The Huttig news., 1915-03-20


 side, broken by the intervening store, did not arouse the house. Purvys bodyguard had been sent away by Hol- lis on 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. That piano was the chief emblem of Purvy's wealth. It repre- sented the acme of having things hung up;" that ancient and expressive phrase, which had come down from days when the pioneers worldly con- dition was gauged by the hams hang ing in the smokehouse and the pep pers, tobacco and herbs strung high against the rafters.
 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 a slender thread of blood trickled into the dirt-grimed cracks between the blanks The body was twisted side wise, in one of those grotesque atti- tudes with which a sudden summons so frequently robs the greatest phe- nomenon of all it's rightful dignity The sun was gliding the roadside clods and furnishing the greens of the treetops. The breeze was harping sleepily among the branches, and sev- eral geese stalked pompously along the creeks edge. On the top of the stockade gray squirrel, sole witness flirted his brush, and then, in a sud- den leap of alarm, disappeared.
 Samson turned to the darkened door, y.~Inside was emptiness. except for the other body, which had crumpled 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 un- armed. Behind his spent body ranged shelves of general merchandise. Boxes of sardines and cans of peaches were lined in homely array above him. flung out in an oratorical gesture on a bolt of blue calico.
 Samson paused only for a momen- tary survey. His score was clean. He would not again have to agonize over the dilemma of old ethics and new. Tomorrow the word would spread like wildfire along Misery and Crippleshin that Samson South was back and that his coming had been signalized by these two deaths. The fact that he was responsible for only one-and that in self-defense-would not matter. They would prefer to believe that he had invaded the store and killed Purvy and that Hollis had fallen in his mas- ter's defense at the threshold. Sam son went out still meeting no one, and continued his journey.
 Dusk was falling when he hitehed his horse in a clump of timber, and. lifting his saddlehags. began climbing to cabin that sat back in thicketed cove. He was now we'll within So.th territory and the need of masquerade had ended.
 The cabin had not for years been oc~ cupied It's rooftree was leaning askew under rotting shingles. The doorstep was ivy-covered, and the stones of the hearth were broken. But it lay well hidden and would serve his purposes.
 Shortly, candle fiickered inside, before small hand mirror. Scissors. and safety razor were for a whiJe, busy. The man who entered in inn. peccable clothes emerged fifteen min- utes later-transformed There ap- peared under the rising June crescent a smooth-faced native, clad in stained store clothes, with rough woolen socks showing at his brogan tops, and a battered felt hat drawn over his face No one who had known the Samson South of four years ago would fail to recognize him now. And the strapa~ est part, he told himself, was that. he. felt the old Samson. He 0 longer doubted his courage. He had come home, and his conscience was once more clear.
 The mountain roads and the noun. tain sides themselves were sweetlv silent. Moon mist engulfed the flats In lake of dreams, and, as the livery stable horse halted to pant at the t.,,. of the final ridge, he could see be',n,r. him his destination.
 The smaller knobs rose like 1ittra islands out of the vapor. and wonder catching the moonlight like scraps of gray paper. were two rooes-that of nls uncle's house and that of tue Widow Miller.
 At point where a hand bridge crossed the skirting creek, the boy Ahead of him lay the stile where he had said good-by .e Sally. The place was dark, and ,n., chimney smokeless. but. as he iarae nearer, holding the shadows of tue trees, he saw one silver of light at the bottom of solid shutter; the shutter Of Sally's room. Yet. for while, Sam son stopped there. looking and mak- ing no sound. He stood at his Rubi- eon-and behind him lay all the gilt ter and culture of that other world. a world that had haop 0ood +o h;,,,