The Call of the Cumberlands

"There's a nigger in the woodpile, Merriwether," he said. "We are

simply being used to do the dirty work up here, and I'm going to do a

little probing of my own. I guess I'll turn the company over to you for

a day or two."

"What idiocy are you contemplating now?" inquired the second in command.

"I'm going to ride over on Misery, and hear what the other side has to

say. I've usually noticed that one side of any story is pretty good

until the other's told."

"You mean you are going to go over there where the Souths are

intrenched, where every road is guarded?" The Lieutenant spoke

wrathfully and with violence. "Don't be an ass, Callomb. You went over

there once before, and took a man away--and he's dead. You owe them a

life, and they collect their dues. You will be supported by no warrant

of arrest, and can't take a sufficient detail to protect you."

"No," said Callomb, quietly; "I go on my own responsibility and I go

by myself."

"And," stormed Merriwether, "you'll never come back."

"I think," smiled Callomb, "I'll get back. I owe an old man over there

an apology, and I want to see this desperado at first hand."

"It's sheer madness. I ought to take you down to this infernal crook

of a Judge, and have you committed to a strait-jacket."

"If," said Callomb, "you are content to play the cats-paw to a bunch

of assassins, I'm not. The mail-rider went out this morning, and he

carried a letter to old Spicer South. I told him that I was coming

unescorted and unarmed, and that my object was to talk with him. I

asked him to give me a safe-conduct, at least until I reached his

house, and stated my case. I treated him like an officer and a

gentleman, and, unless I'm a poor judge of men, he's going to treat me

that way."

The Lieutenant sought vainly to dissuade Callomb, but the next day the

Captain rode forth, unaccompanied. Curious stares followed him, and

Judge Smithers turned narrowing and unpleasant eyes after him, but at

the point where the ridge separated the territory of the Hollmans from

that of the Souths, he saw waiting in the road a mounted figure,

sitting his horse straight, and clad in the rough habiliments of the

mountaineer.

As Callomb rode up he saluted, and the mounted figure with perfect

gravity and correctness returned that salute as one officer to another.

The Captain was surprised. Where had this mountaineer with the steady

eyes and the clean-cut jaw learned the niceties of military etiquette?