Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/267

 his head, there flashed before his mind the swaying lifeless bodies of two innocent blacks. Without seeing them he knew they were there—and one was a woman; a woman who had grown up with him and though of another color, in their childhood days had been friend and playmate.

"Oh, God," he groaned, his head still in his hands. "I'll go mad—mad—mad. Take the sight from me. Take them away." His answer was creaking ropes or swaying limbs. With the plea his hand swayed in the general direction of the bodies though his eyes were still closed. At the motion of his hand something rubbed against his knee and across the back of the hand which still held his chin. He opened his eyes only to close them with a shudder. The rope by which he also had nearly been snatched before his Maker was still about his neck. He shuddered and trembled like the leaves above him. His brain was in a fever. An unearthly stillness pervaded the courtyard and the entire square.

He lost complete idea of time and knew not how long he sat in that position till the bell in the tall steeple of the white church at the head of the square boomed out the midnight hour. The slow ponderous strokes added to the weirdness of the situation. Professor Armstrong staggered to his feet, opened his eyes then quickly covered them again as if to shut out the sight but the impression was so indelibly burned on his mind that even with eyes shut the cadaverously stretched bodies and their ghastly