"Let me alone! I'm going along all right." The officers only held him the closer, and his rage broke bounds.

He struggled till his captors swayed about on the walk, and the little boys screamed with laughter to see the slender youth shake the big men.
In the midst of this struggle a tall man, without hat or coat and wearing slippers, came running down the walk with great strides.

His voice rang deep and clear: "_Let the boy alone!_" It was the minister.

With one sweep of his right hand he tore the hands of the sheriff from the boy's arms; the gesture was bearlike in power.
"What's the meaning of all this, Mr.Sawyer ?" he said, addressing the sheriff.
"Your boy has killed a man." "You lie!" "It's true--anyhow, he has stabbed Clint Slocum.

He ain't dead, but he's hurt bad." "Is that true, Harold ?" Harold did not lift his sullen glance.