then had Perez been, meantime?




CHAPTER NINTH

JUDGE DWIGHT'S SIGNATURE


As soon as the Stockbridge battalion had arrived on the green at Great
Barrington, and broken ranks, Perez had directed Abner to pass the
word to all who had friends in the jail, and presently a party of
forty or fifty men was following him, as he led the way toward that
building, accompanied by Prudence, who had not dismounted. The rest of
them could attend to the stopping of the court. His concern was with
the rescue of his brother. But he had not traversed over half the
distance when the cry arose:

"They're stoning the judges!"

Thus recalled to his responsibilities as leader of at least a part of
the mob, he had turned, and followed by a dozen men, had hurried back
to the rescue, arriving in the nick of time. Standing in the open door
of the house to which the justices had retired, the rescued sheriff
just behind him in the hall, he called out:

"Stand back! Stand back! What more do you want, men? The court is
stopped."