Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-07-30

meant 10 Inem, at a Crisis
when war-clouds were thickening.
The painter had finally resolved to
cut the Gordian knot, and leave the
mountains. He had trained IN Sam
son to the last piece all his artillery of
argument. The case was now submit
ted with the suggestion that the boy
take three months to consider, and
that, If he decided a~ffirmatively, he
should notify Lescott in advance of his
coming. He proposed sending Samson
a small library of carefully picked
books, which the mountaineer eagerly
agreed to devour in the interval.
Lescott consented, however, to re-
main yer Saturday, and go to the
dance, since he was curious to observe
what pressure was brought to bear On
the boy, and to have himself a final
word of argument after kinsmen had
spoken.
Saturday morning came after a night
of t%orrential rain, which had left the
mountains steaming under a reek of
fog and pitching clouds.
But, as the morning wore on, the
sun fought its way to view in a scrap
of overhead blue. From log cabins
and plank houses up and down Misery
and it's tributaries, men and women be-
gan their hegira toward the mill. Les
colt rode in the wake of Samson, who
had Sally on a pillow at his back. They
came before noon to the mouth of Dry
hole creek, and the house of Vile Nc
eager. Already, the picket fence vas
lined with tethered horses and mules.
From the interior of the house came
the sounds of fiddling, though these
strains of Turkey in the Straw" were
only by way of prelude. Lescott felt,
though he could not say just what con-
crete thing told him, that under the
shallow note of merry-making brooded
the major theme of a troublesome
problem. The seriousness was below
the surface, but insistently depressing.
He saw, too, that he himself was mixed
up with it in a fashion, which might
become dangerous, when a few jugs
of white liquor had been emptied.
While the young persons danced
and spanked" within, and the more
truculent lads escaped to the road to
pass the jug, and forecast with youth
full war-fever 'cleanin' out the Holl-
MANS" the elders were deep in ways
and means. If the truce could be pre-
served for its ~unexpired period of
three years, 1t was, CT course, best. In
that event, crops could be cultivated,
and lives saved. But, if Jesse Purvy
chose to regard his shooting as a
breach of terms, and struck, he would
strike hard, and, in that event, best
defense lay in striking first. Samson
would o o be twenty-one. That he
would take his place as head of the
clan had until now never been ques-
Homeland he was talking of deser-
ton. For that, a pink-skinned for
eigner, who wore a womah's bow OF
ribbon at his collar, was to blame.
The question of loyalty must be square
ly put up to Samson, and it must be
done today. His answe must be def
mite and uneQuivocail AS a guest iof
Spicer South, Lescott was entitled to
that consideration which is accorded
ambassadors.
None the less, the vital affair of the
clan could not be baked by considera-
ton for a stranger, who, in the opin-
ion of the majority, should be driven
from the country as an ~insidious mis-
chief-maker. Ostensibly, the truce still
held, but at no time since it's signing
had matters been so freighted with the
menace of a gathering storm. The
attitude of each faction "a that Of
several men standing quiet with guns
trained on one another's breasts. Each
hesitated to fire, knowing that to pull
the trigger meant to die himself. yet
fearing that another trigger might at
any moment be drawn. Purvy dared