The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1896-03-19

The fire of enmity, however. was
never suffered to die. There were fit
full bursts of flame from time to time,
and fresh fuel was added when the
sleepy village of Tregarthen awoke one
morning to find itself the headquarters
of the Tregarthen Coal & Iron COM
pany. All of the coal and iron land on
the mountain belonged originally to
the Latimer estate, but the Bynums had
disputed with the colonel the owner
ship to one of the coal veins which
cropped out near the boundary of Nc
Nabb's cove. They.were defeated in the
litigation that followed, and the old
feud lost none of it's rancor by the de-
cision of the courts. When its right to
the McNabb vein had been established
the company had endeavored to open it,
hut the overhanging stratum of sand
stohe proved to be singularly intracta-
able, and the further development of
the vein was postponed until such time
as the depth of the other workings
would make it less costly to timber the
Nc Nabb tunnel. Opinions varied as
TO the cause Of the difficulty in the
McNabb. Expert mining engineers
had declared that the sandstone form
ing the roof Of the tunnel was as
tenacious as that everything the other
veins, and that there was no apparent
reason why it should require timber
ing; but the indubitable facerfmained
While the work Of development was IN
Progress, tho miners frequently found
tbs labor of a week undone in a single
tfight by q caying of the roof which
; iafed the tunnel with broken rock.
i.ueiow had It's own theory about these
sis2yate1ioug accidents, but he kept it to
; hip5sefs Itiwassuggestedb by tkosmell
Of ,blgclz powder which, he detected
ono lhotning when lie was examining
tn debris that had fallen during the
previous eight 1t struck him as be-
nag curious, because he knew that the
WinersTero usipgdynanitc; and it led
to a series Ct casual inquiries amorg
the dWellef5 in Harmony Valley near
Cst 40 the entrance to McNabb's Cove.
'Fhe replies were not entirely ccnvinc-
ing, because the nocturnal noises heard
b. tho valley folk might have been
BcE.Ti mere than the~coecussion of
the, falling rock; but Ludlow heard
enough to make him believe that when
it became necessary to tale coal from
the McNahb vein Il night-guard at the
tauael would possibly avert disaster
I.ose e1lieicatIytian the most elaborate
system u t,mb3riug tg454-fv
Il Was duggg the progress of the
lGw-snit that JEFF Bynum returned to
the farm in McNabb's Cove; and the
rulAor which had Pointed 10 Texas as
the objective d h rligrahio;iwsa con-
fllned by lis cW'n story Of his Wander
irgs Not coMtcntcd, however, with
this tribute to its veracity, gossip again
busted Itself with his affairs, ard there
were vague hints OF q laWless sojourn
in the Lone Star state, coupled With a
sill more indefinite intimaton that his
career III tie west lad terminated in
or5F clir"o,
One other element Of discoTd had
been added by tho passing years to the
LaNmcr side Of the feud, in the person
OF the coloncrg son Henry. The boys
'1nothcr, o whose gentle inhucncc the
frc2ldc cossips oflrrcga them asc.ibc
the cessation OF feudal strife during her
shcet life al Tho LaGwls," died While
Hester and Henry were children, and
the boy had early learned the lesson
Of vndietiyeness from the lips of over
loyal servants. Uniting with hasty
and impcrlous temper a contempt of
restraint curious i'll a descendant Of the
conservative old Virginian, his rashness
became q constant menace to the pre-
carlous truce existing between the two
families; and as Henry grew to man
hood, the colonel was often reluctant
ly compelled to take the side of peace
for the sake of setting an example be-
fore his son.
In the case of the daughter, educa-
ton i'll a boarding-school, where she
had spent the greater portion of her
girlhood, and later, association with
the Ludlows, had done much to modify
her childish ideas of feudal vengeance;
but she was still enough Of q partisan
10 be very warm in her defense of the
Latimer rights, and in common with
her brother, she could never believe
that anything but vindictiye malice
actuated the doings of the family in
McNabb's Cove.
Don't you think you are little in
clined to judge them harshly, my dear?"
Mrs. Ludlow had once vcntured to ask.
when Hester had been expressing her
contempt for the Bynums and every
thing connected with them.
mo, ma'am, I'm not If you knew
them as we'll as we do, you wouldn't
ask such question"
II don't know them at all, but from
whit you tell me gather that they are
poor and ignorant, and that they have
had much the worst of the fight all
along. Can't you be a generous en-
emy?"
"They never give one q chance to be
generous. You've no idea how mean
they are. I've heard old Aunt Betty
tell how mamma tried to make peace
when old Mrs. Bynum was sick Nam.
ma sent basket of jellies and d, mites
down to the cove, and the next morn
ing the basket and everything in it was
found on our doorstep, smashed into
bits" -
THAT was certainly vindictive-ant
childish. Still l think you might for