Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-02-25

territory ana Tie neeu Oh Masquerade
had ended.
The cabin had not for years been oc-
cupied. Its rooftree was leaning
askew under rotting shingles The
doorstep was UNCOVERED, and the
stones OF the hearth were broken. But
it lay well hidden and would serve his
purposes
Shortly. a candle nickered inside.
before a small hand mirror. Scissors
and safety razor were for while
busy. The man who entered in i'm
peccable clothes emerged fifteen min.
utes later-transformed There APP
peared under the rising June crescent
smooth-faced native, clad in stained
store clothes, with rough wooden socks
showing at his brogan tops, and a
battered felt hat drawn over his face
No one who had known the Samson
South of four years ago would fail to
recognize him now. And the strang-
est part, he told himself, was that he
felt the old Samson.
At point where a hand bridge
crossed the skirting creek, the boy
dismounted. Ahead of him lay the
stile where he had said good-by to
Sally. l55s
He was going to her. and
nothing else mattered.
He lifted his head and sent out a
long, clear whippoorwill call. which
quavered on the night much like the
other calls In the black hills around
him. after moment he went nearer.
in the shadow of a poplar. and re-
peated the call
Then the cabin door opened. Its
jamb framed patch of yellow candle
light, and, at the center, slender
silhouetted figure, in fiuttering. eager
attitude of uncertainty. The figure
turned slightly to one side, and, as it
did so, the man saw clasped in her
right hand the rife, which had been
his mission, bequeathed.to her in trust,
She hesitated, and the man, invisible
in the shadow, once more initiated the
bird note, but this time 1t was so low
anu SOlt tudt IL bttlucu Tue fOiCc VI q
whispering whippoorwill
Then, with a sudden glad little cry,
she came running with her old fleet
grace down to the road.
Samson had vaulted the stile and
stood in the full moonlight. AS he
saw her coming he stretched out his
arms and his voice bfohe from his
throat in half-hoarse, passionate cry:
Sally"
1t was the only word he could have
spoken just then, but 1t was all that
was necessary. 1t told her everything.
For a time there was no speech, but
to each of them 1t seemed that their
tumultuous heartbeating must sound
above the night music, and the teleg-
raphy of heartbeats tells enough.
But they had much to say to each
other, and, finally, Samson broke the
silence:
did We think / wasn't a-coming
back, Sally?" he questioned, softly. At
that moment he had no realization
that his tongue had ever fashioned
smoother phrases. And she, too, who
had been making war on crude idioms,
forgot. as she answered:
"Ye done said We was comm" Then
she added happy lie: Il knowed
plumb shore ye'd do hit"
After a while she drew away and
said, slowly:
Samson, I've done kept the old
rife-gun ready fer ye. Ye said ye'd
need it bad when We come back. an
I've took care of it."
She stood there holding it, and her
voice dropped almost to whisper as
she added
Its been lot of comfort to me
sometimes, because it was your'n.
knew IL We stopped keerin' fer me We
wouldn't let me keep it-an' as long
as had it II She broke off. and
the fingers OF one hand touched the
weapon caressingly.
After long while they found time
for the less wonderful things.
81 got your letter." he said, seriously,
"and / came at once" AS he began
to speak of concrete facts he dropped
again into ordinary English and did
not know that he had changed his
manner of speech.
For an instant Sally looked up into
his face, then with sudden laugh,
she informed him:
81 can say isn't instead of hain't,
too. How did you like my writing?"
He held her off at arms length. and
looked at her pridefully. but under his
gaze her eyes fell and her face flushed
with a sudden diffidence and new
shyness of realization. She wore a
calico dress, but at her throat was
soft little bow of ribbon. She was
no longer the totally unself-conscious
wood nymph, though as natural and in
stinctive as In other days. Suddenly
she drew away from him little, and
her hands went slowly to her breast
and rested there. She was fronting
great crisis. but, in the first flush OF
Joy she had forgotten it. She had
spent lonely nights struggling for rudi.
ments; she had sought and fought to
refashion herself, SO that, II he came,
he need not be ashamed of her. And
now he had come and, with terrible
clarity and distinctness, she realized
how pitifully little she had been able
to accomplish. Would she pass mus.