The Call of the Cumberlands

ortunes on the profits of merchandise and trade. So, although Spicer South could neither read nor write, his chief enemy, Micah Hollman, was to outward seeming an urbane

seeming to be one of the stran

ggressive. Directly across the street from the court-house stood an ample frame building, on whose side wall was emblazoned the legend: "Hollman's Mammoth Department Store." That was the secret stronghold of Hollman power. He had always spoken deploringly of that spirit of lawlessness which ha

uence, mortgages stored away in his strong box. To the cry of distress, he turned a sympathetic ear. His infectious smile an

o astutely anticipated coming events that, when the first scouts of capital sought options, they found themselves constantly referred to Judge Hollman. No wheel, it seemed, could turn without his nod. It was natural that the genial

w in his county should be in sympathy with him. Sympathy soon became abject subservience. When a South had opposed Jesse Purvy in the primary as candidate for High Sheriff, he was found one day lying on his face with a

icah Hollman's "Mammoth Department Store." It was said that these exclusive sessions were attended by Judge Hollman, Sheriff Purvy and certain other gentlemen selected by reason of their marksmanship. When one of these victims fell, John South had just returned from a law school "down below," wearing "fotched-on" clothing and thinking "fotched-on" though

and to hold its dictatorship, but the efforts of John South had not been altogether bootless. He had ripped away two masks, and their erstwhile wearers could no longer hold their old semblance of law-abiding philanthropists. Jesse Purvy's home was the show place of the country side. To the traveler's eye, which had grown accustomed to hovel life and squalor, it offered a reminder of the richer Bluegrass. Its walls were weather-boarded and painted, and its roof two stories high. Commodious verandahs looked out over pleasant orchards, and in the same enclosure stood the two frame buildings of his store-for he, too, combined merchandise with baronial powers. But back of the place rose the

; and to each of them Purvy had replied with a shrug of

g deep lines; his flesh was growing flaccid; his glance tinged with quick apprehension. He tol

ore fruit at their appointed time, but the householder, when he walked between his

ange for the day's business. One or two of his henchmen, seeming loafers, but in reality a bodyguard, were lounging with

hen, the baby cried, and she stepped back. Purvy himself remained at the window. It was a thing he did not often do. It left him exposed, but the most cautiously guarded life has its moments of relaxed vigilance. He stood there

t as it had been at dawn. Its impenetrable mask of green was blank and unresponsive. Somewhere in the cool of the dewy treetops a squirrel barked. Here and there, the birds sal

they've

k. The long-suffering star of Jesse Purvy ordained otherwise. He might go under or he might once more beat

ecided to found a school. The fact that the establishment in this place of such a school as his mind pictured was sheer madness and i

res square at the foot of a hill. The drone of its own saw-mill came across the valley. In a book-lined library, wainscoted in natural woods of three colors, the original fanatic often sat reflecting pleasurably on his folly. Higher up the hillside stood a small, but model, hospital, with a modern operating table and a case of surgic

ar decreed, he found two prominent medical visitors, who hurried him to the operating table. Later, he was removed to a white bed, with the June

erry and Aaron Hollis, his chiefs of bodyguard, to h

ebly, "there's a job for you two b

nd Asberry whi

on So

ness was not smothered. "You got the old man, I reckon you c

henchmen

owled Asberry. "Thar hain't

ver mind what they are. That's my business. If I don't die, leave him alone, until I give other orders." He lay back and fought for breath. The nurse came over with ge

It would be my life for his. Keep close to him. The minute you hear of my death-get him." He

nds whose long ears flapped over their lean jaws, and whose eyes were listless and tired, but whose black muzzles wrinkled and sniffed with that sensitive instinct which follows the man-scent. The

nd alertly on ungainly, cushioned feet. Just as their masters were despairing, they came to a place directly over the store, where a branch had been bent back and hitched to clea