in half a dozen pairs of arms. "I warn you! It's against
the law!"

"Shut up, Jim Nichols; this is our business!" cried the leader to the
helpless sheriff. "And now, you"--turning again to Katherine--"out of
the way!"

The seething, torch-lit mob on the lawn below repeated his cry. The
leader, his wrath increasing, seized Katherine roughly by the arm and
jerked her aside:

"Now, all together, boys!" he shouted.

But at that instant upon the front of the mob there fell a tall, lean
fury with a raging voice and a furiously swinging cane. It was Old
Hosie. Before this fierce chastisement, falling so suddenly upon their
heads, the battering-ram for a moment pressed backward.

"You fools! You idiots!" the old man cried, and his high, sharp voice
cut through all the noises of the mob. "Is that the way you treat the
woman that saved you!"

"Saved us?" some one shouted incredulously. "Her save us?"

"Yes, saved you!" Old Hosie cried in a rising voice down upon the
heads of the crowd. His cane had ceased its flailing; the crowd had
partially ceased its uproar. "Do you know who that woman is? She's
Katherine West!"

"Oh, the lady lawyer!" rose several jeering voices.

For the moment Old Hosie's tall figure, with his cane outstretched,
had the wrathful majesty of a prophet of old, denouncing his foolish
and reprobate people.

"Go on, all of you, laugh at her to-night!" he shouted. "But after
to-night you'll all slink around Westville, ashamed to look anything
in the face higher than a dog! For half a year you've been sneering at
Katherine West. And see how she's paid you back! It was she that found
out your enemy. It was she that dug up all the facts and evidence
you've read in those papers there. It was she that's saved you from
being robbed. And now----"

"She done all that?" exclaimed a voice from the now stilled mob.

"Yes, she done all that!" shouted Old Hosie. "And what's more, she got
out that paper in your hands. While you've been sneering at her, she's
been working for you. And now, after all this, you're not even willing
to listen to a word from her!" His voice rose in its contemptuous
wrath still one note higher. "And now listen to me! I'm going to tell
you exactly what you are! You are all----"

But Westville never learned exactly what it was. Just then Old Hosie
was firmly pulled back by the tails of his Prince Albert coat and
found himself in the possession of the panting, dishevelled sheriff of
Ga