have her--they'll kill you. We've
got a good excuse--overpowered--don't you see?"

"Overpowered? That's the way all cowards talk," said Conway. "Do one
thing for me," he said quickly--"tell them you have appointed me your
deputy. If you do not--I'll fall back on the law of riots and appoint
myself."

"Gentlemen," said the sheriff, turning to the crowd, and speaking
half-shamedly--"Gentlemen, it's better an' I hopes you all will go
home. We don't wanter hurt nobody. I app'ints Major Conway my deputy
to take the prisoner to jail. Now the blood be on yo' own heads.
I've sed my say."

A perfect storm of jeers met this. They surged forward to seize her,
while the sheriff half frightened, half undecided, got behind Conway
and said:--"It's up to you--I've done all I cu'd."

"Go back to your homes, men"--shouted Conway--"I am the sheriff here
now, and I swear to you by the living God it means I am a Conway
again, and the man who lays a hand on this old woman is as good as
dead in his tracks!"

For an instant they surged around him cursing and shouting; but he
stood up straight and terribly silent; only his keen grey eyes
glanced down to the barrel of his pistol and he stood nervously
fingering the small blue hammer with his thumb and measuring the
distance between himself and the nearest ruffian who stood on the
outskirts of the mob shaking a pistol in Conway's face and shouting:
"Come on, men, we'll lynch her anyway!"

Then Conway acted quickly. He spoke a few words to the old nurse, and
as she backed off into the nearby wood, he covered the retreat. To
his relief he saw that the sheriff, now thoroughly ashamed, had hold
of the prisoner and was helping her along.

In the edge of the wood he felt safe--with the trees at his back.
And he took courage as he heard the sheriff say:

"If you kin hold 'em a little longer I'll soon have my buggy here and
we'll beat 'em to the jail."

But the mob guessed his plans, and the man who had been most
insolent in the front of the mob--a long-haired, narrow-chested
mountaineer--rushed up viciously.

Conway saw the gleam of his pistol as the man aimed and fired at the
prisoner. Instinctively he struck at the weapon and the ball intended
for the prisoner crushed spitefully into his left shoulder. He reeled
and the grim light of an aroused Conway flashed in his eyes as he
recovered himself, for a moment, shocked, blinded. Then he heard some
one say, as he felt the blood trickling d