you to Frankfort, I reckin'."

"That is what you promised," replied Calhoun, calmly.

"Well, we-uns ain't. We-uns goin' to hang ye!"

Calhoun turned pale, then controlling himself by a powerful effort, he
replied: "Do the Home Guards of Kentucky violate every principle of
honorable warfare?"

"Damn honorable warfare! Yo-uns called me a chicken-thief; I call you a
hoss-thief. Hoss-thieves air hanged. Ha! ha! the son of Judge Pennington
strung up fo' stealin' hosses! Won't that sound nice?" and he burst into a
devilish laugh, in which he was joined by the others.

Calhoun saw there was no hope. It was hard to die such an ignominious
death. "Oh!" he thought, "if I had only been permitted to die amid the
flame and smoke of battle. Such a death is glorious; but this----" A great
lump arose in his throat, and came near choking him.

Gulping it back, he whispered to Nevels: "Don't show the white feather.
Let them see how Morgan's men can die."

The brave fellow nodded; he could not speak. He had a wife and child at
home.

They were unbound from the tree, but their arms and limbs were kept
tightly pinioned. Ropes were brought and tied around their necks, and the
free ends thrown over a limb of the tree.

"Can ye tie a true hangman's knot, Jack?" asked Red of the villain who was
adjusting the rope around Calhoun's neck.

"That I can, Red," he answered, with a chuckling laugh. "It's as neat a
job as eny sheriff can do."

The sun had just sunk to rest; the gloom of night was settling over the
forest. Calhoun saw the shadows thicken among the trees. The darkness of
death would soon be upon him.

"String 'em up!" shouted Red.

Just then the solemn hoot of a distant owl was heard. One of the men
holding the rope dropped it, and shivered from head to foot.

"Boys," he whispered, "let's don't do it. That's a note of warning. I
never knew it to fail."

"Cuss ye fo' a white-livered coward!" yelled Red Bill. "String them up, I
tell ye!"

For answer there came the sharp crack of rifles, the rush of armed men,
and the infuriated Texans were on them. No mercy was shown; in a moment it
was all over.

Quickly the cords which bound Calhoun and Nevels were cut, and the
terrible nooses removed from their necks. "Thank God, we were in time!"
cried Captain Huffman, wringing Calhoun's hand.

But Calhoun stood as one in a trance. So sudden had been his deliverance,
he could not realize it. He had nerved himself to die, and now