The Adair County news., 1922-11-07

Her Coat and Hat Lay on the Bed, but
There Was No Linda to Stretch Her
Arms to Him.
culation Of the rife shells in his pock-
ct. The gun held six. He had perhaps
fifteen others in his pockets, and he
hadn't stopped to replenish them from
the supply Elmira had brought. He
hadn't brought Dawes rife with him,
but had left it with the remainder Of
his pack. He knew that the lighter he
travelled the greater would be his
chance of success.
Obviously the girl had written when
the clan was closing about the house,
and finding her in the front room,
there had been no occasion to search
the other rooms and thus discover it.
The girl had kept her head even in
that moment of crisis. A wave Of ad-
miratiOn for her passed over him.
And the little action had set an ex-
ample for him. He knew that only
rigid seIf-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 Linda out Of
Simon's 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 Simon lived.
Linda had told him it rested upon the
crest of a small hill, beyond a ridge
Of timber. The moonlight showed him
a well-beaten trail, and he strobe
swiftly along it.
He had a vague sense of familiarity
with this winding trail. Perhaps he
had tOddled down it as a baby, per-
haps his mother had carried him along
it on a neighbOrly visit to the ROsses.
He went over the hill and pushed his
way to the edge of the timber. All
at once the moon showed him the
house.
He couldn't mistake it, even at this
distance. And to Bruce 1t had a singu-
lar effect of unreality. The mountain
men did not ordinarily build homes of
such dimensions. They were usually
merely log cabins of two or three low
er rooms and a garret to be reached
with ladder. The ancestral home Of
6n DnCCnc ho6 fTIl 6n20T1
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 enchantIhent, a struc-
ture raised by the rubbing Of a 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 it's 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. Its
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
Nf 20
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
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 1.-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 we'll AS all men who are strong
thewed and of real natural virtue, they
had known pride of race and name,
and 1t 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. TAare
were vide, green pastures, ems !ga.c1