Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / July 17, 1935, edition 1 / Page 4
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FOUR PROLOGUE WILL BISSELLS store In Fraternity village is not only a Store; but also it is a social center and a clearing bouse for news of the countryside. After supper, a dozen or a score of men are likely to drop in there for the " crroPArfeS. OP man. tor n icw ? for nothing at all except the chance to listen and to speak Id tura Jim Baladine came down the hill from his farm on the Ridge one spring evening and found Chet McAusland there before him, and Gay Hunt, aad Luke Hills, and others, too. Chet, short and straight and vigorous despite his seventy years, was speaking when Saladlne came In; speaking, as he was apt to In the spring, of fish and fishing. He greeted Jim with a nod, and finished what he had been saying. "Ton hear many a tale of big I trout from out there," he confessed, grudgingly enough. "But I'd rather eat a small trout anyway; and I can catch a good mess in the meadow brooks, along toward dark any time." ! Gay Hunt retorted with a derisive ehuckle: "Just the same, there's something funny about It that you never went out there, liking to fish the way you do." So Saladlne asked curiously: "Out where. Gay?" He was a famous hunter of the deer and of partridge and he liked trout as well as any man. "Carey's brook, out In Hostile Valley," Gay explained. He pronounced the word to rhyme with "smile," with a long vowel in the second syllable. "Bart Carey was In here a while ago; claimed that a man staying at his place caught three two-pounders one afternoon last week." Now, a two-pound trout Is, for the streams about Fraternity, unusual ; and to catch three such monsters in a single day was without precedent Saladlne was Interested, yet not Immediately credulous. "I've heard such tales," he admitted. "But I dunno. This Carey, he act like a man to tell the truth?" "Know him, don't you?" Gay protested. "Lives right there at Carey's bridge. His pa used to take boarders, folks that come for the fishing. After the old man died, Bart and his brother had a row and his brother pulled out. Bart's sister killed herself here a year ago." "I don't know as 1 ever see him," Saladlne confessed. "I never got out tc Hostile Valley." He chuckled faintly. "Matter of fact, I always kind of dodged the place. Didn't like the name of It, I guess." The others nodded understandIngly. This Hostile Valley bad In fact an 111 repute. Hidden away In the hills somewhat north and west *>f Fraternity, It was a deep gorge t>etween two ridges, and the slopes were bold and black with spruce timber, and they had a trick of (catching low clouds and squeezing them of moisture, so that rain fell there and farms did not greatly prosper. Cbet McAusland said now: "I went In there once. It's an awful kole. Once was enough for me.' Guy Hunt assented: "Me, I never liked the sound of It" There was An fact a harsh asperity in the very name, conjuring a picture of a countryside Inhabited by dour and silent folk who looked askance at ? stranger. "How come It to be ^called that in the beginning?* Chet knew the answer to this question, as he was apt to know P? the ancient lore of these hills. Pit goes back to the sixties," he said. "They had a kind of a war ' -n A'??? -?? ?..A mi,?_ m jjCi uieir uwu uui mcic, ?uvy m fthe draft and there wa'n't ever a tman from Hostile Valley drafted At all" j 'Tor the South, was theyt" Gaj Waked. "It wa'n't that, so much," Chei declared. "It was more that the jlolks oat there, yoa can't evei drive 'em. Old Enoch Ferrin riled got their backs up." And he continued: "Enoch was the boss coon around there then Be had a farm on the ridge thli side, and he had four sons and one of 'em had gone to South Oaro aina and married down there. Whet the war started, Enoch wrote hln to come home and this son?hit name was Will?wouldn't do it. S< .Enoch made his other three sons "list and told 'em to go hunt uj this brother of theirs and kill hia lor a 'rebel'; and Enoch, he tried to organize a company, out there in the Valley. But he was kind ol bulldozing about it, so folks gol their backs tip and wouldn't go foi bim nor anybody. So they had i THE STATE PORT PI1 was on the shoulder of the Itldge, |g where two roads forked; and Jim js Btopped to let the other man down. jc "You say you never fished |j, Carey's brook only that once?" he U asked then. W "Once was plenty," Chet replied. c "Do anything?" Chet shook his head. "A few [ j small ones. It's a chancy brook," j he explained. He added honestly: I) "It's full of big trout, though. Id 1 s the deep holes and down through j the bog. If a man could get at [ r them." j i "Say we try it some day," Sala- J s dine proposed. j "She." Chet protested, "what's I the sense in going so far when you f can get plenty nearer home? The t roads is awful." I Jim chuckled. "This old car Is { used to bad roads, Chet I'm a ' c mind to go. Td, like to have a look at that brook. You come along!" i But Chet would not; and Sala- 1 dine's curiosity was stimulated by 1 the other's attitude. And two or 1 ? three days later, when rain and the 11 promise of more rain made farm j I work a tedious business of turning I i water-soaked clods which weighed j heavily upon the plow, he took the j t opportunity thus afforded. "I'll be J I back by dark or a little after," he i I y 4MWM | rough time of It for a while." ! Saladine asked gravely: "Did they kill Will?" I Chet shook his head. "The other , three sons all got killed their own selves," he explained. "It was like j it was a Judgment on Enoch. After j the war his head went queer from i thinking about It and he'd have I died on the town, but this Will, he come home and took gentle care of the old man till he died." He added: "Will's grandson is the one lives out there now. Name's Will, too. He's an able man." Gay asked quickly: "Ain't his wife the one . . Chet nodded. "She's the one," he ' agreed in a heavy tone. There was a moment's hushed j ! paused; the same thought in ail j \ their minds. Huldy Ferrin's fame, ; J It was clear, extended far. Luke I Hills said in a hushed tone: i "I've seen her I" He was, it appeared, alone in this j | distinction; and though no one spoke, there were questions in their [ j eyes. "I was working in Seth Hum- , ) phreys' steam mill out there," he I j explained. "The time Will Ferrln | killed Seth for chasing around i after her. Nobody blamed W11L I ' guess Seth started it Anyhow, he | j shot Will's leg off; but Will had a ; I hold of his throat by that time and J j hung on. I helped lug Will up to j ! Marm Pierce's after." "This Mis' Ferrln," some one 1 prompted; and Luke said guardedly: "Well, I never seen a woman like j her. Just looking at her would j | make a man kind of?lift his comb J and strut like a fighting cock." Saladine commented slowly: "I've ; j heard tell that Will Ferrln is a good j man." A nod, here and there, an- ' I swered him, assenting. "I never [ ! heard much about this Bart Carey, J j though," Saladine added. nrin riocaII fmm hphind the can- ! dy counter, remarked: "Bart, he stops In here once In a while, on his way to East Harbor, j He's kind of tall and looks to be I able and he speaks right up to you. j I'd say he's ail right." Luke Hills supplemented this. I ! "We used to go up to his place, ' j from the mill, of an evening someI times," he said. "Bart, he'd always have hard cider in the cellar and maybe some rum. He don't ' ' farm much. He takes folks to j board that want to come and flsh the brook. Likes a good time." And he added: "His sister, this 1 1 one that killed herself. Amy her ! i name was, she kep' house for him. | She was a nice-looking woman, too." ! "How come she killed herself?" galadine asked gravely. Luke shook his head. "I dunno. 1 ! That was after I come back here." j But Chet said strongly: "Well, ! {If you ask me, it's enough to make any woman kill herself to live out ! there. That's a miserable place." j "It's a wonder this Mis' Ferrln [ would stay there," Jim suggested, j 1 "Wall, If You Ask Ms, If* Enough to Mako Any Woman Kill Har'I sslf." I "From what you hear about her. I What makes her stay, Lukef" Luke put a guard upon his t tongue. "I don't go to talk about a i thing that ain't none of my busi, ness," he protested. "I see Will , when he got hold of Seth. Teach , any man with a mite of sense to , keep his mouth shut, that would." j Jfeelr talk turned presently Into I another channel; but when by and. , by Will began to turn out the lights \ as a suggestion that It was time to go home, Saladlne and Chet went i out to Jim's 'car together and In the l car started up the hill. Chet'a farm V ._L' - ' -- - told Mrs. Salacune wnen ne set out. < "I don't aim to do much only look over the creek and try a few holes." But It would be long after dark before he came home, and many things would happen In the intervening hours. The past Is a book which any man may read, but It Is Impossible to look ahead with certainty through thirty seconds' span. Saladine often afterward asked himself, if he had known what a sequence of events his entrance into the Valley was to set In motion, he would have gone there that day; and he could find no certain answer. But he set out with no misgivings. It had rained the day before, and In the night; a sharp torrential downpour. The road from his farm to the village was rutted and washed away along the borders, and mud splashed merrily under his wheels. Chains, Jim decided, might be useful; and he stopped at the garage In North Fraternity to buy a pair. b Lon Pride, the garage man, had P news to relate. "Hear about the si murder out at Liberty?" he asked, e: with unction. Jim had not heard, and Lon said: "Old Man Mayhew lived on the road to Mac's corner, L they found him dead this morning with his head beat In. They've sent for the sheriff." fi Jim knew Sheriff Sobler, but not s' Old Man Mayhew. Nevertheless he T was tempted to turn that way. In 1,1 the end, he put this temptation _ aside, but he would be glad to ? know where the sheriff could be found, before this day was done. The chains adjusted, he went on^ and there was a prickling excitement, a deep sense of adventure, In him as he drove. He had no clear and certain notion of the proper route, knew only in a general fashIon where the Valley lay, and steered as It were by compass now. He meant to come to Carey's bridge, at the upper end of the Valley, and fish downstream; so at crossroads or at forks, he took what seemed the most promising turn, and once or twice he passed abandoned farms, with the glass broken In the windows, so that the empty rooms looked out at him with hollow eye sockets. By and by he arrived at a farm where a man had just felled a knotted old beech across the road, blocking the way; and he pulled up to ask directions. The farmer took off his hat and scratched his head. "Yo're going all right," he aald. "If you want to come *s Carey's. 'Course, this here la the hardest way. Bart don't ever come out this way. Will Ferrin, he does, though. It's handiest for him. What do you want to go in there for, anyway?" Jim said: "Fishing." The other nodded with a mild mirth In his dry eye. "So they all say," he commented In a sardonic tone. "But I guess full as many stop at Ferrin's as go on to Carey's." Saladlne understood the allusion. He had heard tales enough of this woman who was wife to Will Ferrln. Legend painted her as a figure at once glamorous and sinister, seductive and heartless, enticing and without scruple. Her repute had spread for miles across the countryside; and he thought this man's present Incredulity not surprising. He was conscious of some frank curiosity on his own account to see such a woman; wondered whether their paths would cross today. But just now he listened to the other man's directions, and drove on. The road was miserable. The car, laboring In lo^ gear, ascended steadily, till through a gap In the woods on the right Saladlne saw low lands, and knew that he was well up on the slope of the barrier ridge. So he came at last to its crest, and followed that high land for a space, and In a sort of saddle In the ridge he found another road turning to the left, In the direction In which he wished to go. Sftlftdtafi turned Into It without hesitation. After a few rods, however, he checked the car; for the road emerged upon a naked ledge, beyond which It dipped steeply downward. Directly across, two miles or so away, another ridge rose like ,0T, SOUTHPORT, NORTH i wall. To his right, the Valley eemed to narrow, pinched between onverging ranges of hills. To the eft it opened out in some degree; et there was nothing to see save j he blanket of forest, hardwood and I (vergreen. Above him, the clouds scurried | ow and menacing; and they were J ike a sodden blanket across the Galley. He could discover no least ign of habitation anywhere; nothng save this sweeping forest cartet, the evergreens sodden from ast night's rain, the hardwoods itill half naked, thinly clad In their ust springing leaves. He saw a solitary crow, silent, lying on swift-beating wings as hough even this dark, ill-omened >ird only crossed the Valley be;ause it must and was in haste to :ome to a pleasanter scene. And Saladine was not cold; yet le shivered. Then he laughed at ds own uneasiness, and loosed the irake, and between a double icreen of tangled trees and underirush on either side of the road, legan the steep descent into the inknown. Sometimes in the deep forest he adventurer will come upon a ildden pool, its quiet surface mirtoing the trees and the clouds icross the sky; and to cast a stone nto such a pool is to start a ' videning circle of ripples, so that ;very rock and root along the >anks is washed by the disturbed vater. Hostile Valley was like such a ildden pool. Whatever strong cur ents flowed beneath the surface, he lives here were nowadays out"*J,~ thait hnntr In ft vuruiJ BCXrue, jrci luej >recarIous balance. Saladlne'8 comng was the rock thrown Into the >ool, sufficient to upset this balmce, to loose deadly forces, fo pre-' . lpltate a climax long delayed. His | ilmple coming would set all in mo:ion, and by an inevitable process lestroy two lives or even three; vhile at the same time it enriched ind perfected others. But Saladine, though he was full ?f a lively curiosity, had no prevision of what was to come as he irove now down the hill More than 500 acres of snap eans and tomatoes have been lanted in Haywood County this eason and both crops are in iccellent condition. The pine seed broadcasted in ee and Moore counties in early [arch did not come up to a ill stand though tnere is a fair and of the loblolly seedlings, he long leaf seed did not gerlinate so well. 3 Si Ge< sett Roi and Pin pop Tr; Ma bo> Cai spc Th "Si lar| That's the Purp ~}k CAI ITb CtW1???, IM. Sx AlWWtu, N. c. WHkoal oblif?liom?, j SSS,^ " ** ?? I CAROLINA [ili VALLEY BEN AMES WILLIAMS' I latest and, greatest story I will appear serially in J this newspaper ! * HULDY FERRIN was a thing of beauty I and a curse forever to I every man in sinister, 11 half-forgotten Hostile I Valley, but she met I her match in a simple, I whnlpsnme vallev pirl. 11 J O Passion and murder, * hate and happiness, ' as only Williams can tell of them. * Don t miss a single chapter of HOSTILE VALLEY / I $ Over 1700 acres have been signed up by Buncombe county farmers for soil erosion control work, announces the county farm agent. r \J v JhsL C )graphic and Climatic conditi ings for a wide variety of S] 5S Golf courses?unsurpassed ii I national professional and am; . Championship Polo is played les, Fort Bragg ... All for tular?fox hunts, hundreds of . swimming, boating, speed b< ip and Skeet shooting . . . H . Superb fishing. ,ny cities in the Carolinas i cing, wrestling and football. rolina college athletes rank hig irts, both in southern and inter ese two great commonwealtt iortsman's Paradise" and am je number of out-of-state sporl ose of The Carolinas, I IOLINAS I 4mH Mad Ml laforaMitioB ? i .1 M I. >*, ma copy o? tM uwfm wart^EWpdir^ift^i m WI I NOTICE OF SALE OF NOTE (8000.00 CITY OF SOUTH PORT, NORTH CAROLINA REVENUE ANTICIPATION NOTE I Sealed bids for above note will be received until 10 o'clock A*. M., July 123rd, 1935, by the Local Government | Commission of North Carolina, at its I | office in Raleigh, for the above note, [ dated July 23rd, 1935, and maturing! I six months after "date, without option | of prior payment. There will be no I auction. The note will be awarded at! the lowest interest rate not exceeding 6 per cent for which a bid of! par is made. Principal and interest payable in Southport, X. C. Interest payable in advance. Bidders must i present with their bids a certified 1 j check upon an incorporated bank or I [ trust company, payable unconditionally to the order of the State Treasurer for one-half of one per cent of; We Carry A Cc INTERNA Farming Implen Trucks ant In addition we ca thing the farmer machinery ar of all 1 Paints?For out Wire FencingSEE US FOR ^ I FOR TH1 I Wilson Imp S (INCORPC 1 WHITEVII "More Dollars For Yoi Sell it in V RT ?aAolinaA % ions in the Carolinas provide ports and recreation. Donald n the nation?dot the Carolinas iteur tournaments are frequent I at Aiken, Pinehurst, Southern ms of equestrian sports are miles of bridle paths, racing oat racing . . . Archery . . . iunting, small and large game support professional baseball, jh in all branches of collegiate -sectional competition. is are often referred to as a luallv attract an increasingly :smen and recreationists. ne -"TO TELL ThI jHSij g INC. TU wwipipin of Norti ktn domUj tbo iptN I of adYOrtUoBMBU whloh porposo of briagiat foot* boforo tboir pooplo, tbol informed ao to tbo roo bchutriol importance of tbat tboj mmj know b la Um brood increment wotW tbr> ifruta|N of [DNESDAY, JULY 17 the face amount of the rri^B The right to reje.-t all ser l?ccom;i;:v,rXM,:^ I NOTICE 01 ^ l i This Is to give . , dersigned J. C. Walk His Excellency, North Carolina Commissions f<. H offense of murder i> 'n,. . ] gree, said offem. j ' mitted in tinand for \x lii< i now serving a imi ' All persons deapplication are H writing to tinroles immediately. " This. 10th day cd July, rmplete Line Of I JIONAL I ients and Parts I ] Tractors I rry almost every. I needs in farm id Hardware kinds !side and inside -All Kind rOUR WANTS E FARM lement Co. ) RATED) XE, N. G. ir Tobacco When You /hiteville." ^i > ! ' V J s \ : WORLD" 1 in i ' , tad Soatk Carollj* For tU? aad "d** will immr for tk* boat tbo Carofaaa tkoy may k* kattar oarooa, kbtory a* tko CarolFn** asss
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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July 17, 1935, edition 1
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