Mexico Missouri message., 1915-03-11
CHAPTER XVI.

autumnal usefulness, Samson South
wrote to MILFORD Horton that II 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 II to the heart OF
untouched forests and coal-fields. With
that wave of innovation would come
the spectators. Besides, Samson's
fingers we're 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 laiJ in a torpid paraly-
sis of dread. Many illiterate feudists
on each side -emembered the directing
and exposed figure of Samson South
seen through eddies of gun cmoke, and
believed him immune from death.
With PJrvy dead 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 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 wonders 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-
| BILE.
Hollman's Mammoth Department
! Store passed into new hands, and traf-
ficked 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 Sc
curely through the hills as through the
streets of a policed city-and meet a
reader hospitality.
y1-ba 4niunc die.
cussad and the two men prepared. to
cross the Mason-and-DiXon line and
visit the Cumberlands, Adrienrs
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 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 then
uninfuenced by his escort. 1t was {
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 hel
had been provided a mount as evenly
gated as any in her own stables.
When she and her two companion.
came out to the hotel porch to start
they found guide waiting, who sale
, he was instructed to take them as fal
|, as the ridge, where the sheriff himsel
would be waiting, and the caValcadt
. struck into the hills. Men at whose
r houses they paused to ask dipper o
/. water, or TO make an inquiry, gravel!
. advised that they had better light ant
: stay all night" In the coloring for
+ ests, squirrels scampered and scurrie,
0 out of sight, and here and there on tn,
: tall slopes they saw shy-looking chill
t dren regarding them with inquisitiV
+ eyes.
}. The guide led them silently, gazini
r in frank amazement, though with defer
) entail politeness, at this girl in cord
/ uroys, who rode cross-saddle, and rod
T so wen. Yet 1t was evident that h
/ would have preferred talking had no
diiiidence restrained him. He was
d young man and rather handsome in
Z shaggy, unkempt way. Across on
0 cheek ran long scar still red, an
4 the girl. looking into his clear, INTEL
a gent eyes, wondered what that sea
d stood for. Adrienne had the powe
!, of melting masculine diffidence. an
n her smile as she rode at his side, an
e asked, what is your nancy" brough
an answering smile to his grim lips.
q Joe HOLMAN, ma'am." he answered
aud the girl gave an Involuntary star
i Tide Eve men who caught the nam
D closed up the gap between the horse