Show M lie M cr LL 4 williams ames by ben ames williama I 1 4 SYNOPSIS f at the gathering of cronies in the legs ot of liberty maine blaine jim saladine Salad ln listens to the history of the neighboring hostile valley its pa past st tragedies its superb fishing streams stream s and above 11 II th the mysterious enticing huldy wile wife of will ferrin interested he drives to the valley tor for a daya fishing though admitting to himself his bis chief desire Is to see the glamorous clamorous huldy terren old harm pierce and her nineteen year old granddaughter jenny live alv in the valley since childhood jenny his has deeply loved young will perrin penin older than she and who ris r cards her bar an a still a child will leaves to take employment in nearby augusta his bis fathers death brings will back to the valley but he returns to au an busts still unconscious of jennys womanhood and love neighbors ot of the pierces are bart and amy carey brother and sister bart unmarried and something ot of a neer do well Is attracted by jenny the girl repulses him definitely learning that will to Is coming home jenny exulting sets his bis long lone empty house to rl rights and has dinner ready for or him he comes bringing his wife huldy the girls world collapses huldy becomes the object of unfavorable gos vp in the valley enterline Enter lne his home unlooked for or will finds seemingly damning evidence Tl dence of his cifes unfaithfulness as J a man he knows Is seth humphreys breaks break from the house will overtakes him and chokes him to death although humphreys shatters Bhat tera his leg lee with a bullet at alarm pierce pierces Pl erces e house the leg lee Is amputated jenny goes to break the news to huldy and finds her with bart carey huldy makes a mock of jennys sympathy declaring she h has no use tor for halt half a man and Is I 1 leaving will Is legally exonerated and with a homemade home made artificial leg carries on hiring a helper zeke dace cace months later huldy comes back will accepts her presence as her right two years so go by zeke and bart bar carey bentrage lit in a fist light fight the trouble arla aria ing its as all know over huldy amy carey commits suicide zeke dace had been showing tier attention but has completely succumbed to huldy wiles 1 CHAPTER VI continued iii burr stopped at the house one morning the wheels of ills his buggy mud clotted to the hubs bubs to take commissions tor for shopping at the village tillage and after he was gone it rained again so that they were kept all day indoors dusk came early till the lamps la in the kitchen arid and dining room made all snug and warm marn alarm pierce and jenny began to prepare supper and the old woman went out to survey the weather signs it might lift tomorrow she said the winds this way that way now 4 but bat if it shifts well get a change cl iange p jenny made no comment and the old woman added with so much rain things aint started to grow yet be a tote late spring and sudden first touch of sun and everything will grow a week to IQ a day A spring like this I 1 cant get my simples when right ill go tomorrow and see what I 1 can find jenny offered you can get me a water illy root anyway marm marin pierce reflected if the water aint too deep the girl said theres a pool down toward the bog with an old A log jn in it find and hiles grow la in back of the log its not deep there I 1 can reach down alarm pierce fierce opened the oven to see if the biscuits were done and a blast of hot air struck her in the face whew I 1 she exclaimed and closed the oven rm im bound to air out or suffocate cate 11 she said and opened the kitchen door then she ejaculated bartl bart I 1 I 1 never bever heard you come up on the porch wheres your team jenny turned fumed and saw bart there on the porch just outside the door muda too deep to git in here and not founder he be explained 1 I walked over ever from my house heres yore things than st 1 mrm marm pierce spoke sharply well dont come tracking into my kitchen elie ehe said and took his burdens front from him much obliged good night to you and she pushed the door shut with her knee jenny relieving her of some of th parcels said in amusement you cut cul him off pretty short might have aked him in IW id a notion hed hell ben standing there listening the old woman declared be just like him to I 1 it id knowel hp he was iris there id have r said aid something he like to heart hear jenny smiled at the old womans comans a asperity you dont like bart do you and marm alarm pierce said flatly no I 1 hate bate a man always doing me favors she smiled grimly at her own words foolish of me like as not but the way I 1 be later the rain began 9 gala again but they were nere here secure etain was dancing on the roof and against the weatherboards weather boards when jenny went to bed but sin slept quickly deeply till abe he gray of a moist and sodden dawn and woke and rose without iv ing there were to in her no alons yet this was the day when death and saladine Salad lne canto canie to Il valley and the face of jennys jennya world forever changed saladine Salad lne at tile the entrance entrant e of this hid den valley about which so many dark tales clustered checked his bis car on the ledge above will ferrins farm for long ion enough to survey the scene shrouded in 2 mist like rain but a at last he be loosed his brakes and began the steep descent the road plunged downward then relaxed to a more gradual pitch and he be saw sav presently a meadow on one hand band and a rocky pasture where were cows and the well kept buildings or of a farm the house bouse was white not fresh painted yet not dot dingy either the barn was stanch and the roof was yellow with new shingles the buildings were set back a little from the road upon a knoll that v was as like a buttress of rhe die rid ridge e and saladine Salad lne thought there must be from tills this farm a wide ade outlook across the valley it if the day were clear there was nothing extraordinary in the outward aspect of the place it was like countless others hereabouts except that perhaps the buildings were a little larger there was rather something reassuring in the very fact that it was an ordinary thrifty firm farm yet saladine Salad Sain dine lne knew it must be will ferrins ferrina and he remembered ferrins dark repute and wished curiously that lie might encounter her yer ye he had no excuse for stopping brook was in the valley below so he passed by and crossed another ledga and the road dipped downward more steeply still but a hundred yards below the farmhouse he jammed on brakes and skidded to a stop here the road was precipitous and the rain the night before bad done damaging things to I 1 it water racing down the ditches had gnawed wed into the margins to such effect that there was not room for a car to pass on one side or the ot ther other tho the wheels must drop off into the ditch and the ditch itself was so deep that if a car did suffer this mischance its wheels would be left spinning with no footing under them saladine Salad lne checked his car with not ten feet to spare and then began to back up this steep road and he be was faintly pleased ferrins farm would serve as a place to leave the car he mig might glit see huldy there he backed past the drive that led into the farmyard and swung in and he passed the front of the house blank with shades drawn draw down and the door uncompromisingly closed and came into the barnyard and then he saw through the open op en door of the shed a man mal this man hail bad been fitting stove wood he came to the shed door with his ax still in his ba hand nd to look at saladine Salad lne A tall lank man a young man an ill man these were jims first impressions in their order but also this man wore absurdly one of those high crowned broad brimmed felt hats bats which are repute to be large enough to hold ten gallons of any liquid you chose to pour into thera them this was an old hat bat the crown was dented and battered and there were holes IL it the brim curled in ill eccentric fashions and there was a horsehair band of many colors around the crown such a hat designed to shed weather designed to ro protect the head and face of a man on horseback from the stroke and slash of scrub brush through throng h which he must ride has no proper function on a farm in maine blaine and jim switched off his engine and slid to the ground and approached this man 0 of f halt a mind to ask him the questions which his hat provoked but instead he only said morning ing 1 and he only asked ton ayou will ferrin Ferr ln wills in the house the man answered grudgingly la in a voice curi curf bously shaken anT and hollow bollow saladin saladine Salad lne e had again that strong impression that t the he other was ill that he was a husk drained and emptied of all strength astren th and vehemence he added now unnecessarily im zeke da dace c e all tone was somber and there was rea sonless suspicion in his eyes 1 I come to fish the brook down be low saladine Salad lne explained as though thou h some explanation were by the other 4 glance required of it him im the roads washed out tween here and carey Ca reys so I 1 thought to leave my car here and walk down zeke did not speak but hla his ey eye e when jim spoke the name of carey held a spark strange to see then his glance turned to one side aide at beyond Sa ladines line of vision ther the shed saladine Salad lne was a bold man but he felt a prickling at the back of his bis neck and instinctively recoiled a little from the door wary watchful tor for whatever should appear but it was only a noman who appeared in the doorway and at first Salad saladine lne was rell relieved eved at sight or of her then he was astonished at her beauty Y and remembering this a womans comans repute be stood on guard prom from the ile he had heard of nu hul I 1 dy ferrin tie he had find thought to see in it her er a vicious slattern the marks of her depravity plain to any a ny eye but this woman did not lot fit tile the he had formed she came slowly into sight and leaned her shoulder against the side of the door and looked at saladine bhe looked at him in a calm complete appraisal from head to toe alth ith smoldering fa faintly 1 antly sparkling eyes in which even abi while 1 e saladine Salad lne watched her a warm 11 light ht beg began M distantly to gleam saladine Salad lne tor for a moment felt his own leies es fill yet he be waa wa so an observant I 1 man and he remarked her habit now she wore something shapeless and yet shapely too since it fitted itself to her the color of the henry heavy stuff wits was dull red and there was knotted about her waist a length of light rope like clothes line with the ends it hanging I 1 n r I 1 n g down this rope at her waist girdling her body had an effect not to be put in simple words her dress became with this addition not a dress a but a robe it acquired an exotic and disturbing grace the cord at her waist seemed to mold the loose folds gracefully around her saladine Salad lne saw inattentively tent ively that the knot in the lie cord was waa awkwardly tied it was wag not a square knot but a granny such as women tie and then he looked at her countenance again his pulse suddenly pounding she seemed large yet lie realized that the she was in fact small and smoothly formed it was only that her head bead was perhaps somewhat larger than due proportion would haye have required with that resulting emphasis upon the conformation of her lips and eyes which Is so often an attribute of the great women of the stage and her hair was black as ink and her eyes too and they shone an ant in them a deep flame burned ner her cheek was warm with sun and her arms bare to the elbow below sleeves rolled rolled high were likewise sunned to the very you can rest your car in my yard sleeve with no thin white circle above the elbow to suggest that where her dress covered her her body all was white saladine Salad lne had disturbingly an instant picture of this woman all in the suns embrace no garment to hinder the gliding gilding brush stroke with which its rays laid their deep color on she was one of those women who no matter what they wear seem to a mans eye unclothed she looked at him and with quickening eyes that suddenly were veiled as though she bad drawn a curtain down and then she looked at the man in the shed As though at command zeke began to split another billet oi of wood then the woman addressed saladine Salad lne yes she said you can rest your car I 1 in n my bardl her tones were light almost jesting half lattery flattery halt half challenge much obliged saladine Salad lne said its only while I 1 try the brook a spell its like to rain she told him gently the fish wont take hold bold you could find better ways to use your time I 1 there was as in her a physical passivity astonishingly disturbing she was like an animal crouched ready to spring ile he began to set up his rod maybe I 1 can get at them before the rain he evaded the ax as clopped chopped and clopped chopped behind her and a chip new flew spinning over her hen shoulder toward him she did not turn her head 1 I expect yore mis ails ferrin ferran 11 he hazarded in the silence im huldy ferrin terr ln she assented and smiled and he could find no reason for this smile she continued to watch him calmly a and nd he dropped his reel and picked it up in 0 o baste it seemed to him that he was a I 1 long ong time at this business of preparing to fish and he was incredibly clumsy thumb lingered u unable to tie the simplest knot then the kitchen door opened and a man came out of the it house ouse upon hie tie side porch yonder I 1 tie le was vu 4 a blond giant with steady ey ayea e s of a deep blue like the sky at dusk ills his hair was straw bellow ellow above tits wide brow one leg was gone below the knee be wore a peg and saladine seeing this remembered the tale of how seth humphreys died this then was will ferria fearlo those calm blue eyes could upon occasion blaze and burn the man came toward saladine an and his glance was friendly lie he looked at the woman and the site smiled and saladine Salad lne thought that ferrin lerr ln smiled more than the occasion required morning said this man to saladine yore will ferrin lerr ln I 1 expect saladine returned how do my names saladine Salad Sain dine lne will nodded he be asked saladine Salad lne assented 1 I hear tell there are some big ones in the brook he said the woman in the shed door watched them she seemed halt asleep seemed drocsin drowsing g there yet ret saladine Salad lne thought warmth emanated from her as from a good stove behind her the or at rived wood some said will ferrin yes theres a few I 1 used to fish a pile ile he glanced down at his bis peg leg then he gave advice you XOU RO go along the road to careys carels Ca reys and start there and fish town down through h the quick water be suggested it runs a ways below here then theres dead water below that tha t through the bog the big ones are mostly in the lead water but times they wont take at all and its hard fishing unless you know the holes if its too tough ill pass it up saladine Salad lne decided guess stick it by the looks of you will predicted but save you some hard walking after yore through fishing it if you strike over to tile valley rond road and he explained in more detail come to where there used to be a mill an old stone dam you leave the brook on the tar far side there and go up through the woods till yo you hit the road follow it north and take the first right bring you back to careys carels Ca reys and back here be a heap easier than drilling through the woods saladine Salad lne thought there was something defensive in wills garrulity as ai though by speech he sought to avert that which he be feared much aluch obliged jim told him and slung basket on hip how far down to careys carels from here but before will could answer huldy ferrin |