of them,
hurried, also, to his side.

"I'm with you, Colonel," she exclaimed, with the spirit of the
mountain-bred, "and we'll win ag'in, as we did once before!"

Joe saw this with distress. Layson's generosity had softened him. He
knew, perfectly, by this time, that Madge was not for him, and her
spirit in joining his defenders--the very men whom he had thought his
enemies--touched him deeply. The realization came to him with a quick
rush that he had wronged the bluegrass folk whom he had hated with such
bitterness. He looked first at those who wished to take him prisoner and
make him suffer for a crime of which he was not guilty, and then at his
defenders, who had every reason to doubt him, but still, without a
question, had accepted his own plea of innocence. He had already made
these people trouble. Now was his opportunity to save them from an
awkward situation and, perhaps, a perilous one. There might be shooting
if he offered to resist or let these good friends attempt to defend him.
That would endanger them, and, worse, endanger Madge. "I'll go. I don't
want to make no trouble," he said hastily.

Holton nodded with approval. He wished to take the man as quickly and as
simply as he could. Every complication which could be avoided would make
less probable discovery of the fact that he, himself, and not the
fugitive young mountaineer, was the real culprit.

"That's sensible," he said, "for them men, out thar, are bound to hev
you, by fair means or foul."

"Those men will listen to reason," Frank said with a determination which
disconcerted the ex-slave dealer. "They shall hear me!" He stepped
toward the open window. "Colonel, come with me." Without waiting for him
he stepped to the gallery outside.

The Colonel started to go also, but, seeing that Holton, too, was about
to hurry out, paused long enough to go up to him threateningly. "Don't
you dare to follow!" he warned him. "We'll play this hand alone." The
man fell back and the Colonel kept his eyes on him as, slowly, he joined
Frank on the gallery.

Holton's discomfiture lasted but a moment. As soon as the Colonel had
passed out of sight he got his wits back and looked threateningly at
Madge and the mountaineer. "We'll see about that," he declared
viciously, and, making a movement of his hand which indicated that he
must be armed, although he had not shown a weapon, so far, moved toward
another window which also opened on the gallery.

But he had not c