"
Jubal Clenk, so readily cast down, meditated dolorously, as he sat still
in the boat, on this signal omission in the chain of evidence. "It would
sure hev made it all 'pear a heap mo' like an accident," he said
disconsolately. Then, with suddenly renewing hopefulness, "But 't ain't
too late yet--good many hours 'fore daylight. We kin send the coat an'
hat back an' toss them over the bluff long before it is light good."
Thus it was that the moonshiners laid hold on the boy's simple
possessions, and thus it was that Archie fought and contended for his
own. He clutched at the cuffs as Copenny dragged the sleeves over his
wrists; he held on to his hat with both hands, despite the grip of the
elastic under his chin, and he stamped and screamed in a manner that he
had heretofore known to inspire awe and respect in the nursery and disarm
authority. Alack, it had lost its efficacy now! Most of the men took no
notice whatever of his callow demonstrations of wrath, though old Clenk,
with a curious duality of mental process, laughed indulgently at his
antics of infantile rage, despite his own absorptions, his sense of
danger, his smart of loss and wreck of prospects.
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