the keys!"

He drew them from his pocket and jangled them in his hand, a pitiful
object.

"Listen!" whispered Glenning. "They're coming. Hear their feet? Give me
your keys! Bring me your pistols--quick!"

He took the bunch of heavy keys from the unresisting fingers, and the
jailer hastened indoors. He was back in a moment with a brace of
revolvers which he held out eagerly.

"Here they are!" he managed to say. "Keep 'em off, doc, if you can!"

"Go hide in the cellar, if you have one!" returned John, contemptuously,
and walked to the iron-barred door set in a stone wall, which gave
entrance to the main passage of the jail.

In front of this door was a small, elevated platform, not over six feet
square. Above the door a lamp burned in an iron sconce set in the
masonry. This was placed there for convenience in housing prisoners at
all hours. John looked at the lamp a moment in doubt, then walked to it
and turned the wick higher, so that the low flame sprang up and
illuminated the platform upon which he stood, as well as the ground in
front for several yards. As he faced about a reckless, devil-may-care
smile was on his lips. At one side lay a goods-box, some three feet
tall. John stooped and dragged it to the platform, and stood it on end
in front of him. His purpose was not to form a shield, for the frail
pine of which it was made could not have withstood a bullet, and it came
scarcely to his waist, leaving exposed all vital parts. Glenning
quietly dropped the keys in the long grass at the edge of the platform,
took off his hat and placed it to one side, then lay his two revolvers
upon the top of the box, gently rested his hand upon the butt of each,
and waited. The revolvers were of forty-eight calibre, and brightly
nickeled. They caught the gleam from the lamp, and shone suggestively.
The jailer had disappeared. John had heard him locking and barricading
his door. In all probability he had deserted the place by some rear
exit.

The faint sound of many moving feet which had been audible a few minutes
before had grown into a pronounced tread. As John stood and listened to
this portentous advance, his heart did not quicken a beat. Indeed, he
had grown calmer. The fever of unrest which had been tearing at him was
departed now. Here was that danger for which he had vaguely hoped--here,
before his face. Something like a hundred men came to a halt before the
jail door, and at a respectful distance from the platform wh