at his back
had radiated through that wild region like ripples of water from a
dropped stone and, unarmed even, he had a personal power that belonged
to no other man in all those hills, though armed to the teeth. His voice
rose clear, steady, commanding:

"The law has come here and it has come to stay." He faced the beetling
eyebrows and angrily working beard of old Judd now:

[Illustration: "We'll fight you both!", 0370]

"The Falins are here to get revenge on you Tollivers, if you attack us.
I know that. But"--he wheeled on the Falins--"understand! We don't want
your help! If the Tollivers try to take that man in there, and one of
you Falins draws a pistol, those guns there"--waving his hand toward the
jail windows--"will be turned loose on YOU, WE'LL FIGHT YOU BOTH!" The
last words shot like bullets through his gritted teeth, then the flash
of his eyes was gone, his face was calm, and as though the whole matter
had been settled beyond possible interruption, he finished quietly:

"The condemned man wishes to make a confession and to say good-by.
In five minutes he will be at that window to say what he pleases. Ten
minutes later he will be hanged." And he turned and walked calmly into
the jailer's door. Not a Tolliver nor a Falin made a movement or a
sound. Young Dave's eyes had glared savagely when he first saw Hale, for
he had marked Hale for his own and he knew that the fact was known to
Hale. Had the battle begun then and there, Hale's death was sure,
and Dave knew that Hale must know that as well as he: and yet with
magnificent audacity, there he was--unarmed, personally helpless, and
invested with an insulting certainty that not a shot would be fired. Not
a Falin or a Tolliver even reached for a weapon, and the fact was the
subtle tribute that ignorance pays intelligence when the latter is
forced to deadly weapons as a last resort; for ignorance faced now
belching shot-guns and was commanded by rifles on every side. Old Judd
was trapped and the Falins were stunned. Old Buck Falin turned his eyes
down the line of his men with one warning glance. Old Judd whispered
something to a Tolliver behind him and a moment later the man slipped
from the band and disappeared. Young Dave followed Hale's figure with a
look of baffled malignant hatred and Bub's eyes were filled with angry
tears. Between the factions, the grim young men stood with their guns
like statues.

At once a big man with a red face appeared at one of