here.

Parish felt Dorothy, whose two hands were clasped about his folded arm,
wince and shudder at the sinister detail, and unwilling to remain
totally passive, even with the end so near and so certain, he chose to
speak before they spoke to him.

"I knows right well what ye've come fer, men," he said, and in the level
steadiness of his voice was more of disdain than abjectness, "but I
hain't got no lamentation ter make, an' somehow I hain't es much
terrified as mebby I ought ter be."

"Ye've got a right good license ter be terrified," announced the
disguised voice of the masked leader, "onlessen death's a thing ye
favours over life. Even ef ye does thet, hangin's a right shameful way
ter die."

But Parish Thornton shook his head.

"Hit hain't hangin' hitself thet's shameful," he corrected the other,
"hit's what a man hangs fer." He paused, then with the note of entire
seriousness he inquired: "I reckon ye don't aim ter deny me ther
privilege of sayin' a few words fust, does ye? I've always heered thet
they let a man talk afore he got hung."

"Go on," growled the other, "but mebby ye'd better save hit, twell we've
done tried ye. We aims ter give ye a hearin' afore ye dies."

Thornton inclined his head gravely, more sensible of the clutching grasp
of his wife's fingers on his tensed biceps than of more fateful matters.

"When ye gits through hangin' me," he told them by way of valedictory,
"I wants ye ter recall thet thar's somethin' ye hain't kilt yit in these
hills--an' won't nuver kill. Thar's a sperit that some of us hes
fostered hyar, and hit'll go on jest ther same without us--hit's a
bigger thing then any man, an' hit's goin' ter dog ye till hit gits ye
all--every sneakin' mother's son an' every murderin' man-jack of yore
sorry outfit! What things we've ondertook hain't a-goin' ter die with me
ner with no other man ye gang murders--an' when ther high co'te sets
next time, thar'll be soldiers hyar thet hain't none affrighted by ther
repute ye b'ars!"

He paused, then added soberly, yet with a conviction that carried
persuasiveness: "Thet's all I've got ter say, an' albeit _I'm_ ther
victim right now, God in Heaven knows I pities all of ye from ther
bottom of my heart--because I'm confident that amongst ye right now air
some siv'ral thet, save fer bein' deluded by traitors an' cravens, air
good men."

The individual who was acting as spokesman bent forward and thrust his
face close to that of the man t