The Delta independent., 1915-09-10

| tne SalO IOTce is employed: mayor OF
city, sheriff, jailer or marshall"
(Which list" stormed Callomb, sis
the honor roll of the assassins."
"At all events"-the governor had
derived from Callomb much informa-
tion as to Samson South which the
mountaineer himself had modestly
withheld South gets his pardon.
That is only step. l wish could
make him satrap over his province,
and provide him with troops to rule it.
, Unfortunately, our form of govern
ment has it's drawbacks"
ut might be possible" ventured the
attorney general. ito impeach the
sheriff, and appoint this or some other
suitable man to fill the vacancy until
the next election"
"The legislature doesn't meet until
next winter" objected Callomb. There
is one chance. The sheriff down there
IS g sick man. Let us hope he may
die"
One day, the Hixon conclave met in
the room over Hollman's Mammoth
Department store, and with much pro-
| family read a communication from
| l. dHhlOlt, lAC pdidoh VI
Samson South. In that episode, they
foresaw the beginning of the end for
their dynasty. The outside world was
looking on, and their regime could not
survive the spotlight of law-loving
scrutiny.
| THE fust thing" declared Judge
Holman, curtly, ''is to get rid of these
damned soldiers. Well attend to our
own business later, and we don't want
them watchin' US. Just now, we want
to lie mighty quiet for spell-tee-
totally quiet until pass the word.'
Samson had won back the conf
dence of his tribe, and enlisted the
faith of the state administration. He
had been authorized to organize
local militia company, and to drill
them, provided he could stand answer
able for their conduct The younger
Souths took gleefully to that idea. The
mountain boy makes a good soldier,
once he has grasped the idea of dis
cipline. For ten weeks, they drilled
daily in squads and weekly in platoons.
Then, the fortuitous came TO pass.
Sheriff Forbin died, leaving behind him
an uneXpired term of two years, and
Samson was summoned hastily to
Frankfort. He returned, bearing his
commission as high sheriff, though,
when the news reached Hixon, there
were few men who envied him his
post, and none who cared to bet that
he would live to take his oath of Office.
That August court day was a mem
orable one in Hixon. Samson South
was coming to town to take up his
duties. Every one recognized it as the
day of final issue, and one that could
| hardly pass without bloodshed. The
Hollmans, standing in their last
trench, saw only the blunt question of
Hollman-South supremacy. For years,
the feud had fared and slept and
broken again into eruptions, but never
before had South sought to throw
his outposts of power across the wa
ters of Crippleshin, and into the coun-
ty seat. That the present South came
bearing commission as an officer of
the law only made his effrontery the
more uncomfortable
| Samson had not called for outside
troops. The drilling and disciplining
Of his own company had progressed in
silence along the waters of Misery.
They were a slouching, unmilitary
band of uniformed vagabonds, but they
were longing to fight, and Callomb had
been with them, tirelessly whipping
them into rudimentary shape. After
all, they were as much partisans as
they had been before they were issued
state rifles. The battle, if it came,
| would no a G faction al hn G1l, Of
years ago, when the Hollmans held
the store and the Souths the court
house. But back of all that lay one es-
sential difference, and it was this diff
ference that had urged the governor
to stretch the forms of law and put
such dangerous power into the hands
of one man. That difference was the
man himself. He was to take drastic
steps, but he was to take them under
the forms of law, and the state execu.
tive believed that, having gone through
worse to better, he would maintain the
improved condition.
Early that morning. men began to
assemble along the streets of Hixon;
and to congregate into sullen clumps
with set faces that denoted a grim,
unsmilng determination. Not only the
Hollmans from the town and immedi-
ate neghborhood were there, but their
shaggier, fiercer brethren from remote
creeks and covers, who came only at
urgent call, and did not come without
intent of vindicating their presence.
Old Jake Holman, from "over yon' on
the headwaters of Dryhole creek,
brought his son and fourteen-year-old
grandson, and all of them carried Win