They surged forward. The sheriff drew his revolver again. and cursed them back. "Red Mask or red devil!" he
 stormed, "he's entitled to a trial un>
 der the law; and trial he'il git.S The mob muttered ominovsly but fall back, leaving some little Space
 about the horse! The Pearlhmter
 was the tallest man there. Ills height enabled him to see with tolerabfe | clearneSs to the outskirts 0f the