r!" murmured Mrs. Brant, horror struck.

The cheering of the multitude borne upon the air was now heard.

"Mother, I must go. You can beat me as hard as you want to after I do
it. I can't let Ben Stringer be crowing over me. He'll be there."

Looking intently at his mother, Melville backed toward the door. Mrs.
Brant rushed forward and seized him.

"I shall put you in the attic. You shall not see that inhuman affair."

To her surprise Melville did not resist, but meekly submitted to being
taken up stairs and locked in the attic.

Knowing how utterly opposed his mother was to lynchings he had
calculated upon her refusal and had provided for such a contingency. He
fastened the attic door on the inside and took from a corner a stout
stick and a rope which he had secreted there. Fastening the rope to the
stick and placing the stick across the small attic window he succeeded
in lowering himself to the ground. He ran with all the speed at his
command and arrived at the railway station just in time to see the mob
begin its march with Bud and Foresta toward the scene of the killing of
Sidney Fletcher.

Arriving at the spot where Fletcher's body had been found, the mob
halted and the leaders instituted the trial of the accused.

"Did you kill Mr. Sidney Fletcher?" asked the mob's spokesman of Bud.

"Can I explain the matter to you, gentlemen," asked Bud.

"We want you to tell us just one thing; did you kill Mr. Sidney
Fletcher?"

"He tried to kill me," replied Bud.

"And you therefore killed him, did you?"

"Yes, sir. That's how it happened."

"You killed him, then?" asked the spokesman.

"I shot him, and if he died I suppose I must have caused it. But it was
in self-defense."

"You hear that, do you. He has confessed," said the spokesman to his son
who was the reporter of the world-wide news agency that was to give to
the reading public an account of the affair.

"Well, we are ready to act," shouted the spokesman to the crowd.

Two men now stepped forward and reached the spokesman at about the same
time.

"I got a fine place, with everything ready. I knew what you would need
and I arranged for you," said one of the men.

"My place is nearer than his, and everything is as ready as it can be. I
think I am entitled to it," said the other.

"You want the earth, don't you?" indignantly asked the first applicant
of the second.

Ignoring this thrust the second applicant said to the spokesman,

"You know I