“Every honest man is welcome here, but we want it known that for the rowdy thief and law-breaker there will be a short shrift and the rope.”
There was another roar, and as it subsided the man with the red beard shouted, “That’s right, pardners, right as right; and what
me and my mates here want is justice and protection from them as robbed us, and tried to shoot us down. There they are, three o’ the gang, and you’ve got ’em fast. Now what do you say?”
The two young men stood rigid and silent, expectant of the fateful words which might bring their careers to a close. They knew that wild appeals for mercy and loud protestation would be of no avail, but would be looked upon as arrant cowardice; and as the moments went on, heavy and leaden winged, a strange feeling of rebellion against the cruelty of fate raised a sense of anger, and stubborn determination began to grow.
It was too horrible to dwell upon, this prospect of the most ignominious death: an adverse judgment based on the vote of a crowd of rugged, determined men fighting for their own safety and the protection of the gold they were dragging from where it had lain since the creation of the world; but still it seemed to be their fate, and in both the growing feeling was the same—a sense of rage and hatred against the remorseless scoundrels who, to make their own position safe in the gold region, were ready to sacrifice the lives of their victims.
“If we could only be face to face with them alone,” they felt, “with the chance to fight against them for our lives! The cowards! The dogs!”
Their musings were brought to an end by the voice of the head man of the trio, who broke in upon the whispering together of the judge and several of the men who had closed round him. “Well, pardners,” he cried; “what’s it to be after all you’ve said? Are we to have fair play, or are we to go where we can get it?”
“Wait a bit, sir, and you and your friends shall have fair play; never fear.”
“Don’t be in a hurry,” shouted one of the Americans at the back. “Jedge don’t want to hang the wrong men.”