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Show A TALE OF CML STRIFE f t ? RANDALL PARRISH h fcLUSTOATIONS &-C.D RHODES saucer, a half loaf of brtud. with a sMce cut. 'part of a ham bone, with considerable meat remaining untouched, un-touched, and a small china teapot For an instant the unexpected sight of these articles fascinated me, and then my eyes caught a dull glow In the fireplace at the opposite end of the room the red gleam of a live ember. The shock of this discovery was so sudden as to give me a strange, haunted feeling. The house bad seemed so completely deserted, so desolate, wrapped in silence and darkness, dark-ness, that the vefy conception that someone else was hiding ther came upon me like a blow. Who could the person be? Well, I would find out. Thus far the advantage was mine, for I knew of another presence, while the fellow, whoever he might prove to be. In all probability possessed no knowledge knowl-edge of my entrance. My heart beat fast, but from excitement, excite-ment, not fear. With cocked revolver in one hand, the lamp in the other. I silently opened door after door, peering peer-ing into vacant apartments, half thinking every shadow to be a skulking skulk-ing figure. The search revealed nothing; noth-ing; not even further evidence of any presence in the house. The kitchen fire was cold, the cooking utensils clean, and in tbe,ir proper places. Satisfied already that the mysterious mysteri-ous invader had departed, yet sternly determined now. to explore the whole house, and hav. done with the business, busi-ness, I mounted the back stairway, a strip of rag carpet rendering my steps silent, and', with head above the landing, land-ing, flashed my light cautiously along the upper hall. There were doors on either side, the most of them open, but the third to the left was closed. There was no transom over it, but the door was far enoggh away from the radius of my lamp so as to reveal a faint glow of light at the floor line. 1 set the lamp down on the landing, and crept noiselessly forward to t assure myself; it was true, a light wa3 burning burn-ing within the closed door. (TO BE CONTINUED.) presence. A ??w log hu!3 appeared along the curving road, the one nearest near-est me iji ruins, while a gaunt chimney chim-ney beside a broad stream unbridged was all that remained of a former mill. Beyond this, in midst of a grove of noble trees, a large house, painted white, was the only conspicuous feat-ture feat-ture In the landscape. I recognized It at once as the residence of Major Harwood. My gaze rested v m It, as memory of the man. and his fate, surged freshly fresh-ly back into mind. The place had been spared destruction; it remained unchanged but from that distance it had the appearance of desertion. This condition was no particular surprise, for Harwood's daughter, scarcely more than a girl to my remembrance, would doubtless be with friends, either in Lewisburg or Charleston; and that the mansion, thus deserted, still remained re-mained undestroyed was. after all. not so strange, for the major's standing throughout that section would protect his property. 1 moved on down the steep descent, losing sight of the house as the road twisted about the hill, although- memory mem-ory of it did not desert my mind. Some odd inclination seemed to impel me to turn aside and study the situation there,5mbre closely. Possibly some key to the mystery of Harwood's murder mur-der some connection between him and old Ned Cowan might be revealed re-vealed in a search of the deserted home. Fox had said that his party halted at the house on their march east toward Hot Springs. Some scrap of paper might have been left behind in the hurry of departure, which would yield me a clue. If not this, then there might be other papers stored there relating to military affairs in this section of value to the Confederacy. Confed-eracy. Harwood was the undoubted leader of the Union sympathizers throughout the entire region; be would have lists of names, and memoranda memo-randa of meetings, containing information infor-mation which would help me greatly in my quest. An exploration could not be a matter of any great danger, and might yield me the very knowledge knowl-edge I sought. The great-house loomed before me black and silent. If 1 had ever questioned ques-tioned its desertion its appearance lulled every such suspicion. Nor had it escaped unscathed from the despoliation despo-liation of war. At a. distance, gazing from the side of the mountain, I could perceive no change. But now, close at hand, even the intense darkness could not hide the scars left by vandals. The front steps were broken. the door And Began to Clamber Up Over the irregular Rocks. above was tightly closed, yet both the windows to the right were smashed in, sash and all, leaving a wide opening. I crept forward, and endeavored to peer through, but the darkness within was opaque. I was wet through, chilled to the bone, my uniform clinging to me like soaked paper. At least the inside promised shelter from the storm. achance for a fire, and possibly fragments of food. And I had nothing to fear but darkness. dark-ness. My revolver was under the flap of 'my cavalry jacket, dry and ready for use. I brought it forward, withiD easy grip, and stepped over the sill. My feet touched carpet, littered with broken glass, and I felt about cautiously. cau-tiously. My recollection of the Interior Inte-rior of the house was vague and indistinct, indis-tinct, but I knew a wide hallway led straight through from front door to back, bisected only by a broad stairway stair-way leading to the upper story. I groped along the inside wall, found the door at last, standing wide open, and emerged into the hall. The way was clearer here, and there came into my mind the recollection of a bracket lamp, on the wall at the foot of tbe stairs. My remembrance of the position of the lamp was extremely vague, yet my fingers found it at last, and lifted it from the bracket. The globe contained oil. and, in another moment, the light revealed my imme-j imme-j diate surroundings, j The total desertion of the place was evident; the destruction which had ; been wrought was plainly the work of I cowardly vandals, who had broken in after the Harwoods left J Convinced I of tills truth. I proceeded fearlessly to. explore, seeking merely the warmth of i a lire and food. The library, a large j room, the walls lined with bookcases, afforded no encouragement, but I stopped in amazement at the door of I the dining room the light of my lamp revealing a table at which someone i had lately eaten, apparently alone. There was a single plate, a cup aid I SYNOPSIS. "Confederate Sergeant Wyatt of the fitaunlun artillery ly sent as a spy to ills native county on t he Green Briar by General Gen-eral Jackson. VVyalt meets a mountaineer named .lein Taylor. Tliey ride together to a house beyond Hot Springs. In he house Wyatt and Taylor meel Major Harwood, father of Non-en and an old neighbor of Wyatt, who Is sent to bed whtie the two other men talk. Wyatt becomes suspicions, suspi-cions, and finds that Taylor has murdereJ Harwood and escaped. Wyatt changes to the U. S. cavalry uniform he has with him, and rides away In the night, running Into a detachment of Federal cavalry, to whom he Identifies himself as Lieutenant Itaymond, Third U S. cavalry, by means of papers with- which he has been provided. pro-vided. Captain Fox llnrts Harwood's body and follows Taylor's trail. . CHAPTER V. The Night Attack. The Incidents of that ride do not remain re-main with me in any special clearness of detail. We rode steadily, keeping well together, conscious that in all probability we were watched by hostile hos-tile eyes, peering out from behind rock nd thicket. We foraged through deserted de-serted shacks, finding poor reward, yet managed to subsist, although with hunger unsatisfied. The men grumbled grum-bled and Fox swore, as, long before night came, he comprehended the fact that we were on a fool's errand; that his little squad was being lured deeper and deeper into a hostile country, but no opportunity to turn aside presented present-ed itself. The night overtook us in the midst of a mountain solitude. The 6couts had discovered a spring at the bottom of a rocky hollow, and there Fox reluctantly ordered camp to be made, the horses finding scant pasturage pas-turage beyond. The grumbling and cursing soon ceased, however, and those not on duty slept fitfully. made the round of the sentries with Fox, slipping and stumbling over the rough way, through the darkness. - "This weird place gets on tbe nerves," he said, as If half ashamed of the confession. "Do you know, Raymond, Ray-mond, I have felt for the last hour as if we were riding Into some trap." He glanced nervously behind him. "I don't believe there has ever been a Federal detachment down as far as this before. We're in old Ned Cowan's country." .''Confederate?" I asked, interested at once by the name. "Heaven knows! To the best of my belief the fellow doesn't give a whoop or either side. - He's just a natural born devil and this war gave him a chance to get the hell out of his sys-item. sys-item. Still. I guess, he calls himself a Reb." - "And his followers?" "Mountain men mostly, together with a bunch of deserters and conscripts con-scripts from both sides. Nobody knows how big a band he has. but it would take an army to run them out of these mountains. We had orders to do it but piffle! Ramsay came down as far as Fayette Court House with a regiment of Infantry, and a cavalry guard, and sent out a flag of truce asking the old devil to come in and talk with him. He actually did come; roderight up to headquarters, with a dozen of his ragged followers, heard what Ramsay had to say, and then simply told the general to go to hell, and rode off again." "Were you there? Did you see the men?" "No. but the sergeant did; he was detailed at that time as headquarters' orderly." "Yes," I said, determined on my course. "1 was talking with Hayden during the noon halt. He described Cowan to me, and I believe he is tbe same man I encountered at Hot Springs. Captain Fox the fellow Taylor Tay-lor we are In pursuit of." The captain stared Into the black night, silent for several minutes. "I've been suspecting the same thing for the last three hours." he admitted at last slowly, "and that he hoped we would follow him The fellow hasn't ridden fast, and has purposely left a plain trail. More than that he was expected along this road and there were relays of horses waiting. -He only changed once, but he was met by another party near that ruined mill. Ever since then I have felt that we were being watched by unseen eyes. Did you observe the curl of smoke to our right just before dark how It rose and fell in rings?" "I saw the smoke, yes a thin spiral, but supposed it to be from the chim ney of some mountain shack." "Well, it was not. That was an out-Bide out-Bide tire, and the smoke was smothered smoth-ered and then thrown up by blankets. That Is their way of signaling I tell you i;"utcnnnt this murder of Harwood Har-wood is more than an army matter. It was either t lie culmination of a feud done for personal revenue or else (he major had papers in his possession posses-sion bearing on the situation here that could only be gamed over his dead body The man who killed him was old Nod Cownn." "Hut llarwocu! must have known him." I protested "Of course lie did; they were neighbor? neigh-bor? before the war and met there by appni n t iiient. Fur ail I know the ma jor m;:y have t ;'d sen:e confidential con i:h: nlcal ic.n fr.Kii Ihe vnr department depart-ment Cotl knows what it was All I am sure ab'.'Jt is that I would give a good deal to be out of this fix right now and twenty miles to the north of here." We sat there for half an hour discussing dis-cussing the matter and endeavoring to convince ourselves the danger was less than we Imagined. There was nothing to be done but wait for daylight. day-light. Finally Fox crept forth again to make another round of the pickets, to assure himself they were alert, and before he returned I had fallen asleep. The chill of the night awoke me, cold and shivering. The wind had arisen and swept down the funnel In which I lay with an icy breath against which my single blanket afforded no protection. The man who had been lying next me was gone, and so there must have been a change of guard while I slept. 1 could distinguish, dimly outlined against the sky, the overhanging rock-wall which inclosed our camp, and the deeper shade of a cleft a yard or two to my left, where the dead trunk of a tree stood like a gaunt, ugly sentinel As I lay staring the figure of a man slipped out from behind its protection protec-tion and, dropping on , hands and knees, crept forward across the open space. Another and another followed, mere ghostlike shadows, scarcely appearing ap-pearing real. For the instant I doubted doubt-ed my eyesight, imagined I dreamed. Then, before I could raise voice in alarm, a rifle spat viciously, the red flame of its discharge cleaving the night. A fusillade followed and In the flare I caught grotesque glimpses of men leaping forward, and there was a confused yelling of voices, a din of noise. I was upon my knees, revolver in hand, but in the melee below could not distinguish friend from foe alike they were a blur of figures, one instant in-stant visible, the next obscured. Yet there could be no doubt as to the final ending of the struggle. Taken by surprise, sur-prise, outnumbered, the little squad of troopers would be crushed, annihilated. annihilat-ed. Nor was there reason why I should sacrifice myself in their defense a valueless sacrifice. My choice was instantly made, as there flashed to my mind what my fate would be if I ever fell into Cowan's hands attired in Federal uniform. On hands and knees I crept to tbe cleft in the rock wall and began to clamber up over the irregular rocks. The shouts and yells, the cries for mercy, the sound of blows, grew fainter faint-er and finally ceased altogether. Leaning Lean-ing back and looking down I could perceive per-ceive nothing in the black void. A voice shouted an order, but It sounded far off and indistinct. I was in a narrow gully, the incline less steep than amid the rocks below, ,and could perceive the lighter canopy of the sky not far above me. As I crept out into the open space someone touched a match to a pile of dry limbs In the cove below, and the red flames leaped high,' revealing the scene. I caught a glimpse of it staring down as though I clung at the mouth of hell, seeing moving black figures, and the dark, motionless shadows of dead men. The one glimpse was enough, the fearful tragedy of it smiting me like a blow, and I turned and ran, stumbling over tbe rough ground, my only thought that of. escape. There were stars in the sky, their dim light sufficient to yield some faint guidance. My course led me close beside the edge of the ridge Here tbe ground fell away to the banks of a shallow stream and some Instinct of woodcraft led me to wade down with its current for a considerable distance, until the icy water drove me to the bank once more. I knew 1 had covered cov-ered several miles and was beyond pursuit pur-suit and s:.fe from discovery 1 remained re-mained there until dawn, the first gray light giving assurance that my flight had been to the north along the foothills. From the ridge top a wide vista lay revealed of rough, seemingly, seeming-ly, uninhabited country, growing more distinct as the light strengthened There was no house visible, no sign of any road; all about extended a rude mountain solitude, but to the northwest north-west there was a perceptible break in the chain of hills, as thougb a pass led down Into the concealed valley beyond. be-yond. With this tor guidance I plunged forward, eager to get out of that drear wilderness. It was considerably after the noon hour before 1 came upon a dismal shack of logs In the midst of a small clearing. The light streaming in through the open door revealed that It was unoccupied Yet someone bad been there, and not so very long ago. for there were scraps of food on one of the overturned boxes. Unappetizing Unappetiz-ing as these appeared, I sat down and ate heartily, then got to my feet and, closing the duor securely behind me. plowed through the tangle of weeds back to the roiid. Just before sundow n I emerged from the narrow gap and looked down into the broad valley of tile Green Uriar. It was a scene to linger in the mem ory. and at my first glance I knew where 1 v-as. recognizing the familiar objeefs cu'.spread before nie. Lewis burg lijy be.'ond a spur of hills. Invis ible from my position, although dis taut spirals of smoke indicated tt3 |