Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1921-09-08


and fiickering glare the faces Of the
hiilmen looked doubly dark and doubly
wicked. Then the Judge begged
chew of tobacco and deliberately kept
the whole twist, and told the jury to
60 out and bring back 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 revenue stamp. They drank
heavily and returned to the walnut
tree court without mentioning the
trial.
The foreman was a Torrey, and a
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, shave We reached a
verdict?'
1--WE have, yore honor" very prompt
ly 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 henor.'
Old Ball leveled knotty forehnger
toward Bill Dale.
$50 the KILN o. my son ADAM"
he pronounced sentence, "you shIl
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 a iirm
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. 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:
"Is there anything really game
about your"
"Shore, by gonniesl" quickly. I'm
all game. I'm the Teller at showed
wildcats how to fight. What about
it?"
"I'll see If you're all game" Dale
said, and he smiled when he spoke.
.T'll make you this proposition: I'll
fight any ten Of you, two at time,
with Ave minutes rest between fights
| Ii | whip them Gil 60 Free and Ii
III don't whip them all I hang llnmedI-
ateIy. All parties to be barehanded,
no guns and no knives. Are you that
gamer"
Ordinarily, 1t would have been q
thing well nigh impossible to do, much
as Dale knew of the pugillstic 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
If old Ball accepted.
But Judge Ball didn't accept. Doubt
less he remembered his son Adams
fight with Dale.
The CANT be no fghtin' in cote"
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 whom
they held captive had once whipped
Black Adam Ball, the mountaineer
Goliath, with his bare hands. They
did not have the one good trait that
Dale had hoped they possessed; while
they must have admired him for his
courage, they were afraid to fight him
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 principle.
The Cherokee Torreys. of course. were
even worse.
kitty. kitty. kitty!" Walt Turner
called tauntingly again. "He walked
into the trap like pore little kittyW
A plowline Of half-inch cotton rope
was produced, and the condemned
man was securely bound, standing on
his feet and facing outward, to the
big walnut. Desperate as was his
case, Dale couldn't help being trifle
r,ai,cod nt fha4 ~ q ...o.e