ve made no claim to be better or more moral than any of
you. I'm not. I'm in the same boat with all of you, and I tell you
it's up to ALL of us to stop lynchings in this county--to set our faces
against it. I tell you--"

"Is that all you've got to say to us, colonel?"

The question come out of a group that had drawed nearer together
whilst the colonel was talking. They was tired of listening to talk and
arguments, and showed it.

The colonel stopped speaking short when they flung that question at him.
His face changed. He turned serious all over. And he let loose jest one
word:

"NO!"

Not very loud, but with a ring in it that sounded like danger. And he
got 'em waiting agin, and hanging on his words.

"No!" he repeats, louder, "not all. I have this to say to you--"

And he paused agin, pointing one long white finger at the crowd--

"IF YOU LYNCH THIS MAN YOU MUST KILL ME FIRST!"

I couldn't get away from thinking, as he stood there making them take
that in, that they was something like a play-actor about him. But he was
in earnest, and he would play it to the end, fur he liked the feelings
it made circulate through his frame. And they saw he was in earnest.

"You'll lynch him, will you?" he says, a kind of passion getting into
his voice fur the first time, and his eyes glittering. "You think you
will? Well, you WON'T!

"You won't because _I_ say NOT. Do you hear? I came here to-night to
save him.

"You might string HIM up and not be called to account for it. But how
about ME?"

He took a step forward, and, looking from face to face with a dare in
his eyes, he went on:

"Is there a man among you fool enough to think you could kill Tom
Buckner and not pay for it?"

He let 'em all think of that for jest another minute before he spoke
agin. His face was as white as a piece of paper, and his nostrils was
working, but everything else about him was quiet. He looked the master
of them all as he stood there, Colonel Tom Buckner did--straight and
splendid and keen. And they felt the danger in him, and they felt jest
how fur he would go, now he was started.

"You didn't want to listen to me a bit ago," he said. "Now you must.
Listen and choose. You can't kill that man unless you kill me too.

"TRY IT, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN!"

He reached over and took from the teacher's desk the sheet of paper Will
had used to check off the name of each man and how he voted. He held it
up in front of him and every man looke