Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/345

 and vieing, with the church steeple nearby, and which was threatened by the flying sparks.

"Courthouse on fire! Courthouse on fire!" back the words were hurled from mouth to mouth till all the city, white and black, seemed to be pouring into the center. Frantic efforts were being made to save records. Most of the recent ones were saved. The old historic building, however, that had stood for so many generations, and had been the scene of so many experiences from slave selling to murder trials, was doomed. As its cindered rafters and framework caved in, sending clouds of sparks into the sky, the old elm tree that had stood, like a companion to the courthouse for so many years and which had been used for the double lynching not long before, surrendered to the flames and was soon also a mass of burning embers. The limb from which the bodies had swung was the first to fall after the leaves. It drooped with a heavy crash, devoured by flames and sparks which seemingly had pounced on it like a mass of devouring, revenging insects.

The courthouse, being of inflammable material and being so old that it was a veritable tinderbox was almost completely consumed. As the last shower of sparks illuminated the air, two lone sentinels, who had been seated quietly on their mounts at the outskirts of the city on a slight elevation, turned the heads of their horses to the road, clicked to them, dug into their sides with stirrups then rode into the darkness. Neither spoke but both were satisfied with their work and assured that such records as they had viewed that day would never be again visible