“Give us the nigger!” yelled one in a half-bantering, half-derisive tone of voice.
“I’ll give ye just two minutes to go on back out o’ this road,” returned the sheriff grimly, pulling out his watch and looking at it. They were about a hundred feet apart. “If you don’t, I’ll clear you out!”
“Give us the nigger!”
“I know you, Scott,” answered Mathews, recognizing the voice. “I’ll arrest every last one of ye to-morrow. Mark my word!”
The company listened in silence, the horses champing and twisting.
“We’ve got a right to foller,” answered one of the men.
“I give ye fair warning,” said the sheriff, jumping from his wagon and leveling his pistols as he approached. “When I count five I’ll begin to shoot!”
He was a serious and stalwart figure as he approached, and the crowd fell back a little.
“Git out o’ this now!” he yelled. “One—Two——”
The company turned completely and retreated, Davies among them.