Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-10-25
CHAPTER XVIII.

When winter has come and settled
uown for its long siege in the Cumber.
lands human life shrinks and shrivels
into . shivering wfetchedness. and q
spirit Of dreariness steals into the hui
man heart.
The house Of old Milt McBriar was
not 80 dark and cheerless howell as
the houses of his lesser neighbors. hut
az that winter closed in his heart was
bitter and his thoughts were black.
In Z roundabout way he had learned of
Young Mills visit to the McNash cab
IN. His son was the apple Of his eye.
and now he was seeing him form en-
bryonic affiliations with the people of
his enemy.
Young Milt had visited Dawn; he
had watched with Anse Havey. The
father had always taken natural
pride in tho honesty that cleaned
from his sons alert eyes. and the one
person from whom he had concealed
his own ways Of guile and deceit most
studiously was the lad who would
some day be leader in his stead. There
were few things that this old intriguer
feared, but one there was, and now it
was tracing lines Of care and anxiety
in the visage that had always been 80
masklike and imperturbable. II his
son should ever look past his outward
self and catch . glimpse of the inner
man, the father knew that he would
not be able to sustain the scorn of
those younger eyes. So. while the
lad, who had gone back to college in
Lexington, conned his books, his faith
er sat before the blaze of his hearth,
his pipe tight clamped between his
teeth, mis- heartt fostering IN hts breast.
and his mind dangerously active.
The beginnings of all the things
which he deplored, and meant to pun
ish, went back to the establishment Of
school with 4 "fotched-on" teacher.
Had Dawn McNash not Come there,
his boys feet would not have gone
wandering westward over the ridge.
straying out Of partizan paths. The
slimness of her body, the lure Of her
violet eyes. and the dusky meshes Of
her dark hair had led his own son to
guard tho roof that sheltered her
AGAINST the hand OF arson the father
had hired. ~
But most Of IN. Anse Havey was re-
sponsible: Anse Havey who had per-
suaded his son to make common cause
with the enemy. For that Anse Havey
must die. 81
Heretofore Old Milt had struck only
at lesser men. fearing the retribution
Of too sudacinu1 4; crime. but now his
venom was acute. and even such grave
considerations as the danger Of holo.
caust must not halt its appeasement.
Still the mind Of Milt McBriar. the
elder. had worked long In intrigue, and
even now it could not follow direct
line. Bad Anse must net be shot down
IN the road. His taking of must be
accomplished by q shrewder method.
and one not directly traceable to 30
palpable q motive as his own hatred
Such a plan his brain was working
out. but for its execution he needed a
hand of craft and force-such hand
IA only Luke Thixton could supply
and Luke was out West
II was not his intention to rush hast.
ily into action. Some day he would 90
down to Lexington and Luke should
come East to meet him. There. q hun
cred and thirty miles from the hills.
the two Of them would arrange mat
ters to his own satisfaction.
Roger Malcolm had gone back, and
he had not. after all. gone back with .
conqueror's triumph. He was now dis
cussing in directors meetings plans
looking to Q titanic grouping Of inter-
ests which were to focalize on these