dow staring
into the darkness like a fool. I heard the men scramble over a fence
and run off. Then I ran out to where Allenham lay. He made no answer
when I spoke to him. I went on and met two of the deputies coming into
the alley. I told them what I had seen.

"Wake up folks in the hotel," said one of the men; then they hurried
along. I soon had everybody in the hotel down-stairs with my shouting.
In a minute or two they brought in Allenham, and the doctor began to
work over him. The whole town was soon on hand, and it was decided to
descend on the graders' camp in force. Twenty or thirty men
volunteered. One of the deputies named Dawson was selected as
leader.

"Are you certain you can pick out the man who fired the shot?" said
Dawson to me.

"Yes," I answered. "It was Pike."

"If you just came, how do you happen to know Pike?" he asked.

"He pulled me up last night by the ear and looked at me with a
lantern," I said.

"Well," replied the man, "we'll take you down and you can look at him
with a lantern."

They formed into a solid body, four abreast, with Dawson ahead holding
me by the arm, as if he were afraid I would get away. To tell the
truth, I should have been glad enough to have got out of the thing,
but there seemed to be no chance of it. I was glad my mother could not
know about me.

We soon came up to the camp, and the men lined out and held their guns
ready for use. Not a sound was to be heard except the loud snoring of
the men in the nearest tent, which seemed to me almost _too_ loud.
There was a dying camp-fire, and the stars were bright and twinkling
in a deep-blue sky; but I didn't look at them much.

"Come, you fellows, get up!" called Dawson. This brought no answer.

"Come!" he called louder, "roust up there, every one of you. There's
fifty of us, and we've got our boots on!"

A man put his head sleepily out of a tent and wanted to know what was
the trouble. Dawson repeated his commands. One of our men tossed some
wood on the fire, and it blazed up and threw the long shadows of the
tents out across the prairie. One by one the men came out, as if they
were just roused from sleep. There was a great amount of loud talk and
profanity, but at last they were all out. Pike was one of the last.
Dawson made them stand up in a row.

"Now, young man," said he to me, "pick out the man you saw fire the
shot that killed Allenham."

At the word killed Pike started and shut his jaws tightly together