old! when the last bandage was off, there lay the arm,
sound of bone, and without even a bruise or discoloration along its
whole length!

"Wal, I'll be durned! Jest as I thought! The cur! An' that is th' kind
of evidence you was a-go-in' tew hang them boys on!" and Ham's angry
eyes swept the circle of surrounding faces.

A murmur, that swiftly swelled into a roar of hundreds of angry voices,
broke from the surrounding crowd, when Ham's testimony and the result of
the examination of Skoonly's bandaged arm became known.

"A rope! Get a rope! Hang him!" yelled a hoarse voice; and the cry was
taken up by hundreds of voices; and the jam of enraged men pressed
closer and closer to the cowering man, whose face grew livid with fear,
as he glared wildly around, seeking some means of escape. But there was
none; and despair and a great dread, the dread of a sudden and frightful
death, took possession of his soul.

"Save me! Save me!" he yelled, throwing himself at Fremont's feet. "I
did not mean tew git th' boys hanged. They, Bill an' Spike, told me
'twas jest tew scare them. They was a-tryin' tew frighten th' boys intew
doin' sumthin' for them--Oh-h-h, don't let them git me! Save me!" and he
clutched Fremont's legs with both his quivering hands, as the roar of
the crowd became louder and more threatening.

"Quick," and Fremont bent over him, "will you tell all, all that you
know of this horrible affair, if we will save your neck?"

"Yes! Yes!" eagerly agreed the terror-stricken man. "I'll tell
ever'thing! Afore God I'll tell ever'thing! It's Bill an' Spike who is
responsible, not me. It's them you want."

"Men," and Fremont again leaped up on top of the barrel, both hands
outstretched for silence. "Listen, men, listen!"

For a minute the roar of the crowd continued, and then swiftly subsided,
as all eyes caught sight of the tall figure of Fremont standing on the
barrel top.

"Make your words few and to the point, Colonel. This is no time for
speech-making," warned a voice from the crowd. "We want to get hold of
the skunk who was willing to falsely swear away the lives of two boys."

"My words will be few and to the point," Fremont began, his clear
penetrating voice reaching every ear in the crowd. "Skoonly will confess
everything, if you will spare his neck. He appears to have been but the
tool of the other two men; and we will need his testimony to make out a
case against them and to prove to the satisfaction of all,