"But he has defenders among the people," said Mr. Horton.
"Very true," said Hugh, "and the result will be a riot, a pitched battle between the farmers and their sympathizers on the one side and the cattlemen and the cowboys on the other. A wholesale massacre will be the result. If the cowmen win, the major's life is not worth a penny."
Just then there came a loud knocking on the back door of the bank. Hugh hastened to the door and soon returned with a note which had been handed him by a deputy. It was from the major, and requested him to come immediately to the jail.
"Go at once, my son," said Mr. Horton, "and I will assist the captain in trying to quiet the mob. I think, Captain, you had better make them a speech."
Hugh hurried away to the jail, and was soon in the iron cage with the major. The latter greeted him warmly, and seemed so free from excitement that Hugh was astonished.
"Do you not know that they are planning to hang you?" asked Hugh, excitedly.
"My dear Stanton," replied the major, smiling, "I am protected, fully and absolutely; therefore give yourself no uneasiness on my account. By the way, have you an extra cigar with you?"
Hugh handed him a cigar, one of the major's favorite brand.
"Thank you," said he, with his old-time politeness.
"I must admit, Major, that you inspire me with a sense of security such as I have not before experienced to-day. The Barley Hullers are out _en masse_. They are the protection to which you refer, I presume. What we all fear is a riot. The cowboys, as you know, are veritable devils when they get into a row, and one of them can usually whip half a dozen farmers in a rough-and-tumble shooting scrape."
The major threw back his clustering iron-gray hair, and, with a smile, said: "Stanton, I have learned to love you, and therefore have concluded to tell you what no man living in America knows to-day."
He paused a moment, and lighted his cigar.
"Well?" said Hugh, as if impatiently asking a question.
"They cannot harm me," said he, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the howling mob, whose angry mutterings could be plainly heard. "But I will tell you what may happen."
He spoke slowly and seemed to Hugh to change for the moment from the Major Hampton he had admired so much into a patriarch with gullied furrows on his brow. Hugh concluded that his light remarks of a few moments before had been assumed, and intended simply to cover the deep emotion that he really felt.