Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1936-01-10
CHAPTER Nv

AhC SOC0 OuL W lace Tie man.
CHAPTER ~
The stranger looked keenly at Lee
land as he stepped out of the door
and closed it behind him. Then he
grinned.
Leland did not miss the grin. The
man felt rather sure of himself, Le-
land decided.
"Well," he said. you're not native
that's plain"
In flash Leland had his tipoff as
to what to do.
"Howdy," Leland said, "what
mought yore business be, stranger?"
The man stared at him in amaze
ment.
whats that?" he demanded sharp
~.
Leland realized that the man was
surprised and puzzled at this.
"Who air you-all and what you-all
want?" Leland demanded, with the
nasal twang of the mountaineers.
1--WE don't set no store by furriners
down in these yere parts"
The well-dressed stranger eyed Le-
land keenly, from head to foot.
"No offense," he said.
"What is hit you-all seeks ?" Leland
persisted, getting courage now at the
success of his ruse and scowling at
the man.
I'm merely prospecting for coal
no offense meant" he declared.
"No coal here, hits yonder, up Rad
ford way, seventy miles from this
yere valley"
Leland did not believe the mans
story that he was prospecting fol
coal, not only because he had all the
ear-marks of detective, but because
he should have known that the near.
est coal was either at Radford OF
lvanhoe Furnace, towns seventy-five
miles apart and equally as far from
Grayson Hills.
Sorry" the man said and he
swung up into his saddle and rode
away.
Leland went inside and told his sis.
ter to keep hidden as he was going
to tell Harvey Orson. He cut up thru
the woods and told him about it.
Il think he's revenuer and want.
ed to warn you, and anyway you know
l don't want strangers down here. ,
"TIl be right pert in SEEM about
it, Mister Fo'bes," Harvey Orsou
promised. Leland smiled grimlv
Whoever the man was, Orson an6
his neighbors would soon send him
on his way. If the man was a de-
tective his badge would work him
more harm than good for to These
people a badge is the sign of but one
thing, revenue officer-and a reve.
nue. officer in those parts held down
a very unhealthy job.
Lola was almost sick over the
fright. To her there still lurked the
grim shadow of the electric chair. The
fear of capture had never quite left
her.
Leland's mind was often in a tur.
mol. He would have spells of think.
ing of jeanette, of trying to plan some
means of letting her know that he
was alive and loved her, but no pla1
would come to him that didn't carry
with 1t too great degree of DANCE,
according to his views.
Much as he longed to secure COPIES
OF newspapers that carried the story
OF the shooting of Vance Harlow, he
never dared to send for them or ever
to ask his friend and lawyer to dc
that, for he didn't want him to suspec,
that his sister was with him.
Poor Jeanettel When proofs of the
material that Leland had sent, in his
roundabout way, to the Maxim and
Company house were given to her to
illustrate, she always had a day or
so of suffering, mental agony. These
proofs meant that somewhere Leland
was alive, and there was something
direful in his hiding. But jeanette
was no fictional heroine to faint and
droop and pine away. She finally
went on with her work.
When the first volume came to Le-