Mexico Missouri message., 1915-02-18

y
Then he added. with conciliating aott-
ness: We've been friends a long
while. Let's talk this thing over be-
fore we fall out"
"Thar haint nothin' to talk ovur,"
stormed Aaron. "Ye're jest tryin' ter
kill time till the boys gifts hyar, and
then reckon We lows ter have me kilt
Hit amt no use. I've done sent 'em
away. When they gifts back hyar,
either you'll be in hell, or Ill be on my
way outen the mountings."
Samson stood rigid. Here was the
confession of one murderer, with no
denial from the other. The truce was
off, Why should he wait? Cataracts
seemed to thunder in his brain, and
yet he stood there, his hand in his coat
pocket, clutching the grip of a maya
zine pistol Samson South the old, and
Samson South the new were writing
in the life-and-death grapple OF two
codes. Then, before decision came,
he heard a sharp report inside, and
the heavy fall of a body to the floor.
A wildly excited figure came plung-
| ing through the door, and Samson's
left hand swept out and seized its
shoulder in a sudden wise grip.
do you know me?" he inquired, as
the mountaineer pulled away and
crouched back with startled surprise
and vicious frenzy.
mo, damn ye! Git outen my road!"
Aaron thrust his cooked rifle close
| against the strangers face. From
its muzzle came the acrid stencil of
freshly burned powder. cit outen my
road afore l kills vel"
MY name is Samson South"
Before the astounded finger on the
trigger could be crooked, Samson's
pistol spoke from the pocket, and, as
though in echo, the rife blazed, little
too late and shade too high, over his
head. as the dead mans arms went up.
Except for those two reports there
was no sound. Samson stood still, an
| ticipating an uproar of alarm. Now
he should doubtless have to pay with
his life for both the deaths, which
would inevitably and logically be at
tributed to his agency. But, strangely
enough, no clamor arose. The shot In
side had been mufled, and those out
side, broken by the intervening store,
| did not arouse the house. Puryy's
| bodyguard had been sent away by Hol-
| lis on a false alarm. Only the women
| folks" and children remained indoors,
and they were drowning with a piano
any sounds that might have come from
without.
Now Samson South stood looking
down, uninterrupted, on what had been
Aaron Hollis as 1t lay motionless at
! his feet. There was a powder-burned
hole in the butternut shirt, and only
slender thread of blood trickled into
the dirt-grimed cracks between the
| planks.
Samson turned to the darkened door
way. Inside was emptiness, except fol
the other body, which had crumplec
forward and face down across the
counter. A glance showed that Jesse
Purvy would no more fight back the
coming of death. He was quite I'm
armed
Samson paused only for a momen
tary survey. His score was clean. He
would not again have to agonize ovel
the dilemma of old ethics and new
Tomorrow the word would spread likC
wildfre along Misery and CrippleshiI
that Samson South was back and tina
his coming had been signalized b.
these two deaths. The fact that h,
was responsible for only one-and tina
in self-defense-would not matter
They would prefer to believe that h
had invaded the store and killed Purv
and that Hollis had fallen in his mas
ters defense at the threshold. San
son went out, still meeting no one, an
continued his journey.
Dusk was falling when he hitche
his horse in clump Of timber, ant
lifting his saddlebags, began climbin
to a cabin that sat back in thickete
cove. He was now we'll within Sout
territory and the need of masquerad
, had ended.
. The cabin had not Tor years been OF
= cupled. It's rooIlfee was leanln
: askew under rotting shingles. TIL
> doorstep was UNCOVERED, and tn
stones of the hearth were broken. BIZ
it lay we'll hidden and would serve hi
! purposes.
!. Shortly, a candle fiickered insid
!. before small hand mirror. Scissor
= and safety razor were for a viii
q busy. The man who entered in IN
4 peccable clothes emerged fifteen mi
6 utes later-transformed. There a
q peared under the rising June crescel
q smooth-faced native, clad in staine
2. store clothes, with rough wooden socl
5. showing at his brogan tops, and
D. battered felt hat drawn over his fac
i. No one who had known the SamsC
d South of four years ago would fail
ID recognize him now. And the stran
1t est part, he told himself, was that
At felt the old Samson.
r At a point where a hand bridI
crossed the skirting creek, the b,
Dr. dismounted. Ahead OF him lay 4
= stiIe where he had said good-by