"Boys," says the colonel, "I'm preaching you higher doctrine than I've lived by, and I've made no claim to be better or more moral than any of you. I'm not. I'm in the same boat with all of you, and I tell you it's up to ALL of us to stop lynchings in this county—to set our faces against it. I tell you—"
"Is that all you've got to say to us, colonel?"
The question come out of a group that had drawed nearer together whilst the colonel was talking. They was tired of listening to talk and arguments, and showed it.
The colonel stopped speaking short when they flung that question at him. His face changed. He turned serious all over. And he let loose jest one word:
"NO!"
Not very loud, but with a ring in it that sounded like danger. And he got 'em waiting agin, and hanging on his words.
"No!" he repeats, louder, "not all. I have this to say to you—"
And he paused agin, pointing one long white finger at the crowd—
"IF YOU LYNCH THIS MAN YOU MUST KILL ME FIRST!"
I couldn't get away from thinking, as he stood there making them take that in, that they was something like a play-actor about him. But he was in earnest, and he would play it to the end, fur he liked the feelings it made circulate through his frame. And they saw he was in earnest.