The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-11-23

: :
Nancy's
Hill-BiIly

Ely JAMES P.


1919 AOoN RAOf1
decline toward the valley, his rifle
across his shoulder, his hand gather
ing the reins of his scrubby nag into
a loose bunch.
1t was very dark, and this was
well, for he was entering upon dan
gerous te~rritory-the Tremletts'. The
Tremletts would not hesitate to shoot
at any hill-billy found proving round
their preserves.
They had been hill-billies them
selves, until the race produced old
Abraham Tremlett, who went down
from the mountains, established his
hardware store in Jex Crossing, and
became a settled citizen and built a
clapboarded house upon the outskirts.
A strange atavistic reversion to the
about the time Of the Pilgrims. The
offspring of those sturdy rebels were
scattered in log cabins among a hun
dred glens.
Each of them, when he reached man
hood, left the parental cabin and went
forth to a ~neighboring mountain,
cleared a little patch for corn, built
his log shack, set up his home-ham-
mered still, and found a wife some
where.
But wives were few and far be-
tween. So many of the girls had gone
into the towns to work in the cotton
mills; they stayed there and married.
and what girl in the towns would look
at a hill-billy?
The hill-billy was thinking of the
month before in JeX Crossing, when
he had ridden in to trade corn for a
new saddle. He was proud Of his
saddle. 1t had great wooden stir
rups and shone like pigskin, though it
was only calf. The hill-biHy had
built his home, set up his still.
He vas thinking of her. She had
smiled at him, where other girls turned
their heads s~cornfully aside. "Only
a hill-billy." He had often heard the
phrase.
There was bad blood between the
and the hill-billies. They
knew the Tremletts had been Of their
own stock.
In her room in the Tremletts' house
Nancy Tremlett tossed restlessly and
thought of the gray eyes of the man
she had seen riding into Jex
Crossing.
She was only eighteen, but girls
marry young in the South, and two
men wanted her. She did not like
either of them, but what is one to do?
jirls are expected to marry.
One was Cy Broome, the son of her
partner in the hardware store.
Ter father favored him. The other
vas Lew Kent, the sheriff, who had
sworn to drive the moonshine business
tut of Jex county. He was a tall,
can man of forty. Her father was
in favor of him, but he was infiu-
initial; in a way it was a bigger match
han with Cy Broome.
So Nancy tossed restlessly in her
ed and thought Of the hill-billy. She
ictured the life in the hills, the wild,
he glory Of dawn and sunset, and
he man she loved beside her.
There was an atavistic element in
er blood, too, but it was the longing
the wild her forbears had known.
A sound beneath her window sent
er covering to the shelter of the :
overs. When she looked up again
he saw framed in the window, the !
ice of the hill-billy. !
With a great effort she concealed :.
er fears. This man could mean her l
0 harm. "What is it? Go away!"
II got a horse outside. Eff you'll l
)me with me we kin make Parsons d
ap by daylight" ?
1.-THE blood of a thousand ances- U
esses, taken by capture stirred her. Y
"Wait a minutel" she said. :
Fearfully she dressed herself and
ent to the window. Beneath 1t the G
ll-billy sat on his scrubby nag. He Z
oked up, stretched out his arms. y
Nancy, like a hill-girl, went down =
q vines. In a moment she was a
'rched up in front of him, and his :
ms were about her. .
1t was growing light. A lantern
Nancy heard her fathers I,
voice, shouts, the discharge e.
a shotgun. They were cantering L
ward the hills now.
II guess they'll get Lew Kent by the re
lephone," said Nancy.
1t was growing quite light when "a
ey neared Parsons Gap. Along ~
e road that forks into the trail a =
tie before 1t three horsemen were
ling. They signaled them simulta- p
ously and spurred their horses. -
In the dim dawn the rivals raced =
: the gap. The hill-billy won, with
hundred yards to spare. He turned w
d waved a hand derisively.
another moment the scrubby nag pl
S plunging along the trail among IN
} rhOdodendron thickets, where, 10
'ub that he was, he could outdis-
ice a racehorse. They were safe. go
The hill-billy had carried away his TIL