The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-01-01

bryonic affiliations with the people Of
his enemy.
Young Milt had visited Dawn; he
had watched with Anse Havey The
father had always taken a natural
pride in the honesty that cleaned
from his sons alert eyes. and the one
person from whom he had concealed
his own ways of guile and deceit NEST
studiously was the lad who would
some day be leader in his stead. There
were few things that this old intTiguer
feared, but one there was, and now it
was tracing lines of care and anxiety
in the visage that had always been so
masklike and impertuTbable. If his
son should ever look past his outward
self and catch a glimpse of the inLer
man, the father knew that he would
not be able TO sustain the scorn of
those younger eyes. So, while the
lad, who had gone back to college. in
Lexington, conned his books. his faith
er sat before the blaze of his hearth.
his pipe tight clamped between his
teeth. his heart fostering in his breast,
and his mind dangerously active.
The beginnings of all the things
which he deplored. and meant to pun
ish, went back to the establishment OF
a school with ''fotched-on" teacher.
Had Dawn McNash not come there.
his boys feet would not have gone
wandering westward over the ridge
straying out of partizan paths The
simness of her body, the lure of her
violet eyes, and the dusky meshes of
her dark hair had led his own son to
guard the roof that sheltered her
against the hand of arson the father
had hired.
But most of all, Anse Havey was re
sponsible: Anse Havey who had per-
suaded his son to make common cause
with the enemy. For that Anse Havey
must die.
Heretofore Old Milt had struck only
at lesser men. fearing the retribution
of too audacious a crime, but now his
venom was acute. and even such grave
considerations as the danger of holo-
caust must not halt its appeasement
Still the mind of Milt McBriar, the
elder. had worked long in intrigue, and
even now it could not follow a direct
line. Bad Anse must not be shot down
accomplished by a shrewder method,
and one not directly tTaceable to so
paIpable a motive as his own hatred
Such plan his brain was working
out, but for its execution he needed a
hand of craft and force-such a hand
as only Luke Thixton could supply
and Luke was out West
1t was not his intention to rush hast
lily into action. Some day he would go
down to Lexington and Luke should
come East to meet him. There, a hun
dred and thirty miles from the hills.
the two of them would arrange mat
tiers to his own satisfaction.
Roger Malcolm had gone back. and
he had not, after all. gene back with a
conqueror's triumph. He was now dis
cussing in directors meetings plans
looking to a titanic grouping of inter
ests which were to focalize on these
hills and later to bring developments.
The girls school was gradually max
ing itself felt, and each day saw small
classes at the desk and blackboard
small classes that were growing larger.
Now that Milt had laid the ground
work Of his plans, he was making the
field fallow by a seeming of general
beneficence. His word had gone out
along the creeks and branches and in
to the remote coves of his territory
that it wouldn't hurt folks none ter
give their children a little Tarnin'"
In response to that hint they trooped
in from the east. wherever the roads
could be Travelled. Among those who
'.hitched an lighted" at the fence were