The next instant, there were a number of reports. All but one had fired in the air.
“Cowards!” yelled the leader, “kill ’em all!”
“Look here,” answered one, “that sheriff lives neighbor to me.”
“We’re out for the nigger, not a white man!” said another. “Wait boys, we’ll get him yet!”
The sheriff calmly mounted, forming a bar between the rifles and his prisoner and rode away, leaving the mob to await the fall of the stream. Half an hour later they reached the jail.
“Chloe Carr,” the sheriff distinctly pronounced her name, as he summoned the negro cook, “did you ever see this man before?”
“Yas, sah.”
“Will you tell me when and where?”
The prisoner made a desperate sign, his fiendish face blazing with mingled rage and terror. Wildly he shook his head. “She lies!” he growled, with a sudden threatening movement. “She never saw me before.”
An animal-like snarl came from his throat. His face was shining with sweat, the veins of his neck were twisted and knotted. His body shook with savage fear, and the woman trembled.