Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-12-22
THE HOOSIER
SChoo1-MaEter.
BY EDWARD EGGLESTON.
CHAPTER XVIII.
TrrH Er rrrru

| feet by sheer force of will. An,
such an exercise of psychic power
is very eXhausting. In racing on TIN,
| Ohio the engineer sometimes sends tn
largest of the firemen to hold tin
safety-valve down, and this he doe
| by hanging himself to the lever 10y
his hands. Ralph felt that he hac
been holding the safety valve down
| and that he was so weary of the ope
ration that an explosion would be /;
real relief. He was little tired o
having everybody look at him as
thief. 1t was little irksome to know
that new bolts were put on the door
of the houses in which he had staid
And now that Shocky was gore
and Bud had turned against him, anC
Aunt Matilda suspected him. anC
even poor, weak, exquisite Walter
Johnson would not associate will
him, he felt himself an outlaw indeed
He would have gone away to Texas Of
the new gold-felds in California haC
it not been for one thing. That lettel
on blue fOOls-cap paper kept a LITTLE
warmth in his heart.
His course from school on the eve
ming that something happened lay
through the sugar-camD. Among tho
dark trunks of the NAPLES, solemn
and lofty pillars, he debated the case
TO stay, or to flee? The worn nerves
could not keep their present tension
much longer.
1t was just by the brook, or, as they
say in Indiana, the branch" that
something happened which brought
him to a sudden decision. Ralph
never afterward could forget that
Brook. 1t was a swift-running little
stream, that did not babble blatantly
over the stones. 1t ran through q
thicket of willows, through the sugar,
camp, and out into Means's pasture
Ralph had just ran through the thick
ct, had just crossed the brook on the
half-decayed log that spanned it,
when, as he emerged from the water
willows on the other side, he started
with a sudden shock. For there was
Hannah, with q white, white face,
holding out little note folded like an
Ole-fashioned thumb-paper.
go quick :" she stammered as she
slipped it into Ralph's hand, inadver-
tently touching his fingers with heI
own-a touch that went tingling
through the school-master's nerves tC
his heart. But she had hardly said
the words until she was gone down
the brookside path and over into the
pasture. 4 few minutes afterward
she drove Tie cows up into the lot anC
meekly took her scolding from Mrs
Means for being gone sech an awful
long time, like lazy, good-fer-nothin
niapa of frOO6C that she was
Ralph opened the thumb-paper note
written on a page torn from an ole
copy-book, in Buds "hand-write" and
running:
"Mr. Heartsook
deer Sur:
Put in my best licks, faint no use
Run fer yore life. A plans on foot tC
tar an fether or wGss tonight. Go rite
off. Things is awful jubercus. BUD
The first question with Ralph wa:
whether he could depend on Bud. Blu
he soon made up his mind that treach'
cry of this sort was not one of hi:
traits. He had Elourned over the des
truction of Buds good resolutions by
Martha Hawkins's refusal, and being
disinterested party he could have
comforted Bud by explaining Mar
tha's mitten." But he felt sure tha
Bud was not treacherous. 1t was {
relief, then, as he stood there to know
that the false truce was over, anC
worst had come to worst.
His first impulse was to stay anC
fight. But his nerves were not strong
enough to execute so foolhardy reso
luton. He seemed to see man be
hind every maple-trunk. Darkness
was fast coming OH, and he knew tina
his absence from supper at his board
ing-place could not fail to excite sus
piciOn. There Was no time to be lost
So he started.
Let one once start TO run from /;
danger, and panic is apt to ensue
The forests, the stalk fields, the dari
hollows through which he passed
seemed to be peopled with terrors. He
knew Small and Jones well enough e
know that every avenue of escape
would be carefully picketed. So there
was nothing to do but to take the
shortest path to the old trysting-place
the Spring-in-rock.
Here he sat and shook with terror
Mad with himself, he inly denounced
himself Tor a coward. But the effec
was really a physical one. The chill
and panic now were the reaction from
the previous strain.
For when the sound of his pursu
ers' voices broke upon his ears early
in the evening, Ralph shook no more
the warm blood set back again to
ward the eXtremities, and his self
control returned when he needed it
He gathered some stones about him
as the only weapons of defense a
hand. The mob was on the cliff above
But he thought that he heard foot
steps on the bed Ofthe creek below. /
this were so, there could be no doub
that his hiding-place was suspected.
80 Hank ~ shouted Bud from the
top of the cliff to some one III The
creek below, abe sure to look at th'
Spring-in-rock-I think he's there"
This hint was not lost on Ralph
who speedily changed his quarters by
climbing up to a secluded, shelflikt
ledge above the spring. He was none
too soon, for Pete Jones and Hank;
Banta were soon looking around the
spring for him, while he held TWEEN
ty-pound stone over their heads ready
TO drop upon them in case they SHOULD
think of looking on the ledge above
When the crowd were gone Ralph
knew that one road was open to him
He could follow down the creek Il
Clifty, and thence he might escape
But, travelling down to Clifty, he de
bated whether it was best to escape
To fee was to confess his guilt, u
make himself an outlaw, to put an IN
surmountable barrier between himsel
and Hannah, whose terror-stricker
and anxious face rs she stood by th'
brook-wiIlows haunted him now, an6
was an involuntary witness to he
love.
Long before he reached Clifty hi
mind was made up not to flee anothe
mile. He knocked at the door o
Squire Underwood. But Squire I'm
derwood was also doctor, and hat
been called away. He knocked at tn
door of Squire DOolittle. But Squin
Doolittle had gone to Lewisburg, HI
was about to give up all hope of beini
able to surrender himself 10 the Law
when he met Squire Hawkins. VIII
| had come over to Clifty To avoid res