Happy Fear was safe inside, but the jostlers were outside--baffled, ugly, and stirred with the passion that changes a crowd into a mob.
Then some of them caught sight of Joe as he stood alone at the top of the steps, and a great shout of rage and exultation arose.
For a moment or two he did not see his danger.
At the clang of the door, his eyes, caught by the gleam of a wide white hat, had turned toward the street, and he was somewhat fixedly watching Mr.
Ladew extricate Ariel (and her aged and indignant escorts) from an overflow of the crowd in which they had been caught.But a voice warned him:
the wild piping of a newsboy who had climbed into a tree near by.
"JOE LOUDEN!" he screamed."LOOK OUT!"
With a muffled roar the crowd surged back from the jail and turned toward the steps."Tar and feather him!" "Take him over to the river and throw him in!" "Drown him!" "Hang him!"Then a thing happened which was dramatic enough in its inception, but almost ludicrous in its effect.Joe walked quietly down the steps and toward the advancing mob with his head cocked to one side, one eyebrow lifted, and one corner of his mouth drawn down in a faintly distorted smile.
He went straight toward the yelling forerunners, with only a small bundle of papers in his hands, and then--while the non-partisan spectators held their breath, expecting the shock of contact--straight on through them.
A number of the bulge-cheeked formed the scattering van of these forerunners, charging with hoarse and cruel shrieks of triumph.The first, apparently about to tear Joseph Louden to pieces, changed countenance at arm's-length, swerved violently, and with the loud cry, "HEAD HIM OFF!"dashed on up the stone steps.The man next behind him followed his lead, with the same shout, strategy, and haste; then the others of this advance attack, finding themselves confronting the quiet man, who kept his even pace and showed no intention of turning aside for them, turned suddenly aside for HIM, and, taking the cue from the first, pursued their way, bellowing: "HEAD HIM OFF!