"Come on!" cried Milton, dropping the rein on Mark"s neck, and darting away on the trail of the false courier.
The young fellows caught the excitement, and every one who had a horse leaped into the saddle and clattered after, with whoop and halloo, as if they were chasing a wolf.
The rider ahead suddenly discovered that he was being followed, and he urged his horse to a more desperate pace along the lane which skirted the woods" edge for a mile, and then turned sharply and led across the river.
Along the lane is the chase led. There was something in the grim silence with which Milton and Bacon rode in the lead that startled the spy"s guilty heart. He pushed his horse unmercifully, hoping to discourage his pursuers.
Milton"s blood was up now, and bringing the flat of his hand down on the proud neck of his colt--the first blow he ever struck him, he shouted--
"Get out o" this, Mark!"
The magnificent animal threw out his chin, his ears laid flat back, he seemed to lower and lengthen, his eyes took on a wild glare. The air whizzed by Milton"s ears. A wild exultation rose in his heart. All the stories of rides and desperate men he had ever read came back in a vague ma.s.s to make his heart thrill.
Mark"s terrific pace steadily ate up the intervening distance, and Milton turned the corner and thundered down the decline at the very heels of the fugitive.
"Hey! Hold on there!" Milton shouted, as he drew alongside and pa.s.sed the fellow. "Hold on there!"
"Git out o" my way!" was the savage answer.
"Stop right here!" commanded Milton, reining Mark in the way of the other horse.
The fellow struck Mark. "Git out o" my way!" he yelled.
Milton seized the bit of the other horse and held it. The fellow raised his arm and struck him twice before Bacon came thundering up.
"H"yare! d.a.m.n yeh--none o" that!"
He leaped from his horse, and running up, tore the rider from his saddle in one swift effort. The fellow struggled fiercely.
"Let go o" me, "r I"ll kill yeh!"
Bacon growled something inarticulate as he cuffed the man from side to side, shook him like a rag, and threw him to the ground. He lay there dazed and scared, while Bacon caught his horse and tied it to a tree.
He came back to the fellow as he was rising, and again laid his bear-like clutch upon him.
"Who paid you to do this?" he demanded, as Councill and the others came straggling up, their horses panting with fatigue.
The fellow struck him in the face. The old man lifted him in the air and dashed him to the ground with a snarling cry. His gesture was like that of one who slams a biting cat upon the floor. The man did not rise.
"You"ve killed him!" cried Milton.
"d.a.m.n "im--I don"t care!"
The man was about thirty-five years of age, a slender, thin-faced man with tobacco-stained whiskers. The fellows knew him for a sneaking fellow, but they plead for him.
"Don"t hit "im agin, Bacon. He"s got enough."
The fellow sat up and looked around. The blood was streaming from his nose and from a wound in his head. He had a savage and hunted look. He was unsubdued, but was too much dazed to be able to do anything more than swear at them all.
"What a" yuh chasen" me fur, y" d.a.m.n cowards? Six on one!"
"What"re you do-un ridin" across the country like this fur?"
"None o" your business, you low-lived"--
Bacon brought the doubled leading-strap which he held in his hand down over the fellow"s shoulders with a sounding slap.
"What you need is a sound tannun," he said. He plied the strap in perfect silence upon the writhing man, who swore and yelled, but dared not rise.
"Give him enough of it!" yelled the crowd.
"Give the fool enough!"
Bacon worked away with a curious air of taking a job. The strap fell across the man"s upheld hands and over his shoulders, penetrating even the thick coat he wore--but it was not the blows that quelled him, it was the look in Bacon"s eyes. He saw that the old man would stand there till sunset and ply that strap.
"Hold on! Dam yeh--y" want "o kill me?"
"Got "nough?"
"Yes, yes! My G.o.d, yes!"
"Climb onto that horse there."
He climbed upon his horse, and with Bacon leading it, rode back along the road he had come, covered with blood.
"Now I want you to say with y"r own tongue ye lied," Bacon said, as they came to the last polling-place he had pa.s.sed.
The crowd came rushing out with excited questions.
"What y" got there, Bacon?"
"A liar. Come, what ye goun"t" say?" he asked the captive.
"I lied--Deering aint withdrawn."
They rode on, Councill and Milton following Bacon and his prisoner. At the Oak Grove schoolhouse a great crowd had gathered, and they came out in a swarm as the cavalcade rode up. Bradley left his book and came out to see the poor prisoner, who reeled in his saddle, covered with blood and dirt.
They rode on to the next polling-place, relentlessly forcing the man to undo as much of his villainy as possible. Milton remained with Bradley.
"That shows how desperate they are," he said as they went back into the schoolhouse. "They see we mean business this time."
All was quiet, even gloomy, when Bradley and Milton reached Rock River.
The streets were deserted, and only an occasional opening door at some favorite haunt, like the drug-store or Robie"s grocery, showed that a living soul was interested in the outcome of the election. There were no bonfires, no marching of boys through the street with tin pans and horns.
Some reckless fellows tried it out of devilment, but were promptly put down by the strong hand of the city marshal, whose sympathies were with the broken "ring." It had been evident at an early hour of the day that the town of Rock River itself was divided. Amos Ridings and Robie had carried a strong following over into the camp of the farmers. A general feeling had developed which demanded a change.
Milton was wild with excitement. He realized more of the significance of the victory than Bradley. He had been in politics longer. For the first time in the history of the county, the farmers had a.s.serted themselves. For the first time in the history of the farmers of Iowa, had they felt the power of their own ma.s.s.