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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19089-h.zip b/19089-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4357628 --- /dev/null +++ b/19089-h.zip diff --git a/19089-h/19089-h.htm b/19089-h/19089-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f50fc5b --- /dev/null +++ b/19089-h/19089-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10314 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Pagan of the Hills, by Charles Neville Buck</title> +<style type="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small } + +p.dedication {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 15%; + text-align: justify } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none; } + a:hover {color:#ff0000; + text-decoration: underline; } + pre {font-size: 75%; } + + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Pagan of the Hills, by Charles Neville +Buck, Illustrated by George W. Gage</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Pagan of the Hills</p> +<p>Author: Charles Neville Buck</p> +<p>Release Date: August 20, 2006 [eBook #19089]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PAGAN OF THE HILLS***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which the view reached far off for leagues over the valley.]" BORDER="2" WIDTH="402" HEIGHT="616"> +<H3> +[Frontispiece: Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which<BR> +the view reached far off for leagues over the valley.] +</H3> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +A PAGAN OF THE HILLS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHOR OF +<BR> +"THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS,"<BR> +"THE BATTLE CRY,"<BR> +"WHEN BEARCAT WENT DRY," ETC., ETC.<BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Frontispiece by +<BR> +GEORGE W. GAGE +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +W. J. WATT & COMPANY +<BR> +PUBLISHERS +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY +<BR> +W. J. WATT & COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<CENTER> + +<TABLE WIDTH="90%"> + +<TR> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A></TD> +<TD> <A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A></TD> +<TD> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +A PAGAN OF THE HILLS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<P> +"It's plum amazin' ter heer ye norate thet ye've done been tradin' and +hagglin' with old man McGivins long enough ter buy his logs offen him +and yit ye hain't never met up with Alexander. I kain't hardly fathom +hit noways." +</P> + +<P> +The shambling mountaineer stretched himself to his lean length of six +feet two, and wagged an incredulous head. Out of pale eyes he studied +the man before him until the newcomer from "down-below" felt that, in +the attitude, lay almost the force of rebuke. It was as though he +stood self-convicted of having visited Naples without seeing Vesuvius. +</P> + +<P> +"But I haven't been haggling with Mr. McGivins," he hastened to +remonstrate. "On the contrary we have done business most amicably." +</P> + +<P> +The native of the tangled hills casually waved aside the distinction of +terms as a triviality and went on: "I hain't nuver heered tell of no +man's tradin' in these hyar Kentucky mountains without he haggled +considerable. Why thet's what tradin' denotes. Howsomever what +flabbergasts me air thet ye hain't met up with Alexander. Stranger, ye +don't know nothin' about this neck o' the woods a-tall!" +</P> + +<P> +Parson Acup, so called for the funereal gravity of his bearing and +expression, and Brent the timber-buyer, stood looking down from +beetling cliffs rigidly bestowed with collossal and dripping icicles. +To their ears came a babel of shouts, the grating of trees, long +sleet-bound but stirring now to the thaw—the roar of blasting powder +and the rending of solid rock. +</P> + +<P> +Brent laughed. "Now, that you've fathomed the density of my +ignorance," he suggested, "proceed to enlighten me. Upon what does +this Alexander rest his fame? What character of man is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al, stranger, I've done always held ther notion thet we folks up +hyar in these benighted hills of old Kaintuck, war erbout the +ign'rantest human mortals God ever suffered ter live—but even us knows +erbout Alexander. Fust place he hain't no man at all. He's a +gal—leastwise, Alexander was borned female but she's done lived a plum +he-life, ever since." +</P> + +<P> +"A woman—but the name——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, pshaw! Thar hain't nuthin' jedgmatic in a name. Old man McGivins +he jest disgusts gals and so he up and named his fust born Alexander +an' he's done reared her accordin'." +</P> + +<P> +Brent arched his brows as his informant continued, gathering headway in +the interest of his narrative. "Old man McGivins he's done read a +lavish heap of books an' he talks a passel of printed wisdom. He +'lowed thet Alexander wa'nt no common man's name but thet hit signified +a hell-bustin' survigrous feller. By his tellin', ther fust Alexander +whaled blazes outen all creation an' then sot down an' cried like a +baby because ther job he'd done went an' petered out on him. Ter me, +thet norration savers right strong of a damn lie." +</P> + +<P> +Brent nodded as he smilingly replied, "I've read of that first +Alexander, but he's been dead a good many centuries." +</P> + +<P> +"Long enough ter leave him lay an' ferget about him, I reckon," drily +observed the parson. "Anyhow atter a spell Old Man McGivins had +another bornin' at his dwellin-house an' thet time hit proved out to be +a boy. His woman sought ter rechristen ther gal Lizzie or Lake Erie or +somethin' else befittin petticoats. She 'lowed thet no godly man +wouldn't hardly seek a woman in wedlock, ner crave fer her to be ther +mother of his children with a name hung on her like Alexander Macedonia +McGivins." +</P> + +<P> +Brent's eye twinkled as he watched the unbending gravity of the other's +face and since comment seemed expected he conceded, "There seems to be +a germ of reason in that." +</P> + +<P> +"Then ther boy commenced growin' up, lazy-like an' shiftless," +enlightened the parson. "Ther old man 'lowed thet hit wouldn't hardly +be no fallacy ter name him Lizzie or Lake Erie, but he swore on a hull +stack of Bibles thet he aimed ter make a man of ther gal." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the speaker broke off and his brow clouded. Following the +apprehensive direction of the frowning eyes as one might follow a +dotted line the man from the city saw a young mountaineer +surreptitiously tilting a flask to his lips in the lee of a huge +boulder. Palpably the drinker believed himself screened from view, and +when he had wiped the neck of the flask with the palm of his hand and +stowed it away again in his breast pocket he looked furtively about +him—and that furtiveness was unusual enough to elicit surprise in this +land where men drank openly and made moonshine whiskey and even gave it +to their small children. +</P> + +<P> +"Since ther time of corn drappin' an' kiverin'," said the Parson, +slowly, "Bud Sellers hain't teched a dram afore now. Hit don't +pleasure me none ter see him startin' in afresh." +</P> + +<P> +"He's been working hard," suggested the timber buyer tolerantly. "I've +watched him and he never seems to tire. Maybe he felt the need of a +stimulant." +</P> + +<P> +But Acup growled. "When Bud leaves licker alone thar hain't no better +boy nowhars. When he follers drinking he gits p'izen mean right down +to ther marrer in his insidest bone. Folks calls him ther mad-dog +then. Ef these men finds out he's drinkin', they'll quit work an' +scatter like pa'tridges does when they sees a hawk flutterin' overhead." +</P> + +<P> +The loose-jointed giant turned on his heel and left Brent standing +alone. Snow after snow had fallen this winter and frozen tight, heaped +high by blizzard after blizzard until all the legendary "old fashioned +winters" had been outdone and put to shame. Then without warning had +come some warm breath across the peaks bringing January rains on the +heels of zero frigidity and thaws of unprecedented swiftness. While +the "spring-tide" was to have been an agency of safe delivery for the +felled timber this premature flood threatened to be a lawless one of +devastation. Brent had rushed up here from the city driven by anxiety +as to the logs he had contracted to buy—logs which the oncoming flood +threatened to ravish into scattered and racing drift. He had found old +man McGivins toiling without sleep or rest; racing against the +gathering cohorts of a Nature turned vandal, and into the fight and +stress he had thrown himself and all his energies. +</P> + +<P> +That there was even the slimmest of chances to save the poplar, was a +fact due to a peculiar conformation of the levels there, and to +exceptional circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +"Gin'rally we just rolls ther logs down hill when we cuts 'em an' lets +'em lay thar whar they falls in ther creek beds," McGivins had +explained. "Afore ther spring tide comes on with ther thaws an' rains, +we builds a splash dam back of 'em an' when we're ready we blows her +out an' lets 'em float on down ter ther nighest boom fer raftin'. Ef a +flood like this comes on they gits scattered, an' we jest kisses 'em +good-bye. Thet's happenin' right now all along these numerous small +creeks." +</P> + +<P> +But McGivins had cut his timber near a river that could float not only +loose logs but rafts, and in a small lake-like basin hemmed in by +cliffs and separated by a gorge from the river he had gathered them and +bound them into three large rafts. Only such a stage as came with the +"tide" would convert the gorge into a water-way out, and only then wen +the great dam built across it had been dynamited. +</P> + +<P> +Now came this flood, infinitely more powerful than the ordinary rise of +spring. The dam was threatened and must be strengthened and raised +higher. If it gave way, he too must "kiss his logs good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +As the city man speculated on the odds against him Old Man McGivins +himself materialized at his elbow. His lips were tight-set and his +brow was furrowed. For him the situation savored of impending tragedy. +These trees had been reluctantly felled from a virgin tract of forest +heretofore unscarred by the axe, and they had been his long-hoarded +treasure. He had held on to them much as a miser holds to his savings +because he loved them. Even when Brent had offered a good price, +running well into thousands, he had wrestled with himself. When the +axes had rung and the saws whined through the scarlet and golden +autumn, it had almost seemed to him that he was executing living and +beloved friends. Now an inimical force of Nature threatened to rob him +of them and of his remuneration as well. Yet as he stood there, with +the sweat and grime of his labor drying on his forehead, his brooding +eyes held a patriarchal dignity of uncomplaining courage. +</P> + +<P> +"All these hyar men air my neighbors, Mr. Brent," he said with a manner +of instinctive courtesy. "They hain't a-workin' fer wages but jest ter +kinderly convenience me—I reckon we're both of us right smart beholden +to 'em." +</P> + +<P> +The city man acquiescently nodded his head but he was thinking chiefly +of the calm patience and the tireless strenuousity with which McGivins, +himself, was battling against calamity. +</P> + +<P> +"They are friends of yours," he answered. "They realize that your loss +will be heavy if——" He broke off there and the other went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit'll mighty nigh cripple me ef we don't save 'em. I've done held on +ter thet timber fer a long spell of years an' I sorrers ter part with +hit now. But thar's a right weighty mortgage on my land an' hit's held +by a man thet don't squander no love on me at best." +</P> + +<P> +Brent gritted his teeth. He had heretofore known only in the +indirectness of theory the sudden capriciousness of mountain weather; +storms that burst and cannonade without warning; trickling waters that +leap overnight into maddened freshets. Now he was seeing in its +blood-raw ferocity the primal combat between man and the elements. +</P> + +<P> +With a troubled brow Parson Acup returned and addressed McGivins. +"Aaron," he said bluntly, "right numerous fellers air threatenin' ter +quit us and we kain't spare a single hand." +</P> + +<P> +The old man flinched as if under a blow from a trusted hand. "What fer +does they aim ter quit?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud Sellers has started in drinkin' licker, an' a'ready he's gittin' +malignant. Ther Martin boys an' ther Copelands an' others beside 'em, +'lows thet they ain't seekin' no heedless trouble and hit's more +heedful-like fer 'em ter go on home an' avoid an affray. Ef they stays +on hit's right apt to end in blood-lettin'." +</P> + +<P> +McGivins drew himself to a more rigid erectness. "Go back an' tell +them boys thet I needs 'em," he ordered. "Tell 'em ef they don't stand +by me now, I'm ruint. I'll send Bud away ef thet's all thet's frettin' +'em." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't counsel ye ter cross Bud jest now," advised Acup, but the +other laughed under his long beard, a low angry laugh, as he turned on +his heel and, with the man from the city following him, started in +search of the troublemaker. +</P> + +<P> +Bud was found at last behind the great hump of towering rock. The +place, walled in by beetling precipice, was beginning to darken into +cloister-dim shadows. Bud's back was turned and he did not hear the +footfall of the two men who had come upon him there. He knew that when +once he succumbed to the thirst it meant a parting with reason and a +frenzy of violence. But when the first savor of the fiery moonshine +stuff had teased his palate and the first warmth had glowed in his +stomach it meant surrender to debauch—and already he had gone too far +to fight the appetite which was his ruin. +</P> + +<P> +Now he stood with the flask to his lips and his head bent back, but +when he had drunk deep he turned and saw the two figures that were +silently observing him. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes were already blood-shot and his cheeks reddened. The motions +of his lithe body were unsteady. With a shamefaced gesture the young +man sought to conceal the flask under his coat, then a fickle change +came to his mood. His head bent down low like a bull's and his +shoulders hulked in a stiffening defiance. +</P> + +<P> +"Spyin' on me, air ye?" The question rasped savagely from his +thickened lips. "Well, damn ther pair of ye, spies desarves what they +gits! I'm a free man an' I don't suffer no bull-dozin' from nobody." +</P> + +<P> +He lurched forward with so threatening an air that Brent stepped a +little to the side and instinctively his hand went to the coat pocket +where he carried a pistol. But Bud ignored him, focussing his +attention upon the mountain man to whom he had come in friendship and +service for the stemming of a disaster. He came with a chin out-thrust +close to the older and bearded face. Truculence and reckless bravado +proclaimed themselves in the pose, as he bulked there. "Wa'al," he +snarled, "ye heered me, didn't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +But McGivins had not altered his attitude. He had not given back a +stride nor moved his arms. Now he spoke quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sore grieved to see you comin' ter this pass, Bud," he said. "We +all knows what hit means every time. I'm obleeged ter ye fer what +ye've already done—an' I'll ask ye, now, ter go on home afore ye +drinks any more whiskey—or starts any ruction amongst my neighbors." +</P> + +<P> +"So thet's hit, air hit?" Bud rocked a little on his feet as he stood +confronting the steady challenge of Aaron McGivins. "So ye lets a man +work slavish fer ye all day, and then starts in faultin' him ef he +takes a drink at sun-down. Well damn ye, I don't aim ter go nowhars +tell I'm ready an' ambitious ter go—does ye hear thet or does I hev +ter tell ye again?" +</P> + +<P> +With a very deliberate motion McGivins lifted one arm and pointed it +towards the west—that way lay the nearest boundary of his tract. +</P> + +<P> +"I've done asked ye plum civil ter go, because ef you don't go other +fellers will—fellers thet's wuth somethin'. Now I orders ye ter get +offen my land. Begone!" +</P> + +<P> +What happened next was such a tumult of abruptness that Brent found +himself standing inactive, not fully grasping the meaning of the +situation. From Bud came a roar of anger as he lunged and grappled +with the bearded elder, carrying him back in the onslaught. With a +belated realization, Brent threw himself forward but just as his hand +fell on the shoulder of Bud Sellers he heard a report, muffled because +it was fired between two savagely embraced bodies. The lumber buyer +had seen no weapon drawn. That had been the instinctive legerdemain of +mountain quickness, which even drink had not blunted. As he wrenched +Bud back, the wounded figure stood for a moment swaying on legs that +slowly and grotesquely buckled into collapse at the knees until Aaron +McGivins crumpled down in a shapeless heap. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Sellers wrenched himself free with a muscular power that almost +hurled Brent to the ground, and the pistol fell from his hand. For a +moment the young assailant stood there with an expression of dismayed +shock, as though, in his sleep, he had committed a crime and had +awakened into an appalled realization. Then, ignoring Brent, he +wheeled and lunged madly into the laurel. +</P> + +<P> +Figures came running in response to the alarm of pistol report and +shouting, but old man McGivins, whom they carried to the nearest +bonfire, feebly nodded his head. Parson Acup was bending over him and +when he rose it was with a dubious face. +</P> + +<P> +"I fears me thet wound's mighty liable ter be a deadener," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Then the wounded man lifted a trembling hand. "Git me over home," he +directed shortly, "An' fer God's sake, boys, go forward with this work +till hit's finished." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + + +<P> +Through the tree tops came a confusion of voices, but none of them +human. A wind was racing to almost gale-like violence and with it came +the inrush of warm air to peaks and valleys that had been tight-frozen. +Between precipices echoed the crash of ice sliding loose and +splintering as it fell in ponderous masses. Men sweating in the glare +of collossal bonfires toiled at the work of re-inforcing the dam. +</P> + +<P> +They had been faithful; they were still faithful, but the stress of +exhaustion was beginning to sap their morale; to drive them into +irritability so that, under the strain of almost superhuman exertion, +they threatened to break. Brent was not of their blood and knew little +of how to handle them, and though Parson Acup was indefatigable, his +face became more and more apprehensive. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef we kin hold 'em at hit till ther crack of day, we've got a right +gay chanst ter save them big sticks," he announced bluntly to Brent +near midnight. "But hit hain't in reason ter expect men ter plum kill +themselves off fer ther profit of somebody else—an' him likely ter be +dead by termorrer." +</P> + +<P> +"Could McGivins have kept them in line himself?" demanded Brent and the +Parson scratched his head. "Wa'al he mout. Thar's somethin' masterful +in thet breed thet kinderly drives men on. I don't know es I could +name what it air though." +</P> + +<P> +Then even as he spoke a group of humanity detached itself from the +force on the dam and moved away as men do who are through with their +jobs. They halted before Acup and one of them spoke somewhat +shame-facedly: "I disgusts ter quit on a man in sore need, Parson, but +us fellers kain't hold up no longer. We're plum fagged ter +death—mebby termorrer mornin'——" +</P> + +<P> +He broke off and Acup answered in a heavy-hearted voice: "So fur as +this hyar job's consarned most likely thar won't be no termorrer. Old +man McGivins lays over thar, mebby a-dyin' an' this means a master lot +to him——" +</P> + +<P> +"If it's a matter of pay," began Brent and left his suggestion +unfinished. A quick glance of warning from Acup cautioned him that +this was a tactless line and one of the men answered shortly, "Pay +hain't skeercely ergoin' ter hold a man up on his legs when them legs +gives out under him, stranger." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Lige, pay won't do it, but upstandin' nerve <I>will</I>—an' I knows +ye've got hit. Ef anybody quits now, they're all right apt ter foller +suit." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At the sound of the first words, Brent had pivoted as suddenly as +though a bolt had struck him. They came in a voice so out of keeping +with the surroundings, so totally different from any he had heard that +day, that it was a paradox of sound. In the first place it was a +woman's voice and here were only sweating men. In the second, although +full and clear as if struck from well cast bell metal, it had a rich +sweetness and just now the thrill of deep emotion. +</P> + +<P> +In the red flare of the bonfire that sent up a shower of sparks into +the wet darkness, he saw a figure that brought fresh astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +The woman stood there with a long rubber slicker tight-buttoned from +collar to hem. Below that Brent saw rubber boots. She stood with a +lance-like straightness, very tall, very pliant, and as he stared with +a fixity which would have amounted to impertinence had it not been +disarmed by amazement she looked past him and through him as if he were +himself without substance. +</P> + +<P> +Then she took off the heavy Nor'wester that had shaded her face, and +the firelight fell on masses of hair deeply and redly gold; upon +features exquisitely modeled, in no wise masculine or heavy, yet full +of dominance. Duskily-lashed eyes of dark violet were brimming with a +contagious energy and her rounded chin was splendidly atilt. A +sculptor might have modeled her as she stood, and entitled his bronze +"Victory." +</P> + +<P> +Her coloring too was rich, almost dazzling, and Brent thought that he +had never seen such arresting beauty or such an unusual though +harmonious blending of feminine allurement—and masculine spirit. +Though in height she approached the heroic of scale, the first summary +of impression which he drew from feature and coloring was "delicately +gorgeous." +</P> + +<P> +The girl vouchsafed him no attention of any kind but remained silent +for a moment with her eyes raining so resolute a fire that those of the +exhausted workers kindled into faint responsiveness. +</P> + +<P> +Then the vibrant clarity of the voice sounded again—and the voice too +had that strangely hypnotic quality that one felt in the glance. "You +boys have all worked here hour on hour, till ye're nigh dead. My paw +an' me are already powerful beholden to ye all but——" She paused and +under just such an emotion the ordinary woman's throat would have +caught with a sob and her eyes would have filled with tears. It was +not so with Alexander. Her note only softened into a deeper gravity. +"But he lays over thar an' I mistrusts he's a-dyin' ternight. He +wouldn't suffer me ter tarry by his bed-side because he 'lowed thet you +boys needed a man ter work along with ye in his place. If ye quits now +all the labor ye've done spent goes fer naught." She paused a moment +and then impulsively she broke out: "An' I couldn't hardly endure ter +go back thar an' tell him that we'd failed." +</P> + +<P> +As she paused the hollow-eyed men shuffled their feet but none of them +spoke. They had given generously, prodigally even, of their effort and +it had not been for hire. Yet under the burning appeal of her eyes +they flushed as though they had been self-confessed malingerers. +</P> + +<P> +"But as fer me," went on Alexander, "I've got ter git ter work." +</P> + +<P> +She unbuttoned and cast off the long rubber coat and Brent felt as if +he had seen the unveiling of a sculptured figure which transcended +mediocrity. A flannel shirt, open on a splendidly rounded throat, +emphasized shoulders that fell straight and, for a woman unusually +broad, though not too broad for grace. She was an Amazon in physique +yet so nicely balanced of proportion that one felt more conscious of +delicate litheness than of size. As her breath came fast with +excitement the fine arch of her heaving bosom was that of a Diana. +Belted about a waist that had never known the cramp of stays, she wore +a pair of trousers thrust into her boot tops and no man there was more +unself-conscious. +</P> + +<P> +The exhausted men stirred restlessly as they watched her go down to the +dam, and one of those who had dropped to a sitting posture came +lumberingly to his feet again. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon I've got my second wind now," he lamely announced. "Mebby +thar's a leetle mite more work left in me yit atter all," and he +started back, stumbling with the ache of tired bones, to the task he +had renounced, while his fellows grumbled a little and followed his +lead. +</P> + +<P> +Throughout the day Brent had felt himself an ineffective. He had done +what he could but his activities had always seemed to be on the less +strenuous fringe of things like a bee who works on the edge of a honey +comb. +</P> + +<P> +Now as the replenished fire leaped high and the hills resounded to an +occasional peal of unseasonable thunder the figure of the woman who had +assumed a man's responsibility became a pattern of action. In the +flare and the shadow he watched it, fascinated. It was always in the +forefront, frequently in actual but unconsidered peril, leading like +the white plume of Navarre. +</P> + +<P> +It was all as lurid and as turgid a picture as things seen in nightmare +or remembered from mythology—this turmoil of emergency effort through +a fire-lit night of storm and flood; figures thrown into exaggeration +as the flames leaped or dwindled—faces haggard with weariness. +</P> + +<P> +To Brent came a new and keener spirit of combat. The outskirts of +action no longer sufficed, but with an elemental ardor and elation his +blood glowed in his veins. +</P> + +<P> +When at last all that could be done had been done, the east was +beginning to take on a sort of ashen light—the forerunner of dawn. +Alexander had held to the sticking-point the quailing energies of spent +men for more than six agonized hours. Below them the river bed that +had been almost dry forty-eight hours ago was a madly howling torrent. +</P> + +<P> +Men with faces gray and hollow-eyed laid down their crow-bars and +pike-poles. Brent, reeling unsteadily as he walked, looked about him +in a dazed fashion out of giddy eyes. He saw Alexander wiping the +steaming moisture from her brow with the sleeve of her shirt and heard +her speak through a confused pounding upon eardrums that still seemed +full of cumulative din. +</P> + +<P> +"Unless ther flood carries ther river five foot higher then hit's ever +gone afore, we've done saved thet timber," she said slowly. "An' no +men ever worked more plum slavish ner faithful then what you men have +ternight." +</P> + +<P> +"That hain't nothin' more left ter do now," said Parson Acup, "unless +hit be ter go home an' pray." +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander shook her head with a vigorous and masculine +determination. +</P> + +<P> +"No, thar's still one thing more ter do. I want thet when you men goes +home ye send me back a few others—fresh men. I'm goin' back ter see +how my daddy's farin' an' whether he's got a chanst ter live, but——" +she paused abruptly and her voice fell, "thar's a spring-branch over +thar by my house. Ye kin mighty nigh gauge how ther water's risin' or +fallin' hyar by notin' ther way hit comes up or goes down over yon. I +aims ter keep a watchin' hit, whilst I'm over thar." +</P> + +<P> +The parson nodded his head. "That's a right good idee, Alexander, but +wharfore does ye seek ter hev us send more men over hyar? All thet kin +be done, has been done." +</P> + +<P> +The girl's eyes snapped. In them were violet fires, quick-leaping and +hot. +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't gone this fur only ter quit now," she passionately declared. +"Them logs is rafted. Ef they goes out on this flood-tide, I aims ter +ride 'em down-stream 'twell I kin land 'em in a safe boom." +</P> + +<P> +"But my God Almighty, gal," Parson Acup, wrenched out of his usual +placidity by the effrontery of the project, spoke vehemently. "Any +tide thet would bust thet dam would sartain shore rip them rafts inter +fragments. Ef they goes out a-tall they goes out ter destruction and +splinters an' sure death, I fears me. Hit's like ridin' a runaway hoss +without no bit in his mouth." +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's a thing I've done afore now," the girl assured him. "An' I +aims ter undertake hit ergin." +</P> + +<P> +She turned and, taking the rubber coat from a tree crotch, went +striding away with her face toward the pale east and despite fatigue +she went high-headed and with elasticity in her step. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + + +<P> +The two-storied house of Aaron McGivins stood on a hill-side +overlooking a stretch of cleared acreage. It was a dwelling place of +unusual pretentiousness for that land of "Do-without," where inexorable +meagerness is the rule of life. Just now in a room whose hearth was +wide, upon a four-poster bed, lay the master of the place gazing +upwards at the rafters with eyes harassed, yet uncomplaining. +</P> + +<P> +Aaron McGivins had just cause for troubled meditation as he stretched +there under the faded coverlet and under the impending threat of death, +as well. His life had been one of scant ease and of unmitigated +warfare with the hostile forces of Nature. Yet he had built up a +modest competency after a life time of struggle. With a few more years +of industry he might have claimed material victory. In the homely +parlance of his kind he had things "hung-up," which signified such +prosperity had come to him as came to the pioneer woodsmen who faced +the famine times of winter with smoked hams hanging from their nails, +and tobacco and pepper and herbs strung along the ceiling rafters. +</P> + +<P> +Aaron McGivins had not progressed to this modestly enviable estate +without the driving of shrewd bargains and the taking of bold chances. +It followed that men called him hard, though few men called him other +than just. To his door came disputants who preferred his arbitration +on tangled issues to the dubious chances of litigation, for he was also +accounted wise. +</P> + +<P> +His repute among his neighbors was that of a man devoted to peace, but +one upon whom it was unsafe to impose. Those few who had stirred his +slow anger into eruption, had found him one as distinctly to be feared +as trusted. +</P> + +<P> +Had political aspiration been in the pattern of Aaron's thought he +might have gone down to the world below to sit in the state assembly. +From there in due time he might have gained promotion to the augmented +dignities of Congress, but he had persistently waved aside the whispers +of such temptation. "He hain't a wishful feller nohow," the stranger +was always told, "despite thet he knows hist'ry an' sich like lore in +an' out an' back'ards an' forrards." +</P> + +<P> +Now Aaron lay wounded with a pistol ball, and many problems of vital +interest to himself remained unsolved. Whether he would live or die +was guess work—a gamble. Whether the timber which he had felled would +free him from his last debt and leave his two children independent, or +be ravished from him by the insatiable appetite of the flood was a +question likewise unanswered. Whether or not the daughter, who was +the man of the family after himself, would return in time to comfort +his last moments was a doubt which troubled him most of all. He had +sent her away as unequivocally as a stricken captain sends his first +officer to the bridge, but he wanted her as a man, shipwrecked and +starving, wants the sight of a sail or of a smoke-stack on an empty +horizon. +</P> + +<P> +And his boy—the boy who had given him small strength upon which to +lean, was absent. He had gone idly and thoughtlessly before the +emergency arose, and the man lying on the four-poster bed tried to +argue for him, in extenuation, that he would have returned had he known +the need. But in his bruised and doubting heart he knew that had it +been Alexander, she would have read the warning in the first brook that +she saw creeping into an augmented stream, and would have hastened home. +</P> + +<P> +About the room moved the self-taught doctor, who was also the local +Evangelist. Two neighbor women were there too, called from adjacent +cabins to take the place of the daughter he had sent away. They were +ignorant women, hollow-chested and wrinkled like witches because they +had spent lives against dun-colored backgrounds, but they were wise in +the matter of "yarbs" and simple nursing. +</P> + +<P> +All night Aaron McGivins had lain there, restive and unable to sleep. +With him had been those matters which obtrude themselves, with +confusing multiplicity, upon the mind of a man who was yesterday strong +and unthreatened and who to-day faces the requirement of readjusting +all his scheme from the clear and lighted ways of life to the gathering +mists of death. He had seen through a high-placed window the gray of +dawn grow into a clearer light, making visible rag-like streamers of +wet and scudding clouds. He had a glimpse of mountain-sides sodden +with thaw—the thaw to which he owed his whole sum of sudden +perplexities. +</P> + +<P> +Then the door swung open. +</P> + +<P> +Eagerly the bed-ridden man turned his eyes towards it; eagerly, too, +the doctor's gaze went that way, but the two women, glancing sidewise, +sniffed dubiously and stiffened a little. To them the anxiously +awaited daughter was an unsexed creature whom they could neither +understand nor approve. They had lived hard and intolerent lives, +accepting drudgery and perennial child-bearing as unquestioned mandates +of destiny. Accustomed to the curt word and to servile obedience they +had no understanding for a woman who asserted herself in positive terms +of personality. To them a "he-woman" who "wore pants" and admitted no +sex inferiority was at best a "hussy without shame." If such a woman +chanced also to be beautiful beyond comparison with her less favored +sisters, the conclusion was inescapable. They could read in her +self-claimed emancipation only the wildness of a filly turned out to +pasture without halter or hobble; the wildness of one who scorns +respectability; for primitive morality is pathetically narrow. It may +sing piously about the pyre of a burning witch, but it can hardly grasp +the pagan chastity of a Diana. +</P> + +<P> +And it was a Diana both chaste and vital who stood in this wide-flung +door. Behind her far radiant background was the full light of a young +day. For an instant the scowl of storm-laden skies broke into a smile +of sunlight as though she had brought the brightness with her. But she +stood poised in an attitude of arrested action—halted by the curb of +anxiety. The whole vitality and clean vigor of her seemed breathless +and questioning. Fear had spurred her into fleetness as she had +crossed the hills, yet now she hesitated on the threshold. At first +her eyes could make little of the inner murk, where both lamp and fire +had guttered low and gray shadows held dominance. +</P> + +<P> +But she herself stood illumined by that transitory flash of morning +sun. It played in an aura about the coppery coils of her hair and +kindled into vivid color the lips parted in suspense. +</P> + +<P> +After a moment her eyes had reaccommodated themselves to the +dispiriting darkness and her bosom heaved to a sigh of relief; of +thanksgiving. Under the heaped coverlets of the bed she had seen the +movement of feeble hand stirred in a gesture of welcome. +</P> + +<P> +The neighbor women, bent on a mission of charity, yet unable to lay +aside their hard convictions, gazed non-committally on, as though they +would draw aside their skirts from contamination, yet sought to do so +with the least possible measure of ostentation or offense. +</P> + +<P> +That attitude Alexander did not fail to comprehend but she ignored it, +giving back to the smouldering eyes of disapproval level look for look. +Then she said quietly: "Brother Sanders, kin I hev speech with him—or +must he lay plum quiet?" +</P> + +<P> +The man of healing passed a bewildered hand across his tousled +forehead, and with thin fingers combed his long beard. +</P> + +<P> +"He ought, properly speakin', ter stay quiet—but yit—he's frettin' +fer ye so thet hit mought harm him wuss ter deny him." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll aim ter keep him es placid es I kin," said the girl, and in +obedience to her gesture the others left the room. +</P> + +<P> +Then Alexander dropped to her knees and her hands closed tightly over +the thin one that the wounded man thrust weakly up to her. Even now +there was no woman-surrender to tears; only wide eyes agonized with +apprehension while her shoulders shook as a man's may shake with inward +sobs that leave the eyes dry. +</P> + +<P> +In a low voice she made her report. "Ther dam's finished. Without +ther flood overtops ther highest mark on record, them logs is saved." +</P> + +<P> +Old Aaron nodded gratefully and gazed in silence at the rafters +overhead, realizing that he must conserve his slender strength and that +there was much to say. The girl, too, waited until at length he made a +fresh beginning. +</P> + +<P> +"Afore ye came, Alexander, me an' yore maw hed done prayed mighty +fervent fer a man child." +</P> + +<P> +"I knows thet," she interrupted. "I knows hit full well, an' I've +sought deespite how I was borned ter be a man." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye hain't only tried—ye've done succeeded," he assured her, then +after a long drawn breath he went on. "Most folks 'lowed hit was like +faultin' ther Almighty ter feel thet-a-way. They said hit war plum +rebellious." +</P> + +<P> +The girl whose cheeks had gone pallid and whose lips were tight drawn +spoke defiantly. "I reckon we hain't keerin' overly much what other +folks thinks." +</P> + +<P> +"An' yit," the father made slow answer, "what folks agrees ter think +makes ther laws of life whether hit be right or wrong—I'd hev been +willin' ter raise ye up like a gal ef hit hadn't been thet Joe——" +</P> + +<P> +He faltered there with Love's unwillingness to criticise his son and +the girl only nodded, saying nothing. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe's a good boy, with a sweet nature," went on the father at last. +"He favors his maw—an' she was always gentle. Yes, he's a good +boy—an' in a country whar a feller kin live without fightin', I reckon +he'd be accounted smart beyond ther commonality." +</P> + +<P> +Again the mountaineer's face was contorted into a spasm of pain and his +labored breathing demanded a respite of silence. Then slowly he +declared with the unvarnished candor of the backwoods: "Joe's got all a +man needs—but—jest—guts!" +</P> + +<P> +The kneeling figure reluctantly nodded her assent. These admissions as +to one's nearest and dearest must at times be made between men who face +facts. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef I passes out, I wants ye ter kinderly look atter him like he ought +ter look atter you." +</P> + +<P> +A stray lock of heavy hair had fallen across the girl's violet eyes, +and with an impatient gesture at the reminder of her sex, Alexander +tossed it back. "I gives ye my pledge," she said simply. +</P> + +<P> +Then she rose from her knees and stood looking off through the window +with a fixity that argued a deep dedication of purpose. "An' I pledges +ye somethin' else too," she broke out in a voice suddenly savage. "Ef +ye dies Bud Sellers belongs ter me ter kill—an' I won't nowise fail." +</P> + +<P> +But at that the wounded man raised a deter rent hand shaken with +palsied anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"No—no!" he gasped. "Thet's ther sperit I've done sought ter combat +all my life—ther shot from ther la'rel—ther lay-wayin' of enemies. I +couldn't rest easy ef ye denied me that pledge." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's hands clenched themselves, and her lips were compressed. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't aim ter lay-way him," she declared with an ominous quiet. "I +aims ter reckon with him es man ter man." +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander." He spoke with slow difficulty but she knew that the words +came earnestly from his heart. "I hain't skeercely got ther strength +ter argyfy with ye, but without ye seeks ter hinder me from layin' +peaceful in my last sleep ye'll bide by my command. Ther boy wasn't +hisself when he harmed me. He war plum crazed. No man loves me better +than what he does when he's in his right mind. No man wucked harder +down thar. I fergives him full free. I wants ye ter act ther same an' +ter make Joe do likewise." +</P> + +<P> +The girl covered her face with her hands and turned from the bed. She +went for a moment to the door and flung it open. There was no longer +any sunshine—only a dome of leaden heaviness and the wail of dismal +wind through the timber. To the father's eyes, despite her masculine +attire she was all feminine as she stood there and his face grew tender +as he watched the curls stirring at her temples. +</P> + +<P> +Finally she wheeled and with a military stiffness marched back. Slowly +she nodded her head. "I gives ye thet pledge too;" she said, "since ye +wants hit—but I gives hit with a right heavy sperit." +</P> + +<P> +He reached up and took her hand, drawing her down to the bed by his +side. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," he said softly, "mebby I hain't played quite fa'r with ye +my own self. I've done tried ter raise ye up like a man because I +could always kinderly lean on ye—but ye've done been both a son an' a +daughter ter me. Maybe though when I'm gone ther woman in ye'll come +uppermost an' ye'll think hardly of me fer what I did." +</P> + +<P> +"Think hard of ye fer tryin' ter make a man of me!" Her voice was as +full of scornful protest as though a soldier had said, "Think hard of +you because you taught me valor!" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled before he spoke again. "I've done warned young men off from +co'tin' ye on pain of harm an' death—an' when I'm dead they'll come in +lavish numbers seekin' ter make up fer lost time." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon I kin warn 'em off too," she protested, "an' by ther same +means." +</P> + +<P> +Once more a smile flickered in the wearied eyes that looked up from the +pillow. "Thet's fer ye ter decide yore own self, but ef ther day ever +comes when ye'd ruther welcome a lover then ter drive him off, I don't +want ye ter feel thet my memory's standin' in ther way of your +happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"Thet day won't never come," she vehemently declared, and her father +nodded indulgently. +</P> + +<P> +"Let thet matter lay over fer ther future ter decide," he suggested. +"Only ef ye does sometime alter yore way of thinkin' I wants thet men +children shell come atter me, bearin' my own name. Joe's children are +apt ter take atter him. I don't see how ye kin compass hit, but I +wishes thet ef ye ever did wed, yore babies could still be McGivinses." +</P> + +<P> +Despite her announcement of a masculinity which should not mantle into +a flooding of the temples and cheeks with blushes of modesty, Alexander +turned pink to the roots of her hair. Her voice was a little strained. +</P> + +<P> +"A feller kain't promise thet he won't go crazy," she declared. "But +ef ever I does go so crazy es ter wed with a man, thet man'll tek my +surname an' our children 'll tek hit too, an' w'ar hit 'twell they +dies." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + + +<P> +Brent had wondered how the Parson and his exhausted companions would, +in the short time at their disposal, be able to call out a new force of +volunteers. If the dam gave way and the rafts were swept out the thing +would probably happen by noon and there were few telephones in this +sparsely peopled community. Yet the device was simple and one of +pioneer directness. In many of those households to which the tired +workers returned, there were brothers or sons who had heretofore stayed +at home. Those who had responded to the first call were all men who +were not afraid of toil, but those who might answer the second would be +men who courted the hazards of adventure. Sheer dare-deviltry would +arouse in them a responsiveness which had remained numb to the call of +industry. Down the yellow and turgid path of swollen waters each +spring went huge rafted masses of logs manned by brawny fellows who at +other times never saw the world that lay "down below." Hastily reared +shacks rose on the floating timber islands and bonfires glowed redly. +The crews sang wild songs and strummed ancient tunes on banjo and +"dulcimore." They fortified themselves against the bite of the chill +night air from the jugs which they never forgot. Sometimes they flared +into passion and fought to the death, but oftener they caroused +good-naturedly as they watched the world flatten and the rivers broaden +to the lowlands. After the "tide" took them there was no putting into +harbor, no turning back. They were as much at the mercy of the +onsweeping waters as is a man who clings to driftwood. +</P> + +<P> +Rafting on the "spring-tide" called out the wilder and more venturesome +element; but even that differed vastly from the present situation. It +differed just as riding a spirited horse does from trusting oneself, +without stirrup leather or bridle rein, to the pell-mell vagaries of a +frenzied runaway. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Ye says Alexander aims ter ride one of them rafts, ef hit gets carried +out o' thar?" inquired a tall young man, whose eyes were reckless and +dissipated, as a wearied kinsman stumbled into a cabin and threw +himself down limply in a chair. +</P> + +<P> +The tall young man was accounted handsome in a crude, back-country way +and fancied himself the devil of a fellow with the ladies. "Wa'al," he +drawled, "I reckon ef a gal kin undertake hit, I hain't none more +timorous then what she air." And to that frankly spoken sentiment he +added an inward after-word. "Folks 'lows thet she hain't got no time +o' day fer men—but when we ends up this hyar trip, I'll know more +erbout thet fer myself." He turned and began making his rough +preparations for the voyage. +</P> + +<P> +And as Jase Mallows rose to the bait of that unusual call, so others +like him rose and each of them was a man conspicuous for recklessness +and wildness among a people where these qualities do not elicit comment +until they become extreme. +</P> + +<P> +An hour or two later Brent, eying the fresh arrivals, frowned a bit +dubiously as he compared them with the human beavers who had moiled +there through the night. It was, he reflected, as though the sheep had +gone and the goats had come in their stead. +</P> + +<P> +Then as the newcomers fell to their task of throwing up rough shanties +for shelter upon the rafts it seemed to Will Brent as safe a +proposition to embark with them as to be shipwrecked with a crew of +pirates. +</P> + +<P> +He had himself entertained no intention of boarding any of these three +rafts, but he was not craven, and if a girl was going to trust herself +to those chances of flood and human passion he told himself that he +could do no less than stand by. +</P> + +<P> +The river was already creeping above the gnarled sycamore roots that +jutted out of the precipice, marking the highest stage of previous +flood tides. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The two neighbor women had come back into the room where Aaron McGivins +lay wounded. The man himself, reassured by the presence of his +daughter, had fallen at last into an undisturbed sleep and the doctor +delivered himself of the first encouragement that had crossed his +sternly honest lips. "I reckon now he's got a right even chanst ter +git well ef he kin contrive ter rest a-plenty." +</P> + +<P> +The girl's head came back, with a spasmodic jerk. It was the sudden +relaxing of nerves that had been held taut to the snapping point. With +a step suddenly grown unsteady she made her way to a chair by the +hearth and sat gazing fixedly at the dying embers. +</P> + +<P> +She had not let herself hope too much, and now a sudden rush of +repressed tears threatened a flood like the one which had come outdoors +from the broken tightness of the ice. +</P> + +<P> +But she felt upon her the critical eyes of the neighbor women and +refused to surrender to emotion. After a little period of respite she +let herself out of the door into the rain that had begun falling with a +sobbing fitfulness, and went through the starkness of the woods. +</P> + +<P> +Back of the house was the "spring-branch" of which she had spoken as a +gauge to the stage of the flood. By some freakish law of +co-ordination, which no one had ever been able to explain, that small +stream gave a reading of conditions across the ridge, as a pulse-beat +gives the tempo of the blood's current. One could look at it and +estimate with fair accuracy how fast and how high the river was rising. +When a rotting stump beside the basin of the spring had water around +its roots it meant that the arteries of the hills were booming into +torrential fury. When the basin overflowed, the previous maximum of +the river's rise had been equaled. It was overflowing now. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander stood for a moment gazing with widened and terrified eyes. +She had now no time to lose. The lapping waters of a tiny brook were +calling her to prompt and hazardous action. She fell to her knees and +clasped her hands in a clutch of desperation. "God, give me strength +right now ter ack like a man," she prayed. "Hit seems like ther fust +time I'm called on, I'm turnin' plum woman-weak." +</P> + +<P> +Then she rose and pressed her pounding temples. It was not the fear of +a runaway river that held her in a tormenting suspense of indecision, +but the hard choice between leaving her father or fulfilling a duty to +which he had assigned her in his stead. +</P> + +<P> +When she opened the door of the house again she saw an agitated figure +kneeling beside the bed. For all its breadth of shoulder and six feet +of height; for all its inherited stoicism that had stood through +generations, it was shaking with sobs. +</P> + +<P> +As Alexander came into the room her brother rose from his knees with +pallid cheeks and woebegone eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Who shot him?" he demanded in a tense voice. "These hyar folks won't +tell me nuthin'." +</P> + +<P> +The girl repressed an impulse of satirical laughter. She knew that Joe +McGivins would storm and swear vengeance upon the hand that had been +raised to strike his father down and that beyond hysterical vehemence +his indignation would come to nothing. He would believe himself +sincere and in the end his resolution would waste away into +procrastination and specious excuses. +</P> + +<P> +"Whoever shot him, Joe," she replied, maintaining the complimentary +fiction that she must temporize with his just wrath, "Paw he's done +exacted a pledge thet neither of us won't seek ter avenge ther deed. +Hit's a pledge thet binds us both." +</P> + +<P> +Even while his temples were still hot with his first wave of passionate +indignation, Joe McGivins felt that a bitter cup had passed from him. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," said the girl in a low voice, "I wants thet ye heeds me clost. +Ef we fails ter save this timber hit'll jest erbout kill Paw. Ef ther +dam busts loose, somebody's got ter ride them rafts." +</P> + +<P> +The boy's face paled abruptly. He was a handsome youth, outwardly cut +to as fine a pattern of physical fitness as his sister exemplified, but +in his eyes one found none of her dauntlessness of spirit. Hurriedly +Alexander swept on. +</P> + +<P> +"I aims ter go back over thar right now. He's got ter be kept quiet +an' so I dastn't tell him what I seeks ter do. I hain't fearsome of +leavin' ye ter watch after him. I knows ye kin gentle him an' comfort +him even better'n I could do hit myself." +</P> + +<P> +She thrust out her hand, boy fashion, and her brother clasped it. Five +minutes later she stood looking down on her father's closed eyes, +listening to the easy breathing of the man in the bed. +</P> + +<P> +On the floor at her feet lay the pack which she meant to take with her, +a rifle leaned against a chair and a pistol was slung in a holster +under her left arm-pit—Alexander was accountred for her venture. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Brent watched her swinging down the slope with an easy, space-devouring +stride. He had begun to think she would be too late; more than half to +hope she would be too late. If she arrived on time there was, of +course, no turning back. It should be recorded to his credit that no +man had guessed at his inner trepidation. But the sullen swell of the +thundering waters had beaten not only on his ears but on his heart as +well—and dread had settled over him like a pall. +</P> + +<P> +Immeasurable power was lashing itself into a merciless fury. Boundless +might was loosening into frenzy. He had seen the misshapen wreckage of +houses and barns ride by, bobbing like bits of cork. He had seen the +swirl of foam that was like the froth of a vast hydrophobia. +</P> + +<P> +The men who had volunteered stood braced and ready at the long sweeps +with which, fore and aft, they would seek to hold the course. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander leaped from the shore to the last of the three rafts, and +looked about her. Perhaps she had no eye just now for a thing that +Brent had noted as significant; the gleam in the eyes that bent upon +her arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"Does ye aim ter ride with us, Mr. Brent?" she inquired and when he +nodded his assent she said deliberately: "Ye comes from ther city—an' +this hyar's liable ter be a rough trip. I reckon I ought ter warn ye +whilst thar's still time ter turn back. We've got ter go out on a +whirl-pool betwixt them walls of rock an' thar may not be nothin' left +but kindlin' wood." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," was the somewhat curt response. "I'm taking no greater +chances than the rest of you." +</P> + +<P> +No longer was it possible to hope that the dam would hold against the +rising crescendo of that battering from beyond and the insidious +tongues that licked at its foundations. +</P> + +<P> +It was now only a matter of time, and the hour which followed was a +period of dire suspense. Through small breaks already gushed minor +cataracts—all growing. No man offered to turn aside but some had +recourse to the steadying influence of the pocket flask. Between the +gorge's sides they had swift glimpses of racing flotsam that had +yesterday been dwelling houses and they waited, nerve-stretched, for +the crash that would launch them into the same precarious channel. +Their out-going would be as violent and eruptive as that of lava from a +crater. +</P> + +<P> +Then the dam broke. +</P> + +<P> +It gave way with a rending such as must have been sounded in the days +when a molten globe was cooling. From the base of the dam sucking +tongues had licked out boulders that upheld the formation as a keystone +holds an arch. It went into collapse with an explosive splintering and +left fang-like reefs still standing. Through the breach fell the +ponderous weight of a river left unsupported. +</P> + +<P> +First, the inrush flung the rafts backwards against the banks, and then +the churning whirlpool which was developed sent them spinning madly +outward. The rafts jammed together and trembled with a groaning +shudder. They wavered and undulated like cloth and that nearest the +gorge lunged outward, dashed against one wall of precipice, caromed off +and ground against the other. About the edges, it had gone to +splinters but the core still held. The second raft, by some miracle, +rode through without collision to ride tilting about the curve into the +channel proper. Brent saw, through dazed and uncertain eyes, figures +bending to long poles. He felt such a sickening sensation as a man in +a barrel may experience at the moment of going over the crest of +Niagra. Through it all he felt rather than saw the figure of a girl in +man's clothing standing at the center of the raft, poised with bent +knees against shock; and with a Valkyrie fire in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +A half hour later the man from town drew a freer breath. It was still +a wild enough ride, but after the lurching dash out of the cauldron, it +seemed a peaceful voyage. Now down the center of the river they swept +at tide-speed. At either end of each raft men bent to the sweeps in +the task of their crude piloting. Tree tops brushed under them as they +went and far out on either side were wide-reaching lagoons that had +been high ground three days ago. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander herself was standing a little apart and Brent was of a mind +to draw her into conversation but as he approached her he decided that +this was not the time to improve acquaintanceship. Her air of +detachment amounted to aloofness and Brent remembered that she had, +weighing upon her, the anxiety of her father's condition. +</P> + +<P> +Jase Mallows, however, just then relieved from duty at the steering +sweep, was less subtle of deduction. With his eye on Alexander, whose +back was turned to him, he jauntily straightened his shoulders and gave +his long mustache a twirl. Brent thought of the turkey-gobbler's strut +as, with amused eyes, he watched the backwoods lady-killer. Jase had +heard many of the old wives' tales of Alexander and thought of her as +one, ambitious of amorous conquest, may think of a famous and much +discussed beauty. Had she been another woman, Jase would before now +have gone over to the house on a "sparking" expedition, but Old Man +McGivins had discouraged such aspirations—and his daughter had been no +less definite of attitude. Here, however, he had the girl on neutral +ground and meant to seize his opportunity. +</P> + +<P> +So he strolled over to her with an ingratiating smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Aleck," he began in the drawling voice which he himself rather +fancied, "we hed a right norrer squeak of hit back thar didn't we?" +</P> + +<P> +There should have been discouragement in the coolness of the glance +that she turned upon him, but Jase had the blessing of self-confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye war thar yerself—ye ought ter know," said Alexander curtly. Then +she added, "An' don't call me Aleck—my name's Alexander." +</P> + +<P> +Jase Mallows reddened to his temples. There had been moments, even in +the straining activity of these hours, for him to boast to his fellows +that it would be interesting to watch the progress of his campaign for +the affections of Alexander. Now they were watching. +</P> + +<P> +So Jase laughed awkwardly. "Wa'al, thet's reasonable enough," he +handsomely conceded. "A gal's got a rather es ter what name she's ter +be called by an' ef she's es purty es you be she kin afford ter be +high-headed too." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander stood looking the man over from head to foot as though +studying a new species—possibly a species of insect-life. Under that +embarrassing scrutiny Jase fidgeted his hands. Eventually he drew out +a flask and having uncorked it he ceremoniously wiped the bottle's +mouth with the palm of his hand. "Let's take a leetle dram ter better +acquaintances," he suggested. "Thet thar's licker I wouldn't offer ter +nobody but a reg'lar man. Hit's got a kick like a bob-tailed mule." +</P> + +<P> +With features that had not altered their expression, the girl reached +out her hand and accepted the bottle. +</P> + +<P> +She held the thing before her, looking at it for a moment, then with a +swift gesture tossed it sidewise into the river. +</P> + +<P> +Jase Mallows bent forward and his face flamed, but his anger seemed a +tame and little thing to the wrath that leaped from calm to blazing +eruption in the woman's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Whilst we're aboard this hyar raft," Alexander announced with an +utterance that cut like a zero wind, "I'm boss an' I aims fer men ter +stay sober. Ef thet don't suit you—go ashore." +</P> + +<P> +"How?" inquired Jase with a heavy irony and Alexander replied shortly, +"Thet's yore business." +</P> + +<P> +She turned on her heel and walked away leaving the discomfited Lothario +staring after her with so malign an anger that the men within ear-shot +stifled their twitters of amusement and pretended to have overheard +nothing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + + +<P> +As Alexander passed him, Brent did not miss the suppressed fury in her +eyes or the disdainful tilt of her chin. Her bearing was that of a +barbaric princess, and a princess of meteorically vivid beauty. There +had been a deliberate purpose in the clear carrying tones with which +she had repulsed Jase Mallows. He had been the first man to make +advances, because he was the boldest, but for all her guise of +unconsciousness she had seen the passion smoulder in the eyes about her +and later others might become emboldened unless they were discouraged +by a clear precedent. Heretofore her father's stern repute had +safeguarded her. Now she was dependent upon herself alone. +</P> + +<P> +Down the yellow river swept the two uninjured rafts and the one that +carried a fringe of raggedness. For the most part the men were busy +with sweep and pike-pole fending off the cumbering drift and clearing +the whirlpools where hidden reefs threatened destruction. There were +sharp turns and angles too, where the yellow water roared into fretful +and vehement menace. With night-fall the heights seemed to draw in and +huddle close and the dirge of flood and wind mounted into a heavier +timbre. +</P> + +<P> +Fires leaped into fitful radiance. Banjos and "dulcimores" came out of +hiding and sounded plaintively over the waste of waters. Scraps of +almost mediaeval life showed out in thumb-nail sketches between the +sooty shadow world and the red flare of the bonfires. Voices were +lifted into weird minors and lugubrious tunes, recitative, of sad love +themes—and these were, of course, addressed to Alexander. She joined +no group, but sat with her hands clasped about her updrawn knees and +her gaze ranging off into distance. The carmine and orange +illumination played upon her color of cheek and hair and eyes and when, +unconsciously her face fell into a reflective quiet and her lips +drooped with a touch of wistfulness, the allurement of her beauty was +arresting and undeniable. Brent fell to wondering what life could hold +for her. +</P> + +<P> +The time must come, he thought, when a beauty like that in a land of +plain and drudgery-enslaved women, must bring for her something like a +crisis. She was twenty-one and unawakened, but that the men about her +should long allow her to remain so was as unlikely as that a +pirate-crew would leave treasure unfought for. A rising tide of human +passion about her seemed as inevitable as this actual flood had +been—and perhaps as swift of coming. +</P> + +<P> +But if the amorous selections of that crude minstrelsy made any +impression upon her, she gave no indication. Before the songs ended +she withdrew to the rude shelter that had been fashioned for her and +wrapped herself in her blanket. But the pistol holster lay close to +her hand. When she rose at day-break they had turned out of the stream +upon which they had embarked into the broader river that it fed and +about them floated a wavering mass of ice from broken gorges above. +</P> + +<P> +Brent shivered and dabbed grudgingly with cold water at the face upon +which a stubble of beard had begun to bristle. But the girl carried an +icy bucket into her shack and reinforced its forward wall with blanket +and rubber coat, not as a protection against the knife-edged sharpness +of the air but against prying eyes. Then she bathed unhurriedly and +fastidiously. +</P> + +<P> +When she emerged the bloom of her cheeks and the luster of her thick +hair would have been the envy of a boudoir where beauty-doctors have +done their utmost. And that day too, save for the smouldering eyes of +the discomfited Jase Mallows, the wolf-like pack treated her with a +cautious deference of bearing. +</P> + +<P> +When at the end of two days the water was dropping as rapidly as it had +risen, Alexander announced, "I reckon we've got a right gay chanst now +ter put in at ther Coal City boom, hain't we?" And several heads +nodded assent. Brent noticed that Jase Mallows' face wore a smile +which did not altogether escape malignity, and at the first opportunity +he inquired: "What were you smiling about, Mr. Mallows, when they spoke +of Coal City?" +</P> + +<P> +The backwoods dandy scowled and gave back the churl's response, "Thet's +my business." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," Brent acceded coolly. "You don't have to answer me. I +didn't suppose it was a matter you were ashamed to talk about." +</P> + +<P> +Mallows bent with a truculent narrowing of his lids and an outthrust +chin, but observing that the city man was in no wise cowed by his +scowls he amended his attitude. Two days before Brent would have been +more cautious of offending this man, whose exploits had run, sometimes, +to violence, but a subtle transformation had begun in him. A new +disdain for personal risks had caught fire from that flaming quality in +the woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Hev ye ever seed Coal City?" inquired Mallows, and when the other +shook his head, he continued in a lowered voice. "Wa'al hit's a right +rough sort of place. Hit's a coal minin' town with only one +tavern—an' things goes forward thar right sensibly similar ter hell on +a hot night. With ther flood holdin' up ther mines hit's apt ter +kinderly out-do hitself jest now." He paused a moment then capped his +prediction with an added detail. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar'll be plentiful drunkenness an' harlotry thar. Alexander +couldn't speak civil ter me, but I war jest a studyin' erbout how well +she's goin' ter like Coal City." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When the rafts were safe in the boom. Brent looked about for Mallows, +but Mallows was already gone. Alexander herself was among the last to +start along the ill-lighted and twisting street that climbed along, the +broken levels of the town toward the tavern. It was, at best, a +squalid village and a tawdry one. Now it was to boot a wholly +demoralized town, cut off from the other world by inundated highways +and the washing out of its railroad bridge. The kerosene street lamps +burned dully and at long intervals and high up the black slopes a few +coke furnaces still burned in red patches of inflamed and sullen glare. +</P> + +<P> +Brent had dropped out of sight, meaning to follow the girl as an +unofficial body guard. Knowing her impatience at gratuitous services +of protection he made no announcement of his purpose, but fell in +behind the light of the lantern she carried and followed her in the +shadows. When he had gone only a little way, he had the vague feeling +that someone else was following him so he halted and wheeled suddenly. +After peering vainly through the murk, he told himself that he was +letting his imagination play him tricks but the disquieting impression +of soft footsteps padding along behind him he could not dispel. +</P> + +<P> +Before they had readied the main street and the disreputable pile which +was the tavern, sounds of lewd and raucous voices floated out—a chorus +of profane and blatant roistering. +</P> + +<P> +The houses along the way presented faces utterly blank and devoid of +life. Brent would have wondered at that, had he not had his brief talk +with Mallows. Now he understood. Respectable folks had withdrawn to +shelter behind barred doors and tightly shuttered windows until such +time as the unleashed element of outlawry should evacuate the town. +The law-abiding were, in effect, undergoing a siege and avoiding the +ill-lighted streets. +</P> + +<P> +But the light at the court-house square was relatively bright and as +Brent crossed in front of the squat and shadowy bulk of the old +jail-house—empty now, though it should have been full—he made out a +figure hastening about him in a circuitous fashion at a dog trot as +though bent on arriving at the hostelry first. That, then, must have +been the presence he had felt at his back, and a fresh alarm assailed +him. It was the figure of Bud Sellers. +</P> + +<P> +When at last Alexander had gone up the several steps that led to the +closed door of the tavern, and stood for a moment, evidently hesitating +with disgust for the babel within, Brent drew back into a convenient +shadow and looked anxiously about for the other figure. It had +disappeared. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +That hostelry was the property of one D. W. Kelly, a huge and unclean +lout of a man and the establishment was as wholesome a place as a bear +pit, and no more so. +</P> + +<P> +It was not with complacency that the landlord saw his house given over +to the destructive caprices of a drunken and uncontrollable mob. He +had no means of freeing himself of his guests. When his slatternly +wife had complained: "Them miners an' loggers jest louzes up a body's +house," he had wagged his head dejectedly and spread his great +black-nailed hands. "If that's ther wu'st thing they does hit'll be a +plum God's blessin'," he replied. "Ther law p'intedly fo'ces a +tavern-keeper ter sleep an' eat man an' beast—ef so be they kin pay." +</P> + +<P> +Now the motley crew was in unchallenged possession—and would remain in +possession until the river went down and fords were once more passable. +That a reign of terror would prevail so long as they tarried in town, +in no wise dampened their own exuberance of spirit. +</P> + +<P> +Two or three traveling salesmen had been marooned here, but since the +beginning of this saturnalia they had not been in evidence beyond the +thresholds of their own rooms. +</P> + +<P> +There was no bar at D. W. Kelly's tavern and none was needed, since +every man was duly and individually provisioned and since even in these +flood times a dollar left unwatched on a certain stump up the mountain +side would cause a jug to appear mysteriously in its place. +</P> + +<P> +But since there was no bar, the great room whose door opened directly +upon the porch had been commandeered as a wassailing hall. Here the +entering guest must run the gantlet of the rollicking horde before he +could attain the more peaceful harbor of his own quarters. +</P> + +<P> +About a red hot stove hung a crew of as dirty and disorderly men as +ever came out of coal mine or lumber camp. Those who remained sober +remained also somewhat aloof against the walls and kept their mouths +shut. From the ceiling downward hung the thick, stale cloud of smoke +from many strong pipes and the rancid poison of air discharged from +many lungs had become a stench in the nostrils. Occasional figures +walked with an unsteady lurch, while through the whole chaotic +pandemonium others slept heavily in their chairs—or even on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +But just before Alexander reached the porch and hesitated on the +threshold Jase Mallows had been there. Now he was gone but he had +first imparted the information that the "'he-woman' from ther head of +Shoulderblade branch" was coming hither. So it was likely that she +would have a noisy welcome. On the outskirts of the crowd sat a giant +who seemed a shade rougher of guise than those about him. When he +stood, this man topped six feet by as many inches. His shoulders had +such a spread that one thought of them as of an eagle's wings—from tip +to tip. His face, now bristling with dark stubble, was none the less +clear-chiseled and arrestingly featured. At first sight a stranger +would be apt to exclaim, "What a magnificent figure of a man he would +make, if he were only clean-shaven and well dressed." This fellow was +not drinking but looking on from a table at which no one ventured to +challenge his sole occupancy or his evident preference for his own +society. +</P> + +<P> +A somewhat amused and indulgent gleam dwelt in his eye, tinged, it is +true, with a certain unveiled contempt—but it was not the disgust that +might have been expected in a sober man looking on at such a +loathsomeness of debauchery. +</P> + +<P> +There were women present too,—coarse and vicious creatures who lacked +even the sort of tawdry finery that their sisters in western mining +camps affect. There was here no shimmer of even the slaziest satin. +In dress as in character they were drab. +</P> + +<P> +So was the stage set when the door opened and Alexander stepped in, +dropping her pack to the floor and standing speechless for a moment or +two as her amazed eyes took in the composition of the picture. +Alexander had never seen such a spectacle before, and as she looked +about for someone who appeared to have authority here, her fine eyes +and lips fell into an unmasked scorn. +</P> + +<P> +She had not closed the door and through it, close on her heels, slipped +Brent. For, a little space the confusion took no account of her coming +but the city man was standing directly behind her and he saw the +pliancy of her attitude stiffen and then across her shoulder he +recognized in a rear door the tense figure of Bud Sellers. +</P> + +<P> +Sellers stood looking through a lane which chance had left open and +Brent thought that his posture was the electrically expectant one of a +man poised for instant action. He remembered that when Bud went on a +spree he was known as the "mad dog." +</P> + +<P> +That same insanity which had attacked the father might now even forget +that the daughter's assumption of being a man was only a pretense. He +might act as though she were a man bent on avenging a mortal injury. +There was no leisure then to speculate on how Bud had gotten here—that +he was here with his gaze fixed in that galvanized fashion on the girl +was a sufficient cause for apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +Then the eyes of the many began following the eyes of the few, until a +brief lull settled down on the dissonance, and everyone was staring at +the girl who stood inside the door, dressed as a man, but holding their +gaze with the lodestone of her womanly beauty. +</P> + +<P> +A hoarse shout went up from the rear. "A gal in pants! Hit's ther +he-woman!" +</P> + +<P> +"I wants ter see ther tavern-keeper. Whar's he at?" demanded Alexander +in a clear voice that went through the place like the note of a +xylophone. She stood out, a picture of serene beauty drawn against an +infernally evil and confused background. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the wretched women came forward and bent upon her the full +battery of their brazen and leering curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"Pants!" exclaimed one of them satirically. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther wench hain't got no shame!" The second used an even uglier word. +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander ignored that criticism. +</P> + +<P> +"Whar's ther landlord at?" she repeated and a chorus of laughter ensued. +</P> + +<P> +Then a bewhiskered fellow, red-eyed and dirty, to whom Jase Mallows had +previously spoken, came to the front with a burlesqued attempt at a low +bow. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't heed these hyar fool women, sweetheart," he said. "They hain't +nothin' but low-down trash nohow— They're jealous, but thar's some +right upstandin' men-folks hyar fer ye ter keep company with. I reckon +fust off ye needs a leetle dram—hits's right chilly outside." +</P> + +<P> +As he proffered a flask, Brent caught the glitter of his eye, and knew +that this time it would not be easy to decline. The crowd was drifting +forward, and through the closing lane of humanity, Bud Sellers glided +rapidly to a place near its front. His hand was inside his coat +now—where the holster lay. +</P> + +<P> +"A leetle dram won't do ye no harm," insisted the man of the blood-shot +eyes and then as he caught the quiet contempt on the girl's face, his +manner changed to truculent bullying. "Folks says ye wants ter be +treated ther same as a man—an' any man thet holds I hain't good enough +ter drink with—thet man's my enemy." +</P> + +<P> +Brent hesitated to draw his weapon lest in such a situation it should +provoke a holocaust. Yet he felt that in a moment he might need it. +Then as he stood, still uncertain, he saw the giant who had until now +looked on with detached emotionlessness come elbowing his way through +the press, much as an elephant goes through small timber, uprooting +obstacles and tossing them aside as he moves. +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander had gone dead white with the pallor of outraged wrath. +Her lips had tightened and her eyes taken on a quality like the blue +flame which is the hottest fire that burns. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly she moved with a swiftness that was electric and stood, +before her purpose could be guessed, with a heavy-calibered revolver +outthrust into the face of the man whose pistol hand had held the +whiskey bottle. The flask crashed into splinters from an abruptly +relaxed grip. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't drink—without hit pleasures me ter drink," said the girl with +an inflexible coldness and levelness of voice, yet one no more +unfalteringly firm than the hand which held the gun. "Hit won't never +pleasure me ter drink with a man I wouldn't wipe my feet on. Ye hain't +a man nohow—ye're jest a pole-cat." +</P> + +<P> +The bearded jaw dropped in amazement, and a sense of the nearness of +death intruded itself upon Lute Brown's thoughts. Still since even +such a situation called for a retort he essayed one in a falter that +travestied the boldness of his words. +</P> + +<P> +"When a man names me thet name—I wants him ter come <I>towards</I> me. Of +course ye hain't no man though." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm man enough ter take yore measure," she flung back at him, "an' I'm +comin' towards ye right now. Ef yore hands ain't high when I git's +thar, I aims ter kill ye." +</P> + +<P> +She moved forward and the bully gave grudgingly back, but at that +instant the gigantic on-looker casually laid hand upon him by one +shoulder and flung him sidewise as casually as a terrier tosses a rat. +His manner was precisely that of a man who removes a chair which +obstructs his path. +</P> + +<P> +"Stranger," said the titanic fellow in a pleasantly drawling +intonation, "I think I heered ye say ye wanted ther landlord. Ef ye'll +come with me I'll find him fer ye. A decent feller wouldn't hardly +relish this company nohow." +</P> + +<P> +There had been in his form of address no masculine patronage proffering +rescue to the beset feminine, and looking up into a face which was +smiling with an engaging radiance of white teeth, Alexander nodded and +said only, "I'd be right obleeged ter ye." +</P> + +<P> +Through a path that opened itself in silence for them, they went out of +a back door, but when they had gone, Brent saw in astonishment that Bud +Sellers was crouching with defiant eyes over Lute Brown as he slowly +regained his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Hev ye done hed enough?" demanded Bud in a voice of deadly calm and +absolute sobriety. "Because ef ye hain't, I'm hyar ter finish hit up +with ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Air ye one of her beaus, too?" came the surly question and Bud +answered deliberately. "She don't tolerate no sweet-heartin', but +whilst I was crazed with licker I hurt her paw—an' I reckon I owes her +somethin'." +</P> + +<P> +When the giant had returned he went nonchalantly back to his table as +though nothing had occurred, but Brent followed and joined him there. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you come to be here, Halloway?" asked the city man in a +guarded and incredulous voice. +</P> + +<P> +The tall man looked about him and then, since the drone of voices was +again gathering volume he replied: "Oh, ye're right liable ter meet up +with a driftin' lumberjack anywhar's at all." +</P> + +<P> +After filling a disreputable pipe with tobacco crumbs he leaned a +little forward, then in lowered tones, from which every trace of +mountain dialect had abruptly departed he said: +</P> + +<P> +"By gad, Brent, an episode that gives a man a new sensation—a new +thrill, in a world of threadbare ones—is worth a king's ranson. I've +seen the beauties of Occident and Orient but until now——" +</P> + +<P> +A figure drifted near enough to overhear, and rising slowly Halloway +finish up: +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al, stranger, hit's mighty nigh my bed time. I reckon I'll santer +up ter my room and lay down. I hopes ye git's took keer of yourself, +but ef ye don't ye're right welcome ter bunk in with me." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go with you now," declared the timber buyer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + + +<P> +In a squalid room above stairs, Halloway sat, coatless, with his +flannel shirt open on a throat that rose from the swell of his chest as +a tower rises from a hill. His hair was rumpled; his whole aspect +disheveled; but when he grinned there was the flash of strong teeth as +white as a hound's and as even as a professional beauty's. +</P> + +<P> +"Now tell me," he demanded with prompt interest, "who is this barbaric +and regal creature in whose train I find you? Do you assert any claim +of copyright—or prior discovery, or is it a clear field and no favor?" +</P> + +<P> +When Brent answered, it was with challenging decisiveness. "A clear +field, yes—but certainly no favor for either of us. She is primitive +enough to hold fast to a wholesome code. I wouldn't advise any +philandering." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway bent his head backward and gazed meditatively at the cloud of +smoke which he sent ceiling-ward. +</P> + +<P> +"So the faithful and chivalrous friend is giving me the benefit of his +experience touching the stern virtue of an almost Druid life," he +commented. "Yet I know these people as few outsiders do." +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, you <I>are</I> an outsider, Jack. When we last sat +quarreling in your rooms, your windows gave off over the rhododendron +of Central Park—and the bronze horseman in the Plaza. Here the +rhododendron has other uses than the decorative. She could be only a +reckless adventure in your life—and in all likelihood, a fatal one." +</P> + +<P> +With quiet amusement in the eyes that still gazed upward, Halloway +received this gratuitous counsel. +</P> + +<P> +"I begin to think that, as an adventure, she'd be worth fatality," he +said. +</P> + +<P> +With the license of old acquaintance, Brent went on with his berating. +</P> + +<P> +"I happen to know you in real life as well as in masquerade. Whether +your whim calls for this fantastic and shaggy disguise or for the +impeccability of evening dress, you are still only a handsome beast of +prey. You are so incorrigible and so devoid of conventional morality +that, in being fond of you, I wonder at myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Conventional morality be damned! I repudiate it utterly," declared +the giant calmly. "But tell me about this girl." +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw her until a few days back," Brent enlightened his +inquisitor. "Her beauty and her dauntlessness have laid a sort of +spell on me and I'm a fairly conservative man. You are not—you're a +plunger—a gambler in emotions. That's why I'm hanging out a warning +signal." +</P> + +<P> +The big man laughed with the full-chested mirth of a Viking. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, my dear fellow, you would like me less if I were changed from +what you call the beast of prey to such a house-dog as are most of your +acquaintances. I refresh you in a life of drab monotony, because of my +outspoken repudiation of things that life's copy-cats accept without +thought or demurrer. I interest you because, though I am educated and +disreputably rich, I remain at heart a savage—because I like to break +away from the tawdry glitter of social pretense and run baying joyously +at the head of the wild pack. And, in fairness, you must admit that +when I revert to feral instincts I don't have to ask odds as an +amateur." +</P> + +<P> +The great fellow came abruptly to his feet, not with the ponderousness +of most giants, but with a panther-like agility and smoothness. +</P> + +<P> +"I am idle—yes—so far as it is idle for a man to refuse to go on +despoiling weaker men for gain—but why not? I can spend a fortune +every year for a long life-span, and still leave loot a-plenty behind +my taking off. Yet, my idling is not mere slothfulness. I know the +Orient, not as the ordinary white man knows it, but as one who has +become a brother to the yellow and brown. I know these hills. No man +in this town to-night, save yourself, suspects that I am not native—or +even that I have ever participated in any other life." +</P> + +<P> +"All of which I admit. The wolf may be more interesting than the +collie—but for the sheepfold the collie is safer. I'm thinking of +Alexander." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway reflectively knocked the nub of ash from his pipe, and went on +more slowly. "Civilization stifles me," he said seriously. "But when +I turn my back on its dusty theologues and dogmatists, I still hold +tight to the poets. To me feeling means much, but cold thought is like +a fireless hearth." +</P> + +<P> +The speaker was standing before the frame of the dark window. The wild +capriciousness of the weather had brought rain and flashes of untimely +lightning flared now and again into momentary whiteness. Brent looked +at the mighty proportion of his companion and thought of the girl who +slept in another tawdry room opening on the same narrow hallway. Each +of them was unusual; each of them insurgent; each without fear. If +their two natures should strike the spark of attraction, he trembled to +think of what a conflagration might blaze from the kindling. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not discussing theories," he said a bit shortly. "I'm talking +about a mountain girl whom I take it you would never marry—and if +not——" He spread his hands and left the sentence unfinished. +</P> + +<P> +"And if not?" Halloway caught him up. "What has marriage necessarily +to do with love? There is more honesty and stimulation in the +life-story of any <I>grande amoureuse</I> than a dozen of your stodgy fraus." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to bed," declared Will Brent. "But—leave Alexander alone. +I don't think she'd see eye to eye with you on the subject of the +<I>grande amoureuse</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"That only foreshadows a duel of wills—conflict—drama." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway paused and laughed, and after that he went on with eyes that +glowed admiringly. +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say she never heard of an Amazon—and she's a splendid one. +She dares to live a man's life in a country where other women tamely +accept thraldom! Perhaps it is a great adventure. I have seen a +meteor and I shall stay." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you know," Brent reminded him evenly, "the first hint that +you are a millionaire masquerading as a native will engulf you in local +suspicion." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mean that they shall learn that." Suddenly Halloway's head +bent forward a little and his brows contracted. "They <I>can't</I> learn it +except through you." +</P> + +<P> +"Precisely," said the smaller man, with dry brevity. If the short +answer brought a cloud to Halloway's face it was one that cleared +immediately into laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"We haven't reached that bridge yet," he announced, "and we needn't +open up a Brent-Halloway feud until we get there." +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment's pause, after which the big fellow continued. +</P> + +<P> +"Since seeing the helpless maid, whom you seek to protect, holding back +that bunch of desperadoes, it occurs to me that she can give a fairly +good account of herself. Gad, it was epic!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then why did you intervene?" +</P> + +<P> +Halloway slowly turned his head and lifted his brows in frank amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you seriously ask? Did you suppose it was because I feared for +her? Why, man, the blue flame in her eyes would have licked that crew +without the aid of the gun. I intervened because when opportunity +knocks, I open. I had enough dramatic sense to recognise my cue for a +telling entrance; and I entered." +</P> + +<P> +"Jack," inquired Brent, "how did you ever happen to know this remote +life well enough to pass as a native?" +</P> + +<P> +"Born here," was the laconic reply. But the other pressed him for +fuller detail and he proceeded cheerfully. "The Halloway millions +didn't come to us on a tray borne by angels. My father made his pile, +and much of it he made in coal and iron—here and there in the +Appalachians. He trained me up in that business. Why, I even worked +during school vacations as a telegraph operator in the office of the +local railroad station." He smiled again as he added, "Add that item +to my versatile summary. I'm as good a key tickler as you would be apt +to find in a day's journey." +</P> + +<P> +"At all events you are a surprising reprobate," admitted the lumberman +with a yawn. "Someday, though, I'll challenge you to a sending and +receiving tourney. I began in a broker's office, and I'm fairly good +myself." +</P> + +<P> +But after Halloway had thrown himself down on his bed and his regular +breathing attested his sound sleep, Brent slipped noiselessly out into +the corridor. Halloway might feel certain of the girl's ability to +fend for herself but with this crowd here to-night, running its wild +gamut of dissipation, the less primitive man thought it as well to keep +an eye on her safety. +</P> + +<P> +Down the hall, dimly lighted by a single smoking lamp, he saw a figure +which had been standing before Alexander's door, draw furtively back +around the angle of a wall. From below stairs still came the din of +wassailing. +</P> + +<P> +Yet instead of alarm, a smile came to Brent's eyes, for he had +recognized Bud Sellers and he no longer distrusted the boy's purposes. +</P> + +<P> +In Alexander's room the lamp had long been blown out but to the eyes of +the girl sleep did not come at once. She gazed at the window where +occasional flashes of lightning woke and died. She was wondering what +had happened back there at the house where her father lay wounded. Of +Bud Sellers she thought only as of a man she had promised not to kill, +though against him, as an instrumentality of her grief, resentment +burned hot. She could not guess that he stood at that moment in the +hallway, guarding her door and nursing in his contrite heart an +unexpressed and hopeless worship of her. +</P> + +<P> +For Bud, save when the liquor conquered him, was a kindly soul; even +lovable as a faithful dog might be, though of that canine virtue people +thought less than of his occasional rabies. +</P> + +<P> +He had talked with Alexander—always impersonally—a scant half dozen +times in his life—but since boyhood he had dreamed of her as a peasant +may dream of exalted nobility—and his life had never known any other +dream. +</P> + +<P> +But if Alexander thought of Bud only as the author of her present +anxiety, her thoughts strayed before she fell asleep, to another man. +</P> + +<P> +The face and figure of that Colossus who had swung men right and left, +rose before her and her worship of masculine strength and courage paid +smiling tribute. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon he don't never hev ter use more'n half ther strength he's got +in them arms an' shoulders of his'n," she told herself. It did not +enter troublesomely into her reflections that she had marked also the +infectious quality of his smile and the clear brightness of his eye +with an interest that was purely feminine. +</P> + +<P> +As her lids finally grew heavy she murmured to herself: "Ef I was like +other gals I reckon I'd git sort of crazy erbout thet big feller. He's +like a pine tree standin' up amongst saplin's—but I don't reckon a +body could hardly ever git him clean, even ef they soaked him in hot +suds fer a week of Sundays." +</P> + +<P> +With that reflection—also fastidiously feminine—she turned on her +side and slept. +</P> + +<P> +It was into a room below that Lute Johnson stumbled long after midnight +on most unsteady legs. Lute was not satisfied with his evening. He +had been actuated in his attempted hazing of Alexander by Jase Mallows, +who thought her pride should be humbled, yet sought to accomplish that +end vicariously in order that the doors of future conquest might not be +closed against himself. Lute's undertaking had not been a success and +he sought his bed, sodden and bloodshot of eye. He was nursing grudges +of varying degrees against Jase Mallows, Alexander, Halloway and +finally against Bud Sellers. +</P> + +<P> +He kicked off his brogans and as he leaned to blow out the light, he +stumbled, sprawling headlong and carrying the lamp down with him. For +a moment he lay where he had fallen, too dazed and befuddled to rise, +but presently he clambered up, his eyes wide and terrified, for his +rising was Phoenix-like—mantled in flame. With incredible swiftness +the flimsy coverings of his bed had burst into a crimson glare and even +his clothing was afire. +</P> + +<P> +Beating out the flame that licked his shirt, he abandoned the rest and +fled, howling like a madman. The thing which D. W. Kelly had feared +had come to pass and the frame building was doomed to its gutting. +</P> + +<P> +So frequently of late had ungodly bellowings and outcries broken the +fitful rest of this house, that for a brief space, Lute's howls of +alarm failed to carry their true significance. Some guests, startled +out of their sleep, had the impulse rather to keep their doors tight +shut than to open them, and through the tinder-like dryness of the +place the flames roared up the boxed-in stairway as through a flue. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Sellers heard the yells of the fugitive Lute, and before he had +time to investigate, saw the stairhead vomiting smoke and fire. As he +dashed for Alexander's room, another door opened through which Halloway +and Brent ran out, carrying their shoes and coats. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me in," shouted Bud, hammering on the panels. "Ther house is +burnin' down an' ther steps is cut off." +</P> + +<P> +At first there was no response, but at last the door swung in. It +framed Alexander, clothed in shirt and trousers—but barefooted, and +holding a pistol in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +At the sight of Bud Sellers her face grew pallid. +</P> + +<P> +"You!" she exclaimed with white-hot anger. "My paw lays over thar with +yore bullet in his breast—an' ye comes runnin' hyar ter me fer a way +ter git outen danger!" +</P> + +<P> +The three men were crowding to the door but she stood barring it and +she did not give back an inch. In deliberation she went on. "He laid +a pledge on me not ter avenge him. Ef hit warn't fer thet, I'd kill ye +whar ye stands." +</P> + +<P> +"Fer God's sake, Alexander!" The mountaineer's voice was shrill with +excitement. "Kill me if ye likes—but don't tarry. I come ter warn +ye. Ther winder's ther only way out—an' thar hain't no time ter lose." +</P> + +<P> +As if in corroboration, the first puff of brown smoke eddied through +the open door. At first it came idly, driftingly, as if it had nothing +to do with haste. Halloway pushed both Sellers and Brent ahead of him, +and followed them in, slamming the door behind him. +</P> + +<P> +"Talk outside," he commanded sharply. "Don't waste life-and-death +minutes in this hell-trap!" +</P> + +<P> +Alexander gazed absently as though unable to readjust her trend of +thought so swiftly, then she said, quietly enough: "Thar's ther winder. +Go through hit ef ye likes." +</P> + +<P> +As for herself she turned to the task of tying up her pack of +belongings with what seemed to the frenzied men insufferable +deliberation. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the third floor," snapped Halloway whose head was already +thrust out of the window gauging possibilities of escape. "We'll have +to tear up sheets and make a rope of them." +</P> + +<P> +Brent leaped promptly to the task but Alexander looked at the huge body +which blocked the window frame and a smile curled her lips. "You on a +rope o' sheets!" She even laughed. "Ye mout es well entrust yourself +ter a strand of flax thread!" +</P> + +<P> +Through the floor licked a tongue of flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Kain't you men jump—an' catch ther limb of thet thar sycamore," she +added. "Hit hain't fur away—an' thet's how I'm aimin' ter leave +myself." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway turned an eager gaze upon the girl and even in the press of +moments he remembered the role he was playing. "I reckon," he +suggested, "I'd better lead off—ef thet flyin' limb holds me, it'll +hold ther balance of ye." +</P> + +<P> +What was genuinely in his mind was to be there to catch her if she +missed her grip, but to forestall objection he thrust his body through +the opening, measured the distance with a brief glance and launched +himself outward. To use that fire escape one must catch the branch, +and hold it without slipping, while he swung and groped with his feet +for another limb below. +</P> + +<P> +For Halloway the matter was done without doubt or wavering. It must be +so done or result in a three-storied drop, but when he turned and +looked back, bracing himself to catch Alexander, he saw her turn again +into the room, out of his range of vision. He could see Brent and Bud +vociferously arguing with her and then she reappeared and lifted her +pack and rifle over the sill. As she played out the improvised line of +bedding her eyes were angry and Halloway guessed that it was because +the two men had refused to leave without waiting for her. Eventually +when the room showed red beyond the frame she slipped through, poised +herself as the man had done, and came outward as smoothly as an +exhibition diver. She landed so close to Halloway that her hands +clasped over his own and her breath fluttered against his cheek. For a +fraction of an instant, he thought she might fail to hold her grip and +one arm swept around her pressing her close to him. Even when he knew +that she was safe he did not release her and his veins were pounding +with the wild exaltation of contact. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhat pantingly but coolly she commanded: "Move back. Give me room +ter stand on—them others kain't foller whilst we're blockin' ther way." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway had forgotten the others, and when Bud Sellers jumped, the +last of all, it was only just in time. A shower of sparks puffed out +of the window and inside sounded a crash of collapsing timbers. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, where do we go now?" inquired Brent a quarter of an hour later +and the girl turned on her heel. "As fer me," she replied, "I'm goin' +back ter my rafts of timber. I've done had a lavish of this town." +</P> + +<P> +"May we go too?" inquired Halloway. "We hain't got no roof over us +neither—now." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon ye kin all come save only——" she paused a moment and added +in hardened voice, "save only ther man thet sought ter slay my paw." +</P> + +<P> +Bud's head drooped. He was still sweating, for when he left the sill, +the place had been a furnace, but he said nothing, and instantly +Alexander wheeled again and spoke impulsively. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got ter crave yore pardon, Bud," she exclaimed. "Paw said he +didn't hold no grudge ergin you nohow. An' I reckon ye've done sought +right slavish ter make amends ternight." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + + +<P> +From down there at the boom as the blackest hours of the night passed, +Halloway and Brent sat rubber-coated on the raft watching the inflamed +redness that was wiping out all that end of the village. The +age-seasoned frame houses there huddled close enough for the hot +contagion to sweep them with typhoon speed and they went up in spurts +like pitch barrels. The wind was high enough to romp ruthlessly with +spark and blaze, until even the effort at fire-fighting had been +abandoned. Happily the bluster had settled to a constant gale out of +the south-west and the fire-tide rolled with it to the edge and not the +core of the town and when it lapped at the reeking woods it hissed out +in defeat. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander had withdrawn to her improvised shack and wrapped herself in +her blanket. Brent gazed with a sort of hypnotized intentness on the +wildness of the picture before him—an orgy of fire, wind and water. +Through the wet mountains the wind shrieked and buffetted until ancient +trees, made brittle by long freezing, went down. At his back, beyond +the boom, sounded the dirge of the swollen waters running out. That +was like the wail of a maniac exhausted by his ravings. The stage was +dropping as rapidly as it had risen. Ahead, tossing a mane of smoke +and a spume of spark, reveled the demoniac spirit of Fire. Brent +shuddered but Halloway struck a match just then for his dead pipe under +the protection of his coat lapel and in the brief flare Brent saw that +his eyes were agleam, feral and animal-like, and that his lips were +wolfishly drawn back from his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"This is elemental!" Halloway burst out suddenly. "I glory in it. +I've been sitting here drunker than any moonshine guzzler back there at +that tavern to-night. Drunk on the wild wine of the elements—drunk +from the skulls of Valhalla. Great God, I love it!" +</P> + +<P> +Brent rose at last and sought refuge under the insufficient roof of one +of the shacks, for a down-pour had come with the wind and in key with +all the extravagance of the night's mood, it was a cloud-burst. +</P> + +<P> +The city man tossed restlessly and once looking out across the stretch +of the rafted logs, he saw a single figure stripped to the skin in the +sheeted down-pour of cold rain. He saw it only when the lightning +flashed with the spectral effect of beauty. It stood straight with +back-flung shoulders and head upturned into the rain like some wild +high-priest of storm worship. When a flare, brighter than the others +limned the whole prospect into a dazzling instant, the features burst +into clarity with eyes glowing like madness, and lips parted in wild +exaltation. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll have a chill before morning," growled Brent, but his +astonishment at the hardihood of such a shower-bath would have been +more severely taxed had he been able to see behind the screening walls +of Alexander's shack. +</P> + +<P> +For if the colossal man standing there as God made him, reveling in the +sluicing of icy sheets of water, was a picture for a painter's delight, +the figure of the woman, sheltered from any eye, but likewise stripped +to the flesh was one almost as heroic and far lovelier. Alexander too, +was availing herself of that strong tonic which would have brought +collapse to a weakling. She stood tall, beautiful, a Diana with her +wet and flowing hair loosed about her white shoulders and her bosom +rising and falling to the elation of the storm-bath. +</P> + +<P> +The hurricane passed in the forenoon of that day leaving the ridges wet +and inert, with the dejection of spent violence, but from gray clouds +that hung in trailing wisps along the upper slopes a steady rain sobbed +down. After breakfast Bud Sellers who had after all not availed +himself of Alexander's permission to spend the night on the raft, came +aboard and diffidently approached the girl. +</P> + +<P> +He wore a hang-dog air but in his eyes was that same wistfulness of +unspoken worship. Brent knew that he was trying to explain to +Alexander his torture of self accusation because of the disaster born +of his moment of drunken frenzy. +</P> + +<P> +The girl stood looking at him, entirely oblivious to the devotion that +was clear-writ in his eyes. While he talked she accorded him a +hearing, but with lips tight pressed and the unforgettable picture in +her mind of the stricken man who might even now be dead. He might have +passed, with the pain of uncertainty clouding his last moments as to +the success or failure of her venture. +</P> + +<P> +With that burden on her heart it was difficult to listen to apologies +and explanations. She knew that Bud would have burned his body to a +crisp last night if need be in the effort to save her from a similar +fate, but that only irritated her. She had not called for help. She +had not needed help and this rush of volunteers to her rescue was, +after all, only a denial of the principle for which she so militantly +fought; the postulate that when she played a man's game she wished to +be treated as a man, asking no favors. +</P> + +<P> +Brent and Halloway overheard a little of what was said, for the two +voices rose in inflection, under the urge of his earnestness and her +feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't act pi'zen mean when I'm sober, Alexander—an' I strives not +ter drink, knowin' full well thet hit plum crazes me— Hit don't seem +like no common thirst— Hit comes on me like a plague and hit masters +me ther same as spells or fits——. God, He knows I'd es lief hev +raised my hand ergin my own daddy, ef I hed one, es erginst yore paw—I +war frenzied." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what made ye do hit, but I knows what ye done, Bud," said +Alexander and her rich voice trembled under the tautness of her effort +at control. "Ef a man kain't holp goin' mad like a dog—an' seekin' +ter slay folks, I reckon he——" It was on her tongue to say that he +ought to pay the mad-dog's penalty but she checked herself shortly and +went on with less cruelty, "I reckon he's a right dangerous sort of +feller ter hev 'round." +</P> + +<P> +"All I asks, Alexander," he pleaded, "air thet ye gives me ther chanst +ter make amends. Ef I feels ther cravin' masterin' me ergin, I'll go +ter town an' git ther police ter lock me up in ther jail-house an' keep +me thar, tell I comes back ter my senses." +</P> + +<P> +"Hit hain't a thing ye kin handily make amends fer," she reminded him, +"but I've done pledged myself ter let hit go unavenged and I knows too, +thet I'm beholden ter ye fer last night. None-the-less——" The color +paled from her cheeks and she shook her head. "None-the-less until I +gits back home—an' knows whether my paw is livin' or dead——" her +words came very slowly and with an effort, "I kain't say thet thar +won't be black hatred in my heart erginst ye." +</P> + +<P> +He nodded somewhat miserably. "No, I don't hardly reckon ye kin tutor +yore feelin's no different," he acknowledged as he turned away, but +from that moment he had dedicated himself to a vasselage out of which +he hoped to salvage no personal reward. +</P> + +<P> +When she had watched him tramp up the muddy slope from the bank to the +street, Alexander lifted her chin and tossed her head, as if to shake +away some cobwebbing thought from the brain. Then with an energetic +step she came over and without preamble announced, "Mr. Brent, I don't +aim ter tarry hyar no longer then ther soonest time I kin git out. +Let's me an' you talk business." +</P> + +<P> +Brent nodded. "Is it confidential? Do you want me to send this man +away?" he inquired, with a mischievous glance at the giant whose eyes, +save when they dropped before her own, remained fixed on the girl with +a devouring intentness. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander shook her head. "What fer?" she demanded. "I reckon we +hain't got no need of whisperin' erbout our transactions." +</P> + +<P> +She paused for an instant and went on. "Paw an' you measured up that +timber back yon, didn't ye? An' ye agreed on ther price too, didn't +ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"We settled both points. I have a memorandum, but——" +</P> + +<P> +"I knows what ye aims ter say," interrupted Alexander. "Ye means ter +name hit ter me thet them logs hain't all hyar because some of 'em +busted loose comin' through ther gorge. What I wanted ter ask ye is +thet you an' me should measure up thet raft now an' figger out what's +gone, so thet I kin tell paw——" She halted as abruptly as though a +blow on the mouth had broken off the utterance and a paroxysm of pain +crossed her face. The ever present dread had struck back that there +might be no father to whom she could report. With a swift recovery, +though, she finished. "So thet I kin fotch tidin's back home es ter +how much we gits." +</P> + +<P> +When these reckonings had been made Brent inquired: "Do you understand +the terms of this contract between your father and myself?" +</P> + +<P> +Her reply was guarded. "We've done talked hit over." +</P> + +<P> +"It was agreed," the buyer told her, "that I was to accept this stuff +and pay for it at some point from which I could deliver it in the +Bluegrass either by rail or navigable water. If you like, I'm ready to +pay now." +</P> + +<P> +He had seen Alexander under some trying circumstances and never with +any hint of breakdown, yet just now he wondered if unexpected good +tidings were not about to accomplish what bad news could not—carry out +the dam of her own hard-schooled repression on a flood of tears. Her +eyes became suddenly misty and her lips trembled. She started to +speak, then gulped and remained silent. But gradually the color flowed +back into her cheeks, as pink as the laurel blossom's deep center, and +once more she gave her head that characteristic toss as though in +contempt for her moment of weakness. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Brent, I hain't seekin' no favors an' I don't want nothin' but my +dues. I didn't know ye stood obleeged ter pay us 'twell ther logs went +down ter ther lowlands, but——" Though her words were slowly, even +tediously enunciated they seemed to come with difficulty. "But ef I +could take thet money back thar—an' tell him hit war all settled +up——" The fullness of what that meant to her gained in force because +she got no further with her explanation and Brent said with a +brusqueness, affected to veil his own sympathy: "Come on, let's go to +the bank." +</P> + +<P> +The bank at Coal City is a small box of brick, with two rooms. At the +front the cashier's grating stands. At the rear is a bare chamber +furnished with a small stove, a deal table and a few hickory-withed +chairs. It is here that directors meet and hinterland financiers +negotiate. Into this sanctum Brent led Alexander Macedonia McGivins, +and for no particular reason, save that no one had forbidden it, +Halloway accompanied them. +</P> + +<P> +The timber buyer scribbled his calculations on the back of an envelope +and submitted the results to the girl, who gravely nodded her +satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Brent with an air of relief, "there remain only two things +more. I shall now draw you a check for four thousand and ninety-one +dollars and fifty cents, and you will sign a receipt." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway was sitting in the background where he could indulge in all +the staring he liked, and since Alexander had swum into his ken, that +had become a large order. As Brent finished, the girl who had been +sitting at the table with a pen in her hand, suddenly pushed back her +chair and into her eyes came an amazed disappointment—a keen anxiety. +For a moment she looked blankly at the man who was opening his check +book. She suddenly felt that she had been confronted with a financial +problem that lay beyond her experience and one which she deeply +distrusted. It was as though affairs hitherto simple, except for +physical dangers, had run into a channel of subtler and therefore more +alarming complication. +</P> + +<P> +None of this escaped Halloway's lynx-like gaze but to Brent who was +smoothing out the folded check, it went unobserved. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Alexander bent forward, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment +and caught at the signer's wrist as spasmodically as though it were a +death warrant to which he meant to set his signature. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't write me no check!" she exclaimed somewhat desperately, then, +covered with confusion she added, "I don't aim ter insult ye none—but +I don't know much erbout fotched-on ways. I wants ter tote thet thar +payment back home—in real money." +</P> + +<P> +Except with Brent, Halloway had never thus far broken out of character. +Having assumed to be a mountain lumberman, he had consistently talked +as one—acted as one. +</P> + +<P> +Now he came out of his chair as though a mighty spring had uncurled +under him, and slapped an outspread hand to his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"Great jumping Jehosaphat!" he exclaimed, and turning in her chair, the +young woman studied him in perplexity. But Halloway's slip was brief +and his recovery instant. Since Brent sat there staring in speechless +bewilderment at Alexander, the giant launched himself into the breach. +</P> + +<P> +"Tote four thousand dollars in silver an' paper an' gold across them +trails in saddle bags!" His voice suddenly mounted into domineering +vehemence. "Tote hit over wild an' la'relly mountings with this hyar +country full of drunken scalawags thet would do murder for a ten dollar +bill! Hev ye done gone plum bereft of reason?" +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's first confusion of manner had come from the fear that her +refusal of a check might seem tainted with the discourtesy of +suspicion. Now in the face of actual opposition it stiffened instantly +into hostility. The perplexity died from her face and her eyes blazed. +For a moment she met the excited gaze of the man who towered over her +and then in a coldly scornful voice she spoke, not to him, but to +Brent. "I reckon ye war right, Mr. Brent, when ye asked me whether I +wanted this man sent way. Thar hain't no need of his tarryin' hyar." +</P> + +<P> +"Just a moment, Alexander," smiled Brent, enjoying in spite of himself +his friend's discomfiture. "We'll pack him off, if you say so, but +first hear what we both have to say. He's right. With this gang of +scoundrels in and about town it would be madness to carry that much +money. The size of this deal will set tongues wagging. When you start +out everyone will know it. You'd never get home alive." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know nothin' about checks an' sometimes banks bust," she +obdurately insisted. "I wants ter show my paw cash money. Ef he 'lows +I'm man enough ter do his business thet's enough, hain't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"A rifle-gun in ther la'rel hes done overcome plenty of men afore ye," +asserted Halloway with the deep boom of sullenness in his voice. "Ye +hain't no army of men, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +They wrestled with her in argument for the better part of an hour but +she was as immovable as the bed-rock of her mountains. +</P> + +<P> +Brent even raised the point, despite the withering contempt with which +he knew she would greet it, that he might decline to recognize her +authority to act for her father but from a hip pocket of her trousers +she produced a worn wallet and from the wallet she extracted a general +and properly attested power of attorney to transact all business. +</P> + +<P> +"I hed ter hev thet," she announced coolly, "because so many damn fool +men 'lowed thet a woman couldn't do business." +</P> + +<P> +The end of it was that Brent himself cashed his check, and counted out +in specie and currency a sum large enough to become in effect a price +on her head. When the money had been done up in heavy paper, sealed by +the cashier with wax, and identified with her own signature, she +consented to permit it to lie in the safe overnight since the roads +were not yet passable, though even then she cannily inquired of the +bank employe: "I reckon ye hain't got no objection ter my countin' hit +up afresh afore I sets out, hev ye?" +</P> + +<P> +Later that day Lute Brown, who it may be said in passing, had served a +term in state prison for house-breaking, dropped casually into the bank +and asked the cashier to "back a letter" for him, since writing was not +one of his own strong points. The cashier was obliging, and in as much +as gossip was usually sparse in that community went on the while +chatting with the president of the institution, who had just come in. +</P> + +<P> +"True as text," said the cashier, while Lute Brown waited. "She +wouldn't take no check. She was plum resolved to have her money in +cash—and she aims to hire a mule and start out soon to-morrow morning +toting it along with her." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd hate to undertake it," said the president briefly and the cashier +agreed: "Me an' you both. Why she wouldn't even hear of takin' no +bodyguard along with her." +</P> + +<P> +Later in the day Lute Brown addressed a caucus attended by a half dozen +men, including Jase Mallows. +</P> + +<P> +That meeting took place behind closed doors and though a general accord +of purpose prevailed there was some dissension as to detail. +</P> + +<P> +"We kain't skeercely shoot her outen hand es she rides along," demurred +a conscientious objector, who, however, fully endorsed the plan of +lightening her financial burden. "She's a woman, fer all her brashness +in her callin' herself a man." +</P> + +<P> +The virtuous sentiment was not popularly received. It might even have +been scoffed into limbo had not Jase Mallows leaned forward, twirling +his mustache, and made himself heard. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're damn right hit won't do ter kill her. I aims ter wed that gal +some day, an' afore I'd see her lay-wayed an' kilt, I'd tell this hull +story ter ther town marshall." +</P> + +<P> +An ominous growl went up at that but Jase continued staunchly. +</P> + +<P> +"Howsomever we needn't hev no fallin' out over that. I've got a plan +wharby she kin be robbed without hurtin' her an' wharby atter ye've +done got ther money, I kin 'pear ter rescue her an' tek her offen yore +hands." +</P> + +<P> +As he outlined his guileful proposition the scowls of his listeners +gave way to grins of full approval and admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's goin' ter diskiver what route she rides?" demanded one of those +annoyingly exact persons who mar all great dreams by the injection of +practicalities. +</P> + +<P> +Again Jase laughed. "Thar hain't but one way she kin go—hit'll be +days afore any other route's fordable. She's got ter fare past +Crabapple post office an' through Wolf-pen gap." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +That afternoon Brent went to the telegraph office. He wanted to wire +his concern that the timber was safe and the deal closed, but while +still a short distance from the railroad station, which was also the +telegrapher's office, he saw Lute Brown go into the place and fell to +wondering what business carried him hither. So he timed his entrance +and sauntered in just as the fellow was turning away from the +operator's chair. +</P> + +<P> +Brent himself lounged about idly, because the man at the table had +opened his key and begun sending. Neither Brown nor the operator gave +any indication of interest in the arrival of a third person. +</P> + +<P> +To neither of them did it occur that Brent was versed in the Morse +code, and Brent volunteered no information on the subject. +</P> + +<P> +None the less he was listening and as the dots and dashes fell into +letters and the letters into words, he read, as if from a book, this +message: +</P> + +<P> +"Woman starts out in morning with bundle by way of Crabapple post +office. Lute." +</P> + +<P> +Brent filed his own message and passed the time of day with the +operator, but when he was outside he cursed the need of slow walking as +he made his way to the rafts. Alexander was not there. No one had +seen her for two hours and, from her shack, both pack and rifle had +been removed. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway's face when Brent found him and told him his story, first +blackened into the thunder cloud darkness, then as suddenly paled into +dread. +</P> + +<P> +"By God, Brent," he whispered hoarsely, catching the other's arm in a +grip that almost broke it, "what if she suspects us too—and has +already set out to give us the slip? She hasn't a chance to get +through before these outlaws intercept her. She'd have to +stop—somewhere this side the gap—and go on in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on," snorted Brent, "we've got to go to the livery stable and see +if she's hired a mule." +</P> + +<P> +"If she's seeking to give us the slip, she's probably changed that plan +too—and set out on foot. It's a safe bet, though, that she didn't go +without her precious money. Let's try the bank." +</P> + +<P> +They went, Brent needing to strike a sort of dog-trot to hold the long +striding pace of the other. +</P> + +<P> +The bank was closed for the day. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + + +<P> +"Well, what next?" inquired Brent blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"We might manage to seize and make a hostage of Lute Brown—and even +the telegraph operator," began Halloway, somewhat haltingly. "But +their disappearance would prove a sort of warning and they may not be +the leading spirits. Did you gather from that telegram where they mean +to hold her up?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—nor even to whom the message went. He'd begun sending when I got +in." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course we couldn't prove that the operator understood the portent +of the message but I know the fellow—his name is Wicks, and I think +he's a bad egg." +</P> + +<P> +"Where does the bank cashier live?" inquired Brent. +</P> + +<P> +"Three miles out along Deephole Branch—and he has no telephone," +growled the Titan. Suddenly through the baffled perplexity of his eyes +broke the light of dawning idea, and he spoke with a greater certitude. +</P> + +<P> +"If these high-binders have used the wire once they may do it again," +he exclaimed. "At all events that's the point to watch at present." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you mean I must loaf around there and eavesdrop—for +anything that may come over." Brent's tone was unenthusiastic. "It's +logical enough too—but if the girl's started out alone, time is +precious." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway had straightened out of his doleful uncertainty. Plans were +swiftly taking shape in his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"No. You've been there once. If you went back it's just possible that +into the fellow's dull mind might steal a ghost of suspicion. I'm +ready to take my turn now, though I hate the damned inactivity. I am a +presumed illiterate. I struggle over the printed page—and with me +loafing in his office he would chat away over his wire undisturbed." +</P> + +<P> +"And what shall I be doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"There'll be enough to keep you busy, I should say. Get in touch with +any of the bank employes you can locate. Try to learn whether or not +Alexander has actually started. Have Lute watched and see with whom he +talks. Get together a dozen men we can trust at a pinch. Have them +ready, if necessary, to take the saddle on a moment's notice. It may +come down to a race over the trail." +</P> + +<P> +Brent's face fell. +</P> + +<P> +"With my limited acquaintance," he objected, "how in God's name am I to +pick such men?" +</P> + +<P> +"No man who looked into the dog-like eyes of young Bud Sellers," +asserted Halloway, "could doubt that he'd give his life for that girl. +He can also keep his mouth tight. Tell him the whole story and take +his orders. I'm off now to sit on my shoulder blades in the telegraph +office." +</P> + +<P> +About the post office loitered a small crowd drawn together by the +instinct for companionship and to that gathering place Brent turned +first in search of Bud. +</P> + +<P> +It proved a happy choice and when he had, with a seeming of casualness, +led his man into a quieter spot he demanded, "What has become of +Alexander?" +</P> + +<P> +He thought that the young mountaineer stiffened a bit and that his face +became mask-like. But this may have been the jealous tendency of a +hopeless passion, and when Brent swiftly narrated all that he and +Halloway had learned, the secretiveness of guise fell away from the +listening face and the body trembled as if stricken with a chill, but a +chill of rage and indignation which had no kinship with timorousness. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit looks like hit would hev been safer an' handier fer Alexander jest +ter ride on back home with ther same crowd thet come down-river with +her—they're all got ter make ther same journey," was his first +comment, but after a moment he shook his head. "Howsomever, I reckon +thet they don't aim ter hasten back so damn fast. They hain't been in +a town fer a long spell an' they seeks ter tarry—an' quite several of +'em air fellers I mistrusts anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you pick out enough dependable men for an immediate start if +need be?" +</P> + +<P> +Bud laughed shortly. "Did ye 'low, atter hearin' what ye jest narrated +that I'd be liable ter stand hitched fer long? I'll pick 'em out all +right—an' speedily." +</P> + +<P> +Into his suddenly narrowing eye shot a menacing gleam. "An' ef them +fellers undertakes ter harm her, afore God, thar's goin' ter be some +shovelin' of grave-yard dirt, too." +</P> + +<P> +Brent sought out the bank president who lived in town and put his terse +question as to whether Alexander had withdrawn from the safe, her +package of money. +</P> + +<P> +"She hadn't been there again up to the time of my leaving," the banker +replied, "but, I came away before closing." +</P> + +<P> +The telegraph office in the railway station was a dingy place of +cobwebbed murk. It was also the express office, and in helter-skelter +disarray lay a litter of uncalled-for plow-shares and such articles as +go from the end of the rails into that hinterland where lies an +isolated world of crag and loneliness. +</P> + +<P> +Except for the operator—who was also ticket-agent and general +factotum—it was now empty and dull of light with its smeared window +glasses between its interior and the dispirited grayness of the outer +skies. The dust-covered papers and miscellany which cumbered the table +long undisturbed, spoke of an idle office and of hours unedged with +interest. +</P> + +<P> +As Halloway's great bulk shadowed the door, Wicks glanced up, and +nodded with a somewhat surly unwelcome. +</P> + +<P> +"Did ye want anything," he asked shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, just loafin' 'round," drawled the visitor as he settled indolently +into a chair which creaked its complaint under his weight. +</P> + +<P> +For a short while the two kept up a perfunctory semblance of +conversation, but between these interchanges of comment, lengthening +intervals elapsed. +</P> + +<P> +Wicks sat inertly gazing at those familiar stains on the wall which +long familiarity had made hateful to him. His expression was moody and +only occasionally did he turn to glance at his unbidden guest. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway's head had fallen forward on his chest and soon his heavy +breathing became that of a man who is napping. +</P> + +<P> +Finally the other opened his key and sounded the call for Viper, a +hamlet ten miles away, though in practical effect it was more distant +since the road between twisted painfully over ridge and through gorge. +It was on an infrequently used freight spur but it boasted +communication with the world by wire—and it was important now because +it was a town through which Alexander must pass on her way from Coal +City to the mouth of Shoulder-blade Creek. +</P> + +<P> +The metallic voice of the telegraph key subsided, and shortly came the +response. Halloway still breathed heavily on—a sleeping giant whose +ears were very much awake. This was no official message paying toll, +but a private conversation between operators bent on whiling away dull +moments. Moreover it was evidently the continuation of talk previously +commenced so that to the eavesdropper it was like a continued story of +which he had missed the opening chapters. +</P> + +<P> +"Upward of four thousand dollars," tapped out Wicks. "That's big +money, but the more men that split it the less each feller gets, so +they don't want too many from Viper." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway realized at once that this lantern-jawed operator had a swift +and sure sending finger, and when the answer came it was, in contrast, +labored and ragged. It was as if two men talked, one in rapid and +clear-clipped syllables—the other in a stutter. +</P> + +<P> +Said Viper, "There might be neck-stretching too if too many tongues +make talk. Jess will have the boys ready at the place soon in the +morning. They will wait for orders there." +</P> + +<P> +"At the place!" Halloway in his counterfeited sleep cursed to himself. +If instead of those indefinite words the point had been named he would +have gained something tangible. He knew now however beyond a doubt +that both operators were conspirators and he had gleaned one comforting +assurance—the plans contemplated no joining of forces until to-morrow. +Those at the far end were still uninstructed. If it came to a race +to-night that gave a better chance. +</P> + +<P> +Then Viper cut off and Wicks, with a sigh of boredom, settled back in +his chair once more and gave himself over to silence. +</P> + +<P> +Finally Halloway stirred out of his slumber and stretched himself. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," he admitted shamefacedly, "I must hev fell asleep. That +damn fire broke up my rest last night." With which comment he +slouched, still sleepily, out of the place, rubbing his eyes as he +went, with ham-like fists. +</P> + +<P> +At the rafts he found Bud Sellers, and a round dozen men of Bud's +selection. Looking them over, Halloway privately approved. There was +not an eye in the number that was not hawk-clear; or a figure that was +not nail-hard. These were fellows cut to a pattern of action, but even +in their excellent average, one stood out with an individualism which +immediately struck the observer. +</P> + +<P> +He was introduced as Jerry O'Keefe, but Halloway would not have needed +the name, once he had seen the lazy challenging twinkle in the +gray-blue eyes, to spot him as a man of Irish blood. O'Keefe had need +to look up to meet the glance of the giant, but that was for him +unusual. Into most eyes he looked down, for when he stood in his socks +he was six feet two inches of hard-bitten sinew and man-flesh. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Brent?" asked Halloway, and Bud Sellers, whose manner had +fallen into the stillness of one chafing against delay, replied +tersely, "He hain't come back yit." +</P> + +<P> +Soon, though, he arrived, and by now the west was reddening toward +sunset. +</P> + +<P> +In a situation calling for absolute parsimony in the economy of time it +would have meant moments salvaged for the trio of men, who must act as +commanders of the rest, to have gone at once into a discussion of the +results of their several investigations. Yet that was impossible, +since for Halloway to tell his story to both would mean revealing his +knowledge of telegraphy. So while he and Brent talked first alone, Bud +Sellers stood apart, and into that fertile soil of mountain suspicion +crept a vague questioning as to why full confidence was denied him—a +suspicion which was later to bear fruit. +</P> + +<P> +When he had been told all, save of Halloway's eavesdropping, he made +his own report. +</P> + +<P> +"Myself, I hain't found out much, save thet I've got ther men ready, +an' thet I seed Lute Brown talkin' with Jase Mallows a spell back." +</P> + +<P> +It was arranged that half of the force should proceed at top speed to +Crabapple post office and mobilize there; that Halloway himself should +push through to Viper and eavesdrop on the telegraph key, and that the +others should loaf about Coal City watching the suspects and gleaning +what information they could. The men of the last named contingent were +to play hounds on the heels of the plotters and seek to follow them +without being discovered. +</P> + +<P> +While the three were still in council at one end of the raft, Bud came +suddenly to his feet and his jaw dropped in amazement. There striding +down the bank to the boom, with a face as freshly pink as a wild rose, +was Alexander herself, with her pack on her back. +</P> + +<P> +She saw the gathering of men, some with faces that were unfamiliar to +her, and halted to inspect them. Into her eyes came something like a +smoulder as though in resentment of unwarranted trespassing, then +seeing Bud and Halloway and Brent she came aboard and demanded curtly, +"What be all these men doin' hyar?" +</P> + +<P> +For an instant no one responded to her question. The reaction of +unexpected relief from driving anxiety left them wordless. Finally +Brent laughed nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"It would appear that they are here for no reason whatsoever," he said, +"though a few minutes ago we thought it a matter of life and death." +Her nonplussed expression was sufficiently full of interrogation to cue +a fuller explanation and Brent embarked upon the summarized recital of +what they had discovered. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's eyes widened into amazement, and she caught one lip between +her white teeth. She stood very straight and indignant, and the men +acknowledged to themselves that she had never seemed so beautiful +before, nor so militant. +</P> + +<P> +"So they aimed ter lay-way me," she murmured incredulously and Halloway +made prompt answer. "Yes, and ye mighty nigh walked right into th'ar +dead-fall. Don't ye see now how plum reckless yore plan is? Whar was +ye at anyhow?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl impatiently tossed her head. "I fared out a leetle way ter +see how ther roads looked," she said. "I wanted ter mek sure that I +could get a daybreak start in the morning. I hain't nobody's sugar ner +salt that I kain't stir abroad without meltin', be I?" +</P> + +<P> +"We saw that your pack was gone too—and we 'lowed——" began Halloway, +but she interrupted him with a curt explanation. "Thet shack war +leakin' like a sieve. I didn't aim ter hev all my belongin's mildewed +an' rusted—so I left 'em at ther store." +</P> + +<P> +"This crowd kin see ye through without mishap, I reckon. We've done +planned hit all out." That contribution came from the giant who seemed +to have become general spokesman but the young woman stood silent and +absorbed; a delicate pucker between her brows, and the violet pools of +her eyes cloud-riffled. At last she announced firmly, "I'm beholden +ter all of ye but I've got ter study this matter out by myself. I'll +come back hyar in a little spell an' tell ye what decision I've done +reached." +</P> + +<P> +"As for getting a daybreak start," Brent observed as she turned away, +"You can't get into the bank until it opens." +</P> + +<P> +Once more she had overlooked the unfamiliar complications of financial +usage. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry O'Keefe had been lounging with the other recruits of Bud's +gathering, looking river-ward until the sound of voices, whose words he +could not distinguish, brought him lazily around. As he stood when the +first view of Alexander broke on his vision, so he remained—immovable. +The low and bantering laughter of his companions for his rapt +statuesqueness, fell on deaf ears. His lips parted and his eyes held +as under hypnotism. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry stared with a craned neck at Alexander McGivins until slowly his +body came round to an easier posture, but upon his steady and unmoving +fixity of eye, the rest of him moved as upon an axis. Into the +gray-blue irises came a live kindling and with seeming unconsciousness +of those about him, he said solemnly, "Afore God, I aims ter wed with +thet gal!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Alexander had strolled outward along a bluff, leaving the town at her +back, because she wanted to think without interruption. In her home +over yonder across the broken ridges her father might be lying, anxiety +ridden—or he might be already dead. An obsession of haste spurred her +with the roweling of suspense and with the companionship of her +troubled thoughts she walked on and on. +</P> + +<P> +When at length she turned she had decided certain matters, and in the +growing dusk she met a man who smilingly accosted her and halted in her +path. It was Jase Mallows and she confronted him with a high head and, +in remembrance of his swaggering impertinence, spoke imperiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want ter hev no speech with ye, Jase, now ner never, but I +owes ye wages fer ther wuck ye done on them rafts. Come ter ther bank +termorrer at openin' time and I'll pay ye off." +</P> + +<P> +The mountaineer's face fell into a scowl of resentment. To be rebuffed +was galling enough. To be relegated to a servile status was +unendurable, yet he refashioned his expression at once into a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar hain't no tormentin' haste, Alexander," he assured her evenly. +"Any time'll do—any time at all, but I'm leavin' town ternight." +</P> + +<P> +"Suit yerself," she answered with calculated curtness and would have +gone on but he fell into step with her and dropped his voice into so +earnest a <I>timbre</I> that despite her dislike for him she listened. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander—hit hain't none of my business—an' I knows ye're mad at me +but yore paw an' me dwells neighbors—an' I'm goin' ter forewarn ye +about somethin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Alright," the voice was frigid. "Go ahead. Everybody's forewarnin' +me right now." +</P> + +<P> +"I've done heered thet this Brent party air a mighty slick customer. +Don't give him no undue lee-way ter fleece ye. Ther man Halloway, +thet's hangin' around him's a pretty desperate sort too, by ther repute +folks gives him. When ye settled up accounts with thet outfit, ye +kain't skeercely be too heedful. I'd either make 'em give me cash +money—or else hev a lawyer 'round ter see thet everythin's alright." +</P> + +<P> +"My paw," declared the girl indignantly, "he's got full trust in Mr. +Brent an' so hev I." She dismissed him with a glance under which his +own bravado wilted and he made no further effort to walk at her side. +But in the gathering dusk, the wet desolation about her seemed to creep +into Alexander's heart. With so many charges of foul play floating +about, of whom could she feel certain? Then the answer came. There +was, perhaps, only one. So long as he remained sober, Bud Sellers +would remain dependable. From the bank overlooking the boom she called +his name and when he had leaped to respond, she led him out of hearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud," she said tensely. "Ye knows how heavy-hearted with dread I be +about my paw. Ye knows thet when I left him I wasn't no ways sure I'd +ever lay eyes on his livin' face ergin. I ain't sure now." Her voice +threatened to break and to control it she pitched it into a harder +tone. "Ye knows, too, who's fault thet air." +</P> + +<P> +He answered very low and very miserably. "Yes, I knows full well—an' +I've done been in torment—ever since." +</P> + +<P> +"Ef he's still alive an' gits well——" she went on, "thar won't be no +grudge atween us. Ye says ye seeks ter make amends. Ye knows what hit +means ter him whether I gits thet money back safe or not." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I knows thet too." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander laughed a little bitterly. "I've jest been forewarned thet I +kain't trust nuther Brent ner Halloway. I hain't sayin' I believes +hit; I reckon hit's sheer slander—but——" All unconsciously a note +of pathos crept into her voice, the pathos of one who must fight alone +against unseen forces. "But, how am I goin' ter tell, fer dead sure, +who I kin trust?" +</P> + +<P> +Sellers remembered that all he knew of the robbery plot was +hearsay—that his informants had excluded him from a part of their +consultations. An ugly possibility took vague shape in his mind, but +his answer was brief. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye kin trust me 'twell hell freezes." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander nodded. "Ye're ther one man I ought ter hev a blood-hatred +erginst—an' yit, so long es ye stays sober, I knows what ye says air +true." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she laid both her hands on his shoulders and under her touch a +tremor raced through his arteries. The mountains seemed to grow +unsteady. "Ye're ther only man hyar I kin plum, teetotally depend on. +When the bank opens termorrer, I wants ye ter be thar. I don't want ye +ter go with me on ther trip back home. I hain't goin' ter suffer +nobody ter do that—but thar's a thing I may need ye ter do." +</P> + +<P> +"Es God's lookin' down on us, ef a man kin do hit——" he swore in an +emotion-shaken voice, "hit'll be done." +</P> + +<P> +Later that evening Alexander announced her decision and from it she +refused to depart. As soon as she could transact business at the bank +the next day she would set out on a hired mule, with the money in her +saddle-bags. She would tolerate no escort, because one person could +travel secretly where several could not. However when she had +progressed a certain distance she would turn the mule back. The only +reason for its use, at all, would be to make it appear that she was +going by the route which the robbers assumed. +</P> + +<P> +Then, depending upon a woodcraft which she trusted, she would swing out +at a circle on foot, holding to the laurel thickets and pass, not +through but around and above the Gap, which seemed the logical place +for a holdup. She consented that her assembled body-guard should, if +they insisted, push on and mobilize at Viper, where if suspicious +circumstances warranted, they might be near enough to take emergency +action. If she came through safely to Perry Center, she would be +secure in the house of a kinsman and from there on would have little to +fear. +</P> + +<P> +At ten o'clock the next morning Alexander came out of the bank, +followed by Bud Sellers, who carried his own saddle-bags over his arm, +as if he too contemplated a journey. Brent, in order to avoid the +appearance of too close a participation in her affairs, did not +accompany her—nor was Halloway anywhere in evidence. +</P> + +<P> +As the girl went out to where her hired mule stood hitched, various +observers along the ragged street noted that her rifle was strapped +under the saddle skirt in such a way that it could not be speedily +loosened. They also watched as, with no pretense of concealment, she +stuffed into her saddle-hags a parcel done up in heavy brown paper, and +made conspicuous by the bank's red sealing wax. Then, still scornful +of evasion, she mounted and rode away as straight-shouldered and +militant a figure as Jeanne d'Arc herself. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Sellers, looking after her from the door of the bank, was gloomy of +countenance beyond his wont. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + + +<P> +As the mule ambled along the mired streets of the wretched hamlet there +were eyes following its course that masked an interest beyond the +usual. If certain men who had attended yesterday's caucus still loafed +inactively about the sidewalks, it was not because they were +indifferent to possible developments, but in obedience to a settled +plan. Last night a party had set forth ahead. Its members were now +stationed at appointed posts in spots so lonely and so silent that one +might have passed them at a stone's throw without suspecting their +presence. They had gone singly and by different ways—at the start. +Others had come to cooperate from Viper and the net was spread with +meticulous care and completeness. For communication and signaling the +voices of forest things were available; the caw of the crow in the +timber, the bark of the fox in the thicket, the note of those birds +that the winter had not driven south. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's journey would not have been easy, had she ridden with no +prize to safeguard. There were washouts and quicksands; treacherous +fords and shelving precipices to be encountered, but here was a fortune +guarded only by a woman whose recklessness led her toward disaster. +</P> + +<P> +"She's plum askin' fer hit—beggin' fer hit," grinned Lute Brown who +with a single companion strode along a wet and tangled trail shortly +after sunrise. "An' I reckon she'll get hit." +</P> + +<P> +Soon after Alexander had taken her departure those interested in town +also began drifting toward the outbound trail. There must be, for +every campaign, a rear-guard as well as an advance. +</P> + +<P> +But the three to whose earnest advice the young woman from +Shoulder-blade had turned a deaf ear, had not been content to accept +dismissal—or inactivity. Halloway and Sellers knew that the dangers +of which she made little could not be blinked at and they dared not +trust to luck nor rely solely upon her dauntlessness to see her through. +</P> + +<P> +As for Halloway he had left Coal City under cover of the dawn's +twilight, while the white fog of mountain mornings still veiled the +world. He had gone on foot since, with his tireless strength, he could +so travel across the "roughs" at better than a mounted pace and be less +cumbered. His destination was the telegraph office at Viper. Jerry +O'Keefe and a handful of others were to mobolize inconspicuously +there—though they were to remain seemingly disconnected and await his +instructions. Brent was to come on later and in his command, though +not in his immediate company, were to be Bud Sellers and several more. +</P> + +<P> +The chief difficulty, of course, lay in communication. It was rather a +matter of groping in the dark, and the only plan which had seemed +feasible had been to divide the intervening country into zones and to +arrange outwardly innocent signals which should designate the locality +in which it might become imperative to gather and strike. Telephones +were few, and those that existed purely local in radius, but since +mining properties were dotted over the terrain there were, here and +there, scattered "talkin' boxes." +</P> + +<P> +By neither telegraph nor 'phone would it be practicable to talk +frankly, but Halloway meant to learn what he could, and Brent was to +call him up from time to time—if he could. His inquiries would be +couched in questions as to possible purchases of timber for next +season's cutting and the germ of the reply would be suggestions of +locations—which he would understand. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander rode on alone and the ways were, at first, as deserted as +though they had never been fashioned for human usage. Between Coal +City and Viper lay a distance of ten miles but they were zig-zag and +semi-perpendicular miles with torrential waters to be forded. She +meant to ride only about four of them before abandoning her mule for +the detour on foot. But when she had left the town only a little way +two horsemen came up behind her. She knew neither of them, and they +were immature boys, with the empty and vacuous faces of almost +degenerate illiteracy. They seemed unarmed but since it was vital to +Alexander's scheme to ride unwatched it became important to have them +either go ahead or to distance them. Accordingly she urged her mule +into a lumbering canter and when a turn of the road had been reached +slowed down only to discover with a backward glance that the others had +galloped too, and were still close in her rear. Crossing a brook, she +paused to let her mule drink and they passed her slowly, staring with +the unabashed fixity and hanging jaws at the unaccustomed sight of a +woman riding astride in the clothing of a man. Then they went forward +at a snail's pace. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander could feel no degree of security until the timber masked her +course and whether by intent or accident, these chance fellow wayfarers +had become a definite menace. So, fretting at the delay, she waited +there for some time, and when she made the next turning, she saw them +waiting with no apparent purpose in life save to pass and repass her. +</P> + +<P> +She rode by again, this time with an angry coloring of her cheeks and +shook her lazy beast into a trot. Behind her trotted the two. +</P> + +<P> +Eventually the girl drew rein, squarely and belligerently confronting +the troublesome though inoffensive looking pair. +</P> + +<P> +"Hain't I got a license ter travel ther highway without bein' follered +an' bedeviled," she demanded angrily, and the two youths seemed at +first too abashed for speech. One of them, who was an almost albino +blond, flushed to the roots of his pale hair. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon hit jest chanced thet-a-way," he stammered. "We kinderly +happens ter be travelin' ther same direction, an' goin' ther same rate, +thet's all." +</P> + +<P> +"Well don't let hit chanst thet way no more!" Her eyes were flaming +now with a blue light like burning alcohol. "You choose yore gait an' +let me choose mine. Take ther road or give hit, either way." +</P> + +<P> +The second lad had found his tongue by this time and he elected to use +it truculently. +</P> + +<P> +"This high-road's public property, I reckon," he announced. "A man kin +ride as he sees fit." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander could not afford to parley and the suspicion was strong upon +her that the twain were less guileless than their seeming. She flashed +out a revolver and issued an ultimatum. "I warns ye both now. I'm +agoin' ter stand right hyar long enough ter count a hundred. If either +one of ye's in sight at ther end of thet time, I'm ergoin' ter begin +shootin'. Ef I sees ye ergin naggin' round me from now on, I'm goin' +ter begin shootin' too,—an' shoot ter kill." +</P> + +<P> +She meant it, and after a questioning glance they knew that she meant +it. With some grumbled incoherence, they went on. They even went at a +gallop, and Alexander saw them no more. But perhaps even after that +they saw her. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Halloway came early into the hamlet of Viper, bedraggled with travel. +He knew that among the men about him must be at least several +accomplices to the conspiracy which he sought to defeat. He had been +in Coal City for only a few days past and never in Viper until now; so +until someone drifted in who remembered his interference at the tavern +he would not necessarily be recognized as having any connection with +Alexander's affairs. Indeed he had been seen with her so little that +he might altogether escape association with her in the minds of these +fellows. On the other hand any stranger would in all probability be +held under unremitting surveillance and he must therefore proceed with +extreme caution. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry O'Keefe was lounging about the streets, gossiping with +acquaintances, but when Halloway passed him and brushed his shoulders, +neither gave any sign of recognition and Halloway brought up at last, +though with seeming aimlessness, at the telegraph office. +</P> + +<P> +There, besides the man who sat at the key, he discovered three others, +all of unfamiliar mien, but he gathered from the scowls which they bent +on him that he was something less than welcome. Palpably the present +occupants of that small room preferred to remain uninterrupted in the +discussion of such matters as might arise, yet they did not wish to +manifest open or undue anxiety to a stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy, men," began the new arrival affably as he stood towering over +the telegraph operator. Then looking down at that person he added with +awkward, back-country diffidence: "Stranger, be ye ther feller thet +works thet thar telegraph?" +</P> + +<P> +The seated man looked up and nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I promised a man by ther name of Brent back thar in Coal City ter +kinderly see ef anybody along ther road I come hed any timber they +sought ter sell." The giant still spoke with a hulking shyness. "I +hain't l'arned nothin', because I come through soon in ther mornin' an' +ther roads was empty, but I reckon I'd better send him a message ter +thet effect." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway noticed that, as he talked, the other men watched him narrowly +though, as he glanced in their direction, they fell at once into a +semblance of carelessness. The operator grunted, as he shoved forward +a blank with the instructions, "write out your telegram." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway modestly thrust back the paper. +</P> + +<P> +"I kin write—some——" he said, "but not skeercely good enough fer +thet. I 'lowed I'd get ye ter do hit fer me. Just say I haven't +heered of no timber fer sale. His name's Will Brent an' mine's Jack +Halloway." +</P> + +<P> +As the seated man grudgingly scribbled, the newcomer lounged lazily +nearby, but just as the man at the key was about to begin sending, his +instrument fell into a frenzied activity. Halloway thought that the +other loiterers, who were really no more genuinely loitering than +himself, made a poor showing of indifference, and that their attitudes +betrayed their eagerness of waiting for whatever was coming over. +</P> + +<P> +Finally the electric chatter ended. The seated man had cut in once or +twice with questions, and at the end he rose from his chair, not with a +regularly transcribed message, but with a few hastily jotted notes on a +sheet of paper in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Impulse had brought him to his feet but he stood hesitant, bethinking +himself of the presence of the interloper, and Halloway broke in with a +drawling inquiry pitched to a stupid inflection. +</P> + +<P> +"Did ye send my message, Stranger? Did they say he war there?" +</P> + +<P> +The operator flung him a churlish glance and a short answer. "Thet +office was busy," he said. "They didn't hev no time ter take your talk +jest now." Then with exaggerated carelessness he turned to one of the +other loungers. "Joe, ef ye'll come inter ther baggage room, I'll see +ef thet express parcel o' yourn's in thar. I think hit came afore ther +high-water." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," murmured Halloway disappointedly, "I'll hev ter wait a +spell an' see kin I git my man later on," and making that observation +he settled into his chair with a seeming of permanent intent. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, in the privacy of the baggage room, the station-agent was +whispering excitedly to his companion. The man in his chair beyond the +door could of course hear no word of that hurried conference, but after +all he had no need to do so. He had read its essence at first hand +from the wire and it had run about like this: +</P> + +<P> +"She driv two of our fellows back with a pistol when they sought to +follow her, but she left her mule and turned into the timber five miles +this side of Coal City." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway had congratulated himself that to this extent at least +Alexander had succeeded, but his pleasure had been short-lived for the +operator here at Viper had flashed back the interrogation, "What then," +and the other—who Halloway figured must be cutting in from Wolf-Pen +Gap—rapped out the disquieting reply: +</P> + +<P> +"They're combin' ther timber fer her. Have your boys there head her +off at the mouth of Chimney-pot Fork in case she circles round the Gap." +</P> + +<P> +A detail which might prove important struck Halloway as he listened. +He had recognized the sending from the other end as a man may recognize +a speaking voice. +</P> + +<P> +It had been years since he had himself operated a key; but like many +adept telegraphers he could distinguish not only the dots and dashes of +the code, but also the individual peculiarities of their rapping out. +Now he would have been willing to take oath that the hand which had +sent this news was the same quick, sure hand that he had watched at +work yesterday. +</P> + +<P> +That would indicate that Wicks had either deserted his post at Coal +City, or left it in charge of a relief man, and that he had come to +Wolf-Pen to operate a disused key nearer the scene of action. +</P> + +<P> +Through the open door of the telegraph office Halloway, now burning +with impatience, could see Jerry O'Keefe strolling aimlessly along the +sidewalk a half a block away. Jerry too was waiting for instructions +and ready, once he had received them, to lead his own force out, with +that light in his eye that had dwelt there when he first saw Alexander. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway rose, yawned, and stretched himself. As he did so his hands +almost brushed the ceiling. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," he asserted, "I won't tarry no longer. Mebby I'll come +back again." But before he had reached the threshold the operator and +his companion stood looking on from the baggage room door. Even +unlettered Machiavellis must have their flashes of inspiration, +premonition, "hunch," or whatever you may choose to call it. Suddenly, +into the telegrapher's consciousness flashed the suspicion that in the +departure of this unknown observer lurked some hidden menace. In what +that danger lay he was all at sea but it was a thing he felt and upon +which he acted. The knight of the ticker jerked his head and raised a +hand, and before Halloway's own arms had descended from the heights to +which his yawn had stretched them, he found two pistols squarely +presented to his broad chest, and heard a voice instruct with +unmistakable finality, "Keep them hands up!" +</P> + +<P> +Keeping them up, Halloway could still see across the shoulders of his +captors the distant figure of Jerry O'Keefe but with him he could not +communicate. +</P> + +<P> +As he stood, rapidly thinking, it occurred to him that his strength and +agility might perhaps even yet avail him. With a lunge he might carry +down the two armed figures and escape, but before undertaking that he +turned his head for a backward glance and decided against the +experiment. Besides the Station Agent stood the third fellow, also +with a drawn and leveled weapon. +</P> + +<P> +The Operator spoke again somewhat nervously. He had acted so +strenuously on pure impulse and not without a certain misgiving. Now +he felt the need of some explanation. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys, when that instrument ticked a while back," he mendaciously +asserted, "hit was ther town marshal at Coal City talkin'. He +described this man an' said he was wanted thar fer settin' ther hotel +on fire day before yesterday. We hain't got no choice but ter hold +him." +</P> + +<P> +Going to the drawer of his desk the speaker produced a pair of +handcuffs and rattled them as he explained, "Ther revenue man left +these hyar. Put 'em on him, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +With the two pistols still pressed close Halloway slowly lowered his +wrists and submitted to the indignity of their shackling. Had any +human possibility of a break for freedom presented itself he would have +embraced it, but the three guns had the look of business and the three +faces back of them were flinty with purpose. +</P> + +<P> +As the locks snapped into the grooves of the bracelets the telegrapher +commented in sardonic afterthought. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther revenuer fergot ter leave ther key. I don't know how we'll ever +git them things loose ergin." +</P> + +<P> +They led him at once back into a dark corner of the baggage room and +bestowed him there in a chair, where with a revolver against his +temple, they gagged him and lashed him by waist and legs. His hands +being sufficiently manacled they did not bind further. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Alexander had, when she came to a place which was rocky enough to leave +no footprints, slipped from her saddle, taken her rifle and saddle-bags +from their fastenings and disappeared into the timber. The mule she +knew would sooner or later be recognized and returned to the stable, +but she did not want it recognized too promptly so she led it with her +into the woods and turned it loose well up on the mountain side. From +that moment she disappeared with a completeness which attested her +woodcraft. It was as though she had been and then had ceased to be. +The way she elected to go followed the crests, since it is better when +"hiding-out" to look down than to be looked down upon. +</P> + +<P> +The sodden woods gave a quieter footing than had they been frosty and +brittle underfoot, but even had it been otherwise she had the art of +silent movement. +</P> + +<P> +She knew that sooner or later her ruse would be discovered by the +watchers of the conspiracy, but she asked only two hours of freedom. +After that she would be as difficult to find as the rabbit that has +gained the heart of the briar patch. +</P> + +<P> +Once lying high up on a sheer and poroused precipice, she had seen a +party of horsemen ride by, far below, and she laughed inwardly to +herself, guessing at their purpose and object. +</P> + +<P> +She came eventually to the sharp spur where that particular stretch of +ridge ended in a precipitous break. That meant that she must for +awhile go down to lower and more perilous levels. This was the final, +dubious stage of her journey and with it behind her, she would feel +that she had won through to security. +</P> + +<P> +Because she was young and strong enough to laugh at fatigue and bold +enough to find a certain joy in recklessness, her spirits began to +mount. There are huntsmen who will tell you that the wily and +experienced fox comes to relish the chase more keenly than the pack +which courses him. Alexander went on with a smile in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +But when she had gone down into the cloistered shadows of the valley +her spirits descended too and when she slipped through the thickets and +reached a certain point, something like despair tightened about her +heart. Across the line of her march boiled a freshet which might as +well have been a river. To swim it with her impediments was impossible +and though it might carry her dangerously close to the road which she +sought to avoid, she had no choice. She must follow it until a +crossing developed. +</P> + +<P> +As a woodsman, Alexander acknowledged few peers but this was to her, +unfamiliar country. She was moreover pitting her skill against one who +was her equal if not her superior, and who knew every trail and by-way +hereabouts. He was a youth with a vacuous, almost idiotic face, whom +she had that same day encountered. He had left her sight, but had +never been too remote to follow or gauge her course and what he learned +he relayed to others. In due time he had known without going further +just where she must bring up—for he knew the condition of that +stream—and its crossings. +</P> + +<P> +The girl came, in due course, upon a broken litter of giant boulders, +each the size of a small house, which lay scattered where at last the +water grew shallow. She could even make out a point where one might +cross dryshod by leaping from rock to rock. +</P> + +<P> +It was in a fashion a place of mystery and foreboding, for each of +those titanic rocks, with its age-long smoothness and greenness was a +screen whose other side might harbor things only to be guessed. There +one must risk an ambuscade, trusting to one's star, and Alexander +loosened her pistol and shifted her saddle-bags to her left shoulder +and her rifle to her left hand. +</P> + +<P> +Then she started forward—-and one by one left the boulders behind her +until she came to the last. As she rounded the final shoulder of +sandstone her hand was knocked up and her pistol fell clattering. +</P> + +<P> +Her ambuscaders had known a thing which she had not—that for all the +roomy freedom of the woods she must come out at last through this one +passage—as wine must come out through the neck of the bottle. +</P> + +<P> +About her closed a tightly grouped handful of men whose faces were +masked and whose bodies were covered by the uniformity of black rubber +coats. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander did not surrender tamely. With the strength and the +desperation of a tigress she gave them battle, until the sheer force of +their numbers had smothered her into helplessness. Her coat was ripped +and her shirt hung in tatters from one curved shoulder before they +pinioned her and silenced her lips with a bandage. +</P> + +<P> +After that they blind-folded her and carried her up and down hill, +twisting beyond all chance of guessing the course, to a place where the +air was cool with that freshness of quality that characterizes a +cavern. There they stood her upright and removed the bandage. +</P> + +<P> +About her was a flare of torches and the grotesque play of shadows +between the grotto-like walls of an abandoned coal mine. About her too +ranged in the spectral formality of masked faces and black rubber +coats; of peaked hats with low turned brims, stood the circle of her +captors. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Alexander McGivins," proclaimed a deep and solemnly pitched +voice, "ye stands before ther dread an' awful conclave of ther order of +ther Ku-Klux; ther regulators of sich as defies proper an' decorous +livin'. We charges ye with unwomanly shamelessness an' with ther +practicin' of witchcraft." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + + +<P> +For a moment as she turned observant eyes about the walls of the place +to which she had been brought, Alexander almost hoped that the +astonishing statement of the spokesman was a true one—that in store +for her, instead of robbery and possible outrage, lay only the judgment +of the punitive clan. Such punishment might be brutally severe but she +could face it in such fashion as would vindicate her claim of playing a +man's game in a man's way. +</P> + +<P> +So she stood there meeting the eyes that glared at her through the slit +masks with a splendid assumption of scorn and defiance. She was keyed +to that mood which makes it possible for martyrs to acquit themselves, +even at the stake, with a victorious disdain. +</P> + +<P> +Through this section of the mountains there had never been, since +reconstruction days, any survival of the Ku-Klux in a true sense, but +now and then, as in all wild and violent countries, sporadic +"regulations" occurred in which masked men took a faltering law into +their own less faltering hands. Sometimes it was a bastard Ku-Klux in +the original meaning of the term, a Vigilance Committee operating +against abuses which the law failed to check. Oftener it was a +masquerade behind which moved designs of personal hatred and vengeance. +Sometimes the wife-beater or the harlot was punished. Sometimes the +stronger enemy persecuted the weaker. +</P> + +<P> +While Alexander waited for the next development, her captors prolonged +the silence in order that the suspense of unguessed things should sap +her courage. +</P> + +<P> +The entrance through which they had come showed only as a darker spot +in the shadowed vagueness of a far wall of rock, but there was a +squareness about it which suggested a mineshaft. The walls themselves +were streaked with black seams of coal and dug into tunnels that led in +unknown directions. +</P> + +<P> +The place was lighted by several lanterns of feeble power and a number +of pine torches, and between the spot where they had stationed her and +the crescent of dark figures that stood as silent accusers and judges, +ran a trickling rivulet of water. At that detail Alexander smiled, for +she knew that it was part and parcel of the absurdity contained in the +allegation of witchcraft. The black art is powerless, by mountain +tradition, to cross running water. +</P> + +<P> +A bat fluttered zig-zag about the place brushing her cheek, but +Alexander was not the sort of woman to be frightened by a bat. +</P> + +<P> +When the calculated silence had held for perhaps five full minutes, the +standing men meanwhile remaining as motionless as though they were +themselves carved from coal, Alexander spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't ye say somethin'," she demanded. "I've got friends thet'll +be s'archin' these hills fer me right vigorous ef I don't git ter Viper +in good time." +</P> + +<P> +It was a bold and provocative speech, but it failed to tempt the silent +men out of the pose they had assumed. They knew the effect of +protracted silence and impending danger to sap even an assertive +courage and for five other minutes they stood wordless and motionless. +Only their shadows moved under the torch-light, wavering fitfully from +small to large, from light to dark like draperies in a wind. +</P> + +<P> +Finally the man at the center who appeared to exercise a sort of +command moved a step forward and raised both hands. The others lifted +high their right arms and in a sepulchral voice the spokesman demanded, +"Does ye all solemnly sw'ar, by ther dreadful oath ye've done tuck, +with yore lives forfeit fer disloyalty or disobedience, ter try this +wench on ther charge of outragin' decorum—an' practicin' ther foul +charms of witchcraft? Does ye all sw'ar ter deal with her in full an' +unmitigated jestice despite thet she s'arves Satan with a comely face +and a comely body? Does ye all sw'ar?" +</P> + +<P> +The raised hands, with a unanimous and solemn gesture, fell over the +hearts of the questioned and then came aloft once more, still as if +with a single nerve impulse. In a unison out of which no separate +voice emerged sounded the reply: "We does!" +</P> + +<P> +Alexander laughed, but it must be confessed that that was pure bravado. +She knew that on the backwaters of many creeks were cabins where simple +folks invoked charms against witchcraft and did so with genuine dread. +She knew that many others, less candid, laughed at old superstitions +yet acknowledged them in their hearts. In her case the witchcraft +charge was of course a cloak for subterfuge, but it was a jest which +might bear bitterly serious results. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander McGivins," began the spokesman afresh, "we charges ye with +these weighty matters; thet ye glories in callin' yoreself a +he-woman—refusin' ter accept God's mandate an' castin' mortification +on yore own sex by holdin' on ter shameless notions. We charges ye +with settin' ther example of unwomanly behavior before ther eyes of +young gals, an' we aims ter make a sample of ye. +</P> + +<P> +"We furthermore charges ye with practicin' witchcraft; with castin' +spells an' performin' devil's work." He wheeled and demanded suddenly; +"Number Thirteen, I calls on ye ter step forward an' testify. How does +witches gain thar black powers?" +</P> + +<P> +The answering voice, was plainly disguised, and it came with the +lugubrious quality of calculated awesomeness. +</P> + +<P> +"By compact with Satan." +</P> + +<P> +"Number Thirteen, how is sich-like compacts made?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thar's ways an' ways. A body kin go up ter a mounting top fer nine +nights an' shoot through a kerchief at ther moon, cussin' ther Almighty +each separate time, an' ownin' Satan fer master." +</P> + +<P> +"Number Thirteen, what powers does Satan give these hyar sarvants of +his'n?" +</P> + +<P> +"They gains ther baleful power ter kill folks with witch balls, rolled +tight outen ther hair of a cow or a varmint. By runnin' a hand over a +rifle gun they kin make hit shoot crooked. They kin spell a houn' dog +so thet he back-tracks 'stid of trailin' for'ards. They kin bring on +all manner of pestilence an' make cows go dry an' hosses fling their +riders. They kin——" +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's enough, Number Thirteen," announced the spokesman. "Thet's a +lavish of evil. How kin they be hindered from this deviltry?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thar's means of liftin' spells, but nothin' save death hitself cures +ther witches." +</P> + +<P> +"Number Thirteen, how does ye go about hit, ter slay a witch?" +</P> + +<P> +"By shootin' with a silver bullet run outen a mould thet's done been +rubbed with willow-sprigs." +</P> + +<P> +"Number Thirteen, in the event of need, hev ye got sich a bullet hyar?" +</P> + +<P> +"Each one of us hes got one." +</P> + +<P> +Once more the apparent head of the clan turned to the girl. "Woman, +air ye guilty or not guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," suggested Alexander coolly, "ye'd better ask Number +Thirteen. He 'pears ter know 'most everything." +</P> + +<P> +But the spokesman declined to be lured by frivolous taunt from his +vantage ground of solemnity. He turned his head and gravely inquired: +"Number Thirteen, how does ye det'armine ther guilt of a witch?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ef a preacher comes nigh, she kain't help turnin' her back." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon we hain't skeercely got no preacher handy ter test her with," +interrupted the master of ceremonies drily, and the other went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef she stays hyar 'twell midnight a sperit in ther guise of a black +cat'll appear ter do her biddin'." +</P> + +<P> +On the ground lay the saddle-bags and the rifle; as yet unmolested. +Before they had loosened the blindfold from her eyes she had been +subjected to the needless indignity of bound wrists and now she was +entirely helpless. +</P> + +<P> +Her coat hung on her tattered during the struggle and her flannel shirt +had been rent until both garments sagged from her shoulders, leaving +bare the white curves of their flesh. The circle had fallen silent +again. It remained silent for a half hour, then the man who had acted +as chief inquisitor drew aside that other whom Alexander knew only as +Number Thirteen, and, apart, they conferred in lowered voices. In the +manner of these two, the captive recognized indications of anxiety. +Palpably some detail of their plans had gone awry and that miscarriage, +whatever its nature, was troubling their peace of mind. Had she +understood more fully it would likewise have troubled her. +</P> + +<P> +The conventional and successful course of highway robbery runs in the +channel of a swift accomplishment and a rapid getaway. Yet this crew, +leaving the saddle-bags uninvestigated at their feet, were solemnly +playing out their farce at the expense of valuable time—time which +should have stood for miles put between themselves and pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +Was the difficulty that of disposing of her? If so, she stood face to +face with a stark and grim extremity. Murder and concealment of a +lifeless body, here, would be easy enough. These men were desperadoes, +and if dire enough need pressed them they would not, she thought, balk +overlong at the idea of killing a woman. +</P> + +<P> +Yet the leader, studiously maintaining his Ku-Klux masquerade, parleyed +with his underlings and consulted a heavy nickel-cased watch. His +gesture showed a petulant impatience. The men in the silent circle +stirred uneasily and from time to time low growls broke from their +muffled lips. Obviously they were awaiting some development which +though overdue had not materialized. +</P> + +<P> +The half hour became an hour, then doubled itself to a full two—in +oppressive silence. +</P> + +<P> +"What be ye awaitin' fer?" Alexander demanded in a taunting voice, +though inwardly she felt that the peril was pregnant and immediate. +The only satisfaction she could deny them now was that of any confessed +fear. +</P> + +<P> +This time the speaker snarled his answer back at her angrily, without +any consistent attempt at holding the ritualistic impressiveness of +manner. +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby we're waitin' fer midnight—twell ther black cat comes." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander could not guess that all these malefactors were on +tenterhooks of misgiving because the arrangement entered into as a +concession to the vanity of Jase Mallows had failed; the fictitious +rescue which was to re-establish him in the eyes of the girl and give +to them the chance to practice highway robbery, still stopping short of +murder. The whole scheme had been cut to that pattern and it was now +too late to evolve a new strategy. The trial was to have seemed +genuine. It was to have been followed by a fictitious battle in which +the alleged regulators were to have been put to flight by the +victorious entry of Jase himself with his underlings. The girl, +snatched from the jaws of death by his valor would henceforth rest +under such obligations as could be recompensed only by her favor—but +in the melee, her money would disappear. +</P> + +<P> +Jase had not come—and the captive whom he was to take off their hands +must either be done to death or liberated with a wagging tongue. +</P> + +<P> +Eventually the masked head-highwayman led two of his men aside. He +recognized that having compacted with Jase they could not ignore him. +In a whisper he ventured the suggestion, "Mebby Jase hes done come ter +grief. Mebby we'd better kill ther gal atter all an' git away. But if +we does we've got ter git Jase afore he has time ter blab an' hang us +all." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Halloway spending a long and dreary day bound to his chair in the +baggage-room at Viper had succeeded in wriggling his lips free of the +bandage. As yet that was only an academic victory. Unless there stood +in the room where the instrument ticked a sufficiently strong force of +his friends to wage a successful battle, any sound from his lips would +mean only death for them and himself—without material advantage to his +cause. +</P> + +<P> +Twice during his long inactivity the raucous sound of a telephone bell +jangled and he heard a voice replying to some inquiry, "No, he hain't +been here." The question so answered, he guessed, had come from Brent +seeking to locate him and confer with him as he came along the road +between Coal City and Viper. He thought very grimly and with bitter +futility of the force waiting so near and so eagerly keyed to action +under O'Keefe, which one minute of private speech would launch into a +hurricane effectiveness. In mad moments he had even tried to break the +chain between the steel bracelets that bit into his wrists. His Samson +strength had strained until the arteries swelled in his temples and it +has been almost enough—but not quite. A link had stretched a bit, but +the wrists had been so lacerated that the effort had to be abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +Then when the day was spent towards late afternoon he caught the +chatter of the key again, somewhat confused by the intervening wall, +but though he missed part of the message he caught a few words which +were pregnant with meaning … "got her … in mine shaft … +back of Gap." +</P> + +<P> +Now, Halloway told himself, as tortured sweat of suspense dripped down +his face, he must somehow convey word to Jerry O'Keefe—but how? He +had the facts—the location—the certainty and he could use none of his +vital information. +</P> + +<P> +He twisted his two gyved hands around and got one of them into his coat +pocket. He brought out the pipe which he could neither fill nor light, +but there was a certain steadying comfort in feeling its cool stem +between his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +During the captive's leisure for reflection he had been pondering one +point which had puzzled him. From what telegraph office out there in +the wilds was Wicks acting as intelligence bureau? Obviously he must +be near the Gap itself as the station wire followed the railroad. +</P> + +<P> +Then he remembered a device that he had seen used about mining +properties and laughed at his own stupidity in remaining as long +baffled. The few telephones hereabouts were party lines where all +conversation could be overheard and so, for the use of highwaymen, they +were unavailable. Wicks had merely brought a key, a battery and a +ground wire with him and he had cut in on a telephone line. There +were, he remembered now, two instruments on the operator's table here. +One was the twin to the thing upon which the resourceful Wricks was +playing. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Brent and Bud Sellers had ridden with spirits rapidly sinking since +they had drawn near to that territory which lay adjacent to Wolf-Pen +Gap. The failure to reach Halloway by 'phone at Viper was a bad +augury, since it left them in the position of an army whose +intelligence bureau has collapsed. +</P> + +<P> +The two horsemen had ridden through wintry forests along steep and +difficult roads where it seemed that they alone represented humanity. +Of course Alexander, herself, might be traveling as uneventfully as +themselves, but they could feel no great confidence in that hope and +now there was nothing to do but to push on to Viper, perhaps passing by +spots where they were sorely needed, as they went, and to try to find +Halloway, whose silence left them groping in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +Will Brent was, in the sense of present requirements, no woodsman. He +knew the forests as a lumber expert knows them, but the seemingly +trivial and minute indications that another might have read, carried +for him no meaning. +</P> + +<P> +However, he put his dependence in Bud Sellers whose knowledge of such +lore amounted to wizardry, and at one point Bud halted abruptly gazing +down with absorbtion from his saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Right hyar," he said shortly, "Alexander stopped an' hed speech with +two horsemen. Ther looks of hit don't pleasure me none nuther." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" inquired Brent, and the mountaineer drew his brow into an +apprehensive furrow. "Fer a spell back, I've been watchin' these signs +with forebodin's. Alexander wasn't ridin' at no stiddy gait. She'd +walk her mule, then gallop him—then she'd pull down an' halt. These +other two riders did jest what she did—kain't ye read ther story writ +out in ther marks of them mule-irons on ther mud?" +</P> + +<P> +Brent shook his head in bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, hit's all too damn plain an' hit would 'pear ter signify that +Alexander sought ter shake off two fellers thet didn't low ter be shook +off. Right hyar they all stopped, an' parleyed some." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because three mules stood hyar fer a leetle spell—ye kin see whar +they stomped, an' movin' mules don't stomp twice or thrice over ther +same spot. Then two of 'em went on gallopin'—and one went on walkin'. +Yes this is whar she got rid of 'em, but I misdoubts ef they lost sight +of her." +</P> + +<P> +A little further Bud showed Brent where the two mules had turned aside +to the right and, a mile further on, where Alexander had also abandoned +the main road and gone to the left. +</P> + +<P> +"She held ter ther highway a mile further then she 'lowed ter," growled +Sellers. "Thar's jest one reasonable cause fer thet. She knowed she +war bein' spied on, an' she aimed ter shake 'em off. I wonder <I>did</I> +she shake 'em off." +</P> + +<P> +When they had almost reached the Gap itself and were proceeding warily +they came to a narrow ford at whose edge Bud drew rein. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's pause an' study this hyar proposition out afore we rides on any +further," he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +It was a particularly wild and desolate spot where the road bent so +sharply that they had turned a corner and come upon the crossing of the +water without a previous view. They had been riding toward what had +seemed a sheer wall of bluff, and that abrupt angle had brought them to +a point where the road dipped sharply down and lost itself in the +rapidly running waters of a narrow creek. On the opposite shore the +road came out again with a right-angle turn to thread its course along +a shelf of higher ground as a narrow cornice might run along a wall. +Below was a drop to the creek; above the perpendicular uplift of the +precipice. +</P> + +<P> +"This hyar's ther commencement of Wolf-Pen Gap," Bud Sellers +enlightened his companion. "This is just erbout whar they aimed ter +lay-way her at. I shouldn't marvel none ef some of 'em's watchin' us +from them thickets up on thet bluff right now." +</P> + +<P> +"Then let's hurry across," Brent nervously suggested. "Once we get +over the stream the cliff itself will shield us. They can't shoot +straight down." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I reckon they don't hardly aim ter harm us," reassured Bud. "An' +anyhow we've got ter tutor this matter jest right. Thet creek's norrer +but hit's deep beyond fordin'. We needs must swim our mules acros't." +</P> + +<P> +Brent shuddered at the sight of the chill water but Bud went on +inexorably. "Now, ye've got ter start as fur up es ye handily +kin—because ther current's swift—an' if hit carries yer beyond thet +small bend ye comes out in quicksand. Jest foller me. I'll go fust." +</P> + +<P> +Brent had faced a number of adventures of late, but for this newest one +he had little stomach. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and prepared +to go ahead and follow his companion's lead, since need left no +alternative. +</P> + +<P> +As Bud's mule thrust its fore-feet into the creek's edge the creature +balked and the young man kicked him viciously. Brent was waiting with +bated breath when abruptly from overhead came the clean, sharp bark of +a rifle. Brent's hat went spinning from his head and he felt the light +sting of a grazing wound along his scalp. It seemed to be in the same +instant that he heard Bud's revolver barking its retort towards the +point from which the flash had gleamed. There followed a second report +and the zip of a bullet burying itself in wood, and then he heard Bud +yelling, "Go on!" +</P> + +<P> +Realizing that once across the narrow stream he would be under shelter, +he kicked and belabored his mule to the take-off. There was a downward +plunge, a floundering in the icy water, and then an unsteady sensation +as the beast struck out to swim. The current had taken its effect so +that mule and rider were being carried down channel faster than they +were gaining across, but Brent instinctively turned his head to see +what had become of his guide. +</P> + +<P> +He saw an unbelievable thing. The mountaineer upon whose coolness and +courage he had absolutely relied had not ventured the crossing at all! +He had wheeled after firing and kicked his mount into wild flight, +making for the protection of the turn about which they had come. Twice +before he gained safety the rifle above spat out venomously, but missed +the fleeing target. +</P> + +<P> +Such a confusion seized upon Brent that he never knew how he got across +that creek. Ahead had lain quicksand, above a rifle in the laurel and +in his own entrails an overpowering nausea of betrayed confidence. His +comrade had deserted him—had run away! +</P> + +<P> +Somehow, his own mount had won across and was plodding up to solid +roadway once more and there safe, for the moment at least, he halted +and looked back. +</P> + +<P> +Hoping against hope, Brent waited for five minutes with a clammy sweat +on his forehead, but there was still no sign of a returning Bud +Sellers. Then Brent unwillingly admitted that it was a pure and +unmitigated case of desertion under fire. +</P> + +<P> +"My God," he groaned. "He quit me cold—quit like a dog! He simply +cut and ran!" +</P> + +<P> +With a sickened heart he rode on. His head ached from the near touch +of the assassin's bullet. He was not even watching for a second +ambuscade, and fortunately for him, there was none. But with dulled +observation he passed by a place where, close to the road, a shaft ran +back into an abandoned coal mine and he followed his dejected course +without suspecting that at that moment Alexander was being held a +prisoner in the cavern to which that shaft gave access. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + + +<P> +The men who had come into town for the purpose of co-operating with +Jerry O'Keefe and with Halloway had of course drifted in singly and +with no seeming of cohesion. It was vital that they should avoid any +manifest community of purpose, yet they were armed, ready and alert, +awaiting only a signal to gather out of scattered elements into a +close-knit force with heavy striking-power. +</P> + +<P> +As they waited through the day for the call which did not come they +began to feel the dispirited gloom of men keyed to action and kept +interminably waiting—but none of them dropped away. +</P> + +<P> +It was close to sundown when Brent himself arrived, and since he failed +to encounter Jerry O'Keefe on the streets he did not pause to search +for him, but went direct to the telegraph office. It had not been +disclosed to O'Keefe how close to the heart of the conspiracy was the +operator and the young man with the Irish eyes had not been stirred to +any deep suspicion in that quarter. +</P> + +<P> +Brent himself had not considered it a reasonable assumption that to +such a powerful fellow as Halloway harm could come in so public a +place. Yet Halloway had meant to make that office his headquarters and +now Brent made it his first destination. +</P> + +<P> +Through the open door and the smeared window spilled out a yellow and +sickly light. +</P> + +<P> +Inside sat two men, but a glance told Brent that neither of them worked +the key. The pair were gaunt and sinister of aspect and they were not +town folk but creek-dwellers. One was evil-visaged to a point of +gargoyle hideousness. The other was little better, and he raised a +face to inspect the man in the door which some malignant sculptor might +have modeled in pure spite, pinching it viciously here and there into +sharp angles of grotesqueness. Yet in the eyes Brent recognized +keenness and determination. +</P> + +<P> +The newcomer casually inquired for the station agent and one of the +fellows stared at him morosely, making no reply. The other however, +supplied the curt information: "He's done gone out ter git him a snack +ter eat." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm looking for a man named Halloway," said Brent. "A big upstandin' +fellow. Maybe you men know him?" +</P> + +<P> +To the mountaineers who walk softly and speak low by custom it seemed +that the city man spoke with a volume and resonance quite needless in +such narrow confines. +</P> + +<P> +"I knows him when I sees him," admitted the man who had answered the +first question. The other remained dumb. +</P> + +<P> +"Has he been about here to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll wait till the operator gets back," announced Brent with a +nonchalance difficult to maintain. +</P> + +<P> +He did not take a seat but stood, studiously appraising the place while +he seemed to see little. After the depression attendant upon Bud's +desertion had followed an almost electric keenness; every gesture was +guarded and every nerve set now against any self-betrayal, for he felt +himself fencing in the dark with wily adversaries. +</P> + +<P> +He sauntered idly over near the door to the baggage-room and beyond its +panels he could hear the scurry of rats at play among loose piles of +boxes and litter. +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like the rats are having a party in there," he suggested as +though laudibly resolved upon making conversation in a taciturn circle. +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby they be." Still only one of the countrymen had spoken a +syllable. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to put a good rat-dog in there and watch him work," laughed +Brent, turning again to face the door as though he found fascination in +the thought. Then idly he laid his hand on the knob as though to try +its opening, but he went no further. Just at the side of the lintel +hung a broken and extremely dirty mirror and a quick glance into its +revealing surface told him a full story. He saw the man with the +pinched features reach swiftly back of him and slide a rifle away from +its concealed place against the wall. He saw the other's hand go +flash-like under his coat and under his left arm-pit. He caught in +both faces a sudden and black malignity which told him, beyond +question, that they would not play but would kill. +</P> + +<P> +Of course too he knew why and he made a point of standing there with +every evidence of having seen nothing or suspected nothing. +</P> + +<P> +After that first glance he also carefully avoided the mirror which +might work revelation to them as well as to himself. Eventually he +turned, not directly toward them but toward the other end of the room +and carelessly walked its length that he might give emphasis to his +unhurried seeming before he came slowly about. +</P> + +<P> +When he did so the two men sat as before. The rifle had already +disappeared. The hand that had swept holster-ward had swept out again. +Both faces were blankly unconcerned. +</P> + +<P> +Brent dropped into a chair near the door and listened as the clatter +inside increased. The rats scrambled about with a multiplicity of +light gnawing sounds and the clicking of some trifles unstably +balanced. Then slowly the clicking ceased to be random. +</P> + +<P> +It differed from the other little noises only to the practiced ears of +Brent himself. That was not because his ears were keener than the +other pairs, but because to others there was no comprehensible +connection between a faint tapping and the sequence of raps that spells +words in the Morse code. +</P> + +<P> +It was strange that from rats at play should issue the coherent sense +of consecutive telegraphy. +</P> + +<P> +Brent had been on the <I>qui-vive</I>, steadied against any self-betrayal, +yet now he struggled against the impulse to tremble with excitement. +His fingers gripping the chair arms threatened to betray him by their +tautness and he could feel cold perspiration dripping down his body. +</P> + +<P> +He crossed his legs and slouched more indolently into his chair in the +attitude of a bored and vacant-minded man—but as he sat his brain was +focussed on the clicking. +</P> + +<P> +"Am tied … up … here," spelled out the dots and dashes from the +baggage-room. "If you understand, scrape chair on floor." Brent +shifted his seat noisily. +</P> + +<P> +"She … is … caught.…" There was a pause there. +</P> + +<P> +"In God's name, how is he doing it?" Brent questioned himself, while +inside, bound to his chair, with cuffed wrists, Halloway went on +sending—rapping with a pipe stem between parted rows of strong teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"She is held … in mine-shaft … back of Gap.…" +</P> + +<P> +The pressure of concentrating on that faint, but infinitely important +sound, and the need of maintaining a semblance of weary dullness was +trying Brent's soul. He thanked Heaven for the taciturnity of his +companions. +</P> + +<P> +"Get there … with all men possible … as for me——" +</P> + +<P> +Brent came suddenly and noisily to his feet for just then the operator +appeared in the doorway and it would not do for these sounds to +continue after his coming. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here comes the man I've been waiting for," he announced loudly, +and once more the clatter in the baggage-room became the random of rats +at play. "I wanted to ask you if you had any message for William +Brent, from a man named Halloway," he inquired, still speaking as if +against the wind, and, receiving a brief negative, he turned toward the +outer door. +</P> + +<P> +An exit under such circumstances is always difficult. To curb the urge +of haste, to remain casual under lynx-like eyes, these are not untrying +tasks. Any slip now and he might be in the same durance as Halloway +himself—and when he breathed the outer air it was with a deep-drawn +sigh of relief for delivery out of peril. +</P> + +<P> +When he had established connection with O'Keefe and had given him the +main facts, withholding, however, his sources of information, he said: +"We must get Halloway free before we start." +</P> + +<P> +"Like hell we must!" exploded Jerry. "So long es he lays thar they'll +figger they've done fooled us an' beat us. Ef we take him out, thar'll +be men in ther la'rel all the way we've got ter go, pickin' us off in +ther dark." +</P> + +<P> +"You're right," assented Brent, "but he's been there all day, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al then a leetle more hain't goin' ter hurt him none." +</P> + +<P> +Fifteen minutes later, leaving separately but timed to come to a +rendezvous near the point of attack a good dozen men were on the trail +to the Gap. +</P> + +<P> +Through wet and chilly thickets O'Keefe led Brent at a gait that made +his heart pound. There was a battle-joy in the mountaineer's eyes and +in them too, was something else inspired by certain dreams of the girl +he had seen only once and whom he had told himself he meant to marry. +</P> + +<P> +Over broken gulches, along precipitous paths he led the way buoyantly +and now and then he broke into low almost inaudible crooning of an +ancient love song. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Vainly the crew of highwaymen in the mine awaited the arrival of the +seeming rescuer who was to take their captive off their hands and +relieve them of the necessity of murder. It had been understood that +Jase was to employ only a few attackers in the accomplishment of this +knightly deed. Few men could be spared from other duties, and the +smaller the force which he led to victory the more lustrous would be +his glory of achievement. There was to be a great deal of shooting and +shouting through the narrow entrance to the place—and the exaggerating +echoes of the rocky confines would multiply it into a convincing din of +battle. +</P> + +<P> +The alleged Ku-Klux clansmen would fight their way out, leaving their +prisoner behind—and in the confusion—but not until then—the +saddle-bags would disappear. +</P> + +<P> +It was all very simple, and prettily adjusted, but the difficulty was +that Jase had failed to arrive and the act was lagging without its +climax. +</P> + +<P> +He failed because of unforeseen events. Pending the cue for his +entrance he and his fellow heroes were being employed as sentries +guarding the approaches to the place against invasion by outsiders. +</P> + +<P> +Jase himself had for several hours been lying as flat as a lizard under +a matted clump of laurel on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a ford +which could not be rapidly crossed. His function was to see to it that +no one passed there whose coming might prove an embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +The rawness of the air caused his bones to ache and his muscles to +cramp, but he had been steadfast. He was playing for high stakes. +Finally two horsemen had appeared—and they were two who must not pass. +One of them was Brent and the other was Bud Sellers. +</P> + +<P> +So Jase had opened fire and Bud had returned it—returned it and fled. +</P> + +<P> +That left the sentinel with a result half successful and half +disastrous, and made it necessary for him to make a hurried short-cut +to another point past which Brent must shortly ride. There he would +finish the matter of disputing the road. +</P> + +<P> +Mallows drew himself out of his cramped ambuscade and started for his +new point, to the completion of his business—but before he had taken +many steps a sudden and violent distress assailed him. He pressed his +hand to his side with a feeling of vague surprise and it came away +blood-covered. He stopped and took account of his condition—and found +himself shot in the chest. In the excitement of the moment he had not +felt the sting, but now he was becoming rapidly and alarmingly weak. +He stumbled on, but several times he fell, and each time it was with a +greater burden of effort that he regained his feet. He clamped his +teeth and pressed doggedly forward, but the ranges began to swim in +giddy circles and a thickening fog clouded his eyes. When he dropped +down next time he did not rise again. +</P> + +<P> +As night fell in the mine the temper of the men there became +increasingly ugly. Some had recourse to the flasks that they carried +in their pockets, and as their blood warmed into an alcoholic glow, +their eyes, through the slits in their masks, began dwelling on +Alexander's beauty of figure and face with a menacing and predatory +greed. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander McGivins was in the most actual and imminent of conceivable +perils. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's hands were no longer bound. When the commander of the group +had realized that her imprisonment was not to terminate so shortly as +had been planned he had been magnanimous to the extent of freeing her +wrists, but he had granted her no further extension of freedom. +</P> + +<P> +The girl had given them no satisfaction of weakening nerve, but in her +heart she kept hidden a qualm as the time lengthened and a number of +the men went on drinking their fiery moonshine. +</P> + +<P> +The pack was growing restive, openly restive now, and after yet another +council among the more important bandits, the leader came over and made +an announcement. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther Clan aims now ter discuss yore case amongst themselves. We air +goin' ter leave four men hyar ter keep watch over ye whilst we're +away—an' them four has orders ter kill ye if ye seeks ter escape." +</P> + +<P> +He raised his hand above his head, and wheeling, marched out through +the shaft's opening, while behind him, trailing in single file and dead +silence, trooped all the henchmen save the four left on guard. +Alexander noted with a certain degree of satisfaction that the +saddle-bags were not removed by those who departed. +</P> + +<P> +The blazing pine torches went out with the small procession, leaving +the cavern gloomily shadowed. The only light came now from two +lanterns—and the girl sickened with the realization that at least one +of her jailers was drunk. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as the withdrawal of the chieftain brought a laxening of +discipline, he lurched over toward her and, crossing the trickle of +running water, bent forward, staring brazenly into her face. +</P> + +<P> +Only his eyes were visible, but they were bestial and lecherous. After +a little he thrust out a hand and stroked the white shoulder which the +torn clothing had left bare. Instantly, in a transport of white-hot +fury, the girl sprang sidewise and sought to drag the mask from his +face. But sodden as he was, the fellow still held to his instincts of +self protection. He twisted and seized her in a violent grip, +pinioning her arms at her sides. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In Alexander's lithe body dwelt a strength quite equal to a fair fight +and had it been a fair fight she would probably have made short work of +him. Now caught unexpectedly into helplessness she still writhed and +twisted, fighting with savage knee-blows until she had freed her right +hand and then she struck out with no feminine uncertainty. The fellow +reeled back, and Alexander followed him up with lightning speed. +</P> + +<P> +She had become a fury animated by a single purpose. She meant to +unmask her assailant and register his face for a future reprisal of +death. The man, recognizing that at all costs he must defeat that +recognition, was compelled to throw both elbows across his face and to +bear without further retaliation the blows she rained upon him—all +blows that were soundly effective. +</P> + +<P> +The thing happened quickly and for an instant the other three stood +looking on in astonishment—even, at first, with amusement. But as the +fellow backed across the tiny brook he tripped and he fell sprawling +and his out-thrown hand carried down and extinguished one of the +lanterns from its precarious niche on a small shelf of rock. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander, making most of her brief moment, leaped across the body that +had gone down and recovered from its place on top of the saddle-bags +the pistol that had been taken from her at the time of her capture. +</P> + +<P> +The three who had so far remained non-combatants could maintain that +role no longer. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop thet gun," yelled one as their own weapons leaped out. But +Alexander had thrown herself to the ground and at the same instant she +fired a single shot—not at any one of her jailers, but at the sole +remaining lantern, which was only ten feet distant. +</P> + +<P> +Then as the place went black she came to her feet and plunged through +the darkness to the opposite wall where she had marked a pulpit-like +rock that would give her temporary shelter. +</P> + +<P> +She guessed rightly that now for a while at least since she was known +to be armed, there would be a hesitation in the relighting of lanterns +or even in the striking of matches. That caution, in a situation which +had abruptly undergone a change of complexion, went farther. There was +even no sound of voices or of movement. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander herself was groping warily for the rock, setting down each +foot with extreme and noiseless caution. At last she gained the +protection which she sought and waited. She wished she might have +regained her rifle but that had not been lying within reach when she +made her hurricane entrance into action. +</P> + +<P> +There were remaining to her five cartridges in the revolver, and +somewhere there in the inky blackness about her were four men, +presumably ammunitioned without stint. Also their confederates would +shortly return, bearing flambeaux—and then her little moment of +advantage would end. Even if every cartridge at her command went +fatally home, the supply was inadequate to cope with such numbers. +</P> + +<P> +The silence hung with a suspense that was well nigh unendurable and +when the filthy wings of a bat brushed her cheek again she had to bite +the blood out of her lips to stifle an outcry. +</P> + +<P> +As black and seemingly as lifeless as the coal which men had sought +there was the cavern where she crouched. Alexander wondered why the +sound of her pistol, which must have thundered in ragged echoes through +the shaft, had not brought back the others. Now she was trapped and +there was no conceivable possibility of escape. At the touch of +unclean fingers she had seen red and struck out—and the rest had +followed as an avalanche follows a slipping stone. +</P> + +<P> +At last when the breathless stillness could no longer be borne, she +cautiously stooped and raked her hand back and forth until it came in +contact with a loose stone. She must force those silent antagonists to +some sort of action so she tossed the missile outward and as it struck +with a light clatter, a waiting pistol barked and Alexander's own +roared back at the tiny spurt of flame. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly, too, three others spoke, aimed at her flash and she heard +the spatter of lead against stone nearby. In the confined space the +fusillade bellowed blatantly, and slowly diminishing echoes lingered +after the firing itself ceased. Then once more the silence which was +more trying than gunnery settled. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly an idea dawned in the girl's mind, and strengthened into +conviction. If the main group who had trailed out with torches had +been anywhere nearby, that crescendo of noise must have recalled them +in hot haste. That they had not come back must indicate that they had +never meant to return. They had permanently departed, leaving her in +the hands of a quartette selected as a robbing party, and an execution +squad. With that realization the matter resolved itself into a new +phase. She would eventually be murdered here in this rat-hole unless +she could, one by one, shoot to death the four unseen men who were her +companions there. Four enemies stood between herself and freedom—and +four cartridges were left in her weapon. +</P> + +<P> +At last she crept cautiously out and made her tedious way to the center +of the place again. She must do something and the audacious plan born +of necessity involved the need of a light. If her hand felt flesh +instead, her pistol was ready. +</P> + +<P> +But after much noiseless groping she came upon the overturned lantern +and she had encountered nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +Back in the lee of the rock she boldly struck a match, kindled the +wick—and still as she reached up and set the thing on the boulder's +top the unbroken silence held. +</P> + +<P> +She had hoped to draw their fire and account for some of them at least, +but now as she peeped cautiously out she found to her astonishment that +except for herself the cavern was empty. +</P> + +<P> +She also became sure of another thing. Her saddle-bags were gone. +</P> + +<P> +She came out then and having repossessed herself of her rifle took up a +position well to one side of the shaft's opening where anyone who +entered must pass her muzzle, but she did not venture into the passage +itself because she was sure that that way lay an ambuscade. +</P> + +<P> +Then, beside the sickly illumination within, she recognized a new waver +of kerosene rays from beyond the entrance. +</P> + +<P> +There was no sound, except that of very stealthy feet, and the light +came slowly. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander hastened hack to her rock, holding close to the walls of the +cavern as she went, then ensconcing herself there, almost invisible in +the shadow, she waited with parted lips and a cocked rifle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + + +<P> +Time had hung heavy on Jack Halloway's hands after he had heard Brent +announce his departure. The chair scraped on the floor, had been his +only assurance that the other had understood him and that might, within +possibility, have been a coincidence. Still Brent's promptness in +cutting him off on the arrival of the operator had seemed a hopeful +sign indicating team-work. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway had declared himself a man who took joy in the savage strain +which that civilization had failed to quench out of his nature. Now +that strain was mounting into volcano stirrings presaging an eruption. +If he could free himself there would ensue a tempest of wreckage about +that railroad station such as Samson brought down between the pillars +of the temple—but no chances had been taken in his binding. +</P> + +<P> +He did not relish the thought of being left there over night, yet he +strongly doubted whether they would venture to take him out on the +streets in the sight of possible friends. +</P> + +<P> +He fell to wondering what they would do with him. Except in extremity, +they would hardly murder him out of hand, and yet to explain to him why +they had treated him so hardly, would be a delicate matter. But the +answer lay in the operator's total freedom from suspicion that his +captive had read the wire. So far as that backwoods Machiavelli +divined, there was no link establishing himself with the conspiracy to +rob, and when the time came he thought he could clear his skirts by a +simple means. +</P> + +<P> +Night had fallen when at last the prisoner heard the door open and saw +the Agent enter, accompanied by the two gunmen who had been his +companions that morning. They came with a lantern and the telegraph +man held a heavy rasp in his hand. Halting before the bound figure, he +spoke slowly and with a somewhat shamefaced note of apology. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon I've got ter pray yore forgiveness, Stranger," he began. "A +right mean sort of mistake 'pears ter hev took place—but hit war one I +couldn't help without I defied ther law." +</P> + +<P> +"How's thet?" demanded Halloway shortly, and his informant went on. +</P> + +<P> +"When thet message come from ther town marshal at Coal City, he warned +us 'Violent man—take no chances.' Thet's why we fell on ye so severe +an' tied ye up so tight." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al," Halloway was schooling his demeanor warily into the middle +course between a too ready forgiveness and a too bellicose resentment, +"wa'al what air ye cravin' my pardon fer, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"We've done heered ergin from Coal City—an' ther town marshal says +thet hit war all a fool mistake—thar hain't no sufficient grounds ter +hold ye on. He bids me set ye free forthwith." +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, then, and do hit. I've done hed a belly-full of settin' here +strapped ter this cheer." +</P> + +<P> +But the operator hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"Afore I turns ye loose, I'd like ter feel plum sartin thet ye hain't +holdin' no grudge." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway knew that, should he seem easily placated, he would not be +believed, so he spoke with a voice of stern yet just determination. +</P> + +<P> +"So holp me God, I aims ter demand full payment fer this hyar day—but +I aims ter punish ther right man. Ye says ye only acted on orders from +an officer, don't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's true es text." +</P> + +<P> +"All right then, ye hain't ther man I'm atter, ef that's so. Mistakes +will happen. As ter ther other feller, I kin bide my time fer a spell. +I reckon my wrath won't cool none." +</P> + +<P> +The Station Agent heaved a sigh of relief. "Hit's a right unfortunate +thing," he declared sympathetically. "I've been studyin' erbout hit +an' I said ter myself, 'what ef some enemy of his'n sent both them +messages?'" +</P> + +<P> +This seemingly innocent suggestion was by way of discounting the future +when Halloway learned that the town marshal knew nothing of the matter. +</P> + +<P> +The operator bent and unfastened the binders about the ankles and +waist. That left only the handcuffs, and when he came to them once +more a note of apologetic anxiety crept into his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther key ter them things is lost," he deprecated. "Ther best I kin do +fer ye air ter file ther chain. Ye kin stick yore hands in yore +pockets, though, an' nobody won't see 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's good enough fer ther present time," assented Halloway. "Ef +ye'll loan me thet file, I'll git 'em off myself—later on." +</P> + +<P> +So while the giant stood with outstretched hands, the other filed +through a link at the middle of the chain, and together the four men +left the baggage room and went into the outer office. Its door was +closed but Halloway, who walked ahead, laid a hand on the knob and +paused to inquire, without rancor, "I reckon ye aims ter give me back +my gun, don't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +The operator promptly produced the weapon from the drawer of his table +and Halloway made no examination to see whether it came back to him +full-chambered or empty. +</P> + +<P> +He had his own guess on that score, but he wished to appear +unsuspicious just now, so he thrust the thing into its holster. +</P> + +<P> +Then deliberately he turned the key in the door and that was, for a +time, his last deliberate act. Seizing the fellow who stood nearest +him, he swung him forward and held him as a partial shield before his +own body. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar's three of ye hyar," he announced in an abruptly ominous voice, +"and one of me. Ef any man makes a move ter draw a gun, I aims +straightway ter break this feller's neck. Don't let no man move from +where he stands at!" +</P> + +<P> +Astonishment enforced a momentary obedience, save that the man upon +whose shoulders the gigantic hands lay—not as yet heavily—attempted +to squirm away. Iron-like fingers bit into his flesh and, wincing with +a smothered yell of pain, he stood trembling. Halloway passed one hand +over his hostage's shoulder and drew the pistol from its holster—then +he sent the fellow spinning from him like a top, and covered the +others, who huddled close together. "Yore guns—grip-fust—an' +speedily," he directed, in that still voice that carried terror, and +brought immediate obedience. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye promised us—thet ye wouldn't hold us accountable," whined the +operator, and Halloway laughed, as he unloaded the captured pistols and +tossed them into a corner. +</P> + +<P> +"What I promised war not ter visit no revengeance on ther wrong +fellers," he corrected. "Never mind how I knows hit—but I does know +thet no message ever come from ther Coal City town marshal. Ther one +that did come told about a plot ter lay-way an' rob a woman—an' ther +three of ye war in on hit." +</P> + +<P> +The terror of the unaccountable and wholly mystifying situation held +them now in its paralysis. In no conceivable way could he have learned +these things—yet he knew them and fears crowded as they wondered what +else he might know as well. +</P> + +<P> +But Halloway allowed them little leisure for abstract reflection. +</P> + +<P> +"I've done throwed away them guns. I reckon ye knows whether mine's +loaded or not—I don't. Now ther four of us air going ter hev a leetle +frolic, right hyar an' now—a leetle four-cornered fight—jest fist an' +skull fashion." +</P> + +<P> +He walked across and locked the baggage-room door, though it was +shuttered from the outside, and dropped the key within his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on boys, let's start right in," he invited. "Fer yore own sakes +hit's kinderly a pity ye couldn't git these irons offen me … +they're right apt ter scar somebody up." +</P> + +<P> +They knew that to get out they must fight their way out—and after all +there were three of them. Flinging a heavy chair above his head, the +quickest-witted of the trio hurled himself forward to the attack. +</P> + +<P> +From Halloway's eyes shot bolts of Berserker battle-lust, and from +under the down-sweep of the clubbed missile he glided as a trout slips +away from a startling shadow. Before that assailant had recovered his +equilibrium, Halloway had seized him up as a grown man might seize a +small child and hurled him headlong at the operator, so that the two +went down in a tangle of writhing bodies. +</P> + +<P> +The third had not been idle and as Halloway straightened and wheeled, +he met the cyclonic lunge of a snarling adversary with a lifted and +wickedly gleaming dirk. +</P> + +<P> +As the knife flashed down, the dodging Goliath felt its sting in his +left shoulder—but only with a glancing blow which had been aimed at +his throat. Blood was let but no great hurt done save that it roused +him to a demoniac fury. The embrace in which the wielder of the blade +was folded was like the snapping of a bear-trap and, not slowly but +almost instantly, its victim dropped his weapon and hung gasping with +broken ribs and stifled lungs. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway cast him aside and wheeled again with lowered head, for two +men were at him afresh with whatever things of weight came to their +hands. Neither dared pause and desperation had endowed them with a +strength as unwonted and exaggerated as that which his frenzy brings to +a maniac. +</P> + +<P> +The fallen figure lay quiet enough, but the remaining three swept in +tempestuous chaos about the place. The table was wrecked—the +furniture shattered—all were bleeding and panting in sob-like +brokenness of breath. +</P> + +<P> +Two bore the brand-like marks of handcuffs; the other a great welt +across the forehead, left there by the large file, but at the end one +figure straightened up—his task ended—and behind him lay three that +would not soon be ready to fight again. Then, unlocking the door, +Halloway let himself out into the night. +</P> + +<P> +He paused on the platform and drew a long breath and after that, +plunging his hands deep into his pockets, he strolled along whistling. +But when he had come to the edge of the town and the road toward +Wolf-Pen Gap, he broke into a run. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Alexander had stood waiting for a while at the edge of the rock, +wondering who these men might be who were approaching with such an +extremity of caution. Once more she was called on to endure the +heart-chill of suspense, but when finally two figures slipped through +the shaft-mouth with cocked rifles thrust out before them that tautness +of nerve eased into relaxation. One of them—palpably nervous—was +Will Brent. The other, with eyes agleam and an eagerness keyed for +battle, was Jerry O'Keefe. +</P> + +<P> +Yet as both took in the narrow and seemingly deserted area between the +coal-seamed walls, their faces became heavy with disappointment. Other +men followed them until eight or ten had crowded into the cavern, and +very dejectedly Brent said, "We're too late. They've been here and +gone." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander, peering silently over the top of her rock, missed the face +of Bud Sellers, the one man she had wholly trusted. She told herself +that to suspect Brent or O'Keefe was ungenerous, yet out of her recent +viscissitudes an exaggerated instinct of caution had been born, and she +waited to judge the complexion of affairs before she revealed herself. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry's engaging face grew vengefully dark as he turned toward Brent +and spoke apprehensively. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther place stinks with burnt gun-powder! Does ye reckon she showed +fight—and they hurt her? Afore God, men, ef thet's true, I aims ter +do some killin' my own self—I hain't nuver seed her but oncet—but I +aims ter wed with thet gal!" +</P> + +<P> +Then with a laugh that pealed through the place and brought them all +around startled, Alexander emerged from her concealment. +</P> + +<P> +"I almost feels sorry thet they didn't finish me—ef thet's ther fate +thet's in store fer me," she announced. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes squarely met those of Jerry O'Keefe, and he reddened +furiously, but at once Brent began asking and answering questions and +in that diversion of attention the young mountaineer found escape from +his discomfiture. The rescue party had encountered none of the men who +had so recently vacated the mine. Outside the woods were "masterly +wild and la'relly" and poroused with cavernous crags. The conspirators +had evidently scattered and melted from sight as bees melt into a +honeycomb. +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander's face grew again serious and pained as she gave her most +important information. "You men come a leetle too late. I driv 'em +off—but them thet went last tuck my saddle-bags away with 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Brent's only response to that was a brief gesture of despair. So after +all the plotting, the counterplotting, the dangers and hardships; after +all her own gallant efforts, the girl had lost the game. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her as she stood there repressing under a stoical +blankness of expression, emotions which he thought must sum up to a +worm-wood bitterness of spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"We're wasting time here," he announced after a brief and painful +pause. "They can't have gone far—we must comb these woods." +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander shrugged her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar hain't no possible way of runnin' 'em down ternight," she said. +"They've scattered like a hover of pa'tridges thet's been shot at, an' +whichever one's got them saddle-bags is in safe hidin' afore now. I've +got one more plan yit, but hit's fer termorrer. Let's go back thar an' +sot thet Halloway feller free." +</P> + +<P> +But halfway back they met a gigantic figure whose wrists jangled with +the clink of steel chains as he swung his long arms. He was calm—even +cheerful—of mood, now that he had appeased his wrath, nor did he seem +concerned as to what might be the fate of the trio he had left behind +him. +</P> + +<P> +The skies had cleared and a moon had risen. No longer refusing the +attendance of her bodyguard, Alexander insisted upon pushing on through +Viper to her kinsman's house at Perry Center. It was as well that her +foes should imagine her forces in full flight. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Though they had all spent arduous days and nights they made the last +stage of the trip at an excellent rate of speed. After Wolf-Pen Gap +and its vicinity had been left behind, the unspeakable wildness of the +country gave way abruptly, as it so often does in Appalachia, to higher +grounds where for a little way the roads run through almost parklike +stretches, now silver and cobalt under a high moon. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry O'Keefe had friends at Perry Center whose doors would open to him +and his companions even at this inhospitable hour between midnight and +dawn, and when they left Alexander at her threshold, she paused for a +moment and turned with the moonlight on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys," she said softly, "I'm beholden ter every one of ye! Even ef we +fails 'atter all, hit hain't because we didn't try hard and we hain't +done yit." +</P> + +<P> +Two of the men to whom she spoke were gazing at her with rapt eyes. +O'Keefe was riding on that moonlit night at the gallop of bold dreams, +and in his mind were visions of wedding and infare. Halloway's +thoughts would perhaps have suffered by comparison, but in desire and +the wild dream they were no less strong, and later when he and Brent +lay on the same palet, in the cock-loft of a log house, he heaved a +deep sigh and gave rein to his fancy. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going away from here," he announced, "and God knows I shall miss +her as a man misses the brilliance of tropic seas and the luster of +tropic skies." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you boasted that you meant to stay," commented Brent +drowsily, but Halloway went on and soon he was talking to an unhearing +and unconscious bed-fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"I did—but I'm not a sheer fool. I told you that I had gauged my +entrance with a nicety of judgment for dramatic values. I shall +regulate my exit with the same sense. She likes to think herself a +man, which means that she hasn't waked up yet, but some day she will." +</P> + +<P> +He paused and his own voice became heavy with coming sleep. "She's had +adventures that she won't forget—if I go away—her imagination will be +at work. Later when Spring comes and the sap rises—and the birds—the +birds——" There the voice trailed off into the incoherence of slumber. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Jase Mallows was sleeping, too, at that hour, and it was only by a +lucky chance that it wasn't his final sleep. The terrain over which +the group of highwaymen had been operating had centered about the mine +shaft just back of the Wolf-Pen Gap. The distances between all the +points involved had been short of radius save as prolonged by the +broken formation of mountain and chasm, of precipice and gorge. There +were caves and thickets and the Gap itself was what local parlance +termed a "master shut-in." +</P> + +<P> +When the chief body of alleged Ku-Klux operators had trailed out of the +mine shaft, they had removed their masks and scattered into the +raggedness. They could, if need exacted, have remained there for days, +safe from discovery, each in his separate hiding place. One unfamiliar +with this country of eyrie and lair, wonders at the stories of men +hiding out successfully, but one who knows it marvels only that any man +who has taken to the wilds is ever captured. +</P> + +<P> +One of the last contingent to leave had stumbled on an inert and +prostrate body in the dark as he crossed a ridge not far away. +Cautiously he had investigated and had recognized Jase, who was +unconscious and had lost much blood. His confederate paused for a time +in a quandary as to what disposition to make of him. When to-morrow's +news leaked out, wounded men would be suspected men, and those who +accompanied them might share in that suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +Yet to desert a comrade in that fashion was abhorrent even to the slack +conscience of this desperado. So he grudgingly hefted the burden of +the senseless figure and plodded under its weight to the nearest cabin. +</P> + +<P> +There he told a story of how he had stumbled on his grewsome find in +the open high-road—which was a lie—and his mystification of manner +was so great as to constitute for himself a practical alibi. +</P> + +<P> +Early the next morning, Brent, Halloway and O'Keefe went to consult +with Alexander as to the next step. None of them meant to give up +after going this far and the men fretted for immediate action, but +Alexander to their mystification shook her head. "Not yit," she ruled. +"I'm waitin' hyar now fer tidin's thet may holp us." +</P> + +<P> +While they stood in the yard of the log house, a figure appeared +plodding slowly along the roadway, and the girl's eyes were bent on it +with a fixed anxiety. It came with such a weary lagging, with such a +painful shuffling of feet and such an exhausted hanging of head that +Brent at first failed to recognize Bud Sellers. The left arm hung with +that limpness which denotes a broken bone. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God," exclaimed the timber buyer under his breath, "I should +hardly think he'd have the nerve to show himself here!" +</P> + +<P> +But Bud looked only at the girl. He was on foot now but over his +shoulders hung his saddle-bags. He halted and threw them at +Alexander's feet. +</P> + +<P> +"My mule got shot out from under me," he informed her quite simply, +"an' I busted an arm—hit war a right slavish trip. Open them bags." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander obeyed—and drew out a parcel bound in brown paper, bearing +the bright red spots of the bank's sealing wax. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon, men," she said quietly, "we won't hev ter sot out afresh." +</P> + +<P> +Brent, Halloway and O'Keefe gazed stupidly each on each. Incredulous +amazement and perplexity tied their tongues. Finally Halloway found +his voice to stammer, "What's done happened? How did Sellers git hit." +</P> + +<P> +Then only Alexander threw back her head and let her laughter peal out. +</P> + +<P> +"He's done hed hit all ther time," she announced. "You fellers hes +done been staunch friends ter me—and I've got ter crave yore +forgiveness ef I hain't trusted ye full free from then start." She +paused and added solicitously, "But ye sees, ye forewarned me erginst +them real robbers—an' Jase Mallows forewarned me erginst <I>you</I>. I +'lowed he war lyin'—but I couldn't take no chances. Thar war jest one +feller I knowed I could trust without question, an' thet feller was +Bud. So he tuck ther money an' thet bundle I rid away from bank with +was jest make believe. I aimed ter lead 'em over a false trail." +</P> + +<P> +"Outwitted ther pack of us," bellowed Halloway gleefully. "Afore God, +I takes my hat off ter ye—but why didn't ye suffer some man ter tote +ther dummy bundle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ef airy man had undertook hit," she responded gravely, "they'd most +likely hev kilt him first—an' s'arched him 'atterwards." +</P> + +<P> +Bud had dropped down on a step of the stile that led from the road to +the yard. His heavy lidded eyes were full of weariness and pain. His +limp arm sagged but he said slowly: +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's why I run away, Mr. Brent. I had to. Two of us couldn't cross +thar without goin' slow—and I couldn't let them saddle-bags git lost." +</P> + +<P> +"So ye couldn't be quite sure who you could trust," repeated Halloway. +"I hopes ye knows now." +</P> + +<P> +But Brent, watching the light in the great fellow's eyes did not miss +their hungry gleam and in a low voice he said, "Jack, <I>I'm</I> not sure +yet." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + + +<P> +The conspiracy fathered by Lute Brown and Jase Mallows had its +inception in a small coterie whose ambitions had been stirred to +avarice by the bait of sharing among them a sum of over four thousand +dollars. Ramifications of detail had necessitated the use of a larger +force; a force so large, indeed, that anything like an equal +distribution of booty would have intolerably eaten into the profits of +the principals. Therefore the rank and file of employes were merely +mercenaries, working for a flat wage. +</P> + +<P> +But in such an enterprise the danger of mutiny always looms large and +the bludgeon of blackmail lies ready to the hand of the mutineer. +Therefore the actual handling of the money had been a matter of extreme +care to Lute and those in his closest confidence. When the leader had +taken most of his men out of the mine he had led away those of whom he +had felt least sure—and had left the saddle-bags to the custody of the +supposedly reliable minority. His estimate had been seventy-five per +cent accurate. One only of the four was untrustworthy. +</P> + +<P> +Lute himself had designated the custodian of the treasure and had fixed +a rendezvous at a long abandoned and decaying cabin in a remote and +thicketed locality. Shortly before dawn Lute arrived there, +unaccompanied and expecting to find his man awaiting him. But +complications had developed. When the quartette that left the mine +last held a hurried conference outside, the squad leader explained that +the very essence of precaution now lay in their separating and seeking +individual cover. +</P> + +<P> +Two of them concurred but the fellow who had attacked Alexander had +become insurgent through drink, chagrin and cupidity. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys," he darkly suggested, "we warn't hired ter go thro no sich rough +times es we've done encountered. I reckon these fellers owes us right +smart more then what they agreed ter pay fust oft—moreover what +sartainty hev we got thet we're goin' ter get anything a-tall?" +</P> + +<P> +They argued with him but his obduracy stood unaffected. +</P> + +<P> +"Thet small sheer thet I agreed ter tek hain't ergoin' ter satisfy me +now," he truculently protested. "I aims ter go along with ther money +hitself and git paid off without no sort of dalliance. I aims ter get +my own price, too." +</P> + +<P> +Finally, since they could not overlook the menace of disaffection, the +leader agreed to take this man with him to Lute Brown for adjustment of +the dispute, and the two set off together, while the other two left +them at a fork of the trail. On the way to the cabin, the disgruntled +one drank more moonshine liquor than was good for him and when they +arrived there the place was seemingly empty, for Lute, watching with +hawk-like vigilance, had made out that instead of one man two were +approaching and he had slipped out through a back door into the void of +the darkness. A lantern without a chimney burned in the deserted room +and cabin and that was safe enough in a place so screened, but it +showed the two newcomers that there was no one waiting there. To the +inflamed and suspicious brother this seemed an indication of broken +faith. Perhaps after all he had been lured here to be paid off with +treachery and murder! +</P> + +<P> +"So ye lied ter me!" he bellowed in passion. "Hit war jest like I +thought. Now I aims ter tek hit all myself!" And snatching out a +knife he hurled himself on his comrade of an hour ago. +</P> + +<P> +That one dropped the saddle-bags and fumbled for his pistol, but before +it cleared the holster they had grappled and were stumbling about the +room. Lute, watching from without, considered this the moment for +intervention and he appeared in the door with drawn revolver shouting +out for an end to the struggle. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately it was only his loyal adherent who heeded his voice, and +the other, freed from the grip that had so far held him in chancery +stabbed twice before the object of his attack collapsed. Then only, +Lute fired. Before that moment he must have fired through his loyal +man to reach his traitor. The hesitation was fatal, for the shot +missed its target and in a moment more, Lute, too fell under the knife. +</P> + +<P> +The traitorous survivor stood for a moment, panting heavily, then, +still unsteady of step from his homicidal exertions, picked up the +saddle-bags, ransacked them with frenzied haste and plunged out of the +door with the package that bore the spots of red sealing wax. +</P> + +<P> +At any time the others might come to investigate and they would find a +scene of double murder. +</P> + +<P> +He did not stop to open the package. That could await a more opportune +moment. Just now the vital thing was flight. +</P> + +<P> +When, at the end of much panic-stricken haste and the spurring of +terror he judged it safe to strike a match, he ripped open the bundle, +over which so many men and one woman had fought—and in it discovered +only tightly packed newspapers and a few small pieces of broken +brick—added to give it the plausibility of weight. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Halloway in accordance with his plan of leaving the stage before his +presence lost dramatic effect, did not offer to go all the way back to +Shoulder-blade Creek with Alexander. He accompanied her only to a +point where there was no longer danger, and then said farewell to her, +leaving her still under the escort of Brent, Bud Sellers and O'Keefe. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," he announced abruptly when they stood on the crest of a +steep hill, "I'll turn back hyar. I don't dwell over yore way an' thar +hain't no use fer me ter fare further. I'll bid ye farewell—an' mebby +some day all us fellers'll meet up again." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander was surprised, and a sharp little pang of disappointment shot +through her breast. She did not analyze the emotion, but, just then +and with no reason that emerged out of the subconscious, she remembered +the instant when she had hung to the sycamore branch and he had swept +her in and pressed her close. She only nodded her head and spoke +gravely. "I reckon we'll all miss ye when ye're gone, but thet hain't +no reason fer takin' ye no further offen yore course." +</P> + +<P> +Then for the first time Halloway said anything that might have been +construed as a compliment to the girl and he disarmed it of too great +significance with a quizzical smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon, Alexander, thar hain't nothin' better then a good man—an' +ye've done proved yoreself one—but afore God thar's a mighty +outstandin' woman wasted when ye does hit." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander flushed. Perhaps the germ of the awakening that Halloway had +predicted was already stirring into unrecognized life, but she was +ashamed of the blush and in order to cover it made a retort which was +not by any stretch of the imagination a compliment. +</P> + +<P> +"Thar's gals aplenty, Jack"—the people of the hills fall very +naturally into the use of the first name—"A feller like you mout find +hisself one ef he tried hard enough—an' I'll give ye some mighty good +counsel, because atter all I was <I>borned</I> female an' I knows thet much +erbout 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al?" Halloway smiled inquiringly, and the girl went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye won't nuver make no headway with none of 'em whilst ye goes round +lookin' es bristly an' es dirty es a razor-back hog thet's done been +wallowin' in ther mire. Ef ye ever got clean once hit mout be right +diff'rent." +</P> + +<P> +The big fellow roared with laughter as he turned to Brent. +</P> + +<P> +"Kin ye beat thet now, Mr. Brent? Kin ye figger me in a b'iled shirt, +with a citified shave an' perfume on me a-settin' out sparkin'." +</P> + +<P> +None of the rest knew why Brent laughed so hard. He was trying to +picture the expression that would have come to Alexander's face had she +seen Jack Halloway as he himself had seen him, groomed to perfection, +with pretty heads turning in theater foyer and at restaurant tables, to +gaze at his clean chisseled features and god-like physique. +</P> + +<P> +Bud had little to say and after the parting the girl traveled in a +greater silence than before. Both were thinking of the time, now +drawing near, when they should reach the house of Aaron McGivins and +learn whether or not it was a house of death. Both too were thinking +of the man who had turned back, but their thoughts there were widely +different. +</P> + +<P> +Then they came to the road that ran by the big house, and before they +had reached it Joe McGivins, who sighted them from afar came to meet +them. When Alexander saw her brother she found suddenly that she could +not walk. She halted and stood there with her knees weak under her and +her cheeks pallid. The moment of hearing the life-and-death verdict +was at hand and the sorely-tried strength that had carried her so far +forsook her. +</P> + +<P> +But Joe, however weak, was considerate and when still at a distance he +saw her raise a hand weakly in a gesture of questioning and +insufferable suspense and he shouted out his news: "He's gittin' well." +</P> + +<P> +Then the girl groped blindly out with her hands and but for Jerry +O'Keefe who caught her elbow, she would have fallen. The taut nerves +had loosened to that unspeakable relief—but for the moment it was +collapse. +</P> + +<P> +Brent had left the mountains a week after Alexander's safe return, but +within two months he had occasion to return and he rode over to the +mouth of Shoulder-blade. He had been told that Aaron McGivins, though +he had made a swift and complete recovery from his wound, had after all +only been reprieved. He had recently taken to his bed with a heart +attack—locally they called it "smotherin' spells," and no hope was +held out for his recovery. +</P> + +<P> +As Brent rode on from the railroad toward the house he gained later +tidings. The old man was dead. +</P> + +<P> +He dismounted at the stile to find ministering neighbors gathered there +and, as never before, the unrelieved and almost biblical antiquity of +this life impressed itself on his realization. Here was no undertaker, +treading softly with skilled and considerately silent helpers. No +mourning wreath hung on the door. The rasping whine of the saw and +clatter of the hammer were in no wise muted as men who lived nearby +fashioned from undressed boards the box which was to be old Aaron's +casket. Noisy sympathy ran in a high tide where doubtless the bereaved +sought only privacy. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's face, as she met Brent at the door, was pale with the waxen +softness of a magnolia petal and though the vividness of her lips and +eyes were emphasized by contrast, suffering seemed to have endowed her +remarkable beauty with a sort of nobility—an exquisite delicacy that +was a paradox for one so tall and strong. +</P> + +<P> +The appeal of her wistfully sad eyes struck at his heart as she greeted +him in a still voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard—and I wanted to come over," he said and her reply was simple. +"I'm obleeged ter ye. I wants ye ter look at him. He war a godly man +an' a right noble one. Somehow his face——" she spoke slowly and with +an effort, "looks like he'd done already talked with God—an' war at +rest." +</P> + +<P> +At once she led him into the room where, upon the four-poster bed lay +the sheeted figure, and with a deeply reverent hand, lifted the +covering. +</P> + +<P> +To Brent it seemed that he was looking into features exemplifying all +the wholesome virtues of those men who built the Republic. It was a +face of rugged strength and unassuming simplicity. Its lines bespoke +perils faced without fear and privations endured without complaint. +Here in a pocket of wilderness which the nation had forgotten survived +many others of those unaltered pioneers. But in the expression that +death had made fixed, as well as in facial pattern, Brent recognized +that simple kindliness to which courtesy had been a matter of instinct +and not of ceremony and the rude nobility of the man to whom others had +brought their tangled disputes, in all confidence, for adjustment. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand what you mean," he declared as his eyes traveled from the +father to the daughter, "and I'm glad you let me see him." +</P> + +<P> +Moving unobtrusively about, engaged in many small matters of +consideration, Brent recognized Bud Sellers and Jerry O'Keefe. He +himself remained until the burial had taken place, and was one of those +who lowered the coffin into the grave. But when those rites had been +concluded and another day had come Brent sought for Alexander to make +his adieus. +</P> + +<P> +She was nowhere about the house and he went in search of her. He could +not bear to remain longer where he must endure the pain of her stricken +face. Of all the women he had ever known she stood forth as the most +unique—and in some ways the most impressive. She was undoubtedly the +most beautiful. He realized now that, though they were of different +and irreconcilable planes of life, there had never been a moment since +he had first seen her when he would not, save for his dragging on the +steady curb of reason, have fallen into a headlong infatuation. Now he +wished only to prove himself a serviceable friend. +</P> + +<P> +When he had vainly sought her about the farm, it occurred to him to go +to the ragged "buryin' ground" and though he found her there he did not +obtrude upon her solitary vigil. +</P> + +<P> +For Alexander was abandoning herself to one of those wild and +nerve-wracking tempests of weeping that come occasionally in a lifetime +to those who weep little. She had thrown herself face-down on the +ground beneath which Aaron McGivins slept, with arms outflung as though +seeking to reach into the grave and embrace him. As she had been both +son and daughter to him, he had been, to her, both father and mother. +Spasmodically her hands clenched and unclenched, and her fingers dug +wildly into the earth. +</P> + +<P> +Brent turned away and left her there and it was a full two hours later +before he met her and led her, passive enough now, to a place from +which they overlooked that river that, not long ago, they had ridden +together. Under his gently diplomatic prompting she found relief in +unbosoming herself. +</P> + +<P> +"He war all I hed——" she rebelliously declared. "An' whilst he lived +thet war enough—but now I hain't got nothin' left." +</P> + +<P> +After a little she broke out again. "I hain't a woman—an' hain't a +man. I hain't nuthin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," said Brent gently, "when I looked at your father's face in +there, I was thinking of what Parson Acup once told me. He said that +if your father had been a wishful man,"—he used the hill phrase for +ambition quite unconsciously, "he could have gone to the Legislature. +Perhaps to Congress." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon he mout ef hed any honors he craved," she replied. "Folks +was always pesterin' him ter run fer office." +</P> + +<P> +The man looked off across the valley which was so desolate now and +which would soon be so tenderly green; so tuneful with leaf and blossom. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes were seeing a vision and some of it he tried to voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose, Alexander, he <I>had</I> gone. Suppose he had taken his seat in +Congress, instead of staying here. He would have become a figure +trusted there, too—but how different your life would have been. There +would have been schools and—well, many things that you have never +known." +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't hankerin' fer none of them things," she said. Then with a +sudden paroxysm of sobs that shook her afresh, she added, "All I wants +is ter hev him back ergin!" +</P> + +<P> +But Brent was thinking of things that could mean little to her because +she lacked the background of contrast and comparison. He was seeing +that beauty and that personality in the social life of official +Washington; seeing the triumph that would have been hers—and wondering +what it would have meant to her in the balance of contentment or +unhappiness. +</P> + +<P> +Of course had Aaron McGivins begun his political career young enough, +every trace of mountain illiteracy would long ago have been shed away +by the growing girl. As for her blood, there is in all America no +other so purely Anglo-Saxon. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather think it's a pity he didn't go," Brent mused aloud. Then he +added, "Now that he's—not with you any more—Alexander, there is +something you must let me say. You've never thought about it much, but +you have such a beauty as would make you famous in any city of the +world. Men will come—and they won't be turned back." +</P> + +<P> +For the first time since Aaron's death the old militant fire leaped +into her eyes and her chin came up as she flared into vehemence. +</P> + +<P> +"Like hell they won't be turned back!" +</P> + +<P> +But Brent smiled. "You think that now, but Alexander, nature is nature +and there must be something in your life. You've played at being a man +and done it better than many men—but men can marry women, and you +can't. Along that road lies a heart-breaking loneliness. Sometime +you'll see that, since you can't be a man, you'll want to be a man's +mate." +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head with unconvinced obduracy. +</P> + +<P> +"I knows ye aims ter give me kindly counsel, Mr. Brent, but ye're plum +wastin' yore breath." +</P> + +<P> +The man rose. "After all, I only came to say good-bye," he told her. +"You aren't going to keep men from loving you. I know because I've +tried to keep myself from doing it—and I've failed. But this is +really my message. If you do change your ideas, for God's sake choose +your man carefully—and if you ever reach a point where you need +counsel, send for me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Along Fifth Avenue from Washington Arch to the Plaza, Spring was in the +air. Trees were putting out that first green which, in its tenderness +of beauty, is all hope and confidence. With the tide of humanity +drifted Will Brent, whom business had brought from Kentucky to New +York, but his thoughts were back there in the hills where the almost +illiterate Diana, who knew nothing of life's nuances of refinement and +who yet had all of life's allurements, was facing her new loneliness. +</P> + +<P> +He reached a bookstore and turned in, idly looking through volumes of +verse, while he killed the hour before his appointment. His hand fell +upon a small volume bearing the name of G. K. Chesterton, and opening +it at random he read those lines descriptive of the illuminated +breviary from which Alfred the Great, as a boy, learned his spiritual +primer at his mother's knee: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"It was wrought in the monk's slow manner of silver<BR> + and sanguine shell,<BR> +And its pictures were little and terrible keyholes of<BR> + Heaven and Hell."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Brent closed the covers with a snap. "That's what my memories of it +all come to," he mused, "'—little and terrible keyholes of Heaven and +Hell.'" +</P> + +<P> +But that evening he went to dine with Jack Halloway at his club which +looked out across the Avenue and the Park. He had written to Halloway +in advance of his coming and by wire had received an invitation couched +in terms of urgency not to be denied. +</P> + +<P> +This was not Appalachia but Manhattan yet, when Halloway met him, Brent +could but smile at life's contrasts. The huge fellow rose from his +chair to greet him, as splendid a physical thing as human eyes could +look upon. There was no stubble now on the face that seemed cast in +smooth bronze. In lieu of that calculatedly slovenly disguise which he +had affected in the hinter-land, he was immaculate in the fineness of +his linen and the tailoring of his evening clothes. But as he held out +his hand, he drawled, "Wa'al, stranger, how fares matters back thar on +Shoulder-blade?" +</P> + +<P> +Brent sketched briefly the occurrences that had taken place there; the +death of Old Aaron and the fact that Jerry O'Keefe had been trying to +sell his farm near Coal City in order, he surmised, that he might take +up his abode nearer the McGivins' place. +</P> + +<P> +Talk ran idly for a time, then Halloway rose and stood towering in the +Fifth Avenue window. Across Park and Plaza the sky was still rosy with +the last of the afterglow. Under the loftily broken roof-lines of the +great hotel multitudinous window panes were gleaming. Over it all was +the warm breath of spring. +</P> + +<P> +The big man's hands, idly clasped behind his back, began to twitch and +finally settled into a hard grip. His shoulders heaved and when he +spoke there was a queer note in his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"See the rhododendron over there in the park? Soon now it will be in +flower—not only <I>that</I> rhododendron but——" He ended it abruptly, +and then broke out, low-voiced but tense. "This atmosphere is stifling +me—God! It's horrible— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Send your path be straight before you,<BR> +When the old spring fret comes o'er you,<BR> +And the Red Gods call to you.'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Into Brent's tone came something almost savage. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what you're thinking. Quit it. It won't do!" +</P> + +<P> +Slowly Halloway turned. For a moment his fine face was drawn with +actual suffering. Then he added: +</P> + +<P> +"You're quite right, Will, it won't do. But it's hard to forget—when +one has seen a comet. Touch that button if you don't mind. It's time +for the cocktails." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + + +<P> +Have you seen Spring come to the mountains? Have you felt the subtle +power on the human heart, of trance-drugged impulses awakening in +plant, in animal, in humanity; in the deep hard arteries of the ancient +hills themselves? Winter there is grim and bleak beyond the telling. +In far separated cabins, held in the quarantine of mired roads, men and +women have lived, from hand to mouth, sinking into a dour and +melancholy apathy. +</P> + +<P> +But when Spring comes, the gray and chocolate humps of raggedness are +softly veiled again with tender verdure and a song runs with the caress +of the breeze. It is a song relayed on the throats of birds. The +color of new flower and leaf and of skies washed clean of brooding +finds an echo in man and womankind. When the dogwood blossom, +everywhere, breaks into white foam upon the soft billows of woodland +green, and the sap stirs—then the old and crabbed bitterness of life +stands aside for the coming of Love. +</P> + +<P> +If one be young and free, one feels, admittedly or subconsciously, the +deep tides that sing to sentiment and the undertows that pull to +passion. +</P> + +<P> +About the lonely house of Alexander McGivins the woods were burgeoning +and tuneful. Stark contours of landscape had become lovely and +Alexander, preparing for the activities of "drappin' and kiverin'" in +the steep corn-fields, felt the surge of vague influences in her bosom. +</P> + +<P> +Joe McGivins had carried a stricken face since Old Aaron's death. He +looked to his sister, as he had looked to his father, for direction and +guidance and though he worked it was as a hired man might have worked, +patiently rather than keenly and without initiative. +</P> + +<P> +But keeping busy failed to comfort the empty ache in Alexander's heart +because in the grave over yonder lay all that had filled her world, and +though she would have fought the man who suggested it, there were times +when her lovely lips fell into lines of irony, and when she +half-consciously felt that her playing at being a man had been a bitter +and empty jest. She had only forfeited her woman's rights in life, and +had failed to gain the compensation of man's. +</P> + +<P> +Once or twice when on the high road, she passed youthful couples, +love-engrossed, she went on with a wistfulness in her eyes. For such +as these, life held something, but for her, she was sure in her +obduracy of inexperience, there was no objective. +</P> + +<P> +If the truth be told, the "spring-tide" was welling in the channels of +her being, as well as in the rivulets of the hills, and the changes +that had come to her were near to bearing fruit. +</P> + +<P> +That space of little more than a week, when she had left her home—a +home which had also been a world with its own laws and environment—had +brought her into contact with other views. Her father's death had left +the house no longer the same. Two independent souls, with strong +views, may succeed in fashioning their own world, and she and her +father had been two such. +</P> + +<P> +One left unsupported may fail, and now she was alone—for Joe hardly +counted. +</P> + +<P> +Ever since she had been old enough to think at all, she had been +inordinately proud of "being a man," and profoundly contemptuous of the +women about her whose colorless lives spelled thraldom and hard +servitude. +</P> + +<P> +That long fostered and passionately held creed would die hard. She +would fight herself and whomsoever else challenged its acceptance—but +insidious doubts were assailing her. +</P> + +<P> +So to all outward seeming Alexander McGivins was more the "he-woman" +than ever before, but in her inner heart the leaven of change was at +its yeasty work. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got ter be a man," she told Joe, who mildly objected, even while +he leaned on her strength. "Now thet paw's gone, I hev greater need +then ever ter stand squ'ar on my own two feet." +</P> + +<P> +The youth nodded. "I reckon ye're right," he acknowledged, "but folks +talks a heap. I'm always figgerin' thet I'm goin' ter hev ter lick +somebody erbout ye. I wouldn't suffer nobody ter speak ill of ye when +I war present." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander looked steadily at the boy. "I'm obleeged ter ye, but I'll +do my own fightin', Joe," she told him calmly. "I'll even make shift +ter do some o' your'n, an' yit——" She paused a moment and he +inquired, "Wa'al, what's on yore mind, Alexander?" +</P> + +<P> +"An' yit," she went on more slowly and thoughtfully, "I'd be mighty +nigh willin' ter prove ther cause of ye gittin' in one or two good +fights—ef hit couldn't be brought ter pass no other way." +</P> + +<P> +"Paw always counseled peace, ef a feller warn't pushed too fur," he +alleged in defense of his pacific attitude. +</P> + +<P> +"So does I. But Joe, hit's jest on yore own account thet I'd like ter +see ye show more sperit. Folks talks erbout <I>you</I> too. I know what +blood ye've got, commandin' blood—an' ef ye got roused up onc't hit'd +mek a more upstandin' man of ye. I knows hit's a lie, but I've heered +ye called ther disablest feller on Shoulder-blade!" +</P> + +<P> +A touch of contempt stole into her voice as she added, "An' yore paw's +only son!" +</P> + +<P> +He went away somewhat sulkily, but she had ignited in him a spark of +needed torture. Bred of a fighting line, the acid of self-scorn began +eating into his pride, and when a few days later he halted at a wayside +smithy, which was really only a "blind-tiger," and came upon a drinking +crowd, the ferment of his thoughts developed into action. +</P> + +<P> +Sol Breck was sitting with his back turned as the boy strolled in and +it chanced that he was talking about Alexander. The girl herself with +her square sense of justice, would have recognized his comments as +crude jesting and would have passed them by unresented. +</P> + +<P> +But Joe had been bitterly accusing himself of timidity and he needed +sustenance for his waning faith in his own temerity. It was +characteristic of him that he should pick an easy beginning, as a timid +swimmer seeks proficiency in shallow water. Sol Breck had the +unenviable reputation of one who never declined battle—and never +emerged from one crowned with victory. Joe hurled at him the challenge +of the fighting epithet and after a brief but animated combat had him +down and defeated. Then he returned home with a swelling breast, and +just enough marks of conflict upon his own person to bear out his +report of counsel heeded and resolution put to the touch. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander listened without interruption to the end, for Joe had told +her all but the name of his adversary and the exact words that had +precipitated battle. +</P> + +<P> +But when the narrative came to its conclusion she inquired quietly, +"What did he say erbout me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hit wasn't so much what he said es ther way he said hit," was +Joe's somewhat shame-faced reply. "Ef hit hed been erbout any other +gal, I reckon I mout of looked over it." +</P> + +<P> +"What was it?" The demand was insistent. +</P> + +<P> +"He jest 'lowed that if 'stid of warin' pants an' straddlin' hosses, +ye'd pick ye out an upstandin' man an' wed him, thar mout come ter be +some <I>real</I> men in ther fam'ly." +</P> + +<P> +The girl's face crimsoned. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought ye said hit war me ye fought erbout, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"I did say so, Alexander." +</P> + +<P> +"An' ye didn't see no aspersion thet called fer a fight—in ther way +them words teched <I>you</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +That phase of the matter had not occurred to Joe at all. He was used +to being overlooked. +</P> + +<P> +"He warn't thinkin' erbout me," he lamely exculpated. "I reckon he hed +hit in head thet I hain't quite twenty-one yit." +</P> + +<P> +For a while Alexander stood looking at him with a slowly gathering +tempest of anger in her eyes, under which the boy fidgeted, and finally +she spoke in that ominously still manner that marked moments of dang'er. +</P> + +<P> +"What he said erbout me war true enough—an' ef ye admits what he all +but said erbout you—thet ye hain't no man—then <I>thet's</I> true too." +</P> + +<P> +The boy was crestfallen and a little impatient now. He had come to +recount an achievement which had plumed and reappareled a limping +self-respect and he had expected congratulation. +</P> + +<P> +"What's ther use of faultin' me by mincin' words? I licked him, didn't +I? Set hit down ter anything ye likes." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice still held that cold note of inflexible but quiet anger. +"Yes, ye licked him but hit looks like ter me ye picked yore man plum +keerful an' got ye an easy one. Wait hyar, I'm goin' atter my hat." +</P> + +<P> +"What fer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Were a'goin' over thar tergether—an' ye're goin' ter crave his +pardon." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't crave his pardon," burst out the boy violently, "ter save +his soul from torment. I'd be a laughing stock ef I did." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're agoin' ter do one of two things, Joe," she announced with +finality. "Ye're either agoin' ter ask his pardon, whilst I stands by +an' hears ye do hit or else ye're a'goin' ter tell him thet ye licked +him over ther wrong words—an' thet seein' ye blundered, ye're willin' +ter lick him afresh over ther right ones—him or anybody he names ter +fight in his place." +</P> + +<P> +Joe hung his head for a moment, then the pricking of the old self-scorn +came with a turning tide. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he said. "Let's go." +</P> + +<P> +It was an unmannerly, but a very astonished crew upon which they came +but at the sight of Alexander herself they all became sheepish and +discomfited of aspect. +</P> + +<P> +"Sol," began the girl tersely, "Joe tells me thet him an' you hed a +fight jest now over somethin' ye said erbout he. I kin do my own +fightin', but Joe hes something ter tell ye on his own account." +</P> + +<P> +So introduced, Joe spoke and this time it was the swimmer striking +boldly into deep water. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander 'lows I didn't hev need ter fight over loose talk erbout +her. But when airy feller says thar hain't no man in my household, so +long's I'm thar, I hev got ample cause ter fight. Ye've got ter tek +thet back right now. Ef so be ye hain't rested up yit, an' ye've got +any friend hyar thet ye'd like ter hev take yore place, I'm ready fer +him." +</P> + +<P> +But Sol had had enough, for the present. Alexander's presence made +him, somehow, feel foolish, as if his thrashing were less of an +embarrassment than its cause. +</P> + +<P> +"I war jest a-funnin,'" he protested. "I'm willin' ter take back +anything thet's done give offense." +</P> + +<P> +One day shortly after that, when Joe came unexpectedly into the house +he surprised Alexander attired as he had never before seen her—in the +skirts of her own sex. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer ther Lord's sake," exclaimed the boy. "Thet's ther fust time I +ever seed ye in petticoats. Looks like ye must hev on a half score of +'em." +</P> + +<P> +"Like es not hit's ther last time ye'll ever see hit, too," retorted +Alexander hotly while her cheeks flamed. "Some day I mout hev ter go +down below ter some big town on business. A woman's got ter w'ar these +fool things thar, an' I was practising so's I could larn ter walk with +'em flappin' round my legs." +</P> + +<P> +Yet she walked, for all the alleged difficulty, with an untrameled and +regal ease. With a sweep of hauteur she left the grinning boy and when +she returned a few minutes later she was breeched and booted as usual. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which the view +reached off for leagues over the valley and beyond that over ridge upon +ridge of hilltops. There she thought of many things and was very +lonely. She could not have worded it but, deep in her heart, she felt +the outcry of the Spring voice: "Make me anything but neuter when the +sap begins to stir." +</P> + +<P> +But how could this be any love-impulse in Alexander? Love, she had +always heard, must fix itself upon some one endearing object and lay +its glamor over definite features. +</P> + +<P> +The most magnificent figure of a man she had ever seen often reared +itself in her thought-pictures with its six feet six of straight limbed +strength, its eagle-like keenness of eye, and its self-confident +bearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef I could really be a man," she told herself, "I'd love ter be a man +like ther Halloway feller—ef only he wasn't so plum dirty and raggedy." +</P> + +<P> +One day on her way back from the fields she saw a tall figure loafing +near the front door of her house and, at that distance, she thought +that it was Halloway. It stood so tall and straight that it must be, +but that was because the setting sun was in her eyes and the man showed +only in silhouette. So seen Jerry O'Keefe—for it proved to be +Jerry—suffered little by comparison with any man she knew—except +Halloway. +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander did not greet him with any great warmth. She was angry +with herself because her heart had started suddenly to pounding at the +instant when she had imagined this man to be the other. She was angry, +too, with Jerry for disappointing her. +</P> + +<P> +So she nodded coolly and demanded, "What's yore business hyarabout?" +</P> + +<P> +In Jerry the rising joyousness of rebirth was full confessed. He was +here because since he had seen her last he had carried no other picture +in his thoughts, and now that the world was in bloom he wanted to see +her against a befitting background. To that end he had sold his small +farm and rented a plot and cabin near-by and if there was to be no +welcome for him here he had merely sold himself out of a home. +</P> + +<P> +But the gray-blue eyes were whimsical, and the mobile lips smiling. He +was unrebuffed as he made a counter-query. +</P> + +<P> +"Kain't a feller kinderly come broguein' in hyar, without some special +business brings him?" +</P> + +<P> +Alexander felt that she had been unneighborly, but in her memory the +things that Brent had said to her had become a sort of troublesome +refrain. "Men will come and they won't be turned back." She +remembered, too, her own hot retort, "Like hell they won't!" It was in +the spirit of that retort that she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef ye hain't got no business hyar, ye hain't got no business hyar, an' +thet's all thar air ter hit." +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby ye're ther business yoreself, Alexander," he suggested and there +was a persuasive quality in his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm my own business, nobody else's." +</P> + +<P> +In this mood that had troubled her of late, Alexander was very +combative. She was not willing to surrender her code—not willing yet +to be treated as a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"I heers tell thet ye've moved over hyar, bag an' baggage—an' ef I kin +help ye out any way, I'll seek ter convenience ye outen a sperit of +neighborness." She spoke in that extra-deliberate fashion that went +before a storm, and as she stood there with her head high, and her eyes +undeviatingly meeting his, she had the beauty of a war-goddess. "But +when ye hain't got no matter of need, don't come." +</P> + +<P> +Jerry had no intention of being lightly repulsed. His purpose of +courtship had become his governing law but he had learned much of this +Amazonian woman and had set himself, not to an easy conquest, but to a +hard campaign. The man who, merely to be near one woman, sells a river +bottom farm that he had nursed into something like prosperity and who +takes on rocky acres in its stead, has shown, by his works, the +determination of his spirit. +</P> + +<P> +Now, the humorous eyes riffled with a quiet amusement. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't say thet I come without business, Alexander. Mebby I hain't +stated hit yit." +</P> + +<P> +"Then ye'd better state hit. Ye don't seem ter be in no tormentin' +haste." +</P> + +<P> +O'Keefe thought that "tormentin' haste" in his position would be fatal +and yet the streak of whimsey that ran through him brought a +paradoxical answer. +</P> + +<P> +"My hearth's cold over thar. I come ter borry fire." +</P> + +<P> +He was watching her as he spoke, and now that he no longer stood under +the disadvantage of comparison with Jack Halloway he was no mean figure +of a man. One could not miss the fine, if slender, power of his long +and shapely lines from broad shoulder to tapering waist. His hair +curled crisply and incorrigibly and he bore himself with a lazy sort of +grace, agile for all its indolence. Alexander could not be quite sure +whether the eyes were insolent or humble. When he had stated his +mission of "borrowing fire" he had used a quaint phrase, eloquent of a +quainter custom. It had to do with that isolated life in a land where +until recently matches were rare and when the hearth fire died one had +to go to the neighbor's house and hasten back with a flaming fagot for +its relighting. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye don't seem ter hev ther drive of a man borryin' fire. Why didn't +ye ask Joe. I heers him in thar." +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's <I>goin' home</I> not <I>comin'</I> thet a man's got ter hasten with his +fire," he reminded her. "I didn't ask Joe because—he hain't got ther +kind of fire my heart needs, Alexander." +</P> + +<P> +So her suspicion was true! He had been speaking, not literally, but in +the allegory of a suitor and her gathering wrath burst. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I hain't got hit fer ye nuther. Let yore h'arth stay cold, an' +be damned ter ye—an' now begone right speedily!" +</P> + +<P> +With pure effrontery the young man laughed. Into his voice he put a +pretense of appeal, as he calmly stuffed his pipe with tobacco crumbs. +"Alexander ye wouldn't deny a man such a plum needcessity es fire, +would ye?" he questioned, though even as he said it he drew from his +pocket a box of matches and struck one. +</P> + +<P> +So he had made deliberate and calculated sport of her! Her anger saw +in his presence itself only the insult of the first attack from those +men who "would not be turned back," and once more the rage in her came +to its boiling-point. +</P> + +<P> +She wheeled and went into the house and when she came out her face was +pale to the lips and her brows drawn in a resolute pucker, while in her +hands she carried a cocked rifle. +</P> + +<P> +"Down yonder lays my fence-line," she autocratically told the man who +had continued standing where she had left him, and whose seeming was +still unflurried. "I've got a license ter say who crosses hit. Ye've +done sought ter make sport of me, an' now I commands ye ter cross ther +fence an' begone from hyar." She paused a moment because her breath +was coming fast with passion. "I warns ye nuver ter put foot on this +farm ergin—I aims ter see thet ye don't—an' when ye starts away don't +tarry ter look back, nuther." +</P> + +<P> +Slowly Jerry O'Keefe nodded. One ordered from another's house must +obey, but the twinkle had not altogether faded from his eyes and there +was nothing precipitate in his movements, albeit the rifle was at ready +and the girl's deep breast was heaving with unfeigned fury. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he acceded, "I'm goin' now but es fer not lookin' back, I +wouldn't like ter mek no brash promises. You're hyar an' hit mout +prove right hard ter keep my eyes turned t'other way. I'm an +easy-goin' sort of feller anyhow, an' I likes ter let my glance kind of +rove hyar an' thar." +</P> + +<P> +Her hands trembled on the gun and her voice shook into huskiness. +"Begone," she warned. "I kain't hold down my temper much longer." +</P> + +<P> +"An' es fer comin' back," Jerry continued blandly, "some day you're +ergoin' ter <I>invite</I> me back. Anyhow, I reckon I'd come, because +thar's somethin' hyar thet'll kinderly pulls me hither stronger then +guns kin skeer me off." +</P> + +<P> +The girl sat there on her doorstep with her rifle across her knees and +halfway to the fence-line Jerry paused and looked back. The rifle came +up—and dropped back again as Alexander belatedly pretended that she +had not seen him. At the stile O'Keefe paused to turn his head again. +He even waved his hat, and this time she looked through him as through +a pane of glass. +</P> + +<P> +But when she had been sitting broodingly for a long while, the cloud +slowly dissipated from her face. In her eyes a twinkle of merriment +battled with the fire of righteous indignation, and at last she even +laughed with a low pealing note like a silver bell. +</P> + +<P> +"He's an impudent, no-count devil," she said, "but he's got right +unfalterin' nerve, an' thar's a mighty pleasin' twinkle in his eyes." +</P> + +<P> +Not long after that Alexander made a journey to a nearby town, but +since it was one near the railroad she went in woman's attire, paying a +new deference to public opinion which she had heretofore scorned. She +was busily occupied there all day and her mission was one of mystery. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + + +<P> +The earliest manifestations of spring had ripened into a warmer +fullness. Everywhere the rhododendron was bloom-loaded, and the +large-petaled flower of the "cucumber tree" spread its waxen whiteness. +Hill-sides were pink with the wild-rose and underfoot violets and the +dandelions made a bright mosaic. +</P> + +<P> +Again Alexander was approaching her door with her face set toward the +sunset and again she saw before her own house the figure of a man who +loomed tall, and who for a brief space remained a featureless +silhouette against the colored sky. +</P> + +<P> +She hastened her step a little, resolved that this time she would teach +Jerry, in an unforgettable fashion, that her edicts of banishment were +final and that they could not be lightly disobeyed—but this time it +was not Jerry. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed she had realized that almost immediately and her heart had +missed its beat. The man was Halloway himself and he was looking in +another direction just then, so he did not see the fleet, yet instantly +repressed eagerness that flashed into and out of her eyes. It was a +self-collected young woman, with a distinctly casual manner who crossed +the stile and confronted her visitor. +</P> + +<P> +As he turned and saw her, he started impulsively forward, but recovered +himself and also adopted the matter-of-fact demeanor, which she had, +herself, assumed. +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy, Jack," said the girl carelessly. "I didn't know ye war +hyarabouts. I'd jest erbout forgot ye altogether." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon thet would be a right easy thing ter do," he handsomely +admitted, then each having indulged in the thrust and parry of an +introductory lie, they stood there in the sunset, eying each other in +silence. +</P> + +<P> +But Alexander recognized a transformation in the man's appearance, and +if she seemed tepid of interest, the semblance belied her throbbing +pulses. Halloway was too accomplished an actor to have abandoned his +pose or makeup. He must remain in character and dress the part, but he +had used a consummate skill in doing so. In every detail of clothing +he remained the mountaineer, yet there was no longer any trace of the +slovenly or unclean. +</P> + +<P> +He was close shaven and trim of hair. His flannel shirt, still open on +his throat, was of good quality. The trousers that were thrust into +high laced boots were not so new as to attract undue attention, but +they fitted him. The note of carelessness was maintained—but with +artistry to accentuate the extraordinary effect of physique and +feature. He was eye-filling and rather splendid. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander felt that some recognition of this metamorphosis was expected +of her, but she had no intent of admitting the true force of its +impression. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's a right smart wonder I knowed ye a-tall, ye've done spruced up +so," was the dubious compliment with which she favored him after a +deliberate scrutiny. "I hain't nuver seed ye with yore face washed +afore." +</P> + +<P> +"I 'lowed I'd seek ter make a killin' with ye," he bantered easily, and +she sniffed her simulated disdain. They had moved together up the +steps of the porch, and he stood there looking at her, quelling the +up-rush of admiration and avid hunger in his eyes. Then she said +curtly, for in these days she was always on the defensive, and meant to +be doubly so with him whom she secretly feared, "Ye're in ther house +now. Ef ye wants ter mek a killin' with me, tek off yore hat. Don't +folks hev no manners whar ye comes from?" +</P> + +<P> +Halloway shook his head, not forgetful that one playing a part must +remain in character. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't tek off my hat ter no man," he replied, stressing the final +word ever so lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a man when I wants ter be, an' when I wants manners I aims ter hev +'em," she declared, but her visitor stood, still covered, in her +presence, and after a moment she said curtly—yet rather breathlessly, +"Wait hyar," and turning, disappeared into the house. +</P> + +<P> +Floods begin slowly with trickles, but they break suddenly with +torrents. A flood had seized Alexander at that moment. Perhaps she +did not herself pause to recognize or analyze her motive. She merely +acted on an impulse that had come with an onsweep of conscious and +subconscious tides. It was a motive that had to do with her activities +that day when she had gone to the nearby town. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway remained there, frankly puzzled. Unless she was like himself +acting, her interest in his arrival was pallid and lukewarm. He had +counted much on appearing suddenly before her at his best—and the +impression seemed to have been negligible. +</P> + +<P> +Where had she gone? He asked himself that question several times +during the considerable interval of his waiting. The sunset was coming +to its final splendor behind mountains that were ash of violet. +Through the blossom-laden air stole a seductive intoxication that +mounted to his head. The voices of the Red Gods had mastered him, and +he had come. +</P> + +<P> +Then he saw a vision in the doorway, and his senses reeled. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander stood there as he had never seen her before. She was in a +woman's dress, very simple of line and unadorned. But her beauty was +such as could support and glorify simplicity. Indeed it required +simplicity as a foil for its own delicate gorgeousness. The lithe +slenderness of her figure was enhanced by the transformation. Her long +hair hung in heavy braids that gave an almost childlike girlishness to +her appearance. Alexander, he thought, was wholly delectable. +</P> + +<P> +But as he stared at Alexander she flung him look for look and commanded: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, tek off your hat." +</P> + +<P> +He tossed the thing away from him, and hesitated for a moment gazing at +her while his eyes kindled, then with an inarticulate sound in his +throat and no other word, he sprang forward and caught her to him, in +arms that would not be denied. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander made no struggle. It would have been futile to match even +her fine strength against the herculean power of those arms—and +suddenly the girl felt faint. +</P> + +<P> +For that unwarned and tumultuous conduct on the part of the man she had +been totally unprepared and it was as though the wave of amazement +which swept over her had left her gasping; bereft of both nerve-force +and breath. But other waves were sweeping her too, so that she of the +ready and invincible spirit for the moment rested inert in Halloway's +arms as her brain reeled. In one way she was dazed into +semiconsciousness. In another way, she was so staringly wide awake as +she had never before been in life. She had thought of this man with +feelings that she had neither named to herself nor analyzed, but the +unadmitted sex call of the strong man to the strong woman had sounded +like a bugle note through her nature. Now while the beginnings of an +indescribable fury stirred within her, she none the less thrilled to +his embrace with a flooding of her heart under which she almost +swooned. While she felt his kisses on her temples, her cheeks and her +lips, she had no power of speech or protest. +</P> + +<P> +To Jack Halloway, it seemed that this non-resistance was unconditional +surrender and through him in a current of fluid fire, ran the fierce +ecstasy of victory. +</P> + +<P> +But after a little Alexander straightened up and the pliant softness of +her body stiffened in his arms. She pushed against his shoulders with +steady hands. They were not struggling hands but firm and definite of +meaning, and Halloway released her. He released her readily as a man +may who can afford to be deferential in his moment of victory. +</P> + +<P> +But when she was quite free, she stood unsteadily for a moment and then +stepped back and leaned against the wall of the house. Her hands +pressed against the weather-boarding with outspread fingers. Out of a +white face she looked straight before her with eyes preternaturally +wide and full of dazed wonderment. +</P> + +<P> +At first there was no resentment, no denunciation. The girl only +leaned there with parted lips and heaving bosom and that fixed gaze +which, for all its rigid tensity, seemed groping. +</P> + +<P> +It was not as the individual that she now thought of Jack Halloway but +of the terrifying and unexplained force that he had awakened in +herself; the force of things that she never until now realized. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway did not speak. He bent a little toward her, looking at her as +his own breath came fast. At first he did not even marvel at the +stunned, groping blankness of the unmoving features. +</P> + +<P> +He had known that when she awoke it would be with the shock of latent +fires set loose. Now it was a time to go very gently with her, until +she found her footing in fuller comprehension again. +</P> + +<P> +Then the girl said so faintly that he could hardly hear her: +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's ther fust time thet.…" She broke off there. +</P> + +<P> +"I know it, Alexander. I couldn't stay away. I had to come!" +</P> + +<P> +He took a step forward with outstretched arms but she lifted a pleading +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't," she said. "I've got ter think … go away now." +</P> + +<P> +And triumphantly confident of what would come out of her meditation, he +turned and picked up his hat and left her standing there. He might +have talked to her of passionate love, he told himself, to the end of +time and it would have meant nothing. Instead he had brought her face +to face with it—and now there was no need of talk. +</P> + +<P> +Jack Halloway had meant it when he admitted to Brent in New York that +it would not do to give rein to his thoughts of Alexander. They were +all lawless thoughts of a love not to be trammeled by the obligations +of marriage. +</P> + +<P> +If he hated the civilized world at times, there were other times when +he could not live without it, and into its conventionalized pattern, +Alexander could never fit. She was not civilized enough or educated +enough to take her place there at his side, nor was she pagan enough to +come to him without terms or conditions. So he had resolved to stay +away, and put her out of his mind and in that determination he failed. +Now he had flung away all heed. He had held her in his arms and +consequences could care for themselves! +</P> + +<P> +But when he had left the porch and Alexander had begun to grope her way +out of the vortex of confusion, that small figment of wrath that she +had known she should feel and yet had so far failed to feel, began to +grow until it engulfed and merged into itself every other element of +her reflections. +</P> + +<P> +She had been scornful when Brent questioned her ability or her +permanent wish to repulse suitors, and yet after only two had come, she +no longer knew her own mind. But she told herself with a solemn +indignation, she at least wanted to make her own terms. She had no +intent of being swept off her feet by the masterful whim of a man who +had never pleaded. Yet that was the thing that had just occurred. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the stunned eyes in the waxen white face became less wonder-wide +and began to smoulder with outraged realization. She rose with the +fixed determination that before the sun set, she would kill Halloway or +compel him to kill her. One of them must die. But her own ideas of +fairness challenged that edict. If she had the right to assume such a +ground, she should have taken it without any instant of faltering. She +should never have acknowledged an impulse of thrill while she was +close-held in his arms. She had let him think that she had not +resented it, and she was as much to blame as he. +</P> + +<P> +So when Halloway came back the next morning with the glow of eagerness +in his face, he found a very quiet girl waiting to receive him, and +when he would have taken her in his arms she once more put out that +warning hand, but this time with a different expression of lip and eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop," she said. "Me an' you hev got ter talk together." +</P> + +<P> +"Thet suits me," he assured her. "Thar hain't nothin' else I'd ruther +do—save ter hold ye in my arms." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon ye knows I've done took oath thet no man could ever come on +this place—sparkin'." +</P> + +<P> +"I war right glad ter hev ye say that— Hit kept other fellers away, +an' any man thet hit <I>could</I> skeer off wasn't hardly wuth hevin' round +nohow. But thet war afore ye fell in love with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Fell in love with ye?" She repeated the words after him still in that +even somewhat puzzled quiet which was, for her, almost toneless. "Jack +Halloway, when ye went away from hyar yestiddy evenin' an' I'd sat thar +fer a full measured hour an' thought, I 'lowed thar warn't a soul on +earth ner in hell thet I hated so much as you. I'd done med up my mind +ter kill ye afore I laid down ter sleep." +</P> + +<P> +There was an implacability about this new manner, that disquieted the +man a little, but he said gravely: +</P> + +<P> +"Them feelin's jest comes about because what ye felt yestiddy war all +new ter ye. Hit's nat'ral enough, but hit won't endure." +</P> + +<P> +She went on ignoring his protestations. "Ther only reason I <I>didn't</I> +kill ye, war thet I'd done <I>let</I> ye … an' I hated myself next es +bad es you. Folks tells me thet I hain't always goin' ter want ter +turn men back. Mebby thet's true." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye knows full well a'ready, thet hit's true," he declared vehemently. +</P> + +<P> +"Be thet es hit may, no man's ter wed me without he wooes me fust, an' +no man hain't never goin' ter lay a hand on me without I consents. Now +I aims ter try an' fergit erbout yestiddy—an' you'd better fergit hit +too." +</P> + +<P> +The man's eyes broke into vehement challenge. "So long es thar's life +in me I won't fergit hit!" +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon ye'd better heer me out," she reminded him with an ominous +note and he nodded his head, waiting, while she continued. +</P> + +<P> +"Yestiddy I seemed crazed—but terday I hain't. Ye 'pears ter be right +sartain thet I loves ye. I don't know, but I either loves ye or I +hates ye like all hell. Ef I loves ye I kain't kill ye—an' ef I hates +ye thar's time enough." +</P> + +<P> +"But Alexander, you do love me! I know——" +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al, I don't—an' thet's a right pithy point ter my manner of +thinking! Ye're a right masterful sort of feller, an' ye likes ter +plow yore way through life gloryin' in yore strength an' forcin' your +will on weaker folks." She paused an instant then added significantly: +"But I'm a right masterful sort of woman myself—an' I hain't ter be +nowise driv. Ef you an' me kain't consort peaceable I reckon we'll +jest erbout rake hell afore we finishes up our warfare." +</P> + +<P> +As he looked at her his admiration was flaming. Possibly it was best, +just now, to advance slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm willin' ter wait," he conceded slowly. "Ye're wuth hit." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye says I loves ye. If I finds thet out fer myself, in due course +I'll wed with ye. Ef I don't, I won't, but——" Her voice broke so +suddenly out of the quiet plane in which it had been pitched, that her +climax of words came like a sharp thunder clap on still air. "But ef +ye seeks ter fo'ce me, or ef ever ergin ye lays a hand on me or teches +me, 'twell I tells ye ye kin, afore God in Heaven, one of us has got +ter die! An' I won't never be with ye unarmed, nuther." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway did not judge it a good time to mention that her allusion to +marriage left a rather wide territory of debate open. One thing at a +time seemed enough and more than enough. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander had not asked him in, and he inquired calmly: "Now thet ye've +stated yore terms an' I've done agreed ter 'em, hain't ye goin' ter +invite me in?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said shortly. "I makes ther laws in my own household. Ye +air goin' away an' ye hain't comin' back hyar fer one week. I aims ter +be left alone fer a spell now. Ef them terms don't suit ye, ye needn't +come back at all." +</P> + +<P> +And in that week of reprieved decision Alexander took her life to +pieces and searchingly examined it, item by item. Some strange +reactions were taking place in the laboratory of her life. She was no +more seen in breeches and boots. She had self-contemptuously decided +that if she could not hold undeviatingly to her strongest tenet, but +became a palpitant woman when a man seized her in his arms, she would +throw overboard the whole sorry pretense. +</P> + +<P> +She would henceforth be frankly and avowedly a woman, but a woman +different from those about her, giving up none of the leadership that +was in her blood or the self-pride that was her birthright. +</P> + +<P> +One afternoon she met Jerry O'Keefe on the road, and with the old +unabashed twinkle in his eye he accosted her. +</P> + +<P> +"I heer tell ther big feller's back," he began and the girl flushed. +"Hev ye done run him offen yore place, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's my business." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes <I>thet</I> is, but yore runnin' me off's right severely <I>mine</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby I've got a rather who comes thar." +</P> + +<P> +"So hev I." There was a lurking, somewhat engaging impertinence even +in Jerry's quietest rejoinders, a humorous boldness and self-confidence. +</P> + +<P> +"Howsomever, I reckon ye're kinderly skeered thet I'd mek ye think too +towerin' much of me. I reckon ye dar'sn't trust yoreself." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander looked at him, and for all her attempted severity she could +not keep the twinkle out of her own pupils. If she had not succeeded +in driving Halloway away, why should she stand out for the subterfuge +of banishing Jerry? It reminded her of Joe's picking an easy man to +whip. There was even a faint challenge of coquetry in her manner as +she disdainfully announced: "Ef thet's ther way I'm feedin' yore +vanity, come over whenever ye feels like hit. I'll strive ter endure +ye, ef ye don't tarry too long." +</P> + +<P> +"I kain't come afore ternight. Hit's sun-down now," was the instant +response. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Things had not gone well with Jase Mallows. The wound that Bud had +inflicted had healed slowly and he had lain long bedridden. He had +been the last of the gang to hear the sorry story of how the robbery +had failed and the sequel recording the deaths of Lute and his +lieutenant. Now Jase heard that Alexander's door was no longer barred +to men who came courting and he returned home. But he came nursing a +grudge against Bud who had wounded him and who had set awry all his +plans. For only one thing was he thankful. Alexander had no suspicion +of his complicity in the effort to rob her. +</P> + +<P> +But when Jase presented himself at Alexander's house, wearing a fancy +waistcoat and a bright colored tie, he learned to his discomfiture that +the bars which had been lowered to others were still up and fixed +against himself. +</P> + +<P> +Bud, too, was far from happy, as from a distance he watched Alexander's +apotheosis. Bud knew that he was like a gray and inconspicuous moth +enamored of a splendidly winged butterfly. She could never be thrilled +by the colorless fidelity of a man who was simple almost to stupidity, +even though he lived with no thought above his loyalty. One day almost +unconquerable thirst came upon Bud. It attacked him suddenly as he +passed the house and saw Halloway sitting on the porch talking with +Alexander, and heard the peal of her responsive laughter. +</P> + +<P> +That appetite rode him like a witch, making capital of his nervous +dejection and he tramped the woods vainly struggling to submerge it in +physical fatigue. Unfortunately it took a great deal of exertion to +wear Bud down, and the mania of craving was as strong as his untiring +muscles. By the purest of evil chance too, he stumbled upon an illicit +still, where an acquaintance was brewing whiskey. He had not known +that it was being operated there and had he sought to find it he could +not have done so, for it was well hidden behind browse and thicket and +a man watched furtively with a ready rifle. But the "blockader" +recognized Bud and had no fears of his playing informer, so with an +amused smile on his bearded face he stepped into sight with a tin cup +invitingly out-held. +</P> + +<P> +To Bud Sellers its sickening odor was the bouquet of ambrosia. It +stole into his nostrils and set up in his brain insidious sensations of +imagined delight. He pushed it back at first then seized it and gulped +it greedily down. +</P> + +<P> +Hurriedly he went away. He told himself that if he stopped there all +would still be well, but it was as feasible to tell the tiger that has +tasted blood to lie down and be good. He must have more. For a time +Bud struggled, then he saddled a mule and went as fast as he could ride +toward town. It was a race of endurance against a collapsing resolve. +When he reached the village he sought out the town marshal and +excitedly begged, "Fer God's sake lock me up in ther jail-house. Ther +cravin's done come on me afresh. I'm goin' mad ergin." +</P> + +<P> +The town marshal knew the history of Bud's alcoholic periodicity, yet +he had no authority to jail a man on request in advance of any offense. +"Ye don't look drunk yit, Bud, albeit I'm afeared ye soon will be," he +said. "I reckon I hain't hardly got ther power ter jail ye, without ye +commits some misdeed." +</P> + +<P> +But Bud was at the end of his struggle. In a minute more instead of +pleading to be confined, he would be hunting for liquor. It was now or +never. He seized up a brick that lay at his feet and hurled it through +the glass window of a store, before which they stood talking. +</P> + +<P> +"Kin ye do hit now?" he demanded hoarsely, and the town marshal said: +"Yes, I reckon I kin—now." +</P> + +<P> +Men have varied fashions for expressing their love of women. That +night Jack Halloway sat on the moonlit porch of Alexander's house and +Bud sat in the vermin-infested cell of the village lockup. But as the +hours went on he found a certain recompense in the thought that he was +keeping a pledge. +</P> + +<P> +As for Jerry O'Keefe that night, he was doing nothing at all except +thinking certain things about the great fellow who was with the girl, +but those thoughts were putting out roots of future conflict. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + + +<P> +Nothing had been heard of any Ku-Klux operations since Alexander's +adventure, and even of that episode no unclean circulated story had +gone abroad. Those who had worn the black masks were not apt to talk +overmuch, and those who had made up Bud's force were for quite +different reasons equally discreet. Since Alexander had won through +safe and unrobbed, those who had been, in a fashion, her clansman, had +few outstanding grudges to repay. Jack Halloway, for example, had come +with a satisfied heart out of the baggage-room, by way of the wrecked +telegraph office. For him the matter was concluded, save that he had +made three enemies who would nurse a malignant grievance and seek, some +day, to requite it with the ambushed rifle. The telegraph operator had +altogether disappeared from the country, and his two immediate +confederates, who were "branch-water men" dwelling in some remote +pocket of the hills, had withdrawn to their thicketed abodes. +</P> + +<P> +Bud Sellers had pieced two and two together, and though he kept a +Masonic silence on the point, he had reached a conclusion. The house +where Jase Mallows had been nursed back to health after his mysterious +wounding, was not far from the place where he and Brent had been +ambushed. The wound might have been the result of the volley he had +himself fired at the rifle-flash, and if that were true the balance of +that encounter lay in his favor. If it were not true, he had no means +of knowing to whom he owed an unpaid score for his "lay-wayin'." +</P> + +<P> +Only, he must keep an eye on Jase—because if his inference were +correct, Jase would never forget. +</P> + +<P> +Besides the telegraph man, the only other principal, actually or +definitely known to any of Alexander's friends had been Lute Brown, and +upon him they need spend no further thought. A long while after the +tragedy had been played out there by yellow lantern-light, a woodsman +passed the rotting cabin where Lute and his faithful partisan had died. +It was indeed so long after, that there was some difficulty in +identifying the bodies, and an inconclusive coroner's verdict left the +matter stranded in mystery—and so it promised to remain. Privately, +those conspirators, whose lips were sealed as to legal testimony, had +hunted the assassin for several weeks, but without success. +Occasionally, in widely separated places, a haggard and emaciated man +was glimpsed who always escaped unidentified and with ghost-like speed. +Children were frightened with tales of his burning eyes, and in +neighborhood gossip he was spoken of as the "wild man of the woods." +</P> + +<P> +For when Lute Brown's murderer, fleeing for his life, had opened his +parcel and discovered the worthlessness of that for which he had turned +Judas, something snapped in his befuddled brain. He became an Ishmael +driven before the torture of a fixed idea—terror of capture, until one +day his body was found, worn to a skeleton; matted of beard and hair, +and lying with its head in a creek bed at the foot of a cliff over +which the assassin had fallen. +</P> + +<P> +So the Ku-Klux became again only a name. +</P> + +<P> +If, however, the men who had followed Alexander were willing to let +sleeping dogs lie, the other faction had not only the rancor of defeat +remaining with them, but also the incurable itch of uneasy consciences. +</P> + +<P> +At any time that drink loosened a careless tongue, dangerous hints +might be dropped, and over at Coal City a newly elected Commonwealth's +attorney was manifesting a zealous interest in the mystery of those two +dead bodies and all the surrounding facts. +</P> + +<P> +That Halloway knew at least two of their number by sight, if not by +name, was a cloud of menace which hung over all. Since Jerry O'Keefe +and Bud Sellers were in the big man's confidence they as well as +Alexander herself fell into the gang's list of undesirable citizens. +</P> + +<P> +But on the surface of life between Coal City and Shoulder-blade there +was no outward ripple; no hint that fires still smouldered which might +again leap to eruption. Men who had followed Lute and those who had +been enlisted by Bud from time to time "met and made their manners" on +the highway—without evidence of animosity. +</P> + +<P> +Then one day when the early freshness of summer had been sunburned and +freckled into a warmer fullness, a thing happened which stirred the +sleeping dogs. +</P> + +<P> +One of the three men of whom Halloway had disposed at the station and +who bore ugly scars on his face where the cuffs had marked him, became +involved in a boundary dispute with a neighbor, and a shooting affray +followed—in which the neighbor fell wounded. +</P> + +<P> +The assailant was arrested and brought to the Coal City Jail, and as he +was being led hither, Halloway and Jerry O'Keefe, who chanced to be in +town that day, came out of the court-house together. +</P> + +<P> +That coincidence was observed by a lounger in the public square who +had, himself, been an alleged Ku-Klux man, on that memorable day and +night. Out of his own anxieties he began weaving a pattern of fear. +</P> + +<P> +He reasoned that if Halloway dropped a hint into the ear of the +Commonwealth's Attorney that official might go lightly with the +prosecution for shooting and wounding, provided, as an exchange of +courtesies, this prisoner became fully and freely his tool in ferreting +out the larger problem. He might be offered immunity on one +indictment, if, as State's evidence, he made possible a number of true +bills on graver charges. +</P> + +<P> +The man kept Halloway and Jerry under observation until they left town +and satisfied himself that so far they had not talked with the +prosecutor—but that carried no assurance for the future, and several +consultations ensued, in which certain measures were considered which +did not enhance the safety of either Halloway or O'Keefe. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Halloway was less confident as the weeks passed. That first swift +moment of apparent victory had not been followed by a satisfactory +sequence of progressive steps. +</P> + +<P> +He had sought to wake Alexander out of that sex-lethargy which lay like +a moat between the citadel of her heart and the advantage of suitors. +In that he had succeeded, too well for his liking. Always Alexander +held surprises in store for him, which only maddened him the more, +fanning his passion into a hotter blaze. Now when he sought to press +his initial advantage to a greater conclusiveness, she only told him to +wait and, like Portia judging her lovers, allowed others to come pay +court as well, while over all she reigned with a regal sort of +despotism, encouraging no one more than another. +</P> + +<P> +But she was splendidly, vitally awake. +</P> + +<P> +She still did with joy the things men did, and did them better than +most men, but she was no longer blind to the stronger asset of her +arresting beauty and the effect of its charm. +</P> + +<P> +She realized these newly discovered attributes naively and without +vanity, but now instead of insisting on the equality of a man, she +demanded the homage of a queen. +</P> + +<P> +And though she would have found her world desolate without that tallest +and keenest of her cavaliers, she no longer thought of him as the only +important figure in the world that he had opened to her. +</P> + +<P> +In a somewhat formless and intuitive fashion she felt a slight +undercurrent of distrust for Halloway, which she combated as ungenerous +but could not wholly overcome. +</P> + +<P> +But in constant conflict with these moments of misgiving there were +other, rather wild moments, when the draw and pull of his fascination +seemed invincible. At those times she realized that, should he open +his arms and say, "Come," she would have to go as the iron filing goes +to the magnet. To Alexander the whole world of love was in a nebulous +and constructive state of flux and lava. +</P> + +<P> +But she had by instinct a wary defensiveness, and she was on constant +guard. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," said Halloway one day when they were walking together +along the creek-bed between the dark, waxy masses of the rhododendron, +"Hit strikes me right forceable, thet fer a gal thet didn't hev no time +of day fer any man, ye've done swung round mighty suddent. They hangs +'round ye now like bees 'round locust blooms." +</P> + +<P> +"Did ye 'low thet ef I let any come, I'd refuse ter welcome ther +balance?" she inquired and he retorted with more heat than he usually +allowed himself. "Most women contrives ter satisfy themselves with one +man, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's atter they've done picked out ther one, fer dead shore," was +her calm retort. "An' mebby even then hit hain't frum choice." +</P> + +<P> +A satirist might have derived pleasure from that situation of Alexander +rejecting conventional pleas, urged by Jack Halloway. +</P> + +<P> +The big man had halted and stood looking down at her. His hands +gradually closed, then tautly clenched themselves. For a moment he +contemplated throwing away caution and seeking once more to coerce her +responsiveness in the imprisonment of his sudden embrace but he +hesitated. Then while he still held his silence, Alexander spoke with +that full and inevasive candor which was a cardinal of her nature. +</P> + +<P> +"Ther gospel-truth is, Jack, I don't know yit whether I loves ye or +hates ye, an' I kain't help mistrustin' ye somehow. I mout es well +tell ye ther truth es ter lie ter ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Mistrust me!" he echoed, incredulously. "Ye knows full well I loves +ye. Ye kain't misdoubt thet!" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. The sun was burnishing her hair into an aura, and +the clear light shone searchingly on the fresh bloom of her cheek, the +violet of her eyes and the crimson of her lips—revealing no flaw. She +was all lovely and young, and yet Brent thought, she was alarmingly, +almost paradoxically clever. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye acts like ye loves me," was her seriously voiced response, "but +somehow thar seems ter be a kind of greediness erbout hit. Take Bud +Sellers fer instance—he's jest ther opposite. Thar hain't no greed in +him." +</P> + +<P> +Halloway might have retorted that also there was in Bud nothing to +which her flaming personality could ever respond. His was the worship +of a dumb and faithful beast. But he held his peace while the girl +went steadily on. +</P> + +<P> +"I oft-times takes myself ter task fer thet suspicion, because hit +don't seem far ter feel thet-a-way an' not know no reason." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him questioningly and very gravely, as one resolved upon +a full but difficult confession. +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't nuver seed ye foller no reg'lar work. Ye hain't doin' +nothin' hyar now but jest hangin' around." She became halting there, +for she had reached the point of greatest embarrassment, but she forced +herself ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't no millionaire myself, but we've got a good farm, and we +don't owe no man nothin'." Once more she broke off before, with an +inflexible frankness, she finished up. "Jack, thar's been times when +I've wondered ef hit wasn't my bein' es well-fixed as I am thet made ye +think so master much of me." +</P> + +<P> +Then indeed the sprites and goblins of ironic mirth rioted in +Halloway's brain. The surge of laughter that sought outlet from his +lips came near to smothering him, but he succeeded in smothering +it—though the effort almost clicked him. He, with a wealth which +would have seemed to her as the treasure of the Incas, was falling +under suspicion as a lazy fortune-hunter, seeking haven in the meager +opulence of a mountain farm! Yet he dared not confess that wealth now +because such admission would stamp him an impostor. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," he said generously, though with just a touch of hurt pride. +"I kin live down that distrust. Does ye suspicion Jerry O'Keefe +too—or jest me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody couldn't suspicion Jerry," she said softly. "He's es straight +es a poplar saplin' an' es plain ter see through es a clear +spring-branch. He knows how ter gentle a woman, too." +</P> + +<P> +"He don't understand ye an' ye'd mighty soon sicken of jest bein' +gentled," argued Halloway. "He hain't got no idea of ther fires thet +lays sleepin' in yore heart." +</P> + +<P> +"He's got an idee of ther fire in his own, I reckon," replied Alexander. +</P> + +<P> +It is the accepted rule of these mountains that when two men arrive to +"set up" with a girl at the same time, she must choose between them and +send the less favored away. Both Halloway and Jerry avoided the issue +that might spring from such a situation. They met on the high-road +with a full seeming of their old accord, but perhaps the semblance was +an empty shell—or fast becoming one. There was a tacit understanding +between them that certain evenings at Alexander's house belonged to +each. +</P> + +<P> +In Jerry's good-natured, whimsical eyes there had settled of late an +unaccustomed gravity and since he was level-headed enough to recognize +in Halloway a man who loomed brightly above others, his fear of him as +a rival was genuine. It was O'Keefe's way to walk boldly and evenly +through life, but a strong and tireless man will flinch in his gait +from the hurt of a stone-bruised foot, and with Jerry the stone bruise +was about the heart—which is worse. But it was more in the casual +meeting than by the formal call, that O'Keefe conducted his courtship. +He had a genius for materializing on the scene at the exact moment when +he could perform some simple service, and of meeting Alexander by +studious coincidence when she least expected him. +</P> + +<P> +There was none-the-less the constant danger of a flareup because +Halloway always bore himself with entire politeness yet with a courtesy +which did not escape a sort of indulgent patronage; as though the +serious thought of rivalry was absurd. +</P> + +<P> +One day Bud Sellers came by the house. It was after he had been in +jail and Alexander, who was standing on her porch, invited him in. +Slowly and somewhat dubiously he accepted the invitation. +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't seed ye fer quite a spell, Bud," began the girl smilingly, +and with a brick red flush he answered. "Hit took holt on me ergin, +Alexander. Hit war jest actually a-burnin' me up." +</P> + +<P> +She did not ask what he meant by "it." She knew full well and she did +not reproach him. She only inquired, "What happened, Bud?" +</P> + +<P> +"I kep' my pledge ter yer, though." He spoke gruffly, because the +sight of her was burning him up too, with another kind of thirst. "I +went an' hed myself jailed. I reckon hit won't hardly master me ergin +fer a spell." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander felt a lump rising in her throat. Since her awakening she +had not missed the meaning of that look in his eyes. Slowly and +candidly, she asked: "Bud, war hit on account of me? War ye frettin' +over me—not a-keering?" +</P> + +<P> +Sellers looked up in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"How did ye know?" he demanded. "I hain't nuver breathed no word ter +ye erbout keerin'. I knowed full well hit warn't no manner of use." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a woman, now, Bud," she reminded him. "A woman don't need ter be +told some things." +</P> + +<P> +"I knowed hit warn't no use." He only repeated the words, dully, and +Alexander laid a hand on his trembling arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Bud, Bud," she exclaimed self-accusingly. "I wisht I'd stayed a man. +I don't seem ter do nothin' at this woman-game but jest stir up +trouble. I loves ye right dearly, Bud, but hit's ther same fashion +thet I loves my brother Joe—an' I reckon—that hain't what ye're +a-seekin'." +</P> + +<P> +But Bud drew back his shoulders and spoke with a brave assumption of +restored cheerfulness. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a-seekin' whatever I kin hev," he staunchly declared. "More'n +anything else, 'though, I'm seeking ter see ye happy." He paused then +with a forced smile that, for all his effort, was stiff-lipped, and +said slowly, "I reckon hit'll be either Halloway or Jerry … they're +both right upstanding men." +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes I thinks hit won't be nobody," she declared. "I'd done been +raised up a boy so long thet since I turned back into a gal ergin, ther +only thing I've been plum sartain of air thet I hain't been sartain of +nuthin'. Sometimes I thinks a heap of Jerry, but more times Jack +Halloway seems ter pintedly sot me on fire." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Jerry was tramping along the high-road, whistling an old ballad of +lugubrious tune when a sharp turn brought him face to face with Jase +Mallows. Jerry himself was for passing on with a brief salutation, but +the other halted him and fell into voluble talk. +</P> + +<P> +Jase complained that his wound had left certain after-effects which +still gave him trouble. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's hell ter pay, when a law-abidin' man kain't travel ther highway +withouten he's shot down like I was thet night," lamented Mallows +virtuously. "I misdoubts ef I ever feels plum right inside me ergin. +I wisht I knowed who thet feller war." +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby he mistook ye fer somebody else," suggested Jerry. "Thet war +ther same night them highwaymen sought ter lay-way Alexander—thar war +right smart shootin' goin' on hyar an' thar." +</P> + +<P> +"Did ye ever gain any knowledge of who them fellers war?" Mallows +sought to couch his question in the manner of interest for the wrongs +of another, but just a shade too much eagerness on his own part marred +the effect. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry smiled. He had caught that note and it piqued his curiosity, so +with mountain secretiveness he became cryptic in his response. "Wa'al, +mebby we hain't tellin' all we knows—jest yit. Mebby we're kinderly +bidin' our time for a leetle spell." +</P> + +<P> +It was not a comprehensive announcement. It was nine-tenths inspired +by a spirit of teasing gossip-hunger into fuller revealment, but it +happened to start a train of serious thought in the hearer. +</P> + +<P> +Jase had recently returned from Coal City, and there he had talked with +men who were watching with alarm the possibilities of an impending +trial. The man who had shot his neighbor over a fence-line dispute was +to face his prosecutors at the next term of court, and if he talked too +much, large and portentous results might ensue. +</P> + +<P> +The Commonwealth would know nothing of its potential leverage on the +accused unless Halloway, O'Keefe or Alexander broke silence, and it +followed that their silencing was highly important. +</P> + +<P> +Through Jase's thoughts ran, in a threatening refrain, the words, +"Mebby hit won't be long now." +</P> + +<P> +So Jase saddled his mule that evening, despite the misery which was the +relic of his wounding and started back to Coal City to convene a +committee of ways and means. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + + +<P> +The mail came irregularly to Shoulder-blade creek, but even irregular +deliveries may bring bad news. Halloway received a letter, one day, +containing a summons which he could not disregard. He had spoken +contemptuously to Brent of money-grubbing, but his inflated wealth +carried certain responsibilities which even he acknowledged. +</P> + +<P> +He was perfectly willing that his world should see in him an +incorrigible scoffer at moral conventions. He rather enjoyed being the +object of maternal warnings to young daughters, but in financial +affairs no stern moralist could have been more observant of rigid +integrity, and in that, as in other things, he reversed the usual +order. The business involved in the letter does not concern this +narrative save in so far as it called him in peremptory terms away from +Alexander and, at that, he fumed sulphurously. +</P> + +<P> +He had, for the present, one more evening with her and he meant to make +the most of it. If there was in him any power of hypnotism, and he +still believed there was, he meant to exert it to the full. +</P> + +<P> +Even in midsummer, there are chill nights in the mountains, and as he +approached Alexander's house he thought gratefully of the fire that +would be burning on her hearth. +</P> + +<P> +She was sitting alone when he entered, by a small table, sewing, and +she did not rise to welcome him. Lamp and firelight mingled in an +orange and carmine glow that fell softly upon her. For a moment, as +Halloway, pausing just inside the door, gazed at her, that adventurous +hunger that fed upon her beauty became a positive avidity. Perhaps +because he was leaving her, her beauty seemed what no earthly beauty +is—absolute. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," said Halloway slowly, "I've got ter go away fer a spell, +an' I hates hit—I hates hit like all torment!" +</P> + +<P> +She looked quickly up, and his narrow scrutiny told him that she had +given ever so slight a start and that into her eyes had come a quickly +repressed disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll miss ye, Jack," she said simply. "What business calls ye away?" +</P> + +<P> +That was an expected question and its answer was ready. +</P> + +<P> +"I've done heired me a small piece of property from an uncle, way +acrost ther Verginny line, an' I've got ter fare over thar an' sign +some papers or do somethin' ter thet amount." +</P> + +<P> +"How long does ye 'low ter be gone?" +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head moodily. "Hit's a long journey through ther roughs +an' I don't know how much time I'll hev ter spend over ther business, +but I reckon ye knows thet I won't tarry no longer then need be." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't hasten unduly on my account," she coolly counseled him. "I'll +strive ter mek shift somehow ter go on livin'." +</P> + +<P> +The man had taken a chair near her and was bending forward, almost, but +not quite, touching her. Now he rose and his voice trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"Fer God's sake, Alexander, don't belittle me ner mek light of me +ternight. I kain't endure hit. Heven't ye got no idee how master much +I loves ye? Don't ye see thet ther two of us war made fer each other? +I don't aim ter brag none—but ye knows I'm ther only man hyar-abouts +thet understands ye—thet holds ye in full-high appreciation!" +</P> + +<P> +He paused and she inquired calmly, "Air ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ye knows hit!" He was talking tumultuously with the onrush of that +dynamic spirit which drove him and gave him power. He stood there with +his coat open over his magnificent chest, and his eyes alight with the +forces that made him exceptional. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye knows thet <I>you</I> hain't no every-day woman nuther. Ye knows thet +ther like of yore beauty hain't been seed afore in these hills—not in +mortal feature ner in ther blossomin' woods ner in ther blue skies over +'em all!" +</P> + +<P> +Again he paused, and even while he adhered to a crude vernacular, there +was, in the cadence of his voice, a forceful sort of eloquence. In the +latent intensity of his personality dwelt a sheer wizardry which few +women could have withstood. +</P> + +<P> +"Hev ye ever seed a comet in ther heavens?" he abruptly demanded and +without waiting for a reply swept rapidly on. "Well ye're like ter a +comet, Alexander. Every star thet shines out thar ternight is hung +high up in heaven an' every one is bright. But when a comet goes +sweepin' acrost ther skies, with a furrow of light trailin' along +behind hit—we plum fergits them leetle stars—hit's like they'd all +been snuffed. Hit's ther same way with you, Alexander. Deep down in +yore heart thar's powerful fires a-burnin' thet no weak man kain't +satisfy. When I looks at ye I clean fergits every other star that ever +shone—because I've done seed <I>you</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Once more Alexander began to feel that old uncertainty of reeling +senses. His intonations were caresses. His eyes were beacons, and she +took a tight hold on herself—for despite the hypnotic spell that he +was weaving about her, a voice within her cautioned, "Be steady!" That +indefinable ghost of suspicion stirred and troubled her. +</P> + +<P> +"An' so sence I'm ther comet amongst them numerous small stars," she +observed with an even voice, though her pulse beat was far from +regular, "ye 'lows thet I'd ought ter belong ter <I>you</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +He ignored the teasing brightness of her eyes; a light of defensive +disguise. +</P> + +<P> +"I 'lows thet hevin' oncet seed ye, an' loved ye, I hain't nuver goin' +ter be satisfied with no lesser star." +</P> + +<P> +The fire had leaped up and the room had grown warm. Halloway, in his +impetuous fashion, ripped off his coat, flinging it to the floor, and +stood with his great shoulders and chest bulking mightily beneath his +flannel shirt. +</P> + +<P> +Under the hurricane sweep of his love-making the girl from time to time +closed her eyes in an effort to hold to her waning steadiness. This +was one of those occasions when the fire in her responded to the fire +in him; when she felt, with a sense of deep misgiving, that she could +not resist him. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," said the man, abruptly, dropping his voice from its +impetuous pitch, to a more quiet and yet more ardent quality, "Ye +'lowed oncet thet I shouldn't never tech ye withouten ye said I mout. +I've done obeyed ye—but now." He slowly extended both arms and stood +upright in gladiatorial strength and compelling erectness. "But now +ye're a-comin' inter my arms—of yore own accord—because we was made +fer one another." +</P> + +<P> +Again her lids came down over the girl's eyes and her fingers tightly +gripped the chair-arms for support. Something in her heart was driving +her irresistibly into those outstretched arms and something +else—though that was growing weaker, she thought—kept whispering its +warning, "Steady! Go steady! This is a spell but it isn't love." +</P> + +<P> +She heard the hypnotic voice again. "Ye're a-comin' inter my arms, +Alexander—ye're a-comin'—now!" +</P> + +<P> +Her glance, ranging in desperation, fell on his coat at her feet, and +with the instinct of grasping at any pretext, for a moment of thought +and reprieve, she exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Give me thet coat, Jack!" Having breathlessly gone that far, she was +able to finish with greater self-command. "Ther linin's in sheer rags. +I kin be mendin' thet wust place by the sleeve thar—whilst ye talks." +</P> + +<P> +"The coat kin wait," he declared. Her line of defense was bending now, +under the weight of his onslaught, and it was no time for trivial +interruption, but Alexander leaned forward and picked the thing up. +</P> + +<P> +She had not yet begun to sew—her fingers lacked the needful +steadiness—but she was making a pretense of studying the torn lining. +She must avert her gaze from him for a moment or the tides that he was +lashing about her would lift and carry her on their outsweep. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly she gave a violent start, and from her lips explosively +broke the one word, "Jack!" +</P> + +<P> +He knew that she was under a strained tension of emotion, and though +the way she had flashed out that word was a marked contrast with her +past attempts to seem controlled, he construed it as an evidence of +final surrender to her feelings. She was already very pale and so she +turned no paler, but in that moment something had happened to +Alexander. Some thought or instinct or fact had brought her up +short—transformed her out of weakness into strength, and when she +spoke again it was with the self-containment of one who has been near +the cliff's edge but who has definitely drawn back. +</P> + +<P> +"I hed hit in head ter ask ye a question," she announced, slowly, "but +I've done decided not ter do hit. This thread hain't suited ter ther +job. I'll git me another spool." +</P> + +<P> +She rose from her chair, and dismayed at the astonishing swiftness of +her changed mood, Halloway took an impulsive step toward her. His arms +were still receptively outstretched, but suddenly he felt that attitude +to have become absurd. An altered light shone in her eyes now, and it +was unpleasantly suggestive of contempt. She turned, absent-mindedly +carrying the coat, and went into the other room. +</P> + +<P> +What had happened, wondered the man. Something portentous had been +born and matured in a breathing space—but what it was he could not +guess. He knew only that victory had been between his open fingers and +had slipped away. In this new and hardened mood of Alexander's, he +might as well talk passionate love to the Sphinx. +</P> + +<P> +But that was Alexander, he reflected. The tempestuous change from sun +to storm was the capricious climate of her nature. She had been close +to surrender and had wrested her independence out of his closing grasp +by pure will-power. The reaction, he inferred, had been +instantaneous—bringing the old resentment against being forced. Again +he had lost—but also again he would win. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander was not gone long and she returned with a restored calm. The +fingers that stitched industriously at his torn coat, were as steady as +before his coming. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't aim ter be fo'ced, Jack," she quietly announced. "Ye boasts +thet ye kin mek me come into yore arms of my own free will. If ye +kin—all right—but hit won't be afore ye fares back from yore journey. +Hit won't be ternight." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Two weeks after Jack Halloway had started on his alleged trip across +the Virginia boundary, Alexander also set out upon a journey. +</P> + +<P> +She was going to Perry Center and meant to be there for some days, +since matters concerning the farm were to be discussed with her uncle. +This time the undertaking was less arduous than the trip from there +back to Shoulder-blade had been. +</P> + +<P> +Now it was midsummer and the railroad washouts had been repaired, so +she had only to cross two mountain ridges and take the jerky little +train from a point ten miles distant to her destination. +</P> + +<P> +Perry Center was a hub about which swung a limited perimeter of rich +farming lands. This fertile area was an oasis with steep desolation +hedging it in on all sides, but within its narrow confines men could +raise not only the corn which constituted the staple of their less +fortunate neighbors, but the richer crop of wheat as well. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore the men about Perry Center were as sheiks among goat-herds. +</P> + +<P> +When Alexander set out on her ten-mile walk hefting the pack that held +her necessaries for the trip, Jerry O'Keefe materialized grinning +amiably from a clump of laurel. It was characteristic of Jerry to so +appear from nowhere. +</P> + +<P> +Now he nodded, and his eyes were brimming with that infectious smile of +his. +</P> + +<P> +"I jest kinderly happened ter hev a day off, Alexander," he assured +her, "and I 'lowed hit wouldn't hurt none fer me ter come along es far +es ther railroad train with ye an' tote thet bundle." +</P> + +<P> +She gave it over to him, and since the trail there was narrow and +thorn-hedged, she strode on ahead of him. Jerry was content, for +through the midsummer woods, still dewy with morning freshness, he +could follow no lovelier guide, and Jerry could be silent as well as +loquacious. +</P> + +<P> +They had put two-thirds of the journey behind them, when Alexander +suggested, "Let's rest hyar a spell. Hit's a right good place ter +pause an' eat a snack." +</P> + +<P> +They stood on a pinnacle where time-corroded shoulders of sandstone +broke eruptively through the soil. In a cluster of paw-paw trees there +was a carpet of moss spread over ancient boulders, and off behind them +stretched the nobility of forests unspoiled; of oak and ash and poplar +and the mighty plumes of the pine. The crimson flower of the trumpet +flower trailed everywhere, and a mighty vista was spread from +foreground to horizon where the ashy purple of the last ridge merged +with the sky. +</P> + +<P> +But for Jerry the chief beauty was all close at hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander," he said, with his heart in his eyes, "ye're ther purtiest +gal I ever seed—ther purtiest gal I reckon anybody ever seed." +</P> + +<P> +The tease in her came to the surface. "Another feller likened me ter a +comet amongst small stars, Jerry." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon I kin hazard a guess who thet feller war," he answered +soberly. "There's only one man hyarabouts thet's got a gift of speech +like thet. Myself, I don't like ter think of ye as a comet, Alexander, +they're so plum outen reach." +</P> + +<P> +She did not reply and Jerry went on. "An' yit mebby he's right—I +reckon thet's jest another reason for likenin' ye ter one—an' I reckon +he knows, too, thet he flames right bright hisself." +</P> + +<P> +The girl lifted her brows questioningly and Jerry went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's right hard fer me ter think erbout anything else. He stands +betwixt me an' you an' he bulks so big thet he's kinderly hard ter git +eround." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander was sitting on the mossy rock, her eyes wandering off across +the far-flung landscape. Now their gaze came back, recalled by +something wistful in her companion's voice, and it occurred to her that +this man himself would have towered above the generality. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're a right sizable sort of feller yore own self, Jerry," she +reminded him and he laughed a shade bitterly. It was a very unusual +thing for bitterness to tingle Jerry's voice, and it augured a bruised +heart. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm big amongst leetle fellers," he replied. "But along side him, I'm +a runt." +</P> + +<P> +"Ef he's got some thing ye hain't got, like es not, hit wucks t'other +way round too. Ye're strong enough an' ye've got gentleness." +</P> + +<P> +Jerry leaned forward to her. His voice trembled and his eyes broke +into a sudden snap of flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Alexander—ye knows ther way I loves ye. Ye kain't fathom ther full +extent of hit all, but ye knows some small part of hit. Ye're good ter +me—but when a man feels like I does towards you, thar hain't but one +sort of goodness thet counts. I knows thet I cuts a sorry sort of +figger alongside him, an' I hes ter fight myself day-long an' +night-long ter keep from hatin' him fer hit. I hain't no Goliath outen +ther Bible, but after all a right puny leetle feller took his measure." +</P> + +<P> +He paused for an instant then swept feelingly on. "I wants ye ter +answer me one question. Air hit jest because he's so monster big an' +fine-looking thet ye thinks he's a piece of ther moon?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't nuver said I thought he was," she interrupted, but Jerry +stubbornly proceeded, and no one looking at his set face could doubt +that he meant all he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Because ef thet's hit, Alexander, afore God Almighty I'm plum willin' +ter meet him an' fight him fer ye with my bare hands 'twell one of us +dies. I hain't none afeared of him, ef so be I'm fightin' fer you—an' +ef he wins ther fight I'd rather be dead anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander had never seen him so passion-ridden of manner before—and +she thought that if such a combat took place, even with the odds +uneven, the outcome would not be altogether certain. +</P> + +<P> +Had Jerry known it, he was at that moment nearer to stirring the girl +in the way that Halloway had stirred her, than he had ever been before, +but her reply came in a grave and low-pitched voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I hain't ter be won by no battle, Jerry." +</P> + +<P> +"No, o'course not." He had brought himself back with an effort to a +quieter mood and he even sought valiantly to muster the twinkle into +his eyes and the whimsical note into his tone as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"But atter all, I'm a right easy sort of feller ter git along with, an' +I mout be kinderly handy eround ther house. These masterful husbands +sometimes don't w'ar so well. Hit's like havin' ter live with a king, +I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +Now, it was the woman who insisted on gravity. "Look at me, Jerry," +she commanded and their glances held level as she went on in deep +earnestness. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd hate fer ther two of ye ter think thet I'm playin' fast an' loose +with ye. I'd hate ter think hit myself. Hit hain't thet—I was raised +up a boy—I thought I'd always stay thet-a-way. Then I found I +couldn't." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I knows thet, Alexander. Thar hain't no censure fer ye es ter +thet." +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby thar ought ter be though. But ye sees hit's kinderly like I was +livin' in a new world—an' I don't know hit well yit. I've got ter go +slow. I hain't made up my mind an' then changed hit—I hain't blowed +hot an' cold. Hit's jest thet I hain't been able ter come ter no +conclusion one way ner t'other." +</P> + +<P> +She had spoken with a defensive tone, one hardly certain, but as she +finished a prideful note crept into her voice. "But when I does +decide, I decides fer all time an' ther man I weds with kin trust me." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + + +<P> +Jerry bade Alexander farewell after depositing her parcel by the +threadbare seat of the battered day coach which was to carry her to +Perry Center, but as he said good-by, he was, for once, acting without +candor. He meant to go to Perry Center too, but being called by no +business, except to follow her, he thought it wiser to make no +announcement of his intention. When the engine wheezed and groaned to +its start. Jerry swung himself into the baggage compartment, and after +the elapse of a safe interval presented himself, grinning, in the day +coach. +</P> + +<P> +The girl pretended indignation, but her wrath was neither convincing +nor terrifying. After a space she inquired, "Jerry, does ye know whar +Jack Halloway come from afore he struck this section?" +</P> + +<P> +O'Keefe shook his head. "I don't jedgmatically know what creek he was +borned on, ef thet's what ye means, but I reckon hit warn't so fur +away." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes narrowed a trifle. "Does ye even know—fer sure—thet he's a +mountain man?" +</P> + +<P> +Jerry laughed. "I hain't nuver heered tell of no man thet war raised +up in the settlemints claimin' ter be a benighted boomer," he answered. +"Hit's right apt ter be ther other way 'round." He paused, then +judicially added: "When a man's co'tin a gal, he gin'rally seeks ter +put hisself in ther best light he kin—not ther wust." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, thet sounds right reasonable," she admitted. +</P> + +<P> +"What made ye ask, Alexander?" +</P> + +<P> +After a dubious pause, she spoke hesitantly, "I jest fell ter studyin' +erbout hit. Ef I tells ye, ye mustn't never name ther matter—ter +nobody." +</P> + +<P> +"I gives ye my hand on thet." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al, Mr. Brent told me afore he left, thet ef I ever needed counsel +I should write ter him. When Jack went away, I writ—an' yestiddy I +got an answer back. My letter ter Mr. Brent asked ther same question +thet I jest put up ter <I>you</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"What did Brent say?" +</P> + +<P> +She was looking out of the car window with eyes that were serious and +preoccupied. +</P> + +<P> +"He said he knowed all erbout him—but thet a question like thet ought +rightfully ter be put ter a man fust-handed. He bade me ask Jack +myself when he come back—but he pledged hisself ter answer all my +questions ef Jack should happen ter refuse, atter he'd hed one chanst." +</P> + +<P> +The gray-blue eyes narrowed for a moment, then O'Keefe inquired, "Does +hit makes any great differ whar a man was borned at?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby not. I just fell ter wonderin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Does ye want my fam'ly Bible ter look me up in?" demanded Jerry and +the girl laughed. +</P> + +<P> +But she did not tell Jerry what lay back of this whole discussion. She +did not confide to him the mystery of a coat with a patched lining. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a very old coat, though at one time, long ago, a good one, +and already it had been patched and repatched. When Alexander had +picked it up that night before Halloway's departure, as she struggled +to keep her feet against the elemental surge of his whirlpool passion, +its inner breast pocket had spread a bit at the top, and her eyes had +glimpsed a discolored tailor's label—bearing the words, "New York." +</P> + +<P> +That had been the thing she needed: the floating spar to one who is +drowning and it steadied her into instant resistance. She had gone to +her own room and read there the full legend—almost obliterated by +wear—almost, but not quite. Some letters and numbers were gone, but +enough were left legible. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. J. C. Halloway," was written in ink with a number on Fifth Avenue, +New York. Then there was the tailor's name and address—also on that +main thoroughfare of Fashion. +</P> + +<P> +Cumberland mountain loggers do not have their clothes hand tailored in +Manhattan; and though the exact locality meant nothing to her, the town +meant much. +</P> + +<P> +The label was partly ripped away from the pocket, and the girl had +snipped it loose altogether. Halloway had played a careful game. He +had avoided carrying forwarded envelopes—he had held to the vernacular +at times when sudden crisis threatened to drive him into forgetfulness. +He had overlooked only one possible precaution—that of ripping out the +tailor's trademark from his coat. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Yes, we're right proud of thet thar wheat elevator. We all went +partners ter raise ther money fer rearin' hit," said Warwick McGivins, +as he dismounted from his old pacing mare and pointed to a huge wooden +building that stood at the edge of a bluff, from which one could drop a +rock down a sheer hundred and fifty feet. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander, his niece, and Jerry O'Keefe, following suit, slid from +their saddles and the three walked through a wide gate, over a set of +wagon scales and into the yard of the huge structure. +</P> + +<P> +"Kinderly looks ter me like ye'd done deesigned hit fer a fort ter +fight In'jins," suggested O'Keefe and the guide nodded his iron gray +head. "Hit don't hurt none ter hev a house like thet solid-timbered," +he asserted. "When ther crop's in, thet buildin' holds erbout all ther +wheat thet ther passel of us fellers raises amongst us—an' we seeks +ter hev hit held safe. Thar's some car-loads in thar right now, an' +threshin' time hain't nigh over yit." +</P> + +<P> +Drawing a key from his pocket he took them into the small office, and +showed them the spaciously dimensioned interior. There were no windows +save high overhead, and only two doors. One of these was a great +sliding affair where the wagons backed up, and the other was small but +equally solid. It was a huge box of heavy timber, most of it +constituting the bin itself, but the old fellow showed it proudly—nor +was his pride misplaced, for with this great cube of massive timber, +his neighbors had met and overcome a perplexing handicap of nature. +</P> + +<P> +They climbed a ladder and looked down into the reservoir partly filled +with golden grain, and Jerry, noticing a coil of rope hanging from an +upright, inquired: "Did ye hev a lynchin' in hyar by way of +house-warmin'?" +</P> + +<P> +McGivins laughed, but his narrative had not yet come to uses of that +rope, and he refused to be hurried. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye sees," he zestfully enlightened, "we've got a sort of table land of +wheat ground hyarabouts thet raises master crops—an' we've got a +railroad runnin' right past our doors ter haul hit out ter ther world +below." +</P> + +<P> +"No wonder folks hyarabouts hes got prosperity," mused Alexander a +little enviously, thinking of her rocky hillsides on Shoulder-blade. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but ther road didn't do us no great lavish of good—'twell we +deevised this hyar thing," her uncle reminded her. "Hit jest kinderly +aggravated us. Ye see our fields lays on high ground an' ther railroad +runs through a deep chasm. We kain't git down ter hit, nigh es hit be, +withouten we teams over slavish ways fer siv'ral steep miles. Now I'll +tek ye down ther clift an' show ye what's down thar—an' how we licked +thet mountain." +</P> + +<P> +He led them out and down a narrow path, where they had to hold to +branch and root until they reached the bottom of a deep ravine—and +there one hundred and fifty feet lower was another huge bin, open at +its top, and connected with the upper structure by an almost vertical +chute. +</P> + +<P> +So after all it was a piece of highly creditable engineering. It +enabled the grower to weigh and store his product above, and then by +opening the runway to deposit it at the rails. In only one respect +would an engineer have quarreled with the arrangement. The long lever +that loosened and held the flowing tide of grain operated from outside +the upper building instead of from within. +</P> + +<P> +"What's ter hinder a thief from comin' in ther night-time," demanded +Jerry practically, "an' runnin' hisself out a wagon-load of thet thar +stuff an' haulin' hit off?" +</P> + +<P> +The elder's face fell a little. +</P> + +<P> +"Thet's a far question," he acknowledged, "but we couldn't skeercely +tutor hit no otherwise—an' we keeps thet lever fastened with a chain +an' padlock." +</P> + +<P> +"But how erbout ther rope," persisted O'Keefe, and the older man +explained. "Sometimes we has ter nail up loose planks inside thet +runway, an' when we does a feller lets hisself down on thet rope." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In a week, the midsummer term of the High-court would convene and the +case of the man who had wounded his neighbor would be called for trial. +</P> + +<P> +The activities of possible informers became again a pregnant danger to +the erstwhile Ku-Klux operators and again a squad of men with rifles +set out to cope with the situation. +</P> + +<P> +Halloway had slipped away for the time being, but the movements of +Jerry and Alexander had been duly watched and reported. It did not +altogether please the men charged with this new duty to operate about +Perry Center. They would have preferred the wilder territory adjacent +either to Shoulder-blade creek or to Coal City, but the thing must be +accomplished and all matters are relative. If Perry Center lay in a +smoother country it was still mountain country and wild enough if one +were careful. +</P> + +<P> +On an evening gorgeously alight with a full moon, Jerry came to the +McGivins' house as was his custom. These were times when he did not +have to consider sharing the right of way with a rival, and he was +availing himself of his undisputed respite. +</P> + +<P> +Shadows of deep purple-blue lay everywhere like velvet islands in the +silver flood of the moon's radiance. Through the timbered slopes came +the soft cadences of the night's minstrels—the voices of frogs and +katydids and the plaintive call of the whippoorwills. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander had been deeply reflective as she sat with her lovely chin +resting on one hand, listening to the low-pitched voice in which her +lover was pleading his cause. +</P> + +<P> +"I kain't be sure—not yit," was her uncertain response to all his +argument. +</P> + +<P> +They saw a shadow fall across the lighted doorway at their backs, and +heard the somewhat disturbed voice of Warwick McGivins. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got ter go over thar ter ther wheat elevator, I reckon. I kain't +find ther key nowhars an' I mistrusts I left hit in ther door when I +war weighin' up wheat this evening; I'll jest leave ther two of ye hyar +fer a spell." +</P> + +<P> +Jerry rose obligingly to his feet. "I reckon my legs is a few y'ars +younger than yourn," he announced cheerfully. "I'll jest teck my foot +in my hand and light out fer over thar. Hit hain't but a whoop an' a +holler distant nohow." +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's a right purty night," volunteered Alexander, in a voice of vague +restlessness. "I don't kinderly feel like settin' still. I'll go +along with ye, Jerry." +</P> + +<P> +The young man's eyes brightened delightedly. It had been a strain on +his innate courtesy to surrender so much of his moonlight evening with +Alexander, and now he had his reward. There had been an unrest in her +eyes to-night—yet somehow he had felt her nearer to him in thought, +and his bruised feelings were stirring into fresh hope. +</P> + +<P> +Together they started out, and under the spell of the night's +graciousness one of those silences that seem a bond of sympathy fell +between them. +</P> + +<P> +The way led for a while along the high road, then turned off into the +woods, where the rhododendron was massed thick. Here there was more of +the velvet shadow and less of the direct moonlight, but through the +open spaces that, too, fell in filtering patterns of platinum +brightness. +</P> + +<P> +Once Jerry halted abruptly and stood listening, then he went on again. +</P> + +<P> +"I heered hit too," said Alexander understandingly, for in the hills +one pauses to question unexplained sounds in the night time. "I reckon +hit war some varmint stirring." +</P> + +<P> +The route they had taken led along the margin of the bluff, and when +they were close to the elevator, walking single file, with Alexander in +the lead, the serenity broke with the malignant sharpness of a barking +rifle. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry heard the whining flight of the bullet that had missed his head +by inches, and as though in obedience to a single nerve impulse, both +the girl and the man fell flat to the better concealment of the ground, +and edged back into the sootily shadowed laurel. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got need ter separate," whispered Jerry, with his lips brushing +her ear. "I aims ter git inside ther elevator—and hold 'em off. You +hasten down over ther cliff an' work back ter ther house. I reckon +hit's me they wants, but I'll endure 'twell ye brings help." +</P> + +<P> +Without wasting a needless word or breath in argument, Alexander began +noiselessly twisting her way towards the brow of the precipice. +Jerry's heart was pounding with terror lest she be discovered—and to +divert from her an attention that might prove fatal, he recklessly rose +and leaped across a spot of moonlight, making a fleeting target, which +brought from two separate sources responses of riflery. +</P> + +<P> +The man knew now that whoever his assailants might be they were out in +force and in earnest. Cautiously he worked his way along the shadows, +his luck still holding until finally he had reached his point of +vantage within a few yards of the open gate that led to the elevator +itself. To gain that haven he must dash for it across a band of +unmasked moonlight. Once inside, he had only to wait for the relief of +reinforcements. +</P> + +<P> +To the right and left of him, and from several spots at once, O'Keefe +heard stirrings in the thicket. There must be a sizable pack out on +the hunt and he surmised that they were making those unnecessary noises +with the purpose of drawing his fire and bringing him into revealment +by the spurt of his pistol. +</P> + +<P> +The door of the elevator itself stood partly in the moonlight. Jerry +O'Keefe could see the dull glitter that he knew to be the key—and +could even make out—or so he thought—that the door stood an inch or +two ajar. +</P> + +<P> +Of that he was not quite certain—and it was a vitally important point. +</P> + +<P> +If the lock was not caught, he might get in before he could be killed. +If he had to fumble with a key, his end was certain. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry drew himself together and made the dive. Four rifles spoke in +unison and four bullets imbedded themselves in the heavy timbers of the +great building as he hurled himself against the door, and felt it give +laxly under his weight. +</P> + +<P> +He had not fired a shot and between himself and his enemies stood the +staunchness of walls against which their rifle bullets would pelt as +harmlessly as hailstones. Except for his anxiety about Alexander he +might have lighted his pipe and waited with a contented spirit. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, a slow smile did shape itself on his face, but a startled +thought wiped it away as swiftly and completely as a wet sponge +obliterates writing on a slate. That thought left his expression as +black as a slate too. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry drew his pistol, and for a moment it was in his mind to open the +door and go out again. +</P> + +<P> +When he had sent the girl away for reinforcements it had not occurred +to him that this ambuscade might be intended to include her as well as +himself. He had thought that, once apart from him, unless mistaken for +him in the dark, she could walk safely. Indeed he had been at a total +loss to explain, in any way, the motive of the attack. +</P> + +<P> +Now it had flashed upon him that it was somehow an outgrowth of the old +robbery attempt—and if that were true as high a price lay on the +girl's head as upon his own. She was out there alone and in all +likelihood unarmed. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry O'Keefe broke into a cold sweat of panic—and he sat with his +ears strained for a pistol shot—a shout—any indication that might +call him across the moonlight zone beyond the door to her defense. +</P> + +<P> +But the stillness of the midsummer night had settled again, except for +the voices of the whippoorwill and the katydid. +</P> + +<P> +By this time, he tried to reassure himself, Alexander had made her way +down into the gorge and was beyond the touch of danger. +</P> + +<P> +But that was not true. The girl had need to move with such silence as +should break no twig and rustle no shrub. She must twist along a +course that avoided the patches of moonlight, weaving her slow way in +and out. Deliberation now was hard, but it would mean greater and more +effective haste later on. She had even paused, crouching, with inheld +breath, at a spot from which she could watch the door of the elevator, +until Jerry had made his dash. With a heart swollen and strained by +dread almost to bursting, she had seen him shoot across the exposed +area and burst through the door—and she had heard the fusilade that +resented his escape. +</P> + +<P> +Or was it escape? He had plunged through the dark opening much as a +falling man might go. But now safe, wounded or dead, he was inside and +they could not reach him, so it behooved her to use wary care to the +end that she might bring him help. +</P> + +<P> +But as Alexander came to the two large boulders between which she meant +to start down into the gorge she was arrested by a flicker of light +there. The rock shielded from view the man who seemed to be kindling a +pine torch, but the flare had warned her in time to make her crouch low +and consider her course. That path which she had chosen was cut off. +</P> + +<P> +Then, low and guarded voices stole across to her with the light. +</P> + +<P> +"War's ther gal? She didn't git inside too, did she?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, 'pears like she's done hid away—but I reckon they'll diskiver her +afore she gits far." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let's waste no time, then. Ye've done splashed coal-oil on ther +corner of ther warehouse, hain't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa'al, come on. Ye've got yore torch ready. Let's tech her off. He +thinks he's safe enough inside thar, but right shortly he'll sing +another tune." +</P> + +<P> +Alexander fell, for a moment, into a tremor and chill of wild panic. +Suddenly as a revelation, yet beyond all shadow of doubt, she knew that +the man who was doomed to a certain and most horrible death was, to +her, the person of supreme consequence in all the world. The dynamic +qualities of Halloway were nothing and less than nothing, now. She +wanted for always that gentle strength and whimsical smile that were +soon to be licked up in flame and torture. If this man were not saved +she could, herself, no longer endure to live—and there was no way of +saving him! +</P> + +<P> +While Alexander crouched there with her blood congealed she saw the +torch applied, saw its flame leap ravenously to the welcome of the +kerosene and secure a hold upon the building itself as sure and +tenacious as the grip of a bulldog's clamped jaws. +</P> + +<P> +The plotters who fired the elevator showed her only their backs. +</P> + +<P> +How long would it be before the man inside recognized the acrid odor +and realized his fate? What would he do then? Presumably he would +dash for the door, and there both flame and rifle fire would be +awaiting him. +</P> + +<P> +The incendiaries had now passed around the corner of the house and the +moonlight fell upon the long chute which ran almost vertically down to +the railway tracks below. Into Alexander's mind shot a desperate +resolution. It offered a slender chance at best—yet the only one. +</P> + +<P> +Still for a moment, she questioned it. There were so many ways that it +might turn out—and of them all, one only could possibly end in success. +</P> + +<P> +Then she slipped over to the great handle that controlled the flow of +grain, locked into place with its chain and padlock. If she were seen +she would, of course, be killed, but the murder crew seemed to have +massed at the front of the place now, watching the door, until the fire +should take that task off their hands. The flames were crackling loud +enough now to cover the noise which must attend her next move—and to +afford her a light for her work. +</P> + +<P> +A heavy iron bar lay on the ground and with it the girl forced the +chain and bent all her strength to the great lever that should launch +the stored wheat into its quicksand flow. She flung her good muscles +and her substantial weight so fiercely into that effort that the shaft +snapped at its fulcrum—but not until it had done its work. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander rushed for the brow of the cliff, and this time she was not +obstructed. The relaxed vigilance of a job well done had stolen upon +the watchers. +</P> + +<P> +The journey down the precipice was one that had its difficulties, and +Alexander's brain was reeling with a score of terrors—yet somehow she +reached the tracks. +</P> + +<P> +O'Keefe would not be in the wheat bin itself, she reflected. It would +be dark in there too—until the light became a glare of death. Unless +he chanced to hear, through other and fiercer sounds the soft flow of +the myriad kernels, he would have no means of knowing that one +desperate way was being opened to him. Even then his single hope would +lie in quickness of perception and a sureness of judgment that acted +flawlessly and smoothly under a supreme strain. +</P> + +<P> +If he did see that the wheat was running out and did not wait for it +all to spill itself, he would be sucked into its tide only to emerge +dead. For it flowed slowly, pressing in every direction, and it would +inevitably strangle the breath out of his lungs. +</P> + +<P> +Even if he were judging all these odds with a meticulous nicety, +Alexander questioned herself breathlessly, would there be time to wait +for the full store to flow through that narrow channel? It was a race +between a slow tide which could not be hurried and another which rushed +on with the devouring fury of mania. +</P> + +<P> +The girl threw herself down beside an empty freight car and dug her +cold finger nails into her hot temples. She could hear the steady +stream of wheat flowing into the bin there, and the deadly slowness of +its progress through the hopper was driving her mad. The elevator she +could not see, but by lifting her head, she could see out all too +clearly the crimson sky overhead. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + + +<P> +When the first acrid warning of scorched timbers came to his nostrils, +Jerry O'Keefe had recognized the desperation of his plight and he laid +out his simple plans in accordance. He meant to stay where he was till +the last endurable moment, hoping against hope for the coming of the +rescuers. When it was no longer possible to remain, he would go out of +the door and sell his life at a price—but he knew he would have to +sell it, and perhaps cheaply, for they would do their killing from +cover. +</P> + +<P> +He struck a match for a survey of the place where he must make his last +stand and his eye fell on the coil of rope. Then, for the first time, +he remembered its use, and vainly wished that the chute could be opened +from within. By the light of other matches, he looked over into the +great bin and what he saw astonished him. There was a moving suction +at the center of the pile—a slow motion and declivity—though this +afternoon the stuff had been heaped into a well-rounded mound. Further +scrutiny verified the amazing results of his first impression. The +hopper was open! +</P> + +<P> +Jerry O'Keefe smiled grimly. His enemies had an ironic sense of humor, +he thought. They meant to give him a choice of deaths, death at the +door by flame and lead or death in the sluice by suffocation. Then an +incredulous exclamation burst from his lips. Was there not a wild and +wholly improbable chance that this opening of an avenue might be +Alexander's work? It seemed unlikely, almost inconceivable, but in +resourcefulness and adroitness of thought nothing was quite +inconceivable of Alexander. +</P> + +<P> +She knew of the rope and its former use—and that meant that the +flowing tide would not have to spell death for him if he waited long +enough and acted wisely enough. Presumably these enemies were not +neighbors, for if they had been they would not be burning their own +grain. If that were granted it might follow that they would not know +of the rope. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry breathed deeply, and a desperate smile came for an instant to his +tight lips. +</P> + +<P> +He was watching the unhurried flow of out-running wheat and gauging, as +was the girl below, the racing progress of the flames. Would there be +time? The door was cut off now by sheets of fire and he had no longer +any alternative. If the hot enemy reached him before the wheat was +out, he must die by it or end matters with his own pistol. +</P> + +<P> +He uncoiled the rope and threw its loose end into the bin, watching +with a fascinated gaze the fashion in which it was dragged inward and +downward. +</P> + +<P> +In the increasing heat of the inferno he had thrown off his coat, and +now his shirt went too. The sweat poured out of his naked chest and +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +From rafters below him shot wicked tongues of widening flame— His +breath was labored and his life seemed to wither. There was only a +little grain left now at the bottom of the receptacle but there was +also little strength or endurance left in him. His eyes burned +horribly and he knew that he could no longer support his weight on a +rope by the strength of his arms. He had climbed to the edge of the +bin, and clung there. Then he fainted, and fell inward. +</P> + +<P> +But the moment had arrived when at last the way was clear. The chute, +polished smooth by the flowing kernels, did not even leave a splinter +in his bare flesh, and when he shot down and out he fell on the soft +mound of wheat that had gone before him. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander's straining eyes saw his body flash into sight, and saw that +it seemed lifeless. With a cry that she tried to stifle and could not, +she called upon her last strength, and climbed into the great pen where +he lay insensible. +</P> + +<P> +The murderers had gone away. Their task seemed complete, and they had +no wish to tarry too long after the countryside had been aroused by +that beacon of fire. +</P> + +<P> +But it was much later that neighborhood searchers found Alexander +sitting on a mound of salvaged wheat with the head of an unconscious +man in her lap. It was a man stripped to the waist, sweat-covered and +smoke blackened. The girl was mumbling incoherent things into his +unresponsive ear. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Ye saved ther wheat fer us anyhow—an' ther doctor says he hain't none +hurted beyond being scorched up some," declared Warwick McGivins that +same night at his own house, and Alexander, limp to collapse with her +long vigil of terror, but with eyes that glowed with triumph—and with +something else—replied, "I've saved somethin' better then a mighty +heap of wheat." +</P> + +<P> +Jerry spoke from the bed, where he lay conscious now, but still very +weak. +</P> + +<P> +"Things looked mighty unsartain—fer a spell." +</P> + +<P> +And the girl answered in a silvery voice that held the thrill of +invincible courage. "Nothin' hain't never goin' ter be unsartain fer +us from now on. Hit teks fire, I reckon, ter weld iron—but——" +</P> + +<P> +The enfeebled man tried to raise himself on his elbow, but she gently +pressed him back. +</P> + +<P> +"Does ye mean hit, Alexander?" he whispered tensely. "Hit hain't jest +because I've been hurted a leetle—an' ye're compassionate fer me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jerry," she said and her voice became all at once softly tremulous, +"jest es soon as ye're able I wants ye ter tek me in yore arms—an' I +don't never want ye ter let me go ergin!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll git thet strong right soon," he declared with a fervor that +brought the strength back to his voice—and the sparkle back into his +blood-shot eyes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Jack Halloway came into his rooms one day in early September and ran +through some mail that lay piled on his table. He was not in a happy +humor. The business here had dragged out to the annoying length of six +weeks and his mind was busy with anxiety centering on the hills. But +as his thoughts ran irritably along, the hand that had lifted an +envelope out of the collection became rigid. It was a very plain +envelope and quite unaccountably it was postmarked from the station +near the mouth of Shoulder-blade creek. +</P> + +<P> +Who, down there, could know his New York address? It could not be +Brent, for this was not Brent's hand. +</P> + +<P> +He ripped the thing open and from the unfolded sheet fell a tiny scrap +of some sort. It seemed to be a small strip of soiled cloth and he let +it lie on the table while he read the note itself. +</P> + +<P> +The first paragraph brought from his lips an exclamation of dismay and +alarm—and he paused a moment to collect himself before finishing. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Jack," said the letter. "You will wonder how I knew where to +send this letter, but you see I did know. +</P> + +<P> +"Jerry and I were married a week ago and all the neighbors came to our +infare to wish us well. I saw to it that every man there took off his +hat. I am sending you the tag that was on your coat pocket the day I +mended it. It wasn't heedful for you to leave it there, and that's how +I knew where you were apt to be now—instead of Virginia." +</P> + +<P> +The man paused again and his great hand shook with disappointment and +chagrin. Finally he turned the sheet and read the conclusion. +</P> + +<P> +"Seeing that tag gave me warning just in time the night you bragged +that you could make me come into your arms. Next time, Jack, I counsel +you to be honest with the girls you make love to. They like it. Come +and see us when you get back to the mountains. Alexander McGivins. +P.S. I promised my paw to keep my own name when I was wed, and Jerry +doesn't mind." +</P> + +<P> +The letter escaped from nerveless fingers and floated down to the +floor. At last Halloway picked up the small tailor's label and turned +it in his fingers absentmindedly, as though he were not yet quite sure +what he was doing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PAGAN OF THE HILLS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 19089-h.txt or 19089-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19089">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/8/19089</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Pagan of the Hills + + +Author: Charles Neville Buck + + + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [eBook #19089] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PAGAN OF THE HILLS*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 19089-h.htm or 19089-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19089/19089-h/19089-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19089/19089-h.zip) + + + + + +A PAGAN OF THE HILLS + +by + +CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK + +Author of + + "The Call of the Cumberlands," + "The Battle Cry," + "When Bearcat Went Dry," Etc., Etc. + +Frontispiece by George W. Gage + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which +the view reached far off for leagues over the valley.] + + + +New York +W. J. Watt & Company +Publishers +Copyright, 1919, by +W. J. Watt & Company + + + + +A PAGAN OF THE HILLS + + +CHAPTER I + +"It's plum amazin' ter heer ye norate thet ye've done been tradin' and +hagglin' with old man McGivins long enough ter buy his logs offen him +and yit ye hain't never met up with Alexander. I kain't hardly fathom +hit noways." + +The shambling mountaineer stretched himself to his lean length of six +feet two, and wagged an incredulous head. Out of pale eyes he studied +the man before him until the newcomer from "down-below" felt that, in +the attitude, lay almost the force of rebuke. It was as though he +stood self-convicted of having visited Naples without seeing Vesuvius. + +"But I haven't been haggling with Mr. McGivins," he hastened to +remonstrate. "On the contrary we have done business most amicably." + +The native of the tangled hills casually waved aside the distinction of +terms as a triviality and went on: "I hain't nuver heered tell of no +man's tradin' in these hyar Kentucky mountains without he haggled +considerable. Why thet's what tradin' denotes. Howsomever what +flabbergasts me air thet ye hain't met up with Alexander. Stranger, ye +don't know nothin' about this neck o' the woods a-tall!" + +Parson Acup, so called for the funereal gravity of his bearing and +expression, and Brent the timber-buyer, stood looking down from +beetling cliffs rigidly bestowed with collossal and dripping icicles. +To their ears came a babel of shouts, the grating of trees, long +sleet-bound but stirring now to the thaw--the roar of blasting powder +and the rending of solid rock. + +Brent laughed. "Now, that you've fathomed the density of my +ignorance," he suggested, "proceed to enlighten me. Upon what does +this Alexander rest his fame? What character of man is he?" + +"Wa'al, stranger, I've done always held ther notion thet we folks up +hyar in these benighted hills of old Kaintuck, war erbout the +ign'rantest human mortals God ever suffered ter live--but even us knows +erbout Alexander. Fust place he hain't no man at all. He's a +gal--leastwise, Alexander was borned female but she's done lived a plum +he-life, ever since." + +"A woman--but the name----" + +"Oh, pshaw! Thar hain't nuthin' jedgmatic in a name. Old man McGivins +he jest disgusts gals and so he up and named his fust born Alexander +an' he's done reared her accordin'." + +Brent arched his brows as his informant continued, gathering headway in +the interest of his narrative. "Old man McGivins he's done read a +lavish heap of books an' he talks a passel of printed wisdom. He +'lowed thet Alexander wa'nt no common man's name but thet hit signified +a hell-bustin' survigrous feller. By his tellin', ther fust Alexander +whaled blazes outen all creation an' then sot down an' cried like a +baby because ther job he'd done went an' petered out on him. Ter me, +thet norration savers right strong of a damn lie." + +Brent nodded as he smilingly replied, "I've read of that first +Alexander, but he's been dead a good many centuries." + +"Long enough ter leave him lay an' ferget about him, I reckon," drily +observed the parson. "Anyhow atter a spell Old Man McGivins had +another bornin' at his dwellin-house an' thet time hit proved out to be +a boy. His woman sought ter rechristen ther gal Lizzie or Lake Erie or +somethin' else befittin petticoats. She 'lowed thet no godly man +wouldn't hardly seek a woman in wedlock, ner crave fer her to be ther +mother of his children with a name hung on her like Alexander Macedonia +McGivins." + +Brent's eye twinkled as he watched the unbending gravity of the other's +face and since comment seemed expected he conceded, "There seems to be +a germ of reason in that." + +"Then ther boy commenced growin' up, lazy-like an' shiftless," +enlightened the parson. "Ther old man 'lowed thet hit wouldn't hardly +be no fallacy ter name him Lizzie or Lake Erie, but he swore on a hull +stack of Bibles thet he aimed ter make a man of ther gal." + +Suddenly the speaker broke off and his brow clouded. Following the +apprehensive direction of the frowning eyes as one might follow a +dotted line the man from the city saw a young mountaineer +surreptitiously tilting a flask to his lips in the lee of a huge +boulder. Palpably the drinker believed himself screened from view, and +when he had wiped the neck of the flask with the palm of his hand and +stowed it away again in his breast pocket he looked furtively about +him--and that furtiveness was unusual enough to elicit surprise in this +land where men drank openly and made moonshine whiskey and even gave it +to their small children. + +"Since ther time of corn drappin' an' kiverin'," said the Parson, +slowly, "Bud Sellers hain't teched a dram afore now. Hit don't +pleasure me none ter see him startin' in afresh." + +"He's been working hard," suggested the timber buyer tolerantly. "I've +watched him and he never seems to tire. Maybe he felt the need of a +stimulant." + +But Acup growled. "When Bud leaves licker alone thar hain't no better +boy nowhars. When he follers drinking he gits p'izen mean right down +to ther marrer in his insidest bone. Folks calls him ther mad-dog +then. Ef these men finds out he's drinkin', they'll quit work an' +scatter like pa'tridges does when they sees a hawk flutterin' overhead." + +The loose-jointed giant turned on his heel and left Brent standing +alone. Snow after snow had fallen this winter and frozen tight, heaped +high by blizzard after blizzard until all the legendary "old fashioned +winters" had been outdone and put to shame. Then without warning had +come some warm breath across the peaks bringing January rains on the +heels of zero frigidity and thaws of unprecedented swiftness. While +the "spring-tide" was to have been an agency of safe delivery for the +felled timber this premature flood threatened to be a lawless one of +devastation. Brent had rushed up here from the city driven by anxiety +as to the logs he had contracted to buy--logs which the oncoming flood +threatened to ravish into scattered and racing drift. He had found old +man McGivins toiling without sleep or rest; racing against the +gathering cohorts of a Nature turned vandal, and into the fight and +stress he had thrown himself and all his energies. + +That there was even the slimmest of chances to save the poplar, was a +fact due to a peculiar conformation of the levels there, and to +exceptional circumstances. + +"Gin'rally we just rolls ther logs down hill when we cuts 'em an' lets +'em lay thar whar they falls in ther creek beds," McGivins had +explained. "Afore ther spring tide comes on with ther thaws an' rains, +we builds a splash dam back of 'em an' when we're ready we blows her +out an' lets 'em float on down ter ther nighest boom fer raftin'. Ef a +flood like this comes on they gits scattered, an' we jest kisses 'em +good-bye. Thet's happenin' right now all along these numerous small +creeks." + +But McGivins had cut his timber near a river that could float not only +loose logs but rafts, and in a small lake-like basin hemmed in by +cliffs and separated by a gorge from the river he had gathered them and +bound them into three large rafts. Only such a stage as came with the +"tide" would convert the gorge into a water-way out, and only then wen +the great dam built across it had been dynamited. + +Now came this flood, infinitely more powerful than the ordinary rise of +spring. The dam was threatened and must be strengthened and raised +higher. If it gave way, he too must "kiss his logs good-bye." + +As the city man speculated on the odds against him Old Man McGivins +himself materialized at his elbow. His lips were tight-set and his +brow was furrowed. For him the situation savored of impending tragedy. +These trees had been reluctantly felled from a virgin tract of forest +heretofore unscarred by the axe, and they had been his long-hoarded +treasure. He had held on to them much as a miser holds to his savings +because he loved them. Even when Brent had offered a good price, +running well into thousands, he had wrestled with himself. When the +axes had rung and the saws whined through the scarlet and golden +autumn, it had almost seemed to him that he was executing living and +beloved friends. Now an inimical force of Nature threatened to rob him +of them and of his remuneration as well. Yet as he stood there, with +the sweat and grime of his labor drying on his forehead, his brooding +eyes held a patriarchal dignity of uncomplaining courage. + +"All these hyar men air my neighbors, Mr. Brent," he said with a manner +of instinctive courtesy. "They hain't a-workin' fer wages but jest ter +kinderly convenience me--I reckon we're both of us right smart beholden +to 'em." + +The city man acquiescently nodded his head but he was thinking chiefly +of the calm patience and the tireless strenuousity with which McGivins, +himself, was battling against calamity. + +"They are friends of yours," he answered. "They realize that your loss +will be heavy if----" He broke off there and the other went on. + +"Hit'll mighty nigh cripple me ef we don't save 'em. I've done held on +ter thet timber fer a long spell of years an' I sorrers ter part with +hit now. But thar's a right weighty mortgage on my land an' hit's held +by a man thet don't squander no love on me at best." + +Brent gritted his teeth. He had heretofore known only in the +indirectness of theory the sudden capriciousness of mountain weather; +storms that burst and cannonade without warning; trickling waters that +leap overnight into maddened freshets. Now he was seeing in its +blood-raw ferocity the primal combat between man and the elements. + +With a troubled brow Parson Acup returned and addressed McGivins. +"Aaron," he said bluntly, "right numerous fellers air threatenin' ter +quit us and we kain't spare a single hand." + +The old man flinched as if under a blow from a trusted hand. "What fer +does they aim ter quit?" he demanded. + +"Bud Sellers has started in drinkin' licker, an' a'ready he's gittin' +malignant. Ther Martin boys an' ther Copelands an' others beside 'em, +'lows thet they ain't seekin' no heedless trouble and hit's more +heedful-like fer 'em ter go on home an' avoid an affray. Ef they stays +on hit's right apt to end in blood-lettin'." + +McGivins drew himself to a more rigid erectness. "Go back an' tell +them boys thet I needs 'em," he ordered. "Tell 'em ef they don't stand +by me now, I'm ruint. I'll send Bud away ef thet's all thet's frettin' +'em." + +"I wouldn't counsel ye ter cross Bud jest now," advised Acup, but the +other laughed under his long beard, a low angry laugh, as he turned on +his heel and, with the man from the city following him, started in +search of the troublemaker. + +Bud was found at last behind the great hump of towering rock. The +place, walled in by beetling precipice, was beginning to darken into +cloister-dim shadows. Bud's back was turned and he did not hear the +footfall of the two men who had come upon him there. He knew that when +once he succumbed to the thirst it meant a parting with reason and a +frenzy of violence. But when the first savor of the fiery moonshine +stuff had teased his palate and the first warmth had glowed in his +stomach it meant surrender to debauch--and already he had gone too far +to fight the appetite which was his ruin. + +Now he stood with the flask to his lips and his head bent back, but +when he had drunk deep he turned and saw the two figures that were +silently observing him. + +His eyes were already blood-shot and his cheeks reddened. The motions +of his lithe body were unsteady. With a shamefaced gesture the young +man sought to conceal the flask under his coat, then a fickle change +came to his mood. His head bent down low like a bull's and his +shoulders hulked in a stiffening defiance. + +"Spyin' on me, air ye?" The question rasped savagely from his +thickened lips. "Well, damn ther pair of ye, spies desarves what they +gits! I'm a free man an' I don't suffer no bull-dozin' from nobody." + +He lurched forward with so threatening an air that Brent stepped a +little to the side and instinctively his hand went to the coat pocket +where he carried a pistol. But Bud ignored him, focussing his +attention upon the mountain man to whom he had come in friendship and +service for the stemming of a disaster. He came with a chin out-thrust +close to the older and bearded face. Truculence and reckless bravado +proclaimed themselves in the pose, as he bulked there. "Wa'al," he +snarled, "ye heered me, didn't ye?" + +But McGivins had not altered his attitude. He had not given back a +stride nor moved his arms. Now he spoke quietly. + +"I'm sore grieved to see you comin' ter this pass, Bud," he said. "We +all knows what hit means every time. I'm obleeged ter ye fer what +ye've already done--an' I'll ask ye, now, ter go on home afore ye +drinks any more whiskey--or starts any ruction amongst my neighbors." + +"So thet's hit, air hit?" Bud rocked a little on his feet as he stood +confronting the steady challenge of Aaron McGivins. "So ye lets a man +work slavish fer ye all day, and then starts in faultin' him ef he +takes a drink at sun-down. Well damn ye, I don't aim ter go nowhars +tell I'm ready an' ambitious ter go--does ye hear thet or does I hev +ter tell ye again?" + +With a very deliberate motion McGivins lifted one arm and pointed it +towards the west--that way lay the nearest boundary of his tract. + +"I've done asked ye plum civil ter go, because ef you don't go other +fellers will--fellers thet's wuth somethin'. Now I orders ye ter get +offen my land. Begone!" + +What happened next was such a tumult of abruptness that Brent found +himself standing inactive, not fully grasping the meaning of the +situation. From Bud came a roar of anger as he lunged and grappled +with the bearded elder, carrying him back in the onslaught. With a +belated realization, Brent threw himself forward but just as his hand +fell on the shoulder of Bud Sellers he heard a report, muffled because +it was fired between two savagely embraced bodies. The lumber buyer +had seen no weapon drawn. That had been the instinctive legerdemain of +mountain quickness, which even drink had not blunted. As he wrenched +Bud back, the wounded figure stood for a moment swaying on legs that +slowly and grotesquely buckled into collapse at the knees until Aaron +McGivins crumpled down in a shapeless heap. + +Bud Sellers wrenched himself free with a muscular power that almost +hurled Brent to the ground, and the pistol fell from his hand. For a +moment the young assailant stood there with an expression of dismayed +shock, as though, in his sleep, he had committed a crime and had +awakened into an appalled realization. Then, ignoring Brent, he +wheeled and lunged madly into the laurel. + +Figures came running in response to the alarm of pistol report and +shouting, but old man McGivins, whom they carried to the nearest +bonfire, feebly nodded his head. Parson Acup was bending over him and +when he rose it was with a dubious face. + +"I fears me thet wound's mighty liable ter be a deadener," he said. + +Then the wounded man lifted a trembling hand. "Git me over home," he +directed shortly, "An' fer God's sake, boys, go forward with this work +till hit's finished." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Through the tree tops came a confusion of voices, but none of them +human. A wind was racing to almost gale-like violence and with it came +the inrush of warm air to peaks and valleys that had been tight-frozen. +Between precipices echoed the crash of ice sliding loose and +splintering as it fell in ponderous masses. Men sweating in the glare +of collossal bonfires toiled at the work of re-inforcing the dam. + +They had been faithful; they were still faithful, but the stress of +exhaustion was beginning to sap their morale; to drive them into +irritability so that, under the strain of almost superhuman exertion, +they threatened to break. Brent was not of their blood and knew little +of how to handle them, and though Parson Acup was indefatigable, his +face became more and more apprehensive. + +"Ef we kin hold 'em at hit till ther crack of day, we've got a right +gay chanst ter save them big sticks," he announced bluntly to Brent +near midnight. "But hit hain't in reason ter expect men ter plum kill +themselves off fer ther profit of somebody else--an' him likely ter be +dead by termorrer." + +"Could McGivins have kept them in line himself?" demanded Brent and the +Parson scratched his head. "Wa'al he mout. Thar's somethin' masterful +in thet breed thet kinderly drives men on. I don't know es I could +name what it air though." + +Then even as he spoke a group of humanity detached itself from the +force on the dam and moved away as men do who are through with their +jobs. They halted before Acup and one of them spoke somewhat +shame-facedly: "I disgusts ter quit on a man in sore need, Parson, but +us fellers kain't hold up no longer. We're plum fagged ter +death--mebby termorrer mornin'----" + +He broke off and Acup answered in a heavy-hearted voice: "So fur as +this hyar job's consarned most likely thar won't be no termorrer. Old +man McGivins lays over thar, mebby a-dyin' an' this means a master lot +to him----" + +"If it's a matter of pay," began Brent and left his suggestion +unfinished. A quick glance of warning from Acup cautioned him that +this was a tactless line and one of the men answered shortly, "Pay +hain't skeercely ergoin' ter hold a man up on his legs when them legs +gives out under him, stranger." + +"No, Lige, pay won't do it, but upstandin' nerve _will_--an' I knows +ye've got hit. Ef anybody quits now, they're all right apt ter foller +suit." + + +At the sound of the first words, Brent had pivoted as suddenly as +though a bolt had struck him. They came in a voice so out of keeping +with the surroundings, so totally different from any he had heard that +day, that it was a paradox of sound. In the first place it was a +woman's voice and here were only sweating men. In the second, although +full and clear as if struck from well cast bell metal, it had a rich +sweetness and just now the thrill of deep emotion. + +In the red flare of the bonfire that sent up a shower of sparks into +the wet darkness, he saw a figure that brought fresh astonishment. + +The woman stood there with a long rubber slicker tight-buttoned from +collar to hem. Below that Brent saw rubber boots. She stood with a +lance-like straightness, very tall, very pliant, and as he stared with +a fixity which would have amounted to impertinence had it not been +disarmed by amazement she looked past him and through him as if he were +himself without substance. + +Then she took off the heavy Nor'wester that had shaded her face, and +the firelight fell on masses of hair deeply and redly gold; upon +features exquisitely modeled, in no wise masculine or heavy, yet full +of dominance. Duskily-lashed eyes of dark violet were brimming with a +contagious energy and her rounded chin was splendidly atilt. A +sculptor might have modeled her as she stood, and entitled his bronze +"Victory." + +Her coloring too was rich, almost dazzling, and Brent thought that he +had never seen such arresting beauty or such an unusual though +harmonious blending of feminine allurement--and masculine spirit. +Though in height she approached the heroic of scale, the first summary +of impression which he drew from feature and coloring was "delicately +gorgeous." + +The girl vouchsafed him no attention of any kind but remained silent +for a moment with her eyes raining so resolute a fire that those of the +exhausted workers kindled into faint responsiveness. + +Then the vibrant clarity of the voice sounded again--and the voice too +had that strangely hypnotic quality that one felt in the glance. "You +boys have all worked here hour on hour, till ye're nigh dead. My paw +an' me are already powerful beholden to ye all but----" She paused and +under just such an emotion the ordinary woman's throat would have +caught with a sob and her eyes would have filled with tears. It was +not so with Alexander. Her note only softened into a deeper gravity. +"But he lays over thar an' I mistrusts he's a-dyin' ternight. He +wouldn't suffer me ter tarry by his bed-side because he 'lowed thet you +boys needed a man ter work along with ye in his place. If ye quits now +all the labor ye've done spent goes fer naught." She paused a moment +and then impulsively she broke out: "An' I couldn't hardly endure ter +go back thar an' tell him that we'd failed." + +As she paused the hollow-eyed men shuffled their feet but none of them +spoke. They had given generously, prodigally even, of their effort and +it had not been for hire. Yet under the burning appeal of her eyes +they flushed as though they had been self-confessed malingerers. + +"But as fer me," went on Alexander, "I've got ter git ter work." + +She unbuttoned and cast off the long rubber coat and Brent felt as if +he had seen the unveiling of a sculptured figure which transcended +mediocrity. A flannel shirt, open on a splendidly rounded throat, +emphasized shoulders that fell straight and, for a woman unusually +broad, though not too broad for grace. She was an Amazon in physique +yet so nicely balanced of proportion that one felt more conscious of +delicate litheness than of size. As her breath came fast with +excitement the fine arch of her heaving bosom was that of a Diana. +Belted about a waist that had never known the cramp of stays, she wore +a pair of trousers thrust into her boot tops and no man there was more +unself-conscious. + +The exhausted men stirred restlessly as they watched her go down to the +dam, and one of those who had dropped to a sitting posture came +lumberingly to his feet again. + +"I reckon I've got my second wind now," he lamely announced. "Mebby +thar's a leetle mite more work left in me yit atter all," and he +started back, stumbling with the ache of tired bones, to the task he +had renounced, while his fellows grumbled a little and followed his +lead. + +Throughout the day Brent had felt himself an ineffective. He had done +what he could but his activities had always seemed to be on the less +strenuous fringe of things like a bee who works on the edge of a honey +comb. + +Now as the replenished fire leaped high and the hills resounded to an +occasional peal of unseasonable thunder the figure of the woman who had +assumed a man's responsibility became a pattern of action. In the +flare and the shadow he watched it, fascinated. It was always in the +forefront, frequently in actual but unconsidered peril, leading like +the white plume of Navarre. + +It was all as lurid and as turgid a picture as things seen in nightmare +or remembered from mythology--this turmoil of emergency effort through +a fire-lit night of storm and flood; figures thrown into exaggeration +as the flames leaped or dwindled--faces haggard with weariness. + +To Brent came a new and keener spirit of combat. The outskirts of +action no longer sufficed, but with an elemental ardor and elation his +blood glowed in his veins. + +When at last all that could be done had been done, the east was +beginning to take on a sort of ashen light--the forerunner of dawn. +Alexander had held to the sticking-point the quailing energies of spent +men for more than six agonized hours. Below them the river bed that +had been almost dry forty-eight hours ago was a madly howling torrent. + +Men with faces gray and hollow-eyed laid down their crow-bars and +pike-poles. Brent, reeling unsteadily as he walked, looked about him +in a dazed fashion out of giddy eyes. He saw Alexander wiping the +steaming moisture from her brow with the sleeve of her shirt and heard +her speak through a confused pounding upon eardrums that still seemed +full of cumulative din. + +"Unless ther flood carries ther river five foot higher then hit's ever +gone afore, we've done saved thet timber," she said slowly. "An' no +men ever worked more plum slavish ner faithful then what you men have +ternight." + +"That hain't nothin' more left ter do now," said Parson Acup, "unless +hit be ter go home an' pray." + +But Alexander shook her head with a vigorous and masculine +determination. + +"No, thar's still one thing more ter do. I want thet when you men goes +home ye send me back a few others--fresh men. I'm goin' back ter see +how my daddy's farin' an' whether he's got a chanst ter live, but----" +she paused abruptly and her voice fell, "thar's a spring-branch over +thar by my house. Ye kin mighty nigh gauge how ther water's risin' or +fallin' hyar by notin' ther way hit comes up or goes down over yon. I +aims ter keep a watchin' hit, whilst I'm over thar." + +The parson nodded his head. "That's a right good idee, Alexander, but +wharfore does ye seek ter hev us send more men over hyar? All thet kin +be done, has been done." + +The girl's eyes snapped. In them were violet fires, quick-leaping and +hot. + +"I hain't gone this fur only ter quit now," she passionately declared. +"Them logs is rafted. Ef they goes out on this flood-tide, I aims ter +ride 'em down-stream 'twell I kin land 'em in a safe boom." + +"But my God Almighty, gal," Parson Acup, wrenched out of his usual +placidity by the effrontery of the project, spoke vehemently. "Any +tide thet would bust thet dam would sartain shore rip them rafts inter +fragments. Ef they goes out a-tall they goes out ter destruction and +splinters an' sure death, I fears me. Hit's like ridin' a runaway hoss +without no bit in his mouth." + +"Thet's a thing I've done afore now," the girl assured him. "An' I +aims ter undertake hit ergin." + +She turned and, taking the rubber coat from a tree crotch, went +striding away with her face toward the pale east and despite fatigue +she went high-headed and with elasticity in her step. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The two-storied house of Aaron McGivins stood on a hill-side +overlooking a stretch of cleared acreage. It was a dwelling place of +unusual pretentiousness for that land of "Do-without," where inexorable +meagerness is the rule of life. Just now in a room whose hearth was +wide, upon a four-poster bed, lay the master of the place gazing +upwards at the rafters with eyes harassed, yet uncomplaining. + +Aaron McGivins had just cause for troubled meditation as he stretched +there under the faded coverlet and under the impending threat of death, +as well. His life had been one of scant ease and of unmitigated +warfare with the hostile forces of Nature. Yet he had built up a +modest competency after a life time of struggle. With a few more years +of industry he might have claimed material victory. In the homely +parlance of his kind he had things "hung-up," which signified such +prosperity had come to him as came to the pioneer woodsmen who faced +the famine times of winter with smoked hams hanging from their nails, +and tobacco and pepper and herbs strung along the ceiling rafters. + +Aaron McGivins had not progressed to this modestly enviable estate +without the driving of shrewd bargains and the taking of bold chances. +It followed that men called him hard, though few men called him other +than just. To his door came disputants who preferred his arbitration +on tangled issues to the dubious chances of litigation, for he was also +accounted wise. + +His repute among his neighbors was that of a man devoted to peace, but +one upon whom it was unsafe to impose. Those few who had stirred his +slow anger into eruption, had found him one as distinctly to be feared +as trusted. + +Had political aspiration been in the pattern of Aaron's thought he +might have gone down to the world below to sit in the state assembly. +From there in due time he might have gained promotion to the augmented +dignities of Congress, but he had persistently waved aside the whispers +of such temptation. "He hain't a wishful feller nohow," the stranger +was always told, "despite thet he knows hist'ry an' sich like lore in +an' out an' back'ards an' forrards." + +Now Aaron lay wounded with a pistol ball, and many problems of vital +interest to himself remained unsolved. Whether he would live or die +was guess work--a gamble. Whether the timber which he had felled would +free him from his last debt and leave his two children independent, or +be ravished from him by the insatiable appetite of the flood was a +question likewise unanswered. Whether or not the daughter, who was the +man of the family after himself, would return in time to comfort his +last moments was a doubt which troubled him most of all. He had sent +her away as unequivocally as a stricken captain sends his first officer +to the bridge, but he wanted her as a man, shipwrecked and starving, +wants the sight of a sail or of a smoke-stack on an empty horizon. + +And his boy--the boy who had given him small strength upon which to +lean, was absent. He had gone idly and thoughtlessly before the +emergency arose, and the man lying on the four-poster bed tried to +argue for him, in extenuation, that he would have returned had he known +the need. But in his bruised and doubting heart he knew that had it +been Alexander, she would have read the warning in the first brook that +she saw creeping into an augmented stream, and would have hastened home. + +About the room moved the self-taught doctor, who was also the local +Evangelist. Two neighbor women were there too, called from adjacent +cabins to take the place of the daughter he had sent away. They were +ignorant women, hollow-chested and wrinkled like witches because they +had spent lives against dun-colored backgrounds, but they were wise in +the matter of "yarbs" and simple nursing. + +All night Aaron McGivins had lain there, restive and unable to sleep. +With him had been those matters which obtrude themselves, with +confusing multiplicity, upon the mind of a man who was yesterday strong +and unthreatened and who to-day faces the requirement of readjusting +all his scheme from the clear and lighted ways of life to the gathering +mists of death. He had seen through a high-placed window the gray of +dawn grow into a clearer light, making visible rag-like streamers of +wet and scudding clouds. He had a glimpse of mountain-sides sodden +with thaw--the thaw to which he owed his whole sum of sudden +perplexities. + +Then the door swung open. + +Eagerly the bed-ridden man turned his eyes towards it; eagerly, too, +the doctor's gaze went that way, but the two women, glancing sidewise, +sniffed dubiously and stiffened a little. To them the anxiously +awaited daughter was an unsexed creature whom they could neither +understand nor approve. They had lived hard and intolerent lives, +accepting drudgery and perennial child-bearing as unquestioned mandates +of destiny. Accustomed to the curt word and to servile obedience they +had no understanding for a woman who asserted herself in positive terms +of personality. To them a "he-woman" who "wore pants" and admitted no +sex inferiority was at best a "hussy without shame." If such a woman +chanced also to be beautiful beyond comparison with her less favored +sisters, the conclusion was inescapable. They could read in her +self-claimed emancipation only the wildness of a filly turned out to +pasture without halter or hobble; the wildness of one who scorns +respectability; for primitive morality is pathetically narrow. It may +sing piously about the pyre of a burning witch, but it can hardly grasp +the pagan chastity of a Diana. + +And it was a Diana both chaste and vital who stood in this wide-flung +door. Behind her far radiant background was the full light of a young +day. For an instant the scowl of storm-laden skies broke into a smile +of sunlight as though she had brought the brightness with her. But she +stood poised in an attitude of arrested action--halted by the curb of +anxiety. The whole vitality and clean vigor of her seemed breathless +and questioning. Fear had spurred her into fleetness as she had +crossed the hills, yet now she hesitated on the threshold. At first +her eyes could make little of the inner murk, where both lamp and fire +had guttered low and gray shadows held dominance. + +But she herself stood illumined by that transitory flash of morning +sun. It played in an aura about the coppery coils of her hair and +kindled into vivid color the lips parted in suspense. + +After a moment her eyes had reaccommodated themselves to the +dispiriting darkness and her bosom heaved to a sigh of relief; of +thanksgiving. Under the heaped coverlets of the bed she had seen the +movement of feeble hand stirred in a gesture of welcome. + +The neighbor women, bent on a mission of charity, yet unable to lay +aside their hard convictions, gazed non-committally on, as though they +would draw aside their skirts from contamination, yet sought to do so +with the least possible measure of ostentation or offense. + +That attitude Alexander did not fail to comprehend but she ignored it, +giving back to the smouldering eyes of disapproval level look for look. +Then she said quietly: "Brother Sanders, kin I hev speech with him--or +must he lay plum quiet?" + +The man of healing passed a bewildered hand across his tousled +forehead, and with thin fingers combed his long beard. + +"He ought, properly speakin', ter stay quiet--but yit--he's frettin' +fer ye so thet hit mought harm him wuss ter deny him." + +"I'll aim ter keep him es placid es I kin," said the girl, and in +obedience to her gesture the others left the room. + +Then Alexander dropped to her knees and her hands closed tightly over +the thin one that the wounded man thrust weakly up to her. Even now +there was no woman-surrender to tears; only wide eyes agonized with +apprehension while her shoulders shook as a man's may shake with inward +sobs that leave the eyes dry. + +In a low voice she made her report. "Ther dam's finished. Without +ther flood overtops ther highest mark on record, them logs is saved." + +Old Aaron nodded gratefully and gazed in silence at the rafters +overhead, realizing that he must conserve his slender strength and that +there was much to say. The girl, too, waited until at length he made a +fresh beginning. + +"Afore ye came, Alexander, me an' yore maw hed done prayed mighty +fervent fer a man child." + +"I knows thet," she interrupted. "I knows hit full well, an' I've +sought deespite how I was borned ter be a man." + +"Ye hain't only tried--ye've done succeeded," he assured her, then +after a long drawn breath he went on. "Most folks 'lowed hit was like +faultin' ther Almighty ter feel thet-a-way. They said hit war plum +rebellious." + +The girl whose cheeks had gone pallid and whose lips were tight drawn +spoke defiantly. "I reckon we hain't keerin' overly much what other +folks thinks." + +"An' yit," the father made slow answer, "what folks agrees ter think +makes ther laws of life whether hit be right or wrong--I'd hev been +willin' ter raise ye up like a gal ef hit hadn't been thet Joe----" + +He faltered there with Love's unwillingness to criticise his son and +the girl only nodded, saying nothing. + +"Joe's a good boy, with a sweet nature," went on the father at last. +"He favors his maw--an' she was always gentle. Yes, he's a good +boy--an' in a country whar a feller kin live without fightin', I reckon +he'd be accounted smart beyond ther commonality." + +Again the mountaineer's face was contorted into a spasm of pain and his +labored breathing demanded a respite of silence. Then slowly he +declared with the unvarnished candor of the backwoods: "Joe's got all a +man needs--but--jest--guts!" + +The kneeling figure reluctantly nodded her assent. These admissions as +to one's nearest and dearest must at times be made between men who face +facts. + +"Ef I passes out, I wants ye ter kinderly look atter him like he ought +ter look atter you." + +A stray lock of heavy hair had fallen across the girl's violet eyes, +and with an impatient gesture at the reminder of her sex, Alexander +tossed it back. "I gives ye my pledge," she said simply. + +Then she rose from her knees and stood looking off through the window +with a fixity that argued a deep dedication of purpose. "An' I pledges +ye somethin' else too," she broke out in a voice suddenly savage. "Ef +ye dies Bud Sellers belongs ter me ter kill--an' I won't nowise fail." + +But at that the wounded man raised a deter rent hand shaken with +palsied anxiety. + +"No--no!" he gasped. "Thet's ther sperit I've done sought ter combat +all my life--ther shot from ther la'rel--ther lay-wayin' of enemies. I +couldn't rest easy ef ye denied me that pledge." + +Alexander's hands clenched themselves, and her lips were compressed. + +"I don't aim ter lay-way him," she declared with an ominous quiet. "I +aims ter reckon with him es man ter man." + +"Alexander." He spoke with slow difficulty but she knew that the words +came earnestly from his heart. "I hain't skeercely got ther strength +ter argyfy with ye, but without ye seeks ter hinder me from layin' +peaceful in my last sleep ye'll bide by my command. Ther boy wasn't +hisself when he harmed me. He war plum crazed. No man loves me better +than what he does when he's in his right mind. No man wucked harder +down thar. I fergives him full free. I wants ye ter act ther same an' +ter make Joe do likewise." + +The girl covered her face with her hands and turned from the bed. She +went for a moment to the door and flung it open. There was no longer +any sunshine--only a dome of leaden heaviness and the wail of dismal +wind through the timber. To the father's eyes, despite her masculine +attire she was all feminine as she stood there and his face grew tender +as he watched the curls stirring at her temples. + +Finally she wheeled and with a military stiffness marched back. Slowly +she nodded her head. "I gives ye thet pledge too;" she said, "since ye +wants hit--but I gives hit with a right heavy sperit." + +He reached up and took her hand, drawing her down to the bed by his +side. + +"Alexander," he said softly, "mebby I hain't played quite fa'r with ye +my own self. I've done tried ter raise ye up like a man because I +could always kinderly lean on ye--but ye've done been both a son an' a +daughter ter me. Maybe though when I'm gone ther woman in ye'll come +uppermost an' ye'll think hardly of me fer what I did." + +"Think hard of ye fer tryin' ter make a man of me!" Her voice was as +full of scornful protest as though a soldier had said, "Think hard of +you because you taught me valor!" + +He smiled before he spoke again. "I've done warned young men off from +co'tin' ye on pain of harm an' death--an' when I'm dead they'll come in +lavish numbers seekin' ter make up fer lost time." + +"I reckon I kin warn 'em off too," she protested, "an' by ther same +means." + +Once more a smile flickered in the wearied eyes that looked up from the +pillow. "Thet's fer ye ter decide yore own self, but ef ther day ever +comes when ye'd ruther welcome a lover then ter drive him off, I don't +want ye ter feel thet my memory's standin' in ther way of your +happiness." + +"Thet day won't never come," she vehemently declared, and her father +nodded indulgently. + +"Let thet matter lay over fer ther future ter decide," he suggested. +"Only ef ye does sometime alter yore way of thinkin' I wants thet men +children shell come atter me, bearin' my own name. Joe's children are +apt ter take atter him. I don't see how ye kin compass hit, but I +wishes thet ef ye ever did wed, yore babies could still be McGivinses." + +Despite her announcement of a masculinity which should not mantle into +a flooding of the temples and cheeks with blushes of modesty, Alexander +turned pink to the roots of her hair. Her voice was a little strained. + +"A feller kain't promise thet he won't go crazy," she declared. "But +ef ever I does go so crazy es ter wed with a man, thet man'll tek my +surname an' our children 'll tek hit too, an' w'ar hit 'twell they +dies." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Brent had wondered how the Parson and his exhausted companions would, +in the short time at their disposal, be able to call out a new force of +volunteers. If the dam gave way and the rafts were swept out the thing +would probably happen by noon and there were few telephones in this +sparsely peopled community. Yet the device was simple and one of +pioneer directness. In many of those households to which the tired +workers returned, there were brothers or sons who had heretofore stayed +at home. Those who had responded to the first call were all men who +were not afraid of toil, but those who might answer the second would be +men who courted the hazards of adventure. Sheer dare-deviltry would +arouse in them a responsiveness which had remained numb to the call of +industry. Down the yellow and turgid path of swollen waters each +spring went huge rafted masses of logs manned by brawny fellows who at +other times never saw the world that lay "down below." Hastily reared +shacks rose on the floating timber islands and bonfires glowed redly. +The crews sang wild songs and strummed ancient tunes on banjo and +"dulcimore." They fortified themselves against the bite of the chill +night air from the jugs which they never forgot. Sometimes they flared +into passion and fought to the death, but oftener they caroused +good-naturedly as they watched the world flatten and the rivers broaden +to the lowlands. After the "tide" took them there was no putting into +harbor, no turning back. They were as much at the mercy of the +onsweeping waters as is a man who clings to driftwood. + +Rafting on the "spring-tide" called out the wilder and more venturesome +element; but even that differed vastly from the present situation. It +differed just as riding a spirited horse does from trusting oneself, +without stirrup leather or bridle rein, to the pell-mell vagaries of a +frenzied runaway. + + +"Ye says Alexander aims ter ride one of them rafts, ef hit gets carried +out o' thar?" inquired a tall young man, whose eyes were reckless and +dissipated, as a wearied kinsman stumbled into a cabin and threw +himself down limply in a chair. + +The tall young man was accounted handsome in a crude, back-country way +and fancied himself the devil of a fellow with the ladies. "Wa'al," he +drawled, "I reckon ef a gal kin undertake hit, I hain't none more +timorous then what she air." And to that frankly spoken sentiment he +added an inward after-word. "Folks 'lows thet she hain't got no time +o' day fer men--but when we ends up this hyar trip, I'll know more +erbout thet fer myself." He turned and began making his rough +preparations for the voyage. + +And as Jase Mallows rose to the bait of that unusual call, so others +like him rose and each of them was a man conspicuous for recklessness +and wildness among a people where these qualities do not elicit comment +until they become extreme. + +An hour or two later Brent, eying the fresh arrivals, frowned a bit +dubiously as he compared them with the human beavers who had moiled +there through the night. It was, he reflected, as though the sheep had +gone and the goats had come in their stead. + +Then as the newcomers fell to their task of throwing up rough shanties +for shelter upon the rafts it seemed to Will Brent as safe a +proposition to embark with them as to be shipwrecked with a crew of +pirates. + +He had himself entertained no intention of boarding any of these three +rafts, but he was not craven, and if a girl was going to trust herself +to those chances of flood and human passion he told himself that he +could do no less than stand by. + +The river was already creeping above the gnarled sycamore roots that +jutted out of the precipice, marking the highest stage of previous +flood tides. + + +The two neighbor women had come back into the room where Aaron McGivins +lay wounded. The man himself, reassured by the presence of his +daughter, had fallen at last into an undisturbed sleep and the doctor +delivered himself of the first encouragement that had crossed his +sternly honest lips. "I reckon now he's got a right even chanst ter +git well ef he kin contrive ter rest a-plenty." + +The girl's head came back, with a spasmodic jerk. It was the sudden +relaxing of nerves that had been held taut to the snapping point. With +a step suddenly grown unsteady she made her way to a chair by the +hearth and sat gazing fixedly at the dying embers. + +She had not let herself hope too much, and now a sudden rush of +repressed tears threatened a flood like the one which had come outdoors +from the broken tightness of the ice. + +But she felt upon her the critical eyes of the neighbor women and +refused to surrender to emotion. After a little period of respite she +let herself out of the door into the rain that had begun falling with a +sobbing fitfulness, and went through the starkness of the woods. + +Back of the house was the "spring-branch" of which she had spoken as a +gauge to the stage of the flood. By some freakish law of +co-ordination, which no one had ever been able to explain, that small +stream gave a reading of conditions across the ridge, as a pulse-beat +gives the tempo of the blood's current. One could look at it and +estimate with fair accuracy how fast and how high the river was rising. +When a rotting stump beside the basin of the spring had water around +its roots it meant that the arteries of the hills were booming into +torrential fury. When the basin overflowed, the previous maximum of +the river's rise had been equaled. It was overflowing now. + +Alexander stood for a moment gazing with widened and terrified eyes. +She had now no time to lose. The lapping waters of a tiny brook were +calling her to prompt and hazardous action. She fell to her knees and +clasped her hands in a clutch of desperation. "God, give me strength +right now ter ack like a man," she prayed. "Hit seems like ther fust +time I'm called on, I'm turnin' plum woman-weak." + +Then she rose and pressed her pounding temples. It was not the fear of +a runaway river that held her in a tormenting suspense of indecision, +but the hard choice between leaving her father or fulfilling a duty to +which he had assigned her in his stead. + +When she opened the door of the house again she saw an agitated figure +kneeling beside the bed. For all its breadth of shoulder and six feet +of height; for all its inherited stoicism that had stood through +generations, it was shaking with sobs. + +As Alexander came into the room her brother rose from his knees with +pallid cheeks and woebegone eyes. + +"Who shot him?" he demanded in a tense voice. "These hyar folks won't +tell me nuthin'." + +The girl repressed an impulse of satirical laughter. She knew that Joe +McGivins would storm and swear vengeance upon the hand that had been +raised to strike his father down and that beyond hysterical vehemence +his indignation would come to nothing. He would believe himself +sincere and in the end his resolution would waste away into +procrastination and specious excuses. + +"Whoever shot him, Joe," she replied, maintaining the complimentary +fiction that she must temporize with his just wrath, "Paw he's done +exacted a pledge thet neither of us won't seek ter avenge ther deed. +Hit's a pledge thet binds us both." + +Even while his temples were still hot with his first wave of passionate +indignation, Joe McGivins felt that a bitter cup had passed from him. + +"Joe," said the girl in a low voice, "I wants thet ye heeds me clost. +Ef we fails ter save this timber hit'll jest erbout kill Paw. Ef ther +dam busts loose, somebody's got ter ride them rafts." + +The boy's face paled abruptly. He was a handsome youth, outwardly cut +to as fine a pattern of physical fitness as his sister exemplified, but +in his eyes one found none of her dauntlessness of spirit. Hurriedly +Alexander swept on. + +"I aims ter go back over thar right now. He's got ter be kept quiet +an' so I dastn't tell him what I seeks ter do. I hain't fearsome of +leavin' ye ter watch after him. I knows ye kin gentle him an' comfort +him even better'n I could do hit myself." + +She thrust out her hand, boy fashion, and her brother clasped it. Five +minutes later she stood looking down on her father's closed eyes, +listening to the easy breathing of the man in the bed. + +On the floor at her feet lay the pack which she meant to take with her, +a rifle leaned against a chair and a pistol was slung in a holster +under her left arm-pit--Alexander was accountred for her venture. + + +Brent watched her swinging down the slope with an easy, space-devouring +stride. He had begun to think she would be too late; more than half to +hope she would be too late. If she arrived on time there was, of +course, no turning back. It should be recorded to his credit that no +man had guessed at his inner trepidation. But the sullen swell of the +thundering waters had beaten not only on his ears but on his heart as +well--and dread had settled over him like a pall. + +Immeasurable power was lashing itself into a merciless fury. Boundless +might was loosening into frenzy. He had seen the misshapen wreckage of +houses and barns ride by, bobbing like bits of cork. He had seen the +swirl of foam that was like the froth of a vast hydrophobia. + +The men who had volunteered stood braced and ready at the long sweeps +with which, fore and aft, they would seek to hold the course. + +Alexander leaped from the shore to the last of the three rafts, and +looked about her. Perhaps she had no eye just now for a thing that +Brent had noted as significant; the gleam in the eyes that bent upon +her arrival. + +"Does ye aim ter ride with us, Mr. Brent?" she inquired and when he +nodded his assent she said deliberately: "Ye comes from ther city--an' +this hyar's liable ter be a rough trip. I reckon I ought ter warn ye +whilst thar's still time ter turn back. We've got ter go out on a +whirl-pool betwixt them walls of rock an' thar may not be nothin' left +but kindlin' wood." + +"Thank you," was the somewhat curt response. "I'm taking no greater +chances than the rest of you." + +No longer was it possible to hope that the dam would hold against the +rising crescendo of that battering from beyond and the insidious +tongues that licked at its foundations. + +It was now only a matter of time, and the hour which followed was a +period of dire suspense. Through small breaks already gushed minor +cataracts--all growing. No man offered to turn aside but some had +recourse to the steadying influence of the pocket flask. Between the +gorge's sides they had swift glimpses of racing flotsam that had +yesterday been dwelling houses and they waited, nerve-stretched, for +the crash that would launch them into the same precarious channel. +Their out-going would be as violent and eruptive as that of lava from a +crater. + +Then the dam broke. + +It gave way with a rending such as must have been sounded in the days +when a molten globe was cooling. From the base of the dam sucking +tongues had licked out boulders that upheld the formation as a keystone +holds an arch. It went into collapse with an explosive splintering and +left fang-like reefs still standing. Through the breach fell the +ponderous weight of a river left unsupported. + +First, the inrush flung the rafts backwards against the banks, and then +the churning whirlpool which was developed sent them spinning madly +outward. The rafts jammed together and trembled with a groaning +shudder. They wavered and undulated like cloth and that nearest the +gorge lunged outward, dashed against one wall of precipice, caromed off +and ground against the other. About the edges, it had gone to +splinters but the core still held. The second raft, by some miracle, +rode through without collision to ride tilting about the curve into the +channel proper. Brent saw, through dazed and uncertain eyes, figures +bending to long poles. He felt such a sickening sensation as a man in +a barrel may experience at the moment of going over the crest of +Niagra. Through it all he felt rather than saw the figure of a girl in +man's clothing standing at the center of the raft, poised with bent +knees against shock; and with a Valkyrie fire in her eyes. + +A half hour later the man from town drew a freer breath. It was still +a wild enough ride, but after the lurching dash out of the cauldron, it +seemed a peaceful voyage. Now down the center of the river they swept +at tide-speed. At either end of each raft men bent to the sweeps in +the task of their crude piloting. Tree tops brushed under them as they +went and far out on either side were wide-reaching lagoons that had +been high ground three days ago. + +Alexander herself was standing a little apart and Brent was of a mind +to draw her into conversation but as he approached her he decided that +this was not the time to improve acquaintanceship. Her air of +detachment amounted to aloofness and Brent remembered that she had, +weighing upon her, the anxiety of her father's condition. + +Jase Mallows, however, just then relieved from duty at the steering +sweep, was less subtle of deduction. With his eye on Alexander, whose +back was turned to him, he jauntily straightened his shoulders and gave +his long mustache a twirl. Brent thought of the turkey-gobbler's strut +as, with amused eyes, he watched the backwoods lady-killer. Jase had +heard many of the old wives' tales of Alexander and thought of her as +one, ambitious of amorous conquest, may think of a famous and much +discussed beauty. Had she been another woman, Jase would before now +have gone over to the house on a "sparking" expedition, but Old Man +McGivins had discouraged such aspirations--and his daughter had been no +less definite of attitude. Here, however, he had the girl on neutral +ground and meant to seize his opportunity. + +So he strolled over to her with an ingratiating smile. + +"Aleck," he began in the drawling voice which he himself rather +fancied, "we hed a right norrer squeak of hit back thar didn't we?" + +There should have been discouragement in the coolness of the glance +that she turned upon him, but Jase had the blessing of self-confidence. + +"Ye war thar yerself--ye ought ter know," said Alexander curtly. Then +she added, "An' don't call me Aleck--my name's Alexander." + +Jase Mallows reddened to his temples. There had been moments, even in +the straining activity of these hours, for him to boast to his fellows +that it would be interesting to watch the progress of his campaign for +the affections of Alexander. Now they were watching. + +So Jase laughed awkwardly. "Wa'al, thet's reasonable enough," he +handsomely conceded. "A gal's got a rather es ter what name she's ter +be called by an' ef she's es purty es you be she kin afford ter be +high-headed too." + +Alexander stood looking the man over from head to foot as though +studying a new species--possibly a species of insect-life. Under that +embarrassing scrutiny Jase fidgeted his hands. Eventually he drew out +a flask and having uncorked it he ceremoniously wiped the bottle's +mouth with the palm of his hand. "Let's take a leetle dram ter better +acquaintances," he suggested. "Thet thar's licker I wouldn't offer ter +nobody but a reg'lar man. Hit's got a kick like a bob-tailed mule." + +With features that had not altered their expression, the girl reached +out her hand and accepted the bottle. + +She held the thing before her, looking at it for a moment, then with a +swift gesture tossed it sidewise into the river. + +Jase Mallows bent forward and his face flamed, but his anger seemed a +tame and little thing to the wrath that leaped from calm to blazing +eruption in the woman's eyes. + +"Whilst we're aboard this hyar raft," Alexander announced with an +utterance that cut like a zero wind, "I'm boss an' I aims fer men ter +stay sober. Ef thet don't suit you--go ashore." + +"How?" inquired Jase with a heavy irony and Alexander replied shortly, +"Thet's yore business." + +She turned on her heel and walked away leaving the discomfited Lothario +staring after her with so malign an anger that the men within ear-shot +stifled their twitters of amusement and pretended to have overheard +nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +As Alexander passed him, Brent did not miss the suppressed fury in her +eyes or the disdainful tilt of her chin. Her bearing was that of a +barbaric princess, and a princess of meteorically vivid beauty. There +had been a deliberate purpose in the clear carrying tones with which +she had repulsed Jase Mallows. He had been the first man to make +advances, because he was the boldest, but for all her guise of +unconsciousness she had seen the passion smoulder in the eyes about her +and later others might become emboldened unless they were discouraged +by a clear precedent. Heretofore her father's stern repute had +safeguarded her. Now she was dependent upon herself alone. + +Down the yellow river swept the two uninjured rafts and the one that +carried a fringe of raggedness. For the most part the men were busy +with sweep and pike-pole fending off the cumbering drift and clearing +the whirlpools where hidden reefs threatened destruction. There were +sharp turns and angles too, where the yellow water roared into fretful +and vehement menace. With night-fall the heights seemed to draw in and +huddle close and the dirge of flood and wind mounted into a heavier +timbre. + +Fires leaped into fitful radiance. Banjos and "dulcimores" came out of +hiding and sounded plaintively over the waste of waters. Scraps of +almost mediaeval life showed out in thumb-nail sketches between the +sooty shadow world and the red flare of the bonfires. Voices were +lifted into weird minors and lugubrious tunes, recitative, of sad love +themes--and these were, of course, addressed to Alexander. She joined +no group, but sat with her hands clasped about her updrawn knees and +her gaze ranging off into distance. The carmine and orange +illumination played upon her color of cheek and hair and eyes and when, +unconsciously her face fell into a reflective quiet and her lips +drooped with a touch of wistfulness, the allurement of her beauty was +arresting and undeniable. Brent fell to wondering what life could hold +for her. + +The time must come, he thought, when a beauty like that in a land of +plain and drudgery-enslaved women, must bring for her something like a +crisis. She was twenty-one and unawakened, but that the men about her +should long allow her to remain so was as unlikely as that a +pirate-crew would leave treasure unfought for. A rising tide of human +passion about her seemed as inevitable as this actual flood had +been--and perhaps as swift of coming. + +But if the amorous selections of that crude minstrelsy made any +impression upon her, she gave no indication. Before the songs ended +she withdrew to the rude shelter that had been fashioned for her and +wrapped herself in her blanket. But the pistol holster lay close to +her hand. When she rose at day-break they had turned out of the stream +upon which they had embarked into the broader river that it fed and +about them floated a wavering mass of ice from broken gorges above. + +Brent shivered and dabbed grudgingly with cold water at the face upon +which a stubble of beard had begun to bristle. But the girl carried an +icy bucket into her shack and reinforced its forward wall with blanket +and rubber coat, not as a protection against the knife-edged sharpness +of the air but against prying eyes. Then she bathed unhurriedly and +fastidiously. + +When she emerged the bloom of her cheeks and the luster of her thick +hair would have been the envy of a boudoir where beauty-doctors have +done their utmost. And that day too, save for the smouldering eyes of +the discomfited Jase Mallows, the wolf-like pack treated her with a +cautious deference of bearing. + +When at the end of two days the water was dropping as rapidly as it had +risen, Alexander announced, "I reckon we've got a right gay chanst now +ter put in at ther Coal City boom, hain't we?" And several heads +nodded assent. Brent noticed that Jase Mallows' face wore a smile +which did not altogether escape malignity, and at the first opportunity +he inquired: "What were you smiling about, Mr. Mallows, when they spoke +of Coal City?" + +The backwoods dandy scowled and gave back the churl's response, "Thet's +my business." + +"Certainly," Brent acceded coolly. "You don't have to answer me. I +didn't suppose it was a matter you were ashamed to talk about." + +Mallows bent with a truculent narrowing of his lids and an outthrust +chin, but observing that the city man was in no wise cowed by his +scowls he amended his attitude. Two days before Brent would have been +more cautious of offending this man, whose exploits had run, sometimes, +to violence, but a subtle transformation had begun in him. A new +disdain for personal risks had caught fire from that flaming quality in +the woman. + +"Hev ye ever seed Coal City?" inquired Mallows, and when the other +shook his head, he continued in a lowered voice. "Wa'al hit's a right +rough sort of place. Hit's a coal minin' town with only one +tavern--an' things goes forward thar right sensibly similar ter hell on +a hot night. With ther flood holdin' up ther mines hit's apt ter +kinderly out-do hitself jest now." He paused a moment then capped his +prediction with an added detail. + +"Thar'll be plentiful drunkenness an' harlotry thar. Alexander +couldn't speak civil ter me, but I war jest a studyin' erbout how well +she's goin' ter like Coal City." + + +When the rafts were safe in the boom. Brent looked about for Mallows, +but Mallows was already gone. Alexander herself was among the last to +start along the ill-lighted and twisting street that climbed along, the +broken levels of the town toward the tavern. It was, at best, a +squalid village and a tawdry one. Now it was to boot a wholly +demoralized town, cut off from the other world by inundated highways +and the washing out of its railroad bridge. The kerosene street lamps +burned dully and at long intervals and high up the black slopes a few +coke furnaces still burned in red patches of inflamed and sullen glare. + +Brent had dropped out of sight, meaning to follow the girl as an +unofficial body guard. Knowing her impatience at gratuitous services +of protection he made no announcement of his purpose, but fell in +behind the light of the lantern she carried and followed her in the +shadows. When he had gone only a little way, he had the vague feeling +that someone else was following him so he halted and wheeled suddenly. +After peering vainly through the murk, he told himself that he was +letting his imagination play him tricks but the disquieting impression +of soft footsteps padding along behind him he could not dispel. + +Before they had readied the main street and the disreputable pile which +was the tavern, sounds of lewd and raucous voices floated out--a chorus +of profane and blatant roistering. + +The houses along the way presented faces utterly blank and devoid of +life. Brent would have wondered at that, had he not had his brief talk +with Mallows. Now he understood. Respectable folks had withdrawn to +shelter behind barred doors and tightly shuttered windows until such +time as the unleashed element of outlawry should evacuate the town. +The law-abiding were, in effect, undergoing a siege and avoiding the +ill-lighted streets. + +But the light at the court-house square was relatively bright and as +Brent crossed in front of the squat and shadowy bulk of the old +jail-house--empty now, though it should have been full--he made out a +figure hastening about him in a circuitous fashion at a dog trot as +though bent on arriving at the hostelry first. That, then, must have +been the presence he had felt at his back, and a fresh alarm assailed +him. It was the figure of Bud Sellers. + +When at last Alexander had gone up the several steps that led to the +closed door of the tavern, and stood for a moment, evidently hesitating +with disgust for the babel within, Brent drew back into a convenient +shadow and looked anxiously about for the other figure. It had +disappeared. + + +That hostelry was the property of one D. W. Kelly, a huge and unclean +lout of a man and the establishment was as wholesome a place as a bear +pit, and no more so. + +It was not with complacency that the landlord saw his house given over +to the destructive caprices of a drunken and uncontrollable mob. He +had no means of freeing himself of his guests. When his slatternly +wife had complained: "Them miners an' loggers jest louzes up a body's +house," he had wagged his head dejectedly and spread his great +black-nailed hands. "If that's ther wu'st thing they does hit'll be a +plum God's blessin'," he replied. "Ther law p'intedly fo'ces a +tavern-keeper ter sleep an' eat man an' beast--ef so be they kin pay." + +Now the motley crew was in unchallenged possession--and would remain in +possession until the river went down and fords were once more passable. +That a reign of terror would prevail so long as they tarried in town, +in no wise dampened their own exuberance of spirit. + +Two or three traveling salesmen had been marooned here, but since the +beginning of this saturnalia they had not been in evidence beyond the +thresholds of their own rooms. + +There was no bar at D. W. Kelly's tavern and none was needed, since +every man was duly and individually provisioned and since even in these +flood times a dollar left unwatched on a certain stump up the mountain +side would cause a jug to appear mysteriously in its place. + +But since there was no bar, the great room whose door opened directly +upon the porch had been commandeered as a wassailing hall. Here the +entering guest must run the gantlet of the rollicking horde before he +could attain the more peaceful harbor of his own quarters. + +About a red hot stove hung a crew of as dirty and disorderly men as +ever came out of coal mine or lumber camp. Those who remained sober +remained also somewhat aloof against the walls and kept their mouths +shut. From the ceiling downward hung the thick, stale cloud of smoke +from many strong pipes and the rancid poison of air discharged from +many lungs had become a stench in the nostrils. Occasional figures +walked with an unsteady lurch, while through the whole chaotic +pandemonium others slept heavily in their chairs--or even on the floor. + +But just before Alexander reached the porch and hesitated on the +threshold Jase Mallows had been there. Now he was gone but he had +first imparted the information that the "'he-woman' from ther head of +Shoulderblade branch" was coming hither. So it was likely that she +would have a noisy welcome. On the outskirts of the crowd sat a giant +who seemed a shade rougher of guise than those about him. When he +stood, this man topped six feet by as many inches. His shoulders had +such a spread that one thought of them as of an eagle's wings--from tip +to tip. His face, now bristling with dark stubble, was none the less +clear-chiseled and arrestingly featured. At first sight a stranger +would be apt to exclaim, "What a magnificent figure of a man he would +make, if he were only clean-shaven and well dressed." This fellow was +not drinking but looking on from a table at which no one ventured to +challenge his sole occupancy or his evident preference for his own +society. + +A somewhat amused and indulgent gleam dwelt in his eye, tinged, it is +true, with a certain unveiled contempt--but it was not the disgust that +might have been expected in a sober man looking on at such a +loathsomeness of debauchery. + +There were women present too,--coarse and vicious creatures who lacked +even the sort of tawdry finery that their sisters in western mining +camps affect. There was here no shimmer of even the slaziest satin. +In dress as in character they were drab. + +So was the stage set when the door opened and Alexander stepped in, +dropping her pack to the floor and standing speechless for a moment or +two as her amazed eyes took in the composition of the picture. +Alexander had never seen such a spectacle before, and as she looked +about for someone who appeared to have authority here, her fine eyes +and lips fell into an unmasked scorn. + +She had not closed the door and through it, close on her heels, slipped +Brent. For, a little space the confusion took no account of her coming +but the city man was standing directly behind her and he saw the +pliancy of her attitude stiffen and then across her shoulder he +recognized in a rear door the tense figure of Bud Sellers. + +Sellers stood looking through a lane which chance had left open and +Brent thought that his posture was the electrically expectant one of a +man poised for instant action. He remembered that when Bud went on a +spree he was known as the "mad dog." + +That same insanity which had attacked the father might now even forget +that the daughter's assumption of being a man was only a pretense. He +might act as though she were a man bent on avenging a mortal injury. +There was no leisure then to speculate on how Bud had gotten here--that +he was here with his gaze fixed in that galvanized fashion on the girl +was a sufficient cause for apprehension. + +Then the eyes of the many began following the eyes of the few, until a +brief lull settled down on the dissonance, and everyone was staring at +the girl who stood inside the door, dressed as a man, but holding their +gaze with the lodestone of her womanly beauty. + +A hoarse shout went up from the rear. "A gal in pants! Hit's ther +he-woman!" + +"I wants ter see ther tavern-keeper. Whar's he at?" demanded Alexander +in a clear voice that went through the place like the note of a +xylophone. She stood out, a picture of serene beauty drawn against an +infernally evil and confused background. + +Two of the wretched women came forward and bent upon her the full +battery of their brazen and leering curiosity. + +"Pants!" exclaimed one of them satirically. + +"Ther wench hain't got no shame!" The second used an even uglier word. + +But Alexander ignored that criticism. + +"Whar's ther landlord at?" she repeated and a chorus of laughter ensued. + +Then a bewhiskered fellow, red-eyed and dirty, to whom Jase Mallows had +previously spoken, came to the front with a burlesqued attempt at a low +bow. + +"Don't heed these hyar fool women, sweetheart," he said. "They hain't +nothin' but low-down trash nohow-- They're jealous, but thar's some +right upstandin' men-folks hyar fer ye ter keep company with. I reckon +fust off ye needs a leetle dram--hits's right chilly outside." + +As he proffered a flask, Brent caught the glitter of his eye, and knew +that this time it would not be easy to decline. The crowd was drifting +forward, and through the closing lane of humanity, Bud Sellers glided +rapidly to a place near its front. His hand was inside his coat +now--where the holster lay. + +"A leetle dram won't do ye no harm," insisted the man of the blood-shot +eyes and then as he caught the quiet contempt on the girl's face, his +manner changed to truculent bullying. "Folks says ye wants ter be +treated ther same as a man--an' any man thet holds I hain't good enough +ter drink with--thet man's my enemy." + +Brent hesitated to draw his weapon lest in such a situation it should +provoke a holocaust. Yet he felt that in a moment he might need it. +Then as he stood, still uncertain, he saw the giant who had until now +looked on with detached emotionlessness come elbowing his way through +the press, much as an elephant goes through small timber, uprooting +obstacles and tossing them aside as he moves. + +But Alexander had gone dead white with the pallor of outraged wrath. +Her lips had tightened and her eyes taken on a quality like the blue +flame which is the hottest fire that burns. + +Then suddenly she moved with a swiftness that was electric and stood, +before her purpose could be guessed, with a heavy-calibered revolver +outthrust into the face of the man whose pistol hand had held the +whiskey bottle. The flask crashed into splinters from an abruptly +relaxed grip. + +"I don't drink--without hit pleasures me ter drink," said the girl with +an inflexible coldness and levelness of voice, yet one no more +unfalteringly firm than the hand which held the gun. "Hit won't never +pleasure me ter drink with a man I wouldn't wipe my feet on. Ye hain't +a man nohow--ye're jest a pole-cat." + +The bearded jaw dropped in amazement, and a sense of the nearness of +death intruded itself upon Lute Brown's thoughts. Still since even +such a situation called for a retort he essayed one in a falter that +travestied the boldness of his words. + +"When a man names me thet name--I wants him ter come _towards_ me. Of +course ye hain't no man though." + +"I'm man enough ter take yore measure," she flung back at him, "an' I'm +comin' towards ye right now. Ef yore hands ain't high when I git's +thar, I aims ter kill ye." + +She moved forward and the bully gave grudgingly back, but at that +instant the gigantic on-looker casually laid hand upon him by one +shoulder and flung him sidewise as casually as a terrier tosses a rat. +His manner was precisely that of a man who removes a chair which +obstructs his path. + +"Stranger," said the titanic fellow in a pleasantly drawling +intonation, "I think I heered ye say ye wanted ther landlord. Ef ye'll +come with me I'll find him fer ye. A decent feller wouldn't hardly +relish this company nohow." + +There had been in his form of address no masculine patronage proffering +rescue to the beset feminine, and looking up into a face which was +smiling with an engaging radiance of white teeth, Alexander nodded and +said only, "I'd be right obleeged ter ye." + +Through a path that opened itself in silence for them, they went out of +a back door, but when they had gone, Brent saw in astonishment that Bud +Sellers was crouching with defiant eyes over Lute Brown as he slowly +regained his feet. + +"Hev ye done hed enough?" demanded Bud in a voice of deadly calm and +absolute sobriety. "Because ef ye hain't, I'm hyar ter finish hit up +with ye." + +"Air ye one of her beaus, too?" came the surly question and Bud +answered deliberately. "She don't tolerate no sweet-heartin', but +whilst I was crazed with licker I hurt her paw--an' I reckon I owes her +somethin'." + +When the giant had returned he went nonchalantly back to his table as +though nothing had occurred, but Brent followed and joined him there. + +"How did you come to be here, Halloway?" asked the city man in a +guarded and incredulous voice. + +The tall man looked about him and then, since the drone of voices was +again gathering volume he replied: "Oh, ye're right liable ter meet up +with a driftin' lumberjack anywhar's at all." + +After filling a disreputable pipe with tobacco crumbs he leaned a +little forward, then in lowered tones, from which every trace of +mountain dialect had abruptly departed he said: + +"By gad, Brent, an episode that gives a man a new sensation--a new +thrill, in a world of threadbare ones--is worth a king's ranson. I've +seen the beauties of Occident and Orient but until now----" + +A figure drifted near enough to overhear, and rising slowly Halloway +finish up: + +"Wa'al, stranger, hit's mighty nigh my bed time. I reckon I'll santer +up ter my room and lay down. I hopes ye git's took keer of yourself, +but ef ye don't ye're right welcome ter bunk in with me." + +"I'll go with you now," declared the timber buyer. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +In a squalid room above stairs, Halloway sat, coatless, with his +flannel shirt open on a throat that rose from the swell of his chest as +a tower rises from a hill. His hair was rumpled; his whole aspect +disheveled; but when he grinned there was the flash of strong teeth as +white as a hound's and as even as a professional beauty's. + +"Now tell me," he demanded with prompt interest, "who is this barbaric +and regal creature in whose train I find you? Do you assert any claim +of copyright--or prior discovery, or is it a clear field and no favor?" + +When Brent answered, it was with challenging decisiveness. "A clear +field, yes--but certainly no favor for either of us. She is primitive +enough to hold fast to a wholesome code. I wouldn't advise any +philandering." + +Halloway bent his head backward and gazed meditatively at the cloud of +smoke which he sent ceiling-ward. + +"So the faithful and chivalrous friend is giving me the benefit of his +experience touching the stern virtue of an almost Druid life," he +commented. "Yet I know these people as few outsiders do." + +"Nevertheless, you _are_ an outsider, Jack. When we last sat +quarreling in your rooms, your windows gave off over the rhododendron +of Central Park--and the bronze horseman in the Plaza. Here the +rhododendron has other uses than the decorative. She could be only a +reckless adventure in your life--and in all likelihood, a fatal one." + +With quiet amusement in the eyes that still gazed upward, Halloway +received this gratuitous counsel. + +"I begin to think that, as an adventure, she'd be worth fatality," he +said. + +With the license of old acquaintance, Brent went on with his berating. + +"I happen to know you in real life as well as in masquerade. Whether +your whim calls for this fantastic and shaggy disguise or for the +impeccability of evening dress, you are still only a handsome beast of +prey. You are so incorrigible and so devoid of conventional morality +that, in being fond of you, I wonder at myself." + +"Conventional morality be damned! I repudiate it utterly," declared +the giant calmly. "But tell me about this girl." + +"I never saw her until a few days back," Brent enlightened his +inquisitor. "Her beauty and her dauntlessness have laid a sort of +spell on me and I'm a fairly conservative man. You are not--you're a +plunger--a gambler in emotions. That's why I'm hanging out a warning +signal." + +The big man laughed with the full-chested mirth of a Viking. + +"Why, my dear fellow, you would like me less if I were changed from +what you call the beast of prey to such a house-dog as are most of your +acquaintances. I refresh you in a life of drab monotony, because of my +outspoken repudiation of things that life's copy-cats accept without +thought or demurrer. I interest you because, though I am educated and +disreputably rich, I remain at heart a savage--because I like to break +away from the tawdry glitter of social pretense and run baying joyously +at the head of the wild pack. And, in fairness, you must admit that +when I revert to feral instincts I don't have to ask odds as an +amateur." + +The great fellow came abruptly to his feet, not with the ponderousness +of most giants, but with a panther-like agility and smoothness. + +"I am idle--yes--so far as it is idle for a man to refuse to go on +despoiling weaker men for gain--but why not? I can spend a fortune +every year for a long life-span, and still leave loot a-plenty behind +my taking off. Yet, my idling is not mere slothfulness. I know the +Orient, not as the ordinary white man knows it, but as one who has +become a brother to the yellow and brown. I know these hills. No man +in this town to-night, save yourself, suspects that I am not native--or +even that I have ever participated in any other life." + +"All of which I admit. The wolf may be more interesting than the +collie--but for the sheepfold the collie is safer. I'm thinking of +Alexander." + +Halloway reflectively knocked the nub of ash from his pipe, and went on +more slowly. "Civilization stifles me," he said seriously. "But when +I turn my back on its dusty theologues and dogmatists, I still hold +tight to the poets. To me feeling means much, but cold thought is like +a fireless hearth." + +The speaker was standing before the frame of the dark window. The wild +capriciousness of the weather had brought rain and flashes of untimely +lightning flared now and again into momentary whiteness. Brent looked +at the mighty proportion of his companion and thought of the girl who +slept in another tawdry room opening on the same narrow hallway. Each +of them was unusual; each of them insurgent; each without fear. If +their two natures should strike the spark of attraction, he trembled to +think of what a conflagration might blaze from the kindling. + +"I'm not discussing theories," he said a bit shortly. "I'm talking +about a mountain girl whom I take it you would never marry--and if +not----" He spread his hands and left the sentence unfinished. + +"And if not?" Halloway caught him up. "What has marriage necessarily +to do with love? There is more honesty and stimulation in the +life-story of any _grande amoureuse_ than a dozen of your stodgy fraus." + +"I'm going to bed," declared Will Brent. "But--leave Alexander alone. +I don't think she'd see eye to eye with you on the subject of the +_grande amoureuse_." + +"That only foreshadows a duel of wills--conflict--drama." + +Halloway paused and laughed, and after that he went on with eyes that +glowed admiringly. + +"I dare say she never heard of an Amazon--and she's a splendid one. +She dares to live a man's life in a country where other women tamely +accept thraldom! Perhaps it is a great adventure. I have seen a +meteor and I shall stay." + +"Of course you know," Brent reminded him evenly, "the first hint that +you are a millionaire masquerading as a native will engulf you in local +suspicion." + +"I don't mean that they shall learn that." Suddenly Halloway's head +bent forward a little and his brows contracted. "They _can't_ learn it +except through you." + +"Precisely," said the smaller man, with dry brevity. If the short +answer brought a cloud to Halloway's face it was one that cleared +immediately into laughter. + +"We haven't reached that bridge yet," he announced, "and we needn't +open up a Brent-Halloway feud until we get there." + +There was a moment's pause, after which the big fellow continued. + +"Since seeing the helpless maid, whom you seek to protect, holding back +that bunch of desperadoes, it occurs to me that she can give a fairly +good account of herself. Gad, it was epic!" + +"Then why did you intervene?" + +Halloway slowly turned his head and lifted his brows in frank amazement. + +"Do you seriously ask? Did you suppose it was because I feared for +her? Why, man, the blue flame in her eyes would have licked that crew +without the aid of the gun. I intervened because when opportunity +knocks, I open. I had enough dramatic sense to recognise my cue for a +telling entrance; and I entered." + +"Jack," inquired Brent, "how did you ever happen to know this remote +life well enough to pass as a native?" + +"Born here," was the laconic reply. But the other pressed him for +fuller detail and he proceeded cheerfully. "The Halloway millions +didn't come to us on a tray borne by angels. My father made his pile, +and much of it he made in coal and iron--here and there in the +Appalachians. He trained me up in that business. Why, I even worked +during school vacations as a telegraph operator in the office of the +local railroad station." He smiled again as he added, "Add that item +to my versatile summary. I'm as good a key tickler as you would be apt +to find in a day's journey." + +"At all events you are a surprising reprobate," admitted the lumberman +with a yawn. "Someday, though, I'll challenge you to a sending and +receiving tourney. I began in a broker's office, and I'm fairly good +myself." + +But after Halloway had thrown himself down on his bed and his regular +breathing attested his sound sleep, Brent slipped noiselessly out into +the corridor. Halloway might feel certain of the girl's ability to +fend for herself but with this crowd here to-night, running its wild +gamut of dissipation, the less primitive man thought it as well to keep +an eye on her safety. + +Down the hall, dimly lighted by a single smoking lamp, he saw a figure +which had been standing before Alexander's door, draw furtively back +around the angle of a wall. From below stairs still came the din of +wassailing. + +Yet instead of alarm, a smile came to Brent's eyes, for he had +recognized Bud Sellers and he no longer distrusted the boy's purposes. + +In Alexander's room the lamp had long been blown out but to the eyes of +the girl sleep did not come at once. She gazed at the window where +occasional flashes of lightning woke and died. She was wondering what +had happened back there at the house where her father lay wounded. Of +Bud Sellers she thought only as of a man she had promised not to kill, +though against him, as an instrumentality of her grief, resentment +burned hot. She could not guess that he stood at that moment in the +hallway, guarding her door and nursing in his contrite heart an +unexpressed and hopeless worship of her. + +For Bud, save when the liquor conquered him, was a kindly soul; even +lovable as a faithful dog might be, though of that canine virtue people +thought less than of his occasional rabies. + +He had talked with Alexander--always impersonally--a scant half dozen +times in his life--but since boyhood he had dreamed of her as a peasant +may dream of exalted nobility--and his life had never known any other +dream. + +But if Alexander thought of Bud only as the author of her present +anxiety, her thoughts strayed before she fell asleep, to another man. + +The face and figure of that Colossus who had swung men right and left, +rose before her and her worship of masculine strength and courage paid +smiling tribute. + +"I reckon he don't never hev ter use more'n half ther strength he's got +in them arms an' shoulders of his'n," she told herself. It did not +enter troublesomely into her reflections that she had marked also the +infectious quality of his smile and the clear brightness of his eye +with an interest that was purely feminine. + +As her lids finally grew heavy she murmured to herself: "Ef I was like +other gals I reckon I'd git sort of crazy erbout thet big feller. He's +like a pine tree standin' up amongst saplin's--but I don't reckon a +body could hardly ever git him clean, even ef they soaked him in hot +suds fer a week of Sundays." + +With that reflection--also fastidiously feminine--she turned on her +side and slept. + +It was into a room below that Lute Johnson stumbled long after midnight +on most unsteady legs. Lute was not satisfied with his evening. He +had been actuated in his attempted hazing of Alexander by Jase Mallows, +who thought her pride should be humbled, yet sought to accomplish that +end vicariously in order that the doors of future conquest might not be +closed against himself. Lute's undertaking had not been a success and +he sought his bed, sodden and bloodshot of eye. He was nursing grudges +of varying degrees against Jase Mallows, Alexander, Halloway and +finally against Bud Sellers. + +He kicked off his brogans and as he leaned to blow out the light, he +stumbled, sprawling headlong and carrying the lamp down with him. For +a moment he lay where he had fallen, too dazed and befuddled to rise, +but presently he clambered up, his eyes wide and terrified, for his +rising was Phoenix-like--mantled in flame. With incredible swiftness +the flimsy coverings of his bed had burst into a crimson glare and even +his clothing was afire. + +Beating out the flame that licked his shirt, he abandoned the rest and +fled, howling like a madman. The thing which D. W. Kelly had feared +had come to pass and the frame building was doomed to its gutting. + +So frequently of late had ungodly bellowings and outcries broken the +fitful rest of this house, that for a brief space, Lute's howls of +alarm failed to carry their true significance. Some guests, startled +out of their sleep, had the impulse rather to keep their doors tight +shut than to open them, and through the tinder-like dryness of the +place the flames roared up the boxed-in stairway as through a flue. + +Bud Sellers heard the yells of the fugitive Lute, and before he had +time to investigate, saw the stairhead vomiting smoke and fire. As he +dashed for Alexander's room, another door opened through which Halloway +and Brent ran out, carrying their shoes and coats. + +"Let me in," shouted Bud, hammering on the panels. "Ther house is +burnin' down an' ther steps is cut off." + +At first there was no response, but at last the door swung in. It +framed Alexander, clothed in shirt and trousers--but barefooted, and +holding a pistol in her hand. + +At the sight of Bud Sellers her face grew pallid. + +"You!" she exclaimed with white-hot anger. "My paw lays over thar with +yore bullet in his breast--an' ye comes runnin' hyar ter me fer a way +ter git outen danger!" + +The three men were crowding to the door but she stood barring it and +she did not give back an inch. In deliberation she went on. "He laid +a pledge on me not ter avenge him. Ef hit warn't fer thet, I'd kill ye +whar ye stands." + +"Fer God's sake, Alexander!" The mountaineer's voice was shrill with +excitement. "Kill me if ye likes--but don't tarry. I come ter warn +ye. Ther winder's ther only way out--an' thar hain't no time ter lose." + +As if in corroboration, the first puff of brown smoke eddied through +the open door. At first it came idly, driftingly, as if it had nothing +to do with haste. Halloway pushed both Sellers and Brent ahead of him, +and followed them in, slamming the door behind him. + +"Talk outside," he commanded sharply. "Don't waste life-and-death +minutes in this hell-trap!" + +Alexander gazed absently as though unable to readjust her trend of +thought so swiftly, then she said, quietly enough: "Thar's ther winder. +Go through hit ef ye likes." + +As for herself she turned to the task of tying up her pack of +belongings with what seemed to the frenzied men insufferable +deliberation. + +"This is the third floor," snapped Halloway whose head was already +thrust out of the window gauging possibilities of escape. "We'll have +to tear up sheets and make a rope of them." + +Brent leaped promptly to the task but Alexander looked at the huge body +which blocked the window frame and a smile curled her lips. "You on a +rope o' sheets!" She even laughed. "Ye mout es well entrust yourself +ter a strand of flax thread!" + +Through the floor licked a tongue of flame. + +"Kain't you men jump--an' catch ther limb of thet thar sycamore," she +added. "Hit hain't fur away--an' thet's how I'm aimin' ter leave +myself." + +Halloway turned an eager gaze upon the girl and even in the press of +moments he remembered the role he was playing. "I reckon," he +suggested, "I'd better lead off--ef thet flyin' limb holds me, it'll +hold ther balance of ye." + +What was genuinely in his mind was to be there to catch her if she +missed her grip, but to forestall objection he thrust his body through +the opening, measured the distance with a brief glance and launched +himself outward. To use that fire escape one must catch the branch, +and hold it without slipping, while he swung and groped with his feet +for another limb below. + +For Halloway the matter was done without doubt or wavering. It must be +so done or result in a three-storied drop, but when he turned and +looked back, bracing himself to catch Alexander, he saw her turn again +into the room, out of his range of vision. He could see Brent and Bud +vociferously arguing with her and then she reappeared and lifted her +pack and rifle over the sill. As she played out the improvised line of +bedding her eyes were angry and Halloway guessed that it was because +the two men had refused to leave without waiting for her. Eventually +when the room showed red beyond the frame she slipped through, poised +herself as the man had done, and came outward as smoothly as an +exhibition diver. She landed so close to Halloway that her hands +clasped over his own and her breath fluttered against his cheek. For a +fraction of an instant, he thought she might fail to hold her grip and +one arm swept around her pressing her close to him. Even when he knew +that she was safe he did not release her and his veins were pounding +with the wild exaltation of contact. + +Somewhat pantingly but coolly she commanded: "Move back. Give me room +ter stand on--them others kain't foller whilst we're blockin' ther way." + +Halloway had forgotten the others, and when Bud Sellers jumped, the +last of all, it was only just in time. A shower of sparks puffed out +of the window and inside sounded a crash of collapsing timbers. + +"Well, where do we go now?" inquired Brent a quarter of an hour later +and the girl turned on her heel. "As fer me," she replied, "I'm goin' +back ter my rafts of timber. I've done had a lavish of this town." + +"May we go too?" inquired Halloway. "We hain't got no roof over us +neither--now." + +"I reckon ye kin all come save only----" she paused a moment and added +in hardened voice, "save only ther man thet sought ter slay my paw." + +Bud's head drooped. He was still sweating, for when he left the sill, +the place had been a furnace, but he said nothing, and instantly +Alexander wheeled again and spoke impulsively. + +"I've got ter crave yore pardon, Bud," she exclaimed. "Paw said he +didn't hold no grudge ergin you nohow. An' I reckon ye've done sought +right slavish ter make amends ternight." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +From down there at the boom as the blackest hours of the night passed, +Halloway and Brent sat rubber-coated on the raft watching the inflamed +redness that was wiping out all that end of the village. The +age-seasoned frame houses there huddled close enough for the hot +contagion to sweep them with typhoon speed and they went up in spurts +like pitch barrels. The wind was high enough to romp ruthlessly with +spark and blaze, until even the effort at fire-fighting had been +abandoned. Happily the bluster had settled to a constant gale out of +the south-west and the fire-tide rolled with it to the edge and not the +core of the town and when it lapped at the reeking woods it hissed out +in defeat. + +Alexander had withdrawn to her improvised shack and wrapped herself in +her blanket. Brent gazed with a sort of hypnotized intentness on the +wildness of the picture before him--an orgy of fire, wind and water. +Through the wet mountains the wind shrieked and buffetted until ancient +trees, made brittle by long freezing, went down. At his back, beyond +the boom, sounded the dirge of the swollen waters running out. That +was like the wail of a maniac exhausted by his ravings. The stage was +dropping as rapidly as it had risen. Ahead, tossing a mane of smoke +and a spume of spark, reveled the demoniac spirit of Fire. Brent +shuddered but Halloway struck a match just then for his dead pipe under +the protection of his coat lapel and in the brief flare Brent saw that +his eyes were agleam, feral and animal-like, and that his lips were +wolfishly drawn back from his teeth. + +"This is elemental!" Halloway burst out suddenly. "I glory in it. +I've been sitting here drunker than any moonshine guzzler back there at +that tavern to-night. Drunk on the wild wine of the elements--drunk +from the skulls of Valhalla. Great God, I love it!" + +Brent rose at last and sought refuge under the insufficient roof of one +of the shacks, for a down-pour had come with the wind and in key with +all the extravagance of the night's mood, it was a cloud-burst. + +The city man tossed restlessly and once looking out across the stretch +of the rafted logs, he saw a single figure stripped to the skin in the +sheeted down-pour of cold rain. He saw it only when the lightning +flashed with the spectral effect of beauty. It stood straight with +back-flung shoulders and head upturned into the rain like some wild +high-priest of storm worship. When a flare, brighter than the others +limned the whole prospect into a dazzling instant, the features burst +into clarity with eyes glowing like madness, and lips parted in wild +exaltation. + +"He'll have a chill before morning," growled Brent, but his +astonishment at the hardihood of such a shower-bath would have been +more severely taxed had he been able to see behind the screening walls +of Alexander's shack. + +For if the colossal man standing there as God made him, reveling in the +sluicing of icy sheets of water, was a picture for a painter's delight, +the figure of the woman, sheltered from any eye, but likewise stripped +to the flesh was one almost as heroic and far lovelier. Alexander too, +was availing herself of that strong tonic which would have brought +collapse to a weakling. She stood tall, beautiful, a Diana with her +wet and flowing hair loosed about her white shoulders and her bosom +rising and falling to the elation of the storm-bath. + +The hurricane passed in the forenoon of that day leaving the ridges wet +and inert, with the dejection of spent violence, but from gray clouds +that hung in trailing wisps along the upper slopes a steady rain sobbed +down. After breakfast Bud Sellers who had after all not availed +himself of Alexander's permission to spend the night on the raft, came +aboard and diffidently approached the girl. + +He wore a hang-dog air but in his eyes was that same wistfulness of +unspoken worship. Brent knew that he was trying to explain to +Alexander his torture of self accusation because of the disaster born +of his moment of drunken frenzy. + +The girl stood looking at him, entirely oblivious to the devotion that +was clear-writ in his eyes. While he talked she accorded him a +hearing, but with lips tight pressed and the unforgettable picture in +her mind of the stricken man who might even now be dead. He might have +passed, with the pain of uncertainty clouding his last moments as to +the success or failure of her venture. + +With that burden on her heart it was difficult to listen to apologies +and explanations. She knew that Bud would have burned his body to a +crisp last night if need be in the effort to save her from a similar +fate, but that only irritated her. She had not called for help. She +had not needed help and this rush of volunteers to her rescue was, +after all, only a denial of the principle for which she so militantly +fought; the postulate that when she played a man's game she wished to +be treated as a man, asking no favors. + +Brent and Halloway overheard a little of what was said, for the two +voices rose in inflection, under the urge of his earnestness and her +feeling. + +"I don't act pi'zen mean when I'm sober, Alexander--an' I strives not +ter drink, knowin' full well thet hit plum crazes me-- Hit don't seem +like no common thirst-- Hit comes on me like a plague and hit masters +me ther same as spells or fits----. God, He knows I'd es lief hev +raised my hand ergin my own daddy, ef I hed one, es erginst yore paw--I +war frenzied." + +"I don't know what made ye do hit, but I knows what ye done, Bud," said +Alexander and her rich voice trembled under the tautness of her effort +at control. "Ef a man kain't holp goin' mad like a dog--an' seekin' +ter slay folks, I reckon he----" It was on her tongue to say that he +ought to pay the mad-dog's penalty but she checked herself shortly and +went on with less cruelty, "I reckon he's a right dangerous sort of +feller ter hev 'round." + +"All I asks, Alexander," he pleaded, "air thet ye gives me ther chanst +ter make amends. Ef I feels ther cravin' masterin' me ergin, I'll go +ter town an' git ther police ter lock me up in ther jail-house an' keep +me thar, tell I comes back ter my senses." + +"Hit hain't a thing ye kin handily make amends fer," she reminded him, +"but I've done pledged myself ter let hit go unavenged and I knows too, +thet I'm beholden ter ye fer last night. None-the-less----" The color +paled from her cheeks and she shook her head. "None-the-less until I +gits back home--an' knows whether my paw is livin' or dead----" her +words came very slowly and with an effort, "I kain't say thet thar +won't be black hatred in my heart erginst ye." + +He nodded somewhat miserably. "No, I don't hardly reckon ye kin tutor +yore feelin's no different," he acknowledged as he turned away, but +from that moment he had dedicated himself to a vasselage out of which +he hoped to salvage no personal reward. + +When she had watched him tramp up the muddy slope from the bank to the +street, Alexander lifted her chin and tossed her head, as if to shake +away some cobwebbing thought from the brain. Then with an energetic +step she came over and without preamble announced, "Mr. Brent, I don't +aim ter tarry hyar no longer then ther soonest time I kin git out. +Let's me an' you talk business." + +Brent nodded. "Is it confidential? Do you want me to send this man +away?" he inquired, with a mischievous glance at the giant whose eyes, +save when they dropped before her own, remained fixed on the girl with +a devouring intentness. + +Alexander shook her head. "What fer?" she demanded. "I reckon we +hain't got no need of whisperin' erbout our transactions." + +She paused for an instant and went on. "Paw an' you measured up that +timber back yon, didn't ye? An' ye agreed on ther price too, didn't +ye?" + +"We settled both points. I have a memorandum, but----" + +"I knows what ye aims ter say," interrupted Alexander. "Ye means ter +name hit ter me thet them logs hain't all hyar because some of 'em +busted loose comin' through ther gorge. What I wanted ter ask ye is +thet you an' me should measure up thet raft now an' figger out what's +gone, so thet I kin tell paw----" She halted as abruptly as though a +blow on the mouth had broken off the utterance and a paroxysm of pain +crossed her face. The ever present dread had struck back that there +might be no father to whom she could report. With a swift recovery, +though, she finished. "So thet I kin fotch tidin's back home es ter +how much we gits." + +When these reckonings had been made Brent inquired: "Do you understand +the terms of this contract between your father and myself?" + +Her reply was guarded. "We've done talked hit over." + +"It was agreed," the buyer told her, "that I was to accept this stuff +and pay for it at some point from which I could deliver it in the +Bluegrass either by rail or navigable water. If you like, I'm ready to +pay now." + +He had seen Alexander under some trying circumstances and never with +any hint of breakdown, yet just now he wondered if unexpected good +tidings were not about to accomplish what bad news could not--carry out +the dam of her own hard-schooled repression on a flood of tears. Her +eyes became suddenly misty and her lips trembled. She started to +speak, then gulped and remained silent. But gradually the color flowed +back into her cheeks, as pink as the laurel blossom's deep center, and +once more she gave her head that characteristic toss as though in +contempt for her moment of weakness. + +"Mr. Brent, I hain't seekin' no favors an' I don't want nothin' but my +dues. I didn't know ye stood obleeged ter pay us 'twell ther logs went +down ter ther lowlands, but----" Though her words were slowly, even +tediously enunciated they seemed to come with difficulty. "But ef I +could take thet money back thar--an' tell him hit war all settled +up----" The fullness of what that meant to her gained in force because +she got no further with her explanation and Brent said with a +brusqueness, affected to veil his own sympathy: "Come on, let's go to +the bank." + +The bank at Coal City is a small box of brick, with two rooms. At the +front the cashier's grating stands. At the rear is a bare chamber +furnished with a small stove, a deal table and a few hickory-withed +chairs. It is here that directors meet and hinterland financiers +negotiate. Into this sanctum Brent led Alexander Macedonia McGivins, +and for no particular reason, save that no one had forbidden it, +Halloway accompanied them. + +The timber buyer scribbled his calculations on the back of an envelope +and submitted the results to the girl, who gravely nodded her +satisfaction. + +"Then," said Brent with an air of relief, "there remain only two things +more. I shall now draw you a check for four thousand and ninety-one +dollars and fifty cents, and you will sign a receipt." + +Halloway was sitting in the background where he could indulge in all +the staring he liked, and since Alexander had swum into his ken, that +had become a large order. As Brent finished, the girl who had been +sitting at the table with a pen in her hand, suddenly pushed back her +chair and into her eyes came an amazed disappointment--a keen anxiety. +For a moment she looked blankly at the man who was opening his check +book. She suddenly felt that she had been confronted with a financial +problem that lay beyond her experience and one which she deeply +distrusted. It was as though affairs hitherto simple, except for +physical dangers, had run into a channel of subtler and therefore more +alarming complication. + +None of this escaped Halloway's lynx-like gaze but to Brent who was +smoothing out the folded check, it went unobserved. + +Suddenly Alexander bent forward, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment +and caught at the signer's wrist as spasmodically as though it were a +death warrant to which he meant to set his signature. + +"Don't write me no check!" she exclaimed somewhat desperately, then, +covered with confusion she added, "I don't aim ter insult ye none--but +I don't know much erbout fotched-on ways. I wants ter tote thet thar +payment back home--in real money." + +Except with Brent, Halloway had never thus far broken out of character. +Having assumed to be a mountain lumberman, he had consistently talked +as one--acted as one. + +Now he came out of his chair as though a mighty spring had uncurled +under him, and slapped an outspread hand to his forehead. + +"Great jumping Jehosaphat!" he exclaimed, and turning in her chair, the +young woman studied him in perplexity. But Halloway's slip was brief +and his recovery instant. Since Brent sat there staring in speechless +bewilderment at Alexander, the giant launched himself into the breach. + +"Tote four thousand dollars in silver an' paper an' gold across them +trails in saddle bags!" His voice suddenly mounted into domineering +vehemence. "Tote hit over wild an' la'relly mountings with this hyar +country full of drunken scalawags thet would do murder for a ten dollar +bill! Hev ye done gone plum bereft of reason?" + +Alexander's first confusion of manner had come from the fear that her +refusal of a check might seem tainted with the discourtesy of +suspicion. Now in the face of actual opposition it stiffened instantly +into hostility. The perplexity died from her face and her eyes blazed. +For a moment she met the excited gaze of the man who towered over her +and then in a coldly scornful voice she spoke, not to him, but to +Brent. "I reckon ye war right, Mr. Brent, when ye asked me whether I +wanted this man sent way. Thar hain't no need of his tarryin' hyar." + +"Just a moment, Alexander," smiled Brent, enjoying in spite of himself +his friend's discomfiture. "We'll pack him off, if you say so, but +first hear what we both have to say. He's right. With this gang of +scoundrels in and about town it would be madness to carry that much +money. The size of this deal will set tongues wagging. When you start +out everyone will know it. You'd never get home alive." + +"I don't know nothin' about checks an' sometimes banks bust," she +obdurately insisted. "I wants ter show my paw cash money. Ef he 'lows +I'm man enough ter do his business thet's enough, hain't it?" + +"A rifle-gun in ther la'rel hes done overcome plenty of men afore ye," +asserted Halloway with the deep boom of sullenness in his voice. "Ye +hain't no army of men, I reckon." + +They wrestled with her in argument for the better part of an hour but +she was as immovable as the bed-rock of her mountains. + +Brent even raised the point, despite the withering contempt with which +he knew she would greet it, that he might decline to recognize her +authority to act for her father but from a hip pocket of her trousers +she produced a worn wallet and from the wallet she extracted a general +and properly attested power of attorney to transact all business. + +"I hed ter hev thet," she announced coolly, "because so many damn fool +men 'lowed thet a woman couldn't do business." + +The end of it was that Brent himself cashed his check, and counted out +in specie and currency a sum large enough to become in effect a price +on her head. When the money had been done up in heavy paper, sealed by +the cashier with wax, and identified with her own signature, she +consented to permit it to lie in the safe overnight since the roads +were not yet passable, though even then she cannily inquired of the +bank employe: "I reckon ye hain't got no objection ter my countin' hit +up afresh afore I sets out, hev ye?" + +Later that day Lute Brown, who it may be said in passing, had served a +term in state prison for house-breaking, dropped casually into the bank +and asked the cashier to "back a letter" for him, since writing was not +one of his own strong points. The cashier was obliging, and in as much +as gossip was usually sparse in that community went on the while +chatting with the president of the institution, who had just come in. + +"True as text," said the cashier, while Lute Brown waited. "She +wouldn't take no check. She was plum resolved to have her money in +cash--and she aims to hire a mule and start out soon to-morrow morning +toting it along with her." + +"I'd hate to undertake it," said the president briefly and the cashier +agreed: "Me an' you both. Why she wouldn't even hear of takin' no +bodyguard along with her." + +Later in the day Lute Brown addressed a caucus attended by a half dozen +men, including Jase Mallows. + +That meeting took place behind closed doors and though a general accord +of purpose prevailed there was some dissension as to detail. + +"We kain't skeercely shoot her outen hand es she rides along," demurred +a conscientious objector, who, however, fully endorsed the plan of +lightening her financial burden. "She's a woman, fer all her brashness +in her callin' herself a man." + +The virtuous sentiment was not popularly received. It might even have +been scoffed into limbo had not Jase Mallows leaned forward, twirling +his mustache, and made himself heard. + +"Ye're damn right hit won't do ter kill her. I aims ter wed that gal +some day, an' afore I'd see her lay-wayed an' kilt, I'd tell this hull +story ter ther town marshall." + +An ominous growl went up at that but Jase continued staunchly. + +"Howsomever we needn't hev no fallin' out over that. I've got a plan +wharby she kin be robbed without hurtin' her an' wharby atter ye've +done got ther money, I kin 'pear ter rescue her an' tek her offen yore +hands." + +As he outlined his guileful proposition the scowls of his listeners +gave way to grins of full approval and admiration. + +"Who's goin' ter diskiver what route she rides?" demanded one of those +annoyingly exact persons who mar all great dreams by the injection of +practicalities. + +Again Jase laughed. "Thar hain't but one way she kin go--hit'll be +days afore any other route's fordable. She's got ter fare past +Crabapple post office an' through Wolf-pen gap." + + +That afternoon Brent went to the telegraph office. He wanted to wire +his concern that the timber was safe and the deal closed, but while +still a short distance from the railroad station, which was also the +telegrapher's office, he saw Lute Brown go into the place and fell to +wondering what business carried him hither. So he timed his entrance +and sauntered in just as the fellow was turning away from the +operator's chair. + +Brent himself lounged about idly, because the man at the table had +opened his key and begun sending. Neither Brown nor the operator gave +any indication of interest in the arrival of a third person. + +To neither of them did it occur that Brent was versed in the Morse +code, and Brent volunteered no information on the subject. + +None the less he was listening and as the dots and dashes fell into +letters and the letters into words, he read, as if from a book, this +message: + +"Woman starts out in morning with bundle by way of Crabapple post +office. Lute." + +Brent filed his own message and passed the time of day with the +operator, but when he was outside he cursed the need of slow walking as +he made his way to the rafts. Alexander was not there. No one had +seen her for two hours and, from her shack, both pack and rifle had +been removed. + +Halloway's face when Brent found him and told him his story, first +blackened into the thunder cloud darkness, then as suddenly paled into +dread. + +"By God, Brent," he whispered hoarsely, catching the other's arm in a +grip that almost broke it, "what if she suspects us too--and has +already set out to give us the slip? She hasn't a chance to get +through before these outlaws intercept her. She'd have to +stop--somewhere this side the gap--and go on in the morning." + +"Come on," snorted Brent, "we've got to go to the livery stable and see +if she's hired a mule." + +"If she's seeking to give us the slip, she's probably changed that plan +too--and set out on foot. It's a safe bet, though, that she didn't go +without her precious money. Let's try the bank." + +They went, Brent needing to strike a sort of dog-trot to hold the long +striding pace of the other. + +The bank was closed for the day. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +"Well, what next?" inquired Brent blankly. + +"We might manage to seize and make a hostage of Lute Brown--and even +the telegraph operator," began Halloway, somewhat haltingly. "But +their disappearance would prove a sort of warning and they may not be +the leading spirits. Did you gather from that telegram where they mean +to hold her up?" + +"No--nor even to whom the message went. He'd begun sending when I got +in." + +"Of course we couldn't prove that the operator understood the portent +of the message but I know the fellow--his name is Wicks, and I think +he's a bad egg." + +"Where does the bank cashier live?" inquired Brent. + +"Three miles out along Deephole Branch--and he has no telephone," +growled the Titan. Suddenly through the baffled perplexity of his eyes +broke the light of dawning idea, and he spoke with a greater certitude. + +"If these high-binders have used the wire once they may do it again," +he exclaimed. "At all events that's the point to watch at present." + +"I suppose you mean I must loaf around there and eavesdrop--for +anything that may come over." Brent's tone was unenthusiastic. "It's +logical enough too--but if the girl's started out alone, time is +precious." + +Halloway had straightened out of his doleful uncertainty. Plans were +swiftly taking shape in his mind. + +"No. You've been there once. If you went back it's just possible that +into the fellow's dull mind might steal a ghost of suspicion. I'm +ready to take my turn now, though I hate the damned inactivity. I am a +presumed illiterate. I struggle over the printed page--and with me +loafing in his office he would chat away over his wire undisturbed." + +"And what shall I be doing?" + +"There'll be enough to keep you busy, I should say. Get in touch with +any of the bank employes you can locate. Try to learn whether or not +Alexander has actually started. Have Lute watched and see with whom he +talks. Get together a dozen men we can trust at a pinch. Have them +ready, if necessary, to take the saddle on a moment's notice. It may +come down to a race over the trail." + +Brent's face fell. + +"With my limited acquaintance," he objected, "how in God's name am I to +pick such men?" + +"No man who looked into the dog-like eyes of young Bud Sellers," +asserted Halloway, "could doubt that he'd give his life for that girl. +He can also keep his mouth tight. Tell him the whole story and take +his orders. I'm off now to sit on my shoulder blades in the telegraph +office." + +About the post office loitered a small crowd drawn together by the +instinct for companionship and to that gathering place Brent turned +first in search of Bud. + +It proved a happy choice and when he had, with a seeming of casualness, +led his man into a quieter spot he demanded, "What has become of +Alexander?" + +He thought that the young mountaineer stiffened a bit and that his face +became mask-like. But this may have been the jealous tendency of a +hopeless passion, and when Brent swiftly narrated all that he and +Halloway had learned, the secretiveness of guise fell away from the +listening face and the body trembled as if stricken with a chill, but a +chill of rage and indignation which had no kinship with timorousness. + +"Hit looks like hit would hev been safer an' handier fer Alexander jest +ter ride on back home with ther same crowd thet come down-river with +her--they're all got ter make ther same journey," was his first +comment, but after a moment he shook his head. "Howsomever, I reckon +thet they don't aim ter hasten back so damn fast. They hain't been in +a town fer a long spell an' they seeks ter tarry--an' quite several of +'em air fellers I mistrusts anyhow." + +"Can't you pick out enough dependable men for an immediate start if +need be?" + +Bud laughed shortly. "Did ye 'low, atter hearin' what ye jest narrated +that I'd be liable ter stand hitched fer long? I'll pick 'em out all +right--an' speedily." + +Into his suddenly narrowing eye shot a menacing gleam. "An' ef them +fellers undertakes ter harm her, afore God, thar's goin' ter be some +shovelin' of grave-yard dirt, too." + +Brent sought out the bank president who lived in town and put his terse +question as to whether Alexander had withdrawn from the safe, her +package of money. + +"She hadn't been there again up to the time of my leaving," the banker +replied, "but, I came away before closing." + +The telegraph office in the railway station was a dingy place of +cobwebbed murk. It was also the express office, and in helter-skelter +disarray lay a litter of uncalled-for plow-shares and such articles as +go from the end of the rails into that hinterland where lies an +isolated world of crag and loneliness. + +Except for the operator--who was also ticket-agent and general +factotum--it was now empty and dull of light with its smeared window +glasses between its interior and the dispirited grayness of the outer +skies. The dust-covered papers and miscellany which cumbered the table +long undisturbed, spoke of an idle office and of hours unedged with +interest. + +As Halloway's great bulk shadowed the door, Wicks glanced up, and +nodded with a somewhat surly unwelcome. + +"Did ye want anything," he asked shortly. + +"No, just loafin' 'round," drawled the visitor as he settled indolently +into a chair which creaked its complaint under his weight. + +For a short while the two kept up a perfunctory semblance of +conversation, but between these interchanges of comment, lengthening +intervals elapsed. + +Wicks sat inertly gazing at those familiar stains on the wall which +long familiarity had made hateful to him. His expression was moody and +only occasionally did he turn to glance at his unbidden guest. + +Halloway's head had fallen forward on his chest and soon his heavy +breathing became that of a man who is napping. + +Finally the other opened his key and sounded the call for Viper, a +hamlet ten miles away, though in practical effect it was more distant +since the road between twisted painfully over ridge and through gorge. +It was on an infrequently used freight spur but it boasted +communication with the world by wire--and it was important now because +it was a town through which Alexander must pass on her way from Coal +City to the mouth of Shoulder-blade Creek. + +The metallic voice of the telegraph key subsided, and shortly came the +response. Halloway still breathed heavily on--a sleeping giant whose +ears were very much awake. This was no official message paying toll, +but a private conversation between operators bent on whiling away dull +moments. Moreover it was evidently the continuation of talk previously +commenced so that to the eavesdropper it was like a continued story of +which he had missed the opening chapters. + +"Upward of four thousand dollars," tapped out Wicks. "That's big +money, but the more men that split it the less each feller gets, so +they don't want too many from Viper." + +Halloway realized at once that this lantern-jawed operator had a swift +and sure sending finger, and when the answer came it was, in contrast, +labored and ragged. It was as if two men talked, one in rapid and +clear-clipped syllables--the other in a stutter. + +Said Viper, "There might be neck-stretching too if too many tongues +make talk. Jess will have the boys ready at the place soon in the +morning. They will wait for orders there." + +"At the place!" Halloway in his counterfeited sleep cursed to himself. +If instead of those indefinite words the point had been named he would +have gained something tangible. He knew now however beyond a doubt +that both operators were conspirators and he had gleaned one comforting +assurance--the plans contemplated no joining of forces until to-morrow. +Those at the far end were still uninstructed. If it came to a race +to-night that gave a better chance. + +Then Viper cut off and Wicks, with a sigh of boredom, settled back in +his chair once more and gave himself over to silence. + +Finally Halloway stirred out of his slumber and stretched himself. + +"I reckon," he admitted shamefacedly, "I must hev fell asleep. That +damn fire broke up my rest last night." With which comment he +slouched, still sleepily, out of the place, rubbing his eyes as he +went, with ham-like fists. + +At the rafts he found Bud Sellers, and a round dozen men of Bud's +selection. Looking them over, Halloway privately approved. There was +not an eye in the number that was not hawk-clear; or a figure that was +not nail-hard. These were fellows cut to a pattern of action, but even +in their excellent average, one stood out with an individualism which +immediately struck the observer. + +He was introduced as Jerry O'Keefe, but Halloway would not have needed +the name, once he had seen the lazy challenging twinkle in the +gray-blue eyes, to spot him as a man of Irish blood. O'Keefe had need +to look up to meet the glance of the giant, but that was for him +unusual. Into most eyes he looked down, for when he stood in his socks +he was six feet two inches of hard-bitten sinew and man-flesh. + +"Where's Brent?" asked Halloway, and Bud Sellers, whose manner had +fallen into the stillness of one chafing against delay, replied +tersely, "He hain't come back yit." + +Soon, though, he arrived, and by now the west was reddening toward +sunset. + +In a situation calling for absolute parsimony in the economy of time it +would have meant moments salvaged for the trio of men, who must act as +commanders of the rest, to have gone at once into a discussion of the +results of their several investigations. Yet that was impossible, +since for Halloway to tell his story to both would mean revealing his +knowledge of telegraphy. So while he and Brent talked first alone, Bud +Sellers stood apart, and into that fertile soil of mountain suspicion +crept a vague questioning as to why full confidence was denied him--a +suspicion which was later to bear fruit. + +When he had been told all, save of Halloway's eavesdropping, he made +his own report. + +"Myself, I hain't found out much, save thet I've got ther men ready, +an' thet I seed Lute Brown talkin' with Jase Mallows a spell back." + +It was arranged that half of the force should proceed at top speed to +Crabapple post office and mobilize there; that Halloway himself should +push through to Viper and eavesdrop on the telegraph key, and that the +others should loaf about Coal City watching the suspects and gleaning +what information they could. The men of the last named contingent were +to play hounds on the heels of the plotters and seek to follow them +without being discovered. + +While the three were still in council at one end of the raft, Bud came +suddenly to his feet and his jaw dropped in amazement. There striding +down the bank to the boom, with a face as freshly pink as a wild rose, +was Alexander herself, with her pack on her back. + +She saw the gathering of men, some with faces that were unfamiliar to +her, and halted to inspect them. Into her eyes came something like a +smoulder as though in resentment of unwarranted trespassing, then +seeing Bud and Halloway and Brent she came aboard and demanded curtly, +"What be all these men doin' hyar?" + +For an instant no one responded to her question. The reaction of +unexpected relief from driving anxiety left them wordless. Finally +Brent laughed nervously. + +"It would appear that they are here for no reason whatsoever," he said, +"though a few minutes ago we thought it a matter of life and death." +Her nonplussed expression was sufficiently full of interrogation to cue +a fuller explanation and Brent embarked upon the summarized recital of +what they had discovered. + +Alexander's eyes widened into amazement, and she caught one lip between +her white teeth. She stood very straight and indignant, and the men +acknowledged to themselves that she had never seemed so beautiful +before, nor so militant. + +"So they aimed ter lay-way me," she murmured incredulously and Halloway +made prompt answer. "Yes, and ye mighty nigh walked right into th'ar +dead-fall. Don't ye see now how plum reckless yore plan is? Whar was +ye at anyhow?" + +The girl impatiently tossed her head. "I fared out a leetle way ter +see how ther roads looked," she said. "I wanted ter mek sure that I +could get a daybreak start in the morning. I hain't nobody's sugar ner +salt that I kain't stir abroad without meltin', be I?" + +"We saw that your pack was gone too--and we 'lowed----" began Halloway, +but she interrupted him with a curt explanation. "Thet shack war +leakin' like a sieve. I didn't aim ter hev all my belongin's mildewed +an' rusted--so I left 'em at ther store." + +"This crowd kin see ye through without mishap, I reckon. We've done +planned hit all out." That contribution came from the giant who seemed +to have become general spokesman but the young woman stood silent and +absorbed; a delicate pucker between her brows, and the violet pools of +her eyes cloud-riffled. At last she announced firmly, "I'm beholden +ter all of ye but I've got ter study this matter out by myself. I'll +come back hyar in a little spell an' tell ye what decision I've done +reached." + +"As for getting a daybreak start," Brent observed as she turned away, +"You can't get into the bank until it opens." + +Once more she had overlooked the unfamiliar complications of financial +usage. + +Jerry O'Keefe had been lounging with the other recruits of Bud's +gathering, looking river-ward until the sound of voices, whose words he +could not distinguish, brought him lazily around. As he stood when the +first view of Alexander broke on his vision, so he remained--immovable. +The low and bantering laughter of his companions for his rapt +statuesqueness, fell on deaf ears. His lips parted and his eyes held +as under hypnotism. + +Jerry stared with a craned neck at Alexander McGivins until slowly his +body came round to an easier posture, but upon his steady and unmoving +fixity of eye, the rest of him moved as upon an axis. Into the +gray-blue irises came a live kindling and with seeming unconsciousness +of those about him, he said solemnly, "Afore God, I aims ter wed with +thet gal!" + + +Alexander had strolled outward along a bluff, leaving the town at her +back, because she wanted to think without interruption. In her home +over yonder across the broken ridges her father might be lying, anxiety +ridden--or he might be already dead. An obsession of haste spurred her +with the roweling of suspense and with the companionship of her +troubled thoughts she walked on and on. + +When at length she turned she had decided certain matters, and in the +growing dusk she met a man who smilingly accosted her and halted in her +path. It was Jase Mallows and she confronted him with a high head and, +in remembrance of his swaggering impertinence, spoke imperiously. + +"I don't want ter hev no speech with ye, Jase, now ner never, but I +owes ye wages fer ther wuck ye done on them rafts. Come ter ther bank +termorrer at openin' time and I'll pay ye off." + +The mountaineer's face fell into a scowl of resentment. To be rebuffed +was galling enough. To be relegated to a servile status was +unendurable, yet he refashioned his expression at once into a smile. + +"Thar hain't no tormentin' haste, Alexander," he assured her evenly. +"Any time'll do--any time at all, but I'm leavin' town ternight." + +"Suit yerself," she answered with calculated curtness and would have +gone on but he fell into step with her and dropped his voice into so +earnest a _timbre_ that despite her dislike for him she listened. + +"Alexander--hit hain't none of my business--an' I knows ye're mad at me +but yore paw an' me dwells neighbors--an' I'm goin' ter forewarn ye +about somethin'." + +"Alright," the voice was frigid. "Go ahead. Everybody's forewarnin' +me right now." + +"I've done heered thet this Brent party air a mighty slick customer. +Don't give him no undue lee-way ter fleece ye. Ther man Halloway, +thet's hangin' around him's a pretty desperate sort too, by ther repute +folks gives him. When ye settled up accounts with thet outfit, ye +kain't skeercely be too heedful. I'd either make 'em give me cash +money--or else hev a lawyer 'round ter see thet everythin's alright." + +"My paw," declared the girl indignantly, "he's got full trust in Mr. +Brent an' so hev I." She dismissed him with a glance under which his +own bravado wilted and he made no further effort to walk at her side. +But in the gathering dusk, the wet desolation about her seemed to creep +into Alexander's heart. With so many charges of foul play floating +about, of whom could she feel certain? Then the answer came. There +was, perhaps, only one. So long as he remained sober, Bud Sellers +would remain dependable. From the bank overlooking the boom she called +his name and when he had leaped to respond, she led him out of hearing. + +"Bud," she said tensely. "Ye knows how heavy-hearted with dread I be +about my paw. Ye knows thet when I left him I wasn't no ways sure I'd +ever lay eyes on his livin' face ergin. I ain't sure now." Her voice +threatened to break and to control it she pitched it into a harder +tone. "Ye knows, too, who's fault thet air." + +He answered very low and very miserably. "Yes, I knows full well--an' +I've done been in torment--ever since." + +"Ef he's still alive an' gits well----" she went on, "thar won't be no +grudge atween us. Ye says ye seeks ter make amends. Ye knows what hit +means ter him whether I gits thet money back safe or not." + +"Yes, I knows thet too." + +Alexander laughed a little bitterly. "I've jest been forewarned thet I +kain't trust nuther Brent ner Halloway. I hain't sayin' I believes +hit; I reckon hit's sheer slander--but----" All unconsciously a note +of pathos crept into her voice, the pathos of one who must fight alone +against unseen forces. "But, how am I goin' ter tell, fer dead sure, +who I kin trust?" + +Sellers remembered that all he knew of the robbery plot was +hearsay--that his informants had excluded him from a part of their +consultations. An ugly possibility took vague shape in his mind, but +his answer was brief. + +"Ye kin trust me 'twell hell freezes." + +Alexander nodded. "Ye're ther one man I ought ter hev a blood-hatred +erginst--an' yit, so long es ye stays sober, I knows what ye says air +true." + +Suddenly she laid both her hands on his shoulders and under her touch a +tremor raced through his arteries. The mountains seemed to grow +unsteady. "Ye're ther only man hyar I kin plum, teetotally depend on. +When the bank opens termorrer, I wants ye ter be thar. I don't want ye +ter go with me on ther trip back home. I hain't goin' ter suffer +nobody ter do that--but thar's a thing I may need ye ter do." + +"Es God's lookin' down on us, ef a man kin do hit----" he swore in an +emotion-shaken voice, "hit'll be done." + +Later that evening Alexander announced her decision and from it she +refused to depart. As soon as she could transact business at the bank +the next day she would set out on a hired mule, with the money in her +saddle-bags. She would tolerate no escort, because one person could +travel secretly where several could not. However when she had +progressed a certain distance she would turn the mule back. The only +reason for its use, at all, would be to make it appear that she was +going by the route which the robbers assumed. + +Then, depending upon a woodcraft which she trusted, she would swing out +at a circle on foot, holding to the laurel thickets and pass, not +through but around and above the Gap, which seemed the logical place +for a holdup. She consented that her assembled body-guard should, if +they insisted, push on and mobilize at Viper, where if suspicious +circumstances warranted, they might be near enough to take emergency +action. If she came through safely to Perry Center, she would be +secure in the house of a kinsman and from there on would have little to +fear. + +At ten o'clock the next morning Alexander came out of the bank, +followed by Bud Sellers, who carried his own saddle-bags over his arm, +as if he too contemplated a journey. Brent, in order to avoid the +appearance of too close a participation in her affairs, did not +accompany her--nor was Halloway anywhere in evidence. + +As the girl went out to where her hired mule stood hitched, various +observers along the ragged street noted that her rifle was strapped +under the saddle skirt in such a way that it could not be speedily +loosened. They also watched as, with no pretense of concealment, she +stuffed into her saddle-hags a parcel done up in heavy brown paper, and +made conspicuous by the bank's red sealing wax. Then, still scornful +of evasion, she mounted and rode away as straight-shouldered and +militant a figure as Jeanne d'Arc herself. + +Bud Sellers, looking after her from the door of the bank, was gloomy of +countenance beyond his wont. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +As the mule ambled along the mired streets of the wretched hamlet there +were eyes following its course that masked an interest beyond the +usual. If certain men who had attended yesterday's caucus still loafed +inactively about the sidewalks, it was not because they were +indifferent to possible developments, but in obedience to a settled +plan. Last night a party had set forth ahead. Its members were now +stationed at appointed posts in spots so lonely and so silent that one +might have passed them at a stone's throw without suspecting their +presence. They had gone singly and by different ways--at the start. +Others had come to cooperate from Viper and the net was spread with +meticulous care and completeness. For communication and signaling the +voices of forest things were available; the caw of the crow in the +timber, the bark of the fox in the thicket, the note of those birds +that the winter had not driven south. + +Alexander's journey would not have been easy, had she ridden with no +prize to safeguard. There were washouts and quicksands; treacherous +fords and shelving precipices to be encountered, but here was a fortune +guarded only by a woman whose recklessness led her toward disaster. + +"She's plum askin' fer hit--beggin' fer hit," grinned Lute Brown who +with a single companion strode along a wet and tangled trail shortly +after sunrise. "An' I reckon she'll get hit." + +Soon after Alexander had taken her departure those interested in town +also began drifting toward the outbound trail. There must be, for +every campaign, a rear-guard as well as an advance. + +But the three to whose earnest advice the young woman from +Shoulder-blade had turned a deaf ear, had not been content to accept +dismissal--or inactivity. Halloway and Sellers knew that the dangers +of which she made little could not be blinked at and they dared not +trust to luck nor rely solely upon her dauntlessness to see her through. + +As for Halloway he had left Coal City under cover of the dawn's +twilight, while the white fog of mountain mornings still veiled the +world. He had gone on foot since, with his tireless strength, he could +so travel across the "roughs" at better than a mounted pace and be less +cumbered. His destination was the telegraph office at Viper. Jerry +O'Keefe and a handful of others were to mobolize inconspicuously +there--though they were to remain seemingly disconnected and await his +instructions. Brent was to come on later and in his command, though +not in his immediate company, were to be Bud Sellers and several more. + +The chief difficulty, of course, lay in communication. It was rather a +matter of groping in the dark, and the only plan which had seemed +feasible had been to divide the intervening country into zones and to +arrange outwardly innocent signals which should designate the locality +in which it might become imperative to gather and strike. Telephones +were few, and those that existed purely local in radius, but since +mining properties were dotted over the terrain there were, here and +there, scattered "talkin' boxes." + +By neither telegraph nor 'phone would it be practicable to talk +frankly, but Halloway meant to learn what he could, and Brent was to +call him up from time to time--if he could. His inquiries would be +couched in questions as to possible purchases of timber for next +season's cutting and the germ of the reply would be suggestions of +locations--which he would understand. + +Alexander rode on alone and the ways were, at first, as deserted as +though they had never been fashioned for human usage. Between Coal +City and Viper lay a distance of ten miles but they were zig-zag and +semi-perpendicular miles with torrential waters to be forded. She +meant to ride only about four of them before abandoning her mule for +the detour on foot. But when she had left the town only a little way +two horsemen came up behind her. She knew neither of them, and they +were immature boys, with the empty and vacuous faces of almost +degenerate illiteracy. They seemed unarmed but since it was vital to +Alexander's scheme to ride unwatched it became important to have them +either go ahead or to distance them. Accordingly she urged her mule +into a lumbering canter and when a turn of the road had been reached +slowed down only to discover with a backward glance that the others had +galloped too, and were still close in her rear. Crossing a brook, she +paused to let her mule drink and they passed her slowly, staring with +the unabashed fixity and hanging jaws at the unaccustomed sight of a +woman riding astride in the clothing of a man. Then they went forward +at a snail's pace. + +Alexander could feel no degree of security until the timber masked her +course and whether by intent or accident, these chance fellow wayfarers +had become a definite menace. So, fretting at the delay, she waited +there for some time, and when she made the next turning, she saw them +waiting with no apparent purpose in life save to pass and repass her. + +She rode by again, this time with an angry coloring of her cheeks and +shook her lazy beast into a trot. Behind her trotted the two. + +Eventually the girl drew rein, squarely and belligerently confronting +the troublesome though inoffensive looking pair. + +"Hain't I got a license ter travel ther highway without bein' follered +an' bedeviled," she demanded angrily, and the two youths seemed at +first too abashed for speech. One of them, who was an almost albino +blond, flushed to the roots of his pale hair. + +"I reckon hit jest chanced thet-a-way," he stammered. "We kinderly +happens ter be travelin' ther same direction, an' goin' ther same rate, +thet's all." + +"Well don't let hit chanst thet way no more!" Her eyes were flaming +now with a blue light like burning alcohol. "You choose yore gait an' +let me choose mine. Take ther road or give hit, either way." + +The second lad had found his tongue by this time and he elected to use +it truculently. + +"This high-road's public property, I reckon," he announced. "A man kin +ride as he sees fit." + +Alexander could not afford to parley and the suspicion was strong upon +her that the twain were less guileless than their seeming. She flashed +out a revolver and issued an ultimatum. "I warns ye both now. I'm +agoin' ter stand right hyar long enough ter count a hundred. If either +one of ye's in sight at ther end of thet time, I'm ergoin' ter begin +shootin'. Ef I sees ye ergin naggin' round me from now on, I'm goin' +ter begin shootin' too,--an' shoot ter kill." + +She meant it, and after a questioning glance they knew that she meant +it. With some grumbled incoherence, they went on. They even went at a +gallop, and Alexander saw them no more. But perhaps even after that +they saw her. + + +Halloway came early into the hamlet of Viper, bedraggled with travel. +He knew that among the men about him must be at least several +accomplices to the conspiracy which he sought to defeat. He had been +in Coal City for only a few days past and never in Viper until now; so +until someone drifted in who remembered his interference at the tavern +he would not necessarily be recognized as having any connection with +Alexander's affairs. Indeed he had been seen with her so little that +he might altogether escape association with her in the minds of these +fellows. On the other hand any stranger would in all probability be +held under unremitting surveillance and he must therefore proceed with +extreme caution. + +Jerry O'Keefe was lounging about the streets, gossiping with +acquaintances, but when Halloway passed him and brushed his shoulders, +neither gave any sign of recognition and Halloway brought up at last, +though with seeming aimlessness, at the telegraph office. + +There, besides the man who sat at the key, he discovered three others, +all of unfamiliar mien, but he gathered from the scowls which they bent +on him that he was something less than welcome. Palpably the present +occupants of that small room preferred to remain uninterrupted in the +discussion of such matters as might arise, yet they did not wish to +manifest open or undue anxiety to a stranger. + +"Howdy, men," began the new arrival affably as he stood towering over +the telegraph operator. Then looking down at that person he added with +awkward, back-country diffidence: "Stranger, be ye ther feller thet +works thet thar telegraph?" + +The seated man looked up and nodded. + +"I promised a man by ther name of Brent back thar in Coal City ter +kinderly see ef anybody along ther road I come hed any timber they +sought ter sell." The giant still spoke with a hulking shyness. "I +hain't l'arned nothin', because I come through soon in ther mornin' an' +ther roads was empty, but I reckon I'd better send him a message ter +thet effect." + +Halloway noticed that, as he talked, the other men watched him narrowly +though, as he glanced in their direction, they fell at once into a +semblance of carelessness. The operator grunted, as he shoved forward +a blank with the instructions, "write out your telegram." + +Halloway modestly thrust back the paper. + +"I kin write--some----" he said, "but not skeercely good enough fer +thet. I 'lowed I'd get ye ter do hit fer me. Just say I haven't +heered of no timber fer sale. His name's Will Brent an' mine's Jack +Halloway." + +As the seated man grudgingly scribbled, the newcomer lounged lazily +nearby, but just as the man at the key was about to begin sending, his +instrument fell into a frenzied activity. Halloway thought that the +other loiterers, who were really no more genuinely loitering than +himself, made a poor showing of indifference, and that their attitudes +betrayed their eagerness of waiting for whatever was coming over. + +Finally the electric chatter ended. The seated man had cut in once or +twice with questions, and at the end he rose from his chair, not with a +regularly transcribed message, but with a few hastily jotted notes on a +sheet of paper in his hand. + +Impulse had brought him to his feet but he stood hesitant, bethinking +himself of the presence of the interloper, and Halloway broke in with a +drawling inquiry pitched to a stupid inflection. + +"Did ye send my message, Stranger? Did they say he war there?" + +The operator flung him a churlish glance and a short answer. "Thet +office was busy," he said. "They didn't hev no time ter take your talk +jest now." Then with exaggerated carelessness he turned to one of the +other loungers. "Joe, ef ye'll come inter ther baggage room, I'll see +ef thet express parcel o' yourn's in thar. I think hit came afore ther +high-water." + +"I reckon," murmured Halloway disappointedly, "I'll hev ter wait a +spell an' see kin I git my man later on," and making that observation +he settled into his chair with a seeming of permanent intent. + +Meanwhile, in the privacy of the baggage room, the station-agent was +whispering excitedly to his companion. The man in his chair beyond the +door could of course hear no word of that hurried conference, but after +all he had no need to do so. He had read its essence at first hand +from the wire and it had run about like this: + +"She driv two of our fellows back with a pistol when they sought to +follow her, but she left her mule and turned into the timber five miles +this side of Coal City." + +Halloway had congratulated himself that to this extent at least +Alexander had succeeded, but his pleasure had been short-lived for the +operator here at Viper had flashed back the interrogation, "What then," +and the other--who Halloway figured must be cutting in from Wolf-Pen +Gap--rapped out the disquieting reply: + +"They're combin' ther timber fer her. Have your boys there head her +off at the mouth of Chimney-pot Fork in case she circles round the Gap." + +A detail which might prove important struck Halloway as he listened. +He had recognized the sending from the other end as a man may recognize +a speaking voice. + +It had been years since he had himself operated a key; but like many +adept telegraphers he could distinguish not only the dots and dashes of +the code, but also the individual peculiarities of their rapping out. +Now he would have been willing to take oath that the hand which had +sent this news was the same quick, sure hand that he had watched at +work yesterday. + +That would indicate that Wicks had either deserted his post at Coal +City, or left it in charge of a relief man, and that he had come to +Wolf-Pen to operate a disused key nearer the scene of action. + +Through the open door of the telegraph office Halloway, now burning +with impatience, could see Jerry O'Keefe strolling aimlessly along the +sidewalk a half a block away. Jerry too was waiting for instructions +and ready, once he had received them, to lead his own force out, with +that light in his eye that had dwelt there when he first saw Alexander. + +Halloway rose, yawned, and stretched himself. As he did so his hands +almost brushed the ceiling. + +"I reckon," he asserted, "I won't tarry no longer. Mebby I'll come +back again." But before he had reached the threshold the operator and +his companion stood looking on from the baggage room door. Even +unlettered Machiavellis must have their flashes of inspiration, +premonition, "hunch," or whatever you may choose to call it. Suddenly, +into the telegrapher's consciousness flashed the suspicion that in the +departure of this unknown observer lurked some hidden menace. In what +that danger lay he was all at sea but it was a thing he felt and upon +which he acted. The knight of the ticker jerked his head and raised a +hand, and before Halloway's own arms had descended from the heights to +which his yawn had stretched them, he found two pistols squarely +presented to his broad chest, and heard a voice instruct with +unmistakable finality, "Keep them hands up!" + +Keeping them up, Halloway could still see across the shoulders of his +captors the distant figure of Jerry O'Keefe but with him he could not +communicate. + +As he stood, rapidly thinking, it occurred to him that his strength and +agility might perhaps even yet avail him. With a lunge he might carry +down the two armed figures and escape, but before undertaking that he +turned his head for a backward glance and decided against the +experiment. Besides the Station Agent stood the third fellow, also +with a drawn and leveled weapon. + +The Operator spoke again somewhat nervously. He had acted so +strenuously on pure impulse and not without a certain misgiving. Now +he felt the need of some explanation. + +"Boys, when that instrument ticked a while back," he mendaciously +asserted, "hit was ther town marshal at Coal City talkin'. He +described this man an' said he was wanted thar fer settin' ther hotel +on fire day before yesterday. We hain't got no choice but ter hold +him." + +Going to the drawer of his desk the speaker produced a pair of +handcuffs and rattled them as he explained, "Ther revenue man left +these hyar. Put 'em on him, Joe." + +With the two pistols still pressed close Halloway slowly lowered his +wrists and submitted to the indignity of their shackling. Had any +human possibility of a break for freedom presented itself he would have +embraced it, but the three guns had the look of business and the three +faces back of them were flinty with purpose. + +As the locks snapped into the grooves of the bracelets the telegrapher +commented in sardonic afterthought. + +"Ther revenuer fergot ter leave ther key. I don't know how we'll ever +git them things loose ergin." + +They led him at once back into a dark corner of the baggage room and +bestowed him there in a chair, where with a revolver against his +temple, they gagged him and lashed him by waist and legs. His hands +being sufficiently manacled they did not bind further. + + +Alexander had, when she came to a place which was rocky enough to leave +no footprints, slipped from her saddle, taken her rifle and saddle-bags +from their fastenings and disappeared into the timber. The mule she +knew would sooner or later be recognized and returned to the stable, +but she did not want it recognized too promptly so she led it with her +into the woods and turned it loose well up on the mountain side. From +that moment she disappeared with a completeness which attested her +woodcraft. It was as though she had been and then had ceased to be. +The way she elected to go followed the crests, since it is better when +"hiding-out" to look down than to be looked down upon. + +The sodden woods gave a quieter footing than had they been frosty and +brittle underfoot, but even had it been otherwise she had the art of +silent movement. + +She knew that sooner or later her ruse would be discovered by the +watchers of the conspiracy, but she asked only two hours of freedom. +After that she would be as difficult to find as the rabbit that has +gained the heart of the briar patch. + +Once lying high up on a sheer and poroused precipice, she had seen a +party of horsemen ride by, far below, and she laughed inwardly to +herself, guessing at their purpose and object. + +She came eventually to the sharp spur where that particular stretch of +ridge ended in a precipitous break. That meant that she must for +awhile go down to lower and more perilous levels. This was the final, +dubious stage of her journey and with it behind her, she would feel +that she had won through to security. + +Because she was young and strong enough to laugh at fatigue and bold +enough to find a certain joy in recklessness, her spirits began to +mount. There are huntsmen who will tell you that the wily and +experienced fox comes to relish the chase more keenly than the pack +which courses him. Alexander went on with a smile in her eyes. + +But when she had gone down into the cloistered shadows of the valley +her spirits descended too and when she slipped through the thickets and +reached a certain point, something like despair tightened about her +heart. Across the line of her march boiled a freshet which might as +well have been a river. To swim it with her impediments was impossible +and though it might carry her dangerously close to the road which she +sought to avoid, she had no choice. She must follow it until a +crossing developed. + +As a woodsman, Alexander acknowledged few peers but this was to her, +unfamiliar country. She was moreover pitting her skill against one who +was her equal if not her superior, and who knew every trail and by-way +hereabouts. He was a youth with a vacuous, almost idiotic face, whom +she had that same day encountered. He had left her sight, but had +never been too remote to follow or gauge her course and what he learned +he relayed to others. In due time he had known without going further +just where she must bring up--for he knew the condition of that +stream--and its crossings. + +The girl came, in due course, upon a broken litter of giant boulders, +each the size of a small house, which lay scattered where at last the +water grew shallow. She could even make out a point where one might +cross dryshod by leaping from rock to rock. + +It was in a fashion a place of mystery and foreboding, for each of +those titanic rocks, with its age-long smoothness and greenness was a +screen whose other side might harbor things only to be guessed. There +one must risk an ambuscade, trusting to one's star, and Alexander +loosened her pistol and shifted her saddle-bags to her left shoulder +and her rifle to her left hand. + +Then she started forward---and one by one left the boulders behind her +until she came to the last. As she rounded the final shoulder of +sandstone her hand was knocked up and her pistol fell clattering. + +Her ambuscaders had known a thing which she had not--that for all the +roomy freedom of the woods she must come out at last through this one +passage--as wine must come out through the neck of the bottle. + +About her closed a tightly grouped handful of men whose faces were +masked and whose bodies were covered by the uniformity of black rubber +coats. + +Alexander did not surrender tamely. With the strength and the +desperation of a tigress she gave them battle, until the sheer force of +their numbers had smothered her into helplessness. Her coat was ripped +and her shirt hung in tatters from one curved shoulder before they +pinioned her and silenced her lips with a bandage. + +After that they blind-folded her and carried her up and down hill, +twisting beyond all chance of guessing the course, to a place where the +air was cool with that freshness of quality that characterizes a +cavern. There they stood her upright and removed the bandage. + +About her was a flare of torches and the grotesque play of shadows +between the grotto-like walls of an abandoned coal mine. About her too +ranged in the spectral formality of masked faces and black rubber +coats; of peaked hats with low turned brims, stood the circle of her +captors. + +"Now, Alexander McGivins," proclaimed a deep and solemnly pitched +voice, "ye stands before ther dread an' awful conclave of ther order of +ther Ku-Klux; ther regulators of sich as defies proper an' decorous +livin'. We charges ye with unwomanly shamelessness an' with ther +practicin' of witchcraft." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +For a moment as she turned observant eyes about the walls of the place +to which she had been brought, Alexander almost hoped that the +astonishing statement of the spokesman was a true one--that in store +for her, instead of robbery and possible outrage, lay only the judgment +of the punitive clan. Such punishment might be brutally severe but she +could face it in such fashion as would vindicate her claim of playing a +man's game in a man's way. + +So she stood there meeting the eyes that glared at her through the slit +masks with a splendid assumption of scorn and defiance. She was keyed +to that mood which makes it possible for martyrs to acquit themselves, +even at the stake, with a victorious disdain. + +Through this section of the mountains there had never been, since +reconstruction days, any survival of the Ku-Klux in a true sense, but +now and then, as in all wild and violent countries, sporadic +"regulations" occurred in which masked men took a faltering law into +their own less faltering hands. Sometimes it was a bastard Ku-Klux in +the original meaning of the term, a Vigilance Committee operating +against abuses which the law failed to check. Oftener it was a +masquerade behind which moved designs of personal hatred and vengeance. +Sometimes the wife-beater or the harlot was punished. Sometimes the +stronger enemy persecuted the weaker. + +While Alexander waited for the next development, her captors prolonged +the silence in order that the suspense of unguessed things should sap +her courage. + +The entrance through which they had come showed only as a darker spot +in the shadowed vagueness of a far wall of rock, but there was a +squareness about it which suggested a mineshaft. The walls themselves +were streaked with black seams of coal and dug into tunnels that led in +unknown directions. + +The place was lighted by several lanterns of feeble power and a number +of pine torches, and between the spot where they had stationed her and +the crescent of dark figures that stood as silent accusers and judges, +ran a trickling rivulet of water. At that detail Alexander smiled, for +she knew that it was part and parcel of the absurdity contained in the +allegation of witchcraft. The black art is powerless, by mountain +tradition, to cross running water. + +A bat fluttered zig-zag about the place brushing her cheek, but +Alexander was not the sort of woman to be frightened by a bat. + +When the calculated silence had held for perhaps five full minutes, the +standing men meanwhile remaining as motionless as though they were +themselves carved from coal, Alexander spoke. + +"Why don't ye say somethin'," she demanded. "I've got friends thet'll +be s'archin' these hills fer me right vigorous ef I don't git ter Viper +in good time." + +It was a bold and provocative speech, but it failed to tempt the silent +men out of the pose they had assumed. They knew the effect of +protracted silence and impending danger to sap even an assertive +courage and for five other minutes they stood wordless and motionless. +Only their shadows moved under the torch-light, wavering fitfully from +small to large, from light to dark like draperies in a wind. + +Finally the man at the center who appeared to exercise a sort of +command moved a step forward and raised both hands. The others lifted +high their right arms and in a sepulchral voice the spokesman demanded, +"Does ye all solemnly sw'ar, by ther dreadful oath ye've done tuck, +with yore lives forfeit fer disloyalty or disobedience, ter try this +wench on ther charge of outragin' decorum--an' practicin' ther foul +charms of witchcraft? Does ye all sw'ar ter deal with her in full an' +unmitigated jestice despite thet she s'arves Satan with a comely face +and a comely body? Does ye all sw'ar?" + +The raised hands, with a unanimous and solemn gesture, fell over the +hearts of the questioned and then came aloft once more, still as if +with a single nerve impulse. In a unison out of which no separate +voice emerged sounded the reply: "We does!" + +Alexander laughed, but it must be confessed that that was pure bravado. +She knew that on the backwaters of many creeks were cabins where simple +folks invoked charms against witchcraft and did so with genuine dread. +She knew that many others, less candid, laughed at old superstitions +yet acknowledged them in their hearts. In her case the witchcraft +charge was of course a cloak for subterfuge, but it was a jest which +might bear bitterly serious results. + +"Alexander McGivins," began the spokesman afresh, "we charges ye with +these weighty matters; thet ye glories in callin' yoreself a +he-woman--refusin' ter accept God's mandate an' castin' mortification +on yore own sex by holdin' on ter shameless notions. We charges ye +with settin' ther example of unwomanly behavior before ther eyes of +young gals, an' we aims ter make a sample of ye. + +"We furthermore charges ye with practicin' witchcraft; with castin' +spells an' performin' devil's work." He wheeled and demanded suddenly; +"Number Thirteen, I calls on ye ter step forward an' testify. How does +witches gain thar black powers?" + +The answering voice, was plainly disguised, and it came with the +lugubrious quality of calculated awesomeness. + +"By compact with Satan." + +"Number Thirteen, how is sich-like compacts made?" + +"Thar's ways an' ways. A body kin go up ter a mounting top fer nine +nights an' shoot through a kerchief at ther moon, cussin' ther Almighty +each separate time, an' ownin' Satan fer master." + +"Number Thirteen, what powers does Satan give these hyar sarvants of +his'n?" + +"They gains ther baleful power ter kill folks with witch balls, rolled +tight outen ther hair of a cow or a varmint. By runnin' a hand over a +rifle gun they kin make hit shoot crooked. They kin spell a houn' dog +so thet he back-tracks 'stid of trailin' for'ards. They kin bring on +all manner of pestilence an' make cows go dry an' hosses fling their +riders. They kin----" + +"Thet's enough, Number Thirteen," announced the spokesman. "Thet's a +lavish of evil. How kin they be hindered from this deviltry?" + +"Thar's means of liftin' spells, but nothin' save death hitself cures +ther witches." + +"Number Thirteen, how does ye go about hit, ter slay a witch?" + +"By shootin' with a silver bullet run outen a mould thet's done been +rubbed with willow-sprigs." + +"Number Thirteen, in the event of need, hev ye got sich a bullet hyar?" + +"Each one of us hes got one." + +Once more the apparent head of the clan turned to the girl. "Woman, +air ye guilty or not guilty?" + +"I reckon," suggested Alexander coolly, "ye'd better ask Number +Thirteen. He 'pears ter know 'most everything." + +But the spokesman declined to be lured by frivolous taunt from his +vantage ground of solemnity. He turned his head and gravely inquired: +"Number Thirteen, how does ye det'armine ther guilt of a witch?" + +"Ef a preacher comes nigh, she kain't help turnin' her back." + +"I reckon we hain't skeercely got no preacher handy ter test her with," +interrupted the master of ceremonies drily, and the other went on. + +"Ef she stays hyar 'twell midnight a sperit in ther guise of a black +cat'll appear ter do her biddin'." + +On the ground lay the saddle-bags and the rifle; as yet unmolested. +Before they had loosened the blindfold from her eyes she had been +subjected to the needless indignity of bound wrists and now she was +entirely helpless. + +Her coat hung on her tattered during the struggle and her flannel shirt +had been rent until both garments sagged from her shoulders, leaving +bare the white curves of their flesh. The circle had fallen silent +again. It remained silent for a half hour, then the man who had acted +as chief inquisitor drew aside that other whom Alexander knew only as +Number Thirteen, and, apart, they conferred in lowered voices. In the +manner of these two, the captive recognized indications of anxiety. +Palpably some detail of their plans had gone awry and that miscarriage, +whatever its nature, was troubling their peace of mind. Had she +understood more fully it would likewise have troubled her. + +The conventional and successful course of highway robbery runs in the +channel of a swift accomplishment and a rapid getaway. Yet this crew, +leaving the saddle-bags uninvestigated at their feet, were solemnly +playing out their farce at the expense of valuable time--time which +should have stood for miles put between themselves and pursuit. + +Was the difficulty that of disposing of her? If so, she stood face to +face with a stark and grim extremity. Murder and concealment of a +lifeless body, here, would be easy enough. These men were desperadoes, +and if dire enough need pressed them they would not, she thought, balk +overlong at the idea of killing a woman. + +Yet the leader, studiously maintaining his Ku-Klux masquerade, parleyed +with his underlings and consulted a heavy nickel-cased watch. His +gesture showed a petulant impatience. The men in the silent circle +stirred uneasily and from time to time low growls broke from their +muffled lips. Obviously they were awaiting some development which +though overdue had not materialized. + +The half hour became an hour, then doubled itself to a full two--in +oppressive silence. + +"What be ye awaitin' fer?" Alexander demanded in a taunting voice, +though inwardly she felt that the peril was pregnant and immediate. +The only satisfaction she could deny them now was that of any confessed +fear. + +This time the speaker snarled his answer back at her angrily, without +any consistent attempt at holding the ritualistic impressiveness of +manner. + +"Mebby we're waitin' fer midnight--twell ther black cat comes." + +Alexander could not guess that all these malefactors were on +tenterhooks of misgiving because the arrangement entered into as a +concession to the vanity of Jase Mallows had failed; the fictitious +rescue which was to re-establish him in the eyes of the girl and give +to them the chance to practice highway robbery, still stopping short of +murder. The whole scheme had been cut to that pattern and it was now +too late to evolve a new strategy. The trial was to have seemed +genuine. It was to have been followed by a fictitious battle in which +the alleged regulators were to have been put to flight by the +victorious entry of Jase himself with his underlings. The girl, +snatched from the jaws of death by his valor would henceforth rest +under such obligations as could be recompensed only by her favor--but +in the melee, her money would disappear. + +Jase had not come--and the captive whom he was to take off their hands +must either be done to death or liberated with a wagging tongue. + +Eventually the masked head-highwayman led two of his men aside. He +recognized that having compacted with Jase they could not ignore him. +In a whisper he ventured the suggestion, "Mebby Jase hes done come ter +grief. Mebby we'd better kill ther gal atter all an' git away. But if +we does we've got ter git Jase afore he has time ter blab an' hang us +all." + + +Halloway spending a long and dreary day bound to his chair in the +baggage-room at Viper had succeeded in wriggling his lips free of the +bandage. As yet that was only an academic victory. Unless there stood +in the room where the instrument ticked a sufficiently strong force of +his friends to wage a successful battle, any sound from his lips would +mean only death for them and himself--without material advantage to his +cause. + +Twice during his long inactivity the raucous sound of a telephone bell +jangled and he heard a voice replying to some inquiry, "No, he hain't +been here." The question so answered, he guessed, had come from Brent +seeking to locate him and confer with him as he came along the road +between Coal City and Viper. He thought very grimly and with bitter +futility of the force waiting so near and so eagerly keyed to action +under O'Keefe, which one minute of private speech would launch into a +hurricane effectiveness. In mad moments he had even tried to break the +chain between the steel bracelets that bit into his wrists. His Samson +strength had strained until the arteries swelled in his temples and it +has been almost enough--but not quite. A link had stretched a bit, but +the wrists had been so lacerated that the effort had to be abandoned. + +Then when the day was spent towards late afternoon he caught the +chatter of the key again, somewhat confused by the intervening wall, +but though he missed part of the message he caught a few words which +were pregnant with meaning . . . "got her . . . in mine shaft . . . +back of Gap." + +Now, Halloway told himself, as tortured sweat of suspense dripped down +his face, he must somehow convey word to Jerry O'Keefe--but how? He +had the facts--the location--the certainty and he could use none of his +vital information. + +He twisted his two gyved hands around and got one of them into his coat +pocket. He brought out the pipe which he could neither fill nor light, +but there was a certain steadying comfort in feeling its cool stem +between his teeth. + +During the captive's leisure for reflection he had been pondering one +point which had puzzled him. From what telegraph office out there in +the wilds was Wicks acting as intelligence bureau? Obviously he must +be near the Gap itself as the station wire followed the railroad. + +Then he remembered a device that he had seen used about mining +properties and laughed at his own stupidity in remaining as long +baffled. The few telephones hereabouts were party lines where all +conversation could be overheard and so, for the use of highwaymen, they +were unavailable. Wicks had merely brought a key, a battery and a +ground wire with him and he had cut in on a telephone line. There +were, he remembered now, two instruments on the operator's table here. +One was the twin to the thing upon which the resourceful Wricks was +playing. + + +Brent and Bud Sellers had ridden with spirits rapidly sinking since +they had drawn near to that territory which lay adjacent to Wolf-Pen +Gap. The failure to reach Halloway by 'phone at Viper was a bad +augury, since it left them in the position of an army whose +intelligence bureau has collapsed. + +The two horsemen had ridden through wintry forests along steep and +difficult roads where it seemed that they alone represented humanity. +Of course Alexander, herself, might be traveling as uneventfully as +themselves, but they could feel no great confidence in that hope and +now there was nothing to do but to push on to Viper, perhaps passing by +spots where they were sorely needed, as they went, and to try to find +Halloway, whose silence left them groping in the dark. + +Will Brent was, in the sense of present requirements, no woodsman. He +knew the forests as a lumber expert knows them, but the seemingly +trivial and minute indications that another might have read, carried +for him no meaning. + +However, he put his dependence in Bud Sellers whose knowledge of such +lore amounted to wizardry, and at one point Bud halted abruptly gazing +down with absorbtion from his saddle. + +"Right hyar," he said shortly, "Alexander stopped an' hed speech with +two horsemen. Ther looks of hit don't pleasure me none nuther." + +"Why?" inquired Brent, and the mountaineer drew his brow into an +apprehensive furrow. "Fer a spell back, I've been watchin' these signs +with forebodin's. Alexander wasn't ridin' at no stiddy gait. She'd +walk her mule, then gallop him--then she'd pull down an' halt. These +other two riders did jest what she did--kain't ye read ther story writ +out in ther marks of them mule-irons on ther mud?" + +Brent shook his head in bewilderment. + +"Well, hit's all too damn plain an' hit would 'pear ter signify that +Alexander sought ter shake off two fellers thet didn't low ter be shook +off. Right hyar they all stopped, an' parleyed some." + +"Why?" + +"Because three mules stood hyar fer a leetle spell--ye kin see whar +they stomped, an' movin' mules don't stomp twice or thrice over ther +same spot. Then two of 'em went on gallopin'--and one went on walkin'. +Yes this is whar she got rid of 'em, but I misdoubts ef they lost sight +of her." + +A little further Bud showed Brent where the two mules had turned aside +to the right and, a mile further on, where Alexander had also abandoned +the main road and gone to the left. + +"She held ter ther highway a mile further then she 'lowed ter," growled +Sellers. "Thar's jest one reasonable cause fer thet. She knowed she +war bein' spied on, an' she aimed ter shake 'em off. I wonder _did_ +she shake 'em off." + +When they had almost reached the Gap itself and were proceeding warily +they came to a narrow ford at whose edge Bud drew rein. + +"Let's pause an' study this hyar proposition out afore we rides on any +further," he suggested. + +It was a particularly wild and desolate spot where the road bent so +sharply that they had turned a corner and come upon the crossing of the +water without a previous view. They had been riding toward what had +seemed a sheer wall of bluff, and that abrupt angle had brought them to +a point where the road dipped sharply down and lost itself in the +rapidly running waters of a narrow creek. On the opposite shore the +road came out again with a right-angle turn to thread its course along +a shelf of higher ground as a narrow cornice might run along a wall. +Below was a drop to the creek; above the perpendicular uplift of the +precipice. + +"This hyar's ther commencement of Wolf-Pen Gap," Bud Sellers +enlightened his companion. "This is just erbout whar they aimed ter +lay-way her at. I shouldn't marvel none ef some of 'em's watchin' us +from them thickets up on thet bluff right now." + +"Then let's hurry across," Brent nervously suggested. "Once we get +over the stream the cliff itself will shield us. They can't shoot +straight down." + +"Oh, I reckon they don't hardly aim ter harm us," reassured Bud. "An' +anyhow we've got ter tutor this matter jest right. Thet creek's norrer +but hit's deep beyond fordin'. We needs must swim our mules acros't." + +Brent shuddered at the sight of the chill water but Bud went on +inexorably. "Now, ye've got ter start as fur up es ye handily +kin--because ther current's swift--an' if hit carries yer beyond thet +small bend ye comes out in quicksand. Jest foller me. I'll go fust." + +Brent had faced a number of adventures of late, but for this newest one +he had little stomach. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and prepared +to go ahead and follow his companion's lead, since need left no +alternative. + +As Bud's mule thrust its fore-feet into the creek's edge the creature +balked and the young man kicked him viciously. Brent was waiting with +bated breath when abruptly from overhead came the clean, sharp bark of +a rifle. Brent's hat went spinning from his head and he felt the light +sting of a grazing wound along his scalp. It seemed to be in the same +instant that he heard Bud's revolver barking its retort towards the +point from which the flash had gleamed. There followed a second report +and the zip of a bullet burying itself in wood, and then he heard Bud +yelling, "Go on!" + +Realizing that once across the narrow stream he would be under shelter, +he kicked and belabored his mule to the take-off. There was a downward +plunge, a floundering in the icy water, and then an unsteady sensation +as the beast struck out to swim. The current had taken its effect so +that mule and rider were being carried down channel faster than they +were gaining across, but Brent instinctively turned his head to see +what had become of his guide. + +He saw an unbelievable thing. The mountaineer upon whose coolness and +courage he had absolutely relied had not ventured the crossing at all! +He had wheeled after firing and kicked his mount into wild flight, +making for the protection of the turn about which they had come. Twice +before he gained safety the rifle above spat out venomously, but missed +the fleeing target. + +Such a confusion seized upon Brent that he never knew how he got across +that creek. Ahead had lain quicksand, above a rifle in the laurel and +in his own entrails an overpowering nausea of betrayed confidence. His +comrade had deserted him--had run away! + +Somehow, his own mount had won across and was plodding up to solid +roadway once more and there safe, for the moment at least, he halted +and looked back. + +Hoping against hope, Brent waited for five minutes with a clammy sweat +on his forehead, but there was still no sign of a returning Bud +Sellers. Then Brent unwillingly admitted that it was a pure and +unmitigated case of desertion under fire. + +"My God," he groaned. "He quit me cold--quit like a dog! He simply +cut and ran!" + +With a sickened heart he rode on. His head ached from the near touch +of the assassin's bullet. He was not even watching for a second +ambuscade, and fortunately for him, there was none. But with dulled +observation he passed by a place where, close to the road, a shaft ran +back into an abandoned coal mine and he followed his dejected course +without suspecting that at that moment Alexander was being held a +prisoner in the cavern to which that shaft gave access. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The men who had come into town for the purpose of co-operating with +Jerry O'Keefe and with Halloway had of course drifted in singly and +with no seeming of cohesion. It was vital that they should avoid any +manifest community of purpose, yet they were armed, ready and alert, +awaiting only a signal to gather out of scattered elements into a +close-knit force with heavy striking-power. + +As they waited through the day for the call which did not come they +began to feel the dispirited gloom of men keyed to action and kept +interminably waiting--but none of them dropped away. + +It was close to sundown when Brent himself arrived, and since he failed +to encounter Jerry O'Keefe on the streets he did not pause to search +for him, but went direct to the telegraph office. It had not been +disclosed to O'Keefe how close to the heart of the conspiracy was the +operator and the young man with the Irish eyes had not been stirred to +any deep suspicion in that quarter. + +Brent himself had not considered it a reasonable assumption that to +such a powerful fellow as Halloway harm could come in so public a +place. Yet Halloway had meant to make that office his headquarters and +now Brent made it his first destination. + +Through the open door and the smeared window spilled out a yellow and +sickly light. + +Inside sat two men, but a glance told Brent that neither of them worked +the key. The pair were gaunt and sinister of aspect and they were not +town folk but creek-dwellers. One was evil-visaged to a point of +gargoyle hideousness. The other was little better, and he raised a +face to inspect the man in the door which some malignant sculptor might +have modeled in pure spite, pinching it viciously here and there into +sharp angles of grotesqueness. Yet in the eyes Brent recognized +keenness and determination. + +The newcomer casually inquired for the station agent and one of the +fellows stared at him morosely, making no reply. The other however, +supplied the curt information: "He's done gone out ter git him a snack +ter eat." + +"I'm looking for a man named Halloway," said Brent. "A big upstandin' +fellow. Maybe you men know him?" + +To the mountaineers who walk softly and speak low by custom it seemed +that the city man spoke with a volume and resonance quite needless in +such narrow confines. + +"I knows him when I sees him," admitted the man who had answered the +first question. The other remained dumb. + +"Has he been about here to-day?" + +"No." + +"I'll wait till the operator gets back," announced Brent with a +nonchalance difficult to maintain. + +He did not take a seat but stood, studiously appraising the place while +he seemed to see little. After the depression attendant upon Bud's +desertion had followed an almost electric keenness; every gesture was +guarded and every nerve set now against any self-betrayal, for he felt +himself fencing in the dark with wily adversaries. + +He sauntered idly over near the door to the baggage-room and beyond its +panels he could hear the scurry of rats at play among loose piles of +boxes and litter. + +"Sounds like the rats are having a party in there," he suggested as +though laudibly resolved upon making conversation in a taciturn circle. + +"Mebby they be." Still only one of the countrymen had spoken a +syllable. + +"I'd like to put a good rat-dog in there and watch him work," laughed +Brent, turning again to face the door as though he found fascination in +the thought. Then idly he laid his hand on the knob as though to try +its opening, but he went no further. Just at the side of the lintel +hung a broken and extremely dirty mirror and a quick glance into its +revealing surface told him a full story. He saw the man with the +pinched features reach swiftly back of him and slide a rifle away from +its concealed place against the wall. He saw the other's hand go +flash-like under his coat and under his left arm-pit. He caught in +both faces a sudden and black malignity which told him, beyond +question, that they would not play but would kill. + +Of course too he knew why and he made a point of standing there with +every evidence of having seen nothing or suspected nothing. + +After that first glance he also carefully avoided the mirror which +might work revelation to them as well as to himself. Eventually he +turned, not directly toward them but toward the other end of the room +and carelessly walked its length that he might give emphasis to his +unhurried seeming before he came slowly about. + +When he did so the two men sat as before. The rifle had already +disappeared. The hand that had swept holster-ward had swept out again. +Both faces were blankly unconcerned. + +Brent dropped into a chair near the door and listened as the clatter +inside increased. The rats scrambled about with a multiplicity of +light gnawing sounds and the clicking of some trifles unstably +balanced. Then slowly the clicking ceased to be random. + +It differed from the other little noises only to the practiced ears of +Brent himself. That was not because his ears were keener than the +other pairs, but because to others there was no comprehensible +connection between a faint tapping and the sequence of raps that spells +words in the Morse code. + +It was strange that from rats at play should issue the coherent sense +of consecutive telegraphy. + +Brent had been on the _qui-vive_, steadied against any self-betrayal, +yet now he struggled against the impulse to tremble with excitement. +His fingers gripping the chair arms threatened to betray him by their +tautness and he could feel cold perspiration dripping down his body. + +He crossed his legs and slouched more indolently into his chair in the +attitude of a bored and vacant-minded man--but as he sat his brain was +focussed on the clicking. + +"Am tied . . . up . . . here," spelled out the dots and dashes from the +baggage-room. "If you understand, scrape chair on floor." Brent +shifted his seat noisily. + +"She . . . is . . . caught. . . ." There was a pause there. + +"In God's name, how is he doing it?" Brent questioned himself, while +inside, bound to his chair, with cuffed wrists, Halloway went on +sending--rapping with a pipe stem between parted rows of strong teeth. + +"She is held . . . in mine-shaft . . . back of Gap. . . ." + +The pressure of concentrating on that faint, but infinitely important +sound, and the need of maintaining a semblance of weary dullness was +trying Brent's soul. He thanked Heaven for the taciturnity of his +companions. + +"Get there . . . with all men possible . . . as for me----" + +Brent came suddenly and noisily to his feet for just then the operator +appeared in the doorway and it would not do for these sounds to +continue after his coming. + +"Well, here comes the man I've been waiting for," he announced loudly, +and once more the clatter in the baggage-room became the random of rats +at play. "I wanted to ask you if you had any message for William +Brent, from a man named Halloway," he inquired, still speaking as if +against the wind, and, receiving a brief negative, he turned toward the +outer door. + +An exit under such circumstances is always difficult. To curb the urge +of haste, to remain casual under lynx-like eyes, these are not untrying +tasks. Any slip now and he might be in the same durance as Halloway +himself--and when he breathed the outer air it was with a deep-drawn +sigh of relief for delivery out of peril. + +When he had established connection with O'Keefe and had given him the +main facts, withholding, however, his sources of information, he said: +"We must get Halloway free before we start." + +"Like hell we must!" exploded Jerry. "So long es he lays thar they'll +figger they've done fooled us an' beat us. Ef we take him out, thar'll +be men in ther la'rel all the way we've got ter go, pickin' us off in +ther dark." + +"You're right," assented Brent, "but he's been there all day, I guess." + +"Wa'al then a leetle more hain't goin' ter hurt him none." + +Fifteen minutes later, leaving separately but timed to come to a +rendezvous near the point of attack a good dozen men were on the trail +to the Gap. + +Through wet and chilly thickets O'Keefe led Brent at a gait that made +his heart pound. There was a battle-joy in the mountaineer's eyes and +in them too, was something else inspired by certain dreams of the girl +he had seen only once and whom he had told himself he meant to marry. + +Over broken gulches, along precipitous paths he led the way buoyantly +and now and then he broke into low almost inaudible crooning of an +ancient love song. + + +Vainly the crew of highwaymen in the mine awaited the arrival of the +seeming rescuer who was to take their captive off their hands and +relieve them of the necessity of murder. It had been understood that +Jase was to employ only a few attackers in the accomplishment of this +knightly deed. Few men could be spared from other duties, and the +smaller the force which he led to victory the more lustrous would be +his glory of achievement. There was to be a great deal of shooting and +shouting through the narrow entrance to the place--and the exaggerating +echoes of the rocky confines would multiply it into a convincing din of +battle. + +The alleged Ku-Klux clansmen would fight their way out, leaving their +prisoner behind--and in the confusion--but not until then--the +saddle-bags would disappear. + +It was all very simple, and prettily adjusted, but the difficulty was +that Jase had failed to arrive and the act was lagging without its +climax. + +He failed because of unforeseen events. Pending the cue for his +entrance he and his fellow heroes were being employed as sentries +guarding the approaches to the place against invasion by outsiders. + +Jase himself had for several hours been lying as flat as a lizard under +a matted clump of laurel on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a ford +which could not be rapidly crossed. His function was to see to it that +no one passed there whose coming might prove an embarrassment. + +The rawness of the air caused his bones to ache and his muscles to +cramp, but he had been steadfast. He was playing for high stakes. +Finally two horsemen had appeared--and they were two who must not pass. +One of them was Brent and the other was Bud Sellers. + +So Jase had opened fire and Bud had returned it--returned it and fled. + +That left the sentinel with a result half successful and half +disastrous, and made it necessary for him to make a hurried short-cut +to another point past which Brent must shortly ride. There he would +finish the matter of disputing the road. + +Mallows drew himself out of his cramped ambuscade and started for his +new point, to the completion of his business--but before he had taken +many steps a sudden and violent distress assailed him. He pressed his +hand to his side with a feeling of vague surprise and it came away +blood-covered. He stopped and took account of his condition--and found +himself shot in the chest. In the excitement of the moment he had not +felt the sting, but now he was becoming rapidly and alarmingly weak. +He stumbled on, but several times he fell, and each time it was with a +greater burden of effort that he regained his feet. He clamped his +teeth and pressed doggedly forward, but the ranges began to swim in +giddy circles and a thickening fog clouded his eyes. When he dropped +down next time he did not rise again. + +As night fell in the mine the temper of the men there became +increasingly ugly. Some had recourse to the flasks that they carried +in their pockets, and as their blood warmed into an alcoholic glow, +their eyes, through the slits in their masks, began dwelling on +Alexander's beauty of figure and face with a menacing and predatory +greed. + +Alexander McGivins was in the most actual and imminent of conceivable +perils. + +The girl's hands were no longer bound. When the commander of the group +had realized that her imprisonment was not to terminate so shortly as +had been planned he had been magnanimous to the extent of freeing her +wrists, but he had granted her no further extension of freedom. + +The girl had given them no satisfaction of weakening nerve, but in her +heart she kept hidden a qualm as the time lengthened and a number of +the men went on drinking their fiery moonshine. + +The pack was growing restive, openly restive now, and after yet another +council among the more important bandits, the leader came over and made +an announcement. + +"Ther Clan aims now ter discuss yore case amongst themselves. We air +goin' ter leave four men hyar ter keep watch over ye whilst we're +away--an' them four has orders ter kill ye if ye seeks ter escape." + +He raised his hand above his head, and wheeling, marched out through +the shaft's opening, while behind him, trailing in single file and dead +silence, trooped all the henchmen save the four left on guard. +Alexander noted with a certain degree of satisfaction that the +saddle-bags were not removed by those who departed. + +The blazing pine torches went out with the small procession, leaving +the cavern gloomily shadowed. The only light came now from two +lanterns--and the girl sickened with the realization that at least one +of her jailers was drunk. + +As soon as the withdrawal of the chieftain brought a laxening of +discipline, he lurched over toward her and, crossing the trickle of +running water, bent forward, staring brazenly into her face. + +Only his eyes were visible, but they were bestial and lecherous. After +a little he thrust out a hand and stroked the white shoulder which the +torn clothing had left bare. Instantly, in a transport of white-hot +fury, the girl sprang sidewise and sought to drag the mask from his +face. But sodden as he was, the fellow still held to his instincts of +self protection. He twisted and seized her in a violent grip, +pinioning her arms at her sides. + + +In Alexander's lithe body dwelt a strength quite equal to a fair fight +and had it been a fair fight she would probably have made short work of +him. Now caught unexpectedly into helplessness she still writhed and +twisted, fighting with savage knee-blows until she had freed her right +hand and then she struck out with no feminine uncertainty. The fellow +reeled back, and Alexander followed him up with lightning speed. + +She had become a fury animated by a single purpose. She meant to +unmask her assailant and register his face for a future reprisal of +death. The man, recognizing that at all costs he must defeat that +recognition, was compelled to throw both elbows across his face and to +bear without further retaliation the blows she rained upon him--all +blows that were soundly effective. + +The thing happened quickly and for an instant the other three stood +looking on in astonishment--even, at first, with amusement. But as the +fellow backed across the tiny brook he tripped and he fell sprawling +and his out-thrown hand carried down and extinguished one of the +lanterns from its precarious niche on a small shelf of rock. + +Alexander, making most of her brief moment, leaped across the body that +had gone down and recovered from its place on top of the saddle-bags +the pistol that had been taken from her at the time of her capture. + +The three who had so far remained non-combatants could maintain that +role no longer. + +"Drop thet gun," yelled one as their own weapons leaped out. But +Alexander had thrown herself to the ground and at the same instant she +fired a single shot--not at any one of her jailers, but at the sole +remaining lantern, which was only ten feet distant. + +Then as the place went black she came to her feet and plunged through +the darkness to the opposite wall where she had marked a pulpit-like +rock that would give her temporary shelter. + +She guessed rightly that now for a while at least since she was known +to be armed, there would be a hesitation in the relighting of lanterns +or even in the striking of matches. That caution, in a situation which +had abruptly undergone a change of complexion, went farther. There was +even no sound of voices or of movement. + +Alexander herself was groping warily for the rock, setting down each +foot with extreme and noiseless caution. At last she gained the +protection which she sought and waited. She wished she might have +regained her rifle but that had not been lying within reach when she +made her hurricane entrance into action. + +There were remaining to her five cartridges in the revolver, and +somewhere there in the inky blackness about her were four men, +presumably ammunitioned without stint. Also their confederates would +shortly return, bearing flambeaux--and then her little moment of +advantage would end. Even if every cartridge at her command went +fatally home, the supply was inadequate to cope with such numbers. + +The silence hung with a suspense that was well nigh unendurable and +when the filthy wings of a bat brushed her cheek again she had to bite +the blood out of her lips to stifle an outcry. + +As black and seemingly as lifeless as the coal which men had sought +there was the cavern where she crouched. Alexander wondered why the +sound of her pistol, which must have thundered in ragged echoes through +the shaft, had not brought back the others. Now she was trapped and +there was no conceivable possibility of escape. At the touch of +unclean fingers she had seen red and struck out--and the rest had +followed as an avalanche follows a slipping stone. + +At last when the breathless stillness could no longer be borne, she +cautiously stooped and raked her hand back and forth until it came in +contact with a loose stone. She must force those silent antagonists to +some sort of action so she tossed the missile outward and as it struck +with a light clatter, a waiting pistol barked and Alexander's own +roared back at the tiny spurt of flame. + +Instantly, too, three others spoke, aimed at her flash and she heard +the spatter of lead against stone nearby. In the confined space the +fusillade bellowed blatantly, and slowly diminishing echoes lingered +after the firing itself ceased. Then once more the silence which was +more trying than gunnery settled. + +Slowly an idea dawned in the girl's mind, and strengthened into +conviction. If the main group who had trailed out with torches had +been anywhere nearby, that crescendo of noise must have recalled them +in hot haste. That they had not come back must indicate that they had +never meant to return. They had permanently departed, leaving her in +the hands of a quartette selected as a robbing party, and an execution +squad. With that realization the matter resolved itself into a new +phase. She would eventually be murdered here in this rat-hole unless +she could, one by one, shoot to death the four unseen men who were her +companions there. Four enemies stood between herself and freedom--and +four cartridges were left in her weapon. + +At last she crept cautiously out and made her tedious way to the center +of the place again. She must do something and the audacious plan born +of necessity involved the need of a light. If her hand felt flesh +instead, her pistol was ready. + +But after much noiseless groping she came upon the overturned lantern +and she had encountered nothing else. + +Back in the lee of the rock she boldly struck a match, kindled the +wick--and still as she reached up and set the thing on the boulder's +top the unbroken silence held. + +She had hoped to draw their fire and account for some of them at least, +but now as she peeped cautiously out she found to her astonishment that +except for herself the cavern was empty. + +She also became sure of another thing. Her saddle-bags were gone. + +She came out then and having repossessed herself of her rifle took up a +position well to one side of the shaft's opening where anyone who +entered must pass her muzzle, but she did not venture into the passage +itself because she was sure that that way lay an ambuscade. + +Then, beside the sickly illumination within, she recognized a new waver +of kerosene rays from beyond the entrance. + +There was no sound, except that of very stealthy feet, and the light +came slowly. + +Alexander hastened hack to her rock, holding close to the walls of the +cavern as she went, then ensconcing herself there, almost invisible in +the shadow, she waited with parted lips and a cocked rifle. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Time had hung heavy on Jack Halloway's hands after he had heard Brent +announce his departure. The chair scraped on the floor, had been his +only assurance that the other had understood him and that might, within +possibility, have been a coincidence. Still Brent's promptness in +cutting him off on the arrival of the operator had seemed a hopeful +sign indicating team-work. + +Halloway had declared himself a man who took joy in the savage strain +which that civilization had failed to quench out of his nature. Now +that strain was mounting into volcano stirrings presaging an eruption. +If he could free himself there would ensue a tempest of wreckage about +that railroad station such as Samson brought down between the pillars +of the temple--but no chances had been taken in his binding. + +He did not relish the thought of being left there over night, yet he +strongly doubted whether they would venture to take him out on the +streets in the sight of possible friends. + +He fell to wondering what they would do with him. Except in extremity, +they would hardly murder him out of hand, and yet to explain to him why +they had treated him so hardly, would be a delicate matter. But the +answer lay in the operator's total freedom from suspicion that his +captive had read the wire. So far as that backwoods Machiavelli +divined, there was no link establishing himself with the conspiracy to +rob, and when the time came he thought he could clear his skirts by a +simple means. + +Night had fallen when at last the prisoner heard the door open and saw +the Agent enter, accompanied by the two gunmen who had been his +companions that morning. They came with a lantern and the telegraph +man held a heavy rasp in his hand. Halting before the bound figure, he +spoke slowly and with a somewhat shamefaced note of apology. + +"I reckon I've got ter pray yore forgiveness, Stranger," he began. "A +right mean sort of mistake 'pears ter hev took place--but hit war one I +couldn't help without I defied ther law." + +"How's thet?" demanded Halloway shortly, and his informant went on. + +"When thet message come from ther town marshal at Coal City, he warned +us 'Violent man--take no chances.' Thet's why we fell on ye so severe +an' tied ye up so tight." + +"Wa'al," Halloway was schooling his demeanor warily into the middle +course between a too ready forgiveness and a too bellicose resentment, +"wa'al what air ye cravin' my pardon fer, then?" + +"We've done heered ergin from Coal City--an' ther town marshal says +thet hit war all a fool mistake--thar hain't no sufficient grounds ter +hold ye on. He bids me set ye free forthwith." + +"Go on, then, and do hit. I've done hed a belly-full of settin' here +strapped ter this cheer." + +But the operator hesitated. + +"Afore I turns ye loose, I'd like ter feel plum sartin thet ye hain't +holdin' no grudge." + +Halloway knew that, should he seem easily placated, he would not be +believed, so he spoke with a voice of stern yet just determination. + +"So holp me God, I aims ter demand full payment fer this hyar day--but +I aims ter punish ther right man. Ye says ye only acted on orders from +an officer, don't ye?" + +"Thet's true es text." + +"All right then, ye hain't ther man I'm atter, ef that's so. Mistakes +will happen. As ter ther other feller, I kin bide my time fer a spell. +I reckon my wrath won't cool none." + +The Station Agent heaved a sigh of relief. "Hit's a right unfortunate +thing," he declared sympathetically. "I've been studyin' erbout hit +an' I said ter myself, 'what ef some enemy of his'n sent both them +messages?'" + +This seemingly innocent suggestion was by way of discounting the future +when Halloway learned that the town marshal knew nothing of the matter. + +The operator bent and unfastened the binders about the ankles and +waist. That left only the handcuffs, and when he came to them once +more a note of apologetic anxiety crept into his voice. + +"Ther key ter them things is lost," he deprecated. "Ther best I kin do +fer ye air ter file ther chain. Ye kin stick yore hands in yore +pockets, though, an' nobody won't see 'em." + +"Thet's good enough fer ther present time," assented Halloway. "Ef +ye'll loan me thet file, I'll git 'em off myself--later on." + +So while the giant stood with outstretched hands, the other filed +through a link at the middle of the chain, and together the four men +left the baggage room and went into the outer office. Its door was +closed but Halloway, who walked ahead, laid a hand on the knob and +paused to inquire, without rancor, "I reckon ye aims ter give me back +my gun, don't ye?" + +The operator promptly produced the weapon from the drawer of his table +and Halloway made no examination to see whether it came back to him +full-chambered or empty. + +He had his own guess on that score, but he wished to appear +unsuspicious just now, so he thrust the thing into its holster. + +Then deliberately he turned the key in the door and that was, for a +time, his last deliberate act. Seizing the fellow who stood nearest +him, he swung him forward and held him as a partial shield before his +own body. + +"Thar's three of ye hyar," he announced in an abruptly ominous voice, +"and one of me. Ef any man makes a move ter draw a gun, I aims +straightway ter break this feller's neck. Don't let no man move from +where he stands at!" + +Astonishment enforced a momentary obedience, save that the man upon +whose shoulders the gigantic hands lay--not as yet heavily--attempted +to squirm away. Iron-like fingers bit into his flesh and, wincing with +a smothered yell of pain, he stood trembling. Halloway passed one hand +over his hostage's shoulder and drew the pistol from its holster--then +he sent the fellow spinning from him like a top, and covered the +others, who huddled close together. "Yore guns--grip-fust--an' +speedily," he directed, in that still voice that carried terror, and +brought immediate obedience. + +"Ye promised us--thet ye wouldn't hold us accountable," whined the +operator, and Halloway laughed, as he unloaded the captured pistols and +tossed them into a corner. + +"What I promised war not ter visit no revengeance on ther wrong +fellers," he corrected. "Never mind how I knows hit--but I does know +thet no message ever come from ther Coal City town marshal. Ther one +that did come told about a plot ter lay-way an' rob a woman--an' ther +three of ye war in on hit." + +The terror of the unaccountable and wholly mystifying situation held +them now in its paralysis. In no conceivable way could he have learned +these things--yet he knew them and fears crowded as they wondered what +else he might know as well. + +But Halloway allowed them little leisure for abstract reflection. + +"I've done throwed away them guns. I reckon ye knows whether mine's +loaded or not--I don't. Now ther four of us air going ter hev a leetle +frolic, right hyar an' now--a leetle four-cornered fight--jest fist an' +skull fashion." + +He walked across and locked the baggage-room door, though it was +shuttered from the outside, and dropped the key within his pocket. + +"Come on boys, let's start right in," he invited. "Fer yore own sakes +hit's kinderly a pity ye couldn't git these irons offen me . . . +they're right apt ter scar somebody up." + +They knew that to get out they must fight their way out--and after all +there were three of them. Flinging a heavy chair above his head, the +quickest-witted of the trio hurled himself forward to the attack. + +From Halloway's eyes shot bolts of Berserker battle-lust, and from +under the down-sweep of the clubbed missile he glided as a trout slips +away from a startling shadow. Before that assailant had recovered his +equilibrium, Halloway had seized him up as a grown man might seize a +small child and hurled him headlong at the operator, so that the two +went down in a tangle of writhing bodies. + +The third had not been idle and as Halloway straightened and wheeled, +he met the cyclonic lunge of a snarling adversary with a lifted and +wickedly gleaming dirk. + +As the knife flashed down, the dodging Goliath felt its sting in his +left shoulder--but only with a glancing blow which had been aimed at +his throat. Blood was let but no great hurt done save that it roused +him to a demoniac fury. The embrace in which the wielder of the blade +was folded was like the snapping of a bear-trap and, not slowly but +almost instantly, its victim dropped his weapon and hung gasping with +broken ribs and stifled lungs. + +Halloway cast him aside and wheeled again with lowered head, for two +men were at him afresh with whatever things of weight came to their +hands. Neither dared pause and desperation had endowed them with a +strength as unwonted and exaggerated as that which his frenzy brings to +a maniac. + +The fallen figure lay quiet enough, but the remaining three swept in +tempestuous chaos about the place. The table was wrecked--the +furniture shattered--all were bleeding and panting in sob-like +brokenness of breath. + +Two bore the brand-like marks of handcuffs; the other a great welt +across the forehead, left there by the large file, but at the end one +figure straightened up--his task ended--and behind him lay three that +would not soon be ready to fight again. Then, unlocking the door, +Halloway let himself out into the night. + +He paused on the platform and drew a long breath and after that, +plunging his hands deep into his pockets, he strolled along whistling. +But when he had come to the edge of the town and the road toward +Wolf-Pen Gap, he broke into a run. + + +Alexander had stood waiting for a while at the edge of the rock, +wondering who these men might be who were approaching with such an +extremity of caution. Once more she was called on to endure the +heart-chill of suspense, but when finally two figures slipped through +the shaft-mouth with cocked rifles thrust out before them that tautness +of nerve eased into relaxation. One of them--palpably nervous--was +Will Brent. The other, with eyes agleam and an eagerness keyed for +battle, was Jerry O'Keefe. + +Yet as both took in the narrow and seemingly deserted area between the +coal-seamed walls, their faces became heavy with disappointment. Other +men followed them until eight or ten had crowded into the cavern, and +very dejectedly Brent said, "We're too late. They've been here and +gone." + +Alexander, peering silently over the top of her rock, missed the face +of Bud Sellers, the one man she had wholly trusted. She told herself +that to suspect Brent or O'Keefe was ungenerous, yet out of her recent +viscissitudes an exaggerated instinct of caution had been born, and she +waited to judge the complexion of affairs before she revealed herself. + +Jerry's engaging face grew vengefully dark as he turned toward Brent +and spoke apprehensively. + +"Ther place stinks with burnt gun-powder! Does ye reckon she showed +fight--and they hurt her? Afore God, men, ef thet's true, I aims ter +do some killin' my own self--I hain't nuver seed her but oncet--but I +aims ter wed with thet gal!" + +Then with a laugh that pealed through the place and brought them all +around startled, Alexander emerged from her concealment. + +"I almost feels sorry thet they didn't finish me--ef thet's ther fate +thet's in store fer me," she announced. + +Her eyes squarely met those of Jerry O'Keefe, and he reddened +furiously, but at once Brent began asking and answering questions and +in that diversion of attention the young mountaineer found escape from +his discomfiture. The rescue party had encountered none of the men who +had so recently vacated the mine. Outside the woods were "masterly +wild and la'relly" and poroused with cavernous crags. The conspirators +had evidently scattered and melted from sight as bees melt into a +honeycomb. + +But Alexander's face grew again serious and pained as she gave her most +important information. "You men come a leetle too late. I driv 'em +off--but them thet went last tuck my saddle-bags away with 'em." + +Brent's only response to that was a brief gesture of despair. So after +all the plotting, the counterplotting, the dangers and hardships; after +all her own gallant efforts, the girl had lost the game. + +He looked at her as she stood there repressing under a stoical +blankness of expression, emotions which he thought must sum up to a +worm-wood bitterness of spirit. + +"We're wasting time here," he announced after a brief and painful +pause. "They can't have gone far--we must comb these woods." + +But Alexander shrugged her shoulders. + +"Thar hain't no possible way of runnin' 'em down ternight," she said. +"They've scattered like a hover of pa'tridges thet's been shot at, an' +whichever one's got them saddle-bags is in safe hidin' afore now. I've +got one more plan yit, but hit's fer termorrer. Let's go back thar an' +sot thet Halloway feller free." + +But halfway back they met a gigantic figure whose wrists jangled with +the clink of steel chains as he swung his long arms. He was calm--even +cheerful--of mood, now that he had appeased his wrath, nor did he seem +concerned as to what might be the fate of the trio he had left behind +him. + +The skies had cleared and a moon had risen. No longer refusing the +attendance of her bodyguard, Alexander insisted upon pushing on through +Viper to her kinsman's house at Perry Center. It was as well that her +foes should imagine her forces in full flight. + + +Though they had all spent arduous days and nights they made the last +stage of the trip at an excellent rate of speed. After Wolf-Pen Gap +and its vicinity had been left behind, the unspeakable wildness of the +country gave way abruptly, as it so often does in Appalachia, to higher +grounds where for a little way the roads run through almost parklike +stretches, now silver and cobalt under a high moon. + +Jerry O'Keefe had friends at Perry Center whose doors would open to him +and his companions even at this inhospitable hour between midnight and +dawn, and when they left Alexander at her threshold, she paused for a +moment and turned with the moonlight on her face. + +"Boys," she said softly, "I'm beholden ter every one of ye! Even ef we +fails 'atter all, hit hain't because we didn't try hard and we hain't +done yit." + +Two of the men to whom she spoke were gazing at her with rapt eyes. +O'Keefe was riding on that moonlit night at the gallop of bold dreams, +and in his mind were visions of wedding and infare. Halloway's +thoughts would perhaps have suffered by comparison, but in desire and +the wild dream they were no less strong, and later when he and Brent +lay on the same palet, in the cock-loft of a log house, he heaved a +deep sigh and gave rein to his fancy. + +"I'm going away from here," he announced, "and God knows I shall miss +her as a man misses the brilliance of tropic seas and the luster of +tropic skies." + +"I thought you boasted that you meant to stay," commented Brent +drowsily, but Halloway went on and soon he was talking to an unhearing +and unconscious bed-fellow. + +"I did--but I'm not a sheer fool. I told you that I had gauged my +entrance with a nicety of judgment for dramatic values. I shall +regulate my exit with the same sense. She likes to think herself a +man, which means that she hasn't waked up yet, but some day she will." + +He paused and his own voice became heavy with coming sleep. "She's had +adventures that she won't forget--if I go away--her imagination will be +at work. Later when Spring comes and the sap rises--and the birds--the +birds----" There the voice trailed off into the incoherence of slumber. + + +Jase Mallows was sleeping, too, at that hour, and it was only by a +lucky chance that it wasn't his final sleep. The terrain over which +the group of highwaymen had been operating had centered about the mine +shaft just back of the Wolf-Pen Gap. The distances between all the +points involved had been short of radius save as prolonged by the +broken formation of mountain and chasm, of precipice and gorge. There +were caves and thickets and the Gap itself was what local parlance +termed a "master shut-in." + +When the chief body of alleged Ku-Klux operators had trailed out of the +mine shaft, they had removed their masks and scattered into the +raggedness. They could, if need exacted, have remained there for days, +safe from discovery, each in his separate hiding place. One unfamiliar +with this country of eyrie and lair, wonders at the stories of men +hiding out successfully, but one who knows it marvels only that any man +who has taken to the wilds is ever captured. + +One of the last contingent to leave had stumbled on an inert and +prostrate body in the dark as he crossed a ridge not far away. +Cautiously he had investigated and had recognized Jase, who was +unconscious and had lost much blood. His confederate paused for a time +in a quandary as to what disposition to make of him. When to-morrow's +news leaked out, wounded men would be suspected men, and those who +accompanied them might share in that suspicion. + +Yet to desert a comrade in that fashion was abhorrent even to the slack +conscience of this desperado. So he grudgingly hefted the burden of +the senseless figure and plodded under its weight to the nearest cabin. + +There he told a story of how he had stumbled on his grewsome find in +the open high-road--which was a lie--and his mystification of manner +was so great as to constitute for himself a practical alibi. + +Early the next morning, Brent, Halloway and O'Keefe went to consult +with Alexander as to the next step. None of them meant to give up +after going this far and the men fretted for immediate action, but +Alexander to their mystification shook her head. "Not yit," she ruled. +"I'm waitin' hyar now fer tidin's thet may holp us." + +While they stood in the yard of the log house, a figure appeared +plodding slowly along the roadway, and the girl's eyes were bent on it +with a fixed anxiety. It came with such a weary lagging, with such a +painful shuffling of feet and such an exhausted hanging of head that +Brent at first failed to recognize Bud Sellers. The left arm hung with +that limpness which denotes a broken bone. + +"Good God," exclaimed the timber buyer under his breath, "I should +hardly think he'd have the nerve to show himself here!" + +But Bud looked only at the girl. He was on foot now but over his +shoulders hung his saddle-bags. He halted and threw them at +Alexander's feet. + +"My mule got shot out from under me," he informed her quite simply, +"an' I busted an arm--hit war a right slavish trip. Open them bags." + +Alexander obeyed--and drew out a parcel bound in brown paper, bearing +the bright red spots of the bank's sealing wax. + +"I reckon, men," she said quietly, "we won't hev ter sot out afresh." + +Brent, Halloway and O'Keefe gazed stupidly each on each. Incredulous +amazement and perplexity tied their tongues. Finally Halloway found +his voice to stammer, "What's done happened? How did Sellers git hit." + +Then only Alexander threw back her head and let her laughter peal out. + +"He's done hed hit all ther time," she announced. "You fellers hes +done been staunch friends ter me--and I've got ter crave yore +forgiveness ef I hain't trusted ye full free from then start." She +paused and added solicitously, "But ye sees, ye forewarned me erginst +them real robbers--an' Jase Mallows forewarned me erginst _you_. I +'lowed he war lyin'--but I couldn't take no chances. Thar war jest one +feller I knowed I could trust without question, an' thet feller was +Bud. So he tuck ther money an' thet bundle I rid away from bank with +was jest make believe. I aimed ter lead 'em over a false trail." + +"Outwitted ther pack of us," bellowed Halloway gleefully. "Afore God, +I takes my hat off ter ye--but why didn't ye suffer some man ter tote +ther dummy bundle?" + +"Ef airy man had undertook hit," she responded gravely, "they'd most +likely hev kilt him first--an' s'arched him 'atterwards." + +Bud had dropped down on a step of the stile that led from the road to +the yard. His heavy lidded eyes were full of weariness and pain. His +limp arm sagged but he said slowly: + +"Thet's why I run away, Mr. Brent. I had to. Two of us couldn't cross +thar without goin' slow--and I couldn't let them saddle-bags git lost." + +"So ye couldn't be quite sure who you could trust," repeated Halloway. +"I hopes ye knows now." + +But Brent, watching the light in the great fellow's eyes did not miss +their hungry gleam and in a low voice he said, "Jack, _I'm_ not sure +yet." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The conspiracy fathered by Lute Brown and Jase Mallows had its +inception in a small coterie whose ambitions had been stirred to +avarice by the bait of sharing among them a sum of over four thousand +dollars. Ramifications of detail had necessitated the use of a larger +force; a force so large, indeed, that anything like an equal +distribution of booty would have intolerably eaten into the profits of +the principals. Therefore the rank and file of employes were merely +mercenaries, working for a flat wage. + +But in such an enterprise the danger of mutiny always looms large and +the bludgeon of blackmail lies ready to the hand of the mutineer. +Therefore the actual handling of the money had been a matter of extreme +care to Lute and those in his closest confidence. When the leader had +taken most of his men out of the mine he had led away those of whom he +had felt least sure--and had left the saddle-bags to the custody of the +supposedly reliable minority. His estimate had been seventy-five per +cent accurate. One only of the four was untrustworthy. + +Lute himself had designated the custodian of the treasure and had fixed +a rendezvous at a long abandoned and decaying cabin in a remote and +thicketed locality. Shortly before dawn Lute arrived there, +unaccompanied and expecting to find his man awaiting him. But +complications had developed. When the quartette that left the mine +last held a hurried conference outside, the squad leader explained that +the very essence of precaution now lay in their separating and seeking +individual cover. + +Two of them concurred but the fellow who had attacked Alexander had +become insurgent through drink, chagrin and cupidity. + +"Boys," he darkly suggested, "we warn't hired ter go thro no sich rough +times es we've done encountered. I reckon these fellers owes us right +smart more then what they agreed ter pay fust oft--moreover what +sartainty hev we got thet we're goin' ter get anything a-tall?" + +They argued with him but his obduracy stood unaffected. + +"Thet small sheer thet I agreed ter tek hain't ergoin' ter satisfy me +now," he truculently protested. "I aims ter go along with ther money +hitself and git paid off without no sort of dalliance. I aims ter get +my own price, too." + +Finally, since they could not overlook the menace of disaffection, the +leader agreed to take this man with him to Lute Brown for adjustment of +the dispute, and the two set off together, while the other two left +them at a fork of the trail. On the way to the cabin, the disgruntled +one drank more moonshine liquor than was good for him and when they +arrived there the place was seemingly empty, for Lute, watching with +hawk-like vigilance, had made out that instead of one man two were +approaching and he had slipped out through a back door into the void of +the darkness. A lantern without a chimney burned in the deserted room +and cabin and that was safe enough in a place so screened, but it +showed the two newcomers that there was no one waiting there. To the +inflamed and suspicious brother this seemed an indication of broken +faith. Perhaps after all he had been lured here to be paid off with +treachery and murder! + +"So ye lied ter me!" he bellowed in passion. "Hit war jest like I +thought. Now I aims ter tek hit all myself!" And snatching out a +knife he hurled himself on his comrade of an hour ago. + +That one dropped the saddle-bags and fumbled for his pistol, but before +it cleared the holster they had grappled and were stumbling about the +room. Lute, watching from without, considered this the moment for +intervention and he appeared in the door with drawn revolver shouting +out for an end to the struggle. + +Unfortunately it was only his loyal adherent who heeded his voice, and +the other, freed from the grip that had so far held him in chancery +stabbed twice before the object of his attack collapsed. Then only, +Lute fired. Before that moment he must have fired through his loyal +man to reach his traitor. The hesitation was fatal, for the shot +missed its target and in a moment more, Lute, too fell under the knife. + +The traitorous survivor stood for a moment, panting heavily, then, +still unsteady of step from his homicidal exertions, picked up the +saddle-bags, ransacked them with frenzied haste and plunged out of the +door with the package that bore the spots of red sealing wax. + +At any time the others might come to investigate and they would find a +scene of double murder. + +He did not stop to open the package. That could await a more opportune +moment. Just now the vital thing was flight. + +When, at the end of much panic-stricken haste and the spurring of +terror he judged it safe to strike a match, he ripped open the bundle, +over which so many men and one woman had fought--and in it discovered +only tightly packed newspapers and a few small pieces of broken +brick--added to give it the plausibility of weight. + + +Halloway in accordance with his plan of leaving the stage before his +presence lost dramatic effect, did not offer to go all the way back to +Shoulder-blade Creek with Alexander. He accompanied her only to a +point where there was no longer danger, and then said farewell to her, +leaving her still under the escort of Brent, Bud Sellers and O'Keefe. + +"I reckon," he announced abruptly when they stood on the crest of a +steep hill, "I'll turn back hyar. I don't dwell over yore way an' thar +hain't no use fer me ter fare further. I'll bid ye farewell--an' mebby +some day all us fellers'll meet up again." + +Alexander was surprised, and a sharp little pang of disappointment shot +through her breast. She did not analyze the emotion, but, just then +and with no reason that emerged out of the subconscious, she remembered +the instant when she had hung to the sycamore branch and he had swept +her in and pressed her close. She only nodded her head and spoke +gravely. "I reckon we'll all miss ye when ye're gone, but thet hain't +no reason fer takin' ye no further offen yore course." + +Then for the first time Halloway said anything that might have been +construed as a compliment to the girl and he disarmed it of too great +significance with a quizzical smile. + +"I reckon, Alexander, thar hain't nothin' better then a good man--an' +ye've done proved yoreself one--but afore God thar's a mighty +outstandin' woman wasted when ye does hit." + +Alexander flushed. Perhaps the germ of the awakening that Halloway had +predicted was already stirring into unrecognized life, but she was +ashamed of the blush and in order to cover it made a retort which was +not by any stretch of the imagination a compliment. + +"Thar's gals aplenty, Jack"--the people of the hills fall very +naturally into the use of the first name--"A feller like you mout find +hisself one ef he tried hard enough--an' I'll give ye some mighty good +counsel, because atter all I was _borned_ female an' I knows thet much +erbout 'em." + +"Wa'al?" Halloway smiled inquiringly, and the girl went on. + +"Ye won't nuver make no headway with none of 'em whilst ye goes round +lookin' es bristly an' es dirty es a razor-back hog thet's done been +wallowin' in ther mire. Ef ye ever got clean once hit mout be right +diff'rent." + +The big fellow roared with laughter as he turned to Brent. + +"Kin ye beat thet now, Mr. Brent? Kin ye figger me in a b'iled shirt, +with a citified shave an' perfume on me a-settin' out sparkin'." + +None of the rest knew why Brent laughed so hard. He was trying to +picture the expression that would have come to Alexander's face had she +seen Jack Halloway as he himself had seen him, groomed to perfection, +with pretty heads turning in theater foyer and at restaurant tables, to +gaze at his clean chisseled features and god-like physique. + +Bud had little to say and after the parting the girl traveled in a +greater silence than before. Both were thinking of the time, now +drawing near, when they should reach the house of Aaron McGivins and +learn whether or not it was a house of death. Both too were thinking +of the man who had turned back, but their thoughts there were widely +different. + +Then they came to the road that ran by the big house, and before they +had reached it Joe McGivins, who sighted them from afar came to meet +them. When Alexander saw her brother she found suddenly that she could +not walk. She halted and stood there with her knees weak under her and +her cheeks pallid. The moment of hearing the life-and-death verdict +was at hand and the sorely-tried strength that had carried her so far +forsook her. + +But Joe, however weak, was considerate and when still at a distance he +saw her raise a hand weakly in a gesture of questioning and +insufferable suspense and he shouted out his news: "He's gittin' well." + +Then the girl groped blindly out with her hands and but for Jerry +O'Keefe who caught her elbow, she would have fallen. The taut nerves +had loosened to that unspeakable relief--but for the moment it was +collapse. + +Brent had left the mountains a week after Alexander's safe return, but +within two months he had occasion to return and he rode over to the +mouth of Shoulder-blade. He had been told that Aaron McGivins, though +he had made a swift and complete recovery from his wound, had after all +only been reprieved. He had recently taken to his bed with a heart +attack--locally they called it "smotherin' spells," and no hope was +held out for his recovery. + +As Brent rode on from the railroad toward the house he gained later +tidings. The old man was dead. + +He dismounted at the stile to find ministering neighbors gathered there +and, as never before, the unrelieved and almost biblical antiquity of +this life impressed itself on his realization. Here was no undertaker, +treading softly with skilled and considerately silent helpers. No +mourning wreath hung on the door. The rasping whine of the saw and +clatter of the hammer were in no wise muted as men who lived nearby +fashioned from undressed boards the box which was to be old Aaron's +casket. Noisy sympathy ran in a high tide where doubtless the bereaved +sought only privacy. + +Alexander's face, as she met Brent at the door, was pale with the waxen +softness of a magnolia petal and though the vividness of her lips and +eyes were emphasized by contrast, suffering seemed to have endowed her +remarkable beauty with a sort of nobility--an exquisite delicacy that +was a paradox for one so tall and strong. + +The appeal of her wistfully sad eyes struck at his heart as she greeted +him in a still voice. + +"I heard--and I wanted to come over," he said and her reply was simple. +"I'm obleeged ter ye. I wants ye ter look at him. He war a godly man +an' a right noble one. Somehow his face----" she spoke slowly and with +an effort, "looks like he'd done already talked with God--an' war at +rest." + +At once she led him into the room where, upon the four-poster bed lay +the sheeted figure, and with a deeply reverent hand, lifted the +covering. + +To Brent it seemed that he was looking into features exemplifying all +the wholesome virtues of those men who built the Republic. It was a +face of rugged strength and unassuming simplicity. Its lines bespoke +perils faced without fear and privations endured without complaint. +Here in a pocket of wilderness which the nation had forgotten survived +many others of those unaltered pioneers. But in the expression that +death had made fixed, as well as in facial pattern, Brent recognized +that simple kindliness to which courtesy had been a matter of instinct +and not of ceremony and the rude nobility of the man to whom others had +brought their tangled disputes, in all confidence, for adjustment. + +"I understand what you mean," he declared as his eyes traveled from the +father to the daughter, "and I'm glad you let me see him." + +Moving unobtrusively about, engaged in many small matters of +consideration, Brent recognized Bud Sellers and Jerry O'Keefe. He +himself remained until the burial had taken place, and was one of those +who lowered the coffin into the grave. But when those rites had been +concluded and another day had come Brent sought for Alexander to make +his adieus. + +She was nowhere about the house and he went in search of her. He could +not bear to remain longer where he must endure the pain of her stricken +face. Of all the women he had ever known she stood forth as the most +unique--and in some ways the most impressive. She was undoubtedly the +most beautiful. He realized now that, though they were of different +and irreconcilable planes of life, there had never been a moment since +he had first seen her when he would not, save for his dragging on the +steady curb of reason, have fallen into a headlong infatuation. Now he +wished only to prove himself a serviceable friend. + +When he had vainly sought her about the farm, it occurred to him to go +to the ragged "buryin' ground" and though he found her there he did not +obtrude upon her solitary vigil. + +For Alexander was abandoning herself to one of those wild and +nerve-wracking tempests of weeping that come occasionally in a lifetime +to those who weep little. She had thrown herself face-down on the +ground beneath which Aaron McGivins slept, with arms outflung as though +seeking to reach into the grave and embrace him. As she had been both +son and daughter to him, he had been, to her, both father and mother. +Spasmodically her hands clenched and unclenched, and her fingers dug +wildly into the earth. + +Brent turned away and left her there and it was a full two hours later +before he met her and led her, passive enough now, to a place from +which they overlooked that river that, not long ago, they had ridden +together. Under his gently diplomatic prompting she found relief in +unbosoming herself. + +"He war all I hed----" she rebelliously declared. "An' whilst he lived +thet war enough--but now I hain't got nothin' left." + +After a little she broke out again. "I hain't a woman--an' hain't a +man. I hain't nuthin'." + +"Alexander," said Brent gently, "when I looked at your father's face in +there, I was thinking of what Parson Acup once told me. He said that +if your father had been a wishful man,"--he used the hill phrase for +ambition quite unconsciously, "he could have gone to the Legislature. +Perhaps to Congress." + +"I reckon he mout ef hed any honors he craved," she replied. "Folks +was always pesterin' him ter run fer office." + +The man looked off across the valley which was so desolate now and +which would soon be so tenderly green; so tuneful with leaf and blossom. + +His eyes were seeing a vision and some of it he tried to voice. + +"Suppose, Alexander, he _had_ gone. Suppose he had taken his seat in +Congress, instead of staying here. He would have become a figure +trusted there, too--but how different your life would have been. There +would have been schools and--well, many things that you have never +known." + +"I hain't hankerin' fer none of them things," she said. Then with a +sudden paroxysm of sobs that shook her afresh, she added, "All I wants +is ter hev him back ergin!" + +But Brent was thinking of things that could mean little to her because +she lacked the background of contrast and comparison. He was seeing +that beauty and that personality in the social life of official +Washington; seeing the triumph that would have been hers--and wondering +what it would have meant to her in the balance of contentment or +unhappiness. + +Of course had Aaron McGivins begun his political career young enough, +every trace of mountain illiteracy would long ago have been shed away +by the growing girl. As for her blood, there is in all America no +other so purely Anglo-Saxon. + +"I rather think it's a pity he didn't go," Brent mused aloud. Then he +added, "Now that he's--not with you any more--Alexander, there is +something you must let me say. You've never thought about it much, but +you have such a beauty as would make you famous in any city of the +world. Men will come--and they won't be turned back." + +For the first time since Aaron's death the old militant fire leaped +into her eyes and her chin came up as she flared into vehemence. + +"Like hell they won't be turned back!" + +But Brent smiled. "You think that now, but Alexander, nature is nature +and there must be something in your life. You've played at being a man +and done it better than many men--but men can marry women, and you +can't. Along that road lies a heart-breaking loneliness. Sometime +you'll see that, since you can't be a man, you'll want to be a man's +mate." + +She shook her head with unconvinced obduracy. + +"I knows ye aims ter give me kindly counsel, Mr. Brent, but ye're plum +wastin' yore breath." + +The man rose. "After all, I only came to say good-bye," he told her. +"You aren't going to keep men from loving you. I know because I've +tried to keep myself from doing it--and I've failed. But this is +really my message. If you do change your ideas, for God's sake choose +your man carefully--and if you ever reach a point where you need +counsel, send for me." + + +Along Fifth Avenue from Washington Arch to the Plaza, Spring was in the +air. Trees were putting out that first green which, in its tenderness +of beauty, is all hope and confidence. With the tide of humanity +drifted Will Brent, whom business had brought from Kentucky to New +York, but his thoughts were back there in the hills where the almost +illiterate Diana, who knew nothing of life's nuances of refinement and +who yet had all of life's allurements, was facing her new loneliness. + +He reached a bookstore and turned in, idly looking through volumes of +verse, while he killed the hour before his appointment. His hand fell +upon a small volume bearing the name of G. K. Chesterton, and opening +it at random he read those lines descriptive of the illuminated +breviary from which Alfred the Great, as a boy, learned his spiritual +primer at his mother's knee: + + "It was wrought in the monk's slow manner of silver + and sanguine shell, + And its pictures were little and terrible keyholes of + Heaven and Hell." + + +Brent closed the covers with a snap. "That's what my memories of it +all come to," he mused, "'--little and terrible keyholes of Heaven and +Hell.'" + +But that evening he went to dine with Jack Halloway at his club which +looked out across the Avenue and the Park. He had written to Halloway +in advance of his coming and by wire had received an invitation couched +in terms of urgency not to be denied. + +This was not Appalachia but Manhattan yet, when Halloway met him, Brent +could but smile at life's contrasts. The huge fellow rose from his +chair to greet him, as splendid a physical thing as human eyes could +look upon. There was no stubble now on the face that seemed cast in +smooth bronze. In lieu of that calculatedly slovenly disguise which he +had affected in the hinter-land, he was immaculate in the fineness of +his linen and the tailoring of his evening clothes. But as he held out +his hand, he drawled, "Wa'al, stranger, how fares matters back thar on +Shoulder-blade?" + +Brent sketched briefly the occurrences that had taken place there; the +death of Old Aaron and the fact that Jerry O'Keefe had been trying to +sell his farm near Coal City in order, he surmised, that he might take +up his abode nearer the McGivins' place. + +Talk ran idly for a time, then Halloway rose and stood towering in the +Fifth Avenue window. Across Park and Plaza the sky was still rosy with +the last of the afterglow. Under the loftily broken roof-lines of the +great hotel multitudinous window panes were gleaming. Over it all was +the warm breath of spring. + +The big man's hands, idly clasped behind his back, began to twitch and +finally settled into a hard grip. His shoulders heaved and when he +spoke there was a queer note in his voice. + +"See the rhododendron over there in the park? Soon now it will be in +flower--not only _that_ rhododendron but----" He ended it abruptly, +and then broke out, low-voiced but tense. "This atmosphere is stifling +me--God! It's horrible-- + + "Send your path be straight before you, + When the old spring fret comes o'er you, + And the Red Gods call to you.'" + + +Into Brent's tone came something almost savage. + +"I know what you're thinking. Quit it. It won't do!" + +Slowly Halloway turned. For a moment his fine face was drawn with +actual suffering. Then he added: + +"You're quite right, Will, it won't do. But it's hard to forget--when +one has seen a comet. Touch that button if you don't mind. It's time +for the cocktails." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Have you seen Spring come to the mountains? Have you felt the subtle +power on the human heart, of trance-drugged impulses awakening in +plant, in animal, in humanity; in the deep hard arteries of the ancient +hills themselves? Winter there is grim and bleak beyond the telling. +In far separated cabins, held in the quarantine of mired roads, men and +women have lived, from hand to mouth, sinking into a dour and +melancholy apathy. + +But when Spring comes, the gray and chocolate humps of raggedness are +softly veiled again with tender verdure and a song runs with the caress +of the breeze. It is a song relayed on the throats of birds. The +color of new flower and leaf and of skies washed clean of brooding +finds an echo in man and womankind. When the dogwood blossom, +everywhere, breaks into white foam upon the soft billows of woodland +green, and the sap stirs--then the old and crabbed bitterness of life +stands aside for the coming of Love. + +If one be young and free, one feels, admittedly or subconsciously, the +deep tides that sing to sentiment and the undertows that pull to +passion. + +About the lonely house of Alexander McGivins the woods were burgeoning +and tuneful. Stark contours of landscape had become lovely and +Alexander, preparing for the activities of "drappin' and kiverin'" in +the steep corn-fields, felt the surge of vague influences in her bosom. + +Joe McGivins had carried a stricken face since Old Aaron's death. He +looked to his sister, as he had looked to his father, for direction and +guidance and though he worked it was as a hired man might have worked, +patiently rather than keenly and without initiative. + +But keeping busy failed to comfort the empty ache in Alexander's heart +because in the grave over yonder lay all that had filled her world, and +though she would have fought the man who suggested it, there were times +when her lovely lips fell into lines of irony, and when she +half-consciously felt that her playing at being a man had been a bitter +and empty jest. She had only forfeited her woman's rights in life, and +had failed to gain the compensation of man's. + +Once or twice when on the high road, she passed youthful couples, +love-engrossed, she went on with a wistfulness in her eyes. For such +as these, life held something, but for her, she was sure in her +obduracy of inexperience, there was no objective. + +If the truth be told, the "spring-tide" was welling in the channels of +her being, as well as in the rivulets of the hills, and the changes +that had come to her were near to bearing fruit. + +That space of little more than a week, when she had left her home--a +home which had also been a world with its own laws and environment--had +brought her into contact with other views. Her father's death had left +the house no longer the same. Two independent souls, with strong +views, may succeed in fashioning their own world, and she and her +father had been two such. + +One left unsupported may fail, and now she was alone--for Joe hardly +counted. + +Ever since she had been old enough to think at all, she had been +inordinately proud of "being a man," and profoundly contemptuous of the +women about her whose colorless lives spelled thraldom and hard +servitude. + +That long fostered and passionately held creed would die hard. She +would fight herself and whomsoever else challenged its acceptance--but +insidious doubts were assailing her. + +So to all outward seeming Alexander McGivins was more the "he-woman" +than ever before, but in her inner heart the leaven of change was at +its yeasty work. + +"I've got ter be a man," she told Joe, who mildly objected, even while +he leaned on her strength. "Now thet paw's gone, I hev greater need +then ever ter stand squ'ar on my own two feet." + +The youth nodded. "I reckon ye're right," he acknowledged, "but folks +talks a heap. I'm always figgerin' thet I'm goin' ter hev ter lick +somebody erbout ye. I wouldn't suffer nobody ter speak ill of ye when +I war present." + +Alexander looked steadily at the boy. "I'm obleeged ter ye, but I'll +do my own fightin', Joe," she told him calmly. "I'll even make shift +ter do some o' your'n, an' yit----" She paused a moment and he +inquired, "Wa'al, what's on yore mind, Alexander?" + +"An' yit," she went on more slowly and thoughtfully, "I'd be mighty +nigh willin' ter prove ther cause of ye gittin' in one or two good +fights--ef hit couldn't be brought ter pass no other way." + +"Paw always counseled peace, ef a feller warn't pushed too fur," he +alleged in defense of his pacific attitude. + +"So does I. But Joe, hit's jest on yore own account thet I'd like ter +see ye show more sperit. Folks talks erbout _you_ too. I know what +blood ye've got, commandin' blood--an' ef ye got roused up onc't hit'd +mek a more upstandin' man of ye. I knows hit's a lie, but I've heered +ye called ther disablest feller on Shoulder-blade!" + +A touch of contempt stole into her voice as she added, "An' yore paw's +only son!" + +He went away somewhat sulkily, but she had ignited in him a spark of +needed torture. Bred of a fighting line, the acid of self-scorn began +eating into his pride, and when a few days later he halted at a wayside +smithy, which was really only a "blind-tiger," and came upon a drinking +crowd, the ferment of his thoughts developed into action. + +Sol Breck was sitting with his back turned as the boy strolled in and +it chanced that he was talking about Alexander. The girl herself with +her square sense of justice, would have recognized his comments as +crude jesting and would have passed them by unresented. + +But Joe had been bitterly accusing himself of timidity and he needed +sustenance for his waning faith in his own temerity. It was +characteristic of him that he should pick an easy beginning, as a timid +swimmer seeks proficiency in shallow water. Sol Breck had the +unenviable reputation of one who never declined battle--and never +emerged from one crowned with victory. Joe hurled at him the challenge +of the fighting epithet and after a brief but animated combat had him +down and defeated. Then he returned home with a swelling breast, and +just enough marks of conflict upon his own person to bear out his +report of counsel heeded and resolution put to the touch. + +Alexander listened without interruption to the end, for Joe had told +her all but the name of his adversary and the exact words that had +precipitated battle. + +But when the narrative came to its conclusion she inquired quietly, +"What did he say erbout me?" + +"Oh, hit wasn't so much what he said es ther way he said hit," was +Joe's somewhat shame-faced reply. "Ef hit hed been erbout any other +gal, I reckon I mout of looked over it." + +"What was it?" The demand was insistent. + +"He jest 'lowed that if 'stid of warin' pants an' straddlin' hosses, +ye'd pick ye out an upstandin' man an' wed him, thar mout come ter be +some _real_ men in ther fam'ly." + +The girl's face crimsoned. + +"I thought ye said hit war me ye fought erbout, Joe." + +"I did say so, Alexander." + +"An' ye didn't see no aspersion thet called fer a fight--in ther way +them words teched _you_?" + +That phase of the matter had not occurred to Joe at all. He was used +to being overlooked. + +"He warn't thinkin' erbout me," he lamely exculpated. "I reckon he hed +hit in head thet I hain't quite twenty-one yit." + +For a while Alexander stood looking at him with a slowly gathering +tempest of anger in her eyes, under which the boy fidgeted, and finally +she spoke in that ominously still manner that marked moments of dang'er. + +"What he said erbout me war true enough--an' ef ye admits what he all +but said erbout you--thet ye hain't no man--then _thet's_ true too." + +The boy was crestfallen and a little impatient now. He had come to +recount an achievement which had plumed and reappareled a limping +self-respect and he had expected congratulation. + +"What's ther use of faultin' me by mincin' words? I licked him, didn't +I? Set hit down ter anything ye likes." + +Her voice still held that cold note of inflexible but quiet anger. +"Yes, ye licked him but hit looks like ter me ye picked yore man plum +keerful an' got ye an easy one. Wait hyar, I'm goin' atter my hat." + +"What fer?" + +"Were a'goin' over thar tergether--an' ye're goin' ter crave his +pardon." + +"I wouldn't crave his pardon," burst out the boy violently, "ter save +his soul from torment. I'd be a laughing stock ef I did." + +"Ye're agoin' ter do one of two things, Joe," she announced with +finality. "Ye're either agoin' ter ask his pardon, whilst I stands by +an' hears ye do hit or else ye're a'goin' ter tell him thet ye licked +him over ther wrong words--an' thet seein' ye blundered, ye're willin' +ter lick him afresh over ther right ones--him or anybody he names ter +fight in his place." + +Joe hung his head for a moment, then the pricking of the old self-scorn +came with a turning tide. + +"All right," he said. "Let's go." + +It was an unmannerly, but a very astonished crew upon which they came +but at the sight of Alexander herself they all became sheepish and +discomfited of aspect. + +"Sol," began the girl tersely, "Joe tells me thet him an' you hed a +fight jest now over somethin' ye said erbout he. I kin do my own +fightin', but Joe hes something ter tell ye on his own account." + +So introduced, Joe spoke and this time it was the swimmer striking +boldly into deep water. + +"Alexander 'lows I didn't hev need ter fight over loose talk erbout +her. But when airy feller says thar hain't no man in my household, so +long's I'm thar, I hev got ample cause ter fight. Ye've got ter tek +thet back right now. Ef so be ye hain't rested up yit, an' ye've got +any friend hyar thet ye'd like ter hev take yore place, I'm ready fer +him." + +But Sol had had enough, for the present. Alexander's presence made +him, somehow, feel foolish, as if his thrashing were less of an +embarrassment than its cause. + +"I war jest a-funnin,'" he protested. "I'm willin' ter take back +anything thet's done give offense." + +One day shortly after that, when Joe came unexpectedly into the house +he surprised Alexander attired as he had never before seen her--in the +skirts of her own sex. + +"Fer ther Lord's sake," exclaimed the boy. "Thet's ther fust time I +ever seed ye in petticoats. Looks like ye must hev on a half score of +'em." + +"Like es not hit's ther last time ye'll ever see hit, too," retorted +Alexander hotly while her cheeks flamed. "Some day I mout hev ter go +down below ter some big town on business. A woman's got ter w'ar these +fool things thar, an' I was practising so's I could larn ter walk with +'em flappin' round my legs." + +Yet she walked, for all the alleged difficulty, with an untrameled and +regal ease. With a sweep of hauteur she left the grinning boy and when +she returned a few minutes later she was breeched and booted as usual. + +Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which the view +reached off for leagues over the valley and beyond that over ridge upon +ridge of hilltops. There she thought of many things and was very +lonely. She could not have worded it but, deep in her heart, she felt +the outcry of the Spring voice: "Make me anything but neuter when the +sap begins to stir." + +But how could this be any love-impulse in Alexander? Love, she had +always heard, must fix itself upon some one endearing object and lay +its glamor over definite features. + +The most magnificent figure of a man she had ever seen often reared +itself in her thought-pictures with its six feet six of straight limbed +strength, its eagle-like keenness of eye, and its self-confident +bearing. + +"Ef I could really be a man," she told herself, "I'd love ter be a man +like ther Halloway feller--ef only he wasn't so plum dirty and raggedy." + +One day on her way back from the fields she saw a tall figure loafing +near the front door of her house and, at that distance, she thought +that it was Halloway. It stood so tall and straight that it must be, +but that was because the setting sun was in her eyes and the man showed +only in silhouette. So seen Jerry O'Keefe--for it proved to be +Jerry--suffered little by comparison with any man she knew--except +Halloway. + +But Alexander did not greet him with any great warmth. She was angry +with herself because her heart had started suddenly to pounding at the +instant when she had imagined this man to be the other. She was angry, +too, with Jerry for disappointing her. + +So she nodded coolly and demanded, "What's yore business hyarabout?" + +In Jerry the rising joyousness of rebirth was full confessed. He was +here because since he had seen her last he had carried no other picture +in his thoughts, and now that the world was in bloom he wanted to see +her against a befitting background. To that end he had sold his small +farm and rented a plot and cabin near-by and if there was to be no +welcome for him here he had merely sold himself out of a home. + +But the gray-blue eyes were whimsical, and the mobile lips smiling. He +was unrebuffed as he made a counter-query. + +"Kain't a feller kinderly come broguein' in hyar, without some special +business brings him?" + +Alexander felt that she had been unneighborly, but in her memory the +things that Brent had said to her had become a sort of troublesome +refrain. "Men will come and they won't be turned back." She +remembered, too, her own hot retort, "Like hell they won't!" It was in +the spirit of that retort that she answered. + +"Ef ye hain't got no business hyar, ye hain't got no business hyar, an' +thet's all thar air ter hit." + +"Mebby ye're ther business yoreself, Alexander," he suggested and there +was a persuasive quality in his voice. + +"I'm my own business, nobody else's." + +In this mood that had troubled her of late, Alexander was very +combative. She was not willing to surrender her code--not willing yet +to be treated as a woman. + +"I heers tell thet ye've moved over hyar, bag an' baggage--an' ef I kin +help ye out any way, I'll seek ter convenience ye outen a sperit of +neighborness." She spoke in that extra-deliberate fashion that went +before a storm, and as she stood there with her head high, and her eyes +undeviatingly meeting his, she had the beauty of a war-goddess. "But +when ye hain't got no matter of need, don't come." + +Jerry had no intention of being lightly repulsed. His purpose of +courtship had become his governing law but he had learned much of this +Amazonian woman and had set himself, not to an easy conquest, but to a +hard campaign. The man who, merely to be near one woman, sells a river +bottom farm that he had nursed into something like prosperity and who +takes on rocky acres in its stead, has shown, by his works, the +determination of his spirit. + +Now, the humorous eyes riffled with a quiet amusement. + +"I didn't say thet I come without business, Alexander. Mebby I hain't +stated hit yit." + +"Then ye'd better state hit. Ye don't seem ter be in no tormentin' +haste." + +O'Keefe thought that "tormentin' haste" in his position would be fatal +and yet the streak of whimsey that ran through him brought a +paradoxical answer. + +"My hearth's cold over thar. I come ter borry fire." + +He was watching her as he spoke, and now that he no longer stood under +the disadvantage of comparison with Jack Halloway he was no mean figure +of a man. One could not miss the fine, if slender, power of his long +and shapely lines from broad shoulder to tapering waist. His hair +curled crisply and incorrigibly and he bore himself with a lazy sort of +grace, agile for all its indolence. Alexander could not be quite sure +whether the eyes were insolent or humble. When he had stated his +mission of "borrowing fire" he had used a quaint phrase, eloquent of a +quainter custom. It had to do with that isolated life in a land where +until recently matches were rare and when the hearth fire died one had +to go to the neighbor's house and hasten back with a flaming fagot for +its relighting. + +"Ye don't seem ter hev ther drive of a man borryin' fire. Why didn't +ye ask Joe. I heers him in thar." + +"Hit's _goin' home_ not _comin'_ thet a man's got ter hasten with his +fire," he reminded her. "I didn't ask Joe because--he hain't got ther +kind of fire my heart needs, Alexander." + +So her suspicion was true! He had been speaking, not literally, but in +the allegory of a suitor and her gathering wrath burst. + +"Then I hain't got hit fer ye nuther. Let yore h'arth stay cold, an' +be damned ter ye--an' now begone right speedily!" + +With pure effrontery the young man laughed. Into his voice he put a +pretense of appeal, as he calmly stuffed his pipe with tobacco crumbs. +"Alexander ye wouldn't deny a man such a plum needcessity es fire, +would ye?" he questioned, though even as he said it he drew from his +pocket a box of matches and struck one. + +So he had made deliberate and calculated sport of her! Her anger saw +in his presence itself only the insult of the first attack from those +men who "would not be turned back," and once more the rage in her came +to its boiling-point. + +She wheeled and went into the house and when she came out her face was +pale to the lips and her brows drawn in a resolute pucker, while in her +hands she carried a cocked rifle. + +"Down yonder lays my fence-line," she autocratically told the man who +had continued standing where she had left him, and whose seeming was +still unflurried. "I've got a license ter say who crosses hit. Ye've +done sought ter make sport of me, an' now I commands ye ter cross ther +fence an' begone from hyar." She paused a moment because her breath +was coming fast with passion. "I warns ye nuver ter put foot on this +farm ergin--I aims ter see thet ye don't--an' when ye starts away don't +tarry ter look back, nuther." + +Slowly Jerry O'Keefe nodded. One ordered from another's house must +obey, but the twinkle had not altogether faded from his eyes and there +was nothing precipitate in his movements, albeit the rifle was at ready +and the girl's deep breast was heaving with unfeigned fury. + +"All right," he acceded, "I'm goin' now but es fer not lookin' back, I +wouldn't like ter mek no brash promises. You're hyar an' hit mout +prove right hard ter keep my eyes turned t'other way. I'm an +easy-goin' sort of feller anyhow, an' I likes ter let my glance kind of +rove hyar an' thar." + +Her hands trembled on the gun and her voice shook into huskiness. +"Begone," she warned. "I kain't hold down my temper much longer." + +"An' es fer comin' back," Jerry continued blandly, "some day you're +ergoin' ter _invite_ me back. Anyhow, I reckon I'd come, because +thar's somethin' hyar thet'll kinderly pulls me hither stronger then +guns kin skeer me off." + +The girl sat there on her doorstep with her rifle across her knees and +halfway to the fence-line Jerry paused and looked back. The rifle came +up--and dropped back again as Alexander belatedly pretended that she +had not seen him. At the stile O'Keefe paused to turn his head again. +He even waved his hat, and this time she looked through him as through +a pane of glass. + +But when she had been sitting broodingly for a long while, the cloud +slowly dissipated from her face. In her eyes a twinkle of merriment +battled with the fire of righteous indignation, and at last she even +laughed with a low pealing note like a silver bell. + +"He's an impudent, no-count devil," she said, "but he's got right +unfalterin' nerve, an' thar's a mighty pleasin' twinkle in his eyes." + +Not long after that Alexander made a journey to a nearby town, but +since it was one near the railroad she went in woman's attire, paying a +new deference to public opinion which she had heretofore scorned. She +was busily occupied there all day and her mission was one of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The earliest manifestations of spring had ripened into a warmer +fullness. Everywhere the rhododendron was bloom-loaded, and the +large-petaled flower of the "cucumber tree" spread its waxen whiteness. +Hill-sides were pink with the wild-rose and underfoot violets and the +dandelions made a bright mosaic. + +Again Alexander was approaching her door with her face set toward the +sunset and again she saw before her own house the figure of a man who +loomed tall, and who for a brief space remained a featureless +silhouette against the colored sky. + +She hastened her step a little, resolved that this time she would teach +Jerry, in an unforgettable fashion, that her edicts of banishment were +final and that they could not be lightly disobeyed--but this time it +was not Jerry. + +Indeed she had realized that almost immediately and her heart had +missed its beat. The man was Halloway himself and he was looking in +another direction just then, so he did not see the fleet, yet instantly +repressed eagerness that flashed into and out of her eyes. It was a +self-collected young woman, with a distinctly casual manner who crossed +the stile and confronted her visitor. + +As he turned and saw her, he started impulsively forward, but recovered +himself and also adopted the matter-of-fact demeanor, which she had, +herself, assumed. + +"Howdy, Jack," said the girl carelessly. "I didn't know ye war +hyarabouts. I'd jest erbout forgot ye altogether." + +"I reckon thet would be a right easy thing ter do," he handsomely +admitted, then each having indulged in the thrust and parry of an +introductory lie, they stood there in the sunset, eying each other in +silence. + +But Alexander recognized a transformation in the man's appearance, and +if she seemed tepid of interest, the semblance belied her throbbing +pulses. Halloway was too accomplished an actor to have abandoned his +pose or makeup. He must remain in character and dress the part, but he +had used a consummate skill in doing so. In every detail of clothing +he remained the mountaineer, yet there was no longer any trace of the +slovenly or unclean. + +He was close shaven and trim of hair. His flannel shirt, still open on +his throat, was of good quality. The trousers that were thrust into +high laced boots were not so new as to attract undue attention, but +they fitted him. The note of carelessness was maintained--but with +artistry to accentuate the extraordinary effect of physique and +feature. He was eye-filling and rather splendid. + +Alexander felt that some recognition of this metamorphosis was expected +of her, but she had no intent of admitting the true force of its +impression. + +"Hit's a right smart wonder I knowed ye a-tall, ye've done spruced up +so," was the dubious compliment with which she favored him after a +deliberate scrutiny. "I hain't nuver seed ye with yore face washed +afore." + +"I 'lowed I'd seek ter make a killin' with ye," he bantered easily, and +she sniffed her simulated disdain. They had moved together up the +steps of the porch, and he stood there looking at her, quelling the +up-rush of admiration and avid hunger in his eyes. Then she said +curtly, for in these days she was always on the defensive, and meant to +be doubly so with him whom she secretly feared, "Ye're in ther house +now. Ef ye wants ter mek a killin' with me, tek off yore hat. Don't +folks hev no manners whar ye comes from?" + +Halloway shook his head, not forgetful that one playing a part must +remain in character. + +"I don't tek off my hat ter no man," he replied, stressing the final +word ever so lightly. + +"I'm a man when I wants ter be, an' when I wants manners I aims ter hev +'em," she declared, but her visitor stood, still covered, in her +presence, and after a moment she said curtly--yet rather breathlessly, +"Wait hyar," and turning, disappeared into the house. + +Floods begin slowly with trickles, but they break suddenly with +torrents. A flood had seized Alexander at that moment. Perhaps she +did not herself pause to recognize or analyze her motive. She merely +acted on an impulse that had come with an onsweep of conscious and +subconscious tides. It was a motive that had to do with her activities +that day when she had gone to the nearby town. + +Halloway remained there, frankly puzzled. Unless she was like himself +acting, her interest in his arrival was pallid and lukewarm. He had +counted much on appearing suddenly before her at his best--and the +impression seemed to have been negligible. + +Where had she gone? He asked himself that question several times +during the considerable interval of his waiting. The sunset was coming +to its final splendor behind mountains that were ash of violet. +Through the blossom-laden air stole a seductive intoxication that +mounted to his head. The voices of the Red Gods had mastered him, and +he had come. + +Then he saw a vision in the doorway, and his senses reeled. + +Alexander stood there as he had never seen her before. She was in a +woman's dress, very simple of line and unadorned. But her beauty was +such as could support and glorify simplicity. Indeed it required +simplicity as a foil for its own delicate gorgeousness. The lithe +slenderness of her figure was enhanced by the transformation. Her long +hair hung in heavy braids that gave an almost childlike girlishness to +her appearance. Alexander, he thought, was wholly delectable. + +But as he stared at Alexander she flung him look for look and commanded: + +"Now, tek off your hat." + +He tossed the thing away from him, and hesitated for a moment gazing at +her while his eyes kindled, then with an inarticulate sound in his +throat and no other word, he sprang forward and caught her to him, in +arms that would not be denied. + +Alexander made no struggle. It would have been futile to match even +her fine strength against the herculean power of those arms--and +suddenly the girl felt faint. + +For that unwarned and tumultuous conduct on the part of the man she had +been totally unprepared and it was as though the wave of amazement +which swept over her had left her gasping; bereft of both nerve-force +and breath. But other waves were sweeping her too, so that she of the +ready and invincible spirit for the moment rested inert in Halloway's +arms as her brain reeled. In one way she was dazed into +semiconsciousness. In another way, she was so staringly wide awake as +she had never before been in life. She had thought of this man with +feelings that she had neither named to herself nor analyzed, but the +unadmitted sex call of the strong man to the strong woman had sounded +like a bugle note through her nature. Now while the beginnings of an +indescribable fury stirred within her, she none the less thrilled to +his embrace with a flooding of her heart under which she almost +swooned. While she felt his kisses on her temples, her cheeks and her +lips, she had no power of speech or protest. + +To Jack Halloway, it seemed that this non-resistance was unconditional +surrender and through him in a current of fluid fire, ran the fierce +ecstasy of victory. + +But after a little Alexander straightened up and the pliant softness of +her body stiffened in his arms. She pushed against his shoulders with +steady hands. They were not struggling hands but firm and definite of +meaning, and Halloway released her. He released her readily as a man +may who can afford to be deferential in his moment of victory. + +But when she was quite free, she stood unsteadily for a moment and then +stepped back and leaned against the wall of the house. Her hands +pressed against the weather-boarding with outspread fingers. Out of a +white face she looked straight before her with eyes preternaturally +wide and full of dazed wonderment. + +At first there was no resentment, no denunciation. The girl only +leaned there with parted lips and heaving bosom and that fixed gaze +which, for all its rigid tensity, seemed groping. + +It was not as the individual that she now thought of Jack Halloway but +of the terrifying and unexplained force that he had awakened in +herself; the force of things that she never until now realized. + +Halloway did not speak. He bent a little toward her, looking at her as +his own breath came fast. At first he did not even marvel at the +stunned, groping blankness of the unmoving features. + +He had known that when she awoke it would be with the shock of latent +fires set loose. Now it was a time to go very gently with her, until +she found her footing in fuller comprehension again. + +Then the girl said so faintly that he could hardly hear her: + +"Thet's ther fust time thet. . . ." She broke off there. + +"I know it, Alexander. I couldn't stay away. I had to come!" + +He took a step forward with outstretched arms but she lifted a pleading +hand. + +"Don't," she said. "I've got ter think . . . go away now." + +And triumphantly confident of what would come out of her meditation, he +turned and picked up his hat and left her standing there. He might +have talked to her of passionate love, he told himself, to the end of +time and it would have meant nothing. Instead he had brought her face +to face with it--and now there was no need of talk. + +Jack Halloway had meant it when he admitted to Brent in New York that +it would not do to give rein to his thoughts of Alexander. They were +all lawless thoughts of a love not to be trammeled by the obligations +of marriage. + +If he hated the civilized world at times, there were other times when +he could not live without it, and into its conventionalized pattern, +Alexander could never fit. She was not civilized enough or educated +enough to take her place there at his side, nor was she pagan enough to +come to him without terms or conditions. So he had resolved to stay +away, and put her out of his mind and in that determination he failed. +Now he had flung away all heed. He had held her in his arms and +consequences could care for themselves! + +But when he had left the porch and Alexander had begun to grope her way +out of the vortex of confusion, that small figment of wrath that she +had known she should feel and yet had so far failed to feel, began to +grow until it engulfed and merged into itself every other element of +her reflections. + +She had been scornful when Brent questioned her ability or her +permanent wish to repulse suitors, and yet after only two had come, she +no longer knew her own mind. But she told herself with a solemn +indignation, she at least wanted to make her own terms. She had no +intent of being swept off her feet by the masterful whim of a man who +had never pleaded. Yet that was the thing that had just occurred. + +Slowly the stunned eyes in the waxen white face became less wonder-wide +and began to smoulder with outraged realization. She rose with the +fixed determination that before the sun set, she would kill Halloway or +compel him to kill her. One of them must die. But her own ideas of +fairness challenged that edict. If she had the right to assume such a +ground, she should have taken it without any instant of faltering. She +should never have acknowledged an impulse of thrill while she was +close-held in his arms. She had let him think that she had not +resented it, and she was as much to blame as he. + +So when Halloway came back the next morning with the glow of eagerness +in his face, he found a very quiet girl waiting to receive him, and +when he would have taken her in his arms she once more put out that +warning hand, but this time with a different expression of lip and eye. + +"Stop," she said. "Me an' you hev got ter talk together." + +"Thet suits me," he assured her. "Thar hain't nothin' else I'd ruther +do--save ter hold ye in my arms." + +"I reckon ye knows I've done took oath thet no man could ever come on +this place--sparkin'." + +"I war right glad ter hev ye say that-- Hit kept other fellers away, +an' any man thet hit _could_ skeer off wasn't hardly wuth hevin' round +nohow. But thet war afore ye fell in love with me." + +"Fell in love with ye?" She repeated the words after him still in that +even somewhat puzzled quiet which was, for her, almost toneless. "Jack +Halloway, when ye went away from hyar yestiddy evenin' an' I'd sat thar +fer a full measured hour an' thought, I 'lowed thar warn't a soul on +earth ner in hell thet I hated so much as you. I'd done med up my mind +ter kill ye afore I laid down ter sleep." + +There was an implacability about this new manner, that disquieted the +man a little, but he said gravely: + +"Them feelin's jest comes about because what ye felt yestiddy war all +new ter ye. Hit's nat'ral enough, but hit won't endure." + +She went on ignoring his protestations. "Ther only reason I _didn't_ +kill ye, war thet I'd done _let_ ye . . . an' I hated myself next es +bad es you. Folks tells me thet I hain't always goin' ter want ter +turn men back. Mebby thet's true." + +"Ye knows full well a'ready, thet hit's true," he declared vehemently. + +"Be thet es hit may, no man's ter wed me without he wooes me fust, an' +no man hain't never goin' ter lay a hand on me without I consents. Now +I aims ter try an' fergit erbout yestiddy--an' you'd better fergit hit +too." + +The man's eyes broke into vehement challenge. "So long es thar's life +in me I won't fergit hit!" + +"I reckon ye'd better heer me out," she reminded him with an ominous +note and he nodded his head, waiting, while she continued. + +"Yestiddy I seemed crazed--but terday I hain't. Ye 'pears ter be right +sartain thet I loves ye. I don't know, but I either loves ye or I +hates ye like all hell. Ef I loves ye I kain't kill ye--an' ef I hates +ye thar's time enough." + +"But Alexander, you do love me! I know----" + +"Wa'al, I don't--an' thet's a right pithy point ter my manner of +thinking! Ye're a right masterful sort of feller, an' ye likes ter +plow yore way through life gloryin' in yore strength an' forcin' your +will on weaker folks." She paused an instant then added significantly: +"But I'm a right masterful sort of woman myself--an' I hain't ter be +nowise driv. Ef you an' me kain't consort peaceable I reckon we'll +jest erbout rake hell afore we finishes up our warfare." + +As he looked at her his admiration was flaming. Possibly it was best, +just now, to advance slowly. + +"I'm willin' ter wait," he conceded slowly. "Ye're wuth hit." + +"Ye says I loves ye. If I finds thet out fer myself, in due course +I'll wed with ye. Ef I don't, I won't, but----" Her voice broke so +suddenly out of the quiet plane in which it had been pitched, that her +climax of words came like a sharp thunder clap on still air. "But ef +ye seeks ter fo'ce me, or ef ever ergin ye lays a hand on me or teches +me, 'twell I tells ye ye kin, afore God in Heaven, one of us has got +ter die! An' I won't never be with ye unarmed, nuther." + +Halloway did not judge it a good time to mention that her allusion to +marriage left a rather wide territory of debate open. One thing at a +time seemed enough and more than enough. + +Alexander had not asked him in, and he inquired calmly: "Now thet ye've +stated yore terms an' I've done agreed ter 'em, hain't ye goin' ter +invite me in?" + +"No," she said shortly. "I makes ther laws in my own household. Ye +air goin' away an' ye hain't comin' back hyar fer one week. I aims ter +be left alone fer a spell now. Ef them terms don't suit ye, ye needn't +come back at all." + +And in that week of reprieved decision Alexander took her life to +pieces and searchingly examined it, item by item. Some strange +reactions were taking place in the laboratory of her life. She was no +more seen in breeches and boots. She had self-contemptuously decided +that if she could not hold undeviatingly to her strongest tenet, but +became a palpitant woman when a man seized her in his arms, she would +throw overboard the whole sorry pretense. + +She would henceforth be frankly and avowedly a woman, but a woman +different from those about her, giving up none of the leadership that +was in her blood or the self-pride that was her birthright. + +One afternoon she met Jerry O'Keefe on the road, and with the old +unabashed twinkle in his eye he accosted her. + +"I heer tell ther big feller's back," he began and the girl flushed. +"Hev ye done run him offen yore place, too?" + +"Thet's my business." + +"Yes _thet_ is, but yore runnin' me off's right severely _mine_." + +"Mebby I've got a rather who comes thar." + +"So hev I." There was a lurking, somewhat engaging impertinence even +in Jerry's quietest rejoinders, a humorous boldness and self-confidence. + +"Howsomever, I reckon ye're kinderly skeered thet I'd mek ye think too +towerin' much of me. I reckon ye dar'sn't trust yoreself." + +Alexander looked at him, and for all her attempted severity she could +not keep the twinkle out of her own pupils. If she had not succeeded +in driving Halloway away, why should she stand out for the subterfuge +of banishing Jerry? It reminded her of Joe's picking an easy man to +whip. There was even a faint challenge of coquetry in her manner as +she disdainfully announced: "Ef thet's ther way I'm feedin' yore +vanity, come over whenever ye feels like hit. I'll strive ter endure +ye, ef ye don't tarry too long." + +"I kain't come afore ternight. Hit's sun-down now," was the instant +response. + + +Things had not gone well with Jase Mallows. The wound that Bud had +inflicted had healed slowly and he had lain long bedridden. He had +been the last of the gang to hear the sorry story of how the robbery +had failed and the sequel recording the deaths of Lute and his +lieutenant. Now Jase heard that Alexander's door was no longer barred +to men who came courting and he returned home. But he came nursing a +grudge against Bud who had wounded him and who had set awry all his +plans. For only one thing was he thankful. Alexander had no suspicion +of his complicity in the effort to rob her. + +But when Jase presented himself at Alexander's house, wearing a fancy +waistcoat and a bright colored tie, he learned to his discomfiture that +the bars which had been lowered to others were still up and fixed +against himself. + +Bud, too, was far from happy, as from a distance he watched Alexander's +apotheosis. Bud knew that he was like a gray and inconspicuous moth +enamored of a splendidly winged butterfly. She could never be thrilled +by the colorless fidelity of a man who was simple almost to stupidity, +even though he lived with no thought above his loyalty. One day almost +unconquerable thirst came upon Bud. It attacked him suddenly as he +passed the house and saw Halloway sitting on the porch talking with +Alexander, and heard the peal of her responsive laughter. + +That appetite rode him like a witch, making capital of his nervous +dejection and he tramped the woods vainly struggling to submerge it in +physical fatigue. Unfortunately it took a great deal of exertion to +wear Bud down, and the mania of craving was as strong as his untiring +muscles. By the purest of evil chance too, he stumbled upon an illicit +still, where an acquaintance was brewing whiskey. He had not known +that it was being operated there and had he sought to find it he could +not have done so, for it was well hidden behind browse and thicket and +a man watched furtively with a ready rifle. But the "blockader" +recognized Bud and had no fears of his playing informer, so with an +amused smile on his bearded face he stepped into sight with a tin cup +invitingly out-held. + +To Bud Sellers its sickening odor was the bouquet of ambrosia. It +stole into his nostrils and set up in his brain insidious sensations of +imagined delight. He pushed it back at first then seized it and gulped +it greedily down. + +Hurriedly he went away. He told himself that if he stopped there all +would still be well, but it was as feasible to tell the tiger that has +tasted blood to lie down and be good. He must have more. For a time +Bud struggled, then he saddled a mule and went as fast as he could ride +toward town. It was a race of endurance against a collapsing resolve. +When he reached the village he sought out the town marshal and +excitedly begged, "Fer God's sake lock me up in ther jail-house. Ther +cravin's done come on me afresh. I'm goin' mad ergin." + +The town marshal knew the history of Bud's alcoholic periodicity, yet +he had no authority to jail a man on request in advance of any offense. +"Ye don't look drunk yit, Bud, albeit I'm afeared ye soon will be," he +said. "I reckon I hain't hardly got ther power ter jail ye, without ye +commits some misdeed." + +But Bud was at the end of his struggle. In a minute more instead of +pleading to be confined, he would be hunting for liquor. It was now or +never. He seized up a brick that lay at his feet and hurled it through +the glass window of a store, before which they stood talking. + +"Kin ye do hit now?" he demanded hoarsely, and the town marshal said: +"Yes, I reckon I kin--now." + +Men have varied fashions for expressing their love of women. That +night Jack Halloway sat on the moonlit porch of Alexander's house and +Bud sat in the vermin-infested cell of the village lockup. But as the +hours went on he found a certain recompense in the thought that he was +keeping a pledge. + +As for Jerry O'Keefe that night, he was doing nothing at all except +thinking certain things about the great fellow who was with the girl, +but those thoughts were putting out roots of future conflict. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Nothing had been heard of any Ku-Klux operations since Alexander's +adventure, and even of that episode no unclean circulated story had +gone abroad. Those who had worn the black masks were not apt to talk +overmuch, and those who had made up Bud's force were for quite +different reasons equally discreet. Since Alexander had won through +safe and unrobbed, those who had been, in a fashion, her clansman, had +few outstanding grudges to repay. Jack Halloway, for example, had come +with a satisfied heart out of the baggage-room, by way of the wrecked +telegraph office. For him the matter was concluded, save that he had +made three enemies who would nurse a malignant grievance and seek, some +day, to requite it with the ambushed rifle. The telegraph operator had +altogether disappeared from the country, and his two immediate +confederates, who were "branch-water men" dwelling in some remote +pocket of the hills, had withdrawn to their thicketed abodes. + +Bud Sellers had pieced two and two together, and though he kept a +Masonic silence on the point, he had reached a conclusion. The house +where Jase Mallows had been nursed back to health after his mysterious +wounding, was not far from the place where he and Brent had been +ambushed. The wound might have been the result of the volley he had +himself fired at the rifle-flash, and if that were true the balance of +that encounter lay in his favor. If it were not true, he had no means +of knowing to whom he owed an unpaid score for his "lay-wayin'." + +Only, he must keep an eye on Jase--because if his inference were +correct, Jase would never forget. + +Besides the telegraph man, the only other principal, actually or +definitely known to any of Alexander's friends had been Lute Brown, and +upon him they need spend no further thought. A long while after the +tragedy had been played out there by yellow lantern-light, a woodsman +passed the rotting cabin where Lute and his faithful partisan had died. +It was indeed so long after, that there was some difficulty in +identifying the bodies, and an inconclusive coroner's verdict left the +matter stranded in mystery--and so it promised to remain. Privately, +those conspirators, whose lips were sealed as to legal testimony, had +hunted the assassin for several weeks, but without success. +Occasionally, in widely separated places, a haggard and emaciated man +was glimpsed who always escaped unidentified and with ghost-like speed. +Children were frightened with tales of his burning eyes, and in +neighborhood gossip he was spoken of as the "wild man of the woods." + +For when Lute Brown's murderer, fleeing for his life, had opened his +parcel and discovered the worthlessness of that for which he had turned +Judas, something snapped in his befuddled brain. He became an Ishmael +driven before the torture of a fixed idea--terror of capture, until one +day his body was found, worn to a skeleton; matted of beard and hair, +and lying with its head in a creek bed at the foot of a cliff over +which the assassin had fallen. + +So the Ku-Klux became again only a name. + +If, however, the men who had followed Alexander were willing to let +sleeping dogs lie, the other faction had not only the rancor of defeat +remaining with them, but also the incurable itch of uneasy consciences. + +At any time that drink loosened a careless tongue, dangerous hints +might be dropped, and over at Coal City a newly elected Commonwealth's +attorney was manifesting a zealous interest in the mystery of those two +dead bodies and all the surrounding facts. + +That Halloway knew at least two of their number by sight, if not by +name, was a cloud of menace which hung over all. Since Jerry O'Keefe +and Bud Sellers were in the big man's confidence they as well as +Alexander herself fell into the gang's list of undesirable citizens. + +But on the surface of life between Coal City and Shoulder-blade there +was no outward ripple; no hint that fires still smouldered which might +again leap to eruption. Men who had followed Lute and those who had +been enlisted by Bud from time to time "met and made their manners" on +the highway--without evidence of animosity. + +Then one day when the early freshness of summer had been sunburned and +freckled into a warmer fullness, a thing happened which stirred the +sleeping dogs. + +One of the three men of whom Halloway had disposed at the station and +who bore ugly scars on his face where the cuffs had marked him, became +involved in a boundary dispute with a neighbor, and a shooting affray +followed--in which the neighbor fell wounded. + +The assailant was arrested and brought to the Coal City Jail, and as he +was being led hither, Halloway and Jerry O'Keefe, who chanced to be in +town that day, came out of the court-house together. + +That coincidence was observed by a lounger in the public square who +had, himself, been an alleged Ku-Klux man, on that memorable day and +night. Out of his own anxieties he began weaving a pattern of fear. + +He reasoned that if Halloway dropped a hint into the ear of the +Commonwealth's Attorney that official might go lightly with the +prosecution for shooting and wounding, provided, as an exchange of +courtesies, this prisoner became fully and freely his tool in ferreting +out the larger problem. He might be offered immunity on one +indictment, if, as State's evidence, he made possible a number of true +bills on graver charges. + +The man kept Halloway and Jerry under observation until they left town +and satisfied himself that so far they had not talked with the +prosecutor--but that carried no assurance for the future, and several +consultations ensued, in which certain measures were considered which +did not enhance the safety of either Halloway or O'Keefe. + + +Halloway was less confident as the weeks passed. That first swift +moment of apparent victory had not been followed by a satisfactory +sequence of progressive steps. + +He had sought to wake Alexander out of that sex-lethargy which lay like +a moat between the citadel of her heart and the advantage of suitors. +In that he had succeeded, too well for his liking. Always Alexander +held surprises in store for him, which only maddened him the more, +fanning his passion into a hotter blaze. Now when he sought to press +his initial advantage to a greater conclusiveness, she only told him to +wait and, like Portia judging her lovers, allowed others to come pay +court as well, while over all she reigned with a regal sort of +despotism, encouraging no one more than another. + +But she was splendidly, vitally awake. + +She still did with joy the things men did, and did them better than +most men, but she was no longer blind to the stronger asset of her +arresting beauty and the effect of its charm. + +She realized these newly discovered attributes naively and without +vanity, but now instead of insisting on the equality of a man, she +demanded the homage of a queen. + +And though she would have found her world desolate without that tallest +and keenest of her cavaliers, she no longer thought of him as the only +important figure in the world that he had opened to her. + +In a somewhat formless and intuitive fashion she felt a slight +undercurrent of distrust for Halloway, which she combated as ungenerous +but could not wholly overcome. + +But in constant conflict with these moments of misgiving there were +other, rather wild moments, when the draw and pull of his fascination +seemed invincible. At those times she realized that, should he open +his arms and say, "Come," she would have to go as the iron filing goes +to the magnet. To Alexander the whole world of love was in a nebulous +and constructive state of flux and lava. + +But she had by instinct a wary defensiveness, and she was on constant +guard. + +"Alexander," said Halloway one day when they were walking together +along the creek-bed between the dark, waxy masses of the rhododendron, +"Hit strikes me right forceable, thet fer a gal thet didn't hev no time +of day fer any man, ye've done swung round mighty suddent. They hangs +'round ye now like bees 'round locust blooms." + +"Did ye 'low thet ef I let any come, I'd refuse ter welcome ther +balance?" she inquired and he retorted with more heat than he usually +allowed himself. "Most women contrives ter satisfy themselves with one +man, I reckon." + +"Thet's atter they've done picked out ther one, fer dead shore," was +her calm retort. "An' mebby even then hit hain't frum choice." + +A satirist might have derived pleasure from that situation of Alexander +rejecting conventional pleas, urged by Jack Halloway. + +The big man had halted and stood looking down at her. His hands +gradually closed, then tautly clenched themselves. For a moment he +contemplated throwing away caution and seeking once more to coerce her +responsiveness in the imprisonment of his sudden embrace but he +hesitated. Then while he still held his silence, Alexander spoke with +that full and inevasive candor which was a cardinal of her nature. + +"Ther gospel-truth is, Jack, I don't know yit whether I loves ye or +hates ye, an' I kain't help mistrustin' ye somehow. I mout es well +tell ye ther truth es ter lie ter ye." + +"Mistrust me!" he echoed, incredulously. "Ye knows full well I loves +ye. Ye kain't misdoubt thet!" + +She shook her head. The sun was burnishing her hair into an aura, and +the clear light shone searchingly on the fresh bloom of her cheek, the +violet of her eyes and the crimson of her lips--revealing no flaw. She +was all lovely and young, and yet Brent thought, she was alarmingly, +almost paradoxically clever. + +"Ye acts like ye loves me," was her seriously voiced response, "but +somehow thar seems ter be a kind of greediness erbout hit. Take Bud +Sellers fer instance--he's jest ther opposite. Thar hain't no greed in +him." + +Halloway might have retorted that also there was in Bud nothing to +which her flaming personality could ever respond. His was the worship +of a dumb and faithful beast. But he held his peace while the girl +went steadily on. + +"I oft-times takes myself ter task fer thet suspicion, because hit +don't seem far ter feel thet-a-way an' not know no reason." + +She looked at him questioningly and very gravely, as one resolved upon +a full but difficult confession. + +"I hain't nuver seed ye foller no reg'lar work. Ye hain't doin' +nothin' hyar now but jest hangin' around." She became halting there, +for she had reached the point of greatest embarrassment, but she forced +herself ahead. + +"I hain't no millionaire myself, but we've got a good farm, and we +don't owe no man nothin'." Once more she broke off before, with an +inflexible frankness, she finished up. "Jack, thar's been times when +I've wondered ef hit wasn't my bein' es well-fixed as I am thet made ye +think so master much of me." + +Then indeed the sprites and goblins of ironic mirth rioted in +Halloway's brain. The surge of laughter that sought outlet from his +lips came near to smothering him, but he succeeded in smothering +it--though the effort almost clicked him. He, with a wealth which +would have seemed to her as the treasure of the Incas, was falling +under suspicion as a lazy fortune-hunter, seeking haven in the meager +opulence of a mountain farm! Yet he dared not confess that wealth now +because such admission would stamp him an impostor. + +"I reckon," he said generously, though with just a touch of hurt pride. +"I kin live down that distrust. Does ye suspicion Jerry O'Keefe +too--or jest me?" + +"Nobody couldn't suspicion Jerry," she said softly. "He's es straight +es a poplar saplin' an' es plain ter see through es a clear +spring-branch. He knows how ter gentle a woman, too." + +"He don't understand ye an' ye'd mighty soon sicken of jest bein' +gentled," argued Halloway. "He hain't got no idea of ther fires thet +lays sleepin' in yore heart." + +"He's got an idee of ther fire in his own, I reckon," replied Alexander. + +It is the accepted rule of these mountains that when two men arrive to +"set up" with a girl at the same time, she must choose between them and +send the less favored away. Both Halloway and Jerry avoided the issue +that might spring from such a situation. They met on the high-road +with a full seeming of their old accord, but perhaps the semblance was +an empty shell--or fast becoming one. There was a tacit understanding +between them that certain evenings at Alexander's house belonged to +each. + +In Jerry's good-natured, whimsical eyes there had settled of late an +unaccustomed gravity and since he was level-headed enough to recognize +in Halloway a man who loomed brightly above others, his fear of him as +a rival was genuine. It was O'Keefe's way to walk boldly and evenly +through life, but a strong and tireless man will flinch in his gait +from the hurt of a stone-bruised foot, and with Jerry the stone bruise +was about the heart--which is worse. But it was more in the casual +meeting than by the formal call, that O'Keefe conducted his courtship. +He had a genius for materializing on the scene at the exact moment when +he could perform some simple service, and of meeting Alexander by +studious coincidence when she least expected him. + +There was none-the-less the constant danger of a flareup because +Halloway always bore himself with entire politeness yet with a courtesy +which did not escape a sort of indulgent patronage; as though the +serious thought of rivalry was absurd. + +One day Bud Sellers came by the house. It was after he had been in +jail and Alexander, who was standing on her porch, invited him in. +Slowly and somewhat dubiously he accepted the invitation. + +"I hain't seed ye fer quite a spell, Bud," began the girl smilingly, +and with a brick red flush he answered. "Hit took holt on me ergin, +Alexander. Hit war jest actually a-burnin' me up." + +She did not ask what he meant by "it." She knew full well and she did +not reproach him. She only inquired, "What happened, Bud?" + +"I kep' my pledge ter yer, though." He spoke gruffly, because the +sight of her was burning him up too, with another kind of thirst. "I +went an' hed myself jailed. I reckon hit won't hardly master me ergin +fer a spell." + +Alexander felt a lump rising in her throat. Since her awakening she +had not missed the meaning of that look in his eyes. Slowly and +candidly, she asked: "Bud, war hit on account of me? War ye frettin' +over me--not a-keering?" + +Sellers looked up in astonishment. + +"How did ye know?" he demanded. "I hain't nuver breathed no word ter +ye erbout keerin'. I knowed full well hit warn't no manner of use." + +"I'm a woman, now, Bud," she reminded him. "A woman don't need ter be +told some things." + +"I knowed hit warn't no use." He only repeated the words, dully, and +Alexander laid a hand on his trembling arm. + +"Bud, Bud," she exclaimed self-accusingly. "I wisht I'd stayed a man. +I don't seem ter do nothin' at this woman-game but jest stir up +trouble. I loves ye right dearly, Bud, but hit's ther same fashion +thet I loves my brother Joe--an' I reckon--that hain't what ye're +a-seekin'." + +But Bud drew back his shoulders and spoke with a brave assumption of +restored cheerfulness. + +"I'm a-seekin' whatever I kin hev," he staunchly declared. "More'n +anything else, 'though, I'm seeking ter see ye happy." He paused then +with a forced smile that, for all his effort, was stiff-lipped, and +said slowly, "I reckon hit'll be either Halloway or Jerry . . . they're +both right upstanding men." + +"Sometimes I thinks hit won't be nobody," she declared. "I'd done been +raised up a boy so long thet since I turned back into a gal ergin, ther +only thing I've been plum sartain of air thet I hain't been sartain of +nuthin'. Sometimes I thinks a heap of Jerry, but more times Jack +Halloway seems ter pintedly sot me on fire." + + +Jerry was tramping along the high-road, whistling an old ballad of +lugubrious tune when a sharp turn brought him face to face with Jase +Mallows. Jerry himself was for passing on with a brief salutation, but +the other halted him and fell into voluble talk. + +Jase complained that his wound had left certain after-effects which +still gave him trouble. + +"Hit's hell ter pay, when a law-abidin' man kain't travel ther highway +withouten he's shot down like I was thet night," lamented Mallows +virtuously. "I misdoubts ef I ever feels plum right inside me ergin. +I wisht I knowed who thet feller war." + +"Mebby he mistook ye fer somebody else," suggested Jerry. "Thet war +ther same night them highwaymen sought ter lay-way Alexander--thar war +right smart shootin' goin' on hyar an' thar." + +"Did ye ever gain any knowledge of who them fellers war?" Mallows +sought to couch his question in the manner of interest for the wrongs +of another, but just a shade too much eagerness on his own part marred +the effect. + +Jerry smiled. He had caught that note and it piqued his curiosity, so +with mountain secretiveness he became cryptic in his response. "Wa'al, +mebby we hain't tellin' all we knows--jest yit. Mebby we're kinderly +bidin' our time for a leetle spell." + +It was not a comprehensive announcement. It was nine-tenths inspired +by a spirit of teasing gossip-hunger into fuller revealment, but it +happened to start a train of serious thought in the hearer. + +Jase had recently returned from Coal City, and there he had talked with +men who were watching with alarm the possibilities of an impending +trial. The man who had shot his neighbor over a fence-line dispute was +to face his prosecutors at the next term of court, and if he talked too +much, large and portentous results might ensue. + +The Commonwealth would know nothing of its potential leverage on the +accused unless Halloway, O'Keefe or Alexander broke silence, and it +followed that their silencing was highly important. + +Through Jase's thoughts ran, in a threatening refrain, the words, +"Mebby hit won't be long now." + +So Jase saddled his mule that evening, despite the misery which was the +relic of his wounding and started back to Coal City to convene a +committee of ways and means. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +The mail came irregularly to Shoulder-blade creek, but even irregular +deliveries may bring bad news. Halloway received a letter, one day, +containing a summons which he could not disregard. He had spoken +contemptuously to Brent of money-grubbing, but his inflated wealth +carried certain responsibilities which even he acknowledged. + +He was perfectly willing that his world should see in him an +incorrigible scoffer at moral conventions. He rather enjoyed being the +object of maternal warnings to young daughters, but in financial +affairs no stern moralist could have been more observant of rigid +integrity, and in that, as in other things, he reversed the usual +order. The business involved in the letter does not concern this +narrative save in so far as it called him in peremptory terms away from +Alexander and, at that, he fumed sulphurously. + +He had, for the present, one more evening with her and he meant to make +the most of it. If there was in him any power of hypnotism, and he +still believed there was, he meant to exert it to the full. + +Even in midsummer, there are chill nights in the mountains, and as he +approached Alexander's house he thought gratefully of the fire that +would be burning on her hearth. + +She was sitting alone when he entered, by a small table, sewing, and +she did not rise to welcome him. Lamp and firelight mingled in an +orange and carmine glow that fell softly upon her. For a moment, as +Halloway, pausing just inside the door, gazed at her, that adventurous +hunger that fed upon her beauty became a positive avidity. Perhaps +because he was leaving her, her beauty seemed what no earthly beauty +is--absolute. + +"Alexander," said Halloway slowly, "I've got ter go away fer a spell, +an' I hates hit--I hates hit like all torment!" + +She looked quickly up, and his narrow scrutiny told him that she had +given ever so slight a start and that into her eyes had come a quickly +repressed disappointment. + +"I'll miss ye, Jack," she said simply. "What business calls ye away?" + +That was an expected question and its answer was ready. + +"I've done heired me a small piece of property from an uncle, way +acrost ther Verginny line, an' I've got ter fare over thar an' sign +some papers or do somethin' ter thet amount." + +"How long does ye 'low ter be gone?" + +He shook his head moodily. "Hit's a long journey through ther roughs +an' I don't know how much time I'll hev ter spend over ther business, +but I reckon ye knows thet I won't tarry no longer then need be." + +"Don't hasten unduly on my account," she coolly counseled him. "I'll +strive ter mek shift somehow ter go on livin'." + +The man had taken a chair near her and was bending forward, almost, but +not quite, touching her. Now he rose and his voice trembled. + +"Fer God's sake, Alexander, don't belittle me ner mek light of me +ternight. I kain't endure hit. Heven't ye got no idee how master much +I loves ye? Don't ye see thet ther two of us war made fer each other? +I don't aim ter brag none--but ye knows I'm ther only man hyar-abouts +thet understands ye--thet holds ye in full-high appreciation!" + +He paused and she inquired calmly, "Air ye?" + +"Ye knows hit!" He was talking tumultuously with the onrush of that +dynamic spirit which drove him and gave him power. He stood there with +his coat open over his magnificent chest, and his eyes alight with the +forces that made him exceptional. + +"Ye knows thet _you_ hain't no every-day woman nuther. Ye knows thet +ther like of yore beauty hain't been seed afore in these hills--not in +mortal feature ner in ther blossomin' woods ner in ther blue skies over +'em all!" + +Again he paused, and even while he adhered to a crude vernacular, there +was, in the cadence of his voice, a forceful sort of eloquence. In the +latent intensity of his personality dwelt a sheer wizardry which few +women could have withstood. + +"Hev ye ever seed a comet in ther heavens?" he abruptly demanded and +without waiting for a reply swept rapidly on. "Well ye're like ter a +comet, Alexander. Every star thet shines out thar ternight is hung +high up in heaven an' every one is bright. But when a comet goes +sweepin' acrost ther skies, with a furrow of light trailin' along +behind hit--we plum fergits them leetle stars--hit's like they'd all +been snuffed. Hit's ther same way with you, Alexander. Deep down in +yore heart thar's powerful fires a-burnin' thet no weak man kain't +satisfy. When I looks at ye I clean fergits every other star that ever +shone--because I've done seed _you_." + +Once more Alexander began to feel that old uncertainty of reeling +senses. His intonations were caresses. His eyes were beacons, and she +took a tight hold on herself--for despite the hypnotic spell that he +was weaving about her, a voice within her cautioned, "Be steady!" That +indefinable ghost of suspicion stirred and troubled her. + +"An' so sence I'm ther comet amongst them numerous small stars," she +observed with an even voice, though her pulse beat was far from +regular, "ye 'lows thet I'd ought ter belong ter _you_?" + +He ignored the teasing brightness of her eyes; a light of defensive +disguise. + +"I 'lows thet hevin' oncet seed ye, an' loved ye, I hain't nuver goin' +ter be satisfied with no lesser star." + +The fire had leaped up and the room had grown warm. Halloway, in his +impetuous fashion, ripped off his coat, flinging it to the floor, and +stood with his great shoulders and chest bulking mightily beneath his +flannel shirt. + +Under the hurricane sweep of his love-making the girl from time to time +closed her eyes in an effort to hold to her waning steadiness. This +was one of those occasions when the fire in her responded to the fire +in him; when she felt, with a sense of deep misgiving, that she could +not resist him. + +"Alexander," said the man, abruptly, dropping his voice from its +impetuous pitch, to a more quiet and yet more ardent quality, "Ye +'lowed oncet thet I shouldn't never tech ye withouten ye said I mout. +I've done obeyed ye--but now." He slowly extended both arms and stood +upright in gladiatorial strength and compelling erectness. "But now +ye're a-comin' inter my arms--of yore own accord--because we was made +fer one another." + +Again her lids came down over the girl's eyes and her fingers tightly +gripped the chair-arms for support. Something in her heart was driving +her irresistibly into those outstretched arms and something +else--though that was growing weaker, she thought--kept whispering its +warning, "Steady! Go steady! This is a spell but it isn't love." + +She heard the hypnotic voice again. "Ye're a-comin' inter my arms, +Alexander--ye're a-comin'--now!" + +Her glance, ranging in desperation, fell on his coat at her feet, and +with the instinct of grasping at any pretext, for a moment of thought +and reprieve, she exclaimed: + +"Give me thet coat, Jack!" Having breathlessly gone that far, she was +able to finish with greater self-command. "Ther linin's in sheer rags. +I kin be mendin' thet wust place by the sleeve thar--whilst ye talks." + +"The coat kin wait," he declared. Her line of defense was bending now, +under the weight of his onslaught, and it was no time for trivial +interruption, but Alexander leaned forward and picked the thing up. + +She had not yet begun to sew--her fingers lacked the needful +steadiness--but she was making a pretense of studying the torn lining. +She must avert her gaze from him for a moment or the tides that he was +lashing about her would lift and carry her on their outsweep. + +Then suddenly she gave a violent start, and from her lips explosively +broke the one word, "Jack!" + +He knew that she was under a strained tension of emotion, and though +the way she had flashed out that word was a marked contrast with her +past attempts to seem controlled, he construed it as an evidence of +final surrender to her feelings. She was already very pale and so she +turned no paler, but in that moment something had happened to +Alexander. Some thought or instinct or fact had brought her up +short--transformed her out of weakness into strength, and when she +spoke again it was with the self-containment of one who has been near +the cliff's edge but who has definitely drawn back. + +"I hed hit in head ter ask ye a question," she announced, slowly, "but +I've done decided not ter do hit. This thread hain't suited ter ther +job. I'll git me another spool." + +She rose from her chair, and dismayed at the astonishing swiftness of +her changed mood, Halloway took an impulsive step toward her. His arms +were still receptively outstretched, but suddenly he felt that attitude +to have become absurd. An altered light shone in her eyes now, and it +was unpleasantly suggestive of contempt. She turned, absent-mindedly +carrying the coat, and went into the other room. + +What had happened, wondered the man. Something portentous had been +born and matured in a breathing space--but what it was he could not +guess. He knew only that victory had been between his open fingers and +had slipped away. In this new and hardened mood of Alexander's, he +might as well talk passionate love to the Sphinx. + +But that was Alexander, he reflected. The tempestuous change from sun +to storm was the capricious climate of her nature. She had been close +to surrender and had wrested her independence out of his closing grasp +by pure will-power. The reaction, he inferred, had been +instantaneous--bringing the old resentment against being forced. Again +he had lost--but also again he would win. + +Alexander was not gone long and she returned with a restored calm. The +fingers that stitched industriously at his torn coat, were as steady as +before his coming. + +"I don't aim ter be fo'ced, Jack," she quietly announced. "Ye boasts +thet ye kin mek me come into yore arms of my own free will. If ye +kin--all right--but hit won't be afore ye fares back from yore journey. +Hit won't be ternight." + + +Two weeks after Jack Halloway had started on his alleged trip across +the Virginia boundary, Alexander also set out upon a journey. + +She was going to Perry Center and meant to be there for some days, +since matters concerning the farm were to be discussed with her uncle. +This time the undertaking was less arduous than the trip from there +back to Shoulder-blade had been. + +Now it was midsummer and the railroad washouts had been repaired, so +she had only to cross two mountain ridges and take the jerky little +train from a point ten miles distant to her destination. + +Perry Center was a hub about which swung a limited perimeter of rich +farming lands. This fertile area was an oasis with steep desolation +hedging it in on all sides, but within its narrow confines men could +raise not only the corn which constituted the staple of their less +fortunate neighbors, but the richer crop of wheat as well. + +Therefore the men about Perry Center were as sheiks among goat-herds. + +When Alexander set out on her ten-mile walk hefting the pack that held +her necessaries for the trip, Jerry O'Keefe materialized grinning +amiably from a clump of laurel. It was characteristic of Jerry to so +appear from nowhere. + +Now he nodded, and his eyes were brimming with that infectious smile of +his. + +"I jest kinderly happened ter hev a day off, Alexander," he assured +her, "and I 'lowed hit wouldn't hurt none fer me ter come along es far +es ther railroad train with ye an' tote thet bundle." + +She gave it over to him, and since the trail there was narrow and +thorn-hedged, she strode on ahead of him. Jerry was content, for +through the midsummer woods, still dewy with morning freshness, he +could follow no lovelier guide, and Jerry could be silent as well as +loquacious. + +They had put two-thirds of the journey behind them, when Alexander +suggested, "Let's rest hyar a spell. Hit's a right good place ter +pause an' eat a snack." + +They stood on a pinnacle where time-corroded shoulders of sandstone +broke eruptively through the soil. In a cluster of paw-paw trees there +was a carpet of moss spread over ancient boulders, and off behind them +stretched the nobility of forests unspoiled; of oak and ash and poplar +and the mighty plumes of the pine. The crimson flower of the trumpet +flower trailed everywhere, and a mighty vista was spread from +foreground to horizon where the ashy purple of the last ridge merged +with the sky. + +But for Jerry the chief beauty was all close at hand. + +"Alexander," he said, with his heart in his eyes, "ye're ther purtiest +gal I ever seed--ther purtiest gal I reckon anybody ever seed." + +The tease in her came to the surface. "Another feller likened me ter a +comet amongst small stars, Jerry." + +"I reckon I kin hazard a guess who thet feller war," he answered +soberly. "There's only one man hyarabouts thet's got a gift of speech +like thet. Myself, I don't like ter think of ye as a comet, Alexander, +they're so plum outen reach." + +She did not reply and Jerry went on. "An' yit mebby he's right--I +reckon thet's jest another reason for likenin' ye ter one--an' I reckon +he knows, too, thet he flames right bright hisself." + +The girl lifted her brows questioningly and Jerry went on. + +"Hit's right hard fer me ter think erbout anything else. He stands +betwixt me an' you an' he bulks so big thet he's kinderly hard ter git +eround." + +Alexander was sitting on the mossy rock, her eyes wandering off across +the far-flung landscape. Now their gaze came back, recalled by +something wistful in her companion's voice, and it occurred to her that +this man himself would have towered above the generality. + +"Ye're a right sizable sort of feller yore own self, Jerry," she +reminded him and he laughed a shade bitterly. It was a very unusual +thing for bitterness to tingle Jerry's voice, and it augured a bruised +heart. + +"I'm big amongst leetle fellers," he replied. "But along side him, I'm +a runt." + +"Ef he's got some thing ye hain't got, like es not, hit wucks t'other +way round too. Ye're strong enough an' ye've got gentleness." + +Jerry leaned forward to her. His voice trembled and his eyes broke +into a sudden snap of flame. + +"Alexander--ye knows ther way I loves ye. Ye kain't fathom ther full +extent of hit all, but ye knows some small part of hit. Ye're good ter +me--but when a man feels like I does towards you, thar hain't but one +sort of goodness thet counts. I knows thet I cuts a sorry sort of +figger alongside him, an' I hes ter fight myself day-long an' +night-long ter keep from hatin' him fer hit. I hain't no Goliath outen +ther Bible, but after all a right puny leetle feller took his measure." + +He paused for an instant then swept feelingly on. "I wants ye ter +answer me one question. Air hit jest because he's so monster big an' +fine-looking thet ye thinks he's a piece of ther moon?" + +"I hain't nuver said I thought he was," she interrupted, but Jerry +stubbornly proceeded, and no one looking at his set face could doubt +that he meant all he said. + +"Because ef thet's hit, Alexander, afore God Almighty I'm plum willin' +ter meet him an' fight him fer ye with my bare hands 'twell one of us +dies. I hain't none afeared of him, ef so be I'm fightin' fer you--an' +ef he wins ther fight I'd rather be dead anyhow." + +Alexander had never seen him so passion-ridden of manner before--and +she thought that if such a combat took place, even with the odds +uneven, the outcome would not be altogether certain. + +Had Jerry known it, he was at that moment nearer to stirring the girl +in the way that Halloway had stirred her, than he had ever been before, +but her reply came in a grave and low-pitched voice. + +"I hain't ter be won by no battle, Jerry." + +"No, o'course not." He had brought himself back with an effort to a +quieter mood and he even sought valiantly to muster the twinkle into +his eyes and the whimsical note into his tone as he said: + +"But atter all, I'm a right easy sort of feller ter git along with, an' +I mout be kinderly handy eround ther house. These masterful husbands +sometimes don't w'ar so well. Hit's like havin' ter live with a king, +I reckon." + +Now, it was the woman who insisted on gravity. "Look at me, Jerry," +she commanded and their glances held level as she went on in deep +earnestness. + +"I'd hate fer ther two of ye ter think thet I'm playin' fast an' loose +with ye. I'd hate ter think hit myself. Hit hain't thet--I was raised +up a boy--I thought I'd always stay thet-a-way. Then I found I +couldn't." + +"Yes, I knows thet, Alexander. Thar hain't no censure fer ye es ter +thet." + +"Mebby thar ought ter be though. But ye sees hit's kinderly like I was +livin' in a new world--an' I don't know hit well yit. I've got ter go +slow. I hain't made up my mind an' then changed hit--I hain't blowed +hot an' cold. Hit's jest thet I hain't been able ter come ter no +conclusion one way ner t'other." + +She had spoken with a defensive tone, one hardly certain, but as she +finished a prideful note crept into her voice. "But when I does +decide, I decides fer all time an' ther man I weds with kin trust me." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Jerry bade Alexander farewell after depositing her parcel by the +threadbare seat of the battered day coach which was to carry her to +Perry Center, but as he said good-by, he was, for once, acting without +candor. He meant to go to Perry Center too, but being called by no +business, except to follow her, he thought it wiser to make no +announcement of his intention. When the engine wheezed and groaned to +its start. Jerry swung himself into the baggage compartment, and after +the elapse of a safe interval presented himself, grinning, in the day +coach. + +The girl pretended indignation, but her wrath was neither convincing +nor terrifying. After a space she inquired, "Jerry, does ye know whar +Jack Halloway come from afore he struck this section?" + +O'Keefe shook his head. "I don't jedgmatically know what creek he was +borned on, ef thet's what ye means, but I reckon hit warn't so fur +away." + +Her eyes narrowed a trifle. "Does ye even know--fer sure--thet he's a +mountain man?" + +Jerry laughed. "I hain't nuver heered tell of no man thet war raised +up in the settlemints claimin' ter be a benighted boomer," he answered. +"Hit's right apt ter be ther other way 'round." He paused, then +judicially added: "When a man's co'tin a gal, he gin'rally seeks ter +put hisself in ther best light he kin--not ther wust." + +"Yes, thet sounds right reasonable," she admitted. + +"What made ye ask, Alexander?" + +After a dubious pause, she spoke hesitantly, "I jest fell ter studyin' +erbout hit. Ef I tells ye, ye mustn't never name ther matter--ter +nobody." + +"I gives ye my hand on thet." + +"Wa'al, Mr. Brent told me afore he left, thet ef I ever needed counsel +I should write ter him. When Jack went away, I writ--an' yestiddy I +got an answer back. My letter ter Mr. Brent asked ther same question +thet I jest put up ter _you_." + +"What did Brent say?" + +She was looking out of the car window with eyes that were serious and +preoccupied. + +"He said he knowed all erbout him--but thet a question like thet ought +rightfully ter be put ter a man fust-handed. He bade me ask Jack +myself when he come back--but he pledged hisself ter answer all my +questions ef Jack should happen ter refuse, atter he'd hed one chanst." + +The gray-blue eyes narrowed for a moment, then O'Keefe inquired, "Does +hit makes any great differ whar a man was borned at?" + +"Mebby not. I just fell ter wonderin'." + +"Does ye want my fam'ly Bible ter look me up in?" demanded Jerry and +the girl laughed. + +But she did not tell Jerry what lay back of this whole discussion. She +did not confide to him the mystery of a coat with a patched lining. + +It had been a very old coat, though at one time, long ago, a good one, +and already it had been patched and repatched. When Alexander had +picked it up that night before Halloway's departure, as she struggled +to keep her feet against the elemental surge of his whirlpool passion, +its inner breast pocket had spread a bit at the top, and her eyes had +glimpsed a discolored tailor's label--bearing the words, "New York." + +That had been the thing she needed: the floating spar to one who is +drowning and it steadied her into instant resistance. She had gone to +her own room and read there the full legend--almost obliterated by +wear--almost, but not quite. Some letters and numbers were gone, but +enough were left legible. + +"Mr. J. C. Halloway," was written in ink with a number on Fifth Avenue, +New York. Then there was the tailor's name and address--also on that +main thoroughfare of Fashion. + +Cumberland mountain loggers do not have their clothes hand tailored in +Manhattan; and though the exact locality meant nothing to her, the town +meant much. + +The label was partly ripped away from the pocket, and the girl had +snipped it loose altogether. Halloway had played a careful game. He +had avoided carrying forwarded envelopes--he had held to the vernacular +at times when sudden crisis threatened to drive him into forgetfulness. +He had overlooked only one possible precaution--that of ripping out the +tailor's trademark from his coat. + + +"Yes, we're right proud of thet thar wheat elevator. We all went +partners ter raise ther money fer rearin' hit," said Warwick McGivins, +as he dismounted from his old pacing mare and pointed to a huge wooden +building that stood at the edge of a bluff, from which one could drop a +rock down a sheer hundred and fifty feet. + +Alexander, his niece, and Jerry O'Keefe, following suit, slid from +their saddles and the three walked through a wide gate, over a set of +wagon scales and into the yard of the huge structure. + +"Kinderly looks ter me like ye'd done deesigned hit fer a fort ter +fight In'jins," suggested O'Keefe and the guide nodded his iron gray +head. "Hit don't hurt none ter hev a house like thet solid-timbered," +he asserted. "When ther crop's in, thet buildin' holds erbout all ther +wheat thet ther passel of us fellers raises amongst us--an' we seeks +ter hev hit held safe. Thar's some car-loads in thar right now, an' +threshin' time hain't nigh over yit." + +Drawing a key from his pocket he took them into the small office, and +showed them the spaciously dimensioned interior. There were no windows +save high overhead, and only two doors. One of these was a great +sliding affair where the wagons backed up, and the other was small but +equally solid. It was a huge box of heavy timber, most of it +constituting the bin itself, but the old fellow showed it proudly--nor +was his pride misplaced, for with this great cube of massive timber, +his neighbors had met and overcome a perplexing handicap of nature. + +They climbed a ladder and looked down into the reservoir partly filled +with golden grain, and Jerry, noticing a coil of rope hanging from an +upright, inquired: "Did ye hev a lynchin' in hyar by way of +house-warmin'?" + +McGivins laughed, but his narrative had not yet come to uses of that +rope, and he refused to be hurried. + +"Ye sees," he zestfully enlightened, "we've got a sort of table land of +wheat ground hyarabouts thet raises master crops--an' we've got a +railroad runnin' right past our doors ter haul hit out ter ther world +below." + +"No wonder folks hyarabouts hes got prosperity," mused Alexander a +little enviously, thinking of her rocky hillsides on Shoulder-blade. + +"Yes, but ther road didn't do us no great lavish of good--'twell we +deevised this hyar thing," her uncle reminded her. "Hit jest kinderly +aggravated us. Ye see our fields lays on high ground an' ther railroad +runs through a deep chasm. We kain't git down ter hit, nigh es hit be, +withouten we teams over slavish ways fer siv'ral steep miles. Now I'll +tek ye down ther clift an' show ye what's down thar--an' how we licked +thet mountain." + +He led them out and down a narrow path, where they had to hold to +branch and root until they reached the bottom of a deep ravine--and +there one hundred and fifty feet lower was another huge bin, open at +its top, and connected with the upper structure by an almost vertical +chute. + +So after all it was a piece of highly creditable engineering. It +enabled the grower to weigh and store his product above, and then by +opening the runway to deposit it at the rails. In only one respect +would an engineer have quarreled with the arrangement. The long lever +that loosened and held the flowing tide of grain operated from outside +the upper building instead of from within. + +"What's ter hinder a thief from comin' in ther night-time," demanded +Jerry practically, "an' runnin' hisself out a wagon-load of thet thar +stuff an' haulin' hit off?" + +The elder's face fell a little. + +"Thet's a far question," he acknowledged, "but we couldn't skeercely +tutor hit no otherwise--an' we keeps thet lever fastened with a chain +an' padlock." + +"But how erbout ther rope," persisted O'Keefe, and the older man +explained. "Sometimes we has ter nail up loose planks inside thet +runway, an' when we does a feller lets hisself down on thet rope." + + +In a week, the midsummer term of the High-court would convene and the +case of the man who had wounded his neighbor would be called for trial. + +The activities of possible informers became again a pregnant danger to +the erstwhile Ku-Klux operators and again a squad of men with rifles +set out to cope with the situation. + +Halloway had slipped away for the time being, but the movements of +Jerry and Alexander had been duly watched and reported. It did not +altogether please the men charged with this new duty to operate about +Perry Center. They would have preferred the wilder territory adjacent +either to Shoulder-blade creek or to Coal City, but the thing must be +accomplished and all matters are relative. If Perry Center lay in a +smoother country it was still mountain country and wild enough if one +were careful. + +On an evening gorgeously alight with a full moon, Jerry came to the +McGivins' house as was his custom. These were times when he did not +have to consider sharing the right of way with a rival, and he was +availing himself of his undisputed respite. + +Shadows of deep purple-blue lay everywhere like velvet islands in the +silver flood of the moon's radiance. Through the timbered slopes came +the soft cadences of the night's minstrels--the voices of frogs and +katydids and the plaintive call of the whippoorwills. + +Alexander had been deeply reflective as she sat with her lovely chin +resting on one hand, listening to the low-pitched voice in which her +lover was pleading his cause. + +"I kain't be sure--not yit," was her uncertain response to all his +argument. + +They saw a shadow fall across the lighted doorway at their backs, and +heard the somewhat disturbed voice of Warwick McGivins. + +"I've got ter go over thar ter ther wheat elevator, I reckon. I kain't +find ther key nowhars an' I mistrusts I left hit in ther door when I +war weighin' up wheat this evening; I'll jest leave ther two of ye hyar +fer a spell." + +Jerry rose obligingly to his feet. "I reckon my legs is a few y'ars +younger than yourn," he announced cheerfully. "I'll jest teck my foot +in my hand and light out fer over thar. Hit hain't but a whoop an' a +holler distant nohow." + +"Hit's a right purty night," volunteered Alexander, in a voice of vague +restlessness. "I don't kinderly feel like settin' still. I'll go +along with ye, Jerry." + +The young man's eyes brightened delightedly. It had been a strain on +his innate courtesy to surrender so much of his moonlight evening with +Alexander, and now he had his reward. There had been an unrest in her +eyes to-night--yet somehow he had felt her nearer to him in thought, +and his bruised feelings were stirring into fresh hope. + +Together they started out, and under the spell of the night's +graciousness one of those silences that seem a bond of sympathy fell +between them. + +The way led for a while along the high road, then turned off into the +woods, where the rhododendron was massed thick. Here there was more of +the velvet shadow and less of the direct moonlight, but through the +open spaces that, too, fell in filtering patterns of platinum +brightness. + +Once Jerry halted abruptly and stood listening, then he went on again. + +"I heered hit too," said Alexander understandingly, for in the hills +one pauses to question unexplained sounds in the night time. "I reckon +hit war some varmint stirring." + +The route they had taken led along the margin of the bluff, and when +they were close to the elevator, walking single file, with Alexander in +the lead, the serenity broke with the malignant sharpness of a barking +rifle. + +Jerry heard the whining flight of the bullet that had missed his head +by inches, and as though in obedience to a single nerve impulse, both +the girl and the man fell flat to the better concealment of the ground, +and edged back into the sootily shadowed laurel. + +"We've got need ter separate," whispered Jerry, with his lips brushing +her ear. "I aims ter git inside ther elevator--and hold 'em off. You +hasten down over ther cliff an' work back ter ther house. I reckon +hit's me they wants, but I'll endure 'twell ye brings help." + +Without wasting a needless word or breath in argument, Alexander began +noiselessly twisting her way towards the brow of the precipice. +Jerry's heart was pounding with terror lest she be discovered--and to +divert from her an attention that might prove fatal, he recklessly rose +and leaped across a spot of moonlight, making a fleeting target, which +brought from two separate sources responses of riflery. + +The man knew now that whoever his assailants might be they were out in +force and in earnest. Cautiously he worked his way along the shadows, +his luck still holding until finally he had reached his point of +vantage within a few yards of the open gate that led to the elevator +itself. To gain that haven he must dash for it across a band of +unmasked moonlight. Once inside, he had only to wait for the relief of +reinforcements. + +To the right and left of him, and from several spots at once, O'Keefe +heard stirrings in the thicket. There must be a sizable pack out on +the hunt and he surmised that they were making those unnecessary noises +with the purpose of drawing his fire and bringing him into revealment +by the spurt of his pistol. + +The door of the elevator itself stood partly in the moonlight. Jerry +O'Keefe could see the dull glitter that he knew to be the key--and +could even make out--or so he thought--that the door stood an inch or +two ajar. + +Of that he was not quite certain--and it was a vitally important point. + +If the lock was not caught, he might get in before he could be killed. +If he had to fumble with a key, his end was certain. + +Jerry drew himself together and made the dive. Four rifles spoke in +unison and four bullets imbedded themselves in the heavy timbers of the +great building as he hurled himself against the door, and felt it give +laxly under his weight. + +He had not fired a shot and between himself and his enemies stood the +staunchness of walls against which their rifle bullets would pelt as +harmlessly as hailstones. Except for his anxiety about Alexander he +might have lighted his pipe and waited with a contented spirit. + +Indeed, a slow smile did shape itself on his face, but a startled +thought wiped it away as swiftly and completely as a wet sponge +obliterates writing on a slate. That thought left his expression as +black as a slate too. + +Jerry drew his pistol, and for a moment it was in his mind to open the +door and go out again. + +When he had sent the girl away for reinforcements it had not occurred +to him that this ambuscade might be intended to include her as well as +himself. He had thought that, once apart from him, unless mistaken for +him in the dark, she could walk safely. Indeed he had been at a total +loss to explain, in any way, the motive of the attack. + +Now it had flashed upon him that it was somehow an outgrowth of the old +robbery attempt--and if that were true as high a price lay on the +girl's head as upon his own. She was out there alone and in all +likelihood unarmed. + +Jerry O'Keefe broke into a cold sweat of panic--and he sat with his +ears strained for a pistol shot--a shout--any indication that might +call him across the moonlight zone beyond the door to her defense. + +But the stillness of the midsummer night had settled again, except for +the voices of the whippoorwill and the katydid. + +By this time, he tried to reassure himself, Alexander had made her way +down into the gorge and was beyond the touch of danger. + +But that was not true. The girl had need to move with such silence as +should break no twig and rustle no shrub. She must twist along a +course that avoided the patches of moonlight, weaving her slow way in +and out. Deliberation now was hard, but it would mean greater and more +effective haste later on. She had even paused, crouching, with inheld +breath, at a spot from which she could watch the door of the elevator, +until Jerry had made his dash. With a heart swollen and strained by +dread almost to bursting, she had seen him shoot across the exposed +area and burst through the door--and she had heard the fusilade that +resented his escape. + +Or was it escape? He had plunged through the dark opening much as a +falling man might go. But now safe, wounded or dead, he was inside and +they could not reach him, so it behooved her to use wary care to the +end that she might bring him help. + +But as Alexander came to the two large boulders between which she meant +to start down into the gorge she was arrested by a flicker of light +there. The rock shielded from view the man who seemed to be kindling a +pine torch, but the flare had warned her in time to make her crouch low +and consider her course. That path which she had chosen was cut off. + +Then, low and guarded voices stole across to her with the light. + +"War's ther gal? She didn't git inside too, did she?" + +"No, 'pears like she's done hid away--but I reckon they'll diskiver her +afore she gits far." + +"Don't let's waste no time, then. Ye've done splashed coal-oil on ther +corner of ther warehouse, hain't ye?" + +"Yes." + +"Wa'al, come on. Ye've got yore torch ready. Let's tech her off. He +thinks he's safe enough inside thar, but right shortly he'll sing +another tune." + +Alexander fell, for a moment, into a tremor and chill of wild panic. +Suddenly as a revelation, yet beyond all shadow of doubt, she knew that +the man who was doomed to a certain and most horrible death was, to +her, the person of supreme consequence in all the world. The dynamic +qualities of Halloway were nothing and less than nothing, now. She +wanted for always that gentle strength and whimsical smile that were +soon to be licked up in flame and torture. If this man were not saved +she could, herself, no longer endure to live--and there was no way of +saving him! + +While Alexander crouched there with her blood congealed she saw the +torch applied, saw its flame leap ravenously to the welcome of the +kerosene and secure a hold upon the building itself as sure and +tenacious as the grip of a bulldog's clamped jaws. + +The plotters who fired the elevator showed her only their backs. + +How long would it be before the man inside recognized the acrid odor +and realized his fate? What would he do then? Presumably he would +dash for the door, and there both flame and rifle fire would be +awaiting him. + +The incendiaries had now passed around the corner of the house and the +moonlight fell upon the long chute which ran almost vertically down to +the railway tracks below. Into Alexander's mind shot a desperate +resolution. It offered a slender chance at best--yet the only one. + +Still for a moment, she questioned it. There were so many ways that it +might turn out--and of them all, one only could possibly end in success. + +Then she slipped over to the great handle that controlled the flow of +grain, locked into place with its chain and padlock. If she were seen +she would, of course, be killed, but the murder crew seemed to have +massed at the front of the place now, watching the door, until the fire +should take that task off their hands. The flames were crackling loud +enough now to cover the noise which must attend her next move--and to +afford her a light for her work. + +A heavy iron bar lay on the ground and with it the girl forced the +chain and bent all her strength to the great lever that should launch +the stored wheat into its quicksand flow. She flung her good muscles +and her substantial weight so fiercely into that effort that the shaft +snapped at its fulcrum--but not until it had done its work. + +Alexander rushed for the brow of the cliff, and this time she was not +obstructed. The relaxed vigilance of a job well done had stolen upon +the watchers. + +The journey down the precipice was one that had its difficulties, and +Alexander's brain was reeling with a score of terrors--yet somehow she +reached the tracks. + +O'Keefe would not be in the wheat bin itself, she reflected. It would +be dark in there too--until the light became a glare of death. Unless +he chanced to hear, through other and fiercer sounds the soft flow of +the myriad kernels, he would have no means of knowing that one +desperate way was being opened to him. Even then his single hope would +lie in quickness of perception and a sureness of judgment that acted +flawlessly and smoothly under a supreme strain. + +If he did see that the wheat was running out and did not wait for it +all to spill itself, he would be sucked into its tide only to emerge +dead. For it flowed slowly, pressing in every direction, and it would +inevitably strangle the breath out of his lungs. + +Even if he were judging all these odds with a meticulous nicety, +Alexander questioned herself breathlessly, would there be time to wait +for the full store to flow through that narrow channel? It was a race +between a slow tide which could not be hurried and another which rushed +on with the devouring fury of mania. + +The girl threw herself down beside an empty freight car and dug her +cold finger nails into her hot temples. She could hear the steady +stream of wheat flowing into the bin there, and the deadly slowness of +its progress through the hopper was driving her mad. The elevator she +could not see, but by lifting her head, she could see out all too +clearly the crimson sky overhead. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +When the first acrid warning of scorched timbers came to his nostrils, +Jerry O'Keefe had recognized the desperation of his plight and he laid +out his simple plans in accordance. He meant to stay where he was till +the last endurable moment, hoping against hope for the coming of the +rescuers. When it was no longer possible to remain, he would go out of +the door and sell his life at a price--but he knew he would have to +sell it, and perhaps cheaply, for they would do their killing from +cover. + +He struck a match for a survey of the place where he must make his last +stand and his eye fell on the coil of rope. Then, for the first time, +he remembered its use, and vainly wished that the chute could be opened +from within. By the light of other matches, he looked over into the +great bin and what he saw astonished him. There was a moving suction +at the center of the pile--a slow motion and declivity--though this +afternoon the stuff had been heaped into a well-rounded mound. Further +scrutiny verified the amazing results of his first impression. The +hopper was open! + +Jerry O'Keefe smiled grimly. His enemies had an ironic sense of humor, +he thought. They meant to give him a choice of deaths, death at the +door by flame and lead or death in the sluice by suffocation. Then an +incredulous exclamation burst from his lips. Was there not a wild and +wholly improbable chance that this opening of an avenue might be +Alexander's work? It seemed unlikely, almost inconceivable, but in +resourcefulness and adroitness of thought nothing was quite +inconceivable of Alexander. + +She knew of the rope and its former use--and that meant that the +flowing tide would not have to spell death for him if he waited long +enough and acted wisely enough. Presumably these enemies were not +neighbors, for if they had been they would not be burning their own +grain. If that were granted it might follow that they would not know +of the rope. + +Jerry breathed deeply, and a desperate smile came for an instant to his +tight lips. + +He was watching the unhurried flow of out-running wheat and gauging, as +was the girl below, the racing progress of the flames. Would there be +time? The door was cut off now by sheets of fire and he had no longer +any alternative. If the hot enemy reached him before the wheat was +out, he must die by it or end matters with his own pistol. + +He uncoiled the rope and threw its loose end into the bin, watching +with a fascinated gaze the fashion in which it was dragged inward and +downward. + +In the increasing heat of the inferno he had thrown off his coat, and +now his shirt went too. The sweat poured out of his naked chest and +shoulders. + +From rafters below him shot wicked tongues of widening flame-- His +breath was labored and his life seemed to wither. There was only a +little grain left now at the bottom of the receptacle but there was +also little strength or endurance left in him. His eyes burned +horribly and he knew that he could no longer support his weight on a +rope by the strength of his arms. He had climbed to the edge of the +bin, and clung there. Then he fainted, and fell inward. + +But the moment had arrived when at last the way was clear. The chute, +polished smooth by the flowing kernels, did not even leave a splinter +in his bare flesh, and when he shot down and out he fell on the soft +mound of wheat that had gone before him. + +Alexander's straining eyes saw his body flash into sight, and saw that +it seemed lifeless. With a cry that she tried to stifle and could not, +she called upon her last strength, and climbed into the great pen where +he lay insensible. + +The murderers had gone away. Their task seemed complete, and they had +no wish to tarry too long after the countryside had been aroused by +that beacon of fire. + +But it was much later that neighborhood searchers found Alexander +sitting on a mound of salvaged wheat with the head of an unconscious +man in her lap. It was a man stripped to the waist, sweat-covered and +smoke blackened. The girl was mumbling incoherent things into his +unresponsive ear. + + +"Ye saved ther wheat fer us anyhow--an' ther doctor says he hain't none +hurted beyond being scorched up some," declared Warwick McGivins that +same night at his own house, and Alexander, limp to collapse with her +long vigil of terror, but with eyes that glowed with triumph--and with +something else--replied, "I've saved somethin' better then a mighty +heap of wheat." + +Jerry spoke from the bed, where he lay conscious now, but still very +weak. + +"Things looked mighty unsartain--fer a spell." + +And the girl answered in a silvery voice that held the thrill of +invincible courage. "Nothin' hain't never goin' ter be unsartain fer +us from now on. Hit teks fire, I reckon, ter weld iron--but----" + +The enfeebled man tried to raise himself on his elbow, but she gently +pressed him back. + +"Does ye mean hit, Alexander?" he whispered tensely. "Hit hain't jest +because I've been hurted a leetle--an' ye're compassionate fer me?" + +"Jerry," she said and her voice became all at once softly tremulous, +"jest es soon as ye're able I wants ye ter tek me in yore arms--an' I +don't never want ye ter let me go ergin!" + +"I'll git thet strong right soon," he declared with a fervor that +brought the strength back to his voice--and the sparkle back into his +blood-shot eyes. + + +Jack Halloway came into his rooms one day in early September and ran +through some mail that lay piled on his table. He was not in a happy +humor. The business here had dragged out to the annoying length of six +weeks and his mind was busy with anxiety centering on the hills. But +as his thoughts ran irritably along, the hand that had lifted an +envelope out of the collection became rigid. It was a very plain +envelope and quite unaccountably it was postmarked from the station +near the mouth of Shoulder-blade creek. + +Who, down there, could know his New York address? It could not be +Brent, for this was not Brent's hand. + +He ripped the thing open and from the unfolded sheet fell a tiny scrap +of some sort. It seemed to be a small strip of soiled cloth and he let +it lie on the table while he read the note itself. + +The first paragraph brought from his lips an exclamation of dismay and +alarm--and he paused a moment to collect himself before finishing. + +"Dear Jack," said the letter. "You will wonder how I knew where to +send this letter, but you see I did know. + +"Jerry and I were married a week ago and all the neighbors came to our +infare to wish us well. I saw to it that every man there took off his +hat. I am sending you the tag that was on your coat pocket the day I +mended it. It wasn't heedful for you to leave it there, and that's how +I knew where you were apt to be now--instead of Virginia." + +The man paused again and his great hand shook with disappointment and +chagrin. Finally he turned the sheet and read the conclusion. + +"Seeing that tag gave me warning just in time the night you bragged +that you could make me come into your arms. Next time, Jack, I counsel +you to be honest with the girls you make love to. They like it. Come +and see us when you get back to the mountains. Alexander McGivins. +P.S. I promised my paw to keep my own name when I was wed, and Jerry +doesn't mind." + +The letter escaped from nerveless fingers and floated down to the +floor. At last Halloway picked up the small tailor's label and turned +it in his fingers absentmindedly, as though he were not yet quite sure +what he was doing. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PAGAN OF THE HILLS*** + + +******* This file should be named 19089.txt or 19089.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/0/8/19089 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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