Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-07-02
CHAPTER XVII.

autumnal ZeSttulneSS, samson SouIn
wrote to MILFORD Horton that If he
still meant to come to the hills for his
inspection of coal md timber the time
was ripe. Soon men would appear
bearing transit and chain, drawing a
line which a railroad was to follow to
Misery and across it to the heart OF
untouched forests and coal-ields. 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 a while after the battle at Hixon
the county had lai:, in a torpid paraly-
sis of dread. Many illiterate feudists
on each side remembered the directing
and exposed figure of Samson South
seer through eddies of gun smoke, and
believed him immune from death.
With Purvy Gcad and Holman the vic
tim Of his W 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 Wanting 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 Notwithstanding 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-
Bile.
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 {" the individual remained
much the same; but, without seeking
to give o%ffense, they could ride as Sc
curely through the hills as through the
streets of a policed city-and meet a
reader hospitality.
And. when these things were dis
cussed and the two men prepared to
cross the Mason-and-D Dixon line and
visit the Cumberlands, Adriepte
promptly and definitely announced
that she would accompany her brother.
No argument was effective to dissIade
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 Enthusiastically unreal.
Only about the courthouse square
where numerous small holes in frame
walls told of fusillades, and in the in
terror 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 them at the
town, because he wished their first i'm
pressions Of his. people to reach them
uninfuenced by his escort. 1t 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 a mount as evenly
gated 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 a dipper of
water, or to make al inquiry, gravely
advised that they had better light 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 chill
dren regarding them with inquisitive
eyes.
The guide led them silently, gazing
in frank amazement, though with defer
entail politeness, at this girl in cord.
uroys, who rode ~cross.saddle, and rode
so well. Yet, it was evident that he
would have preferred talking had not
d~iffidencc restrained him. He was a
young man ami rather handsome in a
shaggy, unkempt way. Across one
cheek ran a 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 dindence, 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.