Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 5, 1928 — page 132: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

698 painted him of dangling at the end of a rope. Now Renwood sat _ beside Deveture at a table and drummed un- easily with his fingers. The prisoners were asked what they plead in answer to the murder indict- ment. “Not guilty,” said their lawyer, jumping to his feet. “Let Mr. Renwood and Mr. Deve- ture speak for themselves,” said Judge Marlowe sternly. At that dramatic moment the door at the farther end of the court room opened, leading from the judge’s pri- vate office. A deep half-sigh, half-sob, went up from the spectators, as two men with ruffled hair and haggard faces walked slowly out, broken nooses still hanging from their necks and, raising accusing fingers, went ditectly toward Renwood. The latter shrank back, covered his hands with his face, and whimpering, looked out in abject fear. “Take them away, take them away,” he screamed. “ Dead men come back to haunt me. I saw them hung. Take them away; if they come nearer it will kill me. Ill confess anything. Yes, I killed the Hawleys—but Deveture put me up to it. We thought it safe—so far south.” He peered through his fingers, in dread and fascination, and saw those two figures of death standing silently facing him. ‘Then Renwood broke into wild sobs and fainted on the table. The shock and strain had been too much for him. Deveture sat cool and cold, although he saw the game was up. Judge Marlowe turned to the jury. “T trust, gentlemen, you have heard and noted Mr. Renwood’s unasked-for confession. However, the trial will continue, in the sense that the prosecu- tion will present all its “evidence, and the defense will—er—do what it can.” There were snickers from the audi- ence while Mark Tucker and Hanly THE = ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Brown threw aside theatricals and ad- journed to Judge Marlowe’s private of- fice again. They had been waiting for this moment, hidden in Fort Prescott, ever since being cut down from the cot- tonwood trees. Weren’t they lynched and by me? Yeah, in a manner of speaking, but Mosby had won his bet. Our argument had been on the fact that he claimed he could cheat death by lynching, and he had first tried out his apparatus on him- self. : Mosby had invented a harness that went across a man’s chest and back, un- der the arms, and over the shoulders. A wide collar harness was fitted with iron hooks. Well, when I fitted a noose to a party wearing this I arranged the noose under the hooks, and though the body hung in the air, indeed, the strain and weight all fell on the shoulders. The neck was entirely free. Yet from a short distance at night it had looked as though Mark Tucker and Hanly Brown were actually lynched, but, of course, when we kid- naped ’em they was wearing Mosby’s rope neckties that wouldn't hurt. By being allowed to gently slip off a hoss there was no jerk or pull as in a com- mon garden lynching. I ain’t going to keep you in suspense, for Renwood’s confession when he thought himself trapped by ghosts from the grave was enough for the jury, backed by all the rest of the evidence that connected both Renwood and Deveture in the conspiracy to murder. The verdict was that they should hang. I had my revenge, and now my kinfolks could sleep easy. On our way south to claim that three thousand, five hundred dollars on de- posit in Jacksontown, we passed the Renwood ranch, and I had Shorty-ride ahead. I recalled to Mary my picture of the southland, and asked her to ride away with me, and marry me, and she did. END EOPMICLOOO