The Tempering

ess of the fields to the gray and shallow skyline, he was more than a little homesick for the accustomed thickness of

hristmas," announced the girl, and the

-all," stammered Boone as Anne, l

he informed him, "I brought it because we think our coo

e clothes and manners, was almost as shy with him as he fel

otch hit ter me," he responded, slowly,

ity at all. It was just-" But as she paused, Gen

nt significance in the hills. For instance when you go to visit your father in Ma

nded Boone, and the sudden interest whi

sly into his almost stolid manner again. "I'm beholden ter ye fer this

ng of shuttered windows and closed doors, and as the old year died and the new on

ics, not after the fashion of frank debate but in the sinister undertones of furtiveness. On one particular night in the first week of January, while Saul was entertaining

from the obscurity of the chimney corner, wher

e way here from Frankfort," began Saul apologeticall

many eyes and ears in Frankfort. You kn

r legislater seat him. He's been balked by ther people

nounced the visitor defiantly. "But there are more conspiracies against us on foot

halted and jerked his head toward the companion

County," he said briefly. "We've done

counties arranged for. These men who come will be fed and housed all right. There'll be special trains to bring th

p ther proper kind of men-upstandi

dropped his voice to a

make the same response: that in accordance with their constitutional rights, they

n men hev guns, but some of 'em air mighty ancient. I m

mandate. "Unarmed men aren't worth a damn to us. If anybody wants to hedge or b

" inquired the man from Clay

in due time-and don't bring any quitte

chia, with its quaint survivals of Elizabethan speech, where jails are j

the higher reaches of the hills, he was riding along sloppy ways

d tossed his bridle-rein over a picket of the fence, shouting, according to c

the prolix phrases of the law, made allegation that the householder had "with rifle or pistol or other deadly weapon loaded with powder and leaden bullet or other hard and combustible substance, wilfully, felonio

Beard sent me over hyar ter hev speech with ye. Hit hes ter do with ther matter of yore askin' fer

herwise, had occupied the bench when Asa had been

ntain intrigue, Gregory's eyes grew somewhat flinty as he

ankfort, with you an' ther Carr boys both interested in ther same propo

into a low laugh

ey'll feel friendly ter me, does he? Did ye ever se

ial. His idee is ter try ter git ye thet pardon right now if so be hit's feasible-but he counsels thet if ye does git hit ye'd better jest fold hit up an' stick hit in yore pants pocket an' keep yore mouth tight. If ther Carrs draps ther prosecu

d the indicted man slowly, "provi

's head nodded in ref

rt ter borry fire. They're liable ter throw our man out-an' then hit'll

ther Governor, an' another one from ther Commonwealth

take a passel of men ter Frankfort, ter petition ther legislater," sugges

y manner of trouble down thar ther Governor couldn't hardly pardon ye without see

otel. Across the width of Main Street, behind its iron fence, loomed the ancient pile of the state house with its twilight frown of gray stone. The three-storied executive building lay

concilable difference were dashing pell-mell toward catastrophe. Colonel Wallifarro's mission here was a conference with seve

toward the station. As he drew near, he heard the whistle of a locomotive beyond the tunnel, and knowing of no train due of arrival at that hour, he paused in his walk in time to see an engine thunder through the station without stopp

station platform, where the red and green lanterns still shone with feeble sickliness, catching

grim monotony and an almost spectral silence ac

ompletely understood, and as the light grew clearer on gaunt cheekbones and swinging