!"

They wheeled and saw a single figure there, unarmed, and hands began
going to holsters.

"Virginny and Kaintuck looks right-smart alike ter me," said Bear Cat
Stacy with the level voice of one who has long waited his moment and
finds it at hand. "Will ye all lay down yore arms, and surrender ther
men we wants--or will ye stand siege an' have this pest-house burnt
down over yore heads? I'll wait outside for an answer."

The amazement of the moment had held them gripped in tableau as he
spoke, but when he stepped swiftly back, a dozen pistols spat and
barked at him, and then, louder than the firing, they heard a circle of
song--compassing the stockaded building on all sides--a giant chorus
that swelled in the frosty air: "Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the
Coming of the Lord."

Kinnard Towers' self-assurance fell away from him. His hand was
unsteady as he raised it and said huskily; "Boys, we needs must fight."

CHAPTER XXVII

The volume of the singing out there and the flare of the ruddy torches,
left no doubt as to the substantial strength of the force which had
swept aside such legal technicalities as state jurisdiction.

When Bear Cat had trusted himself so recklessly on the threshold while
the opposite door still stood open, the spectral figures with masked
faces could have streamed in, wave on wave, to smother out any
up-flaming spirit of resistance, but in doing that there would have
been hand-to-hand conflict, in which the innocent must pay as heavy and
ultimate a penalty as the guilty.

So Turner had withdrawn, and permitted the barring of the doors--though
he knew that the structure had the solid strength of square-sawed oak
and that the besieged scores were fully armed. Now from the outside he
hammered on the massive panels with a rifle butt.

"Ef ye wants ter send a man out hyar ter parley with me," he shouted
through the heavy barrier, "I gives ye my pledge that he kin go back
safe. Ef ye don't see fit ter do thet, we've got ter believe thet ye're
all one stripe, resistin' arrest, and we aims ter set this hell-house
ter ther torch."

"Let me have five minutes ter study erbout hit," Towers gave answer,
then he turned to the men inside. "Go upsta'rs, Tom," he directed
swiftly, "an' look out. Let me know how many thar seems ter be of 'em."

Carmichael, peering out of dark windows above, saw against the snow,
innumerable sable figures bulking formidably in the red flare of
blazing pine