Show S cr I 1 A E V L copyright by ben den ames vi V 11 II ami ams o 0 q ben 00 0 en ames williams idi ams service SYNOPSIS at a KI gi ot of cronies in the vil lage of 0 liberty maine jim sim saladine listens to the history ol 01 the neighbor ing hostile valley its past tragedies its superb fishing streams and above all the mysterious enticing g huldy wife of will perrin ferrin interested he drives to the valley tor for a days day s fishing though admitting to himself his chief desire Is to see the glamorous huldy ferrin old marm marro pierce and her nineteen year old granddaughter jenny live in the valley since childhood jenny has deeply loved young will ferrin older than thin she and who re bardsher gard sher as still a child will leaves to take employment in nearby augusta his fathers death brings will back to the valley but he returns to A au u gusta still unconscious of jenny jennys s womanhood and love neighbors of the pierces are bart and amy carey brother and sister bart unmarried and something of a ne er do well Is at traded by jenny the girl repulses him definitely learning that will Is coming home jenny exulting sets his long empty house to rights and has dinner ready tor for him he ile comes bringing his wife huldy the girl a world collapses huldy becomes the 0 subject u abject of unfavorable gossip in the V valley ay iy entering his home unlocked unlooked tor for will finds seemingly damning evidence of bis his wife s unfaithfulness as a man he knows Is seth humph reys breaks from the house will over take takes him and chokes him to death although humphreys shatters his leg with a bullet at marm pierce pierces s house the leg Is amputated jenny goes to break the news to huldy and finds her with bart carey huldy makes a mock of 0 jenny jennys s sympathy declaring she ehe has no use tor for halt half a man and Is to leaving will Is legally exonerated and with a home made artificial leg carries on hiring a helper zeke dace months later huldy comes back CHAPTER V continued 9 huldy stood leaning indolently against the jamb of 0 the door smiling at them all he ile don dont t have to hurry burry I 1 might decide to stay she said softly I 1 like handsome men said huldy drawling and even if he be don dont t like me he a handsome as they come I 1 zekes aekes eyes were black with anger she laughed at his rage and she said in soft tones you can see he don dont t like me will have to make him like me before I 1 go zeke cried in choking exasperation you ve got one man outside I 1 how many huldy looked over her shoulder then back to zeke again you go out and tell him he can go she said tell him min I 1 m through with him I 1 and when he hesitated he s just a little man she urged derisively cajoling youve no call to be afraid I 1 zeke appealed to will with a glance and will spoke wearily go ahead zele he said submitting this here s huldy Is home if she s a mind to stay huldy took off her hat and laid it aside she touched her hair with her hands bands jenny stood up and moved toward the door but huldy said soft ly dont don t you go gol I 1 there a room enough for the both of us I 1 don t want your will I 1 will protested heavily huldy if you stay here you 11 have to mend your waysil ways 1 huldy was suddenly vicious dan berous dont don t talk to me mel I 1 she re ported after fetching her in here the minute I 1 was gone I 1 aim to stay and if you try to boss me around III howl her name up and down the valley till people hold their noses when they see heri herl you better mend your own ways will ferrin I 1 zeke touched wills arm let me throw her out will he protested don t you go and tale take her in I 1 have to zele zeke will confessed zel feie e stared at the other man hot scornful furious all right he said then contemptuously it if yore that bind kind I 1 im m quitting I 1 you 11 have to get on without me mel I 1 but huldy moved slowly to zeke zekes s bide side dont don t you quit she said and touched his hand you 11 be glad you stayed I 1 zeke seemed choking he said at last grudgingly finish out the week I 1 reckon and huldy smiled contentedly but jenny could bear no more moving slowly she went out through the shed and the barn and down the orchard path to the brook she came through the deep woods home As she opened the kitchen door marm pierce looked up inquiringly and then in quick alarm at what she saw she rose to her feet but there was no need of a question jen ny spoke huldis back she said through trembling lips she ashes a come home I 1 I 1 marm i I 1 force exclaimed in quick re assurance dont don it you grieve jenny I 1 shell never stay jenny shook her head almost smil ing pitifully she t aim to she just come to fetch her clothes she said I 1 but she saw zeke dace and now she shea a going to stay I 1 0 0 0 fr from I 1 huldy a return until jim sala dine came at last to hostile valley two years intervened and during this period though her heart was his tor for ever jenny saw will not at all in the country as in the city it Is 1 pos slate to go for years without glimpsing your next door neighbor jenny and her er grandmother raud mother lived off the traveled road and e even ea if that had not been the case will when he had occasion to so go into the arll took the road up the ridge from his house and in the opposite direction jenny her self might venture into the woods down the valley nalley toward the brook but ft IN III slice sli ce he had now but one good leg never came to the to fish and jenny never crossed the brook so their paths did not inter sect accident might have brought them face to face but neither the girl nor will would des design n an encounter jen ny loved him deeply and completely and the very fact that they did not see one another served in some fashion to intensify the girls devotion this love of hers for will springing out of the years of her childhood growing in stature and in depth as she became a woman noman seemed to feed on denial dental I 1 aching the man himself she kept his remembered image in her heart and was wistfully contented so sometimes marm pierce wished jen jon ny might find happiness elsewhere but jenny was not unhappy and the older woman came by and by to under stand certain it was the girl wore no mask of grief she was nowadays a woman glowing with nith a deep radiance life and maturity became her well and it sometimes seemed to the older woman that jenni s love for will must communicate itself to him in silent ways and at first she blamed him for that be he did not throw hi hildy idy headlong out of his home and his life so that he might turn to jenny and she spoke this thought to jenny but the girl shook her head not will she said ile lies s not the kind to long as she lives hell stand by her marm pierce indignantly insisted there s nothing so dumb as RS a good man chats got mixed up with nith a bad woman and ive ie a mind to go tell will so jenny smiled wisely you 11 not she said you never will and marm pierce perceiving in the girl a wisdom greater than her own never did in the weeks after huldy Is return amy carey fell more and more into the habit of coming through the woods to see the old woman and the girl who dwelt here in this house divided win hai hagens en s side of the house fell nowa days more and more into disrepair the root roof was broken the shutters hung by one binge hinge and banged in the wind the floor timbers were rotted and crumbling it would not be long un less measures of repair were taken till that half of the house sagged weakly downward into a colla collapsed ased ruin marm pierce shut ner tier eyes to this sure eventuality yet the matter presented practical problems too sometimes when rain drove through gli the roof on the other side it seeped through baseboard or through plaster to damage marm alarm pierces own part of the house and made a nuisance there once jenny proposed taking tar paper and like material to proof the other side of the walls against moisture but the old woman would not consent 1 I wouldn t give win the satis fac tion she declared when amy came to stop a while with thebe two in the warm kitchen she could not fall to remark the in creasing d and she urged marm I 1 force to take measures of prevention you 11 have to she said because win won t never do anyta ing he ile was to our house the other night and talked about it and he lows to be round when his side of the house falls and to watch and see the trouble it makes for you brags that if you try to mend anything he hell 11 take tale a shotgun to you he ile around again Is he marm alarm pierce demanded demanded tartly I 1 dida t know but he bed d died in a gutter soine some wheres before now he ile comes to tor our place right along amy assured them there a a new steam mill will putt ng in down brook be low here opposite where beths mill used to be they come in from liberty village win he hes a working there he ile comes up and him and bart set and drink and brag she ad led huski ly win he hes s shining up to huldy too that old fool I 1 marm pierce ex claimed you cant can t go to blame him amy said ruefully seems like she takes a kind of satis satisfaction in fretting a man and getting him haired up and laughing at him after and she said slowly but I 1 don t know as she 9 bothering with anyone only zeke now jenny caught some accent in the girl girls s tone her perceptions were per haps quickened by her own love for will but marm alarm tierce in this matter not so wiss said sharply zeke a as big a fool as any of them I 1 lowed be he had more sense than that zeke a all right amy said in hum ble defense only he her eyes filled with slow tears fears he ile used to come down and set with nith me she con tested always joking and laughing he was zeke s a hand to make a joke out of things but I 1 ain aint t seen him lately so marm alarm pierce understood and her lips set 1 in anger I 1 II 11 I 1 ve that husy a piece of ailed i led imp bently flauia amy wh espered sometimes I 1 in scared seared she shivered uneas ly dun no whit I 1 in scared seared of e ther cut but ohp men that have seen her sometimes they come down dou n to our place and they re half crazy und kind of cart bart he hates th the sight of her he ile cant can t say anything hard bard enough of hei he ile s always been a good friend to will and to have hei her treat will so frets cart bart awful and win han haen en hell come down and cuss and rave race and rant about her 1 ike ke be wanted to twist her neck gut but zeke zele he dont don t eier e er come down I 1 inor hill jenny guessed will he stays up there amy as dented 11 hm in and zele zeke TI tie e gill gli I 1 shuddered re rel I 1 I 1 dunno what s going to come of it she admitted fearfully feir fully and she said cart bart talks falls about licking zeke zele lie ile says somebody d bugl t to long ab a NN ill can it do it him self marm alarm pierce asked sharply can cant t will take a gun to him or a cart stave 1 it if he had any gumption in him will s got gumption enough amy assured them she looked at jenny cart bart told me here about a week ago a 0 he was up there and huldy said some tl ing about you jenny will most times he hes s gentle to her but cart bart says will he got up at that and he says to ter t er huldy he says you keep 3 our tongue off oft jenny or rip it out of your mouth I 1 jenny felt a fierce surge of pride and happ ness but she md her eyes V w I 1 I 1 might decide to stay she said softly so that it alese ese others might not see marm pierce exclaimed in a deep ex asper atlon I 1 sh d think as much I 1 what d she say to that she shut her mouth 1 amy report ed gat bat said bald the she kind of laughed but she did hush cupl he ile said will was enough to terrify a body the way he looked at her and she reflected NN ill it if he does get mad it don t pay to tool fool with him there were nero other days when amy came thus to be with them they were remote from the fernn ferrin farm but amy was not from wills place down don to carey bridge was a scant quarter mile so amy had almost dally word of what passed on the hill and her deep trouble increased its like a sore place up there she said one day like a sore that Is bound to spread it if you don r scrub it out and burn it out and she cried there a times I 1 d like to I 1 even lart be he ain t the same with that woman on his mind all the time she shook her head beems seems like they all hate huldy she confessed gart bart and will like that time when she talked about you and win haven when she coads him and gart bart says even zeke when ashes she s meaner than usual he bets mad at her gut but they can t seem to stay away from her I 1 im m scared seared mis pierce it wouldn t surprise me a mite if it a crowd of them went up here there some day and rode her right out of the valley I 1 good enough for her I 1 the old worn wom an declared I 1 wish it they would I 1 gut but this did not happen and after a time cart bart was forced to cease his visits to wills farm one day amy came running breathlessly through the woods to fetch marm pierce gart darts s hurt awful 1 she cried azeze beat him pretty near to death you ve got to come and take care of him hurt how the old woman ques atoned already preparing to obey this summons they had a fight amy panted I 1 was in the house and I 1 heard them and run out and they was at it down by the bridge fighting and rolling around in the d and getting gerting up and scrabbling at each other and going down again and she gasped 1 I tried to do something but they rolled into me and knocked me down her garments were soiled with the mud mad of the road chey kep at it spite of all I 1 could do till zeke he be had the best of it backed off finally and left gart bart laying there in tl e road maria pierce had bad collectte 1 at ran dow certa n salves an I 1 n which she thought might be of use jena jenny y said III carry them granny I 1 you stay where you be the old woman retorted decisively keep out of this if I 1 need you let yo i 1 know amy where j cart bart now I 1 got him as far as the house amy exola ned but he cant can t hardly move ma am ue he s all cut and bloody ani sick bich jenny compelled by the older worn wom ans insistence stayed behind with her thoughts for company her thoughts as always centered first on will this matter on the surface con corned huldy and him whom she loved so she waited in a sort of desperation for her grandmothers re turn the day was in late september with lowering clouds and a long threat of rain which became toward dusk an actuality a thin unpleasant drizzle that would be worse orse marm alarm I 1 alerce returned at first dark and she flirted the moisture off her shawl the flying drops hissing hising his sing on the hot stove her feet were ere wet she changed into dry stockings and shoes and jenny tended her without questions for a while not till the old woman way was warm and dry again and the kettle boiling and sup per under way did jenny ask bart hurt bad Is he be bought nought to mention marm pierce ahsu assured red her took a lic licking kin all bunged eye and his mouth month Is all cut and a couple of teeth loosened up and I 1 wouldn t wonder if he hadn haan t got a rib cracked zeke handled him certain she chuckled good thing for him she reflected barts darts been needing to have his comb trimmed for a long time why jenny protested puzzled by this I 1 bate hate a st rattIng man or a sneak ing one harm alarm pierce said obscurely or a liar I 1 bart a kind of big and bold jenny assented but he a always been right friendly and I 1 never knowel him to ile uel I 1 oh carts bart s all right the older woman said indifferently it if a body likes him bhe she added irascibly the thing Is that woman at will s she gets all the men with their combs up and looking for a fight and bart he hes s as bad as the rest of them he ile don dont t go up there only to see will jenny urged defensively and she asked how come him and zeke to fight |