The Green Forest tribune., 1915-04-02
CHAPTER XVII,

uiio WullC tHS dlI u6Iu US SDarKlo or autumnal usefulness, Samson South wrote to Milford Horton that if he still meant to come to the hills for his inspection of coal nd timber the time was ripe. Soon men would appear bearing transit and chain, drawing line which a railroad was to follow to Misery and across it to the heart of untouched forests and coal-nelds With that wave of innovation would come the spectators. Besides, Samson's fingers were itching to be out in the hills with a palette and sheaf of brushes in the society of George Les colt.
 For while after the battle at Hixon the county had lai. in torpid paraly- sis of dread. Many illiterate feudists on each side remembered the directing and exposed figure of Samson South seen through eddies of gun smoke, and | believed him immune from death With Purvy Lo ad and Holman the vic tim of his own hand, the backbone of the murder syndicate was broken. Its heart had ceased to beat. Those Holl- man survivors who bore the potentiali. ties for leadership had not only signed pledges of peace but were afraid to break them; and the triumphant Souths, instead of vaunt;ng their vic tory, had subscribed to the doctrine of order and declared the war over. Souths who broke the law were as speedily arrested as Hollmans Their boys were drilling as militiamen and wonder of nders!-inviting the sons of the enemy to join them. Of course, these things changed gradual ly, but the beginnings of them were most noticeable in the first few months, just as a newly painted and renovated house is more conspicuous than one that has long been respecta- ble.
 Hollman's Mammoth Department Store passed into new hands, and traf- licked only in merchandise, and the town was open to the men and women of Misery as we'll as those of Cripple shin
 These things Samson had explained in his letters to the Lescotts and Hor- ton. Men from down below could still find trouble in the wink of an eye. by seeking it. for under all transformation the nature C the individual remained much the same; but, without seeking to give offense, they could ride as se- curely through the hills as through the streets of policed city-and meet readier hospitality.
 And, when these things were dis cussed and the two men prepared to cross the Mason-andDixon line and visit the Cumberlands, Adrien1 promptly and definitely announced that she would accompany her brother. No argument was effective to dissuade her. and after all, Lescott, who had been there, saw no good reason why she should not go with him.
 At Hixon, they found that receptive air of serenity which made the history of less than three months ago seem paradoxical and fantastically unreal. Only about the courthouse square where numerous small holes in frame walls told of fusillades, and in the in terior of the building itself where the woodwork was scared and torn, and the plaster freshly patched, did they find grimly reminiscent evidence.
 Samson had not met tEem at the town, because he wished their first i'm pressions of his people to reach them uninfluenced by his escort. It was a form of the mountain pride-an hon. est resolve to soften nothing, and make no apologies. But they found arrange ments made for horses and saddlebags, and the girl discovered that for her had been provided mount as evenly gaited as any in her own stables.
 When she and her two companions came out to the hotel porch to start, they found a guide waiting, who said he was instructed to take them as far as the ridge, where the sheriff himself would be waiting. and the cavalcade struck into the hills. Men at whose houses they paused to ask dipper of water, or to make an inquiry, gravely advised that they had better Tight and stay all night" In the coloring for ests, squirrels scampered and scurried out of sight, and here and there on the tall slopes they saw shy-looking chil- dren regarding them with inquisitive eyes.
 The guide led them silently, gazing in frank amazement, though with defer ential politeness, at this girl in cord uroys, who rode cross-saddle, and rode so we'll. Yet, it was evident that he would have preferred talking had not diffidence restrained him. He was a young man and rather handsome in a shaggy, unkempt way. Across one cheek ran long scar still red, and the girl, looking into his clear, intelli- gent eyes, wondered what that scar stood for Adrienne had the power of melting masculine diffidence, and her smile as she rode at his side, and asked, What is your name?" brought an answering smile to his grim lips.
 Joe Holman, ma'am," he answered; and the girl gave an involuntary start | The two men who caught the name clocod m the gan betWeen the horses |