gs; and their influence, added to the persuasive eloquence of
my pistols, decided the wavering. In twenty seconds, more than
twenty votes were given for my acquittal, and the chairman declared
in a triumphant voice, "He is unanimously acquitted." The unanimity,
I confess, was not such as I would have desired; but all agreed the
youngster had pluck, and would soon make as good a fighter as any of
them. With a forced laugh, which on some faces ill concealed their
hatred, while others made an unseemly attempt at coarse wit, they
adjourned, voting themselves a drink at my expense, which I must
perforce pay, as they had generously acquitted me! I confess to an
amiable wish that the dollar I laid on the counter of Cavins for a
gallon of whiskey might some day buy the rope to tighten on his
craven throat, though I did not deem it wise to give expression to
my sentiments just then.

As the bottle passed for the last time, the change of feeling was
most rapid, and I was greeted quite patronizingly by some who had
been fierce for hanging me. The more malignant shrunk away by twos
and threes, and soon the grocery was empty. My special friends, who
were now more than ever friends, having risked their own lives to
save me (I even then thought of One who had given up His life to
save me), advised, in earnest words--"Now, S., put thirty miles
between you and these fellows before to-morrow; for some of them are
enraged at their defeat, and if you stay here you are a doomed man."

My first impulse was to return home, attend to my regular business,
defy them, and, if necessary, sell my life as dearly as possible.
But what could one man, and he a youth and a stranger, do against a
corrupt and reckless populace? When suspicion was once aroused, I
knew that the least spark would kindle it into a flame. Society
there was completely barbarous in its character, so far as law was
concerned. The mob has ruled for years, and the spirit of rebellion,
now rampant all over the South, had taken form and expressed itself
in these vigilance committees, constituting as cruel courts of
inquiry as was ever the Inquisition.

Instances of recent occurrence of most atrocious character were in
my mind, showing that these men would persecute me to death, sooner
or later, if I remained. Only two nights before, a part of this same
gang had murdered a Mr. Crawford, who was a native of Sullivan
county, New York, but had lived in Arkansas sixteen years--a man
a