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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/31122-8.txt b/31122-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7cdb07 --- /dev/null +++ b/31122-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6973 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and +Other Stories, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock + +Release Date: January 30, 2010 [EBook #31122] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN + + CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE + MOUNTAIN + + AND OTHER STORIES + + BY + + CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1895 + + + + + Copyright, 1895, + BY MARY N. MURFREE. + + _All rights reserved._ + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN 1 + TAKING THE BLUE RIBBON AT THE COUNTY FAIR 165 + THE CASTING VOTE 200 + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN. + + +I. + +The beetling crags that hang here and there above the gorge hold in +their rugged rock sculpture no facial similitudes, no suggestions. The +jagged outlines of shelving bluffs delineate no gigantic profile +against the sky beyond. One might seek far and near, and scan the vast +slope with alert and expectant gaze, and view naught of the semblance +that from time immemorial has given the mountain its name. Yet the +imagination needs but scant aid when suddenly the elusive simulacrum +is revealed to the eye. In a certain slant of the diurnal light, even +on bright nights at the full of the moon, sometimes in the uncanny +electric flicker smitten from a storm-cloud, a gigantic peaked +sinister face is limned on the bare, sandy slope, so definite, with +such fixity of lineament, that one is amazed that the perception of it +came no earlier, and is startled when it disappears. + +Disappearing as completely as a fancy, few there are who have ever +seen it who have not climbed from the herder's trail across the +narrow wayside stream and up the rugged mountain slopes to the spot +where it became visible. There disappointment awaits the explorer. One +finds a bare and sterile space, from which the hardy chickweed can +scarcely gain the sustenance for timorous sproutings; a few +outcropping rocks; a series of transverse gullies here and there, +washed down to deep indentations; above the whole a stretch of burnt, +broken timber that goes by the name of "fire-scald," and is a relic of +the fury of the fire which was "set out" in the woods with the mission +to burn only the leaves and undergrowth, and which, in its +undisciplined strength, transcended its instructions, as it were, and +destroyed great trees. And this is all. But once more, at a coigne of +vantage on the opposite side of the gorge, and the experience can be +utilized in differentiating the elements that go to make up the weird +presentment of a human countenance. It is the fire-scald that suggests +the great peaked brown hood; the oblong sandy stretch forms the pallid +face; the ledges outline the nose and chin and brow; the eyes look out +from the deep indentations where the slope is washed by the currents +of the winter rains; and here and there the gullies draw heavy lines +and wrinkles. And when the wind is fresh and the clouds scud before +it, in the motion of their shadows the face will seem to mow at the +observer, until the belief comes very readily that it is the exact +counterpart of a witch's face. + +Always the likeness is pointed out and insisted on by the denizens of +Witch-Face Mountain, as if they had had long and intimate acquaintance +with that sort of unhallowed gentry, and were especially qualified to +pronounce upon the resemblance. + +"Ain't it jes' like 'em, now? Ain't it the very moral of a witch?" +Constant Hite demanded, one gusty day, when the shadows were a-flicker +in the sun, and the face seemed animated by the malice of mockery or +mirth, as he pointed it out to his companion with a sort of triumph in +its splenetic contortions. + +He was a big, bluff fellow, to whose pride all that befell him seemed +to minister. He was proud of his length of limb, and his hundred and +eighty pounds of weight, and yet his slim appearance. "Ye wouldn't +believe it now, would ye?" he was wont to say when he stepped off the +scales at the store of the hamlet down in the Cove. "It's solid meat +an' bone an' muscle, my boy. Keep on the friendly side of one hunderd +an' eighty," with a challenging wink. He was proud of his bright brown +eyes, and his dark hair and mustache, and smiling, handsome face, and +his popularity among the class that he was pleased to denominate "gal +critters." He piqued himself upon his several endowments as a hardy +woodsman, his endurance, his sylvan craft, his pluck, and his luck and +his accurate aim. The buck--all gray and antlered, for it was +August--that hung across the horse, behind the saddle, gave token of +this keen exactitude in the tiny wound at the base of the ear, where +the rifle-ball had entered to pierce the brain; it might seem to the +inexpert that death had come rather from the gaping knife-stroke +across the throat, which was, however, a mere matter of butcher-craft. +He was proud of the good strong bay horse that he rode, which so +easily carried double, and proud of his big boots and long spurs; and +he scorned flimsy town clothes, and thought that good home-woven blue +jeans was the gear in which a man who was a man should clothe himself +withal. He glanced more than once at the different toggery of his +companion, evidently a man of cities, whom he had chanced to meet by +the wayside, and with whom he had journeyed more than a mile. + +He had paused again and again to point out the "witch-face" to the +stranger, who at first could not discern it at all, and then when it +suddenly broke upon him could not be wiled away from it. He +dismounted, hitching his horse to a sapling, and up and down he +patrolled the rocky mountain path to study the face at various angles; +Constant Hite looking on the while with an important placid +satisfaction, as if he had invented the illusion. + +"Some folks, though, can't abide sech ez witches," he said, with a +tolerant smile, as if he were able to defy their malevolence and make +light of it. "Ye see that cabin on the spur over yander around the +bend?" It looked very small and solitary from this height, and the +rail fences about its scanty inclosures hardly reached the dignity of +suggesting jackstraws. "Waal, the Hanways over thar hev a full view of +the old witch enny time she will show up at all. Folks in the +mountings 'low the day be onlucky when she appears on the slope thar. +The old folks at Hanway's will talk 'bout it cornsider'ble ef ye set +'em goin'; they hev seen thar time, an' it rests 'em some ter tell +'bout'n the spites they hev hed that they lay ter the witch-face." + +The ugly fascination of the witch-face had laid hold, too, on the +stranger. Twice he had sought to photograph it, and Constant Hite had +watched him with an air of lenient indulgence to folly as he pottered +about, now adjusting his camera, now changing his place anew. + +"And I believe I have got the whole amount of nothing at all," he said +at last, looking up breathlessly at the mountaineer. Albeit the wind +was fresh and the altitude great, the sun was hot on the unshaded red +clay path, and the nimble gyrations of the would-be artist brought +plentiful drops to his brow. He took off his straw hat, and mopped his +forehead with his handkerchief, while he stared wistfully at the siren +of his fancy, grimacing maliciously at him from the slope above. "If +the confounded old woman would hold still, and not disappear so +suddenly at the wrong minute, I'd have had her charming physiognomy +all correct. I believe I've spoiled my plates,--that's all." And once +more he mopped his bedewed forehead. + +He was a man of thirty-five, perhaps, of the type that will never look +old or grow perceptibly gray. His hair was red and straight, and cut +close to his head. He had a long mustache of the same sanguine tint. +The sun had brought the blood near the surface of his thin skin, and +he looked hot and red, and thoroughly exasperated. His brown eyes were +disproportionately angry, considering the slight importance of his +enterprise. He was evidently a man of keen, quick temper, easily +aroused and nervous. His handsome, well-groomed horse was fractious, +and difficult for so impatient a rider to control. His equestrian +outfit once more attracted the covert glance of Con Hite, whose +experience and observation could duplicate no such attire. He was +tall, somewhat heavily built, and altogether a sufficiently stalwart +specimen of the genus "town man." + +"I'll tell you what I'll do!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I'll sketch the +whole scene!" + +"Now you're shoutin'," said Con Hite capably, as if he had always +advocated this method of solving the difficulty. His interlocutor +could not for a moment have dreamed that he had never before seen a +camera, had never heard of a photograph, had not the least idea of +what the process of sketching might be which he so boldly approved; +nay, the very phrase embodying his encouragement of the project was +foreign to his vocabulary,--a bit of sophisticated slang which he had +adopted from his companion's conversation, and readily assimilated. + +"You stay just where you are!" cried the stranger, his enthusiasm +rising to the occasion; "just that pose,--that pose precisely." + +He ran swiftly across the path to remove the inefficient camera from +the foreground, and in a moment was seated on a log by the wayside, +his quick eye scanning the scene: the close file of the ranges about +the horizon, one showing above another, and one more faintly blue +than another, for thus the distance was defined; then the amphitheatre +of the Cove, the heavy bronze-green slopes of the mountains, all with +ripple marks of clear chrome-green ruffling in the wake of the wind; +in the middle distance the still depths of the valley below, with +shadows all a-slumber and silent, and on the projecting spur the +quiet, lonely little house, so slight a suggestion of the presence of +man amidst the majestic dominance of nature; here, to the right, +across the savage gorge, with its cliffs and with its currents in the +deep trough, the nearest slope of the mountain, with the great gaunt +bare space showing that face of ill omen, sibylline, sinister, +definite indeed,--he wondered how his eyes were holden that he should +not have discerned it at once; and in the immediate foreground the +equestrian figure of the mountaineer, booted and spurred, the very +"moral," as Hite would have called it, of an athlete, with his fine +erect pose distinct against the hazy perspective, his expression of +confident force, the details of his handsome features revealed by the +brim of his wide black hat turned up in front. + +"It's a big subject, I know; I can't get it all in. I shall only +suggest it. Just keep that pose, will you? Hold the horse still. +'Stand the storm, it won't be long!'" the artist said, smiling with +renewed satisfaction as his pencil, not all inapt, went briskly to +work on the horizontal lines of the background. + +But it was longer than he had thought, so still sat the contemplative +mountaineer, so alluring were the details of the landscape. The +enthusiasm of the amateur is always a more urgent motive power than +the restrained and utilitarian industry of the professional. + +Few sworn knights of the crayon would have sat sketching so long in +that temperature as he did, with the sun blazing through his straw hat +and his blood mustering under his thin skin; but he stopped at a point +short of sunstroke, and it was with a tumultuous sense of success that +he at last arose, and, with the sketch-book still open, walked across +the road and laid it on the pommel of the mountaineer's saddle. + +Constant Hite took it up suspiciously and looked at it askance. It is +to be doubted if ever before he had seen a picture, unless perchance +in the primary reading-book of his callow days at the public school, +spasmodically opened at intervals at the "church house" in the Cove. +He continued to gravely gaze at the sketch, held sideways and almost +reversed, for some moments. + +"Bless Gawd! hyar's Whitefoot's muzzle jes' ez nat'ral--an' +_Me_--waal, sir! don't _I_ look proud!" he cried suddenly, with a note +of such succulent vanity, so finely flavored a pride, that the +stranger could but laugh at the zest of his triumph. + +"Do you see the witch-face?" he demanded. + +"Hesh! hesh!" cried the mountaineer hilariously. "Don't 'sturb me +'bout yer witch-face. Ef thar ain't the buck,--yes, toler'ble +fat,--an' with all his horns! An' look at my boot,--actially the spur +on it! An' my hat turned up;" he raised his flattered hand to the brim +as if to verify its position. + +"You didn't know you were so good looking, hey?" suggested the amused +town man. + +"My Lord, naw!" declared Hite, laughing at himself, yet laughing +delightedly. "I dunno _how_ the gals make out to do without me at +all!" + +The pleased artist laughed, too. "Well, hand it over," he said, as he +reached out for the book. "We must be getting out of this sun. I'm not +used to it, you see." + +He put his foot in the stirrup as he spoke, and as he swung himself +into the saddle the mountaineer reluctantly closed and relinquished +the book. "I'd like ter see it agin, some time or other," he observed. + +He remembered this wish afterward, and how little he then imagined +where and in what manner he was destined to see it again. + +They rode on together into the dense woods, leaving the wind and the +sunshine and the flying clouds fluctuating over the broad expanse of +the mountains, and the witch-face silently mowing and grimacing at the +world below, albeit seen by no human being except perchance some +dweller at the little house on the spur, struck aghast by this +unwelcome apparition evoked by the necromancy of the breeze and the +sheen and the shadow, marking this as an unlucky day. + +"That's right smart o' a cur'osity, ain't it?" said Constant Hite +complacently, as they jogged along. "When the last gover'mint survey +fellers went through hyar, they war plumb smitten by the ole 'oman, +an' spent cornsider'ble time a-stare-gazin' at her. They 'lowed they +hed never seen the beat." + +"What was the survey for?" asked the town man, with keen mundane +interest. + +Constant Hite was rarely at a loss. When other men were fain to come +to a pause for the lack of information, the resources of his agile +substitutions and speculations were made manifest. "They war jes' +runnin' a few lines hyar an' thar," he said negligently. "They lef' +some tall striped poles planted in the ground, red an' sich colors, +ter mark the way; an' them mounting folks over yander in the +furderest coves,--they air powerful ahint the times,--they hed never +hearn o' sech ez a survey, noway, an' the poles jes' 'peared ter them +sprung up thar like Jonah's gourd in a single night, ez ef they kem +from seed; an' the folks, they 'lowed 't war the sign o' a new war." +He laughed lazily at the uninstructed terrors of the unsophisticated +denizens of the "furderest coves." "They'd gather around an' +stare-gaze at the poles, an' wonder if they'd hev ter fight the Rebs +agin; them folks is mos'ly Union." Then his interest in the subject +quickening, "Them survey fellers, they ondertook, too, ter medjure the +tallness o' some o' the mountings fur the gover'mint. Now what good is +that goin' ter do the Nunited States?" he resumed grudgingly. "The +mountings kin be medjured by the eye,--look a-yander." He pointed with +the end of his whip at a section of the horizon, visible between the +fringed and low-swaying boughs of hemlock and fir as the trail swept +closer to the verge of the range, on which was softly painted, as on +ivory and with an enameled lustre, two or three great azure domes, +with here and there the high white clouds of a clear day nestling +flakelike on the summits. "They air jes' all-fired high, an' that's +all. Do it make 'em seem enny taller ter say they air six thousand or +seben thousand feet? Man ain't used ter medjurin' by the thousand +feet. When he gits ter the ground he goes by the pole. I dunno how +high nor how long a thousand feet air. The gover'mint jes' want ter +spend a leetle money, I reckon. It 'pears toler'ble weak-kneed in its +mind, wunst in a while. But ef it wants ter fool money away, it's +mighty well able ter afford sech. It hev got a power o' ways a-comin' +at money,--we all know that, we all know that." + +He said this with a gloomy inflection and a downward look that might +have implied a liability for taxes beyond his willingness to pay. But, +barring the assessment on a small holding of mountain land, Constant +Hite seemed in case to contribute naught to his country's exchequer. + +"It needs all it can get, now," replied the stranger casually, but +doubtless from a sophisticated knowledge, as behooved a reader of the +journals of the day, of the condition of the treasury. + +He could not account for the quick glance of alarm and enmity which +the mountaineer cast upon him. It roused in him a certain constraint +which he had not experienced earlier in their chance association. It +caused him to remember that this was a lonely way and a wild country. +He was an alien to the temper and sentiment of the people. He felt +suddenly that sense of distance in mind and spirit which is the true +isolation of the foreigner, and which even an identity of tongue and +kindred cannot annul. Looking keenly into the mountaineer's +half-averted, angry, excited face, he could not for his life discern +how its expression might comport with the tenor of the casual +conversation which had elicited it. He did not even dimly surmise that +his allusion to the finances of the government could be construed as a +justification of the whiskey tax, generally esteemed in the mountains +a measure of tyrannous oppression; that from his supposititious +advocacy of it he had laid himself liable to the suspicion of being +himself of the revenue force,--his mission here to spy out +moonshiners; that his companion's mind was even now dwelling anew, and +with a rueful difference, on that masterly drawing of himself in the +stranger's sketch-book. + +"But what do that prove, though?" Hite thought, a certain hope +springing up with the joy of the very recollection of the simulacrum +of the brilliant rural coxcomb adorning the page. "Jes' that me is +_Me_. All he kin say 'bout me air that hyar I be goin' home from +huntin' ter kerry my game. _That_ ain't agin the law, surely." + +The "revenuers," he argued, too, never rode alone, as did this man, +and spies and informers were generally of the vicinage. The stranger +was specially well mounted, and as his puzzled cogitation over the +significant silence that had supervened between them became so marked +as to strike Hite's attention, the mountaineer sought to nullify it by +an allusion to the horse. "That feller puts down his feet like a +kitten," he said admiringly. "I never seen nuthin' ez wears shoes so +supple. Shows speed, I s'pose? Built fur it." + +"Makes pretty fair time," responded the stranger without enthusiasm. +The doubt, perplexity, and even suspicion which his companion's manner +had evoked were not yet dissipated, and the allusion to the horse, and +the glow of covetous admiration in Hite's face as his eyes dwelt upon +the finely fashioned creature so deftly moving along, brought suddenly +to his mind sundry exploits of a gang of horse-thieves about these +coves and mountains, detailed in recent newspapers. These rumors had +been esteemed by urban communities in general as merely sensational, +and had attracted scant attention. Now, with their recurrence to his +recollection, their verisimilitude was urged upon him. The horse he +rode was a valuable animal, and moreover, here, ten or twenty miles +from a habitation, would prove a shrewd loss indeed. Nevertheless, it +was impossible to shake off or evade his companion; the wilderness, +with its jungle of dense rhododendron undergrowth on either side of +the path, was impenetrable. There was no alternative practicable. He +could only go on and hope for the best. + +A second glance at the mountaineer's honest face served in some sort +as reassurance as to the probity of his character. Gradually a vivid +interest in the environment, which had earlier amazed and amused +Constant Hite, began to be renewed. The stranger looked about to +identify the growths of the forest with a keen, fresh enthusiasm, as +if he were meeting old friends. Once, with a sudden flush and an +intent eye, he flung the reins to the man whom he had half suspected +of being a horse-thief ten minutes before, to hastily dismount and +uproot a tiny wayside weed, which he breathlessly and triumphantly +explained to the wondering mountaineer was a rare plant which he had +never seen; he carefully bestowed it between the leaves of his +sketch-book before he resumed the saddle, and Hite was moved to ask, +"How d' ye know its durned comical name, ef ye never seen it afore? By +Gosh! it's got a name longer 'n its tap-root!" + +The town man only laughed a trifle at this commentary upon the +botanical Latin nomenclature, and once more he was leaning from his +saddle, peering down the aisles of the forest with a smiling, +expectant interest, as if they held for him some enchantment of which +duller mortals have no ken. A brown geode, picked up in the channel of +a summer-dried stream, showed an interior of sparkling quartz crystal, +when a blow had shattered it, which Hite had never suspected, often as +he had seen the rugged spherical stones lying along the banks. All the +rocks had a thought for the stranger, close to his heart and quick on +his tongue, and as Hite, half skeptical, half beguiled, listened, his +suspicion of the man as a "revenuer" began to fade. + +"The revenuers ain't up ter no sech l'arnin' ez this," he said to +himself, with a vicarious pride. "The man, though he never war in the +mountings afore, knows ez much about 'em ez ef he hed bodaciously +built 'em. Fairly smelt that thar cave over t' other side the ridge +jes' now, I reckon; else how'd he know 't war thar?" + +A certain hollow reverberation beneath the horse's hoofs had caught +his companion's quick ear. "Have you ever been in this cave +hereabout?" he had asked, to Hite's delighted amazement at this +brilliant feat of mental jugglery, as it seemed to him. + +Even the ground, when the repetitious woods held no new revelation of +tree or flower, or hazy, flickering insect dandering through the +yellow sunshine and the olive-tinted shadow and the vivid green +foliage, the very ground had a word for him. + +"This formation here," he said, leaning from his saddle to watch the +path slipping along beneath his horse's hoofs, like the unwinding of +coils of brown ribbon, "is like that witch-face slope that we saw +awhile ago. It seems to occur at long intervals in patches. You see +down that declivity how little grows, how barren." + +The break in the density of the woods served to show the mountains, +blue and purple and bronze, against the horizon; an argosy of white +clouds under full sail; the Cove, shadowy, slumberous, so deep down +below; and the oak leaves above their heads, all dark and sharply +dentated against the blue. + +Hite had suddenly drawn in his horse. An eager light was in his eye, a +new idea in his mind. He felt himself on the verge of imminent +discovery. + +"Now," said he, lowering his voice mysteriously, and laying his hand +on the bridle of the other's horse,--and so far had the allurements of +science outstripped merely mundane considerations that the stranger's +recent doubts and anxieties touching his animal were altogether +forgotten, and he was conscious only of a responsive expectant +interest,--"air thar ennything in that thar 'formation,' ez ye calls +it ez could gin out fire?" + +"No, certainly not," said the man of science, surprised, and marking +the eager, insistent look in Hite's eyes. Both horses were at a +standstill now. A jay-bird clanged out its wild woodsy cry from the +dense shadows of a fern-brake far in the woods on the right, and they +heard the muffled trickling of water, falling on mossy stones hard by, +from a spring so slight as to be only a silver thread. The trees far +below waved in the wind, and a faint dryadic sibilant singing sounded +a measure or so, and grew fainter in the lulling of the breeze, and +sunk to silence. + +"Ennyhow," persisted Hite, "won't sech yearth gin out light +somehows,--in some conditions sech ez ye talk 'bout?" he added +vaguely. + +"Spontaneously? Certainly not," the stranger replied, preserving his +erect pose of inquiring and expectant attention. + +"Why, then the mounting's 'witched sure enough,--that's all," said +Hite desperately. He cast off his hold on the stranger's horse, caught +up his reins anew, and made ready to fare onward forthwith. + +"Does fire ever show there?" demanded his companion wonderingly. + +"It's a plumb meracle, it's a plumb mystery," declared Constant Hite, +as they went abreast into the dense shadow of the closing woods. "I +asked ye this 'kase ez ye 'peared ter sense so much in rocks, an' +weeds, an' birds, an' sile, what ain't revealed ter the mortal eye in +gineral, ye mought be able ter gin some nateral reason fur that thar +sile up thar round the old witch-face ter show fire or sech. But it's +beyond yer knowin' or the knowin' o' enny mortal, I reckon." + +"How does the fire show?" persisted the man of science, with keen and +attentive interest. "And who has seen it?" + +"Stranger," said Hite, lowering his voice, "I hev viewed it, myself. +But fust it war viewed by the Hanways,--them ez lives in that house on +the spur what prongs out o' the range nigh opposite the slope o' the +Witch-Face. One dark night,--thar war no moon, but thar warn't no +storm, jes' a dull clouded black sky, ez late August weather will show +whenst it be heavy an' sultry,--all of a suddenty, ez the Hanway +fambly war settin' on the porch toler'ble late in the night, the air +bein' close in the house, the darter, Narcissa by name, she calls out, +'Look! look! I see the witch-face!' An' they all start up an' stare +over acrost the deep black gorge. An' thar, ez true ez life, war the +witch-face glimmerin' in the midst o' the black night, and agrinnin' +at 'em an' a-mockin' at 'em, an' lighted up ez ef by fire." + +"And did no one discover the origin of the fire?" asked the stranger. + +"Thar war no fire!" Constant Hite paused impressively. Then he went on +impulsively, full of his subject: "Ben Hanway kem over ter the +still-house arter me, an' tergether we went ter examinate. But the +bresh is powerful thick, an' the way is long, an' though we seen a +flicker wunst or twict ez we-uns pushed through the deep woods, 't war +daybreak 'fore we got thar, an' nare sign nor smell o' fire in all the +woods could we find; nare scorch nor singe on the ground, not even a +burnt stick or chunk ter tell the tale; everythin' ez airish an' cool +an' jewy an' sweet ter the scent ez a summer mornin' is apt ter be." + +"How often has this phenomenon occurred?" said the stranger coolly, +but with a downcast, thoughtful eye and a pursed-up lip, as if he were +less surprised than cogitating. + +"Twict only, fur we hev kep' an eye on the old witch, Ben an' me. Ben +wants a road opened out up hyar, stiddier jes' this herder's trail +through the woods. Ben dunno how it mought strike folks ef they war +ter know ez the witch-face hed been gin over ter sech cur'ous ways +all of a suddenty. They mought take it fur a sign agin the road, sech +ez b'lieves in the witch-face givin' bad luck." After a pause, "Then +_I_ viewed it wunst,--wunst in the dead o' the night. I war goin' home +from the still, an' I happened ter look up, an' I seen the +witch-face,--the light jes' dyin' out, jes' fadin' out. She didn't hev +time ter make more 'n two or three faces at me, an' then she war gone +in the night. It's a turr'ble-lookin' thing at night, stranger. So ye +can't tell what makes it,--the sile, or what?" + +He turned himself quite sideways as he spoke, one hand on the carcass +of the deer behind the saddle, the other on his horse's neck, the +better to face his interlocutor and absorb his scientific +speculations. And in that moment an odd idea occurred to him,--nay, a +conviction. He perceived that his companion knew and understood the +origin of the illumination; and more,--that he would not divulge it. + +"The soil? Assuredly not the soil," the stranger said mechanically. He +was looking down, absorbed in thought, secret, mysterious, yet not +devoid of a certain inexplicable suggestion of triumph; for a subtle +cloaked elation, not unlike a half-smile, was on his face, although +its intent, persistent expression intimated the following out of a +careful train of ideas. + +"Then what is it?" demanded Hite arrogantly, as if he claimed the +right to know. + +"I really couldn't undertake to say," the stranger responded, his +definite manner so conclusive an embargo on further inquiries that +Hite felt rising anew all his former doubts of the man, and his fears +and suspicions as to the errand that had brought him hither. + +Could it be possible, he argued within himself, that to the agency of +"revenuers" was due that mysterious glow, more brilliant than any +ordinary fire, steady, suffusive, continuous, rising in the dark +wilderness, in the deep midnight, to reveal that ominous face +overlooking all the countryside, with subtle flickers of laughter +running athwart its wonted contortions, more weird and sinister in +this ghastly glare than by day? And what significance might attend +these strange machinations? Revolving the idea, he presently shook his +head in conclusive negation as he rode along. The approach of raiders +was silent and noiseless and secret. Whatever the mystery might +portend it was not thus that they would advertise their presence, +promoting the escape of the objects of their search. Hite's open and +candid mind could compass no adequate motive for concealment in all +the ways of the world but the desire to evade the revenue law, or to +practice the shifts and quirks necessary to the capture of the wary +and elusive moonshiner. Nevertheless, it was impossible, on either of +these obvious bases, to account for the fact of something withheld in +the stranger's manner, some secret exultant knowledge of the +phenomenon which baffled the mountaineer's speculation. Hite, all +unaware that in his impulsive speech he had disclosed the fact of his +hazardous occupation, began to feel that, considering his liability to +the Federal law for making brush whiskey, he had somewhat transcended +the limit of his wonted hardihood in so long bearing this stranger +company along the tangled ways of the herder's trail through the +wilderness. "He _mought_ be a revenuer arter all, an' know all about +me. The rest o' the raiders mought be a-waitin' an' a-layin' fur me at +enny turn," he reflected. "Leastwise he knows a deal more'n he's +a-goin' ter tell." + +He drew up his horse as they neared an open bluff where the beetling +rocks jutted out like a promontory above the sea of foliage below. +They might judge of the long curvature of the conformation of the +range just here, for on the opposite height was visible at intervals +the road they had traveled, winding in and out among the trees, +ascending the mountain in serpentine coils; they beheld the Cove +beneath from a new angle, and further yet the barren cherty slope on +which, despite the distance, the witch-face could still be discerned +by eyes practiced in marking its lineaments, trained to trace the +popular fantasy. The stranger caught sight of it at the same moment +that Hite lifted his hand toward it. + +"Thar it is!" Hite exclaimed, "fur all the Cove's a shadder, an' fur +all the wind's a breath." + +For clouds had thickened over the sky, and much of the world was gray +beneath, and the scene had dulled in tint and spirit since last they +had had some large outlook upon it. Only on the slopes toward the east +did the sunshine rest, and in the midst of a sterile, barren slant it +flickered on that semblance of ill omen. + +"An onlucky day, stranger," Hite said slowly. + +The man of science had drawn in his restive horse, and had turned with +a keen, freshened interest toward the witch-face. It was with a look +of smiling expectancy that he encountered the aspect of snarling +mockery, half visible or half imaginary, of that grim human +similitude. The mountaineer's brilliant dark eyes dwelt upon him +curiously. However, if he had forborne from prudential motives from +earlier asking the stranger's name and vocation, lest more than a +casual inquisitiveness be thereby implied, exciting suspicion, such +queries were surely not in order at the moment of departure. For Hite +had resolved on parting company. "An onlucky day," he reiterated, "an +onlucky day. An' this be ez far ez we spen' it tergether. I turn off +hyar." + +So ever present with him was his spirituous conscience--it could +hardly be called a bad conscience--that he half expected his companion +to demur, and the posse of a deputy marshal to spring up from their +ambush in the laurel about them. But the stranger, still with a flavor +of preoccupation in his manner, only expressed a polite regret to say +farewell so early, and genially offered to shake hands. As with +difficulty he forced his horse close to the mountaineer's saddle, Hite +looked at the animal with a touch of disparagement. "That thar beastis +hev got cornsider'ble o' the devil in him; he'll trick ye some day; ye +better look out. Waal, far'well stranger, far'well." + +The words had a regretful cadence. Whether because of the unwonted +interest which the stranger had excited, or the reluctance to +relinquish his curiosity, still ungratified, or the pain of parting to +an impressionable nature, whose every emotion is acute, Hite hesitated +when he had gone some twenty yards straight up the slope above, +pushing his horse along a narrow path through the jungle of the +laurel, and turned in his saddle to call out again, "Far'well!" + +The stranger, still at the point where Hite had quitted him, waved his +hand and smiled. The jungle closed about the mountaineer, once more +pushing on, and still the smiling eyes dwelt on the spot where he had +disappeared. "Farewell, my transparent friend," the stranger said, +with a half-laugh. "I hope the day is not unlucky enough to put a +deputy marshal on your track." And with one more glance at the +witch-face, he gathered the reins in his hand and rode on alone along +the narrow tangled ways of the herder's trail. + +Now and again, as the day wore on, Constant Hite was seized with a +sense of something wanting, and he presently recognized the deficit as +the expectation of the ill fortune which should befall the time, and +which still failed to materialize. So strong upon him was the +persuasion of evil chances rife in the air to-day that he set himself +as definitely to thwart and baffle them as if rationally cognizant of +their pursuit. He would not return to his wonted vocation at the +distillery, but carried his venison home, where his father, a very old +man, with still the fervors of an ęsthetic pride, pointed out with +approbation the evidence of a fair shot in the wound at the base of +the buck's ear, and his mother, active, wiry, practical-minded, noted +the abundance of fat. "He fed hisself well whilst he war about it," +she commented, "an' now he'll feed us well. What diff'unce do it make +whether Con's rifle-ball hit whar he aimed ter do or no, so he fetched +him down somewhar?" + +The afternoon passed peacefully away. It seemed strangely long. The +sun, barring a veiled white glister in a clouded gray sky, betokening +the solar focus, disappeared; the wind fell; the very cicadę, so loud +in the latter days of August, were dulled to long intervals of +silence; in the distance, a tree-toad called and called, with +plaintive iteration, for rain. "Ye'll git it, bubby," Con addressed +the creature, as he stood in the cornfield--a great yellow +stretch--pulling fodder, and binding the long pliant blades into +bundles. The clouds still thickened; the heat grew oppressive; the +long rows of the corn were motionless, save the rustling of the blades +as Hite tore them from the stalk. Even his mother's spinning-wheel, +wont to briskly whir through the long afternoons, from the window of +the little cabin on the rise, grew silent, and his father dozed +beneath the gourd vines on the porch. + +The sun went down at last, and the gray day imperceptibly merged into +the gray dusk. Then came the lingering darkness, with a flicker of +fireflies and broad wan flares of heat lightning. Con woke once in the +night to hear the rain on the roof. The wind was blaring near at hand. +In its large, free measures, like some deliberate adagio, there was +naught of menace; but when he slept again, and awoke to hear its voice +anew, his heart was plunging with sudden fright. A human utterance was +in its midst,--a human voice calling his name through the gusty night +and the sibilant rush of the rain from the eaves. He listened for a +moment at the roof-room window. He recognized with a certain relief +the tones of the constable of the district. He opened the shutter. + +A new day was near to breaking. He saw the wan sky above the periphery +of dense dark woods about the clearing. A brown dusk obscured the +familiar landmarks, but beneath a gnarled old apple-tree by the gate +several men were dimly suggested, and another, more distinct, by the +wood-pile, was in the act of gathering a handful of chips to throw at +the shutter again. He desisted as he marked the face at the window. + +"Kem down," he said gruffly, clearing his throat in embarrassment. +"Kem down, Constant. No use roustin' out the old folks." + +"What do you want?" asked Hite in a low voice, his heart seeming to +stand still in suspense. + +The constable hesitated. The cold rain dashed into Hite's face. The +rail fences, in zigzag lines, were coming into view. A mist was +floating white against the dark densities of the woods. He heard the +water splashing from the eaves heavily into the gullies below, and +then the constable once more raucously cleared his throat. + +"Thar's a man," he drawled, "a stranger hyarabouts, killed yestiddy in +the bridle-path. The cor'ner hev kem, an' he 'lows ye know suthin' +'bout'n it, Constant,--'bout'n the killin' of him. I be sent ter fetch +ye." + + +II. + +A chimney, half of stone, half of clay and stick, stood starkly up in +the gray rain and the swooping, shifting gray fog. It marked the site +of a cabin burned long ago, and in such melancholy wise as it might it +told of the home that had been. Now and again far-away lightning +flashed on its fireless hearth; a vacant bird's-nest in a cranny +duplicated the suggestions of desertion; the cold mist crept in and +curled up out of the smokeless flue with a mockery of semblance. The +fire that had wrought its devastating will in the black midnight in +the deep wilderness, so far from rescue or succor, had swiftly burned +out its quick fury, and was sated with the humble household +belongings. The barn, rickety, weather-beaten, deserted, and vacant, +still remained,--of the fashion common to the region, with a loft +above, and an open wagonway between the two compartments below,--and +it was here that the inquest was held. It was near the scene of the +tragedy, and occasionally a man would detach himself from the slow, +dawdling, depressed-looking group of mountaineers who loitered in the +open space beneath the loft, and traverse the scant distance down the +bridle-path to gaze at the spot where the stranger's body had lain, +whence it had been conveyed to the nearest shelter at hand, the old +barn, where the coroner's jury were even now engaged in their +deliberations. Sometimes, another, versed in all the current rumors, +would follow to point out to the new-comer the details, show how the +rain had washed the blood away, and fearfully mark the tokens of +frantic clutches at the trees as the man had been torn from his horse. +The animal had vanished utterly; even the prints of his hoofs were +soon obliterated by the torrents and the ever-widening puddles. And +thus had arisen the suspicion of ambush and foul play, and the +implication of the mysterious gang of horse-thieves, whose rumored +exploits seemed hardly so fabulous with the disappearance of the +animal and the violent death of the rider in evidence. The locality +offered no other suggestion, and it was but a brief interval before +the way would be retraced by the awe-stricken observer, noting with a +deep interest impossible hitherto all the environment: the stark +chimney of the vanished house, monumental in the weed-grown waste; +the dripping forest; the roof of the barn, sleek and shining, and with +rain pouring down the slant of its clapboards and splashing from its +eaves; the groups of horses hitched to the scraggy apple-trees of the +deserted homestead; and here and there the white canvas cover of an +ox-wagon, with its yoke of steers standing with low-hung heads in the +downpour. The pallid circling mists enveloped the world, and limited +the outlook to a periphery of scant fifty paces; occasionally becoming +tenuous, as if to suggest the dark looming of the mountain across the +narrow valley, and the precipice close at hand behind the building, +then once more intervening, white and dense of texture, forming a +background which imparted a singular distinctness to the figures +grouped in the open space of the barn beneath the shadowy loft. + +The greater number of the gathering had been summoned hither by a +sheer curiosity as coercive as a subpoena, but sundry of the group +were witnesses, reluctant, anxious, with a vague terror of the law, +and an ignorant sense of an impending implication that set both craft +and veracity at defiance. They held their heads down ponderingly, as +they stood; perhaps rehearsing mentally the details of their meagre +knowledge of the event, or perhaps canvassing the aspect of certain +points which might impute to them blame or arouse suspicion, and +endeavoring to compass shifty evasions, to transform or suppress them +in their forthcoming testimony. At random, one might have +differentiated the witnesses from the mass of the ordinary mountaineer +type by the absorbed eye, or the meditative moving lip unconsciously +forming unspoken words, or the fallen dismayed jaw as of the victim of +circumstantial evidence. It was a strange chance, the death that had +met this casual wayfarer at their very doors, and one might not know +how the coroner would interpret it. His power to commit a suspect +added to his terrors, and gave to the capable, astute official a +mundane formidableness that overtopped the charnel-house flavor of his +more habitual duties. He was visible through the unchinked logs of the +little room where the inquest was in progress, barely spacious enough +to contain the bier, the jury, and the witness under examination; and +yet so great was the sound of the rain outside and the stir of the +assemblage that little or naught was overheard without. + +Now and again the waiting witnesses looked with doubt and curiosity +and suspicion at a new-comer, with an obvious disposition to hope and +believe that others knew more of the matter than they, and thus were +more liable to accusation. Occasionally, a low-toned, husky query +would be met by a curt rejoinder suggesting a cautious reticence and a +rising enmity, blockading all investigation save the obligatory +inquisition of a coroner's jury. An object of ever-recurrent scrutiny +was a stranger in the vicinity, who had been subpoenaed also. The +facial effect of culture and sophistication was illustrated in his +inexpressive, controlled, masklike countenance. He was generally known +as the "valley man with the lung complaint," who had built a cabin on +the mountain during the summer, banished hither by the advice of his +physician for the value to the lungs of the soft, healing air. He wore +a brown derby hat, a fawn-colored suit, and a brown overcoat, with the +collar upturned. He was blond and young, and so impassive was his +sober, decorous aspect that the aptest detective could have discerned +naught of significance as he stood, quite silent and composed, in the +centre of the place where it was dry, exempt from the gusts of rain +that the wind now and again flung in spray upon the outermost members +of the group, one hand in the pocket of his trousers, the other +toying with a cigar which so far he held unlighted. + +Of the two women present, one, seated upon the beam of a broken +plough, refuse of the agricultural industry long ago collapsed here, +was calmly smoking her pipe,--a wrinkled, unimpressed personality, who +had seen many years, and whose manner might imply that all these +chances of life and death came in the gross, and that existence was a +medley at best. The other, a witness, was young. More than once the +"valley man" cast a covert glance at her as, clad in a brown homespun +dress, she leaned against the log wall, her face, which was very pale, +half turned toward it, as if to hide the features already much +obscured by the white sunbonnet drawn far over it. One arm was lifted, +and her hand was passed between the unchinked logs in a convulsive +grasp upon them. Her figure was tall and slender, and expressive in +its rigid constraint; it was an attitude of despair, of repulsion, of +fear. It might have implied grief, or remorse, or anxiety. Often the +eyes of the prescient victims of circumstantial evidence rested +dubiously upon her. To the great majority of men, the presence of +women in affairs of business is an intrusive evil of times out of +joint. Now, since matters of life and liberty were in the balance, the +primitive denizens of Witch-Face Mountain felt that the admission of +Narcissa Hanway's testimony to consideration and credibility evinced +an essential defect in the law of the land, and the fallibility of all +human reasoning. What distorted impression might not so appalling an +event make upon one so young, so feminine, so inexperienced! What +exaggerated wild thing might she not say, unintentionally inculpating +half Witch-Face Mountain in robbery and murder! + +Constant Hite, as he bluffly entered the passageway, his head up, his +eyes wide and bright, his vigorous step elastic and light, gave no +token of the spiritual war he had waged as he came. Already he felt in +great jeopardy. On account of his illicit vocation he could ill abide +the scrutiny of the law. With scant proof, he argued, a moonshiner +might be suspected of highway robbery and murder. As he had journeyed +hither with the constable and his fellows, who conserved the air of +disinterested spectators, but who he knew had been summoned to aid the +officer in case he should evade or delay, when he would have been +forthwith arrested, he had been sorely tempted to deny having ever +seen the stranger, in whose company he had spent an hour or so of the +previous day. He had been able to put the lie from him with a normal +moral impulse. He did not appreciate the turpitude of perjury. He +esteemed it only a natural lie invested with pomp and circumstance; +and the New Testament on which he should be sworn meant no more to his +unlettered conscience than the horn-book, since he knew as little of +its contents. But a lie is a skulking thing, and he had scant affinity +with it. + +He thought, with a sort of numb wonderment, that it was strange he +should feel no more compassion for the object stretched out here, +dumb, dead, bruised, and bloody, which so short a space since he had +seen full of life and interest, animated by a genial courtesy and +graced with learning and subtle insight; now so unknowing, so +unlettered, so blind! Whither went this ethereal investiture of +life?--for it was not mere being; one might exist hardily enough +without it. Did the darkness close over it, too, or was it not the +germ of the soul, the budding of that wider knowledge and finer +aspiration to flower hereafter in rarer air? He did not know; he only +vaguely cared, and he reproached himself dully that he cared no more. +For he--his life was threatened! With the renewal of the thought he +experienced a certain animosity toward the man that he should not have +known enough to take better care of himself. Why must he needs die +here, in this horrible unexplained way, and leave other men, chance +associates, to risk stretching hemp for murder? He felt his strong +life beating in his throat almost to suffocation at the mere +suggestion. Again the lie tempted him, to be again withstood; and as +he strode into the room upon the calling of his name, he saw how +futile, how flimsy, was every device, for, fluttering in the coroner's +hand, he recognized the sketch of the "Witch-Face" which the dead man +had made, and the masterly drawing of his own imposing figure in the +foreground. He had forgotten it utterly for the time being. In the +surprise and confusion that had beset him, it had not occurred to him +to speculate how he had chanced to be subpoenaed, how the idea could +have occurred to the coroner that he knew aught of the stranger. As he +stood against the batten door, the pale light from the interstices of +the unchinked logs, all the grayer because it alternated with the +sombre timbers, falling upon his face and figure, his hat upturned in +front, revealing his brow with a forelock of straight black hair, his +brilliant dark eyes, and his distinctly cut definite features, the +sketch-book was swiftly passed from one to another of the jury, +reluctantly relinquished here and there, and more than once eliciting +half-smothered exclamations of delighted wonder from the +unsophisticated mountaineers, as they glanced back and forth from the +man leaning against the door to the counterfeit presentment on the +paper. + +Constant Hite experienced a glow of vicarious pride as he remembered +the satisfaction that the artist had taken in the sketch, and he +wished that that still thing on the bier could know how his work, most +wonderful it seemed, was appreciated. And then, with a swift revulsion +of feeling, he realized that it was this which had entrapped him; this +bit of paper had brought him into fear and trouble and risk of his +life. The man might be of the revenue force. He might have encountered +other moonshiners, and thus have come to his violent death. If this +were his vocation, it brought Hite into dark suspicion by virtue of +the fact, known to a few of the neighborhood, that he himself was a +distiller of brush whiskey. No one else had seen the stranger till the +finding of the body. He gathered this from the trend of the inquiry +after the formal preliminary queries. The seven men, as they sat +together on a bench made by passing a plank between the logs of the +wall diagonally across the corner of the room, chewed meditatively +their quids of tobacco, and now and then spat profusely on the ground, +their faces growing more perplexed and graver as the examination +progressed. + +When Hite disclosed the circumstance that on the previous day he had +encountered a "stranger man" near the "Witch-Face," there was a +palpable sensation among them. They glanced at one another meaningly, +and a sudden irritation was perceptible in the coroner's manner as he +sat in a rickety chair near the improvised bier. He was a citizen of +the valley region, a trifle more sophisticated than the jury, and +disposed to seriously deprecate the introduction of any morbid or +superstitious element into so grave a matter. He had a bald head, a +lean face, the bones very clearly defined about the temple and cheek +and jaw, a scanty grizzled beard; and he was dressed somewhat farmer +fashion, in blue jeans, with his boots drawn high over his trousers, +but with a stiffly starched white shirt,--the collar and cravat in +evidence, the cuffs, however, vanished up the big sleeves of his coat. + +"The exact place of the meeting is not material," he said frowningly. + +But Hite's mercurial interest in the drawing had revived anew. + +"Thar she be," he exclaimed, so suddenly that the jury started with a +common impulse, "the ole witch-face,"--he pointed at the sketch in the +coroner's hand,--"a mite ter the east an' a leetle south in the +pictur', ez nat'ral ez life!" + +One of the jurymen asked to see the sketch again. Evidently, in the +hasty delineation of the contours of the slope they had not noticed +the gigantic grimacing countenance which they all knew so well; the +picturesque figure of the mountaineer in the foreground had so +impressed the stranger that it was much more nearly complete than the +landscape, being definite in every detail, and fully shaded. The book +was handed along the row of men, each recognizing the semblance, once +pointed out, with a touch of dismayed surprise that alarmed the +coroner for the sanity of the verdict; his rational estimate rated +spells and bewitchments and omens as far less plausible agencies in +disaster than horse-thieves, highwaymen, and moonshiners. + +"Look at the face of the deceased," he said, with a sort of spare +enunciation, coercive somehow in its inexpressiveness. "Ye are sure ye +never viewed that man afore yestiddy?" + +"I hev said so an' swore it," said Hite, a trifle nettled. + +"Ye rode in comp'ny a hour or mo' an' never asked his name?" + +"I never axed him no questions, nor he me," replied Hite, "'ceptin' +'bout'n the witch-face. He was powerful streck by that. An' I tole him +'t war a onlucky day." + +The jury, a dreary row of unkempt heads, and bearded anxious faces, +and crouching shoulders askew, cleared their throats, and two +uncrossed and recrossed their legs, the plank seat creaking ominously +with the motion under their combined weight. A shade of disappointment +was settling on the coroner's face. This was slight information indeed +from the only person who had seen the man alive. There was silence for +a moment. The splashing of the rain on the roof became drearily +audible in the interval. The stir of the group in the space outside +was asserted anew, with their low-toned fitful converse; a +black-and-white ox in the weed-grown garden emitted a deep, depressed +low of remonstrance against the rain, and the irking of the yoke, and +the herbage just beyond his reach. The jurymen might see him through +the logs, and now and again one of them mechanically ducked his head +to look out upon the dismal aspect of the chimney and orchard, round +which so many horses and wagons had not gathered since the daughter of +the house was long ago married here. There was a sprinkle of gray in +his hair, and he remembered the jollities of the wedding,--incongruous +recollection,--and once more he looked at the stark figure, its face +covered with a white cloth, which had been done in a sentiment of +atonement for the unseemly publicity of its fate. + +In sparsely settled communities, death, being rare, retains much of +the terror which custom lessens in the dense crowds of cities. There +death is met at every corner. It goes on 'Change. It sits upon the +bench. It is chronicled in the columns of every newspaper. Daily its +bells toll. Its melancholy pageantry traverses the streets of wealthy +quarters, and it stalks abroad hourly in the slums, and few there are +who gaze after it. But here it comes so seldom that its dread features +are not made smug by familiarity. When Hite was told to look again at +the face and see if memory might not have played him false, to make +sure he had never seen the man before yesterday, he hesitated, and +advanced with such reluctance, and started back, dropping the cloth, +with such swift repulsion, that the coroner, habituated to such +matters, gazed at him with a doubtful scrutiny. + +"Oh, he looked nowise like that," he exclaimed in a raised, nervous +voice that caught the attention of the crowd outside, and resulted in +a sudden cessation of stir and colloquy, "though it's him, sure +enough! And," with a burst of regret, "he war a mighty pleasant man!" + +The coroner, intentionally taking him at a disadvantage, asked +abruptly, "What do you work at mostly?" + +Hite turned shortly from the bier. "I farms some," he hesitated; "dad +bein' mos'ly out o' the field, nowadays, agin' so constant." + +"What do you work at mostly?" reiterated the official. + +Hite divined his suspicion. Some flying rumor had doubtless come to +his ears, how credible, how unimpugnable, the moonshiner could not +tell. Nevertheless, his loyalty to that secret vocation of his had +become a part of his nature, so continuous were its demands upon his +courage, his strategy, his foresight, his industry. It was tantamount +to his instinct of self-defense. He held his head down, with his +excited dark eyes looking up from under his brows at the coroner. But +he would not speak. He would admit naught of what was evidently known. + +"Warn't ye afeard he might be a revenuer?" suggested the officer. + +"I never war afeard, so ter say, o' one man at a time," Hite ventured. + +"Didn't ye think he might take a notion that you were a moonshiner?" + +"He never showed no suspicion o' me, noways," replied Hite warily. "We +rid tergether free an' favored. He 'peared a powerful book-l'arned +man,--like no revenuer ever I see." + +"Where did you part company?" + +Hite sought to identify the spot by description; and then he was +allowed to pass out, his spirits flagging with the ordeal, and with +the knowledge that his connection with the manufacture of brush +whiskey was suspected by the coroner's jury, suggesting an adequate +motive on his part for waylaying a stranger supposed to be of the +revenue force. He felt the dash of the rain in his face as he stood +aside to make way for the "valley man with the lung complaint," who +was passing into the restricted apartment; and despite his whirl of +anxiety and excitement and regret and resentment, he noted with a +touch of surprise the cool unconcern of the man's face and manner, +albeit duly grave and adjusted to the decorums of the melancholy +occasion. + +He was sworn, and gave his name as Alan Selwyn. The jury listened with +interest to his fluent account of his occupation in the valley, which +had been mercantile, of his temporary residence here for a bronchial +affection; and when he was asked to identify the man who had so +mysteriously come to his death, they marked his quick, easy stride as +he crossed the room, with his hat in his hand, and his unmoved +countenance as he looked fixedly down into the face of the dead. He +remained a longer interval than was usual with the witnesses, as if to +make sure. Then, still quite businesslike and brisk, he stated that he +could not identify him, having certainly never seen him before. + +"The only papers which he had on him," said the coroner, watching the +effect of his words, "were two letters addressed to you." + +The young man started in palpable surprise. As he looked at the +exterior of the letters, which were stamped and postmarked, he +observed that they must have been taken out of the post-office +at Sandford Cross-Roads, to expedite their delivery; the +postmaster doubtless consenting to this request on the part +of so reputable-looking a person or a possible acquaintance. + +"Were you expecting a visitor?" asked the coroner. + +"Not at all," responded the puzzled witness. + +He was requested to open the letters, read and show them. But he +waived this courtesy, asking the coroner to open and read them to the +jury. They were of no moment, both on matters of casual business, and +Mr. Alan Selwyn was dismissed; the coroner blandly regretting that, in +view of his malady, he had been required to come out in so chilly a +rain. + +Notwithstanding his composure he was in some haste to be gone. He went +quickly through the crowd, drawing down his hat over his brow, and +deftly buttoning his overcoat across his chest and throat. He had +reached his horse, and had placed one foot in the stirrup, when, +chancing to glance back over his shoulder, he saw Narcissa Hanway's +white, flowerlike face, her bonnet pushed far back on her tawny yellow +hair, both arms outstretched in a gesture of negation and repulsion +toward the apartment where the jury sat, while a dark-haired, slow man +urged her forward, one hand on her shoulder, and the old mountain +woman followed with insistence and encouragement. He hesitated for a +moment; then putting spurs to his horse, he rode off swiftly through +the slanting lines of rain. + + +III. + +A sense of helplessness in the hands of fate is in some sort conducive +to courage. Doubtless many an act of valor which has won the world's +applause was precipitated in a degree by desperation and the lack of +an alternative. The appearance of stolidity with which the cluster of +witnesses--those whose testimony was yet to be given as well as those +who had told the little they knew--noted the uncontrolled agitation, +the wild eyes, the hysteric sobs, with which Narcissa Hanway was +ushered into the contracted apartment where the inquest was in +progress, had no correlative calmness of mind or heart. What haphazard +accusation might not result from her fear, or her desire to shield +another, or the mere undisciplined horror of the place and the fact! +When one dreads the sheer possibilities, the extremes of terror are +reached. More than one of the bearded, unkempt, hardy mountaineers, +trudging back and forth in the sheltered space beneath the loft, +steadily chewing their quids of tobacco and eying the rain, would have +fled incontinently, had there been any place to run to out of reach of +the constable, who was particularly brisk to-day, participating in +exercises of so unusual an interest. The girl's brother, standing +beside the door after she had passed within, was unconscious of a +certain keen covert scrutiny of which he was the subject. He had a +square determined face, dark hair, slow gray eyes, and a tall powerful +frame; he held his head downward, his hand on the door, his even teeth +set in the intensity of his effort to distinguish the voices within. +There had been some secret speculation as to whether the man were +altogether unknown to the brother and sister, such deep feeling she +had evinced, such coercion he had exerted to induce her to give her +testimony. Still, the girl was a mere slip of a thing, unused to +horrors; and as to recalcitrant witnesses, they all knew the jail had +a welcome for the silent until such time as they might find a voice. +Nevertheless, though his urgency had been in the stead of the +constable's stronger measures, they eyed him askance as he stood and +sought to listen, with his hand on the door. The old woman turned +around, her arms falling to her sides with a sort of flounce of +triumph, her eyes twinkling beneath the shining spectacles set upon +her brow among the limp ruffles of her thrust-back sunbonnet, a laugh +of satisfaction widening her wrinkled face. "Thar now!" she chuckled, +"Nar'sa jes' set it down she _wouldn't_ testify, an' crossed her heart +an' hoped she'd fall dead fust. But, Ben, we beat her that time!" and +she chuckled anew. + +The man answered not a word, and listened to the tumult within. + +It is seldom, doubtless, that the patience of a coroner's jury is +subjected to so strong a strain. But the information which had so far +been elicited was hardly more than the bare circumstance which the +body presented,--a man had ridden here, a stranger, and he was dead. +If the girl knew more than this, it would necessitate some care in the +examination to secure the facts. She was young, singularly willful and +irresponsible, and evidently overcome by grief, or fear, or simply +horror. When she was asked to look at the face of the stranger, she +only caught a glimpse of it, as if by accident, and turned away, +pulling her white bonnet down over her face, and declaring that she +would not. "I hev viewed him wunst, an' I won't look at him again," +she protested, with a burst of sobs. + +"Now set down in this cheer, daughter, an' tell us what ye know about +it all,--easy an' quiet," said the coroner in a soothing, paternal +strain. + +"Oh, nuthin', nuthin'!" exclaimed the girl, throwing herself into the +chair in the attitude of an abandonment of grief. + +"Air ye cryin' 'kase ye war 'quainted with him ennywise?" demanded one +of the jurymen, with a quickening interest. He was a neighbor; that +is, counting as propinquity a distance of ten miles. + +The girl lifted her head suddenly. "I never seen him till yestiddy," +she protested steadily. "I be a heap apter ter weep 'kase my +'quaintances _ain't_ dead!" She gave him a composed, sarcastic smile, +then fell to laughing and crying together. + +To the others the discomfiture of their _confrčre_ was the first touch +of comedy relief in the tragic situation. They cast at one another a +glance of appreciation trenching on a smile, and the abashed +questioner drew out a plug of tobacco, and with a manner of +preoccupation gnawed a bit from it; then replaced it in his pocket, +with a physical contortion which caused the plank on which the jury +were seated to creak ominously, to the manifest anxiety of the +worthies ranged thereon. + +"How did you happen to see the man?" he asked, as if he had perceived +no significance in her previous answer. + +"'Kase I didn't happen ter be blind," her half-muffled voice replied. +Her arm was thrown over the back of the chair, and her face was hidden +on her elbow. + +The coroner interposed quickly: "Where were you goin', an' what did +you see?" + +She sobbed aloud for a moment. Then ensued an interval of silence. +Suddenly the interest of the subject seemed to lay hold upon her, and +she began to speak very rapidly, lifting her white tear-stained face, +and pushing her bonnet back on her rough curling auburn hair:-- + +"I war a-blackberryin', thar bein' only a few lef' yit, an' I went fur +an' furder yit from home; an' ez I kem out'n the woods over yon," half +rising, and pointing with a free gesture, "I viewed--or yit I _'lowed_ +I viewed--the witch-face through a bunch o' honey locust, the leaves +bein' drapped a'ready, they bein' always the fust o' the year ter git +bare. An' stiddier leavin' it be, I sot my bucket o' berries at the +foot o' a tree', an started down the slope todes the bluff, ter make +sure an' view it clar o' the trees." The girl paused, her eyes +widening, her voice faltering, her breath coming fast. "An' goin' +swift, some hawgs, stray, half grown, 'bout twenty shoats feedin' in +the woods--my rustlin' in the bushes skeered 'em I reckon--they sot +out to run, possessed by the devil, like them the Scriptur' tells +about." She paused again, panting, her hand to her heart. + +The disaffected juryman turned to one side, recrossing his legs, and +spitting disparagingly on the ground. "She can't swear them hawgs war +possessed by the devil," he said in a low tone to his next neighbor. + +"Oh, why not," exclaimed the girl, "when we know so many men air +possessed by the devil,--why not them shoats, bein' jes' without +clothes, an' without the gift o' speech to mark the diff'unce!" + +She paused again, and the coroner, standing a trifle back of her +chair, shook his head at the obstructive juryman, and asked her in a +commonplace voice what the hogs had to do with it. + +"That's what I wanter know!" she cried, half turning in her chair to +look up at him. "I started 'em, an' I be at the bottom o' it all, ef +it's like I think,--_me_, yearnin' ter look at the old witch-face! The +hawgs run through the woods like fire on dry grass, an' I be 'feared +they skeered the stranger man's horse--he had none whenst I seen him, +though. I hearn loud talkin', or hollerin', a cornsiderable piece off, +an' then gallopin' hoofs"-- + +"More horses than one, do you think?" demanded the coroner. + +"Oh, how kin I swear to that? I seen none. Fur when I got thar, this +man war lyin' in the herder's trail, bruised and bloody--oh, like ye +see--an' his eyes opened; an' he gin a sort o' gasp whenst I tuk his +han'--an' he war dead. An' I skeered the hawgs, an' they skeered his +horse, an' he killed him; an' I be 'sponsible fur it all, an' I wisht +ye'd hang me fur it quick, an' be done with it!" + +She burst into sobs once more, and hid her face on her arm on the back +of the chair. Then, suddenly lifting her head, she resumed: "I jes' +called and called Ben, an' bein' he hain't never fur off, he hearn me, +an' kem. An' then he rid fur the neighbors, an' kem down the valley +arter you-uns," with a side glance at the coroner. "An' he lef' me a +shootin'-iron, in case of a fox, or a wolf, or suthin' kem along. +'Bout sunset the neighbors kem. An' till then I sot thar keepin' +watch, an' a-viewin' the witch-face 'crost the Cove, plumb till the +sun went down." + +She bowed her head again on her arm, and a momentary silence ensued. +Then the coroner, clearing his throat, said reassuringly, "Thar ain't +nuthin' in the witch-face, nohow. It's jes' a notion. Man and boy, I +have knowed that hillside fur forty year, an' I never could see no +witch-face; it's been p'inted out ter me a thousand times." + +She looked at him in dumb amazement for a moment; then broke out, +"Waal, what would ye think ef ye hed seen, like me, the witch-face +shining in the darkest night, nigh on ter midnight, like the ole 'oman +had lighted her a candle somewhars,--jes' shinin', an' grinnin', an' +mockin', plain ez daybreak? That's what _I_ hev viewed--an' I 'low ter +view it agin--oh, I do, I do!" + +He looked at her hard, but he did not say what he thought, and the +faces of the jurymen, which had implied a strong exception to his +declaration of skepticism touching the existence of the ominous facial +outline on the hillside, underwent a sudden change of expression. She +was hardly responsible, they considered, and her last incredible +assertion had gone far to nullify the effect of her previous +testimony. She was overcome by the nervous shock, or had told less +than she knew and was still concealing somewhat, or was so credulous +and plastic and fanciful as to be hardly worthy of belief. She was +dismissed earlier than she had dared to hope: and with this +deterioration of the testimony of the witness who was nearest the time +and place of the disaster, the jury presently went to work to evolve +out of so slender a thread of fact and so knotty a tangle of +possibility their verdict. + +For a long time, it seemed to the curious without, and to the +agitated, nervous witnesses peering through the unchinked logs of the +wall, they sat on their comfortless perch, half crouching forward, and +chewed, and discussed the testimony. There were frequent intervals of +silence, and in one of these Con Hite was disturbed to see the sketch +of the "witch-face" once more passed from hand to hand. They grew to +have a harried, baited look; and after a time, the rain having +slackened, they came out in a body, and walked to and fro quite +silently in the clearing, chewing their quids and their knotty +problem, with apparently as much chance of getting to the completion +of the one as of the other. They were evidently refreshed, however, by +the change of posture and scene, for they soon resumed the subject and +were arguing anew as they paused upon the bluff, their gestures +wonderfully distinct, drawn upon the sea of mist that filled the +valley below and the air above. It revealed naught of the earth, save +here and there a headland, as it were, thrusting out its dark, narrow, +attenuated demesne into the impalpable main. Further and further one +might mark this semblance of a coast-line as the vapor grew more +tenuous, till far away the series of shadowy gray promontories +alternating with the colorless inlets was as vague of essence as the +land of a dream. Near at hand, a cucumber-tree, with its great broad +green leaves and its deep red cones, leaning over the rocks, and +spanning this illusive gray landscape from the zenith to the immediate +foreground, gave the only touch of color to the scenic simulacrum in +many a gradation of neutral tone. The jurymen hovered about under the +boughs for a time, and then came back, still harassed and anxious, to +their den, with perhaps some new question of doubt. For those without +could perceive that once more they were crowding about the bier and +talking together in knots. Again they called in the country physician +who had testified earlier, an elderly personage, singularly long and +thin and angular, but who had a keen, intent, clever face and the +accent of an educated man. He seemed to reiterate some information in +a clear, concise manner, and when he came out it was evident that he +considered his utility here at an end, for he made straight for his +horse and saddle. + +A sudden sensation supervened among the outsiders,--a flutter, and +then a breathless suspense; for within the inclosure, barred with the +heavy shadows of the logs of the walls alternating with the misty +intervals, could be seen the figures of the seven, successively +stooping at the foot of the bier to sign each his name to the +inquisition at last drawn up. + +One by one they came slowly out, looking quite exhausted from their +long restraint, the unwonted mental exercitations, and the nervous +strain. Then it was developed, to the astonishment and disappointment +of the little crowd, tingling with excitement and anxiety, that this +document simply set forth the fact that at an inquisition holden on +Witch-Face Mountain, Kildeer County, before Jeremiah Flaxman, coroner, +upon the body of an unknown man, there lying dead, the jurors whose +names were subscribed thereto, upon their oaths, did say that he came +to his death from concussion of the brain consequent upon being thrown +or dragged from his horse by means or by persons to the jury unknown. + +There was a palpable dismay on Constant Hite's expressive face. He had +hoped that the verdict might be death by accident. Others had expected +the implication of horse-thieves, of whose existence the jury being of +the neighborhood were well advised, and the disappearance of the man's +horse might well suggest this explanation. The coroner would return +this inquisition to the criminal court together with a list of the +material witnesses. Thus the matter was left as undecided as before +the inquest, the jeopardy, the terrors of circumstantial evidence, all +still impending, dark with doom, like the black cloud which visibly +overshadowed the landscape. + + +IV. + +Since the knight-errantry of wolf and bear and catamount and fox has +scant need of milestones, or signposts, or ferries, or the tender +iteration of road-taxes, the casual glance might hardly perceive the +necessity of opening a thoroughfare through this wilderness, for these +freebooters seemed likely to be its chief beneficiaries. A more rugged +district could not be found in all that massive upheaval of rocks and +tangled wooded fastnesses stretching from the northeast to the +southwest some twenty miles, and known as Witch-Face Mountain; a more +scantily populated region than its slopes and adjacent coves scarcely +exists in the length and breadth of the State of Tennessee. The +physical possibilities were arrayed against the project, so steep was +the comblike summit on either side, so heavy and tortuous the +outcropping rock that served as the bony structure of the great +mountain mass. True, the river pierced it, the denudation of solid +sandstone cliffs, a thousand feet in height, betokening the untiring +energy of the eroding currents of centuries agone. This agency, +however, man might not summon to his aid, being "the act of God," +to use the pious language of the express companies to describe +certain contingencies for which they very properly decline the +responsibility. Against the preėmptions of the gigantic forests and +the gaunt impassable crags and the abysmal river might be enlisted +only such enterprise as was latent in the male inhabitants of the +vicinity over eighteen years of age and under fifty, thus subject to +the duty of working on the public roads. Nevertheless, the county +court had, in a moment of sanguine exuberance, entertained and granted +an application from the adjacent landowners to order a jury of view to +lay out a public road and to report at the next quarterly session. + +Precursors of the jury of view in some sort two young people might +have seemed, one afternoon, a fortnight, perhaps, after the inquest, +as they pushed through the woody tangles to the cliffs high above the +river, the opposite bank of which was much nearer than the swirling +currents, crystal brown in the romantic shadows below. They walked in +single file, the jury of view in their minds, and now and then +referred to in their sparse speech. + +"Mought make it along hyar, Ben." The girl, in advance, paused, +bareheaded, each uplifted hand holding out a string of her white +sunbonnet, which, thus distended, was poised, winglike, behind the +rough tangle of auburn hair and against the amber sky. She turned as +she spoke, to face her companion, taking a step or two backward as she +awaited his answer. + +"Look out how ye air a-walkin', Narcissa! Ye'll go over the bluff +back'ards, fust thing ye know," the man called out eagerly, and with a +break of anxiety in his voice. + +She stretched the sunbonnet still wider with her upreaching arms, and +with a smile of tantalizing glee, showing her white teeth and +narrowing her brown eyes, she continued to walk backward toward the +precipice,--with short steps, however; cautious enough, doubtless, but +calculated to alarm one whose affection had given much acuteness to +fear. + +Still at too great a distance for interference, Ben affected +indifference. "We-uns'll hev the coroner's jury hyar agin, afore the +jury o' view, ef ye keep on; an' ye ain't got on yer bes' caliker +coat, noways." + +He climbed swiftly up the ascent and joined her, out of breath and +with an angry gleam in his eyes. But she had turned her face and steps +in the opposite direction, the mirth of the situation extinguished for +the present. + +"Quit talkin' that-a-way 'bout sech turr'ble, turr'ble things!" she +cried petulantly, making a motion as if to strike him, futile at the +distance, and with her frowning face averted. + +"Sech ez yer new coat? I 'lowed 't war the apple o' yer eye," he +rejoined with a feint of banter. + +She held her face down, with her features drawn and her eyes half +closed, rejecting the vision of recollection as if it were the sight +itself. "I can't abide the name o' cor'ner's jury,--I never wants ter +hear it nor see it agin! I never shall furgit how them men all looked +a-viewin' the traveler's body what I fund dead in the road; they +looked like jes' so many solemn, peekin', heejus black buzzards +crowdin' aroun' the corpse; then a-noddin' an' a-whisperin' tergether, +an' a-findin' of a verdic' ez they called it. They fund nuthin' at +all. 'T war _me_ ez done the findin'. I fund the man dead in the road. +An' _I_ ain't a-goin' ter be a witness no mo'. Nex' time the law wants +me fur a witness I'll go ter jail; it's cheerfuller, a heap, I'll +bet!" + +As she still held her head down, her bonnet well on it now, her face +with its _riant_ cast of features incongruously woebegone, +overshadowed by the tragedy she recounted even more definitely than by +the brim of her headgear or the first gray advance of the dusk, he +made a clumsy effort to divert her attention. + +"I 'lowed ye war mightily in favor of juries; ye talk mighty nigh all +day 'bout the jury of view." + +"I want a road up hyar," she exclaimed vivaciously, raising her eyes +and her joyous transfigured face, "a reg'lar county road! In the fall +o' the year the folks would kem wagonin' thar chestnuts over ter sell +in town, an' camp out. An' all the mounting would go up an' down it +past our big gate ter the church house in the Cove. I'd never want ter +hear no mo' preachin'. I'd jes' set on our front porch, an' look, an' +look, an' look!" + +She cast up her great bright eyes with as vivid and immediate an +irradiation as if the brilliant procession which she pictured deployed +even now, chiefly in ox-wagons, before them. She caught off her bonnet +from her head,--it seemed a sort of moral barometer; she never wore it +when the indications of the inner atmosphere set fair. She swung it +gayly by one string as she walked and talked; now and again she held +the string to her lips and bit it with her strong, even teeth, +reckless of the havoc in the clumsy hem. + +"Then county court days,--goin' to county court, an' comin' from +county court,--sech passels an' passels o' folks! I wisht we-uns hed +it afore the jury o' view kem, so we-uns mought view the jury o' +view." + +"It's along o' the jury o' view ez we-uns will git the road,--ef we do +git it," the young man said cautiously. + +It was one of his self-imposed duties to moderate, as far as he might, +his sister's views, to temper her enthusiasms and abate her various +and easily excited anger. He had other duties toward her which might +be said to have come to him as an inheritance. + +"Ben's the boy!" his consumptive mother had been wont to say; "he's +sorter slow, but mighty sure. 'Brag is a good dog, but Hold-Fast is a +better.' Ef he don't sense nare 'nother idee in this life, he hev got +ter l'arn ez it's his business ter take keer o' Nar'sa. Folks say +Nar'sa be spoiled a'ready. So be, fur whilst Ben be nuthin' but a boy +he'll l'arn ter do her bid, an' watch over her, an' wait on her, an' +keer for her, an' think she be the top o' creation. It'll make her +proud an' headin', I know,--she'll gin her stepmammy a sight o' +trouble, an' I ain't edzactly lamentin' 'bout'n that,--but Ben'll take +keer o' her all her life, an' good keer, havin' been trained ter it +from the fust." + +But his mother had slept many a year in the little mountain graveyard, +and her place was still empty. The worldly wise craft of the simple +mountain woman, making what provision she might for the guardianship +of her daughter, was rendered of scant effect, since her husband did +not marry again. The household went on as if she still sat in her +accustomed place, with not one deficiency or disaster that might have +served in its simple sort as a memorial,--so little important are we +in our several spheres, so promptly do the ranks of life close up as +we drop dead from their alignment. + +The panoply against adversity with which Narcissa had been accoutred +by a too anxious mother, instead of being means of defense, had become +opportunities of oppression. Her brother's affectionate solicitude and +submissiveness were accepted as her bounden due, as the two grew +older; her father naturally adapted himself to the predominant +sentiment of the household; and few homes can show a tyrant more +arrogant and absolute than the mountain girl whose mother had so +predicted for her much hardship and harshness, and a troubled and +subordinate existence. + +It was with that instinct to guard her from all the ills of life, +great and small, that Ben sought to prepare her for a possible +disappointment now. + +"Mought n't git the road through, nohow, when all's said," he +suggested. + +"What fur not?" she exclaimed, bringing her dark brows together above +eyes that held a glitter of anger. + +"Waal, some o' the owners won't sign the application, an' air goin' +ter fight it in the Court." + +She put her bonnet on, and looked from under its brim up at the amber +sky. It was growing faintly green near the zenith, toward which the +lofty topmost plumes of the dark green pines swayed. The great growths +of the forest rose on every side. There was no view, no vista, save +the infinitely repeated umbrageous tangle beneath the trees, where +their boles stood more or less distinct or dusky till merged +indefinitely into shadow and distance. Looking down into the river, +one lost the sense of monotony. The ever-swirling lines of the current +drew mystic scrolls on that wonderfully pellucid brown surface,--so +pellucid that from the height above she could see a swiftly darting +shadow which she knew was the reflection of a homeward-bound hawk in +the skies higher yet. Leaves floated in a still, deep pool, were +caught in a maddening eddy, and hurried frantically away, unwilling, +frenzied, helpless, unknowing whither, never to return,--allegory of +many a life outside those darkling solemn mountain woods, and of some, +perhaps, in the midst of them. The reflection of the cliffs in the +never still current, of the pines on their summits, of the changing +sky growing deeper and deeper, till its amber tint, erstwhile so +crystalline, became of a dull tawny opaqueness, she marked absently +for a while as she cogitated on his answer. + +"What makes 'em so contrairy, Ben?" she asked at last. + +"Waal, old man Sneed 'lows thar'll be a power o' cattle-thievin', with +the road so open an' convenient. An' Jeremiah Sayres don't want ter +pay no road-taxes. An' Silas Boyd 'lows he don't want ter be obligated +ter work on no sech rough road ez this hyar one air obleeged ter be; +an' I reckon, fust an' last, it _will_ take a power o' elbow grease." + +He paused, and looked about him at the great shelving masses of rock +and the steep slants, repeated through leagues and leagues of mountain +wilderness. Then seating himself on one of the ledges of the cliff, +his feet dangling unconcernedly over the abysses below, he continued: +"An' Con Hite,--he's agin it, too." + +She lifted her head, with a scornful rising flush. + +"Con Hite dunno _what_ he wants; _he_ ain't got a ounce o' jedgmint." + +"Waal, one thing he _don't_ want is a road. He be 'feared it'll go too +close ter the still, an' the raiders will nose him out somehows. Now +he be all snug in the bresh, an' the revenuers none the wiser." + +"An' Con none the wiser, nuther," she flouted. "The raiders hev smoked +out 'sperienced old mountain foxes a heap slyer'n Con be. He ain't +got the gift. He can't hide nuthin'. I kin find out everythin' he +knows by jes' lookin' in his eye." + +"That's just 'kase he's fool enough ter set a heap o' store by ye, +Nar'sa. He ain't so easy trapped." + +"Fool enough fur ennythin'," she retorted. + +"An' then thar 's old Dent Kirby. He 'lows the road will be obligated +ter pass by the witch-face arter it gits over yander nigh ter the +valley, whar the ruver squeezes through the mounting agin. He be +always talkin' 'bout signs an' spells an' sech, an' he 'lows the very +look o' the witch-face kerries bad luck, an' it'll taint all ez goes +for'ard an' back'ard a-nigh it." + +"Ben," said the girl in a low voice, "do you-uns b'lieve ef thar war +passin' continual on a sure enough county road that thar cur'ous white +light would kem on the old witch's face in the night-time? Ain't that +a sort'n spell fur the dark an' the lonesomeness ter tarrify a few +quaking dwellers round about? Surely many folks comin' an' goin' +wouldn't see sech. Ghostful things ain't common in a crowd." She moved +a little nearer her brother, and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Some folks can't see the witch-face at all, noways," he replied +stolidly. "I hearn the coroner 'low he couldn't." + +Narcissa spoke with sudden asperity: "I reckon he hev got sense enough +ter view a light whenst it shines inter his eyes. He 'pears ter be +feeble-minded ginerally, and mought n't be able ter pick out the favor +o' the features on the hillside, but surely he'd blink ef a light war +flickered inter his eyeballs." + +The road was her precious scheme, and she steadfastly believed that +with the order of the worshipful Quarterly County Court declaring it +open, with a duly appointed overseer and a gang of assigned work-hands +and the presidial fostering care of a road commissioner, the haggard +old semblance must needs desist from supernatural emblazonment in the +awe-stricken nights, and that logic and law would soon serve to +exorcise its baleful influence. + +Her mien grew graver as she reflected on the résumé of objections to +the project. Her white bonnet threw a certain white reflection on her +flushed face. Her eyes were downcast as she looked at the river below, +the long lashes seeming almost to touch her cheek. She scarcely moved +them as she turned her gaze upon her brother, who was still seated on +the verge of the cliff. + +"Waal, sir, I wonder that the pore old road petition hed life enough +in it ter crawl ter the court-house door. With all them agin it, thar +ain't nobody ter be fur it, sca'cely." + +"Oh, yes," he admitted. "Them air fur it ez b'lieves highways improves +proputty, an' hev got land lyin' right alongside whar the road is axed +ter be run; them ez ain't got proputty alongside ain't nigh so +anxious. But that thar strange valley man ez they say hev got a lung +complaint, he won't sign nuther. He owns the house he built up thar on +the flat o' the mounting an' cornsider'ble land, though he don't keep +no stock nor nuthin'. 'Lows the air be soft an' good for the lung +complaint. He 'lows he hev been tryin' ter git shet o' the railroads +an' dirt roads an' human folks, an' he s'posed he _hed_ run ter the +jumpin'-off place, the e-ends o' the yearth; but hyar kems the road +o' civilization a-pursuin' him like the sarpient o' the Pit, with +the knowledge o' good an' evil,--a grain o' wheat an' a bushel o' +chaff,--an' he reckons he'll hev ter cut an' run again." + +Narcissa's lips parted slightly. She listened in amazement to this +strange account of an aversion to that gay world in processional, +chiefly in white-covered wagons, which she longed to see come down the +county road. + +"He be a powerful queer man," said Ben slowly, "this hyar Alan +Selwyn." + +And she felt that this was true. + +She sat down beside her brother on the rock, and together they looked +down meditatively on the river. It was reddening now with the +reflection of the reddening clouds. The water, nevertheless, asserted +itself. Lengths of steely brilliancy showed now and again amidst the +roseate suffusion, and anon spaces glimmered vacant of all but a dusky +brown suggestion of depth and a liquid lustre. + +"Nar'sa," he said at last in a low voice, "ye know they 'lowed that +the traveler what war killed, some say by his runaway horse, war +a-comin' ter see _him_,--this Alan Selwyn." + +The white bonnet seemed to focus and retain the lingering light in the +landscape. Without its aid he might hardly have made shift to see her +face. + +"They 'lowed they knowed so by the papers the traveler had on him, +though this Selwyn 'lowed _he_ couldn't identify the dead man," he +continued after a pause. + +She gazed wonderingly at him, then absently down at the sudden +scintillating white glitter of the reflection of the evening star in +the dusky red water. It burned with a yet purer, calmer radiance in +the roseate skies. She felt the weight of the darkening gloom, +gathering beneath the trees around her, as if it hung palpably on her +shoulders. + +"Waal," he resumed, "I b'lieve ef that thar traveler had been able ter +speak ter ye when ye fund him, like ye said he tried ter do, I +b'lieve he would hev tole ye suthin' 'bout that thar valley man. +_He_'s enough likelier ter hev bed suthin' ter do with the suddint +takin' off o' the feller than Con Hite." + +Her face was suddenly aghast. "Who says Con Hite-- Why?" She paused, +her voice failing. + +"Waal, ye know Con be a-moonshinin' again, an' some 'lows ez this +hyar traveler warn't a traveler at all, but a revenuer,--strayed off +somehows from the rest o' 'em." + +"Oh, how I wish he'd stop moonshinin' an' sech!" + +She moved so suddenly on the edge of the precipice, as she lifted her +hands and drew down her sunbonnet over her face, that Ben's glance was +full of terror. + +"Move back a mite, Nar'sa; ye'll go over the bluff, fust thing ye +know! Yes, Con's mighty wrong ter be moonshinin'. The law is the right +thing. It purtects us. It holps us all. We-uns owe it obejiunce, like +I hearn a man say in a speech down yander in"-- + +"The law!" cried Narcissa, with scorn. "Con Hite kin tromp on the +revenue law from hyar ter the witch-face, fur all I keer. Purtects! I +pity a man ez waits fur the law ter purtect him; it's a heap apter ter +grind him ter pomace. _I_ mind moonshinin' 'kase it's dangersome fur +the moonshiners. The law--I don't count the fibble old law!" + +She sat brooding for a time, her face downcast. Then she spoke in a +low voice:-- + +"Whyn't ye find out, Ben? What ails ye ter be so good-fur-nuthin'? +Thar be other folks beside Con ez air law-breakers." She edged nearer +to him, laying her hand on his arm. "Ye've got to find out, Ben," she +said insistently. "Keep an eye on that thar valley man, an' find out +all 'bout'n him. Else the killin' 'll be laid ter Con, who never done +nuthin' hurtful ter nobody in all his life." + +"The idee jes' streck me ter-day whenst I viewed him along about that +road. Whenst that thar dead man tuk yer han' an' tried ter find a word +of speech-- Why, hullo, Narcissa!" + +With a short cry she had struggled to her feet. The gathering gloom, +the recollection of the tragedy, the association of ideas, bore too +heavily on her nerves. She struck petulantly at his astounded face. + +"Why air ye always remindin' me?" she exclaimed, with a sharp +upbraiding note. And then she began to cry out that she could see +again the coroner's jury pressing close about the corpse, with a keen +ravenous interest like the vile mountain vultures, and then +colloguing together aside, and nodding their heads and saying they had +found their verdict, when they had found nothing, not even the poor +dead man; and she saw them here, and she saw them there, and +everywhere in the darkling mountain woods, and she would see them +everywhere as long as she should live, and she wished with all her +heart that they were every one at the bottom of the black mountain +river. + +And the slow Ben wondered, as he sought to soothe her and take her +home, that a woman should be so sensitive to the mention of one dead +man, and yet given to such wishes of the wholesale destruction of the +harmless coroner's jury, because their appearance struck her amiss, +and they collogued together, and nodded their heads unacceptably, and +found their verdict. + + +V. + +Except in so far as his sedulously cultivated fraternal sentiments +were concerned, the peculiar domestic training to which Ben Hanway had +been subjected had had slight effect in softening a somewhat hard and +stern character. To continue the canine simile by which his mother had +described him, his gentleness and watchful care toward his sister were +not more reassuring to the public at large than is the tender loyalty +of a guard-dog toward the infant of a house which claims his fealty; +that the dog does not bite the baby is no fair augury that he will not +bite the peddler or the prowler. The fact that the traveler had borne +letters addressed to Alan Selwyn, and no other papers, and yet Alan +Selwyn could not or would not identify him, had already furnished +Hanway with an ever-recurrent subject of cogitation. It had been the +presumption of the coroner's jury, since confirmed by inquiry of the +postmaster, that, going for some purpose to Alan Selwyn's lodge in the +wilderness, the unknown traveler had, in passing, called for his +prospective host's mail at the Cross-Roads, some fifteen miles distant +and the nearest post-office, such being the courtesy of the region. A +visitor often insured a welcome by thus voluntarily expediting the +delivery of the mail some days, or perhaps some weeks, before its +recipient could have hoped to receive it otherwise. Hanway had long +been cognizant of this habit of the Cross-Roads postmaster to accede +to such requests on the part of reputable people, but he was reminded +forcibly of it the next morning. A neighbor, homeward bound from a +visit to the valley, had paused at Hanway's house to leave a letter, +with which he had charged himself, addressed to Selwyn. + +"I 'lowed ye mought be ridin' over thar some day, bein' ez ye air +toler'ble nigh neighbors," he said. + +And Hanway the more willingly undertook the delivery of the missive +since it afforded him a pretext for the reconnoissance which he had +already contemplated. + +Rain-clouds had succeeded those fine aerial flauntings of the sunset +splendors, and he set out in the pervasive drizzle of a gray day. Torn +and ragged with the rain and the gusts, the white mist seemed to come +to meet him along the vistas of the dreary dripping woods. The tall +trees that shut off the sky loomed loftily through it. Sometimes, as +the wind quickened, it deployed in great luminously white columns, +following the invisible curves of the atmospheric current; and anon, +in flaky detached fragments, it fled dispersed down the avenues like +the scattered stragglers of a routed army. The wind was having the +best of the contest; and though it still rained when he reached the +vicinity of Alan Selwyn's lonely dwelling, the mist was gone, the +clouds were all resolved into the steady fall of the torrents, and the +little house on the slope of the mountain and all its surroundings +were visible. + +A log cabin it was, containing two rooms and the unaccustomed luxury +of glass windows; so new that the hewn cedar logs had not yet +weathered to the habitual dull gray tone, but glowed jauntily red as +the timbers alternated with the white and yellow daubing. A stanch +stone chimney seemed an unnecessary note of ostentation, since the +more usual structure of clay and sticks might serve as well. It +reminded Ben Hanway that its occupant was not native to the place, and +whetted anew his curiosity as he looked about, the reins on his +horse's neck in his slow approach. It was a sheltered spot; the great +mountain's curving summit rose high toward the north and west above +the depression where the cabin stood; across the narrow valley a still +more elevated range intercepted the east wind. Only to the south was +the limited plateau open, sloping down to great cliffs, giving upon a +vast expanse of mountain and valley and plain and far reaches of +undulating country, promising in fair weather high, pure, soft air, a +tempered gentle breeze, and the best that the sun can do. + +He noted the advantages of the situation in reference to the "lung +complaint," feeling a loser in some sort; for he had begun to suspect +that the consumptive tendencies of the stranger were a vain pretense, +assumed merely to delude the unwary. He could not have doubted long, +for when he dismounted and hitched his horse to the rail fence he +heard the door of the house open, and as its owner, standing on the +threshold in the wind and the gusty rain, called out to him a +welcoming "Hello," the word was followed by a series of hacking coughs +which told their story as definitely as a medical certificate. + +Ben Hanway was not a humane man in any special sense, but he was +conscious of haste in concluding the tethering of the animal and in +striding across the vacant weed-grown yard striped with the +ever-descending rain. + +"Ye'd better git in out'n all this wind an' rain," he said in his +rough voice. "A power o' dampness in the air." + +"No matter. There's no discount on me. Don't take cold nowadays. I've +got right well here already." + +The passage-way was dark, but the room into which Ben was ushered, +illumined by two opposite windows, was as bright as the day would +allow. A roaring wood fire in the great chimney-place reinforced the +pallid gray light with glancing red and yellow fluctuations. The +apartment was comfortable enough, although its uses were evidently +multifarious,--partly kitchen, and dining-room, and sitting-room. Its +furniture consisted of several plain wooden chairs, a table and +crockery, a few books on a shelf, a lounge in the corner, and a rifle, +after the manner of the mountaineers, over the mantelpiece. Upon the +shelf a cheap clock ticked away the weary minutes of the lonely hours +of the long empty days while the valley man abode here, exiled from +home and friends and his accustomed sphere, and fought out that +hopeless fight for his life. + +Ben Hanway gave him a keen, covert stare, as he slowly and clumsily +accepted the tendered chair and his host threw another log on the +fire. Hanway had seen him previously, when Selwyn testified before the +coroner's jury, but to-day he impressed his visitor differently. He +was tall and slight, twenty-five years of age, perhaps, with light +brown hair, sleek and shining and short, a quick blue eye, a fair +complexion with a brilliant flush, and a long mustache. But the +bizarre effect produced by this smiling apparition in the jaws of +death seemed to Hanway's limited experience curiously enhanced by his +attire. Its special peculiarity was an old smoking-jacket, out at the +elbows, ragged at the cuffs, and frayed at the silk collar; Hanway had +never before seen a man wear a red coat, or such foot-gear as the +slipshod embroidered velvet slippers in which he shuffled to a chair +and sat down, tilted back, with his hands in the pockets of his gray +trousers. To be sure, he could but be grave when testifying before a +coroner's jury, but Hanway was hardly prepared for such exuberant +cheerfulness as his manner, his attire, and his face seemed to +indicate. + +"Ain't ye sorter lonesome over hyar?" he ventured. + +"You bet your sweet life I am," his host replied unequivocally. A +shade crossed his face, and vanished in an instant. "But then," he +argued, "I didn't have such a soft thing where I was. I was a +clerk--that is, a bookkeeper--on a salary, and I had to work all day, +and sometimes nearly all night!" + +He belittled his former vocation with airy contempt, as if he did not +yearn for it with every fibre of his being,--its utility, its +competence, its future. The recollection of the very feel of the fair +smooth paper under his hand, the delicate hair-line chirography +trailing off so fast from the swift pen, could wring a pang from him. +He might even have esteemed an oath more binding sworn on a ledger +than on the New Testament. + +"And we were a small house, anyway, and the salary was no great +shakes," he continued jauntily, to show how little he had to regret. + +"An' now ye ain't got nuthin' ter do but ter read yer book," said the +mountaineer acquiescently, realizing, in spite of his clumsy mental +processes, how the thorn pierced the bosom pressed against it. + +Selwyn followed his guest's glance to the shelf of volumes with an +unaffected indifference. + +"Yes, but I don't care for it. I wish I did, since I have the time. +But the liking for books has to be cultivated, like a taste for beer; +they are both a deal too sedative for me!" The laugh that ensued was +choked with a cough, and the tactless Hanway was moved to expostulate. + +"I wonder ye ain't 'feared ter be hyar all by yerse'f hevin' the lung +complaint." + +"Why, man alive, I'm well, or so near it there's no use talking. I +could go home to-morrow, except, as I have had the house built, I +think I'd better stay the winter in it. But before the cold weather +comes on they are going to send up a darky to look after me. I only +hope _I_ won't have to wait on _him_,--awful lazy nigger! He used to +be a porter of ours. Loafing around these woods with a gun on his +shoulder, pretending to hunt, will be just about his size. He's out of +a job now, and comes cheap. I couldn't afford to pay him wages all the +time, but winter is winter." + +He was silent a moment, gazing into the fire; then Hanway, gloomily +brooding and disturbed, for the conversation had impressed him much as +if it had been post-mortem, so immediate seemed his companion's doom, +felt Selwyn's eye upon him, as if his sentiment were so obvious that +the sense of sight had detected it. + +"You think I'm going to die up here all by myself. Now I tell you, my +good fellow, dying is the very last thing that I expect to do." + +He broke out laughing anew, and this time he did not cough. + +Hanway could not at once cover his confusion. He looked frowningly +down at the steam rising from his great cowhide boots, outstretched as +they dried in the heat of the fire, and slowly shifted them one above +the other. The flush on his sunburned cheek rose to the roots of his +dark hair, and overspread his clumsy features. His appearance did not +give token of any very great delicacy of feeling, but he regretted his +transparency, and sought to nullify it. + +"Not that," he said disingenuously; "but bein' all by yerse'f, I +wonder ye ain't willin' fur the county road ter be put through. 'T +would run right by yer gate, an' ye could h'ist the winder an' talk to +the folks passin'. Ye wouldn't be lonely never." + +For the first time Selwyn looked like a man of business. His eyes grew +steady. His face was firm and serious and non-committal. He said +nothing. Hanway cleared his throat and crossed his legs anew. The +thought of his true intention in coming hither, not his ostensible +errand, had recurred more than once to his mind,--to lay bare the +secret touching the visitor to Selwyn's remote dwelling, whom he could +not or would not identify; and if there were aught amiss, as the +mountaineer suspected, to take such action thereupon as in the +fullness of his own good judgment seemed fit. But since the man was +evidently so sharp, Hanway had hitherto feared even indirectly to +trench upon it; here, however, the opening was so natural, so +propitious, that he was fain to take advantage of it. + +"An' see," he resumed, "what dangers kem o' hevin' no road. That thar +man what war killed las' month, ef we hed hed a reg'lar county road, +worked on an' kep' open, stiddier this hyar herder's trail, this-a-way +an' that, he could hev rid along ez free an' favored, an'"-- + +"Why," Selwyn broke in, "the testimony was to the effect that he was +riding a young, skittish horse, which was startled by stray hogs +breaking at a dead run through the bushes, and that the horse bolted +and ran away. And the man died from concussion of the brain. That +would have happened if we had had a road of the first class, twenty +feet wide, instead of this little seven-foot freak you all are so +mashed on." + +His face had not lost a tinge of its brilliant color. His animated +eyes were still fired by that inward flame that was consuming his +years, his days, even his minutes, it might seem. His hands, fine, +white, and delicate, were thrust jauntily into the pockets of his red +jacket, and Hanway felt himself no nearer the heart of the mystery +than before. The subject, evidently, was not avoided, held naught of +menace. He went at it directly. + +"Seems strange he war a-comin' ter visit you-uns, an' hed yer mail in +his pocket, an' ye never seen him afore," he hazarded, "nor knowed who +he war." + +"But I have found out since," Selwyn said, his clear eyes resting on +his visitor without the vestige of an affrighted thought. "He was Mr. +Keith, a chemist from Glaston; he was quite a notable authority on +matters of physical science generally. I had written to him +about--about some points of interest in the mountains, and as he was +at leisure he concluded to come and investigate--and--take a holiday. +He didn't let me know, and as I had never seen him I didn't at first +even imagine it was he." + +There was a silence. Selwyn's blue eyes dwelt on the fast-descending +lines of rain that now blurred all view of the mountains; the globular +drops here and there adhering to the pane, ever dissolving and ever +renewed, obscured even the small privilege of a glimpse of the +dooryard. The continual beat on the roof had the regularity and the +tireless suggestion of machinery. + +"How did ye find out?" demanded Hanway, his theory evaporating into +thin air. + +"Why, as he didn't reply to my letter about a matter of such +importance"--he checked himself suddenly, then went on more +slowly--"it occurred to me that he might have decided to come, and +might have been the man who was killed. So I wrote to his brother. He +had not been expected at home earlier. His brother doesn't incline to +the foul-play theory. The horse he rode is a wild young animal that +has run away two or three times. He had been warned repeatedly against +riding that horse, but he thought him safe enough. The horse has +returned home,--got there the day my letter was received. So the +brother and an officer came and exhumed the body: he was buried, you +know, after the inquest, over in the little graveyard yonder on the +slope of the mountain." + +Selwyn shivered slightly, and the fine white hands came out of the +gaudy red pockets, and fastened the frogs beneath the lapels across +his chest, to draw the smoking-jacket closer. + +"Great Scott! what a fate,--to be left in that desolate +burying-ground! Death is death, there." + +"Death is death anywhar," said the mountaineer gloomily. + +"No. Get you a mile or two of iron fence, and stone gates, and lots of +sculptured marble angels around, and death is peace, or rest, or +heaven, or paradise, according to your creed and the taste of the +subject; but here you are done for and dead." + +Hanway, in the limited experience of the mountaineer, could not follow +the theory, and he forbore to press it further. + +"Well," Selwyn resumed, "they took him home, and I was glad to see him +go. I was glad to see them filling that hole up. I took a pious +interest in that. I should have felt it was waiting for me. I shoveled +some of the earth back myself." + +The wind surged around the house, and shook the outer doors. The rain +trampled on the roof like a squadron of cavalry. With his fate +standing ever behind him, almost visibly looking over his shoulder, +although he saw it not, the valley man was a pathetic object to the +mountaineer. Hanway's eyes were hot and burned as he looked at him; if +he had been but a little younger, they might have held tears. But +Hanway had passed by several years his majority, and esteemed himself +exempt from boyish softness. + +Selwyn shook off the impression with a shiver, and bent forward to +mend the fire. + +"Where were you yesterday?" he asked, seeking a change of subject. + +"At home sowin' turnip seed, mos'ly. I never hearn nuthin' 'bout'n it +all." + +Selwyn threw himself back in his chair, his brow corrugated +impatiently at this renewal of the theme, and in the emergency he even +resorted to the much-mooted point of the thoroughfare. + +"I suppose all the family there are dead gone on that road?" he sought +to make talk. + +"Dad an' aunt M'nervy don't keer one way nor another, but my sister +air plumb beset fur the jury of view to put it through." + +"Why?" Selwyn had a mental vision of some elderly, thrifty mountain +dame with a long head turned toward the enhancement of the values of a +league or so of mountain land. + +Hanway, slow and tenacious of impressions, could not so readily rouse +a vital interest in another subject. He still gazed with melancholy +eyes at the fire, and his heart felt heavy and sore. + +"Waal," he answered mechanically, "she 'lows she wants ter see the +folks go up an' down, an' up an' down." + +Selwyn's blue eyes opened. "Folks?" he asked wonderingly. The rarest +of apparitions on Witch-Face Mountain were "folks." + +Hanway roused himself slightly, and raucously cleared his throat to +explain. + +"She 'lows thar'll be cornsider'ble passin'. Folks, in the fall o' the +year, mought be a-wagonin' of chestnuts over the mounting an' down ter +Colb'ry; an' thar's the Quarterly Court days; some attends, leastwise +the jestices; an' whenst they hev preachin' in the Cove; an' wunst in +a while thar _mought_ be a camp-meetin'. She sets cornsider'ble store +on lookin' at the folks ez will go up an' down." + +There was a swift movement in the pupils of the valley man's eyes. It +was an expression closely correlated to laughter, but the muscles of +his face were still, and he remained decorously grave. + +There was some thought in his mind that held him doubtful for a +moment. His craft was cautious of its kind, and his manner was quite +incidental as he said, "And the others of the family?" + +"Thar ain't no others," returned Hanway, stolidly unmarking. + +"Oh, so you are the eldest?" + +"By five year. Narcissa ain't more 'n jes' turned eighteen." + +The valley man's face was flushed more deeply still; his brilliant +eyes were elated. + +"_Narcissa!_" he cried, with the joy of delighted identification. +"She is the girl, then, that testified at the inquest. _Narcissa!_" + +Hanway lifted his head, with a strong look of surly objection on his +heavy features. Selwyn noted it with a glow of growing anger. He felt +that he had said naught amiss. People could not expect their sisters +to escape attracting notice, especially a sister with a remarkable +name and endowed with a face like this one's. + +"Narcissa,--that's an odd name," he said, partly in bravado, and +partly in justification of the propriety of his previous mention of +her. "I knew a man once named Narcissus. Must be the feminine of +Narcissus. Good name for her, though." The recollection of the white +flower-like face, the corolla of red-gold hair, came over him. "Looks +just like 'em." + +Hanway, albeit all alert now, descried in this naught more poetical +than the fact that Selwyn considered that his sister resembled a man +of his acquaintance. As for that fairest of all spring flowers, it had +never gladdened the backwoods range of his vision. + +The exclusive tendency of the human mind is tested by this discovery +of a casual resemblance to a stranger. One invariably sustains an +affront at its mention. Whatever one's exterior may be, it possesses +the unique merit of being one's own, and the aversion to share its +traits with another, and that other a stranger, is universal. In this +instance the objection was enhanced by the fact that the stranger was +a man; _ergo_, in Hanway's opinion, more or less clumsy and burly and +ugly; the masculine type of his acquaintance presenting to his mind +few of the superior elements of beauty. He resented the liberty the +stranger took in resembling Narcissa, and he resented still more +Selwyn's effrontery in discovering the likeness. + +"Not ez much alike ez two black-eyed peas, now. I reckon not,--I +reckon not," he sneered, as he rose to bring his visit to an end. + +His host's words of incipient surprise were checked as Hanway slowly +drew forth from his pocket a letter. + +"Old man Binney war at the Cross-Roads Sad'day, an' he fotched up some +mail fur the neighbors. He lef' this letter fur you-uns at our house, +'lowin' ez I would fetch it over." + +Selwyn sat silent for a moment. He felt that severe reprehension and +distrust which a man of business always manifests upon even the most +trifling interference with his vested rights in his own mail matter. +The rural method of aiding in distributing the mail was peculiarly +unpalatable to him. He much preferred that his letters should lie in +the post-office at the Cross-Roads until such time as it suited his +convenience to saddle his horse and ride thither for them. The +postmaster, on the contrary, seized the opportunity whenever +responsible parties were "ridin' up inter the mounting" to entrust to +them the neighborhood mail, thus expediting its delivery perhaps by +three weeks, or even more, and receiving in every instance the +benediction of his distant beneficiaries of the backwoods. + +"I'll write to the postmaster this very day!" Selwyn thought, as he +tore the envelope open and mastered its contents at a swift glance. A +half-suppressed but delighted excitement shone suddenly in his eyes, +and smoothed every line of agitation and anxiety from his brow. + +"I'm a thousand times obliged to you for bringing it," he exclaimed, +"and for staying awhile and talking! I wish you would come again. But +I'm coming to see you, to return your call." He laughed gayly at the +sophisticated phrase. "Coming soon." + +Hanway's growl of pretended pleasure in the prospect was rendered +nearly inarticulate by the thought of Narcissa. He had not anticipated +a return of the courtesy. He had no welcome for this stranger, and +somehow he felt that he did not altogether understand Narcissa at +times; that she had flights of fancy which were beyond him, and took a +mischievous pleasure in tantalizing him, and was freakish and hard to +control. + +Moreover, under the influence of this reaction of feeling, a modicum +of his doubts of Selwyn had revived. Not that he suspected him, as +heretofore, but a phrase that had earlier struck his attention came +back to him. Selwyn had written, he said, to the traveler to come and +"investigate," and he had hesitated and chosen his phrases, and half +discarded them, and slurred over his statement. What was there to +"investigate" in the mountains? What prospect of profit worth a long, +lonely journey and a risk that ended in death? The capture of +moonshiners was said to be a paying business, and an informer also +reaped a reward. Hanway wondered if Con Hite could be the point of +"investigation," if the dead man were indeed of the revenue force. + +"Oh, you needn't shut the door on me," Selwyn said, as they stood +together in the passage, and Hanway, with his instinct to cut him off, +had made a motion to draw the door after him; "this mountain air is so +bland, even when it is damp." He paused on the dripping threshold, +with his hands in the pockets of his red jacket, and surveyed with +smiling complacence the forlorn, weeping day, and the mountains +cowering under their misty veil, and the sodden dooryard, and the +wild rocks and chasms of the gorge, adown the trough of which a stream +unknown to the dry weather was tumbling with a suggestion of flight +and trouble and fear in its precipitancy. "I'm well, well as a bear; +and I'm getting fat as a bear, doing nothing. Feel my arm. I'm just +following the example of the bears about this time of the +year,--hibernating, going into winter quarters. I'm going to get this +place into good shape to sell some day. I have bought that land over +there all down the gorge from Squire Helm; and last July I bought all +that slope at the tax sale, but that is subject to redemption; and +then I am trying to buy in the rear of my wigwam, too,--a thousand +acres." + +"Ye kin sell it higher ef the road goes through," said Hanway +doubtfully. + +It seemed very odd that the man who protested that his stay in the +mountains was so temporary, and whose stay in the world was evidently +so short, should spend his obviously scanty substance in purchase +after purchase of the worthless mountain wilderness. To be sure, the +land was cheap, but it cost something. And Hanway looked again at the +frayed cuffs and elbows of the red smoking-jacket. In his infrequent +visits to Colbury, he had noted the variance of the men's costumes +with the mountain standard of dress. He saw naught like this, but he +knew that if ever the sober burghers lent themselves to this sort of +fantastic toggery, it was certainly whole. + +"Say, my friend, what day does the jury of view hold forth?" Selwyn +called out after the slouching figure, striped with the diagonal lines +of rain and flouted by the wind, tramping across the weeds of the yard +to his horse. + +"Nex' Chewsday week," Hanway responded hoarsely. + +"Well, if this weather holds out, it is to be hoped that the gentlemen +of the jury are web-footed!" Selwyn exclaimed. + +He shut the door, and as he went back to his lonely hearth his eyes +fell upon the letter lying on the table. + +"Now," he said as he took it again in his hand, "if fate should truly +cut such a caper as to make my fortune in this forlorn exile, I could +find it in my heart to laugh the longest and the loudest at the joke." + + +VI. + +If it had been within the power of the worshipful Quarterly County +Court to issue a mandamus to compel fair weather on that notable +Tuesday when the jury of view were to set forth, the god of day could +scarcely have obeyed with more alacrity that peremptory writ once +poetically ranked as "one of the flowers of the crown." The burnished +yellow sunshine had a suggestion of joyous exuberance in its wide +suffusions. Even the recurrent fluctuations of shadow but gave its +pervasive sheen the effect of motion and added embellishment. The +wind, hilarious, loud, piping gayly a tuneful stave, shepherded the +clouds in the fair fields of the high sky, driving the flocculent +white masses here and there as listed a changing will. The trees were +red and yellow, the leaves firm, full-fleshed, as if the ebbing sap of +summer still ran high in every fibre; their tint seemed no hectic +dying taint, but some inherent chromatic richness. Fine avenues the +eye might open amongst the rough brown boles that stood in dense +ranks, preternaturally dark and distinct, washed by the recent rains, +and thrown into prominence by the masses of yellow and red leaves +carpeting the ground, and the red and yellow boughs hanging low above. +They dispensed to the light, clarified air an aromatic richness that +the lungs rejoiced to breathe, and all their flare of color might have +seemed adequate illumination of their demesne without serving writs of +mandamus on the sun; and indeed, the Quarterly County Court was fain +to concern itself with far lesser matters, and wield slighter weapons. +The jury of view, in a close squad, ambling along at an easy gait, +mounted on nags as diverse in appearance, age, and manner as the +riders, sufficiently expressed its authority and their own diligence +in its behests, and their spirits had risen to the propitious aspect +of the weather and the occasion. Their advent into this secluded +region of the district--for to secure a strict impartiality they were +not of the immediate neighborhood, and had no interest which could be +affected by their report--was not hailed with universal satisfaction. + +"Jes' look at 'em, now," said old man Binney, as he stood in his door, +leaning on his stick, to watch them pass,--"a jury o' view. An' who +ever viewed a jury a-horseback afore? An' thar ain't but seben on +'em!"--laboriously counting, "five, six, seben. Thar's _twelve_ men on +a sure enough jury! I counted the panel ez hung Ezekiel Tilbuts fur +a-murderin' of his wife. I war thar in town whenst they fetched in +thar verdic'. I dunno what the kentry be a-comin' ter! Shucks! I ain't +a-goin' ter abide by the say-so o' no sech skimpy jury ez this hyar. +I'll go ter town an' see old Lawyer Gryce 'bout it, fust." + +And with this extremest threat of vengeance he brought his stick down +on the floor with so vigorous a thump that it had a certain profane +effect; then having from under his bushy gray eyebrows gazed at the +diminishing group till it was but a dim speck in the distance, he went +in muttering, banging the door as if to shut out and reject the sight. +His objection might have been intensified had he known that the days +were at hand when legislative wisdom would still further reduce this +engine of the law, making it consist of one road commissioner and two +freeholders, the trio still pridefully denominated a "jury of view." + +Others, however, favoring the enterprise, cheerfully fell into the +line of march; and as the way lengthened the cavalcade grew, mustering +recruits as it went. + +Disputatious voices suddenly sounded loud on the clear air in front of +them, mingled with the thud of horses' hoofs, the jingle of spurs, and +now and again the whinny of a colt; and at the intersection of the +trail with a narrow winding path there rode into view old "Persimmon" +Sneed,--as he was sometimes disrespectfully nicknamed, owing to a +juvenile and voracious fondness for the most toothsome delicacy of +autumn woods,--arguing loudly, and with a lordly intolerance of +contradiction, with two men who accompanied him, while his sleek +claybank mare also argued loudly with her colt. She had much ado to +pace soberly forward, even under the coercion of whip and spur, while +her madcap scion galloped wildly ahead or lagged far in the rear, and +made now and then excursions into the woods, out of sight, to gratify +some adolescent curiosity, or perhaps, after the fashion of other and +human adolescents, to relish the spectacle of the maternal anxiety. +Ever and anon the sound of the mare's troubled call rang on the air. +Then the colt would come with a burst of speed, a turbulent rush, out +of the underbrush, and, with its keen head-tones of a whinny, all +funnily treble and out of tune, dash on in advance. The rider of this +preoccupied steed was a grizzled, lank, thin-visaged mountaineer, with +a tuft of beard on his chin, but a shaven jowl, where, however, the +black-and-gray stubble of several days' avoidance of the razor put +forth unabashed. He shook his finger impressively at the jury of view +as he approached them. + +"Ef ye put this hyar road through my land," he said solemnly, "I'll be +teetotally ruinationed. The cattle-thievin' that'll go on, with the +woods so open an' the road so convenient, an' yit no travel sca'cely, +will be a scandal ter the jay-bird. I won't hev so much lef' ez the +horn of a muley cow!" + +And with this extreme statement he whirled his horse and rode on at +the head of the cavalcade in dignified silence. He was not a dweller +in the immediate vicinity, but hailed from the Cove,--a man of +substance and a large cattle-owner, pasturing his herds, duly branded, +on a tract of unfenced wilderness, his mountain lands, where they +roamed in the safe solitudes of those deep seclusions during the +summer, and were rounded up, well fattened, and driven home at the +approach of winter. He was the typical man of convictions, one who +entertains a serious belief that he possesses a governing conscience +instead of an abiding delight in his own way. He had a keen eye, with +an upward glance from under the brim of his big wool hat, and he +looked alert to descry any encroachment on his vested rights to +prescribe opinion. The jury of view were destined to find it a +doubtful boon that the road law interposed no insurmountable obstacle +to prevent their hearing thus informally the views of those +interested. + +Persimmon Sneed's deep feeling on the subject had been evinced by his +dispensing with the customary salutations, and one of the jury of +view, with a mollifying intention, observed that they would use their +best judgment to promote the interests of all parties. + +"Ai-yi!" said Persimmon Sneed, ruefully shaking his head. "But s'pose +ye hev got mighty pore jedgmint? Ye'll be like mos' folks I know, ef +ye hev. I'd ruther use my own best jedgmint, a sight." + +At which another of the jury suavely remarked that they would seek to +be impartial. + +"That's jes' what I kem along fur," exclaimed Persimmon Sneed +triumphantly,--"ter show ye edzac'ly whar the bull's eye be. Thar +ain't no use fur this road, an' ye air bound ter see it ef ye ain't +nowise one-sided and partial." + +The jury relapsed into silence and rode steadily on. + +The true raw material of contradiction lay in three younger men among +the spectators, contumacious, vehement, and, albeit opposed to the +road, much inclined to spoke the wheel of old Persimmon Sneed, however +that wheel might revolve. + +"I got caught on a jury in a criminal case with him wunst," Silas +Boyd, a heavy, thick-set, tall young fellow with a belligerent eye and +a portentously square jaw, said _sotto voce_ to his next comrade. "I +hev sarved on a jury with him,--locked up fur a week 'thout no +verdic'. He ain't got no respec' fur no other man's say-so. An' he +talks 'bout _his_ oath ez ef he war the only man in Tennessee ez ever +war swore on the 'Holy Evangelists o' Almighty Gawd' in the +court-house. He fairly stamped on my feelin's, in that Jenkins case, +ter make me agree with him; but I couldn't agree, an' it hung the +jury, ez they say. I wisht they hed hung the foreman! By Hokey, I +despise a hard-headed, 'pinionated man." + +"Look at his back," rejoined Jeremiah Sayres, a man of theory, who had +a light undecided tint of hair and beard and scraggy mustache, and a +blond complexion burned a permanent solid red by the summer sun. "I'd +know his dispositions by his back." He waved his hand at the brown +jeans coat that draped a spare and angular but singularly erect back, +which scarcely seemed to move in response to the motions of the mare +pacing briskly along. "What sorter back is that fur a man risin' fifty +year old?--straight ez a ramrod, an' ez stiff. But, Silas, ef ever ye +git the better o' him, ye hev got ter break it." + +"I hearn his third wife married him ter git rid o' him," put in Peter +Sims, given to gossip. "She 'lowed he warn't nigh so tarrifyin' 'roun' +his own house, a-feedin' the peegs, an' ploughin' an' cuttin' wood, +an' sech, _occupied somehows_, ez he war a-settin' up in his Sunday +best at her house, with nuthin' ter do, allowin' she _hed_ ter marry +him, whether or not, 'kase he wouldn't hev 'No' fur a answer." + +"An' look at it now!" exclaimed Silas Boyd, unexpectedly reinforced by +the matrimonial phase of the question. "That thar man hev bodaciously +argued an' contradicted two wimmin out'n this vale o' tears. An' +everybody knows it takes a power o' contradiction to out-do a woman. +He oughter be indicted for cold-blooded murder! That's what!" He +nodded vindictively at the straight jeans-clad back in advance of him. + +Over and again the party called a halt, to push about in search of a +practicable seven-foot passage amongst crags and chasms, and to +contend with the various insistence touching devious ways preferred by +the honorary attendants, who often seemed to forget that they +themselves were not in the exercise of a delegated jury duty. Tangles +impeded, doubts beset them, although the axe by which the desired +route had been blazed out aforetime by the petitioners had been +zealous and active; but the part of a pioneer in a primeval wilderness +is indeed the threading of a clueless labyrinth, and both sun and +compass were consulted often before the continued direction of the +road could be determined and located. + +In such cases, to the lovers of the consistent in character, the +respective traits of old Persimmon Sneed and Silas Boyd were displayed +in all their pristine value; for although their interests were +identical, both being opposed to the opening of the road, the +dictatorial arrogations of the elder man and the pugnacious +persistence of the younger served to antagonize them on many a minor +point in question, subsidiary to the main issue, as definitely as if +they were each arrayed against the other, instead of both being in +arms under the "No Road" banner. + +"Mighty nigh ez interestin' ez a dog-fight," said Jeremiah Sayres in +an aside to one of the jury. + +Midday found them considerably advanced on their way, but brought to a +halt by an insistence on the part of Silas Boyd that the road should +be diverted from a certain depression showing marshy tendencies to a +rugged slope where the footing was dry but difficult. + +"That's under water more 'n haffen the winter, I'll take my +everlastin' oath. Ef the road runs thar, that piece will take enough +mendin' in a season ter keep up ten mile o' dry road," he argued +vehemently. + +"Water ain't dangersome, nowise," retorted the elderly Persimmon, with +a snarling smile. "Healthier 'n whiskey, my frien',--_heap_ healthier +'n whiskey." + +Boyd's serious countenance colored darkly red with wrath. Among the +aggressive virtues of old Persimmon Sneed were certain whiskey-proof +temperance principles, the recollection of which was peculiarly +irritating to Silas Boyd, known to be more than ordinarily susceptible +to proof whiskey. + +"I be a perfessin' Baptis', Mr. Sneed," he retorted quickly. "I got no +objection ter water, 'ceptin' fur the onregenerate an' spurners o' +salvation." + +Now Persimmon Sneed had argued the plan of atonement on every possible +basis known to his extremely limited polemical outlook, and could +agree with none. If any sect of eclectics had been within his reach, +he would most joyfully have cast his spiritual fortunes with them, for +he felt himself better than very many conspicuous Christians; and as +he would have joyed in a pose of sanctity, the reproach of being a +member of no church touched him deeply. + +"I ain't no ransomed saint, I know," he vociferated,--"I ain't no +ransomed saint! But ef the truth war known, ye ain't got no religion +nuther! That leetle duckin' ez ye call 'immersion' jes' diluted the +'riginal sin in ye mighty leetle. Ye air a toler'ble strong toddy o' +iniquity yit. That thar water tempered the whiskey ye drink mighty +leetle,--mighty leetle!" + +The Christian grace of Silas Boyd was put to a stronger test than it +might have been deemed capable of sustaining. But Sneed was a far +older man, and as nothing short of breaking his stiff neck might +suffice to tame him, Silas Boyd summoned his self-control, and held +his tingling hands, and gave himself only to retort. + +"I wouldn't take that off'n ye, Mr. Sneed, 'ceptin' I be a perfessin' +member, an' pity them ez is still in the wiles an' delusions o' +Satan." + +What might have ensued in the nature of counterthrust, as Persimmon +Sneed heard himself called by inference an object of pity, the +subsidiary group were spared from learning, for at that moment the +sound of steps heralded an approach, and Ben Hanway came into the +circle, and sought to claim the attention of the party, inviting them +to dine and pass the nooning hour at his house. His countenance was +adjusted to the smile of hospitality, but it wore the expression like +a mask, and he seemed ill at ease. He had been contending all the +morning with Narcissa's freakishness, which he thought intensified by +the presence of the valley man, who was returning the civility of that +ill-omened visit, and who, by reason of the abnormal excitements of +the day, had been received with scant formality, and was already upon +the footing of a familiar friend. Selwyn stood smilingly in the way +hard by, speaking to those of the men as they passed who gave his +presence the meed of a start and a stare of blank surprise, or a curt +nod. Narcissa lingered in the background, beneath a great oak; her +chin was a little lifted with a touch of displeasure; the eyelids +drooped over her brown eyes; her hands, with her wonted careless +gesture and with a certain mechanical effort to dispel embarrassment, +were raised to the curtain of her white sunbonnet, and spread its +folds wingwise behind her auburn hair. Sundry acquaintances among the +honorary attendants paused to greet her pleasantly as they passed, but +old Sneed's disapprobation of a woman's appearance on so public an +occasion was plainly expressed on his features. For all the Turks are +not in Turkey. She followed with frowning, disaffected eyes the +procession of men and horses and dogs and colts wending up to the +invisible house hidden amongst the full-leaved autumn woods. + +"Well, that's the jury of view; and what do you think of them?" asked +Selwyn, watching too, but smilingly, the cavalcade. + +"Some similar ter the cor'ner's jury. But _they_ hed suthin' ter look +tormented an' tribulated 'bout," said the girl, evidently disappointed +to find the jury of view not more cheerful of aspect. "But mebbe +conversin' a passel by the way with old Persimmon Sneed is powerful +depressin' ter the sperits." + +Selwyn's face grew grave at the mention of the coroner's jury. + +"I'm afraid that poor fellow missed something good," he said. + +Still holding out her sunbonnet in wide distention, she slowly set +forth along the path, not even turning back, for sheer perversity, as +she saw Ben look anxiously over his shoulder to descry if she followed +in the distance. + +"Thar ain't much good in life nohow. Things seem set contrariwise." +Then, after a moment, and turning her eyes upon him, for she had an +almost personal interest in the man whose tragic fate she had first of +all discovered, "What sorter good thing did he miss?" she asked, as +she settled her sunbonnet soberly on her head. + +"Well"--Selwyn began; then he hesitated. He had spoken rather than +thought, for he thought little, and he was not used to keeping +secrets. Moreover, despite his courageous disbelief in his coming +fate, he must have had some yearnings for sympathy; the iron of his +exile surely entered his soul at times. The girl, so delicately +framed, so flower-like of face, seemed alien to her rude surroundings +and the burly, heavy, matter-of-fact folk about her. Her spirituelle +presence did away in a measure with the realization of her +limitations, her ignorance, and the uncouth surroundings. Even her +dress seemed to him hardly amiss, for there then reigned a fleeting +metropolitan fashion of straight full flowing skirts and short waists +and closely fitting sleeves,--a straining after picture-like effects +which Narcissa's attire accomplished without conscious effort, the +costume of the mountain women for a hundred years or more. The +sunbonnet itself was but the defensive appurtenance of many a Southern +city girl, when a-summering in the country, who esteems herself the +possessor of a remarkably beautiful complexion, and heroically +proposes to conserve it. Unlike the men, Narcissa's personality did +not suggest the distance between them in sophistication, in culture, +in refinement, in the small matters of external polish. She seemed not +so far from his world, and it was long since he had walked fraternally +by the side of some fair girl, and talked freely of himself, his +views, his plans, his vagaries, as men, when very young, are wont to +do, and as they rarely talk to one another. He had so sedulously +sought to content himself with the conditions of his closing existence +that the process of reconciling the habit of better things was lost in +simple acceptance. He was still young, and the sun shone, and the air +was clear and pure and soft, and he walked by the side of a girl, fair +and good and not altogether unwise, and he was happy in the blessings +vouchsafed. + +After a moment he replied: "Well, I thought he might have made a lot +of money. I thought I might go partners with him. I had written to +him." + +Her face did not change; it was still grave and solicitous within the +white frame of her sunbonnet, but its expression did not deepen. She +did not pity the dead man because he died without the money he had +had a chance to make. She evidently had not even scant knowledge of +that most absorbing passion, the love of gain, and she did not value +money. + +"Somehow whenst folks dies by accident, it 'pears ter me a +mistake--somehows--ez ef they war choused out'n time what war laid off +fur them an' their'n by right." Evidently she did not lack +sensibility. + +"Yes," he rejoined, "and you know money makes a lot of difference in +people's lives there in the valley towns. Lord knows, 't would in +mine." + +He swung his riding-whip dejectedly to and fro in his hand as he +spoke, and she pushed back her sunbonnet to look seriously at him. He +was a miracle of elegance in her estimation, but the fawn-colored suit +which he wore owed its nattiness rather to his own symmetry than the +cut or the cloth, and he had worn it a year ago. His immaculate linen, +somewhat flabby,--for the mountain laundress is averse to starch,--had +been delicately trimmed by a deft pair of scissors around the raveling +edges of the cuffs and collar, and showed rather what it had been than +what it was. His straw hat was pushed a trifle back from his face, in +which the sunburn and the inward fire competed to lay on the tints. +She did not see how nor what he lacked. Still, if he wanted it, she +pitied him that he did not have it. + +"Waal, can't you-uns make it, the same way?" + +She asked this sympathetically. She was beginning to experience a +certain self-reproach in regard to him, and it gave her unwonted +gentleness. She felt that she had been too quick to suspect. Since +Ben's report of the reconnoitring interview on which she had sent him +in Con Hite's interest, she had dismissed the idea that Selwyn was in +aught concerned with the traveler's sudden and violent death; and she +did not incline easily to the substituted suspicion that the dead man +was a "revenuer," and that Selwyn had written to him to recommend the +investigation of Con Hite, whose implication in moonshining he had +some cause to divine. + +Narcissa had marked with displeasure Ben's surly manner to the valley +man, connecting it with these considerations, and never dreaming that +it was her acquaintance which her brother grudged the stranger. + +"I ought never ter hev set Ben after him," she thought ruefully. +"He'll hang on ter him like a bulldog." But aloud she only said, "You +kin make the money all the same." + +"Oh, I'll try, like a little man!" he exclaimed, rousing himself to +renewed hope. "I have written to another scientific fellow, and he +has promised to come and investigate. I hope to Heaven he won't break +his neck, too." + +She also marked the word "investigate," which had so smitten Ben's +attention, and marveled what matter it might be in the mountains worth +investigating, and promissory of gain, if not the still-hunt, as it +were, of the wily moonshiners. But yet her faith in Selwyn's motives +and good will, so suddenly adopted, held fast. + +"Con Hite mus' l'arn ter look out fur hisse'f," she thought fretfully, +for she could not discern into what disastrous swirl she might be +guiding events as she took the helm. "He's big enough, the Lord +knows." + +The little log cabin on the slope of the ascent had come into sight. +They had followed but slowly; the horses were already tethered to +the rails of the fence, and the jury of view and its escort had +disappeared within. A very spirited fracas was in progress between the +visiting dogs and the inhospitable home canines, and once Ben appeared +in the passageway and hoarsely called his hounds off. + +"I ain't a-goin' ter hurry," Narcissa remarked cavalierly. "Let +Ben an' aunt Minervy dish up an' wait on 'em. They won't miss me. +Thar's nuthin' in this worl' a gormandizin' man kin miss at +meal-times,--'ceptin' teeth." + +Selwyn made no comment on this touch of reprisal in Narcissa's manner. +If old Persimmon Sneed had deemed her coming forth to meet them +superfluous, she in her own good judgment could deem her presence at +table an empty show. + +"I ain't a-goin' in," she continued. "Ye kin go," she added, with a +hasty afterthought. "Thar's a cheer sot ter the table fur you-uns. I'm +goin' ter bide hyar. They 'll git done arter a while." + +She sat languidly down on a step of a stile that went over the fence +at a considerable distance from the house, and Selwyn, protesting that +he wanted no dinner, established himself on the protruding roots of a +great beech-tree that, like gigantic, knuckled, gnarled fingers, +visibly took a great grasp of the earth before sinking their tips far +out of sight beneath. The shade was dense; the sound of water +trickling into the rude horse-trough on the opposite side of the path +that was to be a road was delicious in its cool suggestion, for the +landscape, far, far to see, blazed as with the refulgence of a summer +sun. The odor of the apple orchard, heavily fruited, was mellow on the +air, and the red-freighted boughs of an old winesap bent above the +girl's head as she sat with her elbow on her knee and her chin in her +hand. She gazed dreamily away at those vividly blue ranges, whither +one might fancy summer had fled, so little affinity had their aspect +with the network of intermediate brown valleys, and nearer garnet +slopes, and the red and yellow oak boughs close at hand, hanging above +the precipice and limiting the outlook. + +"Yes," he said, after a moment's cogitation, while he absently turned +a cluster of beech-nuts in his hands, "I'll try it, for keeps, you may +bet,--if you were a betting character. There's lots of good things +going in these mountains; that is, if a fellow had the money to get +'em out." + +He looked up a trifle drearily from under the brim of his straw hat at +the smiling summertide of those blue mountains yonder. Oh, fair and +feigning prospect, what wide and alluring perspectives! He drew a long +sigh. Is it better to know so surely that winter is a-coming? + +"An' the sense, too," remarked Narcissa, her eyes still dreamily +dwelling on the distance. + +He roused himself. The unconsciously flattering inference was too +slight not to be lawfully appropriated. + +"Yes, the sense and the enterprise. Now, these mountaineers,"--he +spoke as if she had no part among them, forgetting it, indeed, for the +moment,--"they let marble and silver and iron, and gold too, all sorts +of natural wealth, millions and millions of the finest hard-wood +timber, lie here undeveloped, without making the least effort to +realize on it, without lifting a finger. They have got no enterprise +in the world, and they are the most dilatory, slowest gang I ever ran +across in my life." + +A dimple deepened in the soft fairness of her cheek under the white +sunbonnet. + +"They got enterprise enough ter want a road," she drawled, fixing her +eyes upon him for a moment, then reverting to her former outlook. + +He was a trifle embarrassed, and lost his balance. + +"Oh, _I_'ll want a road, too, after a while," he returned. "All in +good time." He laughed as if to himself, a touch of mystery in his +tone, and he took off his hat and jauntily fanned himself. + +"Sorter dil'tory yerse'f now; 'pears ter be a ketchin' complaint, like +the measles." + +Perhaps she secretly resented the reflection on the mountaineers, for +there was a certain bellicose intention in her eye, a disposition to +push him to his last defenses. + +"No; but a body would think a fellow might get enough intelligent +coöperation in any promising matter from right around here without +corresponding all over the country. And the mountaineers don't know +anything, and they don't want to learn anything. Now," convincingly, +"what would any of those fellows in there say if I should tell them +that I could take a match "--he pulled a handful of lucifers from, his +pocket--"and set a spring afire?" + +She gazed at him in dumb surprise. + +"They'd say I was lying, I reckon," he hazarded. With an ebullition of +laughter, he hastily scrambled to his feet and unhitched his horse; +then, as he put his foot in the stirrup, he paused and added, "Or +else, 'Better leave it be, sonny,'" with the effrontery of mimicry. +"'Mought set the mounting afire.'" + +He forthwith swung himself into the saddle, and, with a jaunty wave of +the hand in adieu, fared forth homeward, leaving her staring after him +in wide-eyed amazement. + + +VII. + +The love of contention served, in the case of old Persimmon Sneed, in +the stead of industry, of rectitude, of perseverance, of judgment, of +every quality that should adorn a man. So eager was he to be off and +at the road again that he could scarcely wait to swallow his +refection. All the charms of the profusely spread board had not +availed to decoy him from the subject, and the repast of the devoted +jury of view was seasoned with his sage advice and vehement argument +against the project, which its advocates, fully occupied, failed for +the nonce to combat. Now and again Mrs. Minerva Slade sought to +interpose in their behalf, and many a tempting trencher was thrust to +his elbow to divert the tenor of his discourse. But despite his +youthful vulnerability to the dainty which had won him his sobriquet, +Persimmon Sneed's palate was not more susceptible to the allurements +of flattery than his hard head or his obdurate heart. There was, +however, at intervals, a lively clatter of his knife and fork, and +some redoubtable activity on the part of his store teeth, frankly +false, and without doubt the only false thing about him. Then he +hustled up the jury of view and their _confrčres_ to the resumption of +their duties, and was the first man to put foot in stirrup. Certain +other mountaineers would fain have lingered, as was manifest by the +triangular slices of "apple custard pie" in their hands, as they +stood, still munching, on the porch, watching the departing jury of +view with their active and aged precursor, and by their loitering +farewells and thanks to Aunt Minerva Slade. A beaming countenance did +she wear this day. She had cooked to some cheerful purpose. Not one +failure had marred the _menu_, in testimony of which, as she afterward +remarked, "I never seen scraps so skimpy." Her spectacles reflected +the bland light of the day as smilingly as the eyes above which they +were poised, as she stood in the doorway, and with fluttering +graciousness received the homage of her beneficiaries. + +"That youngest one, Con Hite, was sorter mild-mannered an' meek," she +afterward said, often recounting the culinary triumphs of the great +day, "an' I misdoubts but he hed the deespepsy, fur he war the only +one ez didn't pitch in an' eat like he war tryin' to pervide fur a +week's fastin'. I reckon they all knowed what sort'n pitiful table +they sets out at Mis' Cornely Hood's, t'other side the mounting, whar +they expected ter stop fur supper, an' war a-goin' ter lay up suthin' +agin destitution." + +For an hour, perhaps, before reaching Hanway's, Con Hite had ridden +with the jury of view. He had not much expectation of influencing the +fate of the road in any respect by his presence, but he felt it was a +matter of consistency to appear with the others of the opposition. He +desired, too, to publicly urge, as his reason for objecting to the +project, the insufficiency of hands in so sparsely populated a region +to make a road and keep it in repair; lest another reason, the wish to +preserve the seclusion so dear to the moonshiner, be attributed to +him. This matter of policy had been made very palatable by the +probability that he would see Narcissa, and it was with a deep +disappointment that he beheld Selwyn beside her, and received only a +slight movement of her drooping eyelids as a token of recognition and +welcome. He had been minded to dismount and walk with her, but his +heart burned with resentment. Of what worth now were all his buoyant +anticipations, while she was listening to the sugared flatteries of +the "town cuss"? He had this subject for cogitation, while, in a +stifling room, he was regaled with hard cider and apple-jack by no +more fascinating Hebe than old Mrs. Slade, with her withered sallow +skin, her excited, anxious eye, her fluttered, tremulous, skinny +fingers, her hysteric cap with its maddeningly flying strings, and her +wonderfully swift venerable scamper in and out of the kitchen. + +Con Hite was the last to go. He led his horse down to the +watering-trough, oblivious of the stream, with its ample supply, a +hundred yards or so further on and in full view; and as he stood +there, with his hand on the animal's shoulder, he turned his eyes, +somewhat wistful, though wont to be so bold and bright, upon Narcissa, +still seated on the stile. Her own brown long-lashed eyes had a +far-away look in them. They evidently passed him over absently, and +followed the squad of men swiftly trotting adown the road, all in good +heart and good temper again, to take up their duty where they had +laid it down. No faint vestige of a dimple was now in her daintily +white cheek. + +"Ye be powerful sparin' o' speech ter-day," he remarked. + +Her eyes did not move from the distant landscape. "Folks ez hev got +nuthin' ter say would do well ter say it." + +He flushed. "Ye hed mo' ter say ter the stranger-man." + +"Don't see him so powerful frequent. When a thing is sca'ce, it's apt +ter be ch'ice," she retorted. + +She experienced a certain satisfaction in her acridity. For his sake, +lest suspicion befall him, she had sought to inaugurate an +investigation--nay, a persecution--of this man, and he a stranger; and +but that circumstance was kind to him, her effort might have resulted +cruelly. And now that she had done so much for Con Hite, it was her +pleasure to take it out on him, as the phrase goes. All unaware of +this curious mental attitude, he winced under her satire. + +"Waal, I kin make myself sca'ce, too," he said, an impulse of pride +surging in his heart. + +"It mought be better fur ye," she replied indifferently. + +His momentary independence left him suddenly. + +"Narcissa," he said reproachfully, "ye didn't always talk this way ter +me." + +"That ain't news ter me. Ben 'lows ez I talk six ways fur Sunday." + +"Ye dunno how I feel, not knowin' how ye be set towards me, an' +hevin' ter see ye so seldom, a-workin' all the time down yander, +a-moonshinin'"-- + +"I wouldn't talk 'bout it so turr'ble loud." She glanced +apprehensively over her shoulder. "An' ye'd better quit it, ennyhows." + +"Ye 'lows it be wrong," he said, his bold bright eyes all softened as +he looked at her, "bein' agin the law?" + +"I ain't keerin' fur the law. Ef the truth war knowed, the law is +aimin' ter git all the benefit o' whiskey bein' drunk itself. That's +whar the law kems in. I only keer fur"--She stopped abruptly. She had +nearly revealed to him that she cared only lest some disaster come to +him in his risky occupation; that she would like him to be ploughing +in a safe level field at the side of a cabin, where she might sit by +the window and sew, and look out and see that no harm befell this big +bold man, six feet two inches high. "Con Hite!" she exclaimed, her +face scarlet, "I never see a body ez hard-hearted an' onmerciful ez +ye air. Whyn't ye water that sufferin' beast, ez air fairly honing +ter drink? Waal," she continued, after a pause in which he +demonstrated the axiom that one may lead a horse to water, but cannot +make him drink, "then whyn't ye go? I ain't got time ter waste, ef ye +hev." + +She rose as if for departure, and he put his foot in the stirrup. "I +wish ye wouldn't be so harsh ter me, Narcissa," he said meekly. + +"Waal, thar be a heap o' saaft-spoken gals ter be hed fur the askin'. +Ye kin take yer ch'ice." + +And with this he was fain to be content, as he mounted and rode +reluctantly away. + +She sat down again, and was still for a long time after the last echo +of his horse's hoofs had died on the air. Her thoughts did not follow +him, however. They turned again with renewed interest to the +fair-haired young stranger. Somehow she was ill at ease and vaguely +disillusioned. She watched mechanically, and with some unaccustomed +touch of melancholy, the burnished shimmering golden haze gradually +invest far blue domes and their purple slopes, and the brown valleys, +and the rugged rocky mountains nearer, with a certain idealized +slumberous effect like the landscape of a dream. In these still spaces +naught moved now save the imperceptible lengthening of the shadows. It +had never occurred to her to deem the scene beautiful; it was the +familiar furniture of her home. Upon this her eyes had first opened. +She had never thought to compare it to aught else,--to the suffocating +experience of one visit to the metropolitan glories of the little town +in the flat woods known as Colbury. It had seemed, indeed, magnificent +to her ignorance, and the temerity of the architecture of a two-story +house had struck her aghast. She had done naught but wonder and stare. +The trip had been a great delight, but she had never desired to linger +or to dwell there. Certain sordid effects came over her; reminiscences +of the muddy streets, the tawdry shops, the jostling, busy-eyed +people. + +"Ain't this ez good?" she said to herself, as the vast scene suddenly +fluctuated beneath a flare of wind amidst the sunshine, and light, +detached white flakes of cloud went winging athwart the blue sky; +their shadows followed them fast across the sunlit valley,--only their +dark and lifeless semblances, like the verbal forms of some white +illumined thought that can find no fit expression in words. The breath +of the pines came to her, the sound of the water, the sudden fanfare +of the unseen wind in the sky heralding the clouds. "Ain't this ez +good?" she said again, with that first deadly, subtle distrust of the +things of home, that insidious discontent so fatal to peace. He +evidently did not deem it as good, and the obvious fact rankled in +her. The mountain men, and their lack of enterprise, and their +drawling speech which he had mimicked,--they too shared his +disparagement; and she was conscious that she herself did not now +think so well of them,--so conscious that she made a loyal struggle +against this sentiment. + +"So shif'less, so thrif'less," she echoed his words. "An' I dunno ez +_I_ ever viewed a waste-fuller critter'n this hyar very Mister Man." +She stooped down, gathering together the handful of matches that +Selwyn had inadvertently pulled from his pocket with the one which he +had used in illustrating his suggestion of setting the waters of a +spring afire. "Ef he keeps on ez wasteful ez this, he'll get out o' +matches whar he lives over yander; an' I misdoubts ef, smart ez he +'lows he be, he could kindle the wood ter cook his breakfus' by a +flint rock,--ef he air so boastful ez ter 'low ez he kin set spring +water afire." + +She made the matches into a compact little budget and slipped them +into her pocket, and as she rose and looked about uncertainly, she +heard her aunt Minerva calling to her from the house that it was high +time to go and drive up the cows. + +Aunt Minerva had not bethought herself to summon the girl to dinner. +The whole world seemed surfeited to her, so had dinner occupied her +day. Narcissa herself, under the stress of the abnormal excitements, +felt no lack as she slowly trod the familiar paths in search of the +bovine vagrants. + +Her thoughts bore her company, and she was far from home when the +aspect of the reddening sun smote her senses. She stood and watched +the last segment of the vermilion sphere sink down out of sight, and, +as she turned, the October dusk greeted her on every side. The +shadows, how dense in the woods; the valleys, darkling already! Only +on the higher eastern slopes a certain red reflection spoke of the +vanishing day. She looked vainly as yet for some faint silvery +suffusion which might herald the rising of the moon; for it was to be +a bright night. She was glad of the recollection. She had not hitherto +realized it, but she was tired. She would rest for a little while, and +thus refreshed she would be the sooner home. She sat down on a ledge +of the outcropping rock and looked about her. The spot was unfamiliar, +but in the far stretch of the darkening scene she identified many a +well-known landmark. There was the gleaming bend of the river in the +valley, lost presently amidst the foliage of its banks; and here was +an isolated conical peak on a far lower level than the summit of the +range, and known as Thimble Mountain; and nearer still, across a +narrow bight of the Cove, was a bare slope. As she glanced at it she +half rose from her place, for there was the witch-face, twilight on +the grim features, yet with the aid of memory so definitely discerned +that they could hardly have been more distinct by noonday,--a face of +inexplicably sinister omen. "Oh, why did I see it to-day!" she +exclaimed, the presage of ill fortune strong upon her, with that +grisly mask leering at her from across the valley. But the day was +well-nigh gone; only a scant space remained in which to work the evil +intent of fate. She seated herself anew, for in the shadowy labyrinth +of the woods her path could scarcely be found. She must needs wait for +the moon. + +She wondered, as she sat and gazed about, how far she might be from +that new dwelling where he lived who so scorned the mountain, and who +owed to it his every breath. There was no sound, no suggestion of +human habitation. The shadowy woods stood dense about the little open +ledgy space on three sides; toward the very verge of the mountain the +rocks grew shelving and precipitous, and beyond the furthest which she +could see, the gray edge of which cut sharply against the base of a +distant dun-tinted range, she knew the descent was abrupt to the +depths of the valley. Looking up, she beheld the trembling lucid +whiteness of a star; now and again the great rustling boughs of an +oak-tree swayed beneath it, and then its glister was broken and +deflected amidst the crisp autumnal leaves, but still she saw it +shine. It told, too, that there was water near; she caught its radiant +multiplied reflection, like a cluster of scintillating white gems, on +the lustrous dark surface of a tiny pool, circular and rock-bound, +close beneath the ledge on which she sat. She leaned over, and saw in +its depths the limpid fading red sky, and the jagged brown border of +the rocks, and a grotesque moving head, which she recognized, after a +plunge of the heart, as her own sunbonnet. She drew back in dismay; +she would have no more of this weird mirror of the rocks and woods, +and looked up again at the shining of the star amidst the darkening +shadows of the scarlet oak. How tall that tree was, how broad of +girth! And how curiously this stranger talked! What was there to do +with all these trees! Would he cut down all the trees on the mountain? +A sudden doubt of his sanity crossed her mind. It was the first, and +her heart stood still for a moment. But as she slowly canvassed the +idea, it accounted for much otherwise impossible to comprehend: his +evident poverty and his efforts toward the purchase of lands; his +illness and his bluff insistence on his strength; his wild talk of +enterprise and his mysterious intimations of phenomenal opportunities. +Confirmations of the suspicion crowded upon her; above all, the mad +boast that with a match he could set the waters of a spring afire. + +With a sad smile at the fatuity of the thing, in her idle waiting she +drew one of his matches from her pocket; then she struck it briskly on +the rugged rock, and cast it, blazing lightly, into the bubbling +waters of the spring. + +The woods, the rocks, the black night, the fleering, flouting +witch-face, all with an abrupt bound sprang into sudden visibility. A +pyramid of yellow flame was surging up from the bubbling surface of +the water. Long, dark, slim shadows were speeding through the woods, +with strange slants of yellow light; the very skies were a-flicker. +She cowered back for a moment, covering her face with her hands. Then, +affrighted at her own sorceries, she fled like a deer through the +wilderness. + + +VIII. + +One by one, as the afternoon wore on, the spectators began to desert +the jury of view, their progress over the mountain being slower than +had been anticipated. So often, indeed, did insoluble difficulties +arise touching the location of the road and questions of dispute that +it might be wondered that the whole body did not perish by faction. +After the party had passed the boundary line of Persimmon Sneed's +tract, where he seemed to consider the right of eminent domain merged +in nothingness in comparison to his lordly prerogatives as owner in +fee simple, he ceased to urge as heretofore. He dictated boldly to the +jury. He rode briskly on in advance, as if doing the honors of his +estate to flattered guests, now and again waving his hand to +illustrate his proposition, his keen, high-pitched voice overcoming in +its distinct utterance the sound of hoofs and spurs, and the +monotonous bass contradictions proffered by Silas Boyd. + +And the jury of view, silent and circumspect, rode discreetly on. + +Persimmon Sneed's mare seemed as fresh as himself, and when he would +turn, as he often did, to face the fatigued, wilted, overwhelmed jury +jogging along on their jaded steeds, tired out with the long day's +jaunt and the rough footing, the mare would move swiftly backward in a +manner that would have done credit to the manege of a circus. And at +this extreme advantage Persimmon Sneed and his raised adjuring +forefinger seemed impossible to be gainsaid. His arguments partook of +the same unanswerable character. + +"Ye don't see none o' my cattle, do ye?" He waved his hand toward the +woods flecked with the long slantings of the sun. "I hev got more 'n a +hunderd head grazin' right hyar in the bresh. Cattle-thieves could +call an' salt 'em easy enough, but they couldn't drive 'em off through +the laur'l thar; it's thick ez hell!" pointing to the dense jungle. +"But ef we-uns hed this hyar road what ye air aimin' ter lay off, why, +a leetle salt an' a leetle drivin' an' a moonlight night would gather +'em, an' the whole herd would be in Georgy by daybreak. I wouldn't hev +the hawn of a muley cow lef'. Now, ez it be, them cattle air ez safe +from sight ez ef I hed swallowed 'em!" And he whirled again, and led +the column. + +The jury of view rode disconsolately on. + +They experienced a temporary relief when they had passed the confines +of his tract,--for it was across but a protruding tongue of the main +body of his land that the road was expected to run,--and entered upon +the domain of the "valley man with the lung complaint;" for this +diverted Persimmon Sneed to the more amiable task of narrating how the +stranger had sought to buy land of him, and the high prices he had +scornfully refused, the adaptability of his land to his own especial +needs being so phenomenally apt. + +A sudden query from Silas Boyd rendered their respite short: "What's +that man Selwyn want so much land fur, ennyhows? He hev been tryin' +ter buy all that 'crost the gorge, too." He waved his hand toward the +gloomy woods darkening on the opposite slope. + +"Ter graze cattle, o' course," promptly surmised Persimmon Sneed. +"Jes' look at my fine chance o' yearlin's, a-layin' on fat an' bone +an' muscle every day, with no expense nor attendance, an' safe an' +sound an' sure. An' now," he cried suddenly, and the shuddering jury +saw the collocation of ideas as it bore down upon them, and Persimmon +Sneed swiftly turned, facing them, while the mare nimbly essayed a +_passado_ backward, "ye air talkin' 'bout changin' all this, +ruinationin' the vally o' my land ter me. Ye 'low ye want ter permote +the interus' o' the public! Waal," raising an impressive forefinger, +"ain't _I_ the public?" + +No one ventured a reply. + +The jury of view rode desperately on. + +They had presently more cause for depression of spirit. It began to be +evident that with the dusk some doubt had arisen in the minds of the +mountaineers of the party as to the exact trend of the herder's trail. +The doubt intensified, until further progress proved definitively that +the indistinct trail was completely lost. Darkness came on apace; the +tangled ways of the forest seemed momently more tortuous; wolves were +not rare in the vicinity; rumors of a gang of horse-thieves were rife. + +After much discussion, the jury of view agreed that they would go no +further at present, but wait for the rising of the moon, on the theory +that it would then be practicable to make their way to the Hood cabin, +on the other side of the mountain, which was their immediate goal, and +which they had expected to reach by sunset; unaware that in their +devious turnings they had retraced several miles of their course, and +were now much nearer Selwyn's dwelling in the woods than the terminus +of their route. + +Despite their uncertainty and anxiety, the rest was grateful. The +shades of night were cool and refreshing after the glare of the day, +as they sat smoking on the rocks about the verge of the mountain. The +horses had been unsaddled, and were picketed in an open glade at a +little distance: in recurrent pauses in the talk, the sound of their +grazing on the scanty grass came to the ear; all else was silence save +the tinkling of a mountain rill,--a keen detached appoggiatura rising +occasionally above the monody of its murmurous flow,--and the +melancholy chiming of some lingering cicada, the latest spared of the +frost. + +The night was as yet very dark; the stars were dull in a haze, the +valley was a vague blur; even the faces of the men could not be dimly +distinguished. Strange, then, that an added visibility suddenly +invested the woods and the sky-line beyond a dense belt of timber. + +"'Pears ter me toler'ble early fur the moon," observed one of the men. +"She's on the wane now, too." + +"'Tain't early, though," replied the sullen bass voice of Silas Boyd +from the darkness; it was lowered, that the others might not hear. +"That thar old perverted Philistine of a Persimmon Sneed kep' us +danderin' roun' hyar till mighty nigh eight o'clock, I'll bet, +a-persistin' an' a-persistin' he knowed the road, when he war plumb +lost time we got on that cowpath. An' the jury o' view, they hed ter +take Persimmon Sneed's advice, he bein' the oldest, an' wait _hyar_ +fur the risin' moon. Persimmon Sneed will repent he picked out this +spot,--he'll repent it sure!" + +This dictum was only the redundancy of discontent; but when, in the +light of subsequent events, it was remembered, and special gifts of +discernment were attributed to Silas Boyd, he did not disclaim them, +for he felt that his words were surely inspired by some presentiment, +so apt were they, and so swiftly did the fulfillment follow the +prophecy. + +There was a sudden stir among the group. The men were getting quickly +to their feet, alert, tense, with broken whispers and bated breath. +For there, on a bare slope, viewed diagonally across the gorge and +illumined with a wavering pallor, the witch-face glared down at them +from the dense darkness of the woods. The quick chilly repulsion of +the strangers as they gazed spellbound at the apparition was +outmatched by the horror of those who had known the fantasy from +childhood;--never thus had they beheld the gaunt old face! What +strange unhallowed mystery was this, that it should smile and grimace +and mock at them from out the shadowy night, with flickers of light as +of laughter running athwart its grisly lineaments? What evil might it +portend? They all stood aghast, watching this pallid emblazonment of +the deep night. + +"Boys," said old Dent Kirby tremulously, "thar's suthin' powerful +cur'ous 'bout this 'speriunce. That thar light war never kindled in +heaven or yearth." + +"Let's go!" cried Jeremiah Sayres. "We hev got ter git out'n this +somehows." + +"Go whar?" croaked Silas Boyd, his deep bass voice lowered to a +whisper. "I be 'feard ter quit the trail furder. 'Pinnock's Mis'ry' be +hyar-abouts somewhar, a plumb quicksand, what a man got into an' +floundered an' sank, an' floundered agin, an' whenst they fund him his +hair war white an' his mind deranged. Or else we-uns mought run off'n +a bluff somewhar, an' git our necks bruk." + +Now Persimmon Sneed was possessed of a most intrusive curiosity, and +he was further endowed with a sturdy courage. + +"I'll jes' step off a leetle way to'des that light, an' view whar it +kems from," he observed coolly. "The woods air too wet to burn." + +He would not listen to protest. + +"The witch-face ain't never blighted me none," he rejoined stoutly as +he set forth. + + +IX. + +The thick tangled mass of the undergrowth presently intervened, so +that, as he broke his way through it, he wondered that its bosky +dimness should be so visible beneath the heavy shadows of the great +trees looming high overhead. Once he stopped dubiously; the glow +evidently came rather from below than above. It is too much to say +that a thrill of fear tried the fibres of Persimmon Sneed's obdurate +old heart. But he listened for a moment to hear, perchance, the sound +of voices from the group he had left, or the champing of the picketed +steeds. He was an active man, and had come fast and far since quitting +his companions. Not even a vague murmur rose from the silent autumnal +woods. The stillness was absolute. As he moved forward once more, the +impact of his foot upon the rain-soaked leaves, the rustle of the +boughs as he pressed among them, the rise and fall of his own +breathing, somewhat quicker than its wont, served to render +appreciable to Persimmon Sneed the fact that he possessed nerves which +were more susceptible to a quaver of doubt than that redoubtable +endowment called his hard head. + +"Somebody hev jes' sot out fire in the woods,--though powerful wet," +he muttered, his intellectual entity seeking to quiet that inward +flutter of his mere bodily being. "But I'm a-goin' on," he protested +obstinately, "ef it be bodaciously kindled by the devil!" + +And as he spoke, his heart failed, his limbs seemed sinking beneath +him, his pulses beat tumultuously for a moment, and then were +abruptly still; he had emerged from the woods in a great flickering +glare which pervaded an open, rocky space shelving to a precipice, and +beheld a tall, glowing yellow flame rising unquenched from the +illuminated surface of a bubbling mountain spring. His senses reeled; +a myriad of tawny red and yellow flashes swayed before his dazzled +eyes. He had heard all his life of the wild freaks of the witches in +the woods. Had he chanced on their unhallowed pastimes in the +solitudes of these untrodden mountain wildernesses? Was this +miraculous fire, blazing from the depths of the clear water, +necromancy, the work of the devil? + +The next moment his heart gave a great throb. He found his voice in a +wild halloo. Among the fluttering shadows of the trees he had caught +sight of the figure of a man, and, a thousand times better, of a face +that he knew. The man was approaching the fire, with a stare of blank +amazement and fear as his distended eyes beheld the phenomenon of the +blazing spring. Their expression changed instantly upon the sound. His +face was all at once alert, grave, suspicious, a prosaic anxiety +obliterating every trace of superstitious terror. His right hand was +laid upon his hip in close proximity to a pistol-pocket, and Persimmon +Sneed remembered suddenly that his own pistol was in its holster on +his saddle, he could not say how far distant in these wild, trackless +woods, and that this man was a notorious offender against the law, +sundry warrants for his arrest for horse-stealing having been issued +at divers times and places. There had been much talk of an organized +band who had assisted in these and similar exploits in secluded +districts of the county, but Persimmon Sneed had given it scant +credence until he beheld several armed men lagging in the rear, their +amazed, uncouth faces, under their broad-brimmed hats, all weird and +unnatural in the pervasive yellow glow. They had, evidently, been led +to the spot by the strange flare in the heart of the woods; but Nick +Peters could well enough pretermit his surprise and whatever spiritual +terrors might assail him till a more convenient season for their +indulgence. A more immediate danger menaced him than the bodily +appearance of the devil, which he had momently expected as he gazed at +the flaming water. He had seen the others of his own party +approaching, and he walked quickly across the clear space to Persimmon +Sneed. He was a little, slim, wiry man, with light, sleek hair, pink +cheeks, high cheek-bones, and a bony but blunt nose. He had a light +eye, gray, shallow, but inscrutable, and there was something feline in +his aspect and glance, at once smooth and caressing and of latent +fierceness. + +"Why, Mr. Persimmon Sneed," he exclaimed in a voice as bland as a +summer's day, "how did you-uns an' yer frien's do sech ez that?" and +he pointed at the flaring pyramid on the surface of the water. + +Persimmon Sneed, in his proclivity to argument, forgot his lack of a +pistol and his difficult position, unarmed and alone. + +"I'll hev ye ter remember I hev no dealin's with the devil. I dunno +how that water war set afire, nor my friends nuther," he said stiffly. + +"Whar air they?" + +Nick Peters's keen, discerning eye had been covertly scanning the +flickering shadows and the fluctuating slants of yellow light about +them. Now he boldly threw his glance over his shoulder. + +Persimmon Sneed caught himself sharply. + +"They ain't hyar-abouts," he said gruffly, on his guard once more. + +A look of apprehension crossed the horse-thief's face. The denial was +in the nature of an affirmation to his alert suspicion; for it is one +of the woes of the wicked that, knowing no truth themselves, they +cannot recognize it in others, even in a transient way, as a chance +acquaintance. He must needs have heed. A number of men, doubtless, +well armed, were in the immediate vicinity. As he whirled himself +lightly half around on his spurred heel, his manner did not conform to +his look. + +"Did you-uns an' them kem all the way from the valley ter view the +blazin' spring?" he asked. "Looks some like hell-fire," he added +incidentally, and with the tone of one familiar with the resemblance +he descried. + +"Naw; we-uns never hearn on it afore; I jes' run on it accidental," +Sneed replied succinctly, hardly daring to trust himself to an +unnecessary word; for the staring men that had gathered at a +respectful distance about the blazing spring numbered nine or ten, and +an ill-advised tongue might precipitate an immediate attack on the +dismounted, unarmed group awaiting his return at the verge of the +bluff. A genuine thrill of terror shook him as he realized that at any +moment he might be followed by men as ill prepared as he to cope with +the horse-thief's gang. + +"I see ye rid," said Nick Peters, observing his acquaintance's spurs. +"Yer frien's rid, too, I s'pose?" + +Persimmon Sneed, desirous of seeming unsuspicious, merely nodded. He +seemed as suspicious, in fact, as watchful, as stanch, as ready to +spring, as a leopard in a cage. His thin lips were set, his alert +eyes keen, his unshaven, stubbly jaws rigid, his whole body at a high +tension. The man of quicker perceptions was first to drop the +transparent feint, but only to assume another. + +"Now, Mr. Sneed," he said, with an air of reproach and upbraiding, "do +ye mean ter tell me ez ye hev kem up hyar with the sheriff or dep'ty +ter nose me out; me, who hev got no home,--folks burned my house ter +the yearth, namin' _me_ 'horse-thief' an' sech,--nor frien's, nor +means, nor havin's, plumb run ter groun' like a fox or sech?" + +"Ef ye did"--said a gigantic ruffian who had come up, backed by a +shadow twice his size, and stood assisting at the colloquy, looking +over the shoulder of his wiry little chief. He left the sentence +unfinished, a significant gesture toward the handle of the pistol in +his belt rendering the omission of slight moment. + +"Some o' them boys war wondering ef that fire out'n the water would +burn," observed a fat, greasy, broad-faced lout, with a foolish, +brutal grin. "It mought make out ter singe this stranger's hair an' +hide, ef we war ter gin him a duckin' thar." + +"Air ye a-huntin' of me, too, Mr. Sneed,--ye that war 'quainted with +me in the old times on Tomahawk Creek?" Peters reiterated his demand +in a plaintive, melodramatic tone, which titillated his fancy, +somehow, and, like virtue, was its own exceeding great reward; for +both he and Persimmon Sneed knew right well that their acquaintance +amounted only to a mere facial recognition when they had chanced to +pass on the country road or the village street, years before. +Nevertheless, under the pressure of the inherent persuasiveness of the +suggested retribution, Persimmon Sneed made haste to aver that his +errand in the mountains was in no sense at the sheriff's instance. And +so radical and indubitable were his protestations that Nick Peters was +constrained to discard this fear, and demand, "What brung ye ter +Witch-Face Mounting then, Mr. Sneed?" + +"Waal, some fellows war app'inted by the county court ter view the +road an' report on it," said Persimmon, "an' I kem along ter see how +it mought affect my interust." + +How far away, how long ago, how infinitely unimportant, seemed all +those convolutions of trail and argument in which he had expended the +finest flowers of his contradictory faculties, the stanch immobility +of his obstinacy, his unswerving singleness of purpose in seeing only +one side of a question, this afternoon, a few short hours since! The +mutability of the affairs of the most immutable of human beings! + +This reflection was cut short by observing the stare of blank +amazement on Nick Peters's face. "Road!" he said. "Thar ain't no +road." + +"They air app'inted ter lay out an' report on openin' one," explained +Persimmon Sneed. + +Evidently Nick Peters's experience of the law was in its criminal +rather than in its civil phases, but the surprise died out of his +face, and he presently said, with a beguiling air of frankness, "Now, +Mr. Sneed, ye see this happens right in my way of trade. Jes' tell me +whar them loafers air, an' how many horses they hev got along, an' +I'll gin ye the bes' beastis I hev got ter ride, an' a pair o' +shootin'-irons and set ye in the valley road on the way home. Ye kin +say ye war lost from them." + +It is true that in this moment Persimmon Sneed remembered each of his +contumacious comrades, and saw that they outnumbered by one the +horse-thief's gang; he realized that they were out of leading-strings, +and amply capable of taking care of themselves. He had that wincing +terror which an unarmed man experiences at the sight of +"shootin'-irons" in the grasp of other and antagonistic men. More than +all, he looked at those hell-lighted flames, as he esteemed them, +rising out of the lustrous water, and believed the jocose barbarity of +the threat of the brutal henchman might be serious earnest in its +execution. + +But the jury of view and their companions were all unprepared for +molestation in such wise as menaced them. He reflected anew upon their +dismounted condition, the horses hitched at a distance, the saddles +scattered on the ground in the darkness, with the holsters buckled to +them and the pistols within. A sudden attack meant a successful +robbery and perchance bloodshed. + +"I'll die fust!" he said loudly, and he had never looked more +painfully obstinate. "I'll die fust!" He lifted his quivering hand and +shook it passionately in the air. "I ain't no ransomed saint, an' I +know it, but afore I'll betray that thar jury o' view what's been +app'inted by the county court ter lay off the damned road, I'll die +fust! I ain't no ransomed saint, I ain't, but I'll _die_ fust! I ain't +no ransomed"-- + +"Stop, boys, stop!" cried the wiry little horse-thief, as the others +gathered about Sneed with threatening eyes and gestures, while he +vociferated amongst them, as lordly as if he were in his oft-time +preėminence as the foreman of a jury. Nick Peters's face had changed. +There was a sudden fear upon it, uncomprehended by Persimmon Sneed. It +did not occur to him until long afterward that he had for the first +time used the expression "a jury of view," and that the horse-thief's +familiarity with the idea of a jury was only in the sense of twelve +men. + +Peters spoke aside to the others, only a word or so, but there was +amongst them an obvious haste to get away, of which Persimmon Sneed +was cognizant, albeit his head was swimming, his breath short, his +eyes dazzled by the fire which he feared. His understanding, however, +was blunted in some sort, it seemed to him, for he could make no sense +of Nick Peters's observation as he took him by the arm, although +afterward it became plain enough. + +"Ye'll hev ter go an' 'bide along o' we-uns fur awhile, Mr. Sneed," he +said, choking with the laughter of some occult happy thought. "Ye +ain't a ransomed saint yit, but ye will be arter awhile, I reckon, ef +ye live long enough." + +Their shadows skulked away as swiftly as they themselves, even more +furtively, running on ahead, in great haste to be gone. The +fire-light slanted through the woods in quick, elusive fluctuations, +ever dimmer, ever recurrently flaring, and when the jury of view and +their companions, alarmed by the long absence of Persimmon Sneed, +followed the strange light through the woods to the brink of the +burning spring, they found naught astir save the vagrant shadows of +the great boles of the trees, no longer held to their accustomed +orbit, but wandering through the woods with a large freedom. + +That this fire, blazing brilliantly on the surface of the clear spring +water, was kindled by supernatural power was not for a moment doubted +by the mountaineers who had never before heard of such a phenomenon, +and the spiriting away of Persimmon Sneed they promptly ascribed to +the same agency. With these thoughts upon them, they did not linger +long at the spot where he had met so mysterious a fate. Their ringing +halloos, with which the woods were enlivened, took on vaguely appalled +cadences; the echoes came back to them like mocking shouts; and they +were glad enough to ride away at last through the quiet moonlit +glades, their faltering voices silent, leaving that mystic fire slowly +dying where it had blazed so long on the face of the water. + + * * * * * + +A more extended search, later, resulting as fruitlessly, the idea that +Persimmon Sneed had been in some way lured bodily within the grasp of +the devil prevailed among the more ignorant people of the community; +they dolorously sought to point the moral how ill the headstrong fare, +and speculated gloomily as to the topic on which he had ventured to +argue with Satan, who in rage and retaliation had whisked him away. +But there was a class of citizens in Colbury who hearkened with elated +sentiments to this story of the burning spring. A company of +capitalists was promptly organized, every inch of attainable land on +the mountain was quietly bought, and machinery for boring for oil was +already at the spring when the news was brought to Selwyn by Hanway, +who, not having seen the young stranger for the past week or so, +feared he was ill. The flakes of the first snow of the season were +whirling past the windows--no more on autumn leaves they looked, no +more on far-off bare but azure mountains, feigning summer. The distant +ranges were ghostly white. The skeleton woods near at hand were stark +and black, and trembled with sudden starts, and strove wildly with the +winds, and were held in an inexorable fate, and cried and groaned +aloud. + +Hanway was right in his surmise, for Selwyn was ill, and lay on the +lounge wheeled up to the fire. His cheeks seemed still touched with +color, the reflection from the ragged red smoking-jacket which he +wore, but a sort of smitten pallid doom was on his brow and in his +eyes. His gaze dwelt insistently on the doctor, the tall, thin +practitioner of the surrounding country, who had just finished an +examination and was slowly returning his spectacles to their case as +he stood before the fire. It seemed as if the patient expected him to +speak, but he said nothing, and looked down gravely into the red +coals. + +Then it was that Hanway narrated the sensation of the neighborhood. It +roused Selwyn to a frenzy of excitement; his disjointed, despairing +exclamations, in annotation, as it were, of the story, disclosed his +own discovery of the oil, his endeavors to secure the opinion of an +expert as to its value, his efforts to buy up the land, his reasons +for opposing the premature opening of a road which might reveal the +presence of the oil springs, when the law discriminating in favor of +oil works and similar interests would later make the way thither a +public thoroughfare at all events. He cried out upon his hard fate, +when money might mean life to him; upon the bitter dispensation of the +mysterious kindling of those hidden secluded waters to blazon his +secret to the world, to enrich others through his discovery which +should have made him so rich. + +The dry, spare tone of the physician interrupted,--a trite phrase +interdicting agitation. + +"Why, doctor," said Selwyn, suddenly comprehending, "you think my +present wealth will last out my time!" + +Once more the physician looked silently into the fire. He had seen a +great deal of dying, but he had lived a quiet ascetic life, which made +his sensibilities tender, and he did not get used to death. "I wish +you would stay with him, if you can," he said to Hanway at the outer +door. "It will be a very short time now." + +It was even shorter than they thought. The snow, falling then, had not +disappeared from the earth when the picks of the grave-diggers cleft +through the clods in the secluded little mountain burying-ground. It +was easier work than they had anticipated, although the earth was +frozen; and the grave was almost prepared when they realized that the +ground had been broken before, and that here was the deserted +resting-place of the stranger who had come so far to see him. Hanway +remembered Selwyn's words, his aversion to the idea that the spot was +awaiting him, but the dark November day was closing in, the storm +clouds were gathering anew, so they left him there, and this time the +grave held its tenant fast. + + +X. + +One day a letter was mailed in Colbury by an unknown hand, addressed +to Mrs. Persimmon Sneed and it fared deliberately by way of Sandford +Cross-Roads to its destination. It awoke there the wildest excitement +and delight, for although it brazenly asserted that Mr. Persimmon +Sneed was in the custody of the writer, and that he would be returned +safely to his home only upon the payment of one hundred dollars in a +mysterious manner described,--otherwise the writer would not answer +for consequences,--it gave assurance that he was alive and well, and +might even hope to see friends and home and freedom once more. In vain +the sheriff of the county expostulated with Mrs. Sneed, representing +that the law was the proper liberator of Persimmon Sneed, and that the +payment of money would encourage crime. The contradictory man's wife +was ready to commit crime, if necessary, in this cause, and would have +cheerfully cracked the bank in Colbury. And certainly this seemed +almost unavoidable at one time, for to possess herself of this sum of +her husband's hoard his signature was essential. The poor woman, in +her limp sunbonnet and best calico dress, clung to the grating of the +teller's window, and presented in futile succession her husband's +bank-book, his returned checks, and even his brand-new check-book, +each with a gush of tears, while the perplexed official remonstrated, +and explained, and rejected each persuasion in turn, passing them all +back beneath the grating, and alas! keeping the money on his side of +those inexorable bars. It seemed to poor Mrs. Sneed that the bank was +of opinion that Persimmon corporally was of slight consequence, the +institution having the true value of the man on deposit. To +accommodate matters, however, and that the poor woman should not be +weeping daily and indefinitely on the maddened teller's window, an +intermediary money-lender was found, who, having vainly sought to +induce the bank to render itself responsible, then Mrs. Sneed, who had +naught of her own, then a number of friends, who deemed the whole +enterprise an effort at robbery and seemed to consider Persimmon a +good riddance, took heart of grace and made the plunge at a rate of +interest which was calculated to cloy his palate forever after. The +money forthwith went a roundabout way according to the directions of +the letter. + +It came to its destination in this wise. + +Con Hite's distilling enterprise was on so small a scale that one +might have imagined it to be altogether outside the purview of the +law, which, it is said, does not take note _de minimis_. One of those +grottoes under a beetling cliff, hardly caves, called in the region +"rock houses," sufficed to contain the small copper and its +appurtenances, himself and his partner and the occasional jolly guest. +It was approached from above rather than from below, by a winding way, +beside the cliff between great boulders, which was so steep and +brambly and impracticable that it was hardly likely to be espied by +"revenuers." The rock house opened on space. Beyond the narrow path at +its entrance the descent was sheer to the bottom of the gorge below. + +In this stronghold, one night, Con Hite sat gloomy and depressed +beside the little copper still for the sake of which he risked so +much. It held all it could of singlings, and it seemed to him a cheery +sight in the shadowy recesses of the rock house. He regarded it with +mingled pride and affection, often declaring it "the smartest still of +its capacity in the world." To him it was at once admirable as an +object of art and a superior industrial agent. + +"An' I dunno why Narcissa be so set agin it," he muttered. "But for it +I wouldn't hev money enough ter git a start in this world. My mother +an' she couldn't live in the same house whenst we git married." He +meditated for a moment, and shook his head in solemn negation, for his +mother was constructed much after the pattern of Narcissa herself. +"An' _I_ wouldn't live a minit alongside o' Ben Hanway ef I war +Nar'sa's husband. Ben wouldn't let me say my soul's my own. I be +'bleeged ter mak the money fur a start o' cattle an' sech myse'f, an' +hev a house an' home o' my own." + +And then he took the pipe from his mouth and sighed. For even his care +seemed futile. It was true that the fair-haired young stranger was +dead, and he had a pang of self-reproach whenever he thought of his +jealousy, as if he had wished him ill. But she had worn a cold white +unresponsive face when he had seen her last; she did not listen to +what he said, her mind evidently elsewhere. She looked at him as if +she did not see him. She did not think of him. He was sure that this +was not caprice. It was some deep absorbing feeling in which he had no +share. + +The moon, like some fair presence, looked in at the broad portal. +Outside, the white tissues of her misty diaphanous draperies trailed +along the dark mountain slopes beneath the dim stars as she wended +westward. Afar down the gorge one might catch glimpses of a glossy +lustre where the evergreen laurel, white with frost, moved in the +autumn wind. He lifted his head to mark its melancholy cadence, and +while he listened, the moonlight was suddenly crowded from the door as +three men rushed in, half helping and half constraining a fourth man +forward. + +"Durn my boots ef I didn't furgit the password!" cried Nick Peters +with his little falsetto laugh, that seemed keyed for a fleer, +although it was most graciously modulated now. "Ye mought hev shot us +fur revenuers." + +"I mought hev shot ye fur wuss," Con Hite growled, rising slowly from +his chair, his big dark eyes betokening his displeasure. "I dunno how +_ye_ ever kem ter know this place." + +"It'll go no furder, Con, I'll swear," said the horse-thief, lifting +his hand to Hite's shoulder, and affecting to see in his words an +appeal for secrecy. "This," he added blandly, "is Mr. Persimmon Sneed, +ez hev been a-visitin' me. Lemme make ye acquainted." + +He seemed to perceive nothing incongruous in the fact that Mr. +Persimmon Sneed should be blindfolded. But as Con Hite looked at the +elder man, standing helpless, his head held slightly forward, the +sight apparently struck his risibilities, and his wonted geniality +rose to the occasion. + +"An' do Mr. Persimmon Sneed always wear blinders?" he asked, with a +guffaw. + +Peters seemed immeasurably relieved by the change of tone. + +"Whilst visitin' me, he do," he remarked. "Mr. Persimmon hev got sech +a fine mem'ry fur localities, ye see." + +Hite with a single gesture pulled off the bandage. "Waal, let him look +about him hyar. I s'pose ye hev ter be more partic'lar 'n me 'count o' +that stranger man's horse." + +Peters changed countenance, his attention riveted. "What horse?" he +demanded. + +"The horse of the man ez war kilt,--ye know folks hev laid that job +ter you-uns. Jerry," turning aside to his colleague, who had done +naught but stare, "whar's yer manners? Why n't ye gin the comp'ny a +drink?" + +Hite shoved the chair in which he had been seated to Persimmon Sneed, +who was lugubriously rubbing his eyes, and flung himself down on a +boulder lying almost outside of the recess in the moonlight, his long +booted and spurred legs stretching far across the entrance. His hat on +the back of his head, its brim upturned, revealed his bluff open +face--it held no craft surely; he hardly seemed to notice how +insistently Peters pressed after him, unmindful of his henchmen and +Jerry imbibing appreciatively the product of the cheerful little +copper still. + +"But I never done sech ez that," protested Peters. "I always stop +short o' bloodshed. I never viewed the man's beastis, ye'll bear me +witness, Con." + +"Me?" said Con, with a laugh. "I dunno nuthin' 'bout yer doin's. +Whar's Mr. Sneed's horse?" + +"Never seen him,--never laid eyes on him! How folks kin hev the heart +ter 'cuse me of sech doin's ez I never done!" he lifted his eyes as if +appealing to heaven. + +"The killin' 's the wust; an' Mr. Sneed's critter bein' gone too +mought make folks lay it ter ye fur sure," persisted Hite. + +"I ain't seen Mr. Sneed's horse. Mr. Sneed--ye wouldn't b'lieve it ter +look at him, but he's a ransomed saint! ha! ha! The money fur him +will be fotched hyar ter yer still. I sent fur it ter kem by Jake +Glenn; he knows ye, an' ye know him." + +Con Hite's open brow did not cloud. If there were any significance +perceptible in the fact that Mr. Persimmon Sneed, with so fine a head +for locality, should be able to identify only the still among his +various shelters during his "visit" to Nick Peters, Con Hite made no +sign. + +"Lord, how glad I'll be ter git rid o' him!" Peters said in an +undertone to Hite. "He hev mighty nigh argufied me ter death,--'bout +sperits, an' witches, an' salvation, an' law, an' craps, an' +horse-flesh, an' weather signs. I be sorter 'feard his wife won't pay +nuthin' ter git him again. He 'pears sorter under the weather now, or +eavesdroppin' or suthin'. The money 'll pay me mighty pore fur my +trouble. Thar--what's that?" + +He paused to listen; there was a sound other than the tinkling of the +little rill near at hand or the blare of the autumn wind. A stone came +rolling down the path, dislodged by a cautious step,--then another. +Hite drew a revolver from his pocket, and, holding it in his right +hand, stepped out on the rugged little parapet and stood there, with +the depths of the gorge below him, looking up the ascent with the +moonlight in his face. He spoke in a low voice to some one +approaching, and was answered in the same tone. He stepped back to +give the new-comer space to enter, and as Jake Glenn came in held out +his hand for the package the messenger bore. + +"Let's see it, Nick," he said, tearing it open; "it's the money sure +enough." + +Old Persimmon Sneed turned his head with a certain alert interest. +Perhaps he himself had doubted whether his wife would think him worth +the money. There was a general flutter of good-natured gratulation, +and it seemed at the moment only some preposterous mistake that Con +Hite should put it into Persimmon Sneed's lean paw and close his +trembling fingers over it. + +"Now, scoot!" he bawled out at the top of his voice, the little den +ringing with the echoes of his excitement, a second revolver drawn in +his left hand. "I'll gin ye a day's start o' these fellers." He +presented the muzzle of one pistol to Peters's head, and with the +other he covered one of the two henchmen in the recess of the little +rock house. The other sprang up from a barrel where he sat wiping his +mouth with the back of his hand; but Jerry, suddenly realizing the +situation, put out a dexterous foot, and the horse-thief fell full +length upon the floor, his pistol discharging as he went down. In the +clamor of the echoes, and the smoke and the flare, Persimmon Sneed +disappeared, hearing as he went a wild protest, and a nimbleness of +argument second hardly to his own, as Nick Peters cried out that he +was robbed, his hard earnings were wrested from him, the money was +his, paid him as a price, and Con Hite had let Mr. Persimmon Sneed run +off with it, allowing him nothing for his trouble. + +"It war his money," Con Hite averred, when they had grown calmer, and +Jake Glenn had returned from a reconnoissance with the news that +Hite's father had lent the fleeing Persimmon a horse, and he was by +this time five miles away in the Cove. "_He_ could have paid you for +yer trouble in ketchin' him ef he had wanted ter." + +"It war _not_ his money," protested Peters, with tears in his eyes. +"It war sent ter me willingly, fur a valid consideration, an' ye let +him hev the money, an' his wife hev got the valid consideration--an' +hyar I be lef' with the bag ter hold!" + +It may be that Peters had absorbed some of the craft of argument by +mere propinquity to Persimmon Sneed, or that Con Hite's conscience was +unduly tender, for he long entertained a moral doubt touching his +course in this transaction,--whether he had a right to pay the ransom +money which Nick Peters had extorted from Persimmon Sneed's wife to +Persimmon Sneed himself, thereby defrauding Nick Peters of the fruit +of his labor. Perhaps this untoward state of dubitation came about +from Narcissa's scornful comment. + +"Ye mought hev known that old man Persimmon Sneed would have made off +with the money," she said, remembering his reproving glare at her. "I +wouldn't hev trested him with a handful o' cornfield peas." + +"But I expected him ter make off with it," protested the amazed Con; +"that's why I gin it ter him." + +"Then ye air jes' ez bad ez he is," she retorted coldly. + +And thus it was he examined his conscience. + +Persimmon Sneed had no doubts whatever as to the ownership of the +money in his pocket, when one fine morning he walked into his own +door, as dictatorial, as set in his own opinion as ever; the only +change to be detected in his manners and conversation thereafter was +the enigmatical assertion at times that he was a "ransomed saint," +followed by a low chuckle of enjoyment. Those who heard this often +made bold to say to one another that he "didn't act like it," and this +opinion was shared by the sheriff who futilely sought some information +from him touching the lair of the horse-thieves, looking to brilliant +exploits of capture. Such details as he could secure were so uncertain +and contradictory as to render him suspicious that the truth was +purposely withheld. + +"Ye oughter remember these men air crim'nal offenders agin the law, +Mr. Sneed," he said. + +"Mebbe so," assented Persimmon Sneed, "mebbe so;" but the situation of +Con Hite's still was the only locality which he had visited of which +he was sure, and in gratitude to his rescuer he held his peace. + +That he was not so softened to the world at large was manifested in +the fact that he threatened to plead usury against the money-lender, +and forthwith brought him down with a run to the beggaries of the +legal rate. He was wont, moreover, to go to the teller of the bank at +Colbury and demand of that distracted man such of his papers as were +from time to time lost or mislaid, having learned from his wife that +she had made the official the custodian of his valuables, these being +his bank-book, the ancient returned checks, and the unused check-book. + +The points which he had so laboriously made plain to the jury of view +proved a total loss of perspicacious reasoning, for the land was +forthwith condemned and the road opened, any oil-boring company being +allowed by law a right of way thirty feet wide. The heavy hauling of +the oil company had already made a tolerable wagon track, and the +passing back and forth of the men and teams and machinery added an +element of interest and excitement to the thoroughfare such as +Narcissa's wildest dreams had never prefigured. She had no heart for +it now. When the creak of wheels on the frozen ground, and the cries +of the drivers, and the thud of the hoofs of the straining four-horse +teams heralded an approach, she was wont to draw close the batten +shutter of the window and sit brooding over the fire, staring with +moody eyes into the red coals, where she saw much invisible to the +simple Ben. He knew vaguely that her grief was for the fair-haired +stranger, but he could not dream in what remorseful wise. She had not +failed to perceive her own agency in the betrayal of his secret, when +the story of the discovery of the oil was blazoned to all the world by +those mystically flaring waters in the deeps of the mountain night. It +was she who had idly kindled them; she who had robbed him of his +rights, of the wealth that these interlopers were garnering. She had +sent him to his grave baffled, beaten, forlorn, wondering at the +mystery of the hand that out of the dark had smitten him. She kept her +own counsel. Her white face grew set and stern. Her words were few. +She had no tears. And Ben, who found his tyrant only the harder and +the colder, scarcely remonstrated, and could only marvel when one +keen, chill afternoon she sprang up, throwing her brown shawl over her +head, and declared that she was going to the oil wells to see for +herself what progress was making there. + +All sylvan grace had departed from the spot. As the two stood on the +verge of the clear space, now gashed deep in every direction in the +woods and larger by a hundred acres, grim derricks rose sharply +outlined against the wintry sky. It was barred with strata of gray +clouds in such sombre neutrality of tint that one, in that it was less +gloomy than the others, gave a suggestion of blue. Patches of snow lay +about the ground. Cinders and smoke had blackened them here and there. +The steam-engine, with its cylindrical boiler, seemed in the dusk some +uncanny monster that had taken up its abode here, and rejoiced in the +desolation it had wrought, and lived by ill deeds. It was letting off +steam, and now and then it gave a puffing sigh as if it were tired +after its day's work. The laborers were of a different type from the +homely neighbors, and returned the contempt with which the +mountaineers gazed upon them. Great piles of wood showed how the +forests were being rifled for fuel. Many trees had been felled in +provident foresight, and lay along the ground in vast lengths, +awaiting the axe; so many that adown the avenues thus opened toward +the valley a wan glimmering caught the girl's eye, and she recognized +the palings of the little mountain graveyard. + +She clutched her brother's arm and pointed to it. Her eyes grew +dilated and wild, her face was pale and drawn; her hand trembled as +she held it out. + +"Ye see, Ben, he's close enough ter view it all--an' mebbe he +does--an' he knows now who he hev got ter thank fur it all--an' I +wisht he war hyar, whar I am, an' I war thar, whar he is." + +Her brother thought for the moment that she was raving. The next she +caught her shawl over her head, hoodwise, the wind tossing her bright +hair, and declared that she was cold, and upbraided him for bringing +her on this long, chilling tramp, and protested that she would come +never again. + +He came often afterward. The spot seemed to have a fascination for +him. And within sound of the cheerful hubbub and busy whir of the +industry he would lean over the palings and look at the grave, covered +sometimes with a drift of leaves, and sometimes with a drift of snow, +and think of the two men that it had successively housed, and nurse +his grudge against the company. With an unreasoning hatred of it, +Hanway felt that both were victims of the great strong corporation +that was to reap the value of the discovery which was not its own save +by accident. He could not appraise the justice of the dispensation by +which the keen observation of the one man, and the science and +experience that the other had brought to the enterprise, should fall +so far short of achievement, while an idle story, the gossip of the +day, should fill the hands of those who were strangers to the very +thought. He grudged every augury of success; he welcomed every detail +of difficulty. As time went on, the well was said to be of +intermittent flow, and new borings resulted in naught but vast floods +of sulphur water. Finally, when the admitted truth pervaded the +community,--that the oil was practically exhausted, that it had long +since ceased to pay expenses, that the company was a heavy loser by +the enterprise,--he was as a man appeased. + +The result was succeeded by a change in Narcissa so radical and +immediate that Constant Hite could but perceive the fact that it was +induced by the failure and abandonment of the work. She grew placid as +of yore, and was softened, and now and again the gentle melancholy +into which she fell suggested sad and reminiscent pleasure rather than +the remorseful and desperate sorrow that she had known. He began to +realize that it was no sentimental and love-stricken grief she had +felt for Selwyn, but a sympathy akin to his own and to her brother's; +and since the disappointment of the hope of fortune must needs have +come to Selwyn at last, they made shift to resign themselves, and were +wont to talk freely of the dead with that affectionate and immediate +interest which seems to prolong the span of a mortal's day on earth, +like the tender suffusive radiance of the afterglow of a sunken sun. + +The road fell quickly into disuse after the abandonment of the work. +In the storms of winter, trees were uprooted and thrown athwart the +way; overhanging rocks, splitting in the freeze, precipitated +obstructive avalanches upon the dim serpentine convolutions; the wind +piled drifts of dead leaves above the turns; and in the spring grass +began to grow in the tracks of the wheels. + +It held no woeful memories now for Narcissa. She loved to sit on the +step of the stile and watch through the leafless sunlit trees the +silver haze shimmering in the valley, where the winter wheat was all +of an emerald richness, and the blue mountains afar off so near akin +to the aspect of heaven that one might hardly mark where the horizon +line merged the sweet solitudes of earth into the solitary sky. Many +a day, the spring, loitering along the shadow-flecked vistas, with the +red maple-blooms overhead and violets underfoot, was the only traveler +to be seen on the deserted road. And the pensive dusk was wont to +deepen into the serene vernal night, sweet with the scent of the +budding wild cherry, and astir with timorous tentative rustlings as of +half-fledged breezes, and illumined only with the gentle lustre of the +white stars; for never again was the darkness emblazoned with that +haggard incandescence so long the mystery of Witch-Face Mountain. + + + + +TAKING THE BLUE RIBBON AT THE COUNTY FAIR. + + +Jenks Hollis sat on the fence. He slowly turned the quid of tobacco in +his cheek, and lifting up his voice spoke with an oracular drawl:-- + +"Ef he kin take the certif'cate it's the mos' ez he kin do. He ain't +never a-goin' ter git no premi-_um_ in this life, sure 's ye air a +born sinner." + +And he relapsed into silence. His long legs dangled dejectedly among +the roadside weeds; his brown jeans trousers, that had despaired of +ever reaching his ankles, were ornamented here and there with +ill-adjusted patches, and his loose-fitting coat was out at the +elbows. An old white wool hat drooped over his eyes, which were fixed +absently on certain distant blue mountain ranges, that melted tenderly +into the blue of the noonday sky, and framed an exquisite mosaic of +poly-tinted fields in the valley, far, far below the grim gray crag on +which his little home was perched. + +Despite his long legs he was a light weight, or he would not have +chosen as his favorite seat so rickety a fence. His interlocutor, a +heavier man, apparently had some doubts, for he leaned only slightly +against one of the projecting rails as he whittled a pine stick, and +with his every movement the frail structure trembled. The log cabin +seemed as rickety as the fence. The little front porch had lost a +puncheon here and there in the flooring--perhaps on some cold winter +night when Hollis's energy was not sufficiently exuberant to convey +him to the wood-pile; the slender posts that upheld its roof seemed +hardly strong enough to withstand the weight of the luxuriant vines +with their wealth of golden gourds which had clambered far over the +moss-grown clapboards; the windows had fewer panes of glass than rags; +and the chimney, built of clay and sticks, leaned portentously away +from the house. The open door displayed a rough, uncovered floor; a +few old rush-bottomed chairs; a bedstead with a patch-work calico +quilt, the mattress swagging in the centre and showing the badly +arranged cords below; strings of bright red pepper hanging from the +dark rafters; a group of tow-headed, grave-faced, barefooted children; +and, occupying almost one side of the room, a broad, deep, +old-fashioned fireplace, where winter and summer a lazy fire burned +under a lazy pot. + +Notwithstanding the poverty of the aspect of the place and the evident +sloth of its master, it was characterized by a scrupulous cleanliness +strangely at variance with its forlorn deficiencies. The rough floor +was not only swept but scoured; the dark rafters, whence depended the +flaming banners of the red pepper, harbored no cobwebs; the grave +faces of the white-haired children bore no more dirt than was +consistent with their recent occupation of making mudpies; and the +sedate, bald-headed baby, lying silent but wide-awake in an uncouth +wooden cradle, was as clean as clear spring water and yellow soap +could make it. Mrs. Hollis herself, seen through the vista of opposite +open doors, energetically rubbing the coarse wet clothes upon the +resonant washboard, seemed neat enough in her blue-and-white checked +homespun dress, and with her scanty hair drawn smoothly back from her +brow into a tidy little knot on the top of her head. + +Spare and gaunt she was, and with many lines in her prematurely old +face. Perhaps they told of the hard fight her brave spirit waged +against the stern ordering of her life; of the struggles with +squalor,--inevitable concomitant of poverty,--and to keep together the +souls and bodies of those numerous children, with no more efficient +assistance than could be wrung from her reluctant husband in the +short intervals when he did not sit on the fence. She managed as well +as she could; there was an abundance of fine fruit in that low line of +foliage behind the house--but everybody on Old Bear Mountain had fine +fruit. Something rarer, she had good vegetables--the planting and +hoeing being her own work and her eldest daughter's; an occasional +shallow furrow representing the contribution of her husband's plough. +The althea-bushes and the branches of the laurel sheltered a goodly +number of roosting hens in these September nights; and to the pond, +which had been formed by damming the waters of the spring branch in +the hollow across the road, was moving even now a stately procession +of geese in single file. These simple belongings were the trophies of +a gallant battle against unalterable conditions and the dragging, +dispiriting clog of her husband's inertia. + +His inner life--does it seem hard to realize that in that uncouth +personality concentred the complex, incomprehensible, ever-shifting +emotions of that inner life which, after all, is so much stronger, and +deeper, and broader than the material? Here, too, beat the hot heart +of humanity--beat with no measured throb. He had his hopes, his +pleasure, his pain, like those of a higher culture, differing only in +object, and something perhaps in degree. His disappointments were +bitter and lasting; his triumphs, few and sordid; his single +aspiration--to take the premium offered by the directors of the +Kildeer County Fair for the best equestrian. + +This incongruous and unpromising ambition had sprung up in this wise: +Between the country people of Kildeer County and the citizens of the +village of Colbury, the county-seat, existed a bitter and deeply +rooted animosity manifesting itself at conventions, elections for the +legislature, etc., the rural population voting as a unit against the +town's candidate. On all occasions of public meetings there was a +struggle to crush any invidious distinction against the "country +boys," especially at the annual fair. Here to the rustics of Kildeer +County came the tug of war. The population of the outlying districts +was more numerous, and, when it could be used as a suffrage-engine, +all-powerful; but the region immediately adjacent to the town was far +more fertile. On those fine meadows grazed the graceful Jersey; there +gamboled sundry long-tailed colts with long-tailed pedigrees; there +greedy Berkshires fattened themselves to abnormal proportions; and the +merinos could hardly walk, for the weight of their own rich wardrobes. +The well-to-do farmers of this section were hand-in-glove with the +town's people; they drove their trotters in every day or so to get +their mail, to chat with their cronies, to attend to their affairs in +court, to sell or to buy--their pleasures centred in the town, and +they turned the cold shoulder upon the country, which supported them, +and gave their influence to Colbury, accounting themselves an +integrant part of it. Thus, at the fairs the town claimed the honor +and glory. The blue ribbon decorated cattle and horses bred within ten +miles of the flaunting flag on the judges' stand, and the foaming +mountain-torrents and the placid stream in the valley beheld no +cerulean hues save those of the sky which they reflected. + +The premium offered this year for the best rider was, as it happened, +a new feature, and excited especial interest. The country's blood was +up. Here was something for which it could fairly compete, with none of +the disadvantages of the false position in which it was placed. Hence +a prosperous landed proprietor, the leader of the rural faction, +dwelling midway between the town and the range of mountains that +bounded the county on the north and east, bethought himself one day of +Jenkins Hollis, whose famous riding had been the feature of a certain +dashing cavalry charge--once famous, too--forgotten now by all but the +men who, for the first and only time in their existence, penetrated +in those war days the blue mountains fencing in their county from the +outer world, and looked upon the alien life beyond that wooded +barrier. The experience of those four years, submerged in the whirling +rush of events elsewhere, survives in these eventless regions in a +dreamy, dispassionate sort of longevity. And Jenkins Hollis's feat of +riding stolidly--one could hardly say bravely--up an almost sheer +precipice to a flame-belching battery came suddenly into the landed +magnate's recollection with the gentle vapors and soothing aroma of a +meditative after-dinner pipe. Quivering with party spirit, Squire +Goodlet sent for Hollis and offered to lend him the best horse on the +place, and a saddle and bridle, if he would go down to Colbury and +beat those town fellows out on their own ground. + +No misgivings had Hollis. The inordinate personal pride characteristic +of the mountaineer precluded his feeling a shrinking pain at the +prospect of being presented, a sorry contrast, among the well-clad, +well-to-do town's people, to compete in a public contest. He did not +appreciate the difference--he thought himself as good as the best. + +And to-day, complacent enough, he sat upon the rickety fence at home, +oracularly disparaging the equestrian accomplishments of the town's +noted champion. + +"I dunno--I dunno," said his young companion doubtfully. "Hackett sets +mighty firm onto his saddle. He's ez straight ez any shingle, an' ez +tough ez a pine-knot. He come up hyar las' summer--war it las' summer, +now? No, 't war summer afore las'--with some o' them other Colbury +folks, a-fox-huntin', an' a-deer-huntin, an' one thing an' 'nother. I +seen 'em a time or two in the woods. An' he kin ride jes' ez good +'mongst the gullies and boulders like ez ef he had been born in the +hills. He ain't a-goin' ter be beat easy." + +"It don't make no differ," retorted Jenks Hollis. "He'll never git no +premi-_um_. The certif'cate's good a-plenty fur what ridin' he kin +do." + +Doubt was still expressed in the face of the young man, but he said no +more, and, after a short silence, Mr. Hollis, perhaps not relishing +his visitor's want of appreciation, dismounted, so to speak, from the +fence, and slouched off slowly up the road. + +Jacob Brice still stood leaning against the rails and whittling his +pine stick, in no wise angered or dismayed by his host's unceremonious +departure, for social etiquette is not very rigid on Old Bear +Mountain. He was a tall athletic fellow, clad in a suit of brown +jeans, which displayed, besides the ornaments of patches, sundry deep +grass stains about the knees. Not that piety induced Brice to spend +much time in the lowly attitude of prayer, unless, indeed, Diana might +be accounted the goddess of his worship. The green juice was pressed +out when kneeling, hidden in some leafy, grassy nook, he heard the +infrequent cry of the wild turkey, or his large, intent blue eyes +caught a glimpse of the stately head of an antlered buck, moving +majestically in the alternate sheen of the sunlight and shadow of the +overhanging crags; or while with his deft hunter's hands he dragged +himself by slow, noiseless degrees through the ferns and tufts of rank +weeds to the water's edge, that he might catch a shot at the feeding +wild duck. A leather belt around his waist supported his powder-horn +and shot-pouch,--for his accoutrements were exactly such as might have +been borne a hundred years ago by a hunter of Old Bear Mountain,--and +his gun leaned against the trunk of a chestnut-oak. + +Although he still stood outside the fence, aimlessly lounging, there +was a look on his face of a half-suppressed expectancy, which rendered +the features less statuesque than was their wont--an expectancy that +showed itself in the furtive lifting of his eyelids now and then, +enabling him to survey the doorway without turning his head. Suddenly +his face reassumed its habitual, inexpressive mask of immobility, and +the furtive eyes were persistently downcast. + +A flare of color, and Cynthia Hollis was standing in the doorway, +leaning against its frame. She was robed, like September, in brilliant +yellow. The material and make were of the meanest, but there was a +certain appropriateness in the color with her slumberous dark eyes and +the curling tendrils of brown hair which fell upon her forehead and +were clustered together at the back of her neck. No cuffs and no +collar could this costume boast, but she had shown the inclination to +finery characteristic of her age and sex by wearing around her throat, +where the yellow hue of her dress met the creamy tint of her skin, a +row of large black beads, threaded upon a shoe-string in default of an +elastic, the brass ends flaunting brazenly enough among them. She held +in her hand a string of red pepper, to which she was adding some newly +gathered pods. A slow job Cynthia seemed to make of it. + +She took no more notice of the man under the tree than he accorded to +her. There they stood, within twelve feet of each other, in utter +silence, and, to all appearance, each entirely unconscious of the +other's existence: he whittling his pine stick; she, slowly, slowly +stringing the pods of red pepper. + +There was something almost portentous in the gravity and sobriety of +demeanor of this girl of seventeen; she manifested less interest in +the young man than her own grandmother might have shown. + +He was constrained to speak first. "Cynthy"--he said at length, +without raising his eyes or turning his head. She did not answer; but +he knew without looking that she had fixed those slumberous brown eyes +upon him, waiting for him to go on. "Cynthy"--he said again, with a +hesitating, uneasy manner. Then, with an awkward attempt at raillery, +"Ain't ye never a-thinkin' 'bout a-gittin' married?" + +He cast a laughing glance toward her, and looked down quickly at his +clasp-knife and the stick he was whittling. It was growing very +slender now. + +Cynthia's serious face relaxed its gravity. "Ye air foolish, Jacob," +she said, laughing. After stringing on another pepper-pod with great +deliberation, she continued: "Ef I war a-studyin' 'bout a-gittin' +married, thar ain't nobody round 'bout hyar ez I'd hev." And she added +another pod to the flaming red string, so bright against the yellow of +her dress. + +That stick could not long escape annihilation. The clasp-knife moved +vigorously through its fibres, and accented certain arbitrary clauses +in its owner's retort. "Ye talk like," he said, his face as +monotonous in its expression as if every line were cut in marble--"ye +talk like--ye thought ez how I--war a-goin' ter ax ye--ter marry me. I +ain't though, nuther." + +The stick was a shaving. It fell among the weeds. The young hunter +shut his clasp-knife with a snap, shouldered his gun, and without a +word of adieu on either side the conference terminated, and he walked +off down the sandy road. + +Cynthia stood watching him until the laurel-bushes hid him from sight; +then sliding from the door-frame to the step, she sat motionless, a +bright-hued mass of yellow draperies and red peppers, her slumberous +deep eyes resting on the leaves that had closed upon him. + +She was the central figure of a still landscape. The mid-day sunshine +fell in broad effulgence upon it; the homely, dun-colored shadows had +been running away all the morning, as if shirking the contrast with +the splendors of the golden light, until nothing was left of them +except a dark circle beneath the wide-spreading trees. No breath of +wind stirred the leaves, or rippled the surface of the little pond. +The lethargy of the hour had descended even upon the towering +pine-trees, growing on the precipitous slope of the mountain, and +showing their topmost plumes just above the frowning, gray +crag--their melancholy song was hushed. The silent masses of dazzling +white clouds were poised motionless in the ambient air, high above the +valley and the misty expanse of the distant, wooded ranges. + +A lazy, lazy day, and very, very warm. The birds had much ado to find +sheltering shady nooks where they might escape the glare and the heat; +their gay carols were out of season, and they blinked and nodded under +their leafy umbrellas, and fanned themselves with their wings, and +twittered disapproval of the weather. "Hot, hot, red-hot!" said the +birds--"broiling hot!" + +Now and then an acorn fell from among the serrated chestnut leaves, +striking upon the fence with a sounding thwack, and rebounding in the +weeds. Those chestnut-oaks always seem to unaccustomed eyes the +creation of Nature in a fit of mental aberration--useful freak! the +mountain swine fatten on the plenteous mast, and the bark is highly +esteemed at the tan-yard. + +A large cat was lying at full length on the floor of the little porch, +watching with drowsy, half-closed eyes the assembled birds in the +tree. But she seemed to have relinquished the pleasures of the chase +until the mercury should fall. + +Close in to the muddiest side of the pond over there, which was all +silver and blue with the reflection of the great masses of white +clouds, and the deep azure sky, a fleet of shining, snowy geese was +moored, perfectly motionless too. No circumnavigation for them this +hot day. + +And Cynthia's dark brown eyes, fixed upon the leafy vista of the road, +were as slumberous as the noontide sunshine. + +"Cynthy! whar _is_ the gal?" said poor Mrs. Hollis, as she came around +the house to hang out the ragged clothes on the althea-bushes and the +rickety fence. "Cynthy, air ye a-goin' ter sit thar in the door all +day, an' that thar pot a-bilin' all the stren'th out 'n that thar +cabbige an' roas'in'-ears? Dish up dinner, child, an' don't be so slow +an' slack-twisted like yer dad." + + * * * * * + +Great merriment there was, to be sure, at the Kildeer Fair grounds, +situated on the outskirts of Colbury, when it became known to the +convulsed town faction that the gawky Jenks Hollis intended to compete +for the premium to be awarded to the best and most graceful rider. The +contests of the week had as usual resulted in Colbury's favor; this +was the last day of the fair, and the defeated country population +anxiously but still hopefully awaited its notable event. + +A warm sun shone; a brisk autumnal breeze waved the flag flying from +the judges' stand; a brass band in the upper story of that structure +thrilled the air with the vibrations of popular waltzes and marches, +somewhat marred now and then by mysteriously discordant bass tones; +the judges, portly, red-faced, middle-aged gentlemen, sat below in +cane-bottom chairs critically a-tilt on the hind legs. The rough +wooden amphitheatre, a bold satire on the stately Roman edifice, was +filled with the denizens of Colbury and the rosy rural faces of the +country people of Kildeer County; and within the charmed arena the +competitors for the blue ribbon and the saddle and bridle to be +awarded to the best rider were just now entering, ready mounted, from +a door beneath the tiers of seats, and were slowly making the tour of +the circle around the judges' stand. One by one they came, with a +certain nonchalant pride of demeanor, conscious of an effort to +display themselves and their horses to the greatest advantage, and yet +a little ashamed of the consciousness. For the most part they were +young men, prosperous looking, and clad according to the requirements +of fashion which prevailed in this little town. Shut in though it was +from the pomps and vanities of the world by the encircling chains of +blue ranges and the bending sky which rested upon their summits, the +frivolity of the mode, though somewhat belated, found its way and +ruled with imperative rigor. Good riders they were undoubtedly, +accustomed to the saddle almost from infancy, and well mounted. A +certain air of gallantry, always characteristic of an athletic +horseman, commended these equestrian figures to the eye as they slowly +circled about. Still they came--eight--nine--ten--the eleventh, the +long, lank frame of Jenkins Hollis mounted on Squire Goodlet's "John +Barleycorn." + +The horsemen received this ungainly addition to their party with +polite composure, and the genteel element of the spectators remained +silent too from the force of good breeding and good feeling; but the +"roughs," always critically a-loose in a crowd, shouted and screamed +with derisive hilarity. What they were laughing at Jenks Hollis never +knew. Grave and stolid, but as complacent as the best, he too made the +usual circuit with his ill-fitting jeans suit, his slouching old wool +hat, and his long, gaunt figure. But he sat the spirited "John +Barleycorn" as if he were a part of the steed, and held up his head +with unwonted dignity, inspired perhaps by the stately attitudes of +the horse, which were the result of no training nor compelling reins, +but the instinct transmitted through a long line of high-headed +ancestry. Of a fine old family was "John Barleycorn." + +A deeper sensation was in store for the spectators. Before Jenkins +Hollis's appearance most of them had heard of his intention to +compete, but the feeling was one of unmixed astonishment when entry +No. 12 rode into the arena, and, on the part of the country people, +this surprise was supplemented by an intense indignation. The twelfth +man was Jacob Brice. As he was a "mounting boy," one would imagine +that, if victory should crown his efforts, the rural faction ought to +feel the elation of success, but the prevailing sentiment toward him +was that which every well-conducted mind must entertain concerning the +individual who runs against the nominee. Notwithstanding the fact that +Brice was a notable rider, too, and well calculated to try the mettle +of the town's champion, there arose from the excited countrymen a +keen, bitter, and outraged cry of "Take him out!" So strongly does the +partisan heart pulsate to the interests of the nominee! This frantic +petition had no effect on the interloper. A man who has inherited half +a dozen violent quarrels, any one of which may at any moment burst +into a vendetta,--inheriting little else,--is not easily dismayed by +the disapprobation of either friend or foe. His statuesque features, +shaded by the drooping brim of his old black hat were as calm as ever, +and his slow blue eyes did not, for one moment, rest upon the excited +scene about him, so unspeakably new to his scanty experience. His +fine figure showed to great advantage on horseback, despite his +uncouth, coarse garb; he was mounted upon a sturdy, brown mare of +obscure origin, but good-looking, clean-built, sure-footed, and with +the blended charm of spirit and docility; she represented his whole +estate, except his gun and his lean, old hound, that had accompanied +him to the fair, and was even now improving the shining hour by +quarreling over a bone outside the grounds with other people's +handsomer dogs. + +The judges were exacting. The riders were ordered to gallop to the +right--and around they went. To the left--and there was again the +spectacle of the swiftly circling equestrian figures. They were +required to draw up in a line, and to dismount; then to mount, and +again to alight. Those whom these manoeuvres proved inferior were +dismissed at once, and the circle was reduced to eight. An exchange of +horses was commanded; and once more the riding, fast and slow, left +and right, the mounting and dismounting were repeated. The proficiency +of the remaining candidates rendered them worthy of more difficult +ordeals. They were required to snatch a hat from the ground while +riding at full gallop. Pistols loaded with blank cartridges were fired +behind the horses, and subsequently close to their quivering and +snorting nostrils, in order that the relative capacity of the riders +to manage a frightened and unruly steed might be compared, and the +criticism of the judges mowed the number down to four. + +Free speech is conceded by all right-thinking people to be a blessing. +It is often a balm. Outside of the building and of earshot the +defeated aspirants took what comfort they could in consigning, with +great fervor and volubility, all the judicial magnates to that torrid +region unknown to polite geographical works. + +Of the four horsemen remaining in the ring, two were Jenkins Hollis +and Jacob Brice. Short turns at full gallop were prescribed. The +horses were required to go backward at various gaits. Bars were +brought in and the crowd enjoyed the exhibition of the standing-leap, +at an ever-increasing height and then the flying-leap--a tumultuous +confused impression of thundering hoofs and tossing mane and grim +defiant faces of horse and rider, in the lightning-like moment of +passing. Obstructions were piled on the track for the "long jumps," +and in one of the wildest leaps a good rider was unhorsed and rolled +on the ground while his recreant steed that had balked at the last +moment scampered around and around the arena in a wild effort to find +the door beneath the tiers of seats to escape so fierce a +competition. This accident reduced the number of candidates to the two +mountaineers and Tip Hackett, the man whom Jacob had pronounced a +formidable rival. The circling about, the mounting and dismounting, +the exchange of horses were several times repeated without any +apparent result, and excitement rose to fever heat. + +The premium and certificate lay between the three men. The town +faction trembled at the thought that the substantial award of the +saddle and bridle, with the decoration of the blue ribbon, and the +intangible but still precious secondary glory of the certificate and +the red ribbon might be given to the two mountaineers, leaving the +crack rider of Colbury in an ignominious lurch; while the country +party feared Hollis's defeat by Hackett rather less than that Jenks +would be required to relinquish the premium to the interloper Brice, +for the young hunter's riding had stricken a pang of prophetic terror +to more than one partisan rustic's heart. In the midst of the +perplexing doubt, which tried the judges' minds, came the hour for +dinner, and the decision was postponed until after that meal. + +The competitors left the arena, and the spectators transferred their +attention to unburdening hampers, or to jostling one another in the +dining-hall. + +Everybody was feasting but Cynthia Hollis. The intense excitement of +the day, the novel sights and sounds utterly undreamed of in her +former life, the abruptly struck chords of new emotions suddenly set +vibrating within her, had dulled her relish for the midday meal; and +while the other members of the family repaired to the shade of a tree +outside the grounds to enjoy that refection, she wandered about the +"floral hall," gazing at the splendors of bloom thronging there, all +so different from the shy grace, the fragility of poise, the delicacy +of texture of the flowers of her ken,--the rhododendron, the azalea, +the Chilhowee lily,--yet vastly imposing in their massed exuberance +and scarlet pride, for somehow they all seemed high colored. + +She went more than once to note with a kind of aghast dismay those +trophies of feminine industry, the quilts; some were of the "log +cabin" and "rising sun" variety, but others were of geometric +intricacy of form and were kaleidoscopic of color with an amazing +labyrinth of stitchings and embroideries--it seemed a species of +effrontery to dub one gorgeous poly-tinted silken banner a quilt. But +already it bore a blue ribbon, and its owner was the richer by the +prize of a glass bowl and the envy of a score of deft-handed +competitors. She gazed upon the glittering jellies and preserves, +upon the biscuits and cheeses, the hair-work and wax flowers, and +paintings. These latter treated for the most part of castles and seas +rather than of the surrounding altitudes, but Cynthia came to a pause +of blank surprise in front of a shadow rather than a picture which +represented a spring of still brown water in a mossy cleft of a rock +where the fronds of a fern seemed to stir in the foreground. "I hev +viewed the like o' that a many a time," she said disparagingly. To her +it hardly seemed rare enough for the blue ribbon on the frame. + +In the next room she dawdled through great piles of prize fruits and +vegetables--water-melons unduly vast of bulk, peaches and pears and +pumpkins of proportions never seen before out of a nightmare, stalks +of Indian corn eighteen feet high with seven ears each,--all +apparently attesting what they could do when they would, and that all +the enterprise of Kildeer County was not exclusively of the feminine +persuasion. + +Finally Cynthia came out from the midst of them and stood leaning +against one of the large pillars which supported the roof of the +amphitheatre, still gazing about the half-deserted building, with the +smouldering fires of her slumberous eyes newly kindled. + +To other eyes and ears it might not have seemed a scene of tumultuous +metropolitan life, with the murmuring trees close at hand dappling the +floor with sycamore shadows, the fields of Indian corn across the +road, the exuberant rush of the stream down the slope just beyond, the +few hundred spectators who had intently watched the events of the day; +but to Cynthia Hollis the excitement of the crowd and movement and +noise could no further go. + +By the natural force of gravitation Jacob Brice presently was walking +slowly and apparently aimlessly around to where she was standing. He +said nothing, however, when he was beside her, and she seemed entirely +unconscious of his presence. Her yellow dress was as stiff as a board, +and as clean as her strong, young arms could make it; at her throat +were the shining black beads; on her head she wore a limp, yellow +calico sunbonnet, which hung down over her eyes, and almost obscured +her countenance. To this article she perhaps owed the singular purity +and transparency of her complexion, as much as to the mountain air, +and the chiefly vegetable fare of her father's table. She wore it +constantly, although it operated almost as a mask, rendering her more +easily recognizable to their few neighbors by her flaring attire than +by her features, and obstructing from her own view all surrounding +scenery, so that she could hardly see the cow, which so much of her +time she was slowly poking after. + +She spoke unexpectedly, and without any other symptom that she knew of +the young hunter's proximity. "I never thought, Jacob, ez how ye would +hev come down hyar, all the way from the mountings, to ride agin my +dad, an' beat him out'n that thar saddle an' bridle." + +"Ye won't hev nothin' ter say ter me," retorted Jacob sourly. + +A long silence ensued. + +Then he resumed didactically, but with some irrelevancy, "I tole ye +t'other day ez how ye war old enough ter be a-studyin' 'bout gittin' +married." + +"They don't think nothin' of ye ter our house, Jacob. Dad 's always +a-jowin' at ye." Cynthia's candor certainly could not be called in +question. + +The young hunter replied with some natural irritation: "He hed better +not let me hear him, ef he wants to keep whole bones inside his skin. +He better not tell me, nuther." + +"He don't keer enough 'bout ye, Jacob, ter tell ye. He don't think +nothin' of ye." + +Love is popularly supposed to dull the mental faculties. It developed +in Jacob Brice sudden strategic abilities. + +"Thar is them ez does," he said diplomatically. + +Cynthia spoke promptly with more vivacity than usual, but in her +customary drawl and apparently utterly irrelevantly:-- + +"I never in all my days see no sech red-headed gal ez that thar Becky +Stiles. She's the red-headedest gal ever I see." And Cynthia once more +was silent. + +Jacob resumed, also irrelevantly:-- + +"When I goes a-huntin' up yander ter Pine Lick, they is mighty perlite +ter me. They ain't never done nothin' agin me, ez I knows on." Then, +after a pause of deep cogitation, he added, "Nor hev they said nothin' +agin me, nuther." + +Cynthia took up her side of the dialogue, if dialogue it could be +called, with wonted irrelevancy: "That thar Becky Stiles, she's got +the freckledest face--ez freckled ez any turkey-aig" (with an +indescribable drawl on the last word). + +"They ain't done nothin' agin me," reiterated Jacob astutely, "nor +said nothin' nuther--none of 'em." + +Cynthia looked hard across the amphitheatre at the distant Great Smoky +Mountains shimmering in the hazy September sunlight--so ineffably +beautiful, so delicately blue, that they might have seemed the ideal +scenery of some impossibly lovely ideal world. Perhaps she was +wondering what the unconscious Becky Stiles, far away in those dark +woods about Pine Lick, had secured in this life besides her freckled +face. Was this the sylvan deity of the young hunter's adoration? + +Cynthia took off her sunbonnet to use it for a fan. Perhaps it was +well for her that she did so at this moment; it had so entirely +concealed her head that her hair might have been the color of Becky +Stiles's, and no one the wiser. The dark brown tendrils curled +delicately on her creamy forehead; the excitement of the day had +flushed her pale cheeks with an unwonted glow; her eyes were alight +with their newly kindled fires; the clinging curtain of her bonnet had +concealed the sloping curves of her shoulders--altogether she was +attractive enough, despite the flare of her yellow dress, and +especially attractive to the untutored eyes of Jacob Brice. He +relented suddenly, and lost all the advantages of his tact and +diplomacy. + +"I likes ye better nor I does Becky Stiles," he said moderately. Then +with more fervor, "I likes ye better nor any gal I ever see." + +The usual long pause ensued. + +"Ye hev got a mighty cur'ous way o' showin' it," Cynthia replied. + +"I dunno what ye 're talkin' 'bout, Cynthy." + +"Ye hev got a mighty cur'ous way o' showin' it," she reiterated, with +renewed animation--"a-comin' all the way down hyar from the mountings +ter beat my dad out'n that thar saddle an' bridle, what he's done sot +his heart onto. Mighty cur'ous way." + +"Look hyar, Cynthy." The young hunter broke off suddenly, and did not +speak again for several minutes. A great perplexity was surging this +way and that in his slow brains--a great struggle was waging in his +heart. He was to choose between love and ambition--nay, avarice too +was ranged beside his aspiration. He felt himself an assured victor in +the competition, and he had seen that saddle and bridle. They were on +exhibition to-day, and to him their material and workmanship seemed +beyond expression wonderful, and elegant, and substantial. He could +never hope otherwise to own such accoutrements. His eyes would never +again even rest upon such resplendent objects, unless indeed in +Hollis's possession. Any one who has ever loved a horse can appreciate +a horseman's dear desire that beauty should go beautifully +caparisoned. And then, there was his pride in his own riding, and his +anxiety to have his preeminence in that accomplishment acknowledged +and recognized by his friends, and, dearer triumph still, by his +enemies. A terrible pang before he spoke again. + +"Look hyar, Cynthy," he said at last; "ef ye will marry me, I won't +go back in yander no more. I'll leave the premi-_um_ ter them ez kin +git it." + +"Ye're foolish, Jacob," she replied, still fanning with the yellow +calico sunbonnet. "Ain't I done tole ye, ez how they don't think +nothin' of ye ter our house? I don't want all of 'em a-jowin' at me, +too." + +"Ye talk like ye ain't got good sense, Cynthy," said Jacob irritably. +"What's ter hender me from hitchin' up my mare ter my uncle's wagon +an' ye an' me a-drivin' up hyar to the Cross-Roads, fifteen mile, and +git Pa'son Jones ter marry us? We'll get the license down hyar ter the +Court House afore we start. An' while they'll all be a-foolin' away +thar time a-ridin' round that thar ring, ye an' me will be a-gittin' +married." Ten minutes ago Jacob Brice did not think riding around that +ring was such a reprehensible waste of time. "What's ter hender? It +don't make no differ how they jow then." + +"I done tole ye, Jacob," said the sedate Cynthia, still fanning with +the sunbonnet. + +With a sudden return of his inspiration, Jacob retorted, affecting an +air of stolid indifference: "Jes' ez _ye_ choose. I won't hev ter ax +Becky Stiles twict." + +And he turned to go. + +"I never said no, Jacob," said Cynthia precipitately. "I never said ez +how I wouldn't hev ye." + +"Waal, then, jes' come along with me right now while I hitch up the +mare. I ain't a-goin' ter leave yer a-standin' hyar. Ye're too +skittish. Time I come back ye'd hev done run away I dunno whar." A +moment's pause and he added: "Is ye a-goin' ter stand thar all day, +Cynthy Hollis, a-lookin' up an' around, and a-turnin' yer neck fust +this way and then t'other, an' a-lookin' fur all the worl' like a wild +turkey in a trap, or one o' them thar skeery young deer, or sech +senseless critters? What ails the gal?" + +"Thar'll be nobody ter help along the work ter our house," said +Cynthia, the weight of the home difficulties bearing heavily on her +conscience. + +"What's ter hender ye from a-goin' down thar an' lendin' a hand every +wunst in a while? But ef ye're a-goin' ter stand thar like ye hedn't +no more action than a--a-dunno-what,--jes' like yer dad, I ain't. I'll +jes' leave ye a-growed ter that thar post, an' I'll jes' light out +stiddier, an' afore the cows git ter Pine Lick, I'll be thar too. Jes' +ez ye choose. Come along ef ye wants ter come. I ain't a-goin' ter ax +ye no more." + +"I'm a-comin'," said Cynthia. + +There was great though illogical rejoicing on the part of the country +faction when the crowds were again seated, tier above tier, in the +amphitheatre, and the riders were once more summoned into the arena, +to discover from Jacob Brice's unaccounted-for absence that he had +withdrawn and left the nominee to his chances. + +In the ensuing competition it became very evident to the not +altogether impartially disposed judges that they could not, without +incurring the suspicions alike of friend and foe, award the premium to +their fellow-townsman. Straight as a shingle though he might be, more +prepossessing to the eye, the ex-cavalryman of fifty battles was far +better trained in all the arts of horsemanship. + +A wild shout of joy burst from the rural party when the most portly +and rubicund of the portly and red-faced judges advanced into the ring +and decorated Jenkins Hollis with the blue ribbon. A frantic +antistrophe rent the air. "Take it off!" vociferated the bitter town +faction--"take it off!" + +A diversion was produced by the refusal of the Colbury champion to +receive the empty honor of the red ribbon and the certificate. Thus +did he except to the ruling of the judges. In high dudgeon he faced +about and left the arena, followed shortly by the decorated Jenks, +bearing the precious saddle and bridle, and going with a wooden face +to receive the congratulations of his friends. + +The entries for the slow mule race had been withdrawn at the last +moment; and the spectators, balked of that unique sport, and the fair +being virtually over, were rising from their seats and making their +noisy preparations for departure. Before Jenks had cleared the +fair-building, being somewhat impeded by the moving mass of humanity, +he encountered one of his neighbors, a listless mountaineer, who spoke +on this wise:-- + +"Does ye know that thar gal o' yourn--that thar Cynthy?" + +Mr. Hollis nodded his expressionless head--presumably he did know +Cynthia. + +"Waal," continued his leisurely interlocutor, still interrogative, +"does ye know Jacob Brice?" + +Ill-starred association of ideas! There was a look of apprehension on +Jenkins Hollis's wooden face. + +"They hev done got a license down hyar ter the Court House an' gone +a-kitin' out on the Old B'ar road." + +This was explicit. + +"Whar's my horse?" exclaimed Jenks, appropriating "John Barleycorn" in +his haste. Great as was his hurry, it was not too imperative to +prevent him from strapping upon the horse the premium saddle, and +inserting in his mouth the new bit and bridle. And in less than ten +minutes a goodly number of recruits from the crowd assembled in +Colbury were also "a-kitin'" out on the road to Old Bear, delighted +with a new excitement, and bent on running down the eloping couple +with no more appreciation of the sentimental phase of the question and +the tender illusions of love's young dream than if Jacob and Cynthia +were two mountain foxes. + +Down the red-clay slopes of the outskirts of the town "John +Barleycorn" thunders with a train of horsemen at his heels. Splash +into the clear fair stream whose translucent depths tell of its +birthplace among the mountain springs--how the silver spray showers +about as the pursuers surge through the ford leaving behind them a +foamy wake!--and now they are pressing hard up the steep ascent of the +opposite bank, and galloping furiously along a level stretch of road, +with the fences and trees whirling by, and the September landscape +flying on the wings of the wind. The chase leads past fields of +tasseled Indian corn, with yellowing thickly swathed ears, leaning +heavily from the stalk; past wheat-lands, the crops harvested and the +crab-grass having its day at last; past "woods-lots" and their black +shadows, and out again into the September sunshine; past rickety +little homes, not unlike Hollis's own, with tow-headed children, +exactly like his, standing with wide eyes, looking at the rush and +hurry of the pursuit--sometimes in the ill-kept yards a wood-fire is +burning under the boiling sorghum kettle, or beneath the branches of +the orchard near at hand a cider-mill is crushing the juice out of the +red and yellow, ripe and luscious apples. Homeward-bound prize cattle +are overtaken--a Durham bull, reluctantly permitting himself to be led +into a fence corner that the hunt may sweep by unobstructed, and +turning his proud blue-ribboned head angrily toward the riders as if +indignant that anything except him should absorb attention; a gallant +horse, with another floating blue streamer, bearing himself as +becometh a king's son; the chase comes near to crushing sundry +grunting porkers impervious to pride and glory in any worldly +distinctions of cerulean decorations, and at last is fain to draw up +and wait until a flock of silly over-dressed sheep, running in frantic +fear every way but the right way, can be gathered together and guided +to a place of safety. + +And once more, forward; past white frame houses with porches, and +vine-grown verandas, and well-tended gardens, and groves of oak and +beech and hickory trees--"John Barleycorn" makes an ineffectual but +gallant struggle to get in at the large white gate of one of these +comfortable places, Squire Goodlet's home, but he is urged back into +the road, and again the pursuit sweeps on. Those blue mountains, the +long parallel ranges of Old Bear and his brothers, seem no more a +misty, uncertain mirage against the delicious indefinable tints of the +horizon. Sharply outlined they are now, with dark, irregular shadows +upon their precipitous slopes which tell of wild ravines, and +rock-lined gorges, and swirling mountain torrents, and great, +beetling, gray crags. A breath of balsams comes on the freshening +wind--the lungs expand to meet it. There is a new aspect in the scene; +a revivifying current thrills through the blood; a sudden ideal beauty +descends on prosaic creation. + +"'Pears like I can't git my breath good in them flat countries," says +Jenkins Hollis to himself, as "John Barleycorn" improves his speed +under the exhilarating influence of the wind. "I'm nigh on to +sifflicated every time I goes down yander ter Colbury" (with a jerk of +his wooden head in the direction of the village). + +Long stretches of woods are on either side of the road now, with no +sign of the changing season in the foliage save the slender, pointed, +scarlet leaves and creamy plumes of the sourwood, gleaming here and +there; and presently another panorama of open country unrolls to the +view. Two or three frame houses appear with gardens and orchards, a +number of humble log cabins, and a dingy little store, and the +Cross-Roads are reached. And here the conclusive intelligence meets +the party that Jacob and Cynthia were married by Parson Jones an hour +ago, and were still "a-kitin'," at last accounts, out on the road to +Old Bear. + +The pursuit stayed its ardor. On the auspicious day when Jenkins +Hollis took the blue ribbon at the County Fair and won the saddle and +bridle he lost his daughter. + +They saw Cynthia no more until late in the autumn when she came, +without a word of self-justification or apology for her conduct, to +lend her mother a helping hand in spinning and weaving her little +brothers' and sisters' clothes. And gradually the _éclat_ attendant +upon her nuptials was forgotten, except that Mrs. Hollis now and then +remarks that she "dunno how we could hev bore up agin Cynthy's +a-runnin' away like she done, ef it hedn't a-been fur that thar saddle +an' bridle an' takin' the blue ribbon at the County Fair." + + + + +THE CASTING VOTE. + + +I. + +An election of civil and judicial officers was impending in Kildeer +County when a comet appeared in the July sky, a mysterious, aloof, +uncanny presence, that invaded the night and the stereotyped routine +of nature with that gruesome effect of the phenomenal which gives to +the mind so definite a realization of how dear and secure is the +prosaic sense of custom. + +All the lenses of the great observatories of the world had, in a +manner, sought to entertain the strange visitant of the heavens. The +learned had gone so far as to claim its acquaintance, to recognize it +as the returning comet of a date long gone by. It even carried amidst +its shining glories, along the far unimagined ways of its orbit, the +name of a human being--of the man who had discovered it on its former +visit, for thus splendidly does astronomy honor its votaries. Less +scientific people regarded it askance as in some sort harbinger of +woe, and spoke of presage, recalling other comets, and the commotions +that came in their train--from the Deluge, with the traditional +cometary influences rife in the breaking up of "the fountains of the +great deep," to the victories of Mohammed II. and the threatened +overthrow of Christendom, and even down to our own war of 1812. +Others, again, scorned superstition, and entertained merely practical +misgivings concerning the weight, density, and temperature of the +comet, lest the eccentric aerial wanderer should run amuck of the +earth in some confusion touching the right of way through space. + +Meanwhile, it grew from the semblance of a vaporous tissue--an +illuminated haze only discernible through the telescope, the private +view of the favored few--till it gradually became visible to the +unassisted eye of the _profanum vulgus_, and finally it flamed across +the darkling spaces with its white crown of glory, its splendid +wing-like train, and its effect of motion as of a wondrous flight +among the stars--and all the world, and, for aught we know, many +worlds, gazed at it. + +Only in some great desert, the vast stretches of unsailed seas, or the +depths of uninhabited forests, were its supernal splendors unnoted. It +sunk as wistful, as tremulous, a reflection in a lonely pool in the +dense mountain wilds as any simple star, a familiar of these haunts, +that had looked down to mark its responsive image year after year, +for countless ages, whenever the season brought it, in its place in +the glittering mail of the Archer, or among the jewels of the Northern +Crown, once more to the spot it had known and its tryst with its fair +semblance in the water. + +The great silver flake which the comet struck out upon the serene +surface lay glinting there among the lesser stellar reflections, when +a man, kneeling in a gully of the steep bank sloping to the "salt +lick," leaned forward suddenly to gaze at it; then, with a gasp, +turned his eyes upward to that flaming blade drawn athwart the +peaceful sky. He did not utter a sound. The habit of silence essential +to the deer-hunter kept its mechanical hold upon his nerves. Only the +hand with which he grasped the half-exposed roots of a great +sycamore-tree, denuded in some partial caving of the bank long ago, +relaxed and trembled slightly. + +He was a man of scant and narrow experience, his world the +impenetrable mountain wilderness, and, though seemingly the pupil of +nature, versed in the ways of beast and bird, the signs of the clouds, +the seasons of bourgeoning and burr, it was but of casual external +aspects. He knew naught of its wondrous history, its subtler +significance, its strange record--the flood-tides registered on that +cliff beyond the laurel; the reptilian trail in the ledge beneath the +butt of his rifle, the imprint still fast in the solid rock, albeit +the species extinct; the great bones of ancient unknown beasts sunk in +the depressions of this saline quagmire, which herds of them had once +frequented for the salt, as did of late the buffalo, and now the +timorous deer, wont to come, like shadows wavering in the wind, to +lick the briny earth. The strange, glinting blade overhead had no +claim on his recognition as the "comet of Aristotle," or the +"evil-disposed comet" personified by the Italians as Sir Great-Lance, +_il Signor Astone_, or Halley's comet, or Donati's. Self is the centre +of the solar system with many souls, and around this point do all its +incidents revolve. For _him_ that wondrous white fire was kindled in +the skies, for _him_, in special relation to his small life, to the +wish nearest his hot human heart, to the clumsy scheme dear to his +slow, crude brain. He thought it a warning then: and later he thought +this still. + +Some vague stir--the wind perhaps, or perhaps a light-footed +dryad--flitted past and was gone. The surface of the "lick" rippled +with her footprints, and was smooth again. All the encompassing masses +of trees and undergrowth about the place were densely black and +opaque, giving the sense of absolute solidity and weight, except upon +the verges, which were somehow shaded off into a cloudy brown against +the translucent dove-tinted tissues in which the night seemed +enveloped and obscured save for the white gleaming of the stars. This +was the clear color that the brackish water wore as it reflected the +night. It reflected suddenly a face--a face with a long velvety +muzzle, a pair of spreading antlers, and dark eyes, gentle, timorous, +liquidly bright. The water stirred with a sibilant lapping sound as +the buck's tongue licked at the margin. Once he held up his head to +listen, with his hoof lifted, then he bent again to the ripples. There +was slight relation between him, the native of these woods, and that +wayward waif of the skies; but among the unnumbered influences and +incidents of its course it served to save that humble sylvan life for +a space. The hunter neither saw nor heard. + +It was only when the deer with a sudden snort and a precipitate bound +fled crashing through the laurel that Walter Hoxon became aware of his +presence, and of the stealthy approach that had alarmed him. The +approach was stealthy no longer. A quick, nervous tread, a rustling of +the boughs, and as the hunter rose to his feet his elder brother +emerged from the undergrowth, taller than he as they stood together on +the margin of the lick, more active, sinewy, alert. + +"Whyn't ye take a shot at him, Wat?" cried Justus Hoxon tumultuously. +"I'll be bound ye war nappin'," he added in keen rebuke. + +A pause, then Walter Hoxon pulled himself together and retorted:-- + +"Nappin'!" in scornful falsetto. "How _could_ I get a shot, with ye +a-trompin' up ez n'isy ez a herd o' cattle?" + +The reproach evidently struck home, for the elder said nothing. With +the thoroughness characteristic of the habitual liar, Walter proceeded +to add circumstance to his original statement. + +"I seen the buck whenst he fust kem sidlin' an' slippin' up ter the +water, oneasy an' onsartain from the fust minute. I hed jes' sighted +my rifle. An' hyar ye kem, a-bulgin' out o' the lau'l, an' sp'iled my +shot." As the verisimilitude of his representations bore upon him, he +unconsciously assumed the sentiments natural to the situation +simulated. "Who tole ye ez I war hyar, anyhows?" he demanded angrily. + +"'Dosia," replied Justus Hoxon in a mild tone. Then, with an effort at +exculpation, "I 'lowed ye'd be keen--plumb sharp set--fur news 'bout +the prospec's o' the 'lection. An' she 'lowed ez ye hed kem down hyar +hopin' ter git a deer. 'T war The'dosia." + +At the name the other had turned slightly away and looked down, a +gesture that invidious daylight might have interpreted as anxiety, or +faltering, or at the least replete with consciousness. But even if +open to observation, it could scarcely have signified aught to Justus +Hoxon, wrapped in his own thoughts, and in his absorbing interest in +the events of the day. His mental attitude was so apparent to his +brother, albeit his form was barely distinguishable as they stood +together by the salt lick, that Wat ventured a question--a bold one, +it seemed to him, and he felt a chill because of its temerity. + +"Glad ter see ye, I s'pose?" + +"Plumb tickled ter death," exclaimed Justus, his laughing voice full +of reminiscent enthusiasm. "Thar war a big crowd at the Cross-Roads +ter hear the speakin', an' a toler'ble gatherin' at Sycamore Gap. +Everybody inquired partic'lar arter ye, an' whenst I tole 'em ye war +tuk sick, an' couldn't be thar, an' I war 'lectioneerin' in yer place, +they shuck han's, an' shuck han's. One ole man--ole Sam Coggins, up +ter Sims's Mill--says ter me, he says, 'I dunno yer brother, Justus +Hoxon; but blister my boots, ef I don't vote fur anybody ez air kin +ter you-uns, an' ez ye hev set yer heart on 'lectin' ter office.' An' +the way folks inquired arter ye, an'"-- + +"I ain't talkin' 'bout the 'lection," Wat broke in brusquely. "I war +axin' 'bout 'Dosia. She war"--he hesitated--"liable ter be glad ter +see ye, I reckon." + +There was a note of surprise in his brother's voice from which Wat +shrank in sudden alarm. "Oh, _'Dosia_! Course she war glad. I seen her +jes' now, an' she told me ez ye hed kem down ter the lick ter git a +shot at the deer, bein' ez she hed 'lowed the venison war powerful +good 'bout now. I never stayed but a minute. I says, ''Dosia, ye an' +me hev got the rest o' our lives ter do our courtin' in, but this +'lection hev got ter be tended ter _now_, kase ef Wat ain't 'lected +it'll set him back all his life. Some folks 'low ez 't ain't perlite +an' respec'ful, nohow, fur pore folks like we-uns ter run fur office, +like ez ef we war good ez anybody.' An' 'Dosia she jes' hustled me +out'n the house. 'G'long! G'long! Do _everything_ 'bout'n the +'lection! Turn every stone! Time enough fur courtin' arterward! Time +enough!'" + +Once more Justus laughed contentedly. + +The man beside him stirred uneasily, then broke out irritably: "Waal, +_I'm_ powerful tired o' this 'lection foolishness, fur one. I wisht I +hed never let ye push an' boost me inter it. I reckon them war right +ez 'lowed pore folks like we-uns ain't fit ter run fur office, an' +ain't goin' ter git 'lected. I'd never hev dreamt o' sech ef it +hedn't been fur you-uns--never in this worl'." Walter's voice sunk +moodily, and he had a flouting gesture as he turned aside. + +A vicarious ambition is the most ungrateful of passions. There was +something more than anger, than eager affection, than urgent reproach, +than prescient alarm, albeit all rang sharply forth, in his brother's +voice raised to reply; it was a keen note of helplessness, from which +Walter's nerves recoiled with a sense of pain, so insistently +clamorous it was. + +"How kin ye say that!" cried Justus. "Fur ye ter stan' thar, ready ter +throw away all yer good chances, jes' kase ye hev got the rheumatics +an' don't feel like viewin' the people--though it 'pears like ye air +well enough ter go huntin' of deer of a damp night at a salt lick! An' +then, kase a mean-spirited half-liver flings dirt on ye an' yer +fambly, fur ye ter sit down on a low stool, an' fill yer mouth with +mud, an' 'low this air plenty good enough fur we-uns! 'Pore folks +ain't fit ter git 'lected ter office!'" with scornful iteration. "My +Lord! this hyar is a democratic kentry!" with an echo from the stump +speeches of the day. "Leastwise the folks yander at Sycamore Gap +'peared ter think so. This hyar Tom Markham he war speakin' on the +issues o' the day, an' bein' he's a frien' o' Sheriff Quigley's, he +tuk a turn at me an' you-uns, o' course. Tole the folks how my dad an' +mam died whenst I war twelve year old, an' how the only reason the +fambly warn't sent ter the pore-house war kase the county folks war +dil'tory, an' put it off, till they 'lowed our own house war pore +enough. An' then he sot out ter be mighty funny, an' mocked the way I +useter call the t'other chil'n 'Fambly,' sech ez--'Fambly, kem ter +dinner, Fambly!' 'Shet up yer cryin', Fambly!' An' then he tole how I +cooked--gathered all sorts o' yarbs an' vegetables tergether an' sot a +pot ter bile, an' whenever 'Fambly' war hongry 'Fambly' tuk a snack, +an' gracefully eat out'n the pot with thar fingers. An' sometimes +'Fambly' war moved ter wash thar clothes, an' they all repaired ter +the ruver-bank, an' rubbed out thar rags, an' hung 'em on the bushes +ter dry--an', duty done, 'Fambly' went a-wadin'. Everybody jes' laffed +an' laffed!" + +There was a strained tone in his voice, not far foreign to a sob, as +he repeated these derisive flouts at his early and forlorn estate. + +"An' now," resuming their rehearsal, "this enlightened constituency +was asked ter bestow on a scion o' this same 'Fambly'--ignorant, +scrub, pauper--an office of great importance to the people, that +needed to fill it a man o' eddication an' experiunce, varsed in the +ways o' the world--asked to bestow the office o' sheriff o' the county +on a man who war so obviously incomp'tent an' illit'rate that he +darsn't face the people ter make his perposterous demand!" + +The wind came and went. The darkling bushes bowed and bent again. The +leaves took up their testimony in elusive, sibilant mutterings. Justus +Hoxon's eyes were cast upward for a moment, as he watched a massive +bough of an oak-tree sway against the far sky, shutting off the stars, +which became visible anew as the elastic branch swung back once more. +Only the pallor of his face and a certain lustrous liquid gleam +betokening his eyes were distinguishable to his brother, who +nevertheless watched him with anxiety and quickened breathing as he +went on:-- + +"That thar feller hed sca'cely stepped down off'n that thar stump +afore I war on ter it. I asked fur a few minutes' attention, an' +'lowed, I did, that Mr. Markham's account o' the humble beginnin's of +me an' 'Fambly' war accurate an' exac'. (Everybody hed looked fur me +ter deny it, or ter git mad, or suthin', an' they war toler'ble +s'prised.) 'Fambly' _did_ eat out'n the pot permiscuous, an' made a +mighty pore dinner thar many a day. An' 'Fambly' washed thar clothes +ez described, infrequent enough, an' no doubt war ez ragged an' dirty +ez they war hongry. But, I said, Mr. Markham hedn't told the haffen o' +it. Cold winter nights, when the snow sifted in through the cracks, +an' the wind blew in the rotten old door, 'Fambly' liked ter hev friz +ter death. They hed the pneumonia, an' whoopin'-cough, an' croup; an' +in summer, bein' a perverse set o' brats, 'Fambly' hed fever an' ager, +an' similar ailments common ter the young o' the human race, _the same +ez ef 'Fambly' war folks_! 'T war 'stonishin', kem ter think of it, +how 'Fambly' hed the insurance ter grow up ter _look_ like folks, let +alone settin' out ter run fur office; an' ef God hedn't raised 'em up +some mighty good frien's in this county, I reckon thar wouldn't be +much o' 'Fambly' left. Some folks 'low ez Providence hev got mighty +leetle jedgmint in worldly affairs, an' this mus' be one o' the +strikin' instances of it. These frien's gin the bigges' boy work ter +do, an' that holped ter keep 'Fambly's' bodies an' souls tergether. I +reckon, says I, that I hev ploughed in the fields o' haffen the men in +our deestric'; I hev worked in the tan-yard; I hev been striker in the +blacksmith shop; an' all the time that pot, aforesaid, b'iled at home, +an' 'Fambly' tuk thar dinner thar constant, _with_ thar fingers, _ez +aforesaid_. But 'Fambly' warn't so durned ragged, nuther. Good +neighbors gin 'em some clothes wunst in a while, an' l'arned the gals +ter sew an' cook some. An' thar kem ter be a skillet an' a fryin'-pan +on the h'a'th ter holp the pot out. Why, 'Fambly' got so prosperous +that one day, whenst a' ole, drunken, cripple, ragged man war passin', +they enj'yed themselves mightily, laffin' at somebody po'rer than +themselves. An' ole Pa'son Tyson war goin' by in his gig, an' _he_ tuk +note o' the finger o' scorn, an' he stopped. He said mighty leetle, +but he tuk the trouble ter cut a stout hickory sprout, an' he gin +'Fambly' a good thrashin' all roun'. It lasted 'Fambly' well. They +ain't laffed at 'God's pore' sence! Waal, 'Fambly' 's takin' up too +much o' this enlightened assembly's attention. Enough to tell what's +kem o' 'Fambly.' The oldes' gal went ter free school, l'arned ter +read, write, an' cipher, an' married Pa'son Tyson's son, ez air a +minister o' the gospel a-ridin' a Methodis' circuit in north Georgy +now. An' the second gal"--his voice faltered--"_she_ went ter free +school, l'arned mo' still o' readin' an' writin' an' cipherin', an' +taught school two year down on Bird Creek, an' war goin' ter be +married ter a good man, well-ter-do, who had built her a house, not +knowin' ez God hed prepared her a mansion in the skies. She is livin' +_thar_ now! An' las', the Benjamin o' all the tribe, kems my brother +Walter. _He_ went ter school; kin read, write, an' cipher; he's been +taught ez much ez any man ez ever held the office he axes ter be +'lected ter, an' air thoroughly competent. Fac' is, gentlemen, thar's +nothin' lef' ter show fur the humble 'Fambly' Mr. Markham's be'n +tellin' 'bout, but me. I never went ter school, 'ceptin' in yer +fields. I l'arned ter cure hides, an' temper steel, an' shoe +horse-critters, so that pot mought be kep' a-b'ilin', an' 'Fambly' +mought dine accordin' to thar humble way in them very humble days that +somehow, gentlemen, I ain't got an' can't git the grace ter be 'shamed +of yit." + +He paused abruptly as he concluded the recital of his speech, and +wiped his face with the back of his hand. "I wisht ye could hev hearn +them men cheer. They jes' hollered tharse'fs hoarse. They shuck hands +till they mighty nigh yanked my arm out'n its socket." With the +recollection, he rubbed his right arm with a gesture of pain. + +Something there was in the account of this ovation that smote upon the +younger brother's sense of values, and he hastened to take possession +of it. + +"Oh, I knowed I war powerful pop'lar in the Sycamore Gap deestric'," +he said, dropping his lowering manner, that had somehow been +perceptible in the darkness, and wagging his head from side to side +with a gesture of great security in the affections of Sycamore Gap. +"Sycamore Gap's all right, I know; I'll poll a big majority thar, +sure." + +"I reckon ye will; but I warn't so sure o' that at fust," replied the +elder. "They 'peared ter me at fust ter be sorter set ag'in +us--leastwise _me_, though arter a while I could hardly git away from +'em, they war so durned friendly." + +Walter cast a keen look upon him; but he evidently spoke from his +simple heart, and was all unaware that he was personally the source of +this sudden popularity in Sycamore Gap--his magnetism, his unconscious +eloquence, and his character as shown in the simple and forlorn annals +of "Fambly." And yet he was not crudely unthinking. He perceived the +incongruity of his brother's successive standpoints. + +"I dunno how ye kin purtend ter be so all-fired sure o' Sycamore Gap," +he said suddenly. "'T ain't five minutes sence ye war 'lowin' ez pore +folks couldn't git 'lected ter office, an' ye wished ye hed hed +nothin' ter do with sech, an' 't war me ez bed jes' pushed an' boosted +ye inter it." + +The resources of subterfuge are well-nigh limitless. Walter Hoxon was +an adept in utilizing them. He had seen a warning in the skies, and it +had struck terror and discouragement to his heart; but not to his +political prospects had he felt its application. Other schemes, +deeper, treacherous, secret, seemed menaced, and his conscience, or +that endowment to quake with the fear of requital that answers for +conscience in some ill-developed souls, was set astir. Nevertheless, +the election might suffice as scapegoat. + +"Look a-yander, Justus," he said suddenly, pointing with the muzzle of +his gun at the brilliant wayfarer of the skies, as if he might in +another moment essay a shot. "That thar critter means mischief, sure +ez ye air born." + +The other stepped back a pace or two, and lifted his head to look. + +"The comic?" he demanded. Walter's silence seemed assent. +"Laws-a-massy, ye tomfool," Justus cried, "let it be a sign ter them +ez run ag'in' ye! Count the comic in like a qualified voter--it kem +hyar on account o' the incumbent's incompetence in office. Signs! Rolf +Quigley is sign enough,--if ye want signs in 'lections,--with money, +an' frien's, an' a term of office, an' the reg'lar nominee o' the +party, an' ye jes' an independent candidate. No star a-waggin' a tale +aroun' the sky air haffen ez dangerous ter yer 'lection ez him. An' +he ain't lookin' at no comic! He looked this evenin' like he'd put his +finger in his mouth in one more minute, plumb 'shamed ter his +boot-sole o' the things Markham hed said. An' Markham he kem up ter me +before a crowd o' fellers, an' says, says he: 'Mr. Hoxon, I meant no +reflections on yer fambly in alludin' ter its poverty, an' I honor ye +fur yer lifelong exertions in its behalf. I take pride, sir, in makin' +this apology.' An' I says: 'I be a' illit'rate, humble man, Mr. +Markham; but I will venture the liberty to tell ye ez ye mought take +mo' pride in givin' no occasion fur apologies ter poverty.' Them +fellers standin' aroun' jes' laffed. I knowed he didn't mean a word he +said then, but war jes' slickin' over the things he _hed_ said on +Quigley's account, kase the crowd seemed ter favor me. I say, comic! +Let Rolf Quigley take the comic fur a sign." + +It is easy to pluck up fears that have no root. "Oh, I be goin' ter +'lectioneer all the same ez ever. Whar 's the nex' place we air bound +fur?" + +Walter put his hand on his brother's shoulder as he asked the +question, and in the eager unfolding of plans and possibilities the +two, as Justus talked, made their way along the deer-path beside the +salt lick, leaving the stars coldly glittering on the ripples, with +that wonderful streak of white fire reflected among them; leaving, +too, the vaguely whispering woods, communing with the wind as it came +and went; reaching the slope of the mountain at last, where was +perched, amid sterile fields and humble garden-patch, the little cabin +in which "Fambly" had struggled through its forlorn youth to better +days. + + * * * * * + +The door was closed after this. A padlock knocked against it when the +wind blew, as if spuriously announcing a visitor. The deceit failed of +effect, for there was no inmate left, and the freakish gust could only +twirl the lock anew, and go swirling down the road with a rout of dust +in a witches' dance behind it. The passers-by took note of the +deserted aspect of things, and knew that the brothers were absent +electioneering, and wondered vaguely what the chances might be. This +passing was somewhat more frequent than was normal along the road; for +when the mists that had hung about the mountains persistently during a +warm, clammy, wet season had withdrawn suddenly, and one night +revealed for the first time the comet fairly ablaze in the sky, a +desire to hear what was said and known about it at the Cross-Roads and +the settlement and the blacksmith shop took possession of the +denizens of the region, and the coteries of amateur astronomers at +these centres were added to daily. Some remembered a comet or two in +past times, and if the deponent were advanced in years his hearers +were given to understand that the present luminary couldn't hold a +tallow dip to the incandescent terrors he recollected. There were +utilitarian souls who were disquieted about the crops, and anxiously +examined growing ears of corn, expecting to find the comet's influence +tucked away in the husks. Some looked for the end of the world; those +most obviously and determinedly pious took, it might seem, a certain +unfraternal joy in the contrast of their superior forethought, in +being prepared for the day of doom, with the uncovenanted estate of +the non-professor. A revival broke out at New Bethel; the number of +mourners grew in proportion as the comet got bigger night by night. +Small wonder that as evening drew slowly on, and the flaring, +assertive, red west gradually paled, and the ranges began to lose +semblance and symmetry in the dusk, and the river gloomed benighted in +the vague circuit of its course, and a lonely star slipped into the +sky, darkening, too, till, rank after rank, and phalanx after phalanx, +all the splendid armament of night had mustered, with that great, +glamourous guidon in the midst--small wonder that the ignorant +mountaineer looked up at the unaccustomed thing to mark it there, and +fear smote his heart. + +At these times certain of the little sequestered households far among +the wooded ranges got them within their doors, as if to place between +them and the uncanny invader of the night, and the threatening +influences rife in the very atmosphere, all the simple habitudes of +home. The hearthstone seemed safest, the door a barrier, the home +circle a guard. Others spent the nocturnal hours in the dooryard or on +the porch, marking the march of the constellations, and filling the +time with vague speculations, or retailing dreadful rumors of strange +happenings in the neighboring coves, and wild stories of turmoil and +misfortune that comets had wrought years ago. + +It was at one of these makeshift observatories that Justus Hoxon +stopped the first evening after his electioneering tour in the +interest of his brother. The weather had turned hot and fair; a +drought, a set-off to the surplusage of recent rain, was in progress; +the dooryard on the high slope of the mountain, apart from its +availability for the surveillance of any eccentric doings of the +comet, was an acceptable lounging-place for the sake of the air, the +dew, the hope of a vagrant breeze, and, more than all, the ample +"elbow-room" which it offered the rest of the family while he talked +with Theodosia Blakely. The rest of the family--unwelcome +wights!--were not disposed to make their existence obtrusive; on the +contrary, they did much to further his wishes, even to the sacrifice +of personal predilection. Mrs. Blakely, her arms befloured, her hands +in the dough, had observed him at the gate, while she stood at the +biscuit-block in the shed-room, and although pining to rush forth and +ask the latest news from the settlement and the comet, she only called +out in a husky undertone: "'Dosia, 'Dosia, yander's Justus a-kemin' in +the gate! Put on yer white apern, chile." + +Because she had been adjured to put on her white apron, Theodosia did +not put it on. She advanced to the window, about which grew, with its +graceful habit, a hop-vine. A little slanting roof was above the +lintel, a mere board or so, with a few warped shingles; but it made a +gentle shadow, and Theodosia thought few men besides the one at the +gate would have failed to see her there. He lingered a little, turning +back to glance over the landscape, and then he deflected his course +toward a rough bench that was placed in a corner of the rail fence, +threw himself upon it, and fanned himself with his broad-brimmed hat. + +"The insurance o' the critter! I'm a mind ter leave ye a-settin' thar +by yerse'f till ye be wore out waitin'," she muttered. + +She hesitated a moment, then took her sunbonnet and went out to meet +him. + +The scene was like some great painting, with this corner in the +foreground left unfinished, so minute was the detail of the distance, +so elaborate and perfect the coloring of the curves of purple, and +amethyst, and blue mountains afar off, rising in tiers about the +cup-shaped valley. Above it hung a tawny tissue of haze, surcharged +with a deeply red, vinous splendor, as if spilled from the stirrup-cup +of the departing sun. He was already out of sight, spurring along +unknown ways. The sky was yellow here and amber there, and a pearly +flake, its only cloud, glittered white in the midst. Up the hither +slope the various green of the pine and the poplar, the sycamore and +the sweet-gum, was keenly differentiated, but where the rail fence +drew the line of demarkation, Art seemed to fail. + +A crude wash of ochre had apparently sufficed for the dooryard; no +weed grew here, no twig. It was tramped firm and hard by the feet of +cow, and horse, and the peripatetic children, and poultry. The cabin +was drawn in with careless angles and lines by a mere stroke or two; +and surely no painter, no builder save the utilitarian backwoodsman, +would have left it with no relief of trees behind it, no vineyard, no +garden, no orchard, no background, naught; in its gaunt simplicity and +ugliness it stood against its own ill-tended fields flattening away in +the rear. + +Such as it was, however, it satisfied all of Justus Hoxon's sense of +the appropriate and the picturesque when Theodosia Blakely stepped out +from the door and came slowly to meet him. The painter's art, if she +were to be esteemed part of the foreground, might have seemed redeemed +in her. Her dress was of light blue homespun; her sunbonnet of deep +red calico, pushed back, showed her dark brown hair waving upward in +heavy undulations from her brow, her large blue eyes with their thick +black lashes, her rich brunette complexion, her delicate red lips cut +in fine lines, and the gleam of her teeth as she smiled. She had a +string of opaque white, wax-like beads around the neck of her dress, +and the contrast of the pearly whiteness of the bauble with the creamy +whiteness and softness of her throat was marked with much finish. Her +figure was hardly of medium height, and, despite the suppleness of +youth, as "plump as a partridge," according to the familiar saying. +The clear iris of her eyes gave an impression of quick shifting, and +by them one could see her mood change as she approached. + +She looked at him intently, speculatively, a sort of doubtful +curiosity furtively suggested in her expression; but there was naught +subtle or covert in the gaze that met hers--naught but the frankest +pleasure and happiness. He did not move, as she advanced, nor offer +formal greeting; he only smiled, secure, content, restful, as she came +up and sat down on the end of the bench. The children, playing noisily +in the back yard on the wood-pile, paused for a moment to gaze with +callow interest at them; but the spectacle of "The'dosia's sweetheart" +was too familiar to be of more than fleeting diversion, and they +resorted once more to their pastime. Mrs. Blakely too, who with +rolling-pin in her hand had turned to gaze out of the window, went +back to rolling out the dough vigorously, with only the muttered +comment, "Wish The'dosia didn't know how much I'd like that man fur a +son-in-law, then she'd be willin' ter like him better herse'f." + +He was unconscious of them all, as he leaned his elbow on the +projecting rails of the fence at their intersection close at hand. + +"Hev ye hed yer health, The'dosia?" he said. + +"Don't I look like it?" she replied laughingly. + +There was something both of cordiality and coquetry in her manner. Her +large eyes narrowed as she laughed, and albeit they glittered between +their closing lids, the expression was not pleasant. Levity did not +become her. + +"Yes, ye do," he said seriously. "Ye 'pear ter be real thrivin' an' +peart an' healthy." + +His look, his words, were charged with no sort of recognition or value +of her beauty: clearly her challenge had fallen to the ground +unnoticed. + +"He'd like me jes' ez well ef I war all pitted up with the smallpox, +or ez freckled ez a tur-r-key-aig," she thought, flushing with +irritation. + +Beauty is jealous of preėminence, and would fain have precedence even +of love. She could take no sort of satisfaction in a captive that her +bright eyes had not shackled. Somehow this love seemed to flout, to +diminish, her attractions. It was like an accident. She could account +for his subjection on no other grounds. As she sat silent, grave +enough now and very beautiful, gazing askance and troubled upon him, +he went on:-- + +"I war so oneasy an' beset lest suthin' hed happened on the mounting, +whilst I war away, ter trouble you-uns or some o' yer folks. I never +hed time ter study much 'bout sech in the day, but I dreamt 'bout ye +in the night, an' _all night_,"--he laughed a little,--"all sort'n +mixed up things. I got ter be a plumb Joseph fur readin' dreams--only +I could read the same one forty diff'rent ways, an' every way made me +a leetle mo' oneasy than the t'other one. I s'pose ye hev been perlite +enough ter miss me a leetle," he concluded. + +She flashed her great eyes at him with a pretended stare of surprise. +"My--no!" she exclaimed. "We-uns hev hed the comet ter keep us +comp'ny--we ain't missed nobody!" + +He laughed a little, as at a repartee, and then went on:-- + +"Waal, the comic war a-cuttin' a pretty showy figger down yander at +Colbury. 'Ston-ishin' how much store folks do 'pear ter set on it! +They hed rigged up some sort'n peepin'-glass in the Court-House yard, +an' thar war mighty nigh the whole town a-squinchin' up one eye ter +examinate the consarn through it--all the court off'cers, +'torney-gin'ral, an' sech, an' old Doctor Kane an' Jedge Peters, +besides a whole passel o' ginerality folks. They 'lowed the glass made +it 'pear bigger." + +"Did it?" she asked, with sudden interest. + +"Bless yer soul, chile, _I_ didn't hev time ter waste on it. Jedge +Peters he beckoned ter me, an' 'lowed he'd interjuce me ter it; but I +'lowed the comic outside war plenty big enough fur me. 'Jedge,' I +says, 'my mission hyar air ter make onnecessary things seem _small_, +not magnified. That's why I'm continually belittlin' Rolf Quigley. Wat +kin go on lookin' cross-eyed at the stars, ef so minded, but I be +bound ter tend ter the 'lection.' An' the jedge laffed and says: +'Justus, nex' time I want ter git 'lected ter office, I'm goin' ter +git _ye_ ter boost me in. Ye hev got it a sight mo' at heart than yer +brother.' Fur thar war Wat, all twisted up at the small e-end o' the +tellingscope, purtendin' ter be on mighty close terms with the comic, +though lots o' other men said it jes' dazed thar eyes, an' they +couldn't see _nuthin'_ through it, an' mighty leetle arterward through +sightin' so long one-eyed." + +"Waal, how's the prospects fur the 'lection?" she asked. + +"Fine! Fine!" he answered with gusto. "Folks all be so frien'ly +everywhar ter we-uns." + +He leaned his shoulder suddenly back against the rough rails of the +fence. His hat was in his hand. His hair, fine, thin, chestnut-brown, +and closely clinging about his narrow head, was thrown back from his +forehead. His clear blue eyes were turned upward, with the light of +reminiscence slowly dawning in them. It may have been the reflection +of the dazzling flake of cloud, it may have been some mental +illumination, but a sort of radiance was breaking over the keen, +irregular lines of his features, and a flush other than the floridity +of a naturally fair complexion was upon his thin cheek and hollow +temple. + +"O The'dosia," he cried, "I can't holp thinkin', hevin' so many +frien's nowadays,--whenst it's 'Hail!' hyar, an' 'Howdy!' thar, an' a +clap on the shoulder ter the east, an' a 'How's yer health?' ter the +west, an' a handshake ter the north, an' 'Take a drink?' ter the +south, from one e-end o' the county ter the t'other,--how I fared +whenst I hed jes' _one_ frien' in the worl', an' that war yer mother! +An' how she looked the fust day she stood in the door o' my cabin up +thar--kem ter nuss Elmiry through that spell she hed o' the scarlet +fever. An' arterward she says ter me: 'Ye do manage s'prisin', Justus; +an' I be goin' ter save ye some gyardin seed out'n my patch this year, +an' ef ye'll plough my patch I'll loan ye my horse-critter ter plough +your'n. An' the gals kin kem an' l'arn ter sew an' churn, an' sech, +long o' 'Dosia.' An' how they loved ye, 'Dosia--special Elmiry!" + +His eyes filled with sudden tears. They did not fall; they were +absorbed somehow as he resumed:-- + +"Sech a superflu'ty o' frien's nowadays! Ef 't warn't they'd count fur +all they're wuth in the ballot-box, I'd hev no use fur 'em. I kin +sca'cely 'member thar names. But then I hed jes' _one_--jes' _one_ in +all the worl'--yer mother! Bless her soul!" he concluded +enthusiastically. + +He was still and reflective for a moment. Then he made a motion as +though he would take one of Theodosia's hands. But she clasped both of +them demurely behind her. + +"I don't hold hands with no man ez blesses another 'oman's soul by the +hour," she said, with an affectation of primness. + +There may have been something more serious in her playful rebuff, but +in the serenity of his perfect security he did not feel it or gauge +its depth. + +A glimpse of her mother at the window added its suggestion--a lean, +sallow, lined face, full of anxious furrows, with a rim of scanty +gray-streaked hair about the brow, with spectacles perched above, and +beneath the flabby jaw a scraggy, wrinkled neck. + +"An' she's so powerful pretty!" Theodosia exclaimed, with an +irreverent burst of laughter, "I don't wonder ye feel obligated ter +bless her soul." + +"She 'pears plumb beautiful to my mind," he said unequivocally,--"all +of a piece with her beautiful life." + +Theodosia was suddenly grave, angered into a secret, sullen +irritation. These were words she loved for herself: it was but lately +she had learned so to prize them. Her eyes were as bright as a deer's! +Had not some one protested this, with a good round rural oath as +attestation? Her hair on the back of her head, and its shape to the +nape of her neck, were so beautiful--she had never seen it: how could +she say it wasn't? Her chin and her throat--well, if people could +think snow was a prettier white, he wouldn't give much for _their_ +head-stuffin'. And her blush! her blush! It was her own fault. He +would not have taken another kiss if she had not blushed so at the +first that he must needs again see her cheek glow like the wild rose. + +These were echoes of a love-making that had lately taken hold of her +heart, that had grown insistently sweet and dear to her, that had +established its sway impetuously, tyrannically, over her life, that +had caused her to seem more to herself, and as if she were infinitely +more to her new lover. + +She wondered how she could ever have even tolerated this dullard, with +his slow, measured preference, his unquestioning security of her +heart, his doltish credulity in her and her promise, his humble +gratitude to her mother,--who had often enough, in good sooth, got +full value in return for aught she gave,--who appeared "beautiful" to +his mind. She broke forth abruptly, her cheeks flushing, her eyes +brave and bright, the subject nearest her heart on her lips, in the +sudden influx of courage set astir by the mere contemplation of it. + +"Waal now, tell 'bout Wat--how he enj'ys bein' a candidate, an' sech." +Then, with a tremor because of her temerity: "I have hearn o' that +thar beautisome old 'oman a time or two afore, but Wat ez a candidate +air sorter fraish an' new." + +He turned his clear, unsuspicious eyes upon her. He had replaced his +wide wool hat on his head, and he leaned forward, resting his cheek on +his hand and his elbow on his knee. He aimlessly flicked his long +spurred boot, as he talked, with a willow wand which he carried in +lieu of horsewhip. + +"Waal, Wat is some similar ter a balky horse. He don't seem ter sense +a word I say, nor ter be willin' ter do a thing I advise, nor even ter +take heart o' grace 'bout bein' 'lected, till we gets out 'mongst +folks, an' _thar_ handshakin's and frien'liness seems ter hearten up +the critter. I hev jes' hed ter baig an' baig, an' plead an' plead, +with that boy 'bout this an' that an' t'other, till I wouldn't go +through ag'in what I _hev_ been through ter git 'lected doorkeeper o' +heaven. But," with a sudden change of tone and a flush of pride, +"The'dosia, ye dunno what a' all-fired pretty speaker Wat hev got ter +be. Jes' stan's up ez straight an' smilin' afore all the crowd, an' +jes' tells off his p'ints, one, two, three, ez nip! An' the crowd +always cheers an' cheers--jes' bawls itse'f hoarse. Whenever thar's a +chance ter speak, Wat jes' leaves them t'other candidates nowhar." + +Ah, Theodosia's beauty well deserved the guerdon of sweet words. She +might have been pictured as a thirsting Hebe. She had a look of +quaffing some cup of nectar, still craving its depths, so immediate a +joy, so intense a light, were in her widely open eyes; her lips were +parted; the spray of blackberry leaves that she held near her cheek +did not quiver, so had her interest petrified every muscle. She was +leaning slightly forward; her red sunbonnet had fallen to the ground, +and the wind tossed her dark brown hair till the heavy masses, with +their curling ends disheveled, showed tendrils of golden hue. Her +round, plump arm was like ivory. The torn sleeve fell away to the +elbow, and her mother, glancing out of the window, took remorseful +heed of it, and wished that she herself had set a stitch in it. + +"The'dosia shows herself so back'ard 'bout mendin', an' sech--she air +enough ter skeer any man away. An' Justus knows jes' what sech +laziness means. Kin mend clothes hisse'f ez good ez the nex' one, an' +useter do it too, strong an' taut, with a double thread, whenst the +fambly war leetle chil'n an' gin ter bustin' out'n thar gear." + +But Justus took no note of the significance of the torn sleeve. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he went on, "everybody 'lowed ez Wat's speeches seemed +ter sense what the people wanted ter hear. Him an' me we'd talk it +over the night before, an' Wat he'd write down what we said on paper +an' mem'rize it; an' the nex' day, why, folks that wouldn't hev +nuthin' ter say ter him afore he spoke would be jes' aidgin' up +through the crowd ter git ter shake han's with him." + +She smiled with delight at the picture. If it were sweet to him to +praise, how sweet it was to her to listen! "Tell on!" she said softly. + +Her interest flattered him; it enriched the reminiscence, dear though +his memory held it. He had no doubt as to the unity of feeling with +which they both regarded the incidents he chronicled. He went on with +the certainty of responsive sentiment, the ease, the serenity of a man +who opens his heart to the woman he loves. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he said, "often, often if it hed n't been fur the +folks, I could hev run up an' dragged him off'n the rostrum an' hugged +him fur pride, he looked so han'some an' spoke so peart! An' ter think +'t war jes' our leetle Wat--the Fambly's leetle Wat--growed up ter be +sech a man! Ye'll laff at me--other folks did--whenst I tell ye that +ag'in an' ag'in I jes' cotch' myse'f cheerin' with the loudest. I +could n't holp it." + +"He'll be 'lected, Justus?" she breathlessly inquired, and yet +imperatively, as if, even though she asked, she would brook no denial. + +"Oh, they all say thar's no doubt--no doubt at all." + +She drew a long breath of contentment, of pleasure. She leaned back, +silent and reflective, against the rail fence behind the bench, her +eyes fixed, absorbed, following the outline of other scenes than the +one before them, which indeed left no impression upon her senses, +scenes to come, slowly shaping the future. All trace of the red glow +of the sun had departed from the landscape. No heavy, light-absorbing, +sad-hued tapestries could wear so deep a purple, such sombre +suggestions of green, as the circling mountains had now assumed: they +were not black, and yet such depths of darkness hardly comported with +the idea of color. The neutral tints of the sky were graded more +definitely, with purer transparency, because of the contrast. The +fine grays were akin to pearl color, to lavender, even, in approaching +the zenith, to the palest of blue--so pale that the white glitter of a +star alternately appeared and was lost again in its tranquil +inexpressiveness. The river seemed suddenly awake; its voice was +lifted loud upon the evening air, a rhythmic song without words. The +frogs chanted by the waterside. Fireflies here and there quivered +palely over the flat cornfields at the back of the house. There was a +light within, dully showing through the vines at the window. + +"An' then, 'Dosia," said Justus softly, "when the 'lection is over, +it's time fur ye an' me ter git married." + +She roused herself with an obvious effort, and looked +uncomprehendingly at him for a moment, as if she hardly heard. + +"The las' one o' Fambly will be off my han's then. Fambly will hev +been pervided fur--every one, Wat an' all. I hev done my bes' fur +Fambly, an' I dunno but I hev earned the right ter think some fur +myse'f now." + +He would not perhaps have arrogated so much, except to the woman by +whom he believed himself beloved. She said nothing, and he went on +slowly, lingering upon the words as if he loved the prospect they +conjured up. + +"We-uns will hev the gyardin an' orchard, an' pastur' an' woods-lot +an' fields, ter tend ter, an' the cows an' bees, an' the mare an' +filly, an' peegs an' poultry, ter look arter. An' the house air all +tight, the roof an' all in good repair, an' we-uns will have it all +ter ourselves." + +She turned upon him with sudden interest. + +"What will kem o' Wat?" + +"Oh, he mus' live in town whilst sher'ff, bein' off'cer o' the court +an' official keeper o' jail, though he kin app'int a jailer." + +"Live in Colbury!" she exclaimed in wonderment. + +Justus laughed in triumph. "Oh, I tell ye, Wat's 'way up in the +pictur's! He'll be a reg'lar town man 'fore long, I reckon, dandified +an' sniptious ez the nex' one, marryin' one o' them finified town gals +ez wear straw hats stiddier sunbonnets,--though they _do_ look ter be +about ez flimsy an' no-'count cattle ez any I ever see," the sterling +rural standpoint modifying his relish of Walter's frivolous worldly +opportunities. + +She tossed her head in defiance of some sudden unspoken thought. As +she lifted her eyes, fired by pride, she saw the comet all a-glitter +in the darkening sky. + +She hardly knew that he had seized her hand; but his importunity must +be answered. + +"D'rec'ly after the 'lection--'lection day, 'Dosia?" he urged. + +"Ain't ye got no jedgmint," she temporized, laughing unmirthfully, +"axin' sech a question ez that under that onlucky comet!" + +"I hev been waitin' so long, 'Dosia!" + +It was the first suggestion of complaint she had ever heard from him. + +"Then ye air used ter waitin', an' 't won't kill ye ter wait a leetle +longer. I'll let ye know 'lection day." + + +II. + +It was a hot day in the little valley town, the first Thursday in +August, the climax of a drought, with the sun blazing down from dawn +to dusk, and not a cloud, not a vagrant mist, not even the stir of the +impalpable ether, to interpose. The mountains that rimmed the horizon +all around Colbury shimmered azure, through the heated air. No wind +came down those darker indentations that marked ravines. A dazzling, +stifling stillness reigned; yet now and again an eddying cloud of dust +would spring up along the streets, and go whirling up-hill and down, +pausing suddenly, and settling upon the overgrown shrubbery in the +pretty village yards, or on white curtains hanging motionless at the +windows of large, old-fashioned frame houses. Even the shade was hot +with a sort of closeness unknown in the open air, yet as it dwindled +to noontide proportions some alleviation seemed withdrawn; and though +the mercury marked no change, all the senses welcomed the +post-meridian lengthening of the images of bough and bole beneath the +trees, and the fantastic architecture of the shadows of chimney and +gable and dormer-window, elongated out of drawing, stretching across +the grassy streets and ample gardens. There among the grape trellises, +and raspberry bushes, and peach and cherry trees, the locusts chirred +and chirred a tireless, vibrating panegyric on hot weather. The birds +were hushed; sometimes under a clump of matted leaves one of the +feathered gentry might be seen with wings well held out from his +panting sides. The beautiful green beetle, here called the "June-bug," +hovered about the beds of thyme, its jeweled, enameled green body and +its silver gauze wings flashing in the sun, although June was far down +the revolving year. Blue and lilac lizards basked in the garden walks, +which were cracked by the heat. Little stir was in the streets; the +languid business of a small town was transacted if absolute need +required, and postponed if a morrow would admit of contemplation. The +voters slowly repaired to the polls with a sense of martyrdom in the +cause of party, and the election was passing off in a most orderly +fashion, there being no residuum of energy in the baking town to +render it disorderly or unseemly. Often not a human being was to be +seen, coming or going. + +To Theodosia it was all vastly different from the picture she had +projected of Colbury with an election in progress. In interest, +movement, populousness, it did not compare with a county-court day, +which her imagination had multiplied when she estimated the relative +importance of the events. She had made no allowance for the absence of +the country people, specially wont to visit the town when the +quarterly court was in session, but now all dutifully in place voting +in their own remote districts. The dust, the suffocating heat, the +stale, vapid air, the indescribable sense of a lower level--all these +affected her like a veritable burden, accustomed as she was to the +light and rare mountain breeze, to the tempered sun, the mist, and the +cloud. The new and untried conditions of town life trammeled and +constrained her. She had a certain pride, and she feared she +continually offended against the canons of metropolitan taste. In +every passing face she saw surprise, and she fancied contempt. In +every casual laugh she heard ridicule. Her brain was a turmoil of +conflicting anxieties, hopes, resolutions, and in addition these +external demands upon her attention served to intensify her absorbing +emotions and to irritate her nerves rather than to divert or soothe +them. She had escaped from the relative at whose house she was making +a visit, craftily timed to include election day, on the plea that she +wished to see something of the town. "Ye don't live up on the +mounting, Cousin Anice, 'mongst the deer, an' b'ar, an' fox, like me," +she had said jestingly, "or ye'd want ter view all the town ye kin." +And once outside the shabby little palings, she returned no more for +hours. + +Along the scorching streets she wandered, debating within herself +anxious questions which, she felt, affected all her future, and +unfitting herself still further to reach that just and wise conclusion +she desired to compass. She could not altogether abstract her mind, +despite the interests which she had at stake. She noticed that her +unaccustomed feet stumbled over the flag-stones of the pavement--"Fit +fur nothin' but followin' the plough!" she muttered in irritation. She +hesitated at the door of a store, then sidled sheepishly in, tearing +her dress on a nail in a barrel set well in the corner and out of the +way. + +But while looking over the pile of goods which she had neither the +wish nor the money to purchase, she could have sunk with shame with +the sudden thought that perhaps it was not the vogue in Colbury to +keep a clerk actively afoot to while away the idle time of a +desperately idle woman. She could not at once decide how she might +best extricate herself, and for considerable time the empty show of an +impending purchase went on. + +"I'll--I'll kem an' see 'bout'n it ter-morrer," she faltered at last. +"Much obleeged." + +"No trouble to show goods," said the martyr of the counter, politely. +In truth he had in the course of his career shown them as futilely to +women who were much older and far, far uglier, and contemplating +purchase as remotely. + +She went out scarlet, slow, tremulous, and walking close into the wall +like an apprehensive cat, looking now and again over her shoulder. She +wondered if he laughed when he was alone. + +Her shadow was long now as it preceded her down the street, lank, +awkward, clumsy. She took note of the late hour which it intimated, +and followed the extravagant, lurching caricature of herself to her +cousin's house, a little unpainted, humble building set far back in +the yard, against the good time coming when a more ornate structure +should be prefixed. The good time seemed still a long way off. Her +cousin's ironing-board was on the porch, and presently a lean, +elderly, active woman whisked out, her flat-iron in her hand. + +"Cousin Anice," called Theodosia from the gate, "how's the 'lection +turned out?" + +Cousin Anice paused to put her finger in her mouth; thus moistened, +she touched it to the flat-iron, which hissed smartly, and which she +applied then to the apron on the board. + +"Laws-a-massy! chile, the polls is jes' closed, an' all the country +deestric's ter be hearn from. We won't know till ter-morrer--till late +ter-night, nohow." + +Theodosia leaned against the gate. How could she wait! How could she +endure the suspense! She thought of Justus, and of her promise to fix +the date of the wedding on election day, but only as an additional +factor of trouble in her own anxiety and indecision. + +"Wat's been hyar ez cross ez two sticks," said Mrs. Elmer. She paused +to hold up the apron, exquisitely white, and sheer, and stiff, and to +gaze with critical professional eyes upon it; she was what is known as +a "beautiful washer and ironer," although otherwise not comely. "Wat's +beat plumb out o' sight, ef the truth war knowed, I reckon. He 'lows +he's powerful 'feared. Ef't war Justus, now, _he'd_ hev been 'lected +sure. Justus is a mighty s'perior man; pity he never hed no +eddication. He could hev done anything--sharp ez a brier. Yes; Wat's +beat, I reckon." + +In the instant Theodosia's heart sank. But she turned from the +palings, and sauntered resolutely on. It well behooved her to take +counsel with herself. "I mought hev made a turr'ble, turr'ble +mistake," she muttered. She was sensible of a sharp pang pervading her +consciousness. Nevertheless, judgment clamored for recognition. + +"Everybody gins Justus a good name, better'n Wat," she argued. "An' ef +Wat _ain't_ 'lected"-- + +She walked down the street with a freer step, her head lifted, her +self-respect more secure. With the possible collapse of her prospect +of living in Colbury, and her ambition to adjust herself to the +exigent demands of its more ornate civilization, her natural untrained +grace was returning to her. She felt that she was certainly stylish +enough for the hills, where she was likely to live all her days, and +with this realization she quite unconsciously seemed easy enough, +unconstrained enough, graceful enough, to pass muster in a wider +sphere. Her heart was beating placidly now with the casting away of +this new expectation that had made all its pulses tense. The still air +was cooler, or at least darker. A roseate suffusion was in the sky, +although a star twinkled there. More people were in the streets; doors +and windows were open, and faces appeared now and again among the +vines and curtains. As she hesitated on the street corner, two young +girls in white dresses and with fair hair passed her. She watched them +with darkening brow as they drew hastily together, and suddenly she +overheard the half-smothered exclamation which had a dozen times +to-day barely escaped her ears. + +"What a pretty, pretty girl! Oh, my! how pretty, how pretty!" + +Theodosia stood like one bewitched; a light like the illumination of +jewels was in her sapphire eyes; the color surged to her cheek; she +lifted up her head on its round, white throat; her lips curved. "Oh, +poor fool!" she thought in pity for herself, for this was what the +Colbury people had been saying all day in their swift, recurrent +glances, their half-masked asides, their furtive turning to look after +her. And she--to have given herself a day of such keen misery +unconscious of their covert encomiums! + +"I live up thar in the wilderness till I jes' don't sense nothin'," +she said. + +All the wilting prospects of life were refreshed as a flower in the +perfumed dew-fall. She felt competent, able to cope with them all; her +restored self-confidence pervaded her whole entity, spiritual and +material. She walked back with an elastic step, a breezy, debonair +manner, and she met Justus Hoxon at the gate of her cousin's yard with +a jaunty assurance, and with all the charm of her rich beauty in the +ascendant. + +He would fain have detained her in the twilight. "What's that ye +promised to tell me 'lection day?" + +"I 'lowed the day Wat war 'lected," she temporized, laying her hand on +the gate, which his stronger hand kept still closed. + +"Waal, this is the day Wat is 'lected." + +She drew back. Even in the dim light he could see her blue eyes +widening with inquiry as she looked at him. + +"I 'lowed the returns warn't all in," she said doubtfully. + +"They ain't, but enough hev kem in sence the polls closed ter gin him +a thumpin' majority. He's safe." The tense ring of triumph was in his +voice. + +The scene was swimming before her; she was dazed by the sudden +alternations of hope and despair, of decision and counter-decision, by +the seeming instability of all this. Once more she thought, in a +tremble, and with a difference, of the mistake she might have made. +She held to the gate to keep her feet, no longer to open it. + +"What did ye promise ter tell me 'lection day?" he demanded once +more, clasping her hand as it lay on the palings. + +"'Lection day?" she said with a forced laugh--"'t ain't e-ended yit. +An'," with a sudden resolution of effecting a diversion--"afore it +_is_ e-ended I want ter git a peep through that thar thing they call a +tellingscope, ef they let women folks look through it." + +He was instantly intent. + +"Laws-a-massy, yes!" he exclaimed. "I seen Mis' Dr. Kane and Mis' +Jedge Peters, an' thar darters, an' a whole passel o' women folks over +thar one night las' week. The young folks jes' amble up an' down the +court-house yard, bein' moonlight, like a lot o' young colts showin' +thar paces. An' even ef they ain't thar ter-night, I'll take ye over +thar arter supper, with yer cousin Anice ter keep ye in countenance." + +But after supper there was a sufficiency of fluttering white dresses +astir in the court-house yard, and now and again crossing the wide, +ill-paved street thither, to warrant Theodosia in dispensing with her +cousin's company, much to that sophisticated worthy's relief. + +"I hev seen all Colbury's got ter show," she said with sated pride. +"An' bein' ez I hev hed a hard day's ironin', I hev got a stitch in my +side." + +"I'd onderstan' that better if ye hed hed a hard day's sewin'," said +Justus. He was in high feather, eager, jubilant, drinking in all the +rich and subtle flavors of success with the gusto of personal triumph. + +"He air prouder'n Wat," more than one observer opined. + +There was another fine exhibition of pride on display in the +court-house yard that evening. One might have inferred that Dr. Kane +had made the comet, from his satisfaction in its proportions, his +accurate knowledge and exposition of its history, its previous +appearances, and when its coming again might be expected. He was the +principal physician of the place, and the little telescope was his +property, and he had thus generously loaned it to the public with the +hope of illuminating the general ignorance by a nearer view of the +starry heavens, while it served his own and his neighbors' interest in +the nightly progress of the great comet. Total destruction had been +prophesied as the imminent fate of the telescope, but it had so far +justified its owner's confidence in the promiscuous politeness of +Kildeer County, and had been a source of infinite pleasure to the +country folks from the coves and mountains, who had never before seen, +nor in good sooth heard of, such an instrument. For weeks past almost +all night curious groups took possession of it at intervals, and +doubtless it did much to enlarge their idea of science and knowledge +of celestial phenomena, for often Dr. Kane's idle humor induced him to +stand by and explain the various theories touching comets,--their +velocity, their substance or lack of substance, their recurrence, +their status in the astral economy,--and cognate themes. As he was a +man of very considerable reading and mental qualifications, of some +means for the indulgence of his taste, and a good deal of leisure, the +synopsis of astronomical science presented in the successive +expositions was very well worth listening to, especially by the more +ignorant of the community, who were thus enlightened as to facts +hitherto foreign even to their wildest imaginings. + +But following hard on every benefaction is the trail of ingratitude, +and certain of the irreverent in the crowd found a piquant zest in +secret derision of the doctor, who sometimes did, in truth, present +the air of a showman with a panorama. More especially was this the +case when his enthusiasm waxed high, and his satisfaction in the +glories of the comet partook of a positive personal pride. + +"What's he goin' ter do about it?" demanded one grinning rustic of +another on the outskirts of the crowd. + +"Put salt on its tail," responded his interlocutor. + +Others affected to believe that the doctor was performing a great feat +with the long bow, especially in the tremendous measurements of which +he seemed singularly prodigal. A reference to the height of the +mountains of the moon as compared with the neighboring ranges elicited +a whispered hope that the roads were better there than those of the +Great Smoky; and an inquiry concerning the probable fate of the comet +provoked a speculation that when he was done with it he would sell it +at public outcry to the highest bidder at the east door of the +court-house. + +Close about the stand, however, the crowd took on something of the +demeanor of a literary society. Discussions were in order, questions +asked and answered, authorities quoted and refuted: the other +physician, who practiced much in consultation with Dr. Kane, two or +three clergymen, several of the officers of the court, and a number of +lawyers, all taking part. The more youthful members of the gathering +affected the role of peripatetic philosophers, and sauntered to and +fro, arm in arm, in the light of the waxing moon. + +The big black shadows of the giant oaks were all dappled with silver +as the beams pierced the foliage and fell to the ground below; only +the cornice of the building threw an unbroken image, massive and +sombre, on the sward. The low clustering roofs of the town had a thin +bluish haze hovering about them, and were all softly and blurringly +imposed on the vaguely blue sky and the dim hills beyond. Among them a +vertical silver line glinted, sharply metallic,--the steeple of a +church. Here and there a yellow light gleamed from a lamp within a +window. No sound came from the streets; all the life of the place +seemed congregated here. + +There was a continual succession of postulants to gaze through the +telescope, some gravely curious, some stolidly iconoclastic and +incredulous, others with covert levity, and still others, +self-conscious, solicitous, secretly determined to affect to see all +that other people could see, lest some subtle incapacity, some +flagrant rusticity, be inferred from failure. These last were hasty +observers, scarcely waiting to adjust the eye to the lens, fluttered, +and prolific of inapt exclamations, which too often betrayed the +superficial character of the investigation. To this class did +Theodosia belong. + +"Plumb beautiful!" she murmured under her breath, after a momentary +contact of her dazzled eye with the brass rim of the telescope. + +"Try ag'in, 'Dosia!" exclaimed Justus, aghast at this perfunctory +dismissal of the comet, as she turned to go away. + +She winced a little from his voice, clear, vibrant and urgent, for +Justus had no solicitude concerning the superior canons of Colbury +touching etiquette, and suffered none of her anxieties. She caught Dr. +Kane's eyes fixed upon him as she moved hastily away, and then he came +up beside Justus, who stood near the telescope. + +"Let me explain the thing to you, Hoxon," he said. "Try a peep +yourself." + +Justus glanced after her. Walter had joined her--not so soon, however, +but that she heard a half-suppressed criticism on her lover as he +turned to the telescope and Dr. Kane's exposition. + +"Pity he's got no education--smart fellow, but can't even read and +write." + +"Smart" enough to be an apt pupil. The others pressed close around, +listening to the measured voice of the physician and the quick, +pertinent questions of the star-gazer. + +It is as an open scroll, that magnificent, wonder-compelling cult of +the skies, not the sealed book of other sciences. Since the days of +the Chaldean, all men of receptive soul in solitary places, the +sailor, the shepherd, the hunter, or the hermit, whether of the +wilderness of nature or the isolation of crowds, have read there of +the mystery of the infinite, of the order and symmetry of the plan of +creation, of the proof of the existence of a God, who controls the +sweet influences of Pleiades and makes strong the bands of Orion. The +unspeakable thought, the unformulated prayer, the poignant sense of +individual littleness, of atomic unimportance, in the midst of the +vast scheme of the universe, inform every eye, throb in every breast, +whether it be of the savant, with all the appliances of invention to +bring to his cheated senses the illusion of a slightly nearer +approach, or of the half-civilized llanero of the tropic solitudes, +whose knowledge suffices only to note the hour by the bending of the +great Southern Cross. It is the heritage of all alike. + +For Justus Hoxon, who had followed the slow march of the stars through +many a year in the troubled watches of the night, when anxiety and +foreboding could make no covenant with sleep, there was, in one sense, +little to learn. He knew them all in their several seasons, the time +of their rising, when they came to the meridian, and when they were +engulfed in the west, till with another year they sparkled on the +eastern rim of the sky. He listened to Dr. Kane's explanation of this +with an air of acceptance, but he hardly heeded the detail of their +distance from the earth and from one another--he knew that they were +far,--and he shook his head over speculations as to their physical +condition, vegetation, and inhabitation. "Ye ain't got no sort o' +means o' knowin' sech, Doctor," he said reprehensively, gauging the +depths of the ignorance of the wise man. + +He heard their names with alert interest, and repeated them swiftly +after his mentor to set them in his memory. "By George!" he cried +delightedly, "I hed no idee they hed names!" + +And as the amateur astronomer, pleased with so responsive a glow, +began the tracing of the fantastic imagery of the constellations, +detailing the story of each vague similitude, he marked the sudden +dawn of a certain enchantment in his interlocutor's mind, the first +subtle experience of the delights of the ideal and the resources of +fable. It exerted upon Dr. Kane a sort of fascinated interest, the +observation of this earliest exploration of the realms of fancy by so +keen and receptive an intelligence. The comet, the telescope, the +crowd, were forgotten, as with Hoxon at his elbow he made the tour of +the court-house yard, from point to point, wherever the best +observation might be had of each separate sidereal etching on the deep +blue. For a time the crowd casually watched them with a certain +good-natured ridicule of their absorption, and the telescope +maintained its interest to the successive wights who peered through at +the comet still splendidly ablaze despite the light of the gibbous +moon. The ranks of young people promenaded up and down the brick walks +and the grassy spaces. Elder gossips sat on the court-house steps, or +stood in groups, and discussed the questions of the day. Gradually +disintegration began. The clangor of the gate rose now and then as +homeward-bound parties passed through, becoming constantly more +frequent. Still the shifting back and forth of the thinning ranks of +the peripatetic youth went on, and laughter and talk resounded from +the court-house steps. At intervals the telescope was deserted; the +motionless trees were bright with the moon and glossy with the dew. +The voice of guard-dogs was now and again reverberated from the hills. +The languid sense of a late hour had dulled the pulses, and when +Justus Hoxon turned back to earth it was to an almost depopulated +scene, the realization of the approach of midnight, and the sight of +Theodosia sitting alone in the moonlight on the steps of the east door +of the court-house, waiting for him with a touching patience, as it +seemed to him at the moment. + +"Air you-uns waitin' fur me, 'Dosia, all by yerse'f?" he demanded +hastily, with a contrite intonation. + +"I _'pear_ to be all by myse'f," she said, with a playful feigning of +uncertainty, glancing about her. She gave a forced laugh, and the +constraint in her tone struck his attention. + +"I 'lowed ez Wat war with ye," he said apologetically. "Air ye ready +ter go over ter yer cousin Anice's now?" + +He was standing leaning against one of the columns of the portico, his +face half in the shadow of his hat and half in the moonlight. + +She sat still upon the steps, looking up at him, her upturned eyes +taking an appealing expression from her lowly attitude. She was silent +for a moment, as if at a loss. Then suddenly her eyes fell. + +"'Pears ter me ter be right comical ter hev ter remind _ye_ o' what +_I_ promised ter tell ye 'lection day," she said. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he broke in vehemently, "I hev axed ye twice ter-day, +an' I didn't ax ye jes' now 'kase ye hed been hyar so long alone, an' +I wanted ter take ye ter yer cousin Anice's ef so be ye wanted ter +go." He stopped for a moment. Then, with a change of tone, "Ye can't +make out ez I hev been anything but hearty in lovin' ye--nearly all +yer life long!" His voice rang out with a definite note of conviction, +of assertion. + +Reproach was an untenable ground. She desisted from the effort. Her +eyes wandered down the street that lay shadowy with gable, and +dormer-window, and long chimneys, in sharp geometric figures in the +moonshine, alternating with the deeper shadow of the trees. There were +no lights save a twinkle here and there in an upper window. + +A flush rose to his pale cheeks. His heart was beating fast with heavy +presage. He hesitated to demand his fate at so untoward a moment. He +took off his hat, mechanically fanning with its broad brim, and gazing +about him at the slowly dulling splendor of the moonlight as the disk +tended further and further toward the west. The stars were brightening +gradually, and within the range of his vision flared the great comet, +every moment the lustre of its white fire intensifying. He only saw; +he did not note. His every faculty was concentrated on the girl's +drawling voice as she began again, hesitating, and evidently at a +loss. + +"Waal, I hate ter tell ye, Justus, but I hev ter do it, an' +I mought ez well the day that I promised ter set _the day_. +It's--it's--_never_! I ain't goin' ter marry ye at all!" + +He recoiled as from a blow. And yet he could not accept the fact. + +"The'dosia," he said, "air ye mad with me 'kase ye 'low I forgot ye +this evenin'?" + +Theodosia had recovered her poise. Now that she had begun she felt +suddenly fluent. It did not accord with her estimate of her own +attractions to dismiss a lover because he had forgotten her. She began +to find a relish in the situation, and sought to adjust its details +more accurately to her preferences. + +"Justus, I know ye never furgot me fur one minute. I kin find no fault +with yer likin' fur me." + +She had never seen a stage. She had never heard of a theatre, but she +was posing and playing a part as definitely as if it graced the +boards. + +He detected a certain spurious note in her voice. It bewildered him. +He stared silently at her. + +"I can't marry you-uns. I never kin." + +"Why?" he demanded in a measured tone. "How kem ye hev changed yer +mind? Ye hev told me often that ye would." + +"W-a-al," she drawled, looking away at the skies, her unthinking eyes +arrested, too, by the blazing comet, "I _did_ 'low wunst I would. But +a man with eddication would suit me bes', an' ye hain't got none." + +"No more hev ye," he argued warmly. He was clinging for dear life to +his vanishing hope of happiness. He did not realize depreciation in +his words--only the facts that made them suited to each other. "Ye +know ye _wouldn't_ take l'arnin' at school--an' I _couldn't_ git it; +'pears ter me we air 'bout ekal." + +"It air a differ in a 'oman," said Theodosia, quickly. "A 'oman hev +got no call to be l'arned like a man." + +This very subordinate view failed in this instance of the satisfaction +it is wont to give to the masculine mind. + +"Waal, ye didn't git enough l'arnin' ter hurt ye," he retorted. Then, +relenting, he added, "But I don't find no fault with ye fur that +nuther." + +The color flared into her face. How she resented his clemency to her +ignorance! She still sat in her lowly posture on the step, leaning her +bare head against the column of the porch, for her bonnet lay on the +floor beside her; but there was a suggestion of self-assertion in her +voice. + +"I ain't expectin' ter live all my days in the woods, like a deer or +suthin' wild. I expec' ter live in town with eddicated folks, ez be +looked up ter, an' respected by all, an' kin make money, an' hev a +sure-enough house." Her ambitious eyes swept the shadowy gables down +the street. + +He broke out laughing; his voice was softer; his face relaxed. + +"Laws-a-massy! Dosia," he exclaimed, "yer head's plumb turned by one +day's roamin' round town. Ye won't be in sech a hurry ter turn me off +whenst we git back ter the mountings." + +"I ain't goin' back ter the mountings!" she cried; "I be a-goin' ter +marry a town man ez hev got position, an' eddication, an' place." She +paused, stung by the fancied incredulity in his eyes. "Why not? Ain't +I good-lookin' enough?" + +She had risen to her feet; her eyes flashed upon him; her beautiful +face wore a look of pride. It might have elicited from another man a +protest of its beauty. He stared at her with an expression of alarm +that was almost ghastly. + +"Other men like me fur my looks, ef ye don't, Justus Hoxon," she said +in indignation. + +"Ef they jes' likes ye fur yer looks they won't like ye long," Hoxon +said severely. "I'll like ye when yer brown head is ez white ez +cotton--ez much ez I like ye now--more!--_more_, I'll be bound! O +'Dosia," with a sudden renewal of tenderness, "don't talk this hyar +cur'ous way! I dunno what's witched ye. But let's go home ter the +mountings, ter yer mother, an' see ef she can't straighten out any +tangle yer feelin's hev got inter." + +It needed only this--the allusion to her commonplace mother, the +recollection of the forlorn little mountain home, the idea of her +mother's insistent championship of Justus Hoxon--to bring the avowal +so long trembling on her lips. + +"I won't! I ain't likin' ye nowadays, Justus Hoxon, nor fur a long +time past. I ain't keerin' nothin' 'bout ye." + +There was something in her tone that carried conviction. + +"Air ye in earnest?" he said, appalled. + +"Dead earnest." + +He gazed at her in the ever dulling light, that yet was clear enough +to show every lineament--even the long black eyelashes that did not +droop or quiver above her great blue eyes. + +"Then thar's no more to be said." He spoke in a changed voice, calm +and clear, and she stared at him in palpable surprise. She had +expected an outburst of reproach, of beseechings, of protestation. She +had braced herself to meet it, and she felt the reaction. She was +hardly capable of coping with seeming indifference. It touched her +pride. She missed the tribute of the withheld pleadings. She sought to +rouse his jealousy. + +"It's another man I like," she said, "better--oh, a heap better--than +you-uns." + +"That's all right, then." + +He wondered to hear the words so glibly enunciated. His lips seemed to +him stiff, petrifying. He looked very white about them. She did not +heed. She was angered, wounded, perplexed, by his acquiescence, his +calmness, his taciturnity. A wave of anxiety that was half regret +went over her. She felt lost in the turmoil of these complex emotions. +With that destructive impulse to hurl down, to tear, to strike, that +is an element of a sort of blind irritation, she went on tumultuously: + +"He is a man ez hev got eddication, an' a place, an' a fine chance an' +show in life--it's--it's--yer brother Walter." + +Her aim was true that time. Her shaft struck in the very core of his +heart: but the satisfaction of this knowledge was denied her. He +looked very white, it is true, but the pale moonlight was on his face; +and he only said in an undertone: + +"Walter!" + +She laughed aloud, a sort of mockery of glee. She had expected to +enjoy the revelation, and her laughter was an incident of the scene as +she had planned it. + +"We war a-courtin' consider'ble o' the time whilst ye war off +electioneerin'," she said, with the side glance of her old coquetry. + +She saw his long shadow on the pavement bend forward and recoil +suddenly. She did not look at him. + +"An' so ter-night," she went on briskly,--she had truly thought it a +very good joke,--"whilst you-uns war a-star-gazing an' sech, Wat an' +me jes stepped inter the register's office thar, an' the Squair +married us. We 'lowed ye didn't see nothin' of it through the +tellingscope, did ye? So Wat said I must tell ye, ez _he_ didn't want +ter tell ye." + +She could not see his face, the light was dulling so, and he had +replaced his wide hat. There was a moment's silence. Then his voice +rang out quite strong and cheerful, "Why, then thar's no more to be +said." + +He stood motionless an instant longer. Then suddenly he turned with a +wave of his hand that was like a gesture of farewell, and she marked +how swiftly his shadow seemed to slink from before him as he walked +away, and passed the corner of the house, and disappeared from view. + +She gazed silently after him for a moment. Then, leaning against the +column, she burst into a tumult of tears. + + * * * * * + +Daylight found Justus Hoxon far on the road to the mountains. In the +many miles, as he fared along, his thoughts could hardly have been +pleasant company. As he sought to discover fault or flaw in himself, +search as he might, he could find naught that might palliate the +flippant faithlessness of his beloved, or the treachery of his +brother. His ambition might have been too worldly a thing, but not a +pulse of that most vital emotion beat for himself. He realized it +now--he realized his life in looking back upon this completed episode, +as he might have done in the hour of death. He had so expended himself +in the service of others that there was naught left for him. He had no +gratulation in it, no sense of the virtue of unselfishness, no +preception of achievement; it only seemed to him that his was the most +flagrant folly that ever left a man in the world, but with no place in +it. A sorry object for pride he seemed to himself, but he quivered, +and scorched, and writhed in its hot flames. His one object was to +take himself out of the sight and sound of Colbury, till he might have +counsel within himself, and perfect his scheme of revenge--not upon +the woman. Poor Theodosia, with her limitations, could hardly have +conceived how she had shattered the ideal to which her image had +conformed in his mind, as she had stood on the porch and vaunted her +beauty, and her belief in its power, and her pitiful ambitions. The +woman was heartily welcome to the lot she had chosen. But the +treacherous man,--it was not in Justus Hoxon's scheme of things to +receive a blow and return nothing. A "hardy fighter" he was esteemed, +albeit his prowess was eclipsed by his more peaceful virtues. This, +however, should be returned in kind. He would make no attack to be put +in the wrong, arrested, perhaps, after the Colbury interpretation of +assault and battery. But Walter had many a weak point in his armor, +glaringly apparent now to the once fond brother. + +Only a surly, bitter word he had for greeting to the few neighbors +whom he met, and who went their way in the conviction that his brother +had lost his election; for none ascribed any emotion of Justus Hoxon's +to his own sake. + +He reached in the evening the little cabin where the padlock hung on +the door, and the heavy, untrodden dust of the drought lay without; +and so it was that the old days when "Fambly" had struggled through +their humble experiences came back to him with that incomparable +sweetness of the irrevocable past. Hardships! How could there be, with +fond faith in one another, and in all the world! Poverty--so rich they +were in love! Life, after all, is more than meat, and there is no +hunger like that of a famished heart. He reviewed that forlorn, +anxious, struggling orphanage, transfigured in the subtle glow of +regretful, loving memory, as one might gaze into the rich glamours of +a promised land. Alas, that our promised land should be so often the +land we made haste to leave! As he sat down on the step he saw the +ragged cluster of children troop down the road from twenty years +agone, almost as if he actually beheld them, himself at the head. He +could still feel their plump palms clinging to his hand at the first +suggestion of danger. He had led them a right thorny path, each to a +successful goal. And now could he turn against "Fambly"? Should he +denounce the treachery of one of the little group that he could see +huddling together for warmth on the meagre hearthstone, while outside +the snows of a long-vanished winter were a-whirl? Should he pull down +the temple on Walter's success--the pride of them all? He remembered +how his sisters, with that feminine necessity of hero-worship in their +untaught little hearts, had clung about Walter. He remembered too that +almost every thought of his own life had been given to this man, who +had ruthlessly and secretly robbed him of all that was dear to him, +and in such wise as to hold him up to ridicule, a scoffing jest, a +very good joke! So Walter considered it, and so doubtless would all +Colbury. It would have surprised Walter, but his sometime mentor's +cheek burned with shame for him. + +No; the claims of "Fambly" were paramount. He gave it precedence, as +in the old days he had denied himself when "Fambly" dined at the +skillet, and the bone and the broken bit he took for his share. He +could not bring discredit upon it. He would not lift his hand against +it. It was the object of a lifelong allegiance, and he only marveled +that, since the uses of the loyalty were at an end, the empty life +should go on. He gazed mechanically at the padlock as he sat there +with his dreary thoughts, remembering with what different heart he had +turned the key. Ah, Happiness--to pass out from a door, and knock +there never again! + +He rose at last, his burden adjusted to his strength. He had never +worked for thanks. It hardly mattered to him now how his efforts were +requited. And though he encountered treachery at close quarters,--of +his own household,--it was not in his heart to be a traitor to +"Fambly" and its obvious interests. So he too went out from the door +in the footprints of Happiness--likewise to return no more. + + * * * * * + +Walter Hoxon had not altogether ill-gauged the general proclivity to +deem all fair in love or war. He was accounted to have performed +something of a feat in the clever outwitting of his unsuspecting +rival, and to the minds of the many there was an element of the +romantic in this hasty wedding of the damsel of his choice almost +under the eyes of the expectant bridegroom. He had added to the +prestige of success in politics the lustre of valiance in the lists of +love, and he encountered laughing congratulations from his friends +and political supporters, which served much to reassure him and to +banish a vague and subtle anxiety as to public opinion that had begun +to gnaw at his heart. They all seemed to think he had done a very fine +thing, and that it was a very good joke, and he was soon most jauntily +of their persuasion. He could not know that here and there people were +saying to one another, aside, the words he had feared to hear in +reproach--that the swain whom he and his lady-love had conspired to +dupe was his brother, who had done everything for him--had, as a mere +child, encountered and vanquished poverty, had clothed and educated +this man and his sisters, had served his every interest with a perfect +self-abnegation all his life; that it was his brother who had won his +election, being a man of much influence and untaught eloquence, and of +great native tact and intelligence; that the secrecy, the conspiracy, +and the publicity of the dramatic dénouement, in lieu of an open +rivalry, rendered it a case of the most flagrant ingratitude, and +argued much unworthiness in the people's choice. + +But suddenly a doubt began to prevail as to whether he were the +people's choice. In the returns from the farthest districts, not heard +from till quite late in the day, in which Walter Hoxon had felt +secure, Quigley developed unexpected strength. In great perturbation +Walter swiftly patrolled the town in search of Justus; unprecedented +developments were imminent, and he hardly dared face the emergency +without his valiant backer at hand. Justus had disappeared as utterly +as if the night had swallowed him up. + +"Consarn the tormentin' critter!" exclaimed Walter, mopping his brow +as he stood at the little gate of Mrs. Elmer's yard, returning +thither, after his fruitless searching, in the hope of finding his +brother among the familiar faces. "Mad ez a hornet, I'll be bound, an' +lef' me in the lurch. Beat arter all, I'll bet!" + +Theodosia listened, tremulous, aghast. All the fine prospects that had +seemed so near, into whose charming perspectives she might in another +moment have stepped as actually as upon that path to the gate, were +drawing away, dissolving, as tenuous, as intangible, as those morning +sunlit mists shifting and rising from before the massive blue ranges +of the Great Smoky Mountains, and dallying with the distances into +invisibility. + +"I tole ye ag'in an' ag'in ye bes' not be _too sure_," she said, a sob +in her throat, with an obvious disposition to wreak her disappointment +upon him. + +It was crushed in the moment. + +He turned a frowning face full upon her. "Hold yer jaw!" he cried +violently. "Ef 't warn't for you-uns I'd hev Justus hyar, an' I'll be +bound _he_ could fix it. Ye miserable deceitful critter--settin' two +own brothers at loggerheads! I'll take no word from _you-uns_--sure!" + +He shook his head indignantly at her, clapped his hat upon it, and +turned desperately away as a man came running up. "Have ye found +Justus?" Wat exclaimed. + +"Justus? No. But they say it's a tie--a tie!" + +For the news was already bruited throughout the town--in a ferment of +excitement, because of the closeness of the contest--that the two +candidates, racing gallantly neck and neck, had come under the wire +together with not so much as the point of a nose to distinguish the +winner. + +Walter stood still for a moment, his dark eyes dilated with eagerness +and anxiety. Suddenly he leaned back against the gate-post with a deep +sigh of relief and relaxation. + +"Then it's all right," he exclaimed breathlessly. "The coroner's my +frien', ef I ain't got another in the worl'. Old Beckett will stan' by +me, _sure_!" + +As the coroner held the election, the sheriff himself being a +candidate, it was his duty to give the casting vote. This +prolongation of the jeopardy of the result heightened the popular +interest, the more as the officer did not immediately decide upon his +action in the matter. + +"I want a leetle time ter think it over--a leetle time fur the casting +vote," he said, as he gnawed at a plug of tobacco, then crossed his +ponderous legs while he leaned back in a splint-bottomed chair in the +register's office. + +He was a tall, portly man, with a large, round imperious face, +thatched heavily with iron-gray hair. He wore no beard, and was +dressed in brown jeans, which imparted a certain sallowness to his +dark complexion. He had small gray eyes, at once shrewd and +good-natured, but his manner was bluff, imperative, and all the +judiciary of the State could hardly have compassed an expression of a +greater sense of importance. + +He was observed with much interest by a number of men who lounged +about the room. A tense sub-current of curiosity underlay the suspense +natural to the occasion, for it was well known to the gossips about +the court-house that he and the sheriff had not been on the best of +terms; when their official functions had happened to bring them into +contact they had clashed smartly, and the county rang with their +feuds. His course was obvious to all--his hesitation only an +affectation, lest a too vehement animosity be imputed to him. + +"Poor Quigley's cake is dough," observed one of the incumbent's +friends in an undertone, standing with his hands in his pockets, and +gazing through the long dark vista of the hall out of the door into +the sunlight's glow, as it fell upon the few houses and the great +stretch of arable land beyond. A horizontal shadow of a cloud lay at +its extremity, as definite as a material barrier, and far above it +rose tiers of green and bronze hills like a moulding to the base of +the lapis-lazuli-tinted mountains. + +"This never happened in this county before," said the register, +glancing up from a big book in which he was copying the doings of "the +party of the first part" and "the party of the second part"--the +familiar spirits of his den. + +"Why, no!" exclaimed the coroner, with a pleased laugh. "To me the +castin' vote is ez _phee_-nomenal an' ez astonishin' ez the comet." He +chuckled--the fat man's unctuous laugh. "Something like the comet, +too: it has its place in the legal firmament, but 't ain't often +necessary to use it." + +"That war a toler'ble funny tale 'bout the comet they air a-tellin' +roun' town," observed a young countryman pausing in front of the two, +his hands in his pockets, his hat on the back of his red head, a wide +grin of enjoyment on his freckled face,--"about the feller that hed +his sweetheart a-courtin' out hyar in the yard last night, an' tuk ter +lookin' at the comet through the spy-glass, an' whilst he war busy +a-star-gazin' the comet, another feller stepped up with the Squair, +an' married his gal--ha! ha! ha!" + +Beckett looked up interested. Incongruously enough a vein of romance +ran through the massive strata of conceit, and intolerance, and +vainglory, and pertinacity, and pugnacity that made up the very +definite structure of his nature. He dearly loved a lover. He was as +sentimental as a girl of eighteen, and he melted instantly into +suavest amenities at the first intimation of a love-story in abeyance. + +"I ain't heard 'bout that," he said in a mellifluous voice. +"Ye know I was tucked up in yonder"--he jerked his thumb over +his shoulder--"tendin' to the countin' of the votes, bein' +returnin'-officer. Who married?" + +"Why this hyar Walter Hoxon--him ez is candidate fur sher'ff," +said the red-haired interlocutor, widening his grin. + +Beckett elevated his heavy, grizzled eyebrows. A sudden, secret, +important look, as if he were colloguing with some one vanquished in +argument, crossed his face. He nodded once or twice, but only said +acquiescently: "Ah--ha! Ah--ha! Toler'ble enterprisin'. Run fur office +an git married 'lection day." + +He smiled broadly. Any innovation on the stereotyped methods appealed +to him with the grace and relish of a new metre to a neophytic +rhymester. + +"Wat's a nice boy, a mighty good boy, too," he went on, with his oily +voice quite soft. "Run mighty well in this 'lection, too. He's a +mighty smart, good boy." + +He nodded his big head approvingly. "I don't wonder he cut the t'other +feller out. Mighty fine feller Wat is." + +"Well, now," said the register, suddenly putting his pen behind his +ear, and leaving the party of the first part and the party of the +second part to their own devices, "I'm blest if I don't think Justus +is worth a hundred of Wat, lock, stock, an' barrel." + +Once more the grizzled eyebrows went up toward the iron-gray thatch of +the coroner's forehead. "_Justus!_ I'm free ter say I dunno nobody +equal ter Justus. I hev known Justus sence he war knee-high ter a +pa'tridge--the way he did keer fur them chil'n, an' brung 'em up ter +be equal ter anybody in the lan'! An' smart--_smart_ ain't the word +fur him! Ef he hed education he could do anything; but he hed ter +stan' back an' let the t'other chil'n git it. Whar would Wat be ef 't +warn't fur Justus?" + +"That's what makes me say 't was a mighty mean trick he played on +Justus," the register broke in. + +"Who? How?" demanded the coroner. + +"Why, Justus was the t'other feller. Wat an' the girl never let _him_ +have an inklin' of it. They just fooled him along, believin' she was +goin' ter marry _him_. An' las' night when it was reported all over +town that Wat was elected, an' Justus took time from electioneerin' +fur his brother to breathe, they tolled him out to look at the comet, +an' slipped off an' married." + +The man of sentiment, with the election in his hand, sat looking +loweringly about him. His satisfaction was wilted; his fat hung +flabbily on his big bones; his small eyes were hard and cold. + +"Waal," he said, rising at last, "these extry an' occasional +opportunities like comets an' castin' votes oughter be took full +advantage of--full advantage of; no doubt about that." + +And thus it was that the casting vote tipped the scale in favor of the +incumbent. + +"He's ez hard-headed, an' _ty_rannical, an' _per_verse, an' +cantankerous a critter ez ever lived, with no feelin's, nor softness, +nor perliteness in him--but he's a square man. He'll do the _fair_ +thing--every time," the coroner said in explanation. + +And so he braced himself for another term of official wrangling. + + * * * * * + +Poor Theodosia! She never forgot that return home, through all the +dust of the drought and the glare of the midsummer sun. Even to +herself her nature seemed too small for the magnitude of the various +anguish which she was called upon to endure. The sharp alternations of +certainty and doubt which she had undergone seemed slight, seemed +naught, in comparison with the desolate finality of despair, the fang +of hopeless regret, and the dread of the veiled future with which she +had made no covenant of expectation or preparation, that preyed upon +every plodding step as she went. Her anxiety as to the wisdom of her +course was not assuaged by the aghast dismay of her mother's face, +when she reached the little house overlooking the encircling +mountains,--as still, as meditative, as majestically unmoved, as if no +more troublous world existed,--and unfolded the story of her visit to +Colbury. She felt for the first time in her life how Justus Hoxon's +friend merited his confidence. Her mother had no reproaches, no +sarcasms, no outbursts of grief. She addressed herself to the support +and the comforting of her daughter, but with so evident a hopelessness +and an expectation of bitter things to come that the girl burst out +sobbing afresh. + +"D' ye think Wat air so wuthless ez all that!" + +The discipline of life began for her here. As the price of his +political defeat, Walter had scant relish for the triumph he had +scored in love. He was surly, taciturn, or else loud with reproaches +and criminations, which grew more vehement and contumelious if she +answered, seeking to exculpate or justify herself; and if she were +silent, her submission seemed to exasperate him and to develop a +crafty ingenuity in finding fault. He brooded grimly on his brother's +probable exultation when he should return and hear the news of the +casting vote. To fortify himself for the encounter he spent much time +at the still, and his drunken, reasonless wrath was even more +formidable to the object of his displeasure than his sober, surly +resentment against her as the cause of all his disasters. But Justus +did not come. Walter began to doubt if the news of the untoward result +of the election, in which he had spent all his energies, had reached +him. He also began to desire, contradictorily enough, that his brother +should know it. For although Justus must needs recognize it as a +mortal blow to his dearest foe, it had the capacity of doing much +execution in its recoil. Justus had had the election so greatly at +heart; he had struggled, and planned, and managed with such +preternatural activity and tact and energy from the first, that it +would smite him hard to know that it was all in vain. And then his +vicarious ambitions, his pride, his pleasure, in the elevation of +"Fambly"! Walter cast about futilely for an assurance that he might +have the satisfaction of reducing all this. He knew that Justus, in +his mistaken certainty of the result of the election, would not ask +for information, and that he could not read the newspapers. A +letter--even if there were any remote presumption as to his +address--would lie indefinitely in the mail, and find its way at last +to the Dead Letter Office. + +Walter realized after a time that Justus intended to return no +more--the woman he loved was his brother's wife. Justus had probably +put the breadth of the State between them, Walter sneeringly +concluded. + +He made haste to quarrel with his wife's mother, in his perverse +relish of aught that might give Theodosia pain, and they quitted her +home and took up their residence in the house in which Theodosia had +once expected to live, the scene of the early struggles of "Fambly." + +Theodosia's beauty could hardly be said to fade; it disappeared in the +overblowing. She grew very fat and unwieldy as the years wore on; her +face broadened, her florid complexion degenerated into a mottled red +and purple. She was no prettier than her mother had been when she +ridiculed her lover's eulogy of her mother's spiritual beauty. She had +a hard life with her drunken, idle, slothful husband, who habitually +imputed to her agency every evil that had ever befallen him, holding +it to excuse him from all exertion to better their very poor estate, +and whose affection had been easily kindled by her beauty and as +easily extinguished. + + * * * * * + +Justus, self-exiled from the mountains, tramped the valley roads, +hardly caring whither, and drifted finally to the outskirts of one of +the large manufacturing towns of Tennessee. He worked for some seasons +doggedly, drudgingly, on a farm near by, but found a sort of +entertainment in the sights and sounds within the city limits, as +having no association with the past which his memory dreaded. He +prospered in some sort, for although he was ignorant of all methods of +skilled labor, fidelity is an art with so few proficients that friends +and opportunities were not lacking. His progress was somewhat +hampered, however, despite his evident intelligence, by a doubt which +prevailed concerning his mental balance. He was often observed to +stand and gaze smilingly, fondly, after any group of ragged, dirty +children; he, although of the poorest, was profuse in gratuities to +any callow beggar who did not know enough of the world's ways to +expect nothing of such as he, as did the older ones. He could not +read, but he bought newspapers from the smallest of the guild of +newsboys, and meditatively turned the sheets in his hand, and then +softly and slowly tore them to bits. And these things created a doubt +of his sanity, for who could know how "Fambly" looked at him from the +pinched face of every poor, and cold, and hungry child? + +At last, despite this unsuspected drawback, a congenial occupation +came to him. He was night watchman at a great factory, and as he +paced, all solitary, back and forth in the yard, he was wont to note +the stars as the infallible seasons brought them into place; and he +began to remember their names, and to trace the strange configuration +of the constellations, and to con again the stories woven into their +shining meshes which he heard at the time that the great comet blazed +among them. + +And this is his never failing interest--dark summer nights, when the +Galaxy opens a broad avenue of constellated light across the heavens, +seeming a veritable road, as if it might be the way to God's throne, +beaten hard and bright by the feet of saints and martyrs; or when the +moon is full, and autumnal glamours reign, and only the faint sidereal +outlines prevail; or when winter winds are high, and the snow lies on +slanting roofs, and spires gleam with icicles, and Orion draws his +scintillating blade; or when, all bedight in scarlet, "Arcturus and +his sons" are guided into the vernal sky. + + + + + BOOKS BY + "Charles Egbert Craddock." + (MARY N. MURFREE.) + + + IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS. Short Stories. 16mo, $1.25. + + DOWN THE RAVINE. For Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.00. + + THE PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + IN THE CLOUDS. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + THE STORY OF KEEDON BLUFFS. For Young People. 16mo, $1.00. + + THE DESPOT OF BROOMSEDGE COVE. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + WHERE THE BATTLE WAS FOUGHT. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + HIS VANISHED STAR. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN. 16mo, $1.25. + + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, + BOSTON AND NEW YORK. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and +Other Stories, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 31122-8.txt or 31122-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/1/2/31122/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/31122-8.zip b/31122-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3fbbe6 --- /dev/null +++ b/31122-8.zip diff --git a/31122.txt b/31122.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e4cd94 --- /dev/null +++ b/31122.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6973 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and +Other Stories, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock + +Release Date: January 30, 2010 [EBook #31122] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN + + CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE + MOUNTAIN + + AND OTHER STORIES + + BY + + CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1895 + + + + + Copyright, 1895, + BY MARY N. MURFREE. + + _All rights reserved._ + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN 1 + TAKING THE BLUE RIBBON AT THE COUNTY FAIR 165 + THE CASTING VOTE 200 + + + + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN. + + +I. + +The beetling crags that hang here and there above the gorge hold in +their rugged rock sculpture no facial similitudes, no suggestions. The +jagged outlines of shelving bluffs delineate no gigantic profile +against the sky beyond. One might seek far and near, and scan the vast +slope with alert and expectant gaze, and view naught of the semblance +that from time immemorial has given the mountain its name. Yet the +imagination needs but scant aid when suddenly the elusive simulacrum +is revealed to the eye. In a certain slant of the diurnal light, even +on bright nights at the full of the moon, sometimes in the uncanny +electric flicker smitten from a storm-cloud, a gigantic peaked +sinister face is limned on the bare, sandy slope, so definite, with +such fixity of lineament, that one is amazed that the perception of it +came no earlier, and is startled when it disappears. + +Disappearing as completely as a fancy, few there are who have ever +seen it who have not climbed from the herder's trail across the +narrow wayside stream and up the rugged mountain slopes to the spot +where it became visible. There disappointment awaits the explorer. One +finds a bare and sterile space, from which the hardy chickweed can +scarcely gain the sustenance for timorous sproutings; a few +outcropping rocks; a series of transverse gullies here and there, +washed down to deep indentations; above the whole a stretch of burnt, +broken timber that goes by the name of "fire-scald," and is a relic of +the fury of the fire which was "set out" in the woods with the mission +to burn only the leaves and undergrowth, and which, in its +undisciplined strength, transcended its instructions, as it were, and +destroyed great trees. And this is all. But once more, at a coigne of +vantage on the opposite side of the gorge, and the experience can be +utilized in differentiating the elements that go to make up the weird +presentment of a human countenance. It is the fire-scald that suggests +the great peaked brown hood; the oblong sandy stretch forms the pallid +face; the ledges outline the nose and chin and brow; the eyes look out +from the deep indentations where the slope is washed by the currents +of the winter rains; and here and there the gullies draw heavy lines +and wrinkles. And when the wind is fresh and the clouds scud before +it, in the motion of their shadows the face will seem to mow at the +observer, until the belief comes very readily that it is the exact +counterpart of a witch's face. + +Always the likeness is pointed out and insisted on by the denizens of +Witch-Face Mountain, as if they had had long and intimate acquaintance +with that sort of unhallowed gentry, and were especially qualified to +pronounce upon the resemblance. + +"Ain't it jes' like 'em, now? Ain't it the very moral of a witch?" +Constant Hite demanded, one gusty day, when the shadows were a-flicker +in the sun, and the face seemed animated by the malice of mockery or +mirth, as he pointed it out to his companion with a sort of triumph in +its splenetic contortions. + +He was a big, bluff fellow, to whose pride all that befell him seemed +to minister. He was proud of his length of limb, and his hundred and +eighty pounds of weight, and yet his slim appearance. "Ye wouldn't +believe it now, would ye?" he was wont to say when he stepped off the +scales at the store of the hamlet down in the Cove. "It's solid meat +an' bone an' muscle, my boy. Keep on the friendly side of one hunderd +an' eighty," with a challenging wink. He was proud of his bright brown +eyes, and his dark hair and mustache, and smiling, handsome face, and +his popularity among the class that he was pleased to denominate "gal +critters." He piqued himself upon his several endowments as a hardy +woodsman, his endurance, his sylvan craft, his pluck, and his luck and +his accurate aim. The buck--all gray and antlered, for it was +August--that hung across the horse, behind the saddle, gave token of +this keen exactitude in the tiny wound at the base of the ear, where +the rifle-ball had entered to pierce the brain; it might seem to the +inexpert that death had come rather from the gaping knife-stroke +across the throat, which was, however, a mere matter of butcher-craft. +He was proud of the good strong bay horse that he rode, which so +easily carried double, and proud of his big boots and long spurs; and +he scorned flimsy town clothes, and thought that good home-woven blue +jeans was the gear in which a man who was a man should clothe himself +withal. He glanced more than once at the different toggery of his +companion, evidently a man of cities, whom he had chanced to meet by +the wayside, and with whom he had journeyed more than a mile. + +He had paused again and again to point out the "witch-face" to the +stranger, who at first could not discern it at all, and then when it +suddenly broke upon him could not be wiled away from it. He +dismounted, hitching his horse to a sapling, and up and down he +patrolled the rocky mountain path to study the face at various angles; +Constant Hite looking on the while with an important placid +satisfaction, as if he had invented the illusion. + +"Some folks, though, can't abide sech ez witches," he said, with a +tolerant smile, as if he were able to defy their malevolence and make +light of it. "Ye see that cabin on the spur over yander around the +bend?" It looked very small and solitary from this height, and the +rail fences about its scanty inclosures hardly reached the dignity of +suggesting jackstraws. "Waal, the Hanways over thar hev a full view of +the old witch enny time she will show up at all. Folks in the +mountings 'low the day be onlucky when she appears on the slope thar. +The old folks at Hanway's will talk 'bout it cornsider'ble ef ye set +'em goin'; they hev seen thar time, an' it rests 'em some ter tell +'bout'n the spites they hev hed that they lay ter the witch-face." + +The ugly fascination of the witch-face had laid hold, too, on the +stranger. Twice he had sought to photograph it, and Constant Hite had +watched him with an air of lenient indulgence to folly as he pottered +about, now adjusting his camera, now changing his place anew. + +"And I believe I have got the whole amount of nothing at all," he said +at last, looking up breathlessly at the mountaineer. Albeit the wind +was fresh and the altitude great, the sun was hot on the unshaded red +clay path, and the nimble gyrations of the would-be artist brought +plentiful drops to his brow. He took off his straw hat, and mopped his +forehead with his handkerchief, while he stared wistfully at the siren +of his fancy, grimacing maliciously at him from the slope above. "If +the confounded old woman would hold still, and not disappear so +suddenly at the wrong minute, I'd have had her charming physiognomy +all correct. I believe I've spoiled my plates,--that's all." And once +more he mopped his bedewed forehead. + +He was a man of thirty-five, perhaps, of the type that will never look +old or grow perceptibly gray. His hair was red and straight, and cut +close to his head. He had a long mustache of the same sanguine tint. +The sun had brought the blood near the surface of his thin skin, and +he looked hot and red, and thoroughly exasperated. His brown eyes were +disproportionately angry, considering the slight importance of his +enterprise. He was evidently a man of keen, quick temper, easily +aroused and nervous. His handsome, well-groomed horse was fractious, +and difficult for so impatient a rider to control. His equestrian +outfit once more attracted the covert glance of Con Hite, whose +experience and observation could duplicate no such attire. He was +tall, somewhat heavily built, and altogether a sufficiently stalwart +specimen of the genus "town man." + +"I'll tell you what I'll do!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I'll sketch the +whole scene!" + +"Now you're shoutin'," said Con Hite capably, as if he had always +advocated this method of solving the difficulty. His interlocutor +could not for a moment have dreamed that he had never before seen a +camera, had never heard of a photograph, had not the least idea of +what the process of sketching might be which he so boldly approved; +nay, the very phrase embodying his encouragement of the project was +foreign to his vocabulary,--a bit of sophisticated slang which he had +adopted from his companion's conversation, and readily assimilated. + +"You stay just where you are!" cried the stranger, his enthusiasm +rising to the occasion; "just that pose,--that pose precisely." + +He ran swiftly across the path to remove the inefficient camera from +the foreground, and in a moment was seated on a log by the wayside, +his quick eye scanning the scene: the close file of the ranges about +the horizon, one showing above another, and one more faintly blue +than another, for thus the distance was defined; then the amphitheatre +of the Cove, the heavy bronze-green slopes of the mountains, all with +ripple marks of clear chrome-green ruffling in the wake of the wind; +in the middle distance the still depths of the valley below, with +shadows all a-slumber and silent, and on the projecting spur the +quiet, lonely little house, so slight a suggestion of the presence of +man amidst the majestic dominance of nature; here, to the right, +across the savage gorge, with its cliffs and with its currents in the +deep trough, the nearest slope of the mountain, with the great gaunt +bare space showing that face of ill omen, sibylline, sinister, +definite indeed,--he wondered how his eyes were holden that he should +not have discerned it at once; and in the immediate foreground the +equestrian figure of the mountaineer, booted and spurred, the very +"moral," as Hite would have called it, of an athlete, with his fine +erect pose distinct against the hazy perspective, his expression of +confident force, the details of his handsome features revealed by the +brim of his wide black hat turned up in front. + +"It's a big subject, I know; I can't get it all in. I shall only +suggest it. Just keep that pose, will you? Hold the horse still. +'Stand the storm, it won't be long!'" the artist said, smiling with +renewed satisfaction as his pencil, not all inapt, went briskly to +work on the horizontal lines of the background. + +But it was longer than he had thought, so still sat the contemplative +mountaineer, so alluring were the details of the landscape. The +enthusiasm of the amateur is always a more urgent motive power than +the restrained and utilitarian industry of the professional. + +Few sworn knights of the crayon would have sat sketching so long in +that temperature as he did, with the sun blazing through his straw hat +and his blood mustering under his thin skin; but he stopped at a point +short of sunstroke, and it was with a tumultuous sense of success that +he at last arose, and, with the sketch-book still open, walked across +the road and laid it on the pommel of the mountaineer's saddle. + +Constant Hite took it up suspiciously and looked at it askance. It is +to be doubted if ever before he had seen a picture, unless perchance +in the primary reading-book of his callow days at the public school, +spasmodically opened at intervals at the "church house" in the Cove. +He continued to gravely gaze at the sketch, held sideways and almost +reversed, for some moments. + +"Bless Gawd! hyar's Whitefoot's muzzle jes' ez nat'ral--an' +_Me_--waal, sir! don't _I_ look proud!" he cried suddenly, with a note +of such succulent vanity, so finely flavored a pride, that the +stranger could but laugh at the zest of his triumph. + +"Do you see the witch-face?" he demanded. + +"Hesh! hesh!" cried the mountaineer hilariously. "Don't 'sturb me +'bout yer witch-face. Ef thar ain't the buck,--yes, toler'ble +fat,--an' with all his horns! An' look at my boot,--actially the spur +on it! An' my hat turned up;" he raised his flattered hand to the brim +as if to verify its position. + +"You didn't know you were so good looking, hey?" suggested the amused +town man. + +"My Lord, naw!" declared Hite, laughing at himself, yet laughing +delightedly. "I dunno _how_ the gals make out to do without me at +all!" + +The pleased artist laughed, too. "Well, hand it over," he said, as he +reached out for the book. "We must be getting out of this sun. I'm not +used to it, you see." + +He put his foot in the stirrup as he spoke, and as he swung himself +into the saddle the mountaineer reluctantly closed and relinquished +the book. "I'd like ter see it agin, some time or other," he observed. + +He remembered this wish afterward, and how little he then imagined +where and in what manner he was destined to see it again. + +They rode on together into the dense woods, leaving the wind and the +sunshine and the flying clouds fluctuating over the broad expanse of +the mountains, and the witch-face silently mowing and grimacing at the +world below, albeit seen by no human being except perchance some +dweller at the little house on the spur, struck aghast by this +unwelcome apparition evoked by the necromancy of the breeze and the +sheen and the shadow, marking this as an unlucky day. + +"That's right smart o' a cur'osity, ain't it?" said Constant Hite +complacently, as they jogged along. "When the last gover'mint survey +fellers went through hyar, they war plumb smitten by the ole 'oman, +an' spent cornsider'ble time a-stare-gazin' at her. They 'lowed they +hed never seen the beat." + +"What was the survey for?" asked the town man, with keen mundane +interest. + +Constant Hite was rarely at a loss. When other men were fain to come +to a pause for the lack of information, the resources of his agile +substitutions and speculations were made manifest. "They war jes' +runnin' a few lines hyar an' thar," he said negligently. "They lef' +some tall striped poles planted in the ground, red an' sich colors, +ter mark the way; an' them mounting folks over yander in the +furderest coves,--they air powerful ahint the times,--they hed never +hearn o' sech ez a survey, noway, an' the poles jes' 'peared ter them +sprung up thar like Jonah's gourd in a single night, ez ef they kem +from seed; an' the folks, they 'lowed 't war the sign o' a new war." +He laughed lazily at the uninstructed terrors of the unsophisticated +denizens of the "furderest coves." "They'd gather around an' +stare-gaze at the poles, an' wonder if they'd hev ter fight the Rebs +agin; them folks is mos'ly Union." Then his interest in the subject +quickening, "Them survey fellers, they ondertook, too, ter medjure the +tallness o' some o' the mountings fur the gover'mint. Now what good is +that goin' ter do the Nunited States?" he resumed grudgingly. "The +mountings kin be medjured by the eye,--look a-yander." He pointed with +the end of his whip at a section of the horizon, visible between the +fringed and low-swaying boughs of hemlock and fir as the trail swept +closer to the verge of the range, on which was softly painted, as on +ivory and with an enameled lustre, two or three great azure domes, +with here and there the high white clouds of a clear day nestling +flakelike on the summits. "They air jes' all-fired high, an' that's +all. Do it make 'em seem enny taller ter say they air six thousand or +seben thousand feet? Man ain't used ter medjurin' by the thousand +feet. When he gits ter the ground he goes by the pole. I dunno how +high nor how long a thousand feet air. The gover'mint jes' want ter +spend a leetle money, I reckon. It 'pears toler'ble weak-kneed in its +mind, wunst in a while. But ef it wants ter fool money away, it's +mighty well able ter afford sech. It hev got a power o' ways a-comin' +at money,--we all know that, we all know that." + +He said this with a gloomy inflection and a downward look that might +have implied a liability for taxes beyond his willingness to pay. But, +barring the assessment on a small holding of mountain land, Constant +Hite seemed in case to contribute naught to his country's exchequer. + +"It needs all it can get, now," replied the stranger casually, but +doubtless from a sophisticated knowledge, as behooved a reader of the +journals of the day, of the condition of the treasury. + +He could not account for the quick glance of alarm and enmity which +the mountaineer cast upon him. It roused in him a certain constraint +which he had not experienced earlier in their chance association. It +caused him to remember that this was a lonely way and a wild country. +He was an alien to the temper and sentiment of the people. He felt +suddenly that sense of distance in mind and spirit which is the true +isolation of the foreigner, and which even an identity of tongue and +kindred cannot annul. Looking keenly into the mountaineer's +half-averted, angry, excited face, he could not for his life discern +how its expression might comport with the tenor of the casual +conversation which had elicited it. He did not even dimly surmise that +his allusion to the finances of the government could be construed as a +justification of the whiskey tax, generally esteemed in the mountains +a measure of tyrannous oppression; that from his supposititious +advocacy of it he had laid himself liable to the suspicion of being +himself of the revenue force,--his mission here to spy out +moonshiners; that his companion's mind was even now dwelling anew, and +with a rueful difference, on that masterly drawing of himself in the +stranger's sketch-book. + +"But what do that prove, though?" Hite thought, a certain hope +springing up with the joy of the very recollection of the simulacrum +of the brilliant rural coxcomb adorning the page. "Jes' that me is +_Me_. All he kin say 'bout me air that hyar I be goin' home from +huntin' ter kerry my game. _That_ ain't agin the law, surely." + +The "revenuers," he argued, too, never rode alone, as did this man, +and spies and informers were generally of the vicinage. The stranger +was specially well mounted, and as his puzzled cogitation over the +significant silence that had supervened between them became so marked +as to strike Hite's attention, the mountaineer sought to nullify it by +an allusion to the horse. "That feller puts down his feet like a +kitten," he said admiringly. "I never seen nuthin' ez wears shoes so +supple. Shows speed, I s'pose? Built fur it." + +"Makes pretty fair time," responded the stranger without enthusiasm. +The doubt, perplexity, and even suspicion which his companion's manner +had evoked were not yet dissipated, and the allusion to the horse, and +the glow of covetous admiration in Hite's face as his eyes dwelt upon +the finely fashioned creature so deftly moving along, brought suddenly +to his mind sundry exploits of a gang of horse-thieves about these +coves and mountains, detailed in recent newspapers. These rumors had +been esteemed by urban communities in general as merely sensational, +and had attracted scant attention. Now, with their recurrence to his +recollection, their verisimilitude was urged upon him. The horse he +rode was a valuable animal, and moreover, here, ten or twenty miles +from a habitation, would prove a shrewd loss indeed. Nevertheless, it +was impossible to shake off or evade his companion; the wilderness, +with its jungle of dense rhododendron undergrowth on either side of +the path, was impenetrable. There was no alternative practicable. He +could only go on and hope for the best. + +A second glance at the mountaineer's honest face served in some sort +as reassurance as to the probity of his character. Gradually a vivid +interest in the environment, which had earlier amazed and amused +Constant Hite, began to be renewed. The stranger looked about to +identify the growths of the forest with a keen, fresh enthusiasm, as +if he were meeting old friends. Once, with a sudden flush and an +intent eye, he flung the reins to the man whom he had half suspected +of being a horse-thief ten minutes before, to hastily dismount and +uproot a tiny wayside weed, which he breathlessly and triumphantly +explained to the wondering mountaineer was a rare plant which he had +never seen; he carefully bestowed it between the leaves of his +sketch-book before he resumed the saddle, and Hite was moved to ask, +"How d' ye know its durned comical name, ef ye never seen it afore? By +Gosh! it's got a name longer 'n its tap-root!" + +The town man only laughed a trifle at this commentary upon the +botanical Latin nomenclature, and once more he was leaning from his +saddle, peering down the aisles of the forest with a smiling, +expectant interest, as if they held for him some enchantment of which +duller mortals have no ken. A brown geode, picked up in the channel of +a summer-dried stream, showed an interior of sparkling quartz crystal, +when a blow had shattered it, which Hite had never suspected, often as +he had seen the rugged spherical stones lying along the banks. All the +rocks had a thought for the stranger, close to his heart and quick on +his tongue, and as Hite, half skeptical, half beguiled, listened, his +suspicion of the man as a "revenuer" began to fade. + +"The revenuers ain't up ter no sech l'arnin' ez this," he said to +himself, with a vicarious pride. "The man, though he never war in the +mountings afore, knows ez much about 'em ez ef he hed bodaciously +built 'em. Fairly smelt that thar cave over t' other side the ridge +jes' now, I reckon; else how'd he know 't war thar?" + +A certain hollow reverberation beneath the horse's hoofs had caught +his companion's quick ear. "Have you ever been in this cave +hereabout?" he had asked, to Hite's delighted amazement at this +brilliant feat of mental jugglery, as it seemed to him. + +Even the ground, when the repetitious woods held no new revelation of +tree or flower, or hazy, flickering insect dandering through the +yellow sunshine and the olive-tinted shadow and the vivid green +foliage, the very ground had a word for him. + +"This formation here," he said, leaning from his saddle to watch the +path slipping along beneath his horse's hoofs, like the unwinding of +coils of brown ribbon, "is like that witch-face slope that we saw +awhile ago. It seems to occur at long intervals in patches. You see +down that declivity how little grows, how barren." + +The break in the density of the woods served to show the mountains, +blue and purple and bronze, against the horizon; an argosy of white +clouds under full sail; the Cove, shadowy, slumberous, so deep down +below; and the oak leaves above their heads, all dark and sharply +dentated against the blue. + +Hite had suddenly drawn in his horse. An eager light was in his eye, a +new idea in his mind. He felt himself on the verge of imminent +discovery. + +"Now," said he, lowering his voice mysteriously, and laying his hand +on the bridle of the other's horse,--and so far had the allurements of +science outstripped merely mundane considerations that the stranger's +recent doubts and anxieties touching his animal were altogether +forgotten, and he was conscious only of a responsive expectant +interest,--"air thar ennything in that thar 'formation,' ez ye calls +it ez could gin out fire?" + +"No, certainly not," said the man of science, surprised, and marking +the eager, insistent look in Hite's eyes. Both horses were at a +standstill now. A jay-bird clanged out its wild woodsy cry from the +dense shadows of a fern-brake far in the woods on the right, and they +heard the muffled trickling of water, falling on mossy stones hard by, +from a spring so slight as to be only a silver thread. The trees far +below waved in the wind, and a faint dryadic sibilant singing sounded +a measure or so, and grew fainter in the lulling of the breeze, and +sunk to silence. + +"Ennyhow," persisted Hite, "won't sech yearth gin out light +somehows,--in some conditions sech ez ye talk 'bout?" he added +vaguely. + +"Spontaneously? Certainly not," the stranger replied, preserving his +erect pose of inquiring and expectant attention. + +"Why, then the mounting's 'witched sure enough,--that's all," said +Hite desperately. He cast off his hold on the stranger's horse, caught +up his reins anew, and made ready to fare onward forthwith. + +"Does fire ever show there?" demanded his companion wonderingly. + +"It's a plumb meracle, it's a plumb mystery," declared Constant Hite, +as they went abreast into the dense shadow of the closing woods. "I +asked ye this 'kase ez ye 'peared ter sense so much in rocks, an' +weeds, an' birds, an' sile, what ain't revealed ter the mortal eye in +gineral, ye mought be able ter gin some nateral reason fur that thar +sile up thar round the old witch-face ter show fire or sech. But it's +beyond yer knowin' or the knowin' o' enny mortal, I reckon." + +"How does the fire show?" persisted the man of science, with keen and +attentive interest. "And who has seen it?" + +"Stranger," said Hite, lowering his voice, "I hev viewed it, myself. +But fust it war viewed by the Hanways,--them ez lives in that house on +the spur what prongs out o' the range nigh opposite the slope o' the +Witch-Face. One dark night,--thar war no moon, but thar warn't no +storm, jes' a dull clouded black sky, ez late August weather will show +whenst it be heavy an' sultry,--all of a suddenty, ez the Hanway +fambly war settin' on the porch toler'ble late in the night, the air +bein' close in the house, the darter, Narcissa by name, she calls out, +'Look! look! I see the witch-face!' An' they all start up an' stare +over acrost the deep black gorge. An' thar, ez true ez life, war the +witch-face glimmerin' in the midst o' the black night, and agrinnin' +at 'em an' a-mockin' at 'em, an' lighted up ez ef by fire." + +"And did no one discover the origin of the fire?" asked the stranger. + +"Thar war no fire!" Constant Hite paused impressively. Then he went on +impulsively, full of his subject: "Ben Hanway kem over ter the +still-house arter me, an' tergether we went ter examinate. But the +bresh is powerful thick, an' the way is long, an' though we seen a +flicker wunst or twict ez we-uns pushed through the deep woods, 't war +daybreak 'fore we got thar, an' nare sign nor smell o' fire in all the +woods could we find; nare scorch nor singe on the ground, not even a +burnt stick or chunk ter tell the tale; everythin' ez airish an' cool +an' jewy an' sweet ter the scent ez a summer mornin' is apt ter be." + +"How often has this phenomenon occurred?" said the stranger coolly, +but with a downcast, thoughtful eye and a pursed-up lip, as if he were +less surprised than cogitating. + +"Twict only, fur we hev kep' an eye on the old witch, Ben an' me. Ben +wants a road opened out up hyar, stiddier jes' this herder's trail +through the woods. Ben dunno how it mought strike folks ef they war +ter know ez the witch-face hed been gin over ter sech cur'ous ways +all of a suddenty. They mought take it fur a sign agin the road, sech +ez b'lieves in the witch-face givin' bad luck." After a pause, "Then +_I_ viewed it wunst,--wunst in the dead o' the night. I war goin' home +from the still, an' I happened ter look up, an' I seen the +witch-face,--the light jes' dyin' out, jes' fadin' out. She didn't hev +time ter make more 'n two or three faces at me, an' then she war gone +in the night. It's a turr'ble-lookin' thing at night, stranger. So ye +can't tell what makes it,--the sile, or what?" + +He turned himself quite sideways as he spoke, one hand on the carcass +of the deer behind the saddle, the other on his horse's neck, the +better to face his interlocutor and absorb his scientific +speculations. And in that moment an odd idea occurred to him,--nay, a +conviction. He perceived that his companion knew and understood the +origin of the illumination; and more,--that he would not divulge it. + +"The soil? Assuredly not the soil," the stranger said mechanically. He +was looking down, absorbed in thought, secret, mysterious, yet not +devoid of a certain inexplicable suggestion of triumph; for a subtle +cloaked elation, not unlike a half-smile, was on his face, although +its intent, persistent expression intimated the following out of a +careful train of ideas. + +"Then what is it?" demanded Hite arrogantly, as if he claimed the +right to know. + +"I really couldn't undertake to say," the stranger responded, his +definite manner so conclusive an embargo on further inquiries that +Hite felt rising anew all his former doubts of the man, and his fears +and suspicions as to the errand that had brought him hither. + +Could it be possible, he argued within himself, that to the agency of +"revenuers" was due that mysterious glow, more brilliant than any +ordinary fire, steady, suffusive, continuous, rising in the dark +wilderness, in the deep midnight, to reveal that ominous face +overlooking all the countryside, with subtle flickers of laughter +running athwart its wonted contortions, more weird and sinister in +this ghastly glare than by day? And what significance might attend +these strange machinations? Revolving the idea, he presently shook his +head in conclusive negation as he rode along. The approach of raiders +was silent and noiseless and secret. Whatever the mystery might +portend it was not thus that they would advertise their presence, +promoting the escape of the objects of their search. Hite's open and +candid mind could compass no adequate motive for concealment in all +the ways of the world but the desire to evade the revenue law, or to +practice the shifts and quirks necessary to the capture of the wary +and elusive moonshiner. Nevertheless, it was impossible, on either of +these obvious bases, to account for the fact of something withheld in +the stranger's manner, some secret exultant knowledge of the +phenomenon which baffled the mountaineer's speculation. Hite, all +unaware that in his impulsive speech he had disclosed the fact of his +hazardous occupation, began to feel that, considering his liability to +the Federal law for making brush whiskey, he had somewhat transcended +the limit of his wonted hardihood in so long bearing this stranger +company along the tangled ways of the herder's trail through the +wilderness. "He _mought_ be a revenuer arter all, an' know all about +me. The rest o' the raiders mought be a-waitin' an' a-layin' fur me at +enny turn," he reflected. "Leastwise he knows a deal more'n he's +a-goin' ter tell." + +He drew up his horse as they neared an open bluff where the beetling +rocks jutted out like a promontory above the sea of foliage below. +They might judge of the long curvature of the conformation of the +range just here, for on the opposite height was visible at intervals +the road they had traveled, winding in and out among the trees, +ascending the mountain in serpentine coils; they beheld the Cove +beneath from a new angle, and further yet the barren cherty slope on +which, despite the distance, the witch-face could still be discerned +by eyes practiced in marking its lineaments, trained to trace the +popular fantasy. The stranger caught sight of it at the same moment +that Hite lifted his hand toward it. + +"Thar it is!" Hite exclaimed, "fur all the Cove's a shadder, an' fur +all the wind's a breath." + +For clouds had thickened over the sky, and much of the world was gray +beneath, and the scene had dulled in tint and spirit since last they +had had some large outlook upon it. Only on the slopes toward the east +did the sunshine rest, and in the midst of a sterile, barren slant it +flickered on that semblance of ill omen. + +"An onlucky day, stranger," Hite said slowly. + +The man of science had drawn in his restive horse, and had turned with +a keen, freshened interest toward the witch-face. It was with a look +of smiling expectancy that he encountered the aspect of snarling +mockery, half visible or half imaginary, of that grim human +similitude. The mountaineer's brilliant dark eyes dwelt upon him +curiously. However, if he had forborne from prudential motives from +earlier asking the stranger's name and vocation, lest more than a +casual inquisitiveness be thereby implied, exciting suspicion, such +queries were surely not in order at the moment of departure. For Hite +had resolved on parting company. "An onlucky day," he reiterated, "an +onlucky day. An' this be ez far ez we spen' it tergether. I turn off +hyar." + +So ever present with him was his spirituous conscience--it could +hardly be called a bad conscience--that he half expected his companion +to demur, and the posse of a deputy marshal to spring up from their +ambush in the laurel about them. But the stranger, still with a flavor +of preoccupation in his manner, only expressed a polite regret to say +farewell so early, and genially offered to shake hands. As with +difficulty he forced his horse close to the mountaineer's saddle, Hite +looked at the animal with a touch of disparagement. "That thar beastis +hev got cornsider'ble o' the devil in him; he'll trick ye some day; ye +better look out. Waal, far'well stranger, far'well." + +The words had a regretful cadence. Whether because of the unwonted +interest which the stranger had excited, or the reluctance to +relinquish his curiosity, still ungratified, or the pain of parting to +an impressionable nature, whose every emotion is acute, Hite hesitated +when he had gone some twenty yards straight up the slope above, +pushing his horse along a narrow path through the jungle of the +laurel, and turned in his saddle to call out again, "Far'well!" + +The stranger, still at the point where Hite had quitted him, waved his +hand and smiled. The jungle closed about the mountaineer, once more +pushing on, and still the smiling eyes dwelt on the spot where he had +disappeared. "Farewell, my transparent friend," the stranger said, +with a half-laugh. "I hope the day is not unlucky enough to put a +deputy marshal on your track." And with one more glance at the +witch-face, he gathered the reins in his hand and rode on alone along +the narrow tangled ways of the herder's trail. + +Now and again, as the day wore on, Constant Hite was seized with a +sense of something wanting, and he presently recognized the deficit as +the expectation of the ill fortune which should befall the time, and +which still failed to materialize. So strong upon him was the +persuasion of evil chances rife in the air to-day that he set himself +as definitely to thwart and baffle them as if rationally cognizant of +their pursuit. He would not return to his wonted vocation at the +distillery, but carried his venison home, where his father, a very old +man, with still the fervors of an aesthetic pride, pointed out with +approbation the evidence of a fair shot in the wound at the base of +the buck's ear, and his mother, active, wiry, practical-minded, noted +the abundance of fat. "He fed hisself well whilst he war about it," +she commented, "an' now he'll feed us well. What diff'unce do it make +whether Con's rifle-ball hit whar he aimed ter do or no, so he fetched +him down somewhar?" + +The afternoon passed peacefully away. It seemed strangely long. The +sun, barring a veiled white glister in a clouded gray sky, betokening +the solar focus, disappeared; the wind fell; the very cicadae, so loud +in the latter days of August, were dulled to long intervals of +silence; in the distance, a tree-toad called and called, with +plaintive iteration, for rain. "Ye'll git it, bubby," Con addressed +the creature, as he stood in the cornfield--a great yellow +stretch--pulling fodder, and binding the long pliant blades into +bundles. The clouds still thickened; the heat grew oppressive; the +long rows of the corn were motionless, save the rustling of the blades +as Hite tore them from the stalk. Even his mother's spinning-wheel, +wont to briskly whir through the long afternoons, from the window of +the little cabin on the rise, grew silent, and his father dozed +beneath the gourd vines on the porch. + +The sun went down at last, and the gray day imperceptibly merged into +the gray dusk. Then came the lingering darkness, with a flicker of +fireflies and broad wan flares of heat lightning. Con woke once in the +night to hear the rain on the roof. The wind was blaring near at hand. +In its large, free measures, like some deliberate adagio, there was +naught of menace; but when he slept again, and awoke to hear its voice +anew, his heart was plunging with sudden fright. A human utterance was +in its midst,--a human voice calling his name through the gusty night +and the sibilant rush of the rain from the eaves. He listened for a +moment at the roof-room window. He recognized with a certain relief +the tones of the constable of the district. He opened the shutter. + +A new day was near to breaking. He saw the wan sky above the periphery +of dense dark woods about the clearing. A brown dusk obscured the +familiar landmarks, but beneath a gnarled old apple-tree by the gate +several men were dimly suggested, and another, more distinct, by the +wood-pile, was in the act of gathering a handful of chips to throw at +the shutter again. He desisted as he marked the face at the window. + +"Kem down," he said gruffly, clearing his throat in embarrassment. +"Kem down, Constant. No use roustin' out the old folks." + +"What do you want?" asked Hite in a low voice, his heart seeming to +stand still in suspense. + +The constable hesitated. The cold rain dashed into Hite's face. The +rail fences, in zigzag lines, were coming into view. A mist was +floating white against the dark densities of the woods. He heard the +water splashing from the eaves heavily into the gullies below, and +then the constable once more raucously cleared his throat. + +"Thar's a man," he drawled, "a stranger hyarabouts, killed yestiddy in +the bridle-path. The cor'ner hev kem, an' he 'lows ye know suthin' +'bout'n it, Constant,--'bout'n the killin' of him. I be sent ter fetch +ye." + + +II. + +A chimney, half of stone, half of clay and stick, stood starkly up in +the gray rain and the swooping, shifting gray fog. It marked the site +of a cabin burned long ago, and in such melancholy wise as it might it +told of the home that had been. Now and again far-away lightning +flashed on its fireless hearth; a vacant bird's-nest in a cranny +duplicated the suggestions of desertion; the cold mist crept in and +curled up out of the smokeless flue with a mockery of semblance. The +fire that had wrought its devastating will in the black midnight in +the deep wilderness, so far from rescue or succor, had swiftly burned +out its quick fury, and was sated with the humble household +belongings. The barn, rickety, weather-beaten, deserted, and vacant, +still remained,--of the fashion common to the region, with a loft +above, and an open wagonway between the two compartments below,--and +it was here that the inquest was held. It was near the scene of the +tragedy, and occasionally a man would detach himself from the slow, +dawdling, depressed-looking group of mountaineers who loitered in the +open space beneath the loft, and traverse the scant distance down the +bridle-path to gaze at the spot where the stranger's body had lain, +whence it had been conveyed to the nearest shelter at hand, the old +barn, where the coroner's jury were even now engaged in their +deliberations. Sometimes, another, versed in all the current rumors, +would follow to point out to the new-comer the details, show how the +rain had washed the blood away, and fearfully mark the tokens of +frantic clutches at the trees as the man had been torn from his horse. +The animal had vanished utterly; even the prints of his hoofs were +soon obliterated by the torrents and the ever-widening puddles. And +thus had arisen the suspicion of ambush and foul play, and the +implication of the mysterious gang of horse-thieves, whose rumored +exploits seemed hardly so fabulous with the disappearance of the +animal and the violent death of the rider in evidence. The locality +offered no other suggestion, and it was but a brief interval before +the way would be retraced by the awe-stricken observer, noting with a +deep interest impossible hitherto all the environment: the stark +chimney of the vanished house, monumental in the weed-grown waste; +the dripping forest; the roof of the barn, sleek and shining, and with +rain pouring down the slant of its clapboards and splashing from its +eaves; the groups of horses hitched to the scraggy apple-trees of the +deserted homestead; and here and there the white canvas cover of an +ox-wagon, with its yoke of steers standing with low-hung heads in the +downpour. The pallid circling mists enveloped the world, and limited +the outlook to a periphery of scant fifty paces; occasionally becoming +tenuous, as if to suggest the dark looming of the mountain across the +narrow valley, and the precipice close at hand behind the building, +then once more intervening, white and dense of texture, forming a +background which imparted a singular distinctness to the figures +grouped in the open space of the barn beneath the shadowy loft. + +The greater number of the gathering had been summoned hither by a +sheer curiosity as coercive as a subpoena, but sundry of the group +were witnesses, reluctant, anxious, with a vague terror of the law, +and an ignorant sense of an impending implication that set both craft +and veracity at defiance. They held their heads down ponderingly, as +they stood; perhaps rehearsing mentally the details of their meagre +knowledge of the event, or perhaps canvassing the aspect of certain +points which might impute to them blame or arouse suspicion, and +endeavoring to compass shifty evasions, to transform or suppress them +in their forthcoming testimony. At random, one might have +differentiated the witnesses from the mass of the ordinary mountaineer +type by the absorbed eye, or the meditative moving lip unconsciously +forming unspoken words, or the fallen dismayed jaw as of the victim of +circumstantial evidence. It was a strange chance, the death that had +met this casual wayfarer at their very doors, and one might not know +how the coroner would interpret it. His power to commit a suspect +added to his terrors, and gave to the capable, astute official a +mundane formidableness that overtopped the charnel-house flavor of his +more habitual duties. He was visible through the unchinked logs of the +little room where the inquest was in progress, barely spacious enough +to contain the bier, the jury, and the witness under examination; and +yet so great was the sound of the rain outside and the stir of the +assemblage that little or naught was overheard without. + +Now and again the waiting witnesses looked with doubt and curiosity +and suspicion at a new-comer, with an obvious disposition to hope and +believe that others knew more of the matter than they, and thus were +more liable to accusation. Occasionally, a low-toned, husky query +would be met by a curt rejoinder suggesting a cautious reticence and a +rising enmity, blockading all investigation save the obligatory +inquisition of a coroner's jury. An object of ever-recurrent scrutiny +was a stranger in the vicinity, who had been subpoenaed also. The +facial effect of culture and sophistication was illustrated in his +inexpressive, controlled, masklike countenance. He was generally known +as the "valley man with the lung complaint," who had built a cabin on +the mountain during the summer, banished hither by the advice of his +physician for the value to the lungs of the soft, healing air. He wore +a brown derby hat, a fawn-colored suit, and a brown overcoat, with the +collar upturned. He was blond and young, and so impassive was his +sober, decorous aspect that the aptest detective could have discerned +naught of significance as he stood, quite silent and composed, in the +centre of the place where it was dry, exempt from the gusts of rain +that the wind now and again flung in spray upon the outermost members +of the group, one hand in the pocket of his trousers, the other +toying with a cigar which so far he held unlighted. + +Of the two women present, one, seated upon the beam of a broken +plough, refuse of the agricultural industry long ago collapsed here, +was calmly smoking her pipe,--a wrinkled, unimpressed personality, who +had seen many years, and whose manner might imply that all these +chances of life and death came in the gross, and that existence was a +medley at best. The other, a witness, was young. More than once the +"valley man" cast a covert glance at her as, clad in a brown homespun +dress, she leaned against the log wall, her face, which was very pale, +half turned toward it, as if to hide the features already much +obscured by the white sunbonnet drawn far over it. One arm was lifted, +and her hand was passed between the unchinked logs in a convulsive +grasp upon them. Her figure was tall and slender, and expressive in +its rigid constraint; it was an attitude of despair, of repulsion, of +fear. It might have implied grief, or remorse, or anxiety. Often the +eyes of the prescient victims of circumstantial evidence rested +dubiously upon her. To the great majority of men, the presence of +women in affairs of business is an intrusive evil of times out of +joint. Now, since matters of life and liberty were in the balance, the +primitive denizens of Witch-Face Mountain felt that the admission of +Narcissa Hanway's testimony to consideration and credibility evinced +an essential defect in the law of the land, and the fallibility of all +human reasoning. What distorted impression might not so appalling an +event make upon one so young, so feminine, so inexperienced! What +exaggerated wild thing might she not say, unintentionally inculpating +half Witch-Face Mountain in robbery and murder! + +Constant Hite, as he bluffly entered the passageway, his head up, his +eyes wide and bright, his vigorous step elastic and light, gave no +token of the spiritual war he had waged as he came. Already he felt in +great jeopardy. On account of his illicit vocation he could ill abide +the scrutiny of the law. With scant proof, he argued, a moonshiner +might be suspected of highway robbery and murder. As he had journeyed +hither with the constable and his fellows, who conserved the air of +disinterested spectators, but who he knew had been summoned to aid the +officer in case he should evade or delay, when he would have been +forthwith arrested, he had been sorely tempted to deny having ever +seen the stranger, in whose company he had spent an hour or so of the +previous day. He had been able to put the lie from him with a normal +moral impulse. He did not appreciate the turpitude of perjury. He +esteemed it only a natural lie invested with pomp and circumstance; +and the New Testament on which he should be sworn meant no more to his +unlettered conscience than the horn-book, since he knew as little of +its contents. But a lie is a skulking thing, and he had scant affinity +with it. + +He thought, with a sort of numb wonderment, that it was strange he +should feel no more compassion for the object stretched out here, +dumb, dead, bruised, and bloody, which so short a space since he had +seen full of life and interest, animated by a genial courtesy and +graced with learning and subtle insight; now so unknowing, so +unlettered, so blind! Whither went this ethereal investiture of +life?--for it was not mere being; one might exist hardily enough +without it. Did the darkness close over it, too, or was it not the +germ of the soul, the budding of that wider knowledge and finer +aspiration to flower hereafter in rarer air? He did not know; he only +vaguely cared, and he reproached himself dully that he cared no more. +For he--his life was threatened! With the renewal of the thought he +experienced a certain animosity toward the man that he should not have +known enough to take better care of himself. Why must he needs die +here, in this horrible unexplained way, and leave other men, chance +associates, to risk stretching hemp for murder? He felt his strong +life beating in his throat almost to suffocation at the mere +suggestion. Again the lie tempted him, to be again withstood; and as +he strode into the room upon the calling of his name, he saw how +futile, how flimsy, was every device, for, fluttering in the coroner's +hand, he recognized the sketch of the "Witch-Face" which the dead man +had made, and the masterly drawing of his own imposing figure in the +foreground. He had forgotten it utterly for the time being. In the +surprise and confusion that had beset him, it had not occurred to him +to speculate how he had chanced to be subpoenaed, how the idea could +have occurred to the coroner that he knew aught of the stranger. As he +stood against the batten door, the pale light from the interstices of +the unchinked logs, all the grayer because it alternated with the +sombre timbers, falling upon his face and figure, his hat upturned in +front, revealing his brow with a forelock of straight black hair, his +brilliant dark eyes, and his distinctly cut definite features, the +sketch-book was swiftly passed from one to another of the jury, +reluctantly relinquished here and there, and more than once eliciting +half-smothered exclamations of delighted wonder from the +unsophisticated mountaineers, as they glanced back and forth from the +man leaning against the door to the counterfeit presentment on the +paper. + +Constant Hite experienced a glow of vicarious pride as he remembered +the satisfaction that the artist had taken in the sketch, and he +wished that that still thing on the bier could know how his work, most +wonderful it seemed, was appreciated. And then, with a swift revulsion +of feeling, he realized that it was this which had entrapped him; this +bit of paper had brought him into fear and trouble and risk of his +life. The man might be of the revenue force. He might have encountered +other moonshiners, and thus have come to his violent death. If this +were his vocation, it brought Hite into dark suspicion by virtue of +the fact, known to a few of the neighborhood, that he himself was a +distiller of brush whiskey. No one else had seen the stranger till the +finding of the body. He gathered this from the trend of the inquiry +after the formal preliminary queries. The seven men, as they sat +together on a bench made by passing a plank between the logs of the +wall diagonally across the corner of the room, chewed meditatively +their quids of tobacco, and now and then spat profusely on the ground, +their faces growing more perplexed and graver as the examination +progressed. + +When Hite disclosed the circumstance that on the previous day he had +encountered a "stranger man" near the "Witch-Face," there was a +palpable sensation among them. They glanced at one another meaningly, +and a sudden irritation was perceptible in the coroner's manner as he +sat in a rickety chair near the improvised bier. He was a citizen of +the valley region, a trifle more sophisticated than the jury, and +disposed to seriously deprecate the introduction of any morbid or +superstitious element into so grave a matter. He had a bald head, a +lean face, the bones very clearly defined about the temple and cheek +and jaw, a scanty grizzled beard; and he was dressed somewhat farmer +fashion, in blue jeans, with his boots drawn high over his trousers, +but with a stiffly starched white shirt,--the collar and cravat in +evidence, the cuffs, however, vanished up the big sleeves of his coat. + +"The exact place of the meeting is not material," he said frowningly. + +But Hite's mercurial interest in the drawing had revived anew. + +"Thar she be," he exclaimed, so suddenly that the jury started with a +common impulse, "the ole witch-face,"--he pointed at the sketch in the +coroner's hand,--"a mite ter the east an' a leetle south in the +pictur', ez nat'ral ez life!" + +One of the jurymen asked to see the sketch again. Evidently, in the +hasty delineation of the contours of the slope they had not noticed +the gigantic grimacing countenance which they all knew so well; the +picturesque figure of the mountaineer in the foreground had so +impressed the stranger that it was much more nearly complete than the +landscape, being definite in every detail, and fully shaded. The book +was handed along the row of men, each recognizing the semblance, once +pointed out, with a touch of dismayed surprise that alarmed the +coroner for the sanity of the verdict; his rational estimate rated +spells and bewitchments and omens as far less plausible agencies in +disaster than horse-thieves, highwaymen, and moonshiners. + +"Look at the face of the deceased," he said, with a sort of spare +enunciation, coercive somehow in its inexpressiveness. "Ye are sure ye +never viewed that man afore yestiddy?" + +"I hev said so an' swore it," said Hite, a trifle nettled. + +"Ye rode in comp'ny a hour or mo' an' never asked his name?" + +"I never axed him no questions, nor he me," replied Hite, "'ceptin' +'bout'n the witch-face. He was powerful streck by that. An' I tole him +'t war a onlucky day." + +The jury, a dreary row of unkempt heads, and bearded anxious faces, +and crouching shoulders askew, cleared their throats, and two +uncrossed and recrossed their legs, the plank seat creaking ominously +with the motion under their combined weight. A shade of disappointment +was settling on the coroner's face. This was slight information indeed +from the only person who had seen the man alive. There was silence for +a moment. The splashing of the rain on the roof became drearily +audible in the interval. The stir of the group in the space outside +was asserted anew, with their low-toned fitful converse; a +black-and-white ox in the weed-grown garden emitted a deep, depressed +low of remonstrance against the rain, and the irking of the yoke, and +the herbage just beyond his reach. The jurymen might see him through +the logs, and now and again one of them mechanically ducked his head +to look out upon the dismal aspect of the chimney and orchard, round +which so many horses and wagons had not gathered since the daughter of +the house was long ago married here. There was a sprinkle of gray in +his hair, and he remembered the jollities of the wedding,--incongruous +recollection,--and once more he looked at the stark figure, its face +covered with a white cloth, which had been done in a sentiment of +atonement for the unseemly publicity of its fate. + +In sparsely settled communities, death, being rare, retains much of +the terror which custom lessens in the dense crowds of cities. There +death is met at every corner. It goes on 'Change. It sits upon the +bench. It is chronicled in the columns of every newspaper. Daily its +bells toll. Its melancholy pageantry traverses the streets of wealthy +quarters, and it stalks abroad hourly in the slums, and few there are +who gaze after it. But here it comes so seldom that its dread features +are not made smug by familiarity. When Hite was told to look again at +the face and see if memory might not have played him false, to make +sure he had never seen the man before yesterday, he hesitated, and +advanced with such reluctance, and started back, dropping the cloth, +with such swift repulsion, that the coroner, habituated to such +matters, gazed at him with a doubtful scrutiny. + +"Oh, he looked nowise like that," he exclaimed in a raised, nervous +voice that caught the attention of the crowd outside, and resulted in +a sudden cessation of stir and colloquy, "though it's him, sure +enough! And," with a burst of regret, "he war a mighty pleasant man!" + +The coroner, intentionally taking him at a disadvantage, asked +abruptly, "What do you work at mostly?" + +Hite turned shortly from the bier. "I farms some," he hesitated; "dad +bein' mos'ly out o' the field, nowadays, agin' so constant." + +"What do you work at mostly?" reiterated the official. + +Hite divined his suspicion. Some flying rumor had doubtless come to +his ears, how credible, how unimpugnable, the moonshiner could not +tell. Nevertheless, his loyalty to that secret vocation of his had +become a part of his nature, so continuous were its demands upon his +courage, his strategy, his foresight, his industry. It was tantamount +to his instinct of self-defense. He held his head down, with his +excited dark eyes looking up from under his brows at the coroner. But +he would not speak. He would admit naught of what was evidently known. + +"Warn't ye afeard he might be a revenuer?" suggested the officer. + +"I never war afeard, so ter say, o' one man at a time," Hite ventured. + +"Didn't ye think he might take a notion that you were a moonshiner?" + +"He never showed no suspicion o' me, noways," replied Hite warily. "We +rid tergether free an' favored. He 'peared a powerful book-l'arned +man,--like no revenuer ever I see." + +"Where did you part company?" + +Hite sought to identify the spot by description; and then he was +allowed to pass out, his spirits flagging with the ordeal, and with +the knowledge that his connection with the manufacture of brush +whiskey was suspected by the coroner's jury, suggesting an adequate +motive on his part for waylaying a stranger supposed to be of the +revenue force. He felt the dash of the rain in his face as he stood +aside to make way for the "valley man with the lung complaint," who +was passing into the restricted apartment; and despite his whirl of +anxiety and excitement and regret and resentment, he noted with a +touch of surprise the cool unconcern of the man's face and manner, +albeit duly grave and adjusted to the decorums of the melancholy +occasion. + +He was sworn, and gave his name as Alan Selwyn. The jury listened with +interest to his fluent account of his occupation in the valley, which +had been mercantile, of his temporary residence here for a bronchial +affection; and when he was asked to identify the man who had so +mysteriously come to his death, they marked his quick, easy stride as +he crossed the room, with his hat in his hand, and his unmoved +countenance as he looked fixedly down into the face of the dead. He +remained a longer interval than was usual with the witnesses, as if to +make sure. Then, still quite businesslike and brisk, he stated that he +could not identify him, having certainly never seen him before. + +"The only papers which he had on him," said the coroner, watching the +effect of his words, "were two letters addressed to you." + +The young man started in palpable surprise. As he looked at the +exterior of the letters, which were stamped and postmarked, he +observed that they must have been taken out of the post-office +at Sandford Cross-Roads, to expedite their delivery; the +postmaster doubtless consenting to this request on the part +of so reputable-looking a person or a possible acquaintance. + +"Were you expecting a visitor?" asked the coroner. + +"Not at all," responded the puzzled witness. + +He was requested to open the letters, read and show them. But he +waived this courtesy, asking the coroner to open and read them to the +jury. They were of no moment, both on matters of casual business, and +Mr. Alan Selwyn was dismissed; the coroner blandly regretting that, in +view of his malady, he had been required to come out in so chilly a +rain. + +Notwithstanding his composure he was in some haste to be gone. He went +quickly through the crowd, drawing down his hat over his brow, and +deftly buttoning his overcoat across his chest and throat. He had +reached his horse, and had placed one foot in the stirrup, when, +chancing to glance back over his shoulder, he saw Narcissa Hanway's +white, flowerlike face, her bonnet pushed far back on her tawny yellow +hair, both arms outstretched in a gesture of negation and repulsion +toward the apartment where the jury sat, while a dark-haired, slow man +urged her forward, one hand on her shoulder, and the old mountain +woman followed with insistence and encouragement. He hesitated for a +moment; then putting spurs to his horse, he rode off swiftly through +the slanting lines of rain. + + +III. + +A sense of helplessness in the hands of fate is in some sort conducive +to courage. Doubtless many an act of valor which has won the world's +applause was precipitated in a degree by desperation and the lack of +an alternative. The appearance of stolidity with which the cluster of +witnesses--those whose testimony was yet to be given as well as those +who had told the little they knew--noted the uncontrolled agitation, +the wild eyes, the hysteric sobs, with which Narcissa Hanway was +ushered into the contracted apartment where the inquest was in +progress, had no correlative calmness of mind or heart. What haphazard +accusation might not result from her fear, or her desire to shield +another, or the mere undisciplined horror of the place and the fact! +When one dreads the sheer possibilities, the extremes of terror are +reached. More than one of the bearded, unkempt, hardy mountaineers, +trudging back and forth in the sheltered space beneath the loft, +steadily chewing their quids of tobacco and eying the rain, would have +fled incontinently, had there been any place to run to out of reach of +the constable, who was particularly brisk to-day, participating in +exercises of so unusual an interest. The girl's brother, standing +beside the door after she had passed within, was unconscious of a +certain keen covert scrutiny of which he was the subject. He had a +square determined face, dark hair, slow gray eyes, and a tall powerful +frame; he held his head downward, his hand on the door, his even teeth +set in the intensity of his effort to distinguish the voices within. +There had been some secret speculation as to whether the man were +altogether unknown to the brother and sister, such deep feeling she +had evinced, such coercion he had exerted to induce her to give her +testimony. Still, the girl was a mere slip of a thing, unused to +horrors; and as to recalcitrant witnesses, they all knew the jail had +a welcome for the silent until such time as they might find a voice. +Nevertheless, though his urgency had been in the stead of the +constable's stronger measures, they eyed him askance as he stood and +sought to listen, with his hand on the door. The old woman turned +around, her arms falling to her sides with a sort of flounce of +triumph, her eyes twinkling beneath the shining spectacles set upon +her brow among the limp ruffles of her thrust-back sunbonnet, a laugh +of satisfaction widening her wrinkled face. "Thar now!" she chuckled, +"Nar'sa jes' set it down she _wouldn't_ testify, an' crossed her heart +an' hoped she'd fall dead fust. But, Ben, we beat her that time!" and +she chuckled anew. + +The man answered not a word, and listened to the tumult within. + +It is seldom, doubtless, that the patience of a coroner's jury is +subjected to so strong a strain. But the information which had so far +been elicited was hardly more than the bare circumstance which the +body presented,--a man had ridden here, a stranger, and he was dead. +If the girl knew more than this, it would necessitate some care in the +examination to secure the facts. She was young, singularly willful and +irresponsible, and evidently overcome by grief, or fear, or simply +horror. When she was asked to look at the face of the stranger, she +only caught a glimpse of it, as if by accident, and turned away, +pulling her white bonnet down over her face, and declaring that she +would not. "I hev viewed him wunst, an' I won't look at him again," +she protested, with a burst of sobs. + +"Now set down in this cheer, daughter, an' tell us what ye know about +it all,--easy an' quiet," said the coroner in a soothing, paternal +strain. + +"Oh, nuthin', nuthin'!" exclaimed the girl, throwing herself into the +chair in the attitude of an abandonment of grief. + +"Air ye cryin' 'kase ye war 'quainted with him ennywise?" demanded one +of the jurymen, with a quickening interest. He was a neighbor; that +is, counting as propinquity a distance of ten miles. + +The girl lifted her head suddenly. "I never seen him till yestiddy," +she protested steadily. "I be a heap apter ter weep 'kase my +'quaintances _ain't_ dead!" She gave him a composed, sarcastic smile, +then fell to laughing and crying together. + +To the others the discomfiture of their _confrere_ was the first touch +of comedy relief in the tragic situation. They cast at one another a +glance of appreciation trenching on a smile, and the abashed +questioner drew out a plug of tobacco, and with a manner of +preoccupation gnawed a bit from it; then replaced it in his pocket, +with a physical contortion which caused the plank on which the jury +were seated to creak ominously, to the manifest anxiety of the +worthies ranged thereon. + +"How did you happen to see the man?" he asked, as if he had perceived +no significance in her previous answer. + +"'Kase I didn't happen ter be blind," her half-muffled voice replied. +Her arm was thrown over the back of the chair, and her face was hidden +on her elbow. + +The coroner interposed quickly: "Where were you goin', an' what did +you see?" + +She sobbed aloud for a moment. Then ensued an interval of silence. +Suddenly the interest of the subject seemed to lay hold upon her, and +she began to speak very rapidly, lifting her white tear-stained face, +and pushing her bonnet back on her rough curling auburn hair:-- + +"I war a-blackberryin', thar bein' only a few lef' yit, an' I went fur +an' furder yit from home; an' ez I kem out'n the woods over yon," half +rising, and pointing with a free gesture, "I viewed--or yit I _'lowed_ +I viewed--the witch-face through a bunch o' honey locust, the leaves +bein' drapped a'ready, they bein' always the fust o' the year ter git +bare. An' stiddier leavin' it be, I sot my bucket o' berries at the +foot o' a tree', an started down the slope todes the bluff, ter make +sure an' view it clar o' the trees." The girl paused, her eyes +widening, her voice faltering, her breath coming fast. "An' goin' +swift, some hawgs, stray, half grown, 'bout twenty shoats feedin' in +the woods--my rustlin' in the bushes skeered 'em I reckon--they sot +out to run, possessed by the devil, like them the Scriptur' tells +about." She paused again, panting, her hand to her heart. + +The disaffected juryman turned to one side, recrossing his legs, and +spitting disparagingly on the ground. "She can't swear them hawgs war +possessed by the devil," he said in a low tone to his next neighbor. + +"Oh, why not," exclaimed the girl, "when we know so many men air +possessed by the devil,--why not them shoats, bein' jes' without +clothes, an' without the gift o' speech to mark the diff'unce!" + +She paused again, and the coroner, standing a trifle back of her +chair, shook his head at the obstructive juryman, and asked her in a +commonplace voice what the hogs had to do with it. + +"That's what I wanter know!" she cried, half turning in her chair to +look up at him. "I started 'em, an' I be at the bottom o' it all, ef +it's like I think,--_me_, yearnin' ter look at the old witch-face! The +hawgs run through the woods like fire on dry grass, an' I be 'feared +they skeered the stranger man's horse--he had none whenst I seen him, +though. I hearn loud talkin', or hollerin', a cornsiderable piece off, +an' then gallopin' hoofs"-- + +"More horses than one, do you think?" demanded the coroner. + +"Oh, how kin I swear to that? I seen none. Fur when I got thar, this +man war lyin' in the herder's trail, bruised and bloody--oh, like ye +see--an' his eyes opened; an' he gin a sort o' gasp whenst I tuk his +han'--an' he war dead. An' I skeered the hawgs, an' they skeered his +horse, an' he killed him; an' I be 'sponsible fur it all, an' I wisht +ye'd hang me fur it quick, an' be done with it!" + +She burst into sobs once more, and hid her face on her arm on the back +of the chair. Then, suddenly lifting her head, she resumed: "I jes' +called and called Ben, an' bein' he hain't never fur off, he hearn me, +an' kem. An' then he rid fur the neighbors, an' kem down the valley +arter you-uns," with a side glance at the coroner. "An' he lef' me a +shootin'-iron, in case of a fox, or a wolf, or suthin' kem along. +'Bout sunset the neighbors kem. An' till then I sot thar keepin' +watch, an' a-viewin' the witch-face 'crost the Cove, plumb till the +sun went down." + +She bowed her head again on her arm, and a momentary silence ensued. +Then the coroner, clearing his throat, said reassuringly, "Thar ain't +nuthin' in the witch-face, nohow. It's jes' a notion. Man and boy, I +have knowed that hillside fur forty year, an' I never could see no +witch-face; it's been p'inted out ter me a thousand times." + +She looked at him in dumb amazement for a moment; then broke out, +"Waal, what would ye think ef ye hed seen, like me, the witch-face +shining in the darkest night, nigh on ter midnight, like the ole 'oman +had lighted her a candle somewhars,--jes' shinin', an' grinnin', an' +mockin', plain ez daybreak? That's what _I_ hev viewed--an' I 'low ter +view it agin--oh, I do, I do!" + +He looked at her hard, but he did not say what he thought, and the +faces of the jurymen, which had implied a strong exception to his +declaration of skepticism touching the existence of the ominous facial +outline on the hillside, underwent a sudden change of expression. She +was hardly responsible, they considered, and her last incredible +assertion had gone far to nullify the effect of her previous +testimony. She was overcome by the nervous shock, or had told less +than she knew and was still concealing somewhat, or was so credulous +and plastic and fanciful as to be hardly worthy of belief. She was +dismissed earlier than she had dared to hope: and with this +deterioration of the testimony of the witness who was nearest the time +and place of the disaster, the jury presently went to work to evolve +out of so slender a thread of fact and so knotty a tangle of +possibility their verdict. + +For a long time, it seemed to the curious without, and to the +agitated, nervous witnesses peering through the unchinked logs of the +wall, they sat on their comfortless perch, half crouching forward, and +chewed, and discussed the testimony. There were frequent intervals of +silence, and in one of these Con Hite was disturbed to see the sketch +of the "witch-face" once more passed from hand to hand. They grew to +have a harried, baited look; and after a time, the rain having +slackened, they came out in a body, and walked to and fro quite +silently in the clearing, chewing their quids and their knotty +problem, with apparently as much chance of getting to the completion +of the one as of the other. They were evidently refreshed, however, by +the change of posture and scene, for they soon resumed the subject and +were arguing anew as they paused upon the bluff, their gestures +wonderfully distinct, drawn upon the sea of mist that filled the +valley below and the air above. It revealed naught of the earth, save +here and there a headland, as it were, thrusting out its dark, narrow, +attenuated demesne into the impalpable main. Further and further one +might mark this semblance of a coast-line as the vapor grew more +tenuous, till far away the series of shadowy gray promontories +alternating with the colorless inlets was as vague of essence as the +land of a dream. Near at hand, a cucumber-tree, with its great broad +green leaves and its deep red cones, leaning over the rocks, and +spanning this illusive gray landscape from the zenith to the immediate +foreground, gave the only touch of color to the scenic simulacrum in +many a gradation of neutral tone. The jurymen hovered about under the +boughs for a time, and then came back, still harassed and anxious, to +their den, with perhaps some new question of doubt. For those without +could perceive that once more they were crowding about the bier and +talking together in knots. Again they called in the country physician +who had testified earlier, an elderly personage, singularly long and +thin and angular, but who had a keen, intent, clever face and the +accent of an educated man. He seemed to reiterate some information in +a clear, concise manner, and when he came out it was evident that he +considered his utility here at an end, for he made straight for his +horse and saddle. + +A sudden sensation supervened among the outsiders,--a flutter, and +then a breathless suspense; for within the inclosure, barred with the +heavy shadows of the logs of the walls alternating with the misty +intervals, could be seen the figures of the seven, successively +stooping at the foot of the bier to sign each his name to the +inquisition at last drawn up. + +One by one they came slowly out, looking quite exhausted from their +long restraint, the unwonted mental exercitations, and the nervous +strain. Then it was developed, to the astonishment and disappointment +of the little crowd, tingling with excitement and anxiety, that this +document simply set forth the fact that at an inquisition holden on +Witch-Face Mountain, Kildeer County, before Jeremiah Flaxman, coroner, +upon the body of an unknown man, there lying dead, the jurors whose +names were subscribed thereto, upon their oaths, did say that he came +to his death from concussion of the brain consequent upon being thrown +or dragged from his horse by means or by persons to the jury unknown. + +There was a palpable dismay on Constant Hite's expressive face. He had +hoped that the verdict might be death by accident. Others had expected +the implication of horse-thieves, of whose existence the jury being of +the neighborhood were well advised, and the disappearance of the man's +horse might well suggest this explanation. The coroner would return +this inquisition to the criminal court together with a list of the +material witnesses. Thus the matter was left as undecided as before +the inquest, the jeopardy, the terrors of circumstantial evidence, all +still impending, dark with doom, like the black cloud which visibly +overshadowed the landscape. + + +IV. + +Since the knight-errantry of wolf and bear and catamount and fox has +scant need of milestones, or signposts, or ferries, or the tender +iteration of road-taxes, the casual glance might hardly perceive the +necessity of opening a thoroughfare through this wilderness, for these +freebooters seemed likely to be its chief beneficiaries. A more rugged +district could not be found in all that massive upheaval of rocks and +tangled wooded fastnesses stretching from the northeast to the +southwest some twenty miles, and known as Witch-Face Mountain; a more +scantily populated region than its slopes and adjacent coves scarcely +exists in the length and breadth of the State of Tennessee. The +physical possibilities were arrayed against the project, so steep was +the comblike summit on either side, so heavy and tortuous the +outcropping rock that served as the bony structure of the great +mountain mass. True, the river pierced it, the denudation of solid +sandstone cliffs, a thousand feet in height, betokening the untiring +energy of the eroding currents of centuries agone. This agency, +however, man might not summon to his aid, being "the act of God," +to use the pious language of the express companies to describe +certain contingencies for which they very properly decline the +responsibility. Against the preemptions of the gigantic forests and +the gaunt impassable crags and the abysmal river might be enlisted +only such enterprise as was latent in the male inhabitants of the +vicinity over eighteen years of age and under fifty, thus subject to +the duty of working on the public roads. Nevertheless, the county +court had, in a moment of sanguine exuberance, entertained and granted +an application from the adjacent landowners to order a jury of view to +lay out a public road and to report at the next quarterly session. + +Precursors of the jury of view in some sort two young people might +have seemed, one afternoon, a fortnight, perhaps, after the inquest, +as they pushed through the woody tangles to the cliffs high above the +river, the opposite bank of which was much nearer than the swirling +currents, crystal brown in the romantic shadows below. They walked in +single file, the jury of view in their minds, and now and then +referred to in their sparse speech. + +"Mought make it along hyar, Ben." The girl, in advance, paused, +bareheaded, each uplifted hand holding out a string of her white +sunbonnet, which, thus distended, was poised, winglike, behind the +rough tangle of auburn hair and against the amber sky. She turned as +she spoke, to face her companion, taking a step or two backward as she +awaited his answer. + +"Look out how ye air a-walkin', Narcissa! Ye'll go over the bluff +back'ards, fust thing ye know," the man called out eagerly, and with a +break of anxiety in his voice. + +She stretched the sunbonnet still wider with her upreaching arms, and +with a smile of tantalizing glee, showing her white teeth and +narrowing her brown eyes, she continued to walk backward toward the +precipice,--with short steps, however; cautious enough, doubtless, but +calculated to alarm one whose affection had given much acuteness to +fear. + +Still at too great a distance for interference, Ben affected +indifference. "We-uns'll hev the coroner's jury hyar agin, afore the +jury o' view, ef ye keep on; an' ye ain't got on yer bes' caliker +coat, noways." + +He climbed swiftly up the ascent and joined her, out of breath and +with an angry gleam in his eyes. But she had turned her face and steps +in the opposite direction, the mirth of the situation extinguished for +the present. + +"Quit talkin' that-a-way 'bout sech turr'ble, turr'ble things!" she +cried petulantly, making a motion as if to strike him, futile at the +distance, and with her frowning face averted. + +"Sech ez yer new coat? I 'lowed 't war the apple o' yer eye," he +rejoined with a feint of banter. + +She held her face down, with her features drawn and her eyes half +closed, rejecting the vision of recollection as if it were the sight +itself. "I can't abide the name o' cor'ner's jury,--I never wants ter +hear it nor see it agin! I never shall furgit how them men all looked +a-viewin' the traveler's body what I fund dead in the road; they +looked like jes' so many solemn, peekin', heejus black buzzards +crowdin' aroun' the corpse; then a-noddin' an' a-whisperin' tergether, +an' a-findin' of a verdic' ez they called it. They fund nuthin' at +all. 'T war _me_ ez done the findin'. I fund the man dead in the road. +An' _I_ ain't a-goin' ter be a witness no mo'. Nex' time the law wants +me fur a witness I'll go ter jail; it's cheerfuller, a heap, I'll +bet!" + +As she still held her head down, her bonnet well on it now, her face +with its _riant_ cast of features incongruously woebegone, +overshadowed by the tragedy she recounted even more definitely than by +the brim of her headgear or the first gray advance of the dusk, he +made a clumsy effort to divert her attention. + +"I 'lowed ye war mightily in favor of juries; ye talk mighty nigh all +day 'bout the jury of view." + +"I want a road up hyar," she exclaimed vivaciously, raising her eyes +and her joyous transfigured face, "a reg'lar county road! In the fall +o' the year the folks would kem wagonin' thar chestnuts over ter sell +in town, an' camp out. An' all the mounting would go up an' down it +past our big gate ter the church house in the Cove. I'd never want ter +hear no mo' preachin'. I'd jes' set on our front porch, an' look, an' +look, an' look!" + +She cast up her great bright eyes with as vivid and immediate an +irradiation as if the brilliant procession which she pictured deployed +even now, chiefly in ox-wagons, before them. She caught off her bonnet +from her head,--it seemed a sort of moral barometer; she never wore it +when the indications of the inner atmosphere set fair. She swung it +gayly by one string as she walked and talked; now and again she held +the string to her lips and bit it with her strong, even teeth, +reckless of the havoc in the clumsy hem. + +"Then county court days,--goin' to county court, an' comin' from +county court,--sech passels an' passels o' folks! I wisht we-uns hed +it afore the jury o' view kem, so we-uns mought view the jury o' +view." + +"It's along o' the jury o' view ez we-uns will git the road,--ef we do +git it," the young man said cautiously. + +It was one of his self-imposed duties to moderate, as far as he might, +his sister's views, to temper her enthusiasms and abate her various +and easily excited anger. He had other duties toward her which might +be said to have come to him as an inheritance. + +"Ben's the boy!" his consumptive mother had been wont to say; "he's +sorter slow, but mighty sure. 'Brag is a good dog, but Hold-Fast is a +better.' Ef he don't sense nare 'nother idee in this life, he hev got +ter l'arn ez it's his business ter take keer o' Nar'sa. Folks say +Nar'sa be spoiled a'ready. So be, fur whilst Ben be nuthin' but a boy +he'll l'arn ter do her bid, an' watch over her, an' wait on her, an' +keer for her, an' think she be the top o' creation. It'll make her +proud an' headin', I know,--she'll gin her stepmammy a sight o' +trouble, an' I ain't edzactly lamentin' 'bout'n that,--but Ben'll take +keer o' her all her life, an' good keer, havin' been trained ter it +from the fust." + +But his mother had slept many a year in the little mountain graveyard, +and her place was still empty. The worldly wise craft of the simple +mountain woman, making what provision she might for the guardianship +of her daughter, was rendered of scant effect, since her husband did +not marry again. The household went on as if she still sat in her +accustomed place, with not one deficiency or disaster that might have +served in its simple sort as a memorial,--so little important are we +in our several spheres, so promptly do the ranks of life close up as +we drop dead from their alignment. + +The panoply against adversity with which Narcissa had been accoutred +by a too anxious mother, instead of being means of defense, had become +opportunities of oppression. Her brother's affectionate solicitude and +submissiveness were accepted as her bounden due, as the two grew +older; her father naturally adapted himself to the predominant +sentiment of the household; and few homes can show a tyrant more +arrogant and absolute than the mountain girl whose mother had so +predicted for her much hardship and harshness, and a troubled and +subordinate existence. + +It was with that instinct to guard her from all the ills of life, +great and small, that Ben sought to prepare her for a possible +disappointment now. + +"Mought n't git the road through, nohow, when all's said," he +suggested. + +"What fur not?" she exclaimed, bringing her dark brows together above +eyes that held a glitter of anger. + +"Waal, some o' the owners won't sign the application, an' air goin' +ter fight it in the Court." + +She put her bonnet on, and looked from under its brim up at the amber +sky. It was growing faintly green near the zenith, toward which the +lofty topmost plumes of the dark green pines swayed. The great growths +of the forest rose on every side. There was no view, no vista, save +the infinitely repeated umbrageous tangle beneath the trees, where +their boles stood more or less distinct or dusky till merged +indefinitely into shadow and distance. Looking down into the river, +one lost the sense of monotony. The ever-swirling lines of the current +drew mystic scrolls on that wonderfully pellucid brown surface,--so +pellucid that from the height above she could see a swiftly darting +shadow which she knew was the reflection of a homeward-bound hawk in +the skies higher yet. Leaves floated in a still, deep pool, were +caught in a maddening eddy, and hurried frantically away, unwilling, +frenzied, helpless, unknowing whither, never to return,--allegory of +many a life outside those darkling solemn mountain woods, and of some, +perhaps, in the midst of them. The reflection of the cliffs in the +never still current, of the pines on their summits, of the changing +sky growing deeper and deeper, till its amber tint, erstwhile so +crystalline, became of a dull tawny opaqueness, she marked absently +for a while as she cogitated on his answer. + +"What makes 'em so contrairy, Ben?" she asked at last. + +"Waal, old man Sneed 'lows thar'll be a power o' cattle-thievin', with +the road so open an' convenient. An' Jeremiah Sayres don't want ter +pay no road-taxes. An' Silas Boyd 'lows he don't want ter be obligated +ter work on no sech rough road ez this hyar one air obleeged ter be; +an' I reckon, fust an' last, it _will_ take a power o' elbow grease." + +He paused, and looked about him at the great shelving masses of rock +and the steep slants, repeated through leagues and leagues of mountain +wilderness. Then seating himself on one of the ledges of the cliff, +his feet dangling unconcernedly over the abysses below, he continued: +"An' Con Hite,--he's agin it, too." + +She lifted her head, with a scornful rising flush. + +"Con Hite dunno _what_ he wants; _he_ ain't got a ounce o' jedgmint." + +"Waal, one thing he _don't_ want is a road. He be 'feared it'll go too +close ter the still, an' the raiders will nose him out somehows. Now +he be all snug in the bresh, an' the revenuers none the wiser." + +"An' Con none the wiser, nuther," she flouted. "The raiders hev smoked +out 'sperienced old mountain foxes a heap slyer'n Con be. He ain't +got the gift. He can't hide nuthin'. I kin find out everythin' he +knows by jes' lookin' in his eye." + +"That's just 'kase he's fool enough ter set a heap o' store by ye, +Nar'sa. He ain't so easy trapped." + +"Fool enough fur ennythin'," she retorted. + +"An' then thar 's old Dent Kirby. He 'lows the road will be obligated +ter pass by the witch-face arter it gits over yander nigh ter the +valley, whar the ruver squeezes through the mounting agin. He be +always talkin' 'bout signs an' spells an' sech, an' he 'lows the very +look o' the witch-face kerries bad luck, an' it'll taint all ez goes +for'ard an' back'ard a-nigh it." + +"Ben," said the girl in a low voice, "do you-uns b'lieve ef thar war +passin' continual on a sure enough county road that thar cur'ous white +light would kem on the old witch's face in the night-time? Ain't that +a sort'n spell fur the dark an' the lonesomeness ter tarrify a few +quaking dwellers round about? Surely many folks comin' an' goin' +wouldn't see sech. Ghostful things ain't common in a crowd." She moved +a little nearer her brother, and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Some folks can't see the witch-face at all, noways," he replied +stolidly. "I hearn the coroner 'low he couldn't." + +Narcissa spoke with sudden asperity: "I reckon he hev got sense enough +ter view a light whenst it shines inter his eyes. He 'pears ter be +feeble-minded ginerally, and mought n't be able ter pick out the favor +o' the features on the hillside, but surely he'd blink ef a light war +flickered inter his eyeballs." + +The road was her precious scheme, and she steadfastly believed that +with the order of the worshipful Quarterly County Court declaring it +open, with a duly appointed overseer and a gang of assigned work-hands +and the presidial fostering care of a road commissioner, the haggard +old semblance must needs desist from supernatural emblazonment in the +awe-stricken nights, and that logic and law would soon serve to +exorcise its baleful influence. + +Her mien grew graver as she reflected on the resume of objections to +the project. Her white bonnet threw a certain white reflection on her +flushed face. Her eyes were downcast as she looked at the river below, +the long lashes seeming almost to touch her cheek. She scarcely moved +them as she turned her gaze upon her brother, who was still seated on +the verge of the cliff. + +"Waal, sir, I wonder that the pore old road petition hed life enough +in it ter crawl ter the court-house door. With all them agin it, thar +ain't nobody ter be fur it, sca'cely." + +"Oh, yes," he admitted. "Them air fur it ez b'lieves highways improves +proputty, an' hev got land lyin' right alongside whar the road is axed +ter be run; them ez ain't got proputty alongside ain't nigh so +anxious. But that thar strange valley man ez they say hev got a lung +complaint, he won't sign nuther. He owns the house he built up thar on +the flat o' the mounting an' cornsider'ble land, though he don't keep +no stock nor nuthin'. 'Lows the air be soft an' good for the lung +complaint. He 'lows he hev been tryin' ter git shet o' the railroads +an' dirt roads an' human folks, an' he s'posed he _hed_ run ter the +jumpin'-off place, the e-ends o' the yearth; but hyar kems the road +o' civilization a-pursuin' him like the sarpient o' the Pit, with +the knowledge o' good an' evil,--a grain o' wheat an' a bushel o' +chaff,--an' he reckons he'll hev ter cut an' run again." + +Narcissa's lips parted slightly. She listened in amazement to this +strange account of an aversion to that gay world in processional, +chiefly in white-covered wagons, which she longed to see come down the +county road. + +"He be a powerful queer man," said Ben slowly, "this hyar Alan +Selwyn." + +And she felt that this was true. + +She sat down beside her brother on the rock, and together they looked +down meditatively on the river. It was reddening now with the +reflection of the reddening clouds. The water, nevertheless, asserted +itself. Lengths of steely brilliancy showed now and again amidst the +roseate suffusion, and anon spaces glimmered vacant of all but a dusky +brown suggestion of depth and a liquid lustre. + +"Nar'sa," he said at last in a low voice, "ye know they 'lowed that +the traveler what war killed, some say by his runaway horse, war +a-comin' ter see _him_,--this Alan Selwyn." + +The white bonnet seemed to focus and retain the lingering light in the +landscape. Without its aid he might hardly have made shift to see her +face. + +"They 'lowed they knowed so by the papers the traveler had on him, +though this Selwyn 'lowed _he_ couldn't identify the dead man," he +continued after a pause. + +She gazed wonderingly at him, then absently down at the sudden +scintillating white glitter of the reflection of the evening star in +the dusky red water. It burned with a yet purer, calmer radiance in +the roseate skies. She felt the weight of the darkening gloom, +gathering beneath the trees around her, as if it hung palpably on her +shoulders. + +"Waal," he resumed, "I b'lieve ef that thar traveler had been able ter +speak ter ye when ye fund him, like ye said he tried ter do, I +b'lieve he would hev tole ye suthin' 'bout that thar valley man. +_He_'s enough likelier ter hev bed suthin' ter do with the suddint +takin' off o' the feller than Con Hite." + +Her face was suddenly aghast. "Who says Con Hite-- Why?" She paused, +her voice failing. + +"Waal, ye know Con be a-moonshinin' again, an' some 'lows ez this +hyar traveler warn't a traveler at all, but a revenuer,--strayed off +somehows from the rest o' 'em." + +"Oh, how I wish he'd stop moonshinin' an' sech!" + +She moved so suddenly on the edge of the precipice, as she lifted her +hands and drew down her sunbonnet over her face, that Ben's glance was +full of terror. + +"Move back a mite, Nar'sa; ye'll go over the bluff, fust thing ye +know! Yes, Con's mighty wrong ter be moonshinin'. The law is the right +thing. It purtects us. It holps us all. We-uns owe it obejiunce, like +I hearn a man say in a speech down yander in"-- + +"The law!" cried Narcissa, with scorn. "Con Hite kin tromp on the +revenue law from hyar ter the witch-face, fur all I keer. Purtects! I +pity a man ez waits fur the law ter purtect him; it's a heap apter ter +grind him ter pomace. _I_ mind moonshinin' 'kase it's dangersome fur +the moonshiners. The law--I don't count the fibble old law!" + +She sat brooding for a time, her face downcast. Then she spoke in a +low voice:-- + +"Whyn't ye find out, Ben? What ails ye ter be so good-fur-nuthin'? +Thar be other folks beside Con ez air law-breakers." She edged nearer +to him, laying her hand on his arm. "Ye've got to find out, Ben," she +said insistently. "Keep an eye on that thar valley man, an' find out +all 'bout'n him. Else the killin' 'll be laid ter Con, who never done +nuthin' hurtful ter nobody in all his life." + +"The idee jes' streck me ter-day whenst I viewed him along about that +road. Whenst that thar dead man tuk yer han' an' tried ter find a word +of speech-- Why, hullo, Narcissa!" + +With a short cry she had struggled to her feet. The gathering gloom, +the recollection of the tragedy, the association of ideas, bore too +heavily on her nerves. She struck petulantly at his astounded face. + +"Why air ye always remindin' me?" she exclaimed, with a sharp +upbraiding note. And then she began to cry out that she could see +again the coroner's jury pressing close about the corpse, with a keen +ravenous interest like the vile mountain vultures, and then +colloguing together aside, and nodding their heads and saying they had +found their verdict, when they had found nothing, not even the poor +dead man; and she saw them here, and she saw them there, and +everywhere in the darkling mountain woods, and she would see them +everywhere as long as she should live, and she wished with all her +heart that they were every one at the bottom of the black mountain +river. + +And the slow Ben wondered, as he sought to soothe her and take her +home, that a woman should be so sensitive to the mention of one dead +man, and yet given to such wishes of the wholesale destruction of the +harmless coroner's jury, because their appearance struck her amiss, +and they collogued together, and nodded their heads unacceptably, and +found their verdict. + + +V. + +Except in so far as his sedulously cultivated fraternal sentiments +were concerned, the peculiar domestic training to which Ben Hanway had +been subjected had had slight effect in softening a somewhat hard and +stern character. To continue the canine simile by which his mother had +described him, his gentleness and watchful care toward his sister were +not more reassuring to the public at large than is the tender loyalty +of a guard-dog toward the infant of a house which claims his fealty; +that the dog does not bite the baby is no fair augury that he will not +bite the peddler or the prowler. The fact that the traveler had borne +letters addressed to Alan Selwyn, and no other papers, and yet Alan +Selwyn could not or would not identify him, had already furnished +Hanway with an ever-recurrent subject of cogitation. It had been the +presumption of the coroner's jury, since confirmed by inquiry of the +postmaster, that, going for some purpose to Alan Selwyn's lodge in the +wilderness, the unknown traveler had, in passing, called for his +prospective host's mail at the Cross-Roads, some fifteen miles distant +and the nearest post-office, such being the courtesy of the region. A +visitor often insured a welcome by thus voluntarily expediting the +delivery of the mail some days, or perhaps some weeks, before its +recipient could have hoped to receive it otherwise. Hanway had long +been cognizant of this habit of the Cross-Roads postmaster to accede +to such requests on the part of reputable people, but he was reminded +forcibly of it the next morning. A neighbor, homeward bound from a +visit to the valley, had paused at Hanway's house to leave a letter, +with which he had charged himself, addressed to Selwyn. + +"I 'lowed ye mought be ridin' over thar some day, bein' ez ye air +toler'ble nigh neighbors," he said. + +And Hanway the more willingly undertook the delivery of the missive +since it afforded him a pretext for the reconnoissance which he had +already contemplated. + +Rain-clouds had succeeded those fine aerial flauntings of the sunset +splendors, and he set out in the pervasive drizzle of a gray day. Torn +and ragged with the rain and the gusts, the white mist seemed to come +to meet him along the vistas of the dreary dripping woods. The tall +trees that shut off the sky loomed loftily through it. Sometimes, as +the wind quickened, it deployed in great luminously white columns, +following the invisible curves of the atmospheric current; and anon, +in flaky detached fragments, it fled dispersed down the avenues like +the scattered stragglers of a routed army. The wind was having the +best of the contest; and though it still rained when he reached the +vicinity of Alan Selwyn's lonely dwelling, the mist was gone, the +clouds were all resolved into the steady fall of the torrents, and the +little house on the slope of the mountain and all its surroundings +were visible. + +A log cabin it was, containing two rooms and the unaccustomed luxury +of glass windows; so new that the hewn cedar logs had not yet +weathered to the habitual dull gray tone, but glowed jauntily red as +the timbers alternated with the white and yellow daubing. A stanch +stone chimney seemed an unnecessary note of ostentation, since the +more usual structure of clay and sticks might serve as well. It +reminded Ben Hanway that its occupant was not native to the place, and +whetted anew his curiosity as he looked about, the reins on his +horse's neck in his slow approach. It was a sheltered spot; the great +mountain's curving summit rose high toward the north and west above +the depression where the cabin stood; across the narrow valley a still +more elevated range intercepted the east wind. Only to the south was +the limited plateau open, sloping down to great cliffs, giving upon a +vast expanse of mountain and valley and plain and far reaches of +undulating country, promising in fair weather high, pure, soft air, a +tempered gentle breeze, and the best that the sun can do. + +He noted the advantages of the situation in reference to the "lung +complaint," feeling a loser in some sort; for he had begun to suspect +that the consumptive tendencies of the stranger were a vain pretense, +assumed merely to delude the unwary. He could not have doubted long, +for when he dismounted and hitched his horse to the rail fence he +heard the door of the house open, and as its owner, standing on the +threshold in the wind and the gusty rain, called out to him a +welcoming "Hello," the word was followed by a series of hacking coughs +which told their story as definitely as a medical certificate. + +Ben Hanway was not a humane man in any special sense, but he was +conscious of haste in concluding the tethering of the animal and in +striding across the vacant weed-grown yard striped with the +ever-descending rain. + +"Ye'd better git in out'n all this wind an' rain," he said in his +rough voice. "A power o' dampness in the air." + +"No matter. There's no discount on me. Don't take cold nowadays. I've +got right well here already." + +The passage-way was dark, but the room into which Ben was ushered, +illumined by two opposite windows, was as bright as the day would +allow. A roaring wood fire in the great chimney-place reinforced the +pallid gray light with glancing red and yellow fluctuations. The +apartment was comfortable enough, although its uses were evidently +multifarious,--partly kitchen, and dining-room, and sitting-room. Its +furniture consisted of several plain wooden chairs, a table and +crockery, a few books on a shelf, a lounge in the corner, and a rifle, +after the manner of the mountaineers, over the mantelpiece. Upon the +shelf a cheap clock ticked away the weary minutes of the lonely hours +of the long empty days while the valley man abode here, exiled from +home and friends and his accustomed sphere, and fought out that +hopeless fight for his life. + +Ben Hanway gave him a keen, covert stare, as he slowly and clumsily +accepted the tendered chair and his host threw another log on the +fire. Hanway had seen him previously, when Selwyn testified before the +coroner's jury, but to-day he impressed his visitor differently. He +was tall and slight, twenty-five years of age, perhaps, with light +brown hair, sleek and shining and short, a quick blue eye, a fair +complexion with a brilliant flush, and a long mustache. But the +bizarre effect produced by this smiling apparition in the jaws of +death seemed to Hanway's limited experience curiously enhanced by his +attire. Its special peculiarity was an old smoking-jacket, out at the +elbows, ragged at the cuffs, and frayed at the silk collar; Hanway had +never before seen a man wear a red coat, or such foot-gear as the +slipshod embroidered velvet slippers in which he shuffled to a chair +and sat down, tilted back, with his hands in the pockets of his gray +trousers. To be sure, he could but be grave when testifying before a +coroner's jury, but Hanway was hardly prepared for such exuberant +cheerfulness as his manner, his attire, and his face seemed to +indicate. + +"Ain't ye sorter lonesome over hyar?" he ventured. + +"You bet your sweet life I am," his host replied unequivocally. A +shade crossed his face, and vanished in an instant. "But then," he +argued, "I didn't have such a soft thing where I was. I was a +clerk--that is, a bookkeeper--on a salary, and I had to work all day, +and sometimes nearly all night!" + +He belittled his former vocation with airy contempt, as if he did not +yearn for it with every fibre of his being,--its utility, its +competence, its future. The recollection of the very feel of the fair +smooth paper under his hand, the delicate hair-line chirography +trailing off so fast from the swift pen, could wring a pang from him. +He might even have esteemed an oath more binding sworn on a ledger +than on the New Testament. + +"And we were a small house, anyway, and the salary was no great +shakes," he continued jauntily, to show how little he had to regret. + +"An' now ye ain't got nuthin' ter do but ter read yer book," said the +mountaineer acquiescently, realizing, in spite of his clumsy mental +processes, how the thorn pierced the bosom pressed against it. + +Selwyn followed his guest's glance to the shelf of volumes with an +unaffected indifference. + +"Yes, but I don't care for it. I wish I did, since I have the time. +But the liking for books has to be cultivated, like a taste for beer; +they are both a deal too sedative for me!" The laugh that ensued was +choked with a cough, and the tactless Hanway was moved to expostulate. + +"I wonder ye ain't 'feared ter be hyar all by yerse'f hevin' the lung +complaint." + +"Why, man alive, I'm well, or so near it there's no use talking. I +could go home to-morrow, except, as I have had the house built, I +think I'd better stay the winter in it. But before the cold weather +comes on they are going to send up a darky to look after me. I only +hope _I_ won't have to wait on _him_,--awful lazy nigger! He used to +be a porter of ours. Loafing around these woods with a gun on his +shoulder, pretending to hunt, will be just about his size. He's out of +a job now, and comes cheap. I couldn't afford to pay him wages all the +time, but winter is winter." + +He was silent a moment, gazing into the fire; then Hanway, gloomily +brooding and disturbed, for the conversation had impressed him much as +if it had been post-mortem, so immediate seemed his companion's doom, +felt Selwyn's eye upon him, as if his sentiment were so obvious that +the sense of sight had detected it. + +"You think I'm going to die up here all by myself. Now I tell you, my +good fellow, dying is the very last thing that I expect to do." + +He broke out laughing anew, and this time he did not cough. + +Hanway could not at once cover his confusion. He looked frowningly +down at the steam rising from his great cowhide boots, outstretched as +they dried in the heat of the fire, and slowly shifted them one above +the other. The flush on his sunburned cheek rose to the roots of his +dark hair, and overspread his clumsy features. His appearance did not +give token of any very great delicacy of feeling, but he regretted his +transparency, and sought to nullify it. + +"Not that," he said disingenuously; "but bein' all by yerse'f, I +wonder ye ain't willin' fur the county road ter be put through. 'T +would run right by yer gate, an' ye could h'ist the winder an' talk to +the folks passin'. Ye wouldn't be lonely never." + +For the first time Selwyn looked like a man of business. His eyes grew +steady. His face was firm and serious and non-committal. He said +nothing. Hanway cleared his throat and crossed his legs anew. The +thought of his true intention in coming hither, not his ostensible +errand, had recurred more than once to his mind,--to lay bare the +secret touching the visitor to Selwyn's remote dwelling, whom he could +not or would not identify; and if there were aught amiss, as the +mountaineer suspected, to take such action thereupon as in the +fullness of his own good judgment seemed fit. But since the man was +evidently so sharp, Hanway had hitherto feared even indirectly to +trench upon it; here, however, the opening was so natural, so +propitious, that he was fain to take advantage of it. + +"An' see," he resumed, "what dangers kem o' hevin' no road. That thar +man what war killed las' month, ef we hed hed a reg'lar county road, +worked on an' kep' open, stiddier this hyar herder's trail, this-a-way +an' that, he could hev rid along ez free an' favored, an'"-- + +"Why," Selwyn broke in, "the testimony was to the effect that he was +riding a young, skittish horse, which was startled by stray hogs +breaking at a dead run through the bushes, and that the horse bolted +and ran away. And the man died from concussion of the brain. That +would have happened if we had had a road of the first class, twenty +feet wide, instead of this little seven-foot freak you all are so +mashed on." + +His face had not lost a tinge of its brilliant color. His animated +eyes were still fired by that inward flame that was consuming his +years, his days, even his minutes, it might seem. His hands, fine, +white, and delicate, were thrust jauntily into the pockets of his red +jacket, and Hanway felt himself no nearer the heart of the mystery +than before. The subject, evidently, was not avoided, held naught of +menace. He went at it directly. + +"Seems strange he war a-comin' ter visit you-uns, an' hed yer mail in +his pocket, an' ye never seen him afore," he hazarded, "nor knowed who +he war." + +"But I have found out since," Selwyn said, his clear eyes resting on +his visitor without the vestige of an affrighted thought. "He was Mr. +Keith, a chemist from Glaston; he was quite a notable authority on +matters of physical science generally. I had written to him +about--about some points of interest in the mountains, and as he was +at leisure he concluded to come and investigate--and--take a holiday. +He didn't let me know, and as I had never seen him I didn't at first +even imagine it was he." + +There was a silence. Selwyn's blue eyes dwelt on the fast-descending +lines of rain that now blurred all view of the mountains; the globular +drops here and there adhering to the pane, ever dissolving and ever +renewed, obscured even the small privilege of a glimpse of the +dooryard. The continual beat on the roof had the regularity and the +tireless suggestion of machinery. + +"How did ye find out?" demanded Hanway, his theory evaporating into +thin air. + +"Why, as he didn't reply to my letter about a matter of such +importance"--he checked himself suddenly, then went on more +slowly--"it occurred to me that he might have decided to come, and +might have been the man who was killed. So I wrote to his brother. He +had not been expected at home earlier. His brother doesn't incline to +the foul-play theory. The horse he rode is a wild young animal that +has run away two or three times. He had been warned repeatedly against +riding that horse, but he thought him safe enough. The horse has +returned home,--got there the day my letter was received. So the +brother and an officer came and exhumed the body: he was buried, you +know, after the inquest, over in the little graveyard yonder on the +slope of the mountain." + +Selwyn shivered slightly, and the fine white hands came out of the +gaudy red pockets, and fastened the frogs beneath the lapels across +his chest, to draw the smoking-jacket closer. + +"Great Scott! what a fate,--to be left in that desolate +burying-ground! Death is death, there." + +"Death is death anywhar," said the mountaineer gloomily. + +"No. Get you a mile or two of iron fence, and stone gates, and lots of +sculptured marble angels around, and death is peace, or rest, or +heaven, or paradise, according to your creed and the taste of the +subject; but here you are done for and dead." + +Hanway, in the limited experience of the mountaineer, could not follow +the theory, and he forbore to press it further. + +"Well," Selwyn resumed, "they took him home, and I was glad to see him +go. I was glad to see them filling that hole up. I took a pious +interest in that. I should have felt it was waiting for me. I shoveled +some of the earth back myself." + +The wind surged around the house, and shook the outer doors. The rain +trampled on the roof like a squadron of cavalry. With his fate +standing ever behind him, almost visibly looking over his shoulder, +although he saw it not, the valley man was a pathetic object to the +mountaineer. Hanway's eyes were hot and burned as he looked at him; if +he had been but a little younger, they might have held tears. But +Hanway had passed by several years his majority, and esteemed himself +exempt from boyish softness. + +Selwyn shook off the impression with a shiver, and bent forward to +mend the fire. + +"Where were you yesterday?" he asked, seeking a change of subject. + +"At home sowin' turnip seed, mos'ly. I never hearn nuthin' 'bout'n it +all." + +Selwyn threw himself back in his chair, his brow corrugated +impatiently at this renewal of the theme, and in the emergency he even +resorted to the much-mooted point of the thoroughfare. + +"I suppose all the family there are dead gone on that road?" he sought +to make talk. + +"Dad an' aunt M'nervy don't keer one way nor another, but my sister +air plumb beset fur the jury of view to put it through." + +"Why?" Selwyn had a mental vision of some elderly, thrifty mountain +dame with a long head turned toward the enhancement of the values of a +league or so of mountain land. + +Hanway, slow and tenacious of impressions, could not so readily rouse +a vital interest in another subject. He still gazed with melancholy +eyes at the fire, and his heart felt heavy and sore. + +"Waal," he answered mechanically, "she 'lows she wants ter see the +folks go up an' down, an' up an' down." + +Selwyn's blue eyes opened. "Folks?" he asked wonderingly. The rarest +of apparitions on Witch-Face Mountain were "folks." + +Hanway roused himself slightly, and raucously cleared his throat to +explain. + +"She 'lows thar'll be cornsider'ble passin'. Folks, in the fall o' the +year, mought be a-wagonin' of chestnuts over the mounting an' down ter +Colb'ry; an' thar's the Quarterly Court days; some attends, leastwise +the jestices; an' whenst they hev preachin' in the Cove; an' wunst in +a while thar _mought_ be a camp-meetin'. She sets cornsider'ble store +on lookin' at the folks ez will go up an' down." + +There was a swift movement in the pupils of the valley man's eyes. It +was an expression closely correlated to laughter, but the muscles of +his face were still, and he remained decorously grave. + +There was some thought in his mind that held him doubtful for a +moment. His craft was cautious of its kind, and his manner was quite +incidental as he said, "And the others of the family?" + +"Thar ain't no others," returned Hanway, stolidly unmarking. + +"Oh, so you are the eldest?" + +"By five year. Narcissa ain't more 'n jes' turned eighteen." + +The valley man's face was flushed more deeply still; his brilliant +eyes were elated. + +"_Narcissa!_" he cried, with the joy of delighted identification. +"She is the girl, then, that testified at the inquest. _Narcissa!_" + +Hanway lifted his head, with a strong look of surly objection on his +heavy features. Selwyn noted it with a glow of growing anger. He felt +that he had said naught amiss. People could not expect their sisters +to escape attracting notice, especially a sister with a remarkable +name and endowed with a face like this one's. + +"Narcissa,--that's an odd name," he said, partly in bravado, and +partly in justification of the propriety of his previous mention of +her. "I knew a man once named Narcissus. Must be the feminine of +Narcissus. Good name for her, though." The recollection of the white +flower-like face, the corolla of red-gold hair, came over him. "Looks +just like 'em." + +Hanway, albeit all alert now, descried in this naught more poetical +than the fact that Selwyn considered that his sister resembled a man +of his acquaintance. As for that fairest of all spring flowers, it had +never gladdened the backwoods range of his vision. + +The exclusive tendency of the human mind is tested by this discovery +of a casual resemblance to a stranger. One invariably sustains an +affront at its mention. Whatever one's exterior may be, it possesses +the unique merit of being one's own, and the aversion to share its +traits with another, and that other a stranger, is universal. In this +instance the objection was enhanced by the fact that the stranger was +a man; _ergo_, in Hanway's opinion, more or less clumsy and burly and +ugly; the masculine type of his acquaintance presenting to his mind +few of the superior elements of beauty. He resented the liberty the +stranger took in resembling Narcissa, and he resented still more +Selwyn's effrontery in discovering the likeness. + +"Not ez much alike ez two black-eyed peas, now. I reckon not,--I +reckon not," he sneered, as he rose to bring his visit to an end. + +His host's words of incipient surprise were checked as Hanway slowly +drew forth from his pocket a letter. + +"Old man Binney war at the Cross-Roads Sad'day, an' he fotched up some +mail fur the neighbors. He lef' this letter fur you-uns at our house, +'lowin' ez I would fetch it over." + +Selwyn sat silent for a moment. He felt that severe reprehension and +distrust which a man of business always manifests upon even the most +trifling interference with his vested rights in his own mail matter. +The rural method of aiding in distributing the mail was peculiarly +unpalatable to him. He much preferred that his letters should lie in +the post-office at the Cross-Roads until such time as it suited his +convenience to saddle his horse and ride thither for them. The +postmaster, on the contrary, seized the opportunity whenever +responsible parties were "ridin' up inter the mounting" to entrust to +them the neighborhood mail, thus expediting its delivery perhaps by +three weeks, or even more, and receiving in every instance the +benediction of his distant beneficiaries of the backwoods. + +"I'll write to the postmaster this very day!" Selwyn thought, as he +tore the envelope open and mastered its contents at a swift glance. A +half-suppressed but delighted excitement shone suddenly in his eyes, +and smoothed every line of agitation and anxiety from his brow. + +"I'm a thousand times obliged to you for bringing it," he exclaimed, +"and for staying awhile and talking! I wish you would come again. But +I'm coming to see you, to return your call." He laughed gayly at the +sophisticated phrase. "Coming soon." + +Hanway's growl of pretended pleasure in the prospect was rendered +nearly inarticulate by the thought of Narcissa. He had not anticipated +a return of the courtesy. He had no welcome for this stranger, and +somehow he felt that he did not altogether understand Narcissa at +times; that she had flights of fancy which were beyond him, and took a +mischievous pleasure in tantalizing him, and was freakish and hard to +control. + +Moreover, under the influence of this reaction of feeling, a modicum +of his doubts of Selwyn had revived. Not that he suspected him, as +heretofore, but a phrase that had earlier struck his attention came +back to him. Selwyn had written, he said, to the traveler to come and +"investigate," and he had hesitated and chosen his phrases, and half +discarded them, and slurred over his statement. What was there to +"investigate" in the mountains? What prospect of profit worth a long, +lonely journey and a risk that ended in death? The capture of +moonshiners was said to be a paying business, and an informer also +reaped a reward. Hanway wondered if Con Hite could be the point of +"investigation," if the dead man were indeed of the revenue force. + +"Oh, you needn't shut the door on me," Selwyn said, as they stood +together in the passage, and Hanway, with his instinct to cut him off, +had made a motion to draw the door after him; "this mountain air is so +bland, even when it is damp." He paused on the dripping threshold, +with his hands in the pockets of his red jacket, and surveyed with +smiling complacence the forlorn, weeping day, and the mountains +cowering under their misty veil, and the sodden dooryard, and the +wild rocks and chasms of the gorge, adown the trough of which a stream +unknown to the dry weather was tumbling with a suggestion of flight +and trouble and fear in its precipitancy. "I'm well, well as a bear; +and I'm getting fat as a bear, doing nothing. Feel my arm. I'm just +following the example of the bears about this time of the +year,--hibernating, going into winter quarters. I'm going to get this +place into good shape to sell some day. I have bought that land over +there all down the gorge from Squire Helm; and last July I bought all +that slope at the tax sale, but that is subject to redemption; and +then I am trying to buy in the rear of my wigwam, too,--a thousand +acres." + +"Ye kin sell it higher ef the road goes through," said Hanway +doubtfully. + +It seemed very odd that the man who protested that his stay in the +mountains was so temporary, and whose stay in the world was evidently +so short, should spend his obviously scanty substance in purchase +after purchase of the worthless mountain wilderness. To be sure, the +land was cheap, but it cost something. And Hanway looked again at the +frayed cuffs and elbows of the red smoking-jacket. In his infrequent +visits to Colbury, he had noted the variance of the men's costumes +with the mountain standard of dress. He saw naught like this, but he +knew that if ever the sober burghers lent themselves to this sort of +fantastic toggery, it was certainly whole. + +"Say, my friend, what day does the jury of view hold forth?" Selwyn +called out after the slouching figure, striped with the diagonal lines +of rain and flouted by the wind, tramping across the weeds of the yard +to his horse. + +"Nex' Chewsday week," Hanway responded hoarsely. + +"Well, if this weather holds out, it is to be hoped that the gentlemen +of the jury are web-footed!" Selwyn exclaimed. + +He shut the door, and as he went back to his lonely hearth his eyes +fell upon the letter lying on the table. + +"Now," he said as he took it again in his hand, "if fate should truly +cut such a caper as to make my fortune in this forlorn exile, I could +find it in my heart to laugh the longest and the loudest at the joke." + + +VI. + +If it had been within the power of the worshipful Quarterly County +Court to issue a mandamus to compel fair weather on that notable +Tuesday when the jury of view were to set forth, the god of day could +scarcely have obeyed with more alacrity that peremptory writ once +poetically ranked as "one of the flowers of the crown." The burnished +yellow sunshine had a suggestion of joyous exuberance in its wide +suffusions. Even the recurrent fluctuations of shadow but gave its +pervasive sheen the effect of motion and added embellishment. The +wind, hilarious, loud, piping gayly a tuneful stave, shepherded the +clouds in the fair fields of the high sky, driving the flocculent +white masses here and there as listed a changing will. The trees were +red and yellow, the leaves firm, full-fleshed, as if the ebbing sap of +summer still ran high in every fibre; their tint seemed no hectic +dying taint, but some inherent chromatic richness. Fine avenues the +eye might open amongst the rough brown boles that stood in dense +ranks, preternaturally dark and distinct, washed by the recent rains, +and thrown into prominence by the masses of yellow and red leaves +carpeting the ground, and the red and yellow boughs hanging low above. +They dispensed to the light, clarified air an aromatic richness that +the lungs rejoiced to breathe, and all their flare of color might have +seemed adequate illumination of their demesne without serving writs of +mandamus on the sun; and indeed, the Quarterly County Court was fain +to concern itself with far lesser matters, and wield slighter weapons. +The jury of view, in a close squad, ambling along at an easy gait, +mounted on nags as diverse in appearance, age, and manner as the +riders, sufficiently expressed its authority and their own diligence +in its behests, and their spirits had risen to the propitious aspect +of the weather and the occasion. Their advent into this secluded +region of the district--for to secure a strict impartiality they were +not of the immediate neighborhood, and had no interest which could be +affected by their report--was not hailed with universal satisfaction. + +"Jes' look at 'em, now," said old man Binney, as he stood in his door, +leaning on his stick, to watch them pass,--"a jury o' view. An' who +ever viewed a jury a-horseback afore? An' thar ain't but seben on +'em!"--laboriously counting, "five, six, seben. Thar's _twelve_ men on +a sure enough jury! I counted the panel ez hung Ezekiel Tilbuts fur +a-murderin' of his wife. I war thar in town whenst they fetched in +thar verdic'. I dunno what the kentry be a-comin' ter! Shucks! I ain't +a-goin' ter abide by the say-so o' no sech skimpy jury ez this hyar. +I'll go ter town an' see old Lawyer Gryce 'bout it, fust." + +And with this extremest threat of vengeance he brought his stick down +on the floor with so vigorous a thump that it had a certain profane +effect; then having from under his bushy gray eyebrows gazed at the +diminishing group till it was but a dim speck in the distance, he went +in muttering, banging the door as if to shut out and reject the sight. +His objection might have been intensified had he known that the days +were at hand when legislative wisdom would still further reduce this +engine of the law, making it consist of one road commissioner and two +freeholders, the trio still pridefully denominated a "jury of view." + +Others, however, favoring the enterprise, cheerfully fell into the +line of march; and as the way lengthened the cavalcade grew, mustering +recruits as it went. + +Disputatious voices suddenly sounded loud on the clear air in front of +them, mingled with the thud of horses' hoofs, the jingle of spurs, and +now and again the whinny of a colt; and at the intersection of the +trail with a narrow winding path there rode into view old "Persimmon" +Sneed,--as he was sometimes disrespectfully nicknamed, owing to a +juvenile and voracious fondness for the most toothsome delicacy of +autumn woods,--arguing loudly, and with a lordly intolerance of +contradiction, with two men who accompanied him, while his sleek +claybank mare also argued loudly with her colt. She had much ado to +pace soberly forward, even under the coercion of whip and spur, while +her madcap scion galloped wildly ahead or lagged far in the rear, and +made now and then excursions into the woods, out of sight, to gratify +some adolescent curiosity, or perhaps, after the fashion of other and +human adolescents, to relish the spectacle of the maternal anxiety. +Ever and anon the sound of the mare's troubled call rang on the air. +Then the colt would come with a burst of speed, a turbulent rush, out +of the underbrush, and, with its keen head-tones of a whinny, all +funnily treble and out of tune, dash on in advance. The rider of this +preoccupied steed was a grizzled, lank, thin-visaged mountaineer, with +a tuft of beard on his chin, but a shaven jowl, where, however, the +black-and-gray stubble of several days' avoidance of the razor put +forth unabashed. He shook his finger impressively at the jury of view +as he approached them. + +"Ef ye put this hyar road through my land," he said solemnly, "I'll be +teetotally ruinationed. The cattle-thievin' that'll go on, with the +woods so open an' the road so convenient, an' yit no travel sca'cely, +will be a scandal ter the jay-bird. I won't hev so much lef' ez the +horn of a muley cow!" + +And with this extreme statement he whirled his horse and rode on at +the head of the cavalcade in dignified silence. He was not a dweller +in the immediate vicinity, but hailed from the Cove,--a man of +substance and a large cattle-owner, pasturing his herds, duly branded, +on a tract of unfenced wilderness, his mountain lands, where they +roamed in the safe solitudes of those deep seclusions during the +summer, and were rounded up, well fattened, and driven home at the +approach of winter. He was the typical man of convictions, one who +entertains a serious belief that he possesses a governing conscience +instead of an abiding delight in his own way. He had a keen eye, with +an upward glance from under the brim of his big wool hat, and he +looked alert to descry any encroachment on his vested rights to +prescribe opinion. The jury of view were destined to find it a +doubtful boon that the road law interposed no insurmountable obstacle +to prevent their hearing thus informally the views of those +interested. + +Persimmon Sneed's deep feeling on the subject had been evinced by his +dispensing with the customary salutations, and one of the jury of +view, with a mollifying intention, observed that they would use their +best judgment to promote the interests of all parties. + +"Ai-yi!" said Persimmon Sneed, ruefully shaking his head. "But s'pose +ye hev got mighty pore jedgmint? Ye'll be like mos' folks I know, ef +ye hev. I'd ruther use my own best jedgmint, a sight." + +At which another of the jury suavely remarked that they would seek to +be impartial. + +"That's jes' what I kem along fur," exclaimed Persimmon Sneed +triumphantly,--"ter show ye edzac'ly whar the bull's eye be. Thar +ain't no use fur this road, an' ye air bound ter see it ef ye ain't +nowise one-sided and partial." + +The jury relapsed into silence and rode steadily on. + +The true raw material of contradiction lay in three younger men among +the spectators, contumacious, vehement, and, albeit opposed to the +road, much inclined to spoke the wheel of old Persimmon Sneed, however +that wheel might revolve. + +"I got caught on a jury in a criminal case with him wunst," Silas +Boyd, a heavy, thick-set, tall young fellow with a belligerent eye and +a portentously square jaw, said _sotto voce_ to his next comrade. "I +hev sarved on a jury with him,--locked up fur a week 'thout no +verdic'. He ain't got no respec' fur no other man's say-so. An' he +talks 'bout _his_ oath ez ef he war the only man in Tennessee ez ever +war swore on the 'Holy Evangelists o' Almighty Gawd' in the +court-house. He fairly stamped on my feelin's, in that Jenkins case, +ter make me agree with him; but I couldn't agree, an' it hung the +jury, ez they say. I wisht they hed hung the foreman! By Hokey, I +despise a hard-headed, 'pinionated man." + +"Look at his back," rejoined Jeremiah Sayres, a man of theory, who had +a light undecided tint of hair and beard and scraggy mustache, and a +blond complexion burned a permanent solid red by the summer sun. "I'd +know his dispositions by his back." He waved his hand at the brown +jeans coat that draped a spare and angular but singularly erect back, +which scarcely seemed to move in response to the motions of the mare +pacing briskly along. "What sorter back is that fur a man risin' fifty +year old?--straight ez a ramrod, an' ez stiff. But, Silas, ef ever ye +git the better o' him, ye hev got ter break it." + +"I hearn his third wife married him ter git rid o' him," put in Peter +Sims, given to gossip. "She 'lowed he warn't nigh so tarrifyin' 'roun' +his own house, a-feedin' the peegs, an' ploughin' an' cuttin' wood, +an' sech, _occupied somehows_, ez he war a-settin' up in his Sunday +best at her house, with nuthin' ter do, allowin' she _hed_ ter marry +him, whether or not, 'kase he wouldn't hev 'No' fur a answer." + +"An' look at it now!" exclaimed Silas Boyd, unexpectedly reinforced by +the matrimonial phase of the question. "That thar man hev bodaciously +argued an' contradicted two wimmin out'n this vale o' tears. An' +everybody knows it takes a power o' contradiction to out-do a woman. +He oughter be indicted for cold-blooded murder! That's what!" He +nodded vindictively at the straight jeans-clad back in advance of him. + +Over and again the party called a halt, to push about in search of a +practicable seven-foot passage amongst crags and chasms, and to +contend with the various insistence touching devious ways preferred by +the honorary attendants, who often seemed to forget that they +themselves were not in the exercise of a delegated jury duty. Tangles +impeded, doubts beset them, although the axe by which the desired +route had been blazed out aforetime by the petitioners had been +zealous and active; but the part of a pioneer in a primeval wilderness +is indeed the threading of a clueless labyrinth, and both sun and +compass were consulted often before the continued direction of the +road could be determined and located. + +In such cases, to the lovers of the consistent in character, the +respective traits of old Persimmon Sneed and Silas Boyd were displayed +in all their pristine value; for although their interests were +identical, both being opposed to the opening of the road, the +dictatorial arrogations of the elder man and the pugnacious +persistence of the younger served to antagonize them on many a minor +point in question, subsidiary to the main issue, as definitely as if +they were each arrayed against the other, instead of both being in +arms under the "No Road" banner. + +"Mighty nigh ez interestin' ez a dog-fight," said Jeremiah Sayres in +an aside to one of the jury. + +Midday found them considerably advanced on their way, but brought to a +halt by an insistence on the part of Silas Boyd that the road should +be diverted from a certain depression showing marshy tendencies to a +rugged slope where the footing was dry but difficult. + +"That's under water more 'n haffen the winter, I'll take my +everlastin' oath. Ef the road runs thar, that piece will take enough +mendin' in a season ter keep up ten mile o' dry road," he argued +vehemently. + +"Water ain't dangersome, nowise," retorted the elderly Persimmon, with +a snarling smile. "Healthier 'n whiskey, my frien',--_heap_ healthier +'n whiskey." + +Boyd's serious countenance colored darkly red with wrath. Among the +aggressive virtues of old Persimmon Sneed were certain whiskey-proof +temperance principles, the recollection of which was peculiarly +irritating to Silas Boyd, known to be more than ordinarily susceptible +to proof whiskey. + +"I be a perfessin' Baptis', Mr. Sneed," he retorted quickly. "I got no +objection ter water, 'ceptin' fur the onregenerate an' spurners o' +salvation." + +Now Persimmon Sneed had argued the plan of atonement on every possible +basis known to his extremely limited polemical outlook, and could +agree with none. If any sect of eclectics had been within his reach, +he would most joyfully have cast his spiritual fortunes with them, for +he felt himself better than very many conspicuous Christians; and as +he would have joyed in a pose of sanctity, the reproach of being a +member of no church touched him deeply. + +"I ain't no ransomed saint, I know," he vociferated,--"I ain't no +ransomed saint! But ef the truth war known, ye ain't got no religion +nuther! That leetle duckin' ez ye call 'immersion' jes' diluted the +'riginal sin in ye mighty leetle. Ye air a toler'ble strong toddy o' +iniquity yit. That thar water tempered the whiskey ye drink mighty +leetle,--mighty leetle!" + +The Christian grace of Silas Boyd was put to a stronger test than it +might have been deemed capable of sustaining. But Sneed was a far +older man, and as nothing short of breaking his stiff neck might +suffice to tame him, Silas Boyd summoned his self-control, and held +his tingling hands, and gave himself only to retort. + +"I wouldn't take that off'n ye, Mr. Sneed, 'ceptin' I be a perfessin' +member, an' pity them ez is still in the wiles an' delusions o' +Satan." + +What might have ensued in the nature of counterthrust, as Persimmon +Sneed heard himself called by inference an object of pity, the +subsidiary group were spared from learning, for at that moment the +sound of steps heralded an approach, and Ben Hanway came into the +circle, and sought to claim the attention of the party, inviting them +to dine and pass the nooning hour at his house. His countenance was +adjusted to the smile of hospitality, but it wore the expression like +a mask, and he seemed ill at ease. He had been contending all the +morning with Narcissa's freakishness, which he thought intensified by +the presence of the valley man, who was returning the civility of that +ill-omened visit, and who, by reason of the abnormal excitements of +the day, had been received with scant formality, and was already upon +the footing of a familiar friend. Selwyn stood smilingly in the way +hard by, speaking to those of the men as they passed who gave his +presence the meed of a start and a stare of blank surprise, or a curt +nod. Narcissa lingered in the background, beneath a great oak; her +chin was a little lifted with a touch of displeasure; the eyelids +drooped over her brown eyes; her hands, with her wonted careless +gesture and with a certain mechanical effort to dispel embarrassment, +were raised to the curtain of her white sunbonnet, and spread its +folds wingwise behind her auburn hair. Sundry acquaintances among the +honorary attendants paused to greet her pleasantly as they passed, but +old Sneed's disapprobation of a woman's appearance on so public an +occasion was plainly expressed on his features. For all the Turks are +not in Turkey. She followed with frowning, disaffected eyes the +procession of men and horses and dogs and colts wending up to the +invisible house hidden amongst the full-leaved autumn woods. + +"Well, that's the jury of view; and what do you think of them?" asked +Selwyn, watching too, but smilingly, the cavalcade. + +"Some similar ter the cor'ner's jury. But _they_ hed suthin' ter look +tormented an' tribulated 'bout," said the girl, evidently disappointed +to find the jury of view not more cheerful of aspect. "But mebbe +conversin' a passel by the way with old Persimmon Sneed is powerful +depressin' ter the sperits." + +Selwyn's face grew grave at the mention of the coroner's jury. + +"I'm afraid that poor fellow missed something good," he said. + +Still holding out her sunbonnet in wide distention, she slowly set +forth along the path, not even turning back, for sheer perversity, as +she saw Ben look anxiously over his shoulder to descry if she followed +in the distance. + +"Thar ain't much good in life nohow. Things seem set contrariwise." +Then, after a moment, and turning her eyes upon him, for she had an +almost personal interest in the man whose tragic fate she had first of +all discovered, "What sorter good thing did he miss?" she asked, as +she settled her sunbonnet soberly on her head. + +"Well"--Selwyn began; then he hesitated. He had spoken rather than +thought, for he thought little, and he was not used to keeping +secrets. Moreover, despite his courageous disbelief in his coming +fate, he must have had some yearnings for sympathy; the iron of his +exile surely entered his soul at times. The girl, so delicately +framed, so flower-like of face, seemed alien to her rude surroundings +and the burly, heavy, matter-of-fact folk about her. Her spirituelle +presence did away in a measure with the realization of her +limitations, her ignorance, and the uncouth surroundings. Even her +dress seemed to him hardly amiss, for there then reigned a fleeting +metropolitan fashion of straight full flowing skirts and short waists +and closely fitting sleeves,--a straining after picture-like effects +which Narcissa's attire accomplished without conscious effort, the +costume of the mountain women for a hundred years or more. The +sunbonnet itself was but the defensive appurtenance of many a Southern +city girl, when a-summering in the country, who esteems herself the +possessor of a remarkably beautiful complexion, and heroically +proposes to conserve it. Unlike the men, Narcissa's personality did +not suggest the distance between them in sophistication, in culture, +in refinement, in the small matters of external polish. She seemed not +so far from his world, and it was long since he had walked fraternally +by the side of some fair girl, and talked freely of himself, his +views, his plans, his vagaries, as men, when very young, are wont to +do, and as they rarely talk to one another. He had so sedulously +sought to content himself with the conditions of his closing existence +that the process of reconciling the habit of better things was lost in +simple acceptance. He was still young, and the sun shone, and the air +was clear and pure and soft, and he walked by the side of a girl, fair +and good and not altogether unwise, and he was happy in the blessings +vouchsafed. + +After a moment he replied: "Well, I thought he might have made a lot +of money. I thought I might go partners with him. I had written to +him." + +Her face did not change; it was still grave and solicitous within the +white frame of her sunbonnet, but its expression did not deepen. She +did not pity the dead man because he died without the money he had +had a chance to make. She evidently had not even scant knowledge of +that most absorbing passion, the love of gain, and she did not value +money. + +"Somehow whenst folks dies by accident, it 'pears ter me a +mistake--somehows--ez ef they war choused out'n time what war laid off +fur them an' their'n by right." Evidently she did not lack +sensibility. + +"Yes," he rejoined, "and you know money makes a lot of difference in +people's lives there in the valley towns. Lord knows, 't would in +mine." + +He swung his riding-whip dejectedly to and fro in his hand as he +spoke, and she pushed back her sunbonnet to look seriously at him. He +was a miracle of elegance in her estimation, but the fawn-colored suit +which he wore owed its nattiness rather to his own symmetry than the +cut or the cloth, and he had worn it a year ago. His immaculate linen, +somewhat flabby,--for the mountain laundress is averse to starch,--had +been delicately trimmed by a deft pair of scissors around the raveling +edges of the cuffs and collar, and showed rather what it had been than +what it was. His straw hat was pushed a trifle back from his face, in +which the sunburn and the inward fire competed to lay on the tints. +She did not see how nor what he lacked. Still, if he wanted it, she +pitied him that he did not have it. + +"Waal, can't you-uns make it, the same way?" + +She asked this sympathetically. She was beginning to experience a +certain self-reproach in regard to him, and it gave her unwonted +gentleness. She felt that she had been too quick to suspect. Since +Ben's report of the reconnoitring interview on which she had sent him +in Con Hite's interest, she had dismissed the idea that Selwyn was in +aught concerned with the traveler's sudden and violent death; and she +did not incline easily to the substituted suspicion that the dead man +was a "revenuer," and that Selwyn had written to him to recommend the +investigation of Con Hite, whose implication in moonshining he had +some cause to divine. + +Narcissa had marked with displeasure Ben's surly manner to the valley +man, connecting it with these considerations, and never dreaming that +it was her acquaintance which her brother grudged the stranger. + +"I ought never ter hev set Ben after him," she thought ruefully. +"He'll hang on ter him like a bulldog." But aloud she only said, "You +kin make the money all the same." + +"Oh, I'll try, like a little man!" he exclaimed, rousing himself to +renewed hope. "I have written to another scientific fellow, and he +has promised to come and investigate. I hope to Heaven he won't break +his neck, too." + +She also marked the word "investigate," which had so smitten Ben's +attention, and marveled what matter it might be in the mountains worth +investigating, and promissory of gain, if not the still-hunt, as it +were, of the wily moonshiners. But yet her faith in Selwyn's motives +and good will, so suddenly adopted, held fast. + +"Con Hite mus' l'arn ter look out fur hisse'f," she thought fretfully, +for she could not discern into what disastrous swirl she might be +guiding events as she took the helm. "He's big enough, the Lord +knows." + +The little log cabin on the slope of the ascent had come into sight. +They had followed but slowly; the horses were already tethered to +the rails of the fence, and the jury of view and its escort had +disappeared within. A very spirited fracas was in progress between the +visiting dogs and the inhospitable home canines, and once Ben appeared +in the passageway and hoarsely called his hounds off. + +"I ain't a-goin' ter hurry," Narcissa remarked cavalierly. "Let +Ben an' aunt Minervy dish up an' wait on 'em. They won't miss me. +Thar's nuthin' in this worl' a gormandizin' man kin miss at +meal-times,--'ceptin' teeth." + +Selwyn made no comment on this touch of reprisal in Narcissa's manner. +If old Persimmon Sneed had deemed her coming forth to meet them +superfluous, she in her own good judgment could deem her presence at +table an empty show. + +"I ain't a-goin' in," she continued. "Ye kin go," she added, with a +hasty afterthought. "Thar's a cheer sot ter the table fur you-uns. I'm +goin' ter bide hyar. They 'll git done arter a while." + +She sat languidly down on a step of a stile that went over the fence +at a considerable distance from the house, and Selwyn, protesting that +he wanted no dinner, established himself on the protruding roots of a +great beech-tree that, like gigantic, knuckled, gnarled fingers, +visibly took a great grasp of the earth before sinking their tips far +out of sight beneath. The shade was dense; the sound of water +trickling into the rude horse-trough on the opposite side of the path +that was to be a road was delicious in its cool suggestion, for the +landscape, far, far to see, blazed as with the refulgence of a summer +sun. The odor of the apple orchard, heavily fruited, was mellow on the +air, and the red-freighted boughs of an old winesap bent above the +girl's head as she sat with her elbow on her knee and her chin in her +hand. She gazed dreamily away at those vividly blue ranges, whither +one might fancy summer had fled, so little affinity had their aspect +with the network of intermediate brown valleys, and nearer garnet +slopes, and the red and yellow oak boughs close at hand, hanging above +the precipice and limiting the outlook. + +"Yes," he said, after a moment's cogitation, while he absently turned +a cluster of beech-nuts in his hands, "I'll try it, for keeps, you may +bet,--if you were a betting character. There's lots of good things +going in these mountains; that is, if a fellow had the money to get +'em out." + +He looked up a trifle drearily from under the brim of his straw hat at +the smiling summertide of those blue mountains yonder. Oh, fair and +feigning prospect, what wide and alluring perspectives! He drew a long +sigh. Is it better to know so surely that winter is a-coming? + +"An' the sense, too," remarked Narcissa, her eyes still dreamily +dwelling on the distance. + +He roused himself. The unconsciously flattering inference was too +slight not to be lawfully appropriated. + +"Yes, the sense and the enterprise. Now, these mountaineers,"--he +spoke as if she had no part among them, forgetting it, indeed, for the +moment,--"they let marble and silver and iron, and gold too, all sorts +of natural wealth, millions and millions of the finest hard-wood +timber, lie here undeveloped, without making the least effort to +realize on it, without lifting a finger. They have got no enterprise +in the world, and they are the most dilatory, slowest gang I ever ran +across in my life." + +A dimple deepened in the soft fairness of her cheek under the white +sunbonnet. + +"They got enterprise enough ter want a road," she drawled, fixing her +eyes upon him for a moment, then reverting to her former outlook. + +He was a trifle embarrassed, and lost his balance. + +"Oh, _I_'ll want a road, too, after a while," he returned. "All in +good time." He laughed as if to himself, a touch of mystery in his +tone, and he took off his hat and jauntily fanned himself. + +"Sorter dil'tory yerse'f now; 'pears ter be a ketchin' complaint, like +the measles." + +Perhaps she secretly resented the reflection on the mountaineers, for +there was a certain bellicose intention in her eye, a disposition to +push him to his last defenses. + +"No; but a body would think a fellow might get enough intelligent +cooperation in any promising matter from right around here without +corresponding all over the country. And the mountaineers don't know +anything, and they don't want to learn anything. Now," convincingly, +"what would any of those fellows in there say if I should tell them +that I could take a match "--he pulled a handful of lucifers from, his +pocket--"and set a spring afire?" + +She gazed at him in dumb surprise. + +"They'd say I was lying, I reckon," he hazarded. With an ebullition of +laughter, he hastily scrambled to his feet and unhitched his horse; +then, as he put his foot in the stirrup, he paused and added, "Or +else, 'Better leave it be, sonny,'" with the effrontery of mimicry. +"'Mought set the mounting afire.'" + +He forthwith swung himself into the saddle, and, with a jaunty wave of +the hand in adieu, fared forth homeward, leaving her staring after him +in wide-eyed amazement. + + +VII. + +The love of contention served, in the case of old Persimmon Sneed, in +the stead of industry, of rectitude, of perseverance, of judgment, of +every quality that should adorn a man. So eager was he to be off and +at the road again that he could scarcely wait to swallow his +refection. All the charms of the profusely spread board had not +availed to decoy him from the subject, and the repast of the devoted +jury of view was seasoned with his sage advice and vehement argument +against the project, which its advocates, fully occupied, failed for +the nonce to combat. Now and again Mrs. Minerva Slade sought to +interpose in their behalf, and many a tempting trencher was thrust to +his elbow to divert the tenor of his discourse. But despite his +youthful vulnerability to the dainty which had won him his sobriquet, +Persimmon Sneed's palate was not more susceptible to the allurements +of flattery than his hard head or his obdurate heart. There was, +however, at intervals, a lively clatter of his knife and fork, and +some redoubtable activity on the part of his store teeth, frankly +false, and without doubt the only false thing about him. Then he +hustled up the jury of view and their _confreres_ to the resumption of +their duties, and was the first man to put foot in stirrup. Certain +other mountaineers would fain have lingered, as was manifest by the +triangular slices of "apple custard pie" in their hands, as they +stood, still munching, on the porch, watching the departing jury of +view with their active and aged precursor, and by their loitering +farewells and thanks to Aunt Minerva Slade. A beaming countenance did +she wear this day. She had cooked to some cheerful purpose. Not one +failure had marred the _menu_, in testimony of which, as she afterward +remarked, "I never seen scraps so skimpy." Her spectacles reflected +the bland light of the day as smilingly as the eyes above which they +were poised, as she stood in the doorway, and with fluttering +graciousness received the homage of her beneficiaries. + +"That youngest one, Con Hite, was sorter mild-mannered an' meek," she +afterward said, often recounting the culinary triumphs of the great +day, "an' I misdoubts but he hed the deespepsy, fur he war the only +one ez didn't pitch in an' eat like he war tryin' to pervide fur a +week's fastin'. I reckon they all knowed what sort'n pitiful table +they sets out at Mis' Cornely Hood's, t'other side the mounting, whar +they expected ter stop fur supper, an' war a-goin' ter lay up suthin' +agin destitution." + +For an hour, perhaps, before reaching Hanway's, Con Hite had ridden +with the jury of view. He had not much expectation of influencing the +fate of the road in any respect by his presence, but he felt it was a +matter of consistency to appear with the others of the opposition. He +desired, too, to publicly urge, as his reason for objecting to the +project, the insufficiency of hands in so sparsely populated a region +to make a road and keep it in repair; lest another reason, the wish to +preserve the seclusion so dear to the moonshiner, be attributed to +him. This matter of policy had been made very palatable by the +probability that he would see Narcissa, and it was with a deep +disappointment that he beheld Selwyn beside her, and received only a +slight movement of her drooping eyelids as a token of recognition and +welcome. He had been minded to dismount and walk with her, but his +heart burned with resentment. Of what worth now were all his buoyant +anticipations, while she was listening to the sugared flatteries of +the "town cuss"? He had this subject for cogitation, while, in a +stifling room, he was regaled with hard cider and apple-jack by no +more fascinating Hebe than old Mrs. Slade, with her withered sallow +skin, her excited, anxious eye, her fluttered, tremulous, skinny +fingers, her hysteric cap with its maddeningly flying strings, and her +wonderfully swift venerable scamper in and out of the kitchen. + +Con Hite was the last to go. He led his horse down to the +watering-trough, oblivious of the stream, with its ample supply, a +hundred yards or so further on and in full view; and as he stood +there, with his hand on the animal's shoulder, he turned his eyes, +somewhat wistful, though wont to be so bold and bright, upon Narcissa, +still seated on the stile. Her own brown long-lashed eyes had a +far-away look in them. They evidently passed him over absently, and +followed the squad of men swiftly trotting adown the road, all in good +heart and good temper again, to take up their duty where they had +laid it down. No faint vestige of a dimple was now in her daintily +white cheek. + +"Ye be powerful sparin' o' speech ter-day," he remarked. + +Her eyes did not move from the distant landscape. "Folks ez hev got +nuthin' ter say would do well ter say it." + +He flushed. "Ye hed mo' ter say ter the stranger-man." + +"Don't see him so powerful frequent. When a thing is sca'ce, it's apt +ter be ch'ice," she retorted. + +She experienced a certain satisfaction in her acridity. For his sake, +lest suspicion befall him, she had sought to inaugurate an +investigation--nay, a persecution--of this man, and he a stranger; and +but that circumstance was kind to him, her effort might have resulted +cruelly. And now that she had done so much for Con Hite, it was her +pleasure to take it out on him, as the phrase goes. All unaware of +this curious mental attitude, he winced under her satire. + +"Waal, I kin make myself sca'ce, too," he said, an impulse of pride +surging in his heart. + +"It mought be better fur ye," she replied indifferently. + +His momentary independence left him suddenly. + +"Narcissa," he said reproachfully, "ye didn't always talk this way ter +me." + +"That ain't news ter me. Ben 'lows ez I talk six ways fur Sunday." + +"Ye dunno how I feel, not knowin' how ye be set towards me, an' +hevin' ter see ye so seldom, a-workin' all the time down yander, +a-moonshinin'"-- + +"I wouldn't talk 'bout it so turr'ble loud." She glanced +apprehensively over her shoulder. "An' ye'd better quit it, ennyhows." + +"Ye 'lows it be wrong," he said, his bold bright eyes all softened as +he looked at her, "bein' agin the law?" + +"I ain't keerin' fur the law. Ef the truth war knowed, the law is +aimin' ter git all the benefit o' whiskey bein' drunk itself. That's +whar the law kems in. I only keer fur"--She stopped abruptly. She had +nearly revealed to him that she cared only lest some disaster come to +him in his risky occupation; that she would like him to be ploughing +in a safe level field at the side of a cabin, where she might sit by +the window and sew, and look out and see that no harm befell this big +bold man, six feet two inches high. "Con Hite!" she exclaimed, her +face scarlet, "I never see a body ez hard-hearted an' onmerciful ez +ye air. Whyn't ye water that sufferin' beast, ez air fairly honing +ter drink? Waal," she continued, after a pause in which he +demonstrated the axiom that one may lead a horse to water, but cannot +make him drink, "then whyn't ye go? I ain't got time ter waste, ef ye +hev." + +She rose as if for departure, and he put his foot in the stirrup. "I +wish ye wouldn't be so harsh ter me, Narcissa," he said meekly. + +"Waal, thar be a heap o' saaft-spoken gals ter be hed fur the askin'. +Ye kin take yer ch'ice." + +And with this he was fain to be content, as he mounted and rode +reluctantly away. + +She sat down again, and was still for a long time after the last echo +of his horse's hoofs had died on the air. Her thoughts did not follow +him, however. They turned again with renewed interest to the +fair-haired young stranger. Somehow she was ill at ease and vaguely +disillusioned. She watched mechanically, and with some unaccustomed +touch of melancholy, the burnished shimmering golden haze gradually +invest far blue domes and their purple slopes, and the brown valleys, +and the rugged rocky mountains nearer, with a certain idealized +slumberous effect like the landscape of a dream. In these still spaces +naught moved now save the imperceptible lengthening of the shadows. It +had never occurred to her to deem the scene beautiful; it was the +familiar furniture of her home. Upon this her eyes had first opened. +She had never thought to compare it to aught else,--to the suffocating +experience of one visit to the metropolitan glories of the little town +in the flat woods known as Colbury. It had seemed, indeed, magnificent +to her ignorance, and the temerity of the architecture of a two-story +house had struck her aghast. She had done naught but wonder and stare. +The trip had been a great delight, but she had never desired to linger +or to dwell there. Certain sordid effects came over her; reminiscences +of the muddy streets, the tawdry shops, the jostling, busy-eyed +people. + +"Ain't this ez good?" she said to herself, as the vast scene suddenly +fluctuated beneath a flare of wind amidst the sunshine, and light, +detached white flakes of cloud went winging athwart the blue sky; +their shadows followed them fast across the sunlit valley,--only their +dark and lifeless semblances, like the verbal forms of some white +illumined thought that can find no fit expression in words. The breath +of the pines came to her, the sound of the water, the sudden fanfare +of the unseen wind in the sky heralding the clouds. "Ain't this ez +good?" she said again, with that first deadly, subtle distrust of the +things of home, that insidious discontent so fatal to peace. He +evidently did not deem it as good, and the obvious fact rankled in +her. The mountain men, and their lack of enterprise, and their +drawling speech which he had mimicked,--they too shared his +disparagement; and she was conscious that she herself did not now +think so well of them,--so conscious that she made a loyal struggle +against this sentiment. + +"So shif'less, so thrif'less," she echoed his words. "An' I dunno ez +_I_ ever viewed a waste-fuller critter'n this hyar very Mister Man." +She stooped down, gathering together the handful of matches that +Selwyn had inadvertently pulled from his pocket with the one which he +had used in illustrating his suggestion of setting the waters of a +spring afire. "Ef he keeps on ez wasteful ez this, he'll get out o' +matches whar he lives over yander; an' I misdoubts ef, smart ez he +'lows he be, he could kindle the wood ter cook his breakfus' by a +flint rock,--ef he air so boastful ez ter 'low ez he kin set spring +water afire." + +She made the matches into a compact little budget and slipped them +into her pocket, and as she rose and looked about uncertainly, she +heard her aunt Minerva calling to her from the house that it was high +time to go and drive up the cows. + +Aunt Minerva had not bethought herself to summon the girl to dinner. +The whole world seemed surfeited to her, so had dinner occupied her +day. Narcissa herself, under the stress of the abnormal excitements, +felt no lack as she slowly trod the familiar paths in search of the +bovine vagrants. + +Her thoughts bore her company, and she was far from home when the +aspect of the reddening sun smote her senses. She stood and watched +the last segment of the vermilion sphere sink down out of sight, and, +as she turned, the October dusk greeted her on every side. The +shadows, how dense in the woods; the valleys, darkling already! Only +on the higher eastern slopes a certain red reflection spoke of the +vanishing day. She looked vainly as yet for some faint silvery +suffusion which might herald the rising of the moon; for it was to be +a bright night. She was glad of the recollection. She had not hitherto +realized it, but she was tired. She would rest for a little while, and +thus refreshed she would be the sooner home. She sat down on a ledge +of the outcropping rock and looked about her. The spot was unfamiliar, +but in the far stretch of the darkening scene she identified many a +well-known landmark. There was the gleaming bend of the river in the +valley, lost presently amidst the foliage of its banks; and here was +an isolated conical peak on a far lower level than the summit of the +range, and known as Thimble Mountain; and nearer still, across a +narrow bight of the Cove, was a bare slope. As she glanced at it she +half rose from her place, for there was the witch-face, twilight on +the grim features, yet with the aid of memory so definitely discerned +that they could hardly have been more distinct by noonday,--a face of +inexplicably sinister omen. "Oh, why did I see it to-day!" she +exclaimed, the presage of ill fortune strong upon her, with that +grisly mask leering at her from across the valley. But the day was +well-nigh gone; only a scant space remained in which to work the evil +intent of fate. She seated herself anew, for in the shadowy labyrinth +of the woods her path could scarcely be found. She must needs wait for +the moon. + +She wondered, as she sat and gazed about, how far she might be from +that new dwelling where he lived who so scorned the mountain, and who +owed to it his every breath. There was no sound, no suggestion of +human habitation. The shadowy woods stood dense about the little open +ledgy space on three sides; toward the very verge of the mountain the +rocks grew shelving and precipitous, and beyond the furthest which she +could see, the gray edge of which cut sharply against the base of a +distant dun-tinted range, she knew the descent was abrupt to the +depths of the valley. Looking up, she beheld the trembling lucid +whiteness of a star; now and again the great rustling boughs of an +oak-tree swayed beneath it, and then its glister was broken and +deflected amidst the crisp autumnal leaves, but still she saw it +shine. It told, too, that there was water near; she caught its radiant +multiplied reflection, like a cluster of scintillating white gems, on +the lustrous dark surface of a tiny pool, circular and rock-bound, +close beneath the ledge on which she sat. She leaned over, and saw in +its depths the limpid fading red sky, and the jagged brown border of +the rocks, and a grotesque moving head, which she recognized, after a +plunge of the heart, as her own sunbonnet. She drew back in dismay; +she would have no more of this weird mirror of the rocks and woods, +and looked up again at the shining of the star amidst the darkening +shadows of the scarlet oak. How tall that tree was, how broad of +girth! And how curiously this stranger talked! What was there to do +with all these trees! Would he cut down all the trees on the mountain? +A sudden doubt of his sanity crossed her mind. It was the first, and +her heart stood still for a moment. But as she slowly canvassed the +idea, it accounted for much otherwise impossible to comprehend: his +evident poverty and his efforts toward the purchase of lands; his +illness and his bluff insistence on his strength; his wild talk of +enterprise and his mysterious intimations of phenomenal opportunities. +Confirmations of the suspicion crowded upon her; above all, the mad +boast that with a match he could set the waters of a spring afire. + +With a sad smile at the fatuity of the thing, in her idle waiting she +drew one of his matches from her pocket; then she struck it briskly on +the rugged rock, and cast it, blazing lightly, into the bubbling +waters of the spring. + +The woods, the rocks, the black night, the fleering, flouting +witch-face, all with an abrupt bound sprang into sudden visibility. A +pyramid of yellow flame was surging up from the bubbling surface of +the water. Long, dark, slim shadows were speeding through the woods, +with strange slants of yellow light; the very skies were a-flicker. +She cowered back for a moment, covering her face with her hands. Then, +affrighted at her own sorceries, she fled like a deer through the +wilderness. + + +VIII. + +One by one, as the afternoon wore on, the spectators began to desert +the jury of view, their progress over the mountain being slower than +had been anticipated. So often, indeed, did insoluble difficulties +arise touching the location of the road and questions of dispute that +it might be wondered that the whole body did not perish by faction. +After the party had passed the boundary line of Persimmon Sneed's +tract, where he seemed to consider the right of eminent domain merged +in nothingness in comparison to his lordly prerogatives as owner in +fee simple, he ceased to urge as heretofore. He dictated boldly to the +jury. He rode briskly on in advance, as if doing the honors of his +estate to flattered guests, now and again waving his hand to +illustrate his proposition, his keen, high-pitched voice overcoming in +its distinct utterance the sound of hoofs and spurs, and the +monotonous bass contradictions proffered by Silas Boyd. + +And the jury of view, silent and circumspect, rode discreetly on. + +Persimmon Sneed's mare seemed as fresh as himself, and when he would +turn, as he often did, to face the fatigued, wilted, overwhelmed jury +jogging along on their jaded steeds, tired out with the long day's +jaunt and the rough footing, the mare would move swiftly backward in a +manner that would have done credit to the manege of a circus. And at +this extreme advantage Persimmon Sneed and his raised adjuring +forefinger seemed impossible to be gainsaid. His arguments partook of +the same unanswerable character. + +"Ye don't see none o' my cattle, do ye?" He waved his hand toward the +woods flecked with the long slantings of the sun. "I hev got more 'n a +hunderd head grazin' right hyar in the bresh. Cattle-thieves could +call an' salt 'em easy enough, but they couldn't drive 'em off through +the laur'l thar; it's thick ez hell!" pointing to the dense jungle. +"But ef we-uns hed this hyar road what ye air aimin' ter lay off, why, +a leetle salt an' a leetle drivin' an' a moonlight night would gather +'em, an' the whole herd would be in Georgy by daybreak. I wouldn't hev +the hawn of a muley cow lef'. Now, ez it be, them cattle air ez safe +from sight ez ef I hed swallowed 'em!" And he whirled again, and led +the column. + +The jury of view rode disconsolately on. + +They experienced a temporary relief when they had passed the confines +of his tract,--for it was across but a protruding tongue of the main +body of his land that the road was expected to run,--and entered upon +the domain of the "valley man with the lung complaint;" for this +diverted Persimmon Sneed to the more amiable task of narrating how the +stranger had sought to buy land of him, and the high prices he had +scornfully refused, the adaptability of his land to his own especial +needs being so phenomenally apt. + +A sudden query from Silas Boyd rendered their respite short: "What's +that man Selwyn want so much land fur, ennyhows? He hev been tryin' +ter buy all that 'crost the gorge, too." He waved his hand toward the +gloomy woods darkening on the opposite slope. + +"Ter graze cattle, o' course," promptly surmised Persimmon Sneed. +"Jes' look at my fine chance o' yearlin's, a-layin' on fat an' bone +an' muscle every day, with no expense nor attendance, an' safe an' +sound an' sure. An' now," he cried suddenly, and the shuddering jury +saw the collocation of ideas as it bore down upon them, and Persimmon +Sneed swiftly turned, facing them, while the mare nimbly essayed a +_passado_ backward, "ye air talkin' 'bout changin' all this, +ruinationin' the vally o' my land ter me. Ye 'low ye want ter permote +the interus' o' the public! Waal," raising an impressive forefinger, +"ain't _I_ the public?" + +No one ventured a reply. + +The jury of view rode desperately on. + +They had presently more cause for depression of spirit. It began to be +evident that with the dusk some doubt had arisen in the minds of the +mountaineers of the party as to the exact trend of the herder's trail. +The doubt intensified, until further progress proved definitively that +the indistinct trail was completely lost. Darkness came on apace; the +tangled ways of the forest seemed momently more tortuous; wolves were +not rare in the vicinity; rumors of a gang of horse-thieves were rife. + +After much discussion, the jury of view agreed that they would go no +further at present, but wait for the rising of the moon, on the theory +that it would then be practicable to make their way to the Hood cabin, +on the other side of the mountain, which was their immediate goal, and +which they had expected to reach by sunset; unaware that in their +devious turnings they had retraced several miles of their course, and +were now much nearer Selwyn's dwelling in the woods than the terminus +of their route. + +Despite their uncertainty and anxiety, the rest was grateful. The +shades of night were cool and refreshing after the glare of the day, +as they sat smoking on the rocks about the verge of the mountain. The +horses had been unsaddled, and were picketed in an open glade at a +little distance: in recurrent pauses in the talk, the sound of their +grazing on the scanty grass came to the ear; all else was silence save +the tinkling of a mountain rill,--a keen detached appoggiatura rising +occasionally above the monody of its murmurous flow,--and the +melancholy chiming of some lingering cicada, the latest spared of the +frost. + +The night was as yet very dark; the stars were dull in a haze, the +valley was a vague blur; even the faces of the men could not be dimly +distinguished. Strange, then, that an added visibility suddenly +invested the woods and the sky-line beyond a dense belt of timber. + +"'Pears ter me toler'ble early fur the moon," observed one of the men. +"She's on the wane now, too." + +"'Tain't early, though," replied the sullen bass voice of Silas Boyd +from the darkness; it was lowered, that the others might not hear. +"That thar old perverted Philistine of a Persimmon Sneed kep' us +danderin' roun' hyar till mighty nigh eight o'clock, I'll bet, +a-persistin' an' a-persistin' he knowed the road, when he war plumb +lost time we got on that cowpath. An' the jury o' view, they hed ter +take Persimmon Sneed's advice, he bein' the oldest, an' wait _hyar_ +fur the risin' moon. Persimmon Sneed will repent he picked out this +spot,--he'll repent it sure!" + +This dictum was only the redundancy of discontent; but when, in the +light of subsequent events, it was remembered, and special gifts of +discernment were attributed to Silas Boyd, he did not disclaim them, +for he felt that his words were surely inspired by some presentiment, +so apt were they, and so swiftly did the fulfillment follow the +prophecy. + +There was a sudden stir among the group. The men were getting quickly +to their feet, alert, tense, with broken whispers and bated breath. +For there, on a bare slope, viewed diagonally across the gorge and +illumined with a wavering pallor, the witch-face glared down at them +from the dense darkness of the woods. The quick chilly repulsion of +the strangers as they gazed spellbound at the apparition was +outmatched by the horror of those who had known the fantasy from +childhood;--never thus had they beheld the gaunt old face! What +strange unhallowed mystery was this, that it should smile and grimace +and mock at them from out the shadowy night, with flickers of light as +of laughter running athwart its grisly lineaments? What evil might it +portend? They all stood aghast, watching this pallid emblazonment of +the deep night. + +"Boys," said old Dent Kirby tremulously, "thar's suthin' powerful +cur'ous 'bout this 'speriunce. That thar light war never kindled in +heaven or yearth." + +"Let's go!" cried Jeremiah Sayres. "We hev got ter git out'n this +somehows." + +"Go whar?" croaked Silas Boyd, his deep bass voice lowered to a +whisper. "I be 'feard ter quit the trail furder. 'Pinnock's Mis'ry' be +hyar-abouts somewhar, a plumb quicksand, what a man got into an' +floundered an' sank, an' floundered agin, an' whenst they fund him his +hair war white an' his mind deranged. Or else we-uns mought run off'n +a bluff somewhar, an' git our necks bruk." + +Now Persimmon Sneed was possessed of a most intrusive curiosity, and +he was further endowed with a sturdy courage. + +"I'll jes' step off a leetle way to'des that light, an' view whar it +kems from," he observed coolly. "The woods air too wet to burn." + +He would not listen to protest. + +"The witch-face ain't never blighted me none," he rejoined stoutly as +he set forth. + + +IX. + +The thick tangled mass of the undergrowth presently intervened, so +that, as he broke his way through it, he wondered that its bosky +dimness should be so visible beneath the heavy shadows of the great +trees looming high overhead. Once he stopped dubiously; the glow +evidently came rather from below than above. It is too much to say +that a thrill of fear tried the fibres of Persimmon Sneed's obdurate +old heart. But he listened for a moment to hear, perchance, the sound +of voices from the group he had left, or the champing of the picketed +steeds. He was an active man, and had come fast and far since quitting +his companions. Not even a vague murmur rose from the silent autumnal +woods. The stillness was absolute. As he moved forward once more, the +impact of his foot upon the rain-soaked leaves, the rustle of the +boughs as he pressed among them, the rise and fall of his own +breathing, somewhat quicker than its wont, served to render +appreciable to Persimmon Sneed the fact that he possessed nerves which +were more susceptible to a quaver of doubt than that redoubtable +endowment called his hard head. + +"Somebody hev jes' sot out fire in the woods,--though powerful wet," +he muttered, his intellectual entity seeking to quiet that inward +flutter of his mere bodily being. "But I'm a-goin' on," he protested +obstinately, "ef it be bodaciously kindled by the devil!" + +And as he spoke, his heart failed, his limbs seemed sinking beneath +him, his pulses beat tumultuously for a moment, and then were +abruptly still; he had emerged from the woods in a great flickering +glare which pervaded an open, rocky space shelving to a precipice, and +beheld a tall, glowing yellow flame rising unquenched from the +illuminated surface of a bubbling mountain spring. His senses reeled; +a myriad of tawny red and yellow flashes swayed before his dazzled +eyes. He had heard all his life of the wild freaks of the witches in +the woods. Had he chanced on their unhallowed pastimes in the +solitudes of these untrodden mountain wildernesses? Was this +miraculous fire, blazing from the depths of the clear water, +necromancy, the work of the devil? + +The next moment his heart gave a great throb. He found his voice in a +wild halloo. Among the fluttering shadows of the trees he had caught +sight of the figure of a man, and, a thousand times better, of a face +that he knew. The man was approaching the fire, with a stare of blank +amazement and fear as his distended eyes beheld the phenomenon of the +blazing spring. Their expression changed instantly upon the sound. His +face was all at once alert, grave, suspicious, a prosaic anxiety +obliterating every trace of superstitious terror. His right hand was +laid upon his hip in close proximity to a pistol-pocket, and Persimmon +Sneed remembered suddenly that his own pistol was in its holster on +his saddle, he could not say how far distant in these wild, trackless +woods, and that this man was a notorious offender against the law, +sundry warrants for his arrest for horse-stealing having been issued +at divers times and places. There had been much talk of an organized +band who had assisted in these and similar exploits in secluded +districts of the county, but Persimmon Sneed had given it scant +credence until he beheld several armed men lagging in the rear, their +amazed, uncouth faces, under their broad-brimmed hats, all weird and +unnatural in the pervasive yellow glow. They had, evidently, been led +to the spot by the strange flare in the heart of the woods; but Nick +Peters could well enough pretermit his surprise and whatever spiritual +terrors might assail him till a more convenient season for their +indulgence. A more immediate danger menaced him than the bodily +appearance of the devil, which he had momently expected as he gazed at +the flaming water. He had seen the others of his own party +approaching, and he walked quickly across the clear space to Persimmon +Sneed. He was a little, slim, wiry man, with light, sleek hair, pink +cheeks, high cheek-bones, and a bony but blunt nose. He had a light +eye, gray, shallow, but inscrutable, and there was something feline in +his aspect and glance, at once smooth and caressing and of latent +fierceness. + +"Why, Mr. Persimmon Sneed," he exclaimed in a voice as bland as a +summer's day, "how did you-uns an' yer frien's do sech ez that?" and +he pointed at the flaring pyramid on the surface of the water. + +Persimmon Sneed, in his proclivity to argument, forgot his lack of a +pistol and his difficult position, unarmed and alone. + +"I'll hev ye ter remember I hev no dealin's with the devil. I dunno +how that water war set afire, nor my friends nuther," he said stiffly. + +"Whar air they?" + +Nick Peters's keen, discerning eye had been covertly scanning the +flickering shadows and the fluctuating slants of yellow light about +them. Now he boldly threw his glance over his shoulder. + +Persimmon Sneed caught himself sharply. + +"They ain't hyar-abouts," he said gruffly, on his guard once more. + +A look of apprehension crossed the horse-thief's face. The denial was +in the nature of an affirmation to his alert suspicion; for it is one +of the woes of the wicked that, knowing no truth themselves, they +cannot recognize it in others, even in a transient way, as a chance +acquaintance. He must needs have heed. A number of men, doubtless, +well armed, were in the immediate vicinity. As he whirled himself +lightly half around on his spurred heel, his manner did not conform to +his look. + +"Did you-uns an' them kem all the way from the valley ter view the +blazin' spring?" he asked. "Looks some like hell-fire," he added +incidentally, and with the tone of one familiar with the resemblance +he descried. + +"Naw; we-uns never hearn on it afore; I jes' run on it accidental," +Sneed replied succinctly, hardly daring to trust himself to an +unnecessary word; for the staring men that had gathered at a +respectful distance about the blazing spring numbered nine or ten, and +an ill-advised tongue might precipitate an immediate attack on the +dismounted, unarmed group awaiting his return at the verge of the +bluff. A genuine thrill of terror shook him as he realized that at any +moment he might be followed by men as ill prepared as he to cope with +the horse-thief's gang. + +"I see ye rid," said Nick Peters, observing his acquaintance's spurs. +"Yer frien's rid, too, I s'pose?" + +Persimmon Sneed, desirous of seeming unsuspicious, merely nodded. He +seemed as suspicious, in fact, as watchful, as stanch, as ready to +spring, as a leopard in a cage. His thin lips were set, his alert +eyes keen, his unshaven, stubbly jaws rigid, his whole body at a high +tension. The man of quicker perceptions was first to drop the +transparent feint, but only to assume another. + +"Now, Mr. Sneed," he said, with an air of reproach and upbraiding, "do +ye mean ter tell me ez ye hev kem up hyar with the sheriff or dep'ty +ter nose me out; me, who hev got no home,--folks burned my house ter +the yearth, namin' _me_ 'horse-thief' an' sech,--nor frien's, nor +means, nor havin's, plumb run ter groun' like a fox or sech?" + +"Ef ye did"--said a gigantic ruffian who had come up, backed by a +shadow twice his size, and stood assisting at the colloquy, looking +over the shoulder of his wiry little chief. He left the sentence +unfinished, a significant gesture toward the handle of the pistol in +his belt rendering the omission of slight moment. + +"Some o' them boys war wondering ef that fire out'n the water would +burn," observed a fat, greasy, broad-faced lout, with a foolish, +brutal grin. "It mought make out ter singe this stranger's hair an' +hide, ef we war ter gin him a duckin' thar." + +"Air ye a-huntin' of me, too, Mr. Sneed,--ye that war 'quainted with +me in the old times on Tomahawk Creek?" Peters reiterated his demand +in a plaintive, melodramatic tone, which titillated his fancy, +somehow, and, like virtue, was its own exceeding great reward; for +both he and Persimmon Sneed knew right well that their acquaintance +amounted only to a mere facial recognition when they had chanced to +pass on the country road or the village street, years before. +Nevertheless, under the pressure of the inherent persuasiveness of the +suggested retribution, Persimmon Sneed made haste to aver that his +errand in the mountains was in no sense at the sheriff's instance. And +so radical and indubitable were his protestations that Nick Peters was +constrained to discard this fear, and demand, "What brung ye ter +Witch-Face Mounting then, Mr. Sneed?" + +"Waal, some fellows war app'inted by the county court ter view the +road an' report on it," said Persimmon, "an' I kem along ter see how +it mought affect my interust." + +How far away, how long ago, how infinitely unimportant, seemed all +those convolutions of trail and argument in which he had expended the +finest flowers of his contradictory faculties, the stanch immobility +of his obstinacy, his unswerving singleness of purpose in seeing only +one side of a question, this afternoon, a few short hours since! The +mutability of the affairs of the most immutable of human beings! + +This reflection was cut short by observing the stare of blank +amazement on Nick Peters's face. "Road!" he said. "Thar ain't no +road." + +"They air app'inted ter lay out an' report on openin' one," explained +Persimmon Sneed. + +Evidently Nick Peters's experience of the law was in its criminal +rather than in its civil phases, but the surprise died out of his +face, and he presently said, with a beguiling air of frankness, "Now, +Mr. Sneed, ye see this happens right in my way of trade. Jes' tell me +whar them loafers air, an' how many horses they hev got along, an' +I'll gin ye the bes' beastis I hev got ter ride, an' a pair o' +shootin'-irons and set ye in the valley road on the way home. Ye kin +say ye war lost from them." + +It is true that in this moment Persimmon Sneed remembered each of his +contumacious comrades, and saw that they outnumbered by one the +horse-thief's gang; he realized that they were out of leading-strings, +and amply capable of taking care of themselves. He had that wincing +terror which an unarmed man experiences at the sight of +"shootin'-irons" in the grasp of other and antagonistic men. More than +all, he looked at those hell-lighted flames, as he esteemed them, +rising out of the lustrous water, and believed the jocose barbarity of +the threat of the brutal henchman might be serious earnest in its +execution. + +But the jury of view and their companions were all unprepared for +molestation in such wise as menaced them. He reflected anew upon their +dismounted condition, the horses hitched at a distance, the saddles +scattered on the ground in the darkness, with the holsters buckled to +them and the pistols within. A sudden attack meant a successful +robbery and perchance bloodshed. + +"I'll die fust!" he said loudly, and he had never looked more +painfully obstinate. "I'll die fust!" He lifted his quivering hand and +shook it passionately in the air. "I ain't no ransomed saint, an' I +know it, but afore I'll betray that thar jury o' view what's been +app'inted by the county court ter lay off the damned road, I'll die +fust! I ain't no ransomed saint, I ain't, but I'll _die_ fust! I ain't +no ransomed"-- + +"Stop, boys, stop!" cried the wiry little horse-thief, as the others +gathered about Sneed with threatening eyes and gestures, while he +vociferated amongst them, as lordly as if he were in his oft-time +preeminence as the foreman of a jury. Nick Peters's face had changed. +There was a sudden fear upon it, uncomprehended by Persimmon Sneed. It +did not occur to him until long afterward that he had for the first +time used the expression "a jury of view," and that the horse-thief's +familiarity with the idea of a jury was only in the sense of twelve +men. + +Peters spoke aside to the others, only a word or so, but there was +amongst them an obvious haste to get away, of which Persimmon Sneed +was cognizant, albeit his head was swimming, his breath short, his +eyes dazzled by the fire which he feared. His understanding, however, +was blunted in some sort, it seemed to him, for he could make no sense +of Nick Peters's observation as he took him by the arm, although +afterward it became plain enough. + +"Ye'll hev ter go an' 'bide along o' we-uns fur awhile, Mr. Sneed," he +said, choking with the laughter of some occult happy thought. "Ye +ain't a ransomed saint yit, but ye will be arter awhile, I reckon, ef +ye live long enough." + +Their shadows skulked away as swiftly as they themselves, even more +furtively, running on ahead, in great haste to be gone. The +fire-light slanted through the woods in quick, elusive fluctuations, +ever dimmer, ever recurrently flaring, and when the jury of view and +their companions, alarmed by the long absence of Persimmon Sneed, +followed the strange light through the woods to the brink of the +burning spring, they found naught astir save the vagrant shadows of +the great boles of the trees, no longer held to their accustomed +orbit, but wandering through the woods with a large freedom. + +That this fire, blazing brilliantly on the surface of the clear spring +water, was kindled by supernatural power was not for a moment doubted +by the mountaineers who had never before heard of such a phenomenon, +and the spiriting away of Persimmon Sneed they promptly ascribed to +the same agency. With these thoughts upon them, they did not linger +long at the spot where he had met so mysterious a fate. Their ringing +halloos, with which the woods were enlivened, took on vaguely appalled +cadences; the echoes came back to them like mocking shouts; and they +were glad enough to ride away at last through the quiet moonlit +glades, their faltering voices silent, leaving that mystic fire slowly +dying where it had blazed so long on the face of the water. + + * * * * * + +A more extended search, later, resulting as fruitlessly, the idea that +Persimmon Sneed had been in some way lured bodily within the grasp of +the devil prevailed among the more ignorant people of the community; +they dolorously sought to point the moral how ill the headstrong fare, +and speculated gloomily as to the topic on which he had ventured to +argue with Satan, who in rage and retaliation had whisked him away. +But there was a class of citizens in Colbury who hearkened with elated +sentiments to this story of the burning spring. A company of +capitalists was promptly organized, every inch of attainable land on +the mountain was quietly bought, and machinery for boring for oil was +already at the spring when the news was brought to Selwyn by Hanway, +who, not having seen the young stranger for the past week or so, +feared he was ill. The flakes of the first snow of the season were +whirling past the windows--no more on autumn leaves they looked, no +more on far-off bare but azure mountains, feigning summer. The distant +ranges were ghostly white. The skeleton woods near at hand were stark +and black, and trembled with sudden starts, and strove wildly with the +winds, and were held in an inexorable fate, and cried and groaned +aloud. + +Hanway was right in his surmise, for Selwyn was ill, and lay on the +lounge wheeled up to the fire. His cheeks seemed still touched with +color, the reflection from the ragged red smoking-jacket which he +wore, but a sort of smitten pallid doom was on his brow and in his +eyes. His gaze dwelt insistently on the doctor, the tall, thin +practitioner of the surrounding country, who had just finished an +examination and was slowly returning his spectacles to their case as +he stood before the fire. It seemed as if the patient expected him to +speak, but he said nothing, and looked down gravely into the red +coals. + +Then it was that Hanway narrated the sensation of the neighborhood. It +roused Selwyn to a frenzy of excitement; his disjointed, despairing +exclamations, in annotation, as it were, of the story, disclosed his +own discovery of the oil, his endeavors to secure the opinion of an +expert as to its value, his efforts to buy up the land, his reasons +for opposing the premature opening of a road which might reveal the +presence of the oil springs, when the law discriminating in favor of +oil works and similar interests would later make the way thither a +public thoroughfare at all events. He cried out upon his hard fate, +when money might mean life to him; upon the bitter dispensation of the +mysterious kindling of those hidden secluded waters to blazon his +secret to the world, to enrich others through his discovery which +should have made him so rich. + +The dry, spare tone of the physician interrupted,--a trite phrase +interdicting agitation. + +"Why, doctor," said Selwyn, suddenly comprehending, "you think my +present wealth will last out my time!" + +Once more the physician looked silently into the fire. He had seen a +great deal of dying, but he had lived a quiet ascetic life, which made +his sensibilities tender, and he did not get used to death. "I wish +you would stay with him, if you can," he said to Hanway at the outer +door. "It will be a very short time now." + +It was even shorter than they thought. The snow, falling then, had not +disappeared from the earth when the picks of the grave-diggers cleft +through the clods in the secluded little mountain burying-ground. It +was easier work than they had anticipated, although the earth was +frozen; and the grave was almost prepared when they realized that the +ground had been broken before, and that here was the deserted +resting-place of the stranger who had come so far to see him. Hanway +remembered Selwyn's words, his aversion to the idea that the spot was +awaiting him, but the dark November day was closing in, the storm +clouds were gathering anew, so they left him there, and this time the +grave held its tenant fast. + + +X. + +One day a letter was mailed in Colbury by an unknown hand, addressed +to Mrs. Persimmon Sneed and it fared deliberately by way of Sandford +Cross-Roads to its destination. It awoke there the wildest excitement +and delight, for although it brazenly asserted that Mr. Persimmon +Sneed was in the custody of the writer, and that he would be returned +safely to his home only upon the payment of one hundred dollars in a +mysterious manner described,--otherwise the writer would not answer +for consequences,--it gave assurance that he was alive and well, and +might even hope to see friends and home and freedom once more. In vain +the sheriff of the county expostulated with Mrs. Sneed, representing +that the law was the proper liberator of Persimmon Sneed, and that the +payment of money would encourage crime. The contradictory man's wife +was ready to commit crime, if necessary, in this cause, and would have +cheerfully cracked the bank in Colbury. And certainly this seemed +almost unavoidable at one time, for to possess herself of this sum of +her husband's hoard his signature was essential. The poor woman, in +her limp sunbonnet and best calico dress, clung to the grating of the +teller's window, and presented in futile succession her husband's +bank-book, his returned checks, and even his brand-new check-book, +each with a gush of tears, while the perplexed official remonstrated, +and explained, and rejected each persuasion in turn, passing them all +back beneath the grating, and alas! keeping the money on his side of +those inexorable bars. It seemed to poor Mrs. Sneed that the bank was +of opinion that Persimmon corporally was of slight consequence, the +institution having the true value of the man on deposit. To +accommodate matters, however, and that the poor woman should not be +weeping daily and indefinitely on the maddened teller's window, an +intermediary money-lender was found, who, having vainly sought to +induce the bank to render itself responsible, then Mrs. Sneed, who had +naught of her own, then a number of friends, who deemed the whole +enterprise an effort at robbery and seemed to consider Persimmon a +good riddance, took heart of grace and made the plunge at a rate of +interest which was calculated to cloy his palate forever after. The +money forthwith went a roundabout way according to the directions of +the letter. + +It came to its destination in this wise. + +Con Hite's distilling enterprise was on so small a scale that one +might have imagined it to be altogether outside the purview of the +law, which, it is said, does not take note _de minimis_. One of those +grottoes under a beetling cliff, hardly caves, called in the region +"rock houses," sufficed to contain the small copper and its +appurtenances, himself and his partner and the occasional jolly guest. +It was approached from above rather than from below, by a winding way, +beside the cliff between great boulders, which was so steep and +brambly and impracticable that it was hardly likely to be espied by +"revenuers." The rock house opened on space. Beyond the narrow path at +its entrance the descent was sheer to the bottom of the gorge below. + +In this stronghold, one night, Con Hite sat gloomy and depressed +beside the little copper still for the sake of which he risked so +much. It held all it could of singlings, and it seemed to him a cheery +sight in the shadowy recesses of the rock house. He regarded it with +mingled pride and affection, often declaring it "the smartest still of +its capacity in the world." To him it was at once admirable as an +object of art and a superior industrial agent. + +"An' I dunno why Narcissa be so set agin it," he muttered. "But for it +I wouldn't hev money enough ter git a start in this world. My mother +an' she couldn't live in the same house whenst we git married." He +meditated for a moment, and shook his head in solemn negation, for his +mother was constructed much after the pattern of Narcissa herself. +"An' _I_ wouldn't live a minit alongside o' Ben Hanway ef I war +Nar'sa's husband. Ben wouldn't let me say my soul's my own. I be +'bleeged ter mak the money fur a start o' cattle an' sech myse'f, an' +hev a house an' home o' my own." + +And then he took the pipe from his mouth and sighed. For even his care +seemed futile. It was true that the fair-haired young stranger was +dead, and he had a pang of self-reproach whenever he thought of his +jealousy, as if he had wished him ill. But she had worn a cold white +unresponsive face when he had seen her last; she did not listen to +what he said, her mind evidently elsewhere. She looked at him as if +she did not see him. She did not think of him. He was sure that this +was not caprice. It was some deep absorbing feeling in which he had no +share. + +The moon, like some fair presence, looked in at the broad portal. +Outside, the white tissues of her misty diaphanous draperies trailed +along the dark mountain slopes beneath the dim stars as she wended +westward. Afar down the gorge one might catch glimpses of a glossy +lustre where the evergreen laurel, white with frost, moved in the +autumn wind. He lifted his head to mark its melancholy cadence, and +while he listened, the moonlight was suddenly crowded from the door as +three men rushed in, half helping and half constraining a fourth man +forward. + +"Durn my boots ef I didn't furgit the password!" cried Nick Peters +with his little falsetto laugh, that seemed keyed for a fleer, +although it was most graciously modulated now. "Ye mought hev shot us +fur revenuers." + +"I mought hev shot ye fur wuss," Con Hite growled, rising slowly from +his chair, his big dark eyes betokening his displeasure. "I dunno how +_ye_ ever kem ter know this place." + +"It'll go no furder, Con, I'll swear," said the horse-thief, lifting +his hand to Hite's shoulder, and affecting to see in his words an +appeal for secrecy. "This," he added blandly, "is Mr. Persimmon Sneed, +ez hev been a-visitin' me. Lemme make ye acquainted." + +He seemed to perceive nothing incongruous in the fact that Mr. +Persimmon Sneed should be blindfolded. But as Con Hite looked at the +elder man, standing helpless, his head held slightly forward, the +sight apparently struck his risibilities, and his wonted geniality +rose to the occasion. + +"An' do Mr. Persimmon Sneed always wear blinders?" he asked, with a +guffaw. + +Peters seemed immeasurably relieved by the change of tone. + +"Whilst visitin' me, he do," he remarked. "Mr. Persimmon hev got sech +a fine mem'ry fur localities, ye see." + +Hite with a single gesture pulled off the bandage. "Waal, let him look +about him hyar. I s'pose ye hev ter be more partic'lar 'n me 'count o' +that stranger man's horse." + +Peters changed countenance, his attention riveted. "What horse?" he +demanded. + +"The horse of the man ez war kilt,--ye know folks hev laid that job +ter you-uns. Jerry," turning aside to his colleague, who had done +naught but stare, "whar's yer manners? Why n't ye gin the comp'ny a +drink?" + +Hite shoved the chair in which he had been seated to Persimmon Sneed, +who was lugubriously rubbing his eyes, and flung himself down on a +boulder lying almost outside of the recess in the moonlight, his long +booted and spurred legs stretching far across the entrance. His hat on +the back of his head, its brim upturned, revealed his bluff open +face--it held no craft surely; he hardly seemed to notice how +insistently Peters pressed after him, unmindful of his henchmen and +Jerry imbibing appreciatively the product of the cheerful little +copper still. + +"But I never done sech ez that," protested Peters. "I always stop +short o' bloodshed. I never viewed the man's beastis, ye'll bear me +witness, Con." + +"Me?" said Con, with a laugh. "I dunno nuthin' 'bout yer doin's. +Whar's Mr. Sneed's horse?" + +"Never seen him,--never laid eyes on him! How folks kin hev the heart +ter 'cuse me of sech doin's ez I never done!" he lifted his eyes as if +appealing to heaven. + +"The killin' 's the wust; an' Mr. Sneed's critter bein' gone too +mought make folks lay it ter ye fur sure," persisted Hite. + +"I ain't seen Mr. Sneed's horse. Mr. Sneed--ye wouldn't b'lieve it ter +look at him, but he's a ransomed saint! ha! ha! The money fur him +will be fotched hyar ter yer still. I sent fur it ter kem by Jake +Glenn; he knows ye, an' ye know him." + +Con Hite's open brow did not cloud. If there were any significance +perceptible in the fact that Mr. Persimmon Sneed, with so fine a head +for locality, should be able to identify only the still among his +various shelters during his "visit" to Nick Peters, Con Hite made no +sign. + +"Lord, how glad I'll be ter git rid o' him!" Peters said in an +undertone to Hite. "He hev mighty nigh argufied me ter death,--'bout +sperits, an' witches, an' salvation, an' law, an' craps, an' +horse-flesh, an' weather signs. I be sorter 'feard his wife won't pay +nuthin' ter git him again. He 'pears sorter under the weather now, or +eavesdroppin' or suthin'. The money 'll pay me mighty pore fur my +trouble. Thar--what's that?" + +He paused to listen; there was a sound other than the tinkling of the +little rill near at hand or the blare of the autumn wind. A stone came +rolling down the path, dislodged by a cautious step,--then another. +Hite drew a revolver from his pocket, and, holding it in his right +hand, stepped out on the rugged little parapet and stood there, with +the depths of the gorge below him, looking up the ascent with the +moonlight in his face. He spoke in a low voice to some one +approaching, and was answered in the same tone. He stepped back to +give the new-comer space to enter, and as Jake Glenn came in held out +his hand for the package the messenger bore. + +"Let's see it, Nick," he said, tearing it open; "it's the money sure +enough." + +Old Persimmon Sneed turned his head with a certain alert interest. +Perhaps he himself had doubted whether his wife would think him worth +the money. There was a general flutter of good-natured gratulation, +and it seemed at the moment only some preposterous mistake that Con +Hite should put it into Persimmon Sneed's lean paw and close his +trembling fingers over it. + +"Now, scoot!" he bawled out at the top of his voice, the little den +ringing with the echoes of his excitement, a second revolver drawn in +his left hand. "I'll gin ye a day's start o' these fellers." He +presented the muzzle of one pistol to Peters's head, and with the +other he covered one of the two henchmen in the recess of the little +rock house. The other sprang up from a barrel where he sat wiping his +mouth with the back of his hand; but Jerry, suddenly realizing the +situation, put out a dexterous foot, and the horse-thief fell full +length upon the floor, his pistol discharging as he went down. In the +clamor of the echoes, and the smoke and the flare, Persimmon Sneed +disappeared, hearing as he went a wild protest, and a nimbleness of +argument second hardly to his own, as Nick Peters cried out that he +was robbed, his hard earnings were wrested from him, the money was +his, paid him as a price, and Con Hite had let Mr. Persimmon Sneed run +off with it, allowing him nothing for his trouble. + +"It war his money," Con Hite averred, when they had grown calmer, and +Jake Glenn had returned from a reconnoissance with the news that +Hite's father had lent the fleeing Persimmon a horse, and he was by +this time five miles away in the Cove. "_He_ could have paid you for +yer trouble in ketchin' him ef he had wanted ter." + +"It war _not_ his money," protested Peters, with tears in his eyes. +"It war sent ter me willingly, fur a valid consideration, an' ye let +him hev the money, an' his wife hev got the valid consideration--an' +hyar I be lef' with the bag ter hold!" + +It may be that Peters had absorbed some of the craft of argument by +mere propinquity to Persimmon Sneed, or that Con Hite's conscience was +unduly tender, for he long entertained a moral doubt touching his +course in this transaction,--whether he had a right to pay the ransom +money which Nick Peters had extorted from Persimmon Sneed's wife to +Persimmon Sneed himself, thereby defrauding Nick Peters of the fruit +of his labor. Perhaps this untoward state of dubitation came about +from Narcissa's scornful comment. + +"Ye mought hev known that old man Persimmon Sneed would have made off +with the money," she said, remembering his reproving glare at her. "I +wouldn't hev trested him with a handful o' cornfield peas." + +"But I expected him ter make off with it," protested the amazed Con; +"that's why I gin it ter him." + +"Then ye air jes' ez bad ez he is," she retorted coldly. + +And thus it was he examined his conscience. + +Persimmon Sneed had no doubts whatever as to the ownership of the +money in his pocket, when one fine morning he walked into his own +door, as dictatorial, as set in his own opinion as ever; the only +change to be detected in his manners and conversation thereafter was +the enigmatical assertion at times that he was a "ransomed saint," +followed by a low chuckle of enjoyment. Those who heard this often +made bold to say to one another that he "didn't act like it," and this +opinion was shared by the sheriff who futilely sought some information +from him touching the lair of the horse-thieves, looking to brilliant +exploits of capture. Such details as he could secure were so uncertain +and contradictory as to render him suspicious that the truth was +purposely withheld. + +"Ye oughter remember these men air crim'nal offenders agin the law, +Mr. Sneed," he said. + +"Mebbe so," assented Persimmon Sneed, "mebbe so;" but the situation of +Con Hite's still was the only locality which he had visited of which +he was sure, and in gratitude to his rescuer he held his peace. + +That he was not so softened to the world at large was manifested in +the fact that he threatened to plead usury against the money-lender, +and forthwith brought him down with a run to the beggaries of the +legal rate. He was wont, moreover, to go to the teller of the bank at +Colbury and demand of that distracted man such of his papers as were +from time to time lost or mislaid, having learned from his wife that +she had made the official the custodian of his valuables, these being +his bank-book, the ancient returned checks, and the unused check-book. + +The points which he had so laboriously made plain to the jury of view +proved a total loss of perspicacious reasoning, for the land was +forthwith condemned and the road opened, any oil-boring company being +allowed by law a right of way thirty feet wide. The heavy hauling of +the oil company had already made a tolerable wagon track, and the +passing back and forth of the men and teams and machinery added an +element of interest and excitement to the thoroughfare such as +Narcissa's wildest dreams had never prefigured. She had no heart for +it now. When the creak of wheels on the frozen ground, and the cries +of the drivers, and the thud of the hoofs of the straining four-horse +teams heralded an approach, she was wont to draw close the batten +shutter of the window and sit brooding over the fire, staring with +moody eyes into the red coals, where she saw much invisible to the +simple Ben. He knew vaguely that her grief was for the fair-haired +stranger, but he could not dream in what remorseful wise. She had not +failed to perceive her own agency in the betrayal of his secret, when +the story of the discovery of the oil was blazoned to all the world by +those mystically flaring waters in the deeps of the mountain night. It +was she who had idly kindled them; she who had robbed him of his +rights, of the wealth that these interlopers were garnering. She had +sent him to his grave baffled, beaten, forlorn, wondering at the +mystery of the hand that out of the dark had smitten him. She kept her +own counsel. Her white face grew set and stern. Her words were few. +She had no tears. And Ben, who found his tyrant only the harder and +the colder, scarcely remonstrated, and could only marvel when one +keen, chill afternoon she sprang up, throwing her brown shawl over her +head, and declared that she was going to the oil wells to see for +herself what progress was making there. + +All sylvan grace had departed from the spot. As the two stood on the +verge of the clear space, now gashed deep in every direction in the +woods and larger by a hundred acres, grim derricks rose sharply +outlined against the wintry sky. It was barred with strata of gray +clouds in such sombre neutrality of tint that one, in that it was less +gloomy than the others, gave a suggestion of blue. Patches of snow lay +about the ground. Cinders and smoke had blackened them here and there. +The steam-engine, with its cylindrical boiler, seemed in the dusk some +uncanny monster that had taken up its abode here, and rejoiced in the +desolation it had wrought, and lived by ill deeds. It was letting off +steam, and now and then it gave a puffing sigh as if it were tired +after its day's work. The laborers were of a different type from the +homely neighbors, and returned the contempt with which the +mountaineers gazed upon them. Great piles of wood showed how the +forests were being rifled for fuel. Many trees had been felled in +provident foresight, and lay along the ground in vast lengths, +awaiting the axe; so many that adown the avenues thus opened toward +the valley a wan glimmering caught the girl's eye, and she recognized +the palings of the little mountain graveyard. + +She clutched her brother's arm and pointed to it. Her eyes grew +dilated and wild, her face was pale and drawn; her hand trembled as +she held it out. + +"Ye see, Ben, he's close enough ter view it all--an' mebbe he +does--an' he knows now who he hev got ter thank fur it all--an' I +wisht he war hyar, whar I am, an' I war thar, whar he is." + +Her brother thought for the moment that she was raving. The next she +caught her shawl over her head, hoodwise, the wind tossing her bright +hair, and declared that she was cold, and upbraided him for bringing +her on this long, chilling tramp, and protested that she would come +never again. + +He came often afterward. The spot seemed to have a fascination for +him. And within sound of the cheerful hubbub and busy whir of the +industry he would lean over the palings and look at the grave, covered +sometimes with a drift of leaves, and sometimes with a drift of snow, +and think of the two men that it had successively housed, and nurse +his grudge against the company. With an unreasoning hatred of it, +Hanway felt that both were victims of the great strong corporation +that was to reap the value of the discovery which was not its own save +by accident. He could not appraise the justice of the dispensation by +which the keen observation of the one man, and the science and +experience that the other had brought to the enterprise, should fall +so far short of achievement, while an idle story, the gossip of the +day, should fill the hands of those who were strangers to the very +thought. He grudged every augury of success; he welcomed every detail +of difficulty. As time went on, the well was said to be of +intermittent flow, and new borings resulted in naught but vast floods +of sulphur water. Finally, when the admitted truth pervaded the +community,--that the oil was practically exhausted, that it had long +since ceased to pay expenses, that the company was a heavy loser by +the enterprise,--he was as a man appeased. + +The result was succeeded by a change in Narcissa so radical and +immediate that Constant Hite could but perceive the fact that it was +induced by the failure and abandonment of the work. She grew placid as +of yore, and was softened, and now and again the gentle melancholy +into which she fell suggested sad and reminiscent pleasure rather than +the remorseful and desperate sorrow that she had known. He began to +realize that it was no sentimental and love-stricken grief she had +felt for Selwyn, but a sympathy akin to his own and to her brother's; +and since the disappointment of the hope of fortune must needs have +come to Selwyn at last, they made shift to resign themselves, and were +wont to talk freely of the dead with that affectionate and immediate +interest which seems to prolong the span of a mortal's day on earth, +like the tender suffusive radiance of the afterglow of a sunken sun. + +The road fell quickly into disuse after the abandonment of the work. +In the storms of winter, trees were uprooted and thrown athwart the +way; overhanging rocks, splitting in the freeze, precipitated +obstructive avalanches upon the dim serpentine convolutions; the wind +piled drifts of dead leaves above the turns; and in the spring grass +began to grow in the tracks of the wheels. + +It held no woeful memories now for Narcissa. She loved to sit on the +step of the stile and watch through the leafless sunlit trees the +silver haze shimmering in the valley, where the winter wheat was all +of an emerald richness, and the blue mountains afar off so near akin +to the aspect of heaven that one might hardly mark where the horizon +line merged the sweet solitudes of earth into the solitary sky. Many +a day, the spring, loitering along the shadow-flecked vistas, with the +red maple-blooms overhead and violets underfoot, was the only traveler +to be seen on the deserted road. And the pensive dusk was wont to +deepen into the serene vernal night, sweet with the scent of the +budding wild cherry, and astir with timorous tentative rustlings as of +half-fledged breezes, and illumined only with the gentle lustre of the +white stars; for never again was the darkness emblazoned with that +haggard incandescence so long the mystery of Witch-Face Mountain. + + + + +TAKING THE BLUE RIBBON AT THE COUNTY FAIR. + + +Jenks Hollis sat on the fence. He slowly turned the quid of tobacco in +his cheek, and lifting up his voice spoke with an oracular drawl:-- + +"Ef he kin take the certif'cate it's the mos' ez he kin do. He ain't +never a-goin' ter git no premi-_um_ in this life, sure 's ye air a +born sinner." + +And he relapsed into silence. His long legs dangled dejectedly among +the roadside weeds; his brown jeans trousers, that had despaired of +ever reaching his ankles, were ornamented here and there with +ill-adjusted patches, and his loose-fitting coat was out at the +elbows. An old white wool hat drooped over his eyes, which were fixed +absently on certain distant blue mountain ranges, that melted tenderly +into the blue of the noonday sky, and framed an exquisite mosaic of +poly-tinted fields in the valley, far, far below the grim gray crag on +which his little home was perched. + +Despite his long legs he was a light weight, or he would not have +chosen as his favorite seat so rickety a fence. His interlocutor, a +heavier man, apparently had some doubts, for he leaned only slightly +against one of the projecting rails as he whittled a pine stick, and +with his every movement the frail structure trembled. The log cabin +seemed as rickety as the fence. The little front porch had lost a +puncheon here and there in the flooring--perhaps on some cold winter +night when Hollis's energy was not sufficiently exuberant to convey +him to the wood-pile; the slender posts that upheld its roof seemed +hardly strong enough to withstand the weight of the luxuriant vines +with their wealth of golden gourds which had clambered far over the +moss-grown clapboards; the windows had fewer panes of glass than rags; +and the chimney, built of clay and sticks, leaned portentously away +from the house. The open door displayed a rough, uncovered floor; a +few old rush-bottomed chairs; a bedstead with a patch-work calico +quilt, the mattress swagging in the centre and showing the badly +arranged cords below; strings of bright red pepper hanging from the +dark rafters; a group of tow-headed, grave-faced, barefooted children; +and, occupying almost one side of the room, a broad, deep, +old-fashioned fireplace, where winter and summer a lazy fire burned +under a lazy pot. + +Notwithstanding the poverty of the aspect of the place and the evident +sloth of its master, it was characterized by a scrupulous cleanliness +strangely at variance with its forlorn deficiencies. The rough floor +was not only swept but scoured; the dark rafters, whence depended the +flaming banners of the red pepper, harbored no cobwebs; the grave +faces of the white-haired children bore no more dirt than was +consistent with their recent occupation of making mudpies; and the +sedate, bald-headed baby, lying silent but wide-awake in an uncouth +wooden cradle, was as clean as clear spring water and yellow soap +could make it. Mrs. Hollis herself, seen through the vista of opposite +open doors, energetically rubbing the coarse wet clothes upon the +resonant washboard, seemed neat enough in her blue-and-white checked +homespun dress, and with her scanty hair drawn smoothly back from her +brow into a tidy little knot on the top of her head. + +Spare and gaunt she was, and with many lines in her prematurely old +face. Perhaps they told of the hard fight her brave spirit waged +against the stern ordering of her life; of the struggles with +squalor,--inevitable concomitant of poverty,--and to keep together the +souls and bodies of those numerous children, with no more efficient +assistance than could be wrung from her reluctant husband in the +short intervals when he did not sit on the fence. She managed as well +as she could; there was an abundance of fine fruit in that low line of +foliage behind the house--but everybody on Old Bear Mountain had fine +fruit. Something rarer, she had good vegetables--the planting and +hoeing being her own work and her eldest daughter's; an occasional +shallow furrow representing the contribution of her husband's plough. +The althea-bushes and the branches of the laurel sheltered a goodly +number of roosting hens in these September nights; and to the pond, +which had been formed by damming the waters of the spring branch in +the hollow across the road, was moving even now a stately procession +of geese in single file. These simple belongings were the trophies of +a gallant battle against unalterable conditions and the dragging, +dispiriting clog of her husband's inertia. + +His inner life--does it seem hard to realize that in that uncouth +personality concentred the complex, incomprehensible, ever-shifting +emotions of that inner life which, after all, is so much stronger, and +deeper, and broader than the material? Here, too, beat the hot heart +of humanity--beat with no measured throb. He had his hopes, his +pleasure, his pain, like those of a higher culture, differing only in +object, and something perhaps in degree. His disappointments were +bitter and lasting; his triumphs, few and sordid; his single +aspiration--to take the premium offered by the directors of the +Kildeer County Fair for the best equestrian. + +This incongruous and unpromising ambition had sprung up in this wise: +Between the country people of Kildeer County and the citizens of the +village of Colbury, the county-seat, existed a bitter and deeply +rooted animosity manifesting itself at conventions, elections for the +legislature, etc., the rural population voting as a unit against the +town's candidate. On all occasions of public meetings there was a +struggle to crush any invidious distinction against the "country +boys," especially at the annual fair. Here to the rustics of Kildeer +County came the tug of war. The population of the outlying districts +was more numerous, and, when it could be used as a suffrage-engine, +all-powerful; but the region immediately adjacent to the town was far +more fertile. On those fine meadows grazed the graceful Jersey; there +gamboled sundry long-tailed colts with long-tailed pedigrees; there +greedy Berkshires fattened themselves to abnormal proportions; and the +merinos could hardly walk, for the weight of their own rich wardrobes. +The well-to-do farmers of this section were hand-in-glove with the +town's people; they drove their trotters in every day or so to get +their mail, to chat with their cronies, to attend to their affairs in +court, to sell or to buy--their pleasures centred in the town, and +they turned the cold shoulder upon the country, which supported them, +and gave their influence to Colbury, accounting themselves an +integrant part of it. Thus, at the fairs the town claimed the honor +and glory. The blue ribbon decorated cattle and horses bred within ten +miles of the flaunting flag on the judges' stand, and the foaming +mountain-torrents and the placid stream in the valley beheld no +cerulean hues save those of the sky which they reflected. + +The premium offered this year for the best rider was, as it happened, +a new feature, and excited especial interest. The country's blood was +up. Here was something for which it could fairly compete, with none of +the disadvantages of the false position in which it was placed. Hence +a prosperous landed proprietor, the leader of the rural faction, +dwelling midway between the town and the range of mountains that +bounded the county on the north and east, bethought himself one day of +Jenkins Hollis, whose famous riding had been the feature of a certain +dashing cavalry charge--once famous, too--forgotten now by all but the +men who, for the first and only time in their existence, penetrated +in those war days the blue mountains fencing in their county from the +outer world, and looked upon the alien life beyond that wooded +barrier. The experience of those four years, submerged in the whirling +rush of events elsewhere, survives in these eventless regions in a +dreamy, dispassionate sort of longevity. And Jenkins Hollis's feat of +riding stolidly--one could hardly say bravely--up an almost sheer +precipice to a flame-belching battery came suddenly into the landed +magnate's recollection with the gentle vapors and soothing aroma of a +meditative after-dinner pipe. Quivering with party spirit, Squire +Goodlet sent for Hollis and offered to lend him the best horse on the +place, and a saddle and bridle, if he would go down to Colbury and +beat those town fellows out on their own ground. + +No misgivings had Hollis. The inordinate personal pride characteristic +of the mountaineer precluded his feeling a shrinking pain at the +prospect of being presented, a sorry contrast, among the well-clad, +well-to-do town's people, to compete in a public contest. He did not +appreciate the difference--he thought himself as good as the best. + +And to-day, complacent enough, he sat upon the rickety fence at home, +oracularly disparaging the equestrian accomplishments of the town's +noted champion. + +"I dunno--I dunno," said his young companion doubtfully. "Hackett sets +mighty firm onto his saddle. He's ez straight ez any shingle, an' ez +tough ez a pine-knot. He come up hyar las' summer--war it las' summer, +now? No, 't war summer afore las'--with some o' them other Colbury +folks, a-fox-huntin', an' a-deer-huntin, an' one thing an' 'nother. I +seen 'em a time or two in the woods. An' he kin ride jes' ez good +'mongst the gullies and boulders like ez ef he had been born in the +hills. He ain't a-goin' ter be beat easy." + +"It don't make no differ," retorted Jenks Hollis. "He'll never git no +premi-_um_. The certif'cate's good a-plenty fur what ridin' he kin +do." + +Doubt was still expressed in the face of the young man, but he said no +more, and, after a short silence, Mr. Hollis, perhaps not relishing +his visitor's want of appreciation, dismounted, so to speak, from the +fence, and slouched off slowly up the road. + +Jacob Brice still stood leaning against the rails and whittling his +pine stick, in no wise angered or dismayed by his host's unceremonious +departure, for social etiquette is not very rigid on Old Bear +Mountain. He was a tall athletic fellow, clad in a suit of brown +jeans, which displayed, besides the ornaments of patches, sundry deep +grass stains about the knees. Not that piety induced Brice to spend +much time in the lowly attitude of prayer, unless, indeed, Diana might +be accounted the goddess of his worship. The green juice was pressed +out when kneeling, hidden in some leafy, grassy nook, he heard the +infrequent cry of the wild turkey, or his large, intent blue eyes +caught a glimpse of the stately head of an antlered buck, moving +majestically in the alternate sheen of the sunlight and shadow of the +overhanging crags; or while with his deft hunter's hands he dragged +himself by slow, noiseless degrees through the ferns and tufts of rank +weeds to the water's edge, that he might catch a shot at the feeding +wild duck. A leather belt around his waist supported his powder-horn +and shot-pouch,--for his accoutrements were exactly such as might have +been borne a hundred years ago by a hunter of Old Bear Mountain,--and +his gun leaned against the trunk of a chestnut-oak. + +Although he still stood outside the fence, aimlessly lounging, there +was a look on his face of a half-suppressed expectancy, which rendered +the features less statuesque than was their wont--an expectancy that +showed itself in the furtive lifting of his eyelids now and then, +enabling him to survey the doorway without turning his head. Suddenly +his face reassumed its habitual, inexpressive mask of immobility, and +the furtive eyes were persistently downcast. + +A flare of color, and Cynthia Hollis was standing in the doorway, +leaning against its frame. She was robed, like September, in brilliant +yellow. The material and make were of the meanest, but there was a +certain appropriateness in the color with her slumberous dark eyes and +the curling tendrils of brown hair which fell upon her forehead and +were clustered together at the back of her neck. No cuffs and no +collar could this costume boast, but she had shown the inclination to +finery characteristic of her age and sex by wearing around her throat, +where the yellow hue of her dress met the creamy tint of her skin, a +row of large black beads, threaded upon a shoe-string in default of an +elastic, the brass ends flaunting brazenly enough among them. She held +in her hand a string of red pepper, to which she was adding some newly +gathered pods. A slow job Cynthia seemed to make of it. + +She took no more notice of the man under the tree than he accorded to +her. There they stood, within twelve feet of each other, in utter +silence, and, to all appearance, each entirely unconscious of the +other's existence: he whittling his pine stick; she, slowly, slowly +stringing the pods of red pepper. + +There was something almost portentous in the gravity and sobriety of +demeanor of this girl of seventeen; she manifested less interest in +the young man than her own grandmother might have shown. + +He was constrained to speak first. "Cynthy"--he said at length, +without raising his eyes or turning his head. She did not answer; but +he knew without looking that she had fixed those slumberous brown eyes +upon him, waiting for him to go on. "Cynthy"--he said again, with a +hesitating, uneasy manner. Then, with an awkward attempt at raillery, +"Ain't ye never a-thinkin' 'bout a-gittin' married?" + +He cast a laughing glance toward her, and looked down quickly at his +clasp-knife and the stick he was whittling. It was growing very +slender now. + +Cynthia's serious face relaxed its gravity. "Ye air foolish, Jacob," +she said, laughing. After stringing on another pepper-pod with great +deliberation, she continued: "Ef I war a-studyin' 'bout a-gittin' +married, thar ain't nobody round 'bout hyar ez I'd hev." And she added +another pod to the flaming red string, so bright against the yellow of +her dress. + +That stick could not long escape annihilation. The clasp-knife moved +vigorously through its fibres, and accented certain arbitrary clauses +in its owner's retort. "Ye talk like," he said, his face as +monotonous in its expression as if every line were cut in marble--"ye +talk like--ye thought ez how I--war a-goin' ter ax ye--ter marry me. I +ain't though, nuther." + +The stick was a shaving. It fell among the weeds. The young hunter +shut his clasp-knife with a snap, shouldered his gun, and without a +word of adieu on either side the conference terminated, and he walked +off down the sandy road. + +Cynthia stood watching him until the laurel-bushes hid him from sight; +then sliding from the door-frame to the step, she sat motionless, a +bright-hued mass of yellow draperies and red peppers, her slumberous +deep eyes resting on the leaves that had closed upon him. + +She was the central figure of a still landscape. The mid-day sunshine +fell in broad effulgence upon it; the homely, dun-colored shadows had +been running away all the morning, as if shirking the contrast with +the splendors of the golden light, until nothing was left of them +except a dark circle beneath the wide-spreading trees. No breath of +wind stirred the leaves, or rippled the surface of the little pond. +The lethargy of the hour had descended even upon the towering +pine-trees, growing on the precipitous slope of the mountain, and +showing their topmost plumes just above the frowning, gray +crag--their melancholy song was hushed. The silent masses of dazzling +white clouds were poised motionless in the ambient air, high above the +valley and the misty expanse of the distant, wooded ranges. + +A lazy, lazy day, and very, very warm. The birds had much ado to find +sheltering shady nooks where they might escape the glare and the heat; +their gay carols were out of season, and they blinked and nodded under +their leafy umbrellas, and fanned themselves with their wings, and +twittered disapproval of the weather. "Hot, hot, red-hot!" said the +birds--"broiling hot!" + +Now and then an acorn fell from among the serrated chestnut leaves, +striking upon the fence with a sounding thwack, and rebounding in the +weeds. Those chestnut-oaks always seem to unaccustomed eyes the +creation of Nature in a fit of mental aberration--useful freak! the +mountain swine fatten on the plenteous mast, and the bark is highly +esteemed at the tan-yard. + +A large cat was lying at full length on the floor of the little porch, +watching with drowsy, half-closed eyes the assembled birds in the +tree. But she seemed to have relinquished the pleasures of the chase +until the mercury should fall. + +Close in to the muddiest side of the pond over there, which was all +silver and blue with the reflection of the great masses of white +clouds, and the deep azure sky, a fleet of shining, snowy geese was +moored, perfectly motionless too. No circumnavigation for them this +hot day. + +And Cynthia's dark brown eyes, fixed upon the leafy vista of the road, +were as slumberous as the noontide sunshine. + +"Cynthy! whar _is_ the gal?" said poor Mrs. Hollis, as she came around +the house to hang out the ragged clothes on the althea-bushes and the +rickety fence. "Cynthy, air ye a-goin' ter sit thar in the door all +day, an' that thar pot a-bilin' all the stren'th out 'n that thar +cabbige an' roas'in'-ears? Dish up dinner, child, an' don't be so slow +an' slack-twisted like yer dad." + + * * * * * + +Great merriment there was, to be sure, at the Kildeer Fair grounds, +situated on the outskirts of Colbury, when it became known to the +convulsed town faction that the gawky Jenks Hollis intended to compete +for the premium to be awarded to the best and most graceful rider. The +contests of the week had as usual resulted in Colbury's favor; this +was the last day of the fair, and the defeated country population +anxiously but still hopefully awaited its notable event. + +A warm sun shone; a brisk autumnal breeze waved the flag flying from +the judges' stand; a brass band in the upper story of that structure +thrilled the air with the vibrations of popular waltzes and marches, +somewhat marred now and then by mysteriously discordant bass tones; +the judges, portly, red-faced, middle-aged gentlemen, sat below in +cane-bottom chairs critically a-tilt on the hind legs. The rough +wooden amphitheatre, a bold satire on the stately Roman edifice, was +filled with the denizens of Colbury and the rosy rural faces of the +country people of Kildeer County; and within the charmed arena the +competitors for the blue ribbon and the saddle and bridle to be +awarded to the best rider were just now entering, ready mounted, from +a door beneath the tiers of seats, and were slowly making the tour of +the circle around the judges' stand. One by one they came, with a +certain nonchalant pride of demeanor, conscious of an effort to +display themselves and their horses to the greatest advantage, and yet +a little ashamed of the consciousness. For the most part they were +young men, prosperous looking, and clad according to the requirements +of fashion which prevailed in this little town. Shut in though it was +from the pomps and vanities of the world by the encircling chains of +blue ranges and the bending sky which rested upon their summits, the +frivolity of the mode, though somewhat belated, found its way and +ruled with imperative rigor. Good riders they were undoubtedly, +accustomed to the saddle almost from infancy, and well mounted. A +certain air of gallantry, always characteristic of an athletic +horseman, commended these equestrian figures to the eye as they slowly +circled about. Still they came--eight--nine--ten--the eleventh, the +long, lank frame of Jenkins Hollis mounted on Squire Goodlet's "John +Barleycorn." + +The horsemen received this ungainly addition to their party with +polite composure, and the genteel element of the spectators remained +silent too from the force of good breeding and good feeling; but the +"roughs," always critically a-loose in a crowd, shouted and screamed +with derisive hilarity. What they were laughing at Jenks Hollis never +knew. Grave and stolid, but as complacent as the best, he too made the +usual circuit with his ill-fitting jeans suit, his slouching old wool +hat, and his long, gaunt figure. But he sat the spirited "John +Barleycorn" as if he were a part of the steed, and held up his head +with unwonted dignity, inspired perhaps by the stately attitudes of +the horse, which were the result of no training nor compelling reins, +but the instinct transmitted through a long line of high-headed +ancestry. Of a fine old family was "John Barleycorn." + +A deeper sensation was in store for the spectators. Before Jenkins +Hollis's appearance most of them had heard of his intention to +compete, but the feeling was one of unmixed astonishment when entry +No. 12 rode into the arena, and, on the part of the country people, +this surprise was supplemented by an intense indignation. The twelfth +man was Jacob Brice. As he was a "mounting boy," one would imagine +that, if victory should crown his efforts, the rural faction ought to +feel the elation of success, but the prevailing sentiment toward him +was that which every well-conducted mind must entertain concerning the +individual who runs against the nominee. Notwithstanding the fact that +Brice was a notable rider, too, and well calculated to try the mettle +of the town's champion, there arose from the excited countrymen a +keen, bitter, and outraged cry of "Take him out!" So strongly does the +partisan heart pulsate to the interests of the nominee! This frantic +petition had no effect on the interloper. A man who has inherited half +a dozen violent quarrels, any one of which may at any moment burst +into a vendetta,--inheriting little else,--is not easily dismayed by +the disapprobation of either friend or foe. His statuesque features, +shaded by the drooping brim of his old black hat were as calm as ever, +and his slow blue eyes did not, for one moment, rest upon the excited +scene about him, so unspeakably new to his scanty experience. His +fine figure showed to great advantage on horseback, despite his +uncouth, coarse garb; he was mounted upon a sturdy, brown mare of +obscure origin, but good-looking, clean-built, sure-footed, and with +the blended charm of spirit and docility; she represented his whole +estate, except his gun and his lean, old hound, that had accompanied +him to the fair, and was even now improving the shining hour by +quarreling over a bone outside the grounds with other people's +handsomer dogs. + +The judges were exacting. The riders were ordered to gallop to the +right--and around they went. To the left--and there was again the +spectacle of the swiftly circling equestrian figures. They were +required to draw up in a line, and to dismount; then to mount, and +again to alight. Those whom these manoeuvres proved inferior were +dismissed at once, and the circle was reduced to eight. An exchange of +horses was commanded; and once more the riding, fast and slow, left +and right, the mounting and dismounting were repeated. The proficiency +of the remaining candidates rendered them worthy of more difficult +ordeals. They were required to snatch a hat from the ground while +riding at full gallop. Pistols loaded with blank cartridges were fired +behind the horses, and subsequently close to their quivering and +snorting nostrils, in order that the relative capacity of the riders +to manage a frightened and unruly steed might be compared, and the +criticism of the judges mowed the number down to four. + +Free speech is conceded by all right-thinking people to be a blessing. +It is often a balm. Outside of the building and of earshot the +defeated aspirants took what comfort they could in consigning, with +great fervor and volubility, all the judicial magnates to that torrid +region unknown to polite geographical works. + +Of the four horsemen remaining in the ring, two were Jenkins Hollis +and Jacob Brice. Short turns at full gallop were prescribed. The +horses were required to go backward at various gaits. Bars were +brought in and the crowd enjoyed the exhibition of the standing-leap, +at an ever-increasing height and then the flying-leap--a tumultuous +confused impression of thundering hoofs and tossing mane and grim +defiant faces of horse and rider, in the lightning-like moment of +passing. Obstructions were piled on the track for the "long jumps," +and in one of the wildest leaps a good rider was unhorsed and rolled +on the ground while his recreant steed that had balked at the last +moment scampered around and around the arena in a wild effort to find +the door beneath the tiers of seats to escape so fierce a +competition. This accident reduced the number of candidates to the two +mountaineers and Tip Hackett, the man whom Jacob had pronounced a +formidable rival. The circling about, the mounting and dismounting, +the exchange of horses were several times repeated without any +apparent result, and excitement rose to fever heat. + +The premium and certificate lay between the three men. The town +faction trembled at the thought that the substantial award of the +saddle and bridle, with the decoration of the blue ribbon, and the +intangible but still precious secondary glory of the certificate and +the red ribbon might be given to the two mountaineers, leaving the +crack rider of Colbury in an ignominious lurch; while the country +party feared Hollis's defeat by Hackett rather less than that Jenks +would be required to relinquish the premium to the interloper Brice, +for the young hunter's riding had stricken a pang of prophetic terror +to more than one partisan rustic's heart. In the midst of the +perplexing doubt, which tried the judges' minds, came the hour for +dinner, and the decision was postponed until after that meal. + +The competitors left the arena, and the spectators transferred their +attention to unburdening hampers, or to jostling one another in the +dining-hall. + +Everybody was feasting but Cynthia Hollis. The intense excitement of +the day, the novel sights and sounds utterly undreamed of in her +former life, the abruptly struck chords of new emotions suddenly set +vibrating within her, had dulled her relish for the midday meal; and +while the other members of the family repaired to the shade of a tree +outside the grounds to enjoy that refection, she wandered about the +"floral hall," gazing at the splendors of bloom thronging there, all +so different from the shy grace, the fragility of poise, the delicacy +of texture of the flowers of her ken,--the rhododendron, the azalea, +the Chilhowee lily,--yet vastly imposing in their massed exuberance +and scarlet pride, for somehow they all seemed high colored. + +She went more than once to note with a kind of aghast dismay those +trophies of feminine industry, the quilts; some were of the "log +cabin" and "rising sun" variety, but others were of geometric +intricacy of form and were kaleidoscopic of color with an amazing +labyrinth of stitchings and embroideries--it seemed a species of +effrontery to dub one gorgeous poly-tinted silken banner a quilt. But +already it bore a blue ribbon, and its owner was the richer by the +prize of a glass bowl and the envy of a score of deft-handed +competitors. She gazed upon the glittering jellies and preserves, +upon the biscuits and cheeses, the hair-work and wax flowers, and +paintings. These latter treated for the most part of castles and seas +rather than of the surrounding altitudes, but Cynthia came to a pause +of blank surprise in front of a shadow rather than a picture which +represented a spring of still brown water in a mossy cleft of a rock +where the fronds of a fern seemed to stir in the foreground. "I hev +viewed the like o' that a many a time," she said disparagingly. To her +it hardly seemed rare enough for the blue ribbon on the frame. + +In the next room she dawdled through great piles of prize fruits and +vegetables--water-melons unduly vast of bulk, peaches and pears and +pumpkins of proportions never seen before out of a nightmare, stalks +of Indian corn eighteen feet high with seven ears each,--all +apparently attesting what they could do when they would, and that all +the enterprise of Kildeer County was not exclusively of the feminine +persuasion. + +Finally Cynthia came out from the midst of them and stood leaning +against one of the large pillars which supported the roof of the +amphitheatre, still gazing about the half-deserted building, with the +smouldering fires of her slumberous eyes newly kindled. + +To other eyes and ears it might not have seemed a scene of tumultuous +metropolitan life, with the murmuring trees close at hand dappling the +floor with sycamore shadows, the fields of Indian corn across the +road, the exuberant rush of the stream down the slope just beyond, the +few hundred spectators who had intently watched the events of the day; +but to Cynthia Hollis the excitement of the crowd and movement and +noise could no further go. + +By the natural force of gravitation Jacob Brice presently was walking +slowly and apparently aimlessly around to where she was standing. He +said nothing, however, when he was beside her, and she seemed entirely +unconscious of his presence. Her yellow dress was as stiff as a board, +and as clean as her strong, young arms could make it; at her throat +were the shining black beads; on her head she wore a limp, yellow +calico sunbonnet, which hung down over her eyes, and almost obscured +her countenance. To this article she perhaps owed the singular purity +and transparency of her complexion, as much as to the mountain air, +and the chiefly vegetable fare of her father's table. She wore it +constantly, although it operated almost as a mask, rendering her more +easily recognizable to their few neighbors by her flaring attire than +by her features, and obstructing from her own view all surrounding +scenery, so that she could hardly see the cow, which so much of her +time she was slowly poking after. + +She spoke unexpectedly, and without any other symptom that she knew of +the young hunter's proximity. "I never thought, Jacob, ez how ye would +hev come down hyar, all the way from the mountings, to ride agin my +dad, an' beat him out'n that thar saddle an' bridle." + +"Ye won't hev nothin' ter say ter me," retorted Jacob sourly. + +A long silence ensued. + +Then he resumed didactically, but with some irrelevancy, "I tole ye +t'other day ez how ye war old enough ter be a-studyin' 'bout gittin' +married." + +"They don't think nothin' of ye ter our house, Jacob. Dad 's always +a-jowin' at ye." Cynthia's candor certainly could not be called in +question. + +The young hunter replied with some natural irritation: "He hed better +not let me hear him, ef he wants to keep whole bones inside his skin. +He better not tell me, nuther." + +"He don't keer enough 'bout ye, Jacob, ter tell ye. He don't think +nothin' of ye." + +Love is popularly supposed to dull the mental faculties. It developed +in Jacob Brice sudden strategic abilities. + +"Thar is them ez does," he said diplomatically. + +Cynthia spoke promptly with more vivacity than usual, but in her +customary drawl and apparently utterly irrelevantly:-- + +"I never in all my days see no sech red-headed gal ez that thar Becky +Stiles. She's the red-headedest gal ever I see." And Cynthia once more +was silent. + +Jacob resumed, also irrelevantly:-- + +"When I goes a-huntin' up yander ter Pine Lick, they is mighty perlite +ter me. They ain't never done nothin' agin me, ez I knows on." Then, +after a pause of deep cogitation, he added, "Nor hev they said nothin' +agin me, nuther." + +Cynthia took up her side of the dialogue, if dialogue it could be +called, with wonted irrelevancy: "That thar Becky Stiles, she's got +the freckledest face--ez freckled ez any turkey-aig" (with an +indescribable drawl on the last word). + +"They ain't done nothin' agin me," reiterated Jacob astutely, "nor +said nothin' nuther--none of 'em." + +Cynthia looked hard across the amphitheatre at the distant Great Smoky +Mountains shimmering in the hazy September sunlight--so ineffably +beautiful, so delicately blue, that they might have seemed the ideal +scenery of some impossibly lovely ideal world. Perhaps she was +wondering what the unconscious Becky Stiles, far away in those dark +woods about Pine Lick, had secured in this life besides her freckled +face. Was this the sylvan deity of the young hunter's adoration? + +Cynthia took off her sunbonnet to use it for a fan. Perhaps it was +well for her that she did so at this moment; it had so entirely +concealed her head that her hair might have been the color of Becky +Stiles's, and no one the wiser. The dark brown tendrils curled +delicately on her creamy forehead; the excitement of the day had +flushed her pale cheeks with an unwonted glow; her eyes were alight +with their newly kindled fires; the clinging curtain of her bonnet had +concealed the sloping curves of her shoulders--altogether she was +attractive enough, despite the flare of her yellow dress, and +especially attractive to the untutored eyes of Jacob Brice. He +relented suddenly, and lost all the advantages of his tact and +diplomacy. + +"I likes ye better nor I does Becky Stiles," he said moderately. Then +with more fervor, "I likes ye better nor any gal I ever see." + +The usual long pause ensued. + +"Ye hev got a mighty cur'ous way o' showin' it," Cynthia replied. + +"I dunno what ye 're talkin' 'bout, Cynthy." + +"Ye hev got a mighty cur'ous way o' showin' it," she reiterated, with +renewed animation--"a-comin' all the way down hyar from the mountings +ter beat my dad out'n that thar saddle an' bridle, what he's done sot +his heart onto. Mighty cur'ous way." + +"Look hyar, Cynthy." The young hunter broke off suddenly, and did not +speak again for several minutes. A great perplexity was surging this +way and that in his slow brains--a great struggle was waging in his +heart. He was to choose between love and ambition--nay, avarice too +was ranged beside his aspiration. He felt himself an assured victor in +the competition, and he had seen that saddle and bridle. They were on +exhibition to-day, and to him their material and workmanship seemed +beyond expression wonderful, and elegant, and substantial. He could +never hope otherwise to own such accoutrements. His eyes would never +again even rest upon such resplendent objects, unless indeed in +Hollis's possession. Any one who has ever loved a horse can appreciate +a horseman's dear desire that beauty should go beautifully +caparisoned. And then, there was his pride in his own riding, and his +anxiety to have his preeminence in that accomplishment acknowledged +and recognized by his friends, and, dearer triumph still, by his +enemies. A terrible pang before he spoke again. + +"Look hyar, Cynthy," he said at last; "ef ye will marry me, I won't +go back in yander no more. I'll leave the premi-_um_ ter them ez kin +git it." + +"Ye're foolish, Jacob," she replied, still fanning with the yellow +calico sunbonnet. "Ain't I done tole ye, ez how they don't think +nothin' of ye ter our house? I don't want all of 'em a-jowin' at me, +too." + +"Ye talk like ye ain't got good sense, Cynthy," said Jacob irritably. +"What's ter hender me from hitchin' up my mare ter my uncle's wagon +an' ye an' me a-drivin' up hyar to the Cross-Roads, fifteen mile, and +git Pa'son Jones ter marry us? We'll get the license down hyar ter the +Court House afore we start. An' while they'll all be a-foolin' away +thar time a-ridin' round that thar ring, ye an' me will be a-gittin' +married." Ten minutes ago Jacob Brice did not think riding around that +ring was such a reprehensible waste of time. "What's ter hender? It +don't make no differ how they jow then." + +"I done tole ye, Jacob," said the sedate Cynthia, still fanning with +the sunbonnet. + +With a sudden return of his inspiration, Jacob retorted, affecting an +air of stolid indifference: "Jes' ez _ye_ choose. I won't hev ter ax +Becky Stiles twict." + +And he turned to go. + +"I never said no, Jacob," said Cynthia precipitately. "I never said ez +how I wouldn't hev ye." + +"Waal, then, jes' come along with me right now while I hitch up the +mare. I ain't a-goin' ter leave yer a-standin' hyar. Ye're too +skittish. Time I come back ye'd hev done run away I dunno whar." A +moment's pause and he added: "Is ye a-goin' ter stand thar all day, +Cynthy Hollis, a-lookin' up an' around, and a-turnin' yer neck fust +this way and then t'other, an' a-lookin' fur all the worl' like a wild +turkey in a trap, or one o' them thar skeery young deer, or sech +senseless critters? What ails the gal?" + +"Thar'll be nobody ter help along the work ter our house," said +Cynthia, the weight of the home difficulties bearing heavily on her +conscience. + +"What's ter hender ye from a-goin' down thar an' lendin' a hand every +wunst in a while? But ef ye're a-goin' ter stand thar like ye hedn't +no more action than a--a-dunno-what,--jes' like yer dad, I ain't. I'll +jes' leave ye a-growed ter that thar post, an' I'll jes' light out +stiddier, an' afore the cows git ter Pine Lick, I'll be thar too. Jes' +ez ye choose. Come along ef ye wants ter come. I ain't a-goin' ter ax +ye no more." + +"I'm a-comin'," said Cynthia. + +There was great though illogical rejoicing on the part of the country +faction when the crowds were again seated, tier above tier, in the +amphitheatre, and the riders were once more summoned into the arena, +to discover from Jacob Brice's unaccounted-for absence that he had +withdrawn and left the nominee to his chances. + +In the ensuing competition it became very evident to the not +altogether impartially disposed judges that they could not, without +incurring the suspicions alike of friend and foe, award the premium to +their fellow-townsman. Straight as a shingle though he might be, more +prepossessing to the eye, the ex-cavalryman of fifty battles was far +better trained in all the arts of horsemanship. + +A wild shout of joy burst from the rural party when the most portly +and rubicund of the portly and red-faced judges advanced into the ring +and decorated Jenkins Hollis with the blue ribbon. A frantic +antistrophe rent the air. "Take it off!" vociferated the bitter town +faction--"take it off!" + +A diversion was produced by the refusal of the Colbury champion to +receive the empty honor of the red ribbon and the certificate. Thus +did he except to the ruling of the judges. In high dudgeon he faced +about and left the arena, followed shortly by the decorated Jenks, +bearing the precious saddle and bridle, and going with a wooden face +to receive the congratulations of his friends. + +The entries for the slow mule race had been withdrawn at the last +moment; and the spectators, balked of that unique sport, and the fair +being virtually over, were rising from their seats and making their +noisy preparations for departure. Before Jenks had cleared the +fair-building, being somewhat impeded by the moving mass of humanity, +he encountered one of his neighbors, a listless mountaineer, who spoke +on this wise:-- + +"Does ye know that thar gal o' yourn--that thar Cynthy?" + +Mr. Hollis nodded his expressionless head--presumably he did know +Cynthia. + +"Waal," continued his leisurely interlocutor, still interrogative, +"does ye know Jacob Brice?" + +Ill-starred association of ideas! There was a look of apprehension on +Jenkins Hollis's wooden face. + +"They hev done got a license down hyar ter the Court House an' gone +a-kitin' out on the Old B'ar road." + +This was explicit. + +"Whar's my horse?" exclaimed Jenks, appropriating "John Barleycorn" in +his haste. Great as was his hurry, it was not too imperative to +prevent him from strapping upon the horse the premium saddle, and +inserting in his mouth the new bit and bridle. And in less than ten +minutes a goodly number of recruits from the crowd assembled in +Colbury were also "a-kitin'" out on the road to Old Bear, delighted +with a new excitement, and bent on running down the eloping couple +with no more appreciation of the sentimental phase of the question and +the tender illusions of love's young dream than if Jacob and Cynthia +were two mountain foxes. + +Down the red-clay slopes of the outskirts of the town "John +Barleycorn" thunders with a train of horsemen at his heels. Splash +into the clear fair stream whose translucent depths tell of its +birthplace among the mountain springs--how the silver spray showers +about as the pursuers surge through the ford leaving behind them a +foamy wake!--and now they are pressing hard up the steep ascent of the +opposite bank, and galloping furiously along a level stretch of road, +with the fences and trees whirling by, and the September landscape +flying on the wings of the wind. The chase leads past fields of +tasseled Indian corn, with yellowing thickly swathed ears, leaning +heavily from the stalk; past wheat-lands, the crops harvested and the +crab-grass having its day at last; past "woods-lots" and their black +shadows, and out again into the September sunshine; past rickety +little homes, not unlike Hollis's own, with tow-headed children, +exactly like his, standing with wide eyes, looking at the rush and +hurry of the pursuit--sometimes in the ill-kept yards a wood-fire is +burning under the boiling sorghum kettle, or beneath the branches of +the orchard near at hand a cider-mill is crushing the juice out of the +red and yellow, ripe and luscious apples. Homeward-bound prize cattle +are overtaken--a Durham bull, reluctantly permitting himself to be led +into a fence corner that the hunt may sweep by unobstructed, and +turning his proud blue-ribboned head angrily toward the riders as if +indignant that anything except him should absorb attention; a gallant +horse, with another floating blue streamer, bearing himself as +becometh a king's son; the chase comes near to crushing sundry +grunting porkers impervious to pride and glory in any worldly +distinctions of cerulean decorations, and at last is fain to draw up +and wait until a flock of silly over-dressed sheep, running in frantic +fear every way but the right way, can be gathered together and guided +to a place of safety. + +And once more, forward; past white frame houses with porches, and +vine-grown verandas, and well-tended gardens, and groves of oak and +beech and hickory trees--"John Barleycorn" makes an ineffectual but +gallant struggle to get in at the large white gate of one of these +comfortable places, Squire Goodlet's home, but he is urged back into +the road, and again the pursuit sweeps on. Those blue mountains, the +long parallel ranges of Old Bear and his brothers, seem no more a +misty, uncertain mirage against the delicious indefinable tints of the +horizon. Sharply outlined they are now, with dark, irregular shadows +upon their precipitous slopes which tell of wild ravines, and +rock-lined gorges, and swirling mountain torrents, and great, +beetling, gray crags. A breath of balsams comes on the freshening +wind--the lungs expand to meet it. There is a new aspect in the scene; +a revivifying current thrills through the blood; a sudden ideal beauty +descends on prosaic creation. + +"'Pears like I can't git my breath good in them flat countries," says +Jenkins Hollis to himself, as "John Barleycorn" improves his speed +under the exhilarating influence of the wind. "I'm nigh on to +sifflicated every time I goes down yander ter Colbury" (with a jerk of +his wooden head in the direction of the village). + +Long stretches of woods are on either side of the road now, with no +sign of the changing season in the foliage save the slender, pointed, +scarlet leaves and creamy plumes of the sourwood, gleaming here and +there; and presently another panorama of open country unrolls to the +view. Two or three frame houses appear with gardens and orchards, a +number of humble log cabins, and a dingy little store, and the +Cross-Roads are reached. And here the conclusive intelligence meets +the party that Jacob and Cynthia were married by Parson Jones an hour +ago, and were still "a-kitin'," at last accounts, out on the road to +Old Bear. + +The pursuit stayed its ardor. On the auspicious day when Jenkins +Hollis took the blue ribbon at the County Fair and won the saddle and +bridle he lost his daughter. + +They saw Cynthia no more until late in the autumn when she came, +without a word of self-justification or apology for her conduct, to +lend her mother a helping hand in spinning and weaving her little +brothers' and sisters' clothes. And gradually the _eclat_ attendant +upon her nuptials was forgotten, except that Mrs. Hollis now and then +remarks that she "dunno how we could hev bore up agin Cynthy's +a-runnin' away like she done, ef it hedn't a-been fur that thar saddle +an' bridle an' takin' the blue ribbon at the County Fair." + + + + +THE CASTING VOTE. + + +I. + +An election of civil and judicial officers was impending in Kildeer +County when a comet appeared in the July sky, a mysterious, aloof, +uncanny presence, that invaded the night and the stereotyped routine +of nature with that gruesome effect of the phenomenal which gives to +the mind so definite a realization of how dear and secure is the +prosaic sense of custom. + +All the lenses of the great observatories of the world had, in a +manner, sought to entertain the strange visitant of the heavens. The +learned had gone so far as to claim its acquaintance, to recognize it +as the returning comet of a date long gone by. It even carried amidst +its shining glories, along the far unimagined ways of its orbit, the +name of a human being--of the man who had discovered it on its former +visit, for thus splendidly does astronomy honor its votaries. Less +scientific people regarded it askance as in some sort harbinger of +woe, and spoke of presage, recalling other comets, and the commotions +that came in their train--from the Deluge, with the traditional +cometary influences rife in the breaking up of "the fountains of the +great deep," to the victories of Mohammed II. and the threatened +overthrow of Christendom, and even down to our own war of 1812. +Others, again, scorned superstition, and entertained merely practical +misgivings concerning the weight, density, and temperature of the +comet, lest the eccentric aerial wanderer should run amuck of the +earth in some confusion touching the right of way through space. + +Meanwhile, it grew from the semblance of a vaporous tissue--an +illuminated haze only discernible through the telescope, the private +view of the favored few--till it gradually became visible to the +unassisted eye of the _profanum vulgus_, and finally it flamed across +the darkling spaces with its white crown of glory, its splendid +wing-like train, and its effect of motion as of a wondrous flight +among the stars--and all the world, and, for aught we know, many +worlds, gazed at it. + +Only in some great desert, the vast stretches of unsailed seas, or the +depths of uninhabited forests, were its supernal splendors unnoted. It +sunk as wistful, as tremulous, a reflection in a lonely pool in the +dense mountain wilds as any simple star, a familiar of these haunts, +that had looked down to mark its responsive image year after year, +for countless ages, whenever the season brought it, in its place in +the glittering mail of the Archer, or among the jewels of the Northern +Crown, once more to the spot it had known and its tryst with its fair +semblance in the water. + +The great silver flake which the comet struck out upon the serene +surface lay glinting there among the lesser stellar reflections, when +a man, kneeling in a gully of the steep bank sloping to the "salt +lick," leaned forward suddenly to gaze at it; then, with a gasp, +turned his eyes upward to that flaming blade drawn athwart the +peaceful sky. He did not utter a sound. The habit of silence essential +to the deer-hunter kept its mechanical hold upon his nerves. Only the +hand with which he grasped the half-exposed roots of a great +sycamore-tree, denuded in some partial caving of the bank long ago, +relaxed and trembled slightly. + +He was a man of scant and narrow experience, his world the +impenetrable mountain wilderness, and, though seemingly the pupil of +nature, versed in the ways of beast and bird, the signs of the clouds, +the seasons of bourgeoning and burr, it was but of casual external +aspects. He knew naught of its wondrous history, its subtler +significance, its strange record--the flood-tides registered on that +cliff beyond the laurel; the reptilian trail in the ledge beneath the +butt of his rifle, the imprint still fast in the solid rock, albeit +the species extinct; the great bones of ancient unknown beasts sunk in +the depressions of this saline quagmire, which herds of them had once +frequented for the salt, as did of late the buffalo, and now the +timorous deer, wont to come, like shadows wavering in the wind, to +lick the briny earth. The strange, glinting blade overhead had no +claim on his recognition as the "comet of Aristotle," or the +"evil-disposed comet" personified by the Italians as Sir Great-Lance, +_il Signor Astone_, or Halley's comet, or Donati's. Self is the centre +of the solar system with many souls, and around this point do all its +incidents revolve. For _him_ that wondrous white fire was kindled in +the skies, for _him_, in special relation to his small life, to the +wish nearest his hot human heart, to the clumsy scheme dear to his +slow, crude brain. He thought it a warning then: and later he thought +this still. + +Some vague stir--the wind perhaps, or perhaps a light-footed +dryad--flitted past and was gone. The surface of the "lick" rippled +with her footprints, and was smooth again. All the encompassing masses +of trees and undergrowth about the place were densely black and +opaque, giving the sense of absolute solidity and weight, except upon +the verges, which were somehow shaded off into a cloudy brown against +the translucent dove-tinted tissues in which the night seemed +enveloped and obscured save for the white gleaming of the stars. This +was the clear color that the brackish water wore as it reflected the +night. It reflected suddenly a face--a face with a long velvety +muzzle, a pair of spreading antlers, and dark eyes, gentle, timorous, +liquidly bright. The water stirred with a sibilant lapping sound as +the buck's tongue licked at the margin. Once he held up his head to +listen, with his hoof lifted, then he bent again to the ripples. There +was slight relation between him, the native of these woods, and that +wayward waif of the skies; but among the unnumbered influences and +incidents of its course it served to save that humble sylvan life for +a space. The hunter neither saw nor heard. + +It was only when the deer with a sudden snort and a precipitate bound +fled crashing through the laurel that Walter Hoxon became aware of his +presence, and of the stealthy approach that had alarmed him. The +approach was stealthy no longer. A quick, nervous tread, a rustling of +the boughs, and as the hunter rose to his feet his elder brother +emerged from the undergrowth, taller than he as they stood together on +the margin of the lick, more active, sinewy, alert. + +"Whyn't ye take a shot at him, Wat?" cried Justus Hoxon tumultuously. +"I'll be bound ye war nappin'," he added in keen rebuke. + +A pause, then Walter Hoxon pulled himself together and retorted:-- + +"Nappin'!" in scornful falsetto. "How _could_ I get a shot, with ye +a-trompin' up ez n'isy ez a herd o' cattle?" + +The reproach evidently struck home, for the elder said nothing. With +the thoroughness characteristic of the habitual liar, Walter proceeded +to add circumstance to his original statement. + +"I seen the buck whenst he fust kem sidlin' an' slippin' up ter the +water, oneasy an' onsartain from the fust minute. I hed jes' sighted +my rifle. An' hyar ye kem, a-bulgin' out o' the lau'l, an' sp'iled my +shot." As the verisimilitude of his representations bore upon him, he +unconsciously assumed the sentiments natural to the situation +simulated. "Who tole ye ez I war hyar, anyhows?" he demanded angrily. + +"'Dosia," replied Justus Hoxon in a mild tone. Then, with an effort at +exculpation, "I 'lowed ye'd be keen--plumb sharp set--fur news 'bout +the prospec's o' the 'lection. An' she 'lowed ez ye hed kem down hyar +hopin' ter git a deer. 'T war The'dosia." + +At the name the other had turned slightly away and looked down, a +gesture that invidious daylight might have interpreted as anxiety, or +faltering, or at the least replete with consciousness. But even if +open to observation, it could scarcely have signified aught to Justus +Hoxon, wrapped in his own thoughts, and in his absorbing interest in +the events of the day. His mental attitude was so apparent to his +brother, albeit his form was barely distinguishable as they stood +together by the salt lick, that Wat ventured a question--a bold one, +it seemed to him, and he felt a chill because of its temerity. + +"Glad ter see ye, I s'pose?" + +"Plumb tickled ter death," exclaimed Justus, his laughing voice full +of reminiscent enthusiasm. "Thar war a big crowd at the Cross-Roads +ter hear the speakin', an' a toler'ble gatherin' at Sycamore Gap. +Everybody inquired partic'lar arter ye, an' whenst I tole 'em ye war +tuk sick, an' couldn't be thar, an' I war 'lectioneerin' in yer place, +they shuck han's, an' shuck han's. One ole man--ole Sam Coggins, up +ter Sims's Mill--says ter me, he says, 'I dunno yer brother, Justus +Hoxon; but blister my boots, ef I don't vote fur anybody ez air kin +ter you-uns, an' ez ye hev set yer heart on 'lectin' ter office.' An' +the way folks inquired arter ye, an'"-- + +"I ain't talkin' 'bout the 'lection," Wat broke in brusquely. "I war +axin' 'bout 'Dosia. She war"--he hesitated--"liable ter be glad ter +see ye, I reckon." + +There was a note of surprise in his brother's voice from which Wat +shrank in sudden alarm. "Oh, _'Dosia_! Course she war glad. I seen her +jes' now, an' she told me ez ye hed kem down ter the lick ter git a +shot at the deer, bein' ez she hed 'lowed the venison war powerful +good 'bout now. I never stayed but a minute. I says, ''Dosia, ye an' +me hev got the rest o' our lives ter do our courtin' in, but this +'lection hev got ter be tended ter _now_, kase ef Wat ain't 'lected +it'll set him back all his life. Some folks 'low ez 't ain't perlite +an' respec'ful, nohow, fur pore folks like we-uns ter run fur office, +like ez ef we war good ez anybody.' An' 'Dosia she jes' hustled me +out'n the house. 'G'long! G'long! Do _everything_ 'bout'n the +'lection! Turn every stone! Time enough fur courtin' arterward! Time +enough!'" + +Once more Justus laughed contentedly. + +The man beside him stirred uneasily, then broke out irritably: "Waal, +_I'm_ powerful tired o' this 'lection foolishness, fur one. I wisht I +hed never let ye push an' boost me inter it. I reckon them war right +ez 'lowed pore folks like we-uns ain't fit ter run fur office, an' +ain't goin' ter git 'lected. I'd never hev dreamt o' sech ef it +hedn't been fur you-uns--never in this worl'." Walter's voice sunk +moodily, and he had a flouting gesture as he turned aside. + +A vicarious ambition is the most ungrateful of passions. There was +something more than anger, than eager affection, than urgent reproach, +than prescient alarm, albeit all rang sharply forth, in his brother's +voice raised to reply; it was a keen note of helplessness, from which +Walter's nerves recoiled with a sense of pain, so insistently +clamorous it was. + +"How kin ye say that!" cried Justus. "Fur ye ter stan' thar, ready ter +throw away all yer good chances, jes' kase ye hev got the rheumatics +an' don't feel like viewin' the people--though it 'pears like ye air +well enough ter go huntin' of deer of a damp night at a salt lick! An' +then, kase a mean-spirited half-liver flings dirt on ye an' yer +fambly, fur ye ter sit down on a low stool, an' fill yer mouth with +mud, an' 'low this air plenty good enough fur we-uns! 'Pore folks +ain't fit ter git 'lected ter office!'" with scornful iteration. "My +Lord! this hyar is a democratic kentry!" with an echo from the stump +speeches of the day. "Leastwise the folks yander at Sycamore Gap +'peared ter think so. This hyar Tom Markham he war speakin' on the +issues o' the day, an' bein' he's a frien' o' Sheriff Quigley's, he +tuk a turn at me an' you-uns, o' course. Tole the folks how my dad an' +mam died whenst I war twelve year old, an' how the only reason the +fambly warn't sent ter the pore-house war kase the county folks war +dil'tory, an' put it off, till they 'lowed our own house war pore +enough. An' then he sot out ter be mighty funny, an' mocked the way I +useter call the t'other chil'n 'Fambly,' sech ez--'Fambly, kem ter +dinner, Fambly!' 'Shet up yer cryin', Fambly!' An' then he tole how I +cooked--gathered all sorts o' yarbs an' vegetables tergether an' sot a +pot ter bile, an' whenever 'Fambly' war hongry 'Fambly' tuk a snack, +an' gracefully eat out'n the pot with thar fingers. An' sometimes +'Fambly' war moved ter wash thar clothes, an' they all repaired ter +the ruver-bank, an' rubbed out thar rags, an' hung 'em on the bushes +ter dry--an', duty done, 'Fambly' went a-wadin'. Everybody jes' laffed +an' laffed!" + +There was a strained tone in his voice, not far foreign to a sob, as +he repeated these derisive flouts at his early and forlorn estate. + +"An' now," resuming their rehearsal, "this enlightened constituency +was asked ter bestow on a scion o' this same 'Fambly'--ignorant, +scrub, pauper--an office of great importance to the people, that +needed to fill it a man o' eddication an' experiunce, varsed in the +ways o' the world--asked to bestow the office o' sheriff o' the county +on a man who war so obviously incomp'tent an' illit'rate that he +darsn't face the people ter make his perposterous demand!" + +The wind came and went. The darkling bushes bowed and bent again. The +leaves took up their testimony in elusive, sibilant mutterings. Justus +Hoxon's eyes were cast upward for a moment, as he watched a massive +bough of an oak-tree sway against the far sky, shutting off the stars, +which became visible anew as the elastic branch swung back once more. +Only the pallor of his face and a certain lustrous liquid gleam +betokening his eyes were distinguishable to his brother, who +nevertheless watched him with anxiety and quickened breathing as he +went on:-- + +"That thar feller hed sca'cely stepped down off'n that thar stump +afore I war on ter it. I asked fur a few minutes' attention, an' +'lowed, I did, that Mr. Markham's account o' the humble beginnin's of +me an' 'Fambly' war accurate an' exac'. (Everybody hed looked fur me +ter deny it, or ter git mad, or suthin', an' they war toler'ble +s'prised.) 'Fambly' _did_ eat out'n the pot permiscuous, an' made a +mighty pore dinner thar many a day. An' 'Fambly' washed thar clothes +ez described, infrequent enough, an' no doubt war ez ragged an' dirty +ez they war hongry. But, I said, Mr. Markham hedn't told the haffen o' +it. Cold winter nights, when the snow sifted in through the cracks, +an' the wind blew in the rotten old door, 'Fambly' liked ter hev friz +ter death. They hed the pneumonia, an' whoopin'-cough, an' croup; an' +in summer, bein' a perverse set o' brats, 'Fambly' hed fever an' ager, +an' similar ailments common ter the young o' the human race, _the same +ez ef 'Fambly' war folks_! 'T war 'stonishin', kem ter think of it, +how 'Fambly' hed the insurance ter grow up ter _look_ like folks, let +alone settin' out ter run fur office; an' ef God hedn't raised 'em up +some mighty good frien's in this county, I reckon thar wouldn't be +much o' 'Fambly' left. Some folks 'low ez Providence hev got mighty +leetle jedgmint in worldly affairs, an' this mus' be one o' the +strikin' instances of it. These frien's gin the bigges' boy work ter +do, an' that holped ter keep 'Fambly's' bodies an' souls tergether. I +reckon, says I, that I hev ploughed in the fields o' haffen the men in +our deestric'; I hev worked in the tan-yard; I hev been striker in the +blacksmith shop; an' all the time that pot, aforesaid, b'iled at home, +an' 'Fambly' tuk thar dinner thar constant, _with_ thar fingers, _ez +aforesaid_. But 'Fambly' warn't so durned ragged, nuther. Good +neighbors gin 'em some clothes wunst in a while, an' l'arned the gals +ter sew an' cook some. An' thar kem ter be a skillet an' a fryin'-pan +on the h'a'th ter holp the pot out. Why, 'Fambly' got so prosperous +that one day, whenst a' ole, drunken, cripple, ragged man war passin', +they enj'yed themselves mightily, laffin' at somebody po'rer than +themselves. An' ole Pa'son Tyson war goin' by in his gig, an' _he_ tuk +note o' the finger o' scorn, an' he stopped. He said mighty leetle, +but he tuk the trouble ter cut a stout hickory sprout, an' he gin +'Fambly' a good thrashin' all roun'. It lasted 'Fambly' well. They +ain't laffed at 'God's pore' sence! Waal, 'Fambly' 's takin' up too +much o' this enlightened assembly's attention. Enough to tell what's +kem o' 'Fambly.' The oldes' gal went ter free school, l'arned ter +read, write, an' cipher, an' married Pa'son Tyson's son, ez air a +minister o' the gospel a-ridin' a Methodis' circuit in north Georgy +now. An' the second gal"--his voice faltered--"_she_ went ter free +school, l'arned mo' still o' readin' an' writin' an' cipherin', an' +taught school two year down on Bird Creek, an' war goin' ter be +married ter a good man, well-ter-do, who had built her a house, not +knowin' ez God hed prepared her a mansion in the skies. She is livin' +_thar_ now! An' las', the Benjamin o' all the tribe, kems my brother +Walter. _He_ went ter school; kin read, write, an' cipher; he's been +taught ez much ez any man ez ever held the office he axes ter be +'lected ter, an' air thoroughly competent. Fac' is, gentlemen, thar's +nothin' lef' ter show fur the humble 'Fambly' Mr. Markham's be'n +tellin' 'bout, but me. I never went ter school, 'ceptin' in yer +fields. I l'arned ter cure hides, an' temper steel, an' shoe +horse-critters, so that pot mought be kep' a-b'ilin', an' 'Fambly' +mought dine accordin' to thar humble way in them very humble days that +somehow, gentlemen, I ain't got an' can't git the grace ter be 'shamed +of yit." + +He paused abruptly as he concluded the recital of his speech, and +wiped his face with the back of his hand. "I wisht ye could hev hearn +them men cheer. They jes' hollered tharse'fs hoarse. They shuck hands +till they mighty nigh yanked my arm out'n its socket." With the +recollection, he rubbed his right arm with a gesture of pain. + +Something there was in the account of this ovation that smote upon the +younger brother's sense of values, and he hastened to take possession +of it. + +"Oh, I knowed I war powerful pop'lar in the Sycamore Gap deestric'," +he said, dropping his lowering manner, that had somehow been +perceptible in the darkness, and wagging his head from side to side +with a gesture of great security in the affections of Sycamore Gap. +"Sycamore Gap's all right, I know; I'll poll a big majority thar, +sure." + +"I reckon ye will; but I warn't so sure o' that at fust," replied the +elder. "They 'peared ter me at fust ter be sorter set ag'in +us--leastwise _me_, though arter a while I could hardly git away from +'em, they war so durned friendly." + +Walter cast a keen look upon him; but he evidently spoke from his +simple heart, and was all unaware that he was personally the source of +this sudden popularity in Sycamore Gap--his magnetism, his unconscious +eloquence, and his character as shown in the simple and forlorn annals +of "Fambly." And yet he was not crudely unthinking. He perceived the +incongruity of his brother's successive standpoints. + +"I dunno how ye kin purtend ter be so all-fired sure o' Sycamore Gap," +he said suddenly. "'T ain't five minutes sence ye war 'lowin' ez pore +folks couldn't git 'lected ter office, an' ye wished ye hed hed +nothin' ter do with sech, an' 't war me ez bed jes' pushed an' boosted +ye inter it." + +The resources of subterfuge are well-nigh limitless. Walter Hoxon was +an adept in utilizing them. He had seen a warning in the skies, and it +had struck terror and discouragement to his heart; but not to his +political prospects had he felt its application. Other schemes, +deeper, treacherous, secret, seemed menaced, and his conscience, or +that endowment to quake with the fear of requital that answers for +conscience in some ill-developed souls, was set astir. Nevertheless, +the election might suffice as scapegoat. + +"Look a-yander, Justus," he said suddenly, pointing with the muzzle of +his gun at the brilliant wayfarer of the skies, as if he might in +another moment essay a shot. "That thar critter means mischief, sure +ez ye air born." + +The other stepped back a pace or two, and lifted his head to look. + +"The comic?" he demanded. Walter's silence seemed assent. +"Laws-a-massy, ye tomfool," Justus cried, "let it be a sign ter them +ez run ag'in' ye! Count the comic in like a qualified voter--it kem +hyar on account o' the incumbent's incompetence in office. Signs! Rolf +Quigley is sign enough,--if ye want signs in 'lections,--with money, +an' frien's, an' a term of office, an' the reg'lar nominee o' the +party, an' ye jes' an independent candidate. No star a-waggin' a tale +aroun' the sky air haffen ez dangerous ter yer 'lection ez him. An' +he ain't lookin' at no comic! He looked this evenin' like he'd put his +finger in his mouth in one more minute, plumb 'shamed ter his +boot-sole o' the things Markham hed said. An' Markham he kem up ter me +before a crowd o' fellers, an' says, says he: 'Mr. Hoxon, I meant no +reflections on yer fambly in alludin' ter its poverty, an' I honor ye +fur yer lifelong exertions in its behalf. I take pride, sir, in makin' +this apology.' An' I says: 'I be a' illit'rate, humble man, Mr. +Markham; but I will venture the liberty to tell ye ez ye mought take +mo' pride in givin' no occasion fur apologies ter poverty.' Them +fellers standin' aroun' jes' laffed. I knowed he didn't mean a word he +said then, but war jes' slickin' over the things he _hed_ said on +Quigley's account, kase the crowd seemed ter favor me. I say, comic! +Let Rolf Quigley take the comic fur a sign." + +It is easy to pluck up fears that have no root. "Oh, I be goin' ter +'lectioneer all the same ez ever. Whar 's the nex' place we air bound +fur?" + +Walter put his hand on his brother's shoulder as he asked the +question, and in the eager unfolding of plans and possibilities the +two, as Justus talked, made their way along the deer-path beside the +salt lick, leaving the stars coldly glittering on the ripples, with +that wonderful streak of white fire reflected among them; leaving, +too, the vaguely whispering woods, communing with the wind as it came +and went; reaching the slope of the mountain at last, where was +perched, amid sterile fields and humble garden-patch, the little cabin +in which "Fambly" had struggled through its forlorn youth to better +days. + + * * * * * + +The door was closed after this. A padlock knocked against it when the +wind blew, as if spuriously announcing a visitor. The deceit failed of +effect, for there was no inmate left, and the freakish gust could only +twirl the lock anew, and go swirling down the road with a rout of dust +in a witches' dance behind it. The passers-by took note of the +deserted aspect of things, and knew that the brothers were absent +electioneering, and wondered vaguely what the chances might be. This +passing was somewhat more frequent than was normal along the road; for +when the mists that had hung about the mountains persistently during a +warm, clammy, wet season had withdrawn suddenly, and one night +revealed for the first time the comet fairly ablaze in the sky, a +desire to hear what was said and known about it at the Cross-Roads and +the settlement and the blacksmith shop took possession of the +denizens of the region, and the coteries of amateur astronomers at +these centres were added to daily. Some remembered a comet or two in +past times, and if the deponent were advanced in years his hearers +were given to understand that the present luminary couldn't hold a +tallow dip to the incandescent terrors he recollected. There were +utilitarian souls who were disquieted about the crops, and anxiously +examined growing ears of corn, expecting to find the comet's influence +tucked away in the husks. Some looked for the end of the world; those +most obviously and determinedly pious took, it might seem, a certain +unfraternal joy in the contrast of their superior forethought, in +being prepared for the day of doom, with the uncovenanted estate of +the non-professor. A revival broke out at New Bethel; the number of +mourners grew in proportion as the comet got bigger night by night. +Small wonder that as evening drew slowly on, and the flaring, +assertive, red west gradually paled, and the ranges began to lose +semblance and symmetry in the dusk, and the river gloomed benighted in +the vague circuit of its course, and a lonely star slipped into the +sky, darkening, too, till, rank after rank, and phalanx after phalanx, +all the splendid armament of night had mustered, with that great, +glamourous guidon in the midst--small wonder that the ignorant +mountaineer looked up at the unaccustomed thing to mark it there, and +fear smote his heart. + +At these times certain of the little sequestered households far among +the wooded ranges got them within their doors, as if to place between +them and the uncanny invader of the night, and the threatening +influences rife in the very atmosphere, all the simple habitudes of +home. The hearthstone seemed safest, the door a barrier, the home +circle a guard. Others spent the nocturnal hours in the dooryard or on +the porch, marking the march of the constellations, and filling the +time with vague speculations, or retailing dreadful rumors of strange +happenings in the neighboring coves, and wild stories of turmoil and +misfortune that comets had wrought years ago. + +It was at one of these makeshift observatories that Justus Hoxon +stopped the first evening after his electioneering tour in the +interest of his brother. The weather had turned hot and fair; a +drought, a set-off to the surplusage of recent rain, was in progress; +the dooryard on the high slope of the mountain, apart from its +availability for the surveillance of any eccentric doings of the +comet, was an acceptable lounging-place for the sake of the air, the +dew, the hope of a vagrant breeze, and, more than all, the ample +"elbow-room" which it offered the rest of the family while he talked +with Theodosia Blakely. The rest of the family--unwelcome +wights!--were not disposed to make their existence obtrusive; on the +contrary, they did much to further his wishes, even to the sacrifice +of personal predilection. Mrs. Blakely, her arms befloured, her hands +in the dough, had observed him at the gate, while she stood at the +biscuit-block in the shed-room, and although pining to rush forth and +ask the latest news from the settlement and the comet, she only called +out in a husky undertone: "'Dosia, 'Dosia, yander's Justus a-kemin' in +the gate! Put on yer white apern, chile." + +Because she had been adjured to put on her white apron, Theodosia did +not put it on. She advanced to the window, about which grew, with its +graceful habit, a hop-vine. A little slanting roof was above the +lintel, a mere board or so, with a few warped shingles; but it made a +gentle shadow, and Theodosia thought few men besides the one at the +gate would have failed to see her there. He lingered a little, turning +back to glance over the landscape, and then he deflected his course +toward a rough bench that was placed in a corner of the rail fence, +threw himself upon it, and fanned himself with his broad-brimmed hat. + +"The insurance o' the critter! I'm a mind ter leave ye a-settin' thar +by yerse'f till ye be wore out waitin'," she muttered. + +She hesitated a moment, then took her sunbonnet and went out to meet +him. + +The scene was like some great painting, with this corner in the +foreground left unfinished, so minute was the detail of the distance, +so elaborate and perfect the coloring of the curves of purple, and +amethyst, and blue mountains afar off, rising in tiers about the +cup-shaped valley. Above it hung a tawny tissue of haze, surcharged +with a deeply red, vinous splendor, as if spilled from the stirrup-cup +of the departing sun. He was already out of sight, spurring along +unknown ways. The sky was yellow here and amber there, and a pearly +flake, its only cloud, glittered white in the midst. Up the hither +slope the various green of the pine and the poplar, the sycamore and +the sweet-gum, was keenly differentiated, but where the rail fence +drew the line of demarkation, Art seemed to fail. + +A crude wash of ochre had apparently sufficed for the dooryard; no +weed grew here, no twig. It was tramped firm and hard by the feet of +cow, and horse, and the peripatetic children, and poultry. The cabin +was drawn in with careless angles and lines by a mere stroke or two; +and surely no painter, no builder save the utilitarian backwoodsman, +would have left it with no relief of trees behind it, no vineyard, no +garden, no orchard, no background, naught; in its gaunt simplicity and +ugliness it stood against its own ill-tended fields flattening away in +the rear. + +Such as it was, however, it satisfied all of Justus Hoxon's sense of +the appropriate and the picturesque when Theodosia Blakely stepped out +from the door and came slowly to meet him. The painter's art, if she +were to be esteemed part of the foreground, might have seemed redeemed +in her. Her dress was of light blue homespun; her sunbonnet of deep +red calico, pushed back, showed her dark brown hair waving upward in +heavy undulations from her brow, her large blue eyes with their thick +black lashes, her rich brunette complexion, her delicate red lips cut +in fine lines, and the gleam of her teeth as she smiled. She had a +string of opaque white, wax-like beads around the neck of her dress, +and the contrast of the pearly whiteness of the bauble with the creamy +whiteness and softness of her throat was marked with much finish. Her +figure was hardly of medium height, and, despite the suppleness of +youth, as "plump as a partridge," according to the familiar saying. +The clear iris of her eyes gave an impression of quick shifting, and +by them one could see her mood change as she approached. + +She looked at him intently, speculatively, a sort of doubtful +curiosity furtively suggested in her expression; but there was naught +subtle or covert in the gaze that met hers--naught but the frankest +pleasure and happiness. He did not move, as she advanced, nor offer +formal greeting; he only smiled, secure, content, restful, as she came +up and sat down on the end of the bench. The children, playing noisily +in the back yard on the wood-pile, paused for a moment to gaze with +callow interest at them; but the spectacle of "The'dosia's sweetheart" +was too familiar to be of more than fleeting diversion, and they +resorted once more to their pastime. Mrs. Blakely too, who with +rolling-pin in her hand had turned to gaze out of the window, went +back to rolling out the dough vigorously, with only the muttered +comment, "Wish The'dosia didn't know how much I'd like that man fur a +son-in-law, then she'd be willin' ter like him better herse'f." + +He was unconscious of them all, as he leaned his elbow on the +projecting rails of the fence at their intersection close at hand. + +"Hev ye hed yer health, The'dosia?" he said. + +"Don't I look like it?" she replied laughingly. + +There was something both of cordiality and coquetry in her manner. Her +large eyes narrowed as she laughed, and albeit they glittered between +their closing lids, the expression was not pleasant. Levity did not +become her. + +"Yes, ye do," he said seriously. "Ye 'pear ter be real thrivin' an' +peart an' healthy." + +His look, his words, were charged with no sort of recognition or value +of her beauty: clearly her challenge had fallen to the ground +unnoticed. + +"He'd like me jes' ez well ef I war all pitted up with the smallpox, +or ez freckled ez a tur-r-key-aig," she thought, flushing with +irritation. + +Beauty is jealous of preeminence, and would fain have precedence even +of love. She could take no sort of satisfaction in a captive that her +bright eyes had not shackled. Somehow this love seemed to flout, to +diminish, her attractions. It was like an accident. She could account +for his subjection on no other grounds. As she sat silent, grave +enough now and very beautiful, gazing askance and troubled upon him, +he went on:-- + +"I war so oneasy an' beset lest suthin' hed happened on the mounting, +whilst I war away, ter trouble you-uns or some o' yer folks. I never +hed time ter study much 'bout sech in the day, but I dreamt 'bout ye +in the night, an' _all night_,"--he laughed a little,--"all sort'n +mixed up things. I got ter be a plumb Joseph fur readin' dreams--only +I could read the same one forty diff'rent ways, an' every way made me +a leetle mo' oneasy than the t'other one. I s'pose ye hev been perlite +enough ter miss me a leetle," he concluded. + +She flashed her great eyes at him with a pretended stare of surprise. +"My--no!" she exclaimed. "We-uns hev hed the comet ter keep us +comp'ny--we ain't missed nobody!" + +He laughed a little, as at a repartee, and then went on:-- + +"Waal, the comic war a-cuttin' a pretty showy figger down yander at +Colbury. 'Ston-ishin' how much store folks do 'pear ter set on it! +They hed rigged up some sort'n peepin'-glass in the Court-House yard, +an' thar war mighty nigh the whole town a-squinchin' up one eye ter +examinate the consarn through it--all the court off'cers, +'torney-gin'ral, an' sech, an' old Doctor Kane an' Jedge Peters, +besides a whole passel o' ginerality folks. They 'lowed the glass made +it 'pear bigger." + +"Did it?" she asked, with sudden interest. + +"Bless yer soul, chile, _I_ didn't hev time ter waste on it. Jedge +Peters he beckoned ter me, an' 'lowed he'd interjuce me ter it; but I +'lowed the comic outside war plenty big enough fur me. 'Jedge,' I +says, 'my mission hyar air ter make onnecessary things seem _small_, +not magnified. That's why I'm continually belittlin' Rolf Quigley. Wat +kin go on lookin' cross-eyed at the stars, ef so minded, but I be +bound ter tend ter the 'lection.' An' the jedge laffed and says: +'Justus, nex' time I want ter git 'lected ter office, I'm goin' ter +git _ye_ ter boost me in. Ye hev got it a sight mo' at heart than yer +brother.' Fur thar war Wat, all twisted up at the small e-end o' the +tellingscope, purtendin' ter be on mighty close terms with the comic, +though lots o' other men said it jes' dazed thar eyes, an' they +couldn't see _nuthin'_ through it, an' mighty leetle arterward through +sightin' so long one-eyed." + +"Waal, how's the prospects fur the 'lection?" she asked. + +"Fine! Fine!" he answered with gusto. "Folks all be so frien'ly +everywhar ter we-uns." + +He leaned his shoulder suddenly back against the rough rails of the +fence. His hat was in his hand. His hair, fine, thin, chestnut-brown, +and closely clinging about his narrow head, was thrown back from his +forehead. His clear blue eyes were turned upward, with the light of +reminiscence slowly dawning in them. It may have been the reflection +of the dazzling flake of cloud, it may have been some mental +illumination, but a sort of radiance was breaking over the keen, +irregular lines of his features, and a flush other than the floridity +of a naturally fair complexion was upon his thin cheek and hollow +temple. + +"O The'dosia," he cried, "I can't holp thinkin', hevin' so many +frien's nowadays,--whenst it's 'Hail!' hyar, an' 'Howdy!' thar, an' a +clap on the shoulder ter the east, an' a 'How's yer health?' ter the +west, an' a handshake ter the north, an' 'Take a drink?' ter the +south, from one e-end o' the county ter the t'other,--how I fared +whenst I hed jes' _one_ frien' in the worl', an' that war yer mother! +An' how she looked the fust day she stood in the door o' my cabin up +thar--kem ter nuss Elmiry through that spell she hed o' the scarlet +fever. An' arterward she says ter me: 'Ye do manage s'prisin', Justus; +an' I be goin' ter save ye some gyardin seed out'n my patch this year, +an' ef ye'll plough my patch I'll loan ye my horse-critter ter plough +your'n. An' the gals kin kem an' l'arn ter sew an' churn, an' sech, +long o' 'Dosia.' An' how they loved ye, 'Dosia--special Elmiry!" + +His eyes filled with sudden tears. They did not fall; they were +absorbed somehow as he resumed:-- + +"Sech a superflu'ty o' frien's nowadays! Ef 't warn't they'd count fur +all they're wuth in the ballot-box, I'd hev no use fur 'em. I kin +sca'cely 'member thar names. But then I hed jes' _one_--jes' _one_ in +all the worl'--yer mother! Bless her soul!" he concluded +enthusiastically. + +He was still and reflective for a moment. Then he made a motion as +though he would take one of Theodosia's hands. But she clasped both of +them demurely behind her. + +"I don't hold hands with no man ez blesses another 'oman's soul by the +hour," she said, with an affectation of primness. + +There may have been something more serious in her playful rebuff, but +in the serenity of his perfect security he did not feel it or gauge +its depth. + +A glimpse of her mother at the window added its suggestion--a lean, +sallow, lined face, full of anxious furrows, with a rim of scanty +gray-streaked hair about the brow, with spectacles perched above, and +beneath the flabby jaw a scraggy, wrinkled neck. + +"An' she's so powerful pretty!" Theodosia exclaimed, with an +irreverent burst of laughter, "I don't wonder ye feel obligated ter +bless her soul." + +"She 'pears plumb beautiful to my mind," he said unequivocally,--"all +of a piece with her beautiful life." + +Theodosia was suddenly grave, angered into a secret, sullen +irritation. These were words she loved for herself: it was but lately +she had learned so to prize them. Her eyes were as bright as a deer's! +Had not some one protested this, with a good round rural oath as +attestation? Her hair on the back of her head, and its shape to the +nape of her neck, were so beautiful--she had never seen it: how could +she say it wasn't? Her chin and her throat--well, if people could +think snow was a prettier white, he wouldn't give much for _their_ +head-stuffin'. And her blush! her blush! It was her own fault. He +would not have taken another kiss if she had not blushed so at the +first that he must needs again see her cheek glow like the wild rose. + +These were echoes of a love-making that had lately taken hold of her +heart, that had grown insistently sweet and dear to her, that had +established its sway impetuously, tyrannically, over her life, that +had caused her to seem more to herself, and as if she were infinitely +more to her new lover. + +She wondered how she could ever have even tolerated this dullard, with +his slow, measured preference, his unquestioning security of her +heart, his doltish credulity in her and her promise, his humble +gratitude to her mother,--who had often enough, in good sooth, got +full value in return for aught she gave,--who appeared "beautiful" to +his mind. She broke forth abruptly, her cheeks flushing, her eyes +brave and bright, the subject nearest her heart on her lips, in the +sudden influx of courage set astir by the mere contemplation of it. + +"Waal now, tell 'bout Wat--how he enj'ys bein' a candidate, an' sech." +Then, with a tremor because of her temerity: "I have hearn o' that +thar beautisome old 'oman a time or two afore, but Wat ez a candidate +air sorter fraish an' new." + +He turned his clear, unsuspicious eyes upon her. He had replaced his +wide wool hat on his head, and he leaned forward, resting his cheek on +his hand and his elbow on his knee. He aimlessly flicked his long +spurred boot, as he talked, with a willow wand which he carried in +lieu of horsewhip. + +"Waal, Wat is some similar ter a balky horse. He don't seem ter sense +a word I say, nor ter be willin' ter do a thing I advise, nor even ter +take heart o' grace 'bout bein' 'lected, till we gets out 'mongst +folks, an' _thar_ handshakin's and frien'liness seems ter hearten up +the critter. I hev jes' hed ter baig an' baig, an' plead an' plead, +with that boy 'bout this an' that an' t'other, till I wouldn't go +through ag'in what I _hev_ been through ter git 'lected doorkeeper o' +heaven. But," with a sudden change of tone and a flush of pride, +"The'dosia, ye dunno what a' all-fired pretty speaker Wat hev got ter +be. Jes' stan's up ez straight an' smilin' afore all the crowd, an' +jes' tells off his p'ints, one, two, three, ez nip! An' the crowd +always cheers an' cheers--jes' bawls itse'f hoarse. Whenever thar's a +chance ter speak, Wat jes' leaves them t'other candidates nowhar." + +Ah, Theodosia's beauty well deserved the guerdon of sweet words. She +might have been pictured as a thirsting Hebe. She had a look of +quaffing some cup of nectar, still craving its depths, so immediate a +joy, so intense a light, were in her widely open eyes; her lips were +parted; the spray of blackberry leaves that she held near her cheek +did not quiver, so had her interest petrified every muscle. She was +leaning slightly forward; her red sunbonnet had fallen to the ground, +and the wind tossed her dark brown hair till the heavy masses, with +their curling ends disheveled, showed tendrils of golden hue. Her +round, plump arm was like ivory. The torn sleeve fell away to the +elbow, and her mother, glancing out of the window, took remorseful +heed of it, and wished that she herself had set a stitch in it. + +"The'dosia shows herself so back'ard 'bout mendin', an' sech--she air +enough ter skeer any man away. An' Justus knows jes' what sech +laziness means. Kin mend clothes hisse'f ez good ez the nex' one, an' +useter do it too, strong an' taut, with a double thread, whenst the +fambly war leetle chil'n an' gin ter bustin' out'n thar gear." + +But Justus took no note of the significance of the torn sleeve. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he went on, "everybody 'lowed ez Wat's speeches seemed +ter sense what the people wanted ter hear. Him an' me we'd talk it +over the night before, an' Wat he'd write down what we said on paper +an' mem'rize it; an' the nex' day, why, folks that wouldn't hev +nuthin' ter say ter him afore he spoke would be jes' aidgin' up +through the crowd ter git ter shake han's with him." + +She smiled with delight at the picture. If it were sweet to him to +praise, how sweet it was to her to listen! "Tell on!" she said softly. + +Her interest flattered him; it enriched the reminiscence, dear though +his memory held it. He had no doubt as to the unity of feeling with +which they both regarded the incidents he chronicled. He went on with +the certainty of responsive sentiment, the ease, the serenity of a man +who opens his heart to the woman he loves. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he said, "often, often if it hed n't been fur the +folks, I could hev run up an' dragged him off'n the rostrum an' hugged +him fur pride, he looked so han'some an' spoke so peart! An' ter think +'t war jes' our leetle Wat--the Fambly's leetle Wat--growed up ter be +sech a man! Ye'll laff at me--other folks did--whenst I tell ye that +ag'in an' ag'in I jes' cotch' myse'f cheerin' with the loudest. I +could n't holp it." + +"He'll be 'lected, Justus?" she breathlessly inquired, and yet +imperatively, as if, even though she asked, she would brook no denial. + +"Oh, they all say thar's no doubt--no doubt at all." + +She drew a long breath of contentment, of pleasure. She leaned back, +silent and reflective, against the rail fence behind the bench, her +eyes fixed, absorbed, following the outline of other scenes than the +one before them, which indeed left no impression upon her senses, +scenes to come, slowly shaping the future. All trace of the red glow +of the sun had departed from the landscape. No heavy, light-absorbing, +sad-hued tapestries could wear so deep a purple, such sombre +suggestions of green, as the circling mountains had now assumed: they +were not black, and yet such depths of darkness hardly comported with +the idea of color. The neutral tints of the sky were graded more +definitely, with purer transparency, because of the contrast. The +fine grays were akin to pearl color, to lavender, even, in approaching +the zenith, to the palest of blue--so pale that the white glitter of a +star alternately appeared and was lost again in its tranquil +inexpressiveness. The river seemed suddenly awake; its voice was +lifted loud upon the evening air, a rhythmic song without words. The +frogs chanted by the waterside. Fireflies here and there quivered +palely over the flat cornfields at the back of the house. There was a +light within, dully showing through the vines at the window. + +"An' then, 'Dosia," said Justus softly, "when the 'lection is over, +it's time fur ye an' me ter git married." + +She roused herself with an obvious effort, and looked +uncomprehendingly at him for a moment, as if she hardly heard. + +"The las' one o' Fambly will be off my han's then. Fambly will hev +been pervided fur--every one, Wat an' all. I hev done my bes' fur +Fambly, an' I dunno but I hev earned the right ter think some fur +myse'f now." + +He would not perhaps have arrogated so much, except to the woman by +whom he believed himself beloved. She said nothing, and he went on +slowly, lingering upon the words as if he loved the prospect they +conjured up. + +"We-uns will hev the gyardin an' orchard, an' pastur' an' woods-lot +an' fields, ter tend ter, an' the cows an' bees, an' the mare an' +filly, an' peegs an' poultry, ter look arter. An' the house air all +tight, the roof an' all in good repair, an' we-uns will have it all +ter ourselves." + +She turned upon him with sudden interest. + +"What will kem o' Wat?" + +"Oh, he mus' live in town whilst sher'ff, bein' off'cer o' the court +an' official keeper o' jail, though he kin app'int a jailer." + +"Live in Colbury!" she exclaimed in wonderment. + +Justus laughed in triumph. "Oh, I tell ye, Wat's 'way up in the +pictur's! He'll be a reg'lar town man 'fore long, I reckon, dandified +an' sniptious ez the nex' one, marryin' one o' them finified town gals +ez wear straw hats stiddier sunbonnets,--though they _do_ look ter be +about ez flimsy an' no-'count cattle ez any I ever see," the sterling +rural standpoint modifying his relish of Walter's frivolous worldly +opportunities. + +She tossed her head in defiance of some sudden unspoken thought. As +she lifted her eyes, fired by pride, she saw the comet all a-glitter +in the darkening sky. + +She hardly knew that he had seized her hand; but his importunity must +be answered. + +"D'rec'ly after the 'lection--'lection day, 'Dosia?" he urged. + +"Ain't ye got no jedgmint," she temporized, laughing unmirthfully, +"axin' sech a question ez that under that onlucky comet!" + +"I hev been waitin' so long, 'Dosia!" + +It was the first suggestion of complaint she had ever heard from him. + +"Then ye air used ter waitin', an' 't won't kill ye ter wait a leetle +longer. I'll let ye know 'lection day." + + +II. + +It was a hot day in the little valley town, the first Thursday in +August, the climax of a drought, with the sun blazing down from dawn +to dusk, and not a cloud, not a vagrant mist, not even the stir of the +impalpable ether, to interpose. The mountains that rimmed the horizon +all around Colbury shimmered azure, through the heated air. No wind +came down those darker indentations that marked ravines. A dazzling, +stifling stillness reigned; yet now and again an eddying cloud of dust +would spring up along the streets, and go whirling up-hill and down, +pausing suddenly, and settling upon the overgrown shrubbery in the +pretty village yards, or on white curtains hanging motionless at the +windows of large, old-fashioned frame houses. Even the shade was hot +with a sort of closeness unknown in the open air, yet as it dwindled +to noontide proportions some alleviation seemed withdrawn; and though +the mercury marked no change, all the senses welcomed the +post-meridian lengthening of the images of bough and bole beneath the +trees, and the fantastic architecture of the shadows of chimney and +gable and dormer-window, elongated out of drawing, stretching across +the grassy streets and ample gardens. There among the grape trellises, +and raspberry bushes, and peach and cherry trees, the locusts chirred +and chirred a tireless, vibrating panegyric on hot weather. The birds +were hushed; sometimes under a clump of matted leaves one of the +feathered gentry might be seen with wings well held out from his +panting sides. The beautiful green beetle, here called the "June-bug," +hovered about the beds of thyme, its jeweled, enameled green body and +its silver gauze wings flashing in the sun, although June was far down +the revolving year. Blue and lilac lizards basked in the garden walks, +which were cracked by the heat. Little stir was in the streets; the +languid business of a small town was transacted if absolute need +required, and postponed if a morrow would admit of contemplation. The +voters slowly repaired to the polls with a sense of martyrdom in the +cause of party, and the election was passing off in a most orderly +fashion, there being no residuum of energy in the baking town to +render it disorderly or unseemly. Often not a human being was to be +seen, coming or going. + +To Theodosia it was all vastly different from the picture she had +projected of Colbury with an election in progress. In interest, +movement, populousness, it did not compare with a county-court day, +which her imagination had multiplied when she estimated the relative +importance of the events. She had made no allowance for the absence of +the country people, specially wont to visit the town when the +quarterly court was in session, but now all dutifully in place voting +in their own remote districts. The dust, the suffocating heat, the +stale, vapid air, the indescribable sense of a lower level--all these +affected her like a veritable burden, accustomed as she was to the +light and rare mountain breeze, to the tempered sun, the mist, and the +cloud. The new and untried conditions of town life trammeled and +constrained her. She had a certain pride, and she feared she +continually offended against the canons of metropolitan taste. In +every passing face she saw surprise, and she fancied contempt. In +every casual laugh she heard ridicule. Her brain was a turmoil of +conflicting anxieties, hopes, resolutions, and in addition these +external demands upon her attention served to intensify her absorbing +emotions and to irritate her nerves rather than to divert or soothe +them. She had escaped from the relative at whose house she was making +a visit, craftily timed to include election day, on the plea that she +wished to see something of the town. "Ye don't live up on the +mounting, Cousin Anice, 'mongst the deer, an' b'ar, an' fox, like me," +she had said jestingly, "or ye'd want ter view all the town ye kin." +And once outside the shabby little palings, she returned no more for +hours. + +Along the scorching streets she wandered, debating within herself +anxious questions which, she felt, affected all her future, and +unfitting herself still further to reach that just and wise conclusion +she desired to compass. She could not altogether abstract her mind, +despite the interests which she had at stake. She noticed that her +unaccustomed feet stumbled over the flag-stones of the pavement--"Fit +fur nothin' but followin' the plough!" she muttered in irritation. She +hesitated at the door of a store, then sidled sheepishly in, tearing +her dress on a nail in a barrel set well in the corner and out of the +way. + +But while looking over the pile of goods which she had neither the +wish nor the money to purchase, she could have sunk with shame with +the sudden thought that perhaps it was not the vogue in Colbury to +keep a clerk actively afoot to while away the idle time of a +desperately idle woman. She could not at once decide how she might +best extricate herself, and for considerable time the empty show of an +impending purchase went on. + +"I'll--I'll kem an' see 'bout'n it ter-morrer," she faltered at last. +"Much obleeged." + +"No trouble to show goods," said the martyr of the counter, politely. +In truth he had in the course of his career shown them as futilely to +women who were much older and far, far uglier, and contemplating +purchase as remotely. + +She went out scarlet, slow, tremulous, and walking close into the wall +like an apprehensive cat, looking now and again over her shoulder. She +wondered if he laughed when he was alone. + +Her shadow was long now as it preceded her down the street, lank, +awkward, clumsy. She took note of the late hour which it intimated, +and followed the extravagant, lurching caricature of herself to her +cousin's house, a little unpainted, humble building set far back in +the yard, against the good time coming when a more ornate structure +should be prefixed. The good time seemed still a long way off. Her +cousin's ironing-board was on the porch, and presently a lean, +elderly, active woman whisked out, her flat-iron in her hand. + +"Cousin Anice," called Theodosia from the gate, "how's the 'lection +turned out?" + +Cousin Anice paused to put her finger in her mouth; thus moistened, +she touched it to the flat-iron, which hissed smartly, and which she +applied then to the apron on the board. + +"Laws-a-massy! chile, the polls is jes' closed, an' all the country +deestric's ter be hearn from. We won't know till ter-morrer--till late +ter-night, nohow." + +Theodosia leaned against the gate. How could she wait! How could she +endure the suspense! She thought of Justus, and of her promise to fix +the date of the wedding on election day, but only as an additional +factor of trouble in her own anxiety and indecision. + +"Wat's been hyar ez cross ez two sticks," said Mrs. Elmer. She paused +to hold up the apron, exquisitely white, and sheer, and stiff, and to +gaze with critical professional eyes upon it; she was what is known as +a "beautiful washer and ironer," although otherwise not comely. "Wat's +beat plumb out o' sight, ef the truth war knowed, I reckon. He 'lows +he's powerful 'feared. Ef't war Justus, now, _he'd_ hev been 'lected +sure. Justus is a mighty s'perior man; pity he never hed no +eddication. He could hev done anything--sharp ez a brier. Yes; Wat's +beat, I reckon." + +In the instant Theodosia's heart sank. But she turned from the +palings, and sauntered resolutely on. It well behooved her to take +counsel with herself. "I mought hev made a turr'ble, turr'ble +mistake," she muttered. She was sensible of a sharp pang pervading her +consciousness. Nevertheless, judgment clamored for recognition. + +"Everybody gins Justus a good name, better'n Wat," she argued. "An' ef +Wat _ain't_ 'lected"-- + +She walked down the street with a freer step, her head lifted, her +self-respect more secure. With the possible collapse of her prospect +of living in Colbury, and her ambition to adjust herself to the +exigent demands of its more ornate civilization, her natural untrained +grace was returning to her. She felt that she was certainly stylish +enough for the hills, where she was likely to live all her days, and +with this realization she quite unconsciously seemed easy enough, +unconstrained enough, graceful enough, to pass muster in a wider +sphere. Her heart was beating placidly now with the casting away of +this new expectation that had made all its pulses tense. The still air +was cooler, or at least darker. A roseate suffusion was in the sky, +although a star twinkled there. More people were in the streets; doors +and windows were open, and faces appeared now and again among the +vines and curtains. As she hesitated on the street corner, two young +girls in white dresses and with fair hair passed her. She watched them +with darkening brow as they drew hastily together, and suddenly she +overheard the half-smothered exclamation which had a dozen times +to-day barely escaped her ears. + +"What a pretty, pretty girl! Oh, my! how pretty, how pretty!" + +Theodosia stood like one bewitched; a light like the illumination of +jewels was in her sapphire eyes; the color surged to her cheek; she +lifted up her head on its round, white throat; her lips curved. "Oh, +poor fool!" she thought in pity for herself, for this was what the +Colbury people had been saying all day in their swift, recurrent +glances, their half-masked asides, their furtive turning to look after +her. And she--to have given herself a day of such keen misery +unconscious of their covert encomiums! + +"I live up thar in the wilderness till I jes' don't sense nothin'," +she said. + +All the wilting prospects of life were refreshed as a flower in the +perfumed dew-fall. She felt competent, able to cope with them all; her +restored self-confidence pervaded her whole entity, spiritual and +material. She walked back with an elastic step, a breezy, debonair +manner, and she met Justus Hoxon at the gate of her cousin's yard with +a jaunty assurance, and with all the charm of her rich beauty in the +ascendant. + +He would fain have detained her in the twilight. "What's that ye +promised to tell me 'lection day?" + +"I 'lowed the day Wat war 'lected," she temporized, laying her hand on +the gate, which his stronger hand kept still closed. + +"Waal, this is the day Wat is 'lected." + +She drew back. Even in the dim light he could see her blue eyes +widening with inquiry as she looked at him. + +"I 'lowed the returns warn't all in," she said doubtfully. + +"They ain't, but enough hev kem in sence the polls closed ter gin him +a thumpin' majority. He's safe." The tense ring of triumph was in his +voice. + +The scene was swimming before her; she was dazed by the sudden +alternations of hope and despair, of decision and counter-decision, by +the seeming instability of all this. Once more she thought, in a +tremble, and with a difference, of the mistake she might have made. +She held to the gate to keep her feet, no longer to open it. + +"What did ye promise ter tell me 'lection day?" he demanded once +more, clasping her hand as it lay on the palings. + +"'Lection day?" she said with a forced laugh--"'t ain't e-ended yit. +An'," with a sudden resolution of effecting a diversion--"afore it +_is_ e-ended I want ter git a peep through that thar thing they call a +tellingscope, ef they let women folks look through it." + +He was instantly intent. + +"Laws-a-massy, yes!" he exclaimed. "I seen Mis' Dr. Kane and Mis' +Jedge Peters, an' thar darters, an' a whole passel o' women folks over +thar one night las' week. The young folks jes' amble up an' down the +court-house yard, bein' moonlight, like a lot o' young colts showin' +thar paces. An' even ef they ain't thar ter-night, I'll take ye over +thar arter supper, with yer cousin Anice ter keep ye in countenance." + +But after supper there was a sufficiency of fluttering white dresses +astir in the court-house yard, and now and again crossing the wide, +ill-paved street thither, to warrant Theodosia in dispensing with her +cousin's company, much to that sophisticated worthy's relief. + +"I hev seen all Colbury's got ter show," she said with sated pride. +"An' bein' ez I hev hed a hard day's ironin', I hev got a stitch in my +side." + +"I'd onderstan' that better if ye hed hed a hard day's sewin'," said +Justus. He was in high feather, eager, jubilant, drinking in all the +rich and subtle flavors of success with the gusto of personal triumph. + +"He air prouder'n Wat," more than one observer opined. + +There was another fine exhibition of pride on display in the +court-house yard that evening. One might have inferred that Dr. Kane +had made the comet, from his satisfaction in its proportions, his +accurate knowledge and exposition of its history, its previous +appearances, and when its coming again might be expected. He was the +principal physician of the place, and the little telescope was his +property, and he had thus generously loaned it to the public with the +hope of illuminating the general ignorance by a nearer view of the +starry heavens, while it served his own and his neighbors' interest in +the nightly progress of the great comet. Total destruction had been +prophesied as the imminent fate of the telescope, but it had so far +justified its owner's confidence in the promiscuous politeness of +Kildeer County, and had been a source of infinite pleasure to the +country folks from the coves and mountains, who had never before seen, +nor in good sooth heard of, such an instrument. For weeks past almost +all night curious groups took possession of it at intervals, and +doubtless it did much to enlarge their idea of science and knowledge +of celestial phenomena, for often Dr. Kane's idle humor induced him to +stand by and explain the various theories touching comets,--their +velocity, their substance or lack of substance, their recurrence, +their status in the astral economy,--and cognate themes. As he was a +man of very considerable reading and mental qualifications, of some +means for the indulgence of his taste, and a good deal of leisure, the +synopsis of astronomical science presented in the successive +expositions was very well worth listening to, especially by the more +ignorant of the community, who were thus enlightened as to facts +hitherto foreign even to their wildest imaginings. + +But following hard on every benefaction is the trail of ingratitude, +and certain of the irreverent in the crowd found a piquant zest in +secret derision of the doctor, who sometimes did, in truth, present +the air of a showman with a panorama. More especially was this the +case when his enthusiasm waxed high, and his satisfaction in the +glories of the comet partook of a positive personal pride. + +"What's he goin' ter do about it?" demanded one grinning rustic of +another on the outskirts of the crowd. + +"Put salt on its tail," responded his interlocutor. + +Others affected to believe that the doctor was performing a great feat +with the long bow, especially in the tremendous measurements of which +he seemed singularly prodigal. A reference to the height of the +mountains of the moon as compared with the neighboring ranges elicited +a whispered hope that the roads were better there than those of the +Great Smoky; and an inquiry concerning the probable fate of the comet +provoked a speculation that when he was done with it he would sell it +at public outcry to the highest bidder at the east door of the +court-house. + +Close about the stand, however, the crowd took on something of the +demeanor of a literary society. Discussions were in order, questions +asked and answered, authorities quoted and refuted: the other +physician, who practiced much in consultation with Dr. Kane, two or +three clergymen, several of the officers of the court, and a number of +lawyers, all taking part. The more youthful members of the gathering +affected the role of peripatetic philosophers, and sauntered to and +fro, arm in arm, in the light of the waxing moon. + +The big black shadows of the giant oaks were all dappled with silver +as the beams pierced the foliage and fell to the ground below; only +the cornice of the building threw an unbroken image, massive and +sombre, on the sward. The low clustering roofs of the town had a thin +bluish haze hovering about them, and were all softly and blurringly +imposed on the vaguely blue sky and the dim hills beyond. Among them a +vertical silver line glinted, sharply metallic,--the steeple of a +church. Here and there a yellow light gleamed from a lamp within a +window. No sound came from the streets; all the life of the place +seemed congregated here. + +There was a continual succession of postulants to gaze through the +telescope, some gravely curious, some stolidly iconoclastic and +incredulous, others with covert levity, and still others, +self-conscious, solicitous, secretly determined to affect to see all +that other people could see, lest some subtle incapacity, some +flagrant rusticity, be inferred from failure. These last were hasty +observers, scarcely waiting to adjust the eye to the lens, fluttered, +and prolific of inapt exclamations, which too often betrayed the +superficial character of the investigation. To this class did +Theodosia belong. + +"Plumb beautiful!" she murmured under her breath, after a momentary +contact of her dazzled eye with the brass rim of the telescope. + +"Try ag'in, 'Dosia!" exclaimed Justus, aghast at this perfunctory +dismissal of the comet, as she turned to go away. + +She winced a little from his voice, clear, vibrant and urgent, for +Justus had no solicitude concerning the superior canons of Colbury +touching etiquette, and suffered none of her anxieties. She caught Dr. +Kane's eyes fixed upon him as she moved hastily away, and then he came +up beside Justus, who stood near the telescope. + +"Let me explain the thing to you, Hoxon," he said. "Try a peep +yourself." + +Justus glanced after her. Walter had joined her--not so soon, however, +but that she heard a half-suppressed criticism on her lover as he +turned to the telescope and Dr. Kane's exposition. + +"Pity he's got no education--smart fellow, but can't even read and +write." + +"Smart" enough to be an apt pupil. The others pressed close around, +listening to the measured voice of the physician and the quick, +pertinent questions of the star-gazer. + +It is as an open scroll, that magnificent, wonder-compelling cult of +the skies, not the sealed book of other sciences. Since the days of +the Chaldean, all men of receptive soul in solitary places, the +sailor, the shepherd, the hunter, or the hermit, whether of the +wilderness of nature or the isolation of crowds, have read there of +the mystery of the infinite, of the order and symmetry of the plan of +creation, of the proof of the existence of a God, who controls the +sweet influences of Pleiades and makes strong the bands of Orion. The +unspeakable thought, the unformulated prayer, the poignant sense of +individual littleness, of atomic unimportance, in the midst of the +vast scheme of the universe, inform every eye, throb in every breast, +whether it be of the savant, with all the appliances of invention to +bring to his cheated senses the illusion of a slightly nearer +approach, or of the half-civilized llanero of the tropic solitudes, +whose knowledge suffices only to note the hour by the bending of the +great Southern Cross. It is the heritage of all alike. + +For Justus Hoxon, who had followed the slow march of the stars through +many a year in the troubled watches of the night, when anxiety and +foreboding could make no covenant with sleep, there was, in one sense, +little to learn. He knew them all in their several seasons, the time +of their rising, when they came to the meridian, and when they were +engulfed in the west, till with another year they sparkled on the +eastern rim of the sky. He listened to Dr. Kane's explanation of this +with an air of acceptance, but he hardly heeded the detail of their +distance from the earth and from one another--he knew that they were +far,--and he shook his head over speculations as to their physical +condition, vegetation, and inhabitation. "Ye ain't got no sort o' +means o' knowin' sech, Doctor," he said reprehensively, gauging the +depths of the ignorance of the wise man. + +He heard their names with alert interest, and repeated them swiftly +after his mentor to set them in his memory. "By George!" he cried +delightedly, "I hed no idee they hed names!" + +And as the amateur astronomer, pleased with so responsive a glow, +began the tracing of the fantastic imagery of the constellations, +detailing the story of each vague similitude, he marked the sudden +dawn of a certain enchantment in his interlocutor's mind, the first +subtle experience of the delights of the ideal and the resources of +fable. It exerted upon Dr. Kane a sort of fascinated interest, the +observation of this earliest exploration of the realms of fancy by so +keen and receptive an intelligence. The comet, the telescope, the +crowd, were forgotten, as with Hoxon at his elbow he made the tour of +the court-house yard, from point to point, wherever the best +observation might be had of each separate sidereal etching on the deep +blue. For a time the crowd casually watched them with a certain +good-natured ridicule of their absorption, and the telescope +maintained its interest to the successive wights who peered through at +the comet still splendidly ablaze despite the light of the gibbous +moon. The ranks of young people promenaded up and down the brick walks +and the grassy spaces. Elder gossips sat on the court-house steps, or +stood in groups, and discussed the questions of the day. Gradually +disintegration began. The clangor of the gate rose now and then as +homeward-bound parties passed through, becoming constantly more +frequent. Still the shifting back and forth of the thinning ranks of +the peripatetic youth went on, and laughter and talk resounded from +the court-house steps. At intervals the telescope was deserted; the +motionless trees were bright with the moon and glossy with the dew. +The voice of guard-dogs was now and again reverberated from the hills. +The languid sense of a late hour had dulled the pulses, and when +Justus Hoxon turned back to earth it was to an almost depopulated +scene, the realization of the approach of midnight, and the sight of +Theodosia sitting alone in the moonlight on the steps of the east door +of the court-house, waiting for him with a touching patience, as it +seemed to him at the moment. + +"Air you-uns waitin' fur me, 'Dosia, all by yerse'f?" he demanded +hastily, with a contrite intonation. + +"I _'pear_ to be all by myse'f," she said, with a playful feigning of +uncertainty, glancing about her. She gave a forced laugh, and the +constraint in her tone struck his attention. + +"I 'lowed ez Wat war with ye," he said apologetically. "Air ye ready +ter go over ter yer cousin Anice's now?" + +He was standing leaning against one of the columns of the portico, his +face half in the shadow of his hat and half in the moonlight. + +She sat still upon the steps, looking up at him, her upturned eyes +taking an appealing expression from her lowly attitude. She was silent +for a moment, as if at a loss. Then suddenly her eyes fell. + +"'Pears ter me ter be right comical ter hev ter remind _ye_ o' what +_I_ promised ter tell ye 'lection day," she said. + +"Why, 'Dosia," he broke in vehemently, "I hev axed ye twice ter-day, +an' I didn't ax ye jes' now 'kase ye hed been hyar so long alone, an' +I wanted ter take ye ter yer cousin Anice's ef so be ye wanted ter +go." He stopped for a moment. Then, with a change of tone, "Ye can't +make out ez I hev been anything but hearty in lovin' ye--nearly all +yer life long!" His voice rang out with a definite note of conviction, +of assertion. + +Reproach was an untenable ground. She desisted from the effort. Her +eyes wandered down the street that lay shadowy with gable, and +dormer-window, and long chimneys, in sharp geometric figures in the +moonshine, alternating with the deeper shadow of the trees. There were +no lights save a twinkle here and there in an upper window. + +A flush rose to his pale cheeks. His heart was beating fast with heavy +presage. He hesitated to demand his fate at so untoward a moment. He +took off his hat, mechanically fanning with its broad brim, and gazing +about him at the slowly dulling splendor of the moonlight as the disk +tended further and further toward the west. The stars were brightening +gradually, and within the range of his vision flared the great comet, +every moment the lustre of its white fire intensifying. He only saw; +he did not note. His every faculty was concentrated on the girl's +drawling voice as she began again, hesitating, and evidently at a +loss. + +"Waal, I hate ter tell ye, Justus, but I hev ter do it, an' +I mought ez well the day that I promised ter set _the day_. +It's--it's--_never_! I ain't goin' ter marry ye at all!" + +He recoiled as from a blow. And yet he could not accept the fact. + +"The'dosia," he said, "air ye mad with me 'kase ye 'low I forgot ye +this evenin'?" + +Theodosia had recovered her poise. Now that she had begun she felt +suddenly fluent. It did not accord with her estimate of her own +attractions to dismiss a lover because he had forgotten her. She began +to find a relish in the situation, and sought to adjust its details +more accurately to her preferences. + +"Justus, I know ye never furgot me fur one minute. I kin find no fault +with yer likin' fur me." + +She had never seen a stage. She had never heard of a theatre, but she +was posing and playing a part as definitely as if it graced the +boards. + +He detected a certain spurious note in her voice. It bewildered him. +He stared silently at her. + +"I can't marry you-uns. I never kin." + +"Why?" he demanded in a measured tone. "How kem ye hev changed yer +mind? Ye hev told me often that ye would." + +"W-a-al," she drawled, looking away at the skies, her unthinking eyes +arrested, too, by the blazing comet, "I _did_ 'low wunst I would. But +a man with eddication would suit me bes', an' ye hain't got none." + +"No more hev ye," he argued warmly. He was clinging for dear life to +his vanishing hope of happiness. He did not realize depreciation in +his words--only the facts that made them suited to each other. "Ye +know ye _wouldn't_ take l'arnin' at school--an' I _couldn't_ git it; +'pears ter me we air 'bout ekal." + +"It air a differ in a 'oman," said Theodosia, quickly. "A 'oman hev +got no call to be l'arned like a man." + +This very subordinate view failed in this instance of the satisfaction +it is wont to give to the masculine mind. + +"Waal, ye didn't git enough l'arnin' ter hurt ye," he retorted. Then, +relenting, he added, "But I don't find no fault with ye fur that +nuther." + +The color flared into her face. How she resented his clemency to her +ignorance! She still sat in her lowly posture on the step, leaning her +bare head against the column of the porch, for her bonnet lay on the +floor beside her; but there was a suggestion of self-assertion in her +voice. + +"I ain't expectin' ter live all my days in the woods, like a deer or +suthin' wild. I expec' ter live in town with eddicated folks, ez be +looked up ter, an' respected by all, an' kin make money, an' hev a +sure-enough house." Her ambitious eyes swept the shadowy gables down +the street. + +He broke out laughing; his voice was softer; his face relaxed. + +"Laws-a-massy! Dosia," he exclaimed, "yer head's plumb turned by one +day's roamin' round town. Ye won't be in sech a hurry ter turn me off +whenst we git back ter the mountings." + +"I ain't goin' back ter the mountings!" she cried; "I be a-goin' ter +marry a town man ez hev got position, an' eddication, an' place." She +paused, stung by the fancied incredulity in his eyes. "Why not? Ain't +I good-lookin' enough?" + +She had risen to her feet; her eyes flashed upon him; her beautiful +face wore a look of pride. It might have elicited from another man a +protest of its beauty. He stared at her with an expression of alarm +that was almost ghastly. + +"Other men like me fur my looks, ef ye don't, Justus Hoxon," she said +in indignation. + +"Ef they jes' likes ye fur yer looks they won't like ye long," Hoxon +said severely. "I'll like ye when yer brown head is ez white ez +cotton--ez much ez I like ye now--more!--_more_, I'll be bound! O +'Dosia," with a sudden renewal of tenderness, "don't talk this hyar +cur'ous way! I dunno what's witched ye. But let's go home ter the +mountings, ter yer mother, an' see ef she can't straighten out any +tangle yer feelin's hev got inter." + +It needed only this--the allusion to her commonplace mother, the +recollection of the forlorn little mountain home, the idea of her +mother's insistent championship of Justus Hoxon--to bring the avowal +so long trembling on her lips. + +"I won't! I ain't likin' ye nowadays, Justus Hoxon, nor fur a long +time past. I ain't keerin' nothin' 'bout ye." + +There was something in her tone that carried conviction. + +"Air ye in earnest?" he said, appalled. + +"Dead earnest." + +He gazed at her in the ever dulling light, that yet was clear enough +to show every lineament--even the long black eyelashes that did not +droop or quiver above her great blue eyes. + +"Then thar's no more to be said." He spoke in a changed voice, calm +and clear, and she stared at him in palpable surprise. She had +expected an outburst of reproach, of beseechings, of protestation. She +had braced herself to meet it, and she felt the reaction. She was +hardly capable of coping with seeming indifference. It touched her +pride. She missed the tribute of the withheld pleadings. She sought to +rouse his jealousy. + +"It's another man I like," she said, "better--oh, a heap better--than +you-uns." + +"That's all right, then." + +He wondered to hear the words so glibly enunciated. His lips seemed to +him stiff, petrifying. He looked very white about them. She did not +heed. She was angered, wounded, perplexed, by his acquiescence, his +calmness, his taciturnity. A wave of anxiety that was half regret +went over her. She felt lost in the turmoil of these complex emotions. +With that destructive impulse to hurl down, to tear, to strike, that +is an element of a sort of blind irritation, she went on tumultuously: + +"He is a man ez hev got eddication, an' a place, an' a fine chance an' +show in life--it's--it's--yer brother Walter." + +Her aim was true that time. Her shaft struck in the very core of his +heart: but the satisfaction of this knowledge was denied her. He +looked very white, it is true, but the pale moonlight was on his face; +and he only said in an undertone: + +"Walter!" + +She laughed aloud, a sort of mockery of glee. She had expected to +enjoy the revelation, and her laughter was an incident of the scene as +she had planned it. + +"We war a-courtin' consider'ble o' the time whilst ye war off +electioneerin'," she said, with the side glance of her old coquetry. + +She saw his long shadow on the pavement bend forward and recoil +suddenly. She did not look at him. + +"An' so ter-night," she went on briskly,--she had truly thought it a +very good joke,--"whilst you-uns war a-star-gazing an' sech, Wat an' +me jes stepped inter the register's office thar, an' the Squair +married us. We 'lowed ye didn't see nothin' of it through the +tellingscope, did ye? So Wat said I must tell ye, ez _he_ didn't want +ter tell ye." + +She could not see his face, the light was dulling so, and he had +replaced his wide hat. There was a moment's silence. Then his voice +rang out quite strong and cheerful, "Why, then thar's no more to be +said." + +He stood motionless an instant longer. Then suddenly he turned with a +wave of his hand that was like a gesture of farewell, and she marked +how swiftly his shadow seemed to slink from before him as he walked +away, and passed the corner of the house, and disappeared from view. + +She gazed silently after him for a moment. Then, leaning against the +column, she burst into a tumult of tears. + + * * * * * + +Daylight found Justus Hoxon far on the road to the mountains. In the +many miles, as he fared along, his thoughts could hardly have been +pleasant company. As he sought to discover fault or flaw in himself, +search as he might, he could find naught that might palliate the +flippant faithlessness of his beloved, or the treachery of his +brother. His ambition might have been too worldly a thing, but not a +pulse of that most vital emotion beat for himself. He realized it +now--he realized his life in looking back upon this completed episode, +as he might have done in the hour of death. He had so expended himself +in the service of others that there was naught left for him. He had no +gratulation in it, no sense of the virtue of unselfishness, no +preception of achievement; it only seemed to him that his was the most +flagrant folly that ever left a man in the world, but with no place in +it. A sorry object for pride he seemed to himself, but he quivered, +and scorched, and writhed in its hot flames. His one object was to +take himself out of the sight and sound of Colbury, till he might have +counsel within himself, and perfect his scheme of revenge--not upon +the woman. Poor Theodosia, with her limitations, could hardly have +conceived how she had shattered the ideal to which her image had +conformed in his mind, as she had stood on the porch and vaunted her +beauty, and her belief in its power, and her pitiful ambitions. The +woman was heartily welcome to the lot she had chosen. But the +treacherous man,--it was not in Justus Hoxon's scheme of things to +receive a blow and return nothing. A "hardy fighter" he was esteemed, +albeit his prowess was eclipsed by his more peaceful virtues. This, +however, should be returned in kind. He would make no attack to be put +in the wrong, arrested, perhaps, after the Colbury interpretation of +assault and battery. But Walter had many a weak point in his armor, +glaringly apparent now to the once fond brother. + +Only a surly, bitter word he had for greeting to the few neighbors +whom he met, and who went their way in the conviction that his brother +had lost his election; for none ascribed any emotion of Justus Hoxon's +to his own sake. + +He reached in the evening the little cabin where the padlock hung on +the door, and the heavy, untrodden dust of the drought lay without; +and so it was that the old days when "Fambly" had struggled through +their humble experiences came back to him with that incomparable +sweetness of the irrevocable past. Hardships! How could there be, with +fond faith in one another, and in all the world! Poverty--so rich they +were in love! Life, after all, is more than meat, and there is no +hunger like that of a famished heart. He reviewed that forlorn, +anxious, struggling orphanage, transfigured in the subtle glow of +regretful, loving memory, as one might gaze into the rich glamours of +a promised land. Alas, that our promised land should be so often the +land we made haste to leave! As he sat down on the step he saw the +ragged cluster of children troop down the road from twenty years +agone, almost as if he actually beheld them, himself at the head. He +could still feel their plump palms clinging to his hand at the first +suggestion of danger. He had led them a right thorny path, each to a +successful goal. And now could he turn against "Fambly"? Should he +denounce the treachery of one of the little group that he could see +huddling together for warmth on the meagre hearthstone, while outside +the snows of a long-vanished winter were a-whirl? Should he pull down +the temple on Walter's success--the pride of them all? He remembered +how his sisters, with that feminine necessity of hero-worship in their +untaught little hearts, had clung about Walter. He remembered too that +almost every thought of his own life had been given to this man, who +had ruthlessly and secretly robbed him of all that was dear to him, +and in such wise as to hold him up to ridicule, a scoffing jest, a +very good joke! So Walter considered it, and so doubtless would all +Colbury. It would have surprised Walter, but his sometime mentor's +cheek burned with shame for him. + +No; the claims of "Fambly" were paramount. He gave it precedence, as +in the old days he had denied himself when "Fambly" dined at the +skillet, and the bone and the broken bit he took for his share. He +could not bring discredit upon it. He would not lift his hand against +it. It was the object of a lifelong allegiance, and he only marveled +that, since the uses of the loyalty were at an end, the empty life +should go on. He gazed mechanically at the padlock as he sat there +with his dreary thoughts, remembering with what different heart he had +turned the key. Ah, Happiness--to pass out from a door, and knock +there never again! + +He rose at last, his burden adjusted to his strength. He had never +worked for thanks. It hardly mattered to him now how his efforts were +requited. And though he encountered treachery at close quarters,--of +his own household,--it was not in his heart to be a traitor to +"Fambly" and its obvious interests. So he too went out from the door +in the footprints of Happiness--likewise to return no more. + + * * * * * + +Walter Hoxon had not altogether ill-gauged the general proclivity to +deem all fair in love or war. He was accounted to have performed +something of a feat in the clever outwitting of his unsuspecting +rival, and to the minds of the many there was an element of the +romantic in this hasty wedding of the damsel of his choice almost +under the eyes of the expectant bridegroom. He had added to the +prestige of success in politics the lustre of valiance in the lists of +love, and he encountered laughing congratulations from his friends +and political supporters, which served much to reassure him and to +banish a vague and subtle anxiety as to public opinion that had begun +to gnaw at his heart. They all seemed to think he had done a very fine +thing, and that it was a very good joke, and he was soon most jauntily +of their persuasion. He could not know that here and there people were +saying to one another, aside, the words he had feared to hear in +reproach--that the swain whom he and his lady-love had conspired to +dupe was his brother, who had done everything for him--had, as a mere +child, encountered and vanquished poverty, had clothed and educated +this man and his sisters, had served his every interest with a perfect +self-abnegation all his life; that it was his brother who had won his +election, being a man of much influence and untaught eloquence, and of +great native tact and intelligence; that the secrecy, the conspiracy, +and the publicity of the dramatic denouement, in lieu of an open +rivalry, rendered it a case of the most flagrant ingratitude, and +argued much unworthiness in the people's choice. + +But suddenly a doubt began to prevail as to whether he were the +people's choice. In the returns from the farthest districts, not heard +from till quite late in the day, in which Walter Hoxon had felt +secure, Quigley developed unexpected strength. In great perturbation +Walter swiftly patrolled the town in search of Justus; unprecedented +developments were imminent, and he hardly dared face the emergency +without his valiant backer at hand. Justus had disappeared as utterly +as if the night had swallowed him up. + +"Consarn the tormentin' critter!" exclaimed Walter, mopping his brow +as he stood at the little gate of Mrs. Elmer's yard, returning +thither, after his fruitless searching, in the hope of finding his +brother among the familiar faces. "Mad ez a hornet, I'll be bound, an' +lef' me in the lurch. Beat arter all, I'll bet!" + +Theodosia listened, tremulous, aghast. All the fine prospects that had +seemed so near, into whose charming perspectives she might in another +moment have stepped as actually as upon that path to the gate, were +drawing away, dissolving, as tenuous, as intangible, as those morning +sunlit mists shifting and rising from before the massive blue ranges +of the Great Smoky Mountains, and dallying with the distances into +invisibility. + +"I tole ye ag'in an' ag'in ye bes' not be _too sure_," she said, a sob +in her throat, with an obvious disposition to wreak her disappointment +upon him. + +It was crushed in the moment. + +He turned a frowning face full upon her. "Hold yer jaw!" he cried +violently. "Ef 't warn't for you-uns I'd hev Justus hyar, an' I'll be +bound _he_ could fix it. Ye miserable deceitful critter--settin' two +own brothers at loggerheads! I'll take no word from _you-uns_--sure!" + +He shook his head indignantly at her, clapped his hat upon it, and +turned desperately away as a man came running up. "Have ye found +Justus?" Wat exclaimed. + +"Justus? No. But they say it's a tie--a tie!" + +For the news was already bruited throughout the town--in a ferment of +excitement, because of the closeness of the contest--that the two +candidates, racing gallantly neck and neck, had come under the wire +together with not so much as the point of a nose to distinguish the +winner. + +Walter stood still for a moment, his dark eyes dilated with eagerness +and anxiety. Suddenly he leaned back against the gate-post with a deep +sigh of relief and relaxation. + +"Then it's all right," he exclaimed breathlessly. "The coroner's my +frien', ef I ain't got another in the worl'. Old Beckett will stan' by +me, _sure_!" + +As the coroner held the election, the sheriff himself being a +candidate, it was his duty to give the casting vote. This +prolongation of the jeopardy of the result heightened the popular +interest, the more as the officer did not immediately decide upon his +action in the matter. + +"I want a leetle time ter think it over--a leetle time fur the casting +vote," he said, as he gnawed at a plug of tobacco, then crossed his +ponderous legs while he leaned back in a splint-bottomed chair in the +register's office. + +He was a tall, portly man, with a large, round imperious face, +thatched heavily with iron-gray hair. He wore no beard, and was +dressed in brown jeans, which imparted a certain sallowness to his +dark complexion. He had small gray eyes, at once shrewd and +good-natured, but his manner was bluff, imperative, and all the +judiciary of the State could hardly have compassed an expression of a +greater sense of importance. + +He was observed with much interest by a number of men who lounged +about the room. A tense sub-current of curiosity underlay the suspense +natural to the occasion, for it was well known to the gossips about +the court-house that he and the sheriff had not been on the best of +terms; when their official functions had happened to bring them into +contact they had clashed smartly, and the county rang with their +feuds. His course was obvious to all--his hesitation only an +affectation, lest a too vehement animosity be imputed to him. + +"Poor Quigley's cake is dough," observed one of the incumbent's +friends in an undertone, standing with his hands in his pockets, and +gazing through the long dark vista of the hall out of the door into +the sunlight's glow, as it fell upon the few houses and the great +stretch of arable land beyond. A horizontal shadow of a cloud lay at +its extremity, as definite as a material barrier, and far above it +rose tiers of green and bronze hills like a moulding to the base of +the lapis-lazuli-tinted mountains. + +"This never happened in this county before," said the register, +glancing up from a big book in which he was copying the doings of "the +party of the first part" and "the party of the second part"--the +familiar spirits of his den. + +"Why, no!" exclaimed the coroner, with a pleased laugh. "To me the +castin' vote is ez _phee_-nomenal an' ez astonishin' ez the comet." He +chuckled--the fat man's unctuous laugh. "Something like the comet, +too: it has its place in the legal firmament, but 't ain't often +necessary to use it." + +"That war a toler'ble funny tale 'bout the comet they air a-tellin' +roun' town," observed a young countryman pausing in front of the two, +his hands in his pockets, his hat on the back of his red head, a wide +grin of enjoyment on his freckled face,--"about the feller that hed +his sweetheart a-courtin' out hyar in the yard last night, an' tuk ter +lookin' at the comet through the spy-glass, an' whilst he war busy +a-star-gazin' the comet, another feller stepped up with the Squair, +an' married his gal--ha! ha! ha!" + +Beckett looked up interested. Incongruously enough a vein of romance +ran through the massive strata of conceit, and intolerance, and +vainglory, and pertinacity, and pugnacity that made up the very +definite structure of his nature. He dearly loved a lover. He was as +sentimental as a girl of eighteen, and he melted instantly into +suavest amenities at the first intimation of a love-story in abeyance. + +"I ain't heard 'bout that," he said in a mellifluous voice. +"Ye know I was tucked up in yonder"--he jerked his thumb over +his shoulder--"tendin' to the countin' of the votes, bein' +returnin'-officer. Who married?" + +"Why this hyar Walter Hoxon--him ez is candidate fur sher'ff," +said the red-haired interlocutor, widening his grin. + +Beckett elevated his heavy, grizzled eyebrows. A sudden, secret, +important look, as if he were colloguing with some one vanquished in +argument, crossed his face. He nodded once or twice, but only said +acquiescently: "Ah--ha! Ah--ha! Toler'ble enterprisin'. Run fur office +an git married 'lection day." + +He smiled broadly. Any innovation on the stereotyped methods appealed +to him with the grace and relish of a new metre to a neophytic +rhymester. + +"Wat's a nice boy, a mighty good boy, too," he went on, with his oily +voice quite soft. "Run mighty well in this 'lection, too. He's a +mighty smart, good boy." + +He nodded his big head approvingly. "I don't wonder he cut the t'other +feller out. Mighty fine feller Wat is." + +"Well, now," said the register, suddenly putting his pen behind his +ear, and leaving the party of the first part and the party of the +second part to their own devices, "I'm blest if I don't think Justus +is worth a hundred of Wat, lock, stock, an' barrel." + +Once more the grizzled eyebrows went up toward the iron-gray thatch of +the coroner's forehead. "_Justus!_ I'm free ter say I dunno nobody +equal ter Justus. I hev known Justus sence he war knee-high ter a +pa'tridge--the way he did keer fur them chil'n, an' brung 'em up ter +be equal ter anybody in the lan'! An' smart--_smart_ ain't the word +fur him! Ef he hed education he could do anything; but he hed ter +stan' back an' let the t'other chil'n git it. Whar would Wat be ef 't +warn't fur Justus?" + +"That's what makes me say 't was a mighty mean trick he played on +Justus," the register broke in. + +"Who? How?" demanded the coroner. + +"Why, Justus was the t'other feller. Wat an' the girl never let _him_ +have an inklin' of it. They just fooled him along, believin' she was +goin' ter marry _him_. An' las' night when it was reported all over +town that Wat was elected, an' Justus took time from electioneerin' +fur his brother to breathe, they tolled him out to look at the comet, +an' slipped off an' married." + +The man of sentiment, with the election in his hand, sat looking +loweringly about him. His satisfaction was wilted; his fat hung +flabbily on his big bones; his small eyes were hard and cold. + +"Waal," he said, rising at last, "these extry an' occasional +opportunities like comets an' castin' votes oughter be took full +advantage of--full advantage of; no doubt about that." + +And thus it was that the casting vote tipped the scale in favor of the +incumbent. + +"He's ez hard-headed, an' _ty_rannical, an' _per_verse, an' +cantankerous a critter ez ever lived, with no feelin's, nor softness, +nor perliteness in him--but he's a square man. He'll do the _fair_ +thing--every time," the coroner said in explanation. + +And so he braced himself for another term of official wrangling. + + * * * * * + +Poor Theodosia! She never forgot that return home, through all the +dust of the drought and the glare of the midsummer sun. Even to +herself her nature seemed too small for the magnitude of the various +anguish which she was called upon to endure. The sharp alternations of +certainty and doubt which she had undergone seemed slight, seemed +naught, in comparison with the desolate finality of despair, the fang +of hopeless regret, and the dread of the veiled future with which she +had made no covenant of expectation or preparation, that preyed upon +every plodding step as she went. Her anxiety as to the wisdom of her +course was not assuaged by the aghast dismay of her mother's face, +when she reached the little house overlooking the encircling +mountains,--as still, as meditative, as majestically unmoved, as if no +more troublous world existed,--and unfolded the story of her visit to +Colbury. She felt for the first time in her life how Justus Hoxon's +friend merited his confidence. Her mother had no reproaches, no +sarcasms, no outbursts of grief. She addressed herself to the support +and the comforting of her daughter, but with so evident a hopelessness +and an expectation of bitter things to come that the girl burst out +sobbing afresh. + +"D' ye think Wat air so wuthless ez all that!" + +The discipline of life began for her here. As the price of his +political defeat, Walter had scant relish for the triumph he had +scored in love. He was surly, taciturn, or else loud with reproaches +and criminations, which grew more vehement and contumelious if she +answered, seeking to exculpate or justify herself; and if she were +silent, her submission seemed to exasperate him and to develop a +crafty ingenuity in finding fault. He brooded grimly on his brother's +probable exultation when he should return and hear the news of the +casting vote. To fortify himself for the encounter he spent much time +at the still, and his drunken, reasonless wrath was even more +formidable to the object of his displeasure than his sober, surly +resentment against her as the cause of all his disasters. But Justus +did not come. Walter began to doubt if the news of the untoward result +of the election, in which he had spent all his energies, had reached +him. He also began to desire, contradictorily enough, that his brother +should know it. For although Justus must needs recognize it as a +mortal blow to his dearest foe, it had the capacity of doing much +execution in its recoil. Justus had had the election so greatly at +heart; he had struggled, and planned, and managed with such +preternatural activity and tact and energy from the first, that it +would smite him hard to know that it was all in vain. And then his +vicarious ambitions, his pride, his pleasure, in the elevation of +"Fambly"! Walter cast about futilely for an assurance that he might +have the satisfaction of reducing all this. He knew that Justus, in +his mistaken certainty of the result of the election, would not ask +for information, and that he could not read the newspapers. A +letter--even if there were any remote presumption as to his +address--would lie indefinitely in the mail, and find its way at last +to the Dead Letter Office. + +Walter realized after a time that Justus intended to return no +more--the woman he loved was his brother's wife. Justus had probably +put the breadth of the State between them, Walter sneeringly +concluded. + +He made haste to quarrel with his wife's mother, in his perverse +relish of aught that might give Theodosia pain, and they quitted her +home and took up their residence in the house in which Theodosia had +once expected to live, the scene of the early struggles of "Fambly." + +Theodosia's beauty could hardly be said to fade; it disappeared in the +overblowing. She grew very fat and unwieldy as the years wore on; her +face broadened, her florid complexion degenerated into a mottled red +and purple. She was no prettier than her mother had been when she +ridiculed her lover's eulogy of her mother's spiritual beauty. She had +a hard life with her drunken, idle, slothful husband, who habitually +imputed to her agency every evil that had ever befallen him, holding +it to excuse him from all exertion to better their very poor estate, +and whose affection had been easily kindled by her beauty and as +easily extinguished. + + * * * * * + +Justus, self-exiled from the mountains, tramped the valley roads, +hardly caring whither, and drifted finally to the outskirts of one of +the large manufacturing towns of Tennessee. He worked for some seasons +doggedly, drudgingly, on a farm near by, but found a sort of +entertainment in the sights and sounds within the city limits, as +having no association with the past which his memory dreaded. He +prospered in some sort, for although he was ignorant of all methods of +skilled labor, fidelity is an art with so few proficients that friends +and opportunities were not lacking. His progress was somewhat +hampered, however, despite his evident intelligence, by a doubt which +prevailed concerning his mental balance. He was often observed to +stand and gaze smilingly, fondly, after any group of ragged, dirty +children; he, although of the poorest, was profuse in gratuities to +any callow beggar who did not know enough of the world's ways to +expect nothing of such as he, as did the older ones. He could not +read, but he bought newspapers from the smallest of the guild of +newsboys, and meditatively turned the sheets in his hand, and then +softly and slowly tore them to bits. And these things created a doubt +of his sanity, for who could know how "Fambly" looked at him from the +pinched face of every poor, and cold, and hungry child? + +At last, despite this unsuspected drawback, a congenial occupation +came to him. He was night watchman at a great factory, and as he +paced, all solitary, back and forth in the yard, he was wont to note +the stars as the infallible seasons brought them into place; and he +began to remember their names, and to trace the strange configuration +of the constellations, and to con again the stories woven into their +shining meshes which he heard at the time that the great comet blazed +among them. + +And this is his never failing interest--dark summer nights, when the +Galaxy opens a broad avenue of constellated light across the heavens, +seeming a veritable road, as if it might be the way to God's throne, +beaten hard and bright by the feet of saints and martyrs; or when the +moon is full, and autumnal glamours reign, and only the faint sidereal +outlines prevail; or when winter winds are high, and the snow lies on +slanting roofs, and spires gleam with icicles, and Orion draws his +scintillating blade; or when, all bedight in scarlet, "Arcturus and +his sons" are guided into the vernal sky. + + + + + BOOKS BY + "Charles Egbert Craddock." + (MARY N. MURFREE.) + + + IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS. Short Stories. 16mo, $1.25. + + DOWN THE RAVINE. For Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.00. + + THE PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + IN THE CLOUDS. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + THE STORY OF KEEDON BLUFFS. For Young People. 16mo, $1.00. + + THE DESPOT OF BROOMSEDGE COVE. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + WHERE THE BATTLE WAS FOUGHT. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + HIS VANISHED STAR. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. + + THE MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN. 16mo, $1.25. + + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, + BOSTON AND NEW YORK. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and +Other Stories, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERY OF WITCH-FACE MOUNTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 31122.txt or 31122.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/1/2/31122/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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. 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