Show I I I I I The Red Lock Lk oc l c Tale I the o of f By DAVID ANDERSON I Author of f The Ile Blue Moon Moon Flatwoods r Ul d s sI I br Th Bobbt Co I I THE BOUND BOY Three generations ago lit lift on the th banks of ot the Wabash was II th the lit Ute of th the of frontier frontier of the back back- wood Of woods of the outpost of 01 atlon laUon Ufe Lt tb there r was wai simple and aDd strenuous Men ten were strong strong- and aDd tl the th primitive emotion swayed them And ADd th s It Is a t tile the le 1 of the da days of ot our grandfather and of those thole conditions condition David Anderson a native of this region knows knowe It ai II few do Ins His Blue DIu Moon which told tole of the p pearl arl Ushers fishers rl was wai a great reat ucc success The Th Km Red Ix Lock ck takes up a time a little later when later when the pearl peal abers were giving lace I place ilace to permanent settlers It li Is a tale of the Flatwoods Yes Tei we have bare no e canal nal construction con COD In this story The red lock I is I. a lock of ot hair recurring In Inthe Inthe Inthe the generations generation of ot the Colinan an an Inheritance from a pirate ancestor ances ancee tor who even In those thoe da days day was regarded as II an undesirable clU un sen And this red lock played the mischief with an any Colin Cohn so 0 adorned So we have Ken Colin Celia who mysteriously disappeared re red lock and all aU Tule Texie his hie pretty and loyal slater sister Big Dig Jack Jack bound bound bo boy who loves love Texie and various red blooded pioneer people who are Involved In ID the results of the reappearance of the red lock Nature lovers loven and woodsmen will find and much here to Interest them For the author Is II close to natures nature's heart and Ind his hi pages show how his relationship And Big Dig Jack Is I. an In adept In is woodcraft with an en efficient eye ey for an aD en enem enemy enemy's en- en em emy's emy trail trill mid and the quickness of ot the wild animal lit life of ot the Flat Flat- woods wood CHAPTER I IThe 1 1 Th The Bound Boy A girl came out of the back yard of ofa a roofed red-roofed cottage at the up upstream edge of Buckeye Buckee passed around aroun l a 4 rather tastefully built barn with its flanking cribs and pens crossed the fallow tallow pasture lot In a corner of which it stood climbed the fence and picked her way up the face tace of the cliffs that roughly walled the village on three sides until she stood at last among the jagged and broken pinnacles atthe atthe at atthe the top of Black rock a lighter speck against the gray green background of the Flatwoods Away beyond the bend where the placid Wabash lost Itself among thi th the hills huts the tile sun crawled toward the rim of the West Wet Pendant above the distant distant distant dis dis- tant timber line Its round splendor burnished bright by the wonder of j 1 May turned a lingering glance at the serene erene world Hut But the girl was vas not watching the sunset The splendor of at the wide widespread Ide- Ide spread landscape at her feet teet was lost loston loston loston on her Crawling out from under the sunset halving the village and winding away up the river between een cliff and bottom ran the RIver lUver road the one slim artery that connected with the great world outside the Flatwoods The girls girl's eyes ejes were on the road Far ar up the river twenty river twenty miles of ot gravel and gra gray sand sand sand-It It led to the city On clear days she had sometimes sometimes some some- times made out the haz hazy whiteness of at Its roofs roots and spires the spires the gateway of at another another- world world world-a a world that the errant errant er rant fancies of girlhood peopled with many a wonder Seven years ago to a day she Bhe had stood there and watched the Milford stage carry her brother away to the end of that road through road through the dim dim- t P. P Seven Years Yura Ago Today She Stood tood There Ther and Watched th the Milford Stage Stags Carry Cury Her Brother Away to th the End of the Road gateway and out Into Inlo the great world orld beyond The East it East It swallows op lip many a man JUan of the West Vest It bad had wallowed swallowed her brother up It never gave lave him back The eyes tes grown pensive turned II slowly to the upstanding pinnacle of ot sandstone polished smooth by a thousand thousand thou thou- sand winds alive In the bronze glow that hat struck up from the distant riffle Three names had bad been rudely carved caned there one above aboTe the other so long ago I that storm and had begun to obliterate ob oh- litera literate te them y ij The girt girl ed u up a piece of ragged shale and end with a sharp corner scraped clean dean each knife knUe stroke till tut the three names namu stood out clear dear deara as a. the day they were first carved caned there KEN TEXIE JACK She dropped the the piece of shale thoughtfully passed her fingers over OTer the names name and glanced down at lt the foot of ot the upstanding pinnacle In r pocket of the great rock where only the tempered rays of ot the sun could l strike It lay a tiny bed of leaf leat mold set et with clumps dumps of yellow rellow orchids not yet ret abloom lady abloom lady slippers slip sUp pers perR in the qu quaint and acid expressive vernacular of the W Wabash country country- that bad had doubtless been transplanted from the deep woods The girl stooped above the tiny Uny flower flow flow- er bed bed bed-a a friendly spot in tn Its setting t tat of at stern ro rocks kl plucked away an obtrusive ob ob- weed or two let her sobered her ey eyes s stray back to the roofed red-roofed cottage cottage cot cot- tage toge across a small orchard small orchard that l lay y spread d at her ber feet tee and out over the rather pretentious farmstead to which to-which which the orchard belonged Pretentious Pretentious Just just that j a promise of comfort and affluence never fulfilled There was ever every evidence that the farmstead had been laid out out on 00 a scale cale much more elaborate than was usual In In the Flatwoods Flatwood but nothing had been finished finished finished-an an n attempt that failed a dream that never came true Outlined among the weeds weed and encroachIng encroaching encroaching en en- brambles lay the extensive foundation of the farmhouse but it had been carried little beyond the foundation A few huge gills sills huge squared logs cut and hewed In the upland woods woods had had been laid Of the few timbers of the superstructure some had fallen entirely others had bad fallen at atone one lne end and hung bung straining while white even the firmest canted far out of plumb Back of this creaking skeleton of time-blackened time timbers and nearer the cliff stood a mite of a log cabin cabla rudely rudely rudely rude rude- ly constricted where doubtless a man mall had housed while dreaming his unfinished unfinished unfinished un un- finished dream of house bouse and barns and happy homestead Rooted beside the thedoor thedoor thedoor door and almost completely covering the cabin a crimson rambler of many years years' growth growth afar a far wanderer that no surroundings can degrade offered degrade offered a fragrant suggestion that a woman hall had shared the dreams of the man Three horses grazed In 10 the barn lot down near Dear a big elm that stood at the road gate some geese getse squatted along the diminutive rivulet leading from the spring out In the feed tEed lot lolled a bunch of ot cattle fine and Bud thrifty as could have bave been seen the length of the Wabash The eyes of ot the girl suddenly waked from tram broo brood gig g g darted to a point a short dis distance ace up the cliff livened The slouch hat and drab corduroy hunting blouse of a tall young woodsman woodsman woodsman woods woods- man with an Immense spread of shoulder shoulder shoulder der had flitted past a break in the bushes as ns he sprang down the steep sleep and rugged path that picked Its way among the rocks from the uplands She was just In In time to see him reach up put his band hand on the tile top rail of the fence tence and vault over Into the barn lot The girl missed a breath Few men In the Flatwoods could have m made de that leap Down by the bl big elm at the road gate one of the horses horsell a powerful gelding glossy black save for one white while lock In his foretop raised his head came trotting up the lot The big woodsman put his bis arm about the arched neck laid his bis face against the glossy mane and stroked the soft sott nose Good Goad ol of Graylock I he muttered muttered- bound r free tree t you a mans man's a man manA man man- A shadow subdued the bold frankness frankness frank frank- ness of his bis face tace as a chance cloud dra draws across a fair field he gazed hard at the wind-staggered wind skeleton of at the unfinished farmhouse Ills His roving eye following the glow of ot approaching sunset found the girl upon the rock her pliant body softly outlined against the silver green background back ground of at the woods wooda I wt wy 1 In another moment he be was racing up the cliff The girl was waiting fur for him b by the upstanding pinnacle of ot sandstone a half bait sadness In her eyes that gradually subdued the eagerness In his lie He laid his big hand on her ber shoulder slid It down her ter arm and gathered her fingers in his great palm There was not even a twitch of response re re- lie He dropped the fingers backed sway away a step and stood studyIng studyIng studying study- study Ing her Jack Jack 7 Do yu know what day this is lie He puzzled to find the answer she doubtless had In to mind finally ventured ventured ventured ven ven- the only one he could rould think ot of Tuesday May 1849 1819 She Sha flared around at him You know that aint what 1 I mean The girl pointed to the carved names on the monolith of sandstone lie He followed follow the motion stepped past her and ran his hand over the three names lingering an Instant over the middle one Pore fore Ken I en be he muttered he be he could a ben beo anything he be wanted to to The girls girl's eyes flinched and turned back to the dim frayed end of the road the man stood silent allent Seven SeTen years learl ago she mused you ou and me stood up here hero on Black Dlack Blackrock Blackrock rock and watched the Milford stage haul hau Im awa away off yonder ronder to the city and out In the big world t college and then we cut we-cut cut them names name She paused He De seemed Jo Q fee feel that tin answer was was as expected ci d of of him but made none Two years we got wonder letters letters wonder wonderful ful ones onel at flit fiat I low v y you u aint alot fOrgot Ergot how bow we use use t come up here here here- you rou and me and me-and and read em She spoke more to herself U than than an to him n. n Then the letters got fewer and farther er till tile they got V s' s Ui- Ui they ther wasn't no satisfaction in It ln em m Then Ten y yu u know that terrible one come from the president of ot the college cot col lege how tellin tell In how bow awful Ken awful Ken was was wa bar bar- car car- oD on and father t take Im home But Du he be never never come me and I a It t I. I f fAnd And What Word Could Alter the the St Stern rn Fact That He W. W Was a Bounty Boy- Boy Bound Out to Her Hr Own Father little while afterwards the president writ another letter tellin how Ken Km had killed had killed a man man and run away from school leavin all them debts That was wu five years ago and ago and the last we ever hearde heard e e e e e eIt e It Is curious and Interesting how some of the greatest names of the Saxon Anglo-Saxon race have bave lodged like river drift along the byways and waterways waterways wa ter teras as of what was once the great American woods Ken Texie Jack the Jack the first two Co On- dins the third a names names that have I been spread wide on English his his- tory tort And of the two ancient families fam tam tiles Illes probably no purer strain existed than the tile flung far thread that had bad I found lodgment here In this out out-of- I way the-way corner of ot the earth the earth the great Flatwoods that seventy years ago I stretched for many an unbroken mile along the north bank of the upper Wabash The man swept a hand toward the distant end of the road The girl rl glanced at him Ten more days there days there was a strained firmness In hl his voice as If it what be he was about to say came hard to him and him and Im I'm Im I'm ridin out yonder He lIe felt her eyes upon him Ten more he went on This I is the tenth of May When It its it's the twentieth Ill I'll be twenty one twenty one and free Ten more more more-l I ben countin emA em A deep serl seriousness clouded his face he be stared down at the warped skeleton of the unfinished farmhouse The girl fumbled the bit of ribbon at ather ather ather her waist My 1011 father tather dreamed that dream he went on It could come true the Seminoles bolted their reservation and he dropped everything and rushed away to the head of the rangers You know how he fell he-fell fell at He Ue paused a moment gripped his baland hat bal and went on Mother never saw laW a awell awell awell well day no more You know v how bow she lingered along down there ther under the therose therose rose vine till I was Wal twelve When she Ibe dIed died It wen was found out Pap Simon had a on everything He De foreclosed had bad me bound me-bound bound out to Ira aD and and The girl stole a look at fit t his face tace It was 81 so hard and bitter that she dared not venture a word And what word could alter the stern fact that he lie was wasa a bound boy bound boy out to her ber own father Wild and savage lavage and terrible like ol of Red Colin must a looked TO BBS na CONTINUED |