The Phantom Of Bogue Holauba / 1911

ough mastery of the lessons of experience. For a day or so all went well in the inner consciousness of Nehemiah Yerby. The letter had satisfied his restless cra

e ground his teeth with rage because of their seeming cowardice in their duty, since their duty could serve his interests-might not have felt exactly disposed to risk their lives in these sweet spring days, when perhaps even a man whose life belongs to the government might be presumed to take some pleasure in it, by attempting to

leading relative, that it seemed a recollection-something that had really happened-rather than the figment of anticipation. But no word, no breath of intimation, had ruffled the serenity of the cross-roads. The calm, still, yellow sunshine day by day suffused the land like the benignities of a dream-almost too good to be true. Every man with the heart of a farmer within him was at the plough-handles, and making the most of the fair weather. The cloudless sky and the auspicious forecast of fine days still to come did more to prove to the

neighbor who had been to the blacksmith-shop to get his plough-point sharpen

sorption. "War it you-uns ez I hearn say thar war word kem ter the cr

sy, naw!" exclaimed his interlocutor. "Ye air the fust one that hev named sech ez that in these

the raiders might have come and gone, and be now a hundred miles away with their prisoners to stand their trial in the Federal court. His schemes might have all gone amiss, leaving him in naught the gainer. He could rest in uncertainty no more. He feared to venture furthe

lt no lack, and stream and wind and harping pine and vagrant bird lifted their voices in their wonted strains. He could hardly accept the fact; he would verify anew the landmarks he had made and again return to the spot, his hat in his hand, his head bent low, his face lined with anxiety and suspense. No sound, no word, no intimation of human presence. The moonshiners were doubtless all gone long ago, betrayed into captivity, and Leander with them. He had so hardened his heart toward his recalcitrant young kinsman and his Sudley friends, he felt so entirely that in being among the moonshiners Leander had met only his deserts in coming to the bar of Federal justice, that he would have experienced scant sorrow if the nephew had

ng; his habits had been inactive, and were older even than his age. He could not account for it afterward, but he followed for a few paces this suggestion of a path down the precipitous sides of the stream. He had a sort of triumph in finding it so practicable, and he essayed it still farther, although the sound of the water had grown tumultuous at closer approach, and seemed to foster a sort of responsive turmoil of the senses; he felt his head whirl as he looked at the bounding, frothing spray, then at the long swirls of the current at the base of the fall as they swept on their way down the gorge. As he sought to lift his fascinated eyes, the smooth glitter of the crystal sheet of falling water so close before him dazzled his sight. He wondered afterwar

ance, a man with his left hand on a pistol in his belt, the mate of which

of complete submission. And then for a moment he knew no more. He was still leaning motionless against the wall of rock when he became aware that the man was sternly beckoning to him to continue his approach. His dumb lips moved mechanically in response, but any sound must needs have been futile indeed in the pervasive roar of the waters. He felt that he had har

ake it!" were the first words he could distingui

e, reliant, approving cast of countenance of his reserve force-a half-dozen men, who were somewhat in the background, lounging on the rocks about a huge copper still. They wore an attentive aspect, but offered to take no active part in the scene enacted before them. One of them-even at this crucial moment Yerby noticed it with a pang of regretful despair-held noiseless on his knee a violin, and more than once addressed himself seriously to rubbing rosin over the bow. There was scant music in his face-a square physiognomy, with thick features, and a shock of hay-colored hair striped somewhat with an effect

y, eying the tremulous and tongue-tied Yerb

had never been here; and the twanging of those strings had lured him to his fate. Well might he contemn the festive malevolence of the violin's influence! His letter had failed; n

a definite air of spurring on the visitor's account of himself, "we 'ai

denly again under control; he wreathed his features with his smug artificial smile, that was like a grimace in its best estate, and now hardly seemed more than a contortion. Bu

le through the thin falling sheet as if it had been the slightly corrugated glass of a window-"do they?" Yerby asked,

rill of running water down from some farther spring and through the tub in which the spiral worm was coiled. This man had a keen, white, lean face, with an ascetic, abstemious expression, and he looked less like a distiller than some sort of divine-some rustic pietist, with strange t

though the mere movement made Nehemiah cringe with the thought that an accidental discharge might as effectu

Creek"-once more there ensued a swift exchange of glances among the party-"but nobody knew who run it nor whar 'twar. An' one day, consider'ble time a

copper gleam of the still. If policy had required that Nehemiah should be despatched, his was the hand to do the deed, and his the stomach to

own responsibility, for no aid had radiated

ldn't make it ef ye didn't expec' ter sell it. I didn't know none o' you-uns, an' none o' yer customers. An' ez I expec' ter git mo' profit on sellin' whiskey 'n ennything else in the store,

ud his wits for the happy termination of the adventure to which they had led him. He had gone no further in the matter than he had always intended. Brush whiskey was the commodity that addressed itself most to his sense of speculation. For this he had always expected to ferret out some way of safely negotiating. He had gone no further than he should have done, at all events, a little later. He even began mentally to "figger on the price" down to which he should be able to bring the distillers, as he accepted a proffered seat in the circle about the still. He could neither divide nor multiply

n a-neighborin' Isham hyar," he laid his heavy hand on the tall moonshiner's shoulder, "fur ten year an' better, but I won't hev nuthin' te

his representations to the moonshiners. He felt that their eyes were upon him. He could only hope that his si

" Then he turned to the moonshiner, evidently taking up the business that had broug

o come here for the purpose of recognizing him. More fixed in this opinion was he when no descripti

as one of themselves, in order to better secure his constancy to the common interests, and in case he was playing false to put others into possession of the facts as to the identity of the inf

shiner, or to the moonshiners an informer. The first was far the safer, for the clutches of the law were indeed feeble as contrasted with the popular fury tha

n touch with the clear-eyed day, night was presently here, with mystery and doubt and dark presage. The voice of Hoho-hebee Falls seemed to him louder, full of strange, uncomprehended meanings, and insistent iteration. Vague echoes were elicited. Sometimes in a seeming pause he could catch their lisping sibilant tones repeating, repeating-what? As the darkness encroached yet more heavily upon the cataract, the sense of its unseen motion so close at hand oppressed his very soul; it gave an idea of the swift gathering of shifting invisible multitudes, coming and going-who could say whence or whither? So did this impression master his nerves that he was glad indeed when the furnace door was opened for fuel, and he could see only the inanimate, ever-descending sheet of water-the reverse interior aspect of Hoho-hebee Falls-all suffused with the uncanny tawny light, but showing white and green tints like its diurnal outer aspect, instead of the colorless outlines, resembling a drawing of a cataract, which the cave knew by day. He did not pause to wonder whether the sudden transient illumination was visible without, or how it might mystify

ekal ter goin' ter the settlemint, or plumb ter town on a County Court day. Ye see everybody, an' hear all the news, an' meet up with interestin' strangers. I tell

color of his garb, so dusted with flour was he from head to foot; but his long boots drawn over his trousers to the knee, and his great spurs, and a brace of pistols in his belt, seemed incongruous accessories to the habiliments of a miller. His large, dark hat was thrust far back on his head; his hair, rising straight in a sort of elastic wave from his brow, was powdered white; the effect of his florid color and his dark eyes was accented by the contrast; his pointed beard revealed its natural tints because of his habit of frequently brushing his hand over it, and was distinctly red. He was lithe and lean and nervous, and had the impatient temper characteristic of mercurial natures. It mattered not to him what was the coercion of the circumstances which had led to the reception of the s

as distinct as if he had been taught to speak in this way; his tones were low and even, and modulated to suave cadences;

'Bleeged ter ye, but I ain't wantin' nuthin' t

nd its keen outline enabled its expression to be discerned as he himself went through the motions of sampling the rejected liquo

ich he might be followed. He gazed with deprecating urbanity, and with his lips distended into a propitiating smile, at the troubled face powdered so white and with its lowering eyes so dark and petulant. He noted that the small-talk amongst the others, mere unindividualized lumpish fellows with scant voice in the government of their common enterprise, had ceased, and that they no longer busied themselves with the necessary work about the still, nor with the snickering interludes and horse-play with which they were wont to beguile their labors. They had all seated themselves, and were looking from one to the other of the more important members of the guild with an air which be

erby that a smile of spurious politeness was bent upon him, and he made haste to grin very widely in response-"an' that thar fiddle 'minds me o' how onexpected 'twar whenst I met up with Lee-yander hyar-'pears ter me, Bob, ez ye air goin' ter didd

mplete and successful. He could go away after the cowardly caution of the moonshiners should have expended itself in dallying and delay, with his negotiation for the "wild-cat" ended, and hi

ide it, as the guest's portentous triumphant smile was fully revealed. Yerby did not lose, however, the glance of reproach which the moonshiner cast upon the mille

" Hilary said, significantly,

in any essential have thwarted his comrade's plans intentionally, nor in his habitual adherence to the principles of fair play would he have assisted in the boy's capture. He drew himself up from his relaxed posture; his spurred feet shuffled heavily on the stone floor of the grotto. A bright red spot appeared on each cheek; his eyes had become anxious and subdued in t

Green," said Tarbetts, still kneeling by the open furna

his acquaintance, Yerby did not

fur?" blustered the miller

this fact, but Tarbetts suddenly antici

py, ter hunt up stray children, an' git thar heads shot off, or mebbe drownded in a mighty handy water-fall, or sec

ch; he was glad when the door of the furnace closed, so that his face mig

sech a row fur? Lee-yander ain't noways so special precious ez I knows on. Toler'ble lazy an' triflin', an' mightily gi'n over ter moonin' over a readin'-book he hev got. That thar mill war a-grindin' o' nuthin' at all more'n haffen ter-day, through me bein' a-nappin', and Lee-yander plumb demented by his book so ez he furgot

, so indulgent had the prospect of success made him, would by to-morrow be on the re

nst in a while;" he was thinking of the dark art of dividing and multiplying

s have so diluted it with Christian grace as to willingly acknowledge a superior. In suc

l. He yet retained acrid recollections of unavailing struggles with the alphabet, and was secretly of the opinion that education was a painful thing, and, like the yellow-fever or other deadly disease,

gave a little cackling laugh, as if he regarded this as pleasantry. But the de

s mother war quick at school, but his dad-law! I knowed Ebenezer Yerby! He war a frien'ly sorter cu

y he tuk a look at Lee-yander whenst he wanted ter kem an' work along o' we-uns, 'kase his folks wanted ter take him away from the Sudleys. Hil'ry opened the furnace door-jes so; an' he cotch the boy by the arm"-the great brawny fellow, unconsciously dramatic, suited the action to the word, his face and figure illumined by

d-curdling tone, but with a look of plaintive anxiety in his eyes. "He hev made a heap

Nehemiah, whose courage was dissipated by some subtle influence of his presence, now made bold to ask, "An

d him-he war a-runnin' a still in Tanglefoot then-an' they kep' him in jail somewhar in the North fur five year. Waal, she waited toler'ble constant fur two or three year, but Ebenezer Yerby he kem

dashed upon the rocks, and its tumultuous voice continuously pervaded the silent void wild

five year," remarked one of the men, regar

worldly mind like his is not apt to burden itself with the sentimental details of a

mewhat unduly long-lived im

e year war out. An' I tell my wife that he'd hev been better acquainted with her then, an' would hev fund out ez no woman war wuth mournin' 'bout fur nigh twenty year. My wife says she can't make out ez how Hil'

neat point. A stir of assent was vaguely suggested when some chivalric impulse r

smart, apt man, an' the pore foolish 'oman skeercely hed a sensible word ter bless herself with. When everybody t

search of subterfuge. The dazzling glintings from the crevices of

gineral," admitted the

young days whenst ye went a-courtin' hyar an' thar, an' tell over a s

his preternatural insight, "but all them gals war

sertion, but the disaffected miller'

body hyar. Jes t'other day whenst that boy kem, bein' foolish an' maudlin, he seen suthin' oncommon in Lee-yander's eyes-they'll be mighty oncommon ef he keeps on readin' his tomfool book, ez he knows by he

"Low wines I'll gin ye up;" he made the discrimination in accents betokening much reasonable

ut in an unexpected rec

ways, ef not through him, in the long life he hev got ter live. The las' time the revenuers got Hil'ry 'twar through bein' ez drunk ez a fraish-biled owl. It makes me powerful oneasy whenever I know ye air all drunk an' a-gallopadin' down hyar, an' no mo' able to act reasonable in case o' need an' purtect yersefs agin spies an' revenuers an' sech 'n nuthin' in this worl'. The las' raid, ye 'member, we hed the still over yander;" he jerked his thumb in the direction present to hi

the reason of all the mountaineers commending it, while certain of t

value as coercion in any altercation that he might have in seeking to take Leander from his present guardians. But he felt in elation that this was likely to be of the slightest; the miller evidently found himself hampered rather than helped by the employment of the boy; and as to the moonshiner's sentimental partisanship, for th

side is mysteriously garnered and thence dispensed bounteously to all comers? It was useless, as he fretted and chafed at these untoward omissions, to urge in his own behalf that he did not know of the existence of the mill, and that the miller, being an ungenial and choleric man, might have perversely lent himself to resisting his demand for the custody of the young runaway. No, he told himself emphatically, and w

, were familiars of the hour and of this melancholy splendor; but he knew none of them, and the sight gave him no joy. He only thought that this was a night for the saddle, for the quiet invasion of the woods, when the few dwellers by the way-side were lost in slumber. He trembled anew at the thought of the raiders whom he himself had summoned; he forgot his curses on their laggard service; he upbraided h

bserved Isham Beaton, half in

lectiveness was in the manner of several of the moonshiners, and Nehemiah, with his ready fears, fancied that this inopportune show of terror had revived their suspicions of him. It required some effort to steady his nerves after this, and when footfalls were again audible outside,

nt boy of fifteen, barefooted, with snaggled teeth and a shock of tow hair, wearing a shirt of unbleached cotton, and a pair of trousers supported by a single suspender drawn across a sharp, protuberant shoulder-blade behind and a very narrow chest in front. But his face was proud and happy and gleeful, as if he occupied some post of honor and worldly emolument in attending upon the waddling wonder on the floor in front of him, instead of being assigned the ungrateful task of seeing to it that a very ugly baby closely related to him did not, with the wiliness and ingenuity of infant nature, invent some method of making away with himself. For he was an

e an exhibition of his progress in the noble art of locomotion; and if he now and again sat down, unexpectedly to himself and to the spectator, he was promptly put upon his feet again with spurious applause and encouragement. He gave an exhibition of his dancing-a funny little shuffle of exceeding temerity, considering the facilities at his command for that agile amusement, but he was made reckles

he knew, but he hardly guessed whom until he marked the paternal pride and content that had made unwontedly placid the brow of the irate miller while the ovation was in progress. Nehemiah greatly preferred the adult specimen of the race, and looked upon youth as an infirmity which would mend only with time. He was easily confused by a stir; the gurglings, the ticklings, the loud laughter both in the deep bass of the hosts and the keen treble of the guest had a befuddling effect upon him; his powers of observation were numbed. As the great, burly forms sh

suddenly emboldened Nehemiah. The boy evidently had not been prepared for the encounter with his relative here. Its only significance to his mind was the imminence of capture and of being constrained to accompany his uncle home. He cast a glance of indignant reproach upon Hilary Tarbetts, who was not even looking at him. The moonshiner stood filling his pipe with tobacco, and as he deftly extracted a coal from the furnace to set it alight, he shut the door with a clash, and for a moment the whole place sunk into invisibility, the vague radiance vouchsafed to the rec

xcited above the tones of the men, once more absorbed in their wonted in

panic, to be intrusted with this secret. If in his hap-hazard, callow folly he should turn informer, he was almost too young to be amenable to the popular sense of justice. He might, too, by some accident rather than intention, divulge the important knowledge so unsuitable to his years and his capacity for guarding it. He began to share the miller's aversion to the introduction of outsiders to the still. He felt a glow of indignation, as if he had always been a party in interest, that the common safety should not be more jealously guarded. The danger which Leander's youth and inexperience threatened had not been so apparent to him when he first heard that the boy had been here, and the mena

-doin' hyar, U

n', sonny; je

the tone. This time the laugh was with him rather than at him. He noted, too, Leander's dumfounded pause, and the suggestion of discomfiture in the boy's lustrous eyes, still wid

o some ghastly masquerade. Even the society of the moonshiners as their guest was a reproach to one who had always piously, and in such involuted and redundant verbiage, spurned the ways and haunts of the evil-doer. Acco

whether folks ez ain't church-members air goin' ter be damned or no-I ain't s'prised none ter view ye hyar." He suddenly remembered poor Laurelia's arrogations of special piety, and it was with exceeding ill will that he added: "An' Mis' Sudley in partic'lar. Ty ain't no great shakes ez

ntil his intention was forgotten. He came slowly to the perpendicular, and his

nners; but they'd look powe

ated the miller, who evidently had the makings of a

ervations and experience, "air either wantin' a drink or two 'thout payin' fur it, or

l which told the boy that he had hit very near to the mark. Nehemiah hardly w

s doin' hyar?" he de

dful of a seeming reflection on his refuge. "Moonshinin' is business, though the United States don't seem ter know it. But I hev hearn ye carry on so pious 'bout not lookin' on the wine whenst it be red, that I 'lowe

I look at it sorter cross-eyed." The flickering line of light from the crevice of the furnace door showed that he was squinting frightfully, with the much-admired eyes his mother had bequeathed to him, at the rotund shadow, with the yellow gleams of the metal barely suggested in the br

his purpose he could not avow his errand; it bereft him of naught to disavow it, for Uncle Nehemiah was one of those gifted people who, in common parlance, do not mind what they say. Yet his reluctance to assure Leander that he was not the quar

s mouth and turned to Leander. "Naw, bub. He's jes tradin' fur bresh whiskey, that's

ent of his presence in the dusky recess where he sat, shifte

this Goliath of his battles was thus delivered into his hands. To meet him here proved nothing; the law was not violated by Nehemiah in the mere knowledge that illicit whisk

out at last, "ez ye air po

s. "He knows all thar is ter know 'bout we-

help thinkin' how it would rejice that good Christian 'oman, Cap'n Sud

falling water, but at its verge the fitful gusts diverted its downward course, tossing slender jets aslant, and sending now and again a shower of spray into the cavern. Nehemiah remembered his rheumatism with a shiver. The shadows of the men, instead of an unintelligible comminglement with the dusk, were now sharp and distinct, and the light grotesquely duplicated them till the cave seemed full of beings who were not there a moment before-strange gnomes, clumsy and burly, slow of movement, but swift and mysterious of appearance and disappearance. The beetling ledges here and there imprinted strong black similitudes of their jagged contours on the floor; with the glowing, weird illumination the place seemed far more uncanny than before, and Leander, with his face pensive once more in response to the gentle strains slowly elicited by the bow trembling with responsive ecstasy, his large eyes full of dreamy lights, his curling hair falling about his cheek as it rested upon the violin, his figure, tall and slender and of an adolescent grace, might have suggested to the imagination a reminiscence of Orpheus in Hades. They all listened in languid pleasure, without the effort to appraise the music or to compare it with other performances-the bane of more cultured audiences; only the ardent amateur, seated close at hand on a bowlder, watched the bowing with a scrutiny which betokened earnest anxiety that no mechanical trick might elude him. The miller's half-grown son, whose ear for any fine distinctions in sound might be presumed to have been destroyed by the clamors of the

hat took place amongst a group of men near him was the effort of the intruders to reopen it. All unavailing. He presently saw figures drawing back to the doorway out of the mêlée, for moonshiner and raider were alike indistinguishable, and he became aware that both parties were equally desirous to gain the outer air. Once more pistol-shots-outside this time-then a tumult of frenzied voices. Struck by a pistol-ball, Tarbetts had fallen from the ledge under the weight of the cataract and into the deep abysses below. The raiders were swiftly getting to saddle again. Now and then a crack mountai

! SOMEBODY

ledges, ever and anon looking askance at his shadow, that more than once startled him with a sense of unwelcome companionship. The mists, ever thickening, received him into their midst. However threatening to the retreat of the raiders, they were friendly to him. Once, indeed, they parted, showing through the gauzy involutions of their illumined folds the pale moon high in the sky, and close a

pture was circulated after a time; it was supposed that he dived and swam ashore after his fall, and that the raiders overtook him on their retreat, and that he was now immured, a Federal prisoner. The still and all the effects of the brush-whiskey trade disappeared as mysteriously, and doubtless this silent flitting gave rise to the hopeful rumor that Tarbetts had been seen alive and well since that fateful night, and that in some farther recesses of the wilderness, undiscovered by the law, he and like comrade

somewhat strange that he should endure the defeat with such exemplary resignation. No one seemed to connect his candidacy with his bootless search for his nephew. When Leander chanced to be mentioned, however, he obs

ot where he had hidden the book-such havoc had the confusion of that momentous night wrought in his mental processes. Therefore, unhampered by mu

pastime. On such occasions it went hard with Leander not to divulge his late experiences and the connection of the pious Uncle Nehemiah therewith. Bu

on of filial feeling he told all that had befallen him in his absence. Ty Sudley, divided between wrath toward Nehemiah and quaking anxiety for the d

om killin' each other. It saved a deal o' bloodshed-ez sure ez shootin'. 'Twar mighty smart in ye. But"-suddenly bethinking himself of sundry unfili

hbor, I won't," L

he plough down the furrow

DLE OF

square as if hewn with a chisel. Both are splintered and fissured; one is broken in twain. No other rock is near. The earth in which they are embedded is the rich black soil not unfrequently found upon the summits. Nevertheless no great significance might seem to atta

urst in their midst would suggest anew what supernal splendors had once been here vouchsafed to the faltering eye of man. The illusion had come to be very dear to him; in this insistent localization of his faith it was all very near. And so he would go down to the slope below, among the weird, stunted trees, and look once more upon the broken tables, and ponder upon the strange signs written by time thereon. The insistent fall of the rain, the incisive blasts of the wind, coming again and again, though the centuries went, were registered here in mystic runes. The surface had weathered to a whitish-gray, but still in tiny depressions its pristine dark color showed in rugose characters. A splintered fissure held delicate fucoid impressions in fine script full of meaning. A series of worm-holes t

the breaking of a twig recalled him to the world, and he would lift his head, it might hardly seem the same face, so heavy was the lower jaw, so insistent and coercive his eye. But if he took off his hat to place therein his cotton bandana handkerchief or (if he were in luck and burdened with game) the scalp of a wild-cat-valuable for the bounty offered by the State-he showed a broad, massive forehead that added the complement of expression, and suggested a doubt if it were ferocity his countenance bespoke or force. His long black hair hung to his shoulders, and he wore a tangled black beard; his deep-set dark blue eyes were kindled with the fires of imagination. He was tall, and of a commanding presence but for his stoop and his slouch. His garments seemed a trifle less well ordered than those of his class, and bore here and there the traces of the blood of beasts; on his trousers were grass stains deeply grounded, for he knelt often to g

e meeting partly for the joy of hearing himself talk, and partly at the instance of his wife, who had been prevented from attending by the inopportune illness of one of the chi

ng up chips. He had spoken of them so familiarly th

e Bible ez war streck by light

she said. "S'ph

thar takin' off, ef Roger Purdee be 'lowed ter stan' up thar in the face o' the meetin' an' lie so ez no yearthly critter in the worl' could b'lieve him-'ceptin' Brother Jacob Page, ez

ooms of night. One by one it liberated from the enmeshments of its tangled wooded heights the constellations to gladden the eye and lure the fancy. Its largess of silver torrents flung down its slopes made fertile the little fields, and bestowed a lilting song on the si

been called ter preach the gospel! An' thar war Brother Eden Bates a-answerin' 'Amen' ter every one. An' Brother Jacob Page: 'Glory, brother! Ye hev received the outpourin' of the Sperit!

dered a miraculous convert; his rescue from the wily enticements of Satan had been celebrated with much shaking and clapping of hands, and cries of "Glory," and muscular ecstasy. His religious experiences thenceforth, his vacillations of hope and despair, had be

hue, and hair a shade lighter. He wore blue jeans trousers and an unbleached cotton shirt, and the whole system depended on one suspender. He was engaged in skimming a great kettle of boiling sorghum with a perforated gourd, which caught the scum and strained the liquor. The process was primitive, instead of the usual sorghum boiler and furnace, the kettle was propped upon stones laid together so as to con

de Satan with less n'ise?"

her husban

ong day for the old white mare, still trudging round and round the mill; perhaps a long day as well for the two half-grown boys, one of whom fed

ld find, when at last disposed to move, a clog upon their nimble feet. They often sat down with a wrinkling of brows and a puzzled expression of muzzle to investigate their gelatinous paws

he shadow formed by the protruding clay and stick chimney, and played by bouncing up and down and waving her fat hands, which seemed a perpetual joy and delight of possession to her. Take her altogether, she was a person of prepossessing appearance, despite her frank display of toothless gums, and around her wide mouth the unseemly traces of sorghum. She had the

ame. The persistent rasping noise of the sorghum mill and the bubbling of the caldron had prevented them from hearing an ap

by!" she exclaimed, in a high, shrill

upported her. The curtain of her sun-bonnet, which was evidently made for a much larger person, hung down nearly to the hem of her skirt; as she turned

e a little bounce that might be accounted a courtesy. The younger of the boys left the cane pile and ran up to his brother at the mill, which was close to the

dee fambly" from off the face of the earth. It was an ancient feud; his grandfather and some contemporary Purdee had fallen out about the ownership of certain vagrant cattle; there had been blows and bloodshed, other members of the connection had been dragged into the controversy; summary reprisals were followed by counter-repris

LED UPON

tary enemy, wanting to pa

ncensed at the boldness of this proposition, glaring at the le

tary enemies, bounced and laughed and gurgled and sputtered with gle

ry enemy, with a lithe writhing of her thin litt

enly there came running down the road a boy of his own size, out of breath, and red and angry-the pursue

cried, seizing his sister by one hand and giving her a jerk-"a-fool

he Purdee family was involv

it on the head w

w," said the Grinn

as due not to fraternal feeling so much as to loyalty to the

n' extry, nohow"-he glanced scoffingly at the infantile

et, droopingly, moving off slowly on its legs, which, inde

iously, and the Purdee blood was moved to retort: "We-u

tched babbling lips displa

Now he rose from his bent posture, tossed the scum upon the ground, and with the perforated gourd in his hand turned and looked at his wife. A

cked scion of the Purdee house, joying to note how

-headed ez t

le of the summit, she-despite the difference in size and age-was expected to show up mor

of the old feud was as a trait bred in the bone. Such hatred as was inherent in him was evoked by his religious jealousies, and the pious sense that he was following the traditions of his elders and uphold

rom me-whether he hev read sech ez this on the lawgiver's stone tables yander in the mounting: 'An' ye shall claim sech ez be yourn, an' yer neighbor's belonging

on over all his broad face-a laugh that was younger th

in the intention, but the exact lesion he could not locate. He could meet a threat with a bold face, and return a blow with the best. But he was mortified in this failure of understanding, and perplexity cowed

r dad?" Gri

mounting," replied

a laugh. "Waal, jes keep that sayin' o' mine in yer head, an' tell him when he kems home. An' loo

on the scaffold, the saltatory baby; his eyes filled with helpless tears, that could not conceal the burning hatred he was born to bear them all. He was hot and cold by turns; he stood staring, silent and defiant, motionless, sullen. He heard the melodic measure of the river, with its crystalline, keen vibrations against the rocks; the munching teeth of the old mare-allowed to come to a stan

dge, jerk the little girl by one hand and lead her whimpering off, while the round-eyed Grinnell baby stared gravely after her with inconceivable emotions. These presently resulted in rendering her cross; she whined a little and rubbed her eyes, and, smarting from her own ill-treatment of them, g

e perforated gourd from her hand-for she had been skimming the sorghum in his

nwonted decision, conscious that Augusta was looking on, and i

t abide by-ye 'low ye 'pear so grac

attered the foot of one of the omnipresent dogs, whose shrieks rent the sky and whose activity on three legs amazed the earth. He ran yelping to Mrs. Grinnell, nearly overturning her

I 'lowed I'd cut thar ears? I ain't foolin'. Kem meddl

urdees war deef," she remarked, inhumanly, "but what war them words

he is seldom wholly frank. It is in this wise that his individuality is preserved to him. "I war jes wan

ye now-they ain't," she said, discriminatin

h an indignation natural enough to aspiring huma

the flame flickered out and lighted up her reflective eyes while she endeavored to express the

his brows, trying

hat she too had a gift of Biblical phraseology. "They sound ter me like things I hearn whenst I war a-hun

e of amazed conviction, "ye b'lieve the lie o' that critt

conscious of the circuitous approaches of creden

ed possible. "I'm willin' ter hev it so. I'm jes nuthin' but a sinner

e them; their utility was in their challenge to contradiction. Thus they often promo

her half-developed sensibilities. The baby was whimpering outright, and the cow was lowing at the bars. She gave her irritation the luxury of withholding the salve to Grinnell's woun

rood more than half-grown, now afoot, and again taking to wing with a loud whirring sound. The perfume of ripening muscadines came from the bank of the river. The papaws hung globular among the leaves of the bushes, and the persimmons were reddening. The vermilion sun was low in the sky above the purpling mountains; the stream had changed from a crystalline brown to red, to gold, and no

ant effect. Pete's ill-defined figure slouching over it while he skimmed the syrup was grimly suggestive of the distillations of strange elixirs and unhallowed liquors, and his simple face, lighted by a sudden darting red flame, had unrecognizable significance and was of si

d drowsing mare, and across the foot-bridge. Two or three of the dogs, watching him as he reappeared on the opposite bank, affected a mistake in identity. They growled, then barked outri

one on the ste

upon any abatement of the activities of her discretion. She was sorry that she had allowed so trifling a matter to mar the serenity of the family; her conscience upbraided her that she had not besought him to avoid the blacksmith's shop, where certain men of the neighborhood were wont to congregate and drink de

lf, defining her position. "But I'm fur peace. An' ef the Purdee

. A frog was leaping along the open space about the rude step at Augusta's feet. A clump of mullein leaves, silvered by the light, spangled by the dew, hid him presently. What an elusive glistening gauze hung over the valley far below, where the sense of distance was limited by the sense of sight!-for it was here only that the night, though so brilliant, must attest the incomparable lucidity of daylight. She could not even distinguish, amidst those soft sheens of the

r the farthest valley. The cicada had grown dumb. The stars were few and faint. The air was chill. She started to her feet; her garments were heavy with dew. The fire beneath the sorghu

within the shelter and half without; the shoeing-stool, a broken plough, an empty keg, a log, and a rickety chair sufficed to seat the company. The moonlight falling into the door showed the great slouching, darkling figures, the anvil, the fire of the forge (a dim ashy coal), and the shadowy hood merging indistinguishably into the deep duskiness of the interior. In contrast, the scene glimpsed through the low window at the ba

CKSMITH

imited terrace, the great altitudes of the m

ld fiddle under the chin of a gaunt, yellow-haired young giant, one Ephraim Blinks, who lolled on a log, a

ceremonious "Hy're, Job?" of the blacksmith, who seemed thus to do the abbrev

n thoughts. He was irritated to observe how Purdee had usurped pu

ee them folks a-worshippin' o' a calf-senseless critters they be! 'Twarn't no use flingin' down them rocks, t

y of making his toilet, into the barrel of water where he tempered his steel. He crossed his huge

"He mought hev knowed he'd jes

z enny folks I know-this hyar very Moses one o' 'em. Throwin' down them rocks 'minds me o' old man Pinner's tantrums. Sher'ff kem ter his house 'bout a jedgmint debt, an' levied on his craps. An' arter he war gone old man tuk a

ek man too," he said. "He killed a man with a brick-badge an' bu

ation and precedent for devious modern ways that wer

the idee ez 'twar in some other kentry somewhar-I dunno-" He stopped blankly. He could not formulate his geographical ignorance. "An' I nev

y leetle calf," sugg

" assented

ated a third; "plenty o' silver th

drunk, an' he'll tell ye a power o' places whar the old folks said thar war silver." He bowed his c

y life ez I war when he stood up in meetin' an' told 'bout'n the tables o' the law be

air named 'Gyptians," sugge

n, and was the ethnographic authority of the meeting. "Tenn

the full radiance of the moonlight a rabbit bounded along, rising erect with a most human look of affright in its great shining eyes as it tremulously gazed at the motionless figures. It too was motionless for a moment. The young musician made a lunge at it with his bow; it sprang away with a violent start-its elongated grotesque shadow bounding kangaroo-like beside it-into the soft gloom of the bushes. There was no other

he saints jes rampaged around till it fairly sounded like the

ssor of a robust tenor voice. "A leetle mo' gloryin' aroun' an' I'd hev kem ter the eend o' my row, an' hev he

h's mount was always barefoot-"I'm afeard ter trest her unshod on them slippery slopes; I want ter read some o' them sayin's on the stone tables myself. I likes ter git a tex' or the eend o' a hyme set a-goin' in my head-seems someh

aside with the companionable jug, "ye mought jes ez well save yer shoes an'

en the singing, long-drawn vibr

ung musician, "I'll take Pur

een esteemed a poor dependence against the word of so zealous a brother as he-a pillar in the church, a shining light of the congregation. He note

-foolin' ye," he declared.

ways it was not more than five miles from where they sat. But none had chanc

owerful block an' tackle ter lift sech tremenjious rocks. I hev known 'em named sech fur many a year. But I seen 'em not three weeks

alert energy, which the cool Southern nights always impart after the sultry summer days, the suggestion that they should go now and solve t

as followed by an opalescent gossamer presence that was like the overflowing fulness, the surplusage, of light rather than mist. The shadows of the great trees were in

the story; how long ago it was might be guessed from the age of a stalwart oak that had sunk roots into its depths; the shadows were heavy about it; a sense of despair brooded in the loneliness. And so up and up the endless ascent; sometimes great chasms were at one side, stretching further and further, and crowding the narrow path-the herder's trail-against the sheer ascent, till it seemed that the treacherous mountains were yawning to engulf them. The air was growing colder, but was exquisitely clear and exhilarating; the great dewy ferns flung silvery fronds athwart the way; vines in stupendous lengths swung from the tops of gigantic trees to the roots. Hark! among them birds chirp; a matutinal impulse seems astir in the woods; the moon is undimmed; the stars faint only because of her splendors; but one can feel that the earth has roused itself to a sense of a new day. And there, with such feathery flashes of white foam, such brilliant straight lengths of translucent water, such a leaping grace of impetuous motion, th

visible in the dull light of the coming day. "I hev hearn folks 'low ez a pa'tridge up hyar will look ez big ez a Dominicky rooster. An' ef ye listens ye kin he

urdee, ez be huntin' up hyar so constant, hev got sorter teched i

side them, was a man of great height, dressed in blue jeans, his broad-brimmed hat pushed from his brow, and his meditative dark eyes f

ing of the influence of the jug. The coincidence of meeting Purdee here revived their interest. Grinnell, remembering the ancient feud, held back

he discovery of his duplicity and his hypocrisy. There was a strange doubt stirring in the blacksmith's heart. As he approached he looked upon the storied rocks with a sort of solemn awe, as if they had indeed been gi

es graven on these hyar tables ez Moses flung down, an' we

side that the blacksmith might stand where he

with the sky an emblazonment of red, of gold, of darting gleams of light; with the mountains most royally purple or most ra

s silent violin under his chin, leaned over his com

h of lichen; an army of ants in full march; a passion-flower trailing from a crevice, its purple blooms lying upon the gray stone near wh

BLES OF

violinist recovered his full height, and drew the bo

said, "dad-burned ef I k

ooked over his brawn

enny letters, Roge

ugation of the surface of the rock. Again the blacksmith bent down; the

said Spears, "fur goin' on thirty year an' better, an' I

flung himself upon his knees beside the great rock, and guiding hi

a new posture, and leaned forward to look with the lang

rocks ain't no Moses' tables sure enough; Moses never war in Tennessee. T

eat drops had started on his brow, and were falling upon his beard, and upon his hands. These strong hands were quivering; they hovered above the signs on the rocks. The mystic letters, the inspired words, where were th

, rallying, zestful. He was deaf to the strains of the violin, jeeringly and jerkingly playing a foolish tune. It was growing fainter, for they had all turned about to betake themselves once more to the world below. He could have seen, had he cared to see, their bearded grinning faces peering through the stunted trees, as descending they came near the spot where he h

row and a searching eye, and a hovering, trembling hand, striving to find the clew he had lost. They might have impressed a more appreciative audience, but not one more entertained than the cluster of men who looked and paused and leered in am

entity is a more essential component of happiness than one might imagine from the extreme tenuity of the conditions of its existence. Purdee's fantasy may have been a poor thing, but, although he could c

in awe of him-not because of paternal severity, but because no boy could refrain from a worshipping respect for so miraculous a shot, a woodsman so subtly equipped with all elusive sylvan instincts and knowledge-forbore to break upon his meditations by the delivery of Grinnell's message. Nevertheless the consciousness of withholding it weighed heavily upon him. He only pretermitted it for a time, until a more receptive state of mind should warrant it. Day by day, however, he looked with eagerness when he came i

as if the sun in sinking might hope to fall in fairer spheres than the skies he had left, for they were of a dun-color and an opaque consistency. Only one horizontal rift gave glimpses of a dazzling ochreous tint of indescribable brilliancy, from the focus of which the divergent light was shed upon the western limits of the land. Chilhowee, near at hand, was dark enough-a purplish garnet hue; but the scarlet of the sour-wood gleamed in the cove; the hickory still flared gallantly yellow; the receding ranges to the north and south were blue and more faintly azure. The little log cabin stood with small fields about it, for Purdee barely subsisted on the fruits of the soil, and did not seek to profit. It ha

reiterated, "Winter ai

voice, her hands full of chips and the basket at her

xe. "I reckon Grinnell's old baby dunno

y had aught which was not essentially despicable. Nevertheless, he suddenly saw a reason for the Grinnell baby's existence; he loaded up both arms with the sticks of wood, and, followed by the peripatetic sun-bonnet, cons

e attention of his mother. "I wish ye'd make Eunice quit talkin' 'bout the Grinnell's old baby, like she war actially dem

Ye jes keep away from thar," he said, sternly.

er take Eunice by the scalp o' her head an' lug her off one day when she h

f homespun and bits of yarn stowed within it. The room was much like the gourd in its aged brown tint; its indigenous aspect, as if it had not been made with hands, but was some spontaneous production of the soil; with its bits of bright color-the peppers hanging from the rafters, the rainbow-hued yarn festooning the warping-bars, the

z this," she said, with the convincin

ubtless of its sort, but it was not alive, which could no

our ears, an' named us shoats," continued her brother. Purdee lift

he send ter-me?

hell claim sech ez be yer own, an' yer neighbors' belongings shell ye in no wise boastfully medjure fur yourn, nor look upo

at he had been chiefly restrained from repeating the words by an unrealized te

DID HE SEN

ged first in blank astonishment, then in perplexed c

ainly upon a peg of the frame, the other holding a hank of "spun truck." The grandmother loo

r Purdee," she adjured him, "what air tha

dge of," said Purdee, s

his broad, high forehead covered by his hat pulled down ov

k down his gun, and s

d shelter burned along o' them Purdees' an' Grinnells' quar'ls in times gone. Laws-a-massy!"-she wrung her han

. "Sheep's got ter be butchered. I'd ru

he hardly heard. He waited till she paused; then, without

e these. On shrill pipes it played; so weird, so wild, so prophetic were its tones that it found only a shrinking in the heart of him whose ear it constrained to listen. The sound of the torrent far below was acceler

or perched on the anvil-became visible to Roger Purdee from far down the road as he approached. Even the head of a horse could be seen thrust in at the window, while the brute, hitched outside, beguiled the dreary waiting by watching with a luminous, intelligent eye the gossips within, as if he understood the drawling colloquy. They were suffering some dearth of timely topics, supplying the deficiency with reminiscences more or less stale, and had expected no such sensation as they e

nnell?" he dema

posed upon the party. A vibration from the violin-a sigh as if the instrument had been suddenly moved rather than

k head showing in the dull red light on the other side of the anvil, his bare arms fol

ly earnest, pondering face, visible albeit the red light from the forge-fire was so dull, was keenly wa

cur'ous word the t'other day." He lifted his head. "Hev enny o'

e bow of the violin jauntily dandering along the strings. His keen sensibility apprehended the

ce ye hev axed me, I hold my jaw fur the fear o' no man. The words ain't writ ez I be feared ter pernounce. An' ez all the kentry hev

patience. "He 'ain't set no seal on yer lips, ter jedge by the way ye wallop yer tongu

nnell 'lows ye don't own that thar lan' around them roc

writ with the finger o' the Lord-an' Moses flung 'em down thar an' bruk 'em. All

Grinnell s

ns it hisself, an' ef he war willin' ter stan' the expense he'd set up his rights, but t

eringly; he had been proved a liar once. It was well th

tole big tales 'mongst the brethren fur ownin' sech ez a

aring no retort, the silvery gray square of the door was empty. He saw the mo

on the shimmering neutrality of the background. There was no figure in sight; no faint foot-fall was audible, no rustle

in the scene just past. "Hain't Purdee been hyar?" he asked, passing his hand across his eye

s demonstrated the merriment evoked by t

happened ter Purdee, an' that th

n't they 'low down yander in the Cove ez Widder Peters, the day her husband war killed by the landslide up in the mounting, heard a hoe a-scrapin' mightily on the gravel in the gyarden-spot, an' went ter the door, an' seen him thar a-workin', an' axed him when he k

olently among the shadows, and the stones ro

' were a-goin' ter happen when

still under the delusion of recent awakening. "Jim never hoed none when

m a-goin' up yander ter Purdee's ter-morr

now loud, now faint, with the antiphonal chant of the hammer and the sledge, a notice was posted to inform the adjacent owners that Roger Purdee's land, held under an original grant from the State, would be processioned according to law s

big arms, usually bare, now hampered with his coat sleeves and folded upon his chest-"I won

fine the southeast corner of Purdee's land. The two enemies were perceptibly conscious of each other. Grinnell's broad face and small eyes laden with fat lids were persistently averted. Purdee often glanced toward him gloweringly, his head held, nevertheless, a little askance, as if he rejected the very sight. There was the fire of a desperate intention in his eyes. Looking at his face, shaded by his broad-brimmed hat, one could hardly have doubted now whether it expr

earnest dark eyes upon the grant, made many a year ago by the State of Te

n hung upon his back; the sharp timbre of the wind, cutting through the leafless boughs of the stunted woods, had a kindred fibrous resonance. Clouds hung low far beneath them; here and there, as they looked, the trees on the slopes showed above and again below the masses of clinging vapors. S

m equal to getting over anything in nature that

tangles, his eyes distended and eager as if he were led into the sylvan depths by the lure of a vision. The chain-bearers followed, continually bending and rising, the recurrent genuflections res

t the young mounta

ponded his c

odging under the low boughs of the stunted trees. They pressed hastily together when the great square rocks-Moses' tables of the Law-came into view, lying where it was said the man of God flung them upon the sere slope below, both splint

kene," cried the blacksmith, "ef I d

l's dad's deed; the line ondertakes ter run with Purdee's line; he hev got seven hunderd po

chorus

hey stumbled and scuttled alongside the acolytes of the Compass, who bowed down

ut

ness

e had realized that it was so close a matter as this. He had long known that his father owned the greater part of the unproductive wilderness lying between the two ravines; the land was almost worthless by reason of the steep slants which rendered it utterly untillable. He was sure that by the terms of

read no more with eyes blinded by the limitations of what other men could see-the infinitely petty purlieus of the average sense. He had a vague idea that should they say this was his

in his view infinitely more useful, and wiped his brow, and looked about, and yawned. To him it was merely the surveying for a foolish cause of a very impracticable

f vagrant crows had perched, eerie enough to seem the denizens of those weird forests; they broke into raucous laughter-Haw! haw! haw!-rising to a wild commotion of harsh, derisive discord as the men once more gave vent to loud, excited cries. For the surveyor, stalking ahe

h hand his long black hair, falling from his massive forehead. He leaned against one of the stunted oaks, shouldering his rifle that he had lo

ay through the wintry woods. "Ter go a-claimin' another man's land, an' put him ter the expense o' processionin' it,

n'," declared Grinnell, sorely beset. "

his staff again, and was once more taking

est," h

de up to the surveyor, and pointed with

Purdee's grant and read aloud, "From Crystal Spring seven h

plat made when Squire Bates sold to Grinnell's father; "northwest" they all agreed. There

his supposed possessions. He it was who had claimed what was rightfully another's. And because of the charge Purdee

t, dallying with a temptation to slip silently from the party and retrace his way to the tables and ascertain, perchance, if some vestige of that mystic scripture might not reveal itself to him anew, or if it had been only some morbid fancy, some futile influence of solitude, some fevered condition of the blood or the brain, that had traced on the stone those gracious words, the mere echo of which-his stuttered, vague recollections-had roused the camp-meeting to fervid enthusiasms undreamed of before. And then he put from him the project-some other time, perhaps, for doubts lurked in his heart, hesitation chilled his resolve-some other time,

e smote his thigh

rcely measure, Job Grinnell's composure suddenly gave way. He threw up his arms and called upon Heaven; he turned and glared furiously at his enemy. Then, as Purdee's laughter still jarred the air, he drew a "shooting-iron" from his

it was no longer his gate, he turned from it in an agony of loathing. And knowing that earth held no shelter for him but the sufferance of another man's roof, he plunged into the leafles

the enclosures had been made, acres and acres of tillable land cleared, the houses built-all achieved which converted the worthlessness of a wilderness into the sterling values of a farm. He-he, Roger Purdee-was a rich man for the "mountings," joining his little to this competence. All the cruelties, all the insults, all the traditions of the old vendetta came thron

lived ter see this day!" he thought, with a

a pallid hue, yet more marked in contrast with the brown ground. The baby's dress made a bright bit of color amidst the dreary tones. As Purdee caught sight of it he remembered that this was "Grinnell's old baby," who had been the cause of the renewal of the ancient quarrel, which had resulted so benignantly for him. "I owe you a good turn, sis," he murmured, satirically, glaring at the child as the unconscious mo

ling to pierce the drifts. On the banks of the stream, on the slopes of the mountain, in wildest jungles, in the niches and crevices of bare cliffs, the holly-berries glowed red in the midst of the ever-green snow-laden leaves and ice-barbed twigs. When his house at last came into view, the roof was deeply covered; the dizzying whirl had followed every line of the rail-fence; scurrying away along the furthest zigzags there was a vanishing glimpse of a squirrel; the boles of the trees were embedded in drifts; the chickens had gone to roost; the sheep were huddling in the broad door of the rude stable; he saw their heads lifted against the dark background within, where the ox was vaguely glimpsed. He caught their mild glance despite the snow that in-starred with its ever-shifting crystals the dark space of the aperture, and intervened

hat? A little child cradled in a manger. The mountaineer, leaning on his gun by the rail-fence, looked through the driving snow with the lights of divination kindling in his eyes, seeing it all, feeling its meaning as never before. Christ came thus, he knew, for a purpo

gratulation from his wife and her mother. For the news had preceded him. Ephraim Blinks with his fiddle had stopped there o

r scratchin' along like ten-toed chickens all this time, we'll hev comfort an' plenty! We

of youth. "Arter all ez hev kem an' gone, the jedgmint o' the Lord hev descended on Gr

thick in the room-this night of nights that bestowed so

y got no home?" whimper

little Child, in the manger. He remembered, too, the humble child s

g the puncheon floor with the butt of the gun till it rang again and again, "or the ho

laimed both wo

rth ez kin gin an honest man what a

nant though he was in his own house, he could not face them, but he could flee. He suddenly stepped out of

quit-claim deed, which he executed that Christmas Eve, that he was not willing to profit by his enemy's mistake, and thus the consideration expressed in the conveyance was the value of the land, co

expected excitement attendant upon the ousting of Grinnell, and some sensational culmination of the ancient feu

e Law. He clings ter them," they said, in conclave about the forge fire when the big doors were closed and

scripture engraven thereon took his way one day, doubtful, but faltering with hope, up and up to the vast dome of the mountain, and knelt beside the rocks to see if perchance he might trace anew those mystic runes which he once had some fine instinct to decipher. And as he pondered long he found, or thought he found, here a familiar character, and there a slowly developing word, and anon-did he see it aright?-a phrase; and suddenly it was discovered to h

E

ANGER PEOPL

k. Illustrated. Post 8vo,

ennessee mountains, told with singular effect. The mystery and the picturesqueness of it make it notable. We have enj

story.... She continues to be a romancist of strong imagin

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t of a thorough literary artist, and this book in plot, character, drawing, vividness, and interest is an advance even

power, and the actors in her stories are drawn to the life. This book

described the wonderful mountain scenery over and over again in her previous volumes, yet here are

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