placed her foot on his stirrup, and, bounding to the saddle, threw her
arms about his neck and pressed a kiss upon his lips.

[Illustration]

They remained thus for a hushed moment--the man on the threshold of
death, the young woman in the fullness of youth and beauty--linked
together. Then the crowd laughed; in the audacious effrontery of the
girl's act the ultimate fate of the two men was forgotten. She slipped
languidly to the ground; _she_ was the focus of all eyes,--she
only! The ringleader saw it and his opportunity. He shouted: "Time's
up--Forward!" urged his horse beside his captives, and the next moment
the whole cavalcade was sweeping over the clearing into the darkening
woods.

Their destination was Sawyer's Crossing, the headquarters of the
committee, where the council was still sitting, and where both
culprits were to expiate the offense of which that council had already
found them guilty. They rode in great and breathless haste,--a haste
in which, strangely enough, even the captives seemed to join. That
haste possibly prevented them from noticing the singular change which
had taken place in the second captive since the episode of the kiss.
His high color remained, as if it had burned through his mask of
indifference; his eyes were quick, alert, and keen, his mouth half
open as if the girl's kiss still lingered there. And that haste had
made them careless, for the horse of the man who led him slipped in
a gopher-hole, rolled over, unseated his rider, and even dragged the
bound and helpless second captive from Judge Boompointer's favorite
mare. In an instant they were all on their feet again, but in that
supreme moment the second captive felt the cords which bound his arms