.

"Make way for this 'gentleman' to fall!" roared Reade, then swung a
crushing blow that landed squarely in Danes's face.

The latter went down in a heap.

There had been no explanation of the seemingly unprovoked blow, but
the crowd surged forward, snatching Danes's body up as though he were
something of which these men were anxious to be rid.

"Did he set the hotel afire?" demanded one man in husky tones.

"Did he?" chorused the crowd.

"Lemme through! Here's a rope!"

Then followed wild sounds that could not be distinguished as words.
These men of Paloma seemed bent upon fighting for the possession of
Frank Danes, who, having now recovered his senses, emitted shrill
appeals for mercy.

"Here's the fire-bug! Here's the human match!"

"To the nearest tree!"

"I've got the rope ready!"

In another thirty seconds Frank Danes would have been dangling from a
limb of the nearest tree. Again Reade and Hazelton sprang into action.

"Stand back, men--please do!" begged Tom, fighting his way through the
thinnest side of the crowd. "Don't kill any man without a trial."

"You know that this tenderfoot fired the hotel, don't you?" asked one
man hoarsely.

"I've reason to suspect that he did--"

"That's enough for us!" roared a hundred voices.

"But I've no positive proof of Danes' guilt," Tom insisted.

"To the tree with him!"

"Not while I've breath left in my body!" Tom blazed forth desperately.
"Come, Harry!"

Hazelton sprang to his chum's side, the two fighting desperately to
drive away the men who held Frank Danes captive.

"Wait a few hours at least, men!" Tom appealed earnestly. "Don't do
anything now that you'll be sorry for to-morrow."

Other men of calm judgment began to see the force of Reade's remarks.

Tom and Harry were swiftly backed by such reinforcements that the
trembling wretch was torn from his would-be destroyers.

"Reade," sobbed Frank Danes, "as long as I live I'll never forget your
splendid conduct."

"Shut up!" retorted Tom roughly. "I don't want to have to knock you down
again. It might start a riot that no man could quell."

"Pass the skulking tenderfoot out to us!" implored some of the men on
the edge of the crowd, among whom was the man with the spare rope.

"No! We won't disgrace the town with a lynching," Tom shot back. "Wait
until cool judgment has had time to do its work."

"Bear a hand there!" roared Harry. "Help the firemen to save the next
building. Follow me!