“Hello, Lauman,” answered Park, matching him for cheerfulness. Then:
“We rode over to hang them Wagners.” Lauman grinned. “I hate to disappoint yuh, Park, but I've kinda set my heart on doing that little job myself. I'm the one that caught 'em, and if you'd followed my trail the last month you'd say I earned the privilege.”
“Maybe so,” Park admitted pleasantly, “but we've got a little personal matter to settle up with those jaspers. Bob MacGregor was one of us, yuh remember.”
“I'll hang 'em just as dead as you can,” Lauman argued.
“But yuh won't do it so quick,” Park lashed back. “They're spoiling the air every breath they draw. We want 'em, and I guess that pretty near settles it.”
“Not by a damn sight it don't! I've never had a man took away from me yet, boys, and I've been your sheriff a good many years. You hike right back to camp; yuh can't have 'em.”
Thurston could scarcely realize the deadliness of their purpose. He knew them for kind-hearted, laughter-loving young fellows, who would give their last dollar to a friend. He could not believe that they would resort to violence now. Besides, this was not his idea of a mob; he had fancied they would howl threats and wave bludgeons, as they did in stories. Mobs always “howled and seethed with passion” at one's doors; they did not stand about and talk quietly as though the subject was trivial and did not greatly concern them.
But the men were pressing closer, and their very calmness, had he known it, was ominous. Lauman shifted his rifle ready for instant aim.
“Boys, look here,” he began more gravely, “I can't say I blame yuh, looking at it from your view-point. If you'd caught these men when yuh was out hunting 'em, you could uh strung 'em up—and I'd likely uh had business somewhere else about that time. But yuh didn't catch 'em; yuh give up the chase and left 'em to me. And yuh got to remember that I'm the one that brought 'em in. They're in my care. I'm sworn to protect 'em and turn 'em over to the law—and it ain't a question uh whether they deserve it or not. That's what I'm paid for, and I expect to go right ahead according to orders and hang 'em by law. You can't have 'em—unless yuh lay me out first, and I don't reckon any of yuh would go that far.”
“There's never been a man hung by law in this county yet,” a voice cried angrily and impatiently.