The Tempering

was anxious now to get home. Like one who has been bewildered by a plethora of new experiences, he needed time to digest them, and above all he wanted to talk with Victor M

f excitement there at Frankfort, his efforts to secur

elf at McCalloway's house, he was somewhat nonplussed at the grav

hing." He paused, a little crestfallen, to note that reserve of silence where he had anticipated a warmth of welcome, and then

tragedy-a crime for which the guilty parties should pay with thei

s and shivered in the wet wind, for as yet h

made calm assertion. "But fellers like Saul

like Saul

nocence until it proves him guilty, but I'm not thinking of him much, just now. I'm thinking of you." He paused as if in deep anxiety, then added: "A boy may be led by

gh of relief shook him; something spasmodic that clutched at his throat and his well-seasoned reserve. He had dreaded that Boone might, in that fanatically bitter association, have brushed shoulders with some guilty knowledge. He had refu

candidly th

s a new thought that it might be applicable to himself, yet this man was a better and more exa

rom ther mountings ter see justice done, an' didn't aim ter be gainsaid ner thwarte

ght, he waited somewhat anxiously to hear whether the man would express himself on the topic of the assassination. Since it was no part of wisdom to assail deep-rooted f

m boys thet Saul gathered tergether, but now I'm right glad I went by

ked Boone, and the older kinsman

ul time, an' any favours he showed ter mountain men war bein' held up ergainst hi

ature had voted a reward fund of $100,000 for the apprehension and conviction of those guilty of the assassination of S

l. Upon the motion of the Commonwealth, his day in c

er in jail long enough ter kinderly fo'ce him ter drag in a fe

c idea into some hope and semblance of reality. The boy's brain was acquisitive and flaming with ambition, and Victor McCalloway was no routine schoolmaster but an experimenter in the laboratory of human eleme

rept a touch of softer promise, and in sheltered spots buds began to redden and swell. Then came the pale tenderness of greens, and the first shy music of bird-

ampaign far up the Nile, Asa Gregory came along the road, with his long elastic stride, and halted there. He smiled inf

in the corn fields, and the uncomplicated activities of farm life. But, after a time, Asa reach

ght now I have sore need of counsel with a man of wisdom. I'd be b

, and with the first glance at its headlines, his fe

"It's an infamous libel. Do you

alloway gave audible repetition to a matter

irst headline, and the subheads and t

indicted for firing fatal shot at Goebel.... Alleged he re

ence of Gregory in the state capitol escaped notice. Now it develops, from sources which the Commonwealth declines at this time to divulge, that on the day of the tragedy Gregory, who already stands charged with the murder from ambush of several enemies, came cold-bloodedly to town to seek a pardon for one of t

swiftly yield to the instincts of these high, wild places. For just now it was in his heart to advise resistance. He thought

led out from the excited lips of the boy; a boy whose cheeks had

n hide out hyar in ther mountains an' five hundred soldiers couldn't never run ye down. Ye kin cross over inter Virginn

educating to a new viewpoint had, at a stride, gone back to all the primitive sources of his nat

I kin hide out hyar an' resist arrest, like ther boy says, an

snorted McCalloway. "By Gad

like admittin' them charges they're amakin' too." He paused a moment, then rose abruptly from his chair. "I come ter ask counsel," he said, "but afore

"Don't ye never do hit!" but McCalloway had ris

said, in a shaken voice. "It's a thing that may lead-G