They had taken up arms against
their government, and but a few moments before had been restrained
with difficulty from laying violent hands upon the august judges of
the land, but not the boldest of them thought it possible to touch
this woman. There were men here whom neither lines of bayonets nor
walls of stone would have turned back, but not one of them was bold
enough to lay a forcible hand upon the veil that covered a woman's
breast. They were Americans.
There was a dead silence. The men gaped at each other, and Perez
himself looked a little foolish for a moment. Then he turned to Abner
and said in a grimly quiet way:
"Knock Bement down. Then four of you swing him by his arms and legs
and break the jail door through with his head."
"Ye wouldn' murder me, cap'n," gasped the hapless man. In a trice
Abner had hauled him out from behind the bar, and tripped him up on
the floor. Then three other men, together with Abner, seized him by
the hands and feet, and half dragged, half carried him across the room
to the door in the middle of one of the sides which opened into the
jail corridor.
"Swing the cuss three times, so's ter git kinder a goin, an then we'll
see w'ether his head or the door's the thickest," said Abner.
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