REACHING the appointed place, he sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree
to wait. By-and-by he heard voices in the distance, and then the tramp,
tramp of footsteps. A dark blur appeared in the moonlight on the road.
It was a body of men numbering between twenty-five and thirty. They were
all afoot, and, by way of precaution against identification, they wore
white caps over their heads, with holes for the eyes. In their mouths
they had stuffed wads of cotton to muffle and disguise their voices.
“Well, I see you've acted sensible, Baker,” said a man who seemed in
the lead. “Some o' the boys 'lowed you'd cut an' shoot; but you hain't
armed, are you, Pole?”
“No, I hain't armed, Joe Dilworthy.”
“Huh, you think you know me!” the speaker said, with a start.
“Yes, I know you,” answered Pole. “I'd know you anywhar in the world by
yore shape an' voice.”
“Well, you may _think_ I'm anybody you like,” returned the masked man.
“That's neither here nur thar. I've been app'inted to do the talkin'
to-night, Pole, an' I want to say, at the start, that this is the most
disagreeable job that this association ever tackled. Yore case has been
up before our body time after time, an' some'n' always throwed it out,
fer you've got stacks an' stacks o' friends. But action was finally
tuck, an' here we are. Pole, do you know any valid reason why you
shouldn't be treated 'ike other malefactors in these mountains?”
There was silence. Pole's head was hanging down. They could not see his
face in the moonlight.
“No, I don't see no reason,” the condemned man finally said. “I'm here
to meet you, to tell you that I deserve more'n you fellows could lay on
me ef you begun now an' kept up a steady lick till the last one of you
was fagged out. The only trouble, gentlemen, is that I hain't a-goin'
to _feel_ the lash. Thar's a pain inside o' me so keen an' fur down that
what you do jest to my body won't count. You are the friends of my wife
an' childern; you are better friends to 'em than I've been, an' I want
you to strip me to my dirty hide an' whip my duty into me, ef that is
possible. The only thing I would ask is to spare my folks the knowledge
of it, ef you kin see it that away. Keep this thing quiet--jest amongst
us. I may be able to brace up an' try to do right in the future, but I
don't believe I kin ef they know o' my humiliation.
“I don't ax that as a favor to myself, you understand, gentlemen, but to
them you are befriendin'--a weak woman an' helpless little childern.”
Pole ceased speaking. There was profound silence, broken only by the
croaking of frogs in the spring branch near by. Dilworthy thrust his
hands into the pockets of his trousers awkwardly, and slowly turned his
eyeholes upon the eyeholes about him, but no one made sign or sound.
“Boys, you all hear what Pole says,” finally came from him. “He seems
to feel--I mought say to realize--that--” The voice spent itself in the
folds of the speaker's mask.
“Hold! I want to say a word.” A tall, lank man stepped from the group,
spitting wads of cotton from his mouth and lifting the cap from his
head. “I'm Jeff Wade, Pole. You see who I am. You kin appear agin me
before the grand jury an' swear I'm a member o' this gang, ef you want
to. I don't give a damn. In j'inin' the association, I tuck the oath
to abide by what the majority done. But I didn't take no oath that I
wouldn't talk when I got ready, an' I want now to explain, as is my
right, I reckon, how I happen to be here. I've fit this case agin you
fer several meetin's with all my soul an' strength, beca'se I knowed you
was too good a man at heart to whip like a dog fer what you've done.
I fit it an' fit it, but last meetin' my wife was down havin' another
twelve-pound boy, as maybe you heard, an' somehow in my absence the vote
went agin you. Strong speeches was made by yore wife's kin about her
treatment, an' action was finally tuck. But I'm here to say that every
lick that falls on yore helpless back to-night will hurt me more than ef
they was on me You've made a better man out o' me in a few ways, Pole,
an', by God! I'm a-goin' to feel like some o' that dirty crowd felt away
back thar when they went along an' sanctioned the death agony of our
Saviour. You are too good a man, Pole, to be degraded this away. What
you've done agin yore own was through weakness that you couldn't well
help. We've all got our faults, but I don't know a man in this gang
that's got as many good p'ints to counteract the bad as you have.”
“That's all right, Jeff,” Pole said, stolidly. “What you say don't
excuse me. I stand here to-night convicted by my neighbors of
mistreatin' my own blood an' heart kin, an' I don't want nobody to
defend me when sech men as Sandy McHugh tuck what was comin' to them
without a whimper. I don't know what effect it's goin' to have on me.
I cayn't see that fur ahead. I've tried to quit liquor about as hard as
any man alive, an' I'm not goin' to make promises an' break 'em. After
this is over, I reckon I'll do whatever the Lord has laid out fer me to
do.”
“Pole, I'm Mel Jones!” Another tall man divested himself of cap and mask
and stood out in full view. “I voted agin this, too. I'm yore friend,
Pole. That's all I got to say.”
“That's all right, Mel,” said Pole, “an' I'm much obliged to you. But,
gentlemen, I told my wife I was goin' to town an' would be straight
back. You hain't said whether it would be possible to keep this thing
quiet--”
“Quiet hell!” snorted Dilworthy. “Do you damn fools think I'm goin' to
act as leader fer a lot o' snifflin' idiots that don't know whar they
are at or how they got thar? It may not be parliamentary by a long shot,
but as chairman o' this meetin' I'm goin' to say that I think you've
all made a mess of the whole thing. I 'lowed I could abide by what the
majority done in any matter that was pendin' before us, but I'll be
derned ef I'm in favor o' tetchin' _that thar man_. I'd every bit as
soon drag my old mammy from the grave an' whip her as a man feelin' like
that thar 'un. I believe Pole Baker's tried as hard as any livin' mortal
to behave hisse'f, an' that's enough. A gang o' men that's goin'
about whippin' folks who's doin' the'r level best ort to be in better
business, an' from to-night on--oath or no oath--I'm a-goin' to let
the law o' the land manage the conduct o' my neighbors, as fur as I am
concerned. It may be contrary to parliamentary rules, as I say, but this
damn thing is so lopsided to-night that I'm a-goin' to put it to another
vote. Maybe, ef Pole had a-been allowed to 'a' made a statement you'd
'a' seed this thing different. Now, all in favor of enactin' the verdict
of our court in this case hold up yore hands.”
There was a portentous pause. Not a hand was raised.
“See thar? What did I tell you?” Dilworthy exclaimed, in disgust. “Not
a man amongst you knows his own mind. Now, to the contrary: all in favor
o' sendin' Baker home without tetchin' him raise yore hands.”
Every hand went up. Pole stared blankly from one stiff token of pity to
another, then his head went down. The brim of his old hat hid his face.
He was silent. The crowd was filtering away. Soon only Jeff Wade was
left. He gave Pole his hand, and in an awkward voice said: “Go home now,
old friend. Don't let Sally suspicion this. It would hurt her mighty
bad.”
Pole said nothing at all, but, returning Wade's hand-pressure, he moved
away in the soft moonlight.