on, mopping the sweat from his brow. "I
caught him after your grub pile, Stark."

"In my cache?"

"Yes. He dropped a crate of hams when I came up on him, and tried to
run, but I dropped him." He held his Colt in his right hand, and a
trickle of blood from the negro's head showed how he had been felled.

"Why didn't you shoot?" growled Stark, angrily, at which the negro half
arose and broke into excited denials of his guilt. Runnion kicked him
savagely, and cursed him, while the crowd murmured approval.

"Le' me see him," said Lee, elbowing his way through the others. Fixing
his one eye upon the wretch, he spoke impressively.

"You're the first downright thief I ever seen. Was you hungry?"

"No, he's got plenty," answered one of the tenderfeet, who had
evidently arrived on the boat with the darky. "He's got a bigger outfit
than I have."

The prisoner drew himself up against the bar, facing his enemies
sullenly.

"Then I reckon it's a divine manifestation," said "No Creek" Lee,
tearfully. "This black party is goin' to furnish an example as will
elevate the moral tone of our community for a year."

"Let me take him outside," cried Stark, reaching under the bar for a
weapon. His eyes were cruel, and he had the angry pallor of a dangerous
man. "I'll save you a lot of trouble."

"Why not do it legal?" expostulated Lee. "It's just as certain."

"Yes! Lee is right," echoed the crowd, bent on a Roman holiday.

"What y'all aim to do?" whined the thief.

"We're goin' to try you," announced the one-eyed miner, "and if you're
found guilty, as you certainly are goin' to be, you'll be flogged.
After which perdicament you'll have a nice ride down-stream on a
saw-log without your laundry."

"But the mosquitoes--"

"Too bad you didn't think of them before. Let's get at this, boys, and
have it over with."

In far countries, where men's lives depend upon the safety of their
food supply, a side of bacon may mean more than a bag of gold;
therefore, protection is a strenuous necessity. And though any one of
those present would have gladly fed the negro had he been needy, each
of them likewise knew that unless an example were made of him no tent
or cabin would be safe. The North being a gameless, forbidding country,
has ever been cruel to thieves, and now it was heedless of the black
man's growing terror as it set about to try him. A miners' meeting was
called on the spot, and a messenger sent hurrying to the post for the