The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1915-02-18
SYNOPSIS.

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CHAPTER Ion Misery creek. q. tie
fu-- - rock from which he has fallen.
Sd.3y Miller finds George Lescott. q land
scape painter, unconscious, and after re-
Viving tNzn, goes for assistance
CHAPTER II-samson South and Sally,
taking Lescott to Samsons home, are met
by Spioer South head of the family, who
tells Thorn that Jesse Purvy has been shot,
and That samson is suspected Oh tbs
crime, Samson denies it.
CHAPTER III-The shooting of Jesse
Puryy breaks the truce in the Holman
South foud.
An ordinary mountaineer would
have been carried home to die in the
darkness Of a dirty and windowless
shack. The long-suffering star Of Jesse
Purvy ordained otherwise. He might
go under or he might once more beat
his way back and out of the quick
sands of death. At all events, he would
fight for life to the last gasp.
Twenty miles away in the core of
the wilderness, removed from a rail-
road by a score of semi-perpendicula
miles, a fanatic had once decided to
found a school,
Now a faculty of ten men taught
euch as cared to come such things as
they cared to learn. Higher up the
hillside stood a small, but model hos
pital with modern operating table
and a case of surgical instruments,
which, it was said, the state could not
surnass.
To this haven Jesse Purvy, the MUIR
der lord, was borne in litter carried
on the shoulders of his dependents.
Here, as his steadfast guardian star
decreed, he found two prominent med
ical visitors, who hurried him to the
operating table. Later he was re-
moved to a white bed, with the June
sparkle in his eyes, pleasantly modu.
lated through drawn blinds, and the
June rustic and bird chorus in his
ears-and his own thoughts in his
brain.
Conscious, but in great pain, Purvy
beckOned Jim Asberry and Aaron Hol.
lis, his chiefs of bodyguard. to his bed.
side and waved the nurse back out Of
hearing.
"If l don't get WE'LL" he said feebly.
there's a job for you two boys.
reckon you know what 1t is?"
They nodded and Asberry whis-
pered a name:
Samson South?"
Yes" Purvy spoke in q whisper;
A,Ik oil
smothered You got the old man.
reckon you can manage the cub. II
you don't he'll get you both one day"
The two henchmen scowled.
TN git him tomorrer," growled AS
berry. Thar hain't no sort Of use
in a-waitin'"
mol" For an instant Purvy's voice
rose out Of it's weakness to its old
staccato tone Of command, a tone
which brought obedience. IF get
well I have other plans. Never mind
what they are. That's my business.
If l don't die, leave him alone, until
l give other orders.
IF | get well and Samson South is
killed meanwhile l won't live long
either, 1t would be my life for his.
Keep close to him The minute you
hear of my death-get him." He
paused gain, then supplemented,
"You two will find something mighty
interestin' in my will"
1t was afternoon when Purvy
reached the hospital, and, at nightfall
Of the same day. there arrived at his
stores entrance, on stumbling, hard
ridden mules, several men, followed
by two taWuy hounds whose long ears
tapped over their lean jaws, and
whose eyes we're listless and tired, but
whose black muzzles wrinkled and
shifted with that sensitive instinct
which follows the man scent. The ex-
sheriff family were instituting pro-
ceCdings Independent Of the chiefs or
dcra. The next morning this party |
plunged into the mountain tangle and
beat the cover with the bloodhounds
in leash.
The two gentle-faced dogs picked
their way between the Towering rho
dodeldrons, the glistening laurels, the
feathery pine sprouts and the moss
covered rocks. They went gingerly |
and alertly on ungainly, cushioned
feet. Just as their masters were de-
spairing they came to a place directly
over the store, where a branch had
been bent back and hitched to clear
the outlook and where a boot heel
had crushed the moss. There one Of !
them raised his nose high into the |
air, opened his mouth, and let out . |
long, deep-chested bay of discovery.
CHAPTER ~.