Show th EJ 15 16 V 9 d 11 U eaf r Gumb erld Is jk nd by charles 11 mis buck with illustrations from photographs of scenes in the play copyright tots 1013 by W J watt co stores opener duc tal onry 7 ro for r a desultory pretense of business horsemen led their mounts away from the more public racks and tethered them to back fences and willow branches in III the shelter of the river banks where stray bullets would not find them the dawn that morning had still been gray when samson south and captain collomb had passed the milter miller cabin collomb had ridden slowly on around the turn of tile the toad road and waited a quarter of a mile away he was to command the militia that day ua K W Z it A i N 0 he hold her very celoso if the high sheriff should call upon him samson went in and knocked and nd instantly to the cabin door came sallys slender fluttering figure she put both arms about him and b her er eyes as she looked into his face were terrified but tearless tearle oss im frightened samson she whispered god knows im going to be praying all this day sally he said softly im coming back to you but if I 1 dont he held her very close uncle spicer has my will the farm is full of coal and days are coming when roads will take it out and every ridge will glow with coke furnaces that farm will make you rich it if we win light fight dont Don tl she cried with a sudden gasp dont talk like that 1 I must he said gently 1 I want you to make me a promise sally its made she declared it if by any chance I 1 should not come back I 1 want you to hold uncle spicer and old wile mccager to their pledge they must not privately avenge me they must still stand for the law I 1 want you and this is most important of all to leave these mountains her hands tightened on his shoulder not that samson she pleaded not these mountains where weve been together you promised I 1 want you to go to the Le scotts in new york in a year you can come back if you want to but you must promise that 1 I promise she reluctantly yielded it was half past nine when samson south and sidney collomb rode side by side into hixon from the east A dozen of the older mouths who had not become soldiers met them there and with no word separated to close about them in a circle of protection As eyes swept the almost deserted streets W 0 o silent that the strident switching of a freight train could be heard beard down at the edge of town he shook his bis head As he met the sullen glances of the gathering in the courthouse yard he be turned to samson fight he said briefly samson nodded 1 I dont understand the method fie de burred the officer with perplexity why dont they shoot you at once what are arc they waiting tor for they want to see samson assured him what tack I 1 mean to take they want to let tho the thing play itself out inquisitive and cautious because now they are bucking the state ano the world samson vi alth ith his escort rode up to tho the courthouse door and dismounted he was for the moment unarmed and his men walked on each side of him while the hollmann Holl mans stood back in surly silence to let him plus pass in the office of the county judge samson said briefly 1 I want to got get my deputies sworn in weve got plenty of deputy sheriffs s was the quietly insolent joinder not now we any voice was sharply incisive til ill namo name my own assistants the matter with these boys the county judge waved its his hand band toward two holdover hold over deputies fired the country judge laughed well I 1 reckon I 1 cant attend to that right now then you refuse blebby lebby you might call it that sampson leaned on the judges table and rapped sharply with his knuckles his handful of men stood close and collomb caught his breath in the heavy air of storm freighted suspense the holtman hollman partisans filled the room and others were crowding to the doors im high sheriff of this county now said samson sharply you are county judge do we operate cooperate co or light fight 1 I reckon drawled the other a matter well work out as we goes along depends on how obedient ye air im responsible for the peace and quiet of this county continued samson were going to have peace and quiet the judge looked about him the indications did not appear to him indicative of peace and quiet air we he inquired im coming back here in a half hour said the new sheriff this is an unlawful and armed assembly when I 1 get back I 1 want to find the courthouse occupied only by unarmed citizens who have business here when then ye comes back suggested the county judge id advise that yo ye resigns yore job A half hour is about es long as ye ought ter try ter hold hit samson turned and walked through gli the scowling crowd to the courthouse steps gentlemen lie he said in a clear far carrying voice there is no need of an armed congregation at this coutt house I 1 call on you in the name of the law to lay aside your arms or scatter there was murmur which for an instant threatened to become a roar but trailed into a chorus of derisive laughter samson went to the hotel accompanied by collomb Cal lomb A half hour later the two were back at the courthouse with a half dozen companions the yard was empty samson carried his fathers rifle in that half hour a telegram prepared prepare in advance had hashed flashed to frankfort mob holds courthouse need troops and a reply had flashed back use local company collomb commanding so that form of law was met the courthouse doors were closed and its windows barricaded barricades barrica ded the place was no longer a judicial building it was a fortress As party paused at the gate a warning voice called dont come no eigher ni gher the bodyguard body guard began dropping back to shelter 1 1 I demand admission to the courthouse I 1 ouse to make arrests shouted the new sheriff in answer a spattering 0 of r rifle ride reports came from the jail windows two of the mouths tell fell at a word from samson collomb left on a run for the hotel the sheriff himself took his position in a small store across tho the street which he reached unhurt under a desultory fire then again silence settled on the town to remain for five minutes unbroken tho the sun glared mercilessly on clay streets now as empty as a cemetery A single horse incautiously hitched at the side of the courthouse switched its tail against the assaults of the flies files otherwise there was as no outward sign of life then Cal lembs newly organized force of ragamuffin soldiers clattered down the street at double time for a moment or two after they camo came into sight only the massed uniforms caught the eyes of the entrenched trenched in hollmann Holl mans and an alarmed murmur broke from the courthouse they had seen no troops detrain or pitch camp these men had sprung from the earth as startlingly as jasons crop of dragons teeth but when the command rounded tile the shoulder of a protecting wall to await further orders the ragged stride of 0 their marching and the all too obvious bearing of the mountaineer proclaimed them native amateurs the murmur turned to a howl bowl of derision and challenge they were nothing more nor less than coutlis Sout lis masquerading in the uniforms of soldiers sol aters what mat orders inquired collomb briefly joining in the store demand surrender once more then take the courthouse and jail was the short reply collomb himself went forward with the flag of truce ile he shouted his message and a bearded maari ma n came to the courthouse door 1 tell em cm he said without redundancy thet were au all here come an git elt us tho the officer went back and distri distribute but e cd d his forces andel buch cover as offered itself about tile four walls then a volley was fired over the roof and in brantly tho the two buildings in the public square awoke to a volcanic voi volcanic canic response of riuo rifle fare all day the duel between the streets and county buildings vant on with desultory intervals of quiet and wild outbursts of musketry the troops were firing as sharpshooters and the courthouse too had its sharpshooters when n u head showed itself at a barri cadee window a report from the out sido side greeted it Sarri cambon fion was everywhere N where his rifle smoking and hot bot bar meled his life seemed protected by a talisman yet most of the firing after the first hour was from within the troops were except tor for occasional pot shots holding their fire there was neither food nor water inside the build I 1 1 I 1 10 c i n we lays down ing and at last night closed and the cordon grew tighter to prevent escape the hollmann Holh Holl nans mans like rats in a trap grimly held on realizing that it was to be a siege on the following morning a detachment of F company arrived dragging two gatling guns the holl hell mans saw them de training from their lookout in the courthouse cupola and realizing that the end had come resolved upon a desperate sortie simultaneously every door and lower window of 0 the courthouse hurst burst open to discharge a frenzied rush of men firing as they came they meant to fight their way out and leave as many hostile dead as possible in their wake their one chance now was to scatter before the machine guns came into action they came like a flood of human lava and their guns were never silent as they bore down on the barricades where here the single outnumbered company seemed insufficient to hold them but the new militiamen looking for reassurance not so much to collomb as to the granite like face of samson south rallied and rose with a yell to meet them on bayonet and smoking muzzle the rush wavered tell fell back desperately rallied then broke in scattered remnants for the shelter of the building old jako jake hollman fell near the door and his grandson rushing out picked up his fallen rifle and sent farewell defiance from it as lie he too threw up both arms and dropped then a white flag wavered at a window and as the newly arrived troops halted in the street the noise died suddenly to quiet samson went out to meet a man who opened the door and said shortly wo we lays down judge hollman who had bad not parti participated cl turned from the slit in his shuttered window through which he had since the beginning been watching the conflict that ends it he said with a despairing sp airing shrug of his shoulders he picked up a magazine pistol which lay on his table and carefully counting down his chest to the ibe fifth rib placed the muzzle against his breast CHAPTER before the mountain roads were mired with tho the coming of the rains and while the air held its sparkle of autumnal zestfulness samson south wrote to wilford horton that if he still meant to come to the hills bills for his inspection of coal and nd timber the time was ripe soon men would appear bearing transit and chain drawing a line which a railroad was to follow to I 1 misery and across it to the heart of 0 untouched forests and coal fields with that wave of innovation would come the speculators besides fingers were itching to be out in the hills with a palette and sheaf ol of brushes in the society of george lescott for a while after the battle at hixon tile tho county had lain in a torpid paralysis of dread many illiterate feudists on each eacel side remembered the directing and exposed figure of samson south seen through eddies of 0 gun smoke and believed him immune from death with purvy dead and holtman hollman the victim of his own hand the backbone of the murder syndicate was broken its heart had ceased to beat those hell hall man survivors who bore the potentialities tor for leadership had not only signed pledges of peace but were afraid to break them and the triumphant instead of vaunting their victory had subscribed to the doctrine ol of order and declared the war over mouths who broke the law were as speedily arrested as hollmann Holl mans their boys wondern d filing drilling r as ag militiamen and wonder lif f wonders inviting the eona bons of the enemy to join them of 01 course these things changed gradually but the beginnings of them were most moat noticeable la III the first fe few months just ns as a newly painted and renovated house Is more c conspicuous than ono one that has long been respectable hollmann Holl mans mammoth department and trafficked store passed into new hands and tile the only in merchandise town was open to the men and women well as those of 0 cripple of misery sery as shin these things samson had explained in his letters to the Le scotts and horton I 1 below could still men from down find trouble in tile the win wink of an eye by seeking it for under unde r all transformation the nature cl the in individual remained much the same but without seeking to give offense they could ride as securely through tile hie hills as through the streets of a policed city and meet a readier hospitality and when these things were ere discussed and tho the two men prepared to cross the mason and dix dixon on line and cibit the Cum berlands adrienne Adric promptly and definitely announced that she would accompany her brother no argument was effective to dissuade her and after all lescott who he had been been there saw no good r reason eason why she should not noi go wath him at hixon they found that recep receptive air of serenity which made the history or of less than three months ago seem paradoxical and fantastically unreal only about tho the courthouse square where numerous small holes boles in frame walls told of fusillades and in fit the interior of the building itself where the woodwork was scarred and torn and the plaster freshly patched did they find grimly reminiscent evidence samson had not met them at the town because he wished their first impressions pres of his people mople to reach them uninfluenced influenced by his e scort escort it was a form of the mountain pride an honest resolve to soften nothing and make no apologies but they found arrangements made for horses and saddlebags and the girl discovered that for her had been provided a mount as evenly gaited as any in her ow own n stab stables ls when she and her two companions came out to the hotel porch to start they found a guide waiting who said lie he was instructed to take them as far as the ridge where the sheriff himself would be waiting and the cavalcade struck into the hills men at whose houses they paused to ask a dipper of water or to make an inquiry gravely advised that they had better light and stay all night nigh t in the coloring forests squirrels irreas scampered and scurried out of sight and here and there on the tall slopes they saw shy looking children regarding them with nith inquisitive eyes the guide led them silently gazing in frank amazement though with deferential politeness at this girl in corduroys who rode cross saddle and rode so well we 11 yet it was evident that he would have preferred talking had not diffidence restrained d him he was ayoung man and rather handsome in a shaggy unkempt way across one cheek ran a long scar still red and the girl looking into his clear intelligent eyes wondered condere d what that scar stood for adrienne had the power of melting masculine diffidence and her smile as she rode at his side and asked what is your name brought an answering smile to his grim lips joe holtman hollman maam he answered and the girl gave an involuntary start the two men who caught the name closed up the gap between the horses with suddenly piqued interest hollman exclaimed the girl then you she stopped ani and flushed 1 I beg your she said quickly all right reassured reas suied theman 1 I know what yere a chinkin but I 1 faint no offense the high sheriff sent me over im one of his bis deputies were you she paused and added rather timidly were you in the courthouse he nodded and with a brown forefinger traced the scar on oil his cheek samson south done that with his rifle gun he enlightened hes a tunny funny sort of teller feller is samson south how she asked wall lie he licked us an |