Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-06-11

lhlOuSu Will yc YET III uu6 an proper
time I'll see that We get yer ticket"
Then he added, with conciliating soft
ness: We've been friends a long
i while. Let's talk this thing over be-
fore we fall out"
Thar hain't nothin' to talk over"
stormed Aaron. "Ye're jest tryin' ter
kill time till the boys gifts hyar, and
then l reckon ye lows ter have me kilt
like yer've had me kill them others.
Hit amt no use. I've done sent em
away. When they gifts back hyar,
either you'll be in hell, or I'll be on my
way outen the mountings."
Samson stood rigid. Here was the
confession of one murderer. with no
denial from the other. The truce was
off. Why should he wait? Cataracts
seemed to thunder in his brain, and
yet he stood there, his hand in his coat
pocket, clhtching the grip of maya
zine pistol. Samson South the old, and
Samson South the new were writhing
in the life-and-death grapple of two
codes. Then, before decision came,
he heard a sharp report inside, and
the heavy fall of body to the floor.
A wildly excited figure came plung-
ing through the door, and Samson's
left hand swept out and seized its
shoulder in a sudden wise grip.
do you know me?" he inquired, as
the mountaineer pulled away and
crouched back with startled surprise
and vicious frenzy.
mo, damn ye! Git outen my road!"
Aaron thrust his cooked rife close
against the strangers face. From
its muzzle came the acrid stencil OF
freshly burned powder. cit outen my
road afore l kills vel"
my name is Samson South"
Before the astounded finger on the
trigger could be crooked, Samson's
pistol spoke from the pocket, and, as
though in echo, the rifle blazed, little
too late and shade too high, over his
head. as the dead mans arms went up.
Except for those two reports there
was no sound. Samson stood still, an
ticipating an uproar of alarm. Now
he should doubtless have to pay with
his life for both the deaths, which
would inevitably and logically be at
tributed to his agency. But strangely
enough, no clamor arose. The shot in
side had been muffled, and those out
side, broken by the intervening store,
did not arouse the house. Purvy's
bodyguard had been sent away by Hol'
lis on false alarm. Only the women
folks" and children remained indoors
and they we're drowning with piano
any sounds that might have come from
without.
Now Samson South stood looking
down, uninterrupted, on what had been
Aaron Hollis as it 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
planks.
Samson turned to the darkened door
way. Inside was emptiness, except fol
the other body, which had crumpleC
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
Samson paused only for a momen
tary survey His score was clean. He
would not again have to agonize ovel
the dilemma of old ethics and new
Tomorrow the word would spread like
wildfre along Misery and Crippleshir
that Samson South was back and tina
his coming had been signalized b,
these two deaths. The fact that h,
: was responsible for only one-and tina
in self-defense-would not matter
They would prefer to believe that h,
had invaded the store and killed Purv,
! and that Hollis had fallen in his mas
ter's defense at the threshold. Sam
son went out still meeting no one, ant
continued his journey.
Dusk was falling when he hitchet
his horse in clump of timber, and
lifting his saddlebags, began climbin,
to cabin that sat back in thicketet
cove. He was now we'll within Soutl
territory and the need of masquerade
. had ended
The cabin had not for years been oc
, cupied. Its rooftree was leanin,
askew under rotting shingles. Til,
q doorstep was UNCOVERED, and tn,
, stones Of the hearth were broken. Blu
, 1t lay we'll hidden and would serve hi.
purposes
!. Shortly, candle flickered inside
!. before small hand mirror. Scissor.
( and safety razor were for while
D busy. The man who entered in i'm
{ peccable clothes emerged fifteen min
8 utes later-transformed. There ap
5 peared under the rising June crescen
e a smoothfaced native, clad in stained
: store clothes, with rough wooden sock!
!. showing at his brogan tops, and ;
}. battered felt hat drawn over his face
|, No one who had known the Samson
South of four years ago would fail t
4 recognize him now. And the strang
. | est mart he fold himself uoo that h.