get to Congress when his
time comes, nor it ain't going to help the girls get good husbands,
either. This here country ain't what it was in the way of liberality since
it's got to be a State."

"Sh-sh-sh!" she said. "Is that the range-cattle stampedin' after water, or
is it--" They listened. The furniture in the room crackled; there was not a
fibre of it to which the resistless heat had not penetrated. On the range
the cattle bellowed in their thirst-torture; in the intervals of their
cries sounded something far off, but regular as the thumping of a ship's
screw. The woman did not need an answer to her question. The steady
trampling of hoofs came muffled through the dead air, but the sound was
unmistakable. She put her arms about the man's neck and crushed him to her
with all her woman strength. "Oh, Jim, you've been a good man to me!"

"Steady--steady." He strained her close to him. "They'd be, by the sound of
them, on the straight bit of road now, before the turn. Soon we'll hear
their hoofs ring hollow as they cross the plank bridge."

His plainsman's faculty was as keen as ever; his calculation of the
horsemen's distance was made as though he were the least concerned. All
Alida's courage had gone, with the dread thing at hand. She clung to him,
dazed.

"They're sober, all right enough."

"How do you know?"

"They'd be cursing and bellowing if they were drunk."

The hoofs rang hollow on the little plank bridge that crossed the ditch
about a stone's-throw from the door. Not a word was said either within or
without. The lynchers seemed to have drilled for their part; there was no
whispering, no deferring to a leader. On they came, so close that Jim and
Alida could hear the creaking of their saddles. There was the clank of
spurs and the straining of leather as they dismounted, then some one
knocked at the door till the warped boards rattled.

Jim could feel the thudding of Alida's heart as she clung to him, but when
the knock was repeated a new courage came to her, and she left Jim and
went on her knees close to the outer wall.

"Jim, is that you?" she called, and now every sense was trained to battle;
her voice had even a sleepy cadence, as if she had been suddenly roused.

"That won't do at all, Miz Rodney. We know you got Jim in there, just as
certain as we're out here, and we want him to come out and we'll do the
thing square, otherwise he can take the consequences."

Jim opened his mouth to speak, but s