The Tempering

nuver come ter

threw forth his lament aloud to the laurelled silenc

entical with all ther balanc

f his vision; unless one called the twisting creek-bed at his front, which serv

oneer habitation in every crude line and characteristic. On the door hung, drying,

st the cracked falsetto of an aged voice crooning a ballad that the pioneers had brought acro

elled shock of red-brown hair cropped out from under a coon skin cap. His given name was Boone and hi

e mountains bore on their memories the stimulating image of all that they had lef

to contemplate-only a consuming hunger for a life less desolate. That of his people was unaltered-save for a lapse into piteous human lethargy-f

frost, splashing out the summer's sun-burned green with champagne yellow, burgundy-red and claret-crimson. To the nos

ay despair, making the same plaint, and knowing that only a miracle would ever bring around the road'

sides; the crisp leaves stirred to a tinkle like low laughter and there materialized a horseman who was in no wise to be confused with ordinary

he urchin, "hit's a furrine

linch of galled withers, but the man in the saddle sat as if he had a charger under him-and it was this

trimmed in the fashion of the Third Napoleon's court, were only

ysical fatigue-were luminous of quality and a singularly clear gray of colour. They were suc

drew rein the boy's eyes dwelt with candid inquisitiveness upon them. Out of the cavernous maw of one of these receptacles protruded the corn

n to Marlin Town on a troubled Court day when a detachment of militia had stood guard in the square to overawe warring factions and avert bloodshed. Their failure to do so is another story, but t

ot through with gleaming filaments of wonderment and imaginative speculation. Here

or Cyrus Spradling's house, and I begin to susp

blue eyes a scrutiny as inquisitorial as though he had been stationed here on

l roadway and, standing there as slim yet as sturdy as a hickory sapling, raised one hand towards the mule

. "I've known this beast only since morning-but as ac

lver. What

lloway. Does your fa

got no

mother

ot no mam

sted eyes, and under the steadiness of his scrutiny

e question was put slowly, but the reply

ghtened his questioner, he added with a ring of pride, as though having confessed the unflattering

by blood. I reckon ye've done

y flitted the ghost of a satirical

with non-committal grav

and unheralded beyond their own environment-yet now and then the reputation of one of them will not be denied. So the newspaper co

ed publicity had been accorded to his acts-such shudder-provoking fu

n accents of unquestioning admiration, and

ve heard

upon his shoulder and his clear-chiselled face bore the pleasant recommendation of straight-gazing candour. His clothing was rough, yet escaped the seeming of roughness, because it sat upon his splendid body and limbs as if a part of them-like a hawk's plumage. But it was the eyes under a broad forehead that we

erly: "This hyar furriner 'lows ter ride over ter Cyrus Spradlin's dwellin' hou

ke hostile rigidity, and the velvet softness of eye which, a moment ag

f moments before he spoke, and when words came they were couch

that, his face remaining

rable or right scandalous-dependin' on whether ye hed speech w

tiffened at the n

rejoined crisply. "I read your name in n

ilt him whilst he was aimin' ter lay-way me. He'd done a'ready kilt my daddy an' I was ridin' inter

ght nor the disposition to question you on personal matters. I reserve the privilege of discussing my own affairs onl

e, "thar warn't no proper call fer me ter start in straightway talkin' erbout myself nohow-but when a man's enemies air a'seekin

ped here," he explained, "to ask directions

tood charged with murder, then he added with grave courtesy: "I'll go back ter ther fork

nder Knob it seemed to loom as far away as ever, masking behind its timbered d

ght of sunlit crest, lay the broken, forested hills. Their horizons gathered in tangled d

rifle-bearing men. They were gaunt fellows, tall but slouching and loose of join

dy, Jett," but in the brief silence that followed, broken by the wheezy pant

y, "gives ther name of McCalloway. I hain't never seed him afore this day, but he's farin' over ter S

an attitude of listening-and though his rifle still nestled unshifted in its cradling elbow, the fingers of the trigger hand twitched a little and the brown eyes were again agate-hard. Fin

ned briefly. "Not meanin' no offence, I 'lowed hit war kinderly charitable ter ye ter let them fellers know ye jest fe

the bewilderment of this strange environmen

ed at the corners in

-a man's got ter be civil. But we keeps a'watchin' one another outen ther tails of our eyes, jest ther same. Them two fellers air Blair

uestion came a li

hose men are you

s thet they aims ter git me s

d y

his companion for a moment, then said deliberately, "Me? O

lf mile he turned abruptly from the road and was swallowed in the thicket where the waxen confusion of rhododendron and laurel, the tangle of holly and thorn seemed s

d when he had come to a point determined by some system of his own, he dropped to a low-crouching posture and contin

e balked at its edge, he hitched himself forward on his belly. From there he could look down on the road he had aban

rap of grey-brown buried deep and motionless under the leafage, much like the hue of the earth itself. His smile became more sardonically set and h

" Then a second voice spoke Asa's name and linked it with foul expletives, yet save for the gray patches in

y on the hammer of his rifle and h

er lay-way me this evenin'," he mused.

e and Jett Blair would never rise. His face would sag forward-that was all-and as his companion scrambled up in dismay, he too would fall back. Asa could picture the expression of

hit won't hardly do. Thar's one murder charge a'hangin' over me now-an'