The Adair County news., 1922-10-17


The Girl Was Speaking Slowly Now,
Evidently Watching the Effect OF
Her Words on Her Listener.
forward. and his breath came in queer,
whispering gusts. SEQ onw he or
dered savagely. "TelI me the rest.
Why do you keep me waiting?'
The girl smiled again-like sor-
ceress. "Folger's wife was from the
plains country" she told him slowly.
"If she had been of the mountains she
might have remained to do some kill
ing on her own account. Like old FL
mira herself remained to do-killing
on her own account! But she was
from cities, just as you are, but She
unlike yOu-had no mountain blood in
her. She wasn't used to death, and
lperhaps she didn't know how to hate.
She only knew how to be afraid.
"They say that she went almost in
sane at the sight of that strong, brave
man of hers lying still in the pine
needles. She hadn't even known he
was out of the house. He had gone
out on some secret business-late at
night. She had only one thing left
her baby boy and her little foster
daughter-little Linda Ross, who Is
before you now. Her only Thought
was to get those children out of that
dreadful land of bloodshed and to
hide them so that they could never
come back. And she didn't even want
them to know their true parentage.
She seemed to realize that If they had
known, both of them would return
some time-to collect their debts.
Sooner or later, that boy with the Fol-
ger blood in him and that girl with
the Ross blood would return, to at
tempt to regain their ancient holdings,
and TO make the clan pay!
"All that was left were a few old
women with hate in their hearts and
a strange tradition to take the place
of hope They said that some time, if
death spared them they would see
Folger's son come back again, and
assert his rights. They said that a
new champion would arise and right
ttheir wrongs. But mostly death didn't
spare them. Only old Elmira is left.
''What became of the secret agree
ment do not know / haven't any
hope that you do, either. The deed
was carried down to the courts by
! Sharp, one of the witnesses who man
! aged to get past the guard, and put
on file soon after it was written. The
rest is short Simon and his clan took
| up the land, swearing that Matthew
Folger had decided it, to them the day
he had procured it, They had a deed
TO show for it-a forgery. And the
one thing that they feared, the one
weak chain, was that this secret
agreement between Folger and my
father would be found.
"You see what that would mean 1t
! would show that he had no right to
deed away the land, as he was simply
holding it in trust foI me. Old Elmira
explained the matter to me-if / get
| mixed up on the legal end of ii, ex-
cuse it. If that document could be
found their forged deed would be OBJ
yiously invalid. And it angered them
that they could not find it.
"Of course they never fled their
forged deed-afraid that the forgery
would be discovered-but they kept
1t to show to any One that was in
terested But they wanted to make
themselves still safeE
"There had been two witnesses to
The agreement. Onesof them, man
named Sharp, died-1or was killed
/ shortly after. The oIher. an old trap
per named Hudson, Was Indifferent to
i the whole matter-he was just pass
ing through and was at Folger's house
for dinner the night Ross came. He is
still living in these Mountains, and he
might be of value I'd us yet.
'.Of course the clat did not feel at
all secure They suspected the secret
agreement had beenA Amailed to some
one to take care Of. and they were
afraid that it would b4 brought to light
when the time was ripe. They knew
perfectly that their logged deed would
never stand the test. so one of the
things to do was to prevent their claim
ever being contested. That meant to
keep Folger's son in ignorance of the
whole matter.
/ II hope can make that clear. The
deed from my father to Folger was on
record, Folger was dead. and Folger's
son would have every right and op-
portunity to contest the clans claim to
the land. If he could get the matter
into court, he would surely win
'srhe second thing to do was to win
me over was just-a child, and it
looked the easiest course of all. That's
why was stolen from the orphanage'
by one Of Simon's brQshers. The idea
was simply that when the time - 20
would marry 6ne Of The clan e.
tshIiah thar claim "a d.. n