Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-10-27

The girl had kept her head even in
that moment Of crisis. A wave Of adj
miration for her passed over him.
And the little action had set an eX-
ample for him. He knew that only
rigid self-control and cool headed
strategy could achieve the thing he had
set out to do His impulse was to
storm the door TO pour his lead
through the lighted windows; but such
things could never take Liuaa out of
SimonS hands. Only stealth and eau
ton, not blind courage and frenzy.
could serve her now. Such blind
killing as his heart prompted had to
wait for another time.
He knew only the general direction
of the Ross house where Sim0n lived.
Linda had told him it rested upon the
crest of small hill, beyond a ridg"
of timber The moonlight showed him
a well-beaten trail, and he strobe
swiftly along it.
He had q vague sense of familiarity
with this winding trail. Perhaps he
had tOdded down it as baby per-
haps his mother had carried hin along
it on q neighbOrly visit to rht RJSses.
He went over the hill anG pushed MS
way to the edge of the timber. Al
at once the moon showed him Tho
! house.
He couldn't mistake it, even at this
distance. And to Bruce it had siDgu,
lar effect Of unreality. The mountaia
men did not ordinarily build homes Of
such dimensions They were usually
merely log cabins of two or three low
er rooms and a garrett to be reached
with a ladder. The ancestral noInc Of
the RoSSes. however, had fully dozen
rooms, and it lOOmed to an Incredible
size in the mystery of the moonlight.
He saw quaint gabled roofs and far
spreading wings. And it seemed more
like a house of enchantment, a Struc-
ture raised by the rubbing of magic
lamp, than the work of carpenters and
maSOnS.
Probably its wild surroundings had
a great deal to do with this effect.
! There were no roads leading to Trails
End. Material could not be carried
over its winding trails except on pack
animals. He had a realization OF tre-
mendous difficulties that had been con
quered by tireless effort, of long
months of unending toll, of exhaust
less patience, and at the end-a dream
come true. All Of its lumber had to
be hewed from the forests about. It's
! stone had been quarried from the rock
cliffs and hauled with infinite labor
over the steep trails.
| He understood now why the Turn
| ers had coveted it. 1t seemed the
acme of luxury to them. And more
clearly than ever he understood why
the Rosses had died, sooner than re-
| linquish it, and why its uSurpatiOn by
! the Turner's had left such a debt Of
| hatred to Linda. All men know that
! the love of home is one Of the few
! great impulses that has made toward
civilization, but by the same token it
! has been the cause of many wars. Per
! haps the day is coming when this love
will die in the land, but with it will
| die the strength to repel the heather
! from our walls and the land will not
be worth living in, anyway. But it
was not dead to the mountain people.
No really primitive emotion ever is.
The Rosses had known this instinct
! very well. AS all men who are strong
! thewed and of real natural virtue, they
| had known pride of race and name,
+ and it had been a task worth while to
build this stately house on their far
lying acres They had given their
fiber to it freely no man who beheld
the structure could doubt that fact.
! They had simply consecrated their
lives to it; their one Work by which
| they could show to all who came after
that by their own hands they had
earned their right to live.
Bruce saw the broad lands lying un-
| der the moon. There were hundreds
of acres of alfalfa and clover to fur
niSh hay for the winter feeding. There
were wide, green pastures, enSilvered
by the moon, and fields of corn laid
out in even rows. The old appeal of
the soil, an instinct that no person Of
AnglO-SaXOn descent can ever COM
pletely escape, swept through him.
They were worth fighting for those
| fertile acres.
Not for nothing have hundred gen
erationS of Anglo-Saxon people been
tillers Of the soil. They had left
love of it to Bruce. He knew what
it would be like to feel the earth's
pulse through the handles Of plow, 10
behold the first start Of green things
in the spring and the golden ripening
in fall to watch the flocks through the
breathless nights and the herds feed
ing on the distant hills.
Bruce looked over the ground lie
knew enough not to continue the trail
farther. The space in front was bathed
in moonlight, and he would make the
best kind of target to any rifieman
watching from the windows of the
house He turned through the coverts,
seeking the shadow of the forests at
one side.
BY going in quartering direction
! he was able to approach within two