Mexico Missouri message., 1915-02-18
CHAPTER XIV.

Samson stopped at his studio and
threw open an old closet where, from
a Uttered pile of discarded background
draperies, canvases and stretchers, he
6shed out a buried and dust-covered
pair OF saddlebags. They had long
lain there forgotten, but they held the
rusty clothes in which he had left
Misery.
Samson had caught the fastest west.
bound express on the schedule. In
thirty-siX hours he would be at Hixon.
There were many things which his
brain must attack and digest in these
hours. He must arrange his plan of
action to its minutest detail, because
he would have as little time for ref1ec-
ton, once he had reached his own
country, as wildcat flung into pack
of hounds.
From the railroad station to his
home he must make his way-most
probably fight his way-through thirty
miles of hostile territory, where. all
the trails were watched. And yet, for
the time, all that seemed too remotely
VII Sell W uulu HIS luOuBulS.
He took out Sally's letter. and read
at once more. He read it mechanically
and as a 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-
ItiOn had until this tardy moment
blinded him. The letter was perfectly
grammatical and penned in a hand of
copybook roundness and evenness.
The address, the body of the missive
and the signature were all in one Chi
Biography. 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
Good God!" groaned the man, in abb
Jectly bitter self-contempt His hand
went involuntarily to his cropped head,
and dropped with gesture of self,
doubling. 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 was
returning at the eleventh hour
stripped of the faith of his kinsmen
halfStripped of his faith in himself
III he were to realize the constructive
dreams Of which he had last night 81
confidently prattled to Adrienne, ht
must lead his people from under thu
blighting shadow of the feud.
He must reappear before his kins
men as much as possible the boy WIFI
had left them-not the fop with new
tangled affectations. His eyes fel
upon the saddlebags upon the floor O
the Pullman and he smiled satirically
He would like to step from the trail
at Hixon and walk brazenly throug
the town In those old clothes, cha
longing every hostile glance. If the
shot him down on the streets, as the
certainly would do. 1t would end hi
questioning and his anguish of dilen
ma. He would welcome that, but
would, after all, be sinking the issul
He must get out of Hixon and int
his own country unrecognized. Tn
lean boy Of four years ago was tn
somewhat filled-out man now. The on
concession that he he'd made to Par
life was the wearing of a closel
cropped mustache. That he still VOL
had worn 1t chiefly because he like
TO hear Adrienne's humorous denunci
tion OF It. He knew that, in his pre-
ent gufse and dress. he had an exec
lent chance ~ walking through q