The Call of the
Cumberlands |
By Charles Neville Buck
With Illustrations
from Photographs of Scenes
in the Play
wd
(Copyright, 13, by W. J. Wau & Co.)
CHAPTER XVi—Continued.
Then, again, silence settled on the
town, to remain for five minutes un-
broken. The sun glared mercilessly on
clay streets, now as empty as a cen
etery. A single horse incautiously
hitched at the side of the courthouse
switched its tail against the assaults
of the flies. Otherwise, there was no
outward sign of life. Then, Callomb’s
newly organized force of ragamuffin sol-
diers clattered down the street at
double time. For a moment or two
‘after they came into sight only the |
imassed uniforms caught the eyes of |
the intrenched Hollmans, and an
alarmed murmur broke from the court- |
house. They had seen no troops de
train, or pitch camp. These men had
‘sprung from the earth as startlingly as
Jason's crop of dragon's teeth. But,
‘when the command rounded the shoul
‘der of a protecting wall to await fur-|
ther orders, the ragged stride of their |
marching and the all-too-obvious bea--
ing of the mountaineer proclaimed
them native amateurs. The murmur
turned to a howl of derision and chal
lenge. They were nothing more nor
fess than Souths, masquerading in the
uniforms of soldiers.
“What orders?”
briefly, joining 8: the
“Demand surrender once more—
take the courthouse an
short reply.
Callomb himself went
the flag of truce. He sh
sage and a bearded man came
courthouse door.
“Tell em,” he said without
dancy, “thet we're all here.
git us.”
The officer went back and distribut- |
ed his forces under such cover as Jof-
fered itself about the four walls. Then |
a volley was fired over the and in- |
stantly the two buildings in the
square awoke to a volcanic re
rifle fire
All day the duel between the
and county buildings
desultory intervals of
outbursts of musks
were firing as sharpshooters,
courthouse, too, had its sharps
When a head showed itself at a barri- |
caded window a report from the out
side greeted it Samson was every-|
where, his rifle smoking and hot-bar
reled. His life seemed protected by al
talisman. Yet most of after |
the first hour, was from withi The |
troops were, ¢ occasional pot
shots, holding their fire There was!
neither food nor water inside the build |
i
sired Callomb |
store
ing
amson
then!
d jal” was the
with |
mes- |
to the |
forward
outed his
redun-
Come an’
: sof
public |
sponse of |
streets
with
and wild
The troops
and the
hooters
went on
quiet
inry.
the firing,
xcept for
wm TRI
“We Lays Down.”
ing, and at last night closed and the
cordon grew tighter to prevent escape.
The Hollmans, like rats In a trap,
grimly held on, realizing that it was to
be a siege. On the following morning
a detachment of “F" company arrived,
dragging two gatling guns. The Holl
mans saw them detraining, from their
lookout in the courthouse cupola, and,
realizing that the end had come, re
solved upon a desperate sortie. Simul
taneously every door and lower win.
dow of the courthouse burst open to
discharge a frenzied rush of men, fir
ing as they came. They mweant to fight
their way out and leave as many hos
tile dead as possible in their wake.
Their one chance now was to scatter
before the machine guns came into ac
tion. They came like a flood of hu
man lava and their guns were never
silent, as they bore down on the barri
eades, where the single outnumbered
company seemed insufficient to hold
them. But the new militiamen, look:
ing for reassurance not so much to
Callomb as to the granite-like face of
Samson South, rallled and rose with a
yell to meet them on bayonet and
smoking muzzle. The rush waverad,
fell back, cesperately rallied, then
broke in scattered remnants for the
shelter of the building.
Old Jake Hollman fell near the door,
snd his grandson, rushing out, picked
up his fallen rifle and sent farewell
defiance from it as he, too, threw up
both arms and dropped.
Then a white flag wavered at a win.
dow wad, as the owly arrived } troops
halted in the ctreet, the noise died sud-
denly to quict. Samson went out to
meet a man who opened the door and
said shortly:
“We lays down.”
Judge Hollman, who had not parti i-
pated, turned from the slit in his shut.
tered window, through which he had
since the beginning been watching the
conflict.
“That ends it!"
spairing shrug of
he said, with a de
his shoulders. He
picked up a magazine pistol which lay
on hia table and, carefully counting
dowr hia chest to the fifth rib, placed
the muezle against his breast,
CHAPTER XVI.
roads
of the
were
rains,
Before the mountain
mired with the coming
autumnal zestfulness, Samson South
wrote to Wilford Horton that if he
still meant to come to the hilis for his
inspection of coal nd timber the time
was ripe. Soon men would appear
bearing transit and chain, drawing a
line which a raliroad was to follow to
Misery and across it to the heart of
untouched forests and coal-flelds.
that wave of innovation would come
the speculators. Besides,
itching to be out in
palette and sheaf
society of George
the
of
Les.
hills with a
brushes in the
Cott
For a while after the battle at Hixon
the county had lal in a torpid paraly
sis of dread. Many illiterate feudists
on each side emembered the directing
and exposed figure of Bamson South
seen through eddies of gun
believed him immune [rom death
With Purvy ccad and Hollman the vie
tim of his own hand, the backbone of
the murder syndicate was broken. Its
heart had ceased to beat.
» bore the potentialt
ip had not only
were afraid
the trinmphant
vaunting their vie
for leadorsi
pledges
ties
of peace, but
them: and
Souths, instead of
had subscribed to the
and declared the
who broke the
sted as Hol
drilling as
of
song of the
these thing
but the beginnin
noticeable in
do
order war
law were as
tiamen
wonders inviting the
enem join them
changed gradual
os them were
first few
and
i OyS8S were
wonder
¥y to
of
the
renovated house
blo
Hollman Mammoth
passed
only in
into new ha
ficked ind
women
Ory as ve i rippl ©
shin
These
in his let t he Les
Man wn below
find trouble in the wink of a
seeking it, for un }
the nature
the sa :
offense
curely through the hills a
{ ad city
Oi
colts &
ton
from do could
nn oY
much
to give
ttroets a polit ¢
r hospitality
when these things were
cussad and the two prepared to
| cross Mason-and-Dixon line
visit the Cumberlands, Adr
and definitely announced
she would accompany he
readie
And
men
the
flective
after all, Lescott, who
been there, saw no good reason why
she should not go with him
At Hixon, they found that receptive
air of serenity which made the history
of less than three months ago seem
paradoxical and fantastically unreal
Only about the courthouse square
where numerous small holes in frame
walls told of fusiliades, and in the in
terior of the building itself where the
woodwork was scarred and torn, and
the plaster freshly patched, did they
find grimly reminiscent evidence.
Samson had not met them at the
tgwn, because he wished their first im-
pressions of his people to reach them
uninfluenced by hia escort. [It was a
form of the mountain pride--an hon-
eat resolve to soften nothing, and make
no apologies. But they found arrange-
ments made for horses and saddlebags,
and the girl discovered that for her
had been provided a mount as evenly
gaited as any in her own stables.
When she and her two companions
came out to the hotel porch to start,
they found a guide waiting, who said
he was instructed to take them as far
as the ridge, where the sheriff himself
would be walting, and the cavalcade
struck into the hills. Men at whose
houses they paused to ask a dipper of
water, or to make an inquiry, gravely
advised that they “had better light and
tay all night” In the coloring for
ests, squirrels scampered and scurried
out of sight, and here and there on the
tall slopes they saw shy-looking chil
dren regarding them with inquisitive
eyes.
The guide led them silently, gazing
in frank amazement, though with defer.
ential politeness, at this girl in cord:
uroys, who rode cross-saddle, and rode
so well, Yet, it was evident that he
would have preferred talking bad not
diffidence restrained him. He was a
young man and rather handsome in a
shaggy, unkempt way. Across one
cheek ran a long scar still red, and
the girl, looking into fis clear, intelli
gent eyes, wondered what that scar
stood for. Adrienne had the power
of melting masculine diffidence, and
her amile as she rode at his side, and
asked, “What is your name?” brought
an answering smile to his grim lips.
“Joe Hollman, ma'am,” he answered;
and the girl gave an involuntary start.
The two men who caught the name
closed up the gap between the horses,
with suddenly piqued interest.
“Hollman!” exclaimed the girl
and
she
1 “Then, you—" Bhe stopped
flushed, “I beg your pardon,”
sald, quickly.
“That's all right,” reassured the
man. “I know what ye're a-thinkin’,
but I hain’t takin’ no offense. The high
sheriff sent me over. I'm ope of his
deputies.”
“Were you"
rather timidly
house?"
He nodded, and with a brown fore-
finger traced the scar on his cheek
“Samson South done that thar with
hig rifle-gun,” he enlightened, “He's a
funny sort of feller, is Samson South.”
“How?" she asked.
“Wall, he licked us, an’ licked us so
plumb damn hard we was skeered ter
fight ag'in, an’ then, 'stid of tramplin’
on us, he turned right ‘round, an’
made me a deputy, My brother's a
corporal in this hyar new-fangled mi-
lishy, 1 reckon this time the peace is
goin’ ter last. Hit's a mighty funny
way ter act, but ‘pears like it works all
right."
Then, at the ridge,
gave a sudden bound, for there at the
highest point, where the road went up
and dipped again,
figure of Bamson South, and, as they
came into sight, he waved his felt hat
nd rode down to meet them.
“Greetings!” he shouted. Then,
he leaned over and
hand, he added: “The Goops send you
their weledme” His smile un
changed, but the girl noted his
hair had again grown long.
Finally, as the sun was setting,
reached a roadside cabin, and
mountaineer sald briefly to the
she paused, and added
-“‘ware you in the court
ns
was
that
they
other
men
3 1 ride on. i
ne 8 moment, We'll
podded. He
Widow
h him,
remembered the
Miller,
belt grude
prang lightly
ugly rejecting
with him to
i came
{from which he
ingly
to the
gol back in its
geese
istriously about
r cabin,
and chicker
in the 8
grein
lar and a great
h other a er side
and over the walls a clam
vine
rofusion of honeysuckle
with
t effort to
veen the
2 mass of wild grape
chink
From the
sweep of
of neat
hide the white
dark loge
ik-benches to the
every note was one
Slo wily,
ght into her eyes
ind rustic charm
d. looking stral
Drennie
and her
weelness
8 cabin,
watched her
urved up
smile that hs iy fir
Iped t id h
“It's lovely!"
it's a Bet
This is Sally’
expression,
in the sa
ut captiy
me ¢
ated and
= gried, with
ure.”
nanded
a, he
lelight
Then, turn
sent out the
Natal call of the
the signal, the
the threshold
She
haded
knew
only a
ckgrount I as the herself
ipleted the picture
wild simplicity
to reproduce
at now she
it was
girl
ade and con
She stood there
who nu
in the
artists seek vainly
ed figures Her re
but fell
bare ankies, though
had already fallen.
Her red-brown hair hung loose and
in masses about the oval of a face in
which the half-parted lips were dashes
of scarlet, and the
pools. She stood with
tilted in a half-wild attitude of recon
noiter, ag a fawn might have stood.
One brown arm and hand rested on
the door frame, and, as she saw the
other woman, she colored adorably,
Adrienne thought she had never
geen so instinctively and unaffectedly
lovely a face or figure. Then the girl
came down the steps and ran toward
them.
Drenni
Sally.
that
in po
was patched,
4 a - «14
to her slim
the
her little chin
e” sald the man, “this is
I want you two to love each
other.” For an instant, Adrienne Les
cott stood looking at the mountain
girl, and then she opened both her
arnns,
“Sally,” she cried,
child, 1 do love you!”
The girl in the calico dress raised
her face, and her eyes were glistening.
“I'm obleeged ter yo,” she faltered.
Then, with open and wondering ad-
miration she stood gazing at the first
“fine lady” upon whom her glance had
ever fallen.
Samson went over and took Sally's
hand.
“Drennie,” he sald, softly, “is there
anything the matter with her?”
Adrienne Lescott shook her head.
“1 understand,” she said.
“1 sent the others on,” he went on
quietly, “because I wanted that first
we three should meet alone. George
and Wilfred are going to stop at. my
uncle's house, but, unless you'd rather
have it otherwise, Sally wants you
here.”
“Do 1 stop now?” the girl asked.
But the man shook his head,
“I want you to meet my other people
first.”
As they rode at a walk along the lit.
tle shred of road left to them, the man
turned gravely.
“Drennie,” he began, “she waited for
me, all those years. What | was helped
to do by such splendid friends as you
and your brother and Wiifred, she was
back here trying to do for herself. |
told you back there the night before i
left that | was afrald to let myself
question my feelings toward you. Do
you remember?”
She met his eyes, and her own eyes
were frankly smiling.
“You were very complimentary,
W
“you adorable
Samson,” she told him. “1 warned
you then that it was the moon talk.
ing.”
“No,” he said firmly, “it was not the
moon. [ have since then met that fear
and analyzed it. My feeling for you is
the best that a man can have, the hon-
est worship of friendship. And,” he
added, “1 have analyzed your feeling
for me, too, and, thank Ged! 1 have
that game friendship from vou. Haven't
x”
For a moment, she only nodded:
her eyes were bent on the road ahead
of her, The man waited In tense
silence. Then, she ralsed her face, and
it was a face that smiled with the
sorenity of one who has wakened out
of a troubled dream.
but
“You will always have Samson,
dear.” eho assured him,
“Have I enough of it,
do for her what you did for me?
take her and teach her the
has the right to know?”
“I'd love it,” she cried
she smlied, as she added
be much easier to teach
and one of the things 1
teach her"—she paused,
added whimsically-—"will be
that,
To
And
“She
She
then
will
again.”
But,
house of old Spicer South,
“1 might as well make
of it, Samson, and give
shment It deserve
she said
a clean breast
my vanit
You had me
‘About what?”
“About-—well,
quite sure that 1 wanted
vou-—that 1 didn't need
a shameful little
about u I wi
you
“But now
off
“Now, |
snd my love
seid test
I've been
we've been through it
doubts ahead, » got ¥
know that my
for him have
and | am hap
before I'm
There a
on both.”
had their
liking qualities
really his guali
known
guise, his finish
to his courage. DBecaus
tc woman the heart of a we
falled to that under it
‘fron and fire You thought you
those qualities in me, because |
my bark as shaggy as that scaling
hickory over there. When he was get
anonymous threats death
morning he didn't mention
to you. He talked of teas and dances
1 know his danger was real, because
they tried to have me kill him-—and
that were
him
had 3
blinded
you
gentle
he could ty
staan,’ yo
Boe
EW
wore
of ev
1 reckon I'd have done it. 1 was mad
to my marrow that night—for a min-
ute. 1 don't hold a brief for Wilfred,
but 1 know that you lked me first for
qualities which he has as strongly as
I—and more strongly. He's a braver
man than 1, becuse, though raised to
gentle things, when you ordered bim
into the fight he was there. He never
turned back or flickered. 1 was raised
on raw meat and gunpowder, but he
went in without training.”
The girl's eyes grew grave and
thoughtful, and for the rest of the
way she rode in silence.
There were transformations, too, in
the house of Spicer South. Windows
had been cut, and lamps adopted. It
was no longer so crudely a ploneer
abode. While they waited for dinner,
a girl lightly crossed the stile, and
came up to the Souse. Adrianne met
her at the door, while Samson and
Horton stood back, waiting. Suddenly,
Miss Lescott halted and regarded the
newcomer in surprise. It was the
same girl she had seen, yot a different
girl. Her hair no longer fell in tangled
masses. Her feet werg no longer bare.
Her dress, though simple, was charm
ing, and, when she spoke, her English
had dropped its half-illiterate peculiar:
ties, though the voice still held its
birdlike melody.
“Oh, Samson,” cried Adrienne, “you
two have been decelvimg me! Sally,
you were making up, dressing the part
back there, and letting me patronize
you.”
Sally's laughter broke from her
throat in a musical peal, but it still
held the note of shyness, and it was
Samson who spoke.
“1 made the others ride on, and 1 got
Salty to mau Jou Just us the wih when
1 left her to go East.” He spoke with
a touch of the mountaineer's overseen.
sitive pride. “I wanted you first to ses
my people, not as they are going to be,
but as they were. | wanted you to
know how proud I am of them--just
that way.”
That evening, the four of them
walked together over to the cabin of
the Widow Miller. At the stile, Ad-
said:
“I suppose this place is preempted
untain
moon she
Sally protested with me
pitality, but even under the
once more colored adorably,
Adrienne turned up thé collar of
sweater around her throat,
she and the man who had waited,
leaning on the rail of the
laid a hand on his
“Has the flowed
ed
arm,
water by my mill,
she ask
“What do you Hie
trembled
“Will you have
when Christmas
“If 1 can wail
he told her
“Don't wait, dear,” she
toward
held
voice
anvthing to ask
comes?”
that long, Drennie,”
suddenly ex-
him,
his
ing eyes answer
iich he asked was
Bu
ana
tion wi
Hips
against her own
threw
the ques
that his
sed them
wk where
smothered as
the poplar
fx § Fee
two Lgures
road,
Lhe
appily in wl
and
her eyes, as
y shadow on the
together on top of a
spers. A
the moon
talking b
used her face,
n the deepness of
her lips curved in a trembling smile
i've come ahi
a low voice, * £, if I'd knc
ly she
ade
TAKES ISSUE WITH EDISON
Man Who Does
World Will
Up Sicep
Not
Give
Here is One Be-
lieve the
worked at
period of time
hey all gained
fer that it is
not working
Thi nking
wwe there is
hall
something
the things we
isure y very hard
celebrated tired business
tired when his wife wants
after
time 1s
nan ix only
go out somewhere
ner it
that
is the oj
Stil,
is a
wear him out
If it
We have
what Mr. Edison
ied to sleep in
given a feather bed and a soft pillow,
get him at all. Last night,
instance Wasn't the habit deli
Inst night ?--8t
habit,
means
have t
cious
patch
On Tolerance,
At the German-American Chamber
of Commerce in New York Dr. Adolph
Muller, an agent for the purchase of
woolens, sald:
“A hetter spirit, a spirit of toler
ance, is now manifesting itself. On
the boat coming over a French shoe
buyer and an English cloth buyer
shared my table with me and we got
on well,
“‘Gentiemen,’ 1 said to those chaps
one morning, ‘we Germans and you
English and you French are not all
thieves, vandals and murderers. With
us it is like the dog riddle,
“‘Why is a dog like a man? a boy
asked,
“ ‘Give it up,’ said another boy.
* ‘Necause it's bow legged.’
“ ‘But,’ said the second boy, “all dogs
are not bow-legged.'
“ ‘Well, neither are all men.'"™
Modern Method.
Apropos of an elderly Chicago bank-
or, whose wife had threatened to di
vorce him on account of his affection
fer a beautiful stenographer of seven:
toon years, George Ade sald:
“A tragedy, this, of a not uncomr wn
kind, a tragedy due to our modern
business methods. The grand old
merchant prince of the past used to
take his pen in hand, Today, it seems,
he takes his typewriter on his knee”
Greatest Wind Storm.
Probably the greatest destruction
by a wind storm was that wrought in
Galveston, Tex., September 8, 1900,
when 2,000 lives were lost and proper
ty valued at $30,000,000 was suddenly
destroyed. If there has ever been a
worse storm we have no record of it
“lI TORNATYS.,
——
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ATTORNEY APL
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SP Perth of Oven Bevan
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EPLLEYLETR 5»
Mecessors Ww sv Bowes 4 Osvis
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ATTORNEY AT 1L4W
BELLEFORTRS
Prastios th sll the sours Cons. ation
Bogiish sad German Ofos Orider « Busses
Buliding -
ATTORFRY AT Law
EEXELLEBFOETA Pe
Oflos B. W. corner Blamend wwe does fo.
ov
Penns Yalley Banking Company
Centre Hall, Pa.
DAVID K. RELLER, Cashise
Receolves Deposits . . .
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