'"
"That will do," said the deep voice gently, and Hale started
toward her--she looked so deadly sick and she trembled so when she
tried to rise; but she saw him, her mouth steadied, she rose, and
without looking at him, passed by his outstretched hand and walked
slowly out of the Court Room.
XXVII
The miracle had happened. The Tollivers, following the Red Fox's
advice to make no attempt at rescue just then, had waited,
expecting the old immunity from the law and getting instead the
swift sentence that Rufe Tolliver should be hanged by the neck
until he was dead. Astounding and convincing though the news was,
no mountaineer believed he would ever hang, and Rufe himself faced
the sentence defiant. He laughed when he was led back to his cell:
"I'll never hang," he said scornfully. They were the first words
that came from his lips, and the first words that came from old
Judd's when the news reached him in Lonesome Cove, and that night
old Judd gathered his clan for the rescue--to learn next morning
that during the night Rufe had been spirited away to the capital
for safekeeping until the fatal day.
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