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@@ -0,0 +1,2667 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Knight of the Cumberland, by John Fox Jr. + +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: A Knight of the Cumberland + +Author: John Fox Jr. + +Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #324] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Lough + + + + + +A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND + +By John Fox, Jr. + + + +CONTENTS + + + + I. The Blight in the Hills + II. On the Wild Dog's Trail + III. The Auricular Talent of the Hon. Samuel Budd + IV. Close Quarters + V. Back to the Hills + VI. The Great Day + VII. At Last--The Tournament + VIII. The Knight Passes + + + + + +A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND + + + + +I. THE BLIGHT IN THE HILLS + +High noon of a crisp October day, sunshine flooding the earth with +the warmth and light of old wine and, going single-file up through +the jagged gap that the dripping of water has worn down through the +Cumberland Mountains from crest to valley-level, a gray horse and two +big mules, a man and two young girls. On the gray horse, I led the +tortuous way. After me came my small sister--and after her and like +her, mule-back, rode the Blight--dressed as she would be for a gallop in +Central Park or to ride a hunter in a horse show. + +I was taking them, according to promise, where the feet of other women +than mountaineers had never trod--beyond the crest of the Big Black--to +the waters of the Cumberland--the lair of moonshiner and feudsman, where +is yet pocketed a civilization that, elsewhere, is long ago gone. This +had been a pet dream of the Blight's for a long time, and now the dream +was coming true. The Blight was in the hills. + + +Nobody ever went to her mother's house without asking to see her even +when she was a little thing with black hair, merry face and black eyes. +Both men and women, with children of their own, have told me that she +was, perhaps, the most fascinating child that ever lived. There be some +who claim that she has never changed--and I am among them. She began +early, regardless of age, sex or previous condition of servitude--she +continues recklessly as she began--and none makes complaint. Thus was +it in her own world--thus it was when she came to mine. On the way +down from the North, the conductor's voice changed from a command to +a request when he asked for her ticket. The jacketed lord of the +dining-car saw her from afar and advanced to show her to a seat--that +she might ride forward, sit next to a shaded window and be free from the +glare of the sun on the other side. Two porters made a rush for her bag +when she got off the car, and the proprietor of the little hotel in the +little town where we had to wait several hours for the train into the +mountains gave her the bridal chamber for an afternoon nap. From this +little town to "The Gap" is the worst sixty-mile ride, perhaps, in the +world. She sat in a dirty day-coach; the smoke rolled in at the windows +and doors; the cars shook and swayed and lumbered around curves and +down and up gorges; there were about her rough men, crying children, +slatternly women, tobacco juice, peanuts, popcorn and apple cores, but +dainty, serene and as merry as ever, she sat through that ride with a +radiant smile, her keen black eyes noting everything unlovely within and +the glory of hill, tree and chasm without. Next morning at home, where +we rise early, no one was allowed to waken her and she had breakfast in +bed--for the Blight's gentle tyranny was established on sight and varied +not at the Gap. + +When she went down the street that day everybody stared surreptitiously +and with perfect respect, as her dainty black plumed figure passed; the +post-office clerk could barely bring himself to say that there was no +letter for her. The soda-fountain boy nearly filled her glass with syrup +before he saw that he was not strictly minding his own business; the +clerk, when I bought chocolate for her, unblushingly added extra weight +and, as we went back, she met them both--Marston, the young engineer +from the North, crossing the street and, at the same moment, a drunken +young tough with an infuriated face reeling in a run around the corner +ahead of us as though he were being pursued. Now we have a volunteer +police guard some forty strong at the Gap--and from habit, I started +for him, but the Blight caught my arm tight. The young engineer in three +strides had reached the curb-stone and all he sternly said was: + +"Here! Here!" + +The drunken youth wheeled and his right hand shot toward his hip pocket. +The engineer was belted with a pistol, but with one lightning movement +and an incredibly long reach, his right fist caught the fellow's jaw +so that he pitched backward and collapsed like an empty bag. Then the +engineer caught sight of the Blight's bewildered face, flushed, gripped +his hands in front of him and simply stared. At last he saw me: + +"Oh," he said, "how do you do?" and he turned to his prisoner, but the +panting sergeant and another policeman--also a volunteer--were already +lifting him to his feet. I introduced the boy and the Blight then, and +for the first time in my life I saw the Blight--shaken. Round-eyed, she +merely gazed at him. + +"That was pretty well done," I said. + +"Oh, he was drunk and I knew he would be slow." Now something curious +happened. The dazed prisoner was on his feet, and his captors were +starting with him to the calaboose when he seemed suddenly to come to +his senses. + +"Jes wait a minute, will ye?" he said quietly, and his captors, thinking +perhaps that he wanted to say something to me, stopped. The mountain +youth turned a strangely sobered face and fixed his blue eyes on the +engineer as though he were searing every feature of that imperturbable +young man in his brain forever. It was not a bad face, but the avenging +hatred in it was fearful. Then he, too, saw the Blight, his face calmed +magically and he, too, stared at her, and turned away with an oath +checked at his lips. We went on--the Blight thrilled, for she had heard +much of our volunteer force at the Gap and had seen something already. +Presently I looked back. Prisoner and captors were climbing the little +hill toward the calaboose and the mountain boy just then turned his head +and I could swear that his eyes sought not the engineer, whom we left +at the corner, but, like the engineer, he was looking at the Blight. +Whereat I did not wonder--particularly as to the engineer. He had been +in the mountains for a long time and I knew what this vision from home +meant to him. He turned up at the house quite early that night. + +"I'm not on duty until eleven," he said hesitantly, "and I thought +I'd----" + +"Come right in." + +I asked him a few questions about business and then I left him and the +Blight alone. When I came back she had a Gatling gun of eager questions +ranged on him and--happy withal--he was squirming no little. I followed +him to the gate. + +"Are you really going over into those God-forsaken mountains?" he asked. + +"I thought I would." + +"And you are going to take HER?" + +"And my sister." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon." He strode away. + +"Coming up by the mines?" he called back. + +"Perhaps will you show us around?" + +"I guess I will," he said emphatically, and he went on to risk his neck +on a ten-mile ride along a mountain road in the dark. + +"I LIKE a man," said the Blight. "I like a MAN." + +Of course the Blight must see everything, so she insisted on going to +the police court next morning for the trial of the mountain boy. The boy +was in the witness chair when we got there, and the Hon. Samuel Budd was +his counsel. He had volunteered to defend the prisoner, I was soon told, +and then I understood. The November election was not far off and the +Hon. Samuel Budd was candidate for legislature. More even, the boy's +father was a warm supporter of Mr. Budd and the boy himself might +perhaps render good service in the cause when the time came--as indeed +he did. On one of the front chairs sat the young engineer and it was a +question whether he or the prisoner saw the Blight's black plumes first. +The eyes of both flashed toward her simultaneously, the engineer colored +perceptibly and the mountain boy stopped short in speech and his pallid +face flushed with unmistakable shame. Then he went on: "He had liquered +up," he said, "and had got tight afore he knowed it and he didn't mean +no harm and had never been arrested afore in his whole life." + +"Have you ever been drunk before?" asked the prosecuting attorney +severely. The lad looked surprised. + +"Co'se I have, but I ain't goin' to agin--leastwise not in this here +town." There was a general laugh at this and the aged mayor rapped +loudly. + +"That will do," said the attorney. + +The lad stepped down, hitched his chair slightly so that his back was +to the Blight, sank down in it until his head rested on the back of the +chair and crossed his legs. The Hon. Samuel Budd arose and the Blight +looked at him with wonder. His long yellow hair was parted in the middle +and brushed with plaster-like precision behind two enormous ears, he +wore spectacles, gold-rimmed and with great staring lenses, and his face +was smooth and ageless. He caressed his chin ruminatingly and rolled +his lips until they settled into a fine resultant of wisdom, patience, +toleration and firmness. His manner was profound and his voice oily and +soothing. + +"May it please your Honor--my young friend frankly pleads guilty." He +paused as though the majesty of the law could ask no more. "He is +a young man of naturally high and somewhat--naturally, too, no +doubt--bibulous spirits. Homoepathically--if inversely--the result was +logical. In the untrammelled life of the liberty-breathing mountains, +where the stern spirit of law and order, of which your Honor is the +august symbol, does not prevail as it does here--thanks to your Honor's +wise and just dispensations--the lad has, I may say, naturally acquired +a certain recklessness of mood--indulgence which, however easily +condoned there, must here be sternly rebuked. At the same time, he knew +not the conditions here, he became exhilarated without malice, prepensey +or even, I may say, consciousness. He would not have done as he has, +if he had known what he knows now, and, knowing, he will not repeat the +offence. I need say no more. I plead simply that your Honor will temper +the justice that is only yours with the mercy that is yours--only." + +His Honor was visibly affected and to cover it--his methods being +informal--he said with sharp irrelevancy: + +"Who bailed this young feller out last night?" The sergeant spoke: + +"Why, Mr. Marston thar"--with outstretched finger toward the young +engineer. The Blight's black eyes leaped with exultant appreciation and +the engineer turned crimson. His Honor rolled his quid around in his +mouth once, and peered over his glasses: + +"I fine this young feller two dollars and costs." The young fellow had +turned slowly in his chair and his blue eyes blazed at the engineer with +unappeasable hatred. I doubt if he had heard his Honor's voice. + +"I want ye to know that I'm obleeged to ye an' I ain't a-goin' to fergit +it; but if I'd a known hit was you I'd a stayed in jail an' seen you in +hell afore I'd a been bounden to ye." + +"Ten dollars fer contempt of couht." The boy was hot now. + +"Oh, fine and be--" The Hon. Samuel Budd had him by the shoulder, the +boy swallowed his voice and his starting tears of rage, and after a +whisper to his Honor, the Hon. Samuel led him out. Outside, the engineer +laughed to the Blight: + +"Pretty peppery, isn't he?" but the Blight said nothing, and later we +saw the youth on a gray horse crossing the bridge and conducted by the +Hon. Samuel Budd, who stopped and waved him toward the mountains. The +boy went on and across the plateau, the gray Gap swallowed him. That +night, at the post-office, the Hon. Sam plucked me aside by the sleeve. + +"I know Marston is agin me in this race--but I'll do him a good turn +just the same. You tell him to watch out for that young fellow. He's all +right when he's sober, but when he's drunk--well, over in Kentucky, they +call him the Wild Dog." + + +Several days later we started out through that same Gap. The glum +stableman looked at the Blight's girths three times, and with my own +eyes starting and my heart in my mouth, I saw her pass behind her +sixteen-hand-high mule and give him a friendly tap on the rump as she +went by. The beast gave an appreciative flop of one ear and that +was all. Had I done that, any further benefit to me or mine would be +incorporated in the terms of an insurance policy. So, stating this, I +believe I state the limit and can now go on to say at last that it was +because she seemed to be loved by man and brute alike that a big man of +her own town, whose body, big as it was, was yet too small for his heart +and from whose brain things went off at queer angles, always christened +her perversely as--"The Blight." + + + + +II. ON THE WILD DOG'S TRAIL + +So up we went past Bee Rock, Preacher's Creek and Little Looney, past +the mines where high on a "tipple" stood the young engineer looking down +at us, and looking after the Blight as we passed on into a dim rocky +avenue walled on each side with rhododendrons. I waved at him and shook +my head--we would see him coming back. Beyond a deserted log-cabin we +turned up a spur of the mountain. Around a clump of bushes we came on +a gray-bearded mountaineer holding his horse by the bridle and from a +covert high above two more men appeared with Winchesters. The Blight +breathed forth an awed whisper: + +"Are they moonshiners?" + +I nodded sagely, "Most likely," and the Blight was thrilled. They might +have been squirrel-hunters most innocent, but the Blight had heard much +talk of moonshine stills and mountain feuds and the men who run them +and I took the risk of denying her nothing. Up and up we went, those +two mules swaying from side to side with a motion little short of +elephantine and, by and by, the Blight called out: + +"You ride ahead and don't you DARE look back." + +Accustomed to obeying the Blight's orders, I rode ahead with eyes to +the front. Presently, a shriek made me turn suddenly. It was nothing--my +little sister's mule had gone near a steep cliff--perilously near, as +its rider thought, but I saw why I must not look back; those two little +girls were riding astride on side-saddles, the booted little right foot +of each dangling stirrupless--a posture quite decorous but ludicrous. + +"Let us know if anybody comes," they cried. A mountaineer descended into +sight around a loop of the path above. + +"Change cars," I shouted. + +They changed and, passing, were grave, demure--then they changed again, +and thus we climbed. + +Such a glory as was below, around and above us; the air like champagne; +the sunlight rich and pouring like a flood on the gold that the beeches +had strewn in the path, on the gold that the poplars still shook high +above and shimmering on the royal scarlet of the maple and the sombre +russet of the oak. From far below us to far above us a deep curving +ravine was slashed into the mountain side as by one stroke of a gigantic +scimitar. The darkness deep down was lighted up with cool green, +interfused with liquid gold. Russet and yellow splashed the mountain +sides beyond and high up the maples were in a shaking blaze. The +Blight's swift eyes took all in and with indrawn breath she drank it all +deep down. + +An hour by sun we were near the top, which was bared of trees and +turned into rich farm-land covered with blue-grass. Along these upland +pastures, dotted with grazing cattle, and across them we rode toward the +mountain wildernesses on the other side, down into which a zigzag path +wriggles along the steep front of Benham's spur. At the edge of the +steep was a cabin and a bushy-bearded mountaineer, who looked like +a brigand, answered my hail. He "mought" keep us all night, but he'd +"ruther not, as we could git a place to stay down the spur." Could we +get down before dark? The mountaineer lifted his eyes to where the sun +was breaking the horizon of the west into streaks and splashes of yellow +and crimson. + +"Oh, yes, you can git thar afore dark." + +Now I knew that the mountaineer's idea of distance is vague--but he +knows how long it takes to get from one place to another. So we started +down--dropping at once into thick dark woods, and as we went looping +down, the deeper was the gloom. That sun had suddenly severed all +connection with the laws of gravity and sunk, and it was all the darker +because the stars were not out. The path was steep and coiled downward +like a wounded snake. In one place a tree had fallen across it, and to +reach the next coil of the path below was dangerous. So I had the +girls dismount and I led the gray horse down on his haunches. The mules +refused to follow, which was rather unusual. I went back and from a safe +distance in the rear I belabored them down. They cared neither for gray +horse nor crooked path, but turned of their own devilish wills along the +bushy mountain side. As I ran after them the gray horse started calmly +on down and those two girls shrieked with laughter--they knew no better. +First one way and then the other down the mountain went those mules, +with me after them, through thick bushes, over logs, stumps and bowlders +and holes--crossing the path a dozen times. What that path was there for +never occurred to those long-eared half asses, whole fools, and by and +by, when the girls tried to shoo them down they clambered around and +above them and struck the path back up the mountain. The horse had +gone down one way, the mules up the other, and there was no health in +anything. The girls could not go up--so there was nothing to do but go +down, which, hard as it was, was easier than going up. The path was not +visible now. Once in a while I would stumble from it and crash through +the bushes to the next coil below. Finally I went down, sliding one foot +ahead all the time--knowing that when leaves rustled under that foot I +was on the point of going astray. Sometimes I had to light a match to +make sure of the way, and thus the ridiculous descent was made with +those girls in high spirits behind. Indeed, the darker, rockier, steeper +it got, the more they shrieked from pure joy--but I was anything than +happy. It was dangerous. I didn't know the cliffs and high rocks we +might skirt and an unlucky guidance might land us in the creek-bed far +down. But the blessed stars came out, the moon peered over a farther +mountain and on the last spur there was the gray horse browsing in the +path--and the sound of running water not far below. Fortunately on the +gray horse were the saddle-bags of the chattering infants who thought +the whole thing a mighty lark. We reached the running water, struck a +flock of geese and knew, in consequence, that humanity was somewhere +near. A few turns of the creek and a beacon light shone below. The pales +of a picket fence, the cheering outlines of a log-cabin came in view and +at a peaked gate I shouted: + +"Hello!" + +You enter no mountaineer's yard without that announcing cry. It was +mediaeval, the Blight said, positively--two lorn damsels, a benighted +knight partially stripped of his armor by bush and sharp-edged rock, +a gray palfrey (she didn't mention the impatient asses that had turned +homeward) and she wished I had a horn to wind. I wanted a "horn" badly +enough--but it was not the kind men wind. By and by we got a response: + +"Hello!" was the answer, as an opened door let out into the yard a broad +band of light. Could we stay all night? The voice replied that the owner +would see "Pap." "Pap" seemed willing, and the boy opened the gate +and into the house went the Blight and the little sister. Shortly, I +followed. + +There, all in one room, lighted by a huge wood-fire, rafters above, +puncheon floor beneath--cane-bottomed chairs and two beds the only +furniture-"pap," barefooted, the old mother in the chimney-corner with +a pipe, strings of red pepper-pods, beans and herbs hanging around +and above, a married daughter with a child at her breast, two or three +children with yellow hair and bare feet all looking with all their eyes +at the two visitors who had dropped upon them from another world. The +Blight's eyes were brighter than usual--that was the only sign she gave +that she was not in her own drawing-room. Apparently she saw nothing +strange or unusual even, but there was really nothing that she did not +see or hear and absorb, as few others than the Blight can. + +Straightway, the old woman knocked the ashes out of her pipe. + +"I reckon you hain't had nothin' to eat," she said and disappeared. The +old man asked questions, the young mother rocked her baby on her knees, +the children got less shy and drew near the fireplace, the Blight and +the little sister exchanged a furtive smile and the contrast of the +extremes in American civilization, as shown in that little cabin, +interested me mightily. + +"Yer snack's ready," said the old woman. The old man carried the chairs +into the kitchen, and when I followed the girls were seated. The chairs +were so low that their chins came barely over their plates, and demure +and serious as they were they surely looked most comical. There was the +usual bacon and corn-bread and potatoes and sour milk, and the two girls +struggled with the rude fare nobly. + +After supper I joined the old man and the old woman with a +pipe--exchanging my tobacco for their long green with more satisfaction +probably to me than to them, for the long green was good, and strong and +fragrant. + +The old woman asked the Blight and the little sister many questions and +they, in turn, showed great interest in the baby in arms, whereat the +eighteen-year-old mother blushed and looked greatly pleased. + +"You got mighty purty black eyes," said the old woman to the Blight, +and not to slight the little sister she added, "An' you got mighty purty +teeth." + +The Blight showed hers in a radiant smile and the old woman turned back +to her. + +"Oh, you've got both," she said and she shook her head, as though she +were thinking of the damage they had done. It was my time now--to ask +questions. + +They didn't have many amusements on that creek, I discovered--and +no dances. Sometimes the boys went coon-hunting and there were +corn-shuckings, house-raisings and quilting-parties. + +"Does anybody round here play the banjo?" + +"None o' my boys," said the old woman, "but Tom Green's son down the +creek--he follers pickin' the banjo a leetle." "Follows pickin' "--the +Blight did not miss that phrase. + +"What do you foller fer a livin'?" the old man asked me suddenly. + +"I write for a living." He thought a while. + +"Well, it must be purty fine to have a good handwrite." This nearly +dissolved the Blight and the little sister, but they held on heroically. + +"Is there much fighting around here?" I asked presently. + +"Not much 'cept when one young feller up the river gets to tearin' up +things. I heerd as how he was over to the Gap last week--raisin' +hell. He comes by here on his way home." The Blight's eyes opened +wide--apparently we were on his trail. It is not wise for a member of +the police guard at the Gap to show too much curiosity about the lawless +ones of the hills, and I asked no questions. + +"They calls him the Wild Dog over here," he added, and then he yawned +cavernously. + +I looked around with divining eye for the sleeping arrangements soon to +come, which sometimes are embarrassing to "furriners" who are unable to +grasp at once the primitive unconsciousness of the mountaineers and, in +consequence, accept a point of view natural to them because enforced by +architectural limitations and a hospitality that turns no one seeking +shelter from any door. They were, however, better prepared than I had +hoped for. They had a spare room on the porch and just outside the door, +and when the old woman led the two girls to it, I followed with their +saddle-bags. The room was about seven feet by six and was windowless. + +"You'd better leave your door open a little," I said, "or you'll smother +in there." + +"Well," said the old woman, "hit's all right to leave the door open. +Nothin's goin' ter bother ye, but one o' my sons is out a coon-huntin' +and he mought come in, not knowin' you're thar. But you jes' holler an' +he'll move on." She meant precisely what she said and saw no humor at +all in such a possibility--but when the door closed, I could hear those +girls stifling shrieks of laughter. + +Literally, that night, I was a member of the family. I had a bed to +myself (the following night I was not so fortunate)--in one corner; +behind the head of mine the old woman, the daughter-in-law and the +baby had another in the other corner, and the old man with the two boys +spread a pallet on the floor. That is the invariable rule of courtesy +with the mountaineer, to give his bed to the stranger and take to +the floor himself, and, in passing, let me say that never, in a +long experience, have I seen the slightest consciousness--much less +immodesty--in a mountain cabin in my life. The same attitude on the +part of the visitors is taken for granted--any other indeed holds mortal +possibilities of offence--so that if the visitor has common sense, all +embarrassment passes at once. The door was closed, the fire blazed on +uncovered, the smothered talk and laughter of the two girls ceased, the +coon-hunter came not and the night passed in peace. + +It must have been near daybreak that I was aroused by the old man +leaving the cabin and I heard voices and the sound of horses' feet +outside. When he came back he was grinning. + +"Hit's your mules." + +"Who found them?" + +"The Wild Dog had 'em," he said. + + + + +III. THE AURICULAR TALENT OF THE HON. SAMUEL BUDD + +Behind us came the Hon. Samuel Budd. Just when the sun was slitting the +east with a long streak of fire, the Hon. Samuel was, with the jocund +day, standing tiptoe in his stirrups on the misty mountain top and +peering into the ravine down which we had slid the night before, and he +grumbled no little when he saw that he, too, must get off his horse +and slide down. The Hon. Samuel was ambitious, Southern, and a lawyer. +Without saying, it goes that he was also a politician. He was not a +native of the mountains, but he had cast his fortunes in the highlands, +and he was taking the first step that he hoped would, before many +years, land him in the National Capitol. He really knew little about the +mountaineers, even now, and he had never been among his constituents on +Devil's Fork, where he was bound now. The campaign had so far been full +of humor and full of trials--not the least of which sprang from the fact +that it was sorghum time. Everybody through the mountains was making +sorghum, and every mountain child was eating molasses. + +Now, as the world knows, the straightest way to the heart of the honest +voter is through the women of the land, and the straightest way to the +heart of the women is through the children of the land; and one method +of winning both, with rural politicians, is to kiss the babies wide and +far. So as each infant, at sorghum time, has a circle of green-brown +stickiness about his chubby lips, and as the Hon. Sam was averse to +"long sweetenin'" even in his coffee, this particular political device +just now was no small trial to the Hon. Samuel Budd. But in the language +of one of his firmest supporters Uncle Tommie Hendricks: + +"The Hon. Sam done his duty, and he done it damn well." + +The issue at stake was the site of the new Court-House--two localities +claiming the right undisputed, because they were the only two places +in the county where there was enough level land for the Court-House +to stand on. Let no man think this a trivial issue. There had been a +similar one over on the Virginia side once, and the opposing factions +agreed to decide the question by the ancient wager of battle, fist and +skull--two hundred men on each side--and the women of the county with +difficulty prevented the fight. Just now, Mr. Budd was on his way to +"The Pocket"--the voting place of one faction--where he had never been, +where the hostility against him was most bitter, and, that day, he knew +he was "up against" Waterloo, the crossing of the Rubicon, holding the +pass at Thermopylae, or any other historical crisis in the history of +man. I was saddling the mules when the cackling of geese in the creek +announced the coming of the Hon. Samuel Budd, coming with his chin on +his breast-deep in thought. Still his eyes beamed cheerily, he lifted +his slouched hat gallantly to the Blight and the little sister, and he +would wait for us to jog along with him. I told him of our troubles, +meanwhile. The Wild Dog had restored our mules and the Hon. Sam beamed: + +"He's a wonder--where is he?" + +"He never waited--even for thanks." + +Again the Hon. Sam beamed: + +"Ah! just like him. He's gone ahead to help me." + +"Well, how did he happen to be here?" I asked. + +"He's everywhere," said the Hon. Sam. + +"How did he know the mules were ours?" + +"Easy. That boy knows everything." + +"Well, why did he bring them back and then leave so mysteriously?" + +The Hon. Sam silently pointed a finger at the laughing Blight ahead, and +I looked incredulous. + +"Just the same, that's another reason I told you to warn Marston. He's +already got it in his head that Marston is his rival." + +"Pshaw!" I said--for it was too ridiculous. + +"All right," said the Hon. Sam placidly. + +"Then why doesn't he want to see her?" "How do you know he ain't +watchin' her now, for all we know? Mark me," he added, "you won't see +him at the speakin', but I'll bet fruit cake agin gingerbread he'll be +somewhere around." + +So we went on, the two girls leading the way and the Hon. Sam now +telling his political troubles to me. Half a mile down the road, a +solitary horseman stood waiting, and Mr. Budd gave a low whistle. + +"One o' my rivals," he said, from the corner of his mouth. + +"Mornin'," said the horseman; "lemme see you a minute." + +He made a movement to draw aside, but the Hon. Samuel made a +counter-gesture of dissent. + +"This gentleman is a friend of mine," he said firmly, but with great +courtesy, "and he can hear what you have to say to me." + +The mountaineer rubbed one huge hand over his stubbly chin, threw one of +his long legs over the pommel of his saddle, and dangled a heavy cowhide +shoe to and fro. + +"Would you mind tellin' me whut pay a member of the House of Legislatur' +gits a day?" + +The Hon. Sam looked surprised. + +"I think about two dollars and a half." + +"An' his meals?" + +"No!" laughed Mr. Budd. + +"Well, look-ee here, stranger. I'm a pore man an' I've got a mortgage +on my farm. That money don't mean nothin' to you--but if you'll draw out +now an' I win, I'll tell ye whut I'll do." He paused as though to make +sure that the sacrifice was possible. "I'll just give ye half of that +two dollars and a half a day, as shore as you're a-settin' on that hoss, +and you won't hav' to hit a durn lick to earn it." + +I had not the heart to smile--nor did the Hon. Samuel--so artless and +simple was the man and so pathetic his appeal. + +"You see--you'll divide my vote, an' ef we both run, ole Josh Barton'll +git it shore. Ef you git out o' the way, I can lick him easy." + +Mr. Budd's answer was kind, instructive, and uplifted. + +"My friend," said he, "I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly accede to your +request for the following reasons: First, it would not be fair to my +constituents; secondly, it would hardly be seeming to barter the noble +gift of the people to which we both aspire; thirdly, you might lose with +me out of the way; and fourthly, I'm going to win whether you are in the +way or not." + +The horseman slowly collapsed while the Hon. Samuel was talking, and +now he threw the leg back, kicked for his stirrup twice, spat once, and +turned his horse's head. + +"I reckon you will, stranger," he said sadly, "with that gift o' gab +o' yourn." He turned without another word or nod of good-by and started +back up the creek whence he had come. + +"One gone," said the Hon. Samuel Budd grimly, "and I swear I'm right +sorry for him." And so was I. + +An hour later we struck the river, and another hour upstream brought +us to where the contest of tongues was to come about. No sylvan dell +in Arcady could have been lovelier than the spot. Above the road, a big +spring poured a clear little stream over shining pebbles into the river; +above it the bushes hung thick with autumn leaves, and above them stood +yellow beeches like pillars of pale fire. On both sides of the road sat +and squatted the honest voters, sour-looking, disgruntled--a distinctly +hostile crowd. The Blight and my little sister drew great and curious +attention as they sat on a bowlder above the spring while I went with +the Hon. Samuel Budd under the guidance of Uncle Tommie Hendricks, who +introduced him right and left. The Hon. Samuel was cheery, but he was +plainly nervous. There were two lanky youths whose names, oddly enough, +were Budd. As they gave him their huge paws in lifeless fashion, the +Hon. Samuel slapped one on the shoulder, with the true democracy of the +politician, and said jocosely: + +"Well, we Budds may not be what you call great people, but, thank God, +none of us have ever been in the penitentiary," and he laughed loudly, +thinking that he had scored a great and jolly point. The two young men +looked exceedingly grave and Uncle Tommie panic-stricken. He plucked the +Hon. Sam by the sleeve and led him aside: + +"I reckon you made a leetle mistake thar. Them two fellers' daddy died +in the penitentiary last spring." The Hon. Sam whistled mournfully, +but he looked game enough when his opponent rose to speak--Uncle Josh +Barton, who had short, thick, upright hair, little sharp eyes, and a +rasping voice. Uncle Josh wasted no time: + +"Feller-citizens," he shouted, "this man is a lawyer--he's a corporation +lawyer"; the fearful name--pronounced "lie-yer"--rang through the crowd +like a trumpet, and like lightning the Hon. Sam was on his feet. + +"The man who says that is a liar," he said calmly, "and I demand your +authority for the statement. If you won't give it--I shall hold you +personally responsible, sir." + +It was a strike home, and under the flashing eyes that stared +unwaveringly, through the big goggles, Uncle Josh halted and stammered +and admitted that he might have been misinformed. + +"Then I advise you to be more careful," cautioned the Hon. Samuel +sharply. + +"Feller-citizens," said Uncle Josh, "if he ain't a corporation +lawyer--who is this man? Where did he come from? I have been born and +raised among you. You all know me--do you know him? Whut's he a-doin' +now? He's a fine-haired furriner, an' he's come down hyeh from the +settlemints to tell ye that you hain't got no man in yo' own deestrict +that's fittin' to represent ye in the legislatur'. Look at him--look at +him! He's got FOUR eyes! Look at his hair--hit's PARTED IN THE MIDDLE!" +There was a storm of laughter--Uncle Josh had made good--and if the Hon. +Samuel could straightway have turned bald-headed and sightless, he +would have been a happy man. He looked sick with hopelessness, but Uncle +Tommie Hendricks, his mentor, was vigorously whispering something in +his ear, and gradually his face cleared. Indeed, the Hon. Samuel was +smilingly confident when he rose. + +Like his rival, he stood in the open road, and the sun beat down on his +parted yellow hair, so that the eyes of all could see, and the laughter +was still running round. + +"Who is your Uncle Josh?" he asked with threatening mildness. "I know +I was not born here, but, my friends, I couldn't help that. And just +as soon as I could get away from where I was born, I came here and," +he paused with lips parted and long finger outstretched, +"and--I--came--because--I WANTED--to come--and NOT because I HAD TO." + +Now it seems that Uncle Josh, too, was not a native and that he had left +home early in life for his State's good and for his own. Uncle Tommie +had whispered this, and the Hon. Samuel raised himself high on both toes +while the expectant crowd, on the verge of a roar, waited--as did Uncle +Joshua, with a sickly smile. + +"Why did your Uncle Josh come among you? Because he was hoop-poled away +from home." Then came the roar--and the Hon. Samuel had to quell it with +uplifted hand. + +"And did your Uncle Joshua marry a mountain wife? No I He didn't think +any of your mountain women were good enough for him, so he slips down +into the settlemints and STEALS one. And now, fellow-citizens, that is +just what I'm here for--I'm looking for a nice mountain girl, and I'm +going to have her." Again the Hon. Samuel had to still the roar, and +then he went on quietly to show how they must lose the Court-House site +if they did not send him to the legislature, and how, while they might +not get it if they did send him, it was their only hope to send only +him. The crowd had grown somewhat hostile again, and it was after one +telling period, when the Hon. Samuel stopped to mop his brow, that a +gigantic mountaineer rose in the rear of the crowd: + +"Talk on, stranger; you're talking sense. I'll trust ye. You've got big +ears!" + +Now the Hon. Samuel possessed a primordial talent that is rather rare in +these physically degenerate days. He said nothing, but stood quietly in +the middle of the road. The eyes of the crowd on either side of the road +began to bulge, the lips of all opened with wonder, and a simultaneous +burst of laughter rose around the Hon. Samuel Budd. A dozen men sprang +to their feet and rushed up to him--looking at those remarkable ears, as +they gravely wagged to and fro. That settled things, and as we left, +the Hon. Sam was having things his own way, and on the edge of the crowd +Uncle Tommie Hendricks was shaking his head: + +"I tell ye, boys, he ain't no jackass even if he can flop his ears." + +At the river we started upstream, and some impulse made me turn in my +saddle and look back. All the time I had had an eye open for the young +mountaineer whose interest in us seemed to be so keen. And now I saw, +standing at the head of a gray horse, on the edge of the crowd, a tall +figure with his hands on his hips and looking after us. I couldn't be +sure, but it looked like the Wild Dog. + + + + +IV. CLOSE QUARTERS + +Two hours up the river we struck Buck. Buck was sitting on the fence by +the roadside, barefooted and hatless. + +"How-dye-do?" I said. + +"Purty well," said Buck. + +"Any fish in this river?" + +"Several," said Buck. Now in mountain speech, "several" means simply "a +good many." + +"Any minnows in these branches?" + +"I seed several in the branch back o' our house." + +"How far away do you live?" + +"Oh, 'bout one whoop an' a holler." If he had spoken Greek the Blight +could not have been more puzzled. He meant he lived as far as a man's +voice would carry with one yell and a holla. + +"Will you help me catch some?" Buck nodded. + +"All right," I said, turning my horse up to the fence. "Get on behind." +The horse shied his hind quarters away, and I pulled him back. + +"Now, you can get on, if you'll be quick." Buck sat still. + +"Yes," he said imperturbably; "but I ain't quick." The two girls laughed +aloud, and Buck looked surprised. + +Around a curving cornfield we went, and through a meadow which Buck said +was a "nigh cut." From the limb of a tree that we passed hung a piece +of wire with an iron ring swinging at its upturned end. A little farther +was another tree and another ring, and farther on another and another. + +"For heaven's sake, Buck, what are these things?" + +"Mart's a-gittin' ready fer a tourneyment." + +"A what?" + +"That's whut Mart calls hit. He was over to the Gap last Fourth o' July, +an' he says fellers over thar fix up like Kuklux and go a-chargin' on +hosses and takin' off them rings with a ash-stick--'spear,' Mart calls +hit. He come back an' he says he's a-goin' to win that ar tourneyment +next Fourth o' July. He's got the best hoss up this river, and on +Sundays him an' Dave Branham goes a-chargin' along here a-picking off +these rings jus' a-flyin'; an' Mart can do hit, I'm tellin' ye. Dave's +mighty good hisself, but he ain't nowhar 'longside o' Mart." + +This was strange. I had told the Blight about our Fourth of July, and +how on the Virginia side the ancient custom of the tournament still +survived. It was on the last Fourth of July that she had meant to come +to the Gap. Truly civilization was spreading throughout the hills. + +"Who's Mart?" + +"Mart's my brother," said little Buck. + +"He was over to the Gap not long ago, an' he come back mad as hops--" He +stopped suddenly, and in such a way that I turned my head, knowing that +caution had caught Buck. + +"What about?" + +"Oh, nothin'," said Buck carelessly; "only he's been quar ever since. +My sisters says he's got a gal over thar, an' he's a-pickin' off these +rings more'n ever now. He's going to win or bust a belly-band." + +"Well, who's Dave Branham?" + +Buck grinned. "You jes axe my sister Mollie. Thar she is." + +Before us was a white-framed house of logs in the porch of which +stood two stalwart, good-looking girls. Could we stay all night? We +could--there was no hesitation--and straight in we rode. + +"Where's your father?" Both girls giggled, and one said, with frank +unembarrassment: + +"Pap's tight!" That did not look promising, but we had to stay just +the same. Buck helped me to unhitch the mules, helped me also to catch +minnows, and in half an hour we started down the river to try fishing +before dark came. Buck trotted along. + +"Have you got a wagon, Buck?" + +"What fer?" + +"To bring the fish back." Buck was not to be caught napping. + +"We got that sled thar, but hit won't be big enough," he said gravely. +"An' our two-hoss wagon's out in the cornfield. We'll have to string the +fish, leave 'em in the river and go fer 'em in the mornin'." + +"All right, Buck." The Blight was greatly amused at Buck. + +Two hundred yards down the road stood his sisters over the figure of a +man outstretched in the road. Unashamed, they smiled at us. The man in +the road was "pap"--tight--and they were trying to get him home. + +We cast into a dark pool farther down and fished most patiently; not a +bite--not a nibble. + +"Are there any fish in here, Buck?" + +"Dunno--used ter be." The shadows deepened; we must go back to the +house. + +"Is there a dam below here, Buck?" + +"Yes, thar's a dam about a half-mile down the river." + +I was disgusted. No wonder there were no bass in that pool. + +"Why didn't you tell me that before?" + +"You never axed me," said Buck placidly. + +I began winding in my line. + +"Ain't no bottom to that pool," said Buck. + +Now I never saw any rural community where there was not a bottomless +pool, and I suddenly determined to shake one tradition in at least one +community. So I took an extra fish-line, tied a stone to it, and climbed +into a canoe, Buck watching me, but not asking a word. + +"Get in, Buck." + +Silently he got in and I pushed off--to the centre. + +"This the deepest part, Buck?" + +"I reckon so." + +I dropped in the stone and the line reeled out some fifty feet and began +to coil on the surface of the water. + +"I guess that's on the bottom, isn't it, Buck?" + +Buck looked genuinely distressed; but presently he brightened. + +"Yes," he said, "ef hit ain't on a turtle's back." + +Literally I threw up both hands and back we trailed--fishless. + +"Reckon you won't need that two-hoss wagon," said Buck. "No, Buck, I +think not." Buck looked at the Blight and gave himself the pleasure of +his first chuckle. A big crackling, cheerful fire awaited us. Through +the door I could see, outstretched on a bed in the next room, the limp +figure of "pap" in alcoholic sleep. The old mother, big, kind-faced, +explained--and there was a heaven of kindness and charity in her +drawling voice. + +"Dad didn' often git that a-way," she said; "but he'd been out a-huntin' +hawgs that mornin' and had met up with some teamsters and gone to a +political speakin' and had tuk a dram or two of their mean whiskey, and +not havin' nothin' on his stummick, hit had all gone to his head. No, +'pap' didn't git that a-way often, and he'd be all right jes' as soon as +he slept it off a while." The old woman moved about with a cane and the +sympathetic Blight merely looked a question at her. + +"Yes, she'd fell down a year ago--and had sort o' hurt herself--didn't +do nothin', though, 'cept break one hip," she added, in her kind, +patient old voice. Did many people stop there? Oh, yes, sometimes +fifteen at a time--they "never turned nobody away." And she had a big +family, little Cindy and the two big girls and Buck and Mart--who was +out somewhere--and the hired man, and yes--"Thar was another boy, but he +was fitified," said one of the big sisters. + +"I beg your pardon," said the wondering Blight, but she knew that phrase +wouldn't do, so she added politely: + +"What did you say?" + +"Fitified--Tom has fits. He's in a asylum in the settlements." + +"Tom come back once an' he was all right," said the old mother; "but he +worried so much over them gals workin' so hard that it plum' throwed him +off ag'in, and we had to send him back." + +"Do you work pretty hard?" I asked presently. Then a story came that +was full of unconscious pathos, because there was no hint of +complaint--simply a plain statement of daily life. They got up before +the men, in order to get breakfast ready; then they went with the men +into the fields--those two girls--and worked like men. At dark they +got supper ready, and after the men went to bed they worked on--washing +dishes and clearing up the kitchen. They took it turn about getting +supper, and sometimes, one said, she was "so plumb tuckered out that +she'd drap on the bed and go to sleep ruther than eat her own supper." +No wonder poor Tom had to go back to the asylum. All the while the +two girls stood by the fire looking, politely but minutely, at the two +strange girls and their curious clothes and their boots, and the way +they dressed their hair. Their hard life seemed to have hurt them +none--for both were the pictures of health--whatever that phrase means. + +After supper "pap" came in, perfectly sober, with a big ruddy face, +giant frame, and twinkling gray eyes. He was the man who had risen to +speak his faith in the Hon. Samuel Budd that day on the size of the Hon. +Samuel's ears. He, too, was unashamed and, as he explained his plight +again, he did it with little apology. + +"I seed ye at the speakin' to-day. That man Budd is a good man. He done +somethin' fer a boy o' mine over at the Gap." Like little Buck, he, too, +stopped short. "He's a good man an' I'm a-goin' to help him." + +Yes, he repeated, quite irrelevantly, it was hunting hogs all day with +nothing to eat and only mean whiskey to drink. Mart had not come in +yet--he was "workin' out" now. + +"He's the best worker in these mountains," said the old woman; "Mart +works too hard." + +The hired man appeared and joined us at the fire. Bedtime came, and I +whispered jokingly to the Blight: + +"I believe I'll ask that good-looking one to 'set up' with me." "Settin' +up" is what courting is called in the hills. The couple sit up in front +of the fire after everybody else has gone to bed. The man puts his arm +around the girl's neck and whispers; then she puts her arm around his +neck and whispers--so that the rest may not hear. This I had related to +the Blight, and now she withered me. + +"You just do, now!" + +I turned to the girl in question, whose name was Mollie. "Buck told me +to ask you who Dave Branham was." Mollie wheeled, blushing and angry, +but Buck had darted cackling out the door. "Oh," I said, and I changed +the subject. "What time do you get up?" + +"Oh, 'bout crack o' day." I was tired, and that was discouraging. + +"Do you get up that early every morning?" + +"No," was the quick answer; "a mornin' later." + +A morning later, Mollie got up, each morning. The Blight laughed. + +Pretty soon the two girls were taken into the next room, which was a +long one, with one bed in one dark corner, one in the other, and a third +bed in the middle. The feminine members of the family all followed them +out on the porch and watched them brush their teeth, for they had never +seen tooth-brushes before. They watched them prepare for bed--and I +could hear much giggling and comment and many questions, all of which +culminated, by and by, in a chorus of shrieking laughter. That climax, +as I learned next morning, was over the Blight's hot-water bag. Never +had their eyes rested on an article of more wonder and humor than that +water bag. + +By and by, the feminine members came back and we sat around the fire. +Still Mart did not appear, though somebody stepped into the kitchen, and +from the warning glance that Mollie gave Buck when she left the room I +guessed that the newcomer was her lover Dave. Pretty soon the old man +yawned. + +"Well, mammy, I reckon this stranger's about ready to lay down, if +you've got a place fer him." + +"Git a light, Buck," said the old woman. Buck got a light--a +chimneyless, smoking oil-lamp--and led me into the same room where the +Blight and my little sister were. Their heads were covered up, but +the bed in the gloom of one corner was shaking with their smothered +laughter. Buck pointed to the middle bed. + +"I can get along without that light, Buck," I said, and I must have +been rather haughty and abrupt, for a stifled shriek came from under the +bedclothes in the corner and Buck disappeared swiftly. Preparations for +bed are simple in the mountains--they were primitively simple for me +that night. Being in knickerbockers, I merely took off my coat and +shoes. Presently somebody else stepped into the room and the bed in the +other corner creaked. Silence for a while. Then the door opened, and the +head of the old woman was thrust in. + +"Mart!" she said coaxingly; "git up thar now an' climb over inter bed +with that ar stranger." + +That was Mart at last, over in the corner. Mart turned, grumbled, and, +to my great pleasure, swore that he wouldn't. The old woman waited a +moment. + +"Mart," she said again with gentle imperiousness, "git up thar now, I +tell ye--you've got to sleep with that thar stranger." + +She closed the door and with a snort Mart piled into bed with me. I +gave him plenty of room and did not introduce myself. A little more dark +silence--the shaking of the bed under the hilarity of those astonished, +bethrilled, but thoroughly unfrightened young women in the dark corner +on my left ceased, and again the door opened. This time it was the hired +man, and I saw that the trouble was either that neither Mart nor Buck +wanted to sleep with the hired man or that neither wanted to sleep +with me. A long silence and then the boy Buck slipped in. The hired man +delivered himself with the intonation somewhat of a circuit rider. + +"I've been a-watchin' that star thar, through the winder. Sometimes hit +moves, then hit stands plum' still, an' ag'in hit gits to pitchin'." The +hired man must have been touching up mean whiskey himself. Meanwhile, +Mart seemed to be having spells of troubled slumber. He would snore +gently, accentuate said snore with a sudden quiver of his body and then +wake up with a climacteric snort and start that would shake the bed. +This was repeated several times, and I began to think of the unfortunate +Tom who was "fitified." Mart seemed on the verge of a fit himself, and +I waited apprehensively for each snorting climax to see if fits were a +family failing. They were not. Peace overcame Mart and he slept deeply, +but not I. The hired man began to show symptoms. He would roll and +groan, dreaming of feuds, _quorum pars magna fuit_, it seemed, and of +religious conversion, in which he feared he was not so great. Twice he +said aloud: + +"An' I tell you thar wouldn't a one of 'em have said a word if I'd been +killed stone-dead." Twice he said it almost weepingly, and now and then +he would groan appealingly: + +"O Lawd, have mercy on my pore soul!" + +Fortunately those two tired girls slept--I could hear their +breathing--but sleep there was little for me. Once the troubled soul +with the hoe got up and stumbled out to the water-bucket on the porch to +soothe the fever or whatever it was that was burning him, and after that +he was quiet. I awoke before day. The dim light at the window showed an +empty bed--Buck and the hired man were gone. Mart was slipping out of +the side of my bed, but the girls still slept on. I watched Mart, for +I guessed I might now see what, perhaps, is the distinguishing trait of +American civilization down to its bed-rock, as you find it through the +West and in the Southern hills--a chivalrous respect for women. Mart +thought I was asleep. Over in the corner were two creatures the like of +which I supposed he had never seen and would not see, since he came in +too late the night before, and was going away too early now--and two +angels straight from heaven could not have stirred my curiosity any more +than they already must have stirred his. But not once did Mart turn his +eyes, much less his face, toward the corner where they were--not once, +for I watched him closely. And when he went out he sent his little +sister back for his shoes, which the night-walking hired man had +accidentally kicked toward the foot of the strangers' bed. In a minute I +was out after him, but he was gone. Behind me the two girls opened their +eyes on a room that was empty save for them. Then the Blight spoke (this +I was told later). + +"Dear," she said, "have our room-mates gone?" + +Breakfast at dawn. The mountain girls were ready to go to work. All +looked sorry to have us leave. They asked us to come back again, and +they meant it. We said we would like to come back--and we meant it--to +see them--the kind old mother, the pioneer-like old man, sturdy little +Buck, shy little Cindy, the elusive, hard-working, unconsciously shivery +Mart, and the two big sisters. As we started back up the river the +sisters started for the fields, and I thought of their stricken brother +in the settlements, who must have been much like Mart. + +Back up the Big Black Mountain we toiled, and late in the afternoon we +were on the State line that runs the crest of the Big Black. Right on +top and bisected by that State line sat a dingy little shack, and there, +with one leg thrown over the pommel of his saddle, sat Marston, drinking +water from a gourd. + +"I was coming over to meet you," he said, smiling at the Blight, who, +greatly pleased, smiled back at him. The shack was a "blind Tiger" +where whiskey could be sold to Kentuckians on the Virginia side and +to Virginians on the Kentucky side. Hanging around were the slouching +figures of several moonshiners and the villainous fellow who ran it. + +"They are real ones all right," said Marston. "One of them killed a +revenue officer at that front door last week, and was killed by the +posse as he was trying to escape out of the back window. That house will +be in ashes soon," he added. And it was. + +As we rode down the mountain we told him about our trip and the people +with whom we had spent the night--and all the time he was smiling +curiously. + +"Buck," he said. "Oh, yes, I know that little chap. Mart had him posted +down there on the river to toll you to his house--to toll YOU," he added +to the Blight. He pulled in his horse suddenly, turned and looked up +toward the top of the mountain. + +"Ah, I thought so." We all looked back. On the edge of the cliff, far +upward, on which the "blind Tiger" sat was a gray horse, and on it was a +man who, motionless, was looking down at us. + +"He's been following you all the way," said the engineer. + +"Who's been following us?" I asked. + +"That's Mart up there--my friend and yours," said Marston to the +Blight. "I'm rather glad I didn't meet you on the other side of the +mountain--that's 'the Wild Dog.'" The Blight looked incredulous, but +Marston knew the man and knew the horse. + +So Mart--hard-working Mart--was the Wild Dog, and he was content to +do the Blight all service without thanks, merely for the privilege of +secretly seeing her face now and then; and yet he would not look upon +that face when she was a guest under his roof and asleep. + +Still, when we dropped behind the two girls I gave Marston the Hon. +Sam's warning, and for a moment he looked rather grave. + +"Well," he said, smiling, "if I'm found in the road some day, you'll +know who did it." + +I shook my head. "Oh, no; he isn't that bad." + +"I don't know," said Marston. + + +The smoke of the young engineer's coke ovens lay far below us and the +Blight had never seen a coke-plant before. It looked like Hades even +in the early dusk--the snake-like coil of fiery ovens stretching up the +long, deep ravine, and the smoke-streaked clouds of fire, trailing like +a yellow mist over them, with a fierce white blast shooting up here +and there when the lid of an oven was raised, as though to add fresh +temperature to some particular male-factor in some particular chamber +of torment. Humanity about was joyous, however. Laughter and banter +and song came from the cabins that lined the big ravine and the little +ravines opening into it. A banjo tinkled at the entrance of "Possum +Trot," sacred to the darkies. We moved toward it. On the stoop sat an +ecstatic picker and in the dust shuffled three pickaninnies--one boy and +two girls--the youngest not five years old. The crowd that was gathered +about them gave way respectfully as we drew near; the little darkies +showed their white teeth in jolly grins, and their feet shook the dust +in happy competition. I showered a few coins for the Blight and on we +went--into the mouth of the many-peaked Gap. The night train was coming +in and everybody had a smile of welcome for the Blight--post-office +assistant, drug clerk, soda-water boy, telegraph operator, hostler, +who came for the mules--and when tired, but happy, she slipped from +her saddle to the ground, she then and there gave me what she usually +reserves for Christmas morning, and that, too, while Marston was looking +on. Over her shoulder I smiled at him. + + +That night Marston and the Blight sat under the vines on the porch +until the late moon rose over Wallens Ridge, and, when bedtime came, the +Blight said impatiently that she did not want to go home. She had to go, +however, next day, but on the next Fourth of July she would surely come +again; and, as the young engineer mounted his horse and set his face +toward Black Mountain, I knew that until that day, for him, a blight +would still be in the hills. + + + + +V. BACK TO THE HILLS + +Winter drew a gray veil over the mountains, wove into it tiny jewels of +frost and turned it many times into a mask of snow, before spring broke +again among them and in Marston's impatient heart. No spring had ever +been like that to him. The coming of young leaves and flowers and +bird-song meant but one joy for the hills to him--the Blight was coming +back to them. All those weary waiting months he had clung grimly to his +work. He must have heard from her sometimes, else I think he would have +gone to her; but I knew the Blight's pen was reluctant and casual for +anybody, and, moreover, she was having a strenuous winter at home. That +he knew as well, for he took one paper, at least, that he might simply +read her name. He saw accounts of her many social doings as well, and +ate his heart out as lovers have done for all time gone and will do for +all time to come. + +I, too, was away all winter, but I got back a month before the Blight, +to learn much of interest that had come about. The Hon. Samuel Budd had +ear-wagged himself into the legislature, had moved that Court-House, and +was going to be State Senator. The Wild Dog had confined his reckless +career to his own hills through the winter, but when spring came, +migratory-like, he began to take frequent wing to the Gap. So far, he +and Marston had never come into personal conflict, though Marston kept +ever ready for him, and several times they had met in the road, eyed +each other in passing and made no hipward gesture at all. But then +Marston had never met him when the Wild Dog was drunk--and when sober, I +took it that the one act of kindness from the engineer always stayed his +hand. But the Police Guard at the Gap saw him quite often--and to it he +was a fearful and elusive nuisance. He seemed to be staying somewhere +within a radius of ten miles, for every night or two he would circle +about the town, yelling and firing his pistol, and when we chased him, +escaping through the Gap or up the valley or down in Lee. Many plans +were laid to catch him, but all failed, and finally he came in one day +and gave himself up and paid his fines. Afterward I recalled that +the time of this gracious surrender to law and order was but little +subsequent to one morning when a woman who brought butter and eggs to my +little sister casually asked when that "purty slim little gal with the +snappin' black eyes was a-comin' back." And the little sister, pleased +with the remembrance, had said cordially that she was coming soon. + +Thereafter the Wild Dog was in town every day, and he behaved well until +one Saturday he got drunk again, and this time, by a peculiar chance, it +was Marston again who leaped on him, wrenched his pistol away, and put +him in the calaboose. Again he paid his fine, promptly visited a "blind +Tiger," came back to town, emptied another pistol at Marston on sight +and fled for the hills. + +The enraged guard chased him for two days and from that day the Wild Dog +was a marked man. The Guard wanted many men, but if they could have had +their choice they would have picked out of the world of malefactors that +same Wild Dog. + +Why all this should have thrown the Hon. Samuel Budd into such gloom +I could not understand--except that the Wild Dog had been so loyal a +henchman to him in politics, but later I learned a better reason, that +threatened to cost the Hon. Sam much more than the fines that, as I +later learned, he had been paying for his mountain friend. + +Meanwhile, the Blight was coming from her Northern home through the +green lowlands of Jersey, the fat pastures of Maryland, and, as the +white dresses of schoolgirls and the shining faces of darkies thickened +at the stations, she knew that she was getting southward. All the way +she was known and welcomed, and next morning she awoke with the keen air +of the distant mountains in her nostrils and an expectant light in her +happy eyes. At least the light was there when she stepped daintily from +the dusty train and it leaped a little, I fancied, when Marston, bronzed +and flushed, held out his sunburnt hand. Like a convent girl she babbled +questions to the little sister as the dummy puffed along and she bubbled +like wine over the midsummer glory of the hills. And well she might, for +the glory of the mountains, full-leafed, shrouded in evening shadows, +blue-veiled in the distance, was unspeakable, and through the Gap the +sun was sending his last rays as though he, too, meant to take a peep at +her before he started around the world to welcome her next day. And she +must know everything at once. The anniversary of the Great Day on which +all men were pronounced free and equal was only ten days distant and +preparations were going on. There would be a big crowd of mountaineers +and there would be sports of all kinds, and games, but the tournament +was to be the feature of the day. + +"A tournament?" "Yes, a tournament," repeated the little sister, +and Marston was going to ride and the mean thing would not tell what +mediaeval name he meant to take. And the Hon. Sam Budd--did the Blight +remember him? (Indeed, she did)--had a "dark horse," and he had bet +heavily that his dark horse would win the tournament--whereat the little +sister looked at Marston and at the Blight and smiled disdainfully. And +the Wild Dog--DID she remember him? I checked the sister here with a +glance, for Marston looked uncomfortable and the Blight saw me do it, +and on the point of saying something she checked herself, and her face, +I thought, paled a little. + +That night I learned why--when she came in from the porch after Marston +was gone. I saw she had wormed enough of the story out of him to worry +her, for her face this time was distinctly pale. I would tell her no +more than she knew, however, and then she said she was sure she had seen +the Wild Dog herself that afternoon, sitting on his horse in the bushes +near a station in Wildcat Valley. She was sure that he saw her, and his +face had frightened her. I knew her fright was for Marston and not for +herself, so I laughed at her fears. She was mistaken--Wild Dog was an +outlaw now and he would not dare appear at the Gap, and there was no +chance that he could harm her or Marston. And yet I was uneasy. + +It must have been a happy ten days for those two young people. Every +afternoon Marston would come in from the mines and they would go off +horseback together, over ground that I well knew--for I had been all +over it myself--up through the gray-peaked rhododendron-bordered Gap +with the swirling water below them and the gray rock high above where +another such foolish lover lost his life, climbing to get a flower for +his sweetheart, or down the winding dirt road into Lee, or up through +the beech woods behind Imboden Hill, or climbing the spur of Morris's +Farm to watch the sunset over the majestic Big Black Mountains, where +the Wild Dog lived, and back through the fragrant, cool, moonlit woods. +He was doing his best, Marston was, and he was having trouble--as every +man should. And that trouble I knew even better than he, for I had once +known a Southern girl who was so tender of heart that she could refuse +no man who really loved her she accepted him and sent him to her father, +who did all of her refusing for her. And I knew no man would know that +he had won the Blight until he had her at the altar and the priestly +hand of benediction was above her head. + +Of such kind was the Blight. Every night when they came in I could read +the story of the day, always in his face and sometimes in hers; and +it was a series of ups and downs that must have wrung the boy's heart +bloodless. Still I was in good hope for him, until the crisis came +on the night before the Fourth. The quarrel was as plain as though +typewritten on the face of each. Marston would not come in that night +and the Blight went dinnerless to bed and cried herself to sleep. She +told the little sister that she had seen the Wild Dog again peering +through the bushes, and that she was frightened. That was her +explanation--but I guessed a better one. + + + + +VI. THE GREAT DAY + +It was a day to make glad the heart of slave or freeman. The earth was +cool from a night-long rain, and a gentle breeze fanned coolness +from the north all day long. The clouds were snow-white, tumbling, +ever-moving, and between them the sky showed blue and deep. Grass, leaf, +weed and flower were in the richness that comes to the green things of +the earth just before that full tide of summer whose foam is drifting +thistle down. The air was clear and the mountains seemed to have brushed +the haze from their faces and drawn nearer that they, too, might better +see the doings of that day. + +From the four winds of heaven, that morning, came the brave and the +free. Up from Lee, down from Little Stone Gap, and from over in Scott, +came the valley-farmers--horseback, in buggies, hacks, two-horse wagons, +with wives, mothers, sisters, sweethearts, in white dresses, flowered +hats, and many ribbons, and with dinner-baskets stuffed with good things +to eat--old ham, young chicken, angel-cake and blackberry wine--to be +spread in the sunless shade of great poplar and oak. From Bum Hollow and +Wildcat Valley and from up the slopes that lead to Cracker's Neck came +smaller tillers of the soil--as yet but faintly marked by the gewgaw +trappings of the outer world; while from beyond High Knob, whose crown +is in cloud-land, and through the Gap, came the mountaineer in the +primitive simplicity of home spun and cowhide, wide-brimmed hat and +poke-bonnet, quaint speech, and slouching gait. Through the Gap he came +in two streams--the Virginians from Crab Orchard and Wise and Dickinson, +the Kentuckians from Letcher and feudal Harlan, beyond the Big +Black--and not a man carried a weapon in sight, for the stern spirit of +that Police Guard at the Gap was respected wide and far. Into the town, +which sits on a plateau some twenty feet above the level of the two +rivers that all but encircle it, they poured, hitching their horses in +the strip of woods that runs through the heart of the place, and broad +ens into a primeval park that, fan-like, opens on the oval level field +where all things happen on the Fourth of July. About the street they +loitered--lovers hand in hand--eating fruit and candy and drinking +soda-water, or sat on the curb-stone, mothers with babies at their +breasts and toddling children clinging close--all waiting for the +celebration to begin. + +It was a great day for the Hon. Samuel Budd. With a cheery smile and +beaming goggles, he moved among his constituents, joking with yokels, +saying nice things to mothers, paying gallantries to girls, and chucking +babies under the chin. He felt popular and he was--so popular that he +had begun to see himself with prophetic eye in a congressional seat at +no distant day; and yet, withal, he was not wholly happy. + +"Do you know," he said, "them fellers I made bets with in the tournament +got together this morning and decided, all of 'em, that they wouldn't +let me off? Jerusalem, it's most five hundred dollars!" And, looking +the picture of dismay, he told me his dilemma. It seems that his "dark +horse" was none other than the Wild Dog, who had been practising at home +for this tournament for nearly a year; and now that the Wild Dog was an +outlaw, he, of course, wouldn't and couldn't come to the Gap. And said +the Hon. Sam Budd: + +"Them fellers says I bet I'd BRING IN a dark horse who would win this +tournament, and if I don't BRING him in, I lose just the same as though +I had brought him in and he hadn't won. An' I reckon they've got me." + +"I guess they have." + +"It would have been like pickin' money off a blackberry-bush, for I was +goin' to let the Wild Dog have that black horse o' mine--the steadiest +and fastest runner in this country--and my, how that fellow can pick off +the rings! He's been a-practising for a year, and I believe he could run +the point o' that spear of his through a lady's finger-ring." + +"You'd better get somebody else." + +"Ah--that's it. The Wild Dog sent word he'd send over another feller, +named Dave Branham, who has been practising with him, who's just as +good, he says, as he is. I'm looking for him at twelve o'clock, an' I'm +goin' to take him down an' see what he can do on that black horse o' +mine. But if he's no good, I lose five hundred, all right," and he +sloped away to his duties. For it was the Hon. Sam who was master +of ceremonies that day. He was due now to read the Declaration of +Independence in a poplar grove to all who would listen; he was to act as +umpire at the championship base-ball game in the afternoon, and he was +to give the "Charge" to the assembled knights before the tournament. + +At ten o'clock the games began--and I took the Blight and the little +sister down to the "grandstand"--several tiers of backless benches with +leaves for a canopy and the river singing through rhododendrons behind. +There was jumping broad and high, and a 100-yard dash and hurdling and +throwing the hammer, which the Blight said were not interesting--they +were too much like college sports--and she wanted to see the base-ball +game and the tournament. And yet Marston was in them all--dogged and +resistless--his teeth set and his eyes anywhere but lifted toward the +Blight, who secretly proud, as I believed, but openly defiant, mentioned +not his name even when he lost, which was twice only. + +"Pretty good, isn't he?" I said. + +"Who?" she said indifferently. + +"Oh, nobody," I said, turning to smile, but not turning quickly enough. + +"What's the matter with you?" asked the Blight sharply. + +"Nothing, nothing at all," I said, and straightway the Blight thought +she wanted to go home. The thunder of the Declaration was still rumbling +in the poplar grove. + +"That's the Hon. Sam Budd," I said. + +"Don't you want to hear him?" + +"I don't care who it is and I don't want to hear him and I think you are +hateful." + +Ah, dear me, it was more serious than I thought. There were +tears in her eyes, and I led the Blight and the little sister +home--conscience-stricken and humbled. Still I would find that young +jackanapes of an engineer and let him know that anybody who made the +Blight unhappy must deal with me. I would take him by the neck and pound +some sense into him. I found him lofty, uncommunicative, perfectly alien +to any consciousness that I could have any knowledge of what was going +or any right to poke my nose into anybody's business--and I did nothing +except go back to lunch--to find the Blight upstairs and the little +sister indignant with me. + +"You just let them alone," she said severely. + +"Let who alone?" I said, lapsing into the speech of childhood. + +"You--just--let--them--alone," she repeated. + +"I've already made up my mind to that." + +"Well, then!" she said, with an air of satisfaction, but why I don't +know. + +I went back to the poplar grove. The Declaration was over and the crowd +was gone, but there was the Hon. Samuel Budd, mopping his brow with +one hand, slapping his thigh with the other, and all but executing a +pigeon-wing on the turf. He turned goggles on me that literally shone +triumph. + +"He's come--Dave Branham's come!" he said. "He's better than the Wild +Dog. I've been trying him on the black horse and, Lord, how he can take +them rings off! Ha, won't I get into them fellows who wouldn't let me +off this morning! Oh, yes, I agreed to bring in a dark horse, and I'll +bring him in all right. That five hundred is in my clothes now. You see +that point yonder? Well, there's a hollow there and bushes all around. +That's where I'm going to dress him. I've got his clothes all right and +a name for him. This thing is a-goin' to come off accordin' to Hoyle, +Ivanhoe, Four-Quarters-of-Beef, and all them mediaeval fellows. Just +watch me!" + +I began to get newly interested, for that knight's name I suddenly +recalled. Little Buck, the Wild Dog's brother, had mentioned him, when +we were over in the Kentucky hills, as practising with the Wild Dog--as +being "mighty good, but nowhar 'longside o' Mart." So the Hon. Sam might +have a good substitute, after all, and being a devoted disciple of Sir +Walter, I knew his knight would rival, in splendor, at least, any that +rode with King Arthur in days of old. + +The Blight was very quiet at lunch, as was the little sister, and my +effort to be jocose was a lamentable failure. So I gave news. + +"The Hon. Sam has a substitute." No curiosity and no question. + +"Who--did you say? Why, Dave Branham, a friend of the Wild Dog. Don't +you remember Buck telling us about him?" No answer. "Well, I do--and, +by the way, I saw Buck and one of the big sisters just a while ago. Her +name is Mollie. Dave Branham, you will recall, is her sweetheart. The +other big sister had to stay at home with her mother and little Cindy, +who's sick. Of course, I didn't ask them about Mart--the Wild Dog. They +knew I knew and they wouldn't have liked it. The Wild Dog's around, I +understand, but he won't dare show his face. Every policeman in town is +on the lookout for him." I thought the Blight's face showed a signal of +relief. + +"I'm going to play short-stop," I added. + +"Oh!" said the Blight, with a smile, but the little sister said with +some scorn: + +"You!" + +"I'll show you," I said, and I told the Blight about base-ball at the +Gap. We had introduced base-ball into the region and the valley boys +and mountain boys, being swift runners, throwing like a rifle shot from +constant practice with stones, and being hard as nails, caught the game +quickly and with great ease. We beat them all the time at first, but now +they were beginning to beat us. We had a league now, and this was the +championship game for the pennant. + +"It was right funny the first time we beat a native team. Of course, we +got together and cheered 'em. They thought we were cheering ourselves, +so they got red in the face, rushed together and whooped it up for +themselves for about half an hour." + +The Blight almost laughed. + +"We used to have to carry our guns around with us at first when we went +to other places, and we came near having several fights." + +"Oh!" said the Blight excitedly. "Do you think there might be a fight +this afternoon?" + +"Don't know," I said, shaking my head. "It's pretty hard for eighteen +people to fight when nine of them are policemen and there are forty more +around. Still the crowd might take a hand." + +This, I saw, quite thrilled the Blight and she was in good spirits when +we started out. + +"Marston doesn't pitch this afternoon," I said to the little sister. "He +plays first base. He's saving himself for the tournament. He's done too +much already." The Blight merely turned her head while I was speaking. +"And the Hon. Sam will not act as umpire. He wants to save his +voice--and his head." + +The seats in the "grandstand" were in the sun now, so I left the +girls in a deserted band-stand that stood on stilts under trees on the +southern side of the field, and on a line midway between third base and +the position of short-stop. Now there is no enthusiasm in any sport that +equals the excitement aroused by a rural base-ball game and I never +saw the enthusiasm of that game outdone except by the excitement of the +tournament that followed that afternoon. The game was close and +Marston and I assuredly were stars--Marston one of the first magnitude. +"Goose-egg" on one side matched "goose-egg" on the other until the end +of the fifth inning, when the engineer knocked a home-run. Spectators +threw their hats into the trees, yelled themselves hoarse, and I saw +several old mountaineers who understood no more of base-ball than of the +lost _digamma_ in Greek going wild with the general contagion. During +these innings I had "assisted" in two doubles and had fired in three +"daisy cutters" to first myself in spite of the guying I got from the +opposing rooters. + +"Four-eyes" they called me on account of my spectacles until a new +nickname came at the last half of the ninth inning, when we were in +the field with the score four to three in our favor. It was then that +a small, fat boy with a paper megaphone longer than he was waddled out +almost to first base and levelling his trumpet at me, thundered out in a +sudden silence: + +"Hello, Foxy Grandpa!" That was too much. I got rattled, and when there +were three men on bases and two out, a swift grounder came to me, I +fell--catching it--and threw wildly to first from my knees. I heard +shouts of horror, anger, and distress from everywhere and my own heart +stopped beating--I had lost the game--and then Marston leaped in the +air--surely it must have been four feet--caught the ball with his left +hand and dropped back on the bag. The sound of his foot on it and the +runner's was almost simultaneous, but the umpire said Marston's was +there first. Then bedlam! One of my brothers was umpire and the captain +of the other team walked threateningly out toward him, followed by two +of his men with base-ball bats. As I started off myself towards them I +saw, with the corner of my eye, another brother of mine start in a run +from the left field, and I wondered why a third, who was scoring, sat +perfectly still in his chair, particularly as a well-known, red-headed +tough from one of the mines who had been officiously antagonistic ran +toward the pitcher's box directly in front of him. Instantly a dozen of +the guard sprang toward it, some man pulled his pistol, a billy cracked +straightway on his head, and in a few minutes order was restored. And +still the brother scoring hadn't moved from his chair, and I spoke to +him hotly. + +"Keep your shirt on," he said easily, lifting his score-card with his +left hand and showing his right clinched about his pistol under it. + +"I was just waiting for that red-head to make a move. I guess I'd have +got him first." + +I walked back to the Blight and the little sister and both of them +looked very serious and frightened. + +"I don't think I want to see a real fight, after all," said the Blight. +"Not this afternoon." + +It was a little singular and prophetic, but just as the words left her +lips one of the Police Guard handed me a piece of paper. + +"Somebody in the crowd must have dropped it in my pocket," he said. On +the paper were scrawled these words: + +"_Look out for the Wild Dog!_" + +I sent the paper to Marston. + + + + +VII. AT LAST--THE TOURNAMENT + +At last--the tournament! Ever afterward the Hon. Samuel Budd called it +"The Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms--not of Ashby--but of the Gap, +by-suh!" The Hon. Samuel had arranged it as nearly after Sir Walter as +possible. And a sudden leap it was from the most modern of games to a +game most ancient. + +No knights of old ever jousted on a lovelier field than the green little +valley toward which the Hon. Sam waved one big hand. It was level, +shorn of weeds, elliptical in shape, and bound in by trees that ran in +a semicircle around the bank of the river, shut in the southern border, +and ran back to the northern extremity in a primeval little forest that +wood-thrushes, even then, were making musical--all of it shut in by +a wall of living green, save for one narrow space through which the +knights were to enter. In front waved Wallens' leafy ridge and behind +rose the Cumberland Range shouldering itself spur by spur, into the +coming sunset and crashing eastward into the mighty bulk of Powell's +Mountain, which loomed southward from the head of the valley--all +nodding sunny plumes of chestnut. + +The Hon. Sam had seen us coming from afar apparently, had come forward +to meet us, and he was in high spirits. + +"I am Prince John and Waldemar and all the rest of 'em this day," he +said, "and 'it is thus,'" quoting Sir Walter, "that we set the dutiful +example of loyalty to the Queen of Love and Beauty, and are ourselves +her guide to the throne which she must this day occupy." And so saying, +the Hon. Sam marshalled the Blight to a seat of honor next his own. + +"And how do you know she is going to be the Queen of Love and Beauty?" +asked the little sister. The Hon. Sam winked at me. + +"Well, this tournament lies between two gallant knights. One will make +her the Queen of his own accord, if he wins, and if the other wins, he's +got to, or I'll break his head. I've given orders." And the Hon. Sam +looked about right and left on the people who were his that day. + +"Observe the nobles and ladies," he said, still following Sir Walter, +and waving at the towns-people and visitors in the rude grandstand. +"Observe the yeomanry and spectators of a better degree than the mere +vulgar"--waving at the crowd on either side of the stand--"and the +promiscuous multitude down the river banks and over the woods and +clinging to the tree-tops and to yon telegraph-pole. And there is my +herald"--pointing to the cornetist of the local band--"and wait--by my +halidom--please just wait until you see my knight on that black charger +o' mine." + +The Blight and the little sister were convulsed and the Hon. Sam went +on: + +"Look at my men-at-arms"--the volunteer policemen with bulging +hip-pockets, dangling billies and gleaming shields of office--"and at my +refreshment tents behind"--where peanuts and pink lemonade were keeping +the multitude busy--"and my attendants"--colored gentlemen with sponges +and water-buckets--"the armorers and farriers haven't come yet. But my +knight--I got his clothes in New York--just wait--Love of Ladies and +Glory to the Brave!" Just then there was a commotion on the free seats +on one side of the grandstand. A darky starting, in all ignorance, to +mount them was stopped and jostled none too good-naturedly back to the +ground. + +"And see," mused the Hon. Sam, "in lieu of the dog of an unbeliever we +have a dark analogy in that son of Ham." + +The little sister plucked me by the sleeve and pointed toward the +entrance. Outside and leaning on the fence were Mollie, the big sister, +and little Buck. Straightway I got up and started for them. They hung +back, but I persuaded them to come, and I led them to seats two tiers +below the Blight--who, with my little sister, rose smiling to greet +them and shake hands--much to the wonder of the nobles and ladies close +about, for Mollie was in brave and dazzling array, blushing fiercely, +and little Buck looked as though he would die of such conspicuousness. +No embarrassing questions were asked about Mart or Dave Branham, but I +noticed that Mollie had purple and crimson ribbons clinched in one brown +hand. The purpose of them was plain, and I whispered to the Blight: + +"She's going to pin them on Dave's lance." The Hon. Sam heard me. + +"Not on your life," he said emphatically. "I ain't takin' chances," and +he nodded toward the Blight. "She's got to win, no matter who loses." He +rose to his feet suddenly. + +"Glory to the Brave--they're comin'! Toot that horn, son," he said; +"they're comin'," and the band burst into discordant sounds that would +have made the "wild barbaric music" on the field of Ashby sound like a +lullaby. The Blight stifled her laughter over that amazing music with +her handkerchief, and even the Hon. Sam scowled. + +"Gee!" he said; "it is pretty bad, isn't it?" + +"Here they come!" + +The nobles and ladies on the grandstand, the yeomanry and spectators of +better degree, and the promiscuous multitude began to sway expectantly +and over the hill came the knights, single file, gorgeous in velvets and +in caps, with waving plumes and with polished spears, vertical, resting +on the right stirrup foot and gleaming in the sun. + +"A goodly array!" murmured the Hon. Sam. + +A crowd of small boys gathered at the fence below, and I observed the +Hon. Sam's pockets bulging with peanuts. + +"Largesse!" I suggested. + +"Good!" he said, and rising he shouted: + +"Largessy! largessy!" scattering peanuts by the handful among the +scrambling urchins. + +Down wound the knights behind the back stand of the base-ball field, and +then, single file, in front of the nobles and ladies, before whom they +drew up and faced, saluting with inverted spears. + +The Hon. Sam arose--his truncheon a hickory stick--and in a stentorian +voice asked the names of the doughty knights who were there to win glory +for themselves and the favor of fair women. + +Not all will be mentioned, but among them was the Knight of the +Holston--Athelstanic in build--in black stockings, white negligee shirt, +with Byronic collar, and a broad crimson sash tied with a bow at his +right side. There was the Knight of the Green Valley, in green and gold, +a green hat with a long white plume, lace ruffles at his sleeves, and +buckles on dancing-pumps; a bonny fat knight of Maxwelton Braes, in +Highland kilts and a plaid; and the Knight at Large. + +"He ought to be caged," murmured the Hon. Sam; for the Knight at Large +wore plum-colored velvet, red base-ball stockings, held in place with +safety-pins, white tennis shoes, and a very small hat with a very long +plume, and the dye was already streaking his face. Marston was the +last--sitting easily on his iron gray. + +"And your name, Sir Knight?" + +"The Discarded," said Marston, with steady eyes. I felt the Blight start +at my side and sidewise I saw that her face was crimson. + +The Hon. Sam sat down, muttering, for he did not like Marston: + +"Wenchless springal!" + +Just then my attention was riveted on Mollie and little Buck. Both had +been staring silently at the knights as though they were apparitions, +but when Marston faced them I saw Buck clutch his sister's arm suddenly +and say something excitedly in her ear. Then the mouths of both +tightened fiercely and their eyes seemed to be darting lightning at the +unconscious knight, who suddenly saw them, recognized them, and smiled +past them at me. Again Buck whispered, and from his lips I could make +out what he said: + +"I wonder whar's Dave?" but Mollie did not answer. + +"Which is yours, Mr. Budd?" asked the little sister. The Hon. Sam had +leaned back with his thumbs in the arm-holes of his white waistcoat. + +"He ain't come yet. I told him to come last." + +The crowd waited and the knights waited--so long that the Mayor rose in +his seat some twenty feet away and called out: + +"Go ahead, Budd." + +"You jus' wait a minute--my man ain't come yet," he said easily, but +from various places in the crowd came jeering shouts from the men with +whom he had wagered and the Hon. Sam began to look anxious. + +"I wonder what is the matter?" he added in a lower tone. "I dressed him +myself more than an hour ago and I told him to come last, but I didn't +mean for him to wait till Christmas--ah!" + +The Hon. Sam sank back in his seat again. From somewhere had come +suddenly the blare of a solitary trumpet that rang in echoes around the +amphitheatre of the hills and, a moment later, a dazzling something shot +into sight above the mound that looked like a ball of fire, coming in +mid-air. The new knight wore a shining helmet and the Hon. Sam chuckled +at the murmur that rose and then he sat up suddenly. There was no face +under that helmet--the Hon. Sam's knight was MASKED and the Hon. Sam +slapped his thigh with delight. + +"Bully--bully! I never thought of it--I never thought of it--bully!" + +This was thrilling, indeed--but there was more; the strange knight's +body was cased in a flexible suit of glistening mail, his spear point, +when he raised it on high, shone like silver, and he came on like a +radiant star--on the Hon. Sam's charger, white-bridled, with long mane +and tail and black from tip of nose to tip of that tail as midnight. The +Hon. Sam was certainly doing it well. At a slow walk the stranger drew +alongside of Marston and turned his spear point downward. + +"Gawd!" said an old darky. "Ku-klux done come again." And, indeed, it +looked like a Ku-klux mask, white, dropping below the chin, and with +eye-holes through which gleamed two bright fires. + +The eyes of Buck and Mollie were turned from Marston at last, and +open-mouthed they stared. + +"Hit's the same hoss--hit's Dave!" said Buck aloud. + +"Well, my Lord!" said Mollie simply. + +The Hon. Sam rose again. + +"And who is Sir Tardy Knight that hither comes with masked face?" he +asked courteously. He got no answer. + +"What's your name, son?" + +The white mask puffed at the wearer's lips. + +"The Knight of the Cumberland," was the low, muffled reply. + +"Make him take that thing off!" shouted some one. + +"What's he got it on fer?" shouted another. + +"I don't know, friend," said the Hon. Sam; "but it is not my business +nor prithee thine; since by the laws of the tournament a knight may ride +masked for a specified time or until a particular purpose is achieved, +that purpose being, I wot, victory for himself and for me a handful of +byzants from thee." + +"Now, go ahead, Budd," called the Mayor again. "Are you going crazy?" + +The Hon. Sam stretched out his arms once to loosen them for gesture, +thrust his chest out, and uplifted his chin: "Fair ladies, nobles of the +realm, and good knights," he said sonorously, and he raised one hand to +his mouth and behind it spoke aside to me: + +"How's my voice--how's my voice?" + +"Great!" His question was genuine, for the mask of humor had dropped and +the man was transformed. I knew his inner seriousness, his oratorical +command of good English, and I knew the habit, not uncommon among +stump-speakers in the South, of falling, through humor, carelessness, or +for the effect of flattering comradeship, into all the lingual sins of +rural speech; but I was hardly prepared for the soaring flight the Hon. +Sam took now. He started with one finger pointed heavenward: + + "The knights are dust + And their good swords are rast; + Their souls are with the saints, we trust." + +"Scepticism is but a harmless phantom in these mighty hills. We BELIEVE +that with the saints is the GOOD knight's soul, and if, in the radiant +unknown, the eyes of those who have gone before can pierce the little +shadow that lies between, we know that the good knights of old look +gladly down on these good knights of to-day. For it is good to be +remembered. The tireless struggle for name and fame since the sunrise +of history attests it; and the ancestry worship in the East and the +world-wide hope of immortality show the fierce hunger in the human soul +that the memory of it not only shall not perish from this earth, but +that, across the Great Divide, it shall live on--neither forgetting nor +forgotten. You are here in memory of those good knights to prove that +the age of chivalry is not gone; that though their good swords are rust, +the stainless soul of them still illumines every harmless spear point +before me and makes it a torch that shall reveal, in your own hearts +still aflame, their courage, their chivalry, their sense of protection +for the weak, and the honor in which they held pure women, brave men, +and almighty God. + +"The tournament, some say, goes back to the walls of Troy. The form of +it passed with the windmills that Don Quixote charged. It is with you to +keep the high spirit of it an ever-burning vestal fire. It was a deadly +play of old--it is a harmless play to you this day. But the prowess of +the game is unchanged; for the skill to strike those pendent rings is no +less than was the skill to strike armor-joint, visor, or plumed crest. +It was of old an exercise for deadly combat on the field of battle; it +is no less an exercise now to you for the field of life--for the quick +eye, the steady nerve, and the deft hand which shall help you strike the +mark at which, outside these lists, you aim. And the crowning triumph +is still just what it was of old--that to the victor the Rose of his +world--made by him the Queen of Love and Beauty for us all--shall give +her smile and with her own hands place on his brow a thornless crown." + +Perfect silence honored the Hon. Samuel Budd. The Mayor was nodding +vigorous approval, the jeering ones kept still, and when after the last +deep-toned word passed like music from his lips the silence held sway +for a little while before the burst of applause came. Every knight had +straightened in his saddle and was looking very grave. Marston's eyes +never left the speaker's face, except once, when they turned with an +unconscious appeal, I thought, to the downcast face of Blight--whereat +the sympathetic little sister seemed close to tears. The Knight of the +Cumberland shifted in his saddle as though he did not quite understand +what was going on, and once Mollie, seeing the eyes through the +mask-holes fixed on her, blushed furiously, and little Buck grinned back +a delighted recognition. The Hon. Sam sat down, visibly affected by his +own eloquence; slowly he wiped his face and then he rose again. + +"Your colors, Sir Knights," he said, with a commanding wave of his +truncheon, and one by one the knights spurred forward and each held +his lance into the grandstand that some fair one might tie thereon the +colors he was to wear. Marston, without looking at the Blight, held his +up to the little sister and the Blight carelessly turned her face while +the demure sister was busy with her ribbons, but I noticed that the +little ear next to me was tingling red for all her brave look of +unconcern. Only the Knight of the Cumberland sat still. + +"What!" said the Hon. Sam, rising to his feet, his eyes twinkling and +his mask of humor on again; "sees this masked springal"--the Hon. Sam +seemed much enamored of that ancient word--"no maid so fair that he +will not beg from her the boon of colors gay that he may carry them to +victory and receive from her hands a wreath therefor?" Again the Knight +of the Cumberland seemed not to know that the Hon. Sam's winged words +were meant for him, so the statesman translated them into a mutual +vernacular. + +"Remember what I told you, son," he said. "Hold up yo' spear here to +some one of these gals jes' like the other fellows are doin'," and as he +sat down he tried surreptitiously to indicate the Blight with his +index finger, but the knight failed to see and the Blight's face was +so indignant and she rebuked him with such a knife-like whisper that, +humbled, the Hon. Sam collapsed in his seat, muttering: + +"The fool don't know you--he don't know you." + +For the Knight of the Cumberland had turned the black horse's head and +was riding, like Ivanhoe, in front of the nobles and ladies, his eyes +burning up at them through the holes in his white mask. Again he turned, +his mask still uplifted, and the behavior of the beauties there, as on +the field of Ashby, was no whit changed: "Some blushed, some assumed an +air of pride and dignity, some looked straight forward and essayed to +seem utterly unconscious of what was going on, some drew back in alarm +which was perhaps affected, some endeavored to forbear smiling and there +were two or three who laughed outright." Only none "dropped a veil over +her charms" and thus none incurred the suspicion, as on that field of +Ashby, that she was "a beauty of ten years' standing" whose motive, +gallant Sir Walter supposes in defence, however, was doubtless "a +surfeit of such vanities and a willingness to give a fair chance to +the rising beauties of the age." But the most conscious of the fair +was Mollie below, whose face was flushed and whose brown fingers were +nervously twisting the ribbons in her lap, and I saw Buck nudge her and +heard him whisper: + +"Dave ain't going to pick YOU out, I tell ye. I heered Mr. Budd thar +myself tell him he HAD to pick out some other gal." + +"You hush!" said Mollie indignantly. + +It looked as though the Knight of the Cumberland had grown rebellious +and meant to choose whom he pleased, but on his way back the Hon. +Sam must have given more surreptitious signs, for the Knight of the +Cumberland reined in before the Blight and held up his lance to her. +Straightway the colors that were meant for Marston fluttered from the +Knight of the Cumberland's spear. I saw Marston bite his lips and I saw +Mollie's face aflame with fury and her eyes darting lightning--no +longer at Marston now, but at the Blight. The mountain girl held nothing +against the city girl because of the Wild Dog's infatuation, but that +her own lover, no matter what the Hon. Sam said, should give his homage +also to the Blight, in her own presence, was too much. Mollie looked +around no more. Again the Hon. Sam rose. + +"Love of ladies," he shouted, "splintering of lances! Stand forth, +gallant knights. Fair eyes look upon your deeds! Toot again, son!" + +Now just opposite the grandstand was a post some ten feet high, with a +small beam projecting from the top toward the spectators. From the end +of this hung a wire, the end of which was slightly upturned in line with +the course, and on the tip of this wire a steel ring about an inch in +diameter hung lightly. Nearly forty yards below this was a similar +ring similarly arranged; and at a similar distance below that was +still another, and at the blast from the Hon. Sam's herald, the +gallant knights rode slowly, two by two, down the lists to the western +extremity--the Discarded Knight and the Knight of the Cumberland, +stirrup to stirrup, riding last--where they all drew up in line, some +fifty yards beyond the westernmost post. This distance they took that +full speed might be attained before jousting at the first ring, since +the course--much over one hundred yards long--must be covered in seven +seconds or less, which was no slow rate of speed. The Hon. Sam arose +again: + +"The Knight of the Holston!" + +Farther down the lists a herald took up the same cry and the good knight +of Athelstanic build backed his steed from the line and took his place +at the head of the course. + +With his hickory truncheon the Hon. Sam signed to his trumpeter to sound +the onset. + +"Now, son!" he said. + +With the blare of the trumpet Athelstane sprang from his place and came +up the course, his lance at rest; a tinkling sound and the first ring +slipped down the knight's spear and when he swept past the last post +there was a clapping of hands, for he held three rings triumphantly +aloft. And thus they came, one by one, until each had run the course +three times, the Discarded jousting next to the last and the Knight of +the Cumberland, riding with a reckless Cave, Adsum air, the very last. +At the second joust it was quite evident that the victory lay between +these two, as they only had not lost a single ring, and when the black +horse thundered by, the Hon. Sam shouted "Brave lance!" and jollied +his betting enemies, while Buck hugged himself triumphantly and Mollie +seemed temporarily to lose her chagrin and anger in pride of her lover, +Dave. On the third running the Knight of the Cumberland excited a +sensation by sitting upright, waving his lance up and down between the +posts and lowering it only when the ring was within a few feet of its +point. His recklessness cost him one ring, but as the Discarded had lost +one, they were still tied, with eight rings to the credit of each, for +the first prize. Only four others were left--the Knight of the Holston +and the Knight of the Green Valley tying with seven rings for second +prize, and the fat Maxwelton Braes and the Knight at Large tying with +six rings for the third. The crowd was eager now and the Hon. Sam +confident. On came the Knight at Large, his face a rainbow, his plume +wilted and one red base-ball stocking slipped from its moorings--two +rings! On followed the fat Maxwelton, his plaid streaming and his kilts +flapping about his fat legs--also two rings! + +"Egad!" quoth the Hon. Sam. "Did yon lusty trencherman of Annie Laurie's +but put a few more layers of goodly flesh about his ribs, thereby +projecting more his frontal Falstaffian proportions, by my halidom, he +would have to joust tandem!" + +On came Athelstane and the Knight of the Green Valley, both with but two +rings to their credit, and on followed the Discarded, riding easily, and +the Knight of the Cumberland again waving his lance between the posts, +each with three rings on his spear. At the end the Knight at Large +stood third, Athelstane second, and the Discarded and the Knight of the +Cumberland stood side by side at the head of the course, still even, and +now ready to end the joust, for neither on the second trial had missed a +ring. + +The excitement was intense now. Many people seemed to know who the +Knight of the Cumberland was, for there were shouts of "Go it, Dave!" +from everywhere; the rivalry of class had entered the contest and now +it was a conflict between native and "furriner." The Hon. Sam was almost +beside himself with excitement; now and then some man with whom he had +made a bet would shout jeeringly at him and the Hon. Sam would shout +back defiance. But when the trumpet sounded he sat leaning forward with +his brow wrinkled and his big hands clinched tight. Marston sped up the +course first--three rings--and there was a chorus of applauding yells. + +"His horse is gittin' tired," said the Hon. Sam jubilantly, and the +Blight's face, I noticed, showed for the first time faint traces of +indignation. The Knight of the Cumberland was taking no theatrical +chances now and he came through the course with level spear and, with +three rings on it, he shot by like a thunderbolt. + +"Hooray!" shouted the Hon. Sam. "Lord, what a horse!" For the first time +the Blight, I observed, failed to applaud, while Mollie was clapping her +hands and Buck was giving out shrill yells of encouragement. At the +next tilt the Hon. Sam had his watch in his hand and when he saw the +Discarded digging in his spurs he began to smile and he was looking at +his watch when the little tinkle in front told him that the course was +run. + +"Did he get 'em all?" + +"Yes, he got 'em all," mimicked the Blight. + +"Yes, an' he just did make it," chuckled the Hon. Sam. The Discarded +had wheeled his horse aside from the course to watch his antagonist. He +looked pale and tired--almost as tired as his foam-covered steed--but +his teeth were set and his face was unmoved as the Knight of the +Cumberland came on like a demon, sweeping off the last ring with a low, +rasping oath of satisfaction. + +"I never seed Dave ride that-a-way afore," said Mollie. + +"Me, neither," chimed in Buck. + +The nobles and ladies were waving handkerchiefs, clapping hands, and +shouting. The spectators of better degree were throwing up their +hats and from every part of the multitude the same hoarse shout of +encouragement rose: + +"Go it, Dave! Hooray for Dave!" while the boy on the telegraph-pole was +seen to clutch wildly at the crossbar on which he sat--he had come near +tumbling from his perch. + +The two knights rode slowly back to the head of the lists, where the +Discarded was seen to dismount and tighten his girth. + +"He's tryin' to git time to rest," said the Hon. Sam. "Toot, son!" + +"Shame!" said the little sister and the Blight both at once so severely +that the Hon. Sam quickly raised his hand. + +"Hold on," he said, and with hand still uplifted he waited till Marston +was mounted again. "Now!" + +The Discarded came on, using his spurs with every jump, the red of his +horse's nostrils showing that far away, and he swept on, spearing off +the rings with deadly accuracy and holding the three aloft, but having +no need to pull in his panting steed, who stopped of his own accord. +Up went a roar, but the Hon. Sam, covertly glancing at his watch, still +smiled. That watch he pulled out when the Knight of the Cumberland +started and he smiled still when he heard the black horse's swift, +rhythmic beat and he looked up only when that knight, shouting to his +horse, moved his lance up and down before coming to the last ring and, +with a dare-devil yell, swept it from the wire. + +"Tied--tied!" was the shout; "they've got to try it again! they've got +to try it again!" + +The Hon. Sam rose, with his watch in one hand and stilling the tumult +with the other. Dead silence came at once. + +"I fear me," he said, "that the good knight, the Discarded, has failed +to make the course in the time required by the laws of the tournament." +Bedlam broke loose again and the Hon. Sam waited, still gesturing for +silence. + +"Summon the time-keeper!" he said. + +The time-keeper appeared from the middle of the field and nodded. + +"Eight seconds!" "The Knight of the Cumberland wins," said the Hon. Sam. + +The little sister, unconscious of her own sad face, nudged me to look at +the Blight--there were tears in her eyes. + + +Before the grandstand the knights slowly drew up again. Marston's horse +was so lame and tired that he dismounted and let a darky boy lead him +under the shade of the trees. But he stood on foot among the other +knights, his arms folded, worn out and vanquished, but taking his bitter +medicine like a man. I thought the Blight's eyes looked pityingly upon +him. + +The Hon. Sam arose with a crown of laurel leaves in his hand: + +"You have fairly and gallantly won, Sir Knight of the Cumberland, and +it is now your right to claim and receive from the hands of the Queen +of Love and Beauty the chaplet of honor which your skill has justly +deserved. Advance, Sir Knight of the Cumberland, and dismount!" + +The Knight of the Cumberland made no move nor sound. + +"Get off yo' hoss, son," said the Hon. Sam kindly, "and get down on yo' +knees at the feet of them steps. This fair young Queen is a-goin' to put +this chaplet on your shinin' brow. That horse'll stand." + +The Knight of the Cumberland, after a moment's hesitation, threw his leg +over the saddle and came to the steps with a slouching gait and looking +about him right and left. The Blight, blushing prettily, took the +chaplet and went down the steps to meet him. + +"Unmask!" I shouted. + +"Yes, son," said the Hon. Sam, "take that rag off." + +Then Mollie's voice, clear and loud, startled the crowd. "You better +not, Dave Branham, fer if you do and this other gal puts that thing +on you, you'll never--" What penalty she was going to inflict, I don't +know, for the Knight of the Cumberland, half kneeling, sprang suddenly +to his feet and interrupted her. "Wait a minute, will ye?" he said +almost fiercely, and at the sound of his voice Mollie rose to her feet +and her face blanched. + +"Lord God!" she said almost in anguish, and then she dropped quickly to +her seat again. + +The Knight of the Cumberland had gone back to his horse as though to get +something from his saddle. Like lightning he vaulted into the saddle, +and as the black horse sprang toward the opening tore his mask from his +face, turned in his stirrups, and brandished his spear with a yell of +defiance, while a dozen voices shouted: + +"The Wild Dog!" Then was there an uproar. + +"Goddle mighty!" shouted the Hon. Sam. "I didn't do it, I swear I didn't +know it. He's tricked me--he's tricked me! Don't shoot--you might hit +that hoss!" + +There was no doubt about the Hon. Sam's innocence. Instead of turning +over an outlaw to the police, he had brought him into the inner shrine +of law and order and he knew what a political asset for his enemies that +insult would be. And there was no doubt of the innocence of Mollie and +Buck as they stood, Mollie wringing her hands and Buck with open mouth +and startled face. There was no doubt about the innocence of anybody +other than Dave Branham and the dare-devil Knight of the Cumberland. + +Marston had clutched at the Wild Dog's bridle and missed and the outlaw +struck savagely at him with his spear. Nobody dared to shoot because of +the scattering crowd, but every knight and every mounted policeman took +out after the outlaw and the beating of hoofs pounded over the little +mound and toward Poplar Hill. Marston ran to his horse at the upper end, +threw his saddle on, and hesitated--there were enough after the Wild +Dog and his horse was blown. He listened to the yells and sounds of the +chase encircling Poplar Hill. The outlaw was making for Lee. All at once +the yells and hoof-beats seemed to sound nearer and Marston listened, +astonished. The Wild Dog had wheeled and was coming back; he was going +to make for the Gap, where sure safety lay. Marston buckled his girth +and as he sprang on his horse, unconsciously taking his spear with +him, the Wild Dog dashed from the trees at the far end of the field. As +Marston started the Wild Dog saw him, pulled something that flashed from +under his coat of mail, thrust it back again, and brandishing his spear, +he came, full speed and yelling, up the middle of the field. It was a +strange thing to happen in these modern days, but Marston was an officer +of the law and was between the Wild Dog and the Ford and liberty through +the Gap, into the hills. The Wild Dog was an outlaw. It was Marston's +duty to take him. + +The law does not prescribe with what weapon the lawless shall be +subdued, and Marston's spear was the only weapon he had. Moreover, the +Wild Dog's yell was a challenge that set his blood afire and the +girl both loved was looking on. The crowd gathered the meaning of the +joust--the knights were crashing toward each other with spears at rest. +There were a few surprised oaths from men, a few low cries from women, +and then dead silence in which the sound of hoofs on the hard turf was +like thunder. The Blight's face was white and the little sister was +gripping my arm with both hands. A third horseman shot into view out of +the woods at tight angles, to stop them, and it seemed that the three +horses must crash together in a heap. With a moan the Blight buried her +face on my shoulder. She shivered when the muffled thud of body against +body and the splintering of wood rent the air; a chorus of shrieks +arose about her, and when she lifted her frightened face Marston, the +Discarded, was limp on the ground, his horse was staggering to his feet, +and the Wild Dog was galloping past her, his helmet gleaming, his eyes +ablaze, his teeth set, the handle of his broken spear clinched in his +right hand, and blood streaming down the shoulder of the black horse. +She heard the shots that were sent after him, she heard him plunge into +the river, and then she saw and heard no more. + + + + +VIII. THE KNIGHT PASSES + +A telegram summoned the Blight a home next day. Marston was in bed with +a ragged wound in the shoulder, and I took her to tell him good-by. I +left the room for a few minutes, and when I came back their hands were +unclasping, and for a Discarded Knight the engineer surely wore a happy +though pallid face. + +That afternoon the train on which we left the Gap was brought to a +sudden halt in Wildcat Valley by a piece of red flannel tied to the end +of a stick that was planted midway the track. Across the track, farther +on, lay a heavy piece of timber, and it was plain that somebody meant +that, just at that place, the train must stop. The Blight and I were +seated on the rear platform and the Blight was taking a last look at +her beloved hills. When the train started again, there was a cracking of +twigs overhead and a shower of rhododendron leaves and flowers dropped +from the air at the feet of the Blight. And when we pulled away from the +high-walled cut we saw, motionless on a little mound, a black horse, and +on him, motionless, the Knight of the Cumberland, the helmet on his +head (that the Blight might know who he was, no doubt), and both hands +clasping the broken handle of his spear, which rested across the pommel +of his saddle. Impulsively the Blight waved her hand to him and I could +not help waving my hat; but he sat like a statue and, like a statue, +sat on, simply looking after us as we were hurried along, until horse, +broken shaft, and shoulders sank out of sight. And thus passed the +Knight of the Cumberland with the last gleam that struck his helmet, +spear-like, from the slanting sun. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Knight of the Cumberland, by John Fox Jr. + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 324.txt or 324.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/324/ + +Produced by Mike Lough + +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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