' 'Take him, dead or alive!'

Amid the universal excitement and confusion that followed, Larkin walked
rapidly away with Hallet.

'You can heat the kettle, boys; Mulock can't run,' cried Joe, from the
platform. 'But you must give him a fair trial.

'We'll do thet, never ye fear!' echoed a dozen voices.

'I nominate his friend, Mr. Gaston, for judge,' said Joe.

'Gaston it is!' Gaston it is!' 'Mount the bench, Mr. Gaston!' shouted a
hundred 'natives.'

Gaston got upon the auction stand, and said:

'I'll serve, gentlemen; but, before we select jurors, the sale must go
on. Miss Preston is not sold yet.'

'All right! all right! Hurry up, Mr. Hammerman!' shouted the crowd.

The auctioneer took his place:

'A thousand dollars is bid for this young lady. Going--gone--_gone_, to
Mr. Joseph Preston.'

Selma put her arms about Joe's neck, and, in broken tones, said: 'My
brother! my dear brother!' Then she laid her head on his shoulder, and
wept--wept unrestrainedly.

Who can fathom the untold misery she had endured within those two hours?

CHAPTER XXVI.

The impromptu judge took his seat on the bench, and the excited
multitude once more subsided into quiet. In about fifteen minutes a
tumult arose in a remote quarter of the ground, and Mulock and his
pursuers appeared in sight, shouting, screaming, and swearing in a
decidedly boisterous manner. The most of the profanity--to the credit of
the self-appointed _posse comitatus_ be it said--was indulged in by the
ex-overseer, who, with his clothes torn in shreds, and his face covered
with blood, looked like the battered relic of a forty years' war. A red
bandanna pinioned his arms to his sides, and a strong man at each elbow
spurred his flagging footsteps by an occasional poke with a pine branch.
Ally followed at a few paces, looking about as dilapidated as the
culprit himself. To him evidently belonged the glory of the capture.

As they approached the stand. Gaston rose, and called out:

'Do not insult justice, by bringing the prisoner into court in this
condition. Let his face be washed, his garments changed, and his wounds
bound up, before he appears for trial. Dr. Rawson, I commission you
special officer for the duty.'

'I'm at your service, Major Gaston,' said the doctor, stepping out from
the crowd into the open semicircle in front of the bench. 'Will some one
procure the loan of a coat, hat, and trousers at the mansion?'

Ally started for the needed cloth