from the house.

"Wait," cried Jonas Prim, "I'm going with you," and without waiting to
find a hat he ran quickly after the detective. Once in the car he leaned
forward urging the driver to greater speed.

"God in heaven!" he almost cried, "the fools are going to kill the only
man who can tell me anything about Abigail."

*****

With oaths and threats the mob, brainless and heartless, cowardly,
bestial, filled with the lust for blood, pushed and jammed into the
narrow corridor before the cell door where the two prisoners awaited
their fate. The single guard was brushed away. A dozen men wielding
three railroad ties battered upon the grating of the door, swinging the
ties far back and then in unison bringing them heavily forward against
the puny iron.

Bridge spoke to them once. "What are you going to do with us?" he asked.

"We're goin' to hang you higher 'n' Haman, you damned kidnappers an'
murderers," yelled a man in the crowd.

"Why don't you give us a chance?" asked Bridge in an even tone,
unaltered by fear or excitement. "You've nothing on us. As a matter of
fact we are both innocent--"

"Oh, shut your damned mouth," interrupted another of the crowd.

Bridge shrugged his shoulders and turned toward the youth who stood very
white but very straight in a far corner of the cell. The man noticed the
bulging pockets of the ill fitting coat; and, for the first time that
night, his heart stood still in the face of fear; but not for himself.

He crossed to the youth's side and put his arm around the slender
figure. "There's no use arguing with them," he said. "They've made
up their minds, or what they think are minds, that we're guilty; but
principally they're out for a sensation. They want to see something die,
and we're it. I doubt if anything could stop them now; they'd think we'd
cheated them if we suddenly proved beyond doubt that we were innocent."

The boy pressed close to the man. "God help me to be brave," he said,
"as brave as you are. We'll go together, Bridge, and on the other side
you'll learn something that'll surprise you. I believe there is 'another
side,' don't you, Bridge?"

"I've never thought much about it," said Bridge; "but at a time like
this I rather hope so--I'd like to come back and haunt this bunch of rat
brained rubes."

His arm slipped down the other's coat and his hand passed quickly behind
the boy from one side to the other; then the door gave and the