ondemned men I could see the shifting components of the mob freeze
to immobility before the menace of those barrels. At the same instant
the man who had been appointed executioner jerked the box from beneath
Catlin's feet.

"There goes one to hell!" muttered Charley.

"I hope forked lightning will strike every strangling----" yelled
Crawford. His speech was abruptly cut short as the box spun from under
his feet.

"Kick away, old fellow!" said Scar-face Charley. "Me next! I'll be in
hell with you in a minute! Every man for his principles! Hurrah for
crime! Let her rip!" and without waiting for the executioner, he himself
kicked the support away.

Morton died without a sign. Catlin, at the last, suddenly calmed, and
met his fate bravely.

Before the lull resulting from the execution and the threat of the
presented weapons could break, Danny Randall spoke up.

"Gentlemen!" he called clearly. "The roster of the Vigilantes is open.
Such of you as please to join the association for the preservation of
decency, law, and order in this camp can now do so."

The guard lowered their arms and moved to one side. The crowd swept
forward. In the cabin the applicants were admitted a few at a time.
Before noon we had four hundred men on our rolls. Some of the bolder
roughs ventured a few threats, but were speedily overawed. The community
had found itself, and was no longer afraid.

PART IV

THE LAW

CHAPTER XL

THE RAINS

No sooner had this radical clean-up of the body politic been consummated
than the rains began. That means little to any but a Californian. To him
it means everything. We were quite new to the climate and the
conditions, so that the whole thing was a great surprise.

For a month past it had been threatening. The clouds gathered and piled
and blackened until they seemed fairly on the point of bursting. One
would not have given two cents for his chances of a dry skin were he to
start on a journey across the street. Yet somehow nothing happened. Late
in the afternoon, perhaps, the thunderous portents would thin. The
diffused light would become stronger. Far down in the west bars of
sunlight would strike. And by evening the stars shone brilliantly from a
sky swept clear. After a dozen repetitions of this phenomenon we ceased
to pay any attention to it. Somebody named it "high fog," which did well
enough to differentiate it from a genuine rain-bringing cloud. Except
for that peculiar gourd tha