The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-03-06

must be in different fashion Changes
are coming. We can't any longer stand
still"
Spicer South lighted his pipe. He,
too, in these last years, had seen in
the distance the crest OF the oncoming
wave.
81 reckon there's right smart truth
to that" he acknowledged. I've been
studyin' bout hit considerable myself Of
| late. Thar's been sev'ral fellers
through the country talkin' coal an
! timber an railroads-an' SIGH like"
Sally went to mill that Saturday,
and with her rode Samson. There, be-
sides Vile McCager, he met Caleb
Wiley and several others. At first,
they received him skeptically, but they
knew of the visit to Purvy's store, and
they were willing to admit that in part
at least he had erased the blot from
his escutcheon. Then, too, except for
cropped hair and a white skin, he had
come back as he had gone, in home
spun and hickory. There was nothing
highfalutin in his manners. In short,
the impression was good.
81 reckon now that ye're back,
Samson" suggested McCager, ''an' see
in how yere Uncle Spicer is gettin'
along all right, I'll jest let the two Of
We run things. I've done had enough"
1t was a simple fashion Of resigning
a regency, but effectual.
Old Caleb, however, still insurgent
and unconvinced, brought in minor
ity report.
I'VE wants fightin' men," he grum-
bled, with the senile reiteration of his
age, as he spat tobacco and beat rat
tat on the mill floor with his long
hickory staff. I'VE don't want no de-
! serters."
Samson amt a deserter," defended
Sally. There isn't one of you fit to
tie his shoes" Sally and old Spicer
South alone knew of her lovers letter
to the circuit judge, and they were
pledged to secrecy.
Never mind, SallyI" It was Sam
son himself who answered her. q
didn't come back because I care what
men like old Caleb think. came back
because they needed me. The proof of
a fighting man is his fighting, reckon.
I'm willing to let 'em judge me by
what I'm going to do
So, Samson slipped back, tentative
ly, at least, into his place as clan head,
though for a time he found it a post
without action. After the fierce out
burst of bloodshed, quiet had settled,
and it was tacitly understood that, IN
| less the HOLMAN forces had some coup
in mind which they were secreting,
this peace would last until the soldiers
were withdrawn.
when the worlds a-lookin'," COM
mented Judge HOLMAN, hits a right
good idea to crawl under a logan
| lay still"
Purvy had been too famous a feud-
| list to pass unsung. Reporters came as
far as Hixon, gathered there such
news as the Hollmans chose to give
them, and went back to write lurid
stories and description, from hear
say, of the stockaded seat of tragedy
Nor did they overlook the dramatic
coincidence of the return Of Wildcat
| Samson South from civilization to saw
agery. They made no accusation, but
| they pointed an inference and a moral
as they thought. 1t was a sermon on
the triumph of heredity over the ad-
vantages of environment. Adrienne
read some of these saffron misrepre-
sensations, and they distressed her.
Meanwhile, it came insistently to the
ears of Captain Callomb that some
plan was on foot, the intricacies of
which he could not fathom, to manu-
| facture case against a number of the
| Souths, quite apart from their actual
guilt, or likelihood of guilt Once
more, he would be called upon to go
out and drag in men too well fortified
| to be taken by the posses and depu-
ties of the Holman civil machinery.
At this news, he chafed bitterly, and,
still ranking with a sense of shame at
the loss of his first prisoner, he formed
a plan Of his own, which he revealed
over his pipe to his first lieutenant.
There's a niger in the woodpile,
Merriweather,' he said. I'VE are sim
ply being used to do the dirty work
up here, and I'm going to do a little
probing Of my own. I guess I'll turn
the company over to you for a day or
two"
| w nat 1OlOcy are you contemplating
now?" inquired the second in COM
mand.
I'm going to ride over on Misery,
and hear what the other side has to
say. I've usually noticed that one side
of any story is pretty good until the
others told"
Its sheer madness. I ought to take
you down to this internal crook of a
judge and have you committed to a
strait-jacket."
IT, said Callomb, you are content
| to play the catspaw to a bunch of as
sassins, I'm not The maiErider went
out this morning and he carried let
ter to old Spicer South. 1 told him that
was coming unescorted and unarmed
and that my object was to talk with
| him. 1 asked him to give me safe
conduct, at least, until 1 reached his
| house. and stated my case. l treated
him like an officer and gentleman
marches or the distance from place to