And they saw he was in earnest.
"You'll lynch him, will you?" he says, a kind of
passion getting into his voice fur the first time,
and his eyes glittering. "You think you will?
Well, you WON'T!
"You won't because _I_ say NOT. Do you hear?
I came here to-night to save him.
"You might string HIM up and not be called to
account for it. But how about ME?"
He took a step forward, and, looking from face to
face with a dare in his eyes, he went on:
"Is there a man among you fool enough to think
you could kill Tom Buckner and not pay for it?"
He let 'em all think of that for jest another
minute before he spoke agin. His face was as white
as a piece of paper, and his nostrils was working, but
everything else about him was quiet. He looked
the master of them all as he stood there, Colonel
Tom Buckner did--straight and splendid and
keen. And they felt the danger in him, and they
felt jest how fur he would go, now he was started.
"You didn't want to listen to me a bit ago," he
said. "Now you must. Listen and choose. You
can't kill that man unless you kill me too.
"TRY IT, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN!"
He reached over and took from the teacher's
desk the sheet of paper Will had used to check off
the name of each man and how he voted. He held
it up in front of him and every man looked at it.
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