The Huttig news., 1915-03-20

| and as piece of news that had brought evil tidings. Then, suddenly, another aspect of it struck him-an as- pect to which the shock of it's recep- tion had until this tafdy moment i blinded him. The letter was perfectly i grammatical and penned in h Id of copybook roundness and evenness. The address, the body of the missive and the signature were all in one chi rography She would not have intrust- ed the writing of this letter to anyone else.
 Sally had learned to write.
 Moreover at the end were the words, with love-" It was all plain now. Sally had never repudiated him. She was declaring herself true to her mission and her love. All that heart break through which he had gone had been due to his own misconception, and in that nisconception he had drawn into himself and had stopped writing to her. Even his occasional letters had for two years ceased to brighten her heart-strangling isola- tien-and she was still waiting. She had sent no word of appeal until the moment had come of which she had promised to inform him. Sally, abandoned and alone, had been fight ing her way up-that she might stand on his level.
 Good God!" groaned the man, in ab- iectly bitter self-contempt. His hand went involuntarily to his cropped head and dropped with gesture of self doubting. He looked down at his tan shoes and silk SOCKS. He rolled back his shirtsleeve and contemplated the forearm that had once been as brown and tough as leather. It was now the arm of a city man. except for the burn ing of one outdoor week. He wae returning at the eleventh hour stripped of the faith of his kinsmen If he were to realize the constructive dreams of which he had last night SC confidently prattled to Adrienne, hc must lead his people from under the blighting shadow of the feud.
 Yet, if he was to lead them at all, he must first regain their shaken con fidence. and to do that he must go, at their head, through this mire of war to vindication Only a fighting South could hope to be heard in behalf of peace. His eventual regeneration be longed to some tomorrow. Today held the need of such work as that of the first Samson-to slay.
 He must reappear before his kins- men as much as possible the boy who had left them-not the fep with new | fangled affectations His eyes fell upon the saddlebags upon the floor of the Pullman and be smiled satirically He would like to step from the train at HiXon and walk brazenly through the town in those old clothes. chal longing every hostile glance kIf they shot him down on the streets, as they certainly would do, it would end his questioning and his anguish of dilem- ma. He would welcome that, but it would, after all, be shirlSing the issue
 He must get out of Hixon and into his own country unYecognized The lean boy of four years ago was the somewhat filled-out man now. The one concession that he had made to Paris life was the wearing of a closely cropped mustache. That he still wore had worn it chiefly because he liked to hear Adrienne's humorous denuncia- tion of it. He knew that in his pres ent guise and dress, he had an excel. lent chance of walking through the streets of Hixon as stranger. And after leaving Hixon, there was mis sion to be performed at Jesse Purvy's store. As he thought of that mission a grim glint came to his pupils
 All journeys snd, and as Samson passed through the tawdry ears Of the local tram near Hlxon he saw severai faces which he recognized, but they either eyed him in inexpensive silence or gave him the greeting of the fur, riner.2
 Then the whistle shrieked from the trestle over the Middle fork, and at only a short distance rose the cupoia of the brick courthouse and the scat tered roofs of the town. Scattered over the green slopes by the river bank lay the white spread of tented company street, and, as he looked out, he saw uniformed figures moving to and fro and caught the ring of bugle call. So the militia was on deck; things must be bad, he reflected. lie stood on the platform and looked down as the engine roared along the trestle. There were two gatling guns. One pointed its muzzle toward the town, and the other scowled up at the face of the mountain. Sentries paced their beats. Men in undershirts lay dozing outside telt flaps. It was all picture of disciplined readiness, and yet Samson knew that soldiers made of painted tin would be equally effec- tive. These military forces must re- main subseryient to local civil authori- ties, and the local civil authorities obeyed the nod of Judge Holman and Jesse Purvy.
 As Samson crossed the toll bridge to the town proper he passed two