r heard her. His eyes bulging, his breath coming quick, he
pounded the prostrate boy with a fury that made Hertha cry out in
horror.

"What's up?" A group of men came running in from the street. "What you
got?" one demanded. "A nigger? Gimme a turn at him."

Moving a moment from where he bent over Tom to turn to his questioners,
Dick gave the lad a chance to wriggle from his grasp. In an instant the
black boy was on his feet and running from his enemy into the darkness
of the park.

"Catch him," Dick cried, leaping up and calling on the others. "Lynch
the nigger!"

The men, there were a dozen by this time, scattered among the trees,
Dick leading in the pursuit. Some ran from curiosity, interested to
learn the turn events would take; others were bent on executing
vengeance. None of them listened to Hertha who in her sweet, light voice
was reiterating that the boy had done her no harm.

It was very dark away from the lamp and Tom, who had dashed down one of
the paths, turned among the trees and slipped along close to the bushes.
He knew nothing of his way but he hoped in the obscurity to elude his
pursuers until, weary with their search, they should turn back. He
cursed himself for having brought trouble upon Hertha. "If I can jest
hide for a space," he thought, "I reckon they'll all go away, and she
won't be bothered no more." And crouching under a great bush filled with
snow-white blossoms he waited for the men to pass.

It would have turned out as he desired had not his first pursuer been a
man from Georgia to whom a hunt for a Negro's skin was as justifiable as
a hunt for the skin of a rabbit. And Dick's fury was at its height, for
he had seen Tom touch Hertha's arm. He bent to the ground, deaf to
everything but his work, and slipped among the bushes until he found Tom
crouching close. Then with a great cry he sprang on the boy again.

His grasp slipped and Tom was up and on once more, but this time men
closed in about him to the right and left while Dick bellowed behind.
Running on ahead as fast as his strength would carry him his foot
slipped, and he fell headlong on the path close to the lake. Before he
could rise Dick was striking him cruelly in the face.

"Come on, boys," he cried, "somebody get a rope. We'll string this
damned buck on the nearest tree!"

"Let him alone," came Hertha's voice as she ran toward them through the
trees. "Let him alone."

Her call only infuriated her lover. Turning upon th