pardner no names, especially none like that. If you want a fight we're
here to accommodate you till you git plum-full of it. But you musn't
call no sich names as that, or I'll knock your head off."

"Whose head'll you knock off?" said a burly man, thrusting himself in
front of the lawyer, with his fist doubled.

"Yours, for example," promptly responded Shorty, sending out his mighty
right against the man's head.

"Don't be a fool, Markham," said the lawyer, catching the man and
pushing him back into the crowd behind. "Now, sir, Sergeant, or Captain,
or Colonel, whatever you may call yourself, for I despise military
titles, and don't pretend to know them, I again demand the release of
those men. You'll be foolish to attempt to resist, for we've men enough
to tear you limb from limb, and jerk down the jail over your heads. Look
out for yourself. You can see that the courtyard is full of men. They
are determined--desperate, for they have groaned under the iron heel of
tyranny."

"O, cheese that stump-speech," said Si, weariedly. "'Taint in our
enlistment papers to have to listen to 'em. You've bin warnin', now I'll
do a little. I'll shoot the first man that attempts to enter this jail
till the Sheriff gits back. If you begin any shootin' we'll begin right
into your crowd, and we'll make you sick. There's some warnin' that
means somethin'."

"Your blood be on your own heads, then, you brass-button despots," said
the lawyer, retiring into the darkness and the crowd. He seemed to give
a signal, for a rocket shot up into the air, followed by wild yells
from the mob. The large wooden stable in the Courthouse yard burst into
flames, and the prisoners inside yelled viciously in response. There was
a fusillade of shots, apparently excited and aimless, for none of them
struck near.

"Don't fire, boys," said Si, walking around among his guards, "until
there is some reason for it. They'll probably try to make a rush and
batter down the jail door. We'll watch for that."

The glare of the burning building showed them preparing for that move.
A gang had torn off the heavy rail from the hitching-post on the outside
of the square, and were going to use it as a battering-ram. Then came
another kind of yell from farther away, and suddenly the mob began
running in wild confusion, while into the glare swept a line of
soldiers, charging with fixed bayonets.

"A train came in while I was at the depot," the Sheriff explained, as
he en