street to the jail.

"What are they going to do?" He steadied himself, resting his hand on
her shoulder, and looked through a pane above her head.

"To take Toot out."

"An' then he'll lead them, won't he?"

"I don't know! I reckon so--oh, I can't tell!" She faced him for an
instant, a look of helpless indecision in her eyes; then she turned
again to the window.

"I'll go slip on my coat," he said. "I--I'm cold. I'd better get
ready. You see, he may want to--call me out. I wish I had a gun--or
something."

She made no answer, and he went into his room. He turned up the lamp,
but quickly lowered it again. He found his coat on a chair and put it
on. He wondered if he were actually afraid. Surely he had never felt
so before; perhaps his mind was not right--his wound and all his mental
trouble had affected his nerves, and then a genuine thrill of horror
went over him. Might not this be the particular form of punishment
Providence had singled out for the murderer of Sally Dawson--might it
not be the grewsome, belated answer to her mother's prayer?

Just then Harriet entered the room softly and turned his light down
still lower.

"Stay back here," she said, her tone almost a command.

"Why?"

"If they get Toot out, it would be just like him to try to-- You--you
are not strong enough to get out of their way. Oh, I don't know what
to do!" She went back to the window in the next room. He followed her,
and stood by her side.

The white figures had dismounted at the jail. They paused at the gate
a moment, then filed into the yard and stood at the door. The leader
rapped on it loudly.

"Hello in thar, Tarpley Brown, show yorese'f!" he cried.

There was a silence for a moment. In the moonlight the body of men
looked like a snowdrift against the jail. The same voice spoke again:

"Don't you keep us waitin' long, nuther, Tarp. You kin know what sort
we are by our grave-clothes ef you'll take the trouble to peep out o'
the winder."

"What do you-uns want?" It was the quavering voice of the jailer, from
the wing of the house occupied by him and his family.

His voice roused a sleeping infant, and it began to cry. The cry was
smothered by some one's hand over the child's mouth.

"You know what we-uns want," answered the leader. "We come after Toot
Wambush; turn 'im out, ef you know what's good fer you."

"Gentlemen, I'm a sworn officer of the law, I--"

"Drap that! Open that cell door, u