The Huttig news., 1914-12-19

CHAPTER II-Samson South and Sally. taking Lescott to Samson's home, are met by Spicer South, head of the family who tells them that Jesse Purvy has been shot, and that Samson is suspected of the crime. Samson denies it.
 The daughter went to a rear win. dow and gazed up at the mountain. The cloudless skies were still in hid ing behind a curtain of mist. The woman was idly watching the vanish ing fog wraiths. and her father came over to her side. Then the baby cried and she stepped back. Purvy himself remained at the window It was thing he did not often do. It left him exposed but the most cautiously i guarded life has its moments ot re faxed vigilance. He stood there DOS. sibly thirty seconds, then a sharp fu sillade of clear reports parked out and was shattered by the hills into tong reverberation. With hand elasped to his chest, Purvy turned, walked to the middle of the floor, and fell
 The heDchmen rushed to the open sash. They leaped out and plunged up the mountain, tempting the assas- i sins fire, but the assassin was satis- fled. The mountain was again as quiet as it had been at dawn. Inside, at the middle of the store, Jesse Purvy shifted his head against his daugh- ter's knee and said as one stating an expected event:
 Well they've got me"
 An ordinary mountaineer would have been carried home to die in the darkness of a dirty and wiDdowless shack The long-suffering star of Jesse Purvy ordained otherwise. He might go under or he might once more beat his way back and out of the quick sands of death. At all events, he would fight for life to the last gasp.
 Twenty miles away in the core of the wilderness, removed from rail- road by a score of semi-perpendeula miles, fanatic had once decided to found a school
 Now faculty of ten men taught such as cared to come such things as they cared to learn Higher up the hillside stood a small, but model hos ptal, with modern operating table and a case of surgical instruments, which, it was said, the state could not surpass.
 To this haven Jesse Purvy, the mur- der lord, was borne in litter carried on the shoulders of his dependents. Here, as his steadfast guardian star deereed, he found two prominent med ical visitors who hurried him to the operating table. Later be was re- moved to white bed, with the June sparkle in his eyes. pleasantly modu. lated through drawn blinds. and the June rustic and bird chorus in his ears-and his own thoughts in his brain.
 Conscious, but in great pain. Purvy beckoned Jim Asberry and Aaron HOl. lis. his chiefs oi bodyguard, to his bed. side and waved the nurse back cut or hearing.
 If I don't get we'll" he said feebly, there's job for you two boys. reckon you know what it is?"
 They nodded, and Asberry whis- peIeu name.
 Samson South?'
 Yes" Purvy spoke in whisper; but the old vindictiveness was not smothered. You got the old man I reckon you can manage the cub. If you don't he'll get you both one day"
 The two henchmen scowled
 'I'll git him tomorrer," growled As- berry. Thar haint no sort of use in a-waitin"
 "No!" For an instant Purvy's voice rose out of it's weakness to it's old staccato tone of command, a tone which brought obedience. of l get we'll I have other plans Never mind what they are That's my business. If don't die, leave him alone, until l give other orders.
 If l get we'll and Samson South is killed meanwhile 1 won't live long either. It would be my life for his. Keep close to him. The minute you hear of my death-get him." He paused gain, then supplemented, You two will find something mighty interestin' in my will"
 It was afternoon when Purvy reached the hospital, and, at nightfall of the same day, there arrived at his stores entrance, on stumbling, hard ridden mules, several men, followed by two tawny hounds whose long ears Tapped over their lean jaws, and whose eyes were listless and tired. but whose black muzzles wrinkled and sniffed with that sensitive instinct which follows the man scent. The ex- sheriff's family were instituting pro- ceedings independent of the chiefs or ders. The next morning this party plunged into the mountain tangle and beat the cover with the bloodhounds in leash.
 The two gentle-faced dogs picked their way between the towering rho- dodendrons. the glistening laurels, the feathery pine sprouts and the moss covered rocks They went gingerly and alertly on ungainly, cushioned feet. Just as their masters were de- spairing they came to a place directly