.

"All opposed say no."

No one spoke for a moment, then Wambush muttered something, but no one
understood what it was. He turned his horse round and started to
mount. He had his left foot in the stirrup, and had grasped the mane
of the animal with his right hand, when the leader yelled:

"Hold on thar! Not so quick, sonny. We don't let nobody as sneakin'
as you are ride off with a gun in his hip pocket. S'arch 'im, boys;
he's jest the sort to fire back on us an' make a dash fer it."

Hunter and Burks closed in on him. Wambush drew back and put his hand
behind him.

"Damn you! don't you touch me!" he threatened.

The two men sprang at him like tigers and grasped his arms. Wambush
struggled and kicked, but they held him.

"Wait thar a minute," cried the leader; "he don't know when to let well
enough alone. You white sperits out thar with the tar an' feathers
come for'ard. Wambush ain't satisfied with the garb he's got on."

A general laugh went round. With an oath Wambush threw his revolver on
the ground and then his knife. This done, Hunter and Burks allowed him
to mount.

"Don't let him go yet," commanded the leader; "look in his saddle-bags."

Wambush's horse suddenly snorted, kicked up his heels, and tried to
plunge forward, but Burks clung to the reins and held him.

"He dug his spur into his hoss on this side like thunder," said a man
in the crowd. "It's a wonder he didn't rip 'im open."

"S'arch them bags," ordered the leader, "an' ef he makes anuther budge
before it's done, or opens his mouth fer a whisper, drag 'im right down
an' give 'im 'is deserts."

Wambush offered no further resistance. Hunter fumbled in the bags. He
held up a quart flask of corn whiskey over his head, shook it in the
moonlight, and then restored it. "I hain't the heart to deprive 'im of
that," he said, as he walked round the horse; "he won't find any better
in his travels." On the other side he found a forty-four-caliber
revolver.

"That 'u'd be a ugly customer to meet on a dark road," he said, holding
it up for the others to see. "By hunky! it 'u'd dig a tunnel through a
rock mountain. Say, Westerfelt, ef he'd 'a' got a whack at yer with
this yore fragments 'u'd never a-come together on the day o' jedgment."

Westerfelt made no reply.

"Now, let 'im go," said the leader. "Ef he dares to be seed anywhar in
the Cohutta section six hours frum now he knows what will come uv 'im.
We refuse to shelter 'im