The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-02-18

11S dppeareu u moment later with his rifle.
son is not a necessary qualification for
the writer OF stories. 1t is true that he
must recognize it's existence, and he
must be upon sufficiently intimate terms
able to imbue his heroes with proper
degree OF contempt for their personal
safety; beyond this, the exigencies of
the art demand nothing, and the artist
himself may be the most humble votary
of the goddess of common sense. Some
such thought as this came to Ringbrand
as he made his way down the mountain.
The successive scenes of his uneventful
life passed in review like the pictures
of retrospective panorama. Now that
he thought of it, he saw that all of his
lines OF conduct had been drawn
we'll upon the hither side of personal
antagonism-that he had always been
averse to anything approaching an ar
bitrament of force. With well-mean-
ing sophistry, he had argued himself
into the belief that contempt for mere
physical courage was part of the
thoughtful mans protest against bru-
tality and the unconvincing logic of
appeals to physical superiority; but he
remembered, with sharp little sting
of modification, that these fine-spun
theories had been swept aside like cob
webs on the few occasions when he had
been brought face to face with personal
danger. 1t was not necessary to go far
foran example; flush of shame glowed
in his face when he recalled the small
fit of terror that had seized him but an
hour before, when he had stood help
lessly watching Henry trying to get
the lodging shadow within the range of
his rifle.
After that, his thoughts kept him but
Indifferent company for the rest of his
walk, and he reached Tregarthen, and
his room at the Ludlows', without hav-
ing arrived at any more definite conclu-
sion than a determination to ask his
friend for an explanation of the Incl
dent at The Laurels," and to get there
with so much of the Latimer history as
Ludlow might be able to recite.
The latter enlightened him, cheerful
ly, on their way to the furnace the next
morning, sFhat was probably one of
the Bynums." he said. ''though why he
should risk his skin Mt such close quar-
ters can't imagine. They're bad lot,
though-equal to almost anything, I'm
afraid"
who are the Bynums, and why
But don't make me pull it out of you by
Titles; tell me the whole story"
"Is it possible that you've been in Ire
garthen all this time and haven't yet
heard of the Latimer-Bynum feud?"
TITS more than possiblei it's fact"
well, it's long story. but I'll con-
dense it for you. Old Squire Latimer,
the colonel's father, was instrumental
in bringing one of former generation
of the Bynums to justice for the mur-
der of revenue officer. Since that time
there's been a running fight between
the two families; the squire had his
house burned, and subsequently lost his
life, presumably at the hands of the fa-
ther Oh the present family pf Bynpms.
i qualify because there seems to be
little doubt about the murder part, now,
although the squire's neighbors were
well enough satisfied to hang John By
mum by the summary process of lynch
law. OF course the row couldn't be
expected to end with a single lynching,
and when the boys grew up they began