gested one.

"That's the talk!" echoed a third. "Swing him, too!"

The lust of blood was upon the crowd, crying to be satisfied. But they
had reckoned wrongly, and were soon to learn their error. Every atom of
the long youth's fighting blood was raised to boiling pitch. On the
instant, the all but superhuman strength at which we marvel in the
insane was his. Like flails, his doubled fists shot out in every
direction, meeting resistance at each blow. By the dim light he caught
the answering glint on sheath knives, but he took no notice. His hat had
come off, and his abundant brown hair shook about his shoulders. His
blue eyes blazed. A figure of war incarnate he stood, and a vacant
circle which no one cared to cross formed about him. One long hand, with
fingers outstretched, was raised above his head. The brilliant eyes
searched the surrounding sea of faces for those he knew; as one by one
he found them, lingered, conquered. Silence fell intense.

"Men! Gentlemen!" The words went out like pistol-shots reaching every
acute ear. "Listen to me. I've a right to speak. Stop a moment, all of
you, and think. This is the twentieth century, not the first. We're in
America, free America. Think, I say, think! Don't act blindly! Think!
This man is guilty. We all know it. He's caught red-handed. But he can't
escape. Remember this, men, and think! As you value your own
self-respect, as you honor the country you live in, don't be savages,
don't do this deed you contemplate, this thing you've started doing. Let
the law take its course!"

The speaker paused for breath, and, as though fascinated by his audacity
or something else, friend and enemy remained motionless and waiting.
Well fitting the drama was its setting: the darkness of night broken by
the flickering lanterns; on the pony the huddled helpless figure with a
running noose about its neck; the row upon row of rugged faces, of
gleaming eyes!

"Ranchers, stockmen!" rushed on the insistent voice, "you know
responsibility; it's to you I'm talking. A principle is at stake
here,--the principle of law or of lawlessness. One of these--you know
which--has run this range too long; it's gripping us at this moment.
Before we can be free we must call it halt. Let's do it now; don't wait
for the next time or the next, but now, now!" Once more he paused, his
eyes for the last time making the circle swiftly, his hand in the air,
palm forward. "For law, the law of J. L. Rankin, instead of J